Tag: Perfection

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Picking your own perfection.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” ‭‭Mark‬ ‭2‬:‭23‬-‭28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It would be interesting to have a list of the stories where Jesus tangled with the Pharisees and religious leaders specifically over breaking the Old Testament Laws of God.

Way back before God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, God instructed Moses to appoint 70 elders. God told Moses, these guys were specifically given to “bear the burden of the people,” you know, the needs, questions and constant complaints that people bring to leaders. And, God promised to take some of the Spirit on Moses and give it to these elders, kind of a Spirit-share program (‭‭Numbers‬ ‭11‬:‭16‬-‭17‬). Fast forward all the way to the New Testament, where we find those 70 elders then made up what was called the Sanhedrin. I’m not sure the promised “Spirit-shared” part came with this group throughout history. Combine this with the fact that after Israel returned from Captivity, the spiritual leadership (elders and priests) had seriously fallen apart because of years of idolatry, abuse of kingly appointed power and a general deterioration of true spiritual living. Even the Prophets would cease to exist.

Through Ezra the Scribe, a school for scribes was established. This from Chabad.org, “Ezra was born in Babylon, like many of the other great leaders, patriots and sages which the Jewish community in exile had produced. By profession he was a scribe; he used to write scrolls of the Torah, which he knew so well. Ezra was also a priest, a member of the priestly family of Aaron.” The construct of these socio-spiritual-political leaders would form the basis of the New Testament leadership that had many confrontational episodes with Jesus.

But policing the law would be more difficult than anyone would imagine. The “law” had exponentially expanded well beyond anyone’s capacity to keep it. It went from 10 Laws to 613 rules concerning the details of how to behave towards God and others. The 613 are basically rules on what to do when things go right, but also when they go wrong – 248 Positive Commandments (do’s) and 365 Negative Commandments (do not’s). But wait, there’s MORE! To make sure they followed every possible exception to the rules, they ended up with thousands of rules to legislate the original rules. There are even hundreds of “fence laws,” called “Eruv,” all dictating how to “legally” break the Sabbath!

Suffice it to say, managing these rules upon rules took up a lot of time and resources. The sad part is that by the time of Jesus, these rules had become so complicated they clouded the original intent of God’s plan. The average person just gave up trying to figure out how to please God. In fact, there was no real way to keep all the laws, therefore, no one could make God happy!

Because Jesus had a growing number of people talking about him and following him when he and his disciples came into town, the religious police/leaders felt it was their duty to confront him on his not-so-orthodox approach to their interpretation of the law. They had people watching and waiting for him, so the religious authorities could catch him in the act.

Of course there were plenty of opportunities! The Sabbath was the lightning rod of sacred confrontations. The Sabbath would be the low-hanging fruit because it would take place weekly and it was very noticeable if individuals were not keeping the expansive interpretation of the original Exodus 20:8, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Modern orthodox Jews even consider switching on or off an electric light a violation of the Sabbath because it “kindles or extinguishes a fire.”

Jesus loved breaking the additional human traditions because it allowed him to speak to the nonsense of our constant, nonsensical need to add to God’s law, thus proving our holiness or worthiness. FYI, Jesus was technically NOT breaking the Sabbath law because there is a huge difference between “harvesting,” grain – ie: WORK and “picking” food for a snack.

I wonder how much “church hurt” has been caused by people extending and adding to God’s intent for good, healthy behaviors into something restrictive and legalistic? Just think about all the hat, hair, pants and tattoo conversations! As long as I have a solid list of “do’s and don’ts,” I can depend on them instead of the righteousness that can only come through believing and trusting in Christ’s perfection for me.

Prayer

Dad,
I don’t know how folks have time to observe or monitor everyone else’s “supposed” sins, when we have so many of our own! I can barely keep up with my own shortcomings and failures – let alone track someone else’s. Help us God! Help me to not just think more like Jesus, but behave like him towards others. I have no desire to be the religious police, shaking down other’s sins! Let your grace and mercy continue to push against my tendencies to judge others. And, thank you for your perfection when you see me through the righteousness of Jesus.

