Knowing the Word Become Flesh

29 03 2012

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.  Hosea 4:6 (NLT)

 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.  Philippians 3:10a (NLT)

I have often said that the church today is getting itself into trouble when we are more concerned with knowing about Christ than with actually knowing Him.  I think I first came to that conclusion while studying Philippians and Paul’s comment quoted above (Philippians 3:10).  Apparently, this concern went back a ways before Paul.  Hosea warned the people about it as well.

When I was in High School (back in the days of old), I knew a set of twins.  Their names were Mike and Chris, and they went to a rival High School.  I only knew them because I had played against them in basketball.  They were as identical as any two twins I have ever seen.  It was uncanny…a little creepy even.  If you didn’t know them, it was impossible to tell them apart.  I knew people who knew them, and I would ask them how they tell them apart.  They would try to give me hints about their hair or their mouth or a certain behavior, but none of those hints really helped.  The truth was, those friends couldn’t really tell me how they tell them apart.  More times than not, when asked how, those friends would just say, “I don’t know…I just can, because I know them.”

That, it seems to me, is the difference between knowing God and knowing about God.  I have, upon occasion, listened to teachers teaching about God or Jesus or the Bible and heard lots of great information from them but could not help but ask myself whether they really know God.  There just was no familiarity in their teaching…no real authority.  And I also worry for the church today for that same reason.  I worry that there are an awful lot of us in the church who are all about learning more and more information about God but who are not having any genuine encounters with Him.  Frankly, when I read Hosea and many of the other prophets, it scares me to death.  I worry that I could be that person…that teacher of the Bible who spends more time studying about the Bible than being with the Word become flesh.

This is where the contemplatives among us have a slight edge over those of us who prefer an intellectually stimulating environment in worship.  It is the same edge that Mary had over her sister, Martha.  Knowing Christ (and knowing God) is so much more than just Bible study and sermons.  It is that regular crawling up into Jesus’ lap and just being with Him.  It is quality time spent making eye contact with Him.  It is following Him so closely, that people begin to see Him in you…not because of how much you know about Him, but because of how much you care the way He does.

My prayer today for your church has nothing to do with growth in numbers or making budgets or healthy small groups or community ministries.  As we approach the coming Resurrection Day, my prayer for your church is not about mission or about ministry at all.  This Easter, my prayer for myself and for God’s people around the world (and specifically for the local body of believers where you serve) is that we would know Christ, and the power of His resurrection.  To know Christ more today than I did yesterday…that it a worthy goal.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : leadership, Spiritual Formation

Forgiveness in Our DNA

22 03 2012

Then God ordered me, “Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.
Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people,
even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.”  Hosea 3:1 (The Message)

                                                              

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  John 8:10-11

Hosea had a prostitute for a wife.  I cannot even begin to relate to Hosea’s pain.  I read Hosea and really do have to stretch my imagination to try to feel the pain, and even then, I am sure I cannot even get close.  It is, I think, the severest form of unfaithfulness.  That is probably why God chose it to illustrate His displeasure with His people.  Hosea’s illustration represents among the deepest of betrayals and pain we can know, and the reconciliation to which it points likewise represents the most significant we can begin to embrace.

Just as God’s wrath is just one shade of His deep, deep love for His people, His forgiveness is likewise one shade of that same love.  They are two sides of the same coin.  They are both His very nature.  But though He did not call His people to try to emulate His wrath, He absolutely does call us to forgive as He forgives.  In fact, He created an entire movement (one we call “the church”) designed specifically to reflect that remarkable forgiveness.  It is His very nature, and it is therefore in the very core purpose of His church.

And still, we, His church, read and grasp with great astonishment the story of Hosea and Gomer and the forgiving heart of a husband toward an unrepentant prostitute wife.  It shocks us.  It surprises us.  Its very idea eludes us, at least in any practical way.  Jesus demonstrated it as well, forgiving the adulteress woman in John 8.  Throughout all of scripture, we get story after story of God’s forgiving nature.  Even when He brings His wrath, it is for the purpose of reconciling His people back to Him.  It is Who He is.

