Reflections On The Book

weekly theme #28 Life Together*   

week containing the seventh Sunday of Easter

God designed us to live in harmony.  I am to be in harmony with him, others, creation, and myself.  Becoming who God wants me to be is not an individual affair.  The fourth chapter of Ephesians has a lot to say about God’s gifts to the church, and verse thirteen says we become mature, full-grown, and measuring up to the full stature of Christ through using those gifts in unity for the good of the church.  I am both an individual and a member of the community, the Bride of Christ.  I need to embrace both and find comfort in both – even though there can be pain in both.

I picture Paul as a tough, perhaps gruff, young man.  His letters contain some fierce words and scathing rebukes, but I think he mellowed as he aged.  Not that he lost his passion or standards, but Paul’s spirit softened and his love flowed more easily and with more clarity.  The book of Philemon witnesses to that idea.  I hope I mellow as well, for the good of unity.

How well I love my Christian family members is a strong indication of how I love God.  Paul offers an example of how the Christian family should sacrifice for each other in the sixth chapter of first Corinthians.  He proposes that it is better to forgive another Christian who has wronged me than to make the “family disagreement” a matter of public record.  If a member of my Christian family wrongs me, I have the opportunity to respond like Jesus rather than like the world.  What do I value so much that would make me choose being unforgiving rather than being like Christ?

My ill-delivered zeal for unity among Jesus’ disciples has actually caused division.  The change I long for in the Body of Christ, from independence to inter-dependence, will not take place through words that condemn but words that compel.  Moreover, my actions must show unity and love.  No matter how mature I am in my Christian life, I can have confidence that my every attitude, act, and belief is less than perfect.  If I convince myself differently, it hinders further maturity and growth.  Rather than clutching to my imperfections, I need to cultivate the ability to change my mind, behavior, and attitude when it is clearly God’s will for me to do so.  (adapted from Liberation of Life by Harvey & Lois Seifert)

Paul said we need each other, but the breadth of his meaning is greater than I first thought.  Romans 12:5b says, “And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each needs all the others.”  I belong to other believers, and I need all of them.  No member of the body is optional; they are all mission critical.  I don’t just need the Rock-Star members; I need the humble, meek, quiet members, too.  In fact, God does not long for Rock-Star Christians to give a performance as much as he longs for his Bride to be ready for the wedding.

A thought about balance is a fitting close to this week’s long-winded piece.  In this unity, there is a place for solitude.  Without times of solitude with the Lord, unity can begin to feel clingy, overwhelming, and even parasitic.  I can know unity is always there even when I am not in the midst of it.  Solitude increases my love for unity.

*A Guide To Prayer by Job and Shawchuck provided the scripture references and readings that inspired these reflections.  I found this devotional to be the most heart changing of any I’ve used.  It truly lives up to its title.

Reflections On The Book

weekly theme #27 Chosen By God*           

week containing the Sixth Sunday of Easter

When I think of being chosen by God, I think of having some mission or purpose to accomplish.  Yet the first part of being chosen, the first part that never ends, is receiving.  I receive his guidance, care, protection, and discipline.  Until I receive from him, even the amount of my faith in him, I have no hope of accomplishing any mission.  God’s mission for me is unique from the missions of others because each of us is unique.  He uses a great variety of us to work in harmony for his fame and glory.

Paul says God reached out to me before I showed any interest in him.  In fact, Paul writes that God restored my relationship as his friend while I was still his behaving as his enemy.  (Romans 5:8-10)  He did this knowing beforehand what a rebellious, inconsistent, and dull follower I would be.  God chose me despite my qualities, not because of them.  What’s more, he invites me to join in carrying his cross, to suffer with him.  My willingness to do this is my expression of love to him.  It is an opportunity, not a punishment.

How involved is God in the details?  I have no doubt that he knew of me from the start of time, but was it by his design that I was born at this specific time and place.  I think so, and that makes the people and conditions in my path potentially divine appointments.  Why now?  Why here?  Why me?

The mind seeks to know and understand, and the heart seeks to be known and understood.  My mind seeks to know and understand God, but my heart’s longing is that he will know me and accept me as I offer myself to him.  The heart is content for he has called and chosen me as his own.  How I respond to being chosen has more to do with my actions than my feelings.  The question is whether I obey even when it’s painful.

I wondered what Psalm 126:6 meant, “They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”   The Amplified Bible helped understand why they wept as they sowed.  They were in a famine.  This grain they were sowing could sustain them for the short-term, but they would starve in the long-term if they planted no crop.  And if there was no harvest, the sowing was for nothing.  Their act of sowing the seed was a total commitment in faith.  That is the proper response to being chosen – all-in obedience.

*A Guide To Prayer by Job and Shawchuck provided the scripture references and readings that inspired these reflections.  I found this devotional to be the most heart changing of any I’ve used.  It truly lives up to its title.

