Tag: love

My Architect Friend

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A good friend died recently. He was an architect. He helped my wife and I design a new home at one time in our lives. He was good at what he did, drawing up plans and attending town meetings to get them approved. He considered alternative ideas and was willing to change his blueprints according to our wishes. Bob was kind, sensitive, and hardworking. And he accommodated us at every turn.

Bob reminds me of God. God is like an architect creating for us a life, a blueprint, if you will. And here’s the thing. That blueprint changes from time to time because our architect is relational, kind, loving, and can change to meet our needs. 

No, God isn’t our errand boy or girl. But here’s what God wants for our lives- to flourish, to live abundantly, and to live eternally. God is not pleased with the suffering of his people. He doesn’t want his project broken down or destroyed; but sometimes when bad things happen, God goes out of his way to change plans for us. In Romans 8 Paul writes that God is working in our lives to bring the best out of bad situations and circumstances, some of which we ourselves create. God has a big eraser called “forgiveness”  that he can use to remedy the mistakes we have made.

C.S. Lewis liked to use the house analogy to illustrate how some of the plans and improvements are not always to our liking because God is making a house in which he can live and through which God can love the rest of the world. That house, our home, will be a light for the dark places of the world. 

My friend Bob wanted a nice place for us. He knew what we could afford and how to make our house a home. But we never did build that house. See, God sometimes has other plans for us. And even if what we did wasn’t according to the original blueprint, God has, in his loving way, accommodated and led us within his will to a place where his love dwells richly.

And Bob? Well, The GREAT ARCHITECT has made a new home for Bob. You can read about it in 2 Corinthians 5, here in the Message Version. 

 1-5 ‘For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.’

MOMENT BY MOMENT LOVE

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God does not have a blueprint for his creation. There is no fixed plan but rather God is moving with his design. God is in his creation as evidenced by Jesus in an historical time. God is the potter who refashions a piece of clay in his loving hands. God is alive in every part of his creation. As Paul said, agreeing with some Athenians, ‘In God, we live and move and have our being. We are God’s offspring.’ 

Many ask where God is in our times of suffering. He is within that suffering. God experiences the tectonic movements of the people and the land. In the groaning of the creation, God is groaning with us, praying in us, connecting himself to us through his Holy Spirit. (See Romans 8) When Jesus agonized in Gethsemane and cried out from the cross, ‘My God why have you abandoned me’, he did that in solidarity with you and me. 

God, because of the nature of love, has no choice but to let his creation be free to choose his love. His creatures rebelled and then God decided (changed his loving will) to come alongside his children to woo them, draw them, court them, and pursue them. He changed course to bring his family back home, back to the Garden. He became one of them and dwelt with them in tents and tabernacles. He cooperated with them to rescue them from bondage. (See Exodus 3)

The Psalmists testify to the living, loving, and present God. Oh, for sure, they questioned God, even railed at God from their places of exile and despair, but they always returned to this truth:, ‘the love of God endures forever’.

 There is no place where God isn’t. (Read Psalms 136 and 139) God is not an absentee landlord setting up the creation and leaving it to run on some predestined plan. (Uh oh. Now I have lost the Reformers.)  God is no puppeteer and this life is not a pre-scripted drama. No, God weeps, feels joy with all the angels and deeply feels our sorrows. And God changes his plans. Not his character but the everyday moment-by-moment relationship that moves his creation closer to him. Recall that Paul wrote, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.’ (2Cor. 5:19) At this very moment God stirs within each of us believers and non-believers, helping us to flourish, for God is a lover. John Wesley captured this sentiment in his hymn, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” (See Jeremiah 31:3)

Maybe I’m more Methodist than I thought.

One more time: Romans 8 tells us there is nothing, nothing at all in all creation that can separate us from this moment-by-moment relational love which is from and for God. In Christ, God makes that evident through Christ.

That’s grace.

