Be Thou a Blessing!

if I am to use you to bless others,

You must rid yourself of all pre-judgment (prejudice),

of all selfishness,

of all decision to withhold my blessing from those you do not like.

You must be willing to pass on whatever you receive

to whomever I will give it.

 

What if our mission from God were to be empty of self and to be ready, like a receiver station, a cell-phone tower, to pass on whatever He wants to send to others around us?  What if we were designed, like Abraham, to "be a blessing" to all peoples?

 

Every one of us wants to be in control of the blessings we bestow on others.  If the other does not meet our standards, our prejudices, then we can say, "Get away from me; I am 'holier than thou.' I have nothing to give you."  But that is the opposite of what Jesus did and what He still wants to do.  He said to the unwashed, to the outcast, to the societal reject, "Come! You are welcome!"  Maybe that's why He chose 12 outcasts: the small, the marginal, the unlearned, the sinner, the Samaritan woman -- all His apostles and disciples -- Mary Magdalene, Peter, Matthew, Zaccheus, John (the young teen), Simon, the Zealot.

 

In a very dark and chaotic world, in a world of destroy or be destroyed, in a world of greed and pride, God chose Abraham to go forth and be a blessing:  in you, all nations will bless themselves.  By their relationship to Abraham, men would call down upon themselves either a curse or a blessing.  I wonder if we could be "Abraham" ourselves:  here I stand, with my hands overflowing with the riches of God; I offer all to you if you will but take them.  I do not decide myself if you are "worthy;" I let you make the decision yourself to accept or to reject what I offer you.

 

Recently, a man moved into our neighborhood; he came from Los Angeles, where he had been selling "medical" marijana.  His one passion in life, it seemed, was to convert me to his way of thinking -- that the U.S. should legalize marijana.  He ranted and raved in every conversation about the topic, so much so that I really did not want to talk to him anymore.  Everytime I saw him, I thought "Pothead!"  When I worked in the yard, and saw him in his yard, I thought, "Please don't come over here; please don't talk to me." 

 

But soon I began to feel guilty about my thoughts.  Were these God's thoughts toward him?  I mentioned to the Bible Study group that I was feeling guilty about the way I thought about him.  "Pray about it," one of them said to me.  Thinking back on her advice, I realized how wise it was.  She did not tell me how to fix my thoughts; she did not reproach me for thinking them.  She was willing to allow God to speak to me Himself.  And did He ever!

 

The next time I was working in the yard and saw him smoking something? in his yard, I again thought, "I'll stay on my side of the street; you stay on yours; please don't come over here!"  But then, I relented and started to pray about my thoughts.  Immediately, I was struck by a thought that went through me like a bolt of lightening:  How can you be a blessing to this man?

 

Now that thought did not come from me; it was pretty clear what my own thoughts were.  That thought had to be coming from God, because it surely was not coming from me.  I thought about it for awhile, and then I had an idea.  The man -- when he was not raving about marijana -- used to admire one of my plants.  In fact, he loved it because it was orange, a color he loved.  So I dug up a piece of it, put it in a good pot, with good potting soil, and brought it across the street to him. 

 

Suddenly, our conversation entered a whole new level.  Instead of marijana, we were talking about other kinds of plants.  He wanted to know what was growing wild in his yard, and he was apologizing (sort of) for his foul languagae and his "ramped-up" (as he put it) personality.  HMMM.  Who could have guessed?

 

"Be thou a blessing!"  If that were all we had of Scripture, it would be enough, I think.

Reason and Faith

C.S. Lewis says that if you want to know whether or not the cat is in the linen closet, reason is of no help at all.  You must go and see for yourself. He is using the analogy to explain that reason cannot tell us much about God; it is a matter of "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."

I think that is so true; those who rely on and stop at reason will never know the Goodness of the Lord.  The Scribes and Pharisees would not go to Jesus because they stopped at reason:  Can this man be the messiah?  After all, we know where he came from, and isn't he the son of Mary and Joseph, the carpenter?

And when Philip found Nathanael, he said, We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and whom the prophets wrote about too--he is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.  Nathanael said, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?  That was reason speaking; it would be akin to saying, "Can anything good come out of Petal, Mississippi?

Nathanael, according to Jesus, was a "true Israelite, in whom there is no guile."  Nathanael was cautious, conscientious, and reverent; he would not accept anything on hearsay.  But Nathanael did not stop at reason; he went along to see Jesus for himself.  But after meeting Jesus personally, and after Jesus told Nathanael that He had seen him under the fig tree -- maybe when N. said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" N. had a different reaction: Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!  Nathanael's reason gives way to joy and wonder.

It is joy and wonder, amazement, that tells us the truth about God.  But we cannot get there if we refuse to meet Him face-to-face, to have a personal relationship with Him.  If we rely on reason, we will never discover for ourselves whether the cat is truly hiding in the linen closet or not.

