God went into the Father Business?

Paul tenaciously collects threads in scripture to weave an astonishing message: true all along.  These Romans verses picture God’s promise and great love for us as Father. 

Inspect a $20 bill.  See its red and blue flecks?  Those scattered threads make no pattern, but they mean everything to the Treasury’s electromagnetic detectors.  So, scattered verses in Romans weave God’s powerful truth.  He is Father to us.  Let’s gather those threads.

This calls to failed fathers, like me.  We fail as fathers in myriads of ways: a child doesn’t achieve well.  Dad on TV do it all better, and a relationship goes south.  If you are a dad and have failed pointedly so everyone knows, welcome.  If your dad might use this, then you can send it.

Once upon a time there was a communion called God.  He still is three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Holy Spirit is important, but not a central character now.  Now, we sing the Father and His Only Begotten Son.

Paul sings in Romans 1:7: “To all [ya’ll] (he was really from Texas) who are beloved of God, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”  This Jewish Ph.D. in theology sings, “We wouldn’t have known!  We had no idea!  We thought God was about being good and law-abiding.  If it hadn’t been for Jesus we would have never gotten God as Father!”

God talks to us in Jesus.  The single new thing He says in Jesus is that He, God, is Father. 

We rightly trumpet dead-beat dads and abusive fathers who injure kids and wives, but we do what Blaise Paschall warns against: “God created us in His image, and we return the favor.”  He warned against projecting on to God our failings.  Let’s not. 

Remember what were the first things you knew of God?

In a new love with Jesus did you love life?  Did you love release from dreaded terrors?  How wonderful to bring your failures, your naked self to God?  Do you remember “the Clean”?  Can you recall deep joy in being loved, even though He deeply knew you?  Recall an incredible lightness in first loving God as Jesus’ Dad?  That’s the point of Jesus.  He helped me fall in love with Papa, knowing nothing could nix my clean, or being His child.

Did time steal the first blush, your first pang of love?  God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  He is still the One I first loved.  If one of us changed, it wasn’t Him.  Did you try everything Paul tried in religion and mistake those for growth?  God in Heaven shows us the most important thing in His Son.  The Proud Father dispatched angels to tell us it was His Boy down in that manger!

A soccer dad watching his girl get massacred as goalie did a “dad thing”.  He left the stands, walked around, hugged his girl, and stood behind her the rest of the game. 

In Romans we see God work in history.  Having made a garden of Eden He tried to be Father to Adam and Eve.  Perfect God.  Perfect Garden.  The kids not close to perfect. 

Again, God is perfect, but fathers can see God knows our stories.  God gave it His best shot, and still things unraveled.  My failures to my sons are clear.  God differs from me: He’s perfect.  God even knows I gave it my far-from-perfect best shot.  God gave Adam His absolutely-perfect-best shot, and we both as fathers, have watched our failures flounder. 

As reverently as I can, please hear that God knows things go wrong.  God knows fathers can start with powerful possibilities and end with messes.  God knew Adam’s epic fail would take the life of God’s perfect Son?  Think on this sort of love.  God knew.  He still let Adam and Eve have kids that led to us and our loving God through His First Son and still fail!  What love is this?  It is a love entered into only by faith. 

In Romans 4:11-12. Paul mentions another father: Abraham.  What did Abe do to “be the father of all who believe . . . that righteousness might be reckoned to them?”  Paul separates out what Abraham did in faith [circumcision, Promised Land.]  God gives no fatherhood formula.  A father can only act in faith to a life he prays is best for his children.  Abraham acted in faith for us “who follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham.”  As fathers we faith for our kids. 

Verse 16 concludes, “For this reason it is by faith” we love God.  Paul touches Abraham and Sarah’s faith to become parents, “In hope against hope [Abe] believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations.”  Paul as a Jew claims Abraham as their father in bloodlines.  Good.  God smiles on us differently says Paul.  We are Abraham’s kids as we follow Christ in Faith.  As Abe followed in faith, so must we.  So we are God’s kids and Abe’s kids.

Hear it again.  I am Abe’s descendant, so God’s covenant with Abe is mine as I was adopted into the family.  I’m in God’s family not by blood, but by faith.  I’m in Abe’s covenant, not by lineage, but by adoption.  That is how God’s fatherhood comes “to” me. 

How does it go out from me?  God seeks to take more Christian fathers, and build what you have in Christ into children not born into Christian families.  If we are to change the world, more fathers must adopt more spiritual children.

Maybe you have children who love the Lord.  That is great! May God reward you for being such a father.  Amen.  But to grow in Christ, you must become as Abraham was.  To be like Abe you must multiply your number of children-by-faith. 

I see dads adopt youth.  Many do it informally.  Some as teachers adopt students.  Many give their lives to adopt kids in scouting.  Some become spiritual father to young husbands and fathers.  God needs more.

In Abraham’s day the family was topsy-turvy like today.  God sends single moms and dads to His church to find spiritual parents.  God sends youth who need Jesus, and are recovering from divorces, abuse, and absent fathers.  God calls you, dad. 

You, failing fathers, and you, fathers blessed by your kids, may I ask you something?  Do you yearn to invest some of your of your counsel and love into God’s next generation?  Abraham has more spiritual children than blood kin.  Do you see God’s multiplication?  Paul only had spiritual kids: Tim and Titus.  Who do you think put that desire in your heart, dad?

Rand flew to New York to be in Jeff Paoletti’s wedding.  The Wergins adopted Kirsten and Jeff.  Jim and Cheryl Wilkinson were in Tulsa to see Marci light candles at Ann Munn’s wedding.  Why?  Three years ago, Adopt-A-Student finished.  A week later the Wilkinsons came here.  A week after that Jim asked Ann if she had been adopted.  She said, “No.” The Wilkinsons adopted her.  How big is that to Ann?  In a room with 64 invited guests for her wedding and sit-down dinner, four were Ann’s adopted family: the Wilkinsons.  Ann was no disaster.  She came as DIL (Daughter-In-Law) material!  Fathers, Jim and Rand are blessed to be used by God in the lives of Jeff, Kirsten, and Ann.  God put that hunger in your heart, father.  But what if you’re not worthy?  

