Evil Schemes

Mark 5:1-20 (excerpts below)
2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.

9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

The narrative of Good vs. Evil permeates virtually every story we know and love. There is always a protagonist and an antagonist; a good guy and a bad guy; light vs. dark.

  • Skywalker vs. Vader
  • Avengers vs. Thanos
  • Axis vs. Allies
  • John McClane vs Hans Gruber
  • Kevin McCallister vs. Wet Bandits

The reason this battle is so pervasive in our stories is because it is written in our very DNA. From our inception we have been designed for perfect love, but we’ve listened to and followed the lies and deception of the evil-one. What is so terribly embarrassing is that his schemes are not creative in the least. From the beginning he keeps whispering twisted lies that God isn’t who He says he is and we aren’t who he says we are. These same lies keep coming in different forms, enticing us to live for ourselves, be our own rulers, kings….gods…usually coming back over and over to sex, money and power. But when you think about it, why would he change his schemes since they are clearly working just fine.

As we look through the most vivid demon-story in Scripture we can see several tactics our enemy uses, followed up with the one true remedy and victory. Here are a couple of these tactics:

  1. Divide and Conquer. The man with an “unclean spirit” (“demonized”) was overtaken by the enemy and separated from community, from himself, from hope. This is a first-stage tactic: isolation, loneliness and hopelessness.
  2. DeHumanize. We are made men and women of value, precious in God’s sight. But this tomb-dwelling man was so hopeless he became less “himself” — he felt that his God-Image was so broken that he wailed and cut himself. In our sin we are literally becoming “less ourselves” by living contrary to our identity of love.

In reality, we see two different truths about our enemy:

  1. They are more powerful than we think. These demons teamed up and dominated this tomb-man. They played him like a puppet. For a moment, don’t get lost in the “possession” language. The truth is that these horrible and personal forces either have an evil controlling behavior, or they have (more often) an evil influential behavior. Every one of us hear and respond more than we know to these whispers, telling us to serve ourselves, turn our backs on truth and our Savior, use others to elevate ourselves.
  2. They are less powerful than we think. Re-read the incredible narrative of Jesus’ encounter with these beasts. There was no battle whatsoever. When the demons even saw Jesus, they fell face-down and pleaded for mercy. Jesus didn’t have to lift a finger…he merely spoke. He simply commanded the demons to go, and they went. Though we can easily be afraid of evil, the honest truth is that, though we ought to respect it, Jesus has full and utter control over them, and he has come to “give abundant life” (John 10:10). He has come to set us free from the power of sin and darkness. Even at Jesus end, when Peter wanted to free Jesus from arrest, Jesus said that he had twelve times the ability to be free…

Matt 26:52-54
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

But…he chose to go to the cross instead because, in so doing, he put death to death. He finally and fully crushed the head of The Serpent so that, though his tail whips back and forth causing damage, his defeat is sealed and Christ’s victory is fully won.

But for now we live in a world filled with trials and temptations, with our enemy whispering lies and death into our ears. To get a clearer vision of these lies, of Satan’s schemes, as well as the Truth we need to hold onto as we face the lies, Thomas Brooks wrote a book in 1652 called “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices” where he lists out dozens and dozens of our enemy’s schemes, each followed with a handful of different Gospel Truths to combat and protect our hearts and lives from what the enemy is trying to do: to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

You can read the entire book online for free HERE

Or read a short summary (for free) HERE

Here are a few of these scheme/remedy combinations:

Scheme: “Others sin worse than me”

Remedy: The Truth that we need to have our eyes humbly and repentantly on ourselves, not on others. We don’t know others’ hearts and are called personally to take God’s love, life and truth seriously. Life and morality are not a competition but a life of Jesus-given victory, life-long repentance and dependence.

Scheme: “God will forgive me”

Remedy: The Truth that sin decays and destroys. Yes, God will forgive you, but sin has consequences and causes damage to others and you.

Scheme: “You are worthless; focus on your failures”

Remedy: The Truth that you are made in God’s image. For all who are in Christ the Lord proclaims over us what he proclaimed over Jesus as His baptism: This is my son, whom I love, in him I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17)

There are dozens and dozens of these lies/remedies. I would encourage you to give them a glance and ask the Spirit to guide you into a place of God’s joyful presence

For 2 of my sermons on this topic, click HERE and HERE.

The Shame Tree

Luke 19:1-4
He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see

This is showing my age and my church-upbringing, but that children’s song about Zacchaeus being a “wee little man” just sticks right inside my head. I can see myself singing it as a little kid. What I didn’t know then and am just now wrapping my head around is precisely how “wee little” Zacc was…how “wee little” I am. Whereas Luke is certainly referring to Zacc’s physical size, it could just as well refer to his heart.

