Dearly Imputed . . .

On Sunday we looked at Genesis 15. This is a great story of God having amazing plans for Abram and Abram's response to those plans.

Yes, he had questions. In fact, he cried out to God and shared his heart. Hey God, you have given me all these things but I still don't have a child of my own. A child through my wife Sarai. Where is that? When is that going to happen. But here is where Abram shows off what kind of character he has. God shows him the stars in the heavens and tells him that his offspring will be more than the stars in the sky. Some of us stop right here. But that would diminish the story. Because, this is when Abram says back to God, "I believe you." I mean he really believed God! And this is amazing. And God responded to him by taking his faith in God and reckoning it as righteousness. In the immortal words of Jerry Clower, "Whoooieee!" That's good.

But what does this mean? This phrase is an interesting one and I told you on Sunday that I would share a bit more about it. Did you know that the apostle Paul comes back to this specific story in Romans 4?

22 Therefore his faith[a] “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

This verse in Genesis 15 that Paul is referring to intrigues me. I just keep reading it. I guess I am trying to understand it or maybe even soak in it. I feel that it is important. That somehow, I'm missing something about it. 

I think part of it is this concept of righteousness being reckoned to someone. How is that possible? How is it that because Abram believed he is somehow righteous? Can I see the math on that please? Believing=Righteousness? How is that? 

We use reckoning in the South all the time. I grew up there. I know. "I reckon so." "I reckon I best be goin'." So you see, I'm used to this idea. 

But this is bigger than my southern culture. It is bigger because I don't think we process it correctly. Let me explain.

The reckoning is not something that Abram did. The reckoning has everything to do with God. And I think that this concept is something called imputation. 

Imputation is, in reference to God, the work of God outside of us. That means, that whatever is imputed to us has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with God. Here is one way to look at this. Let's say that every time I do a particular action, you give me $10 dollars. That is cause and effect. I do something, you give me something. The variables are defined. This is something like a transaction and this is how we think of many, many things in our lives. (Sometimes even the spiritual!!) However, let's change the scenario. Let's change it to more like a trust fund. You promise to give me the entire, unlimited trust fund. Now, the trust fund is not ours. We didn't put anything into the trust fund. We didn't cause it to happen. We didn't cause it to not be there. It is simply there and we, frankly, have not done one thing to affect it positively or negatively. 

So. How do we get access to the trust fund? Here it is. In order to have access to the trust fund, we must be related to the owner of the trust fund. Now, there are some problems with this relationship. First, you aren't really related. I mean, he loves you very much but you aren't naturally blood related. But the amazing thing is this. The owner of the trust fund has decided to adopt you! Now, this may be the freaky part, but he has gone further than adoption by law only. He has adopted you through transfusion! Through his son, you are now blood-related! You got it! The son gave his blood so that you could become a full-blooded son of the owner of the trust fund! Pretty amazing, right?

So what is our part in this? We have to believe in the owner of the trust fund and that his son gave his blood for us because both the owner and the son love us that much! 

This is the part of the blog where I put in a metaphorical disclaimer. No metaphor can really illustrate the relationship and total concept of imputation. So I am very aware that this metaphor cannot duly give justice to what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and the relationship of love that God for us and with us. I get that. 

Let's come back to Abram. Abram did nothing to deserve God's righteousness. He didn't earn it. There was no way for him to earn it!! What could Abram give God?? God owns it all! No. That wasn't it. God's righteousness was freely given. Abram's belief in God united him to God so that God's righteousness was credited to him. Abram's faith did not produce the righteousness. Abram's faith in God fulfilled the other half of God's extension of relationship (love) that he had made to Abram in the first place! God began the relationship. Abram's faith sealed it. (Tangental aside:  which totally explains how we can walk away from God - the relationship unsealed - and God continues to seek us out, continuing to offer his love and relationship!)

Okay, I'm going to offer one more example from an article I read from www.desiringgod.com. It is another analogy and of course the previous disclaimer still applies. I put it here in case it makes more sense to some than my analogy.

