Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear
beautiful…but within you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
Matthew 23.27-28
Have you ever gone up to an impressive bronze statue of a hero and tapped on it? All you hear is a hollow ring. That’s because, as much as the statue may look like a hero, it is just a statue, there’s nothing inside, nothing of the moral fiber, courage, and values that made the hero a hero. Unfortunately, statues are not the only things to “ring hollow.”
Many of you know I am involved in Boy Scouting, and some know that I even used to be a full-time Scouting professional. I have long embraced and promoted the ideals and values of the Boy Scouts of America. But I also know that just because someone wears the uniform of the Boy Scouts it doesn’t make them a good Scout. In fact, someone can advance all the way up to Eagle, earn a hundred and more merit badges, and look like a real humdinger of a Scout, and be far from the real deal. How? By never really committing to the core ideals and values of the Boy Scouts of America. Lip service is paid to the ideals. The Scout Oath and Law can be recited over and over, but if one never really seeks to make those ideals the foundation and framework for their life, they are no better than a hollow statue. And no hollow statue has every done a good turn, or made a difference to home, community, or nation. And, when someone makes it to the “top” of Scouting’s advancement ladder, and they are truly missing Scouting’s core ideals and values, well the whole program suffers.
Now, it is not just Scouts who somehow miss or reject the ideals, often it is Scouters (Adults involved in the programs of the BSA) who never really get it, or who have lost it along the way. Often the worst offenders are the “Red Jackets” (Think Pharisees of Scouting; kind of a self-appointed cadre of moralizing guardians, who try to protect their idea of Scouting). I heard recently of a couple of old Red Jackets who tore into a young leader because they didn’t approve of his pants! To them, parading around in the uniform, sporting all the badges and knots had become more important than living the ideals and values of the program. Those Red Jackets were fortunate I wasn’t there, because I would have suggested they learn what it means for a Scout to promise to be “friendly,” “courteous,” and “kind,” before they put their precious red jackets on again. Those Red Jackets disgraced the uniform they are so proud to put on, and they revealed a distressing “hollowness” of character, if you will.
This problem of hollowness is, I believe, a national issue, and not just a Boy Scout issue. You see, the United States was built from the inside out, so to speak. At the core and foundation of this nation were political, social, ethical and moral, economic, and yes, even religious/theological ideals and values. This core was so solid and strong that in a little more than a hundred years it built thirteen colonies into the greatest nation on earth. Now, a little more than another hundred years later, America “rings hollow,” our core, our ideals and values eroding away from the inside out, so that we may still try and look and act as if we were still the same United States of America, but we are not. I can’t even come up with words to describe what we are. But I am certain that, when enough of our nation’s core ideals and values have eroded from inside, there will be a terrible and utter collapse.
Of course it won’t be the first time a once great nation and people suffered thus. Take ancient Israel. Oh, tiny ancient Israel wasn’t great in terms of size or political or economic influence. But, for an all too tragically brief time, Israel took a back seat to no nation because Israel and its people were the chosen covenant partners of God. As such, Israel had an unprecedented core and foundation of ideals and values written by God himself; ideals and values which, if internalized and lived by Israel and its people, would have assured the ascendancy and security of the nation for ever, and which would have supplied an unimaginable blessing to the rest of the nations of the world. Sadly, Israel became a hollow nation under the control of the hollow leadership of kings, priests, and Pharisees who enjoyed being in positions of power and of putting on all the outward trappings of what they wanted others to believe was true Israel. But inside, they were hollow, they had uncircumcised hearts, and Jesus called them out (See Matthew 23.1-36). Ultimately they rejected not only the ideals and values God had covenanted to give them, they rejected God himself, putting God’s Son to death on a cross. And, some thirty years after the crucifixion, came the great and utter collapse of Israel.
Fortunately, that Son of God was the most “solid” human being who ever lived. The ideals and values of godly living, of God himself, and of God’s kingdom, were incarnate in Christ. Jesus didn’t just live to fulfill the law, he is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus didn’t just practice loving God and others, he is love. Jesus didn’t just teach truth, he is the truth. Jesus didn’t come to simply show us the way, he is the way. Jesus didn’t come to tell us about life, he is life, and he came to give us life.
Without an ethical-moral revival from the inside out, without a decided and intentional turning back to what made America, America, there is, I fear, no arresting the decline and ultimate collapse of this country. As for the Boy Scouts, well they could use a few less Red Jackets who have forgotten Scouting’s ideals and values, and a few more Scouters in blue jeans who are committed to teaching those ideals and values to today’s youth.
And finally, because it must be said, the Church in North America has had a decided and growing hollow ring for a long time now. I suspect this is no small contributing factor to the deepening hollowness of the nation. So the Church, too, needs to renew itself from the inside out. I am not talking about “new” anything as the answer for what ails the Church; her only hope is to restore Christ to the place that is his and his alone, at the very center of its life, and also at its head. You can’t get more solid than the Rock.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Jesus Defended His Father's House
Jesus Defended His Father’s House
And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple
John 2.15
At an early age Jesus had revealed his sense of calling into the family business. Oh, I am not talking about Joseph’s carpentry shop, I mean the work of Christ’s Father. You may recall the incident in Luke 2.41-51, when a precocious twelve year old Jesus first revealed his matchless knowledge of all things pertaining to the kingdom of God, the Lord declared at that time that he already knew his calling,
“I must be about my Father’s business.”
