“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

This phrase more than any other in this prayer challenges me. It challenges me on a daily basis. And I believe that was the intent of Jesus when he taught us to pray this way. This seems to be one of the crucial elements of this prayer. I say that, because immediately following this teaching, in the very next verse in fact, Jesus expounds on this thought.

For if you forgive others their trespasses,

So let’s go back and look at this petition a bit more carefully. What exactly are we asking God to do in this petition? The first half of this phrase is a pretty straightforward ask for forgiveness - nothing difficult there. It is the way the second half of this petition is connected to the first half that makes this request challenging.

Consider “as we also have forgiven our debtors”. In framing this request in this way the thing we are really asking God for is something pretty shocking. This statement could be rephrased as, “Oh Father, forgive us in the same way that we have forgiven others.” We are asking God to treat us the way we treat others. This is a very powerful thought.

Contingent Forgiveness??

To make our forgiveness contingent on our forgiveness of others just feels wrong. I react negatively to that almost by instinct, all the teaching I have received regarding the infinite and unconditional love of God explodes in my head. Is Jesus making my forgiveness conditional on my actions?

Before we go on it is important that we just don’t answer nah…

It is extremely dangerous to deal with difficult verses by denial.

Jesus said what he said, we don’t get to just dismiss it because it doesn’t sit well with our understanding of grace or some such thing. We need to look at what Jesus is saying here and elsewhere and see if we can find a consistent thread in it all. We have to do the hard work of Bible interpretation.

How are we forgiven?

To begin, we have numerous examples in the New Testament of Jesus forgiving the sins of people on the spot, just as he found them. They did nothing to be forgiven, sometimes they did not even ask for forgiveness, as in the story of the paralytic that was lowered down by his friends for Jesus to heal. So it seems clear that our forgiveness comes as a gift from God, paid for by Jesus who was himself the channel of God’s grace to humanity. With this in mind, how can forgiveness be withheld by the Father? To understand this we need to consider another story from Matthew:

Then Peter came up and said to him,

This story neatly describes the concept that Jesus put into just a few words in the Lord’s prayer. Freely and generously we have been forgiven, so we must also forgive others - freely and generously. If not, we are in danger of forfeiting our own forgiveness.

Another point that is made in this story is the magnitude of our forgiveness. Peter asks, “should I forgive my brother 7 times?". Seven was not just a number but was thought of symbolically as completeness or perfect fullness. Jesus takes Peter’s 7 multiplies it by 10 and then by 7 again. In other words fullness times 10 times fullness again Peter. Or to put it another way our forgiveness is to have no limits. Then he tells this story to make it even more clear.

This servant owed 10,000 talents. It is estimated that it would take a day laborer about 225,000 to 275,000 years to earn that much. In other words he owed a debt he could not pay in a thousand lifetimes. By comparison, the servant that owed him money only owed him about 3 months pay.

This is the real story here. Jesus wanted Peter and everyone else that would hear to understand the relative value of God’s forgiveness of my sin compared to the trivial debts that others might owe to me. Without this perspective it would be easy for us to fall into the sin of this ungrateful and selfish servant who was thinking only of the cost to himself.

So yes, it seems that there is a consequence for failing to respond properly to the completely unmerited grace of God that has been freely given to us. The proper response to a gift of this magnitude is generosity. The outrageous mercy we have been given from God, we are to give to others. We did not deserve this generosity any more than that pitifully indebted servant did. So we can in turn give this grace to anyone and everyone that sins against us no matter how unworthy we feel they are.

Walking this out today

So how do we forgive those that have truly hurt us, today? To be clear forgiveness does not require forgetting. I seriously doubt that Jesus has forgotten the cross. Forgiveness is marking a debt paid in full. It is releasing someone from what they “owe” us. We no longer hold this offense over their head. We no longer imagine hurt for them. We bless instead of curse. We can and must love and forgive even our enemies as Jesus commands.

This is obviously easier to say than to do, but if we commit to forgiveness we are not on our own. We have the grace of God flowing through us to others. The strength to do this is not ours but it is the strength of Jesus working through us. It is his ability to forgive that we need to trust in, if we are to find the strength to forgive others. We have been given that grace in Jesus - now it is only right that we share that grace with others.

And one last thing, as we release others we set ourselves free from this hurt in the process. Join me in letting the blessing of Jesus flow through us to others this week. We are the body of Christ.

Have a great week!

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Deb and I have been missionaries for over 30 years now, we are technically self employed volunteers. This means that we have had no salary in any normal sense of the word for over 30 years. Yet God has provided for our entire family, 4 boys, college, 3 marriages, and 6 grandkids with everything that entails. Our income has averaged roughly what one would make working full time at McDonald’s all this time. And at times things have gotten a bit dicey. So we have been forced to learn about this particular petition many times over the years.

