Recovery, Restoration, and Righteouosness

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. 'Tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.  --Mark Twain

On the NPR affiliate in my region there is a show that I enjoy.  It is called A Way With Words, and it describes itself as "A public radio program about language examined through history, culture, and family."  Usually on the air they shorten that description to "A show about words and the way we use them."

Not too long ago I heard a caller on the show make a statement about something his father had always told him.  He said, "There is one right or correct word for every occasion."  This brought about a lengthy discussion about English words and the nuances they bring with them.  One might look up a word in a thesaurus, and find other similar words; but those words are only similar, they are never exactly the same.  There is a prime example in the sentence that brought about this discussion: even though the terms "right" and "correct" are almost interchangeable in certain circumstances, each one has its own connotation.  "Right" could mean appropriate to the situation, where "correct" is more technical, meaning it fits within the grammatical context and agrees with the subject in tense, number, and form.

This discussion started me thinking about the different nuances and meanings of the same word.  One of the things that makes the English language so complex and difficult to learn is that while no two words have exactly the same meaning, one word can, by itself, have a dozen or more different meanings.  (Note to my biological sister: this is what I was trying to think of and tell you about when I saw you last, but I got distracted and couldn't regain my train of thought).

For various reasons, I have lately been thinking about the word "recovery."  The term has two broad definitions: 

> The first is, "A return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength," as in signs of recovery in the housing market.  In this sense, some synonyms may be "recuperation," or "convalescence," as in her recovery may be slow. Other synonyms may include improvement, rallying, picking up, upturn, or upswing, as in the economy was showing signs of recovery.
> The second is, "The action or process of regaining possession or control of something lost or stolen," as in a team of salvage experts was hired to ensure recovery of family possessions.  Some synonyms may include retrieval, regaining, repossession, getting back, reclamation, recouping, redemption, or recuperation, as in the recovery of stolen goods.

As I write this, I am waiting for the kickoff of the final game of the NFL season, the championship of American Football, or what some may call "the Big Game".  Whenever a player of a team fumbles the football, there is a "recovery" of the ball either by the offense or the defense.  In this sense, a mistake is made (the fumble), and some amount of physical exertion or work needs to happen in order for a recovery to be made.  The final outcome could be positive or negative, depending upon which team has possession of the football (or depending upon which team you are rooting for.)  Nevertheless, from the instant when the ball is fumbled and the moment when it is recovered, the time lapse is only a few seconds at most.

Another sports analogy:  This month we are looking forward to the Winter Olympics.  Many of the events involve racing on snow or performing intricate maneuvers on ice.  Snow and ice are intrinsically slick, so mistakes are commonplace.  Regaining equilibrium while hurtling down a mountain at upwards of 90 miles per hour might only take milliseconds.  Likewise, an ice skater who catches her toe-pick on the landing of a triple Salchow has only milliseconds to reclaim her balance; if she falls, the announcers may say that she "recovered nicely" in the remainder of her routine, but the judges will still reduce her score.

Other kinds of recovery may be painfully slow.  Recovery from an accident or injury may take weeks or months.  Recovery from addictions may take years or even decades.  Lifestyle changes must be made in order to fully recover.

Recovery.  One word, so many connotations. So many opportunities.  You see, we are all sinners.  Sometimes the sin can be discovered early and repented of quickly.  A lustful glance.  A little white lie.  We may, like the figure skater or downhill skier, be able to recover quickly, before any lasting damage is done.  It may take a short period of intense work, like the football player who has dropped the ball.  Yet if the damage is deep-seated, and has resulted in years of addictive behaviors, recovery may be slow.

A friend of mine was teaching a Sunday School class about 2 Timothy 3:16.  He drew an image on the white board that looked something like this


Then he read the verse: "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness."  He explained that, like the line in the graph above, our general direction is forward, left to right.  During those optimal times, we are following Scriptural teaching.  But sometimes we get off track, as when the line turns south and starts going downward.  At those times, God may "reprove" us--that is, He may tell us to go back and try again (represented by the times where the line in the graph reaches its lowest point, and seems to be going backward).  This is when God corrects us, represented by the line moving upward, toward the original path.  The final step is training in righteousness, shown in the graph as movement in the right direction, away from our error.  You will notice that the errors are repeated, much like sin in our lives.  The verse still applies: if we go back to the Scripture that is God-breathed, we can enjoy teaching, experience reproof, endure correction, and receive training in righteousness.

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the word for "restore" occurs 1299 times in the Old Testament, in over 948 verses.  That doesn't even count the times restoration is mentioned in the New Testament.  Clearly, God wants to restore us to the way we were first created: to a place where sin is not standing in the way of fellowship between us and Himself.

Psalm 23:3 says, "He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."  Restoration and righteousness go hand in hand.  Any other way is like a blind guide.  "Let them alone," Jesus warned.  "They are blind guides of the blind.  And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." (Matthew 15:14).