Contrary to popular opinion, "faith" is not "blind."  Faith is knowledge that reason cannot give us.  No one can "explain" a personal relationship; we "know" the other person from the heart, not from the mind.  The same is true of God.  Unless we know Him from personal encounter, we will never know Him at all.

Rooted in God/ Rooted in Self

Living close to nature the way I do, I am fascinated by tree roots.  They begin as very fine strands, less than the width of a human hair, so that they are able to penetrate even the hardest clay soil.  They are able to push their way through areas that I have trouble penetrating with a shovel or an axe, and from the most inauspicious beginning, they establish themselves and grow strong, extracting whatever moisture can be found in the soil and sending it upward to the tree and its leaves.

The health and vitality, and ultimately the fruit, of a tree depend entirely on the strength of its roots and the soil in which the roots find a home.  When we admire a mighty oak, or pick luscious satsumas from a tree in our backyard, we can thank the roots and the soil in which the tree was planted.  And if the roots are sufficiently damaged or smothered by layers and layers of dirt, as in construction, the tree will eventually die, no matter how well-established or strong it has been.

So I think we do well to consider the roots and soil of our own existence.  If our souls send tiny, tentative, shoots into good soil -- the soil of the Holy Spirit, we will grow spiritually strong and produce the fruit drawn from the character and heart of God Himself:  love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, generosity, and self-control (see Gal.5:22). 

If, on the other hand, we put out roots into the world that dwells apart from God, or into ourselves (our human nature that does not desire the things of God), we will ultimately produce the kind of fruit we see all around us:  selfishness, hatred, bitterness, rivalery, evil desires, corruption and perversion, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group, etc...

We will be rooted in one soil or the other, and wherever we put down our roots, they will continue to grow stronger and more tenacious.  Ultimately, we will know the tree by its fruit.  It does not matter how feeble our efforts to turn to the Spirit; the tree begins with the feeblest of roots.  The soil of the Holy Spirit is strong and nourishing, and our souls will be filled with the finest of nutrients.  The least effort on our part to be rooted in God will be rewarded and strengthened.  So let us begin however we are led to begin to be rooted in God forever.

Radiance!

I didn't plan to put up lights this Christmas, because I knew that I'd be gone for the whole week of Christmas, and then I'd just have to come back and take down all the lights.  But that was before I'd read about the events surrounding the birth of Jesus in The Life of the Blessed Virgin by Catherine Emmerich.  Catherine was granted visions of the lives of Mary and Joseph -- what the church calls "private revelations," and not necessarily true.  That is why I did not read the book all these years, even though someone had recommended it to me about 35 years ago.  I just was not interested at the time.

But now, reading about how Joseph hung a lantern in the cave and worked hard to make it warm and comfortable for Mary in her hour of need,

• reading about how the pagan astrologers, some of whom still offered child sacrifice, saw a great light in the sky, a light that had been foretold by their ancestors for many generations, a light that they had built towers to observe in its coming;
• reading about how even Caesar Augustus saw lights in the sky at the birth of Jesus and knew something portenteous was occurring;
• reading about how God announced to the shepherds that a child was born, through angelic choirs and great lights in the sky --

I was inspired to hang lights both inside and outside my house to celebrate the radiance that has come into a dark world.  I wanted my house to reflect the radiance that God has sent into the darkness-- from the first day of creation until now.  He did not eliminate the darkness, but kept the night, sending even into it lights to guide mankind--the moon and the stars.

But the Light of the World that gives light to every man has now come into the world.  And still, the world remains dark; the night has not disappeared entirely.  Many still walk in darkness, not seeing the Light of God shining in the Face of His Christ, Jesus. 

But to all who do receive Him, He brings the Light of Truth, of Beauty, of Goodness and the Mercy of God: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all...if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin (I Jn. 5 & 7).

Even if I weren't going to be home this Christmas, I just had to celebrate the Radiance that Christ has been in my life --- and so the lights went up!

Fully Attentive

Yesterday I wrote about the promise of direct communication--that the Spirit of God will teach us all truth and remind us of everything Jesus taught.  The reading today from Jesus Calling says this:

[Jesus speaking]: As you focus your thoughts on Me, be aware that I am fully attentive to you.  I see you with a steady eye, because My attention span is infinite.  I know and understand you completely; My thoughts embrace you in everlasting love.  I also know the plans I have for you: plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.  Give yourself fully to this adventure of increasing attentiveness to My Presence. 

When we pray, whoever thinks that God is "fully attentive" to us?  But His Love demands that it be so.  Love that is only half-or partially-attentive is not yet perfect, but we know His love for us is perfect love.  When our children are prattling and learning to talk, it may be that we are only half-attentive to what they are saying, but we are still fully attentive to their love for us and their relationship with us.  And maybe for many years, we only prattle as little children in our prayers to God.  But He is fully attentive that we are speaking with Him, and fortunately, he knows our hearts.

As our children grow, we are more and more attentive to their words, because their words reveal to us who they are and what they are feeling, even if they cannot express it very well.  So, too, in our relationship with God; He hears what we want to say, even if we do not say it very well, even if we ourselves do not know exactly what it is we want to say:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what (or how) we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will (Romans 8:26-27).

