Tag Archive for 'grace'

The Never Underesteeming, Always Luring Teachings of Jesus

Published on 1/25/2010 in Bible Study. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

John 13:26-28 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.

The more I look at this the more interesting things pop out of it. It seems like Jesus is really obvious about who is going to betray Him, right? “He to whom I will give this morsel to bread when I have dipped it.” and then Jesus hands it over to Judas. So why didn’t they get it? I wonder if they couldn’t believe it. Or if they had pegged somebody else as the one in their heads, and none of them had pegged Judas. I wonder if the news that Judas would betray Jesus fell on their ears like Jesus’ words that He would die fell on Peter’s ears and caused Peter to rebuke Jesus. So foreign, so far out from what they conceived about the Messiah and about Judas, that they couldn’t even understand when it was told to them clearly.

All of this just shows off how merciful and amazing Jesus is. How often do we not say something or tell someone something because we think “They wouldn’t understand.” or “They’re not ready for that.” Jesus told the disciples stuff they weren’t ready for all of the time. He seems like He lived in a constant state of being around people that “didn’t get it” and He never flipped out or belittled them for it. (Once he was angry at the hardness of heart of the Pharisees, but never at His disciples. He was angered at the unwillingness to learn, not the inability to learn.)

Many times, in fact, Jesus told people something that confused them until something significant happened hours, days, or even years later.

Giving and Receiving in Humility

Published on 12/31/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

John 13.8 “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

There is a humility that is beyond the humility that somebody can tell me I need to have or that I can see and grasp. It’s beyond a virtue or anything that you can talk about, I think. Jesus doesn’t talk about being humble, whatever that means, but He always talked about the actions and the fruit of the humble.
humble yourself like a little child
the one who leads should be like one who serves
the greatest among you will be the servant of all
For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.

If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.

There is no way at all that you can muster up humility in yourself and BING! be humble.

So being humble is an activity. It can be shown with activity, though that is never the point, and it can be cultivated with activity. At the same time, it can be shown and cultivated by receiving activity. Peter was NOT going to let Jesus wash his feet, but to talk that way to Jesus was the opposite of humility and submission to Him. Peter really shows off our pride of self-inflicted devotion at the Last Passover. If he really cherished and honored Jesus, he would let Him do whatever He wanted. If he really believed that Jesus was always right and wise, then he wouldn’t have argued when Jesus said, “all of you are going to fall away,” but instead he jumped in with great declarations of devotion that Jesus knew he wouldn’t keep.

There is a humility in just letting Jesus do His thing with us. It’s not found in us trying to show Him (or anyone else) how devoted we are or how GLORIOUS we think He is. It’s a humility that let’s people serve you and looks for the way to serve others and never notices either way.

I’m not there yet, but Jesus is, and I’m following Him.

Jesus made them clean, but not all of them got clean.

Published on 12/24/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

John 13:10 ¶ Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”

Part of this verse shows why Universalism can’t be true. Yes, Jesus died for the sins of all people, but NO, that does not mean that everyone is saved. Judas didn’t accept the cleansing. He was still unclean in his heart and was conspiring to turn Jesus in even though he had been taught and shown and even ate dinner with The Truth.

It also shows that mere activity doesn’t make one clean. Judas was around and participated in the same activities as the other twelve, but that still didn’t make him clean in Jesus’ eyes. He even had his feet washed, which wasn’t an act of cleaning away dirt, but instruction on cleaning away pride. He didn’t learn that lesson either.

All of this comes as a warning to us. Let us not think that just because we are around disciples and just because Jesus has served us in many wonderful ways, that we are all set to do our own will and do our own thing and call ourselves clean friends of Jesus. It’s BEING His disciple and DOING His will that all of a sudden shows us that HE has made us clean.

Giving up on ‘working toward’ Holiness

Published on 12/22/2009 in Bible Study. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

John 13: 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, d except for his feet, [1] but is completely clean. And e you [2] are clean,

For a long time in my Christian life, I’ve been moaning and groaning the words of a Jennifer Knapp song:

Lord, come with your fire
burn my desire
refine me…

please come and free me
and rescue this child
for I long to be reconciled to yo-ooo-ooo-ooo

I was singing this song and thinking about John 13 and realized something.

I’ve already BEEN RECONCILED! And you know what else? I don’t need to have my desire burned. When Christ died on the cross, God reconciled Man to God. My sin was cleansed and when Jesus was raised from the dead, we who are in Christ were raised with Him.

