What a bloody mess!

Lev 1:3-9 (NKJV)
If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. 4 Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. 5 He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 6 And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. 8 Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; 9 but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

What a bloody mess!

This is the second day in a row, I’ve read this passage and what jumped out of the text to me is the fact that each person bringing their sacrifice (be it a bull or a sheep) had to kill and skin and cut it into parts so that the priests can make the offering to the Lord on his behalf.

Here is what the offer-er was physically responsible for in the burnt offering:
- slaughtering the animal himself before the LORD (v5, v11)
- skinning the animal (v6)
- cutting it into pieces (v6, v12)
- wash the entrails (guts) and legs in water (v9, v13)

Have you ever slaughtered a bull… by hand… with a knife? As gross as it may be, can close your eyes and imagine that? Can you imagine what a mess that would be? Can you imagine skinning a bull by hand? How does one manage a dead carcass 3x or 4x his own body weight? Where would one wash the entrails and legs? I expect that meant hauling all those parts somewhere to wash them and hauling them back.

Here’s my point. A burnt offering wasn’t a quick prayer at the end of a 30 minute sermon. I expect it was no small feat or quick little ritual. I expect this was a quite long ordeal. I expect by the time one was done, he was probably covered in the blood of the sacrifice.

In our “everything gets wrapped up in a 30 TV show” culture, I fear we don’t have a grasp on what it means for us to be “covered by the blood of the sacrifice.” I know I don’t. Way too often, I treat confessing my sin much too lightly.

Christ suffered a long, painful, multiple hour ordeal when He became the sacrifice to atone for my sins.  Galatians 2:20 tells me that I’ve been crucified with Christ.  Have I killed my self in this crucifixion?   Have I labored hours over that sacrifice? Am I a bloody mess at the end of it?

I hope to be. I need to be…

Running After Papa…

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The Gift

I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. (Galatians 2:21, NLT)

What is “… the grace of God?”

We hear that word all the time living here in the Bible belt, and most of the time it’s coupled with the word “mercy.” Thank you Lord for your grace and mercy! You get the idea. So what is it?

I’ve tried to teach my children in various life lessons what the difference between grace and mercy is. It goes something like this: “Grace is getting a gift that you absolutely do NOT deserve and mercy is NOT getting the consequences or punishment you ABSOLUTELY deserve.” Simple… but effective….

Grace is an undeserved gift. Mercy is an undeserved pardon.

What then is God’s undeserved gift to us that Paul doesn’t treat as meaningless in Galatians 2:21? It would imply the gift is meaningful.

If I did the search correctly, in the ESV translation, the word “grace” appears only 10 times in the Old Testament. Three different Hebrew words translate to those ten occurrences of “grace.” Eight of the ten times it is the Hebrew word chen (“khane”) meaning “1 favour, grace, charm. 1a favour, grace, elegance. 1b favour, acceptance.”

In the New Testament, the word we translate into the word “grace” is charis and appears 124 times in 116 verses (in the ESV) and means something totally different: “of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”

I bring this up only to point out that grace, as Paul is defining it, is a post-Christ idea. In fact, except for 3 verses in John 1 (prior to Christ’s birth), the word “grace” doesn’t appear in any of the gospels.  The first occurrence is in the book of Acts, after Christ’s ascension.

For the next couple of chapters, Paul compares the bondage of living under the law with the freedom of living in Christ.

4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:4-6, NLT)

The gift (the grace of God) is a life of freedom from the bondage of the law; a life free from having to perform; a life free of doing in order to earn God’s favor.

2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. (Galatians 5:2-4, NLT)

The gift (the grace of God) is living life in the power of His Spirit and love.

For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (Galatians 5:6, NLT)

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13, NLT)

The gift (the grace of God) is a life of transformation into something new.

15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. 16 May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God. (Galatians 6:15-16, NLT)

I will not treat the grace of God (the gift) as meaningless….

