The Wells of Salvation

 In that day you will say,

  "Surely the Lord is my salvation

    I will trust and not be afraid.

  The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song,

    he has become my salvation.."

  With joy you will draw water

    from the wells of salvation.  (Isaiah 12:3-3)

"That day" is today. During Jesus's earthly ministry, there was a problem. As he proclaimed and taught about the kingdom of God, the people were looking forward to a time when God would come and set all things right through judgment and complete renewal. This was not wrong, but it is not the good news that Jesus brought. He was talking about the opportunity of access to the kingdom of God now. 

We face the same misunderstanding today. People talk about the kingdom of God in terms of building it and waiting for it, but not in terms of its presence and immanence. Jesus talked about seeing and entering the kingdom of God, not building it or making it happen. When he said, "The kingdom of God is near," he did not mean it was about to happen, but that it was entirely accessible. (For further information about this, you can read this blog entry: What Is the Kingdom of God?)

Isaiah was talking about the day that God would bring deliverance to his people. Complete deliverance. That day is happening now in Jesus. He says "If anyone is thristy, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will now flow from within him." (John 7:37-38) The complete deliverance is in Jesus and life with him through his Spirit. That life will not change in the future, but come to fruition. Perhaps another way of saying it is that life we can find now in Jesus will not change in kind, but in its intensity. When he returns it will not be so much something different as something more.

The "wells of salvation" are not just forgiveness to get us out of this life into the next. These wells are where we go each moment to draw living water for the days and years of sojourn in this time of exile. This water is the same, but the setting is different. In substance, simply living with Jesus is the eternal, abundant water we need. However, we often get obsessed with just wishing for a change of setting instead. For those whose joy comes from pulling water out of the well day in and day out, the Lord is their song and their salvation. He is their daily companion on the road through life. We do not seek escape, but joyful, obedient living.

The only well we can go to is the life that we have before us. Living water is accessible from within by the Spirit, but it is available only from within us. From our lives lived deeply and truly. We cannot access water from someone else's well, someone else's life, as much as we might want to. This desire is what keeps most of us from enjoying God's deliverance. We want another life. What we need is another God. We do not trust God in our lives, but are afraid of our life and the God Who has given it to us. Jesus has come to redeem, renew, reframe our lives, not give us another escape.

Only in the power and reality of Jesus's redemption will the wells of salvation open for us. Only then will it be a joy to access that living water, the kingdom of God in King Jesus. We will find our confidence. And we will discover what it is to not live in fear. We will truly be saved.

The Invitation, the Feast

"I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet." But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. (Matthew 22:4-5)

The preparation has been centuries in the making. This feast is what everything was made for. The sun, moon, and stars to light it. The trees to wave joy over it. The animals to play in the midst of it. And people to enjoy it.

The people have been taught and led through the ages to come to expect and to anticipate such a feast. They were sent invitation and explanation through teachers and scriptures and even in basic human wisdom. It was all done to warm and soften their hearts to their Maker.

The final call for the feast was the most amazing. Last of all, he sent his son to them. "They will respect my son," he said. (Matthew 21:37) But it was not so. Even as his own Son came to share the good news of the Father's goodness and greatness through word and deed, all sorts of people gathered together to kill him.

The people may have thought this was the end, the last straw. But even then the invitation went out. News came back that the Son could not be killed, the invitation could not be quieted, and the people could not be unloved by the Father. Because of their disregard for his Son, they faced deep suffering. They had allied themselves with evil and now evil had them in its clutches and had its way with them. Still the invitation goes out. It's not too late. If, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:10)

We have been brought back to God through Jesus. God's forgiveness was with us even to in the depths of our own disregard, hatred, and abuse. He stayed with us even to the limits of our own evil. God is still with us. His invitation shines even more brightly than ever. Some people do not want to be reconciled. They still find reason to avoid God. Some people think that the invitation is not open to everyone, but only to a special few. But we are not locked out; we have locked ourselves in. God opens wide his door by making peace with each person through Jesus. That is the invitation. The feast is deliverance from a dead, meaningless, empty life of trying to avoid pain, justify oneself, or impress others.

