put it on Jesus' tab

"But all these things (hate, persecute) they will do to you on account of my Name because they do not know Him who sent Me." John 15:21

This verse really stood out to me this morning. I split it into two parts.

"But all these things they will do to you on account of my Name..." The hate and the persecution headed our way for believing and obeying Jesus are credited to Him. This is one of the keys to courage. If we truly believe that it is on His account, on His tab that we receive persecution well then this is very good news! Because when he was persecuted and hated to the point of death, He rose from the dead! Will He not resurrect any smaller deaths we may suffer till the physical one happens? I think one reason why today's Christian does not really want to live out our faith is because we try and pay our own tab when Jesus has already charged it on his own credit card... and paid the debt we owe on ours! If we saw with the eyes that see that nothing will really truly kill us (separation from God, see Romans 8) then i think and hope we would be much more bold. Bold enough to order filet mignon.

"because they do not know Him who sent Me." The scary part about this verse is that we really misapply it. We often point to the atheists, the left-wingers, the satanists, etc. when it comes to those who do not know God. Jesus, in this context, is talking about the religious leaders of the day! I personally believe we were all designed with some sort of leadership capability (a.k.a. influence). And it is not what we know, or how we do it that will matter for eternity but Whom we know. If i try to lead people towards anything that leads people away from knowing Him more, i mislead people. This is a high standard, but a good standard. For we don't want to be found to be the object of this predicate. The scariest words spoken throughout all eternity are/will be, "I never knew you." (Matthew 7:23)

Lastly, as an overall implication of this verse, to know suffering (for doing good in Jesus' manner) is to deeply know Jesus. (I Peter 2:20, 3:17, 4:19)

dirty feet

In Revelation 21:21 we are told that "the great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass." The city being spoken of is the New Jerusalem, a fixture of heaven.

To the people who first read this, their roads were quite different than the ones in this heavenly city. Their roads were dirt, and people shared them with animals. Living in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, i am quite aware of the results of shared roads: poop. You drive through it and step in it and dodge it and it's everywhere. To the first century Christians, their feet were their tires, and you dragged your feet into people's homes.

This is one reason why it is so amazing to me that in John 12 Mary cleans Jesus' feet with her hair and in John 13 that Jesus shows "the greatest extent of His love" by washing His disciples' feet. But why did Mary and Jesus do this?

I believe they had heaven in their sites. They were able to see with their hearts. And when heaven is in your hearts, you dwell there and are aliens here (I Peter 2:11). When the thing you dirty your feet with in heaven (gold) is the most valuable resource here on earth, suddenly the dirt-and-poop combo glimmers with heaven all over it. Washing someone's feet (performing a minuscule task, saved normally for the lowest in society) becomes an interaction of great value. Meanwhile, "all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade away again." (Shimmer, by Fuel)

But all of this depends on keeping a heavenly perspective of earthly opportunities. A perspective that echoes, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

What are the every day, small tasks, seemingly meaningless chores that could be done with a heavenly perspective today? What are the things that no one else wants to do that you can, and can do as an act of worship to God (John 12:1-11)?

May your dirt-and-poop be gold.

Who said that?

Sometimes in my times of reading Scriptures i will have this sort of experience like i did today. Two different Scriptures that i do not expect to line up together, do. For instance...

In Exodus 5 the scene is Moses and Aaron are pleading their case that God had spoken to them and Pharaoh was to oh-oh let their people go! HUH! Yeah yeah yeah yeah! (Sorry, i had to.) Pharaoh's response?

"Who is the LORD that i should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." And Moses and Aaron respond with, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us..." (5:2-3)

Later on, the enslavers of the Israelite slaves state, "Thus says Pharaoh, 'i will not give you straw,'" which perfectly mimicks Moses and Aaron saying "Thus says the LORD," in verse 1 of the chapter.

Later on in John chapter 2 i read the part where Jesus forms a whip and "cleanses the temple" of the traders that are lodged in there. The people ask Jesus for a sign, a miracle, proving that He has this sort of authority. He tells them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (verse 18) In verse 21 and 22 it says:

But He was speaking about the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Notice how they believed the Scripture and the word he had spoken.

In both passages, Old Testament and New, there is an emphasis on knowing God's voice. In Exodus since Pharaoh doesn't recognize God's voice, not only does he fail to heed it, he does not believe, and then even imitates and places himself as God to the people. That's just how far it seems one can go when they do not fear God and come to know Him intimately... a process which God initiates. In verse three of Exodus 5 Moses and Aaron said, "God met with us" not the other way around, "we met with God." The intimacy offered by God is available because of His initiation, always. Even today.

Secondly, the Scriptures are foundational. But they are the foundation to truly knowing Him, and His voice. Knowing His voice then illuminates the Scriptures. Which then, in turn causes us to better know His voice, which...

