Terrifying Realization

John 15: 5 NIV

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

   

What Do You Think Of Your Accomplishments?

At the end of the day I was standing at the door of a high school class where I had been the substitute teacher and as the students filed out, not one of them said goodbye to me or wished me a Merry Christmas or even looked at me despite it being the last class of the day before Christmas vacation.  It was as if I did not exist or that I was not a living being.  I did the same thing though.  A guy was sitting down in front of a business and he had a sign about needing food and rather than look at him as I passed, I turned my head and did not acknowledge he was there.  What is the mechanism we trigger in us that de-humanizes others?  I have let it gain power over me and perhaps you have too; given no thought to the humanity of others.  News reporters are aware of this quality and so are movie makers and authors.  If we hear or see that 15, 000 lost their lives on a battlefield or in a natural disaster, we give little thought to it.  But if we come upon the picture of a little boy or girl or hear the account of a particular parent who died in the same circumstance, we might even shed a tear over it and if not, at least mull it over some and probably mourn the tragedy.

It started in the Garden of Eden after the first sin of Adam and has continued to this day.  You and I can take the humanity out of our fellow inhabitants of this planet.  You don’t do it intentionally.  Only the most perverse and broken of us set about to remove the humanness from those around them.  Yet it happens, where we stop thinking of people as people just like we are people and either give no thought to them or act as if they are machines.  The Bible insists that God never does that with us.  Despite the fact that there are over six billion people here on earth, he sees each of us and has His mind on each of us…not as machines but as individuals that He cherishes.  Speaking metaphorically, Jesus insisted that His approach to us is much like a kind and thoughtful shepherd.  I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14-15 NIV)  It is impossible to see in this a distant and distracted God who can’t even come up with your name.  He knows you as intimately and affectionately as He does the Father and the Father Him.  Even now you are on His mind; even now He is thinking of ways to make your life good and joyous.  Can we say the same of ourselves?  Do we think of God as a real person who cares what we do?

If we give it much thought, there is a terrifying declaration Jesus makes that must be considered.  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NIV) We do love the promise found here but have we taken seriously the caveat?  “…apart from me you can do nothing.” Did He really say “nothing”?  It seems like an incredible, perhaps even implausible assertion.  What about all the atheists and pagans who make decisions, alter the environment, impact people, change circumstances?  Don’t they do something without Christ?  Aren’t they functioning without Him?  The world is filled with people who assert their will without giving a moment’s thought to Christ.  Even a casual reading of the Bible has examples of this.  Lamech, who was from the genealogical line of Cain, the first murderer, killed a man because the fellow hurt him in some way.  Lamech said to his wives, "I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.  If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times." (Genesis 4:23-24 NIV)  He clearly gave no thought to God and what He wanted and yet seemed to do well.  The Tower of Babel famously was constructed without a bit of consideration for God and His wishes.  In fact it was a sort of monument to the capacity of people to get things done without Him.  As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.  They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.  Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:2-4 NIV)  Even Jonah the prophet tried his best to get away from God by hopping on a boat that was traveling in the opposite direction of where he knew the Lord wanted him to be.

Probably more people live now as if God doesn’t exist than any time in the history of the world!  Even more though have taken the Godness out of God—if that were possible and mostly ignored Him.  So what did Jesus mean that “apart from me you can do nothing” when it seems like plenty of people are doing something without Him?  Remember the context of Jesus’ assertion.  He was talking about producing fruit that would last.  The world is full of all sorts of interesting activities, challenges and investments.  Adventures are all around us and there is always something to do.  Jesus told the parable of the talents because He wanted you to remember that there is more to life than this world and all its attainments.  There is a world to come that lasts forever and we must never lose sight of it.  The parable has been repeated so many times that it is like elevator music.  Yet it is perhaps more important to you and your welfare than any bit of advice you will ever hear.

