Die

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. - Philippians 1:21

Sometimes, when I read a verse like this, I wonder if we Christians have a death wish. Indeed when Paul wrote this he was in fact a prisoner stuck in Jail (Rome likely). He did not know what his future held (I guess none of us really know what our futures hold), and was openly pondering in this letter what would be better.  Life – in prison even though he still could minister the grace of Christ to others, or death, which would men being in the presence of Jesus. One was good…but he called the other “gain.”

When I saw this passage in my email Monday morning, my mind took me somewhere else than, admittedly, the context of this verse of Philippians is about.

Yet, where my mind took me was not inaccurate.  Probably more of a reflection on what I was feeling at that moment.

“…To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Other verses started flooding my head.  Things like, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." (visit Galatians 2:20) Or, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (visit Luke 9:23) Or even a few chapter later in Galatians where Paul writes, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (visit Galatians 5:24)

Die.

I’m such an imperfect person.  I am. There are many things in me that disgust me that still need to die. There are. Oh, don’t get me wrong, many things already have died, but I’m not there yet.  I want, while I’m still on this side of eternity, to truly and freely experience, “to live is Christ,” and experience it fully.

Oh, I get glimpses, it is like seeing in a mirror dimly (visit 1 Cor. 13:12).  But those glimpses of what I should be in Christ are so fleeting.   

This I know.  I’m closer now to what I should be than I ever have been before.  Someday, I shall be perfect.  But not in this lifetime.  That is why Paul could say with all honesty, “to die is gain.”

No, I don’t have a death wish.  Not completely.  Just a longing to really know what it would be like to “live is Christ.”

I need to die.  And Christ needs to live in me.

Unconditional ?

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. John 15:10

I struggle with a concept…to the extent that I generally won’t say the phrase.  The phrase is this:  God’s love is unconditional.  Unconditional.  Is it? Really? Last Sunday in worship I spoke on what a covenant is, and in the Bible it is a legal term denoting a formal and legally binding declaration of benefits to be given by one party to another, with or without conditions attached.

Is then God’s love (or his covenant of grace) unconditional?  Passages like John 15:10, where it says, “If you keep my commandments…(then) you will abide in my love” make it sound rather conditional.  Other passages like Jeremiah 7:23 (and many other similar passages) have God saying things like, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”  Even John 3:16 seems to have a condition. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” There seems to be a condition of belief to receive everlasting life.

Is God’s love then, unconditional?

Perhaps a brief closer look at the John 15 passage might give us a clue. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” The key word here for me is ‘abide.’   If you keep…then you will abide. The Greek word for abide (and I know this is where most people’s eyes glaze over) is μένω (meno), which simply means to ‘stay’ or ‘reside.’ 

Stay or reside.  So we could translate this passage as saying, “If you keep my commandments, you will reside and stay in my love.” Which means, if I’m looking at this correctly, God’s love is given freely and unconditionally; we then have the responsibility of responding in obedience to ‘stay’ or ‘reside’ or live into his love and grace.

In other words, I guess I can say, or at least wrestle with a little more openly, that His love is given unconditionally; what we do with that love however is a responsibility that we must shoulder to continue to receive the benefit his blessings of love.

Experientially, we know that John 15:10 is true.  How many times in my life have I wandered away from keeping his commandments (succinctly summarized by Jesus as, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself" visit Matthew 22:37-39 ) and in turn found myself feeling alienated from God’s love? A love which was given to me in the first place out of His pure good will.

OK, God gives his love undeservedly and unearned.  Perhaps even unconditionally.   

Now.  

 What are you going to do about it?

King

“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.” Zechariah 14:9

I for one, look forward to that day.  Most, I suspect, do not.

Why?

Most of us don’t want a king.  Most of us revel in our autonomy.  Myself included.  But, as I look at society, our much beloved autonomy seems to be slowly breaking down into chaos. As it said in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

We’re coming to that; it can be clearly seen these days in many of our churches.  And likely, if I am really honest, I am as guilty of this as anyone.

That is why I look forward to the day when the Lord will be king over all the earth.

It will not be a time of heavy handed authoritative ruling.  Let’s be reminded about a few things regarding this king. He is the king who “became flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth.”  He is the king that promises whoever “follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He is the king that says, “in me you may have peace.” He is the king that says if we are willing to do his will, he will call us his, “brother and sister and mother.”

In short, this is the king that says he came that we might “have life and have it abundantly.”

I believe this is the king that seems to far more want to bless people than condemn them, although, as with any ruler, we need to realize that condemnation is always a very real possibility. We have choices in life, and we will reap from what we choose.

I suspect that when this king comes, many who oppose him now, will turn around and wonder, ‘Why was I so afraid of him?’ At least, that is a hope I have.

“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.”

I for one, look forward to that day.  And may the Lord out God continue to use me to convince others to look forward to that day also.

Ride

The train to the top.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20

I don’t know why, but when I’m feeling run down and distant from God, I need to ride.  Just get away.  So with that in mind, we just finished putting on over 8,000 miles on my little blue Vibe. Some ride, huh?

On our ride Susie and I went all the way to the top of Pike’s Peak outside of Colorado Springs. 14,115 ft. Ok, we did not push my little blue Vibe to the top, we took a train. Not accustomed to such high attitude, one’s head gets a little light, almost headachy. But from the top of the peak, you can see so much. And God’s creation becomes so much clearer.

In 1893 a college professor by the name of Katharine Lee Bates rode from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs in a train, and one day while on top of Pikes Peak, no doubt feeling a light head and perhaps a dim headache, a poem came to her.  After she returned down to Colorado Springs, she started writing down the words that had come to her. And it read fairly much like this:

The train at the top.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the enameled plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

Till souls wax fair as earth and air

And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought

By pilgrim foot and knee!

The words have changed some through the years, and in 1904 the words were set to the tune of "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem" by Samuel Ward.

Sometimes it takes a ride to see what God has done.  As Paul says, even needing that ride does not leave me with an excuse. For I should be able to “clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature” no matter where I am and what I am doing.  Maybe I need to approach each day as if it is a ride.

Where are you riding to today? And what can you see?

Kind

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."  - Ephesians 4:32

If you know me at all, I have long pondered what it means to ‘act Christian.’ I have been working on this answer for years now. And it’s not just an academic quest; I have genuinely wanted to learn how to act Christian on a most personal level.  I’ve probably grown more into the answer over the past eight years than I had in my previous 26 years as a Christian. I still don’t totally know what ‘acting Christian’ means, but when I do figure it out, I’ll write a book about it.

In the meantime, this simple passage from the apostle Paul gives us a few generous clues on how to act Christian.  He says basically this: be kind, be tenderhearted, and forgive as Christ has forgiven us.

Simple.  Huh.

Well not really, because all of those go against human nature; and especially now that we live in an age where arguing and tearing each other down (frequently via the medium of the internet) has become the norm.  Our human nature has been flaring up with increasing gusto.

Yet.

We are called to go against our nature.  And adopt Christ’s nature. 

It’s not easy.  It’s a tall order. It’s a transformation.  And it takes time.

And it can happen. The same power that resurrected Jesus on Easter is available for us to tap into for transformation.  The question is, as trusters and believers in Christ, are we willing to tap into that power?  And act Christian?

For each of us, time will tell.  It’s a choice.  Be kind, be tenderhearted, and forgive as Christ has forgiven us.  

Or be human.

I know what I choose.  Maybe by His power, I’ll get there.  And write that book.