This morning I sat down with my cup of coffee hoping to make some headway in my devotions. It's pretty much been a week since I last did so. I had every intention of cramming in all of the verses and "TableTalk" articles I had missed...that is until the Lord started working on me with a single verse.
"But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?"
Galatians 4:9
In its perfect context this is a part of Paul's defense against "the Circumcision" that had spread about. The members of "the Circumcision" spread about the idea that Christians were still subject to Jewish law, specifically that they needed to circumcised. Paul's letters often have some defense against this idea. You can almost hear the indignation in his writing voice as he calls it quackery. Grown men having to get circumcised would certainly keep people away from the faith never mind the fact that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice that paid for the Law for all time.
The way it hit me this morning, not having been pushed to eschew bacon nor put my faith in the Law, was in relations to my life with the world.
For the past few years, and most intensely within the past few months, I've been feeling a massive drawing towards Christ and towards rejecting the world; to IN the world but not OF the world. It's kind of difficult to explain and I'll probably get all rambley with it. I'd feel guilty but it is after all my blog, and you can check out any time.
About a year ago I had a feeling that things are going to get bad for Christians in the United States. I'm not talking "You have to make this cake whether you like it or not" kind of bad. I'm talking the way Christians are treated in other countries bad. Second or third class citizens bad. The government monitoring our public pulpits bad. I sincerely felt there was going to be a separation that would naturally occur between those who are culturally Christian (those who see Christianity as a good idea, good psychology and a social gospel) and those who have been absolutely changed by Jesus and will stand on His word and in His strength even in the face of injury or death.
Am I prophet? Nope. Not my gifting, though, in accordance with Paul's advice, I eagerly desire that. Instead I just look at the signs. I see the country shifting. When the Right on the political spectrum is as left as the Left was in the 90s...something's not quite right. When we've replaced the concept of Absolute Truth with the concept of Absolute Relativism, to the point that chromosomes and DNA can scream that you are one gender while you feel another and feeling trumps reality, then the culture has built on not just sand, but quicksand. When societies fall apart they look for people to blame. When societies fall apart few ever blame their own actions or the actions of their own party. It doesn't take much to see that we are headed not for a glorious resurgence of the Enlightenment, but for the darkness eerily akin to the Dark Ages. We have replaced knowing with feeling. Logic is the slave of whim. Critical thinking has had sand kicked in its face, been pushed down, bloodied, and its lunch money taken by the will of the mob. The above is just the things going on in the World apart from the spiritual aspect which is far more grim. So many people craving tickled ears rather than submitting to God and the truth of the scriptures...So many prominent pastors twisting the gospel to line their pockets...So many craving to be led astray by an "I'm OK, You're OK, And God's OK with everything and everyone no matter what" kind of gospel. Yes, God is sovereign...but God is also just...and both of those things should be a wake up call, and prompt respectful fear because from my observations of scripture (imperfect as I know they are) God cleans house with his own people first and then judges a nation.
So, what does all this have to do with Galatians 4:9?
Because, to borrow a common phrase, the struggle is real. The struggle is throughout all of the Old and New Testaments. "Like a dog returns to its vomit" is one of my favorites. We are encouraged to not be formed after the patterns of this World but be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Jesus. Although we are saved, although we are made into a new creation, although we are no longer slaves to sin...we are just like the Israelites in the desert...we want to go back to Egypt, we want to fashion God into something more like we saw in Egypt, we want, we crave, we desire the "weak and worthless elementary principles of this world".
On my medicine cabinet mirror I have taped two slips of paper because of this. The first one reads "Do what is the most healthy thing at any given moment" which is SO much harder a concept than I believed when I put it up there. The second says, "Agree daily with what the LORD says, thinks, and feels about you in Jesus."
Why? Because the opposite of both of those things are deep deep patterns of the World; weak and worthless elementary principles.
