Resistance Isn’t Futile, It’s Foolish

Wow! It has been a long time since I posted, so I guess I have a lot to catch up about.

During that time I started using Facebook more often as an immediate means of posting and getting feedback. Most of the time my posts are pretty benign. “Frank just got back from Sons of Italy.” “Frank had a great time at the Caffe Prada wine tasting.” Etc. But as soon as I get on the topic of the Gospel, some of my previously friendly “friends” turn negative.

One person wrote, “Cut this s*** out! This is a friendly site.” Others wrote, “Doctrines are invented by men.” Still others wrote, “That is just one point of view.” ‘So-and-so’ says this, ‘… .'” I respect their point of view, but I am actually not in the business of getting people to believe, but getting people to think. I even teach my high school classes, “In this class you will learn to think.” I won’t give them what to think, I will teach them the importance of thinking about what someone says, determining how much value it has to them and their lives.

Once again, I will endeavor to pass along something to think about. I post what is accepted Christian thought from the point of  view of the early church, quoting early church sources and writings as my support. I may or may not have it in my posts, but I have the resources to share with all who ask. I am passing along information to think about. I welcome comments, but please think about and support what you think if you decide to comment beyond something appreciative. Please say what you like, but support what you say. That is just good etiquette.

I have written before on the excitement in the Apostle Paul’s voice as he announces to the world what God has done for humanity through Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1 the excitement is palpable. We are blesses with every heavenly blessing in Jesus Christ. We have been adopted into the eternal relationship shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Most importantly, this was predestined by the Father before there was a creation. Yet, as it says in John 1, men (read people, not just males) prefer the darkness to the light of the freedom given to us by Jesus.

I get to counsel a lot of people because I am a pastor. I hear the stories of mean things that people say about other people. It is hurtful. So my advice to them is to view what these people are saying as a gift, a gift you DON’T have to accept. What God is offering us is also a gift that we have the choice to accept or refuse. But here’s the kicker, refusing the gift doesn’t change it’s existence.

The draw of God is real. Maybe you don’t think so, but it is. Every time you feel compassion for someone, that is the love of God pouring through you. Every time you feel joy, that is the joy of God pouring through you. Every time you connect with someone, that is the relationship of God pouring through you.

While some researchers believe that our emotions come about as a result of the hypothalamus, the limbic system in our brains, there is no agreement as to how or why it works. What differences in operation of that system define love from anger from fear? What we do know is that we have emotions. try as they might, scientists cannot find any clear reasons as to why?

So why is it so difficult to accept even the possibility that we have those emotions because they were given to us by a loving creator? Why is it easy to take either the religious point of view of God as little more than an emotionless bean counter recording all the things we do in our lives so that he can later exact revenge, or scientific point of view which believes God as a creation of man? I believe it is because accepting God for who he is, and that he really is in control, and that he really does have a plan that includes us is so much harder.

Religion is easy because it gives us a list of things to do or don’t do, believe and not believe. Science is easy because it tries to eliminate the very existence of God by facts and reasons and rationale even though there is so much that is scientifically unprovable.

Both leave us empty with doubts and fears that our existence is purposeless. We are at the whim of either an apathetic God who has to be convinced to love us or an apathetic science that explains the whats of life without explaining the whys. Both cause us to question our current existence much less our future.

The God Paul is telling us about is not emotionless and not apathetic. He is so determined to bring us to him and reveal to us the life we were supposed to have all along that he did something outrageous in the annals of religion, he became us. He lived as one of us, suffered as one of us, stressed as one of us, cried as one of us and ultimately died as one of us. He did it to reveal that the God we don’t know, one Paul told the Athenians was “the unknown God” (Acts 17), has had a plan for us that includes all his greatest blessings like unfettered love without doubts, freedom from all threats and worries and a purposeful life eternal creating and discovering as mankind has never done before.

This is not universalism because some, even some reading this post, doubt that God wants this and has always wanted this for us. To the critics I’ll say this, in the long run my details might be off, but will be solely because I cannot fully comprehend “every blessing from heaven” as God has designed this. Because of doubt some will actually refuse this amazing gift from the God who loves them. Some of you right now question what I am saying. That is your right. God has given you the ability to accept or reject this gift. But it doesn’t change the reality of the gift. The gift is there. It’s yours. No one can take it away from you, but you can reject it.