You see, Zacc (as you likely know) was a treacherous traitor. Though he was born a Jew, a child of Abraham, he sold his soul to Rome by becoming a tax collector…and not even a regular tax collector, but a chief tax collector, and one that was wealthy. As a collector he would have military backing to go door to door collecting taxes from his fellow Jews. He had a certain amount Rome required, and whatever extra he charged, he could keep. As the chief, he was the one sending these villains out, skimming off of their skimming. As a wealthy chief, he would have been horrifyingly corrupt in fleecing his own brothers and sisters. He would have been utterly despised and shunned. But at least he was rich, right? If he couldn’t be loved, he could at least be feared, and be comfortable. But it clearly wasn’t working. He began to realize that he was indeed little, very little. His heart had shrunk so that he wouldn’t have to feel his deep pain; his conscience paper thin so the could continue to rob his spiritual family; his love all but gone so he could live just one more day. He was a wee little man.

And so are we. How are you little?

  • Are you petty with others so you feel taller?
  • Do you critique and criticize to keep others beneath you?
  • Do you set your heart on measly worldly treasures to comfort you?
  • Do you seek fleshly satisfaction to numb your greatest fears?

We are all little, and in desperate need of seeing Jesus. Maybe just one glance. Maybe touch the hem of his robe, or steal a little glimpse of he who some refer to as the Messiah. But the only way to do that is to risk being shamed, risk being exposed for the littleness of your soul. Zacc decided to take this risk. He climbed a tree a little ways ahead of Jesus, knowing full well how utterly shameful it was for a grown man to climb a tree. The same is also true for us. For us to risk a glimpse of Jesus means that we have to, at least to some level, admit our littleness. We have to confess to some degree that we are weak, needy, broken, empty, lost, ashamed. And this is exactly where Jesus wants us, where he meets us. He has no interest in meeting the (outwardly) strong, secure, satisfied, healthy people (in reality, those people don’t exist this side of heaven, except in false perceptions). So when Jesus walks by while we are exposed up in our Tree of Shame, He stops, looks up, and calls our name! He declares that he has come to Seek and Save those who are lost (Luke 19:10), revealing that it actually wasn’t Zacc looking for Jesus, but Jesus looking for Zacc (HERE is a great sermon that talks about that by Alistair Begg). He calls us out of our shame and into his presence…and this is what he says:

5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

Jesus invites him to “get over himself” and come down. When he then says that he wants to go to Zacc’s house it isn’t for a quick cup of coffee. to “stay” at someone’s house in this culture was to go over for a few days and “abide” with that person. Which is exactly what Zacc needed. He needed the ongoing presence of God himself to heal him and invert his life. And we need it too. We don’t need a magic wand of healing, we need a Person to come in, abide, have his way, clean us up and send us out with His Holy Spirit.

This utterly changed Zacc, which manifest in glorious repentant acts of love. Scripture calls us to 10% giving, Zacc said (because of Jesus’ love) to give 50%. Scripture calls for a thief to return the money + 20%. Zacc said he’ll return the money +300% (a total of 400%). It wasn’t to gain Jesus’ approval, but because he already had it. And this side of the cross we now realize that on the cross Jesus was counted among the thieves so that our thievery could be paid for while being given Jesus’ perfect record of grace-giving.

So, what shame do you have that needs the healing abiding of the Presence of Jesus? Can you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal a particular “littleness” and heal you of the shame that’s plaguing you? And can you hear the words of Jesus “Come down out of your tree of shame. I want to come stay with you!”

Preserves

“Peach Preserves” by Emily Land

In the late 1800s the Lands sailed away from Prussia and landed on the Texas coast. In fairly short course they wound their way up into the Texas Hill Country pretty close to Junction and settled the Land Ranch (full of prickly pear, mesquite and deer)…the place where my dad would be born and where us Austin Lands (me, my brother, mom and dad) would perpetually visit to enjoy the glory of the Texas rolling hills. What and incredible blessing to have had that growing up. Well over 1000 acres for a kid to roam, swim, hunt and grow up.

Next to the old ranch house was an enormous garden and grove of peach trees, producing enough food to last the whole year, if you know how to keep the food from spoiling. That’s where Granny (my dad’s mom) was a superhero. Summers were filled with picking the fruit and veggies. When early winter came around we’d drive up to the ranch to hang out with Granny and Grandpa, try to bag a whitetail deer that would become our dinner for the next few months, and feast on all the glorious food that Granny would magically bring out of the kitchen (using a fair amount of lard in the process). No matter the time of year she could go to the pantry and pull out all sorts of beautiful summertime goodies: pickled watermelon rinds (sweet, with cloves), tomatoes, sweet jams, homemade sauerkraut, etc etc. My goodness. One of my favorites was the peach preserves. It was like opening a mason jar filled with summer.

