Who's Your Favorite Teacher?

S - Luke 8:49-56 (NLT): "… a messenger arrived from Jairus's home with the message, "Your little girl is dead. There's no use troubling the Teacher now."  But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid. Just trust me, and she will be all right." When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn't let anyone go in with him except Peter, James, John, and the little girl's father and mother. The house was filled with people weeping and wailing, but he said, "Stop the weeping! She isn't dead; she is only asleep." But the crowd laughed at him because they all knew she had died. Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, "Get up, my child!" And at that moment her life returned, and she immediately stood up! Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were overwhelmed, but Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened."

O - Is experience really the best teacher?  All through this chapter the teaching of experience is heralded in surround sound intensity affirming its inevitable conclusions.  In the face of such stark and devastating reality, experience's teaching voice:
             1.       Booms 'there's no use troubling the Teacher now.'

             2.       Mocks with laughter because 'they all knew she had died.'

The voice of Jesus, the real best teacher, is presenting quite a different message and conclusion.  Jesus says:
             1.       Don't be afraid, merely believe.
             2.       Stop the weeping; to me she's only asleep.
Interestingly enough all agreed on the situation.  The request for healing was no longer valid; greater and irrevocable forces had overcome the very basis of the request for Jesus' involvement.  Thousands of years of experience combined with the collective empirical data of the crowd exert their instructions in such a circumstance - stand down the request, bow down to the grief, accept your fate and do not trouble about it.  From eternity past to eternity future to the fulcrum of this tragic yet tender moment Jesus calls Jairus to trust, to the fierce personal loyalty Jesus deserves and offers and says Don't be afraid, merely believe; and to the crowd he says stop weeping.  In the end both do what Jesus said; the Dad unto the joy of real life and the crowd stops their weeping in the rebuke of it.

A - Real life is near me and so is the voice of experience.  I know that Jesus is the best and only real teacher and the surround sound of this world (church included and often leading the chant) is blaring at me.  As this whole transition began under the press of ruthless and faithless forces, I have been called to the words of Jesus to Jairus.  I don't know how all this will turn out but I do know that Jesus deserves my trust and that Jan and I have agreed to run hard to the end.  So, I'll keep following Jesus as we walk to the house where the daughter lies and the people weep and mock and I will listen for his voice and see what he will do.  My assignment is to not be afraid and to merely believe.  With King David I say - the time I am afraid I will trust in him.

P - Lord who speaks, teaches, heals and has authority over all and the capacity to do anything …

I invoke your name, your will, your presence, your person and I turn to you my face, my ears, my will and say YES! I welcome you and your awesome brilliance, limitless power, extreme goodness, defiant mercy, and relentless love.  Lord, please go wake up the funding and the release for which we all have prayed, believed and worked.  I will do the work you assign me and that work is believing and then doing with you what you are doing.  Lord, I believe you are doing this.  I am asking yet again for new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and for that which is too wonderful for me. Thank you for real life … refreshing, vibrant, irrepressible.

Unto the only best teacher and real life,
Steve

Heaven Makes Stuff for Us not Us for Stuff

S - Mark 2:23-28 (NLT): "One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of wheat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, "They shouldn't be doing that! It's against the law to work by harvesting grain on the Sabbath." But Jesus replied, "Haven't you ever read in the Scriptures what King David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest), ate the special bread reserved for the priests alone, and then gave some to his companions. That was breaking the law, too." Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!""

O - This tragic perversion of purpose is not limited to the Pharisees of Jesus' day or to the issue of Sabbath observances.  This sad and relentless reversal is ever-present and ever working in all religious cultures … ALL.  What is meant to be life giving becomes life taking.  What is given to benefit people becomes a system requiring people to benefit it.  Are we made for Church or is Church made for us?  Do we read the Scriptures because they help us come near to Jesus (life) or do we read them because they require us to read since they are words from God?  Is my QT an exchange of life or an obligation requiring my life to "make it work"?  Culture (religious and otherwise) has no life of its own; it requires our lives to exist.  Jesus is life and he exists as life with or without me/us and our cultures.  He calls us to himself for this exchange of divine and human, heaven and earth, of the temporary with the eternal.  Jesus' caution to the twelve is also his caution for all who follow (Matthew 16:6-12):  "Watch out!" Jesus warned them. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. ..." As we all know a little yeast works through the entire batch of dough.