Repentance in the Bible is the word “metanoia” which means to change your mind. God is asking you to change you mind about him about the gift he is offering you. He is calling you to believe the adoption he has done for you. To accept his love and purpose for you. To accept the freedom and peace only he can give you. You can resist, but that would be foolish.

 

Enter the Sabbath

9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

To tell followers of Jesus Christ about the importance of Sabbath unleashes a torrent of varied responses. Some will argue that the Sabbath is the rest of the 7th day given to Israel at Mount Sinai. “It is the identifying sign of God’s people,” they will argue, and there is some validity to their argument.

Others will say that Sabbath is Sunday, saying that the day was “transformed” at the cross. Again, there is some validity to what is being said. Still others will say that it is another day or any day as long as you keep one. All these people have valid arguments about why their day, any day or no day is appropriate as a Sabbath.

Whatever that day is, God tells us in the section of Hebrews 4 above that we must enter into it. So what day are they talking about? Are they talking about any day? What is this scripture telling us?

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that when it comes to studying the Scriptures I am always talking about context. The context from which a Scripture comes means looking at where that section is placed in relation to the whole story that is being told. It means also looking at the subject of section and the object of the section. In other words, what is it talking about and to whom is it talking?

This section from Hebrews 4 is in the middle of a dialogue about Jesus Christ, the subject of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews was written (though it is unclear who wrote it, another interesting study) by Jews to Jews. It was written to explain the superiority of Jesus Christ, himself the fulfillment and fulfilling of the promises to Israel, to the old Mosaic covenant. Let me be clear, it is not about the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, it is about the superiority of Jesus Christ to an entrenched religion. Frankly, you can substitute any religion, including Christianity as we know it, in the place of Judaism here. So Jesus is both the subject of Hebrews because it is about his fulfilling of the shadow of Mosaic and Talmudic laws with the light of God’s very presence among men.

Any discussion about the Sabbath then has to proceed from this reality. This book is about a person, Jesus Christ, and his superiority over all things. (Hebrews 2:7-8) It is in this context that we should look at what is said. There is a rest for the people of God and it is not a day, it is a person. Let’s look.

Whatever the Sabbath is and was, it was to be an everlasting sign for the people of God. Now the Sabbath day was given to Israel and Israel was commanded to keep the day, but what are we to make of that in light of Jesus?
In Hebrews Chapter 1 we find that all things created have a period of existence and then they are worn out, obsolete, they die or are destroyed. It says:
“10He also says,
“In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
12You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”

Notice that it doesn’t replace any days. There is no shifting of one day to the next. There is no replacement of the Sabbath day, Saturday, with the Lord’s Day, Sunday. Yes it is true that most of the first century Christians worshipped on Sunday. But that is not proof and this is not talking about swapping days. It is taking the focus off something that is every bit as Created as you and I, namely a day, and replacing it with something eternal, namely the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.

It was He who became flesh (John 1:14) and it is into Him that we must enter. He is superior to any day for he is uncreated and eternal. Only in Jesus do we find rest. It is only in the one who himself is in the Father and the Father in Him that we can find rest from our work. We find rest from our suffering and pain, our frustrations and fears, our worries and our striving.

To not enter into Jesus means continuing with our struggle to find out what this life is all about. We must worry about what to eat, drink or wear. We must worry about appearances. Even those who tell us they don’t worry about appearances towards others must worry that their appearance is not like others. Even the hermit worries about what to eat or where to sleep. Even the monk has a set of rules and standards he must live under.

But in Jesus Christ we find rest from all that for he is the one who does all things for us. He gives us life and breath. He gives us the ability to earn a living. He gives us the knowledge of how to create and how to live in community with others. He shares his love that we may love someone.

