God Motivation and the Double Rainbow Club

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:42-47). 

"Sounds like a cult."  I've been trusting in Jesus for about 25 years, but there's a part of me, when I interact with this passage, that still responds in that way.  I think that part of the reason for such is that on the surface there are some similarities.  The early church was a tight-knit group, people were enamored with the things that the leaders were doing, they sold their stuff when joining in, it grew quickly, and the members drank some special punch underneath an amazing double rainbow.  OK, forget the last part.  But really, the similarities are there. 

Of course there are some differences too (even though I know we're dealing with stereotypes in doing a comparison/contrast).  Nobody in the church was claiming to be the messiah because many of them had seen theirs teach, do miracles, die, reappear in the flesh, and ascend to Heaven.  No one was getting rich off of the money that was going into the proceeds pot; the money was being distributed to the needy through the willful giving of the members.  The members still had houses (groups often met in them).  It didn't (and hasn't) come to some strange tragic end.  And God was receiving the praise from all the people equally, while the physically absent but spiritually present Jesus added new people to the group every day.

No, the church is not some double rainbow club.  In some ways though we probably look a little more like one now than they did back then.  Sometimes we're more fake today, huddling together on Sunday mornings barely knowing what we believe, building a kingdom here instead of storing up treasures in heaven through worshipful sacrificial living in rich, meaningful community.  We've lost much of our sense of awe and wonder over who God is and the grace He has given.  We're often more about self motivation than God motivation.  We're not going to be just like them in the way of ancient culture and apostle-based leadership, but we have the same Lord, we can grow in loving community, and we can show through our lives that eternity is bigger than now. 

God Motivation and Moaning Jonah

When God saw what [the Ninevites] did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.  But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jonah 3:10-4:2).  Hearing these words from Jonah makes me think of a limbo party: "How low can you go?  How low can you go?!"  Here he was at his destination after entering a battle with God that ended up putting him in the belly of a fish.  Here he was, finally "obeying" God by preaching to the city.  And then here he was enraged over the fact that God did something beautiful in his midst by saving the city from the destruction they were about to experience.

God taught me a bit this past weekend just how much I can be like Jonah.  We have more in common than I'd like to admit.  Now I haven't hopped on a ship to try and get away from God and I don't have any enemies like then Ninevites who were indeed ruthless people, those who would have normally enjoyed skewering someone like Jonah.  But I do think that he and I both have an issue with having an unbalanced amount of knowledge and love.  Jonah knew a boatload about God...not just about the things that God had done but about His character--His grace, mercy, patience, and love.  And I'm betting that on most days He really cherished these things and even praised God for them.  But this wasn't the story on the great day of Nineveh's repentance.  He was torqued off.  Why?  Because God was exercising those awesome character traits toward a group of people that were "way worse" than Jonah was.  These people did not deserve grace, mercy, patience, and love.  These people needed justice; these people needed hell.  God had gone too far.

There are way too many times in my life where I want to make sure that God deals out His hugs and spankings to the right people at the right times.  There are those that just drive me up the wall that I want to see feel God's disapproval so that they'll know better next time.  There are those that I even want to see restored but only after God has shown them how naughty they've been so that I won't have to be annoyed by their foolishness in days to come.  Like Jonah, there are days where I'd like to be God.  Like Jonah, there are a lot of days that my knowledge about God does not translate well into my knowing God personally, desiring to simply sit humbly before Him, delighting in His ways (whatever they might be).  There are days when I am sinful, moaning Jonah in need of God motivation for the day ahead.  God help me.

God Motivation and The New Dog

A senseless, a nameless brood,
        they have been whipped out of the land.
And now I have become their song;
        I am a byword to them.
(Job 30:8-9)
We humans can be pretty ruthless.  All of us have a desire to be at the top in some area of life; we want to be the smartest, the wisest, the strongest, the richest, the most composed, the best encourager, the most sought after counselor, the humblest, the meekest, the one whom no one could ever blame.  And some of those things are excellent qualities to desire.  But what we tend to be OK with is when someone who is a bit more (maybe a lot more) prominent in "our" dream place of status suddenly trips and falls or is in some way removed from that pedestal.  Job found this out.  Among men of his day, he was the best of the best in all the right ways.  We think of him as they guy covered in sores whose wife told him to die, whose friends were hardly friendly, and who seemed to have nothing to live for.  But before calamity struck, before the testing came, Job was the guy that everyone respected, that nobody interrupted, and that the needy would turn to.  He was the wealthy guy who used what he had to bless others and whose age didn't seem to matter when it came to people showing him respect.  You can read all about it in chapter 29 and infer it from the things God Himself says about him right at the beginning of the book.