Look in Romans 6:4 for a Father snapshot: “We were buried with [Christ] through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the Father’s glory, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  God takes us as children after we die.  All of us dies.  God sees in us His completely new children.  All the rest dies in baptism.  My mistakes keep dying, and I keep on being born anew.  He continually bury parts of me as dad, and God makes failed parts new. 

I’m transformed.  I’m new.  Any baggage with me, I had to bring it, I foolishly chased and claimed in baggage claim.  God as Father starts me over.  My Heavenly Father knew every father must start over, and over, and over.  He also knew starting over is hard!  So God said:  “You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you received a spirit of adoption as sons (and daughters) by which we cry out, “Papa! Father!” Romans 8:15.  Now the Holy Spirit!  He empowers us to call God, “Papa.”  “Go ahead, call Him ‘Papa’.  Start over.  May your kids see you start over, Dad.”  Now for sons and daughters of failed fathers.  God stands with you as the Father you wished you could have had while getting massacred all alone as goalie in front of everyone.  God is with you to assuage horrors and give you the ability to be the father or mother you think is impossible. 

Maybe you think the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father is not strong in you.  So Paul gives one last “father” blessing.  Romans 15:5-7.  This is how God is Father.  This is how we encourage all dads, especially failing ones.  “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  So, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to God’s glory.” 

I began by saying the Holy Spirit was not in central casting until later.  Later is now.  The Holy Spirit whispers this love song, “Father God is everything the others were not.  His Son told the Truth about the Father.  They tell the Truth about you.”

We take up the song not if we accept each other like tolerance roars, but as God preaches acceptance.  An old prophet entered Jesse’s house saying, “I’ve come king hunting.”  God dared father and prophet to see what God saw.  The old prophet, himself a failed father, and the father of the boys, looked at all Jesse’s boys.  God said no to all, almost.  The littlest was out tending sheep.  And God chortled from heaven, you didn’t see it, did you?  You missed him because you missed David’s heart!  Davey has a king’s heart!  Father God saw it in Solomon.  He saw it in Deborah, Esther, and Ruth.  God as Father is “first believer” in a boy or a girl and then shows His assessment right to everyone.  God calls and believes first and proves it to the rest of us!

We see this picture’s tail end easily.  At every prison deathwatch, we see a mom who is the last to believe in her baby boy or girl strapped to a gurney, awaiting a lethal injection.  Give us first believers as fathers.  More men must step up and invest in children who the Father of Lights brings when a biological father fails.

That is what communion is about.  The Father who believed in you first, who salvaged you with His perfect Son.  The Father who gave His successful Son for your failures invites you to communion: a family meal!  Amen.  Profess Jesus as brother, and get God as Father.  Adopted.

If you hunt them, these verses were in the Bible all along, like scattered threads. 

Psalm 68:5. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God….

Psalm 103:13 as a dad has compassion on his kids, so God has compassion on us who fear Him. 

Proverbs 3:12 for whom the Lord loves He reproves, like a dad a son in whom he delights.

Isaiah 9:6 a child will be born to us, a son given to us.  And His name will be called … Eternal Father. 

Isaiah 64:8 O Lord, Thou art our Father.  We are clay, and Thou our Potter.

Paul says, like scattered threads, God knew we could not put the threads into a pattern, so He sent His Son in flesh, pulling together all the threads and pointing to the Father.  So, He sends us men to show us how to spend ourselves as spiritual fathers and mothers.  What say you?

Live in the Spirit: There is Always More

I will ask how you know you are in the Spirit later. 

On our delayed honeymoon, Jill and I enjoyed upstate New York, Niagara Falls, Canada and drove across Michigan.  Driving in Michigan’s heartland, we crossed an invisible line.  Having passed hundreds of farms, suddenly all of them displayed beautiful order.  Trees lined up in rows.  Hay from mown pastures filled perfect barns beside perfect houses.  We both said, “We crossed into another world!”  We were correct.  These farms were settled by German immigrants.  It could not have been clearer if they had put up signs, “German Chamber of Commerce welcomes you!  Deutchsland loves America!” 

In New York City, the signs are unmistakable: if unreadable.  The Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, and Puerto Rican shops and languages scream: you’re on our turf! 

I don’t know about you, but, when I heard that the Holy Spirit is in us along with this lower nature, this sarx, this squishy area, I got confused.  I wondered, “When am I working in the Spirit, and when in the flesh?”  How do I recognize these lands?

Let’s (re)examine some verses. 

Step One: God invites me to move from condemnation to being “in Christ.”  In Romans 8:1, God delivers astonishing news, there is now no condemnation to those who are IN Christ Jesus. 

Step Two: I see two powers (laws) in me.  I can choose the power God put in me to live for Him.

     He is the Power of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Verse 2).

     He is the Spirit (verse 5).

     The Spirit is life and peace (verse 6).

Step Three: In Texas they ask, “How ‘bout chew?” (How about you?)  Choose to live in the Spirit.  Either way, we ALL choose.  What we choose is the rest of our life.  You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, she does not belong to Christ Romans 8:9.

