Debbie and I went to see the first Star Wars movie on our honeymoon, over 39 years ago. Episode IV "A New Hope". We were hooked and have found our way to episodes V, VI, I, II, III, and VII. It is highly likely that we will see the new Star Wars this fall as we wait for episode VIII to come to the big screen. We can actually speak "Star Wars" with our children. "I am your father." In Star Wars Episode V "The Empire Strikes Back". Luke leaves the frozen world of Hoth to go to the Degaba system to train to be a Jedi. Here he meets Yoda, a Jedi Master, who is to teach him the way of the force. There is a lot of Eastern mysticism woven into the sci-fi fantasy but there are also some reflections of truth. Yoda is definitely not a student of Plato. His theological framework is, without a doubt, Eastern. He actually reflects a little Hebraic truth we can learn from. His thoughts are actually ones our Western world view has a harder time incorporating into our lives than we realize.
Luke is trying to "use the force" to levitate things when his X-wing starfighter begins to slip beneath the murky waters of the swamp that is Yoda's home. He is challenged by his teacher, Yoda, to rescue the sinking fighter. Luke is more than skeptical as he sees no relationship between his growing Jedi skills and this assignment. Moving boxes is one thing but this is an X-wing starfighter. He sighs and tells Yoda he will try. Yoda responds with a profound statement that every follower of Messiah can learn from. Yoda simply says, "Do or do not, there is no try". Luke gives it a shot, and for a moment we see the starfighter begin to move, Luke is on the verge of success. However, the moment passes and the starfighter heads for a watery grave. "I can't, it is too big" is Luke's excuse. Enter Yoda, who reaches out and, with the use of the force, lifts the starfighter to safety. Luke is stunned and says, "I don't believe it." "That is why you failed" replies Yoda.
Setting the mystical "force" stuff aside Yoda is actually on to something. God never tells us to try to do anything. He tells us to believe. John 6:29, "Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” To keep His commandments, John 14:15, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Also, "I command you, that you love one another" (John 15:17). How about Micah 6:8, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" God never tells us to try. He tells us to do. He offers forgiveness if we fail and second opportunities to "do". The expectation of obedience is just that, to obey. I have heard so many people say, myself included, "I'll try". It is a nice way of giving ourselves the out for disobedience. "At least I tried." Is the salve we readily apply to our failures.
As a hypothetical example, let's say you have determined as a couple to "try" not to argue or raise your voices. The opportunity comes to do just that and then your spouse hits that sensitive button they always do in these situations. You respond in like fashion and then there is vocal escalation and soon the shouting match is in full force. You can't help what happened, but at least you tried. Really? Okay, let us add one new component. In the midst of the mutual verbal assault your four year old daughter enters the room crying. The verbal battle is put on hold to comfort the child. Wow! It appears you can "do" instead of just "try" after all. When we enter into any discipline that the Lord and His Spirit has convicted us of the call is simple. Do or do not, there is no try.
"Trying" is often the way we can pre-excuse wrong behavior and broken promises. "I will try to come to your game", "I will try to read my Bible every day," "I will try to be more committed to being at church." I will try to listen to my spouse." This way if we do not accomplish what we promised we have the answer, I tried, I just didn't make it, or come, or read, or listen. "Hey, at least I tried." There are times when there are circumstances beyond our control, a car accident delays us, sickness, or some emergency meeting you cannot avoid. However, how many times do we toss out the "I tried" when the truth is simply we did not do.
I need to go to the gym. It helps my heart, my energy, my weight, my stress level and gives me opportunities to be a witness to some of the guys I have gotten to know. If I get up a little before 6:00 a.m. and do my morning ritual of devotions, putting the dishes in the drainer away, checking my emails, taking my supplements, I don my gym apparel, and brush my teeth it is now 7:00 and time to wake Debbie up. Then I just have to grab the gym bag and exit the house. If I DO this it works every time. I get to the gym. The mornings I try to go I almost always find a reason for not getting there.
The Scriptures are full, from cover to cover, with things I am to do. God loves me enough to let me know His expectations. He wants me to enjoy life and to get along well with others. He wants me to have a great marriage and to be a good dad. He gives me clear instructions as how to accomplish those things. He does not ask me to try. He tells me to do. It is in the doing of His will that we find joy, fulfillment and purpose in life. In 1 Samuel 17 we find the account of David and Goliath. David is mocked by his brothers and questioned by King Saul as to his ability to take on Goliath. Goliath mocks and curses David as well. We read, "Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a
spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied" (1 Samuel 17:45). David is confident. He is before Saul and Goliath. He does not say, "I will try to kill Goliath." He does not tell Goliath he will try and he does not expect to be the corpse with his brothers saying, "well, at least he tried." No, by the power of God David would do, not just try.