There is something almost miraculous about preserving things. A little boiling, a pinch of this and scoop of that…then seal it in a mason jar and it’s good for a long long time.

This concept of being “preserved” is one of the hardest for Jesus-followers to grab hold of. Somehow we can, by the power of the Spirit, believe and base our eternity on the fact that we are sinners in need of mercy, and we’ve been given the gift of salvation that Jesus bought for us on the cross. But then things don’t simultaneously turn to butterflies and rainbows. We still struggle with outrageous selfishness and we live in a world that is still horrifyingly broken. These things combined makes us wonder if God’s love is really working, really intact. Have I “gone too far” and fallen from grace? Has God “gone too far” and let the world spin out of control. Sometimes it simply doesn’t LOOK or FEEL like God loves me or the rest of the world.

It’s into these blinding times that Paul puts a glorious exclamation point on Romans 8. The first 8 chapters of Romans is a beautiful, artistic and methodical revealing of The Gospel: our vast rebellion which has created an insurmountable cost; Jesus fully paying that insurmountable cost on the cross and gifting us not only the forgiveness of sins but also the full record of Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit and the ability to call God our Abba Father. And when all of this seems far too good to be true, Paul caps the whole Gospel off with these promises:

Romans 8
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?…37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We all suffer from a spiritual Separation Anxiety, and have a gnawing feeling that we are or will be abandoned by our Father. We were created to have intimacy with God, but we detached from him when we listened to the devil’s lies that we’d be better off without Him. But the Lord decided that the story wasn’t over. He chased us down in the desert and brought us home. It wasn’t our goodness or faithfulness that brought us into God’s family, but HIS goodness and HIS faithfulness. And now Paul assures us that, for all who are wrapped up into his paternal arms, it is fully up to HIS strength and love to keep us home, not ours. Paul is so emphatic that he lists every conceivable excuse we might have in Romans 8…and says that “nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Older theologians labelled this “Perseverance of the Saints.” I agree with them, but I prefer to call it “Preservation of the Saints” because it puts the verb in God’s power, not ours. He has made us His Bride (Revelation 21) and made vows to us that are literally impossible for him to break. Even when we break the marriage vows we’ve made to him, he is faithful to the wedding vows He’s made to us. We are safe. Secure. Loved. Home.

And these promises propel us to be “more than conquerors” in the world as God empowers and sends us to the ends of the earth in his name to share his love.

But I constantly forget.

I need to marinate in the security of God’s love for me. In an effort to help with that I’ve been sitting on these passages (and there are so many more). I pray that they can bring a calming, secure, hope-filled and empowering peace to you as well.

Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

Jeremiah 32:40
I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:13-14
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guaranteed of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Groanings too Deep

Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

“in our weakness”

I really don’t like those words. I hate to admit when I am weak, to ask for help. I get a lump in my throat and a pit in my stomach as I begin to realize the vast extent that I…

  • … say shockingly hurtful words
  • … put my own desires over others’ needs
  • … judge and criticize, internally and externally
  • … take forgiveness for granted
  • … am captivated by the shiny objects of this world
  • … disbelieve the gospel
  • … forget that I am a child of God, and so are you
  • … can’t just “fix” it myself

It may be a blow to our pride, but this is exactly where the Lord finds us, exactly where we need him the most. He finds us at our weakest, when we are wholly incapable. We have sunk nose-deep into the quicksand of sin, fear and death. Not only can we not crawl out, even our cries for help are muffled by the mire. And as we look around, we catch a glimpse of One that we didn’t even realize was there. Just over to our right is One that reaches out to take hold of our hand, hold us up and call in the cavalry.

This is the pure and sure help we see in Romans 8:26. Let’s look at three beauties of the Holy Spirit found here:

Helps

The Holy Spirit is right here, right now. As part of the Godhead, He was intimately and intricately involved in the very formation of every fiber of my being. He knit me together atom by atom. He placed each freckle exactly where he wanted and made my 2nd toe a little longer than my big toe. And when He was done building my whole frame — body, mind and soul — he took up residence right inside of me so that I can never ever be alone. As my helper the Holy Spirit stands with me, shoulder to shoulder, walking with me through each fire and each flood. (see the songs at the bottom for more this)

Intercedes

The Holy Spirit, as our personal Author, knows our hearts better than we do. He knows our pains, our fears, our failures, our successes, our motivations, our desires and our needs. And he takes my mosaic heart-smorgasbord straight up to the Father to plead for help, mercy and love in ways we never could. We have no idea what we truly ought to pray for. Left to our own devices we will almost always pray for self-comfort things. There nothing wrong with this, it’s just not sufficient. There are greater glories in this world than I can ever fathom. And so the Spirit pleads on our behalf. And the most amazing thing happens: the Father says “Yes.” To every prayer the Spirit makes: “Yes.”

