Thursday, July 30

I loved the first two psalms today titled "O Lord do not delay" and "Forsake me not when my strength is spent." The more I seek after righteousness and justice in my life, the more I realize that I am far away from obtaining it. I cannot do anything good on my own. It will only come through the working of the Holy Spirit in me. There are many enemies against me according to Romans 8. The enemies are: trouble that inflicts distress, a set of stressful circumstances, a program or process designed to harass and oppress you, famine, bitter need, danger, or violent death (from Romans 8:31-39). But Paul concludes that " in the midst of experiencing all these opponents we have total and complete victory by means of Jesus, the one who loves us. V. 38 For I have examined and weighed all the evidence and have an all-embracing, unshakeable certainty that neither death nor life (things that transpire in the physical world), nor angels nor demons (things that transpire in the spiritual world), nor present things nor future things (not a single event or circumstance that will ever occur), nor powers (anything that you can imagine), V. 39 nor height nor depth (things in the entire universe), nor any created thing (including the believer himself) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This is why I love these psalms, they were answered when Jesus invaded our world in flesh. God did not delay and has not forsaken us when our strength is spent. In the midst of our enemies, there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God which transforms us.

Lord, thank you that you love me.

Wednesday, July 29

I loved the first psalm. Do I pray enough for God's justice and righteousness to be given to the leaders God placed over me? Do I pray enough for God's justice and righteousness to be displayed in me? I pray for things that will make my life easier and make me happier, but ignore praying for God to put me through things that will force the development of justice and righteousness in my life. That prayer is not self-serving. God's very righteousness, as modeled by Christ, is not self-serving but self-sacrificing.

Lord, grant my leaders your justice and righteousness. Grant me your justice and righteousness.

Tuesday, July 28th

The conversion of Lydia is a cool story. First of all, Paul gets the Macedonian call and begins to travel there. He stays in Philippi for some time. He then goes outside the city on the Sabbath because he wanted to preach the gospel to the Jews. Every Sabbath day, the Jews who did not have a temple to go to would meet by a river. Paul arrives at the river and sees several women worshipping and honoring God. Paul clues them in on how Jesus has changed what it means to be a part of God's covenant family. Lydia responds and is baptized in the very river she had been worshipping by every Sabbath. She then implores Paul and his entourage to stay at her house. At this point many people want to find a strategy that Paul did to change the city by finding the person of influence, like the wealthy Lydia. I think Paul was doing what he did every time he stopped in the city: preached to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. He followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, who brought him to Philippi in the first place. I read many books on how to create and lead a missional community that understands the gospel is a mission as much as it is a message. These books often give strategies on how to create an influencial community. I have too much ignored the leading of the Spirit in this endeavor. I don't fast and pray enough for the Spirit's guiding. Instead I strategize.

Lord, help me to follow the Spirit's guiding as opposed to turning your movement into a business model to be carried out step by step.

Monday, July 27th

I noticed a dichotomy today in the readings. Psalms spoke of God's absolute victory and reign over sin and evil. However, all the other scripture readings spoke unfulfilled promises and the defeat of the righteous. John the Baptist was beheaded, Paul and Barnabas split up because of Mark's return to the mission, and David, who was promised the kingdom of Israel, was cheated out of total reign by Saul's general and son. Psalms remind us that in the midst of unfulfilled promises and defeat, our God waters the earth. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, both good and evil. There will be a day when all will be put to rights. However, our focus in the here and now should be displaying this: "By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas." God is the hope of all the ends of the earth, of all powers and personalities. More than vindication, God desires reconciliation with his creation. There is a day coming where God will "break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions." But all of this takes place for this goal: "Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”" God's purpose in all things is for mankind to recognize God as God and submit to him. Although we may now be experiencing unfilled promises and defeat, let us display God as the hope of all the ends of the earth so mankind will recognize him as God. Whether or not our lives work out as we have hoped it would is irrelevant and the minor theme in the major story of God. Remember, our hope is in the end of the story. Let us live now for the end.

Lord, help me to live for the end of the story and accrue value in your coming kingdom, instead of worrying about the value of this place.

