NYC Blogs (Tues. & Thurs.)

NYC 2010 Quiet Times

-          12/28/10 Col. 1: 13-15 (out of darkness into an glorious kingdom)

Summary:  [background] Paul, when writing this is in prison, just for perspective.  To the best of our knowledge Paul never physically visited Colossae; he is writing to them probably because of an account of another prisoner, who fervently prays for the people there (who are constantly practicing stuff like ascetism and sorcery. 

                In this passage, Paul is giving thanks as well as praying for the Colossians.  As he enters the part of the text we are looking at he is now coming back to the Gospel (as is Paul’s style, putting the Gospel in everything).  In the few verses preceding this text Paul urges the church to endure and give thanks to the Father who “has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Now Paul paints a picture of the gospel and how Christ is preeminent.

Timeless Principle:  Paul has been giving reasons for thanksgiving and he bringing it to a close with the main reason for thanksgiving in this, “he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”  This is a big statement.  He, the Father, has delivered us from darkness.  Hold that.  Darkness? Why is this important why does it matter, what is darkness as it relates to this text?  John gives a description in his Gospel in saying that “in the beginning there was the word and the word was with God… in Him was life and the life was the light of the world.  [And now in glorious fashion] the light shines in the darkness.”  We see a very real truth here, that being the word, which is called life who is the person of Jesus Christ, is called the very light that has shown brighter than any star ever could and shown forth into this dark place.  This presents yet another cold truth that we, one time or at this very moment are in darkness, not one that drowns out merely physical light but rather one that is defined by death.  In fact Paul paints multiple pictures of the person as corrupt, never seeking after God by nature but rather God-hating at the core, dead in our sins having made a declaration of war against our maker.  But there is a promise in this text, a glorious promise.  Paul states here, that the saints in Jesus Christ, have been transferred from our eternal darkness, from our death, from our eternal condemnation and brought us to where?  Back to life? Yes back to life out of our darkness but he did not end there, rather it merely begins there, as we look at this text one breath-taking phrase shines forth, that we have been brought to the kingdom of the beloved Son.  Ephesians 1 describes this as being adopted as the very children of our maker.  Peter alludes to our grace, as given by the Lord Jesus Christ, in saying that the saints have been counted “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who [in a painful, obliteration of his flesh on a cross] out of darkness and into Marvelous light.”  This astonishing, and may we do live not as ones who are still captivated by darkness but rather as children of the light.

My Prayer:  Father, these passages have an astonishing truth.  That you, for reasons that will forever remain unknown to me, blessed me in calling me out of my hell-driven, self-seeking darkness transferring me not only to life and light but into the glorious kingdom of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ in whom I have forgiveness of sins.  You have called me out of darkness, adopting me as a son, and into your marvelous light.  Father, may that never leave my thoughts, I want to be driven by this unfathomable truth, the truth of the substitutionary death of your son.  Change my heart, kill the old me, make me more like son.  I beg these things in Christ’s name, Amen.

-          12/30/10 Rom. 12: 1-2 (a holy transformation)

Summary:  Paul is making an appeal.  He is making a point urging the church to put on Christ, to become transformed by the renewal of their minds.  He is urging them to, in all things, determine the will of the Lord by examination.

Timeless Principle:  This is an amazing passage that demands inspection.  TO begin let us look earlier in the chapter.  In the verses preceding this text, Paul is praying.  In his prayer he makes a powerful claim in saying,

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. “

(Rom 11:33-36)

This is a powerful claim.  Paul claims and joyfully pronounces with confidence the glory of God, whose riches and wisdom are unsearchable, whose judgments are absolute, who is completely independent, who is the owner of all, to whom all things are formed because he is the head in all things and in him all things flow.  And these are powerful claims.