Luke 2.49
Years later, when he again came to his Father’s main place of business, the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus was absolutely outraged by what it had been turned into. During what was supposed to have been a season of spiritual renewal that drew from the deep history of God’s merciful deliverance of Israel from its bondage in Egypt Jesus instead walked in to the middle of a marketplace. And a disreputable market at that!
There was business being transacted in his Father’s house all right, but it wasn’t the family’s business at all, it was more like a business expo! There was so much buying and selling and trading going on that it made the courts of the temple more closely resemble the floor of the stock exchange than a house of prayer. And what most upset Jesus was that it was clear, that this was nothing extraordinary, “business as usual” in the temple had come to mean commerce and profiteering. As far as Jesus could tell, what was going on did not seem to trouble so much as one person there. This is not to say that all Israel approved of the temple “trade show,” but it had been quite a long time since the voice of any prophet had challenged what had become the system.
Well, as any good and devoted son would do, but perhaps as only the Son could do, Jesus dared to defend his Father’s house. And with singular violence, for there is no other place in the gospels where we find the Lord so, well, Rambo-like, Christ unleashed a storm of righteous fury, his disciples called it “zeal,” that wrecked the marketplace and drove out the tradesmen who had set up shop in the temple.
As I mentioned above, it wasn’t as if all Israel felt that what was going on in the temple was right, it was simply that no one dared to defend God’s house against the worldly influences that had transformed it into one of the ancient world’s most successful commercial enterprises. But then, threatening the pocketbook is always risky business. And today the temptations to allow the work of the kingdom to be conducted like a business have not gone away; they might be stronger than ever.
And this is why we now see churches big and small, and no few denominational bodies, being run like businesses, with the bottom line measured in dollars and cents, rather than the saving of souls. The building up and preservation of endowments occupies a place of far greater importance than the building up of the Kingdom for many who are supposed to be leaders of God’s flock. Innovation and entrepreneurialism are esteemed by the Church, while zeal for God’s house is seen as quaint at best, and far more likely to be condemned as fundamentalist extremism.
Someone has observed of our modern culture, and the Church sadly is perhaps more acculturate than ever, that our culture “worships work, works at play, and plays at worship.” Clearly, Jesus would probably quickly look for some cords if he were to walk into the middle of no few modern day ministries in action. Like ancient Israel, it isn’t as if there are not Christians who know that something is wrong, who know that our Father’s houses have again been made into houses of trade. It’s just that very few of us would dare to defend the Father’s house against what has become the powerful and profitable status quo. But that’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4
And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple
John 2.15
At an early age Jesus had revealed his sense of calling into the family business. Oh, I am not talking about Joseph’s carpentry shop, I mean the work of Christ’s Father. You may recall the incident in Luke 2.41-51, when a precocious twelve year old Jesus first revealed his matchless knowledge of all things pertaining to the kingdom of God, the Lord declared at that time that he already knew his calling,
“I must be about my Father’s business.”
Luke 2.49
Years later, when he again came to his Father’s main place of business, the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus was absolutely outraged by what it had been turned into. During what was supposed to have been a season of spiritual renewal that drew from the deep history of God’s merciful deliverance of Israel from its bondage in Egypt Jesus instead walked in to the middle of a marketplace. And a disreputable market at that!
There was business being transacted in his Father’s house all right, but it wasn’t the family’s business at all, it was more like a business expo! There was so much buying and selling and trading going on that it made the courts of the temple more closely resemble the floor of the stock exchange than a house of prayer. And what most upset Jesus was that it was clear, that this was nothing extraordinary, “business as usual” in the temple had come to mean commerce and profiteering. As far as Jesus could tell, what was going on did not seem to trouble so much as one person there. This is not to say that all Israel approved of the temple “trade show,” but it had been quite a long time since the voice of any prophet had challenged what had become the system.
Well, as any good and devoted son would do, but perhaps as only the Son could do, Jesus dared to defend his Father’s house. And with singular violence, for there is no other place in the gospels where we find the Lord so, well, Rambo-like, Christ unleashed a storm of righteous fury, his disciples called it “zeal,” that wrecked the marketplace and drove out the tradesmen who had set up shop in the temple.
As I mentioned above, it wasn’t as if all Israel felt that what was going on in the temple was right, it was simply that no one dared to defend God’s house against the worldly influences that had transformed it into one of the ancient world’s most successful commercial enterprises. But then, threatening the pocketbook is always risky business. And today the temptations to allow the work of the kingdom to be conducted like a business have not gone away; they might be stronger than ever.
