God Motivation is the state wherein the Christian is fueled solely by God and toward God to the glory of God.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Little Angel

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
(Matthew 5:43-48)

Jesus: "Keep your word."
Us: "Check."
Jesus: "No revenge."
Us: "Sigh...OK, anything for You, Jesus."
Jesus: "Love and pray for your enemies...and be perfect."
Us: "For real?!"

The thing about Jesus is that He always keeps pressing.  And praise God that He does, because I'm prone all too often to try and "be good" at what I think is the minimal level for the passing grade.  When I do that it's because I really still just don't get it.  I keep thinking that if I get a little better at the rules, if I'm a bit more disciplined, and if my doctrine becomes a little more pure, THEN I'll be more of a Christian than ever before.  THEN I'll be that perfect little angel people need me to be.  See the halo?  Talk about burdens to carry.  Didn't Jesus say that His burden for us was light?

Yes, and it's not our job to have our walk with Him start that way and then work hard to make it heavy over time.  We forget sometimes our starting point which is what Jesus proclaimed as the single greatest commandment everything else was to flow out of: Love God with everything you've got (Deut. 6:5).  GET THAT FIRST.  It's the only way forward and the only sustainable course.  If we remember that and then see everything else Jesus says as a way of urging, "Here's what the God you're in love with looks like, and here's how you can love like Him," then we'll operate according to a swelling heart instead of according to religious expertise.  That's why Jesus could pray for His murderers' forgiveness.  That's why Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, prayed for the same.  That's how we can love our enemies (which might just be people we work with, see at holidays, or even sit across the pew from who seem to be begging for a good neck-wringing).  Jesus wants us to know what God's perfect love looks like so that we can have perfect love...not just the natural, reciprocal kind.

All this makes for a battle inside our souls; no doubt.  It is not easy to love well.  It's complicated to say the least.  But the cool thing is that we don't have to try and plan every detail of what it needs to look like in those tough moments.  We just need to devour more of God every day and hunger for Him in a way that kills us if we start to fall off the wagon and entertain ourselves with lesser things and find us insensitive to the needs around us.  We need to look at the cross that Jesus hung on and be astounded over God's love for us when we were still His enemies.  It's only then that the loving of our own will make any sense and start to flow.

God motivation over rule motivation.  That's another part of the rock Jesus gives us to build our lives upon.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Cliff Toss

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."
(Matthew 5:38-42)

I'll just be honest--I'm not a big fan of this passage.  I like those scenes in movies where the hero who has been harmed or taken advantage of gets to throw the villain off a cliff.  That's not revenge, it's just justice, right?

But how about real life, and how about flipping things around a bit.  We tend to think about ourselves as the ones under the oppressive hand of a bully we want to punch in the throat, and the passage is even written in such a way that speaks to the victim.  Think of those times though when you've been the mean one--physically, verbally...on facebook.  Aren't you glad when, after you've been an idiot and realized it, the offended doesn't come after you?  Aren't you thankful and humbled when, whether the one you smacked around does so consciously or not, he/she obeys Jesus and dismisses the offense (or is even kind to you)?!  It's nice to NOT get what you deserve in those instances--and we've all been in them plenty.  Denial of such just makes us arrogant or ignorant...not innocent.

Here's the deal: Jesus is always speaking to us in a way that challenges us to reflect His own humility, patience, kindness, generosity, and strength.  He was never out to take down the legal and state institutions that do protect the innocent and bring the wrongdoers to justice.  Those eyewitnesses who followed His teaching closely and then gave us the rest of the Bible make that very clear.  God is for, not against, the establishment of governing authorities in every society.  Neither is He against individuals appealing to those systems when injustices are at hand.  The "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" Biblical concept was one that was set in place so that order and peace would reign and "survival of the fittest" rule would be kept at bay.

Now to be sure, knowing these things doesn't necessarily make it easy in the moment to accept harassment instead of avenging it.  But it does give us the opportunity to ask ourselves the question, "How am I going to interact with others (especially the nasty others) in a way that most shines forth the character of Jesus and speaks to my love for Him?"  All we have to do is look at the cross for the right answer to such a question and see the Lamb who was silent before His accusers.

Again, Jesus later wraps up this mountain-top sermon by saying that His words provided a rock to build our lives upon.  It's painful, but how about we bank on God's much-need grace and work together to hammer in the meekness stake?  Ready...Aim...CLINK.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Pants on Fire

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil."
(Matthew 5:33-37)

"But you PROMISED!"  Such are the words of those who have had their hopes dashed by oath-breakers.  Sometimes they are spoken sadly, sometimes through clinched teeth of wrath, or occasionally with a chuckle after being taken hook, line, and sinker once again by the family practical joker.

We put a good deal of stock in promises that people make precisely because we live in a world of liars.  If you can get a guarantee or someone can get one from you, the promised feels he has the right to hold the vow-maker to her word.  It's a sad deal really, but what are you going to do?  Jesus' answer is quite simply, "be different; just be honest, plain and simple."  He looked at the people of His day (just as He would look at us now) and heard their absurd extra wording tacked onto half their statements of intent and reminded them of how silly they sounded.  Was heaven or earth or Jerusalem or one's own head going to hold the speaker to his word because he had mentioned their substances?  Or just how big do we think we are that we would presume any of those items might shift or change because we do or don't stick to what we say?  Just try swearing your way into spontaneous hair color alteration--not gonna happen.

This is one of those examples where we humans have failed to recognize what's sometimes called the "spirit of the text."  In other words, yeah, the people looked back at the ancient writings of Scripture and saw that God told people to be honest and to look at those specific times where they had made some kind of declaration outside of casual conversation that warranted a consideration of the weight such words carried.  But clearly what He was NOT saying was that a certain portion of our daily vocal expiration was fair game for later denying at our convenience.  Quite the contrary.  The emphasis throughout the Scriptures, regardless of situational context is: Say what you mean and mean what you say.  If you don't do that, the indictment is, "Liar, liar, pants on fire."

Jesus says that living for Him means that part of the rock we're to build our lives on is the slab of straight-up honesty.  People should look at us and see the opposite of shadiness.  Christians ought to be the most trustworthy people on the planet, come wind or high water.  How are we doing?  I swear on the grave of my great grandaunt that I'll do better...wait...no I don't.