My favorite provision story

When our kids were still young there was an evening when after working all day on the campus we were walking the 2 blocks to our house, knowing that when we got there we had nothing to make for our kids for supper. It was raining, which seemed about right for that kind of day, and we were slogging home. Above us we noticed an osprey struggling to stay aloft in the rain, trying to carry a fish home for her supper no doubt. As we watched this bird it seemed to be fighting a losing battle with the rain. As it struggled overhead it suddenly dropped the fish at our feet. It was a decent sized lake trout and it was still alive. Deb and I looked at it in disbelief and felt a little like Elijah. We had the food we needed for today despite our disbelief and there was absolutely no one but God to thank for it. Believe me, we thanked God for that fish more than any meal before or since.

Obviously God provided in other ways through various means after that crisis passed and we are still alive and well today. But that day God showed us something that changed our understanding of this prayer forever. God is able to make a way where there is no way. And God provided for us without any human support or money on the day when we needed it the most. He did not park a truckload of fish in front of us, he did not give us a fishing boat. He gave us the food we needed that day.

What is Jesus saying in this statement?

It is important to remember at this point that Jesus was not simply giving the disciples a prayer to repeat, he was teaching them how to pray. He is teaching them what to pray for. So it has to be asked, why frame the petition in this way? Why not pray for abundance? That has certainly been a popular prayer in recent decades. Why not pray for oil and wine? God has provided oil in the past and Jesus provided wine for a wedding. Why bread and why ask for only the bread that is needed today?

To understand the heart behind this teaching on prayer I think it is helpful to look at some of Jesus’ other teachings for guidance in how to read this one. In Luke Jesus tells a story of a rich man who had a particularly bountiful year. So he built bigger barns and essentially decided to retire and enjoy his wealth. God’s verdict? You fool! Tonight your soul has been required of you, then whose will these things be. Sounds harsh, but Jesus adds a moral to this story that I think ties all of this together.

“So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God”.

Jesus is reminding us about our complete and utter dependence on God for each breath and each bit of food and every stitch of clothing every single day. He is teaching us as he does again in the verses that follow the Lord’s prayer that our focus needs to be on obedience today or we will be truly foolish.

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matt 6:31-34 ESV)

We are children of God and we will be provided for by Him as any human father would provide for his children.

By teaching us to pray for our needs today, we are taught that we do not know if we will even be here tomorrow, so the needs of today are enough.

How do we walk in this truth?

The harsh fact is, not one of us is going to wake up tomorrow.

Every time we wake up it is today. In addition to that, whether or not we wake up at all depends entirely on God’s sovereign plan for our lives. If we love anyone, it will have to be done today, because tomorrow never comes and yesterday is gone. If we obey God it will also have to be today. Our focus needs to be on the kingdom of God, today. We need to love people today we can not love people tomorrow or yesterday. We need to give today. We need to live today.

Jesus by teaching us to pray in this way is also teaching us to live in this way. Living each day in utter dependence on God, focused on His coming kingdom. Trusting in God to provide like the loving father that he is.

Does this mean we stop working and wait for God to drop food in our mouths? Not exactly, but I think it means more than we often want to believe it means. Paul balances this dependence on God with a very practical piece of advice in his letter to the Ephesians:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (Eph 4:28 ESV)

When we work to serve others we are working to build the kingdom of God. And in this work God will, in one way or another, provide all our needs. The kingdom of God is made up of people, as we contribute to the transformation of people into the image of God we build the kingdom of God. This labor can take many forms but the overall goal is always the same. The realization of the eternal kingdom of God. One person at a time one need at a time we work to build the kingdom. And every day as we pray God will provide us with what we need.

Have a great week!

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Often when this prayer is recited the phrases, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” are said as if they are two or three distinct thoughts. This is understandable because this prayer is often recited together and this phrasing helps everyone stay together. But there is a down side to this custom, these three phrases are actually just one thought and breaking it up can sometimes obscure the thing we are asking for.

What are we really asking for here?

I have heard this topic discussed many times and the answer to this question generally runs in three directions.

* In this petition we are asking for Jesus to return and usher in the kingdom of God in its fullest form.

* In this petition we are praying that all would repent and follow the true king Jesus.

* In this petition we are praying for this present age to be changed, to be conformed more closely to the principles of the kingdom of God.

To me if you take any one of those ideas as complete you are missing something in this prayer. We are praying that the kingdom of God would come. This to me is hard to imagine if the king is still absent. To me, the full realization of the kingdom comes with the return of our king, Jesus.

However, the second half of this petition speaks of a change on the earth. And yes the final and ultimate transformation will come with the return of Jesus and the abolition of evil. Nevertheless, we are to be salt and light, we are to be agents of change, and the kingdom of God was compared to a mustard seed by Jesus. A tiny seed that grew into a plant, a plant large enough for birds to nest in. Or in Daniel we see it described as a stone that grew to fill the earth. In these metaphors and prophecies we see the kingdom of God starting small and growing tremendously.