So, what IS the Holy Spirit praying for? Often he agrees with our prayers. Often He doesn’t. But this we know: He always pleads for our “good” and God’s glory. And He knows exactly the words to whisper into the Father’s ears…”groanings too deep for words.”

Deep Groans

This is one of the more shocking phrases in the Bible. A phrase that breaks the traditional stoic stereotypes we have of God. “Groanings to deep for words” can also be translated “Love Secrets.” Sit on that for a second.

And because of this miraculous presence and work of the Holy Spirit we can read Romans 8:28 not as a platitude or with skepticism, but from the mouth of a God who went face to face with the greatest evil this world has even known…the murder of the Son of God…and inverted this evil into the Greatest Good, the Greatest Love ever imagined: the salvation of all who believe.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

If God was able to invert murder into new life, he is able to meet me in my weakness — regardless of what that weakness is — my sin, others’ sin, fears, anxieties, infirmities, relationships, poverty, hunger, sadness…whatever. The Holy Spirit never leaves, is never at a loss for words, and never unable. He is God With Us

This outrageous hope can be perpetually difficult for our hearts hear, believe and hold onto. So, in an effort to help, here are two songs to speak to the Lord standing alongside and leading the way through the fire and the flood

Feral Orphans

Our daughter Emily rescued a wild (I mean that in every way) cat named Rafreaka that defines “Feral”, as her clipped ear reveals (a sign that a homeless cat has been neutered and returned to the wild). Even though she’s pampered and well-fed for the past several years , she can’t seem to get the Feral out of her system. She will stand by the closet door where we keep her food yelling at us to give her more, even if we just fed her. She’s stuck in the Feral System.

Think for a moment what it would mean to be truly Feral. You would have to fend for yourself just to survive one more day. Every desire or need would be totally up to you, and you would be in life and death competition with everybody else around you for the scarce life-saving resources. This would cause perpetual fear and probably drive you to do things you never thought you’d do just to get by. And this would be so deeply ingrained in you that, if you were ever adopted into a home, your heart would certainly keep going back to being afraid and scrounging for the scraps you need.

You and I are just like Rafreaka. In Christ we have been fully and beautifully adopted into the Great Heavenly Family and our Heavenly Father has, by giving us his own Son, proven that he will perfectly and generously provide for exactly what we need, when we need it. Yet I stand by the door yelling at Him for more, more, more. The issue isn’t our demanding behavior, it’s our meager and wavering belief that we are actually in God’s family, under the outrageously loving protection and provision of our Father. Into this weakness Paul gives us outrageous hope:

Romans 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Despite what it feels like; despite the ingrained feral heart that I can’t shake, the truth is that I am loved beyond belief and have been given a Royal Inheritance that isn’t only the life to come, but the flood of love and blessings in the here and now, including the very presence of the Holy Spirit that has been given as a deposit guaranteeing the Hope that is to come.

Last week I mentioned the nearly-impossible-to-grasp truth that every shred of our sins have been perfectly paid for on the Cross…but that forgiveness is actually only HALF of the story. Leaving us sinless still leaves us short, because we need to be righteous, which we can’t remotely achieve on our own. And so the second half of the Gospel meets us in our Christ-Given sinlessness and envelopes us with Christ’s Robe of Righteousness.

Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

The Righteous Beloved Son of God met me when I was a Feral Orphan, and traded places with me. He took on my orphanhood when he was forsaken on the cross, and imputed me with his status as Beloved Son. And what’s more, when Jesus rose from the grave, he brought me along with him so that not even death can impact my status, my righteousness, my New Family.

So run to your Abba, Father, your Heavenly Dad. He’s calling you to come to him with your loves, fears, failures and plans, and trust in his power and love. You are not alone and no longer Feral. You don’t have to fend for yourself at the expense of your heart and everybody else around you. You have been adopted into God’s family and will never be abandoned.

Absolute Absolution

Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1 is the most significant verse in my life. It encapsulates the beauty, power, significant, practicality and freedom of the Gospel in my real everyday life.

Walk with me for a minute through our proverbial “permanent record.” You know, that thing teachers threaten kids with: “If you don’t tell Johnny you are sorry, this is going on your permanent record.”

Elaine Benes from Seinfeld encountered this. Some doctor at some point wrote down that she was a “difficult patient.” Years later, as she was trying to get medical help for a rash, the doctor looked down at her chart and treated her curtly with no compassion or help, because she was known to be “difficult”. The rest of the episode follows her trying to get seen by doctors as she trying to steal and/or erase her Permanent Record (obviously to no avail, even with Kramer’s help).

