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The Unforgivable Sin..?

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“I’m telling you the truth: people will be forgiven all sins, and all blasphemies of whatever sort. But people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit will never find forgiveness. They will be guilty of an eternal sin.” This was his response to their claim that he had an unclean spirit. ~Mark 3:28-30

Alrighty then, let’s tackle the unpardonable sin, shall we?!

This is that subject which I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard of, at one point fearfully wondered if we committed, and now don’t ever really think about. It is interesting (and significant?) that it is mentioned in all three synoptic Gospels. It’s not a one-and-done mention in the back of the book of Haggai or something. So perhaps it is worth taking a deeper look into.

What the heck is this “Unpardonable Sin”? Is there really an act we can commit which God will never grant us forgiveness for?

Let’s first take a look at what it literally is according to Scripture and context. As you can see in our passage above it is to “blaspheme the Holy Spirit”. And what is “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”? According to the context it is to verbalize that God’s Son Jesus operates by the power of the prince of demons*. So, unless you have audibly uttered in front of other people that Jesus’s power comes from a demon, it is a safe bet that you have not committed the unforgivable sin. As every commentary I read on this subject made clear, if you are worried that you have committed the unpardonable sin, then you have not committed the unpardonable sin; for the commentaries also make clear that Jesus is referring to someone with a conscience so seared, that they would not even realize that they are blaspheming the Holy Spirit, nor would they care one iota that they are working to lead people away from Jesus.

This is the condition we find these “experts” to be in who are accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the power of demons. They cannot even tell good from evil anymore. They are so set in their ways and interpretations which they have given such an abundance of energy to, that when they actually encounter God in the flesh doing the most wonderful and powerful of good works, they call it evil power because it does not fit their paradigm which they have devoted themselves to. And therein lies their major problem. They are devoted to a paradigm itself more than the person God Himself. Here we have a disturbing example of people who were so dedicated to a system that they mistook the real thing for an imposter. (By the way, as scary as this passage can be, bear in mind that Jesus mercifully warns these people about, but does not yet accuse them of, the unpardonable sin.)

What I am seeing here that may be of significance to us today is the sin of closing yourself off to the working of God, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. God is God and can work through any place and any time and any person. When we start falling in love with our systems and interpretations we shut off avenues to Christ’s working. Before we know it we are down to only four possible ways in which we think Pneuma can operate, and if it doesn’t look like those four ways it must be of the devil. Dangerous territory.

Perhaps another way to say “Blaspheming the Holy Spirit” is “Limiting the Holy Spirit”. Perhaps. Again, dangerous ground. We must guard against and catch ourselves when we start thinking or saying that the Spirit does not work through this certain denomination, or this group of people, or in this way or that. The Wind blows where it will and no one can predict where it will come from next [John 3:8]. This does not mean that every single thing is right and ok (i.e. the Roman government of Jesus’s day which God used to bring about His salvation plan was not exactly pure and righteous), just that God can work in mysterious ways which often blow up our self-imposed boxes.

(And for the record we are not saying that if you have ever limited the Holy Spirit in any way then you have committed the unforgivable sin. These are simply points to ponder and hopefully grow from. There is no record in Scripture of anyone asking forgiveness of God and being denied it!)

Frederick Dale Bruner has a wise word of caution in his commentary on this topic. We must definitely keep from using this passage to clobber those with whom we disagree. This might seem obvious, but it is probably good to speak it since it has been used so many times over the years to condemn without really comprehending the weapon which we are wielding. Always keep in mind who the real enemy is.

At the risk of too many words, here is a summarized take away: Be careful of closing yourself off–to the Spirit of course, but be vigilant of the many ways this may play out. Closing off to an ethnic group, an entire religion…Could Spirit be speaking through them and your heart is closed off? Turn this passage inward, not out of fear of going to hell over a mistaken word spoken, but out of reverence to not blaspheming the Holy Spirit with a shut down, hardened heart. There seems to be a point we can reach which proves extremely difficult to return from (impossible on our own?). Stay open to the Voice, for if you ignore it for too long, you may forget what it sounds like.

Am I ignoring Pneuma nudges?

Have I closed myself off to the Spirit of God in some way?

*Frederick Dale Bruner says in his commentary, “In Mark, saying Jesus has an unclean spirit is the sin against the Holy Spirit. In context, in all three Gospels, the sin against the Holy Spirit is not some arbitrary curse of deity or some foolish remark about either God or the Spirit per se; it is trying to ruin Jesus in the eyes of others.”