And this is why we now see churches big and small, and no few denominational bodies, being run like businesses, with the bottom line measured in dollars and cents, rather than the saving of souls. The building up and preservation of endowments occupies a place of far greater importance than the building up of the Kingdom for many who are supposed to be leaders of God’s flock. Innovation and entrepreneurialism are esteemed by the Church, while zeal for God’s house is seen as quaint at best, and far more likely to be condemned as fundamentalist extremism.
Someone has observed of our modern culture, and the Church sadly is perhaps more acculturate than ever, that our culture “worships work, works at play, and plays at worship.” Clearly, Jesus would probably quickly look for some cords if he were to walk into the middle of no few modern day ministries in action. Like ancient Israel, it isn’t as if there are not Christians who know that something is wrong, who know that our Father’s houses have again been made into houses of trade. It’s just that very few of us would dare to defend the Father’s house against what has become the powerful and profitable status quo. But that’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4
Friday, March 5, 2010
Jesus Confronted Sin and Forgave
Jesus Confronted Sin and Forgave
Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone
John 8.7
There is a scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ which begins with a shot across a square looking at an angry mob advancing armed with stones. Then in the foreground a single sandaled foot stomps the dust, arresting the progress of the crowd. A finger writes in the dirt, and a trembling, bejeweled hand desperately reaches towards the foot of, well Gibson does not show us, but we know it is Jesus, and we know the hand belongs to the woman who had been caught in adultery, and the crowd armed with stones were the ones in John 8 who sought to test Jesus. (See John 8.1-11)
The mob had come, eager to confront and condemn the sin of the woman, and hoped that Jesus, who had begun to have an undeserved reputation as somehow being soft on sin and loose with the Law of Moses, would commit such a violation as to allow them to later accuse him. (8.6) the last thing they expected was for Jesus to confront sin, their sin. But that is what Jesus dared to do. At the same time the Lord also dared to forgive, not excuse, the sin of the woman. What did Jesus do? He dared to confront, and to forgive, sin. We don’t see much of that these days.
Rather than confront and forgive, we are more into “accuse and excuse.” There is no shortage of people, we might call them “Speck Inspectors” who are quick to accuse others of their sins, even the slightest ones. But such Inspectors typically overlook, want to avoid truly confronting the reality of sin’s pervasiveness, being particularly blind to the glaring reality of the beam they themselves bear. At the same time, it is fairly common practice for one who is caught in sin to seek to be excused, rather than to truly confess, repent, and be forgiven. And we have shown ourselves to be a readily excusing, if ultimately unforgiving, culture. It seems that most of us who profess to follow Jesus are quite unwilling to dare, as Jesus did, to confront the reality of sin’s pervasive presence in all our lives, starting with our own. The problem with excused sin is that it tends to hang around. Either the one excused persists in sin because it is fairly easy and cheap to make excuses and to be excused, or the one who excused the sin holds onto it so that they can always bring it up again against the excused.
But sin that has truly been confronted, and repented of and forgiven, well unlike excused sin which hangs around, stays in the record so to speak, truly forgiven sin is erased, gone, forgotten, expunged from the record. It takes daring to deal with sin so boldly, so completely, so finally. Before Jesus no one had ever dared to confront sin and forgive. Since the time of Christ, those who have dared have been far outstripped by those who are into accusing and excusing, rather than confronting and forgiving.
But you just cannot find any place in the Bible where God excused sin. Nor is there any biblical account of anyone who tried to make an excuse for their sin to God, or who sought to have their sin excused by God, ever succeeded. We do have many illustrations of sin confronted and forgiven.
Think of David being confronted by Nathan, and then confessing and repenting and being forgiven. (2Samuel 12) Think of Zacchaeus publicly confessing and repenting, and being forgiven on the spot by the Lord, who declared Zacchaeus a “son of Abraham” right then and there. (Luke 19) Think of the woman, pursued by those angry accusers ready to stone her to death. After Jesus had dared to confront them, the accusers vanished, , and Jesus himself refused to accuse and condemn, instead forgiving the woman, and charging her to leave her life of sin behind.
Accusing leads to condemnation, and at best, excusing. Daring to confront leads to repentance and forgiveness. That’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4
Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone
John 8.7
There is a scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ which begins with a shot across a square looking at an angry mob advancing armed with stones. Then in the foreground a single sandaled foot stomps the dust, arresting the progress of the crowd. A finger writes in the dirt, and a trembling, bejeweled hand desperately reaches towards the foot of, well Gibson does not show us, but we know it is Jesus, and we know the hand belongs to the woman who had been caught in adultery, and the crowd armed with stones were the ones in John 8 who sought to test Jesus. (See John 8.1-11)
The mob had come, eager to confront and condemn the sin of the woman, and hoped that Jesus, who had begun to have an undeserved reputation as somehow being soft on sin and loose with the Law of Moses, would commit such a violation as to allow them to later accuse him. (8.6) the last thing they expected was for Jesus to confront sin, their sin. But that is what Jesus dared to do. At the same time the Lord also dared to forgive, not excuse, the sin of the woman. What did Jesus do? He dared to confront, and to forgive, sin. We don’t see much of that these days.