Why is this Spirit so important?  As a Baptist I did think much about Him.  Religion, denominations politicize truth, and are poorer for it.  Hear Paul.  If you are not IN the Spirit, or He is not IN you then:

Romans 8:9b He or she does not belong to Christ. (NIV)
He or she is none of his. (KJV)
He or she does not belong to Him. (NASB)
He or she is not His. (NKJV)
He or she does not belong to him. (NRSV)
If you don’t have the Spirit of Christ living in you, you are not a Christian at all. (The Message)
[Without Him you] won’t know what you’re talking about. (Living)

What word means all of these possibilities?  The word is eimi; I exist, I am.  It is translated: am (142 times), been (45), being (26), belong (12), come (8), exist (8), or mean (11).  If you do not have the Spirit, God’s third person on planet earth today in you, then you do not exist in God.  You have never been in Christ.  You don’t belong to the Father.  If you think Christianity is exclusive because of Christ; THIS is the exclusive clause!

Paul throws us a sideways question: Where you at?  To help answer it, let’s see some signs to better help us see where we live. 

The way I tend to answer this question is how I was instructed to answer in my Ph.D. orals.  “If anyone asks you a question you do not know, reflect on how good a question it is, and answer another question you do know.”  Do you also do that with “the Spirit” question? 

Someone asks, “Is the Holy Spirit living in you?”  If we have no answer, we answer another question.  “Yes, I ‘got saved’ as a child, and was baptized at such-and-such a church.”  

Consider another question, “Are you alive?”

Now get this answer: “Of course, I’m alive.  My birth certificate’s on file in Garfield County.  I was born at Bass Hospital there.”  The answer does not touch the question. 

Consider yet another question. 

“Did you and your spouse have a wonderful time last night on your date?”

And see this answer: “Of course, we’re married.  We got married in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 20 years ago!  We keep a copy of the marriage certificate in our safe deposit box!” 

These questions explore the nature of our lives.  The sad answers are book-keeping answers: I am legal in my life and marriage.  I am religious.  Who cares?  Are you ALIVE? God Spirit?  Feel any Power?  How about some joy?

The questions ask after hope, joy, or power and wonder in our relationship.  Our answers are theological and pasty. 

The question is, are you controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit?[1]

Whether you are legally married does not answer how you treat each other or if you’re happy.  Whether you have a birth certificate does not answer if you were thrilled to be alive this week. 

Whether you are saved is an interesting question.  The more important question today is, if saved, do you have power to live for God?  Are you alive in what Christ calls you to do?

Let’s have a grammar lesson.  Am I “in” Christ, or is the Holy Spirit “in” me?  Hmm.  I get confused with the prepositions.  Let’s look at God’s Word.

Jesus lived, died and came alive again “in” the Spirit. 
Luke 4:14 “Jesus returned to Galilee
in the power of the Spirit.”
1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all . . .
having been put to death in the flesh,
but made alive in the spirit.”

What about us?

Scripture talks about the Holy Spirit being IN us. 
1 Cor. 3:16 “You are a temple of God. 
The Spirit of God dwells in you!”
2 Tim. 1:14 “Guard the treasure which has been entrusted to you
through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us”
2 Cor. 1:22 “[God] also sealed us and
gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”

But Scripture equally talks about us being IN the Holy Spirit. 

Ephes. 1:13 “[Having believed],
you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit — ”
Ephes. 2:22 “In whom you also are being built together
into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
Ephes. 6:18 “With all prayer and petition
pray at all times in the Spirit — ”

Both are true at the same time! 
I’m IN the Holy Spirit and He is in me! 
1 John 3:24 “You who keep His commandments abide in Him,
and He in you.”

1 John 4:13 “By this we know that we abide in Him and
He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

Paul, John, and Peter agree.  We are In the Spirit AND He is in us.”  God’s envoy, the Holy Spirit, invades us to seal us against all claims, and empower us to good works! 

Hear both parts.  When you ask God to save you in Jesus’ name, the Holy Spirit invades you, takes up residence, and never leaves.  He saves & keeps you.  Cool.  When you obey and accept God’s invitation, you step into God’s sphere, His world running on Holy Spirit laws.  Can the Spirit leave you?  No.  Can you act like stupidly rather than IN the Spirit?  Yes. 

I must do two things. 

One: I hope to make you uncomfortable at the idea of living in the flesh.  I do so because living in the flesh kills you in pieces.  Always has, always will. 

Two: I want you to try all God has for you.  Why?  He placed His Spirit IN you so you can live life in the Spirit.  Chapter 8 spells out “in the Spirit” Nothing can conquer you!  Nothing can separate you from God’s love in Christ!  Nothing can steal your status as His child! … So… “Stay in the Spirit!”

IN the Spirit or IN the flesh?  See more markers to tell whose “hood” you’re in.  John: Those who obey Christ’s commands live in Him, and He in them.  And this is how we know He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.[2]  How do I know I’m in a real surgical unit?  People dress and act like doctors and nurses, yes.  More importantly they operate on patients, who get better when they stay until healed. 

IN the Spirit or IN the flesh?  See more markers to tell whose “hood” you’re in.  If anyone obeys God’s word, God’s love is truly made complete in him or her.  This is how we know we are in Christ.[3]  Notice two terms blurring together.  Is it that I am in the Spirit, or is He in me?  Which is it?  The answer is “yes.” 

Paul paints the neighborhoods.  It’s common sense, but read So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.[4]

(19) The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”  Paul warns, those who live like this will not inherit God’s kingdom.  Grace does not excuse these behaviors.  They lack love.  My horror if I see this garbage in you is if you feel comfortable with this because God’s Spirit hates it!

Can I tell if the Spirit is in me, and I am in Him?  The Spirit’s fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.[5]

James sketches in more of the landscape.  You can tell where you live by your mouth: The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.  Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire.  It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of a life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.[6]  James, John and Paul say, “Saved people are not comfortable with horrors.” 

I ask others how they know they quit depending on God to operate in their flesh.  They share these things.  “I have fear and anxiety in the night.  I stagnate.  I know I’m living by my own efforts — alone — so I get tired, defeated, broken easily.  My anxieties swarm.  My powerlessness hits me.”

