42. Committed, Not Comfortable.

Been a while since I've posted. But here I am, and hopefully here you are too.

Do Not Worry (Matthew 6:25-34):

A few days ago I was catching up on some posts by Steve Flores and while responding to his post "Ask, Seek, Knock," I thought of one of the last verses of this passage of scripture (Matthew 6:33), and this is how I responded:

"I'm beginning to realize that Jesus isn't nearly as interested in our earthly concerns so much as he is with our Kingdom concerns. I think our flesh gets in the way of our Bible-reading sometimes and we force Jesus to tell us how he will make our lives super pleasurable and that, if we trust in him, nothing bad will ever happen to us and we'll be free from the troubles of this world. We kinda corner Jesus in to our narrow-minded, self-absorption. The truth of the matter is, though, that Jesus says focus on the Kingdom because what happens with the Kingdom is much more important than what happens with our ideal, planned-out lives. Jesus is saying that if we seek after him, there's a greater reward than pleasure in our lives. I think when he says, 'Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you,' he's saying, 'focus on the Kingdom (not yourself), and more than you can plan or grasp or conjure up in your earth-mind will be given to you - a greater reward.' [my paraphrase] He's saying let me out of this corner you've backed me into so I can show you what's up!"

Then today in my Bible as Lit. class we talked about the story of the woman at the well in John 4 and I especially liked the next scene when disciples rejoined Jesus. Here's what went down:

The disciples told Jesus he should eat (he'd been on the road for a while; nice guys, those disciples). Jesus said, profoundly, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then the disciples (clearly not the most fluent guys in spiritual metaphors) asked each other if someone else might have given him some food when they weren't paying attention. Dumb. Jesus replies to their oblivion by saying, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ..."

I love this. Jesus is saying that there's more to life than little "needs." Our "essentials" are probably not the same as God's essentials. Jesus is telling us to wake up and realize that he has food that we are oblivious to - Kingdom food. God wants us to seek Him whole-heartedly, abandoning concern for our personal needs in our own lives. When we do that, I believe Jesus is saying that, then, we will be satisfied; not necessarily with pleasant lives (food, clothes, shelter, and riches), but perhaps. I'm just not willing to say that a missionary that's suffered and lived in the slums of the world, is not receiving a picture-perfect life because they weren't seeking the Kingdom. In fact, that's exactly what they are doing to get themselves into such a messy situation. God is calling us to get ourselves into messy, dysfunctional, uncomfortable places, because living out salvation is hard and requires that kind of stuff. God wants us to be committed, not comfortable. And isn't that what we want from our followers?

I leave you just like that.... Tell me what you think (leave a comment - it's super easy).

41. Baaah....

Today, I will take a little break and hash out the passage we discussed at theWeekend retreat with theHouse this weekend. It was pretty challenging.

The Story of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:4-7):

The story goes that Jesus was responding to the religious big shots' bickering about him loving the lost and hanging out with sinners. He didn't answer their bickering directly (as he hardly ever does - he's pretty good at knowing the real answer and the real miracle we need, despite our clueless questions and requests), but he simply asked a deeper question that, not only challenged the pharisees and religious scholars, but it challenged me to be more intentional in going after the lost and being more pumped up about it when they are finally found.

Jesus says, "Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue."

At the retreat, we took a moment to sit with God and this passage on Saturday morning, and I really feel like God highlighted a part of this passage like so:

"Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors...."

I'm not sure exactly what this entails practically, but I'm pretty sure God was saying, if you want to make a difference - if you want to reach the lost, you have to get out of your comfortable circle, your scheduled events in your planned atmosphere, and go out to them. Lost people don't just show up out of nowhere. If you lose something, it's not going come over to you and say, "Here I am!" No, it's lost. You have to go out of your way to find it. It's inconvenient and sometimes very frustrating, but you know as well as I do, and like Christ said Heaven does, when the lost is found, there's a party!

I want to brace myself for the going after so that I can have a reason to celebrate in the end!

40. You Give Love a Bad Name

I read this two days in a row, yesterday in the NIV and today in the NIV and the Message. It's strong, so brace yourself for a challenge from Christ.

An Eye for an Eye / Love for Enemies (Matthew 5:38-48):

This is how the Message puts it:

Love Your Enemies

^38-42"Here's another old saying that deserves a second look: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

^43-47"You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

⁴⁸"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."

