Motor Scooters and Cleansing the soul (Hebrews 9)

Have you ever felt your soul being cleansed?

Today I am spending the afternoon in retreat with God. It's time taken to seek the heart of God and to reconnect with him in my life. I usually take off in the van and go somewhere I can walk and think. Listening to a book on my ipod and spending time in reflective prayer journaling through out the day. Today is not so different except instead of the van I have my piaggio fly 150 motor scooter. I had planned to just hunker down somewhere and do some reading for today sense I wouldn't have the luxury of traveling as far. But as I began to ride, I realized I needed to ride further. So I kept going with the wind whipping around me and my most significant worship songs playing in my ears.

I have lots of things to get done right now. And I was debating today as to whether I should take this time apart with God today or if I should get busy on some of the activity planning I have fallen behind on. As I began to ride I knew the answer. My soul was parched, I was thirsty for God, my soul felt gritty and needed to be cleansed. I can't really explain to you how if happens. But as I rode I felt living water coming back into my soul. I could feel the refreshment I so desperately needed. My prayer time has been sweet as well and as I write this blog expressing these truths to you I feel it going ever so much deeper.

Hebrews 9 tells us the priests who offered sacrifice of sheep and goats for all of those years where only able to provide external cleansing. The sacrifices where forms and rituals and that's all they were. When Jesus came however and offered himself. When his blood was shed and he rose from the dead and entered the heavenly sanctuary our consciences were cleansed. Through the sacrifice of the God of the universe we were cleansed internally. Our souls were cleansed.

It reminds me of the day I am having today. There are so many rituals and customs I can do in the service of God. I can plan the next service day and make sure the next big youth event is planned. I do this on a regular basis everyday. These things bring external value to my ministry and the job I have been hired to do. But they do not enliven my soul.

I think this is why Jesus tells the parable of those who come to him when the wedding feast has started and seek entrance. He opens the door and says I do not know you. They protest, "we did all of these things in your name, preaching, teaching, healing, casting out demons." But he replies still I never knew you. Your actions may have been in my name, but you never sought me with your soul. You didn't come looking for me you only knew about me.

The end of Hebrews 9 has one of my very favorite verses. Scripture promises here that Jesus came the first time to deal with sin and he is coming again a second time to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (For a fuller thought process of this verse look back in my blog to the one titled still waiting.) He is coming again and we will see him face to face. I am so grateful the condition of this world is not considered salvation complete.

But in order for his second coming to truly be filled with joy, we need to know him now. We need to seek his face while he may be found. We need to connect with him so we will be known and cleansed from the inside out rather than following the customs and christian activity only to be cleansed on the outside.

May we come to know our God and me known by our God today, rather than simply know about him and serve him with external forms but be empty and parched on the inside.

Holy Jeans (Hebrews 8)

Is anything in your life becoming old and obsolete?

I have had a rash of disintegrating jeans lately. My jeans usually wear in the same to spots. It had to do with my pockets. First is the spot where my keys are and second is the spot where the corner of my wallet is. So eventually all my jeans seem to wear holes in those two places. It's not a big deal and I can wear them for quite a while with the two holes beginning. But when they decide to go they go quickly.

I was playing broom ball about a month ago with a bunch of high school students. It's great fun really. You run around on ice in your tennis shoes with a giant rubber spatula type thing and whack little red balls at each other. Once in a while those balls end up in the goals at either end of the rink. It's a blast with 50 or so kids running around on the ice chasing 4 or 5 balls. It's chaos and a lot of good fun. Back to the jeans. I am playing broom ball and probably sliding in for the perfect shot or picking myself up off the ice when my jeans split right along the line of the my right front pocket. I wonder into the office to find some duct tape and keep playing. Even with my patch job, it's needless to say the jeans are now old and obsolete. They will no longer function in their once useful purpose of covering my legs. I will need a new pair of jeans.

In Hebrews 8 we are told Jesus is the priest for a new covenant. And if there is a new covenant we therefore know something didn't work out with the old covenant. God made a covenant with Israel but Israel didn't follow through. They could not keep the law and the law could not save them. So we need something new something better. Hebrews tells us the tabernacle Moses made was the shadow of the true one in heaven. The sacrifices made, the covenant of animal sacrifice was all just a shadow of the true. Jesus is the new priest, the new sacrifice, the new covenant. So the old forms are going to become obsolete. They are no longer needed. Even the law will change shape. It will no longer be something we must do but it will be who we are. It will be written on our hearts and minds. We will be God's people and He will be our God. For he has forgiven us through Jesus and brought us right back in communion with him.

I am glad for one the old worn out covenant is obsolete, I'm glad we aren't sacrificing animals for the rest of our lives. I am all the more glad however when I think of this old worn out earth and the life we live on it, becoming obsolete. We live in but a shadow of the existence we were meant for. The earth is filled with holes. We try to patch it up each time something rips. We rebuild, remarry, renegotiate, but it is old and worn.

The old however will pass away and the new will come. The shadow will no longer be our home and the sunlight will shine. Jesus promises to make all things new. He promises to make us new. We can get so frustrated at times as we try and try again to get things right. I know I want my gut to go away and yet I still go for the pizza and soda. So I'll patch it up, I'll exercise again, go back to the gym fill the fridge with healthy stuff and then rip...McDonalds. But we are promised to have the law written on our hearts and minds. Our desires will be transformed our thoughts will follow his thoughts. No one will have to be taught to know God because we will all know him.

Why will this be true, Hebrews 8 says it's because He will forgive our sins and remember our wickedness no more. It's not because he beats or burns it our of us. It's because he forgives us. It's your kindness Lord that leads me to repentance, not your wrath not fear of eternal punishment (which I don't believe in by the way). We are made new by his love for us...he ever forgiving grace. The new covenant! Jesus! He didn't just put a patch on it with his death like all those lambs and goats. He made it new and will make it all the more new as this old life in sin becomes old and obsolete.