What about in the Spirit?  What are your answers?

Can a church be “in” the Spirit? After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.  They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly![7]  They spoke God’s Word boldly.  Wow.  Everyone. 

Jesus died and rose, and the twelve gathered the church to say, it will not be right for us to neglect the ministry of God’s word in order to wait on tables.[8]  They ordained seven deacons.  The deacons ministered, caring for those in Christ.  How well did they do?  So God’s word spread.  The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.[9]

Over and over you see a phrase in Acts.  “The Word of God continued to increase and spread! Those words whet a hunger in me!  Imagine: everywhere YOU go, the Word of God continues to spread! 

Are you in the Spirit, yet?  Is your small group in the Spirit yet?  This goes beyond a wonderful feeling.  We can know.  God meant for us to be able to tell if a place is filled with the Spirit: if we are. 

---

[1] Romans 8:9

[2] 1 John 3:24

[3] 1 John 2:5.

[4] Galatians 5:16ff

[5] in Galatians 5:22f

[6] James 3:5-6

[7] Acts 4:31

[8] Acts 6:2

[9] Acts 6:7

No Condemnation

No Condemnation: Too Revolutionary for You?

The Heart of the Message: God’s Grace is Jesus’ amazing revelation.  That first step in him is no condemnation.  That revolution in your thinking, relationships, and future is your first step.  Take it and you are changed ― forever.

Is Paul alone in this revolutionary thought?  Did he “add” to Jesus works and words?

Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Do we feel condemned or judged?  If not, why are anxiety and panic at pandemic levels?

I taught the truth of “no condemnation” this way: the law of the Spirit is a “higher” law, such as the law of aerodynamics versus the law of gravity.  Taxi a 737 onto a runway.  Push its throttles forward.  The engines thunder.  They hurt unprotected ears.  The plane nudges.  It rolls forward.  Its engines scream in air, forcing through a small auditorium’s air every 100^th of a second.  Eighty-eight tons accelerate.  As a 737 accelerates, a second, higher law countermands the law of gravity.  Do passengers turn weightless?  No.  If the power quits, will the plane crash?  Yes.  Nevertheless, gaining speed, air flows over the tops of the wings faster than below them and an unseen force pushes up on both wings, lifting all into the air.  It makes a preposterous statement real:  “I flew to Chicago.”

So I need an external-now-internal power source throughout my life to go where God directs: His Holy Spirit power.  Only by the resurrected Christ’s power can I attain the heights.  This chapter centers on the Holy Spirit.

Chapter eight reveals God’s power in you.  Do you know his power?  Does Holy Spirit power drive you, empower you?  This power enters you when you take Christ as Lord — the Holy Spirit is God’s envoy in you.  Guess who is discussed more in this chapter than anywhere in the Bible?

It is God’s Spirit.  He empowers me to make Christ Lord.  He is God’s fusion reactor, plasma, electricity, the Lord’s clout or muscle to power my life.  Let’s compare.  The Spirit is mentioned 22 times in 150 Psalms.  Isaiah mentions Him 32 times.  The Book of Acts refers 45 times to the Spirit’s spread in the world.  In the first seven chapters Paul mentions the Spirit 6 times.  In this one chapter, Romans 8, God’s Spirit is mentioned 20 times! 

As you push forward the throttles of your life in Christ, God promises the Spirit will flow, the fuel will explode, and you can fly, obey, be different, be healed, and stay new. 

I teach that the Spirit is 1) God’s power in us to be what we cannot be on our own.  Amen.  May the Spirit’s power, Jehovah Jireh’s promise to live in you, empower you.  2) Like aerodynamics, he is a higher law enabling us to overcome gravity. 

I missed a deeper truth.  Why no condemnation?  How is condemnation first before sin?  We know condemnation.  We all experience it.  Older kids chose everyone else for baseball, soccer, or football.  Everyone gets chosen but me and Elbert’s booger-eating brother, I know judging left me standing so … alone.  Judging separated me from everyone already selected.  Judging, condemnation is more than a failed standard, it separates me from God.  At the critical moment, condemnation says, “I’m left out.” 

Condemnation was that feeling walking down a school hall that “they,” whoever “they” were, judged me as less.  Worse, I felt tons of others followed “their” assessments.  If I were a slug, a geek, a dweeb, a dumb jock, or an easy girl, then “they” shared that with everyone and everyone accepted their assessment.  Their assessment separated me as a … whatever.  I was separated from someone I would rather be. 

Krino means condemnation: to decide, to rule, or to judge.  Remember this: krino does not mean an ethical norm, it means an expectation from someone who loves you.  We see judging as standards: for jock, cool or brainy that finds me wanting.  God says the opposite: “you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  For God it is always about a relationship, and good laws safeguard the relationship.  It is always about being in love with God as He is with us. 

Paul says more than any law; more than anyone’s opinion; more than judging whispers; more than “their” assessments¾  God promised a thing, and now gives it teeth.  He moves the Spirit INTO us.  God showed a relationship is possible, but now empowers it.  God says this beats hell of judging each other.  We glimpse Heaven.  For God, it was about a relationship from the beginning.  He krinos us, loves us. 

The Jews saw God’s Law as an avenue showing we are safe.  It reaches beyond morality and ethics.  The Law helped us love God, but we sin. We fail the relationship.  We whine and hate the standard.  Paul responds, “No condemnation!”  He screams a thing beyond justice, beyond morals.  He screams, “The Bridegroom vanished our entanglements!  He makes us His again in the Spirit!”  Did Paul make this up?  No.  He knows his Bible. 