Saturday, July 25th the death of a friend

It is interesting to see David's psalms cry out for vengeance against those who persecute him, his friends at that. Then I saw David's reaction when Saul and Jonathan were killed. He was miserable. I know David and Jonathan were close, like brothers. So I understood the emotions there. Yet, David wrote psalm after psalm crying out for vengeance against his oppressor Saul. The day the vengeance came, David wept. It seems like David is modeling a love for your enemies that Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount. He doesn't delight in anyone's undoing, but wishes all would repent and believe the Lord.

Watching politics lately, I've noticed that each party wishes and strives for the other's undoing. In our culture where alienation reigns, people seek to isolate their opposition. They want them cut off from society, feeling hate and not love, until their opposition is ground to dust and comes around to their point of view. Basically, they use love and unity as a condition that exists only when you see things their way...it is very conditional. David modeled a different way, the way Jesus spoke of. We are to love those who oppose us and pray for them. We are to genuinely desire that they return to the Lord. Billy Graham once said that it is God's job to judge, the Spirit's job to convict, and our job to love. Let us know our role and live it out as Christ commissioned us to.

Lord, help me to love

Friday, July 24

The Lord is our deliverer. That is the theme for today's reading. There is no sin too destructive, no habit too strong, no enemy too cunning to outdo the Lord. He will deliver, that we can trust in. We saw this in the psalms, in Samuel, in Acts, and in Jesus' story. I loved that in the same reading we read psalm 51 where David repented of sleeping with Bathsheeba and killing her husband and the reading where God killed Saul to give David the promised kingdom. God did this for David knowing what was coming. Yet he was patient with him and delivered him from Saul. The Lord is our deliverer. The Lord is my deliverer. Lord, you are my trust.

Thursday, July 23

Looking at the reading in Acts today reminds me of some things I have read lately. Some Christians who belonged to the party of the Pharisees still were demanding that the recently saved Gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the external elements of the law of Moses (like dietary laws, Sabbath keeping, etc). Peter argued that they received the Holy Spirit while these elements were not observed by the Gentiles. Why now add these elements as they have already been cleansed by faith? What the Pharisees were wanting here was to put a badge on the Gentile Christians so everyone knew who they were as they ate differently, observed Saturdays differently, and looked differently externally. But this is the very thing Christ spoke against in the Sermon on the Mount. Our righteousness now, in order to enter the kingdom of God, must exceed this righteousness of the Pharisees. Our badge now is justified by faith and the righteousness we now must seek is a heart renovation, where our heart is right and not just our external actions. One cannot strike his enemy in the face yet still hate him in his heart. External badges don't facilitate internal purity. Peter emphasized the Spirit as the one outworking the salvation of the Gentiles.

It is tempting for us to want to add to the duties of the new Christian. We say they must speak a certain way, incorporating our lingo in their daily talk, and act a certain way. We say, "here are a list of some cultural taboos that you must not do so people will know you are 'Christian.'" Yet, none of this points to a renovated heart. We must seek for change in our hearts, through meeting with the Spirit everyday and allowing him to disturb us and change us daily.

Lord, let my righteousness be more than external habits. Don't let me add to the message of the gospel of salvation by faith.

Wednesday, July 22

I want to focus just on one element this morning...understanding. The psalms make it clear that it is more valuable than all the wealth and power in the world. It seems that this understanding is knowing and following the covenant between God and man. Only a fool says there is no god. Everything else will eventually fade away for it is transient. The only thing lasting you can devote your life to in this world is the covenant relationship between God and you. This is the only thing that is eternal. We waste so much time on career, housing, bank accounts, appearance, etc. But, in the end, we will be found naked before the Lord because all of these things go away. We should focus on being clothed with understanding and works that survive the fire of the Lord's judgment, which exposes the true worth of things and where only the eternal survives. I guess the countefeit god that exists in our society today can be summed up as the fake trinity of money, sex, and power. We should seek to understand the relationship with our God, the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.

Lord, help me to seek understanding. Help me to store up eternal value.

how great the kingdom of God

The psalms this morning described the beautiful and restorative elements of God's rule. This rule was expressed apparently through an earthly king who feared the Lord, loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Those given to marriage to this king were blessed for he reflected God's rule of justice and favor. Even though God rules as totalitarian over all the earth, he is not harsh in his ruling. The story of David reflected this truth. David, no doubt, reflected the ruling of God over the people. Yet Nabal rejected the rule when it required something from him. He acted as if he ruled over himself. The passage pictured him as a fool. Then we get to the story of Paul. Those he proclaimed the gospel to wanted to make him into a God. Again, man wanted to rule over himself. Yet Paul urged them to walk away from the vain things of walking their own way and follow the Lord, submitting to him. Then the parables. The kingdom of God is expanding through his followers spreading the seeds: reflecting the restorative and beautiful elements of God's rule. Although God rules in totality, his kindness leads people to submit to his rule. Don't be a fool who rejects the Lord's rule; his kingdom is great. Rather, spread the seed of his rule by reflecting his restorative desires for his people.

