The Life

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10b).”

Second best

What does that mean to you? I think maybe a penultimate tier to thinking about that statement—as it necessarily indicates that, obviously, Jesus came to give me “the good life”—says I am entitled to everything under the sun. That is, “life, and breath, and all things;” (Acts 17:25). No big deal. Paul, in that reference from the book of Acts, is talking to a crowd of people to whom the Gospel of Christ appeared to be “foolishness” (Greeks; see 1 Corinthians 1:23). It’s so easy to live in the abundance God provides, take it for granted, and then in turn turn around and think that it’s our right to enjoy the bounty Jesus alludes to in the verse at the top of the page and then here again in the Sermon on the Mount:

“And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:29)

But there’s more to it. Consider this statement from John’s first letter:

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:12).”

That’s a little narrower, don’t you think? Here we see some of what might look to be the closed-mindedness that comes with a fundamentalist Christianity. I think that if we see Jesus as “just some guy” who came to do magic tricks and leave us feeling full and contented, we’re not seeing him as all he is. As an aside, Jesus talks about “life” and then John goes one further and says “life eternal”. Time is indeed flowing. But if you take a moment (i.e. an indeterminate period of time) and “be still” (see Psalm 46:10), you can separate yourself from time’s undercurrent—and feel the timelessness of eternity. It works. But again, with reference to the whole “glut of stuff” thing, think about what happened after the story of the five loaves and two fishes (from Mark’s Gospel). It says “neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf (Mark 8:14).” And that’s enough. Jesus chides them in the next verse saying “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” That one loaf sits there in the hold of the ship with the disciples (whose hearts, metaphorically speaking, were harder than day-old bread left sitting out). The twelve disciples who had forgotten all about the miracle of abundance by which they had just been directly influenced and in which they all partook. Jesus warns the disciples against submitting to an attitude—from either the Pharisees or Herod—that would not only negate the blessing of God but also make stale the memories of what he (Jesus) had provided.

Think about it: “And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes (Mark 6:43).”

This, from a mere five loaves of bread and “two small fishes (John 6:9).” And Jesus says “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost (John 6:12).” That single loaf of bread spoken of in Mark’s Gospel serves to remind us of the—in a word—prosperity that God can give. I mean, assuming you see Jesus’s miracles as more than magic tricks, how in the world did those few ingredients not only end up providing repast (dinner to the full) for 5000 people? And then overflow into the abundance of twelve baskets of leftovers? Amazing. But that’s the God we serve: cornucopious, as it were.

“And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace (John 1:16)”

Spoiled

Take that one loaf and hold it in your hand. Can you feel the grittiness of the flour and the rough crust? It’s still warm from the oven and it smells delicious. I’m sure the inside is hot and soft and the pockets the yeast has opened invite you to crawl inside (assuming you were the size of an ant or something) with some butter and eat to your heart’s content. There’s a difference between being spoiled and then being spoiled rotten. God provides so much for us; gratitude is the order of the day. But if we neglect Christ—the Christ that came from God and that God provided for us—in favor of all that he can and has given us, we won’t ever be full.

Here’s the thing: none of the things Jesus provides are to be a substitute for knowing him. He’s the kindest, most approachable and liberating individual I have ever met. It truly takes a lifetime to know him and to get to know him. It’s so worth it. He loves you.

“Because Thy lovingkindess is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in Thy name (Psalm 63:3).”

Lionizing Jesus

To lionize someone means that you treat them other than what they really are. Humanly speaking, it means that you see them in an unnatural light and maybe perhaps think they’re more than human, more than down-to-earth and approachable.

Halo effect

“When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, He departed again into a mountain himself alone.” (John 6:15)

Reading through the testaments, one gets this idea that the children of Israel wanted nothing more than a physical representation of that which God the Father promised to them in eons past: namely, that of a king, on a throne, dispensing judgment and edicts, etc. But, true to form, God did things different than expected. He sent His Son to be born in obscurity and grow up among the hoi polloi (yes) and, after that incident in the temple with reference to that long-forgotten prophecy in Isaiah (see Luke 4:21, Isaiah 42 respectively), Jesus is on the scene. He’s the Messiah and all of humanity is left to deal with it the only way they know how. Thank God He sent the Holy Spirit to truly discern the nature of Christ and what it means to approach Him on His terms (see the passage at the bottom of the page).