God has always sought us.  Paul knew this rang true before Jesus.  God described being God: krinowing or judging.  Krinow opposes what we do to each other.  We judge struggling souls.  All our condemnation goes wrong.  God uses krinowing to say the opposite!  He is the coach who tells the truth in love.  You CAN run faster.  He is a lab teacher, coaxing us to think through knotty problems, because He knows you can solve it.  He is always the Father who points out consequences too costly in mistakes, and too wonderful in getting it right. 

Hear God krinow us: Hosea 2:14-16.  [I will again] allure her.  I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.  ¹⁵There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make [your home] a door of hope…. 16″In that day,” declares [krinows] the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’  See God’s judgment?  He will not see us as sluts, or fools.  He judges that we always were and will be His bride. 

Jeremiah 2:2-7 Go and proclaim: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert.”  Sinning fails a standard.  Worse, it walks out on a relationship!

Always, God offers relationship and intimacy.  We think we run from His condemnation as Master.  Do you hear God?  He is more like Husband than Master!  Jesus echoes Him, John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I call you friends, for all I learned from my Father I made known to you.  God krinows us to be His bride.  Jesus krinows us to be His friend. 

God sees us as a new wife.  We fail Him.  Jesus sees us as friends who lay down our lives for HIS friends.  We fail Jesus like we fail the Father.  THAT is what Paul screams at the end of chapter seven!  Oh wretched man, WHO will deliver me?  Paul, the Pharisee was trapped in rules.  He knew Pharisees so sure of themselves, of their holiness, that they saw the rest of us as failures.  Paul knew Pharisees so entangled in failures they feared God and eternity.  Wretched man, who can deliver me from religions’ failures?  Who knows me and still loves me?  Look!  No condemnation to those who are in Christ empowered by this SPIRIT!

Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit (Spirit = Power in the Relationship) of life set me free from the law (reality) of sin and death. 3For what the law (all truths, all realities) was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son (Jesus = Relationship) in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law (these = life in God!) might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Can we live beyond negative condemnation?  Cut “8” in half and go to chapter four.  4:3 what does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God [relationship!], and it was credited to him as righteousness.’  Abraham failed plenty, but clung to his relationship above all else.  Read further, 4:6-8 David says the same thing: ⁷“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven…. 8Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.  Blessed am I when I step beyond condemnation to love God.  Divide 4 by 2.  In chapter 2:4:  Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? His kindness reminds you of who you are. 

Is Paul alone here?  Far from it, rule keepers and religionists.  God makes my motivation love, not fear.  Consider a passage too radical for many Christians. 

John 8:3-12 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11″No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

12When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Can you mean someone like her, Jesus?!  You must be kidding!

Still don’t believe how radical is a relationship God intends for you rather than what you now have? 

Divide John 8 by 2:  John 4:23. 23 … a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (you need Spirit and Truth beyond religion!), for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

This woman used by six men was condemned (krinowed) by God’s Son as only love.  How did she react?  28-29   she left her water jar, and went back to the town and told people, 29″Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”  Translated: bring your score cards!  Come talk to this man! 

Still sitting on a runway loaded down?  God used Job to show our judgments are pointless.  God kept Job’s relationship.  Jeremiah and Isaiah knew: God restores beyond all failures.  Hosea: beyond his wife’s failures, was a love, a krinow, that he must cherish her. 

“No condemnation” requires God’s Spirit to touch it, much less fly in it.  “No condemnation” is hard to live because you must put down all your scores against, well, everyone.  “No condemnation” is hard to live as you must love and believe God changes people you know are wretches.  “No condemnation” is so hard to live since we cannot live it without Christ as Lord, and His Spirit enabling us as his revolutionary. 

A) You want to be whole?  Paul says, Wretched one, that I am, who can deliver me to a place beyond condemnation?  Only in Christ as the Spirit empowers you.  You see, we don’t replace the law of sin, but live in a higher law of the Spirit.  That’s good, but this is what I missed. 

B) I replace the Recipe Book with the Cook.  I replace a mystery book with the Author.  I move beyond rules to the Ruler.  I bag my legislation to love the King.  I move past poetry to the Poet!  This place with Him beyond condemnation: it’s a place of tenderness, of different motivation, of diametrically opposed assessment.  My failures are not damning, they are overcome as He krinows me to be an overcomer, by placing His very Self, His very Spirit in my breast!

Pace

When Black Lives Matters comes forward pressing home so many inequities, I am first stymied. Overwhelmed. Indicted anew.

I am stymied because the sheer scale of the issues(s) stops me cold. It is too much. Too invasive.

Then I remember the two frames I have been given in my world.

Think globally. Act locally.

Believe and hope for all people and time. Act presently.

Then I select a speed for my day. If I slip into rushed, harried, hurried, tending to angry at the slightest, I zoom past places to act locally, presently. I judge using stereotypes, heuristics, making myself feel approved, superior, affirmed.

But if I choose a slower pace. Driving. Thinking. Reading. Listening. Paying attention, then a miraculous moment can slip past my defenses and rote reactions. I act, I speak, I open a moment with someone not like me, and sometimes a miracle happens.

I wonder if Jesus were better equipped to save a world because He came to a place and time where He walked rather than sped.

And here is the craziest thing I am realizing. I have yet to slow up and find a moment when my list of to-does was obliterated. The ravening pressures will always be with us. They wait. So pause and be present and possibly amaze someone.

I am not that good at it, but what little I have seen amazes me.

Still She stands.

Torch flaming, a gift from another country, Lady Liberty is beautiful, though for reasons we rarely attribute to her.

There in the folds of her garb are differing formulations for counting slaves in our first documents.  All of the compromises so slave owners could keep their “property” and make people who hated slavery cooperate with hunters.  The Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth are there as clearly as ANNA towns, Tulsa and Atlanta and a host of other riots, lynching, all the way to the amazing election of a black man to the presidency.

No one can tidy up the story.  No one honest denies the twists, horrors, or inequities.  Along with injustices to Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Irish and Slavs, she stands with her torch held high and astonishingly, people still flock to her.

