when angry

It is hard not to be angry in this world, in fact it likely isn’t right if we never are. Literally we read in Ephesians that we’re to “Be angry, yet do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger and don’t give the devil a foothold.” We’re told in James not to abstain from anger, but to “be slow to anger, for human anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.”

Anger has a life all its own. It can take you for a ride. When anger takes over it is devilish, demonic, so to speak. Well, even literally. Which is why Paul tells us to get rid of it before the day is over, so that we don’t give place to the devil.

One doesn’t think straight, and can act out of hand. We end up fighting fire with fire. We are inspired from hell itself. Not a good place to be.

And then if anger takes over our lives, there is a root of bitterness which bears fruit which defiles many. There’s a desire for revenge. And there’s the danger of hating someone, holding another in contempt. Jesus said to do that is to fall into God’s judgment and to be in danger of the fire of hell. But do we who have been raised in an atmosphere of “once saved, always saved,” take that seriously? Not that I believe in the doctrine of eternal security myself at all. We’re never secure in our sins, but only in Christ, and in a faith which follows.

Anger is a dangerous, fiery wrecking ball. Wreaking havoc in its path. This can be so in subtle, hidden ways. We may not act overtly, but it may be what we withhold which tells the tale. Withholding the natural love and care which makes us human. I know we are sinners. We don’t by nature have eternal life residing in us. But through God’s grace in Jesus we do have eternal life, which means we love our brothers and sisters in Jesus. And we love our enemies as well, in the love and fellowship of Jesus. There is a natural love residing in humans, though broken, just as God’s image remains in humans, though broken or cracked by sin.

When I’m angry over the top, past the point in which it is acceptable, I need to practice quick confession to God, before it gets out of hand. I must not nurture it, or feed it, justifying it. I need to  no less than repent of it. Which means I’m to forgive the wrong done to me. To pray for the one who has done the wrong, along with weeping with those who weep. We need to  channel that anger so as to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

This is part and parcel of what it means to follow Jesus. To be God’s people in him. Committed to each other in the way of the cross of Jesus for the world.

following wisdom

While to search out a matter is the glory of kings (Proverbs 25:2), we all too often can fall prey to our own wisdom in doing so. Our own habits ingrained in us from years of practice.

The problem oftentimes in my own life, I think, is that I’ve followed my own wisdom, or depended on it, rather than seeking God’s wisdom, really finding it, and holding on to it, putting it into practice.

God’s wisdom actually covers all of life. When we ask God for it, he will give it, but we have to be open to receiving it. We have to look for it, and then we’ll begin to catch glimpses of it, or see it. And what ends up being just as important: we’ll need to begin to put it into practice. Over and over again. Which also means we’ll have to set aside our own way of doing things, our own way of solving the problem, our own wisdom.

This indeed will involve a new orientation of life, but it is part and parcel of the way of wisdom for us. It is found in Jesus who is the way, as well as wisdom to us. A wisdom we pursue in our lives, and together with others in Jesus in the way of Jesus for the world.

prayer changes things

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James 5

We sometimes hear the saying that prayer does not change circumstances, but us. I’m sure there can be some truth in that. But it is surely partly in error. Indeed, somehow in God’s working in the world, our prayers can and do make a difference, if what we see in the narrative of scripture holds true today.

Over and over again, we see it. James cites the example of Elijah, a human being just like us. But he was not only a man, or person of God, but a person of prayer as well. I would think the two go hand in hand. Elijah prayed it would not rain, then he prayed that it would. All with God’s honor and will in mind. And God answered.

During the time I have left on earth, I don’t know what is left for me to do other than loving God and my family, and seeking to follow Christ in the fellowship of his church as a witness to the world. But I would like to become a person of prayer. One who prays along with others, and sees God intervene.

Such prayer must be surrounded with an endeavor to walk with God in fellowship with his people in and through Jesus. And the desire, yes- commitment to do so in love. And this means humility on our part. Willing to receive- seeing our need for that, as well as to give.

And we’re told in scripture not only to pray, but to keep on praying. Not giving up, or giving in to something less, or in opposition to the will of God in Jesus.

Jesus himself is our great example in this. He would get up early, at least occasionally, and spend significant time with his Father alone in prayer.

