Pressing On In His Footsteps

Hebrews 12: 1-3 Phillips Surrounded then as we are by these serried ranks of witnesses, let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us run the race that we have to run with patience, our eyes fixed on Jesus the source and the goal of our faith. For he himself endured a cross and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy he knew would follow his suffering; and he is now seated at the right hand of God’s throne. Think constantly of him enduring all that sinful men could say against him and you will not lose your purpose or your courage.

Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Observation

Living for Christ is a long-distance journey because it is life long.  There are times when the scenery and road are pleasant, just enough breeze to cool you off and the pace not too fast.  Then there are times that challenge you from a little to the max, when you are making your way through difficult paths, fraught with hazards, and weather heating up (the “litany of hostility”).  It is enduring through these difficult times that builds strength and endurance in our faith, in our ability to finish “this race we are in.” 

However, we are not required to just run and finish the race, but to run and finish as Jesus did.  That is the challenge.  Jesus returned mercy and grace for judgment, washed the feet of His betrayer, loved the Pharisees enough to tell them the awful truth, publicly broke Sabbath rules that did not reflect the heart and purpose of His Father, and so much more – regardless of the personal cost to Him (“he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever”).  Like Jesus, we are asked to keep our eyes on the finish, the goal, rather than what we may have to endure along the  way.

Impact on Me

There have been both phases of this race in my life – the one showered with blessings, grace and peace (breezing along with the Holy Spirit’s breeze) and those that seemed like an Iron Man through sucking mud (wondering if God has taken His eyes off me).  I have had people cheering me on and those who assured me I would never make it through.  I have lost dear friends who wanted to split a church, encouraged pastors who felt too wounded to continue, endured false accusations by others in leadership with me at church, learned to worship God regardless of the circumstances and people who wanted to steal my joy in worship and serving, and so much more. 

“Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.”  In all the phases of my race of this Christian life, I was not perfect, but I did find the Holy Spirit running with me to build the muscle and endurance of my faith no matter what circumstance would try to be the next rock in the road or uphill battle.  I repented often and found grace in my transparency and surrender.  I took comfort in the fact that Jesus realizes the battles I faced because He became human and understands my soul’s struggle between choosing to react according to my flesh rather than responding according to His Spirit within me. “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.”

Devotion

Lord God, You are the author and finisher of our faith, the One Who is with us and for us through every phase of the race, the One Who became a man to know our innermost workings and then die for us to pay the ultimate price we could never pay.  I have slipped up, stumbled and even fell along the way, but You have been faithful to pick me up and encourage me on toward the finish.  I am forever grateful.  Help me to remember what Jesus endured when I am being accused, condemned and persecuted so I will not lose track of how to run this life race as Jesus did.  “Think constantly of him enduring all that sinful men could say against him and you will not lose your purpose or your courage.”  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

WHEN IT’S ALL BEEN SAID AND DONE
Robin Mark

When it’s all been said and done, there is just one thing that matters.
Did I do my best to live for truth?  Did I live my life for you?

When it’s all been said and done, all my treasures will mean nothing.
Only what I’ve done for love’s reward will stand the test of time.

Lord, your mercy is so great that you look beyond our weakness
And find purest gold in miry clay, turning sinners into saints.

I will always sing your praise, here on earth and Heaven after,
For you’ve shown me Heaven’s my true home.
When it’s all been said and done, You’re my life when life is done.

When it’s all been said and done, there is just one thing that matters.
Did I do my best to live for truth?  Did I live my life for you? 
Lord, I’ll live my life for You.

Philippians 3: 7-11 Phillips Yet every advantage that I had gained I considered lost for Christ’s sake. Yes, and I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I did in actual fact suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless rubbish compared with being able to win Christ. For now my place is in Him, and I am not dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness of the Law. God has given me that genuine righteousness which comes from faith in Christ. How changed are my ambitions! Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by his resurrection: now I long to share his sufferings, even to die as he died, so that I may perhaps attain as he did, the resurrection from the dead.