Running After Papa…

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Command #1…

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

I’m taking a survey of the Old Testament class and as a part of that class, I’m reading through the Old Testament in chronological order.  I can’t get over this statement today.  For those that know me, you know I love God with my whole heart.  I am passionately sold out to Jesus and will spend the rest of my days worshiping and honoring and serving Him – the one who saved my soul from destruction.  But I am mesmerized by Ex 20:3 today.

Do we ever not put some other “god” before God?

When I examine my own life, at any given moment, I usually have something there – in that place of honor – that shouldn’t be.  I’m not talking about allah, or budda, or some other named “god” that other faiths are based on. I’m talkin about the little things…. those little attention grabbers that snap my attention from this to that… from here to there… those volitional choices I make to do one thing over another; the decisions to put off doing the “best” thing to do something “good”; the time wasters that eat up my day and get me off onto some tangent course and keep me distracted until – before I know it – its bedtime and I’ve gotten no time with the very one I am starving for.

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

This is the first commandment.  God has just performed the greatest miracles known to man to date in freeing the Israelites from the bondages of Egypt.  Plagues of flies, grasshoppers, fleas, darkness, blood, death;  the parting of the Red Sea; the total annihilation of the Egyptian army; the pillar of fire by night; the pillar of cloud by day; water from the rock; the list goes on and on…

And God’s first words that He wrote in the stone?  “You shall have no other gods before me.”

God knows we are forgetful people.  All through the Old Testament memorials are built to remember great moves of God.  God wants us to remember.  At the last supper, Jesus wanted them to remember him every time they got together and ate, every time they took a drink of something… “As often as you do this… (eat or drink) Remember me,“  “You shall have no other gods before me.“  We are a forgetful people.

So what’s at the root of our forgetfulness?  Why is it so stinkin’ easy to put things in the God chair that don’t belong there?

Ultimately?  For me?  My guess is that it’s my own pride.  It is my nemesis.  It’s the reason I have to remind myself of Gal 2:20 every day.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

It is my life verse and for me, I end up here often.

I choose to remember.  I shall have no other gods before You.  Amen.

Running After Papa…

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Overcoming – Updated (Rev 12:11)

How do we overcome the power of sin in our lives?

I was recently listening to “Overcome” by Jon Egan and the Desperation Band on the way home from my son’s Lacrosse game, when I was captured by one of the lyrics at the end of the song.  I’ve sung this song dozens of time, so it wasn’t a new song for me, but this time something clicked.  The repeated lyric is “And we will overcome, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, everyone overcome.”   Revelation 12:11 is the verse that bridge it taken from.

Revelation 12:11 (NKJV) “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

I really began to ask the Lord about it.  So how do we overcome?  What is the significance of this verse?  How does the rubber meet the road and why?  (If you read my blogs very often, you’ll find that’s a very common question I ask…)

1. The blood of the Lamb

First things first… This is the fulfillment of God’s law.  This gives us the LEGAL RIGHT TO OVERCOME.  “Hebrews 9:22 (ESV) “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” When we’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb, we are forever the possession of God himself.  There is MUCH that could be said here, but that’s for another day…  Here’s the meat of this post…

2. The word of their [our] testimony

This is gives us the POWER TO OVERCOME.  This is where the rubber meets the road.  We’re all familiar with Proverbs 18:21 “²¹ Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.“  But for me, in getting to that verse, I’ve glossed over the prior one, verse 20.

Proverbs 18: 20-21 (NKJV) ²⁰ A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. ²¹ Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

When those two verses are put together, we’re talking about a whole meal!  What we claim – the words that we speak – is what will fill our stomachs.  This is a very interesting picture as the stomach is essentially where digestion of our physical food begins after we eat.  “You are what you eat,“  is a saying we learned to help us make healthy choices of our meals.  How appropriate! So it is with the words we speak.  When we speak words, we listen to those words, we hear those words, we believe those words – we digest those words.  When we speak words of defeat over our lives, our character, our circumstances, our children, etc., etc., we begin digesting those words.  Those words “satisfy” our stomach and we continue to live in those things we believe.  “You are what you eat,” becomes much more like “You are what you speak.”

