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.

Sold for Nothing, Bought with Love

This is what the Lord says:

  "You were sold for nothing,

    and without money you will be redeemed." (Isaiah 52:3)

In the song in Oliver! when the orphan Oliver is being sold by the cruel overseer of the orphanage, he sings these words: "One boy, boy for sale, he's going cheap. . . ." For some reason this song comes to my mind at times. He's trying to get rid of Oliver and doesn't care how. Being "sold for nothing" is the story of this present age. How often have I sensed someone was eager to be rid of me? How often have I been eager to get rid of myself, selling my own birthright for nothing or worse?

How easily will I sell my integrity? Or my ability? Or my loved ones? I sell them for a small reprieve from pain or a few seconds of "looking good" or my own sense of importance. What a waste!

The irony is that I sell my life, my true self as God's beloved, for so little and I am not bought back in the same way at all. The payment is not in money or mere recompense, but in blood and sweat for my sake before I knew any better. I am not ransomed by paying back my debts, but by someone taking my side and my place. I am set free by another willing to be a slave and showing me how to serve, the "Servant of all."

And then, the irony deepens. I am set free to serve again, but to a different master. Instead of obsessive desire and overwhelming fear holding the whip, I am able to serve God and others with freedom and, therefore, love. In the end, we are redeemed not with money or suffering or punishment, but with an abiding love that will not let us go. It frees us and infects us at the same time, making us sick with a goodness like Jesus has, a goodness that flows from the inside out. 

Ears Ready for Planting

 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop - thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4:20)

There are people you pour your life into and they just take and take and produce nothing. This does not stop us from continuing to fill that hole. Sometimes it is out of love. Sometimes it is out of habit. Sometimes it is merely a willfulness to make someone else into what we want.

The parable of the sower and the seed talks about such relationships. There are relationships like black holes, their are fair-weather friends, there are people who love beginnings, but have no interest in enduring to the end. But then there are some people who seem ready to hear and respond and grow. Here, the seed easily received by these people is a word from God. The smallest encouragement draws such people into deep feeling and great deeds. They do not seem to have been inoculated against Jesus and his words, but drink them like water in a desert.

Receptivity needs two wings to fly. One wing is knowing good news when we hear it. The offer to place the control of our lives under God does not sound like good news to everyone. That is because the other wing is not functioning correctly. We need to know what kind of person God is so we can understand what kind of control he desires. The scripture speaks of God like this:

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, 

  neither are my ways your ways," declares the Lord. . .

You shall go out with joy 

  and be led forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you

  and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55)

It is also possible to know somewhat how good and great God is and not receive word from him. This is also flying with one wing. Such people usually try to walk with God merely from obeying commands and applying rules from the Bible to their life. The good news is that God's control is not like a writer with a pen, but like a father with his child. It is guidance with growth. God doesn't merely want people to do his will; he wants people who want to do his will with joy. This kind of shaping takes something more like raising a child than pounding on a stone.

This is shown clearly in Jesus. He came to do what his Father and he wanted to do. Ultimately the control was and is in his hands. But he did not come so much as a king who needed servants, but as a teacher of apprentices. His instructions to them were as detailed as they needed to be. They can only be carried out be someone who can both hear God personally and joyfully obey him. Without these two wings the good news of Jesus does not produce much fruit.

Child-like in Old Age

 Even to your old age and gray hairs

  I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

  I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

I may not be in my old age, but I have my share of gray hair. I guess we may never completely outgrow the desire to be someone's child. Although that can create a childish person, it may also be able to make someone more child-like.

As I get older I have had more obvious examples in which I have needed someone to sustain me, even someone to carry me and rescue me. Sometimes a sickness has taken all sense of pride from me with pain or incapacity. Sometimes I am faced with horrible problems in my family that I cannot face or fix. Sometimes I am hardly able to get out of bed in the morning from sheer weariness or despair. I find I can enter such moments in childish ways or in child-like ways. I can throw tantrums and kick and scream or I can grieve and cry out for help and comfort. They can be similar in appearance, but my heart is radically different in the midst of them.

Growth into child-like humility involves letting go of outcomes without giving up. It involves having a place to stand apart from my desires without disowning them. It involves learning how to love reality more than the illusions I weave. The God of peace can be found if we know how to seek him. 

The Band of Survivors

Once more a remnant of the house of Judah

  will take root below and bear fruit above.

For out of Jerusalem will a come a remnant,

  and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

  will accomplish this. (Isaiah 37:31-32)

Man, I like this. I like calling the remnant a band of survivors. It speaks not only of desperate times, but of desperate people. People desperate for God. People in a real war. The remnant then and the remnant now will not just drift into survival. It will take some real effort.

I also love how this band of survivors takes root below and bears fruit above. There's a tenacity to following Jesus that grips the earth with both hands and will not let go. No floaty, air-headed kind of faith. If it's real, it's got to grab life and not let go. It is actually people who don't seek Jesus in life that are in the illusion, caught in the matrix of this nonsensical thinking of this world or in the empty dreams of empty religion.

These survivors also bear fruit above. Like a tree planted deeply, their branches and fruit stretch above mediocrity. The fruit is the overflow of their life. This super-abundance is not found in pain-free living, great ambitions, or impressive credentials, but in rock-solid character that holds out to the very end without ending up cruel or indifferent. The fruit is lasting and deeply satisfying to everyone who tastes it.

Most importantly, the band of survivors only survive because of the Lord's zeal. Their near-escapes, their struggles against the impossible, and their lonely deserts are not mostly a testimony to their great skill or endurance, but a story of a great love that will not let them go. The Lord wants not only survivors, but overcomers. This band does not go it alone. They go together. They go with God.