Say What?

Scripture: James 1

19My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.   (James 1:19-22)

Observation:

The first chapter of James spanks me.  It tells me to do things that are opposite of what I know.  “Take joy in my suffering”?  What?  Let me clean my glasses, nope, I didn’t read it wrong, it really says that.  “The poor are to take pride in their high position and the rich in their humble one?”  Really?  No, I’m not kidding, it really does say that.  And when we fail at it, we can’t even blame God for setting the bar too high, for it also says “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires and enticed.  Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”  Say What?  We are all tempted, even Jesus was tempted!

That’s kind of the point James is trying to make. 

We can’t do this on our own.  The temptations are enough snare us if we allow ourselves to wallow or if we react without thinking first.

Luckily, James goes on and gives us a glimpse of the better way to handle ourselves.  He says we should be “Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.”

There is one phrase in there that makes me pause.  He says to “get rid of all Moral Filth”.  What does that mean? 

Does it mean the human desire to be “good enough”, moral, without being Godly?  Is that what he’s calling filthy?

When we are born again, it’s an experience where a supernatural God says “you were bought at a price and you are no longer your own” but have become “slaves to righteousness”.  That transformation changes our way of thinking; and takes our bodies, our time, our priorities, and our resources and offers them to Him to do with as He pleases.  We cry about the things that make Him sad, we rejoice over the things that make Him happy, and we become consumed with looking at life the way He does, and bringing that vision into our every day. 

And it’s a radical viewpoint.  It a view point that calls us to do those unnatural things I was talking about in the beginning of this devotion.  Things that we can’t do on our own resources.  It’s how we know that He’s alive – and living inside of us.

But that way of thinking is scary.  It makes us different.  It also costs a lot.  “Take up your cross and follow me” Jesus said.  “You must lose your life to find it” he said.  “The Pearl of Great Price”, where you abandon all the things you see, feel and love in this world in order to set your heart on the things you can’t see.  In fact, because the people you love can’t see it either, and they trust in the science of the things they can see and explain, you might lose them too. 

So, instead of risking all of that, we worship a god of the “good enough”.  “I have to keep my feet on the ground”  “I have responsibilities” We universally agree on what moral standards are good, and most of us will follow them, provided our particular circumstances don’t get in the way of it.  This passage calls that kind of living “Moral Filth.”

Application:

What is our take-away from this?  It’s a warning.  Watch yourself, test yourself against the word, accept it and let it be the standard that you adjust yourself to.  The last verse in this chapter says it eloquently: “Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

Prayer:

Father, I pray that you examine my heart and reveal to me the places where I have allowed myself to be polluted.  Show me the compromises I’ve made that keep you from having power in my life.  Help me, Lord, to slow down my reactions.  I want to bring you honor!  Amen.

Cursing of the Fig Tree

 This post originally appears at cliffymania.com.  My friend, Cliff Richardson, is doing a series on the Passion Week as we lead up to Easter and invited me to take "Tuesday".  This post was my offering.  Please click the link above and visit his site, see what else he has in store for this series. It's good stuff!

There are so many pieces we need in place to understand the curse of the fig tree.  I’m going to break it down by topic and then summarize what I’ve learned in studying this myself.  I urge you to spend time in the Word, fact checking my assumptions and searching out the scriptures for yourself.  

   

What happened

A large crowd of people welcomed him into the city two days before with Hosannas, tossing palm fronds and their cloaks, a custom reserved for a challenging king entering a conquered city.  His popularity was at its height, and the people wanted to get near him and into his good graces, expecting him to lead them out of Roman occupation.  So, the crowd at this moment was very much in his favor. 

Then the next day he went into the temple and cleared it of the moneychangers, challenging the authority of the leaders who governed this practice.

That made him quite a few enemies as a result!  How dare he challenge them!  Who did he think he was? 

