Start running: Don't Quit!

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2, The Message) 

If you're going to run in a race, you've got to start running; if you're going to finish that race, you can't quit.  Simple but necessary words from the writer of Hebrews here.  We can read all the books ever written about the Christian life, but at the end of the day they won't do us any good unless we start running; start obeying;start behaving like we are people who follow Christ; or as The Message puts it: No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.  

Our focus?  Jesus.  

Run.  Don't quit.  Focus on the goal: Jesus.  It seems so simple doesn't it? 

"God Said to Walk Through Where?"

“By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.” (Hebrews 11:29, The Message) 

“By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.” (Hebrews 11:7, The Message) 

Noah build a ship in the middle of dry land; Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.  Two acts of faith.  

One can imagine both Noah's incredulity and that of the people around Noah, when God told him to build a gigantic boat that was not anywhere near the sea.  120 years worth of verbal abuse as Noah built and preached WITH NO RESPONDENTS!  Faith indeed.

One can also imagine the people of Israel staring at a narrow path through walls of water on both sides and asking Moses, "God wants us to go through there?"  

Faith is an interesting thing.  We are not guaranteed that we will survive our act of faith—witness those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered.  There faith was just as great as Noah's.  We are only called to faith.  God is responsible for the outcome.  Life or death does not seem to matter so much as the act of faith itself.

"To Perfect Some Very Imperfect People"

“Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.” (Hebrews 10:11–14, The Message) 

I love the way The Message paraphrases this passage in Heb. 10.  The priests never make a dent in the sin problem...Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it!...It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people.  

Just so.

The work of the priests was something that had to be done year after year after year.  It was not permanent because the world was awaiting the permanent work of Christ.  Christ died once—a single sacrifice—and the sin problem was resolved for good.  He made perfect some very imperfect people.

That means me...and you, if we believe that Christ died for sins according to the scriptures (1 Cor 15.3).

"I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion"

“ I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.” (Isaiah 1:14–15, The Message) 

The Message here captures pretty well the strength of God's word to Israel.  He is sick of their religiosity because it is only on the surface.  If it really went deep; if it really affected the heart; they wouldn't be content to both continue in sin and act religious.  Yet they are.  Israel had syncretized religion so that they could both appear religious and do what they wanted to do.

The church in America is rapidly taking on this trait.  People give lip-service to being faithful to God, but then go and do whatever they want to do, and call that faithful.  What the Bible's standards are is not a consideration.  We need to both speak against and guard against this tendency in every human heart.  It is much easier to follow the God we would like God to be, then the God who actually is.

God our Refuge

“God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea-storm and earthquake,” (Psalm 46:1–2, The Message) 

That God is our refuge is not a "new" truth to a follower of Christ.  That truth is something we learn early in our life of faith.  What I find interesting here is the application of the truth that the author makes.  We stand fearless writes the author at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea-storm and earthquake (ESV: “Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,”).  

So one of the applications of the fact that God is our refuge is that we can turn our fear over to him and stand fearless while the world crumbles around us. This is powerful help indeed.

Why Pray?

“While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him.” (Hebrews 5:7, The Message)

I'm reading Philip Yancey's excellent book Prayer:Does it Make any Difference?  It is a good question, given the fact that God is sovereign and unchanging.  What good is prayer to a God like that?  Practically the first thing that Yancey says is that we pray because we see Christ praying, as the writer to Hebrews comments here.  Christ offered up priestly prayers while on earth as he faced death.  Who would have less need to pray then God-incarnate? and yet again and again we see Christ praying.  It is a pattern we ought to obey if for no other reason than this.

Notice also that God answered Christ's prayer because Christ honored God, or as the ESV puts it: he was heard because of his reverence.  God hears and answers prayer.  We see that from this passage.  However, it is easy to overlook the fact that Christ was heard because of his reverence.   The word means "reverent awe" or "fear." 

God doesn't answer the prayers of the flippant; he hears the genuine.

"Laying us Open"

“God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.” (Hebrews 4:12, The Message)

The Message takes a little bit of leeway with Heb 4.12, but in a good way.  His powerful word (The word of God) cuts through everything laying us open to listen and obey.  This part is not in the text, but it does, I think, get to the point.  The purpose of the word of God is that we hear and obey it, and it is powerful enough to cut through our defenses and objections and yes, doubts, so that we will.

Unbelief: Danger, Danger!