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Wisdom won’t perfect us.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

By wisdom the Lord founded the earth; by understanding he created the heavens. By his knowledge the deep fountains of the earth burst forth, and the dew settles beneath the night sky. ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Solomon writes this amazing chapter about wisdom – how to get it and where to get it. Here in these two verses, Solomon goes beyond just this “concept” about wisdom. He writes about something much deeper, much more profound. Solomon writes of the personality and character of God as entity in which all things that exist, exist because of someone, not something. Of course we know that entity, that person, to be Christ! The Apostle Paul makes this abundantly clear in his letters to the New Testament churches. In Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:24) he writes, “Christ is the power and wisdom of God.” And in Colossians (1:15) he writes, “through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Solomon in his own gifted wisdom sees that everything that exists was in fact created by someone even wiser… historically and prophetically speaking of Jesus! Solomon wants the reader to understand that by looking at the earth, the sea and sky, you will see the perfection, precision and power of God who not only creates, but systematically sustains creation through wisdom.

Science knows how “perfect” our world MUST be or it would cease to exist. They’ve known for years, even through the demonic detours of Darwinism, that perfection is at the heart of universal existence. Our “just-right” gravitational force. Just right distance from the sun. Just right amount of light, darkness, heat and cold. Just right EVERYTHING. This is the wisdom perfection of Christ seen in creation and leveraged for our own salvation.

Christ, as wisdom, is the Goldilocks’ story of our lives! Jesus is JUST RIGHT. Solomon’s proverb plainly points out that if one is looking for wisdom, they will find it in God. If one is wondering how to get wisdom or how it all works, they have to surrender to Christ who invented it, freely gives it and shows us how to live a godly life. I’ve seen wise people in the Church. I’ve seen folks who have a 100% grasp and memory recall of the Bible. Yet, they often lack love, often lack mercy. It’s almost as if their wisdom and knowledge has had a hubris effect on their ability to see themselves as still sinners saved by grace. May our wisdom and knowledge never rid us of humility and grace.

Prayer

Dad,
Once again I am completely amazed at the depth and beauty of Your wisdom. I am smitten by the love, sacrifice and wisdom of Jesus. Yet, I am confronted by the fact that Solomon, being the wisest person in human antiquity, still could not obtain perfection through wisdom alone. He sinned, just like the rest of us. He lost the Kingdom because of his own distracted lusts for other gods. He was wise, but corruptible. My own pursuits of wisdom and knowledge can never be eclipsed by my love for you and you alone. Thank you for wisdom, it has saved my sanity. But thank you more for your grace for it has saved my soul.

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The Sordid Past of Jesus’ lineage.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

”All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.“ ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The disciple, journalist and author, Matthew, is extremely detailed in his historical and genealogical record of Jesus. Even though we plow through a long list of names, there is a story behind each one of them.

Notably, Matthew listed the names of five women – an unheard of move at the time. And in those five women, we have pictures of either their sinful past or their horrific, unjust circumstances. Tamar disguised herself as a religious prostitute and tricked her father-in-law Judah into getting her pregnant. Rahab was a prostitute and a Gentile. Ruth was a Moabite, again a foreigner, forbidden to marry for a Jewish male. Bathsheba, she is the woman King David raped, forcing an adulterous relationship with her and murdering her husband, Uriah, one of David’s previous “mighty men” crew. Then, of course, Mary herself, who was “found to be pregnant,” and Joseph wasn’t the father of the child! This is just some of Jesus’ “mom’s” story.

The men, through Jesus’ foster dad, Joseph, didn’t fair much better. In the list of Israel’s great kings, more than half were wicked leaders! Six were good kings, great men. However eight were awful! One of those worst kings, Rehoboam, listened to his young friends’ advice and it split the twelve tribes into two factions – Judah (10 tribes) and Israel (2 tribes).

In a sermon series called, “Coming Home,” I ask a couple of questions, “Why didn’t Jesus’ heritage come from a long and consistent line of righteousness, upstanding men, and women?” and “How does knowing that Jesus came from a sordid past give hope to those with imperfect families or pasts?” I really wrestled with some difficult questions in Jesus’ birth story. Why did God CHOOSE to do it this way? We’ve glamorized the Christmas Story in so many ways and I agree it’s a cute, wonderfully fuzzy tale to tell. The truth is much darker, mysterious and definitely not safe for young children – and apparently not safe for the church either!

