Week 3 | Saturday - Romans 12:1-2

Two verses!

Well, it's pretty potent stuff.

Rom. 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Again we get into the present-tense nature of the instruction here:
"Offer" and "renewing of your mind" are both on-going, continuous processes. Daily. Minute-to-minute.

Living sacrifices, holy and pleasing: in the OT, the Jewish people were specifically told not to offer second-class animals up for offering: lame, dirty, malnourished: those that were whole, and clean, and healthy were considered holy for sacrifice: God takes the brokenness out of us, but deserves the honour that a meaningful sacrifice brings.
And likewise for me; it's when I pursue God in my health that I honour and worship him best. Some translations have the word worship as service: Keeping both in mind reminds me that it's about Him. Not me.

Whenever I get to the gym after either a late night, or a night when I've had red wine after about 9pm, I just can't perform (such as I'm able to perform at any time!). I'm not in peak health, and I suffer for it.
In the same way, if my faith is only ever reaching out from the depths, how can I possibly hope to reach peak spiritual fitness?

I love this last line, and I needed to dig into a concordance or two to understand it properly, if only because the language is a little old-school, and I'm not THAT confident with English:

"then you will be able to test and approve of God's will.."

Literally meaning "to find and understand God's will" but to me there's a sense of it 'resonating right' with me that will come as I renew my mind more and more.

I want that! So here I am, before 7 on a Saturday morning doing Quiet Time - the boy woke up at 6 and needed a dummy, and once I'm awake there's no sleep; but I'm pretty alert first thing, so here I am.
Not for grandstanding, but encouragement for myself. There's lots of hope.

Ciao for now

5 minutes: Romans 8:28

Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose

So, a couple of thoughts here:
- "God works.." - present tense, not God worked, fixed things, will fix, or hopes... but present, active, right now.
How does God work? - well, the immediate verses prior say:

Rom. 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

So we've been given the spirit to intercede - to translate and transmit our thoughts to God - on our behalf: even in accordance with God's will. So when my language is lacking, or if I lack the insight to properly understand how I feel, there is the Spirit, talking with God on my behalf the true nature of my heart.

Let's go back to verse 28 - what's "for the good of those who love him"?
Well, again, the surrounding verses help (I've pulled a single verse from the middle of a disparate group of statements that surround a central theme Paul is building):

Rom. 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Leave out the concept of pre-destination here for a tick; so many people get hung up on the attitude of whether predestination is cool or not: either way, if you're already a Christian it's fairly clear what God's hope for you is, and if you're not a Christian then the great commission kind of overrides whether or not you were 'chosen' (although, just to dip into it: where are the numbers? Perhaps God chose everyone.)

Anyway, God's desire for us is to become more and more like Jesus - the likeness of his son.

So, I have a purpose, an end goal that God's given me. He's interested in me getting there, and He's provided some tools to help me make my own way there.

I gave this as a thought prior to the offering last Sunday, and there's no reason to leave the giving part out here: Our God is a giving God. He provided the Holy Spirit to us - a very morsel of himself in us, being disappointed and displaced by sin in our lives; he daily comes in contact, most intimately, with the grit and stench of our sin; but He gave us the spirit willingly. Jesus told his disciples when he was preparing to leave that he was sending the counsellor - the spirit who guides us into knowing God's will for us.

God wants us to grow to know his will better, I believe, either SO we can make a decision for it; or BECAUSE we're already free to make our own decisions: either way, this is not the way it necessarily needed to be for God. Our free choice complicates things enormously for God, BUT it makes the term true worship probably a little more meaningful.

That we are to become like Christ involves giving as well; Jesus' ulitmate aim was to give up his life for us; but along the way he also gave his time, his heart, his wisdom and insight...

Giving talks are not about eliciting extra dollars in the offering that's about to happen. Well, I hope they never are. In my mind, and I believe in the mind of all at RS, it's a much longer term thing: a raising of awareness, and a provocation.

In that instance, I'm excited by the final thought: Christianity is all about giving. Yes, we're called to tithe our income (that's a whole separate discussion), but we're also called to give our love, our attention, our time, our heart, our support, our posessions...

Lord, let there be nothing I treasure too highly, or in the wrong way, to be willing to give away for your cause.

After all, you gave before I even knew.

Week 2 | Romans 9 & 10

OK, spent some time processing and reprocessing these chapters; and yes, I was a bit slack and didn't do the daily thing quite so well, but here I am still.