Rather than confront and forgive, we are more into “accuse and excuse.” There is no shortage of people, we might call them “Speck Inspectors” who are quick to accuse others of their sins, even the slightest ones. But such Inspectors typically overlook, want to avoid truly confronting the reality of sin’s pervasiveness, being particularly blind to the glaring reality of the beam they themselves bear. At the same time, it is fairly common practice for one who is caught in sin to seek to be excused, rather than to truly confess, repent, and be forgiven. And we have shown ourselves to be a readily excusing, if ultimately unforgiving, culture. It seems that most of us who profess to follow Jesus are quite unwilling to dare, as Jesus did, to confront the reality of sin’s pervasive presence in all our lives, starting with our own. The problem with excused sin is that it tends to hang around. Either the one excused persists in sin because it is fairly easy and cheap to make excuses and to be excused, or the one who excused the sin holds onto it so that they can always bring it up again against the excused.
But sin that has truly been confronted, and repented of and forgiven, well unlike excused sin which hangs around, stays in the record so to speak, truly forgiven sin is erased, gone, forgotten, expunged from the record. It takes daring to deal with sin so boldly, so completely, so finally. Before Jesus no one had ever dared to confront sin and forgive. Since the time of Christ, those who have dared have been far outstripped by those who are into accusing and excusing, rather than confronting and forgiving.
But you just cannot find any place in the Bible where God excused sin. Nor is there any biblical account of anyone who tried to make an excuse for their sin to God, or who sought to have their sin excused by God, ever succeeded. We do have many illustrations of sin confronted and forgiven.
Think of David being confronted by Nathan, and then confessing and repenting and being forgiven. (2Samuel 12) Think of Zacchaeus publicly confessing and repenting, and being forgiven on the spot by the Lord, who declared Zacchaeus a “son of Abraham” right then and there. (Luke 19) Think of the woman, pursued by those angry accusers ready to stone her to death. After Jesus had dared to confront them, the accusers vanished, , and Jesus himself refused to accuse and condemn, instead forgiving the woman, and charging her to leave her life of sin behind.
Accusing leads to condemnation, and at best, excusing. Daring to confront leads to repentance and forgiveness. That’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Jesus Shared the "Missing Link"
This is my body, which is given for you.
Luke 22.19
This is my blood…which is poured out for many.
Mark 14.24
We have already spoken of how Jesus came to share our humanity with us by setting aside his station with God the Father to become born one of us. (See 3/3/10 dE-votion) But Jesus did not come empty handed, so to speak. Christ brought something absolutely precious to share with us, something that had been lost which we in no ways could recover for ourselves.
You see, in the Fall a vital connection, a link if you will, between God and man had been broken and lost. With it had gone something that God had always intended to be part of being human—eternal life. For God had formed man, the one creature in all the material universe to bear the divine image, to be with him for eternity. Again, that part of who we were created to be, that essential link with God, had been lost.
But, as noted above, Jesus came not just to partake in our humanity, but to make it possible for us to share in his life, and through him obtain that which had been lost to us, Christ restored the missing link between God and man by himself becoming that very link. As Jesus himself said, he had come so that we
may have life and have it abundantly.
John 10.10
If you will permit me, how abundant can life be if it falls short of eternity? It would be life with something missing, something God had always intended to be part of what it is to be fully human.
In the supper the Lord shared with his apostles on the night before he was crucified Jesus shared with his followers, in a powerful spiritual reality, something that he would share with all of us in an awful physical reality on the cross, his perfect righteousness and his innocent life. Christ’s righteousness was symbolized in the bread, his body which he would obediently give up to God for our sakes on the cross, the complete and perfect fulfillment of his Father’s will. Christ’s innocent life was symbolized in the wine, his sinless blood which would be poured out on the cross as the one acceptable sacrifice for our sins. It is Christ’s righteousness and his life that reconnect us to God.
By giving us the meal as a sacrament, Christ made it possible for the most precious gift he shared wit us, the restoration of our relationship with God and eternal life, to be preserved and passed on to all succeeding generations. To contemplate in the meal the meaning of what Jesus did on the cross for us, in sharing with us, as fully as ever could be shared, his life, is to know the fullness of God’s agape, God’s selfless love. There is no more solemn, yet joyous, occasion in the life of believers than to be invited to celebrate this supper.
The question is, how do we do what Jesus did? Well, in his sharing with us Jesus held nothing back, he offered all of himself to us and for us. And I believe that as Christ lives in us, he would, through us, yet share himself to the utmost with others. This is to say that each of us have both the obligation and opportunity to so give and share of our lives in Christ that others may receive Jesus, and so be reconnected with God and have eternal life.