But though none of the character qualities of Job changed when the life he knew came crashing down, he became the new stray dog in the land to kick and holler at when seen.  The prominent did this with their lofty words of "wisdom" and the nameless brood he mentions here did it through their senseless, scoffing drinking songs.  Job to them was probably a lot like a wrongly accused police officer thrown into prison with the criminals he helped put behind bars.  He had now entered their territory of lowlife land and would be kept at the bottom of the food chain if possible. 

We need to take great care that we don't become like virtually everyone in Job's life.  Instead of looking for opportunities to be raised up when others are brought low or to even look good in the sight of others for helping the fallen, we must seek the praise of the Lord alone.  We must be God motivated in our movements through life as the waves of circumstances raise us into view and perhaps bring others downward.  No matter how subtly or internally it might take place, we've got to guard ourselves from the temptation to lift high our eyes when another has been brought down a notch.

God Motivation and the Divine Block

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said (Luke 18:31-34).  This is the third time that Jesus had spoken of this to His disciples.  In this gospel, the first two times are recorded in chapter 9, the first of which yields no reaction from the disciples (at least no recorded reaction); and the second time, the reaction is much the same as what we have here.  They didn't understand because the saying was hidden from them.  This humbled me afresh this morning.  It reminded me of how God's plans for the extent of man's understanding are just that: His plans.  Now it seems that what happened at this occurrence was not some sort of time stopping magic.  You know, like those movies where suddenly everyone on the scene except that one individual keeps moving among a crowd of wax-like figures.  The disciples heard what He was saying, but apparently, even though He'd been saying it other times, they weren't getting it, and part of the reason for this is that an actual "block" was being set in place restricting their access to this knowledge.

This does some things for the one reading it.  For one, it brings the reader to a place of quiet.  I like people to know that I know things, but this passage reminds me that truth belongs to God, and He's under no obligation to make all the details of any true thing fully known or understood by you or I.  And while I can have confidence that the Spirit reveals many things and that God gives understanding to His disciples as they seek it, I'm desperately limited and need to remember to always point people straight to Him instead of ever giving the impression that they should terminate on me in their truth seeking.  But secondly, just as I would want to do that directing work, I'm reminded of how I need to keep my eyes on Him as well throughout the learning process; I can't really grasp truth without knowing the Author.  A conduit itself needs to be anchored securely to the right place if it is to make right deliveries and pipe the correct received information.

Remember with me the disciples, people who were right there with Jesus and missed things that were flashing like neon signs right before them.  Remember and be humbled, speaking as a receiver and not as a source, listening as a learner who's got so far to go.  And trust that God gives just what we need to grasp as we seek Him.

God Motivation and the Salt Lick

Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it (Luke 17:32-33).  Judgment day is no day to linger and neither is today.  I think that's a bit of what Jesus was getting at as He spoke to His disciples on this occasion.  In the broader context of the passage, He was letting them know that there would be a day when the brokenness of this world would be brought to an end, a day when the patience of the Father would be replaced with judgement and salvation, a day when He would return as King.  But then He also wanted His disciples to "remember Lot's wife."  She was the one, who, despite the instruction given to her from the heavenly messengers, looked back at Sodom as her family was running away to be saved from the impending judgement that was about to rain down from the sky.  When she did such, she was able to run no more; she became a pillar of salt.  One little instance of one little longing glance back at what she thought was important crystallized her.  As she ran away with her family, God was saying, "Graciously, I'm preserving you from this" while she was echoing back, "I want to preserve the life I'm running from."  I don't know if God meant it to be ironic or not, but the fact that she turned into an actual unfeeling preservative is a little funny and chilling all at once.

