August 2024 – Wisdom From the Word

What a Waste

What a waste! How many times have you heard the expression? Usually uttered to highlight how an individual has misused their life, talents, finances or similar. It carries the connotation of bad decisions, which I am confident we have all made at some point in our lives. I know when I was coaching sports I would at times have a gifted athlete without a commensurate work ethic. It brought this expression to mind. Yet, in the broader context I wonder if ‘waste’ depends on our perspective.

Let me share some examples. We begin with Eric Liddell. From a cultural perspective he wasted his life. One hundred years ago at the Paris Olympics ago he refused to run the 100 M, his best race, because the heats took place on Sunday and he wasn’t going to compete on the Lord’s Day. He instead ran the 400 M and won Olympic gold. The beginning of a storied athletic career? No. In 1925 he returned to China where he had been born to missionary parents. Eric went as a missionary; he died there in 1945 in a Japanese internment camp. Popular culture may have viewed his life as wasted; heaven keeps a different accounting.

The 1981 movie Chariots of Fire chronicles the events surrounding the Olympics. I saw the film around the time it came out. I wasn’t walking the Lord at the time but a line from the film was deeply impressed upon me. In the movie his sister was critical of his running and asked if he should be running or devoting his life to God. Eric responded with the now famous quote, “God made me for a purpose. God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.” In researching it there is debate about whether the line from the movie is an actual quote from Liddell but he certainly embodied it. The scene is not true as his sister was a child on the mission field in China with their parents and when Eric won at the Olympics they didn’t know for months until they received a letter. What is known of Liddell is that he did say a less famous quote, “God made me for China.”

Now to a couple of scriptural examples, Mary and Judas, beginning with Judas, one of the twelve.

¹ And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Matthew 10:1 (NKJV)

Judas was given the same power as the rest, the word here is actually exousia, generally translated as authority, which is how the ESV translates it. Nothing in scriptures suggests that Judas failed to walk in these same demonstrations of power and authority as the rest of the twelve. Even so, he didn’t end well. Judas betrayed Jesus (Matthew 26) and was so embittered that the doorway to his heart was open and Satan entered him.

³ Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. ⁴ So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. Luke 22:3–4 (NKJV)

Judas eventually took his own life (Matthew 27:5). What a waste.

As an addition there are two other things about Judas that speak not to Judas but to Jesus’ character. We see them in the verses below.

⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. John 6:64 (NKJV)

¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12 (NKJV)

Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas would betray Him and would be revealed as the ‘son of perdition’ yet still invested in Judas. A waste from the perspective of some, to others a revelation of Jesus heart to invest and give expecting nothing in return.

Now to Mary. I have written before how I am convinced that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene are the same person (see the link below to a previous blog post). I am not the first one to draw this conclusion from a study of the scriptures as I have researched it in the past and others have come to the same conclusion at various times in church history.

Given that Mary was an immoral woman and tormented by seven demons (Luke 7:36-8:2) the early part of her life was wasted, in a worldly way. The latter part of her life was very different. The story of her love for Jesus and willing to waste all on Him is well known (John 12:1-8). The question before us is best summarized by something I heard Jack Deere say in a sermon many years ago, he spoke about Mary and said something like, “We will all waste our lives on something. Why not Jesus?” http://wisdomfromtheword.ca/intimacy-opportunities-part-2/

Where are You Staying? Part 3

Today’s post is a bit late. We are in the mountains in Invermere. We had a huge storm last night that blew down numerous trees, pulled out patio umbrella out of the stand and deposited it on the roof and left boats and other items all over the lake with no drivers in them. I was driving home from a prayer meeting with debris and branches blowing by me on the highway! Yes, I was calm. We also had the power out for 8 hours. Heroic work by the power company to restore power in the midst of a storm, applicable to today’s post.

I concluded the last part of this series encouraging us to live from heaven toward earth, or as Paul put it, ‘set your mind on things above.’ Here I want to look at the fruit of this in Jesus’ life. A great example was Jesus exercising authority over a storm on the sea of Galilee. The incident follows.

³⁵ On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” ³⁶ Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. ³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. ³⁸ But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” ⁴¹ And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Mark 4:35–41 (NKJV)

To set the scene a bit, they were on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Capernaum area. Jesus had told His followers that they were going to the other side (the Gadarenes). He was in a boat with an accompanying group of boats and a storm came up that opposed them. Jesus was sleeping in the storm; everyone else appeared to be afraid of the storm and they woke Jesus up and asked if He cared that they were perishing.

At this point I think the storm was spiritual in origin, opposition to Jesus, for a couple of reasons. One Jesus rebuked the storm, He spoke to it. The word ‘ceased’ refers to growing weary. The opposition became weary. The other reason is that Jesus was on his way to set the Gadarene demoniac free from a legion of demons. They knew He was coming and what He could do. I am sure word had gotten around in the spiritual realm!

