Crown-Wearing

 

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   Philippians 2:9-11

Yesterday’s post[1] about Cross-bearing, and today’s topic of Crown-wearing are so connected we can see a syllogism that makes an eternity statement:

You will be crowned by Christ in Heaven

To the same degree you have crowned Him here on Earth.

Don't forget that the spiritual far outweighs the material or natural.  In the spiritual realm, things are always reversed from the way they were in the natural.  That which was high will be made low; the first shall be last. 

Following that sunbeam thought back to the source, we can also say that those who appear to be less than worthy of wearing a crown (here on earth) will be the very ones wearing them in Heaven.  Who are they?  They are all who have truly allowed their lives to be firmly rooted in Christ.  They are the disciples who only bow to the crucified, risen King of Glory, Jesus.  These are they, for whom nothing took higher priority than Christ-likeness.  They were, as Paul expressed, not conformed to the image of this world, but transformed in mind and thought by Christ to serve what pleases God, not self.[2]

If friends, or a family, church, or even a nation would be honored, in heaven, then Christ-likeness must be the goal, our target for life.  Hear the testimony of Scripture on the matter:

James, Jesus’ brother:

God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.  James 1:12

John, the beloved disciple:

…the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever).  And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power.  For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”  Revelation 4:10-11

Jesus, laying out the indisputable measuring stick: 

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  Luke 9:23

Cross-Bearing and Crown-Wearing!

For You Today

Taking up the cross daily has a reward in Heaven.  Anticipating the crown, followers of Jesus will not be disappointed.  And neither will those who (sadly) choose to walk away from the cross to follow their own path.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] April 27, 2022, Cross-Bearing

[2] Romans 12:2

Cross-Bearing

 

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.  When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.  Philippians 2:5-8

Paul’s words to the church reminds us that the man who died on Calvary wasn't like any other man; HE was God!  Paul said that Jesus made himself nothing.  One Bible translation uses the word emptied.  The picture is one of sacrifice. 

In the temple a sacrifice of an animal was made for sin.  The blood and water were poured on the altar, an emptying.  Like that picture, imagine God was in one form in heaven.  Like a glass contains water and can be emptied, so God poured Himself into the form of a man and died for us. 

Of course, Paul was looking back to what Jesus said about following – a disciple becomes just like the Master.  And what Jesus said about that was it would include the more sticky parts of that which Jesus was willing to do for others. 

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  Luke 9:23

This should put to rest the notion that salvation and discipleship are handled neatly in a moment’s decision at the end of a church service.  Jesus said take up your cross DAILY!

W. E. Orchard wrote:  It may take a crucified church to take a crucified Christ before the eyes of the world.  If a person is to be Christ-like, it will be through cross-bearing.  So, what’s the definition of cross-bearing? 

·       Attending church worship services in our comfortable seats, in air-conditioned sanctuaries is not cross-bearing. 

·       Paying our tithes and giving offerings is not cross-bearing. 

·       Serving on committees, or showing up for workdays isn't cross-bearing. 

Those acts of worship and service, doing things for others, are not bad or a waste of time.  True disciples do all that…and much more.  But cross-bearing is beyond just being kind or helpful, or committed to routines or rituals…it is the attitude Paul said Jesus had, being willing to die for others…people who didn’t have a clue how much of a gift was coming their way…even the ones who shouted out crucify him, and the ones who engineered having him nailed to the cross. 

So, what about us…those of us who claim to follow Him as disciples?  Do we have the Christ-likeness to give ourselves up for poor people in our county?  How about people of different skin color?  What about the unchurched and uncaring?  What about the dirty street people?  Beloved, following the Master in true cross-bearing, emptying oneself for the sake of another, is a far cry from deciding to fry chicken for Homecoming this year! 

For You Today

If you’ve ever been challenged at this point of discipleship, to become a cross-bearing follower of Jesus, you’ve also asked the question:  WHY?  Aside from the obvious (response to His loving death on a cross for you), there is another, most personal reason.  It has to do with the result of cross-bearing. 

So, let me tease you into tomorrow’s devotion:

If cross-bearing is the decision, crown-wearing is the destination.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

The Offering of Love

 

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings.  Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them.  Here is a list of sacred offerings you may accept from them:  gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread; fine linen and goat hair for cloth; tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; onyx stones, and other gemstones to be set in the ephod and the priest’s chestpiece.  “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.  You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.  Exodus 25:1-9

It strikes me as odd that some people never seem to get it just how important it is to make our offerings to God sacred.  I know there are those who have been disabused by huckster-type (so-called) preachers.  When someone spends the lion’s share of time building the bank account we ought to be suspicious at least.  But God’s own holy word tells us that God wants offerings from the heart. 