To keep me from falling into a pit (again), I have turned to God's word.  My prayer this past week has been Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Grace Upon Grace

By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil.  --Proverbs 16:6

Last week I wrote about sanctification and purity.  We should live our lives in such a way befitting children of God.   1 John 2:1 says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin..."  Wait a minute, hold the phone!  Doesn't Paul say in Romans 3:23 that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"?  I know.  That's why John goes on to say in 1 John 2:1b, "...and if anyone sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

Remember the scene described in Zechariah 3:1-5?  I wrote about it last week--you can read my prior post, or you can look up the passage for yourself.  Jesus is our Advocate, the One who stands with us before God and counters the accusations of Satan that we are sinful and undeserving of grace or mercy.  We are made of base metals, but Jesus covers us with pure gold.  More on that later.

Here's a thought I had in the shower this morning.  How many of us tend to be overcome by guilt and shame?  I do.  We become so overwhelmed that we stop being of any use to anyone.  We can be totally shut down and shut off from others while we wallow in guilt and shame.  So here's the deal.  Guilt and shame are God-given emotions that act as brakes to our sin.  Those emotions are designed to make us stop sinning, until we can turn around, correct our course, and move on.  But sometimes we fail to move on with our lives, even if we are now pointed in the right direction.  It's like Satan has applied the emergency brake in our lives, and moving forward is a strain to our engine.  We've got to recognize that our guilt and our shame have done their job--they have stopped our momentum to keep us from driving headlong into hell.  It is only when we let Jesus correct our course and take our guilt and shame away that we can be useful again.  We must disengage the emergency brake that Satan has set, so that we can continue to move as God intends us to go.

Last week I also talked a lot about gold.  Gold is good.  Gold is valuable.  Gold is precious.  Gold represents the goodness of God in our lives.  Fun fact: of the elements that make up the human body, over 99% are non-metal: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, etc.  However, in the less than 1% that are metals, there are 11 distinct metals: chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium, and zinc.  Think about these base metals as being your flesh.  Better yet, think of them as sins.  There are 10 commandments, and a bunch of other sins listed in the Bible; maybe one of them is a habit or a hangup for you. 

So the activities banned in the 10 commandments and one "secret sin" make up the real you.  God wants to infuse His character in you, so let's imagine Him represented as gold.  Now, the way to purify metals is to heat them up.  So let's suppose that you are a Christian, and god has given you a gold plating (referenced in Scripture as the righteousness of God in Christ, something that we are encouraged to put on like a robe--kind of like the clean robe that Jesus commanded to be put on Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3:1-5.)  But He wants you to have more of Himself.  More "gold" in your make-up.  So He turns up the heat.  You are put in a situation that shows your true mettle (see what I did there?  "Mettle" is what we are made of; we're talking about base metals in the human body.  Keep up, will you?)

The melting point of tin is 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Maybe "tin" is using the Lord's name in vain.  With a little effort, you can clean up your language, and not distract from your testimony.  A little more heat is applied.  The melting point of zinc is 787 degrees.  Maybe "zinc" is coveting.  With a bit more effort, you can learn to be content with what God gives you day by day.  The melting point of iron is 2100 degrees.  Maybe "iron" for you is lying, or adultery, or your "secret sin" that is not listed in the Top Ten.  It takes a lot of heat to get that out of your system.

Here's what I am trying to get at:  every time God points out a sin in your life, and prompts you to get rid of it (by applying heat or whatever), He adds a layer of gold to replace the base metal that was lost.  His desire is to make us full of Himself, pure and holy and set apart.  The more of ourselves we lose, the more grace is applied to our lives.  "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." (John 1:16)  When there is more gold and less base metal, we become more pure.  Like we learned last week, the karat weight gets closer to the perfectly pure 24 k when there is more pure gold and less metal alloy.

I am reading a book by Athol Dickson entitled The Gospel According to Moses: What my Jewish friends taught me about Jesus.  There is a chapter on forgiveness.  He talks about a three-fold process involving faith, repentance, and restoration.  I thought this analogy was thought-provoking:

Suppose I have jumped into a deep well.  If I refuse to admit that I am down in the well, how can I be convinced to grab a rope?  Similarly, if I refuse to admit I am disobedient to the Lord, how can I hope for reconciliation?  But I am embarrassed to find myself down here and frustrated that I cannot climb out on my own.  So although God has dropped a rope and stands at the top ready to pull me up, I go to unusual lengths to ignore Him.  I pretend there is no rope.  I pretend there is no well.  I pretend I can climb out anytime I like without His blasted rope.  I pretend I am supposed to be exactly where I am.  Sometimes I even pretend that God is not really up there or not really willing and able to pull me out.  Anything seems preferable to the humiliating admission that I am in a situation beyond my control.  But until I admit that, how can I grab the rope?  So this is why forgiveness first requires confession: to grab the rope, I must first realize that I need the rope.  Confession is admitting that I have foolishly fallen into a bad situation.  I am in trouble.  I am helpless.  I am wrong.  Only then can I accept the help God offers.  Now, having confessed, I have the rope in my hands.  But a question comes echoing down from the top of the well.  God wants to know, "If I start to pull, will you hold on tight?"  The words translated "repent" in both the Hebrew ad the Greek Scriptures carry the connotation of "turning," that is, facing away from my past sinful behavior and back toward God.  I cannot hold the rope yet continue to simultaneously splash around in the muck and mire.  Experience has shown that people who try to do both lose their grip and fall right back down.  So repentance is agreeing to stop messing about.  It is abandoning my sinful ways in order to give God and His rope my full attention.  Fortunately, there is a benefit to all those ridiculous excuses I offered prior to grabbing the rope.  It is this: now that I have admitted where I am, my pride is well and truly shattered, so when I look up at the small patch of sky and promise, "I won't do this any more," the promise rings true.  The rope tightens and, repentant, I ascend.  I used to believe the sole purpose of confession and repentance was to instill humility, as if God only cares about being in charge, like a bully demanding I "say uncle" before He lets me up.  But I have come to understand that confession motivates me to grab the rope and repentance inspires me to hold on tight.  They are for my benefit, not God's.  Remembering that even the Lord cannot make sense of nonsense in a logical universe, I suddenly see that even God cannot lift a person who does not grasp and hold the rope.  But of course, it is not really that simple.  The truth is, I have muddied the water with my floundering about below.  I am covered with the muck and mire I stirred up.  I have even swallowed some of the filthy stuff in my desperate attempts to escape on my own.  So as I am drawn closer to God a second question comes echoing down the shaft.  "Can you leave this well the way you found it?"  It is a fair question.  If someone pollutes a well, the only just and proper remedy is to restore the water to its former state of purity.  It is not good enough to dig another well someplace else, and certainly not good enough to provide a new bucket and rope while leaving the water muddy down below.  This is why the Hebrew Scriptures define justice as "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth."  The only real justice is perfect justice--returning things to exactly the way they were before.  So I dangle here, midway between disaster below and delivery above, wondering how in the world I am going to leave the well the way I found it.  One thing is for sure: I must find a way.  Since "the soul who sins is the one who will die," (Ezekiel 18:4), apparently my life depends upon it.  --Dickson, Athol The Gospel According to Moses, pages 165-167

That verse in Ezekiel speaks to the fear that God would visit judgement on His people "to the third and fourth generation."  The Prophet gave the people hope, in that each person's sin was his own to deal with.  Further, there was hope in a system of substitutionary sacrifice: in the Old Testament, it was redeemed through the blood of bulls and goats.  Yet even this was a shadow of a greater sacrifice to come. 

"I shall take no young bull out of your house nor male goats out of your folds.  For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine.  If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all it contains." --Psalm 50:9-12

 No animal sacrifice is sufficient for our atonement to a holy God.

With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?  Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves?  Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil?  Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of  you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? --Micah 6:6-8 (emphasis mine).

This goes back to restoring the well to its former state.  Can it be done with burnt offerings? No.  Is there anything else I can possibly do?  I can know justice and love mercy and walk humbly before God, but I am powerless to fix what my sin has broken.

Given the absence of a perfect human being to balance the scales, I believe God accomplished the impossible on my behalf, reentering human history as Jesus and accepting all the mortal limitations of Adam except for one: Jesus never sinned.  Because I cannot be blameless before the Lord, Jesus became my surrogate, my substitute perfection on the universal scales of justice, providing the perfect life for perfect life that perfect justice requires.  Adam went down to death a flawed, divided man.  Jesus rose up from death a perfectly whole man.  The cosmic scales of justice were balanced.  The divided physical and spiritual selves were reunited, and nakedness once again forgotten.  And somehow--only God knows how--just as Adam bequeathed his imperfect spiritual condition to Seth and through him down to me, Jesus bequeaths his spiritual perfection to all who accept the gift of His sacrifice in our place.  I believe the annual sacrificial deaths at Yom Kippur prepared the way so that Jesus might show me the salvation of God, the perfect balancing of the scales of justice that was yet to come.  I believe in Jesus because I can see no other possibility.  Like a Jewish shepherd searching through his flock for an unblemished animal to take to the tabernacle altar, I realize I have nothing to offer God in return for the wrongs I have done.  Everything I have is flawed.  Moreover, everything is already His.  Like any Jew sincerely longing for teshuvah (repentance), I confess my sin and I repent--I grab the rope and hold on tight--but cleaning up the mess I have made of this well is beyond me.  Just as that Israelite shepherd must have known he had no hope of finding a truly unblemished lamb, I also know that everything I can offer has been damaged while in my possession.  Even the promise, "I'll be good", is doomed to be broken from the instant it leaves my mouth to echo up the shaft.  If the animal sacrifices of Torah teach anything, it is first that death is required for death, and second that a substitute death is acceptable to God.  Still, I suspect the shepherd of Moses' day approached the altar with fear and trembling, knowing the flawed animal in his arms was not enough, but bringing it anyway because God had so commanded, bringing it anyway because he believed his Lord was a loving God who would somehow find a way to mend their broken relationship in spite of his pitifully insignificant offering.  I believe the sincerity of that shepherd's humility and the depth of  his faith was adequate because it was well placed.  The Lord is indeed merciful.  He did indeed find a way to mend their relationship in spite of the fact that the shepherd could never pay the price for his sins.  That way was not Micah's firstborn child, and certainly not the shepherd's pathetic little lamb; it was the Lord's only begotten Son, Jesus, the man who is God, sliding down the rope to take my place because He knows I cannot leave this well the way I found it.  (Dickson, pages 179-180)

