Emotion and Truth and Four

This morning my little boy displayed his first truly defined bout of sadness regarding our recent cross-country move. In other words he freaked out for a while.

Some little frustration, like not being able to play the Sonic video game he wanted with his cousins, was the catalyst to being able to express his general sadness, pain and frustration about the move. In his own way at that.

He misses his friends. He wants to sit at his desk chair and watch Octonauts. He wants to be in control of his environment. He wants to know that the same God that made the trees in Wisconsin is here as well, right now.

Now of course his tears set the stage for my wife's and, not surprisingly, my own.

So I was reading in Romans this morning. That the Spirit brought me into the fold of Gods family is comforting beyond compare. We're made in His image and comprehensively at that, so the sadness I partake in with my own son and wife is a mirror image of the pains and burdens the Father carries on my behalf.

My wife and I continue to remind our little dude (and ourselves) that it's not only okay to feel sad, but it's a sign of truth, that love does exist even when unexplainable and that Christ-like community is so good that when it's gone, even for a moment, it should leave us wanting.

Read 1 Corinthians 12 for the importance of community - Romans 8 for the awesome work of renewal the Spirit brings - Study the 'one anothers' and discover the necessity of true community to live these out appropriately. Read!

The Malady Mill

According to Dictionary.com, 'malady' may be defined as an undesirable or desperate condition even socially and spiritually.

So I was listening to a song the other day entitled Grist for the Malady Mill. How appropriate a description for some seasons of life. I have experienced two incredibly different ends of the spiritual spectrum in the previous month, experiences that are yet currently spilling over into my heart and soul and mind and effectively shaping my attitude to varying degrees.

I have felt the unexplainable prompting of the Spirit to move in extreme ways causing me to move on from my ministry position, my home, community, friends/family etc. for a new version of everything in a new town with no immediate promise of reward.

I have also experienced, directly related to the move of the Spirit above, that sinking feeling of desperation in dramatic change and loss of all control and concrete plan. A sadness from leaving what I've come to love and a pride in wishing I had more to show for what has burdened my heart in this season.

From prison Paul challenged the Philippians through his immediately personal story. He claimed that 'I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.' This said in the midst of the Malady Mill. His imprisonment itself providing enough grist to cause even the best of us to lose heart. Yet this same grist carrying Paul into the Malady Mill was never void of his faith. A faith founded in Christ who alone gives strength in desperately challenging seasons lacking personal ability to overcome.

What Mill are you tossed about in? What have you come through or foresee in the future? What's your source of Strength in the midst?

Malady. I'm not sure I could put my finger on the social, mental, spiritual malady consuming much of my journey in this season, however, while I look around and see the inner workings of the Malady Mill about me, I also confidently and humbly see the Spirit at work amidst the grist. I am not despondent by any stretch of the imagination. And while I'm not kicking my heels together in excitement I am confident He is at work.

Even I can do anything through Him alone, who provides all I need for life and breath and reason.

Read Philippians - a an encouraging letter written from a prisoner on behalf of Christ. Listen to mewithoutYou's Grist for the Malady Mill.

We Know Cain

There are pains that are unexplainable even when good explanations abound. There are unacceptable offerings we give to God that externally appear beautiful and sacrificial...and yet they pain Him as dirty, unacceptable.

Why did Cain murder his brother. Why was his sacrifice unacceptable to the Lord.

There are pains that exist and that is simply that. Seasons of struggle emotional, mental, etc. Hurts that sting for moments, days, years...both us and the Lord.

Our typical immediate response, our initial coping mechanism is to take matters into our own hands. Our hands are fallible, small, fragile...dirty. And we know this. We know Cain. And we respond again and again with the same frail tools.

Yes, I believe many of our pains can be traced to our own co-missional sins...I believe Cain would be in this camp whatever the root.
Yet sometimes things just hurt and there is no one to blame. Maybe not even ourselves. No finger to point. No shaking fists at God. No matter to take into our hands. No acceptable explanation. Not that God is uninformed or lacking control, but that we would not and could not understand.