It seems to me that there is this hyper-pious teaching that tells us to cry out to God to be made holy. Another song

Holiness, holiness is what I long for
holiness is what I neeeeed
Holiness, holiness, is what You want from me.

it even says at one point

Righteousness, righteousness, is what You want from me.

God doesn’t want our righteousness or our holiness any more than I want my 2 year old to give me a dirty diaper for a Christmas present!

The fact is, a person that has had a bath only needs to wash their feet. We have been made clean by the life and death of Christ. Sure, our feet still get dirty as we walk around in the world, but the part of us that matters the most to God, the part that is out of this world (which David Crowder says as soon as you leave the ground you’re in the sky, right?!) has been made clean.

So let’s change these silly songs.

Let’s quit yearning for holiness when it’s already been served up to us on a platter!

Give up on your silly, dirty-diaper holiness and have faith in Jesus!

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves – Not

Published on 7/31/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Deut. 32:36 The LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.

He will have compassion on his servants when their strength is gone. gone. not that he’ll help them just before it’s gone. gone.

If Jesus came and helped Lazarus when he was *almost* dead, then Lazarus could have gotten a little credit for having a little life in himself that Jesus could help along.

Nope. He was dead.

Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

You weren’t a a little bit alive and God healed you. If you’ve been saved, you were saved, not helped. And if you haven’t been saved, then you’re dead, not just sick. I usually don’t play the Binary Christian that sees everything in black and white, but in this context it fits.

He will give His servants compassion when He sees their strength is gone.

Jesus was about 25 miles away when he heard that Lazarus was sick. He could have easily made that trip in two days, but when he would have arrived, Lazarus would have STILL already been dead for 2 days. On the one hand, Jesus knew to rush would be hopeless. On the other hand, Jesus knew to delay would show the disciples, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and the rest so much more.

God really is the hope for the hopeless. He thought that was important to tell us. Important enough that he painfully let His friend die and other friends cry their eyes out. Can you believe that He would let so much pain happen to people He loved, to show His glory?!

I can. I can only imagine that nobody ever felt the joy and amazement that Mary and Martha felt that day that Lazarus got unwrapped. I can only imagine how much Peter must have trembled after seeing this Guy boss storms around and make food come out of nowhere for thousands.

God is the hopeless seeker, the hopeless blaster, and the hope bringer. He is an expert at compassion and power mixed, and He brings it whenever His servants run out.

Lazarus of No Rank: Loved by Jesus

Published on 7/21/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

John 11.3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

Something has to be said about Lazarus being loved by Jesus, a friend of Jesus, and NOT one of the disciples. Considering that the 12 are mentioned in several places and arguing about who would be the greatest and who would get to sit next to Jesus, here is a guy that is close to Jesus, but isn’t literally following Him and isn’t one of the 12.

I remember a guy asking me one time if I wanted to be one of the 12 or one of the 5000 that followed Jesus around. Now that I look back on the context of that, I see there was some pride in there. It was Jesus that called the 12 to be a part of the 12, but to Jesus, the rest weren’t second class. Those were the 12 for one reason, and the rest were the rest for different reasons.

Here is Lazarus, loved friend of Jesus, who lives with his sisters in Bethany and doesn’t travel around to Gallilee etc. I think that says something to the pride of boasting “I’ll follow Jesus anywhere.” because Lazarus was friends with Jesus just where he was.

Let us put off the boasting of who we follow or who saved us. Let us boast only in God. When a boy pees in his pants at school, he doesn’t boast in what a good mom he picked when she brings him a clean pair. Neither should we boast in what a great God we picked when we were saved, but rejoice in Him that loves us, regardless of our rank or position in His kingdom.

Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller

Published on 5/30/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

I just finished Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller, and it is very very good. I think it messed me up more than ever though concerning Jesus and grace!

Here is the premise: In the so-called ‘parable of the prodigal son’ Jesus actually tells the story of two lost sons. One is lost because of his distance from the father in wanting to live for himself and do whatever he wants, the other is lost because he does everything the father has ever asked and now thinks the father owes him for his obedience, so he was really only always serving himself.
It challenged me to think about why I do what I do? What are my motives for loving Jesus more than life? It’s all because of Him, baby!

The bad news is that I’m wrecked for the sake of grace now more than ever. Good quote from that book, “Marx said that religion was the opiate of the people, in that it sedates and makes them powerless. If religion is an opiate, Christianity should be the smelling salts, calling people to wake up!”

I love it. it was a good quick read, and I recommend it...