A - Jesus uses the illustration of yeast in only two ways … the yeast of the Pharisees/Sadducees/Herod and the yeast of his Kingdom (cf. Luke 13:20-21). Both are everywhere and both want into the batch of my little life.  One is life taking and wants to take the lives of all others.  The other is life giving and wants to bring life (vibrant, irrepressible, resurrection life) to all others.  I need and want to watch out for and refuse the one while welcoming and engaging the other.  I need the Lord's help for this and fortunately he, as Lord over it all, is more than willing to help.  I choose life!

P - Lord of ALL and Lord of me,

I admit my ongoing vulnerability to the yeast which kills and my capacity to miss the yeast which brings life.  Lord, enable/empower me to refuse the yeast which kills me and others and welcome and embrace/engage the yeast which brings irrepressible life to me and to all others.  Thank you for wanting to help us in this and in every regard.  The truth is apart from you I can do NOTHING (not even one thing).  So, today while it’s called today … I throw open the batch of dough called Steve and say/pray … let the yeast of your kingdom work in and through all.  Thank you for letting me work with you and for calling me to take you at your word.

You are Beautiful,

Steve

The Promise of Jesus to His Father

S - John 17:20-26 (NLT): ""I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father--that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. "I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are-- I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you've given me to be with me, so they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me even before the world began! "O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you. I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them.""

O - Jesus has promised the Father, the first disciples and all disciples who come after them to keep on revealing the Father to them so that the Father's love may be in them and that Jesus (who is Life) would be in them. How does Jesus do this?  How does he keep on revealing the Father?  He does it the way he did it with the very first  followers … Jesus reveals the Father by being Jesus! When we see him we see the Father.  When we hear him we hear the Father.  When he comes into our lives the Father comes with him.  Since Jesus has made this promise the question for me is: Am I welcoming and receiving more revelations from the Lord?  Is Jesus still "jesusing" in my life and through my life?

A - Jesus does not reveal the Father by information alone … but by presence, spirit, experiences of all sorts, by trials undeserved and blessings beyond belief. Jesus calls me to the life and love which is God AND he does not call me alone - he calls the entire human race to join him and me.  All are wanted and yet not all come.  Of those who come not all stay.  Of those who stay Jesus has one desire: "that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father--that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me." I want and need Jesus to continue to go "jesusing" in and through my life unto his life and love in me, the Father in me and me engaged with all who are his in the only desired outcome/reality "They are One".

P - Dearest and Fairest and Only Lord, Jesus!

I admit you.  The truth, life, love, light, word of you.  I ask, beg, welcome, confess my need and express my desire for you to keep on revealing the Father to me.  Lord, I admit me.  Little and weak on my best day; seeing through a dark glass dimly on my best day; and a life which has few best days.  I admit my capacity for doubt and unbelief is only superseded by my capacity to completely miss the point … and above all else and through all you are the point.  So, in this day I turn to you the face, throw open my heart and commit entirely to you and your will on earth like it happens in heaven … unto the "in them" not just an "amen."

Steve

Start Here, Only Here … Really!

S - Psalm 128:1 (NIV): "Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways."

O - This opening line in a song of ascents is direct.  The words are clear and the instruction is not complicated.  However, the history of the human race confirms that we are very capable of creating entangled complications which can allow an individual or group to think they are doing the will of God while they are actually working directly against it (e.g. the Pharisees and Sabbath). The fear of the Lord, the blessings of the Lord, the truth of the Lord, the ways of the Lord all start at the same place and must be kept in the context of that starting place.  Where does it all begin? Love! The greatest commandments, the reason for Jesus coming, the written voice of God, the speaking voice of God and every other reality of his person and his activities all start with love.  If anyone (person, group, tribe or nation) starts at a different spot (e.g. information, other instructions, etc.) or drifts from the context of love the complications, misperceptions and self-deceptions of earth encroach and warp it all. All the law and prophets hang on love.  Jesus says to us all "Do this [i.e. live out loud the superlatives] and you will live."