 

The Holy Spirit prays with us, in us, and for us -- and the Father is fully attentive to the Voice of the Spirit crying out in us.  What comfort, to know that we ourselves do not have to know exactly what to pray for in order for God to hear us!

An Unbelievable Promise!

In my last blog, I wrote about our relationship with the Father through Jesus, His only Son  -- that our relationship could be the same as Jesus' relationship with the Father, if we were in Him and He in us.    Today, I want to write about an almost unbelievable promise that Jesus made to his disciples the night before his death -- the promise of direct communication:

When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you (Jn. 16: 13-15).

 

The reading I was doing this morning (Give Us This Day) pointed out the difference between seeing your new grandson on Skype and holding him in your arms.  That is exactly the difference between the Old and the New Testaments -- after Jesus.  Previously, as The Book of Hebrews points out, God communicated to us through prophets, but now directly through His Son, who has come into the world.  And Jesus did not intend that only those present to Him in the flesh should hear His voice, but that all who accepted Him would do the same. 

 

God always desired direct communication with mankind, but man was afraid to hear His voice, lest they die.  From the time of Moses, man wanted an intermediary.  They told Moses, "You speak with God and tell us what he says; we are afraid!"  But God said through Jeremiah:

 

I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,

or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,"

because they will all know me,

from the least to the greatest (Jer. 31:31).

 

So how do we receive the Spirit of Truth, since Jesus plainly said that the "world" could not accept Him, "because it neither sees him nor knows him" (Jn. 14:15)?  It is clear that not everyone will hear the Spirit through direct communication, but only those to whom Jesus sends the Spirit.  The first letter of John is very clear about this matter:

 

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God....Anyone who believes in the son of God has this testimony in his heart...He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the son of God does not have life (I Jn. 4:2 and 5:10).

 

And the beginning of John's Gospel says it plainly also:  ...to all who received Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God --children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husbands' will, but born of God.

 

So it is not the whole world that hears God speaking in their hearts, but only those to whom Jesus has sent the Spirit.  But the promise of direct communication with God is a great and unbelievable promise, and it is true!  It is also true that God can communicate with us through prophets and the written word, which is "God-breathed," but when the Spirit of God hovers over those words -- either spoken by others or written in Scripture -- the words take on life and breath and power.

 

The very first thing each morning we should do is to welcome the Voice of God, the Spirit of God, who wants to teach us and direct us.  It's a living, loving, thing and available to all who will receive it!

Here it is!

The following story appears in C. Baxter Kruger's The Shack Revisited:

One Saturday afternoon years ago, when my son was six or seven, he and one of his buddies peered around the door at me as I sat on the couch in our den, sorting through junk mail and getting ready to watch a football game.  They were decked out in camouflage, face paint, plastic guns and knives, helmets--the whole nine yards.  Before I knew what was happening, two camouflaged blurs were flying through the air right at me.  The attack was on.  For five minutes or so, we went through several mock explosions and fights before the three of us ended up in a pile of laughter on the floor.  It was then that a sort of ticker-tape banner scrolled past the front of my mind: "Baxter, this is important; pay attention."

I had no idea what the message meant.  After all, it was Saturday, and a dad and his boy and his friend were just playing army on the floor of the den.  Surely there was nothing exraordinary about that.  The first clue came when I realized that I actually did not know this other little boy at all.  I had never seen him, and didn't even know his name.  I thought to myself: Suppose my son was in the back room with our dog, Nessie, and this boy had appeared in the den alone.  Presumably he would have known that I was Mr. Kruger, but that is about as far as things would have gone.  Not in a million years would he have come flying through the air at me, not by himself.

The little boy did not know me; he did not know what I was like.  But my son did -- and that was my second clue.  My son knows me.  He knows that I love him, that he is one of the apples of my eye.  He knows that I like him and that he is always welcome and wanted.  So he did the most natural thing in the world: in the freedom of knowing my heart, he ran to me to play.  The miracle was that his buddy was right in the middle of it all.  Without even knowing what I was seeing, I saw my son's relationship with me, go inside that other little boy.  And the other boy got to experience our fellowship.  He got to taste and feel and play in my son's freedom and joy with me (pp.207-208).

As I read this story, I was stunned!  The entire message of Christianity is summed up in this story.  Here it is -- In that day, you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you (John 14:20). That's the whole message---that we, who are "in" Jesus have been taken up with Him into His very relationship with the Father:  in the same freedom and joy They have in Their relationship, we freely enter in.  There is no longer any separation -- any "Us" and "them."  We are one with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Feeling that freedom and joy is a life-long process, and there is much that works against it along the way.  But our feelings and the truth are two different things.  If we know that Jesus is "in" in Father, and if we know that we are "in" Him, we can grow toward the relationship He came to give us.  He did not come to "show us how to live."  He came to live in us to bring us to the Father.  And why not allow Him to do what He most desires to do in us?