                Having looked at this, now let us view the text, in which Paul makes two distinct but related commands to the soldiers of Christ.  The first is an appeal to present our bodies as living sacrifices before the Lord.  Now this raises a question.  What is a living sacrifice?  In OT times, let it be known that Israel sins were covered over by the blood of sacrificial offerings.  The offerings were burned, and presented as fragrant offerings unto the Lord.  But Christ came to make a new covenant; he was the sacrificial offering that needs no repetition, the perfect substitute for sin.  But in this appeal, this new covenant, perhaps it would be helpful for us to ponder our new responsibility in Christ, the idea of a living sacrifice.  Paul goes on in verse 1 to paint a small picture of this definition; it is a life that is holy and acceptable to the Lord, a life that earnestly and purely seeks after God with humility.  Then Paul further defines this sacrifice in saying that it is your spiritual worship.  Christ has called to worship him in spirit.  May the very foundations of our  souls long for God, may our thirst for him ever draw us closer to his word, making us crazy to know him more while stopping at nothing to do so.  Perhaps the greatest thought of spiritual worship is the idea to be fully satisfied in Christ.  To say that in all things Christ is infinitely more valuable.  In The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer this is summarized in one amazing verse, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so verse, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”  This is spiritual worship,  it is the momentary forgetting of all else, a blessed riddance of earth, and an overwhelming gaze at the holy of holies where God sits majestically on the mercy seat in all power, honor, and glory forever.

                Paul then issues another command.  It is an order that exists in two parts.  Part one?  Be not conformed to this world.  Paul is serious here, I can almost picture the intensity on his face as he is writing this appeal.  This is not something to be toyed around with.  What place does light have with darkness? None.  Paul uses explicit language when he is concerned with this topic.  In all of his letters we see this recurring command of being separated from the world.  This is, by definition, what we mean when we say we are saints, “set apart” for God’s glory in and through the redemptive work of Christ.  To play with this, to walk the edge of the cliff of death and sin is to have already fallen off.  The second part of this command is as follows: Be transformed by the renewal of your minds.  That by careful discernment you may know what the will of God is.  Perhaps it would be helpful to say that the first part of this command cannot and will not be completed without the fulfillment of the second part.  In order to remain un-conformed to the world, for it to last then there must be a heart change, a transformation is necessary. 

                My Prayer:  Father, your word is true.  Provide me with the strength to have a renewed mind, a new perspective, one that is focused on the story of your Son’s agonizing death.  May all my decisions in light of this love story, the story of your infinite love for a fallen people.  And so lord I beg that in my mind’s transformation, I would count it all my joy not to conform to the ways of the world and further seek Christ.  Lord at all times, I plea that you would give me strength to present myself a living sacrifice so that your name might get all glory. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Cross-centered Christmas?