 In every popular Twelve Step Program, steps 8 and 9 have to do with identifying those people you have wronged, and as much as possible making amends.  The caveat is there because it is not always possible.  Jesus said, "All things are possible to him who believes."  Well placed faith is not in ourselves, not in our "higher power", but in Christ alone.  Only He can make all things new.  Only He can leave the well like it was when I found it.

A Call to Purity

God's grace first saves and then trains His people for godliness and good deeds.                --Steven J. Cole

When I was in college, my priorities changed.  I was thrust into a community that had different values and priorities than those I had grown up with.  Don't get the wrong idea--it was not bad, just different.  One of the ways I tried to fit in was that I began wearing gold chains (it was the 80's--don't judge).

See, a lot of my new friends were a lot more fashion conscious than I had been.  I tried to emulate them as much as I could.  Although I could not afford the latest fashions, I found that I could afford to accessorize.  So I bought myself an inexpensive gold chain.  After a few months of wearing it, however, my friends started commenting that my neck looked dirty.  As it turns out, as I would sweat and move around, the metal alloys in the gold chain started leaving dark brown stains on my neck.

I had to stop wearing the gold chain around my neck because instead of impressing the people I was trying to associate with, those who had grown up wearing gold knew the truth.  The gold I was wearing was cheap.  Maybe it was just gold-plated, or maybe it was only 9- or 10-karat gold.

A quick lesson on gold:  Jewelers have devised a system of grading the purity of gold.  The purest gold is given a grade of 24 karats, meaning 24 parts gold out of 24.  This, of course, is the most expensive.  The most popular selling gold items are 14-karats, meaning they are 14 parts gold and 10 parts metal alloy mix.  This is less expensive than pure gold, and one can say it is mostly gold because it contains more gold than metal alloy.  The least expensive gold items are 10-karat, meaning 10 parts gold and 14 parts metal alloy mix.  This type of jewelry appears to be gold, but it is mostly other metals.  The metal alloys would leave a dark red stain, like a rust ring, when it came into contact with my sweaty neck.

Metallurgists have for millennia tried to turn lead into gold. Spiritually, this transformation occurs by God's grace the moment we become a follower of Him.  The old self, made from the basest of metals, is transformed into gleaming gold worthy of going into the presence of God.  It is not something we do ourselves; it is done for us, like a jeweler who puts a gold plating over a lead statue.  Something worthless suddenly has incredible value.  What if the lead could choose to change its nature, and take on the properties of the gold plating?

The Capitol Building in Denver, Colorado is gold-plated.  You can see the mountain sunlight glinting off of it in the morning rush-hour.  It is supposed to symbolize the history of the Colorado gold rush.  It certainly does not mean that the legislature meeting beneath the dome is consecrated, or that the laws passed there are in any way divinely inspired.  Some would say that a revival is needed in the hearts of the state government; that would be the only way for the legislature to be more godly in their governing.

If we were to take stock of our hearts individually, each of us would realize that we fall woefully short of what God would call Righteous or Pure.  Even if we are proud and refuse to acknowledge our own sin, others might tend to judge us and point out our shortcomings.  This is what happened to Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3.

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.  The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan!  Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!  Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?" (Zecharaiah 3:1-2)

I can imagine the Angel of the Lord, the Pre-Incarnate Christ, waving his hand toward Joshua, shifting His gaze from Satan the accuser (or prosecutor) to God, the All-Righteous Judge.

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the Angel.  He spoke, and said to those who were standing before Him, saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him."  Again He said to him, "See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes."  Then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head."  So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the Angel of the Lord was standing by. (Zechariah 3:3-5)

Joshua, the man standing before God, was a high priest of the people.  Yet Satan could still truthfully accuse him.  "Just look at him," Satan might have sneered.  "He's filthy.  How do you think he got that way?  He chose to wallow in it!  Not only is he impure on the outside; his heart is impure, too."  Yet by God's grace Joshua was cleaned up, and was given a holy veneer, a gold-plating as it were.  But it didn't stop there.

And the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among those who are standing here." (Zechariah 3:6-7)

What a great promise.  Joshua the high priest could, by modifying his behavior, have access to the very throne of God.  He could retain the Angel of the Lord (an Old Testament name for Jesus) as his advocate against the Accuser, Satan himself.  It was the grace of God that brought him into the presence of the Almighty; it was an act of will on Joshua's part that would lead to godly living and a position of service in the Temple.