*James Edwards in his commentary: “The sin against the Holy Spirit is thus not an indefinable offense against God, but a specific misjudgment that Jesus is motivated by evil rather than by good, that he is empowered by the devil rather than by God…This is an ‘eternal sin’ (v.29) since anyone who, willingly or not, cannot distinguish evil from good and good from evil, darkness from light and light from darkness, is beyond the pale of repentance.”

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Advent Reflection

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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Luke 2:1-7

The week leading up to Jesus’s birth was not exactly smooth sailing. His mother Mary and her fiancé Joseph get word that Rome is requiring a census for taxation purposes which, in turn, requires them to travel back to the place of Joseph’s ancestry in order to register–Bethlehem. The trek from their current home in Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem is some 90 miles, and Mary, who is well into her third trimester, gets to do this journey…on a donkey. Pretty much upon their arrival it comes time for Jesus’s arrival. Great timing. Not only that, but there are apparently no guest rooms available anywhere in the vicinity, so she gets to give birth out in the barn area with the animals.

And yet…

Look what came of this not so extravagant event. Look who came from these not very ideal conditions. Only the Person who has changed more lives for the better than all other humans combined.

Isn’t this the way life, and God, work much of the time? Bringing something wonderful out of something so difficult and seemingly pointless? Commentator Luke Timothy Johnson points out that, “Nothing very glorious is suggested by the circumstances of the Messiah’s birth. But that is Luke’s manner, to show how God’s fidelity is worked out in human events when appearances seem to deny his presence or power.“

It was not ideal for Mary and Joseph to travel such a distance for a census required by Rome. It was not ideal to give birth so far from home and family. It was not ideal to lay their baby down in a feeding trough in the barnyard area.

And yet…

Immeasurable good.

It’s almost as if God purposefully chose to bring Jesus into the world under an oppressive occupying government just to show the world that He can bring the greatest gift out of the most horrific human circumstances. Have you ever gone through something terrible only to come out the other side with a new and rewarding friendship?

As the magnet on our refrigerator says, “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” Much goes the way we would rather it not, but God, who is pure Love, will see to it that your ultimate good will be brought forth from even the worst of experiences as we remain faithful. This does not necessarily mean that God likes every single thing that has happened to you. But He asks for your trust that He will take care of you in the end; that He can and will bring good from ill. I am here reminded of Brennan Manning who always preached that he believed upon meeting God after death He would ask us one question: “Did you believe that I loved you?”

Powerful question indeed.

I have come to experience and know a few foundational truths that I hope you can take away from this reflection. God has loved you for billions of years already–which I find unexplainably comforting. God only wants what is best for you and will bring it about no matter how badly things have gone in the past or how awful circumstances look at present. For God, who knows what is best for you better than you do and who is also perfect love embodied, is ultimately in control. No human has authority over your destiny, in this life or the next.

Always remember that God uses even the twisted decisions and actions of highly imperfect human beings to bring about divine goodness. God can take unfavorable circumstances beyond your control and mill them into glorious blessing.

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Carrying Legos

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After the earthquake a fire, but Adonai was not in the fire. After the fire there was a soft whisper of a voice. ~I Kings 19:12 [Tree of Life version]

Let’s say for some interesting reason you needed to transport about 200 Lego pieces to your neighbor across the street. Now trying to carry them all in your arms without dropping one, or twenty, would not only be somewhat stressful, but downright near impossible. But, if you put all the pieces in a box to take over, it would be a thousand times more doable, and much less effort on your part, because you would simply be focused on one task, holding the box, as opposed to desperately trying to keep 200 different items from slipping through your precarious grasp.

This is how it feels when we attempt to juggle too many tasks under the self-imposed pressure of our own efforts. We impossibly try to concentrate on a ridiculous number of responsibilities, all the while worrying that we’re going to drop the ball on one of them because everything in life hangs on our own ability, capacity, and skill set.

But the Kingdom mindset is much different. There is just one effort that matters, and that is following the gentle, affirming voice of the Holy Spirit always guiding us lovingly and clearly-if only we are able to quiet ourselves enough to hear that Divine whisper. This is the “box” for our Legos. We still have tasks given to us, but this is a much more effective way to carry them out.

“Performing for an Audience of One” simplifies efforts and gives a peace which does indeed surpass our mere human comprehension, for all of our scatteredness is brought into a concentrated holy focus on the one Word and approval which matters so much that all other foci are swallowed up in its satisfying goodness.

If you have a lot you’re trying to carry, put it in a box.