Observation

“How changed are my ambitions!”   The Apostle Paul lost much.  He was a Pharisee of high esteem and position, a student of Gamaliel, one of the most highly regarded teachers of Judaism and the Law.  Paul made it his mission to persecute the followers of Jesus, considered a dangerous heretic by religious authorities.  Paul’s conversion to Christianity would have obliterated all he had gained in his old life and accomplishments to leave him now marked as a dangerous heretic.   He counted the loss of the “useless rubbish” of rooting his worth and significance in worldly accomplishments as gain because he now found his significance and worth in truly serving God.  “I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.”

Getting to this place in our lives is part of the sanctification process – that pruning away of the old growth branches of our lives to allow for new growth in godliness.  This process takes time, effort, commitment and sacrifice.  It is our lifelong pursuit from the moment of embracing our redemption in Christ.  It is not easy to let go of the recognition and even praise from our families, our peers, our society, for achievements that make sense to them.  It is not easy to exchange our achievements that mark success in our social sphere to become fruitful in the Kingdom of God.  It was not easy for Paul to lose it all.  It was almost unbearable for Jesus to bear the pain, suffering and shame of the Cross, but He considered it worth doing for our sakes.  If we are asked to give up our position, power, and praise, are we willing to bear the shame and sacrifice required to say “yes” to God’s plan and purpose for each of our lives?

Impact on Me

“We are called to be fruitful – not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.” ~ Henri Nouwen

I think about people who are willing to be humbled, stripped of earthly successes and even shamed for the sake of allowing others to see Jesus living in and through them.  I try to be careful not to weigh my responses by what benefit I will gain from my actions.  This includes doing things to gain kudos from my Christian community.  False humility is really pride in another costume when I allow others to lift up my accomplishments, my kindnesses, my sacrifices (my own successes) rather than thanking the Lord for what He has done in and through me (my fruitfulness).  There is nothing wrong with receiving recognition for acts of  generosity, service and exercise of my skills, but there is something wrong when the recognition is the motivation behind giving in the first place.  This is one of those fine lines where I have to make sure that I am listening to the Lord and not the deceiver who is exceedingly sly. 

Devotion

Lord God, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Father of Mercy and Grace, I come humbly before You in gratitude that You allow me to be one of Your instruments in bringing Your Kingdom on earth.  I can do nothing good that doesn’t come from You.  I place my skills and abilities, my time and energy, on Your altar for Your use.  I pray that You will watch and guide me so I can stay out of the way of the Holy Spirit accomplishing His will and purpose in and through me.  Never let me dare to steal any of Your praise by forgetting that I am just the instrument in Your hand.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

Romans 12:1-2 NKJV  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:1-2 Phillips With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Romans 12:1-2 MSG So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Observation

I include the same verses from three translations here to make a point.  All of them express the same request (submit completely to the Holy Spirit’s work in you) and promise the same result (spiritual maturity).  As with all of us, each translator expresses himself/herself in their own unique way.  Being “conformed to this world”, allowing the world/culture to “squeeze you into its own mould” or becoming “so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking” – which one creates a better picture for you of how the culture around us will change us if we don’t submit ourselves to God and allow the Holy Spirit to be in charge of how we represent Jesus by our lives in this world? 

These verses are about becoming like Jesus – choosing to be a living sacrifice – taking our everyday, ordinary life and placing it before God as an offering.  Paul makes it clear that becoming like Jesus is not automatic, easy, comfortable or for the faint of heart.  Becoming more like Jesus is an on purpose sacrifice of fitting in with the culture of the world in which we live.  Not only can we not fit in with the obvious evil we see, but we must also be willing to turn over the tables (the sacred cows) of religion.  Neither is easy, but both are necessary if we want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

Impact on Me

I am a person who wants shalom, but shalom is much different than peace-keeping.  Shalom is peace-making.  As a matter of fact, achieving shalom often requires standing up for the unpopular truth, being misunderstood by even those I love.  My culture wants me to be “kind and merciful” enough to forget that human goodness does not gain heaven on its own.  My culture wants me to accept sinful conduct as the norm because “everybody is doing it.”  Rather than judging and condemning them, does my heart ache to see those redeemed who are blinded by my culture?    God’s heart ached so for all humankind that Jesus, God made Man, made the great sacrifice of dying for us all.  How can I help them to come face-to-face with Jesus?