“The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when He is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.” (John 4:25)

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the knowledge of just who Jesus is with reference to history and humanity seemed to come to a select few—those whose hearts were ready to hear it. The woman at the well referenced above was eminently set in her ways and yet with a simple realigning of her priorities (and a little bit of sin-conviction), she was lit from within and ended up going out and evangelizing a city that most likely would not have heard the Gospel till God-knows-when (they were Samaritans and they didn’t mix with the Jews; racial tensions, you understand). But think about it: The children of Israel were promised many times—if they had read the scriptures (see Psalm 132:11, Isaiah 7:14, et al.)—that God would send a Savior, a Messiah. And here you have the man himself walking “through Samaria” (John 4:4b) and looking into the eyes of one individual (of many), telling her that He is that One. How then is this example different than the one from the sixth chapter of John above? The rabble, gripped with a mob mentality that looks to hoist Jesus high on their shoulders in order to take him somewhere and make him something other than what the Father had in mind when He sent him, is the wrong response. I can imagine the ignition, the pilot light that started in the eyes of the woman from Samaria when Christ leaned in and whispered those words. Evidently she didn’t see him as anything special before that.

There are several prophecies in Isaiah that describe a multi-faceted individual. Someone altogether human and yet concerned with one thing. The forty-second chapter, second verse says “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.” This means that doesn’t have to do what normally a person seeking an audience would be inclined to do. Yes, he had an entourage of twelve disciples but that was only because he was a teacher and it was tradition to find students and teach them. All throughout his time walking the streets of Israel, he was affecting the change talked about back in the prophecies of Isaiah. Another one from that book (53:1b-2) says “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” In other words, there’s nothing about the outward appearance to Christ that suggests a knight in shining armor or an individual who has an unfounded messiah complex. He’s simply here to do what he was sent to do. It took a widescale realigning of the human experience by those who knew Him to understand, to apprehend the enormity of his person as he went about his day, doing things that were totally ordinary. He asks Philip (one of the twelve) “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” (John 14:9) It takes time to have the light of God diffuse into us to where we see Christ for who he is while we’re here and as we are.

Help is on the way

Here’s the thing about Christ: He’s amazing. He’s the Man. There is a gravitas to His person that keeps one from being flippant and glib in His presence. But this isn’t to say that He inspires a mindless hero-worship bereft of our faculties. To see Him in what light one is accustomed brings a peace and a beauty that nothing else in this world is able to substitute. And He loves you. Don’t be fooled: He is the “Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David” (Revelation 5:5) and due all the worship one is able to wring out of their person. But He’s also a friend. He’ll help you see Him for who He really is.

“These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:25-27)

Intra Muros

“Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.” (Psalm 51:18, emphasis mine)

It takes time to build walls. One stone upon another all the way down the line. David prays to God to do this thing. It’s something (the building of walls) that must be done by Him alone in order to prevent any unwanted influence from coming in and taking over. When the enemy looks to besiege your heart, you want to rest assured, knowing that God has put up the barriers that will keep him out.

“He (and she) that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” (Proverbs 25:28)

Load bearing

Walls aren’t all bad. If we have grown out of childhood but don’t understand at our core that this world will do its level best to snuff out the light of God, we need to repeat a grade or two. Jesus says that “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) This means, among other things, that God wants to fill you with the good things of Heaven. He wants to see Heaven blossom and take shape in your life and then branch out. But unless those ramparts are there, staving off the inevitable attacks of the devil, God’s holiness cannot keep the gifts for/in our lives operable. For instance, say you have the gift of joy. Now, “joy” is one of the fruits of God’s Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23). And we all know that “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) But if you don’t understand that “in [God’s] presence is fulness of joy” (Psalm 16:11), and that by worshiping and praising Him, His presence is ensured (He “inhabitest the praises of [His people]” Psalm 22:3), the joy will sluice and drain out of your life, leaving you powerless and at the mercy of the enemy. Just joking, the enemy has no mercy. Mercy comes from God alone (see Psalm 130:3). God’s joy is ours for the asking, and the way to appropriate it after asking and then receiving it by faith is to worship and praise Him. But again, the walls. There are people and influences and atmospheres all around us that we must keep out, however politely. Because God’s joy is like an heirloom seed. It is given and it’s meant to produce fruit in your life. Ask Him to build the necessary walls in your life so that He can give you more than what you had before.

