The Word became flesh...

I have to admit that most of my life I have struggled with the first chapter of the Gospel of John. I am not a big one for poetry - though I LOVE music - and so the whole first chapter of John did not make much sense to me. I never really understood what point John was bringing us to. I mean I understand that John was connecting Jesus as the son of God and that He was the light bringing us out of darkness. I have always been able to wrap my mind around that...but I never got all the references to "the Word" - that is until I read this lovely book "Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers" by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

Don't you just love light-bulb moments? Well I had a big spotlight of a light bulb moment when I read the following:

"The history of God's people all leads up to the life of
this one Jew, Jesus Christ.

Matthew goes on to make his point by emphasizing the
similarities between Jesus' life and the history of Israel. Just like the
Hebrew children were killed by Pharaoh, the children in Bethlehem are killed by
Herod when Jesus is born. And just as Joseph and all Israel with him had
to flee into Egypt to survive, so too does Jesus go to Egypt to wait out the
reign of Herod. Like Israel, Jesus passes through the waters in baptism
and wanders in the wilderness (in his case, only forty days). He emerges
to call twelve disciples, like the twelve tribes of Israel. And when Jesus
begins to teach the law in Matthew 5, he goes up on a mountain. Anyone
remember a story about the law coming down from a mountain?

So Jesus came into the world as a Jew, retelling the story of God's people in his own body."

Now it makes sense!!! And the Easter Story has so much more impact. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, His body represented the entire people - it had literally lived their history. The connection between the Old and New Testaments is captured through this wondrous connection and the Cross and what it represents has deeper meaning for me. The foreshadowing of the Old Testament prophets, the stories of Jesus ministry and the words of the Apostles all take on new meaning with this deeper understanding of what Jesus represented in sacrifice.

I love reading the Word through this new lens...

Obligation or Obedience?

I have been struggling alot the past week on the difference between living life with "The Law" and living life with Obedience.

In my small group study, we have been really camped in the concept of Grace, and living life not concentrating on the law, but pointing our focus on Christ. I get that...in my head...but where I struggle is when I check the motivations of my heart.

This week in the Seeking Him study, the lesson was on Obedience: the Acid Test of Love. So between my women's study, my small group discussions and all this focus on Lent - I am struggling with motivations of my heart. Am I practicing my disciplines as an act of obligation or out of obedience? I think there is a difference. I was struck by this quote from the Seeking Him study: "Before we ever try to give or do anything for God, His primary concern is for us to be right with Him."

When I check the definitions of obligation and obedience this subtle difference continues to play out.

First the definition of OBLIGATED:

1 : to bind legally or morally : constrain
2 : to commit (as funds) to meet an obligation

To further understand - here is the definition of CONSTRAIN:

1 a: to force by imposed stricture, restriction, or limitation b: to restrict the motion of (a mechanical body) to a particular mode
2: compress ; also : to clasp tightly
3: to secure by or as if by bonds : confine ; broadly : limit
4: to force or produce in an unnatural or strained manner
5: to hold back by or as if by force

So to act out of obligation, we are constrained (or forced, restricted, bound, or especially number 4 - acting in an unnatural or strained manner). Our actions are not natural, but rather against our normal nature.

Now obedience is a little different:

1 a: an act or instance of obeying b: the quality or state of being obedient
2: a sphere of jurisdiction ; especially : an ecclesiastical or sometimes secular dominion

When I think of obedience, I automatically think of a dog responding to it's Master. It is a natural and instinctual reaction as a response to the one in authority. Obedience comes from within, and is a part of our normal nature. With obedience, we lean into that which we already know and understand.

We can be obedient, because the Word resides in us through the Holy Spirit. We are not obligated by external constraints, but rather obeying because of a natural reaction of our hearts. Jesus tells us this with his promise in John 14:16-21

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

Once again, the difference comes back to "self". Obedience requires love and faith. It requires acting without thinking (instinct). Obligation on the other hand comes from a struggle of power and is not a natural response, or a loving response, but rather a response that still feeds to pride and personal image.

This period of Lent is a time to work on that loving relationship, to bond with Jesus so that the outward flow of my actions will be natural obedience.

