Choose You This Day

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me!”

Yes, that’s me speaking. God. That’s my #1 law, yet it seems to he the one least noticed. You think you can serve and worship me plus all your other gods and it’s just fine. But it’s not. It’s either me or them. Which is it? You choose!

I give you that choice intentionally. Yes, it’s true, I love all mankind, but you must choose to receive it, to live in my love. When you choose to trust me, to love me exclusively, to surrender your heart and life to me, Wow! That’s when I pour out my love, my pleasure, my presence.

My good man, John the Apostle, wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us.”  Now that’s a fine way to say it. Even I like that. (Oh, I know I told him what to write, but hey, I still like it.) Love is what binds us together, tight, forever. We will spend eternity together.

I’m not asking for your unfailing obedience. Not demanding compliance to commands, demands, and expectations. My truth is intended to give you direction, not to hold you accountable. No need to hide from me, I’m not threatening to take you out behind the woodshed. So, when I say that I want your devotion, exclusively, you need to understand that I am asking you to surrender to my love… with all your heart, soul, mind, and actions. Are we clear? 

So, which is it?  Me or them?

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mt 6:24).

Reconciliation

It’s February of 2018, and it is the middle of the winter Olympics.  Lindsey Vonn, the single most accomplished female alpine skier in American history, just won the bronze medal in downhill. Try as hard as she could to act pleased and excited, she could not hide her disappointment. For her, the bronze medal was chump change in comparison to gold.

There is a gold standard in restoring broken relationships, and it is almost always sold short, replaced by a cheap substitute. I dare say that most Christians, even most church leaders, have never ever experienced the process and rewards of pursuing reconciliation, all the way through to the finish line. That is why most Christians don’t even know the difference between reconciliation and the cheap substitute, resolution. Reconciliation is like gold. “Resolving the issue” should be reserved for technical concerns. When applied to mending broken relationships, resolution is worth ten cents – one thin dime – and that won’t even buy you a cup of coffee anymore.

I was in a recent meeting between elders of a church and a man who had been dismissed from his position in the church. After four months of letting the broken relationship fester, hoping the man would just disappear without a whimper, one of the elders reached out to the man, saying, I want to get this issue resolved in the next week or two. At a second meeting he began the conversation asking the man what he was going to do to bring the issue to closure. Then he proceeded to say, “I don’t even know about reconciliation, if that’s the right word… if that’s what we are looking for.” To those elders, reconciliation was chump change, whereas resolving the issue, making it go away, was worth everything.

Resolving an issue, relationally, usually involves arbitration of some sort, each side caving in to the other, and coming up with a workable, acceptable stalemate. In church politics it usually involves dealing with a church member behind closed doors, then expecting them to pack their bags and head down the road.  In marriage, resolution usually ends up in divorce, with a court order dividing the assets and determining child custody.

What is involved in reconciliation? For God, the high cost of reconciliation was the hideous, unmerited death of his only Son. That humble, sacrificial act of redeeming love on the part of Jesus reconciled the repentant sinner to our holy and loving God (Rom 5:10-11). Reconciliation does not come cheap, my friend. There is a high cost, but the rewards are like gold.

Reconciliation involves so much more than surface resolution. It goes deep, to the very core of spirit and soul, bringing healing and renewed trust like nothing else can accomplish. Each side must work hard to get to the bottom of the issue, to understand all offenses, otherwise the necessary repentance and forgiveness are baseless. Authenticity, honesty, humility, transparency, and true love are the underpinnings of real reconciliation. That is why resolution is so readily accepted in its place. Very few Christians want to be real and go deep. Everything is kept on the surface, posturing, and protecting our positions and reputations at all cost.

Reconciliation is true restoration, in what ever form that may take. That gold medal can only be won with true repentance, uncharted humility, deep forgiveness, and restored trust.  It cannot happen by putting a dime in the vending machine.

“First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.” (Mt 5:24)

Three Groups At the Tomb

The Crucifixion was an earth-shattering event.  God placed upon Jesus all the guilt and shame, the pain and suffering, the sins from throughout all history, the iniquities of all mankind.

So great was that event that the sun went dark for three hours. The earth shook so violently that rocks split open, tombs were opened and holy saints of old walked about in Jerusalem. The veil of the temple tore in half, from the top down. All of nature seemed to be engaged in this great tragedy. The overwhelming power and penalty of sin was broken by the sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus himself. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. That incredible day of darkness was the day of redemption. The serpent had struck the heel of the Savior, but the Son of God would soon crush the serpent’s head.

Three days later, early on Sunday morning, another incredible display of power occurred. Jesus rose from death. Resurrection day. This great display of God’s power was seen only in the spiritual realm, though, not in the physical realm. Nature was not involved.  It was a display of power on par with creation. It was the beginning of the new creation, the promise of the fullness of our redemption, to live with Christ eternally in a new resurrected body, enjoying a new heaven and a new earth, in fellowship with the Godhead forever. From this point on God the Father prepared a bride for his son, Jesus.

Three groups were present at the Resurrection.  God’s host of holy angels were arrayed, every one of them, with Michael, the greatest warrior of all God’s creation, standing just above the tomb. And there was arrayed another host of spiritual beings, also observing the tomb. Satan, and all his fallen angels.  Satan, the destroyer, the serpent, Apollyon, Lucifer, the great dragon of Revelation.  His host was outnumbered two to one, but they thought they had won the great spiritual battle of all times. They had brought to death the Son of God.  They were watching the tomb, ignorantly gloating in their victory, waiting to celebrate.

The third group was in the tomb itself – God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and a dead Jesus. Very, very dead, not just almost dead. The Godhead together, as they were so many times through eternity, fulfilling the great redemptive plan that they had devised, from before creation, before the fall of Adam and Eve. Paul tells us, In Ephesians 1:20, that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. God put his hand under the head of his son while the Holy Spirit breathed new life into him. His eyes opened, and quickly filled with great tears. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.”  This was the beginning of that great joy. The father lifted his son to his feet and put upon him glowing white robes. His presentation to all the beings of spiritual creation was at hand.

Then it happened. The stone creaked.  Ever so slightly. The corner of Michael’s mouth curled up. The eyes of Satan and all his host looked at the stone in horror and disbelief.  Then another creak, and visible movement. Michael set down his shield and took his hand off his sword.  There would be no battle today. Grimacing horror, undeniable defeat was evident in the hosts of Satan. Then Jesus walked out of the tomb, alive and resurrected.  His holy host of angels broke out in cheers of joy.  Christ, the savior of mankind, is risen from the dead, the first fruits of all the saints who shall also rise from the dead. Satan and his host fled the scene, shrieking. They would not give up, though. They left to go and regroup. If they could not destroy the Son of God, then they would try to destroy his followers, one, by one, by one.

The great power of the resurrection, heard only in the creaking of the stone, is the same power that will raise us from the dead, and complete our redemption. It is the same subtle power that transforms our lives as we live in trust relationship with Jesus. God’s incomparably great power for all who believe is at work in us, quietly, making us alive in Christ when once we were dead in our sins.