Wilderness Wanderings

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God: The Spirit, active from the beginning, moved human beings to write the Word of God and opens our hearts to God's voice (31).

We learn two fundamental things about Scripture here: where it comes from and what it is intended for.

First, all Scripture is God-breathed. It originated in God's mind and was communicated from God's mouth by God's breath or Spirit. Therefore, we call it 'the Word of God.' As the prophets often said, 'the mouth of the Lord has spoken'. It is also true that God spoke within and to the cultures of the folks who wrote the Bible. They were not robots but maintained their unique styles. Thus, the tremendous diversity within the Bible.

It's not necessary to offer an exact definition of 'God-breathed". It remains a bit mysterious. However, its important to understand its implication. The Bible is not like other books. The words are not dead letters on a page. The book lives, it has power to move our souls. As God says, "It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). Therefore, Christians encourage each other to pick up the Bible, to read it, to learn it.

This is the second thing Paul underscores in our text: because Scripture is God-breathed it is useful. God's Word instructs us for salvation. Its main purpose is to teach not facts of science but facts of salvation. It unfolds the divine plan of redemption—our creation in God's image, our fall through disobedience into sin, God's continuing love for us despite our rebellion, his eternal plan to save us through his covenant of grace, culminating in Christ.

Jesus came as our Saviour: died to bear our sin, was raised from death, was exalted to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit. Our Messiah rescued us from guilt, alienation, and bondage to evil, and grants us immortality as children of God. The Old Testament points towards him, while the New Testament tells the story of his ministry on earth and his ongoing mission through his Spirit anointed community. This narrative of redemption in Jesus Christ is intended to nurture our 'faith' in him, in order that by faith we may be saved.

The usefulness of Scripture relates to both our belief and our conduct. It is useful for reforming our characters and discipling us in right living. When we hope to overcome error and grow in truth, to overcome evil and grow in holiness, we turn first to the Scriptures. Its is God-breathed. It comes with his power. If, as God's servants, we desire to be equipped for every good work, we turn to the scripture. They are the Spirit's primary tool in the renovation of our lives.

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. (Hebrews 1:1-14)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

God speaks through prophets, poets, and apostles, and, most eloquently through the Son (OWBTG 31).

God speaks the whole of Creation into being. God speaks his covenant promises to Noah and Abraham. God speaks his Name and his law to the Israelites in the desert where the Word changes from a spoken word to a written word. But this written word never quite fits this living people: it only brings death. And so God speaks again—this time his Word becomes flesh and lives among his living people. And this time, the Word brings life.

Today, God speaks in so many ways. All of Creation is a manifestation of the Word of God: it was his word, spoken, that brought all of it to existence. Every gust of wind, every leaf that falls, every ray of sunlight, and drop of rain is an obedient echo of God's "let there be." Through the Spirit, the written Word still takes on flesh in our flesh as we hear and respond to God in our lives and living today—this is what this week's practice of "praying scripture" is all about.

But it is through Jesus Christ that we hear God's voice most clearly. Because in Jesus Christ we have the exact representation of God and the precise force and intent of his Word enfleshed in a person and a story that we can see, hear, and believe. All the words of God and about God find their final interpretation and focus in Jesus. The question "what would Jesus do/say" is not far off in this regard. It's a question that seeks the revelation of the living word-made-flesh in every new moment of our lives.

How might you turn these scriptures into prayers to hear, see, and respond to the eloquent voice of Jesus, the Word made flesh in your life today?

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Psalm 19 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In

1. How many ways do we humans communicate? List as many as you can think of. What would the human world be like without the ability to communicate? What are the two most essential elements of communication?
2. How does the creation speak? What does it communicate?
3. What comparison does this psalm make between the sun, as representative of God's whole creation, and the sun?
4. Why do we need more than the creation to know God? What does God communicate in the 'Torah'? What value does it have for the believer? How do you respond to God's speech?
5. How does the psalmist respond to God's speech? What desires does the psalmist attempt to awaken desires in the reader? Why might these desires not awaken in you? In what ways should your attitude towards God's speech change?

Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" He showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven" (John 20:19-23).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God: Anointed and sent by the Spirit, the church is thrust into the world, ambassadors of God's peace, announcing forgiveness and reconciliation, proclaiming the good news of grace (30).