This reminder encourages me greatly.  If it is the very nature of God to forgive, and it is the very nature of Jesus to demonstrate that same forgiveness, then that means that, somewhere in our DNA…in the deepest recesses of the church and its memory banks, there is forgiveness.  We can muster it.  We can reflect it.  We can demonstrate it in the same shocking fashion as Hosea, because it is in our blood.  Does that encourage you?

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : Christian Accountability, Forgiveness, Reconciliation

God, Google, and Magic 8 Balls

20 03 2012

Tuesday Re-mix - 

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. James 3:17

Do you remember Magic 8 Balls?  I do…that awesome Mattel toy (wow, just the name Mattel conjures up so many exciting feelings for several generations of Americans…Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars, and all those games!) that would answer any question you have about anything!  Ask it any “yes” or “no” question and then shake it and, voilà, the answer would magically appear in the little window.  “It is decidedly so”, “signs point to yes”, “Don’t count on it”, “Ask again later”…it was all very simple, really.  We liked that about it.  We got to set the agenda, we got to ask the questions we wanted answered…and if we didn’t like the answer, we could just shake it and ask again!

We’ve grown up now and we no longer rely on Magic 8 Balls to answer all our pressing questions.  We realize, of course, how silly we were when we did that.  Now, we have something much more powerful, something much more completely accurate to answer all our questions.  Now we have the internet.  The process still works the same way, of course, because it is a process we like, one we get to control.  We simply log on and Google whatever our question is and, voilà, the answer magically appears on our screen.  We like getting wisdom that way.  It appeals to us.  We set the agenda, we ask the questions, and we get the answer.  We are powerful.

It is this notion of being in control and powerful, I think, that makes it so difficult for us to embrace the Bible (or a walk with Christ, for that matter).  Oh, it is a book filled with all the wisdom we could ever need, but we don’t particularly like the process for retrieving it.  We do not feel nearly as comfortable with receiving God’s wisdom, because we do not get to be in control of how it is imparted.  More often than not, we don’t even get to ask the questions.  Well, we can ask whatever questions we want, but they are probably not the right questions.  And since we tend to ask all the wrong questions, God’s wisdom tends to confound and frustrate us, because He doesn’t necessarily dole it out to us on our terms and in response to our silly questions.  Sure, we may have access to the highest intelligence in the universe, but we do not control how that wisdom is imparted.  That is bothersome.

We are like the rich young ruler (Luke 18) who comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He asked a question about his life after his death.  But Jesus’ answer had an entirely different focus.  His answer, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” focused on the here and now, on this man’s life starting today.  The young man didn’t like that wisdom.  Neither do we.

It would be like asking the Magic 8 Ball a question and having it say, “You’re asking the wrong question…the question that really matters is…”.  Let’s be honest, if Magic 8 Balls said that, nobody would buy them.  And if our search engines did that, we would be looking for a new search engine…one that will play by our rules and answer the questions we want answered…because we are powerful.

But on a genuine faith walk with God, we do not get to set the agenda.  We rarely even get answers to the questions we are asking, at least not when we want them and not the kind of answers we want.  Rather, Jesus says, “Come follow me.”  And it is in the following that we begin to get answers to questions we didn’t even know to ask.  It is in the regular, daily dose of scripture that we begin to receive wisdom that matters.  It is in the regular time in prayer that our perspectives on this world and our family and our neighbors and all our silly questions begin to change.  And over time, before we even know it has happened, we have a profound understanding of things and we have a peace that surpasses all that understanding.  We have something infinitely better than an answer to all our little questions and infinitely better than our own terms and our own agendas.  We have God.  We are not powerful.  But He is…and we have Him.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

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Categories : prayer, Spiritual Formation

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