Noah, James, Grace...and Me

I recently started reading through the Bible again - in fact I'm only in Genesis 9 but a few things have caught my attention, 6:8 in particular.

'But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.'
Short. Sweet. But what the...? Corruption so intense (:11-12) that even the acts of the animals had became a disappointment! How far creation had wandered from perfect design only several chapters and several hundred years earlier. This is the socio-spiritual climate Noah enters into - and yet he remained 'just', 'perfect' and even 'walked with God' (:9).

God dispensed grace on Noah. Noah's life fostered a grace-filled response from the Lord. And this when all of culture and creation were fostering judgement from the same God.

Sp now, where does a Christ follower go to dig into the application of such a thing as abundant grace here and now?

In just four verses James manages to squeeze in 10 imperatives for the Christian seeking to experience 'more grace.' Though we're imperfect, only through a deepening relationship with Christ and away from dependence on anything or anyone else (people, self, work, money, governments, desires), can we hope to experience this divine sanctifying grace of God.

Isn't it interesting as well that in order to experience God's abundant grace - something so fluid and forgiving, grace so freeing and comforting, a divine gift - that we MUST do certain things. These imperatives go against all our cultural instincts (to be free to live however we choose and still be accepted to receive this beautiful thing called grace from God). I'm not speaking of Gods grace for salvation which is free to all who repent from sin and have faith in Christ - but grace in sanctification, that which transforms us into Christ-likeness as a believer.

Now if we take into account that God is Holy and we aren't - that He created everything and is behind the perfect design of life - if we can comprehend that He alone defines truth and love and justice and mercy and grace...then we can begin to understand that we must interact with Him, through Christ, in specific ways in order for Him to interact with us. And He decides what these ways are.

What are these imperatives James lays out?

Submit: to whom? God. Great starting point.
Resist: whom? Satan and all that is evil, corrupt, anti-righteousness.
Draw near: to God - and this only after submission - a true longing for God.
Cleanse: your hands. Temple priests would ceremonially wash themselves for service as externally/physically holy (set apart for Gods work).
Purify: your hearts. This is an internal reconciliation with Gods truth and love. Thoughts, desires, motives, attitude...these are transformed in Christ-likeness.
Lament: experiencing misery at the realization of your sinful state and depravity away from God.
Mourn: an inner cry to the Lord with a broken heart for your sin.
Weep: an external display of lamenting and mourning. The overflow of a heart desiring reconciliation with God.
Let: all laughter and joy turn to gloom and sorrow. Those things that bring you pleasure, replace with mourning and weeping, know they aren't the source of or expression of this abundant grace. Only Christ is.

These 9 imperatives, these actions and positions of the heart - these are summed up in the 10th. Humility. Noah's life, to an incredibly high degree at this point (remember he was called 'just' and 'perfect') resembled this list in James. Of course Christ hadn't come in the flesh in Noah's time, but the same holy character that is expected in the Christian was expected in the saints of old.

Humility: the act of bringing oneself low in relation to Christ. Acknowledging his supremacy over all things as noted in Colossians 1:15-20. Professing his Lordship over not just the world...but you and I personally (Romans 10:9-10). Confessing the work of the cross in the face of your demons (read Romans 8).

Noah received a special grace in a difficult season. He didn't demand it, he simply lived a life that fostered that response/blessing from the Lord (though let's not idolize Noah...a year or so after the flood he too abuses this grace).

All of us experience a taste of Gods divine grace, life itself displays this. Disciples of Christ experience and understand the spiritual aspects of this grace through Christ. Maturing believers experience this all the more.

I'm processing these imperatives of a grace-filled life...and it's intense. I receive more than I will ever understand from Christ. Though I also tend to offer to others immeasurably less than I ought.

All This Convenience...

...and yet I still continue to wrestle daily with time spent studying the Word, conversing with the Lord, being with His people and intentionally in the world.

I didn't wake up and build a fire. I didn't harvest and roast my own beans. I didn't grind the coffee. In fact, this morning I didn't even prepare the coffee or push the button. I simply poured it into my cup and sipped...slowly.

I like technology. I like the accessibility and the freedom. I like the convenience. But I say that I love Jesus. I say that I only want to glorify Him. I say that I'm eternally thankful for salvation. And I believe that I am...but why so little time focused on Him when so much more time is available to be with Him thanks to these modern conveniences.