It may seem obvious, but we cannot share what we don’t have. This is to say that if we don’t have Jesus, if he has not entered in and taken possession of our heart, and filled us with the love of God, there is no way we can share any of him with another. Here is how I believe it works; if we are not filled up with Jesus we can’t share him; if we are filled up with him, we cannot not share him. So, if we haven’t been sharing Jesus with others it is a sure sign we ourselves are in need of being filled up with the Spirit. Once filled with Christ, we do not hold anything back from those who need what we have, we seek to share all we have and all of who we are with others. That’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4
Luke 22.19
This is my blood…which is poured out for many.
Mark 14.24
We have already spoken of how Jesus came to share our humanity with us by setting aside his station with God the Father to become born one of us. (See 3/3/10 dE-votion) But Jesus did not come empty handed, so to speak. Christ brought something absolutely precious to share with us, something that had been lost which we in no ways could recover for ourselves.
You see, in the Fall a vital connection, a link if you will, between God and man had been broken and lost. With it had gone something that God had always intended to be part of being human—eternal life. For God had formed man, the one creature in all the material universe to bear the divine image, to be with him for eternity. Again, that part of who we were created to be, that essential link with God, had been lost.
But, as noted above, Jesus came not just to partake in our humanity, but to make it possible for us to share in his life, and through him obtain that which had been lost to us, Christ restored the missing link between God and man by himself becoming that very link. As Jesus himself said, he had come so that we
may have life and have it abundantly.
John 10.10
If you will permit me, how abundant can life be if it falls short of eternity? It would be life with something missing, something God had always intended to be part of what it is to be fully human.
In the supper the Lord shared with his apostles on the night before he was crucified Jesus shared with his followers, in a powerful spiritual reality, something that he would share with all of us in an awful physical reality on the cross, his perfect righteousness and his innocent life. Christ’s righteousness was symbolized in the bread, his body which he would obediently give up to God for our sakes on the cross, the complete and perfect fulfillment of his Father’s will. Christ’s innocent life was symbolized in the wine, his sinless blood which would be poured out on the cross as the one acceptable sacrifice for our sins. It is Christ’s righteousness and his life that reconnect us to God.
By giving us the meal as a sacrament, Christ made it possible for the most precious gift he shared wit us, the restoration of our relationship with God and eternal life, to be preserved and passed on to all succeeding generations. To contemplate in the meal the meaning of what Jesus did on the cross for us, in sharing with us, as fully as ever could be shared, his life, is to know the fullness of God’s agape, God’s selfless love. There is no more solemn, yet joyous, occasion in the life of believers than to be invited to celebrate this supper.
The question is, how do we do what Jesus did? Well, in his sharing with us Jesus held nothing back, he offered all of himself to us and for us. And I believe that as Christ lives in us, he would, through us, yet share himself to the utmost with others. This is to say that each of us have both the obligation and opportunity to so give and share of our lives in Christ that others may receive Jesus, and so be reconnected with God and have eternal life.
It may seem obvious, but we cannot share what we don’t have. This is to say that if we don’t have Jesus, if he has not entered in and taken possession of our heart, and filled us with the love of God, there is no way we can share any of him with another. Here is how I believe it works; if we are not filled up with Jesus we can’t share him; if we are filled up with him, we cannot not share him. So, if we haven’t been sharing Jesus with others it is a sure sign we ourselves are in need of being filled up with the Spirit. Once filled with Christ, we do not hold anything back from those who need what we have, we seek to share all we have and all of who we are with others. That’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Let's Start Asking, "What DID Jesus Do?"
…we have concluded this: that one died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
2Corinthians 5.14-15
“What would Jesus do?” it is a good, but enticingly subjective question. “Enticingly subjective” what does that mean? It is always tempting to subject things to our perspective, even our understanding of Jesus. Because of this many today know, and in their own way seek to follow, a Jesus of their experience and perception. It is the kind of thing that leads to statements like, “I am not sure of what the Bible says, but the Jesus I know would __________.” And the blank is filled in with a totally subjective, and usually self-serving, action that fits Jesus into our life in a way that suits us.
But Christian faith is not subjective at all. It is, to the contrary, totally objective because it is built on the objective truth of the Word of God revealed in the Bible. We have no business speculating “What would Jesus do if he were here living my life?” Jesus lived a perfectly good life of his own, truly the only perfectly good life, and he was not raised so that he could live our lives but rather that we, dying in Christ to self, might live for him. If we have died to self, we ourselves don’t live our own lives anymore, why then should we ask how Jesus would live a life that no longer exists? Friends, it is the life of Jesus that matters and not ours, end of story. To live is Christ! (Philippians 1.21)
The question that must be asked, then, is not “What would Jesus do?” but “What did Jesus do?” The answers to this most essential of all questions are not to be found in our experience, but in the Bible. And, when we have discovered what Jesus did, our only course is to do likewise.