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Reading the NT in 28 Days

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Give reminders of these things, solemnly pledging before God not to engage in verbal battles, which lead to nothing useful, but bring catastrophe to those hearing them. ~II Timothy 2:14

But shun foolish debates and genealogies and strife and battles about Law, for they are unprofitable and vain. ~Titus 3:9

For the month of August I decided it would be a good thing to read through the entire New Testament. I was able to finish it in 28 days which is averaging just over 9 chapters per day. My main purpose with this task was to get a nice bird’s eye view of the New Covenant Canon, and take note of the overarching and repeated themes which I may not notice without a cover to cover timely reading. We tend to drill down on a single chapter or verse or theme, sometimes missing the big picture. It’s great to study a verse or even a word, but we probably do not want to neglect the 30,000 foot view.

[By the way, this is why I didn’t send out anything in August-I was too busy reading the New Testament! Not that anyone was worried about me, I’m just saying…]

So I thought I would be nice to share what stood out to me during this quicker paced reading. Now I realize that I have my own filters, and my antennae are attuned in a certain configuration due to my life’s specific lenses, but I did make a considerable effort to read as open-minded as I could, as if reading it for the first time which is of course impossible, but hey, I tried. To help with this effort, I read the newest translation I own, which is the second edition translation by Eastern Orthodox scholar dude David Bentley Hart. Being new (2023), I’m not terribly familiar with it, so it slowed me down a bit, especially with its “knotty” rougher around the edges style rendering. Mr. Hart attempted to preserve the raw and unpolished style of the original writings.

On to the big standouts:

The first observation I made, which I almost found humorous, was how often in the Gospels Jesus tells someone to tell no one about Himself or what He’s up to. It was way more than I realized! When you read it this quickly, you tend to be like, “OK! We get it.” Or do we..? I’m not sure what to make of this yet, though my friend Miguel made an interesting point that perhaps all these directives are kept in there to teach us something about God’s timing and human timing. Hmmm, I wonder.

Secondly, what leaped off the page, for some reason, was leaving the 99 sheep to go rescue the one. I’m not exactly sure what it was about this that made me take notice other than the fact that it is in the Gospel accounts twice. That second time it came up I was shot through to my innards; I guess it could simply be what the Spirit wanted me to see at this time. I thought of the multi-layered meanings available through this picture of leaving the 99 for the one. What came to memory was the lesson I learned at Outreach, working with homeless high school students, on being careful not to expend all your energy on the “99” who are the loudest yet not ready to move forward, at the neglect of the quieter “one” who craves your assistance and care that will be just the catapult he or she needs to make a life change. There’s also the idea of leaving the 99% way of the world’s thinking and pursuing the 1% Kingdom way of thinking, as Jesus did.

Other repeated and noticeable themes form the Gospels were, not surprisingly, the importance of servanthood, along with its related declaration of what it takes to be great in the Kingdom of God. Spoiler alert: it’s not about being great.

With Paul’s writings I realized anew just how much he was against stringent law-keeping, and all about the person Jesus, and clinging to Him being all that really matters. It’s sort of funny to me how the tradition I grew up in was big on using Paul to write systematic theology books and multitudes of morality rules, not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that, but the tenor of his letters (more noticeable at this faster paced reading) is obviously about Jesus and His Spirit being the new everything. If you are all about Jesus the Christ, the actual living person who is perfect love, chances are your theology will be just fine, and your morality will be in some sort of check. Don’t get me wrong, Paul had to tell a couple of the early churches to stop whoring around, but hey nobody’s perfect.

Paul was also crystal clear about the message, the Good Tidings, which he and the other apostles proclaim, coming not from human ingenuity or flesh originated eloquence, but rather from God directly. That’s why the words have so much power. You can be as clever as can be with four and five syllable words strung together brilliantly according to human measurements, but unless they are dripping with Spirit, they cannot penetrate into the innermost parts of the human soul, I don’t care how sesquipedalian you are. But Spirit-drenched single syllable words are able to go where others simply cannot reach. Paul admitted to not being the best speaker, but that didn’t really matter due to the supernaturally charged message he was bringing.

Well, speaking of words, I see I’m already nearing 900, so let’s wrap this Ripple up. Last thought I’ll share is that the books which really popped for me on this read-thru were the letters to Timothy and Titus, as well as the two Peter letters and the three from John. I’d love to drill down further on those in the near future. I love how Paul told Timothy and Titus not to get pulled into verbal battles and endless debates which are absolutely pointless-unless you’re looking to do damage and bring catastrophe. Great word for an election year!

