Good theology shrinks the gap between perception (how we see the world) and expectation (how we would like the world to be). The larger that gap is the more frustrated we are as human beings. If nothing is as it 'should be' for long periods of time we can live in 'prevailing unhappiness'.
Holidays can amplify this undercurrent because of all the expectations involved.
"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 ESV
Yes. The overcomer isn't unhappy.
You may say, 'Who are these people?' but if you have believed YOU are an overcomer.
"As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:36-39 ESV
What is this Christmas going to be like? What will this next year bring? Part of the equation is this gap. Are you living in a lost world that needs Jesus or a movie where the good guy wins at the last minute and the girl always ends up with the man who will love her selflessly?
"Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein." - Hebrews 13:9 KJV
That means we expect that we are going to get negative things at times but that we are given a perfect position by God. Not only does he see us as perfect because of His Son. We also get a stream of provision from our Father just like His Son had a stream of provision when He was walking on the Earth.
I want you to have a Merry Christmas. It would be great if we all have one but there is a deeper issue here.
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." - Romans 14:17 ESV
Eating and drinking with people you enjoy and enjoy you is momentary merriment. Peace and Joy with God's essence coursing through us is deeper. That can be had in prison if this gap is small.
God help us to live expecting to get 'what we don't deserve'. We deserve Hell but we are getting Heaven. We merit isolation but we have been given at least one divine person who loves us with an everlasting love.
I hope you see Jesus this Christmas, the Risen Christ and not just the tiny plastic baby in the manger. In His presence the gap between 'how it should be' and 'how it is' fades down to nothing. He Is 'how things should be'. Let Him hold you in His embrace.
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Showing posts with label Expectation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expectation. Show all posts
Monday, December 11, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
Expectation For The Day
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." - Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV
What is 'the Day'?
This is a great principle. Are you looking for 'the Day'? Do you have an expectation in your heart? What days are you looking forward to? Christmas. An anniversary. The day of your retirement from work. Your birthday. Coming home after being away a long time.
The day referred to here is a 'God' day. We stir each other up in the visitation of God. It is the day when we will see Him move. Is it judgment day? Is it the day we get to Heaven? Is it the next time we all sing together and Heaven comes down on our assembly?
Take your pick. The book of Hebrews doesn't say specifically and I think that is on purpose.
What day are you looking forward to? Get together more and more between now and then and encourage one another. Let your expectation be known. Share it. People need a day to look forward to. 'The Day' is coming. Be ready. Be waiting. Count the hours. Invite as many as are willing to come.
" 'I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.' The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." - Revelation 22:16-17 ESV
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What is 'the Day'?
This is a great principle. Are you looking for 'the Day'? Do you have an expectation in your heart? What days are you looking forward to? Christmas. An anniversary. The day of your retirement from work. Your birthday. Coming home after being away a long time.
The day referred to here is a 'God' day. We stir each other up in the visitation of God. It is the day when we will see Him move. Is it judgment day? Is it the day we get to Heaven? Is it the next time we all sing together and Heaven comes down on our assembly?
Take your pick. The book of Hebrews doesn't say specifically and I think that is on purpose.
What day are you looking forward to? Get together more and more between now and then and encourage one another. Let your expectation be known. Share it. People need a day to look forward to. 'The Day' is coming. Be ready. Be waiting. Count the hours. Invite as many as are willing to come.
" 'I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.' The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." - Revelation 22:16-17 ESV
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Thursday, March 30, 2017
Now Meets Later
"Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off." - Proverbs 23:18 ESV
Sometimes 'now' is awesome. Sometimes it is lonely. Sometimes there is pain.
Later can be forgotten or focused on so intently that now is forgotten or minimized.
God links now and later. God lives in both places and we can have hope in both places at the same time and that is amazing.
"And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." - Revelation 21:6 ESV
Eternal life isn't just 'not dying'. It is living now and later at the same time because of hope.
Now may not be much fun. It may make it seem like later won't be either but that is a self-perpetuating illusion. In time the two never really meet and mix.
In eternity they will mix and hope will not be needed. Hell's pain will be perpetual and Heaven's joy will be unending.
I look forward to meeting Jesus in my moments today. That may sound corny but it is true. It is like meeting my best friend who has come home from war. He brings my future joy into my present life and that means the day has a kind of bright unpredictability to it. Mine does at least.
I hope yours does also. He Is the same Jesus. If you know Him (or get to know Him) the same hope that enabled the martyrs to face death with expectation can be yours no matter what your 'now' looks like.
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Sometimes 'now' is awesome. Sometimes it is lonely. Sometimes there is pain.
Later can be forgotten or focused on so intently that now is forgotten or minimized.
God links now and later. God lives in both places and we can have hope in both places at the same time and that is amazing.
"And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." - Revelation 21:6 ESV
Eternal life isn't just 'not dying'. It is living now and later at the same time because of hope.
Now may not be much fun. It may make it seem like later won't be either but that is a self-perpetuating illusion. In time the two never really meet and mix.
In eternity they will mix and hope will not be needed. Hell's pain will be perpetual and Heaven's joy will be unending.
I look forward to meeting Jesus in my moments today. That may sound corny but it is true. It is like meeting my best friend who has come home from war. He brings my future joy into my present life and that means the day has a kind of bright unpredictability to it. Mine does at least.
I hope yours does also. He Is the same Jesus. If you know Him (or get to know Him) the same hope that enabled the martyrs to face death with expectation can be yours no matter what your 'now' looks like.
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Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Fasting From The Process Of Self Fulfillment
I am reading Isaiah 58 again and again and thinking about the rhythms and step by step processes we can fall into as people.
