Thursday, July 30, 2009

What Happened At the Cross?

John 8:32 "If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth set you free."

John 8:36 "If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed."


Do you feel free? I don't. Not completely. I still feel hindered by myself and by the world around me. Even by the church. I still have a drag on me, like a racecar with a parachute at the back, and I'm not sure what it is. I have some suspicions, and they appear to be tied in to the fact that I don't think I completely understand what happened at the cross. I know something mystical happened there and that in understanding and embracing it I will be set free - free indeed.

But the 'drag' on my life is still there, so my understanding of the truth is limited. We're missing something. Yes - He took the penalty for my sins. Yes - His justice was satisfied. Yes - He conquered death. I get all that. I've been taught it from birth. But what haven't I been taught? What am I missing? What else happened there? Why do I have the nagging feeling that I'm still far short of what is possible?

I want the truth, because as He said, it's the only thing that will set me free. Jesus said that if I hold to His teachings I will become His disciple. It appears that too many are holding to traditions and teachings of the church instead of to Christ. Therefore they are disciples of the church. Therefore they are not set free.

Again - do you really feel free? I think Paul did - and it's no coincidence that he had as his stated goal to "know Christ and the power of His resurrection." He only preached Christ and Him crucified. So I put all this together and I come to the conclusion that I better zone in on the teachings of Christ, the life of Christ, and what happened at the cross. The Truth lives there. Find that, and you find freedom.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Self-Compelled

I've been preaching through I Samuel in my Sunday evening trek through the OT, and as I came to chapter 13 I was reminded of how important it is to have "community" around you to discuss Scriptures and point out things you missed. Or else your own heart begins to compel you in directions that are not in line with the Truth.

For example, Dave C. told me he was really struck by Saul's statement in I Samuel 13:12 that he "felt compelled" to offer the sacrifices, when he was specifically told by God to wait for Samuel. As Saul watched his troops disappear, his heart told him something opposite to what God was telling him. So he acted in fear and disobedience instead of waiting on God.

Without true community around us, we can start to feel compelled by our own heart to make decisions that are contrary to God's word and think that this inner compelling must make it right. Our voice becomes the dominant voice in our heart and there's no one there to snap us out of it. We watch fearfully as our 'troops' begin to disappear. Maybe it's money, or health, or relationships, or just the steady drip of time (and thus our dreams) and we feel compelled to act on our own instead of waiting upon God.

Without the Voice of Truth and the voices of the Body, it's easy to fall into the trap that Saul fell into: the self-delusion of our own compelling. Get into a community and wait upon the Lord. I never would have meditated upon this passage if someone in my community had not pointed it out, and I am richer for that. Hopefully this will now be transferred on Sunday night to an even larger community as many are worried about their 'troops' disappearing in this economy. See how it works? The Body enables me to hear the Father with greater clarity, and His word can spread even further.

"It is not good for man to be alone." He will eventually become self-compelled - a very dangerous dwelling place.

Monday, July 13, 2009

In Remembrance of Me

Of all the things that Christ did in His life, He asked His disciples to remember Him in His weakest moment (from an earthly viewpoint). He asked them, and all future generations, to remember Him as He willingly set His life aside, poured out, for those who hated Him. He asked them to remember Him as He "sheepishly" went to a publicly humiliating death, never raising His hand or His voice to those who were continually mocking Him.

He could have asked them to remember the time that He went face to face with Satan, in a weakened physical state, and defeated everything he threw at Him. He could have asked them to remember the time that He went into the Temple and cleared out all the hypocrisy and compromise with a whip. He could have asked them to remember the time He stood on the Mount of Transfiguration in all of His glory. He could have asked them to remember the countless times that He displayed His power in healings and miracles.

But He didn't. He asked them to remember the time He poured Himself out for all of mankind in an act of personal sacrifice that the world has never seen. He asked them to remember the time that He hung naked in front of friends and family covered in blood and His own filth.

There has to be a reason for the Lord's Supper beyond a piece of bread and a cup of wine. I think we should stop worrying about the methods (yeast? no yeast? grape juice? wine? once a week? once a month? ) and seek out the meaning. I imagine it has something to do with pouring ourselves out for our enemies, for bearing on our body the marks of the One who suffered and died for us.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Hidden in the Baggage

I Samuel 10:22 "He has hidden himself among the baggage."

Saul has been chosen and anointed as king. He has been given three very clear and powerful signs from God, including an empowering by the Spirit. Yet when the time comes for him to step forward as the king of Israel, he is nowhere to be found. He is hiding in the baggage.

At some point we have to embrace the call upon our lives and quit hiding in the baggage. The baggage of our past or the fears of our present. Humility and cowardice are two very different traits but they can often be mistaken for each other. If you have been called out of the crowd and anointed to be a servant of the Lord, you do no one any good by continuing to hide under the pretense of humility.

Not one of us deserves the place God has brought us to, or the task He has empowered us to do. Understanding that is humility. But an unwillingness to step away from the baggage and advance the kingdom of Jesus, living out publicly what He has done for us privately is not humility, it is fear and cowardice.