Category: Love

Reflections on Praying, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will Be Done, on Earth As It Is In Heaven”

Intellectual faith vs. doing faith

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Neighbors cleaning a sunlit city street together

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he taught them to recognize God: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Immediately after recognizing God for who He is, Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” These things are the foundation of our prayer life with God, according to Jesus.

As I think about this today, the realization strikes me that praying, “Thy kingdom come,” needs to be accompanied by a willingness to reflect God’s kingdom and God’s will in the way we live. If we pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven and don’t think that prayer means anything for us in the way that we live, do we really mean it?

These thoughts came to me as I was worshipping God and thinking about the song we were singing, which was an expression of faith in the promises of God. If we

pray or sing these words to God without any intention to reflect the God we are worshiping and praying to in our daily lives, is our worship and prayer anything other than a clanging gong or a banging cymbal that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13?

When Jesus began his public ministry, the message he preached was the coming of the kingdom, which he said is near at hand. (Mk. 1:14-15l Matt. 4:17, 23) Jesus said that the reason he was sent was to preach the coming of the kingdom of God. (Luke 4:3)

When Jesus spoke in his hometown synagogue, he said it a little bit differently: he said that he came to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to prisoners, to give sight to the blind, and to set the oppressed free. (Luke 4:18-19)

Throughout his public ministry Jesus demonstrated what he came to do. He touched lepers, though doing so would make him unclean under Jewish law, and he healed them. He gave sight to the blind. He healed the sick and the lame. He set people free from demonic influences. He forgave sins. He lived out a tangible demonstration of what it means for the kingdom of God to come, and he extended God’s favor to Samaritans, a Canaanite woman, and a Roman centurion.

He also challenged the religious people of his day. He repeatedly healed people on the Sabbath. He even went right into the synagogues and healed them in front of the religious leaders, knowing that it would provoke them in their religiosity, because they didn’t understand what it means for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

The religious leaders were angry when Jesus challenged their understanding of the law and therefore of God. In their best moments they were just confused.

When Jesus healed ten lepers and instructed them to go show themselves to the priests, only the Samaritan leper came back and thanked Jesus. The priests asked, when would this kingdom that Jesus was preaching come? Jesus said, God’s kingdom isn’t any particular place, because God’s kingdom is within us. (ἐντός (entos), meaning inside (us) (adverb or noun) — within (us), sometimes translated “among us” or “in our midst”)

They still didn’t know what he meant. All they could see was that he was breaking the rules – the requirements they had established to protect people from breaking the mosaic Law of not working on the Sabbath. They didn’t understand that the Lord of the Sabbath was standing in front of them, telling them they were getting it wrong.

Jesus said the kingdom is in the midst of His followers. He come to announce that God’s kingdom has come, though it is also still to come. He introduced his kingdom, and he called his followers to recognize it, to repent, and to live in its reality.

The question I want to ask today of myself and anyone who might be reading this is this: Are we doing that?

Continue reading “Reflections on Praying, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will Be Done, on Earth As It Is In Heaven”” →

A Biblical View of Sin Turns the Negativity of Condemnation and Judgmentalism into Hope and Human Flourishing

Is the biblical doctrine of sin a negative principle?

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Winding path from rocky terrain through green hills beneath a sunset

In reading Blaise Pascal’s, Pensées, I’m reminded of something I’ve thought about but never really tried to write down, so I will try.

Many people feel that Christianity is unnecessarily harsh in its doctrine of sin. People feel that the notion of sin produces an unhealthy negativity toward the self, perhaps a self-loathing. It can also be used in judgmental and self-righteously harsh ways as people condemn and judge others for their sin.

It seems that people either turn the negativity inward, or project it outward, or both. This is a common criticism of Christianity and the doctrine of sin. When we embrace the doctrine of sin and try to understand it from a biblical perspective, the truth is far more positive than we might suspect at first blush.

For one thing, the idea of sin is a great equalizer. When the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short, it is mitigating one of the chief ways people feel badly about themselves, which is in comparison to others. The idea that all humans have sinned the negativity trap that comes from comparing ourselves to other people.

Paul says that anyone who has sinned in one way has transgressed the entire law. Thus, it makes no difference whether one person may be more or less sinful than another person. We are all in the same boat. To think that I am better than or worse than someone else by comparison is to misunderstand the doctrine of sin.