This premise is just a silly thing of sitcoms, right? Or, what if our failings and flailings really are etched into a permanent recorded? Be brave enough for a second to ponder the record of your life. Those offensive words of gossip, lying, slander and criticism; how we’ve belittled, demeaned and even dehumanized others; how I fudged some numbers, took credit for somebody else’s work and arrogantly patted myself on the back.

Even though these things are sufficient to warrant a guilty verdict, what about my internal life, my hidden thoughts and motives? How, in my insecurity, I see myself as better than others because I haven’t done that and have done this. How I am greedy, dismissive and (as Jesus talks about in Matthew 5) committed murder in my heart. What if my actual motives (of which I’m not even aware) were published?

But hold on a second. Our permanent record doesn’t just contain our “sins of commission” (the things I’ve done and thought that elevate myself over God and/or others). What about the “sins of omission”? Those things I haven’t done that God has commanded me TO do? Generosity, words of encouragement, evangelism, sacrificial service, prayer…you know, loving God and loving others with my heart, mind soul and strength (Mark 12:30).

Oh man. This makes me writhe with Paul in Romans 7:24

Romans 7: 24
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

But before I turn into a slug covered in salt,
I am transported along with Paul to the next verse!!!

Romans 7:25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

And now we more fully appreciate and glory in the very next verse – Romans 8:1

Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The more we can be honest with the extent of our treason, the more we can be gloriously overwhelmed with the gift Jesus acquired for us on the cross. That infinitely long “Permanent Record” has been permanently paid by Jesus. If I believe that I have about 5 pounds of sin, I only need a 5 pound Jesus. But the older I get the weightier I realize my sins are (they aren’t heavier, I just realize them more)…and the weightier I see Jesus and his sacrifice. I had no idea he paid THAT much! I had no idea he is THAT amazing!

If Romans 8:1 is true (and it totally is) the more I am drawn into love and worship. There are times I am oppressed by the extent of my debt, and then am reminded by my community and the Holy Spirit that every shred of non-love, every loose word and self-centered deed, every arrogant thought, has been perfectly paid and covered by Jesus. God has enacted absolute justice for me on Christ, leaving me utterly washed clean. Take a second to see this in the life of Delmar from Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

The glory of this verse, the insurmountable beauty of absolute absolution, brings life-changing hope and peace. But it’s actually only half of the story. It leaves us sinless, but God actually requires more than that…he requires righteousness, which he also has procured for us in Jesus…but more on that next week.

If you don’t want to wait for next week, then go read Philippians 3:1-11, especially 3:9…”and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…”

Advented Peace

What does it (or would it) look like for you to have true, deep, sustainable REST? I don’t mean the “Wow, that was a good night’s sleep” kind of rest, or the “I don’t have any drama in my life right now” (as if that was ever possible) kind of rest. I mean the kind of rest that is a deep contentment of inner peace where my heart is not troubled, I’m not afraid of what is around the corner, nor am I haunted by the past (of what I and others have done). Now, before I move on, I struggle to know how sustainable this True Peace is this side of heaven, but I do know that it’s possible and even offered through the Holy Spirit right here in our current world, even in the midst of the barrage of artillery coming your way. So let’s look into it together, praying that the incomprehensible Peace of God can be a reality in my everyday life.

Isaiah 57:19b
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal him.

As we’ve seen over and over, Isaiah loves to repeat himself. He doubles up words (and once, in Isaiah 6, triples up the word “holy”) in order to put serious emphasis on it. It’s like when a teenager says “I don’t just like you, I “like like” you.” In Isaiah 57 we are told that, while we are drowning in an ocean of idolatry and rebellion (expressed in our works and our “righteousness” (i.e. legalism)), God leans down to pick us up and give us rest from our flailing legs as we helplessly and fatally tread the water of fear and anxiety. The “peace peace” that God offers is not the singular peace the world offers. It isn’t “just relax” or “stop worrying” coping techniques. It’s something literally miraculous (God breaking into our world) and personally designed for you in your exact situation (not a general platitude).

This all sounds fantastic, and I really need it. Now. The way God has made this miraculous PeacePeace possible is in calling and empowering me to hold on the Past Advent and Future Advent (some of these “future advent” thoughts springs out of John Piper’s book “Future Grace“).

To be able to hold onto peace today, I have to stand on the truth that God has personally “advented” himself historically in the birth of Christ in order to rescue us and has perpetually advented himself throughout history in the person of the Holy Spirit; this Spirit has advented himself into my heart, life and situations continually throughout my life, and that he will perpectually, now and forever, intervene in my life not just yesterday, but this afternoon, tomorrow, next year, next season, next forever. And that Jesus will one day Ultimately Advent again in the second coming. I can hold onto the Person of Peace not because problems will stop (they won’t this side of heaven) but because The Problem (sin, fear and death) have been crucified with Christ, who now reigns as our Sovereign King as he advents his Kingdom into our hearts and world even right now. And it is actually HIM that is holding onto me, setting me free from the death-grip I think I have to conjure up heart-peace.