(We are) I am so conditioned by this world into doing what feels good and makes me happy rather than doing what is best for me. Why is it so hard to do the things that are healthy for us? If I have the choice of playing Fallout 4 over reading some R. C. Sproul or C. S. Lewis or listen to a sermon online...chances are I've got that controller in my hand without a thought. Why do my devotions take nearly a week to get back to? Because I want what I want....and I've got a broken wanter. The calibration is set to the World's standards, not the Lord's. I want to escape to my bedroom with my cell phone so I can play games rather than go do adulting. If it was only some days I can understand. We need a rest, we need an escape, but my desire is every minute of the day...that's not what is healthy or best for me at all. If you give me a choice between Peanut Butter Cups and a salad, why is it that I will take the Peanut Butter Cups every dang time? Because I apply the weak and worthless elementary principles of the World rather than seeking or even considering the ways and paths of the Lord.
Equally messed up is how I let the World determine what I think about feel about myself.
I'm not one of those people who looks at Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to figure out what my life should look like and get stressed out if it doesn't match or exceed. I don't use others as a benchmark for how I should feel about myself. No. My real enemy is myself. I have no standard. One would think that this means I'm all good, I am relaxed about who I am and what I have done. The surprising thing with not having a standard is that it is a kind of hell. Having a standard can be just as hellish because there will always be someone else to measure up to, the goal posts keep moving. Having no standard means you have no goal posts at all, no lines of demarcation on the field, and you have no idea how you should feel about who you are or anything you have ever done.
I once was at a retreat where they had an open mic moment and I stood up to speak for maybe 30 seconds about my struggles with my faith. People came up to me all that weekend and said how what I said really touched them and made them think and sparked table conversations. I should have been thrilled, I should have given the glory to God, I should have been happy. Instead I felt awkward. I had a friend of mine talk me through how to respond because the feeling got so bad. (I ended up with "I'm glad you got blessed"...which I still use oddly enough). Why? Why no feeling other than awkwardness? Because I believe I'm just an average guy, bargain basement human, so what I think and feel must be the same as what other people do. Granted, I keep getting proven wrong. I feel like an average tool the Lord sometimes uses. I feel like I'm just another pot on the potter's wheel. I don't deserve any recognition. I have honestly felt like I'm a tool that God will use, sure, but it's when other tools aren't available. He's got his favorites and I'm not one of them. God's word is replete with exactly the opposite to tell me. If I were to rest in that, rest in those promises, renew my mind with that reality...HIS reality...how much would that alter my existence?
There are so many instances where the world tells us things are one way and God directly contradicts that. God, being the creator of all things including physics, reality, and mysteries deeply beyond even quantum theory, knows best. I am all to comfortable applying the "weak and worthless elementary principles of the world" to my life. Jesus has to change that in me and daily I'm telling him, "YOU choose for me because you know best, you are all powerful, you have a path for me from before I was even born." I keep admitting, "You are the potter, I am the clay...the clay doesn't get a say in it" and trust that he will make me into something beautiful, special, and according to His purposes.
Fortunately the LORD is never content to leave us as we are.
Pax,
W
Friday, August 26, 2016
Friday, August 19, 2016
Court of the Gentiles
This morning I was doing my daily devotional reading which I supplement with a devotional magazine called "Tabletalk". Today's reading was from Mark 11, the part where Jesus "cleanses the temple". The article provided some historical context that wholly blew my mind.
"In the first century the Jerusalem temple did have a court of the Gentiles that measured some thirty-five acres where non-Jews could come and pray to Yaweh, the God of Israel. However, the Gentiles were not really welcome there. The popular Jewish mind-set hoped that the Messiah would cleanse the temple of all Gentiles. Moreover, when the Gentiles came to the court of the Gentiles in first-century Jerusalem, there was no welcome awaiting them. Instead, the court was filled with merchants who sold animals for worshipers to bring as sacrifices and money changers who exchanged Roman coins for Shekels that had no image of the emperor on them and thus were fit for payment of the temple tax. That is the scene described in today's passage. Josephus...reports that 255,600 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover, which gives us a good idea of the scale of the merchant's operation in the temple."