The great poet of the 18th century, Alexander Pope, says in more poetic language, “To err is human.” We all know this intuitively. If we are honest, we see our faults and our failures in ourselves that other people do not even see. This self-awareness can and does produce feelings of negativity even if we do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments or Christian morality.

The entire quotation from Alexander Pope is: “To hear is human, to forgive is divine.” When we struggle with our own failures and faults, we can find ourselves in an endless feedback loop of negativity. The answer to that vicious cycle is the idea of divine forgiveness. This is what the Bible teaches us.

The doctrine of sin also eliminates a primary way people are cruel to each other – by establishing comparisons that render certain people less than. This is the outward manifestation of negativity that flows from the reality that human beings are error-prone. Whether it’s the Ten Commandments, a cultural or societal standard, or a self-imposed standard, we all fall short. When we turn that negativity outward, we focus on the errors of other people; we judge them; and we become self-righteous if we think we are better than them.

Several swimmers wearing colorful caps crossing turquoise ocean water

The doctrine of sin levels this playing field also. I once heard the analogy of people escaping a natural disaster in California by taking to the sea. The best swimmers might outdistance the lesser swimmers, and the worst swimmers among us might perish quickly in the ocean waters. Not even the best of swimmers, however, are capable of swimming the entire ocean to reach the shores of China.

The doctrine of sin is similar to this analogy in the sense that the best of people still fall short. As Paul stated, the doctrine of sin is a losing proposition for us: it is all or nothing – if we have failed to keep only one part, we have transgressed the entire law because we are still sinners. It doesn’t matter how far any individual swimmer makes it out into the Pacific Ocean. Every swimmer will fall short of making it to the opposite shore.

When we understand that our position relative to each other makes no difference, we are not apt to judge others or to feel superior. The Bible eliminates all of that if we take it seriously, because all have sinned and fallen short so that there is no reason for boasting merely merely because some people sin more or less in one way or another.

In this sense an accurate understanding of the biblical doctrine of sin, is the great equalizer. If we truly understand a biblical view of it, the reality of sin puts us all on the same level. It equalizes all people in relation to each other and in relation to God. We are all in the same position relative to each other and relative to God.

The biblical solution for sin, of course, is God’s grace/forgiveness. The solution for sin is not doing better, but in receiving God’s grace and forgiveness and in willingness to extend that grace and forgiveness to others. As Paul also says, “If we are forgiven by grace, where is the boasting?” Sin and grace eliminate boasting and mitigate against pride, which is the root of all sin according to great thinkers of old.

Continue reading “A Biblical View of Sin Turns the Negativity of Condemnation and Judgmentalism into Hope and Human Flourishing” →

The Lessons from Elisha: Foreshadowing Jesus

An examination of the differences between Elijah and Elisha

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Man in traditional robes sitting on a rock, covering face with hands, historic city with ancient buildings and Dome of the Rock in background at sunset

The contrast between the ministries of Elijah and Elisha provides insight that carries into the coming of the Messiah, the ministry of Jesus, and the New Covenant. The contrast between Elijah and Elisha is a contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. It is a contrast between an emphasis on the judgment of God and an emphasis on the grace of God and salvation.

In my ignorance, Elijah previously stood out more to me than Elisha, even though Elisha famously asked for and received a double portion of the spirit Elijah had. The spirit of Elijah passes to Elisha as seen in the miracles each of them performs. Scholars often highlight the fourteen miracles performed by Elisha versus the seven miracles performed by Elijah as an example of the double portion, but the differences between Elijah and Elisha go much deeper than that.

The character of the miracles is different. This is something I might not have noticed but for a focus on the details in the story of Elijah over the last few years. Those details led me to see some lessons from the story of Elijah that do not stand out at first blush.

Elijah was an oppositional prophet. He was the antagonist to Ahab and Jezebel. He challenged the prophets of Baal and smoked them in a fiery display of God’s power over the impotent idol (Baal) that Ahab and Jezebel worshipped.

Elijah had all the prophets of Baal slaughtered, but Jezebel was not impressed. She called for Elijah’s head, and he fled in fear. He sulked in self-absorbed pity. He complained to God that he was the only one who was faithful, and he seemed to come close to finding fault even with God for the anti-climactic outcome.