'As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood' 1 Peter 2:4-5

How awesome a house this is! We are a priests and priestesses. We aren't couch potatoes or workaholics neither of which own a righteous focus or offer 'acceptable sacrifices.' We are recreated to move and breath and live and serve and all very intentionally for the glory of God in Christlikeness.

Use the coffee maker. I will. I can't imagine life without it. But the moment you and I, the living stones, abuse this convenience for self devotion...we've missed the blessing of it.

Rather than wasting that beautiful coffee time...use it. Use it to fullest to 'come to Him, the living Stone.'

What conveniences in your life need to be reevaluated or redeemed or rejected?

Students of Students of Teacher

Always students.

'Go and make disciples.' Now this is imperative. This is no special call to a handful of believers but is a mandate of the Messiah to the entire Church.

There's a word most of us despise in our culture, an idea really, and that's obligation or indebtedness to another. That Christ would not simply say something is good, or great, or even the best choice for a Christian...but an obligation! is crazy talk.

Paul notes the obligation we have in living according to the Spirit those who are in Christ. He doesn't simply say that it would be best if we stop living according to our worldly desires, lusts and Americanized dreams...he says that only true heirs of God will cease this faulty mindset and lean into the fullest picture of life that exists, one of faith and hope and love and all from Christ.

In fact Paul goes on to say to believers, mind you, that death occurs if the professing Christian continues to live according to the flesh! What he's saying is simply that without a renewed mind that leads to a renewed lifestyle...the professing believer most likely isn't actually a follower of Christ! Christ = Life. Flesh = death.

Back to the discipling mandate. Go - Baptize - Teach. These three elements are rooted in the making of disciples.

'Teaching' is really a way saying that those who teach will have students whom they are pouring into. To pour into someone is more than simply inputting knowledge, but is sharing the experiential wisdom of knowing Christ and being Christlike.

This is a personal process. It's organically centered around authentic relationships. It's slow and messy and fruitful and exciting. It's passing on the life of faith, through Scripture, one day at a time.

Now the 'go' part isn't a call to find your place in a foreign country, at least not always. For most it's finding your place in your current world structure. Your daily rhythm. Go into your context and make things new. If sent, go elsewhere too.

'Baptize' of course is that beautiful element the Church has been commissioned to display the renewal externally of life internally.

Making disciples is not a strategic method or form of church and community coming back around for another go of it. It's THE call. 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,' and what does Christ do with that eternal authority and power...He tells us to make disciples. It's a slow. Messy. Gritty. Personal. Painful. Joy-filled. Community building. Gift releasing. Faith inducing and producing...call.

Now of course what discipleship looks like is more defined in how Jesus did it, how Paul relates to his own disciples and so on...which may not be mandated but should and does give us a good taste of what Jesus meant when He spoke of discipleship.

And by the way, 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'

We are always students of Christ. For each us this tangibly looks like being a disciple of a more mature believer for a season. For all of us this looks like being a discipler at some point. Regardless we're always students of Word.

Read Matthew 28:18-20 - Romans 8 is a great call to the Spiritual life as well. The book of Acts will solidify the tension between obligation, call and renewed passion. And read Robert Colemans 'The Master Plan of Discipleship'

terrible nights yet...Hope

'my heart is  breaking for my sister and the con that she called love
but when I look into my nephew's eyes man you wouldn't believe
the most amazing things that can come from some terrible nights'
- fun. some nights

Hope. Even after a night or a season of ill-fated, mis-defined, un-love...something beautiful was yet revealed. Though emotional, mental, spiritual, physical baggage may and will remain in differing degrees, one can still look into the eyes of an unplanned child from a broken beginning and be encouraged. See hope. Note faith. Feel a particular sort of supernatural love.

'Now these three remain: faith, hope and love.' 1 Cor. 13:13

Hope. It finds its root in Christ (1 Tim 1:1). It exists because He exists. Because He holds the fabric of life together (Colossians 1), everyone is capable of experiencing this prompting. It's supernatural at it's core, that mankind would seek something 'other'.

Archias of Mytilene (pre-Christ) bewailed the birth of boys, believing there was nothing in life but relentless evils awaiting them and that physical death alone was the cure. How depressing it must have been/be to assume life is nothing more than evil waiting to pounce and relief alone comes from the grave. To have accepted a worldview that rests on despair and gloom. And this according some of the greatest minds in history.