So I think all three of these ideas are correct as long as they are taken together and not separately. Without an ultimate hope of our king’s return there is little motivation to try and change the hot mess that is this present age. And without actively engaging this age through the gospel and action motivated by the love of Christ, we become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

If we did nothing but sit and wait for our kings return the temptation would be to check out of this life in a vain attempt to find some safe place to hide and wait out the storm. But there is much to do while we wait.

Consider this story Jesus told about the time of waiting for his return:

Therefore you also must be ready,

Jesus understood the tendencies of humanity very well. He knew that a failure to maintain faith in his imminent return would result in moral corrosion and ultimately destruction. A vital faith in Jesus seems contingent on a vital faith in his return in this passage. This story also implies that his return is going to take much longer than many expect, making faith in his return all the more important to us today. But having faith also means we must be actively serving our master until he comes.

How do we respond to this petition today?

So how do we respond to this beyond just remembering that Jesus is going to return? I think this is where we really need to think through how our faith effects every area of our lives.

We say and think all kinds of things, but more often than not, we do what we truly believe. Over time our actions describe our beliefs better than our words. (Not always the happiest thought I have to admit) Nevertheless, to pray for the kingdom to come will have its first effect in us and in the relative value we place on everything we do. Much like having your house on fire makes you reevaluate which things are really important in your house, and which things you are going to attend to first.

But this is not primarily a self improvement prayer, it is a radical world changing prayer. A prayer that reaches into the very core of why this world is the way it is and attacks its rebellious and thoroughly selfish heart. It is a prayer of revolution and rejection of the current world order, and a focused effort to prepare the way for the coming king.

My kingdom is not of this world

When Jesus was on trial Pilot asked him if he was a king, Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

As we ponder how to be faithful servants of Jesus while we wait for his return it is tempting to forget that the kingdom of God is not something that springs from this world. It is the kingdom of God. It belongs to Him and it comes from Him, it is not the product of human effort and certainly not the product of human conflict. It is a gift that is either received with joy or rejected with contempt.

Our job is to announce the good news of the coming kingdom of God and to demonstrate this kingdom everyday in our interactions with each other. This will not result in us bringing the kingdom of God into being, it is His kingdom not ours after all. But it is the fruit of the kingdom of God in us that will in turn bear fruit that is worthy of the kingdom, and we will be rewarded for our labors when the king returns.

Our hope is not in the kingdoms of this world, our hope is in the kingdom of God. The answer is not to be found in the wisdom of this world but the wisdom of God.

Today we pray for God’s kingdom to come, and we work as faithful servants of the king to proclaim the freedom that is found only in this kingdom, demonstrating that the kingdom of God is truly coming by our love for one another.

Have a great week!

“And when you pray,

Jesus prayed, he impressed his disciples with his prayer to the point that they asked him to teach them to pray. This passage is the longest and most complete teaching on prayer in Matthew. The last section of this teaching has been loved and recited ever since as the “Lord’s Prayer”. I am hoping to spend a few weeks looking at this familiar prayer to see if there are things that through repetition and over-familiarity I have overlooked.

In this passage Jesus begins with negative examples of prayer. Whether it is the self-righteous and self-serving prayers of the religious or the repetitive and hopeless prayers of the Gentiles. Jesus commands his disciples to refuse to follow their lead. Zeal and effort can not compensate for unbelief. Jesus wanted them to know first of all that they have a Father that knows them and knows their needs even before they ask.

Pray then like this…

So Jesus gives his disciples this blueprint for prayer. It is a list of thoughts to include in their prayers. It is shockingly short. It excludes many of the things we spend a lot of time on, and it includes some things we almost certainly do not think about enough. It seems that Jesus always seems to respond just a bit differently than we expect. So let’s look at the first thought Jesus gives us in this prayer.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Our Father - this description of God is very powerful. If we have been raised in a Christian world we may not be as jarred by this address as we should be. God is our Father we have been adopted into the family of God with all the privileges that includes. He cares for us - as a father, we have complete access to Him just as children have access to their father. This opening phrase immediately closes the gap between us and God. The first thing Jesus wants us to remember is who we are talking to, we are talking to our Father.

In heaven - not only is God our Father but He is our Father in heaven. Our Father transcends this earth, he is not bound by the limitations that we face every day. We are created in His image, but He is not like us in many important ways. He is above us, all of creation together does not equal Him. He is not part of creation, He is the creator. All of creation could cease but our Father would remain.

Hallowed be your name - When I was younger this statement seemed almost redundant. Like praying that water would be wet. But then I lost my childish simplicity and began to see the world more clearly for what it is. A world lost in selfish rebellion that fuels actual contempt for its creator and sustainer. A world that by and large would rather listen to the lies of demons, than the invitation of God who lovingly endures the madness of evil to offer salvation to all who would come to Him for help.

What are we really being told to ask for in this petition?