A - Culture/religion, all culture and religion including my own, are always pressing for me/us to start at a place different than love.  Right or wrong, how something appears, personal safety and success, logical yet flawed thinking, stewardship are all consistently put ahead of love for "obvious reasons".  Yet, what is primarily obvious is the Lord's insistence that I/we always start at love and make sure that love remains the context for all.  Religion and logic don't mind love being on the "list of acceptable behaviors" but in the press of the other cultural demands love moves down the list and gives way to "another." My answer by life, attitude, action and word must be Jesus is love, God is love and there is no other! Today my assignment in being near and staying near begins at and continues in the greatest of these … love!

P - Lord who is love,

Today you will be relentless in your love for me and for all.  I welcome you and your love to do everything you desire and intend; even if I don't like it or understand it.  I ask that your love and life will flow into me and out of me.  Lord, today is your day and I want to follow, be with and work with you.  I can't do this on my own and don't want to.  Lord, I choose you back and I choose to start at love come what may.

Steve

Don't get Hoodwinked by this World's Idea of Sainthood

S - Psalm 145:8-14 (NIV): "The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down."

O - The terms in and of this Psalm are inclusive (all is used 6 times) and permanent (all his attributes and actions are in the present, active, indicative).  The only variable in this section of Scripture is who will extol the Lord (personal response to him) and tell about him (personal response to others). All praise him in that willingly or unwillingly his purpose will carry the day (e.g. both Moses and Pharaoh, Peter and Judas "praise" him).  ALL receive from him and all will ultimately comply with his will one way or the other; but it is only the "saint" who engages the relational dynamic of intentional response to him and to others about him.  "Saint" is never used in Scripture to indicate an attainment by human beings.  It is always a relational term involving the actions of God and then the response of humans to his action … and a continued dynamic from both God and humans.  Like the term "married", saint really is a designation focused on an ongoing relationship rather than a status "attained".

A - Am I relying on a "perceived" status (i.e. saint) or growing in a relationship (i.e. saint).  Either of these would only be possible according to God's grace and Jesus' life, death and resurrection.  Only one of them is actually offered by God and his intent in and through Jesus.  Which one is my focus and desire today and every day while it is called today?  The answer is eternally critical and literally the difference between life and death.  I choose the Lord back; I choose the relationship he desires and intends.

P - Lord who is and who loves us all,

Thank you for the truth of who you are and how you respond to all.  Thank you for the privileged place of getting to choose you back though belong to you by right either way.  Lord, today let me be one who is living in you, working with you and responding to you.  Lord, please cause your life and love to come into me and out of me.  Lord, I admit my desperate need and confess my desperate desire of you.  I do love you back.  I am so grateful to be yours and to be in relationship with you.

All my love,

Steve

Why God's Justice Isn't Blind

S - Ezekiel 14:21-23 (NIV): ""For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments--sword and famine and wild beasts and plague--to kill its men and their animals! Yet there will be some survivors--sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem--every disaster I have brought upon it. You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD."

O - These verses reveal and reflect more than our concept of justice.  We are always making God's justice like ours but they are not the same.  Our justice is about the facts, the debt, the injured party, setting a "right" example and the punitive consequence. God's justice certainly encompasses the facts, the debt, the injured party, right examples and even consequences.  However, his justice in not like ours because his goal in it is not balancing a scale but bringing people near to himself.  As he told Ezekiel "I have done nothing without cause." The consolation of God's justice is not that it (i.e. justice) has been served but rather that we have.  God's justice is all about heart correctives unto real life; a justice where mercy triumphs over judgment. He really is purposeful in everything he causes and in everything he allows.  His purpose in all issues of judgment is mercy unto reconciliation and the life that is really life … vibrant, refreshing, irrepressible, eternal! 