She stands taller not due to a pedestal, but because she unflinchingly rises above the swamps, detritus, lies, anger, and racism.  Yes, she is an ideal, and oh yes, we fail her.  But she is an ideal for which men and women fought, died and gave us a choice: either unite as the ideal is greater than our differences, or be less than those who died hoped for us.

Her torch unflinchingly lights today’s strife, insouciant biases and lies about ourselves and others.  She lights those shortcomings to appear so dark, so depraved because she is an ideal.

Here is to Her and besting our failings.  Here is to her ideal in a measure of hope that we will appeal to the “better angels of our nature”, as one president agonized and gave his life hoping for us.

Lincoln’s hope for her as an ideal demands more of us.   As others live in less than freedom, less than fearlessness, we find ourselves with work to do.

The Lady, and Lincoln hark back to a non-white man who died young on a cross, and whose followers overcame slavery because they believed, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  The origin of that impossible ideal?  Maybe.

I learned the word “impossible” as if it were the essence of American.  We should return to impossible hopes like our forebears did facing fascism.

Divided We Crawl

When I sat in Love Dunn’s Texas History class I was usually thrilled to survive. Lovie had been “older” when my sister and brother had her for Texas History a decade before.

I sometimes thought Lovie had actually been there for Bowie, Travis, the Alamo and so many other events in our history.

When Lovie taught us about JuneTeenth I got the idea everyone was thrilled that men and women all stood equal before the law for the first time in America.

That worked for me for decades. Then some of the diviseness of the Seventies caught up with me.

Turns out that when Lincoln risked the Emancipation Proclamation people’s reactions were all across the board. People loved it, feared it, ignored it, went with the flow, and hated it. And when Union Troops brought the news to Galveston, Texas, they engendered the same plethora of reactions.

So what might I have learned from Lovie? Decisions and where I come down on those decisions should have some consistent ways of assessing them. Here is one of mine. Does this law, precept, proclamation or ruling raise or lower us all?

If you are afraid of raising people, then you missed the God of the Old Testament, and surely missed His Son. If you think a bad law or enforcement of said law raises you, then you stand on straw: flimsy and easily ignitable.

If a new class of people are raised to productivity, then we all benefit. Please check immigration in the US for the last two centuries, and check out folks from that movement like Musk and Jobs.

I like the way my banker put it, “If the tide rises, then it raises all the ships in the harbor.”

Carl Sandburg, Extreme Right, Jesus and DNA

I read Carl Sandburg’s rant after seeing Billy Sunday, a big evangelist of his day. Sandburg borders on vitriol, maybe steps over that line.

It wounded me. My childhood church yearly brought in evangelists. Some laid my foundation to love, care for, and find quiet ways to show His care for anyone of any country.

I later learned the Church has, in the American experiment, a fantastic gift of opponents who rightly criticize her excesses, open her sin closet, and frankly, illuminate where we forget her Bride, Jesus.

Let’s look at that. Many evangelicals in the Church tend to the conservative right. No problem.

Within that right we find the extreme right. If you tout rights to own guns, cool. Keep the 2nd amendment. If you espouse political views bordering on barbaric. Cool. The ACLU’s brightest, (often Jewish) lawyers will protect your First Amendment rights, and keep you out of the Star Chamber for censorship. Thank God for the American experiment, right?

But if you slide into racism, and do so in Jesus’ Name, I must whisper, “Not cool. Not in Jesus’ Name.”

Forget yours and my church’s heroes, and mentors. Let’s just check Jesus. In fact, He does not need to speak. Let’s swab His cheek and send it to Ancestor.com.

Jesus is racially pure, Jewish, right? Wrong.

Jesus has Canaanite DNA from Rahab. She married into Jesus’ line. If that is no problem, she was a prostitute. Imported into Jesus’ DNA.

Oh, and we find Ruth’s Moabite DNA. She married Rahab’s boy. Jews excluded Moabites for centuries.

Jesus’ DNA whispers, “Be quiet, fool.” God’s largesse and purposes in Jesus embraced every people, culture, and clan — before He spoke or raised anyone from the dead.

And yes, I went over the line. Jesus told me not to call you “fool”. So I ask your forgiveness. He unerringly calls my stupidity into the light, indicts it, forgives it, and tells me, “Don’t carry that in My Name.” For Jesus, “fool” is a step toward murder. Like racism.

Lighten your load. Find the real Jesus. Do what He bids you live out.

hearse thief

Medical schools starting two centuries ago faced a continuing need: corpses.  They needed recently healthy corpses.  They needed the pregnant, children, old or diseased and mostly: fresh corpses.

Dying as a pauper in London or New York made a fair wager — your corpse passed to a dissection class before a grave.  Medical schools harvested no corpses. Needing plausible deniability, there arose a trade providing corpses, and these men were bizarrely titled Resurrection Men, spitting on Christians’ hope of resurrection.

If caught, they faced grave robbing charges.  Or worse, if police suspected he hurried anyone from this life to help doctors-in-training learn surgery — he faced death — and of course, a final turn ‘through’ medical school.

Grave robbers.  Hearse thieves.  Everyone — murderers, thieves, prostitutes — looked down on them and feared, desperately feared passing through their hands.

Christians were offended at such a title for these men.  This ‘resurrection’ horrifically twisted hope in Christ.

But God has, if anything, a profound sense of humor, and a deep, deep sense of irony.

So Jesus hiked from the north country through valleys southward.  At evening, He climbed up from the road to tiny Nain.  Maybe Nain was built on Shunem’s ruins or nearby.  And in tiny Nain where birth and death were bookends for few surprises, everyone could recite a time when God let a town woman push the great Prophet Elisha to attempt, to ask the impossible.  All these centuries later, every child and agnostic knew the story.  Elisha promised her a son.  She bore him, and on a hot day in harvest he died.  She rode hellbent for leather straight to Mt. Carmel where prophets commune with God.