 There is a similar statement in the New Testament.  In Titus 2, Paul admonishes an early Christian missionary and church leader to act on the grace of God given to him.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the Glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:11-14)

God's grace is available to all.  In the first 10 verses of Titus 2, Paul had been speaking of different groups of people: older men, older women, younger men, younger women, and slaves.  God's grace is not exclusive to one particular class of people; it is available to all types of people.  What they do with that grace, that gold plating applied by the Creator, determines whether they become a 9- or 10-karat Christian (who leaves a mark of sin, and is seen by the world as "cheap" or "not pure and genuine"), or whether they become a 14- or 18-karat Christian (one who is more pure, and is seen by the world as "valuable" or "treasured" or "priceless").

What does becoming pure entail?  Again, it starts with God's grace.  As we grow in that grace, we are instructed to deny ungodliness and worldly desires.  We are encouraged to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the here and now.  We are to look forward to the blessed hope of the glorious appearance of Christ Jesus, for it was Jesus who brought grace to us in the first place, giving Himself as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sinfulness.  It is also Jesus who desires to purify for Himself a treasured people, who are zealous for good deeds.

When we are observed by the world, we may be admired for our godliness and purity.  We may also be accused of being legalistic or fanatical about our faith.  As long as our motives are pure and we strive to reflect the glory of God and not ourselves, then there is nothing wrong with our being fanatical zealots for Christ.  See, the purpose of the moon is to reflect the light of the sun.  The sun is the source of that light, but people cannot approach the sun because of the intense heat and energy it radiates.  Men can, however, visit the moon, for it is accessible.  In the same way, people cannot possibly approach God because of His pure holiness and intense righteousness, but they can approach us as we reflect the very light of God to them.

The sign pictured above hangs in my bathroom.  It is a shortened version of Ephesians 5:26, there so I am reminded to be sanctified or set apart every time I wash my hands or my face or even my entire body in the shower.  Some may think I have taken this verse out of context, because Ephesians 5 speaks to the relationship between husbands and wives, and this verse is in the context of how men should treat their wives.  I believe Paul was making a comparison, asking men to treat their wives as Christ treats His bride, the Church, "washing them with the water and with the word."  Each time I wash, I pray that God would wash me with His own Word (not the Scripture only, but the Word whom John said "was with God and was God.")  I pray to be sanctified daily, to be set apart to His holiness and to be purified as gold.

Let this be a season of sanctification, "So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:7).

Resolved: I will be more holy, and balanced

Do, or do not--there is no try.  --Yoda, (The Empire Strikes Back)

Now is the time of resolving to do better this year than last.  We promise ourselves that we will be better versions of ourselves, that we will avoid temptations, or that we will work harder to achieve our goals.

I am no different.  I have resolved to improve in every area of my life:

• Physically
• Mentally
• Emotionally
• Spiritually
• Financially
• Socially
• Professionally

This seven-fold approach is rather ambitious, I know.  It is much easier to say, "I will lose ten pounds", or "I will save more money".  Those are great objectives, and they may fit in with physical improvements or financial improvements you want to make this year.

The reason I have chosen to use this "whole person" approach is to allow God to show me what I need in every area of my life.  In my quest for balance, I have looked at different pie charts, trying to find the fitting representation of my goals.

It's easy enough to make a pie chart with seven different areas, one for each of the life areas listed above.  The problem is that when one area is deficient or needs work, the pie chart gives it a smaller percentage of the whole, still keeping the whole intact.  The areas I need to work on become mere slivers, and may disappear entirely.  The pie remains whole, rounded out, with no pieces missing.  If I eat a piece of apple pie, then it is no longer round; there is a wedge (or a half) missing.  The circle shape dissolves into a shape more closely akin to a flat tire.

What I would like to create is a "tire chart".  If I need work in the area of spirituality, for instance--if I do not pray or read the Bible consistently or faithfully every day, I want that part of the circle to show a concave indention, kind of like a flat tire.  Conversely, if I spend too much time obsessing over my job or my savings account, I want there to be a bulge in the circle, representing an overabundance of effort or thought placed in that area.  Can you see it in your mind's eye?  To keep rolling down the road efficiently, you have to pare down the bulges and fill in the flat spots.

There is a scripture that alludes to the Whole Man concept, and it is one that I hope to memorize and meditate upon in the coming months.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged--consecrated to Him--set apart for His purpose]; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and [be found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful and absolutely trustworthy is He who is calling you [to Himself for your salvation], and He will do it [He will fulfill His call by making you holy, guarding you, watching over you, and protecting you as His own].  --1 Thessalonians 5:23-25 AMP

See, I want to be set apart for His purpose, no matter my impurity or my brokenness or my half-assed attempts at self improvement.  (Yes, I realize the irony of using a profane or vulgar term to describe my desire to be holy and set apart.  Alas, I am still a work in progress.)

Paul references the three-fold nature of mankind.  We are body, soul, and spirit.  As we are created in the image of God, we reflect Jesus (who came in bodily form), God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  With this in mind, we can strive to become more like our Creator by honing the creation.