It’s because in ALL THINGS, Jesus was human says, Hebrews 4:15. That included a some seedy family struggles that were not hidden in history, but openly listed to give us hope! If you have come from an imperfect family story, this should give YOU hope. Quit comparing yourself to the false narrative that church families have it all together and have some kind of holy, supernatural perfection in their family story. The only miracle we ALL share is that God’s grace is enough to change and redeem a broken family story and make it brand new!

Prayer

Dad,
You can and do make all things new! Even years of horrible family origin stories filled with pain, shame and struggle. But that’s why every one of the broken people, listed in Jesus’ genealogy were highlighted. In the darkest of situations, you shine bright with full disclosure and grace. Our stories, even filled with shame, should not be hidden, but should be told in light of your grace. It is not what we’ve done in sin, but what you have done in redemption! Let Your story eclipse ours, bringing light to shadows and our dark history. Thank you for your grace, mercy and enormous light that dispels darkness.

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Out-tricking truth.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Then what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision? Yes, there are great benefits! First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God. True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful? Of course not! Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, “You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Jews are the chosen people of God, the deal was made a few millennia ago with Abram. Ever since that time, they have made religion a high level profession. Who better to try to outsmart, out maneuver God? They believed they could convince God they were perfect, sinless because they “kept” the law.

Paul, who is Jewish, and a former Pharisee himself, explains their foolishness in this idea. Circumcision, for example, was a physical mark of dedication to God, but it did not make them perfect, not even a little. Then, Paul masterfully walks them through how all people are under the “power of sin.” No work, no act, no effort could ever be enough to break that power and erase the infractions of sin.

It is wild to me that people still believe that actions or behaviors are still the only way to heaven. People, who deeply care about a sense of right and wrong, still struggle to figure out how many kind or good acts does it require to be made right with God and gain eternity? And obviously, there are others who get frustrated trying. They just push past their conscience and “sin-it-up!” Paul addressed this in v5-8. Just giving up altogether risks the hardening of our hearts towards God! This makes it harder and harder to hear the Spirit of God helping us make good choices not to sin.

The old evangelism explosion question was, “if you were to die today and stand before God and He asks you, ‘why should I let you into heaven’? Folks still try to justify or prove they are worthy by talking about the good things they’ve done or by comparing that they are not as evil as the next person. The belief in Jesus, the faith required is that Jesus is the only perfection possible. And, through Him, we are accepted before God and set on a path towards heaven. It is faith alone, it has always been faith in God’s way. It’s not our goodness or even attempts at being good. It is has nothing to do with us better better than the next person. This is the gospel, the good news. Even the chosen people of God (Jews) must come to Him through faith in the Messiah, Jesus.

Prayer

Dad,
I am not only well aware of my sin, I am also aware of my ideals of perfection in me and others. Any goodness that comes out of me is because of you. And anytime I choose to use myself as the standard of goodness as compared to others is just rubbish! It is Christ and Christ alone! My life is hidden within His perfection. And for others, I just want them to see you in my life.

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Long-view Love.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭43‬-‭48‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus leads these discussions with, “you have heard it said.” Of course he’s referring to passed down sayings from those who have interpreted the laws of God and put their own application spin on it.

We know that “love thy neighbor” comes from Leviticus 19:18, but where does “hate thy enemy” come from? Well, it makes sense right? I mean isn’t the definition of the word enemy, have within reason, the idea of hating them? They are a hostile foe, are they not? Wouldn’t hate be helpful to stop our enemies from being so adversarial? Wouldn’t hate be the appropriate emotion to keep my family safe from their obvious oppositional acts to hurt me? Matthew wrote the greek word Jesus used for the word enemy, exthrós – someone openly hostile, animated by deep-seated hatred, implying irreconcilable hostility, proceeding out of a “personal” hatred bent on inflicting harm.

There’s an unspoken law that lives with in us as humans, it’s Newton’s Third Law of Motion. It states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When applying that to an emotional force, such as hate, we must apply an equal amount of hate to stop it! Or at least enough to deter the hater from causing real harm to someone. You haven’t just heard it said, we still live this law every day!

When someone on the freeway races up behind me, practically kissing my bumper, then suddenly jets out beside me not only to pass me, but to cut me off in the process, there’s some real hate going on IN ME! In my mind, someone has to stop this maniac, this law breaker. And since there’s no presence of the “law,” it’s up to me to save myself and others by giving her a physical token of my disapproval!