Here is an example. What did Jesus do? Jesus shared. I don’t mean that the Lord gave his spare cloak to John when he was cold; I don’t recall ever reading that in the Bible. But I have read in Philippians 2.4-11 how Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider his divinity as something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Now, Jesus did not become nothing, did he, he became one of us. You see, the first great Christian mission, the one that set the pattern for all Christian mission that has followed, was Christ’s mission that led him to come down from heaven and share our humanity with us. Jesus became one of us, alike in every way with you and me, save for the fact that he was sinless while we are all sinners. His sharing the life of sinners was the one way that sinners like you and me could be redeemed,
For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Mission isn’t mission, and it certainly cannot achieve its objective, if the missionary does not share the life of those he or she has come to serve. Take the family from North Carolina that answered God’s call to go to Senegal. They learned the language of the Senegalese. They adopted the dress of the Senegalese. They live in a home like that of their Senegalese neighbors. They participate in the life of the Senegalese community in which they live. The only thing Senegalese they do not embrace is the Muslim faith. But this is also quite consistent with what Jesus did.
For Christ did not come and live according to the faith of the Pharisees and priests. Rather the Lord shared his faith in the Father with everyone he met, faith based in his intimate personal relationship with, and love of, God. And the thing that drew people to embrace the faith of Jesus was that fact that he first shared in their lives. So it was that the Lord could regularly be found dining in the company of sinners.
Do you want to be obedient to Christ, then stop speculating on what he would do if he were you, and start doing what he did. A great place to begin is by sharing in the lives of others, entering in to their situation and circumstances, not condescendingly, but genuinely. That’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4
2Corinthians 5.14-15
“What would Jesus do?” it is a good, but enticingly subjective question. “Enticingly subjective” what does that mean? It is always tempting to subject things to our perspective, even our understanding of Jesus. Because of this many today know, and in their own way seek to follow, a Jesus of their experience and perception. It is the kind of thing that leads to statements like, “I am not sure of what the Bible says, but the Jesus I know would __________.” And the blank is filled in with a totally subjective, and usually self-serving, action that fits Jesus into our life in a way that suits us.
But Christian faith is not subjective at all. It is, to the contrary, totally objective because it is built on the objective truth of the Word of God revealed in the Bible. We have no business speculating “What would Jesus do if he were here living my life?” Jesus lived a perfectly good life of his own, truly the only perfectly good life, and he was not raised so that he could live our lives but rather that we, dying in Christ to self, might live for him. If we have died to self, we ourselves don’t live our own lives anymore, why then should we ask how Jesus would live a life that no longer exists? Friends, it is the life of Jesus that matters and not ours, end of story. To live is Christ! (Philippians 1.21)
The question that must be asked, then, is not “What would Jesus do?” but “What did Jesus do?” The answers to this most essential of all questions are not to be found in our experience, but in the Bible. And, when we have discovered what Jesus did, our only course is to do likewise.
Here is an example. What did Jesus do? Jesus shared. I don’t mean that the Lord gave his spare cloak to John when he was cold; I don’t recall ever reading that in the Bible. But I have read in Philippians 2.4-11 how Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider his divinity as something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Now, Jesus did not become nothing, did he, he became one of us. You see, the first great Christian mission, the one that set the pattern for all Christian mission that has followed, was Christ’s mission that led him to come down from heaven and share our humanity with us. Jesus became one of us, alike in every way with you and me, save for the fact that he was sinless while we are all sinners. His sharing the life of sinners was the one way that sinners like you and me could be redeemed,
For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Mission isn’t mission, and it certainly cannot achieve its objective, if the missionary does not share the life of those he or she has come to serve. Take the family from North Carolina that answered God’s call to go to Senegal. They learned the language of the Senegalese. They adopted the dress of the Senegalese. They live in a home like that of their Senegalese neighbors. They participate in the life of the Senegalese community in which they live. The only thing Senegalese they do not embrace is the Muslim faith. But this is also quite consistent with what Jesus did.
For Christ did not come and live according to the faith of the Pharisees and priests. Rather the Lord shared his faith in the Father with everyone he met, faith based in his intimate personal relationship with, and love of, God. And the thing that drew people to embrace the faith of Jesus was that fact that he first shared in their lives. So it was that the Lord could regularly be found dining in the company of sinners.
Do you want to be obedient to Christ, then stop speculating on what he would do if he were you, and start doing what he did. A great place to begin is by sharing in the lives of others, entering in to their situation and circumstances, not condescendingly, but genuinely. That’s what Jesus did.
Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
What Everyone Needs
It is not good that the man should be alone
Genesis 2.18
With no disrespect to the Lone Ranger, every one needs an “other.” Individualism may be esteemed in our culture, but, aside from the decathlon and spelling bees, one-man teams don’t win championships. And God, looking at the one man he had formed, knew something more was needed.
Everything had gone so well. For six successive days God had set out and filled up his kingdoms. And each day God had surveyed his work and judged it “good,” the whole of it receiving the Lord’s “very good” assessment. But then something happened, or more accurately, didn’t happen. Something was “not good.” The man God had formed from the dust of the earth was alone. And God, who had existed through all eternity in the intimate relationship of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—knew something was wrong. Something was missing; the man needed some thing, actually some one, for him to be complete.