Let’s do an exercise that leads us toward God’s Advented (and Adventing) Peace.

I would encourage you to read Psalm 85 four times in the Lectio Divina style. Something like this (with a prayer-break in between each reading):

  1. Read Simply: Notice the big picture and flow of the passage.
  2. Read Meditatively: What words draw your attention; why this word at this time?
  3. Read Prayerfully: Dialogue with the Author of the passage; speak and listen.
  4. Read Thoughtfully: What does the Holy Spirit have for you in this passage today?

The Lord, in his creativity and personal attention to us individually, will draw out different beauties and applications for each of us. For me personally I was struck with the intimacy of God’s character traits, specifically in verse 10 & 11:

10 Steadfast Love (“Hesed”) and faithfulness meet;
Righteousness and Peace kiss each other.

11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.

Each of God’s character facets intimately interact with and draw out one another. His unending and unbreakable love is made sure and strong through his eternal faithfulness, which tells us that God doesn’t even have the ability to break his promise of love. Likewise, the Lords’ righteousness, his beautiful holiness, is so sure and eternal, and, as we know on this side of the cross, has been given to us through the Advent (the “arrival”), crucifixion and resurrection of the Jesus Christ:

Philippians 3:9
…and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

In my anxiety and churning stomach I can rest in the assurance that, despite the lies my heart hears, I have been made “right” with the Lord, and he finds incredible pleasure in being my Father, my Daddy. That when my world spins I am being held and God has not lost any degree of his love or control. Though all doesn’t feel right, all IS right. “It is well with my soul.”

Ephesians 2:13-14
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…

Finally, to bring it all home, when I am looking for peace, I think I am looking for a resolution to a problem or the removal of a brutal feeling; I think I am looking for a state of being, of rest. These things are partially correct, but actually way too small. What I am actually desperately longing for isn’t being at rest, but being WITH the Man of Rest…the Prince of Peace; what I am actually looking for is Jesus himself, not just what Jesus will give me. To be sure he can and will give me a state of peace, but only as he gives me HIMSELF. When my world flips and my heart breaks, I am called primarily to the Person of Christ, not just to feel better. If I search for the feeling, I will get neither; if I cling to Jesus as he clings to me, I get both.

Adventing

Advent: The Great Anticipation; The Great Arrival.

In your world, what are you desperately waiting on? The arrival of who, or what

What has you on the edge of your seat, burning a hole in your calendar?

Another way to put it…in what/who are you putting your hope?

What future thing is going to bring you what you need? To cure your loneliness, boredom, anger, fear, shame, guilt? We all stand on a foundation of hope:

  • Hoping I have enough to pay my bills
  • Hoping I’ll find love (or that I won’t lose the love I have)
  • Hoping my medical report turns out ok
  • Hoping I don’t get found out as the fraud I am
  • Hoping my kids turn out ok
  • Hoping my theology and morality is “good enough”

We are constantly immersed in some kind of hope, and very little of it (if any) is actually under our control (which causes fear, but more on that next week).

2000 years ago there was an impossible anticipation for the coming Messiah, but all logic told them that it wasn’t going to happen. There had been a few hundred years of (seeming) Divine Silence. By all human accounts, God had chopped down all the trees of hope and promise, leaving a lifeless clear-cut forest; leaving us alone and on our own. We see this in Isaiah 9 as God warned His people of their impending exile into slavery.

Isaiah 9:14
So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and reed in one day—

For them, and for us, all signs pointed to justified abandonment by God. BUT…what about God’s promises? Would he, could he, be true to his word to never forsake us? To come rescue us? Even when we’ve gone way too far. When we’ve abandoned him? Abandoned each other? Abandoned our own dignity and value?

Into this desperation comes Isaiah 11

Isaiah 11:1-3
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

The stump of Jesse: King David’s father. The family tree of God’s promises had been cut down and lay rotting on the ground. Dead. Hopeless.

And then…a sprout. Life. Hope. And not just hope, but a branch that would produce fruit…MORE life. God created a way where there was no way.

This is The Immanuel. The rightful perfect Branch that not only came from the cut down trunk, but (as we see in 10) is also the ROOT of the tree itself. Jesus is the Great I AM; present and instrumental in creation; present and intimate right here and right now; present and sovereign in what is to come. It isn’t that Jesus simply brings us hope, Jesus IS our hope.

And so now, during this Advent Season, we begin the seemingly impossible task of dislodging our chaotic minds and hearts from lesser hopes in this world — hopes that are real and very often very important, for which we are called to pray and pursue — and then to be lodged into the The Greater Hope of Christ. Dislodged from merely hoping for better circumstances and securely hoping for the Savior that has already come into our darkness, lived among us as the “God With Us” and died in order to crucify the hopelessness of Sin, Fear and Death, only to miraculously resurrect (another impossibility that the Lord overcame) and thereby BE our Hope.