Yet another message contrasts with Archaias' greatly, the message of Christ. One of hope. Hope that the Kingdom of Heaven is moving onward and upward. Hope that love truly is abounding and that reconciliation with God truly means life, and life to the fullest.

Paul proclaims that Christ is hope.

While Christ was the usher of hope in the flesh, He sent the Spirit to continue the message and experience of hope in everyone who believes. To remind the world that while sin abounds, hope abounds all the more. That even in the life of a mother whose con-artist lover left her and her child feeling robbed and abandoned...hope had abandoned no one. The very life of that child in that particular song, in that particular story is a testament to a divine love touching us all.

That while earthly fathers may not fulfill their call to love, God has, does and will - and all through His own son, Jesus.

Hope abounds. Even after a terrible night. Even after a terrible season loaded with undesirable consequence. Hope.

Read 1 Corinthians 12-14 - Read Johns Gospel to feel truly loved here and now - Listen to fun. and hear a culture seeking faith, hope, love, all that Christ offers and is...how to connect this culture with Christ.

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!

Word of Beard

'Remind them of these things...' 2 Timothy 2:14

So in order to remind other believers of Truth...you and I actually have to remember it ourselves. We actually have to embrace it deep within our guts. Jesus promises the Spirit to help remind disciples of His teachings - so if the Spirit is within us and we're filled with the living word - then remembering and reminding others is not simply a good Christian thing to do, but it's imperative that all believers do it!

In order to remind others of Truth we must remember it ourselves. In order to remember it we must meditate on it daily. If we meditate on it daily we'll plant it deep within our souls. Word planted deep within us transforms us from the inside out. We are made new, new creations with a transformed attitude in line with Christ.

Remember these things...

Die with Christ and so live with Him. Endure struggle and persecution in His name as a reborn disciple and experience the honor of reigning with Christ.

However if we deny Him, if we reject Him, He will deny us and hand us over to what we're actually embracing. If we're faithless in our relationship with Him...He remains faithful, in line with His character and promise...He remains faithful to His people.

Nomads and Discernment

1)  Physical: An experiential reminder of what we truly need in order to do life...no computer, ipod, personal library etc.

2)  Social: With community: shared meals, shared parenting, shared laughs, shared life, shared imperfect-but-beneficial-to-all Christ-based-community.

3)  Mental: Appropriate time to ponder what Christ is doing through His Spirit in this season...without said modern distractions. As one famous punk singer called this sort of thing 'a cerebral scrub!'

4)  Emotional: Time outside the norm. Time to be separate. Time for distance. Space for renewal. Who doesn't like a good cry?

5)  Familial: Simply being with my family through heat, cold, rain, thirst, packing, cooking, firing, kids, bugs, swimming, sand, tantrums, laughs, challenges, joys, new experiences. Growth.

6)  Hygienic: Well, it's camping, not to much say about that...fresh undergarments anyone?

7)  Spiritual: All of the above and more combined to create a very real, very tangible movement of the Spirit in real time, away from the normal rhythm of life and regular time in the Word.

This camping trip has been a metaphorical taste of the greater nomadic journey my family and I are venturing out on. No place to attach our name to - though borrowing a room in a home to live in until the Lord provides other means. No job to commit my time to, nor receive compensation from - until that door opens in due time. New social arena. New environment to ponder life in and about. New spiritual season in which to set up camp with all it's challenges and joys, many of which are parabolic to the very nature of camping itself.

I am exhausted and yet refreshed. I am humbled and yet filled anew with confidence. I am discerning what's best and yet banking on the Spirits guidance, yet knowing little of what's in store.

'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion' (Romans 9:14-16). Is God unjust in saying this to myself and my wife, who are giving up our home, community, comfort for His work? I don't think so.

He is the Creator of life and definer of purpose and justice. We are the created and the receptors of His purpose and His justice. He died on our behalf so that we would know Him personally, eternally. I may miss out on the American Dream version of comfort while serving Him in this indefinite season and yet still be blessed more than I will ever comprehend.

He remains merciful by allowing me to know Him. He is gracious in calling me to follow.

So we'll continue on with a camping mindset, in His love and care, filled with the knowledge of His goodness and provision, whether meager or bountiful. Is it possible for every believer to live as called wanderers? Is it necessary? I don't know, but it's a good experiential reminder of what we're really about.

Read Hebrews 11 and Romans8:18-9:29 and spend some time in the forest, see the trees.