A New Law by Derek Webb

One of Serenity and my favorite musical artists is Derek Webb. His lyrics cut to the heart of the Gospel. I was listening to this song while cruising down I-5 in Big Buster and it spoke directly to my desire to be told what to do rather than listen to the Spirit. I want a list of things that will make me more righteous or holy, which all distracts from a relationship with Christ. Here are the lyrics:

Don’t teach me about politics and government
Just tell me who to vote for
Don’t teach me about truth and beauty
Just label my music

Don’t teach me how to live like a free man
Just give me a new law

I don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy
So just bring it down from the mountain to me

I want a new law
I want a new law
Gimme that new law

Don’t teach me about moderation and liberty
I prefer a shot of grape juice


Don’t teach me about loving my enemies

Don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit
Just give me a new law

What’s the use in trading a law you can never keep
For one you can that cannot get you anything
Do not be afraid
Do not be afraid
Do not be afraid

The Silence of Jesus is Exquisite

On Sunday we went to Harbor Presbyterian Church in Ocean Beach and the pastor spoke on the denial of Christ by Peter. Interesting passage:

Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came over and said to him, “You were one of those with Jesus the Galilean.” But Peter denied it in front of everyone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Later, out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to those standing around, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” Again Peter denied it, this time with an oath. “I don’t even know the man,” he said. A little later some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.” Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know the man!” And immediately the rooster crowed. Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he went away, weeping bitterly.

Matthew 26:69-75

The next time Peter sees Jesus is after His resurrection, while fishing on the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus helps the disciples catch some fish (John 21:6), and then asks them to eat breakfast with Him. Nothing reminding him of his denial, or as Brennan Manning says in his book The Importance of Being Foolish,

There is no mention, apparently even no memory, of their betrayal. Never a reproach or even an indirect reference to their cowardice in the time of testing. No sarcastic greeting like, 'well, my fair-weather friends. . . .' No vindictiveness, spite, or humiliating reproach.

Isn't this amazing? Manning states that "the silence of Jesus is exquisite." Again, when Jesus encounters Mary Magdalene, He tells her to "go and tell my brothers. . . ." (Matthew 28:10). He calls these betrayers and cowards brothers. Jesus was the perfect example of how He calls us to love in I Corinthians 13. Especially verse 5: love is "not irritable, and keeps no record of wrongs." Jesus is not disappointed in us, neither is God for that matter. He is silent on the matter because His love has covered it all and His memory is erased.

Saint Patrick

The town were I used to work in Oregon, Woodburn, has a very interesting mix of people: 80% Hispanic, 15% Russian and 5% other. For the first time in my life I was the "other". I enjoyed the diversity. As wrestling coach I had a disproportionate number of the Russian population as you could have guessed (although I had some really good Hispanic wrestlers, most of the population thought we wore colorful masks with zippers and jumped off turnstiles). Many of the Russian population at the school is Russian Orthodox who would miss 20 or so days of school a year to celebrate different events in church history or to honor different saints specific to thier religion. I would ask students and wresters before they left school for a Russian Holiday, "Do you know what you are celebrating?" Nearly every time the answer was, "well, no, not really." I would give them a homework assignment of learning what they were missing school for other than drinking with their friends in the church parking lot while their parents spent the day inside doing "religious" type things.

So, before we go judging my dear Russian friends, how many of us know anything about Saint Patrick other than parades, Irish, green beer and random people pinching us (I had an old lady pinch me at CVS pharmacy yesterday and then say, "Honey, you go on home and tell your wife that an old lady at CVS pinched you.")

Some cool facts about good ole' Saint Patty:

• Historians guess that he lived between 320 and 460 AD
• He was British born and considered a Roman (by this time in history the Roman Empire had conquered the British Isles)
• He was captured by Irish raiders and forced into slavery on Ireland for 6 years before he escaped and returned to his family
  
• Although he was British (and had been captured and forced into slavery) he had a vision that he was supposed to go to the Irish people to spread the Good News
• He refused to take financial gifts from nobility and actually sold his own inheritance to enhance his ability to find commonality with the very people he was trying to reach
• He drank a lot of green beer (not really sure about this one, but that's what Americans think, right?)

Knowledge

I have been thinking recently: "Knowledge doesn't necessarily equate to understanding."

A pastor friend we met recently said to us, "nowhere in the Bible does it command us to 'study'."

I love to research, to study. I have a history degree, one of my favorite places to go is the library, reading about the American west, or the Civil War, World War II, or the middle ages. I just soak it up, I love to study. I think it drives Serenity nuts sometimes. When we travel, I do a lot of research, I don't want to drive 2 miles away from the coolest thing around and not see it, I want to know. I don't want to be ignorant.