I hope this sparks some good thoughts and meditation for you!

Articles, Daily Meditations

Resetting Your Algorithm

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O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. ~Psalm 63:1

So I was out with some friends for lunch last Friday, and one of the guys shares how he is trying to “reset his algorithms” on the internet because he is getting so much political news invading his feeds that he doesn’t want.

A little bit of context, which is kind of humorous. My buddy admits that he likes following politics when it is especially ridiculous because he really enjoys train wrecks. The presidential debate he deemed to fall into this category and was therefore blissfully going down the rabbit holes. As we know, the more we click, the more we are fed accordingly. He was having a ball, but then the political climate changed, and the news went back to more seriousness in his opinion and was not fun anymore. That’s when he said that he’s been clicking on as many sports and nonpolitical humorous stories as he can in order to reset his algorithms, but he’s still getting more political news coming at him than he wants. Apparently he’s got a lot of resetting to do to change that algorithm!

Almost immediately the apropos metaphor hit me.

Whatever we search for most earnestly, that is just what our mind will more and more easily feed to us without even trying.

Put differently, what we think about the most shapes our neural pathways in such ways that those thoughts start to come at us more naturally and with less and less effort.

If we have bad thought habits, it is going to take quite a bit of “clicking” on other material to reset those algorithms to make whatever is good, true, and beautiful become the default.

By the way, I also like this metaphor of “clicking” on material. We all have many thoughts entering our minds throughout the day which we do not necessarily want. We are human, and invasive thoughts do happen. We get “pop-ups” as they were called in the earlier internet days. But we do not need to “click” on them. We can choose which thoughts we follow down the rabbit hole. This takes me back to one of my all-time favorite quotes which I never tire of sharing; it is from Dallas Willard:

The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon.

Let’s get super practical. One simple way I have found to help in the resetting of my algorithms is that ancient practice of memorizing Scripture. I recently re-memorized Psalm 63, and it is slowly but surely becoming a welcomed invader of my thoughts. Something “radical” I did about a dozen years ago was to read the entire Sermon on the Mount three times a day for thirty days. My goodness, I can’t tell you how good this was to do. It crowded out so much unhealthy thinking simply by taking up more and more neurological real estate. I found myself having significant portions of the sermon memorized without even trying. There’s also the efficacious practice of praying in specifically meaningful ways for those closest to you everyday…

These are just a few ideas out of thousands that we can use to reset our algorithms and rewire our minds in healthier ways. I hope this metaphor is helpful for you as it is for me!

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Revisiting A Testament Of Devotion

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In this my “Year of Review”, I have utterly enjoyed revisiting some readings which have been the most influential on me. There are a few not-so-long books that I have read, digested, and absorbed which are so very pithy that I chose not to even take the cap off my highlighter, for every single word is such gold and worthy of highlighting, that there was no point to do so. One such book which I am re-reading right now is A Testament Of Devotion by the 20th century Quaker Thomas Kelly, published in 1941.

I think I had somewhat forgotten just how much this little work has shaped me. Spending time in it again after several years away from it has gloriously reminded me of the deep resonance I originally felt with it, as well as the beautiful language therein which I adopted as wonderfully accurate descriptions of the Christ life.

Some books come along which present a bare-bones distillation of the Gospel, give the core truth of Christ, and the foundation of our faith so well and with no fluff, that you feel as if you could simply lodge there for many years and be absolutely content and better off for it. A central and repeated message of this particular book is the vital importance of listening to the living, speaking Spirit every moment in all circumstances.

So of course I need to give you an example, and I shall give a somewhat lengthy excerpt which I read last week and have been marinating in. This is from the chapter entitled “The Eternal Now and Social Concern”. For context sake, Kelly has been writing about how our sense of time is shifted after we truly discover that God is present in each moment, how right now holds eternity. Oh how poignantly lovely!

But now let us examine the ordinary experience of time, unrevised by this great discovery of the Eternal Life springing up within it. The ordinary man, busy earning a living, exercises care, caution, foresight. He calculates probabilities. He studies the past in order to predict and control the future. Then when he has weighed all his factors and plotted the outcome, with energy and industry he wills himself into persistent activity along the lines of calculated wisdom.

And much religious work is carried on in just this same way. With shrewd and canny foresight religious people study the past, examine all the factors in the situation which they can foresee, and then decide what is wisest to undertake, or what is most congruous with the Christian life described in the Gospels. Then they breathe a prayer to God to reinforce their wills and keep them strong in executing their resolve.