And she answered the Prophet’s servant pointedly asking, “Is all well with you?”

“Yes!”

“Is all well with your husband?”

“Yes.”

“Is all well with your child?”

And she lied, or she believed more than a cooling corpse waiting in the Prophet’s room she built for him.  “All is well!”

It shook him.  Such faith.  Such hope.  Elisha rushed from the mountain to spend an afternoon begging God to relent and resurrect the child.  God gave him back.

Centuries ago.  Where legends live.

So, Jesus walking into Shunem/Nain stopped a funeral for an only son: a widow’s final hope.  And disregarding all civility Jesus touched the hearse to talk to — the dead boy.

Who responded.  Jesus helped him from the hearse, gave him back to his mother, and everyone paraded back into town, leaving a bewildered hearse driver scratching his head.  The first victim of The Hearse Thief, doing a dress rehearsal for Himself soon enough, and all of us soon enough.

If Jesus wept at a later funeral, He surely smiled at this one, and God, as usual, had a laugh on any who call hearse thieves by such an exalted, holy title as Resurrection Man.

My Life.Church Sermon I will never preach

This is too long for a blog, so if you don’t read it all, I get it.  Should you read it, I hope it encourages you.  I did the whole thing in a dream this morning, and I almost never share dreams, but, here goes.  Sermon follows:

I have listened to speakers speak here for years, and they begin the same way.  “I love Craig and Amy so much, you have an amazing church, and I am so delighted to be here today.”  It is that last phrase where I listen, you know, to hear what they say.  Are they saying, “I am humbled and honored, truly!” Or, does it smell a little more like “You are in for a treat!  I think I have something amazing.  In fact, a lot of folks think I am amazing!”

So how could I possibly be preaching here?

What I think happened was that we made a small mistake!  You know how when a manager walks to the mound and he starts to touch one fore arm, but he puts a couple of fingers on the other, like he wasn’t sure, and he could not remember who was warmed up in the bullpen?”

I am the bullpen.  I am that guy in the bullpen whose name is Tom, or Tim, I am pretty sure it wasn’t Tammy.  He is a member that we don’t call members at LifeChurch, but we have a couple of hundred thousand of those.  He tithes most months, but more people are completely faithful there.  He and Jill lead a life group just like 251 others at Stillwater.  And the Stillwater campus is a mistake.  If we had not added it when we did; we would not fit the profile where they hope to expand these days, but GT and Megan were commuting every weekend and God was working, and today, one in ten staff members in all the Life Churches have passed through Stilly.

That kind of “mistake”.

So, they called the wrong guy out of the bullpen.  In fact, someone might investigate where I got a uniform and dropped down into the bullpen with my glove and enough swag to act like I just got traded from a Canadian hockey team where I was the equipment manager.

Wrong guy.  I am a small mistake, but LifeChurch is a great place because I have been comfortable in the dark watching Craig on screen.  He is really taller in person.

Well, maybe I am here because you are a small mistake.  Maybe you have a sin or two because you somehow think they make you cool.  See, I swear for effect some days when teaching or making a point.  And like everyone who smokes I have it under control, except when my daughter in law, Fair Claire, sends a request through my son that I watch my mouth during Christmas in front of the grandkids.  You see, “under control”.

It is freaky, but sometimes when the stress is bad, or my health is in the toilet I swear more.  Isn’t that the dumbest thing?  I think I can pin my potty mouth on something outside me when the Bible says, “The stuff coming out of your mouth is the overflow from your heart.”  Oops.  My heart’s overflow must resemble my toilet overflowing.

So there you are, sitting in the dark, or with your computer using earphones so your family and neighbors don’t know that Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to you, but you seem to make more mistakes than progress in following Him.

It could be that you love Jesus, and are astonished that He left heaven, lived and did all those astonishing miracles, and got religious people angry at Him — and they crucified Him thinking, “That takes care of that;” only God raised Him from the dead to emphasize His boy was telling the truth.  All along.  Every day.  In every miracle for undeserving people.  Jesus was telling the Truth, and telling Truth so well that it turns out that Truth is one of His Names.  Truth has a Name above all names and it is — wait for it: Jesus.

And that right there makes Jesus, forgive me, unbelievable.  I mean Jesus was just like us except for the perfection thing, having Satan give Him the VIP tour of earth and testing, miracles everywhere, demons testifying to who He was when He was trying to be cool about it.  Okay, not exactly like me.  I am an example of human, I think.

And that makes me uncomfortable even in the dark some weekends at LifeChurch.  Jesus was true to His calling, true to His message.  And I fail my calling, and some days I fail His message that I deliver.  You know how people say Craig is the same in the pulpit and at home except when driving?  My wife and sons and daughter in law would all say, “He is the same in both places” with all their fingers crossed in back of them.

When Jesus walked out to the mound, Heaven rushed the infield to breathlessly watch.  When I walk to the mound, people are checking their programs and smartphones and shrugging at each other, “Who is that guy?”  No name on the back.  His pants are too big, and why can’t he stand up straight?  How come he isn’t even listed?

In spite of all that, I found some small things that surprised me in the Jesus story.

There is this day when Jesus has been feeding thousands and the people want to make Him an earthly king, and Jesus realizes that before He can address the crazy crowd, He has to get rid of His disciples.  All of them.  He puts them in boats and dismisses them, and only after sending away His own does He lose the crowd.  The disciples were wanting to drink the Kool-Aid.  They were ripe for everything except what Jesus was doing.

Jesus also had been handing out freebies on miracles, food, healings, casting out demons and He knew it was time to ratchet up the message, call people to faithfulness, to followship, to maturity — and people were walking away — and this is the part that froze my heart.  Jesus turns to His disciples and asks, “Do you want to walk away, too?”