This is an old story. We tire of God's persistence and insistence for us to come. It is so common that it is met with disregard. We pay no attention and go off to our pursuits. It does not have to be that way. The feast is a wedding feast, uniting God with each person and with his people. Now that unity is finally found in God-made-human, Jesus. That unity is one of living life with Him in prayerful response to his voice which always echoes the BIble, in work and play that resounds with joy and power unexplainable, and in caring for other people in a way that brings about goodness and wholeness in their lives. 

The doors are open. The feast is ready. The guests are already arriving. Join the feast. Do not just listen to the gathering from outside. Do not sit on the doorstep frustrated about who is invited. Do not fuss about how inconvenient it all is. Your response to the invitation will reveal your heart to you. Entering will show you why both laughter and tears are part of real life together with God.

All My Fountains

“I delight in your lovingkindess,

not in your sacrifice.”

You speak to the miser in me

       who treats devotion like a calculation,

                   worship like a duty,

                   kindness like a burden.

I count and carefully keep track

  of each penny I give to you

  while pouring my abundance elsewhere.

Oh, the tax law I have made of my devotion

       making sure I come out in the right,

       with a foolproof justification of selfishness.

This wrinkled, grubbing miser in me

        needs a great conversion

                   a brand new vision

                   of the ocean of love

                   before each and all of us,

        instead of the dribbling drops

                     of a squeezed belief

                     wrung out like an old dishrag.

“I delight in you knowing Me,

not in your burnt offerings that burn you out.”

You speak to the sacrifices I hold close to my heart,

       what I’ve done for you,

       what I think I deserve.

But you hold something else dear:

       the moments I truly heard you,

       the times I was close to your heart

             which was breaking to be known,

             so that I might share in your life,

                                               that eternal life.

It was not my giving up you treasured,

    my self-important sacrifices

                                 from scarcity

                                 and gritted teeth.

It was my up-giving you longed for

    an overflow of an abundance from you,

                            a hundred-fold soil,

                            riches begetting riches,

                            a glory both given and achieved.

The little coal of worship duty

       blazes into adoration fire.

The slight taste for devotion fear

       becomes the unquenchable thirst for the living God.

The kindness calculated for appreciation

       is now a treasure shared without thought or worry.

Every movement
      is a dance.

Every thought

       is a delight.

Every word

       is praise.

Every moment

       is a wonder

              at what you are saying

              and what you are doing.

“What can I do with you?

What can I do with you?”

You speak to each coming and going day,

                      evening and morning.

Will you look and see that it was good?

When the cool of the day comes

           And you say, “Where are you?”

           Can I only say, “I was afraid, so I hid”?

Speak into my heart new words:

           “Oh God, you are my God!”

           “Search me and know my heart!”

           “You are my Shepherd,

                    I lack nothing.”

           “You have made known to me the path of life,

                    you will fill me with joy in your presence,

                    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

           “All my fountains are in you!”

Let me seek you

      by the quiet streams

                 where I am not swept away by noise and hurry,

      in the green pastures

                 where I have all I need of peace and rest,

      at the source of living water

                 where all my fountains of love flow freely,

        through and beyond the valley

                   of the shadow of death

                   where there is joy in the morning.

        I will not fear,

        No, I will not fear,

                 though the earth give way,

                 for you are with me.

You have made the way,

                          the one way,

       for me to be with you

                          always, 

                          even to the end of the age.

His name is Jesus.

A Flourishing Life or One Forgotten

 PSALM 1

A blessed person

    does not follow wicked schemes,

    or support sinful ways,

    or keep company with the scornful.

Instead, the Lord's teaching

    delights him

and the teaching from the Lord

    he whispers day and night.

And so, he is like a tree

    planted by ever-flowing streams

    that yields fruit continually

    with leaves that don't fade.

Whatever he does flourishes.

No so the wicked.

    They are like chaff blown away.

So the wicked will not be able to stand in face of justice

    nor sinners in the midst of a righteous gathering.

For the journey of the righteous is well-known to the Lord,

    but the journey of the wicked will be forgotten.

