At Death's Door

We are very small; we just don't know it. Unless we are at Arches National Park in Utah, where everything dwarfs us. Or the Grand Canyon, or the Alps, or looking into a bright star-lit night sky.

But usually, we feel pretty big and important and needed. C.J. Mahaney, in his book Humility, defines that trait as "honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness." The ESV Bible calls it "a posture of lowliness and servanthood, as in Mark 10:45", where Jesus says that even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. He expands on what that might look like in Luke 6:27-36. Check it out. Yet, even in our serving, we feel proud and full of self-importance sometimes, don't we? Our very acts of living for Christ can sometimes turn on us and expand our heads without warning. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)

Maybe we can ask ourselves a couple of questions to get to the bottom of our pride. We are justified by whom? And after our redemption by Christ, who sanctifies us, making us holy? If Christ justifies us and the Holy Spirit makes us holy, then what is left for us to do? To take up our cross daily and follow Him. The cross is not our suffering in this life, it is our death. You see, the cross is a symbol of death, not of hard living. For He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds you are healed. (1 Peter 2:24) It is His wounds, not ours, that make us good and holy and righteous. So stay small, and count your blessings in Christ.

Humble submission

Okay, it is time to put in another picture of our cute dog, Mr. Knightley. Isn't he the sweetest thing? If anyone else wants pictures of their cute creatures and/or children posted, just pass them along.

I actually used this picture because we're talking about humility today, and doesn't he just look so humble? Just waiting for someone to say "okay" and let him up from his "sit". Such a submissive little guy. Some of the time. Just like me, some of the time. The truth is, I am absolutely set on advancing and exalting myself, and having things my way most of the time. Aren't you? And then I fix my eyes on Jesus and this is what I see: "Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6-8) Oh my. This is who I am to be like, to reflect, on a daily basis in my dealings with all sorts of people. Can I do it? Would God ask me to do something He doesn't also equip me to do? He knows far better than I that I am dust.

In the very next paragraph, we are told to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling [i.e.get serious about it!], for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." I practice the disciplines while He works His image into my character and my actions. He is the vine, we are the branches that bear His fruit. Have His mind among yourselves. (from Philippians 2:5)

Kindness

The people of New Hope have been on some great mission trips. This is the California one, where they processed oranges to send to Third World countries. And most recently, a group went to Georgia to help clean up after the storms there in the spring. What a picture of kindness and compassion. Colossians 3 commands us firstly, after we have understood that we are chosen, holy and beloved in Christ, to put on compassion and kindness. Paul gives us in his letter to Timothy a pretty hard picture of kindness: "And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness." This takes it a little deeper than just delivering cookies at Christmastime or popping some money in the Salvation Army kettle, as good as those things are. Enduring evil? Correcting with gentleness?

But look at God's kindness to us: "I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them." (Hosea 11:4) This kindness is active and living and hard. What a kind God we have. And he wants to demonstrate this same kindness through us, His Body, to the world. How else will they know this kindness that has touched us?

Could you share a story of God's kindness to you? We would be encouraged to hear it.

"You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3

Such a familiar verse, and yet so hard to appropriate in our lives. Mine anyway. One small thing can topple me off my place of peace, one spoken word, one hint of danger to one of my loved ones, one task too many on my list. What's my problem? My mind is not "stayed on" Christ; it's stayed on me.

A couple of weeks ago in class, we came up with four areas in which we are called to peace. There may be more, but we came up with these: peace with God in salvation, peace with others in our relationships, lack of anxiety about things in life, and clean slates before God/lack of guilty consciences. Can God handle all of this anxiety/stress in our lives? Isaiah 26 answers thus: "We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks." We are protected. By the almighty God himself. "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden [sounds like a harried mom to me] and I will give you rest [I'll take it]." Jesus spoke those words to those who were worried about so many things, like clothing and food. But to us too. Because we too are worried about many things. He wants us to know peace smack dab in the middle of our crunched lives.

What about peace with each other? Remember our lesson on forgiveness a few weeks ago? Janet's blog in November touched on it as well. Can we have inner peace when we are harboring resentment and unforgiveness? Give it up. Give it to Jesus, who knows how to forgive, and learn from him.

And as for that clean slate before God: When he most kindly wakes you in the middle of the night reminding you of a harsh word or a selfish use of your time, apologize. Right away. Get it out of yourself and accept his gracious forgiveness for it. Don't treat Christ's sacrifice as though it were not enough for your sins.

Isaiah 26 again: "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." Amen?

A coal in my stocking

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." Colossians 3:12-13. A passage that is becoming as familiar to me, and hopefully to you, as the freckles on my hands.

And do you know what I noticed recently about these virtues? They are not lived out while sitting by the fire with a good book. Nor sitting alone on the beach. Where does the rubber truly meet the road in my walk with God? In my prayer closet? Yes. But also in my workplace/church/family, with others.

None of these virtues can be lived out alone. Each one is demonstrated in my walk with others. Patience comes easy by the fire. I am very meek staring out at Lake Michigan. I can even be kind while walking the dog. It's when I encounter other people that my impatience, ego, and griping kick in. Big time. And then I say, with Isaiah, "Woe is me. For I am lost; for I am a [woman] of unclean lips!" (Isaiah 6:5)

So, while I can have peace by maintaining a certain quiet compliance to my own wishes, when I hang out with my fellow globe-dwellers (more of them every day!), I need the peace that rules in my heart because of Jesus Christ and His mercy to me. "For it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20) And the virtues will be evident in my life by the things I do for others, and in the way I treat them.

How do we know about God's character? By His great deeds in history. The parting of the Red Sea, the rescue of Noah, the healings, the cross. How will God's character then be seen in me? By the same route, my deeds in history towards her and him and you. "Touch my lips, O Lord, with a coal from your altar, and make me clean." (Isaiah 6:7)

Peace

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

Aah, sitting by the fire with a good book on a cold winter's eve. Watching the sun set behind a steeple. Sitting on the beach alone, staring out over the lake. This is peace, truly.

Or is it? Is this the peace we are to give our hearts to, according to Paul? Romans 5:1 says that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, in John 14, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." And, if our peace is found at the beach or by the fire, why would Paul begin most of his letters with "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"?

Maybe our idea of peace is different from God's. Maybe God's idea of peace is better than ours, even. Here is a peace that comes from God, that reaches down deep, that has nothing to do with our circumstances and everything to do with our relationship with God. And it's a peace that should pervade everything we do and say and feel. As the world around us rocks us to our core, we can stand on a rock that is immovable and not be shaken. That rock is Christ; if we are in Him, He holds us steady.

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe." (Hebrews 12:28)