I ready for a new pair of pants, aren't you?

May we find his grace today and may he continue the work of making things new in our hearts even before the world is made new.

The unbelievable world of faith (Hebrews 7)

Have you recognized recently the other worldliness of the bible?

For Lorelai's birthday party this year she wanted a mermaid theme. So we decorated a friend's home with all kinds of under the sea things; animals and sparkling sea weed. All kinds of stuff. The children who came wore costumes. Lorelai's was of course a mermaid. They painted faces with glitter and jewels and took on different identities. Lorelai has told me several times,"Daddy, when I get to heaven, I want to be a mermaid." What is the last fantasy novel you have read? Or the last fairy tale you have been told of watched? When was the last time you read something that was completely outside of your world of experience?

I would have to say for me it was the bible...this morning...Hebrews chapter 7 to be precise. We are talking here about a line of priests who don't die. They live forever. There are two the bible tells us about. The first was Melchizedek and the second is Jesus. Melchizedek (wow try typing that one 10 times fast) shows up to receive a tenth of the war plunder from Abraham. Hebrews tells us he had no beggining and no ending. He had no father or mother and would live forever. He is the king of salem which means the king of peace. Jesus is said to be in the same line. He has no father of mother and will live forever. He is said to be the king of kings and the prince of peace.

I have heard different theories on who Melchizedek was, some say he was the holy spirit or maybe God the father. Well all I know for sure is he is beyond anyone I have ever met or experienced. When the bible talks about these kinds of things, immortality and such, it is so hard to hold onto. We don't know what this is like. We have nothing to understand it with in our own lives or the world of empirical science. We haven't observed it we can't test it. This is the stuff that magic is made of. These are the stories of fantasy and magical places.

We are so oblivious to the world outside of our world because we just don't understand it. And that's OK! It's OK to not know everything. It's OK for there to be mystery and wonder. It's OK for there to be a world of angels and demons and priests who live forever. In fact it is this world of faith which saves us. Hebrews 7 tells us it is by this immortality Jesus is able to save us completely. He is our eternal intercessor. There is a covenant better than the blood and guts of animals. It is something beyond. And it's OK...in fact its very...very...good.

I pray we might enter into wonder today. I pray we would be OK with mystery and the unexplainable today. I pray we would be opened to the world of faith today.

Stuck in Elementary School-the billy madison syndrome (Hebrews 6)

Do you realize most of the christian church has never graduated from elementary school?

I am reminded this morning of a very silly and not completely recommendable movie called Billy Madison. It's a slap stick Adam Sandler movie that came out years ago. Adam plays this wealthy kid, Billy Madison, who hasn't had to work a day in his life. He coasted through school because his dad payed the teachers to pass him. Now he gets drunk every night and sleeps it off around the pool everyday. Until his dad is going to give the family business to someone else. Now Billy has to step up and go back to school and pass all 12 grades once again without daddy's money this time. But he has to do it in a couple on months, so it's fly by the seat of his pants time. It is so goofy seeing the "grown man" sitting in the little kid's desks and then trying to be the cool poser in high school when the generations have changed.

Can you imagine staying in elementary school for the rest of your life?

And yet it seems to me the church might be doing just that. In Hebrews 6 we are encouraged to move beyond the basic teachings of 1. repentance from acts that lead to death (sins) and faith in God 2. Instruction about baptism 3. lay on of hands 4. the resurrection of the dead 5. eternal judgment.

Really we are to move beyond these things? To grow in christian maturity there is something more? Most of the christian churches we go into today teach nothing more than this. Repent, pray the sinners prayer, be saved. Then to really seal the deal you can be baptized so you don't have to fear the resurrection of the dead or the judgment.

That's were we pretty much stop, over and over again every week, the same basic message...repent come to salvation.

This was the message of John the baptist, repent and be baptized, prepare the way of the Lord. Jesus however went beyond this. The baptism of Jesus was the baptism of the spirit, one which was meant to be trans-formative and come with power to live. John's was a good place to start but we must go farther.

These are good foundational teachings, but Hebrews is telling us if we stay here we are the Billy Madison's of the kingdom. Adults sitting in the elementary school desks. There is more. This message is to change our lives. When it is sown it will bring forth a crop. There will be evidences which Hebrews says God will remember.

"God is not unjust he will not forget the work and love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."

Wait a minute, we don't like this so much. You mean we will be help accountable for the way we treat other people. I thought this was all about grace, I thought this was all about what God has done for me not what I have done for him.

It's true Jesus died for us so we could have life. If you have the son you have life. Even our imitation of Jesus is through faith. You and I can stay stunted in elementary school if we want to, getting spiritually wasted every worship service and then sleep it off by the side of the pool.

But we will never be mature Christian's that way. We will get stuck in our little tiny desks with the bottle's of spiritual milk hanging from our mouths.

Harsh? I know.

But if our faith doesn't shape and change our lives what good is it? If it does not integrate into the fabric of our conversations and personal ethics at work, then what good is it? If we do not treat our families and co-workers and co-human beings better because of it, then what good is it?

Our faith and our theology must become incarnational! It must take on the flesh of our daily lives as our God took on the flesh of sinful humanity to show us his great love for us. Faith must meet life! This is christian maturity, this is spiritual growth!

Now don't forget to stay connected to the vine. Doing good dutiful deeds without connection to Christ gets us no where. But living our connected faith out in the world gets us everywhere.

May we dig our roots into the foundations of Christianity, deeply in, and then may we grow in the light of God's love stretching our branches to heaven to be a blessing to all as we have been blessed. Let us graduate from elementary school and move on in higher education.