Here's a very imperfect analogy. But I will risk it in the hope of greater understanding. Suppose I say to Barnabas, my sixteen-year-old son, "Clean up your room before you go to school. You must have a clean room, or you won't be able to go watch the game tonight." Well, suppose he plans poorly and leaves for school without cleaning the room. And suppose I discover the messy room and clean it. His afternoon fills up and he gets home just before it's time to leave for the game and realizes what he has done and feels terrible. He apologizes and humbly accepts the consequences.

To which I say, "Barnabas, I am going to credit your apology and submission as a clean room. I said, 'You must have a clean room, or you won't be able to go watch the game tonight. Your room is clean. So you can go to the game." What I mean when I say, "I credit your apology as a clean room," is not that the apology is the clean room. Nor that he really cleaned his room. I cleaned it. It was pure grace. All I mean is that, in my way of reckoning - in my grace - his apology connects him with the promise given for a clean room. The clean room is his clean room. I credit it to him. Or, I credit his apology as a clean room. You can say it either way. And Paul said it both ways: "Faith is credited as righteousness," and "God credits righteousness to us through faith."

I feel by writing this I understand it a bit more. I am going to have to continue to work through this because I feel that there is still so much more here than I currently able to process. I hope this has helped understanding this amazing verse(s) in the Bible and perhaps has helped you along your journey.

Under the Rug

The phrase I wanted people to remember this week was this:

God helps us put others first.

This is a sound biblical phrase. It was one of Jesus' greatest commandments. Put others first. How noble! How valuable! How incredibly counter to what our culture truly believes.

I was driving behind a vehicle the other day that had a bumper sticker. It stated something to effect of vote for equality for all in marriage. Basically it was saying (command form) that homosexual couples should be allow to marry in the name of equality.

How does this play into Put Others First? Isn't that the goal of this bumper sticker? Aren't homosexual couples a part of the others?

I have been meaning to go back and find the first use of a couple getting married in history. I don't mean the way we categorize marriage as such that it is. Huge ceremony. Big dresses. Large bills. I mean the first marriage where a covenant was made.

The earliest one I can think of is the Genesis example of God (as priest) presenting the bride, which he had just created, to Adam the first groom.

And I have been thinking.

Marriage is not and has never been an equality issue. God didn't make it to be one. It wasn't created to be one. Marriage has always been about the covenant of relationship between husband, wife and God.  Here it is: God created marriage. He created covenant. He created husband and wife. No, this debate has never been about equality. This debate must be about the real issue. The issue of marriage as gift. By placing and belittling marriage to the role of an equality issue, we are stating and propagating the myth that marriage is a right. An inalienable right. Something everyone should have access. However. And this is a big however. Marriage is not a right. We do not own marriage.

Maybe we should make a bumper sticker that says that the IRS should get out of my marriage. Ahhh, I could see it now. Divorce the IRS out of marriage! And didn't we allow the IRS to dictate what the advantage of marriage is? It started out okay. But over time this has become the issue of our age. The definition of marriage has become tied to tax deductions and equal rights. But that is not what and how marriage was designed to be. God designed marriage as a gift of relationship between a man and a woman before God. God did not make it a right, but it was truly the first bridal shower. The covenant of relationship before a holy God. And this is just one area. There are many, many more!

And doesn't it really come down to the context? Take putting others first as an example in context. If we put everybody first, even before God, then this becomes a massive failure of initiative. It takes what was meant as a servant song and creates a chromatic nightmare. For Jesus said that we were to love God first. Put God first. And then out of that relationship we could then put others first. But that isn't what we are in danger of doing. The danger is putting others first before God and to the exclusion of God.

I was counseling a couple and I noted that they put a great many things before their relationship with each other, but as we talked longer and had more sessions, I realized that they were putting a great many things before God! They were upside down in their relationships!! They had swept/allowed/shoved their relationship with God under the rug. It had been relegated to the place of apathy and irrelevance in their lives. Powdered with dust and coated with neglect.

It is time to pull our relationships out from under the rug and set them in the proper place of worth and honor in our lives. God: first and foremost.

Hold on Tight

This past Sunday we talked about Genesis 12 and Abram's trust that he had in God.