All of my life I've wondered about this passage of scripture. I mean, there had to be somewhere for people to purchase sacrifices or change money. So what was Jesus so pissed about? Ok, sure they could take it outside the temple. But, how practical is that? With this historical context all of the sudden Jesus' actions make sense. They are excluding people, preventing a whole group of people from worship and prayer. You can see the mindset.
"Well...we have 35 acres of unused space, oh sure it's for the gentiles but we really don't want them there. I mean we won't prevent them, but that doesn't mean we have to make it hospitable for them. And we might get a little bit of a kick back from the business."
With prejudice clouding the eternal perspective people do all sorts of horribly misguided and terrible things.
Jesus was apparently full of righteous zeal not because business was being done, or profits being made. A people God welcomed were reviled and prevented from worshiping Him so that business could be done and profits made.
I've been guilty of thinking of this verse every time I see a church with a coffeshop and bookstore in it where people can buy the pastor's latest book and a pumpkin spiced latte. (oooh....it's almost PSL season, isn't it?) It is a horrible misapplication of the scripture. It isn't keeping people out...A coffeeshop actually is quite welcoming to those who don't do mornings and need that bagel and double shot in a cup of coffee (Aka a RedEye or Zombie). Granted they'll throw me for a loop every time, but I won't be speaking out against them anymore.
Interesting that we call this passage "The Cleansing of the Temple" when the Jews would have thought a good cleansing would be whipping and throwing the Gentiles out; quite the opposite of what Jesus did.
Pax
W
"In the first century the Jerusalem temple did have a court of the Gentiles that measured some thirty-five acres where non-Jews could come and pray to Yaweh, the God of Israel. However, the Gentiles were not really welcome there. The popular Jewish mind-set hoped that the Messiah would cleanse the temple of all Gentiles. Moreover, when the Gentiles came to the court of the Gentiles in first-century Jerusalem, there was no welcome awaiting them. Instead, the court was filled with merchants who sold animals for worshipers to bring as sacrifices and money changers who exchanged Roman coins for Shekels that had no image of the emperor on them and thus were fit for payment of the temple tax. That is the scene described in today's passage. Josephus...reports that 255,600 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover, which gives us a good idea of the scale of the merchant's operation in the temple."
All of my life I've wondered about this passage of scripture. I mean, there had to be somewhere for people to purchase sacrifices or change money. So what was Jesus so pissed about? Ok, sure they could take it outside the temple. But, how practical is that? With this historical context all of the sudden Jesus' actions make sense. They are excluding people, preventing a whole group of people from worship and prayer. You can see the mindset.
"Well...we have 35 acres of unused space, oh sure it's for the gentiles but we really don't want them there. I mean we won't prevent them, but that doesn't mean we have to make it hospitable for them. And we might get a little bit of a kick back from the business."
With prejudice clouding the eternal perspective people do all sorts of horribly misguided and terrible things.
Jesus was apparently full of righteous zeal not because business was being done, or profits being made. A people God welcomed were reviled and prevented from worshiping Him so that business could be done and profits made.
I've been guilty of thinking of this verse every time I see a church with a coffeshop and bookstore in it where people can buy the pastor's latest book and a pumpkin spiced latte. (oooh....it's almost PSL season, isn't it?) It is a horrible misapplication of the scripture. It isn't keeping people out...A coffeeshop actually is quite welcoming to those who don't do mornings and need that bagel and double shot in a cup of coffee (Aka a RedEye or Zombie). Granted they'll throw me for a loop every time, but I won't be speaking out against them anymore.
Interesting that we call this passage "The Cleansing of the Temple" when the Jews would have thought a good cleansing would be whipping and throwing the Gentiles out; quite the opposite of what Jesus did.
Pax
W
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