in you

Heart_of_Stone_by_TheComicFanBut I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field abundant, so that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your dealings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds. (Ezekiel 36:21-31, NRSV)

Not because of us, but because of His holy name, God will remove our hearts of stone, and give us a new heart and a new spirit He will put in us!

The Holy Spirit is living in you. He has taken your heart and replaced it with His and given you a new Spirit. One to lead you and guide you the rest of your days. Not because of you, but because of His Holy Name!

So allow His Spirit to lead you and His heart to beat in your life!

Spirit…

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  (John 3:1-8, NRSV)

Nicodemus is the model disciple… Here we see his first encounter with Jesus. It is under the cover of darkness so others will not see what he is doing. He came to inquire at night, in the dark, so not to expose his wonder, his inquisitiveness.

And here we see Jesus tell him that you must be born from above. You must be born of the Spirit and of water. Now every person is born of water. When the human baby is born of the mother, there is a lot of water involved. So you can not enter the kingdom of heaven without water and spirit. Now what about those babies that aren’t born. Well that depends on when we say birth happens, and when a baby is in utero there is a lot of water involved there as well, and I am not here to put God in a box. But this has been said that water is baptism, and I do not necessarily agree with that. But you must be born of water and spirit.

And God’s Spirit is like the wind. We can not catch the wind or see the breeze. We can only see the effects of the wind, yet no one would say the wind doesn’t exist. But we can not see God or understand the concepts around Him, so we say it isn’t true.

Nicodemus could have been turned away because he didn’t understand. But he kept questioning. He kept inquiring.

Allow the Spirit to work in and through you.

Here is a song this passage always reminds me of:

PoWeR SuRGe

“What no one ever shares with you when you’re young is that Christianity is boring. No one tells you that. That Christianity, for the most part, is boring. No one tells you that Christianity is a 70 to 80 year grind in becoming more kind, more gentle, more giving, more joyful, more patient, more loving.

 You learn that God isn’t in the rocking praise band or the amped up worship experience. What you learn after college is that Holy Ground is standing patiently in a line. You learn that Holy Ground is learning to listen well to your child, wife or co-worker. Holy Ground is being a reliable and unselfish friend or family member and being a good nurse when someone is sick. Holy Ground is awkward and unlikely friendships. Holy Ground is often just showing up.

 Being more and more like Jesus is a million boring little things.

No one ever tells you that when you’re young.

Just like no one ever tells you just how risky and revolutionary it all is.

That a truly radical life of following Jesus is made up of a million boring little things.”

-Richard Beck

As we enter the summer (or close to it) we need to think about the million boring little things. You see, Christianity is about being like Christ and growing as His disciple every day.

We need to focus on the mundane tasks of being a disciple. You see as a musician, I will not continue to grow if I do not practice daily, or play for long periods of time. I may still be able to play, but I will not be able to play as well as I did last month, if I do not play for a month. I will not be able to play as good as I did, if I am not practicing every day.

So as disciples how do we practice?

There are focuses we can have as disciples to keep us cross eyed, or focused on Jesus. Michael Foss lays out 6 marks of discipleship in his book Power Surge that are ways we can daily practice being a disciple and do the million little boring things. These 6 marks are:

  1. Praying daily
  2. Worshiping Weekly (notice that is not Weakly!)
  3. Reading the Bible daily
  4. Serving inside and outside the congregation
  5. being in Relationships
  6. Giving

You can use it as an acronym to spell out PoWeR SuRGe.

So let us be focused on the million little things that make us like Jesus and focus ourselves on growing every day as His disciple!

Do you want to…

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. (John 5:1-9, NRSV)

There was a man who laid by this pool every day and he had been ill for 38 years.

When the pool was stirred by the angel, which was what tradition said happened, and the first person in the pool would be healed. The man could not make it to the pool before someone else would get in and be healed.

So Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be made well?”

This seems to be an easy question. I know many people that if I were to ask them this question the answer would be a resounding YES!!!! Most of us, if held back by something we can be healed from, would jump at the chance to be healed.

But this man gives excuses. He has no one to put him in the pool.  He can’t move fast enough to get in the pool before someone else. It could be he was complacent in being as he is. And changing that, by being healed, would cause him more harm than staying ill. His life was ok and why upset that.

“Do you want to be made well?”

How would you answer Jesus?

Love your neighbor

You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the LORD. You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:11-18, NRSV)

This short passage is all the ways we could hurt our neighbors.

Don’t deal falsely.

Don’t lie.

Don’t defraud.

Don’t steal.

Don’t keep what you owe someone else.

Don’t revile or cause others to stumble.

Don’t render unjust judgments.

Don’t profit from the blood of another.

Don’t hate in your heart.

Reprove your neighbor or their guilt will be yours.

Don’t seek vengeance.

Don’t bear a grudge.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

end

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. (1 Corinthians 13:1-8, NRSV)

Love is not self-seeking, or boastful, or envious.

Love never ends. There is no end to love. It will always be there and will always endure.

Prophecies will end.

Tongues will end.

Knowledge will end.

This world will end.

But these three remain:

Faith

Hope

Love

The greatest of these is love, and these will never end.

righteous and unrighteous

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48, NRSV)

Love your neighbors and hate your enemy…

No love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you!

Really? Those who wish to cause me harm, and to see bad things happen to me, I need to pray for them and love them!

Because the rain falls on the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous.

If we only love those who love us or can do something for us, how will the world see we are different? How will they know that they need what we have if we are just like everyone else?

We will not be different, they will not see the love of God in us. We must show the love that pulled us out of the depths when we did not deserve it, so that others will be drawn to God.

born of God

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.  (1 John 4:7-21, NRSV)

Anyone who loves is born of God.

But doesn’t everyone love?

I mean everyone loves something. Most of us love ourselves. I know sometimes we don’t, but for the most part we all love ourselves. And sometimes we love things so much that we will do anything to keep them from changing, or to save them from the changes that have happened. Which really isn’t possible.

I know as a parent I wanted my girls to stop growing and be “daddy’s little girls” forever. Which they will be, but they will all grow up and change. But I love them, as most parents love their children.

So how is it we define love here? Because God is love and those of us who love are born of God and those of us who don’t love do not know God.

And all of us have moments of not loving.

What I think the author of this letter is getting at is, God is love all the time. There is an underlying tone of love in everything God does, and those of us who seek after God’s heart must strive to have an underlying tone of love in everything we do. Not looking out for ourselves, but always the other.

We all will fall short and not be loving all the time, but God lives in us and can help us to look to Him and error on the side of grace and love.