IT JUST WORKS

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces corn--first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” 

(Mark 4:26-29 NIV) 

It is spring in the Rockies right now. What that actually means is that one day it is 65 degrees, and the next day there is a foot of snow on the ground. Nevertheless, it is easy to tell spring from winter in Gunnison. Most winters here are marked by sub-zero cold and plenty of snow-cover for several months. Now, even if it does snow (the valley had an inch or two last night) it melts off the next day. Temperatures drop and the wind blows, but the snowline is slowly but surely receding uphill.

On my short daily commute from my home to Gunnison, I can see the land becoming greener every day. It might be only 40 degrees for a day or two, but still the grass is growing and spreading. It doesn’t happen all at once, but seemingly in defiance of any cold-snap, the green of summer is displacing the gray of winter.

The Word of God is the same way isn’t it? Once it is received into the heart, it begins to release its life, and displace the dead refuse of worldly thinking. Our attitudes, our outlook, our entire world-view is slowly but surely being brought to life by the power of God’s Word. It doesn’t happen over night, but if you and I will give ourselves to the Word, and purposely plant and nurture it in our hearts, it will infuse our entire being with the very life of God. I don’t really understand the whole process, but I know this - it just works.

DON'T LET YOUR LOVE GROW COLD

Speaking of the days in which we live Jesus said; “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12).

I have been noticing a trend in our society for a long time now. It seems that everywhere you turn, every product that is sold, every ad you see, in some way promises to reward your purchase with love, or friendship, or the admiration of many. You buy a phone, you are instantly a part of a network, you play a video game, “friends” that enjoy the same game surround you, even eating the right hamburger makes you an instant hit with the ladies.

In addition to our purchases, we can now live in online social societies where “friends” are acquired with a tap on the trackpad. It is instant friendship, instant popularity, and instant status. “Reality TV” allows us to watch and judge as various kinds of relationships are staged before our eyes. We can feel like we are involved, without ever knowing these individuals.

But, in the real world (remember the real world?) we struggle harder and harder to make relationships work for more than a few days or weeks at a time. It seems that as our society embraces more forms of contrived relationship, we grow hungrier and hungrier for real relationship, and become less and less capable of pulling it off.

Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, and God is a relational being to the extreme. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three persons that enjoy a oneness that is inconceivable to the human mind. The three are one, and yet three – if you figure that out, please explain it to me. God is a lover, and an eternal lover at that. Real relationships do not happen quickly, they can’t be purchased, coerced, or clicked into existence. They are not shallow, or fragile, and they hold such a high value that only a fool lets them go without a fight. Relationship is not a spectator sport.

Jesus said that in our day, lawlessness, a condition of heart that is so self-interested that it rejects all forms of restraint, would cause the love of many people to grow cold. The term “many” can be accurately translated “most.” In other words, the majority of people who give themselves to a spirit of lawlessness will find it nearly impossible to maintain a long-term relationship. Why? Simple really. Lawlessness rejects authority, moral standards, rules, and anything that it perceives as a restraint to it’s own pursuit of self-gratification. Love, God’s love, actively seeks ways to lay down it’s own agenda to make the life of another person better. The two attitudes are antithetical; they can’t exist together.

As long as we view relationships as something that primarily exist to make us happy and fulfill our needs, we will be unable to make them last. Relationships do bring great blessing and deep satisfaction to our lives. But strong ones like life-long friendships, marriages, and deep family ties, are built slowly over time, and tested when we go through difficulties and tragedies, and when we rub each other the wrong way.

I like Facebook a lot. I enjoy a little banter with distant friends. But I never confuse a few lines of text exchanged in a controlled environment, with the nitty-gritty work of maintaining a friendship in real time, in real face-to-face conversation, through days and years of good times and bad. In a shallow, distant “relationship,” you can exchange pleasantries, and keep in touch. But everything you post on your wall, every picture you up-load, can be hand-picked, and washed clean. Unless you want them to, no one sees your bad side, no one knows your hurts and fears, you never have bad breath – that is not relationship.

I encourage you to buy the products you enjoy because you enjoy them. Do all the social networking you want. Stay in touch with friends and relatives on the internet. Watch a “reality show” if you must, but never confuse watching life and relationships happen on the screen, with living them yourself. Take your heart before the Lord, and let Him check it for the invading virus of lawlessness. Let the Holy Spirit teach you the skills of love, forgiveness, and endurance that make for long, strong, deep relationships. Love, serve, be a person of undying loyalty and fidelity. The reward is well worth the price.

EVERYTHING IS PERMISSIBLE

Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under it’s power. 1 Corinthians 6:12 Amplified Bible.

It seems that the Body of Christ continually struggles with the relationship between the amazing freedom that we have in Christ, and the boundaries that are inherent to holy living. On the one hand the Bible declares that the love of God is unconditional; His love for us never waivers, regardless of our behavior. The Scripture tells us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, that we should never again allow ourselves to be brought into the slavery of religious legalism, and that we should not judge one another concerning our peripheral beliefs about what constitutes right and wrong behavior.

But, we also find lists of sins in the New Testament. We are taught that the wages of sin is death, and the believer should flee from such behavior. It seems that many Christians are confused about the lines between freedom and sin, holiness and legalism. And, it’s no wonder that this confusion exists when we live in a culture that worships self, feelings, and personal happiness. Add to that the postmodern idea that words really have no definite meaning, and that each of us get to define truth for ourselves. Mix that with a misunderstanding of what the grace of God is all about, and you have the makings of a lot of bad theology.

I know that it is unpopular in the world, as well as in many Christian circles, to bring up the fact that some behavior is sinful, and that sin has bad consequences, but I want you to notice the verses that precede the ones quoted at the beginning of this article.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11 NIV)

Notice that first line. How counter cultural is that? “The wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Wow. Don’t say that on a Sunday morning in most American churches if you want anyone to come back next week. Now, look again at the last sentence. It declares that the work of Christ at the cross, and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit have launched us into a brand new life. A life where we are NO LONGER sexually immoral, bound in homosexuality or any other sexual deviancy, no longer thieves, no longer greedy etc, etc, etc. But the key idea is NEW life a DIFFERENT reality, a BRAND NEW person.

That aforementioned unconditional love of God made this possible. That grace, that free flow of God’s favor, came not so that we could feel better while we live in our sin, but to set us free from sin’s domination once and for all. Paul phrases it this way in his letter to Titus,

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14 NIV)

See, there is no tension between the ideas of freedom and holiness. Freedom, if we understand it, produces holiness. The unconditional love of God compels us to draw nearer to Him and become more like Him. His grace empowers us to overcome the flesh.

Paul nailed it there in 1 Corinthians 6:12. He essentially said, it’s not about the law, or about what is allowable and what is not. It is about the fact that the blood of Christ has given me a freedom to plunge into His presence. It has set me free from the domination of both sin and legalism, and I am not going to be enslaved by either one. I will not allow the passions of my flesh, or the values of this world, or popular culture, or legalistic notions, to take me captive. I will live as a free person and use my freedom to stir up the power of the Holy Spirit with in me. I will do the things that nurture the life that Christ has given me, and I will not do the things that strangle that life, because I am free.

I Love this stuff. Don’t you?