Now Is the Time

We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says,

"In the time of my favor I heard you,

  and in the day of salvation I helped you."

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

Implore. Urge. Now is the time. Is there a better time? What could keep us waiting? It is clear that God has not changed. His heart has always been for each of us and all of us. So what are we waiting for?

Maybe all we want is forgiveness. All we want is to be let off the hook. Really at the heart of that "forgiveness" is the desire to be rid of God, just to get him off our backs. The forgiveness that God offers is for reconciliation. It is to make things right between us. As a lexicon puts it: "to reestablish proper friendly interpersonal relations after these have been disrupted or broken." God does not want to just make us right and merely obedient; he wants to live with each and every one of us in a paradise where we can work and walk with him in the "cool of the day," just like old times.

This reconciliation goes even further. God would have us become his very own righteousness. He wants to re-form us into all that is so right and so good about God: becoming like Christ, full of love, joy, peace, hope, and faith. He wants to be with us and in us so that we might enter into "an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands," be "clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (2 Corinthians 5:1,4) We will become all that we are supposed to be.

The day of salvation is today, not only after we leave these bodies ("tents"). Eternal life is a conversational relationship with the only true God and with Jesus Christ whom he sent. (John 17:3) Eternal life is the same thing as the abundant life promised by Jesus (John 10:10). Eternal life can start now and continue on forever. . . or not. Salvation is not merely an experience, but a whole string of experiences stretching into eternity. Salvation is a life or it is nothing at all.

What is it like to receive something in vain? It would be like taking a gift that someone gave you and putting it into permanent storage or even throwing it away. It would be like receiving an education and forgetting all that you learned or even undermining it in all you do. It would be like finding a treasure and keeping safe, but never investing or spending it. Is it possible for God's reconciliation to be shelved, forgotten, and left unspent? Tragically, it happens all the time.

Put simply, we may just not really want God or a relationship with him. We may want his favor and his gifts, but what Jesus really came to give was reconciliation. A relationship put right. Those who work with God try to make this opportunity known, as God has always been doing, holding open his arms, holding out his hands. He calls out to you, "Come home from that distant land. Follow me and learn me. Be filled with the kind of Spirit and life I have." "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17) What are you waiting for?

From Praise to Worship

 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,

  the name of the Lord is to be praised. (Psalm 113)

As nice as church services can be, as helpful as it is to have a time and place to gather with other Christ-learners, it is a disservice to this passage to think of a constant church service. Church services are potentially very helpful, but they are not life. Unfortunately, they are often places to identify with a certain ideology rather than walk with others with Jesus. Worship is identified as a church service will end up poisoning this text.

The other problem is that God may receive praise, but he is looking for worship. More specifically - he is looking for worshipers. We know mouths praise, but hearts worship. Jesus criticized some who drew near to God with their mouths while their hearts were far from him. This is the problem. How do we draw near with our hearts, worship him in spirit?

This may seem to contradict what was just said, but we can draw near with our mouths. When I was in high school, I could cuss the wallpaper off a wall, espcially at the video game arcade (what is that?). I wanted to stop cussing, so I began with my mouth. I changed the words into something less offensive. Then I began to just cuss on the inside. Then I just would get angry. Then I started dealing with my anger.

What happened? Well, when I cut off the automatic flow of anger that spewed out of my mouth, I became much more aware of its presence inside. I realized I was an angry person. I did not think that was inevitable because of Jesus and his teaching and his life and his words to me. So with his help I began to deal with my anger, my fear, and my distrust of God.

Similarly, in the opposite direction, if a person praises God all day long, and not just in front of other people, he will likely become aware of what is on the inside. Is there worship? Is there gratitude? If not, the praise will ring hollow and empty. Then that person is in a position to change. . . or give up. This is where to grace of God comes in: strength for change, mercy for failure.

Discipline is what you can do with your body to bring about change in your heart and soul. It's good to think about it, but not enough. It's good to talk about it, but not enough. Discipline is the nest where the Holy Spirit can roost in our lives. Without it, our relationship with God remains abstract and distracted. Our hearts end up far from him.

So the Psalmist emphasizes a moral imperative of God's worth and our need: worship and praise. Yet he also is speaking wisdom about how life is best lived. Discpline will destroy your life witht God if it becomes righteousness instead of wisdom. That is the trap of legalism, externalism. Instead of allowing discipline to eat you alive, learn how to be nourished and strengthed by your discipline. Become a Christ-learner more than a Christ-pleaser. He will be pleased with your learning. He will grow you from the inside out.

All Things Are Possible in the With-God Life

 With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God. (Mark 10:27)

The other day someone asked me if I was a positive person. I had trouble answering. Inside I feel full of doubt and distrust, but often when I open my mouth, I am compelled to say something good or even hopeful. I do not think this is all bad. Sometimes the words I need to hear come unexpectedly from my own mouth.

This verse, however, is not so much about positivity, but proximity. Most people are familiar with "all things are possible with God." I think we often say, "All things are possible for God," but that is not what this says or means. The Greek word para used with God in the dative has this sense: "with persons to denote proximity, as in Lk.9:47, being at home or in a household, and presence, fellowship, or sphere of influence." (TDNTA) Being with God is what makes all things possible for us.

On the other hand, being with humanity alone is what makes things impossible. It is not because people are bad necessarily, but because they are finite. The bad part comes when people do not recognize their finitude and do not seek God for his strength and grace. Instead we rely on ourselves and our movements and ideas to solve our problems.

History teaches us one important thing about humanity. Human problems cannot be solved by human solutions. We are not enough individually or corporately to handle the problems we have. It was never meant to be this way. This can make one hopeless or it can help one put hope and faith in the right place: in a life with God.