Improvements in the body are made by focusing on exercise, nutrition, and hygiene.  This year I want to be less of a couch-potato, and become more active.  I want to eat better.  I want to take care of myself, so that I can present myself to God an acceptable sacrifice.  "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." (Romans 12:1).

Improvements in the spirit include prayer, Bible study, and character development.  I don't want my prayers to be shallow, a recitation of a "God bless mommy and daddy" list.  Neither do I want my Bible reading to be something that allows me to check off that box on my To Do List.  I want to actually walk with God, communing with Him as Adam did before the fall.  "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.  But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-22).

Improvements in the soul can be further subdivided.  The soul is a person's mind, will, and emotions.  To keep my mind sharp, I want to read and write and meditate.  The mind is a muscle, and it must be exercised daily or it will become dull. "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5).  To bend my will in accordance with the will of God, I must want what He wants.  "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality." (1 Thessalonians 4:3).  To keep myself emotionally in check, I must grieve at that which the Holy Spirit grieves, and I must rejoice for that which the Holy Spirit rejoices.  "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ Jesus also has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:30-32).

There is a part of a phrase in our text, in the Amplified Version, that I do not want to gloss over; I would be remiss if I did not point it out.  1 Thessalonians 5:23 says (in part):  "Now may the God of peace...make you pure and whole and undamaged."  Purity we have talked about.  The other ideas, those of wholeness and without damage, those are things that are maybe more personal to you, things that the church typically skips over.  I work in insurance claims, so I know the concept of making someone "whole" in the financial sense.  Whenever someone experiences a loss, insurance will indemnify that person for her loss.  This is easy enough to do with property (pay the value of a crashed car or a burned out building).  It can even be applied to physical injury (pay the medical bills for your healing, and maybe, depending on the coverage, replace the wages lost during that time period.)  But what about those whose innocence was lost through no fault of her own?  The world is full of broken people, and no man can restore what was lost or repair the brokenness that some people know.  Only God can heal your brokenness.  This past year a huge number of women came together in a show of unity, saying #MeToo.  Some are angry, some are vindictive, some are ashamed.  All are broken, beyond what the justice system may offer as a remedy.  God knows your need; only He can make you whole.  He knows the damage you have suffered; only He can undo that damage, if you only ask Him to.

With all this in mind, I wish for you, as well as myself, success in becoming more Godly, more Christ-like, and more filled with His Spirit.  Have a blessed and joyful New Year.

Rejoice Jubilantly with All Joy

Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near.  --Philippians 4:5

What brings you joy every time you think about it?  What causes you to rejoice?  In this Christmas season, you may think of giving the perfect gift to a loved one.  You may think of a child's sense of wonder and surprise when presented with that one perfect gift.

The word "rejoice" occurs 77 times in the New Testament.  It occurs 10 times in the little letter of Philippians.  It occurs twice in the one verse that is associated with this, the third Sunday of Advent.  The verse is Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"

What is the motivation for Paul's sense of joy in this statement?  I think it is found in the very next verse, near the end: "The Lord is near."

We all know those people who never do anything unless the boss or the teacher is in the room.  These inauthentic people have bad behavior generally, but their behavior improves as soon as they see someone in authority over them.

As Christians, our behavior would surely improve if Jesus suddenly showed up in our midst.  (Remember the disciple we know as "Doubting Thomas"--when Jesus appeared before him, he no longer doubted.)  In fact, more than just our behavior might improve.  Our countenance, the look on our faces, might immediately improve as well.

But Paul didn't say for us to rejoice only when we sensed His presence.  He said to rejoice in the Lord always.  Why?  Because the Lord is near.  Always.

It is human nature to long for something better.  We anticipate the coming of Christmas, and our joy is increased.  I think Mary had that sense of anticipation.  As the donkey crested that last hill and the lights of Bethlehem came into view, I think she must have anticipated the end of her long journey from Nazareth, looking forward to some rest before going into labor.  Joseph, too, may have been looking forward to securing lodging for the two of them, and beyond that perhaps locating a local midwife there in Bethlehem.  There was that sense of heightened anticipation, that all the hope, all the preparation was soon going to culminate in the birth of a blessing.

We, too, have something to long for, something to keep us pressing on in joyful anticipation.  No, it's not Christmas, which will be over in a little over a week.  It's not even the coming New Year, with it's challenges and resolutions.  It is the imminent return of Jesus at the end of this age.  Remember that line in the Lord's Prayer that says, "Thy kingdom come"?  That is what we are longing for, that is what we look forward to with great anticipation.

The Jews have a tradition in their Passover celebration of setting a place at the table (or at least pouring a cup of wine) for the prophet Elijah.  Those families with young children may ask the youngest to go outside and watch for Elijah as they finish their meal preparations.  The reason they do this is that the prophets said Elijah must come first, before the Messiah arrives.  This tradition keeps hope alive, and incorporates anticipation into the celebration.