But sometimes there is no amount of studying that will bring about understanding. Some things about God are just a mystery, we will never know until we see Him face to face, and even then we probably won't be able to understand the Great Mystery.

For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. - Romans 1:19

Paul states clearly that what we know about God isn't necessarily something we learned, it was placed in our hearts by God. When we earnestly seek His knowledge and an understanding of God, He will place it in our hearts what we need to understand.

What interests me is that the early churches, all of the epistles of Paul and others, none of those churches had a Bible, or even early manuscripts of most of what we call the "Bible". I guess they had the letters that where written to them, but outside of a handful of those and what we call today the Old Testament, most of the early believers didn't "study" like we Christians feel compelled to do today. Not that it is a bad thing. However, we get so caught up in doing our "quiet time" or study time, or Sunday "school" which obviously implies "study", that it stops being about an intimate relationship with Christ and becomes a bullet charted knowledge of a book. It isn't living and breathing and exciting.

While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church. I Corinthians 8:1

Action, which is based in love, is what builds up the church, it is what will truly last, not a super-academia based understanding and knowledge of the spiritual facts of the Bible. That is not pure TRUTH. Ask God to reveal TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, and UNDERSTANDING to you:

asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. Ephesians 1:17

So stop studying the bullet points and start applying the action of love to the people around you.

make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

Ears that Hear

I was recently given a short passage to read from Eugene Peterson's The Jesus Way. In it, Peterson discusses Isaiah 6. It was of particular interest to me because it is the passage that the ministry organization that supports Mustard Seed Ministries is named after - Isaiah's Stump. The Lord revealed some truths in the passage that relate to some of the things we have seen on the road. I have often asked myself, "why don't people repent and turn to the Truth, to Jesus?" We have seen drug addicts in the depths of despair seemingly in the deepest valley of hopelessness, when asked if they would like something to eat, or something to drink, flip us the finger, tell us they have all they need to drink and hold up a bottle. I have seen people, when presented the simple gospel of Jesus Christ, how when you turn to Him, He embraces and frees us, releasing us from the chains we have been bound by, turn away and refuse to accept this free gift of grace and forgiveness. It baffles me, but I'm not sure if the Lord wants us to get too caught up in those who refuse to listen. I believe He simply asks us to be obedient and present the Truth, the simple gospel, and let the Holy Spirit work from there.

We are the sowers, but we do not reap, that is for the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 6:8-13

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

⁹ He said, "Go and tell this people:
" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."

¹¹ Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
And he answered:
"Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,

¹² until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.

¹³ And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."

Basically the Lord was telling Isaiah that He wanted him to go to the Hebrew people and tell them: "listen, I'm gonna tell you a bunch of things about the Lord, I'm gonna tell you about the Truth. I'm even gonna tell you about the Messiah who is to come, but your not gonna get it." In other words, I'm gonna talk until you are dumb, your eyes, your ears, you will not see, you will not hear. I'm gonna talk until your "cities lie in ruin," and your land is full of stumps. However desolate that sounded, it must have been refreshing for Isaiah! The pressure is gone. Isaiah didn't have to save anybody! I think many times we get this feeling that people have to get it, they must understand, when in actuality, the Lord isn't calling us to make sure people get it. Sure, there is good teaching, mentoring, discipleship, all of this helps guide people into the Truth, but we cannot save a single soul, that is for the Lord, and this is what the Lord was, in essence, telling Isaiah: "be obedient, preach the message I have given you, tell people about the 'holy seed' that is to come." That's it!

Stump land sprouted the "holy seed," Jesus, and Jesus went on to fulfill Isaiah's prophecies and preach many of the same messages. When large crowds gathered around Jesus, he would begin to preach in parables. Personally, I love parables, they are mysterious, they make you think, and usually once you figure out what Jesus was saying, the Truth is profound and meaningful. In Luke 8, Jesus reveals why He uses parables.

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
" 'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.'

Jesus quoted from Isaiah 6. Although our heart should be to see every person turned to Jesus, if someone rejects the Truth we should not let it bind us in emotion, we should not let it stop us in our tracks and keep us from pressing on for His glory. Sincere seekers will understand, sincere seekers will perceive. Even with large crowds gathered, Jesus uses a preaching technique, parables, to narrow those who understand. On the flip side of that, it isn't our fancy talk, or our wise words that draw people into a relationship with Jesus. In I Corinthians, Paul mentions that he did not preach the gospel "with wisdom of words," (1:17) and then again "with excellence of speech" (2:1). Paul knows that all he must do is preach the simple gospel of Jesus crucified, it is up to the Holy Spirit to allow those who are listening to truly "hear."