So, for me shalom, that redemptive wholeness of living in the presence of God, comes from learning to be a peace-maker – being a forgiver, turning the other cheek, becoming difficult to offend, going the extra mile, praying for those who spitefully use me, seeing past the behavior of a person to recognize a soul that needs healing and redemption, and so much more.  These are the types of sacrifices Paul is asking me to make – counter to my worldly culture but representing pure heaven-culture.

Devotion

Everlasting Father, God of Love and Mercy, Redeemer, Lord of All, Your goodness and mercy chases after me even when I think I don’t deserve it.  Give me the heart of Jesus for the outcasts as well as the “in group” (cultural influencers) who are blinded by this worldly culture.  Give me Jesus’ insight into the wounded and confused souls of those who might be offensive or disrespectful to me so I might have compassion for them.  Make me a peace-maker so that Jesus can continue His redemptive work in and through me – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor;  He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; ¹⁹  to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19 NKJV)  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

Hebrews 4:12-13 NIV  For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:12-13 PHILLIPS  For the Word that God speaks is alive and active; it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword: it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being: it exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart. No creature has any cover from the sight of God; everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Observation

According to these verses, there is nowhere one can hide and nothing one can keep secret from God; He sees and judges it all – “the innermost intimacies of a man’s being.”.  For some, this would be terrifying because they don’t know and understand the nature of this God of ours.  They expect Him to be like us, having a human nature, and find this level of transparency and judgment unnerving and even threatening. What human can be trusted with complete knowledge of another – every thought and intent of the heart, every secret act, every shameful regret?  This kind of complete knowledge would give too much power to another by revealing the ugliest and most fearful, shameful, embarrassing secrets we work diligently to hold safe and secret within the dark, locked closets of our own soul.  Our safety, our future, our success, even our very life, would depend upon the nature and character of the person – good or bad – who had such power over us. 

For someone who understands our God as angry, stern or unyielding in His demands for perfection, this verse cuts in a way that further wounds and oppresses. For those who understand our God as just, merciful and loving, this verse cuts in a way to free them from their burden of sin as they come again and again to expose themselves in sincere repentance and be judged by Him, knowing that they have an Advocate Who does understand what it is to be human and guarantees the result will be mercy and grace.  The verses immediately following give us hope. “So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:14-16 NLT).

Impact on Me

 This is a passage of Scripture that always arrests me as I read. I must stop and consider the sacrifice made to make this possible – not only the Cross but also asking His Son to become a vulnerable infant and grow up, experiencing life as a human so He could understand us, emotionally, physically, actually, and be our passionate advocate before Father God. Is it so much of a sacrifice for me to trust a God like this – One Who fully knows my deepest secret regrets, failings, betrayals and yet still loves me past reason?  Why am I still holding on to painful secrets that He already knows?  I must ask myself if I trust Him enough to relinquish to the Holy Spirit the keys to every dark, locked closet in my soul so He can clean out all the ugliness and shame. I must ask myself if I truly trust that Jesus will still advocate for me regardless of what He finds hidden in those closets – no matter how shameful, ugly, horrible or disgusting.

Do I truly believe He already knew my deepest, darkest secrets, my imperfections, my failings, my shame and, yet, still loved me enough to die for me before I knew Him as Savior?  What about when I fail Him now, slapping Him in the face by choosing my own way?  Will He turn the other cheek and advocate for me before the Father when I recognize my foolishness and come again to ask for mercy and forgiveness?    This passage of Scripture says, “YES!!”  Being transparent, exposed, judged by such a God as ours is not a risk, but, rather, a benefit; He is always just, merciful, faithful and full of grace for His children.