As I think about this first petition I have to ask, “what am I really asking God for?”. If we are petitioning God for His name to be hallowed, what does the answer to that prayer look like? There are a couple of answers that come to mind as I think about this.

* The first thing I think of is that the answer is in the next petition. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But I would prefer to look at this petition in the next article.

* The most immediate answer to this petition is a change in attitude for me. Are my words and actions properly reflecting the glory and holiness of God? Does my life bring Him glory and contribute to the sense of His holiness? Does my life reflect a reverence for this holiness? Do I hallow His name?

What does it mean to “hallow His name”?

The word translated “hallow” in Greek means to make holy or to sanctify. But these words are no more clear than hallow to most people. To make holy or sanctify contains the idea of something set apart for only one use. Something separate and special, the opposite of common. So God’s name is to be held as something separate, special, it is to be have no common use, nor are unworthy things to be associated with this holy name.

But even the word “name” needs to be thought about just a bit more. By God’s name the bible does not mean simply that word that is associated with God or even the word God. My name is Tom but to dishonor my name does not mean simply to make fun of the name Tom. It has to do with things that devalue and degrade who I am as a person. And it has to do with spreading this dishonor to others.

Conversely to hallow God’s name is to do and say things that increase the value of God’s person in the eyes of others. To bring about an increased appreciation of God’s honor and absolute uniqueness, His beauty and incomprehensible grace, His perfection and authority. To speak in common or vulgar terms about God is the opposite of hallowing His name. To behave in ways that bring dishonor to God is perhaps even more damaging to God’s name than using His name in a common or vulgar way.

So, this week, my goal is to is live more deliberately. To do and say things that actively increase God’s honor both personally and in my interactions with others. To live and speak as an act of worship to the God whose name is holy and almighty. To honor the creator by showing love to those He has created and lovingly redeemed from their own rebellion.

Have a great week!

When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,

We talk about and hear about faith all the time as Christians. But what is it really? Where does it come from? How does it act? And why does it act that way? These are the questions that are in play in this story. You see, Israel also thought and spoke much about faith but this Gentile soldier seemed to understand something that others had somehow overlooked.

Identity and Authority

What was it that this soldier understood that so many in Israel had missed? It seems from the story that what this soldier recognized was that Jesus had authority. He had legitimate authority that flowed from a higher authority than humanity. He had the authority of God and as such had the power to speak things into being.

This soldier understood human authority, because he exercised this kind of authority himself. But in Jesus he saw another level of authority. He recognized that if as a soldier he could say a word and others would make it happen, Jesus having God’s authority could certainly speak a word and make things happen. We see that his faith in the authority of Jesus flowed from his understanding of the identity of Jesus. The primary question that separates Christians from everyone else on earth down to this day is this, “Who is Jesus?”.

We see this question woven throughout the gospels in various ways.

For example:

"Who do people say that I am?”

Or consider this disturbing example where even the demons clearly understood the true identity of Jesus:

And behold, they cried out,

But some who really should have realized who Jesus was never understood. Look how bluntly Jesus stated the truth of his identity to the high priest:

Again the high priest asked him,

In these passages we see a Gentile soldier that “gets it” while the bulk of Israel does not. We see the disciples finally come to understand. We see demons that understand immediately, and ironically, we see a high priest that never understands even when he is directly told.

Those that understand and accept that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, or “the Son of Man” also understand his authority. They have faith in His authority because they understand the source of His authority. The source of His authority is God himself.

The God that spoke creation into existence can speak healing to a servant and the centurion knew it. And the centurion knew that Jesus was legitimately the Son of God and therefore could legitimately speak with the full authority of God.

Faith and evidence

Faith is not a blind leap, although many for various reasons try to describe it as such. In reality everyone on earth has faith in any number of things. They believe things because they have reasons to believe things. Blind leaping inspires little or no true faith. How much can anyone really trust an unsupported, blind assertion.

No, we have the most faith in things that we have evidence for. This centurion had been watching, he had amassed enough evidence to be convinced that Jesus had the full authority of God backing him up. He understood Jesus’ rank so to speak, so he knew that all Jesus needed to do was say the word.

Some might counter by saying, “what about when Jesus said, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’”. Well, in the very next verse John says this, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. It seems Jesus was pronouncing a blessing on all those that would never physically see Jesus. Thomas was especially blessed being able to physically see and touch Jesus. I think this blessing is best understood as a blessing to all those that would never experience such physical contact.

John in the very next verse was explicitly giving evidence sufficient to build faith in all those that would read his book. So faith is and always has been based in evidence. All the way back in Psalm 38 we read “taste and see that the Lord is good”. We are invited to gather evidence and believe in the goodness of God.