I have seen it make a difference in bringing about some things, or the start of some things in which seed I trust is planted. Which in God’s good time and way will bear eternal fruit in another’s life.

So yes, true prayer does begin to work change in us. If we keep at it. But it can work change in others. God himself is the one who brings the change of course, in answer to our prayers, according to his will in Jesus. Through us for each other and for the world.

in its time

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclessiastes 3:11

Often we want to see something done, and done now. Maybe something that needs to be done. In fact is part of what Jesus has commanded us to do. In other words something we are to play a part in.

And yet it isn’t done. We may have to ask ourselves if we’re holding out somewhere. Sometimes obedience seems rather naked. In fact in some ways it always seems that way for me. I’m not just picked up and moved to obeyed. I have to do it, yes in and because of God’s grace in Jesus, but just the same, I have to obey. And often in such obedience there is a kind of nakedness, in that we may have to humble ourselves. Certainly we’ll be walking in a faith in which we put our trust in God.

But there can be a time or matter in which our part is to pray. Perhaps to examine ourselves, or more precisely to ask God to examine us. We need to seek to obey with a spirit intent on God’s will. Not just obeying for obedience’s sake. But with the intent of obedience which is to be love. Love for God, and for our neighbor. Perhaps in a certain case, for one who seems like an enemy.

When God has something for us to do, he won’t let go. It will be plain enough to us. But sometimes it’s as if we can see or imagine everything together as it should be. And yet we see it apart. That is when we seek God in prayer about it, and hold on to the promise through Jesus that God will indeed make everything beautiful in its time. That he is at work to do that. Even through us in Jesus if only through our groanings by the Spirit. Along with obedience to his revealed will to us. A part of the hope we have in and through Jesus.

into a new year

Often I’ve heard our Pastor Sharon encourage us to pursue what brings us life in and through Jesus. This is in reference to the way that is in Jesus.

I’m not into New Year’s resolutions. I want to grow in grace and pursue what helps me along those lines. As a follower of Jesus.

Pastor Sharon is an advocate of God’s people benefiting from the practice of the classical Christian disciplines. She wonderfully helps us in her award winning novel to consider practicing some of those disciplines, and work out what God is doing in our heart with others who are doing the same.

That is what I want to be out and about this coming year, or whatever days I have in it. I want to be aflame with God’s love and with nothing else. I want to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope to get to a retreat center (there are at least two of them south of where we live) soon. And participate in something of the spiritual disciplines daily. To learn how to do that better. Silence, and voicing the Lord’s/Our Father prayer along with the Jesus Creed, are helpful to me. I continue to love to listen to the Bible Experience.

Going to the nursing home every Sunday has been a highlight of the past year. I am glad to now have a helper who takes one Sunday a month. It is a needy ministry. I’d like to get one more like helper on board who will do one other service a month. And perhaps get others involved in various ways.

And I continue to love to read and put down reflections in “writing” as on this blog. A few years back it seemed to come to me as from God, “Read.” And I want to recommit myself to that, because any good thing, reading being one of my very favorite things, can become lost in the shuffle of life. Tired and worn out and often down and out as I feel. Wondering if what I do matters at all. The voice of the enemy.

What brings you life in Jesus? And what is that life moving you to do? Take the small steps of faith. We’re to do according to the measure of faith God gives us. In love for him and our neighbor, in service to others, as we endeavor to sit at Jesus’ feet. And go on in him together for each other and for the world.

Eugene Peterson on “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”*

I am going to make a huge guess right here: I am guessing that this prayer was not only formative for Mary, but also formative for Jesus. As Mary taught Jesus to pray, she very likely taught him this prayer. The prayer life of Jesus was formed, as the lives of all praying Jews were formed in the first century, by the Psalms–those 150 prayers that gather everything in out lives into a responsive believing and obedience to God. But this prayer that formed Mary in her motherhood of our Savior was also formative for Jesus as he lived and defined the way. The formative effect of this prayer on Jesus, even as he was in the womb, is confirmed by the nearly identical prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane on the eve of his death: “not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

I think Jesus prayed the prayer his mother taught him all the days of his life. It was praying this prayer, or something similar to it, that kept him from adopting Herod’s ways. It was praying this prayer that prevented him from taking up the Pharisee agenda. I can’t think of a better way to get this into ourselves than by praying it ourselves: “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way, 218.