Costly Grace for the Guest

Published on 5/6/2009 in Bible Study and Bookstore. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

I don’t usually write at night but I just read across something and want to ink some of this out before I go to bed…

khesed/grace/mercy throughout the Old Testament is, by definition, costly.

that’s the statement I read tonight

It also involves hospitality, honor, and covenant. It is something that, when it happens, allows, or maybe even INVITES, the recipient to abuse the favor shown.

For instance. Abram shows hospitality to the three men walking by, and they share with him some secret: they are going to destroy Sodom. Abram, who has now been their host to eat and rest but also their guest to some very important secret information, abuses his right to this information and asks them if they would spare the city if such and such number of people could be found righteous in it. The three men do not object, but engage in the haggling for the spare-price of Sodom.

Lot does it with these same men when they come to his home. He hosts them, and protects them with what would be a very costly price (he offers the townsmen his own virgin daughters for sex acts so that they will spare the visitors he is hosting). Part of his hosting them is khesed simply because of that moment right there. If it isn’t costly, it isn’t khesed.

I don’t have time tonight (in 9 minutes it will be tomorrow and I’ll regret staying up so late) but I’d be interested in other places in the scriptures where hosting a guest involves 2 things:
1. the guest boldly asking for more than the host originally offered
2. the host having to pay an extraordinarily high price (or at least trying to) for the sake of the guest.

Go!

John 4 and Jesus’ Conversation with Oholah

Published on 4/14/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

In John 4, Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman that has had 5 husbands. People have always talked about what a sinful woman she was, and how controversial it would be for Jesus to talk to her.

Now I know why.

In Ezekiel 23, God talks about having two wives that left Him and cheated. One of those wives is Samaria; her name is Oholah. The stuff she does is pretty gross, inciting the ancient rabbis to only allow a man to read Ezekiel after he turned 30.

That woman at the well in John 4: she is Oholah.

In Ezekiel 23, Oholah lusted after the Assyrians(1) and the Egyptians(2). As time went on, Samaria would be ruled by Persia (3), then in 332 B.C. be filled with Macedonians(4), then in 63 B.C. it would become a Roman Province (5).

Jesus arrives on the scene with a nation that has long forgotten who her Husband is in all of her whoring. She’s had 5 identities, and is having trouble identifying herself with the man who is currently NOT her husband.

And still Jesus reaches out, tells her everything, and tells re-introduces her to her first love, The Father that seeks worshipers that worship in Spirit and in Truth. Awesome.

God Makes the Filthy Beautiful

Published on 3/20/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

In Ezekiel 16, God talks about finding Israel out in the field as he was passing by. She was lying in her blood-a newborn whose cord hadn’t even been cut. This was the ancient method of abortion, to have the baby and then dump it in a field. They didn’t even bother cutting the cord because if they were just going to let the ‘thing’ die, why bother taking any care of it at all. The child and the placenta were treated with the same care. How awful.

I have seen the scarring, dismembering effects of poor medical care. Numerous people in poverty all over the world are crippled, blind, deaf, or dead simply because a completely preventable illness was not treated properly. I know a guy in Africa that had a little girl in his neighborhood that was being left to die of malaria. She was still a part of the family, etc, but they were just going to let her die in her fever. He paid the 72¢ for the medicine and she was treated and has now lived on for years.

So here is Israel, dumped out from the beginning in a field and left to die, and God cares for her. Not only that, but she blossoms into beauty. This girl should have been disfigured and scarred at the least from her poor care, but God cared for her to such an extent as to help her grow up beautiful too.

Twice God cleans Israel from her uncleanliness. First it is the uncleanliness of birth, second the uncleanliness of maturity (menstruation). Israel needed purifying at the beginning as they got rid of their Egyptian ways and idol dependance, but they needed cleaning again once they became a mature nation (actually they needed it again and again and again) so that they could be the Mother of Blessing to the whole world. (don’t freak out-just keeping in the metaphor. I’m not into that God is our Mother garbage.)

Israel needed to mature and be united with God, but as she matured she grew into new forms of uncleanliness. God purified her from those and cleaned her up, now not just making her a beautiful child but a beautiful bride.

I’m going to stop there for today, because what Israel did after all of that is heartbreaking, and much more so when you realize what great things God has done.

Of course, it’s all a DIRECT parable into our lives. Who of us, when lost and without God, was anything more than a bloody child abandoned in a field? And who of us, after being picked up by God our Savior, has not been cleaned up and made beautiful? (even if, in the case of some of us, only in His sight :P )