The rest that He offers, the Sabbath He gives us, is one that asks, “Do you believe that I am doing and will continue to do all this for you? Do you believe that I will sustain you and provide for you? Do you believe that I am here with you and nothing that happens will ever decrease my love for you?” This is lasting rest. This is meaningful rest. Not the observance of days or rules, rituals and religions.

Only Jesus can give us the rest we have searched for all of our lives. If we really want to find true rest, we must enter into that kind of trusting relationship. We must enter into Jesus as our Sabbath rest.

 

There Is No Fear In Love

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

I live in fear. I live in it all the time. I’ll bet you do, too, even if you don’t admit it.

Fear doesn’t show itself as shaking knees, trembling hands or a quickly beating heart. Sometimes it shows itselv in much less obvious ways. Le me prove it too you.

Today I was proctoring the SAT test at the high school where I teach. The day started normally and I was having as good a time as one can in an all but silent room. Then came the first mistake. In my oral instructions I accidentally misread “work in section 3 on page 4.” Instead, I said, “work in section 4 on page 3.” Understand, if I let students work in the wrong section, that is a misadministration. That’s bad.

I quickly felt the fear of what these students thought of me. “What an idiot. Duh, we can’t work in section 4 before we work in section 3. Loser.” All of this took about 5 seconds after which I corrected the mistake instructing them to work in section 3.

The sense of inadequacy was unnerving. My cool had been blown. I made a mistake. No big whup, right?  We all make mistakes,” I told myself. “Five minutes remaining in section 6,” I later said. Then I looked. There were actually 6 minutes left. The fear of rejection again flowed over me.

Don’t deny you haven’t felt this at some point in your life. We all have. Mistakes are the equalizers, the humblers, the humanizers of life. Men, maybe you walked into a meeting with your zipper down and a white flag flying. Ladies, maybe you tucked your skirt into your pantyhose or your panties. Maybe you trailed toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

On one of the Food Network’s shows a professional chef mistook salt for the sugar that was to go into his dessert. Much as the judges tried to downplay it, it was the determining factor in not selecting him as champion. We fear these kinds of mistakes because we fear the rejection of others. All of us fear not belonging to someone or some group.

We learn this fear of mistakes from the very beginning. We are taught to do good or fear punishment. Often what the child thinks is that the parent has stopped loving him or her when they are corrected. This fear causes him or her to lie about the choices she or he makes, to not try, to avoid decisions.

In society, this fear is enforced in the same two ways: We accept those like us and ostracize or push away those who are annoying, obnoxious or just not like us. So we make sure we are doing what is acceptable by whatever group we want to remain a part of. We also punish in fear. Don’t believe me? Answer this: What do you do when you are driving on the highway and a police car enters into it.

God tells us we belong. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake (read this as reject) you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “I don’t condemn you.” She had been held out as rejectable by those who had caught her. He also told Nicodemus, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17) God’s nature is love not rejection or punishment.

When God does punish (Hebrews 12), He punishes in love. He will allow or even encourage the consequences  of our decisions to happen to us to teach us. He loves us and wants us to choose Him, His nature, His mind and thought process.

As we choose Him, He will reveal more of Himself to us. As more of God’s nature  is revealed in us, we leave less room in which Satan can work. God’s perfect loe is casting out our fears. What God has given us in Jesus is His personal attention, His personal correction and His personal direction for our lives. He is doing this from the inside out.What He is doing is showing us His acceptance. That acceptance transforms us from the inside out. We obey because we know we are loved. We don’t fear His rejection when we make mistakes.

Danny Silk points out in his book, “Loving Our Kids On Purpose,” (2008, Destiny Image Publishing, ISBN 0-7684-2739-8) that it wasn’t Satan who planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden; God did. He didn’t hide it atop a barren, snow-capped mountain top where still naked Adam and Eve would not want to go. Nor did He hide it behind a thorn bush, another challenge to our naked couple. He placed it in the middle of the Garden, next to the Tree of Life so Adam and Eve would have to choose.

Choice and discovery are parts of the joy of life. God will not take that way from us. Satan has turned that choice into something that has to be done right or else cause us to be rejected by God. He has made choice something to be feared when we make bad choices. But God’s own perfect love will cast our fears away from the inside out.