When God tried to show Elijah that God was not in great displays of power like wind, fire, and earthquake, Elijah seemed incapable or unwilling to acknowledge what God was saying. Twice God asked why Elijah ran away to Mount Sinai. Twice Elijah gave God the exact same answer.

A man in a brown cloak entering a rocky cave surrounded by moss and vegetation

Elijah protested to God that he had been zealous, and he insisted that he, alone, was faithful to God in all of Israel…. But clearly, he was not alone. Multiple times the text tells us that Obadiah was faithful; he saved 100 prophets from Jezebel’s decree of capital punishment; and God found 7000 people left who had not bowed to Baal.

Elijah seemed not just disappointed, but upset (with God?) that judgment had not rained down on Ahab and Jezebel and all of Israel. It wasn’t that judgment didn’t loom over their heads; it was that God controls the timing – not Elijah.

God told Elijah to go back and anoint Hazael king of Aram and Jehu king of Israel and to pass his mantle to Elisha. Elijah passed the mantle to Elisha but he never followed through with the other instructions God gave him.

Elijah continued in ministry even after he passed his mantle to Elisha, but he seems to take a back seat to other prophets, and he did not change his attitude. God told him to meet the messengers of the King of Israel to deliver a message. After they delivered the message to the king, the king sent them back to summon Elijah, but he smoked them by calling down fire. The king sent another envoy of messengers, and Elijah smoked them with fire also – killing 50 people at a time.

Though God told Elijah to confront the king’s messengers with his own message, the text is conspicuously silent about Elijah calling down fire on the envoys who came to summon him. The King sent a third group of messengers to summon Elijah, and this time God told him to go with them.

Now that I have spent some time meditating on the stories of the two prophets, Elijah stands out for his brashness, but Elisha stands out as the prophet who is more true to who God is. He is the one whose ministry is more characteristic of God, and his ministry stands out in the way way it bridges the narrative arc of Scripture between Old Covenant and New Covenant, from a focus on Abraham’s descendants to all the nations, from the Law of Moses to the Law of grace, love and Christ.

Elisha signals the change from the old covenant to the new covenant. Elisha points the the direction that the arc and sweep of Scripture will take us. Elisha is the link in this point in the narrative to God’s ultimate plans and purposes in the world.

Continue reading “The Lessons from Elisha: Foreshadowing Jesus” →

They Thought God Was Like Them

Examine yourselves to be sure you are in the faith.

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Smiling man with dark shadow holding a knife behind him

“But to the wicked person, God says:

‘What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son. When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.'”

Psalm 50:16-21

God’s Word is full of warnings to the wise. Take heed. God does not desire that anyone perish, but a day is coming when your life will end. A day is coming when this world as we know it will cease to exist. There will be a day of judgment for all of us.

God does not force us to love Him. He doesn’t require that we submit to Him. He gives us the terrible choice of determining how we will live. He will give us over to our desires on that day when we die, on that day when the earth ceases to be as we know it, and we will face the consequences of our choices – the way we chose to live – whether it be with Him or with our own selves at the center of our orbit.

These verses indicate that even a wicked person can recite God’s laws and claim to be in covenant relationship with God. Even a wicked person can claim to know Him. Jesus echoed the words of the Psalmist when he said,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.'”

Matthew 7:7:21-23

This word of warning applied to the religious. We can prophesy in God’s name. We can even drive out demons and perform miracles in God’s name. These signs do not make the person who performs them a child of God. Even false prophets are able to perform great signs and wonders. (Matt. 24:4; Mark 13:22)

Only the one who actually does the will of the Father is a child of God. (Matt. 7:21) Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt. 7:24) Any other way to live is like “sinking sand” as the hymn goes.

The danger we all face is our own self deception. Perhaps, this is why the Prophet said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” (Jeremiah 17:9) We cannot trust our own hearts.

Skeptics say that people have created God in their own image. That is true of the person who thinks God is just like them.

According to the writer of Psalm 50, wicked people who act wickedly can feel justified in their wicked actions, and God allows them to be deluded.

“When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you.”

Psalm 50:21

They are encouraged by God’s silence that they are right in in what they think and do, but God’s silence is not a sign of acquiescence. God’s arraignment and accusations hang over their heads.