It’s time to stop the madness! It’s time to begin confessing the words of life.  Even if it’s not evident yet, speak it.  For example,  “I was unhappy, but God has given me joy and helped me overcome. (Gal 5:22)” or “I was an angry man; but God has given me patience and helped me overcome. (I Cor 13:4)” or “I was afraid and let fear rule my circumstances, but God has given me a spirit of power, love and a sound mind and helped me overcome. (2 Tim 1:7)” Speak what God has or is making you BASED on what HE says about you in his Word – the Bible.

Hear me… I am NOT advocating a “name it and claim it” theology.  God is NOT a Genie, but there is a “working out” of our salvation.  There is a process of transformation and I believe renewing our mind with the Word of God and what God says about us is part of that process.

The word of your testimony is what breaks the power of sin in your life, but only if you’ve been bought by the blood of the Lamb.

3. They died to themselves

“… and they did not loves their lives to the death,” is how Rev 12:11 ends.  This is the MEASURE OF OVERCOMING!

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I find this to be the most difficult verse in the Bible to really live out.  My wants, my desires, my needs, my expectations, my rights… and the list goes on.  If I’m offended, my flesh is probably alive.  If I am angry, my flesh is probably alive.  If I feel slighted, cheated, short changed, cut off, hindered, delayed or detained, my flesh is probably alive.

Only when I am fully dead to me, can I be fully alive in Christ.

THIS is overcoming defined!

So here are three questions for today’s take-away:

1.  Are you legally God’s? This is critical and the first thing and most important thing.  All eternity rides on the answer to this one.  Without #1, you can’t do #2.

2. What is God helping you overcome in your life? Speak it OUT LOUD! verbalize it!  Hear yourself say it audibly!

3.  What part of you do you need to die to? This IS the victory!

If you want to discuss the answer to any of these questions, email me at shoe@runningafterpapa.com.

Running After Papa…

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Free Indeed (John 8:36)

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36, NIV)

How does Jesus set us free?

1 Peter 5:8 tells me that my enemy is relentless . He is continually after you and me.  His methods have not changed since The Fall.  He knows those “barbs” and those “hooks” he can toss out our way and when you or I respond or react or agree with them – BAM! He comes in like a flood.   He is the master deceiver.  John 8:44 tells us his native tongue is falsehood.  He is a liar.  That is who he is. So every morning when you and I wake up, our enemy is looking for some deception for us to grab ahold of; some falsehood of who we are; some fallacy saying that WHAT WE DID is WHO WE ARE; some cock-and-bull story about some bondage we’ll never shake, some addiction we’ll never kick, some fear we’ll never be rid of. ALL OF IT LIES.  He just wants you and me to agree with him on something.

Jesus said “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  Jesus said it. So I ask again… How does Jesus set you and me free?  Enter Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20, NASB)

Check this out. If I am dead. What power does my enemy hold over me? I am dead. What power does any thing hold over me? What power does any addiction, any fear, any bondage hold over me? None. I am dead.

That, my friend, is good news.

I was driving to our men’s Bible Study on Thursday morning knowing I was going to share the gist of this revelation during worship. I really began to contemplate and expound on the effects of being crucified… of being dead to myself.

Dead men…

• … don’t have any rights to get stepped on
• … don’t have any expectations to go unmet
• … don’t have any fears to bind them
• … can’t worry about yesterday, today or tomorrow
• … can’t compare their lives to those around them
• … can’t carry the weight of the world
• … can’t believe the lies of the enemy

… and as I was enumerating this list, God said something kinda funny but poignant.  He said that dead men can’t believe the lies of the enemy because “DEAD MEN CANNOT HEAR” and I kinda laughed, but realized that is HUGE!  This is a big deal because not only is my enemy a LIAR, when I am dead – I CANNOT HEAR HIS LIES.

This is a really great litmus test.  If I am responding to my enemy’s relentless attack, their lies about who I am, or what I will or will never be, etc., etc.  – then SOME PART OF MY FLESH HAS CRAWLED OFF THE CROSS.