The one picture in my mind is the ring I gave to Elizabeth when we got engaged.  By any stretch that ring was not from Tiffany’s; he didn’t go to Jarod’s.  But, for an eighteen year old, whose only job prospect was the draft notice he’d recently gotten, it was way more than he could afford.  And yet, I was so excited to put this ring on her finger I could barely keep the secret long enough to get down on one knee.  It was an offering of the deepest love I knew how to express.  And that is sacred.

A brief look at the list of suitable gifts for God’s temple in today’s Scripture is all you need to understand just how seriously God takes this.

I learned a term for a non-sacred offering from a friend many years ago; missionary tea bags.  It seems there were some skinflints in the church of her youth.  Some of the ladies made a practice of saving their used tea bags to send to those poor missionaries.  Somehow it never occurred to them that, perhaps, the sacrifice of using their own tea bags two or three times, so they could afford to buy new packages of tea to send to the missionaries, would move tea bags into the sacred range.  The point is not missed here; anytime you give God second best (or worse), you’re acting like that’s what He deserves.

For You Today

Offering less than your best is no way to propose marriage, do a day’s work, or raise a child.  It certainly doesn’t come into acceptable range in Heaven, when you give less than your best to a God who gave you the very best of what He had, Jesus!  That was God’s sacred offering of love to us; should we do less?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

The Double-Edged Sword of Adoption

 

Friday, May 29, 2020

Romans 8:14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.  Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.  Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”  For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs.  In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.  But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

I learned many years ago that, when it comes to parenting, there is nothing stronger than adoption.  A natural birth carries with it parental rights and responsibilities, for both the parent and (eventually) the child.  This is also true in adoption.  However, as we have seen the move to allow children the right to emancipate from parents, and the rights of parents to disown children, there is a marked and different finality to adoption that makes it nearly impossible for adoptive parents to disassociate themselves from the child they received. 

This concept is immeasurably magnified in the spiritual realm.  When God adopts you as His own, it is enternal and unbreakable.  And it is on a much deeper level than legality.  God’s own Spirit takes up residence within his adopted family to knit together the divine and human.  God’s word declares this to be true, and reminds us it takes a sharp sword to slice that thinly, the distance between what separates us from God as simply His created beings, loaded with free will…dangerously so…and the life that has been surrendered to the adoptive process, as accepted in the beloved family of Jesus Christ.  Yet, that is exactly what God’s Word promises:

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 ^(KJV)

And, as we are on the matter of God’s adoptive ways, and the issue of God as parent of us all creative-wise, and God as parent adoption-wise, shall we not also consider the twoedged sword of privilege and responsibility sharpness-wise?

The privileges are well-known, God’s promises for today, and eternal life to boot.  But the responsibilities are just as well known, and just on the other side of the sharp blade.  To be a child, accepted, never disowned, and beloved, is a rare gift, and to be greatly treasured.  To honor that gift is the other side of the sharp sword, namely, responsibility.  For those who take lightly that for which God has shed His own blood, is to tread in dangerous paths.  Yet, today we see so much of that. 

      ·       Commitment has become as vile a word as change

      ·       Discipleship sinks into channel surfing on a Sunday to satisfy itchy ears

      ·       Tithe is a word relegated to all other antiquated, outdated ideas

      ·       …and the list continues, ad nauseum.

And so, a word to those who have truly been adopted.  Accept the Father like He accepted you.  And the best way to demonstrate that is with a life that is lived in honor of the name you claim.

Let’s Pray Together

Lord, we can think of nothing more offensive to the gift you have given of your holy child, Jesus’ death and resurrection, than for those of us who claim to be His followers to live like the world teaches.  Help us keep pushing on to perfecting our living in love, and so honor You in all we do.

For You Today

Here’s a new tattoo for those hands – Will what I do with these honor God?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Romans 8:14 see A Little More Light and for “Adoption” as a theme see Nearly Abandoned

When Only an Insult Will Do

[i]

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table.  His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom.  Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!  Fools!  Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside?  So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.  “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees!  For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God.  You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.  Luke 11:37-42(NLT)

Jesus was wildly popular with the disenfranchised, the common people, poor and meager, but, with the rich and powerful…not so much!  Perhaps one of the reasons a Pharisee would invite Jesus to his home to eat is that he was well aware of the political power-play manual’s cardinal rule:  keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer!  Simon, the Pharisee wanted an up-close and personal look at this guy whose preaching was turning the political status-quo on its ear.  This was dangerous stuff, and he wanted to examine his enemy. 