Great River of Prayer

I came across the quote below tonight in the book "In Constant Prayer" by Robert Benson, and just wanted to share...

In the early days and years of the monastic traditions, as more and more communities began to spread across the desert and into Europe, such communities were often built in proximity to one another.

One of the notions they held dear was that one community's prayer was beginning just as another's was ending. The goal was to ensure that there were no hours of the day when the prayer that sanctifies the day was not being offered. There were no minutes on God's good earth when the One who made it was not being worshiped and praised.

For thousands of years, the people of Yahweh-the children of Abraham and the followers of Moses and all those who waited for the Messiah to come-offered their praise and worship to God in offices of prayer that were much like the ones that have been passed down to us. Then came the first Christians, those astonished first ones, whose heritage was Jewish and whose practice of daily prayer and daily worship was shaped by what they had learned as the faithful people of Yahweh, who was even more worthy of devotion now that the Messiah had come.

Then the Gentiles, who learned the practice of the life of the devout from Jewish Christians, took up the mantle of saying the prayers. Then the desert fathers and mothers, the people of the Church of the Middle Ages, and the people of the Reformation all took their places in the line of the faithful followers. Together they formed a great river of prayer that has rolled across the centuries, offered by the unknown and unseen saints, a great river of prayer that sustained the Church....

...And now it is our turn

The BE attitudes

For several years now I have been working with a theology espoused by Clarence Jordan

It was Jordan's belief that Jesus gives us all instruction on HOW to follow him in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. In particular, Jesus gave us the Beatitudes in a specific order as the necessary steps in the ladder of faith.

Now this theory really caught my imagination, and so I have been using the beatitudes as my own barometer on where I am in this pilgrimmage. Often at different crossroads or events in my life I will pull out the Beatitudes and see if I can pinpoint which step in the ladder I am working on.

Well, as we have been working through the Seeking Him study and participate in this personal revival, once again I see a reflection of Jordan's theory at work.

These first weeks as we have been digging through the dirt of our lives, plowing and tilling our soil to prepare for the seeds of Grace, I can see that Jesus prepared us for this process with the beatitudes. The first three steps in Jesus ladder are painful, gut wrenching, self effacing, but without them our hearts are not ready to perform at the levels we can achieve as we continue climbing.

Jesus calls to the Poor in Spirit, Mourning, Meek - Our revival calls us to be Humble, Honest, Repentent

The synergy is amazing

In all honesty

For the past few months I have been working through a pretty big issue with my son. Unfortunately, our issue was further exacerbated by the fact that he was not being honest with me - and I knew it. So for the past 6 weeks I have been giving him opportunities to come clean, secretly begging him to tell me the truth I knew was out there just waiting to come forward. You see, I knew we could not really resolve his problem until we got all the way down to the truth and started to build from there.

My son's problem was that he didn't want to admit a mistake - so in his efforts to hide his error, he actually further complicated the whole situation and the resolution will be much more difficult and time consuming. IF HE HAD ONLY ADMITTED IT WHEN IT HAPPENED INSTEAD OF TRYING TO HIDE IT FROM ME!

What could he have been fearing? Why was he afraid to let me know? How could he have possibly thought that lying about his situation and delaying his "confession" to me could have served any good purpose?

But isn't that what we do ourselves with our own relationship with God? Don't we delay admitting to him with full disclosure what we have done and why we have done it? Isn't it easier to either pretend we have done nothing wrong - or worse yet, try to fix it ourselves? And there sits God, just waiting for us to come to our senses. And when we are finally at our last resort, when we understand we can't hide anymore, when we finally realize our problem is much bigger than ourselves, when we ultimately turn to God and admit what we have done - He is right there for us! It is not that we won't have to bear the consequences of our actions, but at least that anxiety of being revealed is no longer separating us from Him. We can finally stop hiding and get to work - moving forward with Him, not by ourselves.

Tonight, after my little tirade was over and we sat down and had honest discussion, my son and I were once again reconciled in our relationship. It is my hope that his lesson learned is that my love is so unwavering, that even when the difficult and painful truth must be dealt with - the underpinning of love will transcend all, and that maybe the next time he will feel comfortable enough to admit his mistakes before they become tragic errors.

I imagine God has the same desire for me.