The religious leaders of the day, Pharisees and Sadducees, were angry that Jesus broke all the man-made laws they worked so hard to enforce and live by.  (He healed people on the Sabbath, made rulings on disputes that valued restored relationships over the letter of the law, feasted when others fasted, and at the bottom of it preached a gospel that didn’t include complicated sacrifices where they could only buy temple approved livestock with temple money that they had to pay an exchange rate to possess. He was eating into their profits, and pulling more and more people away from their power base.)  He stirred the people up spiritually too,  not only did they follow him around willy nilly in the desert, but now he was on their turf – causing people to question things that they’d never questioned before.  He had to go!  So they plotted.

Now it’s the third day inside Jerusalem.  All this day those same people he’d challenged at the temple the day before were waylaying him trying to set him verbal traps that would legally let them take him into custody.  He refuted them each with words they couldn’t argue against.  Finally, they gave up verbally sparing with him and sought ways to trap him.  Ultimately, they used Judas who betrays him.

Meanwhile Jesus was walking down the road and teaching his disciples, as he went; very much aware of the turmoil brewing and probably looking for ways to use the most of every moment he had left.  He’d set the heat on the teakettle when he upturned the exchange tables in the temple and the traps he’d sidestepped only bubbled their anger more.  All that remained now was waiting for the whistle.  In the meantime, spotting the fig tree from afar off, Jesus finds a way to use it as an object lesson.

The fig tree

First I want to give a basic lifecycle of the fig tree because it’s significantly different than what we typically expect here in North America.  We have buds that blossom into flowers, then leaves and finally fruit comes at the end; not so with fig trees.  Figs develop the fruit first, before the shoots of leaves appear.  A fig tree buds at the end of the branch and that swells into a small green fruit.  Leaves sprout and grow over the spring and summer until they are thick and full over the rest of the tree.  During the course of the summer, those early figs grow in size and ripen.  This particular tree had the full leaves of late summer long before it was the correct season for them to appear.  If a tree has leaves before the fruit, it will not bear fruit later.

Back to the story

Jesus knew that this was his final week on earth, and he was acutely aware that the people would reject him.  No matter how the public was treating him now, the Jewish leaders would find a way to hand him over to the Romans.  On this day in the passion week he said to a group of Greeks who came to see him “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  (John 12:24)  Here he is predicting his own death and making the way for the Holy Spirit to come and live in each person who believes. 

I believe, based on what I’ve read, that Jesus was using the fig tree to say something specific.  He walks up to it and finds it in full leaf, out of its season and not bearing the fruit that the leaves promised, so he curses it.  When the disciples see it, they marvel at how quickly it withers.  (I imagine it was quite a show, because he’d been doing miracles and healings for years now – and they still were marveled at this display of power)  Jesus’ response to their amazement however wasn’t to demystify his action on why he did the cursing – rather he went on to talk to them about the state of their faith, and the power available to those who believe and don’t doubt.  He linked his actions (the miracle) to his faith.  The law that the Pharisees were plotting to protect had no such power. 

What this says to me

There is a verse in 2 Timothy 3:3-9 concerning the last days that I can’t get out of my mind.  The cursing of the fig tree, and the reference here in this scripture to “teachers who oppose the truth” seem very similar to me.  See if you agree:

3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.  6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone. (Italics mine)

“who as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.”

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  The Pharisees had a form of Godliness, a law that they loved and tried very hard to live up to; one that they tried to hold others to as well.  But, because they claimed to be religious, but they weren’t bearing good fruit in their lives, they denied the power they so craved!  They were always learning, but never able to come to knowledge of the truth.

The Last Word

I want to leave the last word with scripture concerning fruit, and they are familiar passages. 

Galatians 5:22 shows a list of what the fruits are – study them, don’t let them be an intangible metaphor!  (…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control; against such things there is no law.)  These fruits are the proof that the Holy Spirit lives inside you and is growing there, imparting power through your faith to make a difference in the world.

Finally I leave you with these words Jesus said about fruit:

“I am the vine and you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  (John 15:5)

 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the father will give you.”  (John 15:16) 

By their fruit will you recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?  (Mat. 7:16)

The Faithful and The Shrinky-dinks

Scripture:

22 Let us draw near to God with a “true heart” in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without a wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.  For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:22-25)

Observation:

Like many, I’ve heard the “do not give up meeting together” verse for years as the reason we should have church.  Actually, I think I am guilty of even citing it myself for just such a purpose.  But when you put that verse back into context and the larger point that the writer of Hebrews is making – you see something else frame these words. 