THIS ONE’S FOR THE BIRDS…..AND OTHERS

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As I have written, my wife loves birds and cares immensely for the little ones. But there is one thing that she doesn’t do. She does not let the birds into our house. 

I recall Ed and Marie, members of a church I once pastored. They let birds into their home. They loved birds. They rescued birds. People brought them wounded birds. The first time I visited them I noticed all their furniture was covered with plastic. Birds were flying around the house. These weren’t just parakeets. There was even a seagull in the mix. They were pooping all over the place. I chose my seat carefully and tried not to breathe in too deeply. Some would say that Ed and Marie were not living in healthy conditions but they loved the birds. They didn’t have children and needless to say, they didn’t have many visitors. But I loved them for their concern, and yes, visited again.

We read in Psalm 84 that in God’s house, his Temple, even the ‘sparrows found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young- a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.’ (Verse 3 NIV)

The Apostle Paul wrote that we are the Temple of God’s Spirit- it’s where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live. So am I the place that welcomes others in Christ’s name? Is my life that place?  Together we are to be a sacred place for all people. Jesus said that God’s house is a place for prayer for all people. It’s within that sacred space of our hearts and minds that others find God and love and acceptance. But I confess that my heart is not always a place for all people. There are some I let in and others I keep out. Some say it’s good to have boundaries so that you don’t have poop all over your house but what I have done is build a moat to keep others’ kingdoms from encroaching upon mine.

I know who the people are in my life that are ‘outside’ and just maybe by the grace of God someday I will put in a bridge with a welcome sign on my little door. We’ll see. I just don’t want to have to cover the place in plastic. May God rest the precious souls of Marie and Ed and all their little bird friends.

I WAS WRONG…and the world is better for it.

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“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV

All my life I thought this Scripture was just for Christians. Yes, I thought God was so focused on me and us that God was going to make things better for us. But I was wrong. This passage is not about me. 

It’s about the world. It means, if you read the whole book of Romans, that God wants to work in partnership with believers for the benefit of the world. God wants to grace the world, his creation and he wants us to help just like he has always done. God wants the creation to flourish. God wants the Kingdom life for everyone. And in the midst of all the rotten stuff in the world, God invites the church, the body of Christ, to work alongside God for everyone’s benefit. Salvation and abundant life come through Christ and by the Holy Spirit are imparted to all those who desire to know God’s love.    

The other day I came across this ‘remix’ of Romans 8:28 and it put everything in perspective for me and hopefully for some of you.

“For we know that God, working together with those of us who have been touched by God’s love, is yearning to bring good out of all the suffering and evil we see around us in our world today. This is our calling according to God’s purpose: To collaborate with the Spirit of God within us, to bring His Kingdom to earth, now.” [Roman 8:28, remix]- author Keith Giles

 So when we see trouble and turmoil all around us we know that God is working with those who have experienced God’s love to somehow and at some time make it better. Hopefully sooner than later. Amen 

HELL? NO. SOME THOUGHTS.

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There are too many gray areas and misunderstandings about the concept of hell for me to accept this destiny as some kind of eternal torment. There are too many interpretations of the precise meaning of such a realm. And the God I encounter in Jesus is not the kind of vengeful tyrant who allows his creations to be excruciatingly tortured for all time. Here are some of my thoughts.