In this process, time spreads itself out like a ribbon, stretching away from the now into the past, and forward from the now into the future, at the far end of which stands the New Jerusalem. In this ribbon of time we live, anxiously surveying the past in order to learn how to manage the most important part of the ribbon, the future. The now is merely an incidental dividing point, unstable, non-important, except as by its unstaying migration we move ahead into the richer meadows and the greener pastures of the future. This, I fear, is the all-too-familiar world of all too many religious men and women, when a deeper and a richer experience is possible.

The experience of Divine Presence changes all this familiar picture. There come times when the Presence steals upon us, all unexpected, not the product of agonized effort, and we live in a new dimension of life. You who have experienced such plateaus of glory know what I mean….The sense of Presence!

In the immediate experience of the Presence, the Now is no mere nodal point between the past and the future. It is the seat and region of the Divine Presence itself. No longer is the ribbon spread out with equal vividness before one, for the past matters less and the future matters less, for the Now contains all that is needed for the absolute satisfaction of our deepest cravings. Why want, and yearn, and struggle, when the Now contains all one could ever wish for, and more? The present Now is not something from which we hurriedly escape, toward what is hoped will be a better future. Instead of anxiety lest the future never yield all we have hoped, lest we fail to contribute our full stint before the shadows of the evening fall upon our lives, we only breathe a quiet prayer to the Now and say, “Stay, thou art so sweet.” Instead of anxiety lest our past, our past defects, our long-standing deficiencies blight our well-intentioned future efforts, all our past sense of weakness falls away and we stand erect, in this holy Now, joyous, serene, assured, unafraid. Between the relinquished past and the untrodden future stands this holy Now, whose bulk has swelled to cosmic size, for within the Now is the dwelling place of God Himself. In the Now we are at home at last….

Instead of being the active, hurrying church worker and the anxious, careful planner of shrewd moves toward the good life, we become pliant creatures, less brittle, less obstinately rational. The energizing, dynamic center is not in us but in the Divine Presence in which we share. Religion is not our concern; it is God’s concern. The sooner we stop thinking we are the energetic operators of religion and discover that God is at work, as the Aggressor, the Invader, the Initiator, so much the sooner do we discover that our task is to call men to be still and know, listen, hearken in quiet invitation to the subtle promptings of the Divine. Our task is to encourage others first to let go, to cease striving, to give over this fevered effort of the self-sufficient religionist trying to please an external deity. Count on God knocking on the doors of time. God is the seeker, and not we alone; He is anxious to swell out our time-nows into an Eternal Now by filling them with a sense of Presence. I am persuaded that religious people do not with sufficient seriousness count on God as an active factor in the affairs of the world. “Behold I stand at the door and knock,” but too many well-intentioned people are so preoccupied with the clatter of effort to do something for God that they don’t hear Him asking that He might do something through them. We may admire the heaven-scaling desires of the tower-builders on the Plain of Shinar, but they would have done better to listen and not drown out the call from heaven with the clang of the mason’s trowel and the creaking of the scaffolding.

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Point of No Return?

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For once people have been enlightened–when they’ve tasted the heavenly gift and have had a share in the holy spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age–it’s impossible to restore them again to repentance if they fall away, since they are crucifying God’s son all over again, on their own account, and holding him up to contempt. ~HEBREWS 6:4-6

Thankfully, this is not a controversial or particularly complex passage of Scripture in the least bit…

Ok, ok, so it’s one of the most difficult ever. Let’s dive in.

The first point to note is who these verses are specifically written to. This is for those who have tasted of the goodness of Life with God. It’s not for those who have merely dabbled, but those who have fully experienced the abundant life God offers and then turned away from it. The 4-syllable word for this is apostasy.

Instead of getting all controversial and attempting to define precisely what the unpardonable sin is, or just exactly who’s in and who’s out, it seems to me that we can use this passage more effectively for it’s likely intent: to spur us on to keep growing in our relationship with Christ and advance onward into the richer experience of the Spirit-drenched life.

Here, in my observation, is the basic take-away from Luke Timothy Johnson, one of my favorite scholarly commentators [Schommentalor?]:

Not moving forward is the same as falling backward. Failure to grow is tantamount to regression.

That, to me, is our poignant warning.

The old Interpreter’s Bible puts it flatly: “The danger is acute. If they will not advance, they are in danger of apostasy. Once over that cliff, nothing remains but death.” Similarly, Andrew Murray wrote that “Anything like sloth, and resting content in our beginnings, is unspeakably dangerous.”

Are you maturing?

Are you deeper in intimate relationship with God than you were ten years ago?