Jesus tells us that it's better (or really necessary) to lose our lives than to try and hold on to them.  As someone committed to following Him, I really wonder sometimes if I get it.  There are so many things in this life that I'm trying to preserve or hold up and keep spinning like plates on a stick, things that I wonder if I'd have a hard time abandoning in an instant if God suddenly pulled me away.  Reputation, good projects, my row of ducks, etc.  I like those things, but they better not be "my life."  No, "my life" needs to consist of daily standing naked before my Maker with no hands behind my back, no fist clenched around a trinket, no glancing back over my shoulder because of a divided heart.  I need to want the life He has to offer, the life that ,by His grace and goodness, I'll keep.  I don't want to be the salt lick.   

God Motivation and Verbal Investments

From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied;
        he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.
    Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
        and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:20-21)
There is an incredible amount of consequence to what we say.  Think of all the moments we come to when we are faced with the choice of silence or speech, the decision of one piece of information declared instead of another.  The results can yield an unintentional damming up of a river we wished would have continued to flow or might serve as a snowball thrown at the weak point of a white mountain suddenly given to unstoppable avalanche.  When the vocal chords vibrate, we are making some kind of an investment.  The information heads on out and we wait for the return, a return which we hope will taste like sweet, rich strawberries instead of compost.  But shouldn't we do more than just hope for such?  Are our words simply something to be lobbed indiscriminately into the river or to the side of the mountain as little experiments.  Few people want to be that reckless; few people want to be the type that everyone else wants to kick in the shins.

Notice what these verses begin and end with: fruit.  Fruit given returns a satisfied stomach in verse 20, and fruit received satisfies the one who delivered good words in verse 21.  The best way to insure a future production of something sweet is to plant the same.  This doesn't mean of course that our every word needs to be all dripping and sappy to be good; that perfect peach comes from a necessary, nutrient-filled brown pit after all.  But it's true just the same that fruit begets fruit.

Why did people hang on Jesus' words, and why did incredible results come from the message He brought?  There are certainly many theological answers to this that need to be given at some juncture (the Holy Spirit was at work, the Father's will was being carried out, Jesus saw directly into people's souls, etc.), but at that practical, this-is-the-way-the-world-works level, Jesus presented true, beautiful fruitful words of investment during His earthly ministry.  They were so good in fact that He told us just before He returned to heaven that we were to teach the same to the world as part of the disciple-making process.  These are the verbal investments we're called to make.  

God Motivation and Holy Moses

"If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" (Luke 16:31).  As Jesus was wrapping up a story to prove an important point, He made these Abraham's words to a rich man in eternal torment who wanted his destitute neighbor (now with Abe in Paradise) to go back and warn his loved ones about the realities of life after death.  It's a hard story to hear in a lot of ways.  Here you have this guy who was self-centered through life now wanting to bless others, but the message is, "Too bad; it's too late."  We might take pity on this man in anguish and want to say to Abraham, "Come on, at least just pull some strings up there and give it a try--dead guy coming to life...probably pretty effective."  But the message of Jesus is that it doesn't work that way.  And the message of history is that just because there are signs and evidences in front of people's eyes, they won't give their allegiance to the God who made them and then put the signs in place.  Pharaoh didn't give Him honor as God proved Himself time and again in Egypt.  The vast majority of Israelites in the wilderness didn't believe though the miracles performed before their eyes were beyond spectacular.  The same was true for those who saw the great things Jesus did, and the same is true today.  The call has always been, "Put your faith in God.  Trust in the Messiah."  If seeing somebody rise from the dead were enough to turn everyone's hearts in this direction, everyone would be saved by now (or at least would have been saved during the times when such miracles had happened).  But that didn't happen when Elisha raised a widow's son.  It didn't happen when Jesus "woke up" Lazarus, it didn't happen when the rocks were split at Jesus' death and corpses got their life back, it didn't happen when Jesus Himself, through His own power, gave life back to his rotting body.  The heart of trust must come through one's own inner death and resurrection.  A God motivated heart must be born in faith that Jesus is the needed Savior to rescue us from our sin of disbelief.  Cry out in faith to the Rescuer and quit waiting for another spectacle.