A - The truth is I am quick to need and want the mercy which triumphs over judgment and I am often slow/recalcitrant to offer the same to those who have deeply hurt me.  One of the dynamics which retards my response is my human concept of justice and scales, of fairness and debts.  Fortunately, Jesus is not offended at my stagger and he specifically instructs me to help me gain the needed momentum toward mercy.  Steve, give the way you've received.  Steve, lose your life so I can find it.  Steve, forgive the way you've been forgiven.  This is beautiful because it takes the focus off of my offended state and puts it on the One whom I love and who has loved me first, most and who refuses to change his mind; the one who really is slow to anger and quick to forgive … 70 times 7.  The beauty continues because rather than feeling denied my rights I end up liberated from them unto a consolation and courage the scales of justice cannot produce or even measure.  Today, I get to live this out loud with Jesus unto all.

P - God who sees,

Thank you for your pristine justice which serves my very little and very flawed life unto the joy of relationship with you and with all others.  Thank you for always forgiving me and for insisting that I do the same.  Thank you for the joy of forgiveness given and the freedom it brings.  Thank you for always wanting us at our worst (not just at our best) and for bringing us and keeping us near. Lord, today I want to be like you … slow to anger and quick to forgive, not counting other's sins against them.  Today I want to love you back, make you glad and be a reason someone else might believe.

Steve

Kingdom IQ

S - Isaiah 55:7-9 (NIV): "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

O - Verses 8 and 9 are well known and often quoted/referenced.  What is just about as frequently missed is the context in which they are set.  The context is not simply a statement of God's awesome and lofty brilliance.  It is the revelation of his heart toward sinners.  While the Lord's prowess is real and true in any context it is equally true that his brilliance is really not like us or our earth.  He will humbly serve any who will come to him … he will have mercy and he will freely pardon.  Humans (culture/religion) have limited tolerance and conditional acceptance.  And is this not the point?  We are called to his thoughts and his ways and we need to start where he does with all people.  This is how Jesus lived among us; the friend of sinners and therefore the friend of us all.

A - I can't say how many times I've reference the reality of God's brilliance and lofty ways.  I can say that I think this is the first time I've seen or noticed the context.  I've been living this reality out since my 17th year and this is exactly where he started with me. I have been amazed ever since.  Before I lean into his brilliance he wants me to review, rehearse and recalibrate according to his starting place and the favored expression of his brilliance … he really does start at love, lead with mercy and then face the facts in a brilliant and holy (not like me not like this earth) way.  As one who considers himself to be a friend of Jesus I need to be friends with his friends.

P - Lord who is,

Thank you for wanting us and wanting all.  Thank you for expressing your brilliance according to tender mercy and relentless love.  Thank you for loving us where we are and loving us no matter what.  Lord, today you have presented me an opportunity to fulfill my primary assignment as a human being and especially as a disciple - to love. Lord, let this be the way I take today and every day.  Let/cause your life to come into me and your life to come out of me.

I love you back,

Steve

Always in the Middle but Never Stuck There

S - Revelation 5:6, 8-9 (NLT): "I looked and I saw a Lamb that had been killed but was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God that are sent out into every part of the earth.  … And as he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense--the prayers of God's people! And they sang a new song with these words: "You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were killed, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."  

O - Jesus, the Lamb, is clearly "in the middle of it all" in heaven AND on earth.  He is not just near the throne and the living beings, he is also near, among, close at hand to the elders (the humans).  The Greek adjective for among (mevso~) means among or in the middle or in the midst of.  It is the same term Jesus uses in Matthew 18:19-20 when he says "I also tell you this: If two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among [mevso~] them." This is the beauty of Jesus … he wants into the middle of everything, not just every good thing for he is the one who ransoms, redeems, transforms, saves in the fullest and most complete sense of the word. Since he wants in, in reality is already in (in him all humans live and move and have their being) why wouldn't we get together in his name (intentional and singular) and ask anything (specific and unlimited)? 