Yeshua put it this way, "But let your ‘Yes' be ‘Yes,' and your ‘No,' ‘No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one" (Matthew 5:37). Life is a series of decisions and choices. By the indwelling Spirit we can walk with the Lord in strength and obedience. We are called to be a trustworthy people. In the process there will be times when we do not know if we can make a commitment, and yes, it is reasonable to tell someone we will try to get to the party while letting them know there are circumstances that could prohibit that. However, when it comes to the Lord's Commands, if we Love Him we will not try, we will do. When we examine our own lives are we looking for the false comfort of "trying" when God's commands are clear?
" Do or do not, there is no try."
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Monday, August 15, 2016
Gentiles in the Body? or "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
"Well, this will kill our property values." "There goes the neighborhood." "You let in a few and the next thing you know they have taken over and corrupted everything." This was the reality of the community of Messiah followers back in the days of Paul and the Apostles. There was an awakening among the Gentiles that Yeshua was Messiah, not just for the Hebrews, but for the Gentiles as well. Most of the epistles of Paul, as well as James, John and Peter, deal with the issue of unity in the Body of Messiah. It is not surprising when you consider the clash of cultures, ethnic backgrounds and the dramatic philosophic differences between the Greeks and the Hebrews.
The early seeds of this explosion were planted by God Himself as He places Peter into an almost trance. It is on this rooftop in Joppa that Peter has his famous "Bacon" vision (See Acts 10:9-16). This is the passage where most evangelicals ignore the context, miss God's point and focus on food. A bit of commentary on this is found in my 11/23/14 post entitled, "Bacon!!!!". However, that is not the point to be made today. No matter how you look at the passage considering dietary laws, the exciting news for the Jews, and for us Gentiles, is recorded in Acts 11:18, "When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” Evaluating the evidence that Peter presents, the Jews are stunned to silence and conclude that God is allowing the Gentiles to repent and to be granted life. No more zombie like existence as the walking dead; the Gentiles now have the opportunity to be alive in Messiah.
Being so far removed from the events of Acts 11 we miss the magnitude of this declaration. We live in a time when the "church" is predominately a Gentiles club and our concern and compassion for the Jews is minimal. We may pray for them or support a mission focused to reach them; however, the thought of changing our behavior to remove the barriers that have long separated us is pretty much unheard of. This was not so as Peter gave his defense for going to the home of Cornelius. The Hebrews had understood their position as God's chosen people for generations. Gentiles were unclean people who partook of unclean activities. To visit the home of a Gentile put you at risk of becoming ceremonially unclean. Gentiles ate, touched, and associated with things that were unclean both by Torah and Jewish tradition. Such uncleanliness was transmitted to a Jew who had contact with a Gentile who stood unclean before God. This was a violation of tradition and potentially of Torah. This is no small thing to an orthodox and Torah observant Jew. Yet, in spite of all those generations of bias, the Jews of Peter's day were able to look beyond their traditions and accept the reality that Gentiles were also granted life through Messiah.
There is a long road ahead of the Messianic assemblies as Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles learned to live, serve and worship together. The challenges of grafting the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel were very real, as the New Testament Epistles bear witness. We who are of Gentile stock should honestly stand in awe and wonder at Paul's declaration in Ephesians 2:11-13. "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." We who have no claim to the promises have been brought near. Amazing truth, amazing grace!
As history unfolds, that dinner date between Paul and Cornelius has lost its wonder. The Gentiles soon overwhelmed the Messianic assemblies and the guests became the dictators. Soon all Hebrew tradition, along with God's directions in Torah and the Prophets, as how to best live and honor Him, would be erased. The church fathers would proclaim that followers of the Jewish Messiah would be damned for all eternity for observing the Sabbath, dietary laws or any of the Hebrew feasts and festivals. Now it is God's people, the Jews, who are no longer welcome at the table. Now they are expected to somehow be grafted into the "church". To join the commonwealth of the Gentiles perhaps? I challenge you to find that in any of God's Scriptures.
I am honestly grieved at the attitude of believers, those who claim to follow this Jewish Messiah, toward Jewish people. Jews are fine as long as we can support them in Israel. However, if they move into your neighborhood, well, "there go the property values and everyone knows if you let in a few they will just want to take over." "Their traditions about Sabbath and food will impose on my God granted freedoms." It may well be that we need a Gentile Peter to sit on a roof and get a fresh vision of what God meant when we Gentiles were "grafted in" to His people Israel.
We have drifted far from that rooftop in Joppa. We have lost the respect and attitude of Cornelius who was honored beyond words to have a Jewish Rabbi come to dinner. I can guarantee, out of respect for his Jewish guest, he did not serve pork chops. The respect is gone, the Sabbath is gone, dietary restrictions are gone, Torah is gone; just what are we grafted into anyway?