Our centurion friend seems to have done exactly that even though he was not a Jew, and did not have a natural inclination to hope for a messiah. He did however watch with an open mind, and see evidence that many of the Jews either overlooked or refused to see. What people see is sadly often warped and obscured by their presuppositions and prejudices. Who do we see when we look at Jesus? Do we behave as though he has the full authority of God? Do we believe He is both able and willing to help? This Gentile soldier did.

Do we have this kind of faith?

So how do we walk out this kind of faith today? How will the knowledge that Jesus has authority to speak into my life and the lives of others change my decisions? Jesus has authority over this world, am I giving him the honor and worship His position demands? Do I pray as if Jesus actually has the power and authority of God? Do I pray as if God’s authority is greater than human authority? Do I pray as if His authority is greater than the tyranny of our circumstances?

This week, let’s take our inspiration from this Gentile soldier who understood from afar that Jesus has the authority of God. He has no need to come to our house physically, he only needs to say the word. This week let’s walk in this centurion’s faith.

Have a great week!

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt 5:10-12 ESV)

Finally, the one who would follow the way of Jesus must never think that you can follow a way foreign to this world without opposition. Those that follow the way will find themselves walking in a way that the world at large wants no part of. The selfless path will not be embraced by a world dedicated to the exaltation of self.

Those that listened to Jesus will listen to us. Those that hated Jesus will in the same way hate us. We should have no illusions that we can defy the principles of this world without consequence. We must never be surprised at the reactions of this world. The rejection and exclusion, the slander and abuse of the unbelieving are exactly what we are told to expect in this beatitude.

This is the last of these short phrases that comprise the beatitudes. In these sayings Jesus gives us hope, and promises that beggar the imagination. But with them come the realities of living godly in an ungodly world. Nevertheless, we are blessed even on the worst day because our hope is not bound up in today, it is not measured in earthly success, it is an eternal blessing from God himself. One that continues long after this world is a distant memory.

The Anti-Beatitudes

“But woe to you who are rich,

Many people are unaware that in the Luke’s version of this sermon Jesus adds the lines above after the final beatitude regarding persecution. Here Jesus turns the beatitudes on their head to emphasize the importance of these simple sounding truths.

Regarding persecution and contempt from the unbelieving world, Jesus declares woe rather than blessing for those that everyone seems to love. Those that never offend are not blessed, they receive exactly the opposite. Our world seems obsessed with the idea of offense. It seems we must at all costs not offend, though I have to say there is no concern whatever with offending believers. Ironic? sure. Surprising? Absolutely not. Jesus tells us that is what we should expect and we are blessed if this is the worlds reaction. This reaction is inevitable if we are walking in the truth, if we are walking the way of Jesus. Selfless love of God and our neighbor will offend the self-serving and unbelieving world. Our very existence will be an offense to them, because seeing our faith and commitment to the truth tortures their damaged and neglected consciences.

There is a fairly common idea floating around that if we live our Christianity right then everyone will like us, and maybe even agree with us. This is a nice fantasy but unfortunately that is all that it is. When we attach ourselves to Jesus we take on the full blessing of that union, but just as real as the blessing is the outrage of those who have aligned themselves against the truth. No one is a better Christian than Christ himself, we should never expect to receive the blessing without the cross.

Remember the word that I said to you:

On walking the Way

So with all this in mind what should our response be? What else can it be, with such blessings and promises at stake? We must with whole hearts walk this path.

This is the way of life. This is the way of peace. This is the path of God’s Son. This is now the path of us all since Christ has opened this path at the cost of His own life.

Blessings of this sort do not exist in this rebellious and self-centered world. We would be fools to let such an offer go unanswered. We would also be wrong to respond to this worlds abuse in kind. We must never respond to hate and rejection with resentment, retaliation, and condemnation. Jesus died for those who crucified him. We are following him, we do not repay in kind to those that abuse us. We are called to the path of the cross.

The path is not complicated but it is hard, and it comes at great cost. It cost God his Son. It cost the Son his glory with God and finally his life. It will also cost us our self-serving, self-glorifying ambitions and passions, but it will not leave us destitute. Quite the opposite, it will leave us forever blessed and fulfilled, in this age and the next.

As we recognize our need and our inability to achieve eternal life and happiness on our own, we humble ourselves and allow the Spirit of God to do in us what we could never do for ourselves. As we obey Jesus and begin to walk the path of life, we will stop worrying about our own situation and begin to seek the good of others, we will find on this path the very blessing we thought we would never find.

We must learn to draw our strength from God alone, as Hebrews encourages us we should be, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”. We must continue to value the opinion of God over the opinion of this world. We must continue to love those that despise us as Jesus loved us even when we were lost in sin. Jesus prayed for those that were killing him, this is our ultimate example. This same Spirit that empowered Jesus to endure the cross is in each of us now.

Let us walk in that Spirit this week, in a love that is unstoppable and eternal.

Have a great week!