Jesus doesn’t just school us about love and hate, he condemns the sin response in us (because that’s what it is) and teaches us to model our thoughts and behaviors after God. Loving our enemies is behaving as true children of our Father in heaven. And not only love them, but pray for them as well! Jesus says PRAY for those who curse (katara) you!

Jesus then blows our Newtonian Law right out of my brain. In the Kingdom of God, LOVE is the more powerful force to stop hate! But look, we need to quit throwing the weak, watered down version of our modern interpretation of the word, “love,” and get back to the Biblical version – agapaó. Agape is the God version of love, that is self-sacrificing, putting others before our own needs, painful and beautiful expression of wanting the best for someone. It’s not a cheap, surfacey love that lies to make someone feel good, nor the one that accepts you for whoever you are, or whatever you are today. Agape is a tethered truth to the core of who God is and the extent he went through to save and restore us. Believe me, to the broken and dysfunctional, this kind of love hurts because it is true and can be trusted when all other love-lies have failed.

Jesus did a perfect job illustrating this, it’s easy to love those who love you. It’s a built in reward system. I love you BECAUSE you love me back. Or, I love you because you showed me love to begin with. Jesus then points out of the most hated people group at the time, even “tax collectors” do this. It works because you get something out of that transactional kind of love, it’s a reciprocal deal (this is the way most people love anyways).

Get this, then Jesus says to be and do “perfect” love. Jesus uses this word, teleios: having reached its end. Teleios is the mature, consummated, wait for the full completion kind of perfection. It’s the long view of completion because God’s stories are very long. Jesus says, take the long-view of love (agape) like God does with us. That kind of long-view love is powerful, unstoppable and is more than enough to stand up to the hatred, cursing and even violence of your enemy.

It reminds me of when Jesus was in the olive garden with his disciples, well before the thorns, spikes and spears tearing into his body. Peter pulled out a sword (how long had he been hiding that?) and Jesus told them, “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?” Jesus could have easily gone all Old Testament on the Roman soldiers and left the traitor Judas as a pile of smitten dust! Ah, but Jesus’ long-view love meant that he would retaliate with a much more powerful and eternal force – he would die for all of us.

Prayer

Dad,
I am beyond thankful your love is not short-sighted and only applicable in the moments when I am thinking or behaving at my WORST! Thank you for the most powerful force in the universes that saves and keeps me close to you.

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No longer a walk in the garden.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear. And they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!” “Don’t be afraid,” Moses answered them, “for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!” As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God once walked with humans, casually, perfectly, lovingly in the garden. In the cool of the day, God would take a walk, “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.” Now, years after Eden, years after many, many people, well past Noah and the total destruction of almost all living things, well past the rise and fall of Babel and Egypt, we now come to Moses and the Law.

God had just given Moses the laws, rules for His people to live and love differently from all other peoples, cultures and countries. These laws would keep Israel alive and allow them to interact with a holy, perfect God. God was always holy, always perfect. God is the same today and will never change.

Exodus captures a honest moment expressed by God’s beloved Israel… “we’re afraid of Him!” They said. God showed up like a tornado and the people didn’t feel all snuggly safe. Moses told the people, “God comes like a storm to test you. Your fear of him will keep you from sinning.” It did keep them from sin…for the moment, but it didn’t last. God told the people through Moses, “Remember, you must not make any idols of silver or gold to rival me.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬.

Just twelve chapters later…“When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭32‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT‬‬ – really? That was fast.

Fear works while it is directly applied, but fades as we forget the storm, the threat of death. But fear is never enough to sustain a authentic relationship over the long haul. Who wants to take walks in a garden with someone they fear and sense that perfection is held over them at every moment.

Exodus, the Law and the entire Old Testament is very real and very much a part of our story of who we are and who God is. As I wrote, God is and always will be holy, perfect and completely incompatible with sin. The fear of God is still a reality today and will always be a part of our relationship to Him.

