To Infinity and Beyond

"Dad, I will give him 5 chances."

So said my 11-year-old son to me when I told him that he needed to have more patience with his younger brother. It was a very magnanimous gesture.

This was after a little lecture from me regarding the passages in I John that dealt with loving your brother. I was really glad he listened and actually wanted to do something about it. He honestly felt that he was taking a stand on the higher ground. But still . . . he was setting a limit in his willingness to love and forgive. Not just a limit that he reached out of exasperation, but a pre-established limit, the worst kind.

"Joseph wept."

Those two words in Genesis 50:17 tell me everything I need to know about true forgiveness. Jacob had died and Joseph's brothers were now worried that any promise of forgiveness and protection would be eliminated, so they wrote a letter claiming (lying?) that their father had desired this covering of forgiveness to remain. When Joseph read this letter, he wept.

Why did he weep? I believe it was because it deeply pained him to think that his brothers felt the forgiveness was conditional, limited. When instead it was "to infinity and beyond."

I will rest in that forgiveness from my Father, who doesn't hold it over me like a guillotine, waiting to drop it on my head at the first sign of my unworthiness. It's eternal. I will offer that same forgiveness to my brother - an extended hand that has no limits.

Movie Theater Holiness

It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly normal people (like myself) can enter into a movie theater and suddenly start tossing trash around like we've gone crazy. Popcorn bags are tossed to the floor, cups are left in the holder, candy wrappers are kicked under the seats . . . . . it's like we've created this little sphere in our life where the normal rules of cleanliness and littering don't apply.

I've come to realize that we do this in other areas of life as well, using similar rationalizations. We create little spheres of our life that allow us to justify actions that we clearly would never do under "normal" circumstances. The Workplace. Politics. Sports. It's a "Survivor" mentality. We can backstab, deceive, elbow someone in the teeth, push down someone so that we can rise to a greater position, and then say that "it's within the rules of the game." Never once stopping to think that these are rules that WE created.

I love sports and I truly understand the need for rules within these games, but let's never mistake these rules as God-created. In boxing, it's okay to hit someone in the face. Because I've created that rule.

I don't want to go too far down this road because I might find myself getting convicted of things that I enjoy doing. I would never want to have to confront a non Christ-like attitude or action that I have already created rules that justify it.

Movie Theater Holiness. It's a pretty neat way to live your life. You don't have to be a true disciple of Christ ALL the time. You don't have to be clean ALL the time. You can create your own little dark places and start throwing your trash around with complete justification, then walk away and let someone else clean up the mess.

Just Men

Colossians 4: 7-18 contains a list of characters that have varying backgrounds. We have Onesimus, a runaway slave who has been transformed by the Lord from useless to useful (read Philemon for his story). We have Mark, who deserted Paul during the first missionary journey, creating the great divide between Paul and Barnabas (read Acts 15:36), now restored and seen as a fellow laborer who should be welcomed, not shunned. Then there is Epaphras, wrestling in prayer, emptying himself for others.

We also read about Nympha, faithfully holding church meetings in her home (not an easy thing to do, from personal experience). Aristarchus is a fellow prisoner, along with Paul, in chains for the Gospel. Finally we see Archippus, who like many of us seems to need a kick in the pants to finish what he started in the Lord, to follow through with something that we don't need to know the details of. Others mentioned: Tychicus, Luke, Demas, Justus - they're not just throwaway names of throwaway people.

I love this passage, because it shows what Christianity really is. Just men. Not better or worse than the rest of mankind. Just men (and women) changed by an encounter with God, still struggling but holding firm to the faith. Wrestling, encouraging, deserting, failing, faithfully opening their homes, witnessing to the point of chains, failing to finish the job, etc. Again - just men like the rest of us.

Sometimes my cynicism gets the best of me and I get frustrated with fellow Christians. Once in awhile it's valid, as hypocrisy and apathy rage, but most of the time it stems from my own self-centeredness. I want people to fit into my box, my own interpretation of justness and justice. I need to understand that for 2000 years it's been a series of people like those in Colossians 4. Just men, pouring through time like thousands of points of light. Not better, not worse, but justified through the blood of the Lamb and bringing Him, through their own broken vessels, into the darkness.

I read this list and I am brought to repentance in how I view my brothers and sisters in the Lord, holding them to a higher standard than I hold myself to, making the narrow gate narrower. I am driven today to read I John and remember that if I can't even love my own brother, how can I claim to have the love of Christ within me?

Brave Prayer: I Have an "Aachen" In My Heart

II Samuel 21:1 "During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death."

There was a famine in the land and David inquired of the Lord. What he found out was that there had been some unaddressed sin: Saul had destroyed the Gibeonites when they had made an oath to protect them (Joshua 9). Because of the Israelites failure to keep their word, dryness entered into the land, and the only way to bring relief was to make atonement for this sin.