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together,

When help seems just beyond our reach

There are times when we hear of people having amazing experiences with God - only to find that when we try to have such an experience the way to God seems blocked and the help we seek is out of our reach. This was the situation of our four friends in this story. They had a friend with such profound needs that they were desperate to see Jesus, believing that if they could just get into His presence their friend would be healed. These four guys are easy to overlook in this passage so I want to take a bit of time to examine their role in this healing and their faith that impressed Jesus so much.

The Persistence of Faith

The first thing that seems clear about these guys is that they truly believed that Jesus not only could but would heal their friend - if they could only get their friend to Jesus. So they did the obvious thing which was to take their friend to Jesus, but there was a problem. The way to Jesus was blocked by the masses of people surrounding Jesus. In this story ironically we see how people are both the means to healing and the obstacle to healing at the same time. But maybe that is another article.

Our friends did not accept this situation, their desperation was every bit as intense as their faith. In fact I believe that it was their faith that drove their desperation. The belief that Jesus would help them was so strong that they did not stop regardless of the difficulties. If you notice carefully in the story it was the faith of the friends that Jesus was responding to, there is no mention of the faith of the paralytic. It was when Jesus saw the faith of his friends that he responded.

A Surprising Response

What is most surprising in this story is the response of Jesus. He did not immediately heal the paralyzed man, which is it seems what everyone expected. Instead, he pronounced the mans sins forgiven! Did Jesus overlook the mans greatest need? Or did He instead heal the greatest need first? I think one of the lessons in this story is that sin is a greater crisis than any physical infirmity. Jesus shows himself to be much more than just a healer of bodies for a time, He is a healer of souls for eternity.

Unbelief raises it’s ugly head

Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,

The Scribes knew the scriptures and understood the law. These were not inconsequential thoughts they were having. The Scribes knew that the authority to forgive belonged to God alone and no human could simply take this authority on for themselves. If Jesus was just a preacher it did not give him authority to forgive sins. To make such a claim was outrageous and blasphemous.

Technically they were not wrong, but in this case they were not dealing with an ordinary man. They were dealing with the only Son of God. Jesus was not a “son of God” in the normal sense the Jews or even we might use the term. But He was entirely unique in His relationship with God. He was with God and He was God according to John, and in this story we see that unique relationship revealed. Jesus did in fact have the authority to forgive sins because He was God. Ironically the Scribes were right, only God can forgive sins. Jesus did not argue with them on this point, He simply demonstrated His power and authority in front of them and left it to them to decide.

The Reward of Persistent Faith

“Why do you question these things in your hearts?

To this point, although I am sure the four friends were gratified to see their paralyzed friend forgiven by God, they still did not receive what they came for, which was healing for their friend. They had gone to extreme lengths to get him into the presence of Jesus. They demonstrated great faith in the ability of Jesus to heal their friend as they broke through the roof of a stranger to get access. Their persistence had put them into the presence of Jesus, but they still had not received the blessing that they came for.

As is often the case, both in this story of Jesus and in our own experiences with God, He never seems to respond exactly the way we think He should to our persistent prayers and faith. This story I think demonstrates why He often responds in such unexpected ways. He has something much bigger than our particular problem in mind.

Jesus could have healed with a word as He did in many other cases, and people would have been very impressed. But instead He announces the forgiveness of God to this man, and only he and this paralytic knew what that forgiveness was for. It is possible that the faith of the friends was praised because the paralytic had none, he may have even been bitter toward God. If you think about this for a minute it is actually quite plausible, since the paralytic never interacts directly with Jesus. In this passage he never speaks either to his faithful friends or to Jesus. Yet Jesus forgives him, and he finds this forgiveness - because of the faithful efforts of his friends.

This is a story of persistent faith, but not faith for our own benefit, faith for the benefit of others. These friends exercised their faith by putting it into pretty extreme action. I mean, after this was over someone had to fix that very hospitable mans roof! I don’t think he was anticipating damage to his house when he let Jesus and his friends in that day. Actually the homeowner in this story is probably another whole story. We often don’t know what we are getting into when we let Jesus into our house. It is always awesome, but very often it is also costly.

But in the end the enacted prayers of these four friends was rewarded and their friend who had suffered so much was healed both body and soul. He was set free from the bondage of the paralysis of his body while being set free in his spirit from the paralysis of sin. Life had truly begun anew for this man. And for those friends that were willing to do whatever it took in faith for their friend, they were changed as well. They came to understand that Jesus was not just a healer and a teacher, but He was so much more. Jesus is Lord! Jesus is The Lord!

So this week let’s not calculate the cost so much that we do not act. Let’s do whatever it takes to bring our friends to Jesus with whatever afflicts them. Let’s be the faithful friend that does not give up when it gets difficult. Let’s persist in our faith both in prayer and action until we find ourselves in the presence of Jesus where His authority and power can truly set us free from the things that paralyze us all!

Have a great week!