I am struck by the need to know God, to know His character, and to yield our assumptions about God to the truth of who God really is. God’s silence in our lives is not approval. God often remains silent. God is often hidden. He is like a treasure to be found. God urges us to seek Him because in seeking Him, we must set aside ourselves to learn who He is.

These verses remind me of Hebrews 4:12: “The word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword.” It pierces. It divides. It discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. If the word of God is doing its job, it cuts, it penetrates, it divides. If we yield ourselves to the word of God, it does its surgical work in us. Bur, only if we truly yield ourselves to that process.

I have often thought that Scripture does this kind of work. I felt it when I first began reading scripture before I was even a believer. I recognized in that time that scripture was exposing me to myself, and that I had a choice. I could allow it to do its surgical work, or I could harden my heart and choose to see in Scripture what I wanted to see.

Many people have said in derision of Scripture that people can make it say whatever they want. They are right, of course. Like the wicked person who acts wickedly and embraces wicked thoughts, while thinking that God is just like them.

The height of pride is to think God is like us. God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

My prayer today is that God would rebuke me as He needs to; that He would soften my heart and do His surgical work in me; that I would not be deceived by my own thoughts and think that God is like me. I pray that God would reveal Himself to me and that I would know God for who He actually is.

“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love“

Ephesians 3:17

The Under-Emphasized Significance of Leviticus 25 in the Ministry of Jesus and Its Importance for Us

The Israelites did not follow the Jubilee instructions

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For at least 7 years, I have been drawn to the passage in Luke 4 where Jesus gives perhaps the earliest description of his public ministry. Jesus introduced his intentions by reading a select passage from the Isaiah scroll, rolled it up, sat down, and announced, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) These were the words that he read:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 4:18-19

Immediately after this announcement, Jesus began demonstrating in Galilee what he came to do – teaching with authority (Luke 4:31-32); setting people free from demonic spirits (Luke 4:33-35); and healing the sick (Luke 4:36-40). At the end of this flurry of divine action, Jesus said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:43) In this statement, he clarified that the good news he came to proclaim is the coming of the “kingdom of God.”

This short passage from Isaiah 61 that recalls the Year of the Lord’s Favor (Jubilee) focuses our attention back on Leviticus 25, which is the framework for the communal life God desired His people to embrace when they settled into the land of God’s promise.

The context of these words in Isaiah 61 remind of us the significance of these words that defined the ministry of Jesus and the Jubilee principles that characterized his life and message. When Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue, he was incorporating God’s great plan and purpose into the announcement of his ministry.

Isaiah 61 cannot be understood apart from Isaiah 59, which recalls the iniquities of the people that separated them from God and the blood that was on their hands. (Is. 59:1-2) They abandoned the way of peace and justice. (Is 59:8-9) They walked in darkness. (Is. 59:10) No one was available to intervene. (Is. 59:15-16), so God said He would step in (Is. 59:17) with a Redeemer for those who would repent. (Is. 59:20)

Isaiah 60 announces God’s plan of redemption: “arise, shine, for your light has come.” It presages that “nations will come to your light.” (Is 60:1:3) Isaiah 60:4-16 announces God’s intention that all the nations will come to Israel “bringing your [Israel’s] children from afar” (v.9), and “foreigners will rebuild your walls” (v.10) , and “you will drink the milk of nations and be nursed….” (v.16) Isaiah 60:17-22 promises peace, no more violence, everlasting light, and righteousness.

In that context, Jesus read the opening verses of Isaiah 61 – announcing that the time had come for proclaiming good news to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom to captives and release from darkness for prisoners, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.

Significantly, the Jesus left out the concluding words: “and the day of vengeance of our God….”

In doing that, Jesus signaled that he did not come for judgment. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17) Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God predicted in Isaiah 61 – healing, freedom, release, and blessing – because God’s people had failed to live into and live up to the plan God had for them.

The words Jesus read culminate with a proclamation of the “year of the Lord’s favor” from Leviticus 25. This is where it gets interesting to me. I have not focused on this part of what Jesus said before, so let’s dive in.

Continue reading “The Under-Emphasized Significance of Leviticus 25 in the Ministry of Jesus and Its Importance for Us” →