It has two juxtaposed approaches to life.  One is that you can live with God in mind on everything and that what matters is how He wants things done.  The other is that you live as if God doesn’t exist and you do whatever you think best.  Whatever you do that pleases God will be rewarded extravagantly, far beyond its seeming worth.  The life that takes no notice of God and does not concern itself with Him will be wrecked and an object of great despair…despair past imagining.  Can this be proved, that God rewards spectacularly those who live for Him in the life to come?  All mysteries have their shelf life.  At one time it could not be proved that the earth was round or how diseases attacked the human body or the existence of ancient Babylon.  Just because you do not have all the facts in regarding life as it will be beyond this world does not mean you cannot be certain that it is just the way the Bible describes it.  You live in the age of faith and by faith you believe that God rewards those who live for Him and do what He commands.  As the Bible makes clear, And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)

The Bible often uses Abraham as an example of how faith in God looks.  It would have seemed lunacy to his friends and neighbors and perhaps even to his dad when Abraham decided to leave his home and travel 400 miles south to a land he had never visited and did not know what to expect from it.  He made this arduous journey by foot when he was 75 years old, leading along sheep and goats because he was certain God told him to move there.  We don’t know how God spoke to Abraham…was it an audible voice, an angel, some sort of vision or just like how He speaks to us now.  The irony of this move is that once Abraham and his wife and servants got to Canaan where the Lord sent him, he discovered there was a severe famine there so he just kept walking south until he got to Egypt.

For Abraham, it was not a matter of what He was to do; it was a question of who was directing him.  He lived within a particular country whose boundaries were fixed.  It was the place where God is in charge no matter what.  Wherever Abraham went, and it was the same for his wife Sarah, God led the way.  Abraham did not have to worry about what he would do today or tomorrow.  He just lived his life with the Lord in charge.  Whether it was digging a well or pulling a goat back into the flock or setting up a tent, he did so acutely aware that the Lord could redirect him and change his plans and he was willing to do whatever God said to do.  That is how you bear fruit that lasts.  God rewards those who follow Him and obey His commands.  The Bible makes it clear what sort of life we are to live: morality, honesty, kindness, forgiveness, love, generosity. 

It is not very funny to think of someone living an entire lifetime and never doing anything that God wants to be remembered.  Like building a sand castle on the beach only to have the rushing surf send it crashing down, many do nothing for God’s sake.  But some take time each day to think about what they could do to please God.  They read their Bible so that they can keep thoughts of Him fresh in their minds and then they go about the day doing any sort of good thing God gives them to do.  A great friend of mine tells the story of the member of one of his former churches who was featured in Guidepost Magazine.  The woman was looking through the newspaper and came upon a picture of cute dogs being petted by senior adults at a nursing home.  The title of the article read, “Visit from Locals and Their Dogs Brings Joy to Nursing Home Residents”.   “Good for them”, she thought as she shuddered and quickly turned the page.  She says in the story that she then heard a voice say, “You have cute little dogs.  You can do that too.”  She wondered if she was hallucinating.  “Dee you do that”, the voice insisted.  She spoke back.  “God, if that’s you, you’re going to have to give me something else to do.  I can’t do nursing homes, remember?”  Again came the voice.  “Yes you can!”  This time she was certain it was a command.  “Fine, I’ll do it”, Dee cried.  The article then goes on to tell how Dee lost her distaste for nursing homes and genuinely developed a love for the residents, becoming a blessing to them and ambassador for Christ…her and her cute dogs.  What about you?  Is God looking at you right now, ready to make your life a blessing?  What can you do today that will please Christ and be remembered by Him as good and worth His praise?

Mind

Romans 12: 2 NIV

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Are You Fully Utilizing Your Mind?

If you are like me, thinking comes in fits and starts.  The other day I was working on a sermon and I went on line to look at a couple of articles completely unrelated to what I was doing.  Then I worked on the sermon.  Then I started thinking about the weather forecast the next day.  I was hoping it would be cooler and so I went on line to find out what was predicted.  I went back to the sermon and thought about the sweet tea I had in the refrigerator.  I quickly gave up on studying and went to get some sweet tea.  I sat back down and immediately began to wonder who would start for the Raiders at cornerback.  Would D J Hayden or someone else?  I thought about that for a while and then considered the possibility that the Raiders would trade a draft pick to get someone.  I knew though that did not seem to be the way the general manager operated…he liked those draft picks… but then the cornerbacks were the weak link of the team and something had to be done.  This was perplexing.  I started working on the sermon again and really concentrated on the topic.  But then I thought about someone I needed to call and once again the “cow was out of the barn”.

