Dwell Richly

Paradigm shift

2010-03-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

I will be taking a quick break from Psalm 119 to run a few thoughts by you I had as I was reading this week.

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman is pretty popular. That is a dangerous thing when it comes to Biblical passages. When was the last time we dug deep into a passage like the Lord's prayer instead of thinking "Oh, I know that...I have read it a million times". This text offers the same dilemma. We look at it and think we already know what is coming so we simply skim quickly to cross that off our "Read the Bible in a year" plan and find ourselves, unjustifiably, content with ourselves. But this passage confronts that idea head on.

Jesus is the greatest of missionaries when he comes to earth and lays down the splendor of His position for a time. Here he, again, displays just how his mindset is that of a missionary. He leaves Judea to avoid dealing with the Pharisees (admit it, you would too) and heads to Galilee. Instead of doing what many Jews would have done and avoid Samaria; he goes straight through. This may not seem like much but it is similar to asking a Yankees fan to hang out in Boston (only on a scale much greater). The Samaritan people were sell outs and half breeds. Instead of maintaining their unique standards in their covenant from God they just adopted the sinful practices of the people who invaded. They lost the unique worship of the true God and moved their temple from Jerusalem. That, in and of itself, was a huge problem because the temple was in Jerusalem.

Jesus finds a woman at a well who is obviously not welcome with the other women because she is drawing water in the middle of the day in the hot sun (6th hour was about noon time) instead of the cooler morning. For space sake I will not really deal with Jesus discussion about living water (maybe another day). But I do want to pick up in vs. 16. Jesus gives us a pattern to deal with here where he is incredibly kind to the woman but still has to deal with her sin. We can't deal with people without having to deal with their sin. He does it in a kind way that is both firm but gentle...we all could learn from this. He tells her to bring her husband out and she, truly but slyly, tell him she has none. He points to her past of immorality and promiscuity. She then asks a question that is filled with controversy waiting to fall all over the place: Our fathers worship here and your people worship there. Which is right?

As a good Jewish rabbi, Jesus would have been expected to respond: Jerusalem. But he doesn't. In typical Jesus fashion he doesn't answer the question the "right" way but instead he introduces a huge paradigm shift: Neither. True worshippers are not worried about location but spirit and truth. Spirit and truth....we say that a lot but do we ever really stop to think what that mean? As I stopped for a bit to think about the implications of these principles I came up with a few ideas. I am mostly going to deal with corporate worship but the same ideas can be translated over to individual lives of worship.

Spirit: Joy and heart in worship. I am not going to get into the big worship war going between traditional and contemporary because I have seen some people belt out and enjoy the old hymns just as much as they do with a drum set and guitar lead worship set. I, for one, love both. There is a lady at our church who dances (not in a distracting way) a bit during singing and raises here hands. I can imagine the passion of the creatures around the throne shouting "Holy Holy Holy!" and not just mumbling it. There must be an authenticity to our worship that is stirred up in our soul. A deep over reaction to the truth that worship is not just empty emotion is that there is often very little emotion in our worship of out great King. Am I saying that one must be weeping and singing loudly for it to be authentic worship? No. I am saying there must be passion in our worship. Worship in spirit.

Truth: "Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all!". An awesome song that is sung in churches probably every week. But does anyone know what a diadem is? Anyone? Comment if you figure it out. This is the excellent balance to spirit and spirit the balance to this. There must be truth to our worship. Know what you sing and why you sing it. If you wanna belt out "Come Thou Fount" then do it! But find out what and "ebeneezer" is first (not scrooge). There is a great danger in singing and being caught up in intense moments of worship at a church and not knowing what we are dealing with.

Your word Pt 1

2010-03-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

Let me give a quick intro to what the Psalms are and are not. The psalms are not a series of small catchy phrases that make great illustrations for coffee mugs. They are intense cries from the heart of their writers. They are a song book full of praises to God and reflections on His character. They give us intense insight into the heart of a man after the heart of God. In these 150 poems/songs we see pain, joy, love, fear, and an intense longing to know God. They, of course, are inspired by God in all that they contain but it is a great mistake to think of them outside of their human authors element.

Psalm 119 is long...really long. It is the longest chapter in the Bible and is longer than many books. It is a deep look at a great attitude toward the Word of God (herein called the law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, etc). It nearly seems to be a deep exposition of the first Psalm.

Psalm 119:1 opens the song with the same word that Psalm 1 opens up: Blessed. The word translated into Latin is where we get the term Beatitude which are as well "Blessed" statements that Jesus makes. Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord, who keep His testimonies, who walk in His ways...etc. What do these things all draw us to? To the Bible as the Word of God. We are called to not only know the Word (intellectually) but to become deeply acquainted with what it says and then to follow it. What does this look like for us? For a Pastor it means preaching everything that is in the Bible and not just the fun, easy to swallow things. For the layman it means reading things like Obadiah and Lamentations. If we are to be faithful to Gods Word we even have to take some time to get into the long "And ___ begat ____" passages and to see their importance. It means that we look at the books of the Law and see their implications. It means looking at the Gospels to see a pattern of a true Christ-like life pattern (who better than Himself to show you). Reading the letters of the NT with their context as the filter for what they are saying. It means knowing the whole counsel of God and then applying it to our lives so that we don't simply become people who gaze into a mirror and wander away unchanged. What are we promised when we take serious the commands of God? Blessing. I am not saying that if you live for Christ your life will be easy and your bank account running over like the cup from the 23rd Psalm. I am not a scholar by any means but I tend to think that these blessings come in the form of the action. My blessing is to walk in the way of God and to keep His commandments. My blessing comes in being faithful to what He desires for and commands me to.

2010-02-21T06:53:00.001-08:00

I gues this is what happens when I get busy and get out of habit for a week....which then turns into weeks. Well, back on track starting this week and a book review coming out of Scott Wilson's "Steering Through Chaos". So be looking for that...and don't forget to invite others to read.

Crucified that He might live through me.

2009-11-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I missed 2 weeks in a row of blog posting but here is this weeks. I am doing it early because I am afraid it all wont make sense (not that it makes much now) in a few days. Thanks for reading.

Legalism vs liscense can be a big issue in the Church...well let me just tell you it is a big issue. Nearly every chruch goes through a period of time where they are strung between being in the wrold but not of it. Questions like "How much of the world can we 'contextualize (big word these days' and how much do we need to abstain from". I think it is important for us to allow freedom where the Bible says. Christians are no longer held by the law of the OT. We no longer sacrafice animals or require circumcision of converts. But that second example was not always so settled. In Pauls day a group of people known as "Judiasiers" (I probably mis-spelled that) were caliming that to become a Christian, one must first become a Jew and get circumcised. And that is what Paul is addressing here in Galatians 2. He begins by telling the Galatian church that NO ONE is justified by the Law but through faith. Jesus Christ alone is our justification. In this chapter Paul gives one of the best known Bible verses "I have been crucified with Christ. it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me". But what does that mean? What does that refer to? Obviously Paul was not physically crucified so what is he talking about? Later on in the ch we find that Jesus took the "curse" of the law to free us from it. He hung on a tree and took the laws curse so that we no longer have to live according to it. Paul is saying that he as well has died to the law so that the grace of Christ might live through him. Paul is free from the Law and its curse and has been set free for a particular purpose "It is Christ who lives in me".

The "Hard Sayings of Jesus" (pt 2)

2009-10-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I covered part of Luke 9 and I want to finish off the end of the chapter. Jesus is visited by three different people that are called and desire to follow him but have reservations about different cares of life. The first comes to Jesus and is told that if he follows Jesus he will have no home or comfortable place to dwell. The second has a funeral to attend before he would follow Jesus. The third has a job to finish before he will go. None of these 3 men are fit to follow Jesus in the way that He demands. Jesus demands reckless abandonment of anything that would hinder us from ministering. The disciples are called and they immediately drop everything they have to do follow Him. Christians often look at people in the examples of the Bible and comment that "I would do it differently if I were there". But this is the very pattern displayed by much of Christianity today. "Jesus, I will follow you but wait till I get my degree/get a wife/whatever else". Jesus has one thing to say to you "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God". In other words: If you are worried about anything more than living for Christ you are of little worth. To follow Christ is going to demand everything from you, it will take all your time and resources. No wonder Paul said it is better for a minister to stay single. The demands of ministry and life will put enormous strain on a marriage. Jesus will not have it if you want to put off following Him for any reason. If that is your attitude then you will be useless in ministry when hard times come.

The "Hard Sayings of Jesus" (pt 1)

2009-10-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

For those people that think that Jesus was weak of a sissy have obviously never read the Gospels (or much of the Bible). Jesus had a lot to say that made many people turn from following Him. Jesus called for a complete surrender of all we had. Luke 9 is an excellent example of this. In just one chapter Jesus calls people to "deny themselves" and "take up their cross daily" in order to follow Him. Deny yourself... everything that is of you and not of Christ must be completely denied. After which we take up our cross; the heavy, splintered, shame-filled, and despised symbol of oppression. And yet for a Christian is one of the greatest sights in history (along with His empty grave). Jesus is asking us to bear a burden that the world will look at and think foolish for embarking on this journey with joy, for taking such a task with gladness. The world will mock us and yet we happily take our crosses as a symbol of out association with the Christ. He is asking, in a different way, to deny ourselves in order to follow Him. Make no mistake, this is not a following that is going to be easy to see through. It has cost millions their lives and we ought not be so gib to assume that we can escape such an outcome yet we must embrace the opportunity to follow Him with great fervor. Paul echos this idea when he says that it is "no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me" which follows his claim to have been "crucified with Christ. I urge you (as I do myself) to follow the example of Paul in following the command of Christ.

2009-10-08T07:15:00.001-07:00

Good morning. This is my first blog post here and I am excited to be able to post for who ever sees this. This post wont be anything theological or deal much with the Bible but the rest will. I just wanted to introduce myself. My inetent is to blog (at a minimum) on every Friday. I will be sharing quiet times, prayer requests, and other various theological topics. So, thanks for visiting and I hope you come back to see more.