A - It troubles our minds, the fact that Jesus wants in to it all and that he and the Father and the Holy Spirit want to humbly serve us … they want to.  They haven't forgotten they are God.  They haven't forgotten how flawed we are.  They simply want us and want in because they love us.  God has loved us first and most and won't change his mind.  He humbly serves us (like a parent or grandparent their children) and calls us to humbly serve others … the way we are being served by him.  This is the wonderful and "strange" dynamic which is a universal in the Kingdom of Life - we give the way we've received.  I/we currently live in a world (secular and religious) that does not believe God humbly serves.  Is it any wonder that so many who claim to be God's representatives do not humbly serve?  My assignment, like with mercy, love, forgiveness, resources, etc. is to give the way I've received.  I need and want God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit to humbly serve me … me the desperately needy, tragically weak, fatally flawed.  I will gather with others, ask and humbly serve as he has so awesomely and faithfully and generously and magnanimously done to me.

P - Lord God Almighty,

You give us new things that have been so from the very beginning, new commands that we've had all along.  Thank you for new wineskins, for mulberry trees in the ocean and for that which is too wonderful for me.  I admit, confess and earnestly request your humble service to find me again and again and for these acts of love to flow through me to others -- to all others.  This is the day you've made and called me to come near to you, you who are already near to me.  O Lamb of God I come, I come.  Thank you for wanting into it all.  I want you in it all.  I give, yield, submit, relinquish my all to you … all for love.

I love you back,

Steve

Mad as Hell?

S - Micah 7:8-9, 18-19 (NIV): "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.  Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.  … Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea."

O - The wrath of God, the anger of the Lord, is NOT like the anger of humans and this is a huge issue.  These verses are steeped in Divine wrath which ultimately merges with Divine mercy and pleads the case to pardon, forgive and to tread our sins underfoot and hurl them into the depths of the sea.  This is not how human wrath or anger works at all.  Yet, our natural inclination is to always equate our experience as identical with the Lord's.  God's wrath, his hatred for sin, welled-up and produced … the cross; the greatest mercy, a permanent expiation, an eternal establishment of the right to become his adopted children.  Our wrath punishes. His wrath redeems. Our anger is merged with condemnation and rejection and his is merged with mercy and reconciliation.  This essential difference is so critical because it shapes our view of Jesus' intercession for us before the Father, his and ours.  From his love to his wrath and beyond, God is holy (not like us, not like this earth) and he is looking to make us holy … children of his family where the greatest of these is love.  The Apostle James got it right; the anger of man does not bring about the righteous life God desires … ever!

A - Jesus lives to intercede, the Holy Spirit works to intercede, NOT trying to keep the Father from wiping me out but to engage me according to amazing grace and defiant mercy and relentless love.  The Father is not mad as hell but mad at hell (i.e. sin, Satan, etc.).  And even in that his anger is not like mine.  The work of intercession, interface and interference from heaven is all about growing me up in the Image, growing me in relationship, teaching me how to live in the identity given and protecting me from myself and my enemy. Nothing separates me from God's love, not even God's wrath … amazing!

P - Holy God, Friend of Sinners and Washer of Dirty Feet,

Thank you for wanting us always and for not being like us.  I admit that I'm often caught in the conclusions of my littleness and somehow putting you in there with them.  Thank you for revelation, for transformation, for light shining into and ejecting darkness for more grace than sin and for the power of love always conquering all other forces.  Today, you call me to rely on your love, to assess every thought, every occurrence, every attitude and conclusion according your relentless love, amazing grace and defiant mercy.  Lord, today, little, weak, tired, I yield to you … and to your greatness … your holiness … your intercession … to your awesome brilliance, limitless power and extreme goodness. 

So thankful to be your child,

Steve