When you and I think, and we are at some level thinking all the time, what dominates our thinking?  Is it sex?  Is it work?  Is it the text messages we have received?  Is our mind on our children, our marriage, our plans for dinner, are we reliving conversations and correcting them in our head?  Do we think about a date we have planned or one we hope to have, about an argument we just had, a terrifying task we must undertake, the messiness of our child’s room, an important document we have lost, the headache we have developed, some movie we just saw, a blouse we saw on sale?  Most of us probably think about all sorts of things over the course of an hour and if our minds are undisciplined, we think without purpose or direction.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Bible has much to say about our thinking.  How we think is quite important to God and to Christianity.  The Bible makes two categories of thinking.  One sort comes out of the “sinful mind” and the other form of thinking is generated by the “mind of Christ”.  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:6-7 NIV)  The sinful mind might be quite disciplined in its thinking.  It may have quite effective methods of accomplishing tasks, making sense of things and solving problems.  There are great scientists, philosophers and CEOs of corporations who have this sort of mind and they are successful at what they do.  There are two skill sets though that the sinful mind is unable to develop.  It cannot get past the great barrier of death.  There is nothing the sinful mind can do to stop the dying it has entered. Regardless of what it thinks should or will happen to it, the sinful mind shall die.  It cannot live forever.  The second skill set the sinful mind lacks is the ability to connect with God as God actually is.  It can think about God, develop theories of God, create wild, unfounded proposals of what God is but the sinful mind is hostile and disconnected from who God is as a person.

The sinful mind may be quite proud of its accomplishments, satisfied with its values and priorities but it is dying and it cannot stop that dying and it has no love for the real God who exists.  This mind has a ceiling and it can only go so far when it comes to thinking.  The other day I heard a famous atheist talking about the universe and he clearly is brilliant but his thinking can only go so far and no farther.  He cannot think with God and he cannot gain the knowledge God possesses of what is happening.  The book of Ecclesiastes calls every form of intellect without God a vanity of vanities, a puff of smoke that disappears and is in the end meaningless.  You can think of atoms and stars and black holes and all sorts of matters that seem important and valuable but you lack the very beginning of wisdom and insight if the mind of sinful man is all you have to work with.  You cannot think your way into what is most crucial to your life because it is all hidden to you by your inability to get there with the mind you have.

The second sort of mind is the one that is “the mind of Christ.”    The Bible speaks of it as a sort of treasure or something precious to possess because of its connection with God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him?  In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"  But we have the mind of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 2:11-16 NIV)

The psychology of the mind of Christ is different from the sinful mind much like a car is different from a lioness.  One is alive mechanically, the other is fully alive.  The topic for discussion is not the sinful mind so we must abandon it for now but we turn our complete attention to the mind of Christ.  There are two scriptures that at a casual first glance seem to contradict each other.  The first is what we have before us.  The person who has been made new by the Spirit of God has the mind of Christ.  It is a fact declared by Scripture.  When we are born again and the Spirit of God is in us and joined to our spirit, we have the Mind of Christ.  But why is it that we don’t seem to think with His mind.  Why are we so confused and perplexed, easily offended, frustrated by circumstances, worried about things, angry with people, discouraged and depressed, bitter, apathetic toward the scriptures, holiness and purity?  It is really quite simple.  Our second scripture passage explains our difficulty thinking through the Mind of Christ we have when we are truly Christian.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12: 2a NIV)

We must be transformed by the renewing of our mind if the Mind of Christ is to join our thinking.  But here is where we can be completely off on our approach toward this.  The natural assumption is that to think with the Mind of Christ, we must study more or become more Biblically astute.  If we just could understand better key doctrines that are confusing like predestination, the Trinity or eschatology…if we even knew what that was…we would gain access to the Mind of Christ but that is not the case.  We do not think with the Mind of Christ by studying God ideas or God principles.  We are in fact transformed by the renewing of our minds when we stop conforming to the pattern of this world.  That sounds so simple.  Do not conform to the pattern of living found in the world and you will think with the Mind of Christ.  Your mind will be transformed.

The Mind of Christ becomes operational for us when we think long and hard about what God wants us to do or how Scripture tells us He thinks about the matters of life.  Once we know a single thing the Lord is directing, then we do that thing whatever it is.  He might tell you to ignore an insult.  He might tell you to forgive a wrong done you.  He might tell you to respond to an enemy with real love.  He might tell you to turn off a certain movie that is not good for your mind or the minds of your family.  He might tell you to help someone.  He might tell you to take a step of faith.  He might tell you to apologize for your bad language, your judgmental attitude, your lazy effort, your self-pity.  Whatever God tells you to do as you see it in Scripture, you do it and immediately you begin to think with the Mind of Christ.  You see things His way.  You understand God’s perspective.  You see how He is working with different people and how you can join Him in His work.  The love that comes from God becomes the love you possess.  You know in a supernatural way when to go forward and when to hesitate.   The Mind of Christ is worked out in you as you submit to the direction He gives you.

