Romans 6:8-11 - a random thought

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In Kingdom Living we begin to understand that faith is not for death but it is for this life - where death and sin no longer have the final word. See, Jesus is alive now; the grave could not hold him down. So he lives to God, for God, for the glory of the Trinity and we get to live that life right now with him. We are as alive as Christ, provided we give him the mastery of our lives. That's what apprentices do. They find someone who is real good at a particular trade and they attach themselves to that person.

In our case that 'someone' is Jesus and day by day we show up to work with him, to walk with him, to 'learn the rhythms of grace', to use a phrase from Jesus in The Message Paraphrase of Matthew 11:28-30.

There are lots of dead people walking and I don't want to be one of them. I want life and Jesus, being the author of life (see John 1), is the best instructor there is. I do not have just faith in him. I also have confidence and trust that he knows best. And like any apprentice, I know the work is not always easy. But as Jesus once said, With God all things are possible.

Despising the World (Kingdom Life #2)


Thomas à Kempis was a monk who lived in the late 1300's to early 1400's. He wrote THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, allegedly the best selling book after the Bible. It's quite a masterpiece of writing, instructing Christians on how to live with Christ at the center of all they do and are. It is a book for apprentices of Jesus and it is in some ways a very difficult book.

Thomas repeats often that you and I are to despise the world, hate the world, have little to do with the things of the world. He is writing about the world the same way that John writes when he says that you cannot love God and love the things of the world (1John 2:15). If you are a friend of the world you are an enemy of God, writes James (4:4). Jesus called us “out of the world” (John 15:19) and Paul writes that we are not to be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12).

This is all pretty hard stuff for apprentices of Jesus since we live so fully in the world, dependent on its material assets and satisfied by its pleasures.

I have been watching police crime shows, action and adventure all combined as SWAT teams make their way into the lairs of criminals. It's an adrenaline rush to be sure but when it's over I am not all that satisfied and no better a person for it. So I am learning to watch more wholesome shows, not all necessarily PG but shows with a good narrative for life. Is that despising the world? Probably not. But it is despising the violent narratives and ego-satisfying nature of some of my world.

I suspect despising the world is more about self-denial. Thomas à Kempis will write more about mortifying the flesh, which is a good thing (just short of a 'hair shirt'). But I am thinking about Jesus words: that you can't worship two masters. And so I am trying my best, as an apprentice, to spend a lot more time with God than with th world and its influence. I find that I enjoy listening to the Bible on my car CD player (of course I use The Message Paraphrase). Prayer time is becoming more pleasurable and reading books with some kind of spiritual message is a better choice for me.But there are certain ways that I love the satisfactions of this world. I am hopeful to enjoy them with Christ.

So it is a good exercise in faith to think on just how much we love God with ALL our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.

One final note. I think that despising the world means to abhor or detest its POWER. There is no humility, or self-denial in power, especially the kind we see at work around us these days.

Juska la fin,
George

Free - a random thought

Last night Gigi and I watched October Baby, the story of a young woman who discovers that she is the survivor of  an attempted abortion.  I thought it was a great movie with a surprising ending.  You can get it on Netflix, at least that much I know.

Anyway, early on in the movie the young woman writes in her journal, "The truth will set you free?"  It is more of a question for her than an answer and the movie takes her and us on a journey, a quest for the truth.

Jesus is the one who said that the truth shall set us free.  It will break the chains within us; that fetter our hearts to a relentless thought process that hides, deceives, and otherwise suppresses all truth about ourselves, our God, our place with God and, above all, His love and forgiveness.

And the only way to know this truth is to follow Jesus.  He is after all, the one who lights the way for us, sometimes shining the greatest light into the depth of our souls.

Kingdom Life (# 1)

So here begin my thoughts (very few of them original) on Kingdom Life: the way Jesus taught it particularly, but not limited to, the Sermon on the Mount. Much of my thinking has been informed by Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at USC, and his students. He substitutes the term “apprentice” for disciple. I like that. It connotes one who is in the process of learning in order to be able to finally do well, with joy and quite naturally, what one has been practicing in the school of the Master.

So begin by asking, “To whom does the Kingdom of God belong?" And the answer is everyone and anyone who desires to trust the Master in how best to live life on this earth. All those “blesseds”' that begin the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 signal that God favors people in all walks and lots in life. The Kingdom of God (which we shall take to mean where God dwells and all places where is love is found, especially in Jesus) was kept and is still kept from certain people.

But God's love can not be restrained by any of us. That love reaches from the farthest points of eternity into the most intimate places of our lives.

Take the first “blessed”: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Let's rephrase that from all we know about God. The people who know nothing about God and who well might be atheists are favored by God. They are not favored because of their situation but in spite of it. The Kingdom, the love of God, has come for them as evidenced by Jesus talking with them in this context. Willard sometimes paraphrases them as the “spiritual nobodies”. There are folks who are not born again but the Kingdom has come for them. It is open to them. And once they know it, they will want to begin life again with the love of God. His Kingdom, his reign, his will to love his creation is available to all. Everyone.

So, first of all the apprentice must know that he or she is welcomed by the Master. Many people feel unwelcome in the church because somehow the Master's way and the Master's love has not been communicated to them. Remember how Jesus told his disciples at the end of Matthew's Gospel: Go and make apprentices; show them God's love; baptize them as a demonstration that they are loved and teach them to obey all that I have commanded.

Jesus didn't say: Go and make Catholics, Calvinists, Mennonites or any other division of people. We have done that and by so doing we have shunned some folks. We have been unwelcoming.

Jesus gathered children of God, apprentices, people who longed for God. And they followed him. And throughout the Sermon on the Mount he will instruct them on how to live the best life possible, no matter their station or circumstances of life.

We won't look at all beatitudes but we will see next time just how Jesus walked through the crowds that day pointing out who was well off.

Yours in Christ for another day.

Okay, so it's been a couple of years since this blog was updated. That's about to change. Wednesday With Pastor George as well as random posts on other days is back. So spread the word, join the dialogue....