I have more thoughts stirring on this… stay tuned.

Running After Papa…

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Deaf (Gal 2:20)

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20, NASB)

As I was driving to G8 this morning knowing I was going to share the gist of yesterday’s post, I was really contemplating the effects of being crucified… being dead to myself.

Dead men…

• … don’t have any rights to get stepped on
• … don’t have any expectations to go unmet
• … don’t have any fears to bind them
• … can’t worry about yesterday, today or tomorrow
• … can’t compare their lives to those around them
• … can’t carry the weight of the world
• … can’t believe the lies of the enemy

… and as I was enumerating this list, God said something kinda funny but poignant.  He said that dead men can’t believe the lies of the enemy because “dead men can’t hear” and I kinda laughed, but realized that is HUGE!  This is a big deal because not only is my enemy a LIAR, when I am dead – I CANNOT HEAR HIS LIES.

This is a good test.  The devil and his minions are always lying about me, who I am, how I will be, what I will or will never be, etc.  When I can hear the lies – then SOME PART OF MY FLESH HAS CRAWLED OFF THE CROSS.

Daddy, may I always be deaf to the lies of my enemy and my spirit be in tune with yours.

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Free Indeed (John 8:36)

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36, NIV)

How does this happen? How am I free “indeed”?

Our enemy is relentless (1 Peter 5:8). He is continually at us. He is the master deceiver. John 8:44 tells us his native tongue is falsehood. That is who he is. So every morning when we wake up, our enemy is looking for some deception for us to grab hold of; some falsehood of who we are; some fallacy saying that who we WERE is who we ARE; some cock-and-bull story about some bondage we’ll never shake, some addiction we’ll never kick, some fear we’ll never be rid of. ALL OF IT LIES.

Jesus said “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus said it. So I ask again… “How?” Enter Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20, NASB)

Check this out. If I am dead. What power does anyone hold over me? What power does any thing hold over me? What power does any addiction, any fear, any bondage hold over me? None. If I am no longer alive, then I have no more worries to haunt me, no more fears to paralyze me, no more rights to be stepped on, no more expectations to be let down, no more LIES to BELIEVE.

That, my friend, is good news.

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Branches, Leaves and Fruit (John 15:5)

I am studying the occurances of the word (0r form of the word) “leaf” in the Bible.  God is stirring up something of a message in it.

As I read several passages about leaves tonight, God kept bringing up the words of Christ saying “I am the vine. You are the branches.” found in John 15:5 (for further reading check out a writing I did November 2006 called “Remaining In (John 15:1-17)“)  That verse is:

John 15:5 (ESV) ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Because it’s become obvious in my studies that I cannot study the leaf, without also studying the branches and the fruit.  According to this verse, I am a branch plugged into the true vine (or think trunk, for a tree).  So my question is becoming this:

What is the “leaf” vs. what is the “fruit”?

Several places in the Scriptures, the word “fruit” is often associated with the words “in season,” which would imply there are times that we do not produce fruit.  (See: Num 13:20;  Ps 1:3; Hos 9:10;  Matt 21:34; Matt 21:41; Acts 14:17 as a few examples of fruit associated with season).

This opens up a whole line of questioning about what I’ve always defined as “fruit” – think the Gal 5:22-23 “fruits of the Spirit”.  If there are seasons of no fruit by definition, then “fruit in season” can’t mean what I’ve thought it meant, because I should be producing the fruits of the Spirit, year round, regardless of the season.

Thoughts?

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Greatest Enemy of Faith

YouTube Link:  What This World Needs [Casting Crowns]

Lyrics | Casting Crowns lyrics – What This World Needs lyrics

I heard this song while I was running today and I had to listen to it a number of times over the miles.

While the entire song is lyrically and musically amazing, it was the spoken words during that song that captured my attention during my run.  Here they are.