*Luke 1

love your enemies

The kind of love which Jesus taught and lived out to the end was a love that embraced all. A love like the Father in heaven, who sends his blessings of earth on everyone. We are told to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us. To pray for them. To not resist evil with evil, but resist it with good. To be merciful even as our Father in heaven is merciful. That would seem to give this a salvation bent. In other words we do this with the hope of winning them over to the faith. And we do it out of love for Christ in our following him.

It becomes apparent sometimes that those we count as friends or even brothers or sisters in Jesus can seem to have become enemies, opposed to us in every direction. I’m not sure how to look at this. I remember the passage that talks about how we’re to correct an erring member of the family in Jesus. We’re not to count them as enemies, but to warn them as fellow believers. Of course we must do so in love.

And the passage where Jesus tells us what to do when a fellow believer sins, or sins against us. How we’re to confront them with the truth so as to bring them to repentance, they and we alone. And if they don’t respond take one or two others along with us to try to win them over. But if they still don’t, then it’s to be told to the church and if they don’t listen to the church, then they are excommunicated. Then we can begin to try to befriend and win them over as those who need to be converted. Even if the relationship may render that difficult. Jesus doesn’t mention this latter part, but I think it’s a correct application of his teaching and of scripture.

It is true, however that we’re told not to eat or associate with one who claims to be a believer, but who is living in sin. This is seen in that passage as a form of judgment. The church is to impose that judgment so that the leaven of sin won’t grow and corrupt the church.

All of this will require much prayer. We often need a change of heart ourselves, because we can react bitterly against those who hurt us. Or we can lash out at them, and become hard in our hearts. Anything less than love to them no matter what is unacceptable, not being in the way of Jesus.

We do need to act with wisdom. To be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. To lay low when need be, perhaps even to flee. To perhaps withdraw so as to be sure our own heart is right, as well as to bathe the matter in prayer.

In all of this our desire should be to follow Jesus. And to do so together. As the light of the world and the salt of the earth in Jesus. That others might see our good works, and praise our Father in heaven.

in process

“In process” has the sense of not having arrived. Indeed this is not hard to realize when we in Jesus compare our lives with his commandments. And yet those commandments are indeed binding upon us. Of course to be done in faith and love through grace.

To know I’m in process is helpful. That I’m on my way. Hopefully by faith well on my way. Not wanting to back down, nor turn and run. But to stand my ground with others, and continue on in following Jesus.

There are issues along the way which seem beyond the grace we have. Something miraculous to our point of view needs to take place. Indeed we need to have the faith that God can move the mountains. It helps when we’ve seen him do it before. But sometimes due to the nature of the issue, it may seem harder than before, and it well could be.

I remember Jesus’ words to his disciples who had authority over unclean spirits that certain ones did not come out except by prayer. There may well be some birth pangs and struggle along the way. In Paul’s case before arriving to a new place in his life, it was no less than a thorn in the flesh, even a messenger of Satan which tormented him.

In this life, like it or not we are ever in process. We’re either progressing in Jesus, or digressing. Following however clumsily, or drifting. So no matter what we’re facing, and how perhaps we’re even failing, let’s be moving. Setting our face even like a flint to follow our Lord with others in him to the very end.

Scot McKnight on praying for those who have wounded us

It takes the courage of faith, faith in the kind of God who forgives at the cross, to lift in prayer those who have wounded us. It takes faith to extend God’s blessing to them. Perhaps the greatest prayer we can pray for those who have wounded us is the simple one: “Lord, work in this person to become the person you want them to be.” Maybe we can go no farther. That far we can go.

Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight on “trusting the good God”

Ask, seek, knock, Jesus said… Why? Because God is good. If we humans, who are sometimes good and sometimes not, give good thinks to those who ask, “how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).

Recently a woman wrote to me out of despair. She was in a rough patch health-wise, and one of her trusted friends led her to see that her ill health had opened up old emotional wounds that were also in need of healing, some family wounds of rejection. She asked us to pray for her and informed us that she was living by faith, telling herself every moment of the day: “Mom left me, God doesn’t leave me. Mom couldn’t love me, God loves me. Mom rejected me, God doesn’t reject me.” Becky’s story is what it means to live by faith in difficult times by trusting that God is a good God even when our own life boat doesn’t seem buoyant.

Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 108-109.