So, what does that even mean? When I feel alone, shattered, afraid, hopeless — there is One that holds all the power that is lovingly present with me right here and right now. All of life will eventually fail me — financial, relational, medical, moral — every other thing in which I hope will crumble, but not Jesus. He’s already been crumbled on the cross, and now stands alongside the Father in power, and has send His Spirit as the presence of God in and with me now. I cannot be alone; I cannot be abandoned; I cannot be lost or overcome. My hope is in Him and in His hands, so even when I let it go in search for other hopes, he doesn’t let me go. He has overcome, and is, will, bring me with him. Starting here. Now. Forever.

Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Captivating Beauty

Psalm 84:1-2
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Every one of us are uniquely drawn to and captivated by the beauty around us, giving ourselves, our hearts, to that which we find beautiful.

> The captivating beauty of that person…if only….
> The captivating beauty of that thing I’ve always wanted….if only…

Now for a moment let’s get deeper than the shallowness of culture’s definition of beauty. Le’s get beyond mere (and fleeting) external appearance of a beautiful person or object. Let’s get to the heart of beauty. That quality, that character, that makes our heart skip a beat; catches our breath short; sends butterflies into our bellies.

> The captivating beauty of the job I really want…if only….
> The captivating beauty of this relationship….if only…
> The captivating beauty of my kids….if only…
> The captivating beauty of a better bank account….if only…
> The captivating beauty of a public accolades….if only…
> The captivating beauty of a better morality….if only…
> The captivating beauty of retirement….if only

Now lets go one level deeper, into the things we don’t realize we find beautiful, but we obsess over and seek all the same, often with even more passion than the others. These are the things of “vile beauty” that steal our hearts and our passions; rob us of our resources and leave us wrecked on the floor:

> The captivating beauty of what I use to cope with the pain and horror of life, of this relationship, of this health, of these memories…so I turn to the only thing that seems to distract me from reality. Yes, I hate it, but sometimes it’s my only friend…if only I could face reality….

> The captivating beauty of repulsive arrogance. I am so insecure and so afraid, so I perpetually elevate myself over others, criticize those that are different than me and belittle (especially those I love) so that I can, for a moment, feel like I’m ok, even through I know that I’m a fraud….if only I could believe that my value is intact in the person of Christ…

> The captivating beauty of anxiety. I am so terrified of what might be, and so I return to the god of anxiety, performing mental gymnastics as I try to play out every scenario that would result in future-destruction and how I have been abandoned by God and everybody else…I re-write the end of Psalm 23 — “surely goodness and mercy will (abandon) me all the days of my life.”. …if only I could trust in the everlasting love and goodness of God for me personally…

> The captivating beauty of my despicable sins…I hatefully obsess over my brokenness, what I have done (and maybe continue to do)…I hate it, and hate myself for it. I feel like I will never be healed and perpetually wallow in my filth…if only…then I wouldn’t need so much grace.

Matthew 23:27
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

I know that the above is an over-simplification (i.e. – anxiety strugglers often have genetic, chemical and physiological roadblocks as well). But the spiritual issue at hand is this: What captures your heart? What do you dream of, dwell on, obsess over, get immersed into and lost within? To be honest…that “beautiful object” we all worship is simply this: me. Like Narcissus in Greek Mythology, I am captured by my own self, and have been led into the dark abyss of isolating self-worship.

This is where the Gospel is such unexpected hope. When we diminish “sin” to a list of behaviors, we miss the whole point and make salvation a transaction (I will trade my badness with Jesus’ righteousness). Even though that’s correct (Paul uses financial terminology like “count it all pure joy” and the often-used word “redemption”), the true heart beneath our Hope isn’t about worship…and we worship that which we find beautiful. The Gospel invitation is to have the Lord open our eyes to TRUE BEAUTY: HIMSELF. I have to be shown that I am settling for such a lesser beauty, and that the BrideGroom himself, Jesus, is running down the wedding aisle to capture me; my loves, attention, affections and heart.

As Thomas Chalmers magnificently wrote, what we need is the “Expulsive Power of a new Affection”. Because, in reality, True Beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder. True Beauty, which makes my heart skip a beat and catches my breath short, is objectively and gloriously in the Person of Jesus, revealed by the Holy Spirit and solidified by our Heavenly Father.