A few examples should help us here.  When the Lord blinded Paul and He spoke to him with a voice Paul’s companions could not understand, He was given orders.  God told Paul to go to Damascus.  It was only after he went to Damascus that Paul would be told further what to do.  “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.  “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.  “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9: 5-6 NIV)  First he had to go at the Lord’s orders, then Paul would learn more.  When the Disciples were saying their good-byes to the resurrected Lord Jesus just before He went back to Heaven, Christ told them all to stay in Jerusalem.  Only if they stayed in Jerusalem would the Holy Spirit come upon them and the Mind of Christ would then become more known to them.  If they went back to their homes in Galilee, they might have discovered all sorts of things but never would they have had the Mind of Christ made known to them in the way that they did on Pentecost.  When Peter, who had a very natural and rational dislike for non-Jewish people, was told by Jesus to go with some very non Jewish people to a non-Jewish home, Peter had to go if he was to gain more of the Mind of Christ directing his thoughts.  …Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.  He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection… (Acts 10:27-29 NIV)  Peter could not stay where he was if God was going to think through him.

Our Lord will stop thinking through us the minute we refuse to do what He has told us to do.  We immediately become on our own.  We still have the sinful mind to use to plan and decide, calculate and choose but the Mind of Christ becomes dim and silent to us.  Jesus asked the most important question we face.  “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”  (Mark 8:36 NIV) We must ask a second question that is very close to it in substance.  What good is it to do anything if the Mind of Christ is not directing your actions?  What do you hope to gain without the wisdom of Jesus Christ processing everything before you?  It is so very simple to have the Mind of Christ thinking through you if you have become Christian.  You just do what God tells you to do when He tells you to do it and then His thoughts start flowing freely through you.  What good is it to think without God thinking with us?  We might as well be atheists if that is the case.  But since we aren’t, and we have the Lord of the Universe longing to think through us as we think, why wouldn’t we want Him guiding our thoughts and pointing out the way for us as we work through all the difficulties, big choices and opportunities that are awaiting us today.  We face a big world.  Why not have a big God to guide us in it!

Unsettled Christianity

It is so easy to live spiritually when sitting at a cafe sipping a coffee or while the great preachers of our time captivate us with their intoxicating messages.  What happens though when your co-worker cheats you out of your bonus or your dad ignores your accomplishments?  How well does your spirituality fly when the sales team meets together at a local club; what sort of religion do you possess as the argument in the kitchen spins out of control?  Where is your love for God when you are disappointed, frustrated or filled with itching desire?  Christianity is not a religion of clear mountain streams and golden sunsets.  It is the blossoming faith of those who face connivers and debaters and humilators and wreckers of days.  Christianity is for the tele-conference, the sales floor, for the Google search and the hospital waiting room, for the shattered dream and the wasted day.  Christianity is for all those times you feel angry and confused and tempted and proud.   We do not read the Bible and pray and pay attention to anointed sermons to be able to live on pause spiritually until the next time we can relax with God.  The Lord gives us His power and conviction so that we might express His life in us at the darkest and ugliest moments and rather than just be ourselves, we find we are more than ourselves, we are Christ joined to us in holy revelations of God's glory.  Of course we can't forgive our mother but Christ in us can.  Of course we can't say "no" to one more drink or having the last word but Christ in us can.  Of course we can't be kind when we have been ignored or belittled but Christ in us can.  Every place we go and each circumstance we face is an opportunity for Christ to shine more brightly through us than ever and for our character to be upgraded into a purer form of godliness.  Nothing surprises Satan more than Christ suddenly showing up where He hasn't been noticed before.      Who better to make Him known than you, who better to reveal His power than you when no one expects to find Him in the room?

