"Kept Taut by Hope"

“The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time.” (Colossians 1:5, The Message) 

The Message is really, really good in Colossians 1.  Here Paul prays that the lines of purpose in the lives of the Colossian believers would never grow slack because they are so tightly connected to those who follow Christ's future in heaven.   These lines of purpose are kept taut by hope.  Beautifully paraphrased.

One of Webster's definitions of hope is to expect with confidence.  There is an element of waiting in hope—we do not yet have what we desire or anticipate—and there is an element of confidence—we have multiple proofs that what we hope for will come about.  This is never more true than the believer in Christ and the hope of our future in heaven with him.  We expect that we will indeed have a future in heaven and we wait for it with confidence.  Thus the lines of purpose in our lives are kept taut...by hope.

Emily Dickinson capture hope very well:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all

I've seen it on the chillest land

And in the strangest sea

Yet never in extremity

It asked a crumb of me 

"From the Scripture"

“Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” (John 20:8–9, The Message) 

I was struck, this morning (well, actually it is late last evening in the eastern time zone—11.57pm as I write—but I am in Germany so it is early in the morning, but I digress) while reading The Message in John 20 where John grounds his knowledge that Christ would rise again. 

It is Sunday morning, the third day after the crucifixion and a breathless Mary Magdalene arrives to explain to the gathered disciples that the tomb is empty!  Hardly daring to imagine what might have become of Christ, Peter and John run to Gethsemane.  Peter gets there first.  John is the first one into the empty tomb.  He—by his own testimony here—took one look at the evidence, and believed.  Jesus, who had raised others from the dead, had arisen from the dead himself.  Amazing moment.  John saw and believed.

No one yet knew, comments John as he writes this account many years later,  from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.  What John discovers by obvious physical evidence, he will find out later (along with the other followers of Christ) was written in the Scriptures all along.  Christ had to rise from the dead.  So for John, the Scriptures reinforced and solidified what he knew from being an eyewitness—Christ was prophesied that he would rise from the dead, and he did rise from the dead.  

What more evidence do we need to understand that by believing in Christ we might have life in Christ's name apart from the prophecy of Scripture and John's testimony in the Scriptures.

Straight for the Finish Line

“A life frittered away disgusts God; he loves those who run straight for the finish line.” (Proverbs 15:9, The Message) 

Solomon contrasts two types of people in this short proverb: Those who fritter away their lives on useless things and those who run straight for the finish line—meaning, we assume, live their lives with purpose and an aim.  It's unsurprising that a life frittered away disgusts God.  He means for us to live with purpose and intent

.

Paul works out this same truth in these words:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” (1 Corinthians 9:24, ESV).  Run the Christian life with purpose, with the same aim of athletes (a favorite illustration of Paul's) who run so that they will obtain the prize.  

How about you?  Are you headed straight for the finish line, or do the swamps on each side of the path attract your attention?  

Laughter that Ends in Heartbreak

“There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell. Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.” (Proverbs 14:12–13, The Message) 

The wisdom of Solomon here.  So many people live their lives pursuing what seems good, fun, or will make them happy for the moment.  "Look again" says Solomon, that path "leads straight to hell."  Sin looks fun for the moment, "but all that laughter will end in heartbreak."

Oh how we need the wisdom and insight to understand that the temporary is not worth pursuing and and ends in tears.  The eternal—following Christ and his way—will cost something in the short run but ends in a weight of glory beyond all comparison.  One might say that tears now end in joy for eternity.

Yep.  That's what I'm after.

"Sin Dumps the Wicked in the Ditch"

“A God-loyal life keeps you on track; sin dumps the wicked in the ditch.” (Proverbs 13:6, The Message)

Vivid imagery from The Message here.  This is the nature of sin.  It looks good.  It often feels good.  It seems like the right thing to do, but inevitably it dumps the sinner into the ditch of loneliness, despair, and dissatisfaction.  Sin promises freedom, but delivers slavery; it promises happiness, but delivers brokenness.  

How well Marilynne Robinson illustrates this truth in the character of Jack, in the novel Home.  Jack is the ne'er-do-well son of a pastor and is the perfect picture of a prodigal, living a life doing what he wants to despite the consequences of his choices.  He comes home in his '40's having discovered that the life he wanted to lead is no life at all, struggling with alcoholism, broken relationships, and his own realization that the life he pursued was a fantasy that delivered slavery instead of freedom.  

