Tag: freedom

Path Lighting

Joshua 4:1–7; Joshua 8:30–35; Proverbs 27:17

What do you remember? What “traditions” or practices do you remember from your childhood? What did that teach you?

Over the years, the church universal developed many practices to teach the faith to its people. It often had a hard journey, as it had to teach people from varying walks of life to be one with each other. It often had to surmount the lack of general education for centuries.

Many of these practices are no longer used. Many have lost the intent, and even the instruction that went with them. They became empty words. Valuable Truth was lost because people failed to teach well.

As we each go to church, whether online or in person, or whether we only listen to sermons or we add life groups, we each have a responsibility to learn and to teach. Often, we look to experts to train us. However, the experts are, well, experts. Experts often get lost in their expertise and then they can no longer translate their expertise to the non-expert.

In many respects, from a personal perspective, that may be part of the current state of the church. Perhaps we have left too much to the experts and not sharpened ourselves.

Of course, there is danger in such freedom. There is a balance of some sort between expert and non. We may well be in a place and time where we need to discover together what that balance is.

The passages from Joshua are just 2 passages where something was done to teach. The first was the pile of stones from the middle of the Jordan river. Yes, 12 stones pulled from the bottom of spring flood raging river. This pile of stones became a physical place of teaching.

“Look at that river! God made it so our ancestors could cross it on dry land.” Imagine a young child overcome with the vision of the waters being told the story of the stones while seeing that river. That would certainly be formative. This is the kind of thing ideal in the informal settings of Life Groups.

The second passage is Joshua repeating the Law that they had been given. It was a reminder of who they were. The Law wasn’t just rules and regulations, it was their identity. In many respects, this is the more formal aspect of preaching and Sunday School.

The question that we each need to ask ourselves: is our faith important enough to us to learn?

2020-11-05
Cast Off

Matthew 23:13-15; Acts 15:1–22; Colossians 2:4–13

There is no question about Jesus’ attitude toward the scribes and the Pharisees in this verse. It seems pretty straightforward. What if it isn’t? What if Jesus was instead using their language in a way so as to make a point?

The Pharisees, with their belief in the afterlife, would certainly not want to be headed for Hell. They intended to go to Heaven. Jesus told them that while they think they are the bouncers for God, they’re not getting in either. There was probably some dismay there.

Jesus piled on with the various traditions (versus Biblical law) that the Pharisees and the scribes held everyone accountable for. Frankly, it was unbearable. That was Jesus’ point. They held onto traditions that made their lives Hell on earth. Jesus made it clear that it also prevented them from Heaven.

Jesus knew their hearts were stubborn. His greater concern was not them, but all those they dragged along with them. The concern for people who were now burdened with more than their hearts could bear. What if they decided they would rather be Hell-bound than bound with all the rules and traditions that made the life they were living hellish?

Sounds extreme, but this was exactly Peter’s point to the elders of the Jerusalem church. They and their ancestors could not withstand the misery. The people that were being drawn to the freedom and grace of Jesus Christ were being threatened with rules and traditions! Most of them the same that they (of Jewish descent) wanted to be freed from, and who believed that Jesus had done so!

Paul often had to deal with the Judaizers who kept trying to bring Jewish customs into the Christian community and imposing them on Gentiles. It made Paul quite angry at times.

You may have run across Christians who try to follow some of the Jewish law (particularly the dietary ones). They were free of the Law before they were born yet seek to be bound by laws that were not theirs to bear.

This is also something we need to be careful of ourselves. One of the big lessons of many missionaries was trying to impose Western thinking on non-Westerners. Western thinking got tied into the message of Jesus Christ, often putting burdens (things we would think of as burdens) on people that the Scriptures did not call them to bear.

The church in the Western world is fading. Ultimately, it must rediscover what it means to evangelize and be missional. Of course, the biggest group to which we must be missional are the people we are already comfortable with. We do not look at them with missionary eyes. We are too close. Even more than the Jews had to cast of their traditions, we may have to cast off much of what “makes” us Westerners so that we can be the messengers of salvation to our neighbors.

※Questions※

1) What might be your cultural blind spots that weaken your ability to evangelize?

2) How does our Western culture act in ways similar to the Jewish laws of old?

※Prayer※

Lord, soften our hearts and open our minds. May we feel your love for others and learn to set aside ourselves for the sake of others’ salvation. Amen.

2020-10-30
Living

Deuteronomy 5:26–27; Ezekiel 33:11; Luke 20:34–40; John 5:39–40; John 8:56–58

A living God? To many people today, God is just a fairy tale who belongs amongst the pages of Grimm’s fairy tales and folklore. For them, God is no different than the ancient Roman and Greek gods, and of no greater value (perhaps even less) than the Hindu gods.

Yesterday’s devotional was about the witness we are called to make. While the devotional didn’t talk about our common failures in being good and faithful witnesses, most of us realize that we have messed up more than a few times.

Being faithful often means being humble when we fail, requiring us to be honest with ourselves and others. That can be difficult. Being open (and thus vulnerable) about our flaws sometimes requires greater strength than we are capable of on our own.

Our witness requires greater strength than it used to. Our witness requires greater vulnerability than it used to. Our witness requires greater transparency than it used to.

The concept (our reality) of a living God allows us the freedom to breathe in the pressure of the “greaters”. Our God is greater still than the greatest Created thing or person.

When we understand that God is a God of the living it helps to put a few things into perspective. It wasn’t a small thing that Jesus observed that God named Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph in the present tense. When we focus on the dead and what comes after, or even what came before, we don’t live in the fullness of the life that has been given to us.

This is, even more, the case when we talk about the Scriptures. People dig into the Scriptures to know more about God. People dig into the Scriptures to deny God. Even those of Jesus’ day who knew the Scriptures well were unable to see the living God before them. While the Scriptures are living and active, they are living and active only because of the living God.

A living God means that God is not sitting on the sidelines. God works in and among and through Creation.

※Questions※

1) How does God being living affect your daily walk with God?

2) Especially when it comes to Jesus, but not only, why is “living” so important?

3) Have you ever known someone who was “alive”, but who wasn’t living? Do you think they knew Jesus?

※Prayer※

God of the living and breathing Creation, help to know to the depths of our souls that you are living and breathing in us. Amen.

2020-10-23
Chained or Unchained

Deuteronomy 27:12–28:1; John 8:31–40; Galatians 3:7–14

There are many wonderful things in life that begin well and then become dead weight. Buying a house is one of those. We are now in an era when people buy houses and pay against a large debt for 15–30 years. It doesn’t take too long for the joy of home “owning” to be faced with the frustrations of maintenance, flaws, age, vision changes, life changes, and so on. It doesn’t have to be a house. It could be a car. It could be student loans. It could be your job.

The Law wasn’t intended to be life-giving. It was intended as God-oriented living protection. If you followed the law, there was a framework that guided one into a righteous life.

Somehow this became twisted, and the Law became life.

“Whoever does not put this law into practice is cursed.” (Deuteronomy 27:26)

This does not say that the Law is life. It says that not following the Law results in bad consequences. Within the Law there were “resets” built in. Sins, errors in judgment could be dealt with. Life could move on.

However, there is a difference when it is a lifestyle. This is not about ignorance. This is not about an unbeliever. This is about those who declare God their God and live in such a way that they have not put God first in their lives.

What becomes the struggle is “proving” that God is first in our lives. Often, we “prove” it by living a more “holy” life. The Church of the Nazarene, for example, was long known for its stances against alcohol, smoking, and dancing. Not doing these things was the mark of “holiness” but is what the areas of broken relationships where these things occurred that was the real issue.

When holiness (or the appearance thereof) become chains rather than freedom, then holiness has become the Law. If that is the case, then that might make a lie out of, “who the Son sets free is free indeed,” because then, it seems, we want to find new chains to live in.

※Questions※

1) What are some Christian “rules” that you can think of? How do you think they became rules?

2) What rules can you think of that were intended to “give” or “preserve” life, but ended up chaining it? Does that make the rule bad?

3) What is a family rule that you wish wasn’t a family rule? Why?

※Prayer※

Jesus, you called us to a life of following you. Help up discern freedom from chains as we try to follow your way. Amen.

2020-10-08
My Rules Not Yours

Mark 10:1–9; Luke 1:69–75; Galatians 3:1–5

The rule of having to wear masks when going out into public (with some exceptions in the US and elsewhere) is grating. Really. Who wants to wear a mask all day? No one wants to.

Many are concerned that we are being conditioned to wear masks and have our freedoms curtailed. That concern is reasonable, up to a point. What’s particularly interesting is the social experiment regarding rules.

The political “right” is generally a law and order type of people. Yet, that group is resisting the mask rule. The political “left” is (theoretically) more of a “no rules” yet practices many rigid rules.

This is not to pick on either, but to show that even in our “crystal clear” political bents, we are often not clear ourselves. Yet, one of the core pieces of Christian theology, especially Protestant theology, is freedom from the Law.

Of course, someone will often respond that the Law is different than rules. Yes, the Law is a series of religious rules that defined appropriate behavior and a penalty for when that behavior was violated.

The “trick” became that the people treated the Law as if it were the relationship that mattered, rather than their relationship to God. That is also a simplification of it. Another way to say may be, they focused on the rules so much that they neglected the relationship.

Jesus gets the rules of divorce question. Is that really the question, though? Is the question more along the lines of, “what can I do that I think makes me happy while still getting to Heaven?” The question of divorce is a question of relationship on one hand and what can be gotten away with. The way Pharisees brought this to Jesus was about the law. It wasn’t about a man looking for a younger wife or a prettier one, or even one the nagged him less. It was about using the Law to break relationship.

When anyone becomes more concerned about the rules (whether to follow them or disobey them) than the relationships that the rules are about, we lose sight of people. Zechariah’s praise (from Luke 1) is all about the relationship. Zechariah would have been one of those concerned about the rules (he was a priest). The relationship with God and God with God’s people mattered more.

The other side of the rules, and a significant focus of the Protestant reformation, was the thought that one could earn their way into Heaven by following rules, rituals, or purchasing one’s way in. The last of these 3 is not Paul’s concern in his letter to the Galatians. What concerned him was that the Galatians seemed to have tossed out grace and relationship and embraced rules.

This is not to say rules are not important. They provide guidance and boundaries, which we seem to need to thrive. Yet, if we adhere to the rules (or oppose the rules) without understanding the why and the who that the rules are about we skip the people that we are called to love.

※Questions※

1) Thinking of relationships regarding authority, how do rules and relationships work with and against each other?

2) What rules that bother you? Why? What relationships might those rules impact?

※Prayer※

Jesus, you came to earth to show us the Way of Life. Help us to find both the freedom and constraints of following you. Amen.

2020-10-07
Message Over Mammon

Luke 10:1–9; 2 Corinthians 12:1–14

There are many people who attract attention naturally. Some do it with mere charisma. Some do it with money. Others do it with the words (positive and negative).

There are others that do it out of gain. Whether it is to gain the attention of people or to feel power, or success (all still people-based, really), gaining attraction to puff oneself up isn’t Christ-like.

When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples he gave an interesting direction: don’t change houses. In other words, if you were invited into a house in a town, stay at that house until you leave the town. As they were representatives of the famous prophet, they would likely be treated well. It might even mean that people would compete for their presence.

The concern with this is that the message would lose weight as the disciples would go from house to house. What gravitas would the “Kingdom of Heaven” have if its disciples (emissaries, ambassadors) traipsed from one place to another following the food and the sandal-licking (they didn’t have boots, then). If people competed over the fame and flattery of having one of the disciples, would they really care about the message?

The next concern would be the effect upon the disciples. Being “wined and dined” could have a potentially huge negative effect on their spiritual growth and their witness. It could even lead to some of the same bullying behavior of the Jewish religious leaders. That would have been very bad.

We see how it did evolve through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. The “super” apostles were, it seems, spiritual abusers. They guilt-tripped people to give more money. Based on Paul’s language, the super-apostles used language that implied that the Corinthians were being spiritually blessed by giving them (the super-apostles) so much money.

When Paul apologizes that he didn’t ask for money or to be taken care of, there is a realization that the Corinthians had been hoodwinked. They had bought wholeheartedly into the swindle of the super-apostles. In so doing, they lost the vision of the Gospel.

By succumbing to the words of these super-apostles, they reattached the chains of bondage. Paul was heartbroken. The heart of the message of freedom in Christ had been lost.

2020-09-30
Kinda Stuck

Kinda Stuck

7 September 2020

Leviticus 4:27–31; Leviticus 5:14–16; 1 John 1:6–10

When we talk about sin, we often operate with the presumption of commission of sin. In other words, we did something. There is also the sin of omission. In other words, what we didn’t do.