Of course, we Christians believe that John the Baptist fulfilled the role set forth in Scripture, that "Elijah must come first."  John's message echoed Isaiah 40:3, when he said he was one crying in the desert, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." (see Mark 1:3).  That message is just as powerful now as it was when John said it.  Even now, Lord Jesus, come!

Closely related to the words "joy" and "rejoice" is the term "jubilation".  In the book of Leviticus Moses set forth the command from God that every 50th year would be a year of Jubilee, in which all debts would be forgiven, ancestral lands would be restored to their original owners, and most importantly, those who had sold themselves to pay off a debt would be set free.  This celebration was a foretelling of the coming of God's kingdom on earth.  In that day, we who have been enslaved to sin will be set free forever.  In that day, we who belong to God will be given our inheritance in Him.

Zechariah 14:9 says, "And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one."  Revelation 20:4-5 describes a time when those who have been martyred for the sake of Christ will come to life and reign with Jesus for a thousand years.  Friend, if the thought of this event doesn't make you jubilant, nothing will. 

We should rejoice that the day is coming, and that it is coming sooner now than ever before.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud, and majesty and awe

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave

        Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel 

Hope Is A Four Letter Word

And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.                   --1 John 3:3

What do you take to a baby shower?  What kinds of gifts should you bring?  Certainly there is an air of expectation and hopefulness.  All mothers know the joys and fears of the expectant mother-to-be:  the hope that this period of discomfort and sacrifice will culminate with the birth of the baby; the hope that the baby will be healthy and well, and the suppressed fear of what she would do if the baby is not healthy or whole; and finally the fear (especially of first-time mothers) that she will not be a good mom, that she would not know how to care for and nurture the baby properly.

That is why the gifts at the baby shower are given in anticipation of the life that is to come.  Friends bring warm clothing, bath oils, talcum powders, all nice things to help make the baby comfortable.  Parents may bring play-pens, strollers, car-seats--more expensive items to make it easier to keep the baby safe while travelling away from home.  But the most important gift of all is diapers.

No one in polite society will say what the diapers are for, but we all know.  The child will go through a ton of them before he is toilet-trained.  However, there is the hope that one day, eventually, the child will no longer need them.

Last week I wrote about the wise men, the magi from the East, who traveled first to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem to pay honor to Jesus, the new-born King.  They brought with them gifts, tribute (if you will) to the King of kings.  We all know the gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Gold was often brought as tribute to royalty.  When foreign leaders visited David and Solomon in the Old Testament, they brought gold.  Aside from its monetary value, gold is seen as pure, as desirable, as durable, and even as royal.

Frankincense is an essential oil used in perfumes because of its pleasant aroma.  The effused aroma promotes relaxation and feelings of peace.  It also has medicinal or healing properties, that foretold of Jesus's ministry on Earth.

Myrrh is named for the Arabic word for "bitter."  It, too, is an essential oil that historically had been used in embalming and mummification as far back as ancient Egypt.  This gift foretold of His death, and yet alluded to his Resurrection, because it, too, has medicinal and healing powers when used as an essential oil.  One source I read says its antioxidant properties help in restoring dead cells or preventing cell death.  Is that not one role that Jesus fulfills now?

So we see that the birth of the Savior brought with it hope, but as the gifts of the Wise Men foretold, that hope would come through hardship.

There is a place near the southern tip of Africa that we call the Cape of Good Hope.  In the fifteenth century, as the European population expanded and the demand increased for spices from the East (to preserve food more than season it), the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was trying to find a shipping route to India southward around the continent of Africa.  As he approached the southern tip, he experienced the phenomenon of competing currents where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  The cold Atlantic current mingles with the warm Indian Ocean current, and at certain points may mingle with Antarctic winds from the South.

Those of you familiar with meteorology recognize that the clash of a warm-air current meeting with a cold front can cause violent storms.  This is why Dias first called the place Cabo das Tormentas, or "Cape of Storms."

How many of us are tormented by frequent storms in life?  We are sailing along with warm wind currents when BAM! a cold front meets us out of nowhere.  Satan sends storms to buffet us, much like the storm encountered by the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee.  Matthew chapter 8 (and again in Luke chapter 8) tells of a time when Jesus and His disciples got into a boat and started across the lake.  Jesus was tired, and fell asleep in the bow.  A huge storm erupted, causing waves large enough to swamp the boat; the disciples, experienced fishermen who had plenty of experience sailing these waters, feared for their lives.

They shouldn't have.  Jesus, the source of hope, was in the boat with them.

The One who had created the winds and the waters by His Word spoke peace to the waves, and there was calm.  His question to them, "Where was your faith?" was not so much chastising them for not being able to withstand the storm themselves.  I think it had more to do with their faith that the Son of God, who was in the boat, could not have been destroyed by the storm.  Their proximity to Him, therefore, assured their safety as well.