And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.   Luke 9:52-54 NIV

Urgent Care

Can we bear a bit of honesty?  The Church has as a whole forgotten to pray.  We organize meals, put together events, talk extensively about the Bible, argue over by-laws and form endless numbers of committees but give prayer the once over and then we’re off to something else.  We pray and then try to get something accomplished as if the accomplishing is not occurring in the praying.  The Disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray.  We know how to pray.  We don’t know how to start praying with determination and abandonment to the work of prayer.  Would Peter have been led out of prison by the angel if the band of believers quartered in the home of John Mark’s mother had not been praying?  We cannot say for sure one way or another but they certainly were juxtaposed with each other in the Scripture.  Would Lot have escaped Sodom if his uncle were not praying?  Would Job’s friends have escaped judgment if Job had not prayed?  Would Jericho have ever been taken if for seven days straight the Israelites had not prayed?  Given the stakes, why do we do so little praying?  The Lord insists that He will do the heavy lifting if we would just put the shovel down for a while and pray.  The seeds need rain and sun and good soil to bring about the harvest.  All of these required necessities come from God.  Only the seed distribution is our responsibility.  If three-fourths of the work is God’s and we must go to Him in prayer to gain His help in them, why do we give most of our time to seed casting?  It is the praying that is the most critical part of the harvest because to be brutally honest, we can chuck our seeds anywhere and God can make them sprout right where they land. We have so little confidence God actually exists and carries those who go to Him in prayer that we make prayer perfunctory and everything else a necessity.  Our Lord is not scanning the horizon for better workers to bless; He is searching for more faith-full workers who have come to rely upon prayer above all else to make it through their days.  Would the world collapse in a heap if you gave an entire day to praying and reading the Scriptures?   Would your family be crushed by the weight of your devotion to praying?  Or might it just be that more can be done in ten hours of prayer than a lifetime of plowing?

                                                                            

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.   2 Chronicles 7: 13-15 NIV  

Love Beyond Measure

Nothing diminishes us more than the desire to be someone else--to possess in ourselves a benefit someone else has.  At perfect points in our lives, the Lord gives us something...an insight, a strength, an ability, an accomplishment and it is as magically attached to us as our shadow.  Our problem is we do not trust the Lord enough to be full of love in how He distributes His gifts; specifically how He allots them with regard to ourselves.  If the Lord did not like you, then He would never have made you, never have let you in on His grace, never have called you friend.  Our God is perfectly truthful in all of His dealings; if not then He is a devil and should be despised.  He has told you that He loves you and that love is complete and without room for more so in it He audits what comes your way and does so to guarantee your total joy.  But when you snivel and complain and try to wiggle out from under the dominion of Christ, you make a mess of all you have.  Like a child who breaks his toy because he wants his brother's toy, you smash your own happiness in the discontent you hold in your hand.   The parable of the workers who were all paid the same wage but worked for different lengths of time is not a teaching on the seeming unequal treatment of the Father; it is rather a statement of how childish we all are with regard to the generosity of God.  Our work is in God's strength and His ability, our adherence to the scriptures is by His power and determination, our popularity and success  is through His good fortune.  We are God's in every way and the sway of our lives is His too so it is sheer lunacy to get bent out of shape over the wage He gives you...it is far more than He needs to give and it is perfect in its ultimate good.  What if those workers, instead of moaning about the coin handed them at the end of the day rejoiced instead that it was a coin and it had the blessing of God stamped upon it.  The coin could become a thousand coins in a moment as the Father determined and it could be kept at one because the one was more likely to bring happiness than ten or ten thousand.    Who would in their right mind want van Gogh's great talent at the cost of acquiring at the same time his misery or would beg incessantly for Hitler's power to attract a crowd and have along with it his filthy end.  And on the other hand, how many of us shoot for Stephen's lone convert as the end game to our work...Imagine the child complaining about the terrible drive down to L.A. just as his father pulls into the parking lot at Disneyland.   

But he answered one of them, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you..." Matthew 20: 13a NIV

Blindsided by Grace

We shuffle back and forth between believing God, questioning His goodness and forgetting His existence.  There is something God wants to do with you but it requires your perfect acceptance of His love for you in a matter and the moment you try to fix things yourself without Him working through you, the work crumbles.  Christ cannot and will not fill you if you slight God's love by complaining about your circumstance or by questioning His goodness.  Job was blindsided by the miracle of grace being worked out in Him and the Lord could not finish His work until Job threw up His hands in faith and accepted his place as creature rather than creator.  Job's friends proved to be of no help to him in this as they kept distracting him from the real development.  They pushed the discussion outside the realm of actuality by questioning Job's morality and integrity when those parts of him were never the issue.  Grace doesn't contend at the point of one's personal goodness  but rather at the spot of the Lord Himself working His own character into you.  Christ did not suffer the cross so that you could make a go at getting yourself straight or gaining some flury of accomplished gilding but rather to completely reconfigure your personality into the dynamic of God worked thoroughly through you.  Like yeast in dough, Christ risen in your heart will recreate all the promise he planted in you at the beginning through the difficulties and trials and mundane tasks of your everyday activities.  Be careless about what you're making of yourself but obsessed by the hand of God everywhere around you.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV