God's Dividing Line

John 7

I grew up in Alabama. You may or may not be aware that a cultural dividing line cuts Alabama roughly in half. You see about half of the people in Alabama are Alabama and the other half are Auburn. When I would make a new acquaintance playing as a child, it would not take long for the defining question to be asked: "Are you Auburn or Alabama?" It was never, "Are you for Auburn or for Alabama?" It was, "Are you Auburn or Alabama?" Your very identity hung on your answer. I am not sure if the line is just as defining as it was when I was a child and Bear Bryant was rolling his Tide over my Tigers to repeated National Championships, but I am certain it still remains. Humanity has created many dividing lines to define and group people together. Some are kind of silly (Auburn-Alabama). Some are a little more serious (Democrat-Republican), and some are more serious still (Capitalist-Communist). In John 7, God's dividing line, by far the most serious of all, is becoming increasingly clear. As the spiritual war to redeem creation heats up, apparent neutrality (no such thing actually exist) is disappearing, and it is becoming clear who is 'pro' and who is 'anti' Christ.

In verses One through Nine, we see God's dividing line runs right through Jesus' biological family. Initially members of His own house rejected Jesus' identity as God's Messiah. He said this would be the case and that we should expect the same in our homes (Matthew 10:34-37). Initially Jesus' brothers were giving Him grief, but what a different tone we hear from Jesus' brother James once He had crossed God's dividing line (James 1:1). From his new perspective, Jesus is no longer a liar or a lunatic - He is the one and only Lord! Those really are the only options Jesus gave. He said He was the eternal, sinless Son of God incarnate and that He was God's perfect, exclusive way for sinful people to be reconciled to holy God and that every one's destiny depends on Him. If He was not and did not know He was not, He was a deranged megalomaniac. If He was not and knew He was not, He was a liar of epic proportions. If, however, He was who He said was, He was and is the Lord. As C. S. Lewis famously said, "You can shut Him up as a fool. You can spit on Him and kill Him as demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

So, people can only straddle the Jesus fence for so long. Ultimately we are all either in or out and which side we are on makes all the difference. As John the Baptizer said He would, Jesus baptizes (immerses) all people in either God's Spirit or God's fire (Matthew 3:10-12). Those baptized by God's Spirit live radically different lives. In verses 37-39, quite possibly during the portion of the Feast of Tabernacles when jars of water were ceremonially poured onto the altar, Jesus announced that every one who thirsts should come to Him for living water. He said springs of spiritually-refreshing water would flow from the hearts of all who received God's Spirit by trusting Him, God's Savior. Not only are those who receive Christ refreshed by God's Spirit. They are, hopefully we are, led by God's Spirit. Throughout this chapter, we see Jesus, the Spirit-filled and Spirit-led Christ, carefully following God's timetable. He tells His brothers they can go wherever whenever, but that He must go where God leads when God leads. The same is true of all true believers. We are God-called and enabled to be Spirit-filled (Ephesians 5:18) and Spirit-led (Galatians 5:25). We are also God-called and enabled to ultimately be with Christ in glory, which is impossible for those choosing to remain on the other side of God's line (verses 32-34).

God has extended His open invitation to all. Every one is invited to cross over in Christ, but this requires us to be truth-seekers who sincerely investigate Jesus' claims to be the Christ. Doing so takes more than the passing 'effort' of those whose hearts were already made up against Jesus in verses 41-52. Honestly, how much would it have taken to discover Jesus was born in Bethlehem if they had really wanted to know? I see this same thing with people who throw out dismissals of the Bible as "full of contradictions." Their hearts are made up, and they grab and repeat unverified claims to justify their rejection. If you have sincere doubts, please prayerfully seek the truth and invest the energy needed to dig beneath the surface. God is there, and He assures us that we will find Him, when we seek Him with all of our hearts (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

God is not only there. God is holy. He is perfectly pure and righteous in and of Himself. Every one else depends on God for holiness, because sadly we are all corrupted and sinful. God separates the people in Christ from sin's penalty, power and presence thus making them holy or set-apart from corruption by and for God. So, the big question is which side of God's dividing line are you on? Are you in Christ or out? Holy or not? Spirit-filled or empty? Spirit-led or lost? Saved or Condemned?

Heroic Fatherhood

My son and I recently went to see Ironman. He is at the age where our Father-Son movies often involve superheroes or transforming robots. Anyway, Ironman was better than I expected, and I was struck by a metaphor involving the heart change of the main character, Tony Stark. Without giving the movie away, he was forced to have a power-supply implanted in his chest, which he used to power the armor suit he wore as Ironman. The somewhat ironic picture that played out over the movie was that Tony Stark became more fully human with his implanted power supply (his changed heart) and his mechanized armor suit than he had been previously. He had been extremely self-centered, indulgent and childishly unconcerned about his impact on others. While his transformation was far from complete, he became much more aware, involved and concerned for others, and he began to use his abilities to protect and benefit those he once carelessly neglected and harmed. I think that is a bit like the transformation men need to undergo to become heroic fathers.

While we don't need miniature "arc reactors" in our chests to empower us, we do need new hearts and God's Spirit. Thankfully, God promises to give us just that through His prophet Ezekiel, who wrote “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws”- Ezekiel 36:26-27. When we receive God's gift of saving grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit indwells us and empowers us to live new God-centered lives. Thus, God-centered heroic fatherhood is not something we muster up in our strength. Rather, it is something God does in and through us as we rely on His infinite strength and wisdom. With that in mind, let's look at two short verses Paul wrote to men in the church at Corinth and consider how they apply to fathers today.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love” – 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.

To be heroic fathers, we first need to be on guard or more literally to "watch" our children. Particularly when they are young, our children often say, "Watch me...watch this," and God says the same thing, "Watch them...watch that!" So, from above and below we are getting the same message - give our children our attention. Be aware and get involved. Guard them and guide them into truth and righteousness, which also requires us to stand firm in the faith. We are to stand like dams against the rising waters of worldliness protecting the generations downstream. If we give a bit here and give a bit there rather than doing the hard work of anchoring our faith through serious Bible study, vigorous prayer and sincere obedience, the little leaks that come through our little lapses will soon undermine our integrity altogether and quite likely allow our children to be swept away. So, heroic dads need to be on guard, to stand firm in the faith, and we need to be strong and courageous, which is the same admonition God repeatedly gave Joshua as he prepared to lead God's people into the Promised Land. Fathers need the same qualities to lead our children to take possession of God's best for their lives.

This is written in a passive voice, which does not seem to fit a call to be strong. Here is why. We could translate it "be strengthened" instead of be strong. The idea is that we are to be strong in the Lord and in His might. His strength is made perfect in our humble dependence. As we walk humbly with God and live honestly in His light, He empowers us to live and to parent courageously. As Proverbs 28:1 observes, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." We are to father our children with bold courage relying on the Lord's might, which may very well mean taking unpopular stands and consistently enforcing corrective discipline for their benefit, but we are never to do anything that is unloving toward our children in anyway. We need to constantly assure our children that they can never lose our love even when they blow it big time. We are to do everything, even punish, in love, which means at least making sure your children understand why they are being punished and lovingly restoring them in the aftermath. I also find reviewing 1 Corinthians 13 and asking "Am I being patient?...kind?...polite?...gracious? etc." helps keep me on the path. Personally, I have a long way to go to become a heroic dad. I thank God for the privilege of parenting the precious children He has given us, and I pray by His enabling to increasingly become the heroic father He calls all dads to be. I pray the same for you.

Walk on Water

"15So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. (He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side – Mark 6:45.) 16Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. (The boat was in the middle of the lake, and He was alone on land. He saw they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them – Mark 6:46.) 19Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." (Peter answered Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” – Matthew 14:28-31) 21So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately (the wind stopped and) the boat was at the land to which they were going." - John 16:15-21

[Note: Integrating the Gospel accounts of the same events can sometimes cause questions about the Bible’s accuracy to arise, since there can appear to be conflicts between the accounts. For example, in the accounts of the events above it initially appears three different destinations are referenced - Capernaum, Beth-Saida and Gennesaret. However, once we dig deeper we learn that Beth-Saida and Capernaum are basically side by side towns in the district (or area) of Gennersaret. Therefore, this is much like asking three people where they went and one saying Lacey, another saying Olympia, and a third saying Thurston County or even Hawk’s Prairie or the South Sound. While people from elsewhere may wonder “well which is it?”, locals immediately know there is no conflict, since all are valid ways to reference our location.]

Some of the Seahawks were in town yesterday helping out the Little League baseball teams. It was a bit of a break for the players, who are already in mini training camps preparing for next season. As unpleasant as training camp is for a lot of players, they know going into a season unprepared means almost certain defeat, and Jesus knows that as unpleasant as faith-stretching, spiritual tests can be, being unprepared for the battles ahead is far worse. To help His first followers get ready for the upcoming church season when He would no longer be physically present with them, Jesus put His disciples through rigorous faith tests, including this ‘pop quiz’ on the Sea of Galilee. He had just fed thousands with fives loaves and a couple of fish, and He had previously calmed a storm on the same lake when He was on board with His followers. Now in the boat alone in the middle of the violent windstorm would they trust Jesus was still watching over them, and how would they handle Jesus coming to them in a strange new way?

Jesus still uses surprising figurative and even literal storms to develop our faith, and He still comes to us in unexpected ways that can frighten us. Whether your storm is financial, medical, marital, parental, moral or even just an extra-innings rainy-season blues battle, Jesus has good, faith-developing purposes for our trials, and the reality that we are going through them does not necessarily mean that we have been disobedient. Jesus’ first followers were doing exactly what He told them to do when the storm hit. We want to regularly ask God to reveal our sins to us so that we can turn from them and grow with Him, but we don’t have to cry “What have I done?” in the midst of every trial. Tests and punishment are not the same thing, and there is no condemnation for anyone in Christ. God is watching over you as you struggle against the winds of your storm, and when the time is best, He will end this test.

So, who or what are we relying on as we go through life’s storms? Our strength, our resources, our wisdom? If it is really tough, maybe our friends and their strength? Friends certainly help, but God wants us to learn to trust in and rely on Him even when doing so requires us to go against all of our instincts and sensory understanding of an experience. People give Peter a hard time for doubting and sinking, but I think we need to applaud him for fixing His eyes on Jesus, getting out of the boat and taking at least a few steps of serious, circumstance-defying faith. Of course, he went on to look down and go down, which is what happens when we take our eyes off of Christ. When Jesus comes to us in surprising ways and calls us to come to Him in the midst of our storms, even when it goes against our understanding, I pray that we will be prepared to trust Him enough to leave the safety of the vessels we have known and walk by faith into the future He has prepared for us.

Miracle Math

JOHN 6:1-14

Have you, like me, faced situations where you wanted to help but lacked the resources to make a real difference? Have you ever felt insignificant - not gifted, talented or powerful enough to make much of an impact? If so, I think this text highlighting the reality that God can do a lot with a little has an encouraging word for us.

In verses five through seven, Jesus probes Phillip's faith by asking him where they can buy bread to feed everyone. Phillip immediately starts doing the math and delivers his discouraging assessment that it would take six or more months' wages to give everyone even a little. There are at least a couple of things to notice here. One - Jesus already knows the plans He has for them, and two - He is not yet revealing them in order to probe and reveal the state of Phillip's faith. Whatever situation we face, God already knows His plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), though He may very well wait until we reach our current faith limits to reveal it. Often times, we would like to have the resources we need to serve others nailed down and stored up on the front end, because frankly that does not require us to keep exercising faith, but God is always working to grow our faith in His faithfulness (1 Peter 1:6-7) and times His provision accordingly.

Next, Jesus vividly demonstrates both His mastery over the physical creation and the reality that we do not need to simply look at our available resources and divide them by the need in front of us to determine how much ministry is possible. With God all things are possible, and He is more than able to do abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21)! Five barley loaves and two fish is not much in a young boy's hands, but in Jesus' hands it is more than enough to feed thousands and leave a dozen baskets of leftovers. This is not a miracle of transformation, such as water to wine. It is simply a miracle of multiplication - of doing a lot with a little. It is whose hands the little is in that makes all the difference. Our limited time, talents and treasures often look very insufficient to meet the needs at hand, but in God's hands our little becomes a lot. The key is handing over all we have and all we are to Jesus and letting Him do with us whatever He pleases. Whenever we face a situation that tempts us to feel too insignificant to make a difference, let's remember that God can do a lot with our little!