SEE: Griller sandwiches and the kingdom of God. (John 3)

What are we missing?

In just one week Lorelai will start kindergarten. We have been looking forward to this for a while, the full school day. When I thought about going back to get my doctorate I always thought it would be best to do so once Lorelai had started school. So here we are right on schedule. I got a sudden ache today though for the little girl who comes home at lunchtime and eats her favorite griller sandwich that her daddy made for her. Those days are passing away she is growing up. I realized that I liked this point of view much better then the send Lorelai to school so I can get my work done point of view. I found myself praying that God would help me SEE the moments with my daughter in the light of love rather than the darkness of duty.

In John chapter 3 Jesus has a conversation with a teacher of Israel. Nicodemus comes to him in the middle of the night, cloaked in darkness to ask him some questions about eternal life. Jesus tells him that in order to SEE the kingdom of God he must be born again. Jesus tells him that he is testifying to the things he has seen. Only Jesus has been to heaven and only he can testify to the heavenly things. Unless we are born of the spirit we will be unable to SEE the kingdom of God. Later in the chapter John the Baptist reiterates this point, Jesus is testifying to what he has seen and heard. Jesus is the one who is from above. Without believing in Jesus we will not SEE eternal life.

Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus that being born again, born of the spirit, it to live in the light. He even defines judgment as rejecting the light in order to live in the darkness. It is pretty hard to SEE in the dark. This life is an awful lot like seeing in the dark. All we SEE is the physical world around us, which is broken and diminished by sin. But Jesus is testifying to that which is above this world, the world of light, eternal life.

Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song called SEE after losing his little girl. They found a piece of paper she had written on just before she died and it had a flower drawn on it and the word SEE written on it. Steven took comfort in the idea that there was a time coming when he would be able to SEE. All he can see now are the tears of sorrow and the brokenness of this world. But there is a time coming when he would SEE the earth made new, when he would SEE his daughter again, because on February 20^th his little girl had chosen to believe in Jesus and live in the light.

While I also long for the day when I will SEE the kingdom of God fully realized. I know that I want to start to SEE through the goodness of God’s light now. I want to SEE the glowing moments I have with my daughter now. I want to SEE the kingdom of light break through this present darkness at every moment it possibly can in my life.

May we believe in Jesus today so that we can be born of the spirit and SEE the kingdom now in glimpses and then in fullness.

I’m not safe for Jesus (John 2)

He did not entrust himself to the people because he knows all men.

So I’m flying back from a great vacation right now. I just visited my family. Dad and I played golf 3 or 4 times we floated the river and I had a great date with my wife. I’m headed back to school back to the books, back to the study of theology, the study of God. Why then do I, the man studying God, find myself fighting my demons again on the plane? My mind and body are so preoccupied with the ache of my own sinful desires I can’t seem to think of anything else.

I open my bible on my iphone searching for some sort of safety some sort of salvation. What do I find? Jesus knows me…he knows us all. In John 2 Jesus turns water into wine, he cleanses the temple, he is giving sign after sign of who he is and the people are beginning to believe in him. His disciples believe at the wine tasting at the wedding and they remember the zeal he is to have for his father’s house has he makes a whip of chords and tosses the temple tables. Many others come to believe in him because of the signs he is doing and yet Jesus doesn’t entrust him self to them because he knows all men.

Jesus knows our thoughts, he knows our hearts, he knows our desires and intentions. Believing in him doesn’t make us safe. Just because I am studying God for my life’s work and I am doing so with full faith in him doesn’t mean that he can entrust himself to me. Why…because my sin still requires the cross. I still need his life for my life. The battle was raging only moments ago in my heart, mind, and body require the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to set me free. Even though I believe…I am not safe for Jesus.

But he came here anyway.

He knows it wasn’t safe and he came here anyway. The light entered the darkness knowing the world would not receive him, knowing even though some might believe they would still not be safe. Even his disciples abandoned him when he was arrested. But he came anyway.

And he came again today. He came and met with me and gave me strength. He is my refuge I dove into my prayer journal crying out for help as the psalmist did and then help came. The Holy Spirit came and met with me and the void of sin was filled with completeness and wholeness. My desires are peaceful once again.

I am not safe for Jesus…but he comes anyway.

May he come into your life today as well.

Darkness turned into a reason to believe. (John 1)

Why don't you believe?

I am drawn to the book of John. I always have been. I never really understood why until today. I think it is because of John's emphasis on belief, which is tied directly to my struggle with doubt. So many times in my life I have been unsure whether or not I believe in God. Does this whole thing really make sense. Because of that struggle I often see faith or belief as a very mystical thing. I tend to read the Gospel of John as a very mystical book. So other worldly and beyond understanding...so mysterious and ethereal. The strange thing is...John doesn't write this way about belief at all.

In John chapter 1 there is all this seemingly mystical stuff about the word being with God in the beginning and being God in the beginning. Then there is this light that comes to darkness and then the light/word comes to "his own," which is the "world" by the way. They whole world not just those going to synagogue or church every week. The fullness of God and all creation are in Jesus and he makes his dwelling among us. Jesus moves in to the neighborhood. Then John, the author, points out that John the baptist is here to testify about Jesus so that those in the world will believe. If they do believe then they will become the children of God. Ok this all sounds rather mysterious and ethereal.

But John goes on to anchor it all down. John the baptist is told that the one he baptizes who has the Spirit of God descend of him is the messiah. Well Jesus is baptized and down comes the spirit. Then Jesus is cruising along collecting disciples and Phillip goes to find his brother Nathaniel. Jesus tells Nathaniel that he was sitting under a fig tree before Phillip found him and Nathaniel all of a sudden declares his faith in Jesus. Jesus laughs a little at Nathaniel's expense..."You believe because I told you which tree you were under, you will see much greater things than this. You will see angels ascending and descending on the son of man."

Now all of these proofs for belief are rather ethereal in nature, but they are presented as logical proofs. People were told things which then come true. They are offered concrete observable phenomenon to give evidence to their faith. John's whole premise for writing it that the people who read his words might believe. He is presenting signs of evidence.

There are many different reasons for doubt. God doesn't show up when we ask him too. According to John the darkness just didn't understand the light. There are lots of things we don't understand because they are so other than us. Which is where my struggle came in. I choose not to understand because my sin what so other than the light. I didn't really want God to exist because then I didn't have to keep my self in check morally if there was no God. But God saved me from my addiction anyway and my own life became the greatest evidence for me to believe.

I don't know why you don't believe in your moments of doubt. I don't know what it is in your life that is so dark that you just don't understand the light. But I invite you to let God shine in, because he has some evidence in mind for you which you probably just don't understand right now. I still argue with God about his reality and my belief, but he can take it. I still stumble in sin but he still forgives me and low a behold I have yet another evidence to believe.

May God get through to us today...may he turn our darkness into light and give us the very evidence we need to believe.