Now back to the key element, Jesus was sleeping in the midst of a storm. We can speculate that He was simply very weary but that doesn’t seem like enough to account for His behaviour. Our text tells us that the boat ‘was filling.’ Many of those with him were seasoned fishermen who knew how tempestuous the sea of Galilee could be and the were deeply concerned yet Jesus in the midst of the storm needed to be awoken by them even though water was coming into the boat.

I believe Jesus could sleep because His heart was at rest in His Father and He could calm the storm and release peace because that was what He carried. In the spirit realm He simply externalized what He was carrying internally. We may protest that Jesus was God and that is why He could do what He did. I won’t go into all of it here, but though He was fully God and fully man in His earthly ministry, Jesus did what He did as a man under the anointing of the Spirit (I wrote about this in 2015, see the link below).

Now back to what Jesus rebuking a storm means for us. We have this verse in scripture, which I personally find a bit uncomfortable, as I realize how short I fall.

¹² “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12 (NKJV)

I can’t say that I have done greater works than Jesus. At the same time, I accept the responsibility to release peace into the storms of life around me. I think we can all do that! When we set our minds on Him we experience peace no matter our circumstances and we can be a source of peace and stability to those around us. We do this by our words, our actions and our spiritual awareness. After all, if He has assigned us to do something our hearts can rest in the Father just as Jesus did and we can release what we carry.

On many occasions over the years people have commented on how calm I am, it happened again just recently. I appreciate that, but at the same time I recognize that the calmness I carry is the fruit of pursuing my relationship with Jesus. Something we can all do.

http://wisdomfromtheword.ca/the-man-christ-jesus-part-1/

Where are You Staying? Part 2

In my last writing I referenced the importance of recognizing where we are located and the importance of ‘staying’ there. This is explicit in the passage below.

¹ If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1–4 (NKJV)

What we now need to do is look at how we practically apply this spiritual reality because we are spiritually with Him, not there in physical substance. Doing this will of course address the saying, “You are so heavenly minded you are no earthly good” and establish that being heavenly minded is what enables us to truly be of earthly good. After all, as the tagline I came up with for my blog says, “An Eternal Perspective: Living in time, preparing for eternity.” It is what we do in time that determines both our eternal destiny and our role in eternity.

Now to the solution to our apparent problem. We find it in a verse in Isaiah that we will dig into.

³ You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)

The words perfect and peace are shalom in Hebrew, it is translated as ‘perfect peace’ to convey the importance via repetition but in Hebrew it is shalom shalom. Isaiah is telling us up front that this perfect peace, a heart at rest, is the result of an activity. That activity is keeping our minds set on Him (This may be the verse Paul had in mind when he wrote Colossians 3:2). We also see in what Isaiah wrote that we can only keep our mind fixed on Yahweh if we trust Him.

To go a little deeper the Hebrew word translated as mind is yester and it refers to how something is framed or formed and includes the idea of intention. The word stayed is the Hebrew samak and refers to leaning, resting or laying. In a number of places in scripture it is used to refer to a priest laying (resting) their hands on an animal before it is sacrificed. We can then see that when our intention is resting in and on Him we experience His peace and rest.

That is the background and in terms of our daily practice it means constantly looking to Him. Let me give you an example, one of my cousins recently shared a sermon with me. Bob, who is one of the pastors at a church in St. Albert, was preaching in a smaller community outside of Edmonton that my cousin attends. In his message Bob frequently referenced being in situations where he would inquire as to what the Father wanted him to do in that situation. He shared one story which had quite an impact on my cousin, and subsequently on me. Bob, was converted as a teenager from a lifestyle of drugs and partying in a small town in Northern Alberta. Not long after he attended a party to share the gospel. There he felt the Father leading him to share with two young men in their late teens who subsequently both acknowledged they wanted to change their lives and give their hearts to the Lord, which they did. Within two weeks they both died in a car accident.

One of those young men was my cousin’s brother and I was one of the pall bearers at the funeral forty-four years ago. It was only recently that the family learned through this sermon that he had given His heart to Jesus prior to his death.

The significance of these events is tied into how Bob lives his life. He is constantly looking to the Father for direction. His life is a pattern of how we are to live. We really have two options. We can live from earth toward heaven, or from heaven toward earth. Which is what Isaiah and Paul both described. When we live from heaven toward earth our hearts are at rest and we have no anxiety because we are assured of the ultimate outcome of our faith.

An example from my life took place over twenty-four years ago. I followed what I believed was His leading in applying for a different role at work. Logically it made no sense to me as I had just moved offices to be closer to home, thought I was to be in this particular office, and the new job was way across the city far from my home. I went through about four weeks of internal wrestling and anxiety because I tried to follow what seemed to be His leading but the logical outcome appeared to contradict His leading. It seemed that the Spirit’s leading to change offices and the Spirit’s leading to apply for the new role were contradictory!