Are you a more loving person today than when you were a new Christ-follower?

Andrew Murray offers a succinct self-test: “The only sure mark of our being true Christians, of our really loving Christ, is the deep longing and the steady effort to know more of Him.”

Here’s more from schommentalor LTJ to give some deeper context:

The effect of apostasy is so devastating because of the extraordinary character of the gift received and the cost to Christ of its giving…The main point is perfectly straightforward: the enormity of apostasy is measured by the greatness of the experience of God it abandons. That is why it is impossible to “renew to repentance” people who have proven capable of turning away from their own most powerful and transforming experience.

Sitting in extended silence with this passage, here is what rose to the surface, which I trust and hope is from the Holy Spirit, the Great Wind of God:

What is the most offensive offense to Jesus? Not enjoying Him, or His gifts, Presence, life with Him, being Spirit-led. That is the greatest mockery. Behind every sin, every evil act, is the ignoring of Abundant Life offered. You think of what God has done to show us His unfathomable love and care for us: Becoming one of us–human! Serving, learning, dying cruelly, all for breaking down every possible barrier to enjoy being together. You taste of that beautiful life of Spirit-intimacy, and then turn away from it? Pursue other “gods”? It will be most difficult to turn back. Darn near impossible. Literally impossible? As it seems to imply here in Hebrews 6? Oh God, I pray not!

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Jesus Learned Obedience Through Suffering [part 3]

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Once more, let’s travel just a little further down this staircase of mystical truth. I say “once more” because we will keep in Trinitarian Spirit and close this meditation out with three parts. (Otherwise this will turn into one of those 17 month sermon series on Lamentations like I sat through growing up :D)

In continuing to reflect upon what we talked about last time, with regard to that aspect of suffering which results from the learning of new ideas that necessarily causes the death of old ones, my thoughts were drawn to Jesus’s famous “Sermon on the Mount”. Specifically, I pondered Jesus’s refrain, “You have heard that it was said…But I say to you…” How long did it take Jesus to develop these thoughts? To formulate these ideas and make them presentable in this memorable manner? How much searching and pondering he must have done!

In his incomprehensibly loving incarnation, Jesus went through the process of internalizing the Scriptures, and also spent time observing how they were playing out externally in real life. It’s interesting to note that his public ministry did not begin when he was 10, or even 20. Why is this interesting? Well, if he had held on to his omniscience as a human on earth, he very well could have begun his brilliant teachings when he was, say, 5 years old. Heck, he could have started as soon as he was able to talk I guess, at 2-ish, right?

But he had to learn. He had to learn because he really took on human form and mind and heart and limitations, identifying with us at the quantum level. At 12 years old he was listening and asking questions of the religious leaders, not instructing them (Luke 2:42). Afterward he went home with his parents and was obedient to them (v.51). This is the one childhood example we have of him learning what it means to obey. He learned what was involved with obedience the way any of us do–by the experiences of life.

Here is a provocative word from a Bible reference book called Hard Sayings of the Bible that kind of took me aback:

there are some things that even God can experience only by becoming a human being with all of our human limitations. Obedience in the face of suffering is one of them.

Jesus memorized, studied, and prayed the Hebrew Scriptures, always seeking his Father and His will in them. He then took note of how the religious people were interpreting them and living them. That was not always pretty, as we know.

So when the time was right, he delivered his big sermon, showing the people of his day, and us, what we’ve all heard before, and in contrast, what God’s heart truly is. He showed us where we have strayed from the agape of God and missed the point of it all.

There had to be some suffering involved with this process. The ancient Greeks had a saying–Mathein Pathein–Learning is suffering. Suffering is learning. Surely it broke Jesus’s heart to see the holy teachings being misused; to witness poor, oppressed, and broken-hearted people not being cared for properly. Then there was the volatile opposition from the synagogue leaders who claimed to be on his Father’s side! Stressful indeed.

Jesus saw how we humans desperately try to define the undefinable, to tame it, and box it up; how we tend to attach ourselves to systems more than God. We systematize the mystery out of religion, out of GOD. Adopting systems of theology, abiding in them, leads us away from intimacy with our Lord. Jesus said, “Abide in ME.” How quickly do systems replace personal interaction with the Divine. Dogma swallows up prayer. Letting go of techniques is tough. You may have to sacrifice familiar and comfortable teachings for….the Voice–the Spirit speaking now. We of course have boundaries, and follow the teachings of Jesus and Holy Scripture, but we must fight the urge to define it all in the neatest little package that is never again opened. When did Jesus ever say the narrow gate would be a conveniently systematized, easily defined formula? If anything, he taught the opposite with his parables showing just how undefinable, and awesome, the Kingdom of God really is (see Mt.13).