One thing that I have observed about God is that he is a responsive God. Are you familiar with responsive websites? That's what I think about. Ever taken your smart phone or tablet and gone to a website where it doesn't seem to fit your screen? You have to scroll this way and that. You have to scale and re-scale to make sure you see everything and can actually use the website. This is a website that is not made to be responsive. When you get to a responsive website (which is all the rage right now), the information and the theme of the website is made to fit whatever size browser or screen you are on. That is responsive.

God makes it so we can respond to his action. He is the maker of our spiritual website. He makes it responsive. We point and click and act and God enables us to respond. He scrolls with us and he pans where we are. He zooms in on our life to give us perspective and then zooms back out to help us see his work. God initiates. We respond. That is the nature of our God.

God reached out to Abram. Abram responded by choosing to leave his father and extended family. He left so much. In fact, he left more than he took with him. And he did it because he was responding to God telling him to go. He trusted God.

And that is how our God is. He builds trust by giving us opportunity to respond to what he is doing. Without God's action in reaching out, Abram had no response. There was simply nothing to respond to. However, God did reach out and when Abram responded, trust was made, created, built and stored. That is what I mean by saying that God puts trust in our way. In many ways, God creates the trust in us, faith if you will, by creating an opportunity for us to trust in him.

Faith and trust cannot exist if God does not act to cause them or grow them. God does the action. Our job is to respond to that action.

Our God is a god that over promises and over delivers. Have you heard that phrase before? Probably not in that order. Usually it is used to say something about good customer service. Something like, X company underpromised and then over delivered. They went above and beyond what they had said. However, have you noticed that God normally over promises? He promises to do amazing things, things that we simply can't even imagine. And we are wow-ed by God's promises, to the extent that we can't believe that he would even do those things? Why is that? But then, it comes. God does even more than he promised. He does something that goes far beyond what you could expect. He over delivers on promises that were over promised! That is our God!! And only he can do that!

That is what Abram experienced. Read the passage and follow Abram through the story of God. You will see it. It is truly amazing.

This is no different for us. God has a story with each of us. This is a story where God wants us to grow in and through all things. A plan for our lives that will astonish us. He wants the very best for us. And we need to be prepared, seek him and then . . . Hold. On. Tight.

Reality of Redemption

Yesterday, Oswald Chambers (here) wrote about Paul's Gospel. How it means something for Paul that others may not understand. He calls it the Reality of Redemption. 

Here is a quote from that writing:

"The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption."

Most weeks, as I study, I struggle for a title for the message that God has for me to deliver. I struggle for the key image of that message. Professors in seminary taught that the title doesn't matter because no one will see the title. For me, this is like saying that the title of a book doesn't matter. Frankly, I believe it does. I believe that a title to a message matters. And of this to say, I struggled with the title this week and God gave me this one. The Reality of Redemption. Many weeks I know why I get the titles I get. Why I get the images I get. And they are supposed to be linked to help the main point of the message that God has given. 

This week I choose them separately and frankly, I could think of a lot better titles for this image.

However, it wouldn't be what God gave me. So Reality of Redemption it is/was. 

On this side of yesterday, I see the point. I understand after the fact. Which, I think, is common with how God works. 

He was teaching me something. Yesterday, I referred to the poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade. In it, this is written:

Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

(If you want to read more about this famous event, go here.)

Basically, they received orders and no matter what they thought about the orders, they followed them. They received them and carried them out. 

This is sometimes called blind obedience. And is in human terms, not wise. Namely because the person giving the orders could be wrong.

However, as we know, God is not human and only has the best in line for you life. Therefore, to blindly follow and instantly obey God is his ultimate desire for your life! He wants the best for you and plans to guide you there, if you will let him and follow him. 

This is the nature of obedience to God. It is the nature of a relationship with God. And why shouldn't we obey him?!! 

Obedience keeps us devoted to him. Dependent. Aware that our very existence is because of our loving God that, when we submit our will and seek out his, we are blessed. We are redeemed. And that is the reality of redemption. Blessed Redeemer. 

The title, to me, did not make sense. But, to a God that wanted to show me to trust him, and in a small exercise to do so, list a title that didn't make as much sense to me, it made perfect sense to him. 

Greetings and Exhortations!