During the past decades, much has been made of congregational mission and vision statements. Before that, we were encouraged to develop, "Master Plans."

Many good things have come out of these conversations. Yet, I often wonder if such processes do not start at the wrong place. A Christian church is a group of people who are voluntarily gathered around Jesus Christ of Nazareth and are sent on his mission by the Holy Spirit. Only as much as the Holy Spirit convicts us of this reality are we united in our cause. No mission or vision statement can do what the Holy Spirit is not accomplishing.

If a congregation has a mission statement she hopes to accomplish, it must be rooted in Jesus' mission to his disciples. Peace is its core.

Twice, Jesus gives peace to his disciples. These are deserters and hiders. When the soldiers came for Jesus, these folks fled and now they hide, hoping they will be forgotten rather than remembered as his friends. They deserve a flogging, but they are given peace. Such is our mission. Such peace cannot be found, nor conjured; it is received as a gift from the resurrected Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Peace is discovered in the joy of meeting the Risen Lord. These two, peace and joy, come from the certain knowledge that all is well. If death could not hold Jesus, then nothing can hinder him and his mission. Truly, all is well with my soul. He is the Blessed King who comes in name of the Lord (Luke 19:38). He is the Saviour of the World, bringing peace and giving joy.

Can we be sure? Look at his nail scarred hands and wounded side. He is the suffering Messiah. He has made peace between God and us. All that stands between has been removed by the blood of Jesus. Peace is never just a concept. It is an action. The one who has been injured extends the olive branch, saying, "I forgive". The cross is God's olive branch.

Yet, here is the fascinating part of peace and forgiveness. It is never fully experienced until we pass it on. That is why Jesus keeps tying the Father's forgiveness to ours. Jesus holds out his nailed scarred hands, saying, "I have done it! You are reconciled with God." Look at what it cost me. Now go. Reconcile with others. Forgive them. Bring them peace, as I have brought you peace. Be willing to pay the cost.

Is this why we like mission and vision statements? They are easier than this. They distract us from our real mission: to forgive. When you pray, "Come, Holy Spirit, come", remember he comes in and with peace.

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:41-47)

The Spirit gathers people from every tongue, tribe, and nation into the unity of the body of Christ. (OWBTG 30)

I'm sitting at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago right now, people watching. All the tongues, tribes, and nations of the world are busy bustling past me. None of them belong here, save for a handful of employees who hold a quiet community with one another, and even they will end their shifts and soon go home. This is a transitory place. A place of comings and goings, but not a place of permanence. No one means to live in an airport.

It was actually not so different on the day of Pentecost. This large crowd that had gathered from every nation under heaven in Jerusalem that day were all from out of town. They didn't live in Jerusalem. They lived elsewhere—in all those other nations under heaven. They had only come to Jerusalem for the Jewish feast of Pentecost and they would soon be going home.

Yet something new and significant did happen there that day. Something different. The Spirit came, gathered this crowd of wandering travelers, slashed through the barriers of language, culture, and race and turned them into a community of the baptized people of God. Sure, they would still be traveling on, but not as the same people who had come. They were changed now. They had a foretaste of the kingdom of God.

And they would bring it home with them—this taste of the Kingdom of God breaking out on Earth through the power of the Spirit—Jesus reconciling a church to Himself from every nation under heaven where all are truly and justly: together. Filled with the Spirit they too would go and tell as witnesses of what they had seen, heard, and experienced of Jesus and His Spirit filled community.

As yeast through the dough, the Kingdom of God would spread. And with it, this taste of a church that looks like the bustling lobby of an airport terminal: a church without borders or barriers of race, culture, wealth, or language. Sure, the church wouldn't and hasn't always—or even often—looked like that. But a community like that is the longing placed in our hearts by the reconciling power of Jesus through the Spirit. And so we pray: Holy Spirit, come.

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us (Romans 12:3-6).

Contemporary Testimony: God the Spirit lavishes gifts on the church in astonishing variety-prophecy, encouragement, healing, teaching, service, tongues, discernment-equipping each member to build up the body of Christ and to serve our neighbors (29).

The gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church are beautiful. Eugene Peterson reaches for this when he paraphrases Romans 12:6-8 this way, "If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face" (The Message).