“And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.” (Nehemiah 2:12-13)

If, for whatever reason, you have walls that are destroyed and that you can’t seem to rebuild to save your life, pray. Ask God to reveal whatever it is keeping them unbuilt and for Him to begin building them one brick at a time. While this may be the 21st century and the idea of self-contained cities unconnected by thoroughfares or shared counties is certainly anachronistic, the heart-interior of individuals is different. We need these partitions that would screen our influences and ensure God can get done in our life (and in this world) what He wants. Of course, we can help Him along:

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Our Capacity for Perspicacity (The Way of Lying part 6)

As I’ve mentioned before, it is in humanity’s best interest to pursue truth. Resort to whatever etiology you want as to why, you still have to be able to sift through the input that you receive and decide what works, what doesn’t. What’s gonna play out in the long run (because it’s true) and what’s gonna peter out and let you down.

People from all walks of life delight in their inherent ability to tell whether or not someone’s lying. This is good, this is essential. But! Unless someone truly knows Jesus—who is Truth (see John 14:6)—then the whole paradigm will be askew. There are several levels of truth. The simple statement of “two plus two equals four” is solid. Truth (more of a fact, a law really). But when dealing with human beings who have a boundless capacity for deceit, facts and laws and rules mean nothing. And I think we know that. There’s an unpredictability that makes interaction with strangers a gamble at best, the mistake of your life at worst. If we don’t know how to tell truth from lies—not just facts and figures from their opposites—then we’ll be taken advantage of, strip-mined and quite possibly unable to fulfill our calling before the Lord. That’s disastrous. And scary when you realize how many people in society care nothing about honest interaction and transparency of motive.

1. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, emphasis mine)

2. “Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him” (Proverbs 30:5)

Tomes could be written on the first verse, I’m sure many have. The verse itself refers to the Bible, the Word of God. The Hebrews verse calls it a sword. With the second verse, we see that God is our shield. His word, our sword. God Himself, our shield. Remember this. Now turn over to Matthew’s gospel (10:16). Jesus says “Behold, I send you forth as sheep (pretty harmless, right?) in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

Jesus is telling us here to know the tricks that people use. To know them inside and out. “For we are not ignorant of [satan’s] devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11) But! He’s also saying that in no way do we use them in our defense. That’s God’s job. This is the first step to becoming wise to the ways of the world. The first step to cultivating perspicacity—discernment.

“See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.” (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

God’s word is also a mirror. It shows us who we are and who we were. All of the mistakes and foibles of our old nature are laid bare. Sure the word convicts and cuts, (it tells me I’m going to hell without Jesus, for God’s sake) but it also heals and informs and inspires. The way to know truth is to know God through His word. This is how we align our sense of what truth is (what feels accurate) with the highest to which we can aspire. Namely Jesus. Because if you knew that everyone was lying to you (as actually happens, some days), without forgiveness, how would you be able to live in society? The two go hand in hand. Sheep? Wolf. Sword/Shield. Serpent/Dove. Discernment. Forgiveness.

Without forgiveness, the motive of which desires that the dishonest individual come to repentance and Jesus, we delight in our innate capacity for perspicacity which only ends in self-gratification and does nothing to help the other person. It’s simply selfish.

Look for the thread of Truth in your Bible. The gems of discernment hidden in Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Study out Job’s response to his “friends” (who certainly didn’t have Job’s best interests at heart). See how Joseph responded to his brothers who sold him into slavery and then lied about it. Ask with an exasperated Pontius Pilate “What is truth?” (John 18:38) The answers you’ll find may surprise you. And you just may gain a greater love and appreciation for others as you learn to forgive yourself. It isn’t about reigniting your faith in humanity. That’s a lost cause. It’s about seeing Jesus and truly knowing what He can do for a person. He will make us authentic.

“Go and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37)

…especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Gal. 6:10

C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, spoke of Christianity as a “Great Hall” with doors that lead to different denominations lining either side. He also said that we were “under orders” to pray for them. It can be a waste of time to try and evangelize a foreign mission field when the church structure at home is decaying and coming apart at the seams.

I’m speaking to Christians: Please. Let’s unite and let God knit our hearts together. The inward sins of pride and hardness of heart, apathy and ingratitude—the ones that God sees—eclipse the outward sins that everyone else can see. And Jesus’ shed blood forgives them all. We have no business shunning people who are struggling with an emotional dependence to a sinful substance (drugs, alcohol, pornography) when we ourselves are touting an emotional independence that is supposed to pass as (a cheap substitute of) maturity and wisdom. Oswald Chambers says that “discernment is never given for criticism but for intercession.” Focus on your brother and sister in Jesus and pray for them. Lift them up to God and forget about your needs. God will see to it that you’re taken care of.

And the world will sit up and take notice that we have been with Jesus.