This is the end result of sin.  It dumps the sinner into the ditch and leaves him dejected and broken.

Extravagant Love

“Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” (Ephesians 5:2, The Message) 

The Message paraphrases Eph. 5.2 wonderfully.  Paul's command is that our approach to life ought to be shaped by Christ's approach to life—Observe how Christ loved us.  Christ's love wasn't about "getting," it was about giving.  This is extravagant love.

I wonder what extravagant love would look like in my life?  I think my wife would notice a difference in me, probably my children too.  I don't imagine strangers would notice a difference, since they don't know me, but maybe they would notice something different about me compared to other people.

Extravagant love—not getting, but giving.

Everything has to Go

“Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life,” (Ephesians 4:22, The Message) 

"When God calls a man, he bids him come and die."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer agrees with the statement of Eph 4.22.  When one comes to faith in Christ, everything connected with one's old way of life has to go.  It is rotten through and through.   Which is why when God calls a person to follow him, it is a bid to come and die to self and let Christ come and live in him (Gal. 2.20).

What does a man gain for this death?  Everything.  Jim Elliott once said: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."

Just so.

Wise Son, Glad Father; Stupid Son, Sad Mother

“Wise son, glad father; stupid son, sad mother.” (Proverbs 10:1, The Message) 

Eugene Petersen is succinctly brilliant in his paraphrase of Prov. 10.1.  A wise son makes his father glad.  Conversely, a stupid son, a foolish son, causes a mother to be sad.  

Solomon demonstrates that he was well aware of the inability of a parent to control the character outcome of their child.  A parent can work hard and give a good home environment, but at the end of the day, a child is going to make his own choices and sometimes those choices are bad.

Of course this makes a parent more dependent on God the father when it comes to child-rearing and less likely to boast in their parental prowess.  This is a good thing.

"My Ego is no Longer Central"

“Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, The Message) 

Paul's confession of his life being transformed by the gospel.  I have been crucified with Christ.  My ego is no longer central is The Message's paraphrase.  What this means is that Paul (and we who follow Christ) are rid of two different desires:  We are not interested in having the good opinion of man, and we do not need to impress God, indeed we cannot  impress God, which is the whole point of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Welcome to the world of living by faith in Christ.

Jesus: The Scriptures are all About Me!

““You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me!” (John 5:39, The Message) 

Christ to the Jewish leaders.  

A couple of things here.  First, we are confronted again with the sheer audacity of Christ's claims.  The Scriptures are all about me!   Either that statement is true, or it is not true.  Normal people don't make these kinds of statements especially when both parties, Christ and the Jewish leaders, fully understood the claim Christ was making when he said what he said.  It is either blasphemy of the highest order, or it is the truth; those are the options here.

Second, we followers of Christ need to tread very carefully here.  The people to whom Christ was talking had their heads in your Bibles constantly, but they missed Christ.  Surely, they thought themselves the most faithful of all of the Jews to the Scriptures, but they still missed Christ!  This should at least cause us to tread very carefully around our own preconceptions and expectations of Christ.  He was in the business of upsetting all preconceptions about him and offending all sides of an issue.  

We need to keep asking ourselves the question, "Am I with Christ on this issue, or am I expecting that Christ is with me and my own opinions about a matter?"  Too often we make the assumption that our side is Christ's side when it is not.  We need to repent of this.

 

Guessing in the Dark

“You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews.” (John 4:22, The Message) 

Christ to the woman at the well.  He was never afraid to speak clearly and truthfully.  We like to often take a general view of Christ's life and appreciate him, but neglect to consider his specific words.  You worship guessing in the dark.  Not much wiggle room for the woman there. Her worship was wrong, misguided, off the target, and Christ told her so.  

God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews.  To anyone but a Jew, this truth is humbling.  No matter how hard we try, salvation comes through the Jews.  They have, as Paul will say elsewhere, the oracles of God, and Messiah is a Jew.

Christ always forces us to either accept him as he is or to reject him completely.  There is no half-way belief in Christ.  He was either the Son of God and spoke truthfully, or a liar and spoke deceitfully, or crazy.  Those are the choices.  I believe he was, and is, and will be, Messiah. 

Did the Hawk Learn to Fly from You?