Pharisees were religious power brokers, and, as such, they were clever in political maneuvering; they were manipulative, ruthless, and focused on winning.  The problem with smart people, however, is the inability to keep one’s mouth shut.  One of the Pharisees tried to bust Jesus for coming to the table without attending to ritual…7 dips in the water pots, or pours over the hands to satisfy the Law, and then you could eat.  Jesus, ever the controversial adversary of control freaks, named the rule-keeper, FOOL!  Sometimes only an insult will do.

The whole point of eating with the Pharisees was to expose their duplicity.  They were experts in keeping the bare minimums of the Laws and traditions of the elders, but when it came to throwing their lives into the spirit of the Law, they came up miserably short.  Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees are careful to tithe on even the tiniest bit of produce but ignore the needs of needy people.  Jesus reminded them God didn’t so much need 10% of the rosemary and thyme their gardens produced, as to see justice and fairness in the Pharisees’ everyday living.  The Pharisees had the responsibility of ruling with righteousness over God’s people; they had a duty to alleviate suffering amongst the poor, but they spent most of their energy on controlling everything to their liking…power, prestige, and wealth for them and their close allies.  Jesus came to drive a wedge between truth and evil.  Sometimes only a shocking insult will awaken dull senses.

One little side note here (at the risk of being called a Pharisee); please note Jesus did NOT say that the tithe is wrong; he said just the opposite – we ought to tithe.  Rather He was making the point that there are more important things than the tithe, and all those important things include better relationships, care for all persons, and honesty before God in everything.  He was saying, your pocketbook issues are important, but they don’t matter, unless your heart is right. 

For You Today

I love the imagery of the old saying, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.  The bath water is used up; a baby is just beginning, so keep the priorities in good order! 

In the same way, while you’re keeping all the rules of your faith, make certain you don’t ignore the purpose of your faith, loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength…and live that love by loving the neighbor you’d rather not!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons

Emptying the Church - Part 2

[1]

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.  And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.  This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—speaking of these things in all of his letters.  Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.  You already know these things, dear friends.  So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.  Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 3:14-18 ^(NLT)

Peter, a fisherman by trade, turned Apostle by Jesus, was quick to say it is hard to understand some things his brother Apostle, Paul wrote.  And, truthfully, some of Paul’s writings do spill into the gray area when seen against the backdrop of 21^st century culture.  Two thousand years makes for a huge communication gap.

So, it seems like every time someone has a new thought about Scripture, Scripture gets a new interpretation.  That is particularly true when we sin, and try to rationalize our rebelliousness towards God.  For validation of this human trait we don’t need to plow through the whole Bible; simply check out the Garden of Eden.  When Adam and Eve sinned by taking forbidden fruit they were embarrassed and made clothes to hide their nakedness.  That showed a sense of shame.  But when God came looking for his rebellious children one cool summer’s eve, they also hid from him; they inherently understood their sinfulness and wanted no part of a face-to-face with their Creator.  And when the accounting finally came, Adam shifted the blame to Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent.  The fact at hand is, we humans never want to acknowledge our sins.

Peter also pointed to the fact that part of the distorting smoke screen we try to raise to cover our sin-tracks is to twist Scripture’s meaning to give us some wiggle-room.  The current culture’s controversy over homosexuality is a vivid image of this posturing and attempts (by the unstable and ignorant) to redefine moral behavior.  Proponents of throwing the door wide-open in this area do so by twisting Scripture to fit what they want, rather than obey what God has said!

A simple illustration is a common argument I’ve been handed as a pastor.  The question is posed:  Pastor…it’s not really clear…do I tithe on my gross salary, or the net?  Now, while that sounds like a pretty serious Christian who just wants to get it right, it’s more like Adam and Eve hiding from their sin while God is calling; it’s more a delaying tactic than an honest question.  If we can claim just the slightest bit of ambiguity about Scripture we’ve got a foothold to stand our ground to do nothing at all.  We can just be praying about the whole thing until God reveals it all.  But, can we talk?  How much clearer does the Bible have to be than the tithe is holy unto the LORD?[2]  And the real problem, as Peter wrote about the destructive path of twisting scripture, is that we are not really providing a foothold upon which we can stand and buy time while we find another reason to do (or not do) something about our rebellion; what we’ve really done is given a foothold to the enemy – a wedge Satan can use to destroy our relationship with holy God.

So, while Paul may be hard to understand sometimes, it makes little sense to let our questions make sin seem affordable.  In many ways this is what is happening to the church in today’s culture.  Doubt, questioning, and half-hearted living of the Christian life provide a sorry witness for those both on the inside or outside of the church.  It leads to destruction.

For You Today

God is all about accountability with His creation.  Sooner or later He is going to come walking (and looking for us) in the cool of the evening, just like He came looking for the first couple.  The question is will he find an empty church, while we’re all out sewing fig leaves to cover our tracks?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] See Leviticus 27 and Malachi 3