  1. What happens to people who have never heard the gospel of Christ?
  2. What about mentally challenged people?
  3. Where are we told anything about the eternal destiny of little children?
  4. There are so many people who have been abused by Christians and their messages.
  5. People who ‘believe’ but somehow live out of sync with God’s will. What happens to those prodigals?
  6. What about all the Germans who participated in the Holocaust?
  7. Jews? Are they all doomed?
  8. Who are the truly wicked people sent to eternal damnation?
  9. What about really nice people who just have never grasped the idea of accepting Christ even though they live Godly lives?
  10. When Christians fight wars and kill others are they doomed?
  11. Is hell eternal agony or annihilation? Both are mentioned in the Bible.
  12. My view of God is a loving father or mother who, because of that love, wouldn’t consign most of their creation to eternal suffering. 
  13. If there is any kind of hell, it will be sparsely populated.
  14. Early Christian scholars didn’t write about hell as an eternal destiny.
  15. Which sins are truly deserving of spending eternity in torment?
  16. I wouldn’t want to live with someone just because I was afraid they would hurt me if I didn’t. Jesus wouldn’t want that for us either.
  17. We have been taught by Jesus to forgive endlessly. Are we to be more merciful than God?
  18. If Jesus died for all of our sins, why do some people have to pay for their own sins?
  19. Hell makes God’s justice seem vengeful.
  20. If really bad people end up in eternal hell why would Jesus from the cross say, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do?’
  21. Hell, for me, doesn’t fit the grand scheme of a new heaven and new earth.

Some of what I have written can be argued against with certain Scriptures but I submit there are interpretations of those scriptures that are very different and theologically sound.

If hell is anything, I see it as a sidebar where the judge tells my attorney, Jesus: ‘After all considerations, all will be well.’

In closing let me extend an invitation to come to Jesus, and follow Jesus. Let Jesus teach you and guide you into the way of eternal and abundant life with the God of creation and into a life of loving others even as we are right now being loved. This is the meaning of faith.

Remember this. It is Satan who wants to keep us away from God. But as Paul writes to the Colossians in chapter 2:

‘13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.’ (13-15) Bible Gateway NIV

WHAT I AM LEARNING ABOUT GOD

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Some people say that God’s ways are unknowable, mysterious beyond our small minds’ comprehension but I say we CAN know God and his ways. Maybe not everything about God but certainly more than many people think is possible.

Let’s look at a verse that some suggest demonstrates our inability to know God.

Isaiah 55:8  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” Here’s the context for these words. God is speaking about his own mercy and how he will abundantly pardon the people for their transgressions. So I learn that God wants us to know his love and how he will reconcile us. That surprises a lot of people who have learned only a judgmental and punishing side of God.

I am learning that God’s essence is love and that love is never changing but that God’s experience changes as God relates to the creation and especially to you and me as God’s beloved.  Malachi 3:6 says, “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” Some use the first part of that verse to say God is immutable, never changing. It’s God’s love that never changes. Read the story of Israel and see how God accommodates the people at every turn. Read how Moses changed God’s mind about the destruction of the Israelites. (Exodus 32:14)

I am learning that God’s power is not coercive control but rather a loving, persuading influence on the creation.

I am learning that God wants to partner with us as God did with Adam and Eve and Abraham. Let me put it this way. God needs us and looks for us. Read Genesis 3:8,9  “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” No matter how you look at the verse it is plain that God looks for us as the father did for the prodigal son. (See Luke 15) As the shepherd searching for the one sheep or the lady for one coin so God longs to bring us back to God’s love.

I am learning that God weeps and suffers with us. God has emotions. And don’t worry about God’s emotions getting the best of him. God can be trusted with those emotions. God suffers with us. That’s clear in Jesus. And in the Old Testament, we read from Isaiah 63:9, “In all their distress he (God) too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.”

Now let’s go to 1Corinthians 13 and I am using the Voice version to give what I believe is an accurate interpretation of verse 12 “For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God.”

Paul is writing about the selfless nature of love for the community at Corinth and such love is so magnificent that we cannot understand it fully but one day we will when we see Jesus face to face. To me that incomprehensibility is clear. (I’ll give us all time to figure out that last sentence.) Paul wants the church to know that love is the essence of who we are as the Body of Christ.

More to come.

Grace and Peace

IF YOU BELIEVE IN SOMETHING YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND (PART I)

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Some of you may recall lyrics from Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”:

When you believe in things that you don’t understand

Then you suffer

Superstition ain’t the way

I am trying to understand more and more of the mind and ways of God, especially the extent of God’s love for God’s creation. I think our beliefs need to make sense. Relationships make sense, for the most part, when one tries hard to understand the heart and mind of the other.