Devotion

 Lord, You are gracious, merciful and just – King of all kings, Lord of all, the Everlasting, All-Powerful God. You are the One Who knows me inside and out and yet still loves me. I marvel that You would have Your eyes on me, care about my moments, hear me when I call. Who am I?  Yet, when I come repentant, seeking forgiveness, grace and mercy, You always have time and a heart for me. Help me to trust You, invite You in, open my deepest, darkness, most sensitive places to You that, in my transparent exposure, complete trust, before You, I can truly be set free. Fill me with the boldness and courage to do just this. I ask it all in the name of Jesus. Make it so.

John 6:5-13 MSG When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread to feed these people?” He said this to stretch Philip’s faith. He already knew what he was going to do. Philip answered, “Two hundred silver pieces wouldn’t be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece.” One of the disciples—it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter—said, “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted. When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted.” They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.

Observation

I am continually amazed at how simply God works. Not enough food?  I’ll just make it stretch – and stretch – and stretch until “All ate as much as they wanted”!  Our “impossible to even imagine” is natural for Him. Like His students, we do not understand the power and possibility available to us in and through Him. No doubt we would have been thinking like Phillip and most of His team – “Feed all these people?!!!  Do you know how much that will cost?  Never mind finding enough even to buy out here!”  Had they forgotten the miracles that had gone before – raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, healing the woman with the issue of blood, calming the stormy sea, making wine from water and so many others? 

Perhaps Andrew remembered and had a ray of insightful hope when he brought the boy with the loaves and fish – “Here is all that we have to offer, but it cannot be enough.”  He had seen Jesus do the impossible before, but how could so little be made into so much?  Jesus always intended to provide the meal (“He said this to stretch Philip’s faith. He already knew what he was going to do.”), but He wanted to break through the barrier of “possibility” thinking in their minds so that they would embrace and flow in overcoming the impossible through the power that He provided for them. . It was not WHAT or HOW MUCH they brought that mattered but HOW WILLING they were to trust, believe and let Jesus use what they had.

Impact On Me

My mom and dad were very gracious and always welcomed guests on a moment’s notice. They always wanted to have enough in case we had a few unexpected guests at the dinner table (a common occurrence). They were not happy unless everyone was full and we had leftovers. Meal stretching was an art in our home!  However, we never had 5000+ to feed!  This episode in the hands-on teaching of His disciples speaks to me of my limited understanding of the power of absolute submission and surrender. This story illustrates that all my talents, skills, abilities, resources, strengths – everything I can bring – are like the 5 small loaves and 2 small fishes ( like small or large mattered in the least!); they are completely insufficient until I surrender them into the hands of Jesus. 

I am also reminded of my human tendency to think that circumstances matter when God asks me to do something. Like Philip, I look at the immensity of the task and reckon the accomplishment to be impossible – with my resources and what is available to me – forgetting that the same God Who.is asking me to partner with Him is able to accomplish the task without my help, but, for some incomprehensible reason, wants me to share in the joy of seeing it come to pass. I marvel at God’s insistence on partnering with us to accomplish anything as we are like toddlers learning to bake (making more mess, taking more time, using more effort)!  How like the toddling disciples I am!  Just like the disciples and the toddler, as I let the Holy Spirit take the lead, adopt His plan, listen to His instructions and follow them, I will find understanding and joy in the results!

Devotion

Father God, You are all-powerful and all-knowing and yet still so gracious, so loving, so patient toward us as we step out, wobble, stumble, fall and and You help us get up again. I cannot fathom why You love us so much and care so deeply about sharing the joy with us. As for me, help me to never in my thinking limit You by what I think is possible. Whatever I have and am is more than enough in Your hands. When I speak, let it be Your words that are heard. When I hug, let it be Your arms that are felt, Your love and care that remain long after I am gone. Lord Jesus, help me to understand and embrace complete surrender, total submission to You, so that Your Holy Spirit will be free to use me in accomplishing the humanly impossible. I pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Make it so!