It’s no wonder so many people these days say, “I’m spiritual, not religious.” With so much institutionalizing of the mystery, joy, and care for people, animals, and earth out of everything, can you blame them?

Alrighty then, let’s try to bring this back around full circle. Matthew Henry said in his commentary on Hebrews 5:8 that “We need affliction, to teach us submission.” And William Barclay, in his commentary on our verse, wrote, “God speaks to [us] in many experiences of life, and not least in those which try [our] hearts and souls. But we can hear his voice only when we accept in reverence what comes to us. If we accept it with resentment, the rebellious cries of our heart make us deaf to the voice of God.”

We follow the living Presence of God, brought to us by Jesus, and available now in the Spirit. Mathein pathein. We learn through suffering–when we submit to the Voice. Submission is the soul’s silence, giving it the ability to hear. Resistance is the soul’s screaming and yelling, drowning out the voices of Pneuma (Spirit) and Sophia (wisdom).

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Afraid of Silence?

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My view as I type this….

I’m sitting here this morning on day 6 of our paradisaical vacation on the island of Providenciales in Turks and Caicos. In case you’re not familiar, it’s about 400 miles southeast of The Bahamas, and 100 miles or so north of Haiti/Dominican Republic. It’s absolutely Edenic gorgeous, and not overly crowded to boot–pretty dreamy. In fact, Grace Bay Beach here is consistently, and currently, ranked as “Best Beach in the World” by Tripadvisor.

This particular morning I sit in silence with Papa Yahweh, doing some lectio divina in John 14, then simply sitting still as the waves of the Atlantic Ocean sweetly serenade me into holy tranquility….perhaps my favorite song. As I enjoy so vividly our good God’s wonderfully excellent handiwork in this richly uninhibited atmosphere, in which it is so conducive to calm and for hearing the whispers of Pneuma, these thoughts come to mind:

Coming to a place such as this is much like entering the Divine Presence of Jesus in reverential silence. Who in their right mind would not jump on this if given the opportunity??

Being afraid of, averse to, or avoidant of silence, is kind of like being averse to going on a paid vacation to paradise. What you find there is too good not to go. It’s worth overcoming whatever obstacles may be blocking your way. Maybe you’re nervous about flying, or being away from your family or work, or getting sick while you’re there…

But if you do indeed push thru and make it to the island, you realize that no sacrifice was too small to get there. The beauty, the air, the sound of the ocean; it’s all magnificent, and extremely favorable to regaining perspective which may have been lost, and clearing your mind of accumulated clutter.

Now this doesn’t mean that everything is smooth as glass to get there. You may have to wake up super early for that morning flight. then there’s the layover, going thru customs, finding your luggage and a ride to your abode for the week. But again, once you get to that house on the beach, you realize just how worth it all of the hassle was, just how small those obstacles look in the rear view mirror now, with the ocean right in front of you.

I think this metaphor illuminates nicely the rich experience of silence with our Maker, Father, Friend.

It might take a minute to get there, but once you settle in with Jesus alone, with the gaze of your heart transfixed on Him, open to what His Spirit would like to say to you or give you, it is then that you realize and experience what we’re made for–communion with our Creator.

I know I hammer this silence thing a lot, but I can’t help but notice what a lack we suffer from, and how much I believe God desires to share with us. Talking with a close friend on this trip, he was telling me how he’ll sometimes try to start a small group time with just five minutes of silence, asking everyone to be still and wait to talk or write until the full five minutes is up; inevitably, someone will start writing something down only two or three minutes in, which gives some sort of unspoken permission for everybody else to start talking, and they’ve barely made it halfway thru 5 minutes of silence. At the other end of the spectrum, another friend on this same trip shared with me his monumentally transformative experience years ago at The Great Banquet, a retreat in which pretty much all outside noise is quelled so that you’re actually able to hear God and tangibly feel His love.

I’m telling you, we’re missing so much of what the Holy Spirit would love to give us. It’s like going to the airport and getting a coffee at the food court, but not getting on the plane. You just go back home and think, “Oh what a nice little getaway that was!”

Really?

You had tickets to literally the best beach in the world, but you settled for airport Starbucks.

Take the time, go thru the hassles, and break away to the island where Jesus wants to meet with you alone. It’s always worth it.

Articles, Daily Meditations

Turks & Caicos Sunrise Sermon

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Looking out over the North Atlantic Ocean at Extreme Point in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands

The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.