And all of God’s plans and power, and all of God’s predestining, and all of God’s plan for planet Earth comes to this point.  Jesus hands the ball to failers (not failures by God’s grace) but failers like me.  Like you.

And obviously, at this moment, Jesus is thinking that handing the Gospel Football to these guys is maybe not going to work.  He is looking at Peter who suffers from foot in mouth disease.  The two Sons of Thunder who think the coolest thing about Jesus is that He can call down fire from heaven and maybe blow away an entire town.  Matthew is a never ending fountain of questions.  Mary of Magdala is still conflating a puppy love for followship.  And Judas, Judas is stealing from the till and will pointlessly betray Jesus at the critical time, just before Peter denies Him three times.

Do you want to walk away, too?

I don’t know any mature Christians who have not made some sort of truce with church and religion, and decided to still love Jesus more than what they see in other Christians.  Ouch.

Some of them believe Christ even though what they saw in me made believing Jesus tough, because what they saw in me made them want to walk away.  OUCH!

My wife, Jill has this thing that thunders in the silence, “Your Plan A was to use us all along?  Even with the Holy Spirit, what were you thinking, God?”

Which forces the question.  Is God missing something, a lot of somethings, or did God decide what was most true about us before He began the experiment?

I am a creature saved by God’s grace and I lust for if-not-sex then intimacies where I should not, and toys, and money that buys toys.  All are true.  Now for the HUGE question.  What is more true?

Life and faith have daunting conundrums.  The light coming out of these lights, is it waves or particles?  Yes.

Is Jesus fully God and fully man?  Yes.

Is God three or One?  Yes.

Am I a sinner or God’s dearly bought son?  Yes.

And Jesus knows how I struggle here!  Remember that night before they killed Him?  No?  Let me tell you how crazy this is.  The die is cast.  The trial members have been assembled in two houses.  Soldiers are following Judas to find Jesus, and Jesus is in this Garden with his sleeping disciples, yes they failed Him this time as well, and Jesus is sweating blood!  No kidding.  Think about it.  Sweating blood.  I would say He was really wrestling, wouldn’t you?  And here was the question.  Here was Jesus’ big question.  It was time to die.  It was time to suffer.  For better or for worse, there was nothing more Jesus could do for the disciples.  And it all looked impossible.

Jesus was asking for a bye.  Jesus was asking to be let out of this part of the contract.  He went from thinking about it, to truly tempted to bail out.  He was sweating blood.

Jesus was asking if God could be happy with less.

And God thundered back in silence to His beloved Son.  Sure you feel this drag, this bent to failing, and this understandable horror at dying.  Now, which is more true?  You’re wanting to bail out, or you are My beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased?

He knows when I want to fail.  When I want to be let off the hook.  When I want to be left alone.  When I don’t want to measure up.  How afraid I am to walk out to the mound some days.  When I want God to settle for less from me.

Occasionally God sends someone to remind me who and Whose I am.  Occasionally, He puts me in the stands to remind some friend, or student, or colleague what is most true about them — that he or she is a son or daughter of the High King and He was right to give her salvation and call her to follow Him.

But sometimes, God is silent.  He and heaven hold their breath to see me come through, to see me come true, knowing that I face bogeys.  Some days, I am sweating bullets, and God nods silently to His angels who will never understand why God trusts us, and he says, “Let the bet ride on my boy, Thomas.”

The angels can think of as many reasons as I can, maybe more why God should spread His bets, and God laughs, and according to Ephesians 1, He is gesturing that He was right to let anything ride on me.

God’s bet is riding on me because He has given me Jesus and Spirit, and watches to see me act on what is most true about me.

How about you?

 

 

Waste or Largess and yet.

I few minutes ago I had a brilliant insight into life and the universe.  It may or may not interest you, so I won’t bore you.

It struck me deeply.  I sensed two possibilities for my insight.  It resonated through me.  The insight gave me joy.   The resulting feeling suspended me “up” in a long, draining week for seconds.

Again, I see two possibilities for my insight, for a depth of feeling and realization words fail to convey.

Possibility one.  All we are today results from a profoundly long series of random outcomes, against the Second Law of Thermodynamics, gathering star-dust from millions of extinguished stars to donate elements farther down rows of our Periodic Table to fire-form a planet within a hair’s breadth of distance from a correct sun needed for incredibly sophisticated RNA and DNA to take on a job of blindly evolving past millions of blind alleys to get to us.  “Us” who can write, laugh, love, hear and even sometimes understand each other; and die.  All of my memories, depths, and sharing now a meal for worms blindly eating either my corpse or plants enriched by my ashes.  In a generation, at most, any who interacted or shared with me; join me in oblivion, as will we all.  A remorseless universe neither taking note, caring or laughing.

Possibility two.  A God described as having infinite capacity created the thought of me before assembling the iron and nickel for a core for Earth.  He brought my mother from her birth family to an adopted family so she could marry and unite again with my father after two miscarriages to birth me.  And so, minutes ago, this God shared my brilliant insight into life more intimately than even my wife could hope for.  And if all that’s written of Him is good, when I die I am resurrected out of time into eternity to get this — share that insight with Him and possibly at the same depth with those purchased by His grace — around a dinner beyond compare before we get back to work.

How it all works is above my pay grade.

Possibility one says as a terrorist dies, it holds equal lack of value with the deaths of Jesus, Gandhi — the named and the forgotten.  From nothing formed, and to nothing returned.

Possibility two gives me Hope to hold to values. I choose P two.  Probably as it demands more of me in faith, giving to, making a difference, loving and weeping — living.  If Hope is a crutch, then inscribe mine with the name for me in Heaven I don’t even know, yet.

See?  I can now say, “yet”!