Basically, Jesus is telling us to get with the program - it's time to act like we're in the Kingdom business. If God loves everybody, regardless of their sins, attitudes, and personalities (because He wants to, not because He has to), then Jesus says we should too. Christ commanded generosity, even to those that slam us, take advantage of us, and rip us off. Sounds a lot like what Jesus did that time when he died for all of our sins.

Today, I am challenged to get off of the stage I've built for myself in this world, making me better and more deserving of love than others, and get into the Kingdom mindset that God has set up of loving the unlovable and even blessing the undeserving. After all, I was the unlovable, undeserving person once, and because Jesus paid my fees and gifted me love, I choose not to take his command to follow up and dish out love lightly anymore.

Jesus, you get me every time....

39. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

[Yes, 4 years ago on January 12, 2007, I began my blogging journey with a post titled "One." and as I committed, since then I have spelled out the numbers followed by a period in order for each post with the same consistent format thirty-eight posts in a row. Yes, I am aware that breaking this tradition may hurt all 2 of you readers' feelings, but in an effort to be a little more creative and sort of "spice up" my blogging, here's to a new titling format.] [The previous statement was extremely sarcastic; however, it has struck a very sentimental chord in the light of my blogging journey. Please do not go back and read my first blogs in an effort to join my reminiscing though - they're very corny. :)]

Oaths (Matthew 5:33-37):

How many times have we framed our unwillingness, laziness, or lack of interest with an excuse like "I forgot" or "Something came up" or "Oh, I just have gotten to it yet" or, more bluntly put, "I know I should've, but I just didn't - my bad."

Or how about when someone shares their totally legitimate, from-the-heart burden and we say, seemingly with compassion, "Oh, brother, I'll pray for you," or "Yes, I've been praying for you and your situation," only to have just prayed something once or twice as half-hearted as, "God, help So-and-So in their situation," or "Be with them, Lord. Show them comfort and peace. Amen." I'm not saying that those prayers aren't viable and heard/accepted by God, but I wonder if that's what intercession really is. I wonder if that's the committed prayer and burden-carrying So-and-So thinks he's getting.

Let's face it, if we don't get direct personal benefits, we're not really willing to go all out. But because we're good Christian people, we like to appear humble and holy and willing commit to a half a dozen things and causes we don't really care for as much as we say we do and know we should.

Why do we excuse this untruth? Why do we commit to things, sometimes, while in the same thought that declares the commitment, we accept that we won't fulfill the commitment or we place it on the bottom of our priority list?

Who said that excuses actually excuse us from keeping our word? Yeah, there's forgiveness for lying or being dishonest or not following up (however you choose to frame it), but it's so easy to accept the cycle of committing, not following through, making an excuse, saying sorry, and accepting the forgiveness...rinse, repeat.

What makes it worse is when we make promises to God or "in Jesus' name" and then we think those promises are just as easy to smear forgiveness over and move on.

Jesus had had enough with this. He said in Matthew 5: Stop swearing on God, quit swearing on the world, and start making your "yes" mean yes and your "no" mean no; don't be fake - when you say you'll do it, do it like it really matters, because it does really matter. If your "yes" isn't yes and your "no" isn't no, what you're doing is evil. [The latter a paraphrase, obviously.]

So I leave this to ponder: Am I fake in my commitments, trying to pull folks' legs to look holier-than-thou? Have I accepted the cycle? How much am I willing to change? Or am I even willing to up the ante at all?

Jesus is tough on his followers.... He's called us to more than we think! :)

Thirty-Eight.

I'm back-tracking to Tuesday's passage. It was so good that I wanted to blog my thoughts about it. That, and today's passage is gonna need a little more digesting....

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12):

Blessed are the humbled, the broken, the righteousness-seekers, the peacemakers....

However, blessed, more strongly-put by Jesus, are the persecuted.

Some questions I asked myself:

Why do our habits and patterns out-weigh our passion and willingness to be persecuted?

Why is comfort so convenient?

Why do we think normal followers of Christ get to have comfort and easy-going lives?

Why have we settled for less than God has called us to?

Why do we think being persecuted is being looked down on or being frowned upon?

Why do we think being persecuted is missing a party or a few fun times?

It's not that. It's more.

Persecution hurts.

Sadly, I can't say it hurts me to be a Christian right now. Not in America. Not with all the stuff and the support and the convenient circumstances. I don't hurt like Jesus called me to.

Jesus hurt. He knew how big the cause was and he knew the price.

I think we've gotten too afraid to even hear the cost, much less pay up.

What will it take for me to throw everything I have and want out of the window and truly surrender to the cause of Christ - whatever the cost, however severe the persecution?

After all, "blessed are those who are persecuted."