The first verse in this chapter says “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves.  For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship…. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.  It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”  Then Jesus said “here I am, I have come to do your [God’s] will.”  This is the reason that Jesus came.  And by his sacrifice, he took away the guilt of our sin. 

I wish that the information I just quoted, the profound truth of it, reached my heart instead of just my head.  It’s good to know that Jesus forgives me for the awful things I think, do or say, but it’s much harder to feel it, isn’t it?  We still think we should pay.  Sometimes we even pick situations for ourselves that we think we deserve, in order to get the punishment we think we need, to make penance for who we think we are, or what we think we’ve done. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that this is biblical behavior, but it is often what we do anyway.

When I hear the verse “do not give up meeting together”, It evokes the image of Christians getting their party on.  Lets face it wherever two or three Christians gather together there is a potluck.  Right?  But when we pull this verse out of context like that we miss the deeper meaning I believe is here for us.

If you look at the two verses nesting our favorite one you’ll see something interesting.  I call them “one another” verses.  There are a whole bunch of them, you should look them up sometime.

Why would verse 23 say “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful”, unless He knew this internal struggle that would take place in our lives?  Knowing that Jesus covered your sins and believing it (acting on it) are two different things, and we need each other to do it. Vs 24 says “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds.”  I wish I understood the Greek for the word “stir up” but my heart tells me that it’s the action a friend does to pull us out of our own heads – to redirect our thinking.  Maybe this happens through conversation, maybe it happens through confrontation; either way it’s the action of a brother in Christ who comes along side you and has permission to know what’s really going on inside.  We can get lost in negative thoughts and destructive attitudes, can’t we?  It’s why he gives the commands to stir up, meet, and encourage. 

Application:

I am concerned by the church’s trend to congregate for the sake of congregating without the real spirit of “meeting together”, being fulfilled.  Specifically those “one another’s” that help us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.  The average church goer today is not involved in a small group of people who have access to the intimacies of their life.  They believe that meeting together means standing in the same building at the same time listening to the same sermon and singing the same songs.  Because if we are doing this thing right, following in Christ’s example that is, then we are in for conflict and suffering for doing right.  Verse 36 says “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised… and in verse 39 “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

Prayer:

Lord, give us courage to not shrink back, but to follow you in faith.  Help us when we meet together, where you are in our midst, to bind us into a deeper intimacy with you and with each other.  Amen.

Of High Priests and Fat Babies

Scripture: Hebrews Chapter 5

We have much to say about this but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.  You need Milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.  (Hebrews 5:11-14)

Observation:

There are so many things here I want to unpack!  I’m afraid of writing a novel instead of a daily devotion.  The writer of Hebrews points to the office of priest, one who is human – with human weaknesses who sacrifices for his own sin and then stands for the people and offers sacrifices to God on their behalf, because they are like children who don’t understand that they are breaking God’s laws.

The word “sacrifice” conjures barbaric images of animal slaughter.  We shy away from the image and it takes more work to see the meaning behind the imagery, but to a people who raised and killed their own food regularly, slaughtering the animal wasn’t something they got hung up on or shied away from.  We in our modern world are so dissociated from it that we miss the main point of the image.  The point is that when you sin, there is a price.  Romans 6:23 says “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”  Before we even understood what the law was, we already broke it. 

How could anyone get to heaven then?  No one is able to keep the whole law! 

This is why God established the sacrificial system and created the office of priesthood.  Our chapter today says in verse 4 that “no one takes this honor upon himself, but he must be called by God”.  God chooses him for his maturity, for his practice of Righteousness.  (I’ll talk more about that in a moment.)  For centuries, this was the way God dealt with the sinfulness of man; by demanding a price in blood, offered through those called out among the people who lived righteous lives.    

This is the reason Jesus came to us as a human instead of materializing in some other fashion.  He grew up and lived among the people understanding their weaknesses knowing their pain and able to be counted as one of them.  In this way when he offered himself (a sinless sacrifice) we would no longer have to transfer our guilt to livestock and pay the blood price in that way.