Food isn't the problem. Having food and water is a blessing that many live without. God wants broken chains. Not appearances or expectations based on merit.
Listen with me...
"Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." - Isaiah 58:2-14 ESV
Wow.
Some shocking promises there.
Fasting is ingenious really because it is a struggle to refrain from something very basic and fundamental. Israel had learned to fast as a religious practice but that was not impressive to God. They turned a 'don't' into a 'do' and then judged God based on the results.
I sit here being bathed in grace thinking, 'What needed to be done has been done. God, I want to fast from my rigid cycles. Help me. Change me.'
How quickly we return to snacking on our old thinking.
No. I want to take my food and give it away instead. I want to look for a way to free someone from the trap they are in. The void needs to be filled but let the step by step process fall away... just for a moment... just for today. I want to live in grace now because now is all I really have.
Then when we face God the merit system is dissolved and communion is fresh and free. Jesus has fulfilled all that needed to be done. God Is with us and we are with God not demanding anything. The sun comes up and our gloom turns into noonday brightness.
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Food isn't the problem. Having food and water is a blessing that many live without. God wants broken chains. Not appearances or expectations based on merit.
Listen with me...
"Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." - Isaiah 58:2-14 ESV
Wow.
Some shocking promises there.
Fasting is ingenious really because it is a struggle to refrain from something very basic and fundamental. Israel had learned to fast as a religious practice but that was not impressive to God. They turned a 'don't' into a 'do' and then judged God based on the results.
I sit here being bathed in grace thinking, 'What needed to be done has been done. God, I want to fast from my rigid cycles. Help me. Change me.'
How quickly we return to snacking on our old thinking.
No. I want to take my food and give it away instead. I want to look for a way to free someone from the trap they are in. The void needs to be filled but let the step by step process fall away... just for a moment... just for today. I want to live in grace now because now is all I really have.
Then when we face God the merit system is dissolved and communion is fresh and free. Jesus has fulfilled all that needed to be done. God Is with us and we are with God not demanding anything. The sun comes up and our gloom turns into noonday brightness.
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Saturday, January 16, 2016
Expectations
How many of us are where we thought we would be when we were younger?
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
What a great promise.
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4 ESV
Does this mean that God is going to give us what we want or that He is going to change what we want? I think it is both.
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"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
What a great promise.
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4 ESV
Does this mean that God is going to give us what we want or that He is going to change what we want? I think it is both.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
The Excitement Of Opening Day
We gather because we have an expectation that something is going to happen.
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." - Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV
Let me first say that one of the things that I love about being a believer is that it renders guilt and shame oriented obligation useless. Conviction is useful but guilt is foreign and abandoned. Jesus became my guilty one. My sins were put on Him. Guilt is never a means to gather because guilt is never a means period.
If you have been part of a play or complicated dramatic production what do you do as opening day gets closer? You gather together more and more to practice and prepare. Why? Is it guilt that draws you? No. It is desire. When that curtain goes up everything you have worked for will be presented to a group of people and that is exciting and scary and wonderful all at the same time.
'The Day' this passage in the book of Hebrews is talking about is the day of God's visitation.
When that curtain goes up the people see the actors and hear the music. Props are moved on cue and the things people are doing behind the scenes become visible to the spectators. At the same time the actors feel the audience and hear their applause. Both groups are seen and experienced by each other.
The same is true on God's day of visitation. God is there observing us and we are there observing Him. All of this is happening as something prepared beforehand is unfolding before us.
I don't want to be a person that has nothing to look forward to. I want to be a person that expects God to show up. God Is faithful. Since I know that to be true I always have something to look forward to. That manifests as a general air of expectation but it also manifests in specific expectations of divine appointments in scheduled gatherings.
If you have ever experienced a visitation of God then you know what it's like but if you haven't I'm not sure if I have the words to explain it. It is the most wonderful transcendent thing.
I don't want to miss it and grace removes all the barriers from us receiving all that God Is in those times. There is no guilt or shame there. God is there and we are in the best possible place to be for that moment in time.
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"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." - Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV
Let me first say that one of the things that I love about being a believer is that it renders guilt and shame oriented obligation useless. Conviction is useful but guilt is foreign and abandoned. Jesus became my guilty one. My sins were put on Him. Guilt is never a means to gather because guilt is never a means period.
If you have been part of a play or complicated dramatic production what do you do as opening day gets closer? You gather together more and more to practice and prepare. Why? Is it guilt that draws you? No. It is desire. When that curtain goes up everything you have worked for will be presented to a group of people and that is exciting and scary and wonderful all at the same time.
'The Day' this passage in the book of Hebrews is talking about is the day of God's visitation.
When that curtain goes up the people see the actors and hear the music. Props are moved on cue and the things people are doing behind the scenes become visible to the spectators. At the same time the actors feel the audience and hear their applause. Both groups are seen and experienced by each other.
The same is true on God's day of visitation. God is there observing us and we are there observing Him. All of this is happening as something prepared beforehand is unfolding before us.
I don't want to be a person that has nothing to look forward to. I want to be a person that expects God to show up. God Is faithful. Since I know that to be true I always have something to look forward to. That manifests as a general air of expectation but it also manifests in specific expectations of divine appointments in scheduled gatherings.
If you have ever experienced a visitation of God then you know what it's like but if you haven't I'm not sure if I have the words to explain it. It is the most wonderful transcendent thing.
I don't want to miss it and grace removes all the barriers from us receiving all that God Is in those times. There is no guilt or shame there. God is there and we are in the best possible place to be for that moment in time.
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