We have lost this beauty partly because we spend too much time figuring out what gifts we have. Spiritual Gift courses tend to complicate the matter. And sometimes like the Corinthians, we imagine that our gifts are more important than someone else's. Unfortunately, when we do that, what we are really driving at is this: "I am more important than you are." Then, there is the theological tradition which asserts the gifts were only for the early church, to get her moving. Once she was rolling, they were fazed out.

All these things have caused us to miss the main thing which our confession states so poetically: God the Spirit lavishes gifts on the church in astonishing variety- … -equipping each member to build up the body of Christ and to serve our neighbors (29).

When asked why his church did not have a spiritual gift course, one modern mega-church leader responded with, "I tell people to get busy serving; trust the Holy Spirit to bring you to that place where you are needed. Just start." I've always appreciated that approach. The point of the Spirit's gifts is not "what are they?" but "why are they given?" & "how am I using them?".

'What gift do I have?' is only of secondary importance. These gifts are jewels through which the grace of Jesus flows, like raindrops through which light refracts and reflects to create a rainbow. The Holy Spirit desires to use us to serve the church and our neighbours, thereby giving glory to God.

That is why Paul begins, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought". When we recognize that we are instruments the Holy Spirit uses to do God's work, much grace will flow to the world. When our conversations about the gifts focus on 'me', they will lose their beauty. However, when we trust the Holy Spirit to lead us in our Christian life, these gifts will display the full beauty of God's grace.

Occasionally, we might lengthen our breath prayer just a tad, "Come, Holy Spirit, shine through me."

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

The Spirit renews our hearts and moves us to faith, leads us into truth and helps us to pray, stands by us in our need, and makes our obedience fresh and vibrant. (OWBTG 29)

We may not be naturally inclined toward doing the right thing. Some of us are. But I suspect that many of us have our moments of angry outbursts, judgemental attitudes, and indulgences. Here's the thing though: God saves us anyway. Despite who and what we are, we are loved by God in Christ all the same. Not because we deserve it, not because we have earned it with a bunch of righteous things we've done, but because of his great mercy, kindness, and love.

And now throughout the rest of our lives, the Holy Spirit is slowly and surely renewing us. Like a waterfall pouring and pounding over the stones below, the Spirit is constantly flowing, moving, polishing, and washing us.

Just like with those stones at the bottom of the cataract though, it can take years and decades before the hard edges get smoothed off. Sometimes that slow pace can be discouraging: shouldn't we be better people and Christians already by this point in our life?

But despite how things might look, we are invited to always keep the end in view. We have become heirs with Christ, heirs of hope and eternal life. The work will one day be complete. We will one day take our place in the kingdom of God as the renewed people we can only now imagine ourselves to be.

Hopefully that hope does more than give us the courage to endure the slow rate of growth we face now: hopefully it also propels us toward the good we seek. That's Paul's invitation here in his letter to Titus. But this is also the Spirit's work—to move us toward the good and to make "our obedience fresh and vibrant."

So, continue praying as the Spirit helps you today for this good work to see it's way through to completion! Remember the breath prayer: "Holy Spirit, come."

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy (Acts 2:17-18).

Revived and filled with the breath of God, women and men, young and old dream dreams and see visions (Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God, 28).

For the next four weeks, Wilderness Wanderings will be tied more closely to life at Immanuel than it normally is. Immanuel Church has begun what we are simply calling, 28-Days of Prayer. We have developed material for this season which anyone can find @ Immanuelministries.ca.

The purpose of this season is not to launch some major new initiative nor to discern something specific. Sometimes, we Christians use such prayer seasons in hopes of manipulating God into giving us something; or even to give the appearance of super spirituality. There are no such intentions here.

We are encouraging some basic things. Prayer is an essential practice of the Christian life, and so we are motivating each other in it. Reading or singing through the Biblical psalms gives the impression that prayer is more varied then simply us talking to God, and so we are fostering experimentation in our praying. Paul teaches us to pray continually, so one might say, that we hoping to develop the muscles of obedience. We are praying for Christ's church, his whole church, believing that she will only thrive if Christ builds her.

As pastors of Immanuel, Pastor Anthony and I will be using Wilderness Wanderings to encourage these things. If we stay true to our intentions, these devotions may tend towards the shorter side during this season, in the hopes that will leave more time to develop prayer practices.