“So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.” (Hebrews 3:12, The Message)

The writer to Hebrews warns of the danger of unbelief in Heb 3.12.  According to the Louw-Nida lexicon, the word unbelief here means to refuse to put one’s trust or reliance in something or someone—‘to not believe (in), to refuse to believe, to not trust in, unbelief.  BDAG defines it as: unwillingness to commit oneself to another or respond positively to the other’s words or actions.  Implicit in the definition seems to be the issue of self-will, one refuses to put one's trust, or; one is unwilling to commit oneself.  

Unbelief then, does not mean incredulity, as if the message was just too "out there" to believe.  Unbelief implies self-will and choice, one understands a message, one chooses not to trust or rely upon it.  

This helps us get at why the writer to Hebrews warns so strongly against unbelief, or as the ESV translates it: an evil, unbelieving heart.  The stakes are incredibly high, indeed they could not be higher because unbelief can lead to falling away from the living God, and if that happens, what is left?

"There's my lover! Do you see him coming?"

“Look! Listen! There’s my lover! Do you see him coming? Vaulting the mountains, leaping the hills.” (Song of Solomon 2:8, The Message) 

While the immediate context of this is the relationship between a girl and the man she loves, we understand the message of the Song of Solomon as a type of the relationship between God and Israel, and by extension between Christ and the Church.  So that when we come across passages like this one, we see it as an expression of the desire that Israel had for God/the Church has for Christ.  What higher relationship on earth could one imagine to illustrate the beauty and connection between God and his people than the relationship between a man and woman who love each other?  There is nothing that Solomon can grasp which illuminates God's love so well as a human love relationship.

The church is ever looking and ever waiting for her husband to come and bring his eternal presence and by doing so complete the picture of the Church as Christ's bride.  As individuals we study and embrace the beauty of Christ now as an anticipation of the beauty that will be present when Christ returns.  Truly the church says: "Look!  Listen!  There's my lover!  Do you see him coming?"

Created to take on a Name

What’s more, our hearts brim with joy
since we’ve taken for our own his holy name. - Ps. 33.21

I suppose there are many ways to make our hearts brim with joy...temporarily; the birth of a child, a wedding, good news, etc. here in the Psalms we have one of the things at can make our hearts brim with joy forever: We take for our own his holy name.

What might that mean? In Hebrew culture the name was identified with everything about a person, their character, conduct, and identity. When we take on God's holy name we are setting our destiny with God (and therefore against anything or anyone that opposes God). We are, to put it in the vernacular, all in, because it is God or nothing. This makes our hearts brim with joy because we are doing what we were created to do.

Solid Truths for Wayward Hearts

Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Titus 2.1, The Message

Paul to Titus, and we see here how important Paul felt that sound doctrine was. One needs only a cursory understanding of Christian history to see why Paul was so insistent on sound doctrine. Faulty doctrine led the Catholic church astray from truth into error and even oppression of those who were striving for sound doctrine; faulty doctrine led to people being put to death for their faulty beliefs (no where does Paul command death for those with faulty doctrine); we could go on, but you get the point.

We ought to know and guard sound doctrine.

What is God Doing?

“When I determined to load up on wisdom and examine everything taking place on earth, I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you’ll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you’re not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won’t get to the bottom of it.” (Ecclesiastes 8:16–17, The Message)

These verses highlight the whole theme of Ecclesiastes; if one looks high and low and searches with all of his might and strains hard to understand, one will not be able to figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth.  Why do evil people appear to flourish and Christians do not?  Why does a tsunami kill 250,000 people in a matter of hours?  Why do wicked people keep gaining control of nations and oppressing their citizens?  We could go on and on, but you get the point; God's way of working in the world is most mysterious and try as one might—and Solomon certainly tried—one cannot discover the "secret" to the way that God runs the world.

Fortunately, for us we do know God's ultimate end for the world, which is to collect a people to himself by the righteousness of Christ imputed to sinners.  Meanwhile, we must just trust.

Waiting for God to get Here

“Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up. Expect God to get here soon.” (Psalm 31:24, The Message) 

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who doesn't like God's timing.  I wish God were on my timing, because (well to be frank and honest) then I wouldn't have to learn to trust him.  Hmm...perhaps part of his timing is right there, when we have to wait on God's curious timing, we learn dependence and trust.  This is not an easy lesson; not easy at all.

David has obviously experienced waiting for God to come and deliver him (and of course we know this from his life story).  The Message paraphrases David's advice for us while waiting, no doubt learned in the fires of danger, pursued by Saul and his forces.  