Sometimes we simply need to meditate on the way of Cain and wonder if we are acting on his behalf.

Always, however, we meditate on the way of Yeshua and ponder whether we're following in His steps. Living an attitude of set-apartness, an attitude that is honoring to our God in the midst of our unexplainable and unacceptable pains.

Read Matthew 11:25-30 for rest from the pain. Read Genesis 4 and 1 John 3:11-12.

Issabon in 2011

Eve was given to pain. Adam was given to toil. Both were severed from a unity with God no one has ever had the opportunity to experience on this earth since. Both man and woman were handed over to the same struggle in different areas of their lives.

Eve, though created to assist Adam in keeping the garden, was given over to intense struggle in child birth - her main focus, purpose.

Adam, though created to keep and watch over the garden was also designed to assist his wife in raising their children. Now, however he is given over to struggling against a newly cursed earth in order to survive (opposite of Gods initial plan - Gen. 1:9-13, 2:6, 8-14).

Eve's pain, issabon, is the same as Adam's toil. Both define the new struggle. Hard work. Grieving. Affliction.

This new year is not the year of leisure nor is it another opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. It's simply another season we're blessed with to fulfill the purpose we were made to fulfill...walk with and glorify the Lord.

Paul takes us from the garden to the Christian community. To the Thessalonians Paul defines his strategy regarding work in this new community:

'We worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you,' (2 Thess. 3:8)

Paul uses three different words in Greek to describe his struggle:

worked - to labor, like an employee, perform

labored - weariness caused by work, fatigued from the labor

toiling - daily travails, routine of long hard - never ending work, common labor

'We worked hard day and night, wearied from the heavy burden of the daily grind and yet were not idle with our hands or minds and never a burden to your household or finances,' (2 Thess. 3:8 Rich version).

Adam and Eve worked before the curse, they may have even sweat from that work (I assume sweat glands existed) - it was the new struggle to survive physically, mentally and especially spiritually that altered their habits but not their basic purpose...that is, to glorify God in everything they did.

Paul takes their struggle, the common struggle of mankind and redefines it. He doesn't eliminate the struggle like the Greek philosophers attempted to do. He doesn't separate the 'holy' work of saints (bible study, prayer, preaching) from the secular/dirty work of the comman man (tradeswork, farming, shepherding). Paul simply does what must be done to glorify God, in all forms of labor, in all seasons, in all cities, with all peoples, all in the name of glorifying YHVH.

That is more than a New Years resolution...that is the resolution of a New Life.

Philippians 1:29

Paul is in prison.
Timothy continues to serve with him.
Philippian believers are on the road to struggle and persecution.
And Paul is encouraging them to stand firm in Christ amidst their opposition.
How encourging...

'For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him...'

'granted' - charizomai (gk) - to give permission, to authorize, allow

If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, it's only because God has allowed your eyes and ears and heart and mind to be opened to the Truth.
Yes, He wants all of His creation to know Him.
No, they won't all want to know Him.
Through your willingness to seek Him no matter how broken hearted, bitter or angry towards Him you might be, He knows you and me and every person on earth and opens us up to understanding His Word according to His time and plan.

In the same way that He gives us permission to believe and trust in Jesus...He allows us to suffer.
He allows us to believe in Jesus for eternal love and life. And allows us to suffer like Him on earth.

He doesn't just allow it really, He authorizes it, He permits it.
He's pretty much saying that if you're willing to follow the Messiah, the Savior of the world Jesus...then you and I must be willing to suffer in some way as well, some of us in more extreme ways than others...some even to death.

Paul was confident that God would continue to work in their lives through good and bad (1:6) and because they knew God would never stop working in them (2:13) they should continue working out their own salvation (2:12) living a life worthy of Christ (1:27), living, acting, thinking and speaking with His attitude (2:5).

What other gifts do we need?
He's given us the greatest gifts a believer could ask for:
1) to believe in Jesus
2) to live like Him (includes suffering)

We're allowed to be like Christ.