With all that said, today's text. Its point is simple yet profound. In the Old Testament, there were specific people on whom the Spirit descended equipping them for a specific purpose. In Exodus 31, God fills Bezalel with the Spirit to give him skill, ability, and knowledge to direct the work of building the tabernacle. In Numbers 11, God takes some of the Spirit which is on Moses and puts it on 70 elders who will help Moses in his work of leading the people of Israel. In the book of Judges, we read frequently that the Spirit of God empowered the Judges to lead Israel and to free her from the oppression of other nations.

Here is the important point: throughout the Old Testament, God's Spirit is given to specific people for specific purposes. Now in the Numbers 11 story, the 70 elders were called to gather around the tabernacle to receive the Spirit. However, two of them stayed home. Yet, they too received the Spirit, which created a bit of a disturbance. Moses quiets things down with this comment, "I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!" (Numbers 11:29).

Moses' wish is made reality at Pentecost: all those who belong to Christ receive his Spirit. In the OT, the Spirit was dripping from God's tap, drip, drip, drip; but at Pentecost God opened the tap full blast and the Spirit is pouring out. In the OT, God's Spirit blew like a gentle breeze, but with Pentecost began to blow like a great wind.

Prophecies and visions are not about divining the future. Such things were used to guide God's people in his ways, in the ways of obedience. We will have opportunity to reflect on that later this month. For today, remember that if you belong to Jesus, you have his Spirit and "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans" (Romans 8:26). Ask the Spirit to lead us this season.

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 14:15-27 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. What does home mean to you?
2. When you feel that you don't belong—what things do you do to seek a place of belonging or escape the sadness?
3. Why do all of our earthly, human places of home and belonging ultimately leave us still longing?
4. What was going on in the Upper Room that made Jesus speak these words to the disciples?
5. Is the home that Jesus promises in these verses enough to satisfy?
6. What foretastes of "home" does God give us as gifts to be enjoyed? And how might you invite others into those places of belonging this week?

Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Why do the nations say, "Where is their God?" Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. (Psalm 115:1-8)

I think that this psalm, along with a couple selections from Isaiah and Jeremiah, remain some of the best Biblical commentary on smartphones.

I was struck by that fact when I came across the lines of this psalm while reading Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media a while back. He was well known for his commentary on media and communication through the 60's, he even got a Heritage Minute made about him. Less well know is the fact that he was a convert to Christianity, daily reading from the Bible in all 6 or 7 of the languages he knew. No surprise then that little scripture verses pop up curiously here and there in his works.

Psalm 115 was one of them. McLuhan famously said "the medium is the message." While explaining that riddle, attempting to suggest that the built world of technology in which we live has more to say about the philosophy we come up with and the lives we lead than our ability for "free and independent thought" might lead us to believe, he tossed out a quote from verse 8 of our psalm: "those who make them will be like them." In other words: the things that we build and place our trust in are the very things that we ourselves grow more and more like.

So: we've created these smart phones with camera eyes, microphone ears, and speaker mouths, all of which do really seem to see, hear, and talk. But while they promise to see and hear the whole world and all the people we care about, keeping us connected to all these things and people all the time—in actuality, they leave us more lonely and disconnected than we were without them. In search of life through a screen, we actually become less like the living things we are, and more like the dead things that our devices are. We become more like the silver and gold, diodes and transistors, screens and wires that make up these lifeless little rectangles we devote so much of our time and selves to.

It is important then to account for what we build and what we place our trust in because these are the things that become our idols. In this conversation on idolatry, others have swapped the word trust and used the word "worship" instead. That: "we are what we worship." Or "we are what we love." If our love, trust, and worship is given to our screens, our sports, our entertainment, our identity, our career, or even our relationships with family or friends—then our life is patterned on something dead or dying, fallen and fleeting. Even the very best of our human relationships fit these categories. These are idols—all of them—and they will eventually break the hearts of their worshipers.

And so the psalm invites: right off the top and through to the end—a radical shift in our trust and worship from our idols to the living God. He is the only source of life. And, he does what he pleases: he is not subject to us nor can he be so readily controlled or manipulated like a little black box in our hands. A life patterned on him is the only means to full and abundant life. Because: those who place their trust in God will also become like him. It doesn't only work with idols. Having been created in the image of God, our life's goal is to be conformed again to our God in the image of his son, Jesus Christ. But it starts by naming and surrendering our idols so that we might trust in him, and him alone.