Parading all the other creatures he had made before the man, God encouraged him to choose one for his partner. But none suited. It wasn’t that the man was particularly hard to please, but they just didn’t, well, fit him. Some were too big, others too small. Many walked on all fours, while the man stood and walked upright. There were the ones who lived underground, and those that lived in the trees, neither of which worked for man. And, perhaps the biggest problem of all, there was no creature man could share his thoughts with; that could experience the same feelings as the man. Who could man invite to be part of his dreams, his hopes?
Recognizing what needed to be done, God made the man fall deeply asleep, and deftly removing one of the man’s ribs, God fashioned the perfect flesh and bone complement to the man. Because she had been made “of man” she would be called woman. Right then and there God ordained that is should always be that the two, man and woman, should come together and be one flesh. Not rivals, and certainly not adversaries, but partners who together could become more than they ever could on their own.
Now, men are men, and women are women, quite independent of one another, and of course fully human in their own right. God the Father is fully God, as is the Son, and so also the Holy Spirit; yet to be God is to be the Trinity. And so, though man is fully man, and woman is fully woman, to be humanity is to be man and woman. God himself intended that his image in man would be manifest in maleness and femaleness together. (Genesis 1.27) In the economy of God’s kingdom one plus one does not equal two, but one, yet greater than one.
Genesis 2.18
With no disrespect to the Lone Ranger, every one needs an “other.” Individualism may be esteemed in our culture, but, aside from the decathlon and spelling bees, one-man teams don’t win championships. And God, looking at the one man he had formed, knew something more was needed.
Everything had gone so well. For six successive days God had set out and filled up his kingdoms. And each day God had surveyed his work and judged it “good,” the whole of it receiving the Lord’s “very good” assessment. But then something happened, or more accurately, didn’t happen. Something was “not good.” The man God had formed from the dust of the earth was alone. And God, who had existed through all eternity in the intimate relationship of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—knew something was wrong. Something was missing; the man needed some thing, actually some one, for him to be complete.
Parading all the other creatures he had made before the man, God encouraged him to choose one for his partner. But none suited. It wasn’t that the man was particularly hard to please, but they just didn’t, well, fit him. Some were too big, others too small. Many walked on all fours, while the man stood and walked upright. There were the ones who lived underground, and those that lived in the trees, neither of which worked for man. And, perhaps the biggest problem of all, there was no creature man could share his thoughts with; that could experience the same feelings as the man. Who could man invite to be part of his dreams, his hopes?
Recognizing what needed to be done, God made the man fall deeply asleep, and deftly removing one of the man’s ribs, God fashioned the perfect flesh and bone complement to the man. Because she had been made “of man” she would be called woman. Right then and there God ordained that is should always be that the two, man and woman, should come together and be one flesh. Not rivals, and certainly not adversaries, but partners who together could become more than they ever could on their own.
Now, men are men, and women are women, quite independent of one another, and of course fully human in their own right. God the Father is fully God, as is the Son, and so also the Holy Spirit; yet to be God is to be the Trinity. And so, though man is fully man, and woman is fully woman, to be humanity is to be man and woman. God himself intended that his image in man would be manifest in maleness and femaleness together. (Genesis 1.27) In the economy of God’s kingdom one plus one does not equal two, but one, yet greater than one.
Monday, March 1, 2010
What Every Kingdom Needs
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19.1
It has been said that “nature abhors a vacuum.” I have not done any research to either confirm or contest that statement. But, even if it is true, I don’t think it really means much. Since I believe nature is under the authority of God, the abundance of things great and small that fill the universe is a more a reflection about the creativity and love of God, than evidence of mindless natural forces.
Yesterday we looked at Genesis 1.3-13 and say how God employed himself the first three days of creation in setting out the kingdoms he would rule. After all, what would have been the purpose of God being King over nothing? A King needs a kingdom, or kingdoms over which to exercise sovereignty. But after setting out the three kingdoms (The celestial kingdom [The vastness of the heavens], the kingdom of the seas and sky [the “waters that were under” and the “waters that were above”], and the terrestrial kingdom [the dry land we call “earth”]), and pronouncing each of them “good,” something was still missing.
You see, just as a King needs a kingdom, a kingdom needs subjects. Ruling over an empty, lifeless kingdom would be rather purposeless. And God certainly had a purpose in establishing his kingdoms, Psalm 19 tells us that the “heavens declare the glory of God.” But the testimony of the heavens would have been mute had they been empty. So on day four of Creation God set to work filling up the kingdom he had created on day one. A myriad of lights were called out and set in the heavens, stars and planets, galaxies and solar systems, each placed precisely where God appointed. And, giving attention to an important detail, God placed the Sun and the Moon in the sky in just the right position to maintain the rhythm of night and day for the earth. (Genesis 1.14-19)
The next day, day five, God filled the seas and the sky with the fish and the birds who are the subjects of those kingdoms. Life teemed in the seas, as creatures, from the microscopic to the mighty Leviathan, filled bodies of water as small as a tiny pond or small stream, and as great as the vast oceans. And huge flocks of birds, so immense that when they took flight they could all but darken the sky, filled the air. (Genesis 1.20-23) Like the cosmos, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the seas also have a testimony to declare, they too give evidence to the glory of God. (See Job 12.7-8)
On day six there still remained a kingdom void of subject—the kingdom of the dry land. And so on the sixth day God filled up the earth with “livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” (Genesis 1.24-25) And, in their turn, all these animals contributed their testimony to the glory of God. (Job 12.7,9) But, even though the kingdoms of days 1-3 were now full, God’s work of creation was not finished. There was one more creature God would fashion, and alone out of all the numberless subjects of his kingdoms, this creature would be made in the image of God himself.