There are tons of voices trying to imitate God, just like Pharaoh's imitation. Advertising hits us from every angle with slogans that are often making sure i know that their products will offer me everything from peace to hope to the girl(s) of my dream(s) (already got that thank you very much!). Other humans voice their persuasive opinions and we fall for them out of fear. Then there are those "voices in our head," temptations, gut instincts, greeds, fears, jealousies, etc., that torment us.

Here is a blog entry of a friend that understands Christianity and advertising better than anyone i know, and quite possibly better than anyone. No lie.

Somewhere in all of that is the "still, small voice" of God. We would do well to learn how to "believe the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken" as best as we can each day, in every situation. No matter what the cost.

Targum

While reading Colossians Remixed with five of my favorite people in the whole world, we encountered the idea of a targum. To my best understanding, the rabbis in Jesus' day would take an Old Testament passage and relate it to the uneducated by means of targum. This was done by translating the meaning of the Old Testament by putting it into modern day terms and contexts so that the hearers could listen and understand what was meant by the Scriptures. This practice was so intriguing, i thought that are group should give it a whirl.

I picked out six passages and we each received one. I happened to receive Acts 2:1-21. And i threw in there verses 40-41 because i wanted to! Enjoy:

A great annual celebration was taking place in the midst of our people. Not only was it the Feast of Harvest, where we offer our finest of our first selections of our crops, but it was also the day we celebrated God’s presence descending mightily upon Mt. Sinai and administering the Law through Moses. Most of us grew up with the yearly reminder that this day marks God’s faithfulness to provide and our faithful response yielding back to Him the fruit He produced through us. We also knew that the only thing we had to govern us was the law and the hope that His glory would come again one day as it had on Moses.

After praying and praying and praying, fifty days since Christ died and forty days since last seeing Him (in resurrected form), giving up was certainly an option we were ready to mutiny with. But that is when all of history mightily changed in the midst of our group of nobodies.

A violent sound of rushing wind descended upon us, though there was no hole in the roof for it to do so. Miniature raging fires birthed themselves on our heads without the smell of fire or the yelp of branding pain. What had happened to Moses at both the burning bush (the bush aflame that didn’t burn down) and the Mount of Sinai (the writing of the law through more fire and storm) was happening to our very bodies. The letter of the Law was not being written on a stone however. The letter of God Himself was being fashioned to our hearts, to our souls. So much so that when we opened our mouths to praise God we couldn’t believe what we heard, even though we all still understood. We were praising God with languages we had only ever dreamed of learning. And because of the feast, our people from every culture were around. As people began searching for what was causing the commotion in our little upstairs apartment, they were amazed and disturbed. “They are clearly not from our nation. Look at their hair! Look at their clothing! How is it they speak in our languages? And why are they only praising God with their words?” And then the rumor spread, “These were those that followed Christ. You know how the wine always ‘seemed to disappear’ when they went to weddings. And how Jesus could change water to wine. Those drunkards. They’ve been sipping from ‘Jesus-water’ again.” Then, as a calm seemed to cover not only the house, but the whole town, Peter stood with a confidence, and yet a giddiness, I had never seen in him, even in all of his antics he showed with the Christ.

“Hey! It’s only 9 in the morning! We aren’t drunk! This ain’t Shippensburg! No! This is a result of the promise of Joel, the prophet from centuries ago who he himself could never have imagined this. It would be like asking your great-grandma to describe what an iPod would be like. Yet Joel said these words as if God were speaking right through his mouth like a puppet:

When the tide turns on satan, My Spirit will be infused, Matrixed, right into the core of all who follow Me. They all will encourage one another with words from heaven, with telling the future, and with details no human would normally know. The inexperienced believers will see Me in their hearts and I will tell them secrets because I’m their best friend, and they’ve considered me theirs. The older among you who normally have trouble sleeping because of the cares of this world will explain the deepest desires of my hearts because of dreams I give them, telling them all. I will shame the leaders among all of you when I give my secrets to janitors, bums, the mentally handicapped, left-handers and yes, even Yankees fans. The sky itself will begin to reveal the impossible, and the earth will seem to hate itself. The sun will seem to implode, and the moon will change its moods for all to see. Yet, even in the midst of the greatest strife, hatred, and darkness, anyone who as much hopes for Me to be there for them will find Me there fighting for them.

(skip to Acts 2:40-41)

Peter, as per usual, went overboard with his actions and sermons, but nevertheless his message was clear. “God will be yours, and what you see here today is also yours if you simply believe and not conform to the earth and the people who war amidst her.” You wouldn’t believe it, but in true God-fashion, exactly 3000 people asked to be baptized that day to symbolize their crying out for God and a new way to live. This is wild, because on the very day we celebrated the Law being given Mount Sinai, the very event that killed 3000 people, 3000 people experienced new life because of this mysterious Jesus who resurrects the dead and through His Spirit allows people to spew out languages they wouldn’t know, and secrets they shouldn’t know.

sort of

"As for you, you meant evil for me, but God meant it for good..." Genesis 50:20... sort of.