The early seeds of this explosion were planted by God Himself as He places Peter into an almost trance. It is on this rooftop in Joppa that Peter has his famous "Bacon" vision (See Acts 10:9-16). This is the passage where most evangelicals ignore the context, miss God's point and focus on food. A bit of commentary on this is found in my 11/23/14 post entitled, "Bacon!!!!". However, that is not the point to be made today. No matter how you look at the passage considering dietary laws, the exciting news for the Jews, and for us Gentiles, is recorded in Acts 11:18, "When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” Evaluating the evidence that Peter presents, the Jews are stunned to silence and conclude that God is allowing the Gentiles to repent and to be granted life. No more zombie like existence as the walking dead; the Gentiles now have the opportunity to be alive in Messiah.
Being so far removed from the events of Acts 11 we miss the magnitude of this declaration. We live in a time when the "church" is predominately a Gentiles club and our concern and compassion for the Jews is minimal. We may pray for them or support a mission focused to reach them; however, the thought of changing our behavior to remove the barriers that have long separated us is pretty much unheard of. This was not so as Peter gave his defense for going to the home of Cornelius. The Hebrews had understood their position as God's chosen people for generations. Gentiles were unclean people who partook of unclean activities. To visit the home of a Gentile put you at risk of becoming ceremonially unclean. Gentiles ate, touched, and associated with things that were unclean both by Torah and Jewish tradition. Such uncleanliness was transmitted to a Jew who had contact with a Gentile who stood unclean before God. This was a violation of tradition and potentially of Torah. This is no small thing to an orthodox and Torah observant Jew. Yet, in spite of all those generations of bias, the Jews of Peter's day were able to look beyond their traditions and accept the reality that Gentiles were also granted life through Messiah.
There is a long road ahead of the Messianic assemblies as Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles learned to live, serve and worship together. The challenges of grafting the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel were very real, as the New Testament Epistles bear witness. We who are of Gentile stock should honestly stand in awe and wonder at Paul's declaration in Ephesians 2:11-13. "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." We who have no claim to the promises have been brought near. Amazing truth, amazing grace!
As history unfolds, that dinner date between Paul and Cornelius has lost its wonder. The Gentiles soon overwhelmed the Messianic assemblies and the guests became the dictators. Soon all Hebrew tradition, along with God's directions in Torah and the Prophets, as how to best live and honor Him, would be erased. The church fathers would proclaim that followers of the Jewish Messiah would be damned for all eternity for observing the Sabbath, dietary laws or any of the Hebrew feasts and festivals. Now it is God's people, the Jews, who are no longer welcome at the table. Now they are expected to somehow be grafted into the "church". To join the commonwealth of the Gentiles perhaps? I challenge you to find that in any of God's Scriptures.
I am honestly grieved at the attitude of believers, those who claim to follow this Jewish Messiah, toward Jewish people. Jews are fine as long as we can support them in Israel. However, if they move into your neighborhood, well, "there go the property values and everyone knows if you let in a few they will just want to take over." "Their traditions about Sabbath and food will impose on my God granted freedoms." It may well be that we need a Gentile Peter to sit on a roof and get a fresh vision of what God meant when we Gentiles were "grafted in" to His people Israel.
We have drifted far from that rooftop in Joppa. We have lost the respect and attitude of Cornelius who was honored beyond words to have a Jewish Rabbi come to dinner. I can guarantee, out of respect for his Jewish guest, he did not serve pork chops. The respect is gone, the Sabbath is gone, dietary restrictions are gone, Torah is gone; just what are we grafted into anyway?
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
The Other Side of Life or I was built for Wonder
How busy are you today? It doesn't matter what day it is, we fill it to overflowing with more than we can accomplish. Our home has an anomaly that absorbs time. I have a set amount of stuff to do before I head out the door. It takes a particular amount of time to accomplish. Knowing that things do not always go according to plan I even give myself an extra few minutes to err on the side of caution. However, as I drop into my car and turn the key the clock in the dashboard tells me it took 17 minutes to walk across the driveway to get to the car. How can this be? Now I am 12 minutes late and most days the time loss gets worse, not better. I am a list person. I like order and a schedule. I enjoy spontaneity; I just want it to be planned spontaneity rather than those irregular spontaneous disruptive things in life. Some see me as a bit obsessive. Undisciplined people often feel that way about folks like me. For my defense Ecclesiastes does tell us "there is a time for every purpose under heaven".
To be honest I have been reconsidering these things as of late. I am pretty close to convinced that this may not be how life should be lived. As I follow through the history of Israel I am impressed with all the planning and structure God provides. However, YAHWEH makes it clear that we need time to enjoy Him and one another. He called His people to feasts and festivals all the time. Most of us are aware of Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and living where we do in New York we are a bit more aware of things like Purim, the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Rosh Hashanah. God also tosses in New Moon Festivals just to be sure there was a party every month. And let us not forget the Sabbath. A day to set ourselves apart from labor and have twenty-four hours of rest and refreshment, as well as an opportunity to focus on the Lord and our community. I do not see us coming even close to God's system of planned spontaneity. No, our lives are so full that life becomes a chore or just a mundane existence at best. Yes, we do have those birthday parties, overextend at Christmas, and get those other Federal Holidays off to plan picnics, dinners, trips to relatives, and put that new stone patio in so we can sit at the picnic table and lounge chairs three or four times a year. I fear we have lost the wonder God pours upon us every day.