I am really challenged by this passage - because I can often be a cowardly prayer. The dryness that is in my life can most-likely be traced to some sin or thought process that I'm quite good at avoiding. It takes deep, soul-searching, honest prayer to come to a place where this sin is recognized and dealt with.

Toward the end of WWII, as the Allies pushed through France and Belgium to Berlin, they approached a well-fortified city called Aachen. The commanders knew that it would take a long time and a lot of casualties to defeat it, so they decided to simply surround it and keep moving. However, the Germans inside the city kept attacking the supply lines to the front, and the generals finally decided that they had to take it out. It ended up costing hundreds of lives as they were forced into door-door combat to root them out.

We need to approach sin that way. If we side-step it, our supply line will be under constant attack and we will be drained of energy and power. It's time for some honest prayer. Brave prayer. Prayer that acknowledges even our deepest sin. We need to go door-to-door and root out even the deepest part of our human nature.

"I Am Bethel"

In Genesis 28, Jacob sees heaven and earth come together in his vision, and he calls it Bethel. "The House of God." Angels are ascending and descending.

In John 1:50, Jesus tells Nathanael that if sticks with Him, he will see great things. He will "see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." In other words, Jesus is saying, "I am Bethel." "I am the House of God." Forever.

Jesus is where heaven and earth come together. That's exactly where I want to be. Because that is where we really can bring some authority and healing into the world. When we bring heaven to earth and earth to heaven. That connection is THE connection.

That is why deep prayer is needed. Courageous prayer. Lonely prayer. Prayer, that like Gethsemane, leaves behind even our inner circle and goes "a little farther." Prayer that uncovers who we really are and lays it bare before God. Honest prayer that lifts the blanket off our self-deception and rips open our hearts to God.

That brings new meaning to the last verse of Psalm 23. "And I will dwell in the house of God forever." In Bethel. In the place where heaven and earth meet. In Christ.

Seeing IT Coming

There's a common complaint in our Weds night Bible Study: "I stink." "I'm tired of failure."

Well - putting out the fires is exhausting. It's the reason so many people leave jobs in teaching. But I've been in education long enough, as administrator, teacher and coach, to know one thing: if you see IT coming and prevent IT from ever happening, you will not only survive, but grow to enjoy it.

It's a simple concept: If you're always putting out fires, you will eventually burn out.

One of the things an experienced teacher can do to prevent this is to watch carefully in a class, lunchroom or recess. You get to the point where you can see things coming, eliminating problems before they happen.

This is why disciplined prayer is so important. You get before God and into His Word every day and you can start sniffing out problems before they develop. You can see IT coming, whatever your IT is. You won't be trying to put out IT's fire all the time

Disarming Satan

There are three ways that we can disarm Satan in this present life:

1. Psalm 8:2 "From the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise because of Your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger."

When children praise God, Satan is silenced. What can he say in the face of such a simple understanding of the Creator of the universe and of His love for us? Satan knows that there is a basic simplicity in our belief in God and he wants to complicate it with our arguments and man-made "theologies." He wants to muddy this pure water, to the point that we are confused and powerless. But the water is pure to the children, and there is nothing he can do but wait until they "grow up" and start over-thinking it.

2. I Corinthians 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where O death is your sting?"

If Satan can get us to think that death is an ugly end to our life, then he can get us to struggle for every breath and grieve uncontrollably over every loss. The cross of Christ destroys this stranglehold and releases us to live every moment now in an eternal way.

When we understand that death is defeated, that it's stinger is removed, we can start releasing the things of this world instead of hoarding them. We can die gracefully instead of kicking and screaming for one last breath. The fear of death, the fight for "one more day," is a major weapon of the enemy. When that's removed, there really isn't much left he has to hang over us. We can let this world go.

II Corinthians 2:7 - 11 "Now instead you ought to forgive and comfort him . . . reaffirm your love for him . . . in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes."

In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells the church to deal with a man who is living in a sinful situation. (Chapter 5). He knows that the church must be distinct in its holiness from the world, so that it can hold out the Light in the darkness instead of blending in.

In his followup letter, he acknowledges their faithfulness in doing this, but now asks them to pull this man back in and show him love and forgiveness. He knows that Satan uses these things as a burden around the necks of men and churches. Our inability and unwillingness to forgive a brother who sins against us is a weight that drags churches to the ground, grinding them to a halt. Satan knows this - it's one of his favorite "schemes" against the church.

When we forgive, we disarm Satan. It's one less weapon in his arsenal.

So - simplify your faith, simplify your life, and start releasing those you're holding in your own personal captivities.