Fast forward to the paradox of New Covenant in tension to the Old Covenant. The God who showed up in the deadly storm is the same God who touched the dead body of a little girl and said, “talitha koum” (little maiden), arise. Or the same God who wept and embrimaomai (moved with anger) called out his friend, Lazarus, from death’s pit. We see God the Father, as holy, perfect and feared in the Exodus, but He is the same as the person of Christ, God the Son. Yet, this holy perfection, under the new covenant is love so pure, so piercing, it penetrates beyond fear. A fear that CAN make us want to hide as Adam and Even had done or stand at a distance as the Israelites. OR, this love/fear is to be experienced as an imperfect human completely and totally seen and known for who and what we really are. Yet, we have FAITH that the sacrifice of Christ doesn’t repel us from God’s holiness but contrarily – it supernaturally pulls us, draws us into God’s presence to be embraced by Him.

When shown our sin, we no longer need to run, hide nor flaunt or make excuses. We can now move towards God’s perfect grace not fearing the final judgement of separation. Believers will even be judged in perfect love and not fear (Bema – Judgement Seat of Christ (Romans 14:10, 2 Corinthians 5:10)).

Where is the “fear of God” in this season of grace? Well, it is still here. The fear of God should never be skirted, challenged or arrogantly thrown in the face of God, exclaiming, “His grace is sufficient.” Saying, “I can sin. I can disobey. I can do whatever I want because of Christ’s covering.” How arrogant, how immature! God can certainly strike you dead where you stand regardless of your status of being saved! God can end your life here and sort out the details later? Or, sin’s own consequences can bury you, destroying everything you’ve built and leave you destitute. Don’t tempt God’s grace!

Prayer

Dad,
I know of your love and it’s perfect. I also believe I have a healthy fear of your perfection, your righteousness, your repulsion of sin. I am completely and totally confident in your grace and painfully aware of the consequences of my sin, my choices that are neither hidden from you nor acceptable to you. I am willing to live in this tension. I am willing to run towards you even in my sin, with my failures and work hard to NEVER run from or uselessly try to hide or dodge my poor decisions. I am without excuse, but I am forever grateful for your mercy. Amen.

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Dinner with perfection.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table.” Luke‬ ‭11:37‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Can you smell the whiffs of fresh baked bread, the roasted herbs and see the deliciously colorful vegetables and fruits. Not with Luke’s account of Jesus going to the home of “perfection.” Do you know what Jesus smelled? A setup. Have you attended a meal where you knew the host was, you know, uh, let’s just say they are very fastidious about detail? If you have you know the feeling of nervousness and uneasiness and learn that the night will not be about the meal at all. And, neither will the meal be relaxing with lots of laughter and stories that make you feel part of the family. Meals at homes about perfection are all about performance and elite edicate, watching your “p’s” and “q’s.”

“But he started it!” This might have been the reason Jesus lit into the host from the git-go. Luke tells us that Jesus KNEW what the host was thinking. “His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom.” Was it the host’s open gaped mouth or the lowered eye brows with a tight-lipped side frown? We don’t know, but Jesus did! Wait, Jesus didn’t wash his hands before dinner? No, no, no, come on – Jesus wasn’t born in a barn, er, without manners. This was a highly detailed, cultural, ceremonial cleansing purely for a religious show of “insider” rules practiced by pure-bred, wicked-smart elites.

The poor, the common would have had a VERY simplified version of this ritual. Jesus, just purposely skipped it altogether. He may have decided, “let’s just get right to the heart” of why he’d been invited in the first place. This host’s meal wasn’t about making peace at the table, it would be a failed lesson about righteousness and holiness!

Jesus spoke the first volley, serving up a spiked, fast comment right away. Jesus answered the grimaced, chagrined face of his host. “Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.” Yikes! Ouch! Boom! Bam! Jesus goes for the religious jugular. Not so subtlety saying, “just STOP it!” You can’t “pull the wool” over the eyes of God. You can’t deceive or fake or have any pretense before the real standard of perfection.

Wow. Jesus admonished this “never been corrected” religious leader. And, if you look hard you’ll see God’s grace and mercy. Oh, you’ll find brutal, unvarnished TRUTH, but you’ll also see hope.