PROVERBS 4:18 [NLT]

Hello there! It’s been a while….like 9 months. I pray this reflection finds you at peace in your heart.

We just returned Sunday from a most fabulous week in the jaw-droppingly beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands. What I observed there from Papa Yahweh was so meaningful to me, that I could not not share some of it. Our first morning on the island I woke up before dawn in order to see the sun rise over the ocean. It was so mesmerizing and exhilarating, that I got up early for the next six days, no matter how late we were up socializing the nite before, to witness this cosmic event of divine artistry from our infinitely talented Creator.

There really is something to intentionally absorbing the glory of God’s creative wonder–especially a wonder as magnificent as a T & C sunrise. An epiphany hit me some years ago that “in the beginning” God made everything to reflect Him, His nature, the spiritual journey, and the nature of life. (As opposed to it being we clever beings coming up with ingenious comparisons all on our own.) Some of these are fairly obvious, and some are even spelled out in Scripture for us, i.e. Vine and branch, the Spirit being like wind, trees planted by rivers, etc. And some reflections require a bit of work, observation, pondering, seeking…. I have found that the more time and narrowed focus spent in this holy excavation, the more memorable and long lasting is the truth which is revealed and implanted.

One of the first aspects I noticed  from this sunrise sermon was how difficult it was to actually grasp a sense of the change occurring before my very eyes. So I began staring at just one part of one cloud to try to capture even the tiniest difference being made above me, but after about ninety seconds I could not tell what had changed, even though the sky had grown a bit brighter and more beautiful. My eyes would then be drawn away from my focus spot and over to a new streak of pink and salmon that had pierced a dark cloud like a flame thrower shooting through the middle of the nite. “Oooohhh,” I exclaimed aloud, even though I was sitting by myself. And the Wind (Pneuma) whispered to me, “This is how it is with your journey toward Christ. As you inch ever closer, and it is quite important that you progress in this daily, you will typically not see the transformation in real time, but one day you may suddenly notice a wonderful shift in you or even those around you where you were not even looking.” As the wisdom goes, it is better to practice something everyday for fifteen minutes than for an hour and a half once every two weeks. The sun simply keeps peeking over the horizon, rising without stopping, and before you know it, it’s daytime. “Just keep swimming.” How important it is to draw closer to God every single day, putting forth concerted effort to grow in Christ likeness by placing ourselves in the direct rays of the Spirit’s divine energy.

Another aspect I saw in these mornings was that obviously everything got brighter–all around me became illuminated. The closer we draw near Jesus, the clearer the path becomes; we’re not groping around in the dark wondering what the right thing to do is. Also, our reflected light will fall upon more and more people around us, as we “rise”. But what I had not really thought of before was what became more difficult, and eventually impossible, to see. The stars–those things farthest away from me. Pneuma whispered into me again: That which is farthest from your center, your divinely appointed purpose, will fade away as you journey down the path of righteousness. And those closest to you, which you have overlooked due to your self-focus, will be illuminated, and their needs easier than ever to see. If you keep maturing, becoming a little holier than you were yesterday, eventually selfish desires will dissipate into near nothingness. The beauty of Jesus, absorbed more and more, overtakes and swallows up the allure of pleasing yourself, just as the sunrise overtakes the nite sky. Like abstaining from the processed sugar of say, Mountain Dew, you will gradually lose a hankering for it, and it may even become quite nasty to you. (But you must always be on guard against temptation!)

A really cool sidenote is that on about the fifth day after listening to Yahweh through His sunrises, I was reading one of the Tozer books I brought with me, and saw in it the verse above, Proverbs 4:18. It was so ridiculously fitting, that it was like Jesus Himself was giving me the most affirming hug of my life. “I’m here with you, enjoying this too! I’m so glad you’re seeing this.”

The vivid awesomeness that is the sunrise over the ocean is simultaneously energizing and calming. It starts your day most appropriately, and can even sustain you throughout the day, though you may need to take a moment or two in the afternoon to reflect in your heart upon the tranquility of that morning experience. How easy it would be to sleep in one day and miss this incredible gift, then another, until we start to forget the beauty that was once so deeply inspiring to us. Whether through laziness, or the anesthesia of the world’s stupid ways, we can find ourselves having missed the greatest part of the day, and then recognize we are merely laboring under that Sun which desired to be with us in peace and quiet a few hours ago. Oh how vital it truly is to return to our First Love, to the beauty of the most perfect love shown on the cross, every day.