The morning confession in the Book of Common Prayer reads
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

In many respects, this confession is hard, because in it we confess that we are not loving God and others as God has called us to do. On the other hand, this confession is freeing, as we aren’t required to go down all the items we messed up on (and some days that can be quite a lot).

When we read Leviticus, we can often get bogged down in all the rules. Yet, if you read the rules in today’s verses, there is grace in them. In them, while the rules regarding are stringent, at the same time there is the recognition that someone may not recognize the act while in the middle of committing it.

We all make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are sins. Sometimes they aren’t sins, per se, but still hurt others. We aren’t supposed to beat ourselves up about it. We are supposed to confess, repent, and move on.

Even in Leviticus, barring a few acts, there isn’t a “no repeat” rule. This means that God will gracefully accept our confession and repentance. While we will often continue to sin (sometimes even the same thing), if we are truly repentant in our hearts and confess, God moves on, and so should we.

Yes, we are called to be better than we were yesterday. Being better than we were yesterday also means better to ourselves than we were yesterday. People will often continually condemn themselves about their failures. When we condemn ourselves, we are often closer to the enemy than God.

Through the Holy Spirit, God convicts. The purpose of that conviction is to free us from the guilt and reconcile us to God. The enemy condemns. That condemnation will often tear our hearts and souls into pieces, leading us to further separate ourselves from God.

This is not God’s intent. Yes, we are to be aware of what separates us from God. We are to confess and work on what separates us from God. It’s hard enough to improve our walk with God, let us not help the enemy take us further away from the reconciling heart of God.

※Prayer※

Lord, help us be true to you through our confessions and our reconciliation to you. Amen.

※Questions※

1) Is there a sin or struggle in your life that you can’t seem to get a handle on, and are concerned that God just won’t let it go? Is it God, or is it you that won’t let it go?

2) Why do we often let our mistakes and errors bind us?

3) One aspect of the Good News of the Gospel is freedom from chains. How will you share with others the chains you have been freed from?

2020-09-06
Nope. I’m Good.

Nope. I’m Good.

2 September 2020

John 8:31–41; Philippians 3:1–11

What are you relying on? This is a question that we each need to ask ourselves on a regular (if not daily) basis. It becomes easy to slip into relying on something without realizing it.

In industries such as manufacturing, timber, construction where safety is a big issue, it can be easy to fall into ease. As organizations create stronger safety programs and better safety equipment, workers can grow into a sense of comfort. Then they may overly rely on their safety equipment. Then they make mistakes that endanger themselves, others, and the successful completion of their jobs.

This can also be seen when people spend lots of money (often more than they make) to have a good life. This somewhat works when the economy is going well, but things happen, and economies weaken.

This can also be seen in politics, from local to international, as people make assumptions about their supporters or even their countries as they move around and make deals.

It is also seen in the church. While the apparent dominance of the Moral Majority of the 1980s–1990s indicated that the “church” was strong, it showed that the church had lost its way. The church relied on politics and power to make a difference, rather than the love and grace of Jesus. As the church becomes culturally sidelined, there is a growing awareness of not just the earthly power lost, but also the freedom gained and the power from on high that comes with it.

The Jews understood and venerated their ancestors, particularly Abraham and Israel. They venerated Moses as the Prophet of the Most High. They had the Law.

They had become reliant and comfortable. It seems strange for them to be comfortable with the Roman occupation. It was just the status quo, and no one wanted the boat to be rocked.

Then along comes Jesus to rock the boat, and all the complacency came to a head. For too long the Jews had taken their (very) special place for granted. It was time for them to wake up.

Part of Paul’s awakening was through this as well. While he still proudly proclaimed his Israelite heritage, he set it aside for the greater identity of being a follower of Jesus. While he didn’t toss his heritage out (for it gave him the framework to understand the work of Jesus), he recognized it for what it was…a foreshadow of what was to come…the Body of Christ.

※ Prayer ※

Jesus, may we be shaken daily by who you are so that we are never complacent. Amen.

※ Questions ※

1) Where is your life of faith too complacent?

2) Where do you see the life of the church too complacent?

3) Where else in life (outside of faith) are you seeing complacency?

2020-08-31
Flying Free?