These chapters deal a lot with the relationship between Jews and God.

The thing that always gets me about the Jewish people is how many chances God gave them. And I always get to the part (in any text) where you need to say "well, does this apply to me?" and not being a massive biblical scholar my answer is quite commonly "hey, I don't know - BUT the principal is ringing true for me..."

I heard on the radio this morning that they're planning this huge new wide-area-grid radio telescope, such that the actual effective size of the telescope dish will be some 1000 km. Amazing.
The guy this morning was very excited about it and was saying it will help them look 'back to the beginning of the universe" and figure out how things happened (I guess by measuring directions and rates, and extrapolating out how and where and when things started).

And of course (from my poorly-informed position (how ironic)) I'm wondering quite how accurate we can be given we're in the middle of this thing, we're at one point in time with only increasing technology and ever-more-questioned measurements from history to rub against; and one of the aims of the telescope is to discover more about "dark energy" which comprises some 70% of the energy in the universe. Might that affect our readings in some way?

Now, I mention this not for scientific discussion but as a concept of perspective, and understanding truth.
I've seen all kinds of things hamstrung by indecision, or a lack of certainty on the correct-ness of one's attitude. And I've seen people barrell off down the wrong path because they didn't consider things properly.

I guess in time I've come to rely on the spirit's prompting in me; sometimes I know it's actually just my will; and determining the difference between the two is something I'm gradually getting better at, but needs constant awareness.

SO - if my knowledge says "I don't know" but my heart says "hey, you know what, that makes sense, that FEELS right" then I'll do it.

So, Romans 9/10?

Don't be a prat. Interesting, considering the discussion I've just had with myself - don't rely only on your heart, because together mind, heart and action save you, none in isolation.

But the thing at the end of Romans 10:

Rom. 10:14 ¶ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
Rom. 10:15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Rom. 10:16 ¶ But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”
Rom. 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Rom. 10:18 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: ¶ “Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
Rom. 10:19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, ¶ “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”
Rom. 10:20 And Isaiah boldly says, ¶ “I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Rom. 10:21 But concerning Israel he says,
“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

...I guess I read that as "from whatever your position, choose to believe"

That single line doesn't help me determine one doctrine's correctness against anothers, but I guess it sets the state of my heart to being open and ready.


---edit----

...and of course I've not mentioned the falibility of man in all of that; we get taken off course by bad teaching; our hearts are hardened and so on; so there can't be judgement from me to another, but still, I think there's a strong comment in here about attitude.

Week 1 | Saturday | Romans 8

Present sufferings

Paul talks about creation groaning, and our 'present sufferings' being nothing compared with the glory we will find in Christ when we die.

On the way home there's a building near the ferry terminal that always gets me. It's a 2 story fibro + metal frame house which is little more than a portable you see on building sites; it's at the end of the (local) airport runway, and surrounded with truck depots, low level scrub and general dirt. There are trucks constantly banging by, and trucks in China are neither quiet, nor clean.

The people that live there have a house. Maybe it's a family to a room, but there's only 6 or maybe 8 rooms in the building. The dorms at our factory have 3-4 people per room, who are totally unrelated. The Chinese have accepted this is the way they live, and they don't complain. I doubt any of these workers will ever own property: I think they all pay board. Maybe the people in the fibro house own it, I don't know.

Is that 'accepted' behaviour so, and so different to mine, simply because it was learnt? I think so. I think we have an ability to accept our situation, and to fight against it in many cases is hopeless. How can a Chinese worker ever hope to have the kind of 'wealth' I have? It's aeons apart.

Two things here - faith is the great leveller - I'm of as much importance to God as a Chinese worker, which gives me hope and joy; and the second is this, (and a little more complex) - 'present sufferings' can mean everything, or nothing, depending on viewpoint and scale.

Paul of course talks about striving in faith, and human persecution from people who wanted to kill Christians.

I think suffering, like so many other terms, has been hijacked by capitalism to effectively mean 'lifestyle' - and in fact 'lifestyle' is a god of sorts for me.

Now that's dyed in the wool for me that I'm a westerner with a mortgage and a family, and that I can determine my financial level by the kind and amount of work I do - It's almost impossible to conceive how selling everything and going to live as a worker in a fibro box would benefit anyone, and certainly I don't want to do that:

But it makes me wonder about the notion of suffering: and by that - do I have any idea about the scope of this glory that Paul talks about - my impression is that as my suffering increases, the glory becomes exponentially greater: which makes me wonder if the biggest problem we have today is that everything's too easy.

