Refusing my American Idol

S - Isaiah 44:21-23 (NIV): "Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel."

O - The verses conclude a chapter which reviews and highlights the futility and the stupidity of idol worship (e.g. Isaiah 44:16-20). How did/does idol worship work?  It engages three primary dynamics, culture: control and desired outcome/success.  These are the basics of all idolatry and they work today and in all religious expressions.  They ignore our origins and design, redirect us from the real issue and inspire us by fear.  In direct contrast the Lord affirms his will on earth and our place in it, his unflickering commitment to us in relentless love, defiant mercy and unbounded grace and calls us to come near and stay near. 

A - The Lord says we are not alone and we are not on our own.  Idolatry says we pretty much are. Idolatry is about us gaining control, manipulating the circumstances and obtaining what we want.  Real life is about God's control, our relationship with him and his direct interface with us and all the events of earth.  His ways are his own and higher than the highest heavens.  His desire for us has been made plain and set in the context of the unending witness of creation. Today will take my inspiration from things I fear or from his love?  Will I pursue what I want or pursue him? Will I act like I'm on my own or not alone?  Today I choose to come near and stay … come what may.  I will remember these things and live them out loud.

P - God of all and God of me,

Thank you for not leaving us alone and for not leaving us on our own.  I do not want to work for you (I'm in control) but with you (you're in control).  I don't want my inspiration to come from what I fear but from who you are.  Lord, today I welcome you and your promises mixing them with faith. Today, I lay my head on your chest and seek, knock and ask according to your open heavens, open doors and open purse.  Lord, I do love you back.  Lord, the time I am afraid I will trust in you!

Steve

Foolish or Friend?

S - James 2:20-23 (NIV): " You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. "

O - The mistake of thinking that the Gospel is primarily information rather than a person leads to the foolishness described here where faith is thought to be a theological conclusion about God rather than a personal, ongoing response to him.  It becomes primarily cerebral rather than relational engaging only a compartment of one's mind rather than the totality of one's life. The work of believing will always involve a faith which inspires and requires acts of obedience.  The result is more than some conclusions about God. Rather, the result of this work is best described in the very relational designation of friend (φίλος: literally a companion, one who is dear).

A - I can use relational words to describe my theological conclusions but only in my living (actions), i.e. the whole of my life, is a true/real relationship possible. If Jesus only occupies a segment of my world view or a compartment of my mind then what I have is not really a relationship at all but a fantasy … a tragic one which ends in self-deception.  Today I get to live out loud the beauty of a real friendship with God … one where everything is possible because of the One who is the gospel, the friend of sinners and him who has loved me/us first.

P - Lord,

Little and weak on my best day you still want me to be your friend … and this I desperately need and want to be.  So, today … live in me and through me unto loving you with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and my neighbor as myself.  Cause your life to come into me and out of me … let me be a refreshing to all around me.  Jesus, I love you back.

Steve

The Escape from No Escape

S - Psalm 18:17-19 (NIV): "He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me."

O - All of us will face enemies too powerful for us to overcome on our own.  Not only so, but we will not be able, on our own, to avoid or escape from them either.  Such enemies (spiritual, internal, circumstantial, tangible, etc.) will confront us and loom large with a conclusion of absolute disaster.  If there were no other dynamic in this scenario the inevitable outcome would be crushing devastation. David's deliverance came not because of his effort or prowess but because of his God.  The difference had very little to do with David and everything to do with the Lord who was and is his support (Hebrew noun: a support (concretely), that is, (figuratively) a protector or sustenance: - stay). The result of calling on and trusting in the Lord is the exact conclusion the Lord desired all along … bringing David to a spacious place where ongoing relationship with him grows and deepens.  In this place we not only learn and participate in his deeds but in his ways.

A - This is my ongoing experience.  Not just once or twice but many times this confrontation has occurred in my life with a wide range of enemies.  The beauty of such trial and terror is the One who calls me to himself and to his purposes on earth.  His faithful, powerful, tender and brilliant ways well up to create in me ongoing transformation as well as a rescue which ends in a spacious place underserved and unexpected.  On him have I set my hope and in this day I am to confidently rely on him … no matter what I face or where he leads me.