Now that the blood price is taken care of “once and for all” (Heb. 10:10) we are freed up from having to be perfect in order to get to heaven.  We no longer have the crushing weight of condemnation (Rom. 8:1) and are free to practice righteousness

Application:

Now we get down to it.  What is Righteousness? Religious language and the semantics that we bring into it knots meanings and definitions so that it ends up meaning different things to different people. First of all, you must decide what is right.  Does your definition of truth reside in what scripture says is true or in what you cherry pick as your own truth?

The simple definition is “to do the right thing”.  Righteousness is an action, a lifestyle of doing the right thing.  James 4:17 says “a man who knows the right to do and does not do it, to him it is a sin.”  God holds us accountable to what we know.

The verse in today’s chapter says we learn righteousness.  It’s a process.  It says: “by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”.

Those who do not train themselves are infants, able only to drink milk.

Prayer:

Lord, I tried to unpack a lot into this one passage.  I pray that you would take my offering and speak where my words fail.  I am so thankful for the sacrifice of your son, because no matter how right-ly I try to act, I cannot be good enough to enter heaven.  It is only by your grace and the fact that Jesus paid my blood-price that I can have fellowship with you.  Lastly, I pray that my words and my actions be in sync.  Rise up people around me to challenge me when they see differences, I don’t want to be a fat baby.  Thank you for your Holy Spirit that convicts and teaches me, help me prove my faith by what I do.  Amen.

Two Whole Years

Scripture: Acts 28

30  For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.  31 Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 28:30-31)

Observation:

In today’s reading, we see that Paul is still making his way toward Rome.  It seems that the enemy tosses everything to thwart God’s plan for Paul in his path.  He shipwrecks and they wash up on Malta.  God intervenes with welcoming natives.  The enemy uses a snakebite to try to kill him, God intervenes by not letting the venom make him sick (he just shakes it off).  The enemy uses the healing to try and deify Paul, the natives say he’s a god because he didn’t get sick. 

The word doesn’t tell us for certain, but by now we know the nature of Paul and can guess what he said to THAT notion!  The local Roman representative on the island invites them to stay with him, and while there, out of compassion for him, Paul heals his sick father.  What does the enemy do?  He uses the fervor of the natives and brings Paul every sick person on the island!  What does God do?  He heals every single one of them through Paul. 

What the enemy used to try to stop the gospel from coming to the gentiles, God used to increase the power of his name. 

When Paul finally gets to Rome, the enemy has withdrawn for a time. He had a guard who stayed with him while he was under house arrest, but had two whole years to preach the kingdom unhindered. 

Application:

When I think of all the times and ways that God has intervened in my own life I am humbled by it.  Between the enemy throwing obstacles in my path, the random awful things that just happen, and the messes I’ve made of my life because of my own bad choices it’s amazing to me that I am in this time and in this place and speaking to you now about the purposes of God. 

Because that’s what it’s all about you know, HIS Purposes.  Way back in chapter 23 the Lord told Paul he had a plan for him.  (Preach the gospel to the gentiles) Nothing stood in the way of that plan, because no matter what happened, (riots, prison, shipwrecks, vipers, or appeals to his vanity) Paul leaned in and followed where God was leading him.  He didn’t run away from it – and he didn’t try to negotiate a different path.

Two whole years; that phrase sticks with me because it represents a season of time, a chapter in a life.  What is God doing in/with/through you in the season of life that you are in?  Are you entering adulthood?  Are you raising small children or teenagers?  Are you struggling to redefine yourself without them? 

Wherever you are, whatever season you are in right now, I urge you to look and find the purpose.  “Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  This should be our daily prayer – our purpose.  Find ways we can bring kingdom where we are, in the season of life we’re in right now. 

Prayer:

Our father in heaven, teach us how to live the radical life you taught us from the sermon on the mount. (Mat:5-7)  Give us hearts that want this radical life more than we want our own comfort.  Give us the courage to lean into you and follow where you lead.  Amen.