The Master Teaching: the Kingdom of God

The sovereignty of God is the primary message of the Old Testament. As Psalm 139 explains, "The Lord sits enthroned in the heavens, his kingdom rules over all." The prophets speak of God over all nations, pronouncing his words not only to Israel, but also to each nation: "He shall judge between nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples." (Isaiah 2:4) God is not just the God of Israel, but the God and creator of the whole world and all peoples. As John Piper says, "When we say God is sovereign, we mean he is powerful and authoritative to the extent of being able to override all other powers and authorities. That’s my effort at a definition." (What is the Sovereignty of God?) The sovereignty of God is absorbed into another proclamation in the New Testament. Jesus's primary message is "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15) Let me untangle this a little. First, the kingdom of God is not a place or a time. It is God's ruling, his action, his influence in all of the heavens and the earth. The message of God's rule so present in the Old Testament is now being announced as the good news in the New Testament with the emphasis that the kingdom is "at hand." Jesus is proclaiming the good news that the kingdom is now accessible in ways it has never been accessible before. Roughly speaking, the sovereignty of God is the kingdom of God. Now let's explore what that means. It is well-known that the kingdom of God is "already, but not yet." God's kingdom has never not existed. He has always had power and authority over all he has made. Jesus was not announcing the kingdom coming from non-existence with his presence.The kingdom is now accessible through Jesus in ways that it was not accessible before. This is how the kingdom is "already." God's sovereignty is also "already" as seen in the Old Testament. But we also know that the kingdom of God is "not yet." God rules over all, but his kingdom is not fully manifested in this present age. We anticipate God's rule and influence to be much greater. We anticipate that it will be absolute in the sense that we will not be able to hide from it or avoid it any longer. I believe this is also the current status of God's sovereignty. God is able to override all other powers and authorities. God has won the war over all powers and authorities. But God's sovereignty is not complete in this age because there are other rulers and authorities that interfere with God and his kingdom. So we are taught to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We pray this because God's kingdom has not fully come and his will is not fully done on earth as it is in heaven. But even more exciting, we can understand much about God's sovereignty by studying and pondering Jesus's teaching on the kingdom in the parables. God's influence in the kingdom and his rule as our Lord cannot be separated. So, it would generally follow that God's sovereignty is like a treasure in a field and a pearl of great value. But his rule is also like a sower throwing seed on different kinds of soil or a man who has an enemy plant weeds in his field. (Matthew 13) Like the kingdom of God, the sovereignty of God is not in any trouble in this present age. It is always at hand and never at a loss even though there are other rulers and powers set against it, doing what God does not want them to do. I believe that Jesus's teaching on the kingdom of God stretches over all the great themes of the Bible and the deepest concerns of humankind. Not only does the kingdom of God draw in the sovereignty of God, it also draws in justice, grace, and the church. Each of these we see as "already, but not yet." They are fully present in the will and work of God, but thwarted by God's permission according to his good and loving judgment. We see perfect justice in Jesus and in the kingdom of God. We see complete grace as well. We also experience some of the called-out saints of the church. When some people talk about justice, they are really looking to the kingdom of God. The same with grace and the church. So the parables of the kingdom of God have much to teach us in all these areas. Jesus teaching on the kingdom of God also shows us how the aspirations of humankind can fall short of what God is doing now. The "already, not yet" aspect of each of these important areas teach us that God wants to be with us more than over us. God wants to be our friend more than to be fair. God wants us to grow in grace more than get his grace. God wants our life to be church more than for church to be our life. All of these are evident in the present reality of the kingdom of God and are expressed in these different areas as well. It is not surprising that the Master teacher would know this and give us what we need to navigate these ideas with grace and truth.

Savior of the Dark

I walk the dark road.

I have not been here before.

I am unfamiliar with the terrain.

What I am supposed to do?

Every day brings new fears.

The battle is thick here.

Yet I can still sleep.

I can still get up again.

I am called back to your side

even though all my time is shattered

into a meaningless pile of moments.

 

 

You are here in the dark.