With the new year comes a new hope, a hope for something better. Often, this is a time of reflection and self-assessment, which is a wonderful tradition. We resolve to break long-standing habits and make new habits. But more often than not, we fail to break these habits.

Why do we keep going back to habits and mistakes that we hate? The answer, unfortunately, is not something that we want to hear.

I don’t think I have ever met a Christian who did not have a story about some flaw or flaws that they have or some temptation that repeatedly trips them up. They will talk about how frustrated they are and how much they hate this weakness in themselves, sometimes to the point that they have given up and just concluded that there is something in them that makes this error impossible for them to overcome.

I have been there, I don’t know about you.

I have wrestled, as much as anyone, I think, with those recurring temptations and the resulting sin. I have struggled to understand why I keep doing the things I hate. Why do I keep running back to those same things? What kind of madness draws me to things I hate?

The answer, it turns out, is even uglier than the problem. As I have gotten older, I have realized that the magnetic power of these sins is not found in what I hate but rather in what I secretly love. I found that in every action or thought that I hate, there are elements that I love, like an addiction that starts in pleasure and ends with a destroyed life and family. It is the secret selfish pleasures that destroy us, not the things we think we hate.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. (Matt 15:19-20 ESV)

There are many reasons to hide things, but in the end, we tend to hide the things we secretly want to keep.

This is why we fail to change because as vile as these evils are, we know there is also a secret pleasure in them, or at the very least there is a certain utility in them.

Freedom to change

So, how do we free ourselves from the things that flow from our own hearts?

Let’s ask John…

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins,

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father,

Instead of resolutions, maybe we should consider confession instead. But here I am not talking about the kind of “after the fact” type of confessions we usually make, but rather, a confession of those desires that lead us to sin in the first place. The path to sin generally starts with a series of decisions based on self-serving desires. Then, as we progress down this path, we suddenly find ourselves in a place of seemingly overwhelming temptation. James says it this way:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15 ESV)

So, to live free - to walk free, we must be on our guard not just against sinful actions, but we need to allow the Spirit of God to bring our desires under the scrutiny of the Spirit and the authority of Christ. We need to believe that the work of Christ on the cross not only paid for our sins but set us free from the desires that led us to sin in the first place.

Paul says it like this:

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:4-7 ESV)

Paul concludes this passage with these instructions:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:11-14 ESV)

Walking in Freedom

So faith is walking in the conviction that the death and resurrection of Jesus was enough. Faith is walking in the knowledge that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us to raise us up from our lower natures and those persistent desires that seem so overwhelming. These desires are, in fact, overwhelming for us on our own. But they are not too much for the power of God through the Spirit, and the sooner we give up on self-help programs and allow the grace of God to set us free, the sooner we will know true freedom.

If self-help actually set us free, Jesus would not have needed to come to us as a baby, teach us, heal us, suffer for us, and die for us. Jesus did this because it was the only way to save us. But we are not simply saved from some future judgment; we are saved from those things which make us slaves to sin now. Not forgiven to see if we can do better next time, but forgiven and empowered by the Spirit of God to walk in freedom, no longer slaves to our lower nature’s desires.

In writing this, God has taken me on a journey of self-examination that was both painful and liberating. After all, to leave behind something our lower nature loves is a loss that can be painful, but the peace and freedom that follows is amazing.

I would like to invite you to join me in this new year on this journey to freedom. Let’s skip making all the empty resolutions and wishful thinking. Instead, let’s push a bit deeper into why we do what we do and allow the Spirit of God to lead us into a truly new and blessed year of peace and joy. Serving God and others with a conscience cleansed and a love empowered by the grace of God.

Have a great week!

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Up to this point I have been focused on the first coming of the King of Kings. But Advent is much more than that, it is a time when we also focus on and anticipate His second coming.

Jesus has come, Jesus has conquered, and Jesus is coming again to reign.

These three simple facts make up the core of Christian thought, and it is the core of the message of good news that we have been commissioned by Jesus to communicate to the world.

Jesus is Lord of all! Jesus will come again to rule! The evil of this age will not go on forever! The Prince of Peace is coming!

The Time Between

But now we live in the time between, the time between the victory of Jesus over sin and death, and the time of His return to destroy evil and reign over the new heavens and earth. This time between is marked by trouble of all kinds and includes a set of particular troubles for the church. The Church is the body of Christ on earth. The forces which killed Jesus on the cross have not repented of their hatred of God and His Son. So we, as the body of Christ on earth, have been the continued target of these beastly forces of evil ever since the victorious resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The history of the Church is a story of perseverance through trouble.

Christmas and the Prince of Peace

Christmas however is always and rightly celebrated as a time of joy and peace on earth. Yet, life on earth is seldom like the cards we send each other at Christmas. The truth is, real lasting peace will only come when the prince of peace returns. The joy we experience now is real joy but it is nothing compared to the joy that follows the return of the king of kings, the removal of evil, and the establishment of the new heavens and earth. Only then can we fully realize peace and joy as God intended from the beginning. Only then will we see the end of death itself.