The dawn of every day should be a moment of wonder. Every tree with its unique foliage expresses the joy of creation. The touch of a friend, the smile of a child, the caress from the one you love, all cry out for us to just pause and see the wonder of our Lord. The Lord of all creation designed us to enjoy what surrounds us all the time. Witnessing a rainbow, hearing the slow steady breathing of the child nestled asleep against your chest, the smell of fresh baked croissants, and that feeling you get as someone strokes your hair. So far from mundane, life can be a perpetual experience of wonder if we just listened to our senses. It does not even need to interfere with our list or schedule; we just need to allow our minds to be at rest enough to take in the beauty of the moment. You can take a moment, just a moment, to ponder the print hanging in a waiting room. Forget the irritation of the wait and marvel at the remarkable features of those around you. Each created in the image of God, yet remarkably unique as individuals. (just don't stare too long, it make people a bit uncomfortable)
As those who claim to love the Lord our God and His Son our Savior, maybe we need to take a hint from His Word and enjoy the things He surrounds us with. Maybe we would benefit from a New Moon event to gaze at the heavens and see His constellations on those darker nights. We have been called to produce. We find satisfaction in the work we do. We have within us some measure to achieve. But, is that to be at the expense of the truly awesome reality our Creature has placed us in? We were not designed to just struggle through some mundane existence devoid of the reality of God. He reveals Himself to us in the moments we are blessed with day by day. Maybe we should pass on trying to seize the day and just enjoy its wonder once in a while.
Well, I have written enough. I do not want to overstate the case. I think it would be better to just take a breath, look out the window and gaze at what is around me for a moment. Today I need to be reminded that I was built for wonder.
So were you.
To be honest I have been reconsidering these things as of late. I am pretty close to convinced that this may not be how life should be lived. As I follow through the history of Israel I am impressed with all the planning and structure God provides. However, YAHWEH makes it clear that we need time to enjoy Him and one another. He called His people to feasts and festivals all the time. Most of us are aware of Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and living where we do in New York we are a bit more aware of things like Purim, the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Rosh Hashanah. God also tosses in New Moon Festivals just to be sure there was a party every month. And let us not forget the Sabbath. A day to set ourselves apart from labor and have twenty-four hours of rest and refreshment, as well as an opportunity to focus on the Lord and our community. I do not see us coming even close to God's system of planned spontaneity. No, our lives are so full that life becomes a chore or just a mundane existence at best. Yes, we do have those birthday parties, overextend at Christmas, and get those other Federal Holidays off to plan picnics, dinners, trips to relatives, and put that new stone patio in so we can sit at the picnic table and lounge chairs three or four times a year. I fear we have lost the wonder God pours upon us every day.
The dawn of every day should be a moment of wonder. Every tree with its unique foliage expresses the joy of creation. The touch of a friend, the smile of a child, the caress from the one you love, all cry out for us to just pause and see the wonder of our Lord. The Lord of all creation designed us to enjoy what surrounds us all the time. Witnessing a rainbow, hearing the slow steady breathing of the child nestled asleep against your chest, the smell of fresh baked croissants, and that feeling you get as someone strokes your hair. So far from mundane, life can be a perpetual experience of wonder if we just listened to our senses. It does not even need to interfere with our list or schedule; we just need to allow our minds to be at rest enough to take in the beauty of the moment. You can take a moment, just a moment, to ponder the print hanging in a waiting room. Forget the irritation of the wait and marvel at the remarkable features of those around you. Each created in the image of God, yet remarkably unique as individuals. (just don't stare too long, it make people a bit uncomfortable)
As those who claim to love the Lord our God and His Son our Savior, maybe we need to take a hint from His Word and enjoy the things He surrounds us with. Maybe we would benefit from a New Moon event to gaze at the heavens and see His constellations on those darker nights. We have been called to produce. We find satisfaction in the work we do. We have within us some measure to achieve. But, is that to be at the expense of the truly awesome reality our Creature has placed us in? We were not designed to just struggle through some mundane existence devoid of the reality of God. He reveals Himself to us in the moments we are blessed with day by day. Maybe we should pass on trying to seize the day and just enjoy its wonder once in a while.
Well, I have written enough. I do not want to overstate the case. I think it would be better to just take a breath, look out the window and gaze at what is around me for a moment. Today I need to be reminded that I was built for wonder.
So were you.
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