Job 39:26
"Was it through your know how that the hawk learned to fly,
soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?

God's question to Job at the dramatic conclusion to the book of Job. This is part of a long series of questions and statements from God to Job. Job can answer none of the questions that God poses.

I'm standing in my room on the 20th floor of the Hilton in Atlanta watching a red-tail hawk fly gracefully around downtown. He ends up perched on the highest point of the Georgia Power building and I watch him through my binoculars. he seems quite content living in downtown.

No one taught Mr. Hawk to fly. It was only in this past century that man learned how to harness flight, although he is no where near as adept at it as a lowly hawk who has been around since Job's time. God seems to be saying to Job, "If you're not even capable of giving a hawk the ability to fly, how do you expect to be able to judge my actions" (oh, and hawk's flying? That was me).

Job, to his credit, gets this point. God is God, and Job is not God, which means that however incomprehensible God's actions are in Job's life, Job has no where near enough information or wisdom to be able to judge them. Job must just trust.

And this is the great lesson of the book of Job for us. We must just trust that God knows what he is doing in and through all the pain and difficulty of our lives.

The Dangerous Dichotomy of Distress

“Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.” (2 Corinthians 7:9–10, The Message) 

How well The Message captures Paul's argument here.  Distress in our lives—whether financial or physical or spiritual or emotional—can lead us in one of two directions:  It can lead us to God, or it can lead us away from God.  The way that we allow it to lead us will in large part determine our relationship with God.  

The pain that drives us back into the way of salvation, that causes us to focus on the eternal and not the temporal, that helps us clarify that we are not God, but that God is God; this is pain that we will not ultimately regret (think the story of Job).

Pain that drives us away from God leads only to despair and denial (think the end of Mark Twain's infamous book The Mysterious Stranger).

The book of Psalms is filled with God-worshiping human beings with distress that will ultimately drive them to God; this is why I love the psalms.  

It's okay to question God when you are in distress; but allow the distress to humble you and to drive you to God in all his mystery, wonder, and love.  He sent his son to endure the worst distress imaginable.  For you.

A Stopover in an Unfinished Shack

“And we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies!” (2 Corinthians 5:2–4, The Message) 

Paul here compares our lives now with what they will be in heaven.  In comparison to our resurrection bodies, the bodies that we are in now are like a stopover in an unfinished shack.  I'm pretty confident that anyone over 50 needs no further argument to be convinced.  Our bodies fall apart; we get aches and pains; we have medical problems; yep, the shack is falling apart.

We do not focus on now, however, we focus on what is coming; we focus on the real thing.  This is what gives us hope that this life is not lived in vain, that this shack is only temporary.  Christ at the cross secured for us who believe a body made in the heavens and fit for eternity.  I can't wait.

Stone blind to the Dayspring Brightness

“All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won’t have to bother believing a Truth they can’t see. They’re stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.” (2 Corinthians 4:4, The Message).

Here at one of my favorite verses, Paul tells us that our best picture of God is found in Christ.  Christ reveals God; he makes God personal.  Do you want to understand God's compassion?  Study Christ.  Do you want to see God's heart revealed? Study Christ. You get the point.

The problem with men is that rather than study Christ all they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness.  Such a telling point.  Our God is not fashionable, indeed we might call him anti-fashionable, because he is always and ever going against the tide of the world.  Satan is happy to be a fashionable god of darkness because his desire is to draw as many people as he can away from God; unfortunately, men are happy to follow him, all the while thinking that they are "free" and "independent."  

The result?   Men are stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ.

Don't be stone-blind.  Open your eyes and see the character of God in Christ. 

The Fear of God

““If I’ve ever used my strength and influence to take advantage of the unfortunate, Go ahead, break both my arms, cut off all my fingers! The fear of God has kept me from these things— how else could I ever face him?” (Job 31:21–23, The Message)

Job's final summary argument with his three friends is contained in Job 31.  His whole argument is that he has not been unrighteous, nor taken advantage of the poor and needy.  The fear of God was the motive for Job's behavior.  Not fear as in scary; as if Job were afraid of God who was standing over him with a brickbat waiting to strike, but fear as in deep and abiding respect, that God was the one in authority and Job wanted to honor that authority by his actions.

The fear of God is the foundation for a lot of things in the Scriptures.  It's the foundation for wisdom and here it is the foundation for the way that we act.