P - Lord who rescues, delivers and supports,
Praise you for this day and for everything which has transpired to this very moment … everything! Lord, be my support, my deliverer and rescue again and again as you reveal yourself and your ways to me.  Lord, lead me on to the broad, spacious and beautiful place you have prepared.  Let me follow in the confidence your person rightfully inspires and my littleness needs and wants! Please fill my eyes, mind, heart, spirit, soul, hands, feet, mouth and ears with faith so I may please you and love you back as I ought … for you are marvelous beyond words and all my hope is in you.
Love,
Steve

Make No Mistake About It

S - Hebrews 5:5-10 (NIV): "So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father." And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever,       in the order of Melchizedek." During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek."

O - The perfect son was made perfect by learning obedience from what he suffered.  Though always sinless and in that sense perfect, Jesus, the perfect man, needed to become mature or complete in his perfection.  Like the first man and woman, Jesus was perfect and yet ungrown-- not at the fullest maturity.  This is not how we normally think or talk about perfection and yet it is how the Scriptures talk about the perfection of Jesus.  Once made perfect in this way "he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him".  Jesus did not take upon himself the glory or the hardship.  He took upon himself reverent submission and fierce personal loyalty to the one who had sent him.  We think of perfection as never making a mistake and heaven thinks of perfection as reaching or completing the fullness of design. 

A - Religion calls me to an impossible ideal based on the no mistake life of Jesus.  The Kingdom calls me to the highest place made possible by the beautiful life of Jesus in reverent submission and death defeating obedience. Unlike Jesus I will never be one who makes no mistakes.  Like Jesus I can be one who, through reverent submission and fierce personal loyalty (trust) reaches the perfection intend by not only my design but by his irrepressible life. Today, perfection can grow in me as I humble myself under his mighty hand, love and serve others and trust him in doing the work of believing. 

P - Lord who is perfect in ways I can't even know,

Thank you for wanting the perfection in us to be so complete that you would come and make the way, blaze the trail, become the guide, reason and ability for us to grow into it.  We will be like you and we will see you as you are.  O Lord, what I do see/glimpse now is so profoundly beautiful, powerful, awesome.  Today let and cause your life to come into me and to come out of me … unto new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and that which is too wonderful for me.
All my love,
Steve

Love or Logic?

S - Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV): "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God."

O - In this prayer abounding love is connected to knowledge and depth of insight unto very precise discernment.  Do we usually associate love with insight and pristine vision?  I think not.  In fact, our world (religious and secular) most often considers love to be a negative to clear vision, that which blurs and warps the way things really are or should be.  Here the Scriptures present just the opposite reality.  Love is the essential to depth of insight, discernment unto that which is best and that which will bring genuine praise to God.  Humans think that logic is to lead the list and Jesus makes it clear that love must lead the list.  The world is okay with love being on the list but not leading it.  The kingdom insists that love lead the list … the superlatives, love does no wrong to its neighbor, love fulfills the law and the prophets, love is the greatest of the ever abiding three (faith, hope, love).  Logic led the way for Eve in the garden and for the Sanhedrin in their deliberations. Logic brought about the fall of our race and the crucifixion of Jesus.  Love would have kept us from falling and eliminated the need for Jesus to die.  Love redeemed the tragedy and brutality of our logic and opened up the way for adoption for all.  If love is not leading the way then ultimately the way is lost.

A - Logic which enables real life and God's praise flows from and follows behind love.  Scripture says that we know and RELY on the love God has for us.  If I am not relying on this love, my logic will derail what God has planned, desires and invites me to.  Like every day, my assignment in this day is the Superlatives above all else.  Love, not logic, carries the day.  Love, not logic, leads the way.  God is love.

P - God who is love,
Thank you for this prayer which you included in Paul's life and in the written voice of your communication with us.  Thank you for letting me see this and embrace this and believe that you will help me to live this out loud.  Thank you for letting me love you back and for allowing my loving you back to actually matter to you.  Lord, I am prone to the miscue of logic over love.  Please enable me to the beauty of love setting the context and always leading the way.  Wow, your loving kindness is better than life (human).  Thank you for being real life, vibrant, irrepressible, eternal.  Cause your life to come into me and to flow out of me and let my love abound more and more.
I love you back,
Steve