God is a relationship when you consider the Trinity. God is relational, loving us from God’s essence, which is love. I want to understand that love more fully and some people tell me that one just cannot and they point to a couple scriptures that I will take up in PART II.

I believe God wants us to understand God. The Bible isn’t an instruction manual or a blueprint. It’s a love story about the relentless pursuit of the loving God who wants to live with us, enjoy us, and partner with us for all eternity. You might need to read THE SHACK to get the full import of that relationship if the Bible isn’t clear on it.

Consider these words from the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians:

“I ask the God of our Master Jesus Christ, the God of glory – to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers…” (1:18)

And we know this is what God wants, for God sent the Son into our world and lives.

(See Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:15)

As I read the Scriptures in 2022 I want to come to understand God more fully. I don’t want my faith to be superstitious. Rather I want to grasp how deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18). I want the solid ground to stand upon as I follow my Lord.

Next time I will share a couple of scriptures where it ‘seems’ that God’s ways are beyond our understanding. It’s surprising.

LIVING INSIDE OUR OWN HEADS

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‘Living in your own head’ can mean to be introspective but often times it means to overanalyze life even to the point of feeling self-critical. Too much second guessing ourselves.

There are certainly times when we need to reflect within ourselves, take stock of our lives, and see what needs to be done. And that soul searching needs to be done in love, not judgment. If we are to love others as ourselves, well, then, I guess we need to have an unconditional self-acceptance in order to be able to be healthy about loving others. And that can be a life’s work of maturation.

This is so true in the Christian life. Our view of God’s judgment and anger can lead to a lack of self worth.  This might come from some bad parenting or even lack of success in some endeavor. We end up with a bad image of God thinking that we need to please God, achieve some great thing for God.

Self-flagellation is what it was called in early Christianity. It was practiced as a form of mortifying the flesh, inferred from some places in the Bible.  In Romans 8 Paul writes: 13” for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Notice that Paul says ‘by the Spirit’. This is no directive to physically abuse oneself in some kind of effort towards purification. It is more meant as a means of subduing one’s earthly ways that are contrary to God’s will. If anger is my problem then I need to subdue it, not repress it. I need to name it and conclude that I am invited into a better way to live.

I think that’s the meaning of ‘repentance’. In some instances ‘repent’ might have to do with being sorry for sinful deeds but generally it means to be ‘changing one’s mind’ and even being ‘out of one’s mind’. Stop regurgitating the same ole way of living and believing and get out of your head and discover that the Kingdom of God has arrived and is here for God’s good purposes of defeating evil and bringing abundant life to God’s creation. That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 4:17, “Repent for the Kingdom of ‘Heaven’ (meaning God) is at hand.”

Let’s paraphrase that verse. “I invite you to change your way of thinking about life as a dead end and instead try to think outside your own mind into a new way of understanding that God’s eternal and unconditional love has come close in the person of Jesus. And this love will change your life.”

There is no need for self-belittling or self-incrimination. Rather this is an opening of our minds and hearts to receive the Father’s love. Even for those who haven’t had good fathers, this God is the father and perhaps mother that we have longed for.

And once we start thinking God’s thoughts, and having the mind of Christ, as Paul puts it in Philippians 2, we discover why God’s ways and God’s love manifested in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is a wonderful way to live. Not by rules but by a relationship. Then we will be in our right minds.

THE SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE

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The band ‘Cream’ sang this in 1967, the year I graduated high school. Forget the lyrics for now. It’s the title I love. I am still a big fan of Eric Clapton.