Taking a look at a cross-centered Christmas
-(Key text:Phil 2:8)
 This time of the year brings back many memories for most of us.  It is a time of great smiling, hugging, gift giving and receiving, a time for laughing and seeing the family, being reunited with our loved ones and the ones who cared to bring us up but perhaps the true meaning of this time has been lost…. Deep breath, shocker…. right? Ok, maybe not, almost everybody would agree on this statement, everybody has realized that the gifts and other traditions do not define the holiday, most would even point to Christ and say that he is the reason for the season, they are correct in saying this but on repeated occasion they lack respect for the statement in its definition.  That definition, in short, being that a very real, infinite, holy God came to Earth in the form of a man.
 So then, let us dive deep into the reason for the season in order that we might get off of our self-consumed gift-wanting natures and bow in reverence to our maker (we return to the meaning of Christmas a little later so bear with me for a just a bit).
 Where to begin…. Allow me to make this statement, to understand the realness of our earlier definition, we must first magnify our maker.  So let us zoom in on deity.  To do this successfully, perhaps we should look at our rather small view of God and realize our idolatry.  We, in our sin, are quick to say “God is mighty, God is infinite” and never even stop to think of the depth of these things, we have gotten God so bottled up in the little reserved in our minds, carefully hidden away with our Sunday morning smiles.  This is sin, when we make out this picture in our heads of God we give the infinite God finite limits thereby creating an idol and we worship our little God’s until our heads fall off, all the more worshipping an idol and this is our (please note as I say our) condition.  We are all guilty of this.  So for just a moment let’s open up the eyes of our heart and gaze upon the Lord without pre-defining His limits.  Now let us magnify our maker.  God…. Okay allow me to say this way, GOD…. Getting a picture yet?  The very thought should drive us to our knees.  Afterall, we are talking about the same God who carefully weighed the mountains on scales, who measured out the heavens with his hand, who girded and framed the mountains with upmost perfection, who calms the seas and the roaring of the ways, who. In merely breathing causes massive, heavenly, majestic entities to flow forth (we have come to know these things as stars), the one who very by causes real to be real (Isaiah 40, Psalm 65, Psalm 36, also see Psalm 8 and Job 39; these chapters are money by the way!!!!).  Is it coming to you yet that our God is big.  Getting it yet?  Closer then, okay…. Let zoom a little further, this is the God who merely spoke and it was, it wasn’t like he took tools and whatnot to make the Earth; nope, not at all, he didn’t use tools, he could have I guess but God has some style, some moxy if you will, He chose to build our world by the simple words of His mouth.  It is almost as if God was hanging out with Christ one day, well maybe not day per say, because I don’t think those were created yet, well anyway where was I…. Oh so God and Christ were chilling and then God turns to Christ and laughingly shrugs “Hey Son, check this out ‘Let there be light’” [and it was so], then Jesus turns back to the Father and excitingly says, “oooooohhh yeah, that’ll definitely make those little humans feel tiny, all you did was say light and now it is so, nice.”  Getting it yet?  Even closer.  Okay lets get a little more serious.  This is the God who turned to the seas and shouted, “Shut-up!!!!” and they shut-up (Matt. 8).  Getting it yet?  Oh wait, I forgot to mention that getting it isn’t really possible and that this was just a glimpse of a majestic God, that grasping it is because of our finite minds is inconceivable. 
 Okay, so we now have an extremely small yet larger view of a very BIG God.  So keeping this picture in the front of minds, allow me to pose yet another brief statement.  This is a big one; The fullness of God came in the form of a helpless baby.  Did your world get rocked yet?  Mine has most definitely been quaked over and over by that statement.  Think about it again, God, the same God who did all those things we just defined, the same God is large beyond comprehension, was condensed into the form of a defenseless babe.  That’s amazing.  Perhaps that is what Paul means in his letter to Philipi when he says, “and being found in human form, he humbled himself…”.   The greek for humbled here is the word tapeinoo which can also be translated as “humiliated”. Now that’s big.  Our God humbled himself and confined himself to human form (while being fully God).  Stop reading for a second, pause and gather these thoughts…  Okay is it becoming real to you yet?  The fullness of God humbled himself and even humiliated himself to become a mere helpless baby.  And now we ask why? What was the purpose of this?  Was there some sort of predefined plan or was it merely some crazy form of improv?  I can tell you that our God does not improve and he has a plan for all things.  Perhaps the best answer is found in the rest of our theme verse:
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself…. by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. “
(Php 2:8)
This one brings tears to my eyes.  This is not just the reason for the season but extends a little further than that, it is literally the single greatest fact in all of history.  Christ, the very real full, and infinite God, who is bigger than even the most imaginative man’s wildest dreams decided to humble himself to become a man, and a baby at that, but not merely to say He did it but rather with a cause.  That cause to continue this act of humility even to the point of the most brutal, painful, and tormented death in all of history.  And he did so without complaint and without so much as saying a word.  He could have wiped us out, he could have freed himself from that cross, but instead he had a plan, a plan to set his beloved people free despite their all our declaration of war against him.  This is the meaning of Christmas, the true meaning being that Jesus Christ humiliated himself to be slaughtered be the very wrath of God in order that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
I say these things not in order to say merry Christmas, but so that we, together, might bow before our Lord and say to our God, thank you, my heavenly Father, for paying sending your son in order that he might pay a horrifying price, Amen…