Back our story about the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias:  It was in 1411 that he first sailed through the "Cape of Storms".  Seventy years later, King John II renamed it the "Cape of Good Hope" (Capo de Boa Esperanza) because there was now a reliable shipping trade route to India.  He was optimistic and full of hope that the people of the West would benefit greatly from increased access to spices and preservatives from the East.

You see, hope does not exist without adversity.  You can't say, "I hope I get this job," if there was no possibility that you could lose it.  You can't think "I hope my daughter gets home safely," if there was no real hazard, no actual perils to which she could possibly fall prey.  Our hope for good recognizes the prevalence of evil; our hope of life is juxtaposed with the very real possibility of death.  We cling to hope, especially when the source of hope is outside of ourselves.

So we meditate on hope this second Sunday of the Advent season.  This weekend my pastor told the background of one of the most quoted Scriptures of the Christmas season.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Emanuel.  --Isaiah 7:14

We know this as a Messianic scripture, and Old Testament verse that foretold the coming of Jesus.  But the background is an instance where Ahaz, the king of Judah, had lost all hope, and Isaiah the prophet had offered some.  The adversity at the time, the circumstance that made Ahaz lose hope, was that his enemies in Syria had begun to lay siege on Jerusalem.  Ahaz knew that his army was no match for the Syrian army.  In fact, he had secretly sent messages to another enemy, the king of Assyria, offering the people of Judah as slaves if he would spare his own life.

Ahaz feared for his life.  Isaiah came with words of hope.  "Take care and be calm," he said.  "Have no fear and do not be fainthearted." (Isaiah 7:4).  Isaiah's message was to believe God.  You see, God had already promised, before Ahaz was born, that a descendant of David would always be on the throne in Jerusalem.  Ahaz had no heirs at the time, but he was genuinely afraid.  He also had no faith, and as a result, he was hopeless.

Hopelessness drives people to do desperate things.  Today we empty the store shelves in anticipation of a storm, or we make a run on gasoline when we think that oil supply chains may be cut off.  The Donner Party resorted to cannibalism when the winter storm got so bad.  Ahaz offered his people as slaves to a foreign power because he feared his enemy.

Isaiah came with a word of encouragement:  God's got this.  There is no reason to get all panicky.  "Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God," Isaiah said.  "Make it as deep as Sheol or high as heaven." (Isaiah 7:11).  Unfortunately, Ahaz was hopeless.  "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord." (Isaiah 7:12).  This was not a statement of humility; he was not trying to bow to God's greatness.  Instead, he was showing exactly how little faith he had in God.

Isaiah's answer, that one day a virgin would conceive and bear a son, whose very name means "God with us," was meant to show that God was being true to His promise that the line of David would one day culminate in the birth of the Messiah.  God had not yet finished His plan for you, Ahaz, so have faith.  Much like Jesus's question to the disciples: Where is your faith?  Don't you know that God's promises are true?  Therein lies our source of hope.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare to make no other claim,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In ev'ry high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, his covenant and blood
Support me in the raging flood;
When ev'ry earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in him be found,
Clothed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before his throne.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

 

I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will  have the Light of life.  --John 8:12

I am the Bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.  --John 6:35

Today is the first Sunday of Advent.  It is four weeks before the celebration of God's greatest gift to Mankind.  As we prepare for Christmas with our families, we should stop and remember the preparations that God made thousands of years ago so that we could know Him.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."  --Matthew 2:1-2

Most Bible scholars agree that the wise men from the East had traveled up to two years to get to Jerusalem to visit the Christ child.  The star they followed had appeared two years before their meeting with Herod to ask where He might be born.  Think about that for a minute; God sent a heavenly light to guide the men to His only Son, who would describe Himself later as the Light of the world.

That was not the only preparation that had been made.  Not by a long shot.  Matthew tells us more of the story.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:   AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, AND BY NO MEANS THE LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL."  --Matthew 2:3-6

The prophets had written this prediction fifteen hundred years earlier.  That's how long God had anticipated the Advent of His Son in Bethlehem.  Did you know that "Bethlehem" means "House of Bread"?  Oh, and Jesus's earthly parents did not even live in Bethlehem--God had to manipulate the political leaders of the day to call a census at that exact moment, just so that the One who later called Himself the Bread of life would be born in the "House of Bread."

See what God did there?

So here's the deal.  We can take that information and tuck it away in our brain, and go on with our Christmas shopping and baking and travelling.  Or we can heed the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:15, "Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of Peace."  We have the Good News of Jesus Christ in our hearts.  How can we best prepare our world for His peace?

One of the older carols you may hear in the next three weeks is one that says, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin in me."  Let's make preparation to share His love in the coming year, not just monetarily or materialistically.  The very best gift we could give to someone is to share the Gospel, the greatest gift God ever gave to anyone.

Let's be the light of the world that Jesus said we were in Matthew 5:14.  You may think what can one person do?  One little point of light can pierce the darkness, but a number of small lights along the path can guide someone's attention to the Son.  That is what we have been put on earth to do.  Let's prepare our hearts and minds to that end, because of the preparation God performed to introduce to us the Way to Him.