Are you waiting?  asks David.  Be brave.  Be strong.  Don't give up (heart).  Live as if, expect, anticipate, that God will get to where you are soon.  (Of course we already know from Ps. 139 that he is already where we are; he just has chosen not to demonstrate his power yet, because we need to learn dependence and trust).

You are waiting for God to arrive in your situation? Be brave.  Be strong.  Don't give up.  God will get there at just the right moment.

The Love of Money - More Smoke

“The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, Nor the one who loves wealth with big profits. More smoke.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10, The Message) 

How truly Solomon writes here (perhaps from experience?).  The one who loves money will never have enough because money is never satisfied.  It always wants just a little more.  Get a little more and one finds that one needs just a little more than that.  The pursuit of money is a path that can never carry one to contentment.  This is all smoke; it is all vanity and chasing after wind.  

"Thou hast  made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee" writes Augustine to God.  Just so.

"Run Hard and Fast"

“Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, The Message) 

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, ESV)

Paul calls Timothy to fight the god fight of the faith, or as The Message paraphrases it: Run hard and fast in the faith.

Here we see the mysterious juxtaposition of how it is that we work at the faith (run hard and fast in the faith) and God works in us.  After all it was Paul who also wrote: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2.12-13).  We work; God works in us.  How the two come together the Scriptures leave a mystery.

John Piper put it something like this in a recent tweet:  "Preparation is essential, but it is not decisive."  We run hard and fast in the faith; God works in us.  God gets the glory; we get eternity.  Sounds good to me.

 

"Take Care of Widows who are Destitute"

“Take care of widows who are destitute.” (1 Timothy 5:3, The Message)

This is one of those crystal clear commands that we couldn't get around even if we wanted to.  "Do you have widows in your congregation who are truly destitute?" asks Paul, "then take care of them."  Their first possibility of support ought to come from their own families; however, if their families can't take care of them, or if they have no families, then the church ought to take care of them.

There are so many other possibilities of support in our culture; social security, government assistance, etc., that it might be easy to forget Paul's admonition to churches and our responsibility to widows.  We must not.  The church is being the church when it takes care of widows who are destitute.

"No Spiritual Flabbiness, Please"

“Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please!” (1 Timothy 4:7, The Message)

We are all subject to spiritual flabbiness; to getting comfortable where we are in the faith; to putting our spiritual lives in cruise control.  Indeed, this seems to be the human condition, fighting with ourselves over spiritual disciplines.  I wish it were easier.  It's not.

We have to exercise daily in God to prevent spiritual flabbiness.  We must tend to the daily building blocks of our spiritual lives as we do our physical lives.  This means fundamentally reading the Scriptures and prayer.  It means other things as well, but those two things are the starting point.

Pray

“The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.” (1 Timothy 2:1, The Message)

Prayer is always the first thing, or rather, it should be.  I find that I always seem to struggle with prayer—there is always some other "urgent" thing I need to be doing—which leads me to believe that prayer is of utmost importance, why else would the devil work so hard at getting us not to pray?

Such an easy command.  So difficult to implement.

"The Voiceless Poor"

“Leadership gains authority and respect when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.” (Proverbs 29:14, The Message) 

How true it is that the poor are so often the voiceless poor in real life.  If there is anyone advocating for them, often they are using them as political pawns in the name of power rather than genuine concern.  Christians must be different, especially christian leadership.

Leadership gains authority and respect by treating the voiceless poor fairly because both the poor and the rest of society see the difference.  One can always discern genuine concern because it hangs around when the klieg lights get turned off, because it isn't there for the publicity; it is there for service.  

Oh that we as individuals, and the church collective would treat the poor fairly, and call for society to do the same.  

Oppress the Poor? The Bible Calls you Wicked

“The wicked who oppress the poor are like a hailstorm that beats down the harvest.” (Proverbs 28:3, The Message) 

I don't think that we take the Scriptures admonitions to help the poor seriously enough sometimes.  Here Solomon says that if you oppress the poor you are wicked, because it is wicked people who oppress the poor.  

It is one thing to disagree on how the poor should be handled.  Should we make them work (if able) for money handed out to them? There is a good argument that this is not only biblical, but helpful.  One person would make them work, another would just want to hand things out.  This is a disagreement in principle which is no sin.

However, when the poor become a political football, useful for no other reason than to get one elected; or when they are oppressed by the financial powers that be (which often happens in our country), now we have wickedness.  This is when we as followers of Christ should stand up and call the oppressors out.