People aren’t confused by the gospel,
They’re confused by us.
Jesus is the only way to God,
But we are not the only way to Jesus.
This world doesn’t need
My tie, my hoodie,
My denomination, or my translation of the Bible,
They just need Jesus.
We can be passionate about what we believe,
But we can’t strap ourselves to the gospels.
Because we’re slowing it down
Jesus is going to save the world,
But maybe the best thing we can do
Is just get out of the way.

I recently was exploring that “Digg” is and stumbled across a link and subsequent comment chain on a quote written on a Church billboard. The quote was a quote from Martin Luther (although it didn’t give credit to Martin Luther) saying “Reason is the greatest enemy of Faith.”

While Martin Luther may have been right for the message he was preaching at the time, I’m really beginning to feel like the words of the song express a closer reality for today… ‘Christians’ are often the greatest enemy of Faith over anything else.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Jesus called it two thousand years ago.  Every time he used the word “hypocrite” he was speaking to the religious leaders; to the church. (Matt 6:2, 5, 16; Matt 7:5; Matt 15:7-9; Matt 22:18; Matt 23:13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29; Matt 24:51; Mark 7:6; Luke 6:42; Luke 12:56; Luke 13:15)

In speaking to them Jesus said:

Matthew 15:7-9 (ESV)
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

That, I fear, is the condition of The Big-C Church, particularly in America.  How did we get from a single body of believers to a system of religion that has so many denominations and differences of opinion and interpretation on what THE SAME BIBLE says?

We got there because men – in their pride – decided they didn’t like what they heard so they went somewhere else.

Now, here we are – 2000 years later – with such watered-down Christianity that we have watered-down faith.  Most churches in America don’t see God move the way he did at Pentecost.  Why?  The Bible clearly says he’s the same God, yesterday, today and tomorrow and that HE WILL NEVER CHANGE.

To me it all comes back to Galatians 2:20 (one of my life verses).  I have to die to myself, to my wants, to my desires, to my “rights” so that Jesus can live through me and be seen.  When people see Jesus, they are attracted to Him… they want to be with him.

I have to get out of the way.  We (believers) have to get out of the way.

Easy to say, hard to do.

Running After Papa…

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Pure Wisdom

James 3:13-18 (NLT)
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

“If you are wise…” James begins, and then he throws it down with “prove it!” Prov 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy one is understanding.” A simple substitution of wisdom with “Fear the Lord” would change the context of this passage.

If you fear the Lord… prove it by living a life based in humility. Obviously paraphrased, but kind of a a “duh” moment for me this morning. Who am I compared to the Lord? Of course I fear and revere Him, so why should I do anything outside of an attitude of humility? Just because of who He is, should be enough to keep me on my face. But often time it isn’t.

Here’s where Papa took me with this…. v14 talks about “… selfish ambition…” and not to cover it up, but for me, to search deep in my heart to see if it’s lurking because selfish ambition and jealously open the door for the enemy to come in like a flood (v15). The ESV says that it is “… earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.” That scared me, because jealousy and selfish ambition are a couple of things I tend to (and I imagine many do) struggle with and I do not want to open any doors to the enemy. Verse 16 goes on to say that every “... vile practice (ESV)” comes along with jealousy and selfishness. Yikes!

So how do I gauge my wisdom? How do I gauge how much I fear the Lord? v17 explains… First off it is pure (which means reverent or sacred). James goes on to list a “checklist” of how I am to live. Man I hate checklists. I always so far short. Anyway, here it comes.

• Pure – Am I reverent to and regarding the Lord?
• Peace Loving – do I bring peace to the situations I am in?
• Gentile at ALL times – ALL times?
• Willing to Yield to others – Do I always want my own way?
• FULL of Mercy – not just occasional mercy…
• FULL of Good Deeds
• Shows no Favoritism – see yesterday’s post on James 2 (Through His Eyes)
  
• Always Sincere – Always? Yikes!

Thank you Lord for your mercy where I fall short. If I continue to live in my own strength, I will never check off this list. If I choose to die to myself (Gal 2:20), then and only then is this kind of life possible. With this kind of life is promised a harvest of what we sow. Sow peace. Sow peace.

What harvest do I want?  What seeds am I sowing

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