I really don't think I understand the peril we're in.

Indeed, by fully understanding the depth, utter completeness and unfailing darkness of a sinful death - only as that increases does my understanding of the value of grace increase. And then when Paul writes

Rom. 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

...and I begin to remember again what an amazing thing this faith I've got is. How precious and beautiful it is; how I need to treasure it.

I can't MAKE anyone else get this either. To help someone understand it I NEED God to be working on them so that when an opportunity arises there's something that clicks when we talk about hope, and life, and answers to dark questions - which means I need to pray. And I've been poor.

God, make me twisted and crunched up for my friends. Wind me up like a spring, be at my gut like a heart attack when I think of them going without you.

Week 1 | Thursday/Friday | Romans 8

Not a spirit of fear

"Rom. 8:12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

I feel it's important for me to remember that Paul ties that action of putting to death the sinful desires with the work of the spirit: in the past I've had times where I identified and tried to overcome behaviours and attitudes from a position of understanding and will, but that wound up with guilt and 'failure' - so then I'd go to see someone about guilt and so on.

I totally believe in psychology. Perhaps there are some things I'm just not supposed to understand.

Week 1 | Wednesday | Romans 7

Sounds like: prisoner of war.

Paul explains our predicament of becoming a slave to the law, even though that magnifies our sin (but at least through that understanding WHAT sin is) whilst dealing with our mortal predication to sinful behaviour through the slavery of our brokenness to self-focussed, sinful desires.

And this all makes sense to me: if the above was a suitable description of a religion (and it may well be) then of course you'd wind up with a dry, depressing and ultimately self-critical notion of one's self.

But I think Paul is both building to something (and I know a little of Romans 8), but also building a persuasive argument to throw sharper focus on the truly Amazing grace given to us by God through Jesus.

But this isn't about me doing a commentary on Paul's writings:
---

Today I'm reminded of the guilt and attitude of being constantly frustrated and annoyed at myself when I become legalistic. I'm definitely not one for a completely liberal approach to life, and faith; strict laws are very good for setting the default response in me before desires, attitudes and misleading context have a chance to tempt me to Do Something Stupid.

BUT to be obsessed with doing (and failing at) the things I "should" do promotes guilt in me. So I'm at an impasse; and I think the thing that holds me back is confidence.

Not confidence in myself: that would lead to self-centredness I think; but instead confidence in Christ. That He IS all the answer I need, that the Spirit will help me out in trouble, and that the 'good' I see in something tempting (but unhealthy for me) will be more than replaced with what Jesus has in store instead. Be it even going without and seeing how I grow from that.

Confidence, trust, belief.

That's OK, I can pray for more of those things; and I can choose to trust and believe more. And I can look to the good things that happen that help me build confidence.

I'm very, very thankful for my heritage of moral grounding. I'm thankful that I DO have a heart that pumps plenty of hot, red blood, even if sometimes that helps me get in to trouble. And I'm thankful that my heart is not so hard that I don't get guilty when I've done wrong: but something's been skewiff of late, and I have to believe that acknowledging it and working at it (even if I don't really know with any certainty what I'm working ON) is going to lead me closer.

So here I am.

Week 1 | Tuesday | Romans 6

So the one verse I have underlined in my bible from Romans 6 is the last: "23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And I remember when I underlined it: back when I was around 20-22, our street-wise, tough-talking youth leader-turned contemporary young adult semi-pastor did a sermon on (I guess) grace and forgiveness. He had a bunch of watermelons and a big sword and I think made the reference to sin being one or the other. You can guess what he did to one with the other in front of a room full of teens/young adults.

And my problem since then has always been giving sin to big a focus. I have a friend who has told me time and again that a fuller understanding of sin leads to a better appreciation of grace: and I can see that it can; but for me iit seems to just lead to a fuller understanding of sin. A bigger focus. Like it was looming at me from the side of my vision.

And verse 23 (above) reminds me of that: the good bit, the gift of God, was for a long time too unreal, too conceptual, too vapor-like to catch and hold on to.

Again, I think I've done myself no favours by underlining that verse only:

Rom. 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

There was an Ashley Judd film a few years ago called Double Jeopardy: her hubby framed her for murdering him and ran off with the insurance money; so then she escaped/got released and did indeed murder him. It very, very nicely explained the concept of the double jeopardy rule of law (once tried for a crime once, you can't be re-tried for the same crime); and in the same way helps me out here:

Jesus has been there and it's dealt with: death will not visit Him in the end (and here's the kicker) and so He is not controlled by it.