Anyway, the title reminds me of some words of Jesus. We’ll get to those words but first I need to recall a couple scenes from the T.V. series FRASIER. My wife and I are watching it for the 4th time. Get a life, george. The scenes involve Frasier and his brother, Niles. In different scenes the brothers hold a door open for some woman who neglects to say, ‘thank you.’ It becomes a theme in the show about ungrateful people who don’t offer the thanks that is expected. 

I’ve done that. I stop my car so someone can cross the street apart from the crosswalk area. A little wave of acknowledgment? Nope. So then I decided to not expect any gratitude. That worked for a while and now I’m back to anticipating something that is probably not going to come.

So I’m thinking the other day about Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:45 we read the words that ‘God makes his sun to shine on the evil and good’ and Jesus tells us to do the same thing for others, no matter their character.

God is showering the sunshine of his love on everyone without thinking about getting thanks in return. Oh, does God love our praise? Certainly. But his love takes no notice of those who don’t respond except to keep loving them and letting his sun shine on them. Some folks call that common grace. Let’s call it love, pure unconditional love, a love that does not keep score. And I for one am glad because if God kept score of my ‘bads’, God would be already in the ‘billions to nothing’ category.

Our God is loving. God is love, says the Bible. That’s his essence, his nature. He loves to love. That’s why you and I are here on this earth. To love. Like our Father in heaven, says Jesus.

Thanks be to God for those who want to live in that love, soaking up all that grace and seeing the difference in their lives if they do. Now that I am writing this, I’m gonna see what it’s like in real life.

God be with you.

CRYSTAL CLEAR

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So here’s the thing. There are so many things in Bible interpretation that are ambiguous: Atonement, baptism, prayer, as well as the meaning of faith and works.

Even the Reformers couldn’t agree and they split over the issue of communion (The Lord’s Supper). Even Paul said he had to ‘work hard’ so as not to be disqualified from salvation. (1Cor. 9:27)

And the issue of eternal punishment is not clear. Is it annihilation or fires or worms or darkness or is there a possibility that somehow God will bring all his creation back to himself?

I know that many Christians believe that non-believers or disobedient people may be tortured in everlasting torment. But that is mostly from presumptions we make having been brought up in a certain way. Listen, Christian people are not even certain what happens to the people who have never heard of Christ. They say things like ‘well they are not the elect’ or ‘God will do the right thing’. And what about the Jews and little children who are not of accountable age? And what does accountable means? I believe we are manipulating God into a box where we have taken away God’s freedom.

Is the eternal destiny of humanity so clear that some people can be so certain as to who is in and who is out? Doesn’t God judge the intention of the heart? It seems so in the Sermon on the Mount.  And do all our discernments about judgment make us judges ourselves?

And what about those men who crucified our Lord? Were they really forgiven? It all makes me dizzy. And then I know people who say that our little minds can’t understand how God works.

Well, I do. Amidst all the ambiguities of this faith one thing is Crystal Clear: God’s love for us. There is no doubt that God’s love is huge, beyond huge. When my mother use to tell her granddaughter that she loved her, her granddaughter would respond, “I love you more”. That’s what God says to us time and time again and especially from the cross. “I love you more.” And not for one moment do I think the love of God stops when our hearts stop beating. I’ve said before that everything I see now is through the lens of the Christ crucified for us.

We westerners (and you can check this out) have the propensity towards retribution and payback. Our idea of justice is that God will pay bad people back.  It’s probably why I like Westerns so much. But God’s idea of justice is….well, look upon the cross. There we see God’s idea of justice for humanity. We see Jesus loving, suffering, forgiving and dying for love. Death cannot prevent that kind of love from getting through to God’s creation. Never mind Jesus preaching to the imprisoned souls, whatever that means. Just think that God’s love fills eternity, all of it, forever and ever. If God’s love can continue in the ‘saved’ person’s life then why can’t it do remedial work in the other’s lives? Who knows? There might be remedial work to be done in the ‘saved’ lives. And it will be out of God’s love, not vindication or retribution. Yeah, that’s what I believe.