I cry like a child left alone,

but I realize I am not alone

even in the dark.

Is there comfort here

that is not on the brighter paths,

moments of quiet when the tears have stopped

and your hand is upon me?

I am alone, locked in this basement

and yet I am more alive to you

when the tears and fears pass.

What my enemies meant for my ruin

and my humiliation

becomes moments of truth

when I find

"I am not afraid of the dark"

because I am not alone

even when everyone else

is afraid and wants

me to fear.

No, I am not afraid of the dark

because it will not hurt me,

it will shroud me

with silence

and I will seem dead

for a time,

but the fear stops coming

and I can hide here

under your wing.

I am being protected here

in the dark

with the real storm outside,

people wailing and moaning

with grim determination

unable to stay

quiet in the dark.

I hear them and I am afraid

of their fear

but you are here

and the dark is quiet

even as I am alone.

My shelter, my deliverer,

my shroud, my death to fear,

my answer to tears,

my Savior of the dark.

I Have a Friend - Jesus

One time I was at a homeschooling conference and went to a vendor group. The guy was selling books that introduced small children to Jesus by taking them through the "steps of salvation." We had his book and I was interested in meeting him and seeing how he used it. At the meeting was a young father who had a little girl who wasn't reading yet. He said, " I try to read your book to my little girl, but she is not interested. She only wants to hear the story of the good Samaritan over and over." The teacher explained that it was good to read the story, but how important it was that the little girl get saved by going through the steps in his book.

I was taken back a number of years when I had questions about how to raise and train my children in the Lord. I remember trying to read a chapter of Romans to kids who were 6, 4, and 2. The most troublesome was my son, the 4-year old. He said what the girls were thinking, "I'm bored. Are we done yet?" I went to God with my problem. I knew I was not there to entertain my children, but the glassy eyes and the fidgeting hands and the plain admission of boredom worried me. "Do I really want them to learn that the Bible is boring?"

God was good to me. He used the form of scripture to teach me an important lesson about teaching my children. A number of years before, I visited with a missionary couple who were home on furlough. Jim and Beverly explained that they were following the Bible format for explaining and teaching God to a people group who had not had any Bible to read. They began with Genesis and the Creator God and moved to the covenant God and the God of Israel. They honored the flow of history in teaching about Jesus more than a particular theology. They did not despise theology, but they found it hard to start with it. I remembered that conversation and tried to be a missionary to my family.

I discovered that both testaments of the Bible begin with a lot of stories. Then there was wisdom and law. Then there was prophecy. It was a really rough understanding, but it got me started right: stories. I found that what my children needed first was to come to know Jesus and all his friends. The Bible characters and their stories were the foundation of our family's Bible education. Suddenly, there were questions instead of boredom. At times they would remind me of our times together when I forgot. They were asking to read the familiar books with pictures and words they could understand.

I once read an article about educational television. They were doing some tests with children and their TV program, monitoring when the kids got up and when they would remain and watch. The main thing that got children bored as they watched was not a lack of special effects or color or excited voices, but simply understanding. When children stopped understanding the show, they got bored. It made me realize that my kid's boredom was not so much about excitement, but about sharing God in an understandable way.

So, stories and appropriate leveled language helped. My interest in learning helped them to learn as well. Theology came naturally through questions. We became students of Jesus and of God by wondering about them and their ways. I realized that the stories kept speaking to me as I learned how to see it as freshly as my children did. The stories laid out the framework where law, wisdom, prophecy, and salvation made sense. Most importantly, Jesus was their Friend before he became their Savior.

This is not strange. Watchman Nee expressed this as the gospel truth. Jesus is a friend to sinners before he is their savior. I have found this truth so helpful and have been able to expand on it as I have been involved with the spiritual formation of my family. We do not come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord apart from knowing him as Teacher and Friend.

I could not resist going and talking to the father of that little girl after that meeting. I told him a little of my story with my children and said, "Keep reading that story over and over and over to your daughter. She will become friends with the people in it and learn to know the story-teller through it. There will be time to see her saved from the corruption in this world, but first she needs to have a friend - Jesus."