Thus it was that on day six God created man, man who would be both God’s subject and his steward, one holding a royal warrant to exercise dominion over all the other subjects of God’s kingdom in the name of, and to the glory and pleasure of the King. (Genesis 1.26-28) Man, so tiny and insignificant that when he surveys the heavens, the moon and the stars, he wonders why God is even mindful of him. (Psalm 8.3-4) But it was God’s desire, and the King’s decision, that man should be but a little lower than the angels, and be crowned with glory and honor. (Psalm 8.5)
God the King, having completed the setting out and the filling up of his kingdoms, took a good look at all his handiwork, everything that he had made, and the sum total of it was that it was “very good.” (Genesis 1.31) Then the King declared that the next day, the seventh day, would be a Sabbath, a day of rest, before the life and the work of his kingdoms would go forward. Ever since this first week which witnessed the beginning of all things, the cycle has continued, six days to work and glorify the King, one day to rest and worship and consider and give thanks to the King of glory!
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19.1
It has been said that “nature abhors a vacuum.” I have not done any research to either confirm or contest that statement. But, even if it is true, I don’t think it really means much. Since I believe nature is under the authority of God, the abundance of things great and small that fill the universe is a more a reflection about the creativity and love of God, than evidence of mindless natural forces.
Yesterday we looked at Genesis 1.3-13 and say how God employed himself the first three days of creation in setting out the kingdoms he would rule. After all, what would have been the purpose of God being King over nothing? A King needs a kingdom, or kingdoms over which to exercise sovereignty. But after setting out the three kingdoms (The celestial kingdom [The vastness of the heavens], the kingdom of the seas and sky [the “waters that were under” and the “waters that were above”], and the terrestrial kingdom [the dry land we call “earth”]), and pronouncing each of them “good,” something was still missing.
You see, just as a King needs a kingdom, a kingdom needs subjects. Ruling over an empty, lifeless kingdom would be rather purposeless. And God certainly had a purpose in establishing his kingdoms, Psalm 19 tells us that the “heavens declare the glory of God.” But the testimony of the heavens would have been mute had they been empty. So on day four of Creation God set to work filling up the kingdom he had created on day one. A myriad of lights were called out and set in the heavens, stars and planets, galaxies and solar systems, each placed precisely where God appointed. And, giving attention to an important detail, God placed the Sun and the Moon in the sky in just the right position to maintain the rhythm of night and day for the earth. (Genesis 1.14-19)
The next day, day five, God filled the seas and the sky with the fish and the birds who are the subjects of those kingdoms. Life teemed in the seas, as creatures, from the microscopic to the mighty Leviathan, filled bodies of water as small as a tiny pond or small stream, and as great as the vast oceans. And huge flocks of birds, so immense that when they took flight they could all but darken the sky, filled the air. (Genesis 1.20-23) Like the cosmos, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the seas also have a testimony to declare, they too give evidence to the glory of God. (See Job 12.7-8)
On day six there still remained a kingdom void of subject—the kingdom of the dry land. And so on the sixth day God filled up the earth with “livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” (Genesis 1.24-25) And, in their turn, all these animals contributed their testimony to the glory of God. (Job 12.7,9) But, even though the kingdoms of days 1-3 were now full, God’s work of creation was not finished. There was one more creature God would fashion, and alone out of all the numberless subjects of his kingdoms, this creature would be made in the image of God himself.
Thus it was that on day six God created man, man who would be both God’s subject and his steward, one holding a royal warrant to exercise dominion over all the other subjects of God’s kingdom in the name of, and to the glory and pleasure of the King. (Genesis 1.26-28) Man, so tiny and insignificant that when he surveys the heavens, the moon and the stars, he wonders why God is even mindful of him. (Psalm 8.3-4) But it was God’s desire, and the King’s decision, that man should be but a little lower than the angels, and be crowned with glory and honor. (Psalm 8.5)
God the King, having completed the setting out and the filling up of his kingdoms, took a good look at all his handiwork, everything that he had made, and the sum total of it was that it was “very good.” (Genesis 1.31) Then the King declared that the next day, the seventh day, would be a Sabbath, a day of rest, before the life and the work of his kingdoms would go forward. Ever since this first week which witnessed the beginning of all things, the cycle has continued, six days to work and glorify the King, one day to rest and worship and consider and give thanks to the King of glory!
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