And as my eyes slowly get turned away from myself, I begin to realize that I am actually more beautiful than I even knew. Being made in the image of God, being re-made in a new birth, and being dressed in Jesus’ robe of Righteousness, I am His precious, his beloved, his bride, his child. When Jesus died the ugliest of deaths, he beautified his brothers and sisters with his glory. I am now beautiful in the depths of my soul because I am His, and nothing can remove or even diminish this. Now, to begin to be less captivated by my own Beauty and by the other beauties in this world, I need to fall more deeply in love with the One in whose image I’ve been made, the One whose beauty if reflected in all of creation, the One who is Beauty itself.

Alternate Reality

The name-masks we wear

What’s your name? Not the name on your license or the one your mamma gave you, but your NAME? Your Identity. Your Being. Your Glory. In older times people were often given identity-driven names.

  • Abram (“exalted father”) was changed to Abraham = “father of multitudes”
  • Jacob was changed to Israel = “strives with God”
  • Simon son of John was changed to Cephas (or Peter) = “Rock”
  • All the folks with vocational names like Cook, Butler, Baker and my friend from high school who should have been a dentist: Shannon Toothman…or my own last name as I’ve come from a heritage of ranchers.

In Isaiah 56 we find God’s people finally being set free from Exile and brought home to the Promised Land. But things have changed. There have been numerous additions to God’s family, people that are intertwined with the Lord, but feel like “dirty outsiders” that don’t belong.

Isaiah 56:3
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

Have you seen the movie Inception? To quickly summarize: it tells the story about how people can create, enter and redirect people’s subconscious worlds, which could result in manipulating their “real world” thoughts and actions.

It turns out that we all engage in this dangerous and somewhat effective game everyday. We find ourselves in a reality that we don’t like: pain, anger, sadness, failure, shame, fear, hopelessness. We find ourselves living lives we don’t want to live, feeling things we don’t want to feel, doing things we don’t want to do. We don’t want to live in the here and now, it’s just too hard. So we weave a coping tapestry as we dive down and make an alternate reality, one that is much more to our liking (at least for a little while). Sometimes this alternate reality is done in real-life with real actions (in our secret sins and hypocritical faces); sometimes it’s done deep down in our hearts and imaginations (i.e. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty).

  • When the middle-age man is ashamed of his job, family, body and/or finances, so he pours his life into work in order to prove his worth.
  • When the 10th grade boy feels unloved, so he hides in the porn-world because these 2-dimentional women will accept him.
  • When the woman in her 30s is overwhelmed at work and home, so she begins to have an extra glass of wine each night to relax, which turns into several glasses.
  • When the senior girl in college feels disrespected and marginalized, so she begins to belittle and bully freshman girls in person and online.
  • When the child is anxious when mom and dad are yelling at each other, so he throws his own tantrum just to get them to stop fighting.
  • When the pastor is afraid that if the numbers keep going down, he’ll lose his job (and his reputation), so he convinces himself that other churches are growing because they have watered down the Gospel but HE is the only one that is preaching the Truth.

Life is so hard, leaving us insecure and terrified. And so we hide. Cope. Escape.

We escape in our heads as we tell ourselves we will never be enough while we concoct imaginary lives where we are the hero (think real-life Total Recall).

We escape in the “real world” when we act out either in a way to prove that we are “enough” (work harder, do better) or in a way to prove that we aren’t enough (“If I’m a loser, I may as well act like one”).

Into this reality-turmoil there is terrible news and great news

First the terrible news: your feelings of insecurity, failure and fraud…are correct. Kinda. We are all so much weaker and have so many more rotting floorboards that we can possibly realize. From the beginning of time we rebelled against the “name” God has given us and have tried to create for ourselves a greater name. Look at how the Tower of Babel is described:

Genesis 11:4
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

In regards to sin and rebellion, it’s true. We are broken, frail, muddy and even wretched. If our reputation and love is to be built upon our accomplishments, we are in grave danger. But that’s not the end of the story. God has create a realer-reality in place of our alternate reality. He has taken the reality that we have warped and he’s re-created it into the true reality of a new name, new identity, new hope, new image. The great news is that the very thing we are desperately seeking and inappropriately trying to create has been given to us at Christ’s expense…and even more, because it’s a name that’s infinitely greater than any we could imagine, and one that will literally last infinitely longer than any we could conjure up ourselves. John in Revelation tells it like this:

Revelation 2:17
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

On the cross Jesus’ name was mocked, proclaiming in a sarcastic tone: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” But how true it was. As Jesus’ name was mocked he died for our broken “name” so that he could give us a new name. In him our name is now Beloved, Son, Heir, Friend. In him our old names have been crucified, which now frees me from the futile and exhausting drudgery of creating and keeping up with my name; frees me to glorify His name and enjoy the new name I’ve been given by living out the vocational-aspect of my name: love, grace, freedom, sacrifice. Allowing me to replace my alternate-reality with the True Reality of an eternal name.

Luke 10:20
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”