Exhortations sounds like something a horse would make. But it is a great word. It means to urge to act. 

And that is the purpose of the joy that we have if we are followers of Christ. As I said on Sunday, it doesn't seem like Christmas to talk about axes, sacrificing, fire and fruit. In fact the whole story of Jesus doesn't seem like something that would bring joy. Or hope. Or love. It rather seems like a tragedy. Not the festive light filled fun that we call Christmas. 

We were watching Merry Larry, a Veggie Tales movie, last night with the kids at small group. It was talking about this exact topic. Christmas is about our joy found in Jesus turning into joyful acts that show Jesus. The inward transfers to the outward. The church becomes mobile and ready to impact those around it. 

I hope your week has been full of offering joy to others. I hope God has laid an opportunity in your path this week that he wanted to change you through. I hope you listened and followed through. 

I hope it encouraged you and grew your faith. 

In fact, if you followed through, I know it did. If not, why not? Did you miss it? Do you wish you had listened and followed through on what God was trying to do through you? 

Your heart does. 

God wants us (exhorts us!) to show others acts of joy because of the joy we have in us. God doesn't ask the impossible from us. He gives us everything we need to succeed in the plan that he has for us. 

I exhort you to go into your Friday, Saturday and into Sunday filled with God's joy and his purpose. 

Don't miss it. Seek him tomorrow morning before you go to work or school. Listen and receive his presence, his love, his hope and his joy for you. Treasure it and then show that joy to others. 

May God richly bless you this week.

Amen.

The East Gate

Sunday we talked about the next to last gate in our journey to go around the gates of Jerusalem. It is the East Gate and it faces, well, you guess it, east. Directly east of Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives. It is referred in the Bible that when Jesus returns it will be on this mountain. This explains the large number of people (Jews) that want to be buried right in front of the East Gate.

We learned that word, Maranatha, which means Come, Lord Jesus. And how even in Paul and John's time, people were already scoffing about Jesus' return. They didn't believe that it was going to happen!! But Paul, Peter and John told them that it would happen. To expect it! To look forward to it!

My question is: What are you looking forward to? What is it that you want to happen so bad that you think about and dream about it and "yearn" for it? Followers of Christ yearn for his return!! More than anything else! I read a pastor that wrote, "If you don’t long for the King to get the honor He deserves, then maybe you haven’t really recognized Him as your king."

Wow. That is challenging! If we aren't looking forward to the end of evil and all that Jesus brings with him when he comes back then maybe we don't really see him as king of our lives.

The point? Christ's return brings judgment and joy.

There will be both when he returns. There will be the end of death and the end of evil's days. Those that are followers of Christ will recieve a Crown of Righteousness (1 Timothy 4:8). We will be judged worthy for that crown or unworthy for that crown. Judgment. Joy.

So, if you looked out your peephole tomorrow morning, and Jesus was on the other side, what would you feel? Joy? Or fear? Joy and judgment are coming whether we want them to or not. Knock. Knock.

 

Troubled Waters Reboot (Rebubble?)

On Sunday we talked about the Water Gate from Nehemiah's time. How Hezekiah ordered a tunnel dug so that Jerusalem would have water during times of siege. 

This tunnel and the water that flowed through it lasted for centuries and continues to bring water into the city. Ever heard of the Pool of Siloam? It was fed by this spring. The Spring of Gihon. 

People relied on this water and still do! This is a symbol of how we are to depend on God's Word to give us nourishment! It is there to fill us and prepare us for presentation to God. 

This was the purpose of the Pool of Siloam. To cleanse those that were going to hear the Word of God. People would be cleansed in the water so that they could be cleansed by the Word of God! It was a time of preparation for presentation!! 

We find in Ephesians 5:

"Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish."

The "word" referred to here is the Good News. The Gos Pel of Christ. Through the word of the Word Incarnate (That's Jesus!), we are made clean. We are made pure. We are made ready to be presented to the Holy God of Israel! 

Wow. That's amazing stuff. Did you know the Word does all that? That is why the Psalmist writes in 119:105:

"Your word is a light unto my feet and a light unto my path."

God's word gives us direction, cleansing and encouragement. 

And that is a promise from God.