It's like I own a mansion and I've always known there are many rooms in it, some with great views. But now (and I guess, for the rest of my life) it's about visiting each of those rooms and sitting in an armchair by the window reading a book as the sun goes down to better understand the awesomeness of what I'm already in possession of. And start living like I know it.

Week 1 | Monday | Romans 5

Romans 5

The precursor to "so then, shall we sin to increase grace?"; I've not really devoted attention to Romans 5 before. It's classic Paul, in that I find it almost riddle-like, but unfolded into amazing revelation when I spent some time trying to interpret each sentence. I think I got there, but like so much of the new testament I think will probably only yield more goodness the more I think about it/live life/humble myself into looking at it fresh again.

Points of interest:
- v2 - we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (the present glory isn't enough??!! - No - there's even more to come!)

- v3-4: suffering builds through to hope: leading to a stunning piece of text-
- v5 "and hope does not disappoint us..."
6 words to profoundly describe the human condition, and that in particular that I find myself in. You have to convince me to hope? How far I've come. I know there's more to this, but right here is a stunning insight into who and what I've somehow become. Too hardened by half.

No, Paul here is saying this hope we might dare to have is well-placed, God won't let me down. Even in that, the taint of human condition on the pure nature, or notion of hope is displayed: such that now we have good hope...and tragically, bad/misplaced/hopeless hope.
And we all know that: there are things I 'hope' in that I know are foolish: and yet, is it HOPE?

Could it be what I call hope is almost uncertain, but highly desired faith?
And the other things I 'hope' for (like a Richmond finals series) is actually the less-personally-desired 'wish'?

And that 'hope' in anything other than God is foolish? But I know God is good (and that doesn't mean He provides Ferraris), so it's a given, right? So then 'hope' is not really about "I desire this to happen and perhaps it won't", but something that instead begins to admit the undeservedness for what we hope?

And in this the rest of Romans 5 unfolded (and now that I've explored hope again some more, even more!)

Sin entered the world through one man, we ALL sinned, and so grace is required: Hope entered the world through grace, and through one man (JC) - but NOBODY didn't-sin, so effectively nobody Graced, and then hope becomes this utterly, utterly undeserved thing.

and finally, as though to Make It Very Obvious for us, "The law was added so that the trespass might increase" - not 'Moses gave us the law to MAKE us sin more' but instead 'no matter how well you live, it only becomes clearer that your salvation is out of your own reach'.

I identified last week that I needed busting down again, that I'd become too dry, too task-list in my faith; that the pure simplicity of my faith had been overgrown with process.

Do I go back to an immaturity in my faith? No, and I hope not as well. I rather like that I KNOW what does me harm better now, and that equally I KNOW I can overcome that, but I think perhaps I've been ignoring the God-given ability in me to be amazed at what God did for me through Jesus.

I decided a few months ago to let myself be seen crying in films/messages/worship if I felt the need: I think that was the spirit preparing me for today, or warning me of the things I was shutting down, or boarding up in my life. I need to unharden my heart.

Amazingly, Kelv had a new song on Sunday: "You made the way, you'll make the way"
I love it when God comes at me from like eight different directions at once.

Week 1 | Monday preface

Somehow when I need to, God provides: if I'm leading a study, have opportunity coming up to speak publicly about something - God provides a nugget for me in what I read the week prior.

I've come to rely on that, much as I love that, but realise that it's on-demand faith a bit: I've become arrogant.

I was going to try to extract little 5 minute talks out of this series; but now I think I'm just going to try to journal my thoughts: if something useful can be distilled later, fine; but I feel the need to do this now: and feel quietly confident that the next time I have opportunity to speak, God will provide....something....

Week 1 | Sunday

So, my mentoring boys and I decided this week I neeeded to document my daily conversations, revelations and understandings from God; my thought of course, and the intention is to
a: make sure I DO (daily)
b: extract out real meaning instead of "Jesus went to x and did y"
c: document and explore threads of truth and pertinence

My thinking is that if I work hard, I should be able to get a couple of 5 minute thought things down, we'll see.

At the moment I'm reading Romans, and we'll see if tomorrow I can make sense of something in there.

Right now I'm in the Qantas Club, by this time tomorrow I'll be in my guest house room in China; one thought per day, and we'll see how long I can keep going afterwards.

Ciao for now