Isaiah 28:14–22; Luke 4:14–21

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.”

― Corrie ten Boom

What does it mean to be a captive? What does it mean to be free?

In the ongoing COVID season this isn’t quite straightforward. Many people feel captive in their homes (voluntary or not) and captive to government. In response, many are proclaiming their freedom (in the US, at least) and acting out some sort of resistance.

One of the things though about both captivity and freedom is that often what is captivity to one is freedom to another. Take the opening quote from Corrie ten Boom. Certain people live their life believe that they are free to hate. Others feel free after they have relieved the hate.

Which person is correct? Both versions are correct…from a certain point of view.

Take the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They felt themselves to be free after they had, effectively, made an agreement (so-to-speak) with the god Mot, the Canaanite god of death. What is particularly interesting is that Mot was the adversary of Baal, the Canaanite god of life and fertility.

Baal had long been a god the Israelites then the Jews kept returning to in lieu of God. That in the face of the pending Assyrian regional dominance they chose the antithesis of Baal is truly strange. However, being allied with the god of death was thought to be a shield from surrounding enemies.

The Jews seemed to view God as their captor. They chose the “freedom” of other gods. As they learned to their dismay, God freed them from…his protection. They learned that the freedom they longed for was actually the chains of captivity.

Without question, in the middle of these verses from Isaiah the tested stone, precious cornerstone, sure foundation is Jesus, at least from a Christ-centered point of view. Jesus is the sure foundation.

While the Jews are making their alliance with death, God is setting the groundwork for True life…the Messiah.

When we read the Gospels, we often infer that Jesus is setting all the Jews free from religious trappings and false teachings. He is. However, we should primarily be looking at ourselves to see what Jesus wants to free us from.

We each have burdens we bear. We each have scars that we have hidden (some well, some not). We also have many things that we believe are freeing but have really become burdens and chains. The problem often is that we view so much from the human perspective, and not God’s.

It’s not that we are God. We do have the Scriptures to guide us. As we hear the word freedom, let us recall that what we view as right or as a right may not be what God seeks for or from us. It may lead us away from God and into chains.

※Prayer※

Lord, open our eyes to your freedom. Amen.

※Questions※

1) What is a freedom you appreciate? How could it also be a chain of captivity?

2) What is a cornerstone? How does that apply to Jesus?

2020-08-25
Stirring

Isaiah 43:8–13; Romans 11:13–29

What or who are you fighting for? If you are not fighting for God, then are you fighting for an idol?

Often Christians dismiss the Israelites of the Old Testament as the clueless. They were the people that didn’t get it. This view seems to be reinforced by Jesus’ words, yet were they really that clueless?

They valued the word of God. They valued traditions. They valued theology. They valued being Jewish. These values, it seems, were more a barrier between them and God, rather than

How much are we just like them? Would we really recognize Jesus on the street or the internet?

Christians have been accused of being blind and deaf to Jesus. This has come from Christians and it has come from the world. We are often quick to dismiss these words, rather than contemplate them.

We are human. We will be blind. We will be deaf. In many ways, that is how we are able to go through life without losing our minds or succumbing to fear.

There really isn’t a prescription so that we all know and can all be certified to be Christians. That would be nice. It takes practice. It takes a lot of practice.

The statistics are showing that many churches will not recover post-COVID. Some are saying that only 30% will return. Imagine your church only having 30% of its people.

Perhaps this will be the winnowing that the church needs.

This is along the same line of thought, though different, that Paul had regarding his fellow Jews. He knew they were passionate about the word of God, tradition, theology. They still had a heart problem.

Paul wanted the Jews to look at the Gentiles and want what they have, freedom in grace and mercy. In addition, the Gentiles (along with the Jews that became Christian) began to develop a community of faith and trust that transcended culture and blood.

We Christians, though, have now been around long enough that we have developed tradition, a love of God’s word that doesn’t necessarily include reading it, and we have theology.

We are likely now at the point where we need a Paul to get us stirred up. We need to be what Paul wanted the Jews to be…jealous for God.

※Prayer※

Holy Spirit, may we be stirred up for your plan and glory. Amen.

※Questions※

1) What does it mean to be jealous for God?

2) Why can love for God’s word an incomplete understanding of the word of God in our lives?

3) Why do you think people won’t return? What can we change to encourage people to stay and return?

2020-08-17