In the last chapter of Genesis, a book that saw the ebb and flow of God's creativity, goodness, grace, and mercy yet His power, judgment, and (softly put) His clarification of just who is God, we see a weird scene at the end. The sons of Jacob, Joseph's brother, try to trick Joseph into forgiving them! They clearly got that from their father. However, Jacob's response to them is one that when i first had heard really vindicated a lot of events happening in my life.

"As for you, you meant evil for me, but God meant it for good..." Which is funny that i resonated with this. I really don't think i've had too many people intentionally throw me in a cistern, and trick my dad into thinking i'm dead. But i resonated nonetheless. And many do with this verse! We think, "Oh! What has been bad in my life God WILL use for good in my life!"

But oh how deep my selfishness runs. The rest of the verse says, "but God meant it for good, that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

Joseph's relationship with God ran so deep that he never once needed vindicated personally. (Actually, he did once try to vindicate himself. And it didn't go as he thought it would. See Genesis 40 and 41. But anyway...) It was more important that God use the whole of his life and his story so that "many should live."

When something bad happens to you or someone tries to bring an aspect of your life (more likely just your day) down, maybe we should have our mind more on the others around us, on the eternal, on the worldwide impact that acting Godly in that moment may have.

If i could just get my eyes off of preserving my own well-being...

There.

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity...It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore." Psalm 133:1,3

Does anyone else have a sudden hankering or a Biblical appreciation at the least for some Mountain Dew right now?

The dew mentioned here is a dew that fell on vegetation, securing its growth and fruitfulness during relatively dry seasons in the area. Zion if the mount of worship and praise of God. Of Christ as Lord. This idea of unity is very interesting.

Unity isn't having one purpose in this passage. It goes beyond that. Unity is "when brothers dwell." And that dwelling together has an impact like "the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion!" This dwelling together, again, isn't just a bunch of people with a similar purpose. This dwelling together is a form of heavenly praise we offer to God when we cause each other to be fruitful. And when is it hardest to be fruitful? In the dry seasons.

Maybe unity is easy when all is peachy keen. (Where does "peachy keen" come from?) But i think heaven hears our worship of God when we act it out in such a way that our unity doesn't necessarily come in the form of a shared vision, but in a communal help of one another in their personal and corporate fruitfulness. The morning dew doesn't pick and choose the more correct fruit to soak. The morning dew falls and covers all. In verse 2 of the Psalm unity is depicted this way, covering all of Aaron's head, soaking his beard (which for analogy's sake means he probably had a monstrously awesome beard), and staining his clothes. It got him good!

When you think about unity, what do you think about? Where is the blessing of "life forevermore?" It is there, there being where this fruit enabling dew of Hermon falls.

cracking the windows

(Two quick things: facebook friends, i'm sorry, i will try and hit your topics... just not in this post. secondly, my friend Jason has a blog, and his latest post i consider his best of many great posts so far. Please visit In Lieu of Eye Contact and enjoy.)

I drove to Lowe's today to see if they had dry erase paint. It's paint you put on your walls so you can draw directly on the wall with dry erase markers and are still able to erase it right back off. Awesome stuff, except that i failed in my first attempt to put it on my office wall. Long story.

But as i parked my car in the Lowe's parking lot i had a very quick dilemma on my hands: do i lock my car or keep it unlocked? As i exited my car i made this decision: i'm going to "crack the windows to give the appearance of security." I thought those literal words.

In that moment i had an insanely meta-cognitive moment: is this really me? is this who i am? Do i leave the windows cracked just to show people something i'm really not?

Do you leave the windows cracked in your life? Maybe with a trusted friend you tell the stories but leave out the details. "Well, i did something i'm not proud of... but i learned my lesson..." but you don't ever share the details, and what it was you learned. You provide a cracked window, but you don't let them in.

The thing with me is this, i probably crack the windows the best around my wife, closest friends and fellow employees. Why? So that i look secure. But isn't it better to be secure?

In the Kingdom, being open is being secure. "They were naked (bare), and felt no shame." Genesis 2:25. In what ways are you cracking the window, and with whom? Why? Are you afraid they can't help you? Are you afraid of the consequences?

What about with God? Cracking the window with Him comes in various forms. One of the easiest of the many forms to fall into is doing something good instead of doing His will. "I wrote my dad a card," doesn't substitute that exact thing on your heart that you know God's calling you to do in that moment. We create security in the cracked window of a good deed, when our true security comes in following His will. There is no greater security than being in God's unlocked car of His dreams for you.

Stop cracking the window, and you will experience a greater security than the false security you are trying to show off to the world.

Or to the customers at Lowe's for that matter.