Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Gospel for Dummies

"He is jealous for me...."

It's 2:30am and I am awake.  I have a David Crowder Band song running through my head, intertwined with analogies.  Why does my brain work like this? Don't know.  But I do know God has made me this way for a reason.  So, I am up and typing on my I-phone. It's slower than the computer, but that helps me to develop my thoughts as I type.  So, enjoy the song lyrics in quotations, and I hope you'll enjoy the analogies as well.

Proverbs says a woman's hair is her crowning glory.   I have a lot of hair, and when my hair leaves my head , it clogs my drain.  (Or litters my floor, aaaargh).  If unity starts at the head and runs down, if it crowns the Body, then it's like my hair.  When we're all together, it's beautiful.  A head full of glorious hair.  When we are separated from the head, it just clogs the drain.  And leaves the head balding.

"love is a hurricane, I am the tree...."

The song that's playing is His song.  Music is made of notes.  Melodies and harmonies.  Themes (I'm thinking classical music).  If we are all on board, playing the song He wrote, it is a masterpiece of salvation for the world, a magnum opus.   It's a Gospel song.  A deliverance song.  A healing song.  A song that draws others into His embrace.  I played the clarinet in a band for years.  There's nothing like the tension of that moment when the conductor raises his baton, the quiet, taut with the expectation of the first notes.  Where will the music take us?
And there's nothing as horrendous as the clashing cacophony of discord if each musician plays the wrong note.  Sometimes in life we don't like the notes on our page and we want to play something else.  The tempo is not to our liking.  The key is difficult to play, requiring too much practice. Darn if I shouldn't be in first chair!  What song has The Composer written?  Songs are a journey of sound, of movement, of emotion.  What song am I playing for others to hear?

"if grace is an ocean, we're all sinking."

It's the greatest story ever told.  We are the words, perfectly crafted to sit on the page and express Him to all who will read.  If we move from our place, the story gets garbled, confused.  Have you ever read a book with a typo in it?  Such lengths went to publish the book, to edit it, and there's a typo.  If you're a person who loves to read, you get how distracting that can be.  My eye keeps going back to it, wondering why it's there, editing it in my mind.  Irritated that I paid good money for a book where someone didn't care enough to edit carefully.  Letters and words out of place can distract from the storyline, at best.  Or they bring confusion to the reader.  At worst, the reader walks away, not willing to wade through the words to make sense of them.  The story our lives are writing should be simple, clear, and easy to read.  "The Gospel For Dummies".

So there you go.  What story is your life telling?

Now go have a great hair day.  :)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

How to Make it to the Finish Line as a Disciple

"....The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you".  Luke 17: 20-21

The key to longevity as a disciple of Christ is your personal relationship with Him - it must be the center point for you.  Not public work, activity, charity...nothing else.  All these good things will naturally flow from a disciples life, but they aren't the main thing.

2 Kings 2:19-22 tells an interesting story which helps illustrate this point.

"Then the men of the city (Jericho) said to Elisha, "Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground is barren."

And He said, "Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.  So they brought it to him.

Then he went out tot he source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, "Thus says the Lord: 'I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.'"  So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word Elisha which he spoke."

  • From the outside, the external appearance, the city looked great, it's "situation was pleasant".  It's what was inside that was dead and barren.  We can't be content to hide behind a pleasant exterior when we are needing to be healed back to a place of life and fruitfulness again.  
  • A new bowl is needed.  God is always doing a new work, and Christ came to do the ultimate new thing in making us over into new creations (2 Cor. 5:17)  Just as Jericho was a cursed city and is being made into a new and blessed city, God has provided for us through His Son to go from death to life, from barrenness to fruitfulness by reconciling all things to Himself through Christ.
  • Salt is mentioned early in the Bible.  Leviticus 2:13 says "And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt, you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering.  With all your offerings you shall offer salt".  God is a covenant God.  In Genesis 17:7 He promises Abraham (our father in faith) "...this is the everlasting covenant:  I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you".  God has made an unbreakable covenant to be in relationship with us.  When we choose to be in relationship with God, we are agreeing to join in that covenant relationship and be His people.  
  • Being in relationship with God throws salt into the waters of your life, brings healing to what is dead and barren.  
Are you struggling internally?  Struggling with death and barrenness in your life?  This could be in any area of life.  How is your relationship with God?  The word says that God will ALWAYS be your God. He is Jehovah, our Lord
  The Lord who heals you
  The Lord, your provider
  The Lord, your righteousness
  The Lord, your deliverer
  The Lord who leads you in battle
  The Lord who leads you in victory
  The Lord, your peace 
  The Lord, the banner over your

Pursue your relationship with God through Christ Jesus, and you will make it to the finish line.  Go past external appearances, uncover your internal situations to the healing power of Jesus' finished work on the cross.  Continue in covenant relationship - God will never quit on it, it is an everlasting covenant!