Reflections On The Book

weekly theme #26 Love Is The Sign*         

week containing the Fifth Sunday of Easter

There is a story of Rabbi Hillel being told to teach the Torah while standing on one foot.  He lifted one foot and replied, “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.”  This clever answer is similar to what Paul said in Galatians 5:14, and many would say Jesus answered best by naming a whole-hearted love for God as the only thing greater than loving my neighbor.  How I express my love varies by a multitude of factors, but it must never be withheld for any reason.  Acts of love can flow from my faith even though my pride, energy, willingness, selfishness, or any other thing try to stifle the flow.  The Holy Spirit is within me!  What should flow from me besides love?  My will cannot cause love to naturally flow from me, but my submission to the Lord will release the torrent.  I cannot align myself to God by willpower but only through submission.

Funny how a speck of filth can make a container of pure water seem objectionable or how a decade of living in love can be forgotten by a single vile act.  I can’t love with absolutely purity, no human can, but thankfully, Jesus did and does.  He offers to let his love pass through me to others.  I just have to let him.  Our culture admires power and knowledge*, but if love is lacking from their company an imbalanced and frustrated life results.  Jesus was perfect in these three.

If my faith waivers, it creates a crack for doubt, then fear, to seep through my foundation.  However, witnessing something by experience gives physical evidence of what I believe by faith.  I look over my shoulder, at my past, and I am affirmed by numerous instances of God’s power, wisdom, and love.  Why do I worry?  Why do I fear?  How different are God and I even though mystically he lives in me.  While he loves obedience, I love independence.  I cling to life, but he gave it away.  He is attracted to eternal things, and I am distracted by earthly things.

Love does not always rescue me from difficulty (hardship).  Love is with me, even if I can’t sense it, through the trial.  Love moves me on despite difficulty.  Mother Teresa said that smiling at others helps us live better lives.  Some situations make it difficult to smile, even at Jesus, but smiling in spite of the pain makes the smile very beautiful.

*A Guide To Prayer by Job and Shawchuck provided the scripture references and readings that inspired these reflections.  I found this devotional to be the most heart changing of any I’ve used.  It truly lives up to its title.

Switch

This book, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, was recommended to me by a United Methodist Bishop from East Asia.  I think the line that hooked me was, “It’s the best book on change that I have ever read.”  That was my motivation for reading it, and I will agree with him.

I used to say that people couldn’t be changed; they have to want to change.  I now understand why that is wrong.  People change without even realizing they are changing!  This book takes a very involved process and reduces it to three fundamental concepts:

1. The logical, reasoning side of us is like a person, a “Rider”, trying to dictate the direction of an “Elephant”.
2. The “Elephant” is the emotional, feeling side in all of us.  It is more powerful than the “Rider” and can wear down the “Rider” after time.
3. Both the “Rider” and the “Elephant” need clear, simple directions to follow.  They need a well-marked “Path”.

I love the instant practicality of the book.  I highly recommend it for anyone who struggles with individual or group change.  Thanks, Bishop!

My notes on this book can be downloaded in MS Word format from the blue “FILES box” in the left side-bar of this blog.  Look for “Switch” as you scroll through the box.

Reflections On The Book

weekly theme #25 The Good Shepherd*   

week containing the fourth Sunday of Easter

As I prayed for each home on my cal-de-sac, I realized how long it had been since I visited with some of them.  The beginning verses of Jeremiah rebuke the leaders of Israel for being Shepherds who have mistreated their flock.  I’m sort of the Shepherd of my cal-de-sac as an overflow of being a disciple of Jesus.  I have mistreated these in my care by neglect.  Along that line, Ezekiel 34:11-16 begins with the familiar description of the caring, sacrificing, and loving Shepherd tending his needy sheep.  The tone changes at the end of the reading – “But I will destroy those [sheep] who are fat and powerful.  I will feed them, yes – feed them justice!”  (verse 16b)  Am I a “fat and powerful” sheep who withholds charity from other sheep?

Neglect is not a term I would use for my Shepherd, Jesus.  When I say that I can’t sense God or that he is distant from me, the truth is that I have distanced myself from him.  I created the separation.  I can take as a fact that no matter what I have done or wherever I find myself, there is a path back to the Shepherd from that very place.  The Shepherd longs for me.

I struggle with Christians who have the mindset of ethics by law.  Some Christians seem to be more interested in making laws than making disciples.  Jesus’ compassion, his mercy, is in opposition to the idea of making laws that externally try to force people to do what is “right”.  Jesus’ ethics comes from within me, from the Holy Spirit. Inside of me, of any believer, can be the fruit and ethics of the Holy Spirit, oozing out into the fruitless exterior filled with anger, judgment, and hypocrisy.  Paul’s counsel regarding the selection of church leaders describes people who live in step with Holy Spirit and exhibit corresponding behaviors in their everyday lives.  Sheep need to focus on the Shepherd, not other sheep.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need.”  Psalm 23 says the Shepherd provides rest, guidance, strength, protection, comfort, belonging, love, and hope.  These qualities connect well with 1 Peter 2:21-25, which says the Shepherd did not protect himself but sacrificed himself to save his sheep.  The Lord is my Shepherd, I have (he is) everything I need.

*A Guide To Prayer by Job and Shawchuck provided the scripture references and readings that inspired these reflections.  I found this devotional to be the most heart changing of any I’ve used.  It truly lives up to its title.