Truth: INSIDE you filthy, greedy and wicked, and no amount of ceremonial hand washing is going to fix that! Hope: Stop the pretense and give to the poor. That’s the hosts antidote, his potion to rid the poison of his soul. Give to the poor! Now, lest you think that giving to the poor will clean or save you, save me – it won’t. Unless you are living the “religious” purity scam, while being a greedy miser, living high on frugal principles while others suffer around you. Giving to the poor is not your antidote. Let the Holy Spirit point out your poison and then listen carefully for God to prescribe the perfect recipe to save your life! What a dinner that was, right? I wonder if Jesus shook off the dust on his sandals as he left that house?

Prayer

Dad,
Please remind me to NEVER try to fake perfection around you! And, to never try to impress you or anyone else with some kind of religious ritual as a performance. I’ll just remember to come before you naked and humbled by my station in life.

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BIG life, boulder free.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.” Romans‬ ‭9:30-32‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Imagine the walkway leading up to your house or your apartment complex. The reason it exists is for easy access to the entry to your home. Now imagine, if you decided to put a big boulder right in the middle of that path. Now the path is blocked, making it harder to get to your front door.

Paul says the law, the perfect commandments of God are that boulder, that ROCK. Paul says that for the Jewish folk, God himself put that boulder there. Then, by inference says, as a Gentile why would you put the rock 🪨 there by yourself, when God did not want it there?

Paul’s rock analogy is about the law. Gentiles, non-Jewish folk, weren’t even aware that there was a rock at all and thus, their path to God was not based on WORKING around the rock to get to himself. Gentiles had faith in Christ, who permanently removed the rock to freely allow access to God? To the Jews, Paul says elsewhere, Jesus is a stumbling block (boulder), because faith in Christ’s work removes the barrier between us and God. However, even as Gentiles (most of us), came to Christ, through faith and not having to work to get around or over the boulder, it seems that we still easily pickup Jewish ways.

We put the boulder back in the way and then struggle to get around it! Why? Because faith in Christ is HARDER than working to keep all the commandments. Strange huh? Faith in Christ is a humbling trust that God moved towards us and removed all the barriers to perfection and yes, holiness, to have a full grace-filled life with himself. Doesn’t grace make us like, sin-lazy, easy to just take the gift and do whatever we want? That is possible. Isn’t grace too easy? Not according to God it’s not. This grace was the most costly, extravagant gift God could ever give. It cost the suffering and death of his own Son, Jesus. But can’t that be taken advantage of or spurned (treated cheaply)? Yes, but what’s the advantage of that? That just puts us, automatically under the curse of the law – the souls that sins MUST die. Treating God’s gift of grace flippantly puts the boulder right back in our path.

God expects us to not only be thankful for His gift but to trust Him to live as BIG of a life as we can in this miracle of forgiveness. Living a Big life, boulder free!

Prayer

Dad,
It is so frustrating when we want to move towards being better, sinning less and try to live a life of perfection, the first thing we think of is putting ourselves back under the law and work hard to impress you. We’re just putting the rock back in our our path! The only path to perfection is running towards your presence and through your Holy Spirit live this life of grace and trust. Of course there is confession of sin and a repentance from those sins, but not to work harder or “do good” to try to erase our own sins. You designed us to walk with you and have provided a perfect way to make that happen – through Jesus. Thank you!

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Gravity don’t lie.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A plumb line.” And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins.” Amos‬ ‭7:7-8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Full tilt and a bubble off!

This last vision Amos saw is so tame and cool compared to the other two before this. The first a swarm of locusts, a plague devouring everything. The second a raging fire sweeping across both land and sea. Also destroying everything. This third vision is so different! A plumb line.

How genius is this back in ancient days? We use a variation of plumb lines today with modern technology. Gravity don’t lie. Put a weight on a string and hang it from the top of a wall, fence or post and it will show you if the structure is straight, even or “plumb” as they say.

It would be odd to get into an argument about being straight when using a device like this. Someone may ask, “well, how do you know it’s straight?” Answer, look at the plumb line! They may argue, “well, how do you know if the plumb line is correct?”

Ah, a doubter of gravity eh? Gravity guarantees the weight hanging from a string, perpendicular to the object, is straight. Folks can argue all they want, choosing to question what’s straight or plumb, but unless they want crooked buildings, fences or posts they should line up their project to the plumb line.