History has been a long journey for humanity, and a costly one. But too often we think only of our personal cost or perhaps the human cost of evil. Christmas and Easter are times of the year we set aside to consider the cost of our evil to God. At these times we recognize God’s love for us in that He did not leave us to die in our sin without hope. He instead became one of us and experienced death and judgement in our place.

But Jesus did not come just to suffer. He didn’t even come just to be raised again in victory. The plan has always been to redeem humanity and restore them to God’s family, to a proper and loving relationship to the Father. God’s plan has always been to build or rebuild a world where true peace, true joy, true love, and fellowship exist -eternally. And to rule this new world of joy and peace is Jesus, our Prince of Peace and eternal king!

Living while waiting

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. (Matt 25:44-46 ESV)

Matthew 24:36-25:30 gives us several parables of Jesus and all of them relate to how we should live as we await the return of our king. If you have not read them in a while it is well worth the time to go over them again in the context of Jesus returning to judge the earth and gather his family. Chapter 25 ends with Jesus describing the final judgement. And the final judgement is not described as we might think. People are judged on that day according to how they have treated those who were suffering. Because whatever they did for these suffering people they did for Jesus himself.

I get questions all the time that people feel must be important because they are so hard to answer. But in this passage we see that it is not the difficult questions that are important but rather the difficult choices that make the difference in our eternal destiny.

To truly believe in Jesus is to follow Him, it is to walk where He walked and help the people that He helped. It is easy to sit around and think you know the answer, it is more difficult to be that answer in someone else’s life. But thankfully - it is usually not as difficult as we sometimes make it out to be.

After a busy time of Christmas preparations and events it would be easy to kick back and feel like, now I can rest. And we can, God gives His children rest, he even commands it for one day a week. But in our resting we must not forget why we are here. In our resting we must remember, remember that we are all blessed with resources and places to use them for the good of others.

As I go about my business this week God help me to see the people around me, really see them, and help. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and may God strengthen you now for the week ahead!

Have a great week!

Tom

And she gave birth to her firstborn son

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5 ESV)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6:11 ESV)

Here we see Luke, John, and Paul all describing the birth of Jesus. Each one focuses on a different aspect of this little baby’s arrival. Luke tells us He was born in an insignificant place, in an insignificant town, in an insignificant country, to an insignificant young girl. This earth shattering event was announced to nameless, almost certainly illiterate, shepherds who could not even record this event for posterity. And yet…

This child was born to be the savior of the world!

This is truly great news of joy for the whole world!

But there’s more - this tiny child is the Word of God according to John’s gospel. He was with God in the beginning and He was God. All things were made through Him, and life was in Him. And this life was the light of men, this light shines in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it!

The word became flesh and dwelt among us

John concludes this portion of his gospel with this statement. This tiny insignificant baby was God, He was the creator, He was life itself laying helpless in a manger. God had become one of us, God has joined in our struggles and our lives by becoming one of us and living and dying with us, but much more importantly - living and dying for us.

A word from Paul

Paul gives us a glimpse of what this looked like from the perspective of the eternal Son of God. Though he was in the form of God he did not cling to this equality with God but humbled himself by taking on the form of Man and not just a man a servant. But he did not stop there, he served us to the point of death. And because of that humility and sacrifice and love for others, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name above all names. Jesus is Lord of all!

And this king before whom every person shall bow is the same child we find in the manger in Luke’s account.

Walking this way

As we reflect on the lengths that the God has gone to save us from our sin and give us new life. And as we consider the selfless, humble, love the eternal Son demonstrated in taking on a human form in Jesus. How are we to reflect this life to the world - today?

The life that the eternal Son of God took on was no life of luxury or glory or fame. It was the life of a nobody in the middle east 2000 years ago. A boy that I am sure grew up with whispers about his parentage in the tiny town of Nazareth. He knew political oppression, poverty, and endless hard work. This boy grew into a man that served everyone he met, and ultimately gave his life for the whole world.

As we consider our own life, how do we reflect the value that Jesus has put on us as we interact with the people we meet? Will we follow the way of Jesus in setting aside our benefit for the benefit of others today? Will we share the gift of God in Jesus to the world He was sent to save? To have a true and living faith is to act in harmony with our belief. True faith can’t be passive. Our belief in this gift, which is given to us in Jesus, will not allow it. Because to truly believe in a gift this great changes everything. God has become one of us in Jesus. He gave himself so we may live with him forever! This is Christmas! And this story is now our story!

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13)

Have a very Joy filled Christmas wherever you are! Remembering that 2000 years ago in a humble manger a child was born. He was born to be one of us, born to suffer, born to die, born to be raised again, born to give us life eternal, and born to rule forever!

Amen!

And may we all live worthy of this gift as we celebrate this blessed season and await the return of the King of Kings!

Have a great week!