In this situation if I had kept my mind set on Him, I could have gone through that time period with no anxiety. However, my vacillation between living from heaven toward earth and then seeking to live from earth toward heaven created a great deal of stress in my life. In the end it was needless. The position I had applied for was to be the manager of an office and it was offered to me – in the office I had transferred to! The current manager was transferred to the office I had applied to manage and I remained in the office I thought I was supposed to be in and in the role I sensed He had led me apply for. It worked out.

In the examples above, Bob had learned to consistently live from heaven toward earth. I had vacillated. I still do at times but the majority of the time I am at rest because I trust Him and seek His perspective on a daily basis. The choice is before all of us. We can live in and out of rest in Him or we can trust in our own wisdom. I prefer the former, what about you?

An additional thought. One of the places I have been reading in scripture is through Numbers. Recently in my reading I came across what has to be the funniest group of people in the bible. Who knew it would be found in Numbers! If you are curious read Numbers 26:23 in a more literal version like the NKJV, ESV or NASB.

Where are You Staying? Part 1

The title comes from a question that was asked of Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry. Here John the Baptist is pointing his disciples to Jesus.

³⁶ And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. John 1:36–40 (NKJV)

Here two disciples of John the Baptist leave John to follow Jesus, and Andrew, who became one of the twelve apostles, recognizes right off that Jesus is the Messiah they have been seeking. Their key question was about where Jesus was staying as clearly that is where they wanted to be. Once they found out where Jesus was staying, they remained with Him.

Having presented the context I am going to make an application that isn’t obvious from the text. To get there we will go post resurrection to Paul. First however, we need to understand, these two disciples of John the Baptist recognized two things. They knew they needed to leave John and they knew they needed to be where Jesus was. Now on to Paul as He tells us where Jesus is now staying.

Jesus is now staying in the heavenly realm and Paul informs us that we need to be there as well. More accurately, Paul says we are there, our ‘life is hidden with Christ in God.’ We are in Him. Paul, knowing the importance of this spiritual reality tells us that we need focus and set our minds ‘on things above.’ The Greek word translated as mind is phroneo, it means to think and is connected to our attitudes, intentions and purposes. The KJV translated phroneo as affections. While I prefer a more modern rendering in most cases, here the KJV captures something. We need to have an affection, a desire, set on our life that is hidden in Jesus.

In summary, we need to both want to know where Jesus is staying and we need our desires set there.

Next week we will delve into how to practically apply this idea.

Having Gifts Part 3

In my last post I focused mainly on the way gifts can be used, drawing primarily on the Old Testament (OT). Now we turn to the New Testament (NT) and the use of gifts in building the body of Christ, the church. The parallel is that in the OT there were gifts given to the craftsmen to build the tabernacle, Yahweh’s earthly dwelling place and to establish worship in and before it (Exodus 31:1-5, 2 Chronicles 7:6, 29:25–27). Bezalel was the main artisan gifted by Yahweh to build the tabernacle and David was the worshipper who created musical instruments to bring forth worship.

Bezalel means ‘in the shadow of El’ which carries the idea of protection as in Psalm 91:1, our protection being found in abiding in His shadow. The shadow idea is fascinating as we know from Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 10:1 that the OT rituals were shadows pointing to the reality found in Jesus.

In the NT the primary gifts given to build His dwelling place and bring forth worship are listed in Ephesians 4. Gifts given to move us from shadow to substance. Here we have Paul referencing apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers given to the body to build, not build their ministries, as is sadly the focus for so many today in the Western church, but to build His body. Paul is clear on Jesus’ purpose for giving the gifts and the outcome Jesus desires to see.

¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:12 (NKJV)

¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:16 (NKJV)

These ministries gifts are given to equip all of us to build the body and the body is built when it is rightly joined and knit in community and every joint, every relationship between parts, works effectively. Then the church, His body, grows. This is Jesus plan for building His church.

This means that we as His body as a whole need to understand our part. The focus of the leadership gifts from Ephesians 4:11 is dualistic. The apostolic and prophetic gifts are described as foundational. They are to lay the foundation of Christ in the life the church. The evangelistic gift is given to bring others into the body, the pastoral gift given to shepherd and tend the body and the teaching gift given to establish the body on and in truth. This is their first responsibility. Secondly, they are also to raise up and release others into their gifts and callings.

I am well aware that this is not what happens in most fellowships as the majority of us function as an audience not participants. Whether by design or default that doesn’t take away from what Jesus has called us to, which means we each need to labour to see the church built into what Jesus desires, not what we are familiar with. If we embrace His call our labour will include sharing, intercession and active involvement. In essence we are called to be that which we wish to see. If we wish to see the church grow into what Jesus envisioned, we need to embrace His desire and follow Him in being and doing.