God told Amos, He is the plumb line and the people of Israel, by their behaviors don’t line up! They are living crooked lives by giving and sacrificing to wooden poles and calling them god. The entire leadership of the country has gone wacky and God had enough of it. End of the line for King Jeroboam and the crooked priests feeding him nonsense.

What an object lesson! Amos, look for yourself, the whole bunch is BENT, broken, off kilter! God says, “I can’t ignore that.” When our lives are held up against a standard of what’s straight, what’s right, what’s good, we can clearly see we’re crooked! God is the standard, God is that plumb line everywhere and in everything. So, whether we’re leaning a little or a lot to the left or a little or a lot to the right, we’re still not straight compared to God’s perfection.

Prayer

Dad,
No arguments here. I know how good and perfect you are. I also know of your great mercy and grace to us. And, I know that the only one that stands perfectly straight next to this heavenly plumb line standard is Jesus! So I try to stand as close as I can to Him so that you see his perfection, his goodness, his righteousness. I am thankful for the work through Christ on our behalf.

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How could religion can be so off mission?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward. Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him.” Luke‬ ‭6:7-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How could things have gone so far off-mission? We have the teachers of religious law and we have Jesus, completely human and God. And, they don’t agree on the correct interpretation nor the intent of God’s law. So the gospel writers give us these little “show-downs.”

Over the hundreds of years the scribes appointed by Ezra were asked to fulfill an important role on behalf of God. God never asked Ezra to assign this to a specific class of men, but it started out so simple, what could be the harm? The scribes duties were as caretakers: protect the law, the temple and the priesthood. Don’t MAKE laws or create systems to care for the temple or elevate and secure the priests to positions of power and wealth. Just help Israel keep God’s stuff in good working order.

Then over many hundreds of years through captivity and wars, and two complete cultural collapses of Judaism, the scribes took on the role of the Israeli secret police per se. They were the watchdogs of everything sacred and meaningful to the Jewish people. It is both surprising and heroic that they were successful in their pursuits and that the law, the temple system and priesthood were still in tact and operational by the time Christ is born and Israel/Judaism is still alive!

The names changed from simple scribes to Pharisees and Sadducees, but their roles had only increased in power and authority. By the time Jesus was thirty, these guys ran EVERYTHING. These “religious leaders” were now wealthy, powerful and very politically involved (too involved). I’ve written this before, but I’m kind of surprised Jesus didn’t THANK them for doing such a fantastic job protecting God’s stuff for him! They actually did keep things going!

Ah, but I’m also surprised that Jesus never had a conversation like this, “Did you guys forget who you work for?” You look and behave nothing like any of the prescribed attendants that Moses wrote about. I’m shocked that Jesus didn’t just directly tell them, “you’re supposed to work for me!”

These stories of conflict over the law and its practical application are how we know the religious leaders were OFF MISSION. The law was FOR people. God’s law was created for people, not people created for the law! Jesus question struck at the heart of the conflict about the Sabbath, “is this a day to SAVE life or DESTROY it? This question would apply to ALL of God’s laws really. Was the law created to save or destroy humans? That one is tricky. Of course it was created to save humans. However, it was also created to give us a clear standard of perfection that would prove how selfish and self-centered we really are. No one was able to keep all of the big ten. And anyone that could not keep the entire big ten would be judged and sentenced for NOT keeping ALL of them!

But, back to the story. Jesus was furious that these self-elevated scribes had so twisted God’s intention – that HEALING on the holy day would be even considered WORK! How horribly wrong could they be? As religious leaders they should have been FIRED and smoked!

Luke writes about the audacity of their complete and utter misunderstanding of their mission. They were NOT protecting they were perpetrating! And they were angry, wild with rage AT God for allowing such a flagrant disregard for all the work they done to perfect themselves. How dare God question our laws! Well now you see now what the fight was all about and who wins. Humans will always create their own laws and their own pitiful paths to perfection. Sad huh? So don’t be like that. And, don’t try to hold others to some ridiculous alternative plan to salvation. It will never work and you’ll end up working against God not for him.

PRAYER:

Dad,
Wow! I do not want my pretentious, religiosity to ever create some false system of salvation for me or anyone else. I get why the Apostles were so frustrated and angry at the regular and ongoing attempts to create these alternative doctrines trying to circumvent the mission of Jesus being the only way to salvation. No additions, no subtractions!