Lord, how great is your kingdom. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it. Everything else I seek in my life pales in comparison to the value of your kingdom and its mission.

Monday, July 20th "suffering and complaining"

The psalms today deal with God's people suffering at the hands of the wicked. The tone goes from "God why are you putting me through a situation I am helpless to contend with" to "enemies, look out because God's love overcomes all your evil deeds." I think the reading out of 1 Samuel combines these two statements well, "May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you." This seems to be Paul's take on suffering. He was persecuted against by the Jews after trying to share Jesus. He and Barnabas got up after they had been thrown out of the city and shook the dust off their feet. Then they moved on. The Lord is the Judge and all will be put to rights in the end. Our job is not to judge, but to live out the kingdom of God by living out the gospel. Jesus' parable bear an action point in the midst of all this. The parable of the sower compares the different soils that the seed of the kingdom of God falls on. There is only one soil in which the kingdom will flourish, the good soil. The good soil doesn't complain to God about how he hasn't given it what it was "entitled" to. The good soil doesn't shy away from suffering and rejection, but gets up, shakes the dirt off its feet, and moves on to further the kingdom of God. The good soil doesn't let the comforts or cares of this world corrupt it and deplete it of its nutrients.

The focus today seems to be this: what soil are you? Will you fade away in the midst of trials and testing? Will you endure suffering for the gospel? Jesus promised that it will come, just as it came to him. But the harvest is worth it. At least, that is what David and Paul are convinced of.

Lord, help me to endure hard times and pressure from enemies today. I do not want to fall away on account of the gospel. I want the harvest.

Saturday, July 18th "climbing out of hell"

The first psalm speaks of Sheol. In the Old Testament, Sheol is equivalent to our concept of hell today. David felt like his life was in hell. He was carrying around his unconfessed and unconfronted sin; it was weighing him down, so down, in fact, he felt it was taking him to the deepest, darkest place where only misery is there to great you. I can identify with that feeling of Sheol. It is hard to confront sin in your life because it is so frustrating. If I can't live perfectly, I'd like to ignore the bad so I can feel good about myself. Sometimes I'm not quite ready to give up my sin yet. The next two psalms speak of what that feels like, holding onto sin. It is hell and nothing short of it. The rest of the readings compare Paul teaching Christ, who forgives sins and brings people out of Sheol, to Judas, who was sorrowful but not repentant (it appears). He never returned to Christ and sought fellowship again. Man, that is how I deal with sin sometimes. I get so angry at myself that I refuse comfort from Christ. I throw away the price of my betrayal of Christ, go to a field, and kill myself. I cut myself off from family, friends, and my God because I feel I can't face them. I was in Sheol with no way out. I remember praying sometimes, asking God to take my life if I ever begin to do more harm to his kingdom than good. If I become a liability, then I would rather be taken to the Lord now to mitigate these damages. I realize that the prayer was a self-pity prayer. It seems that most of the prayers in psalms reflect a different tone: Don't grind me to dust for the dust cannot praise your name; for your name's sake, restore to me the joy of my salvation. That is a heart more focused on God than self. Anyway, I loved the progression of scriptures this morning. I know my rant was random, but that is what mood I'm in today.

Friday, July 17th

The first psalm today sounded familiar to me. After thinking about it, I remember that Jesus said the words, "into your hands, I commit my spirit" on the cross before he died. The psalm is all about receiving vindication from God in the midst of your enemies attacking you and your friends deserting you. Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of this psalm. He took on all his foes, and ours, on the cross. Yet he was found victorious and vindicated by God the Father. The psalm ends,

" Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!"

This is a promise we can all count on as we have seen it acted out on Jesus. We can be strong in the midst of the pain we feel, the struggle with sin, unrelenting attacks from the enemy, and our loneliness. The Lord will not cut us off, his reputation is on the line in our lives. Therefore he will not allow us to be ground to dust. As we wait for the Lord in this situation, we can be strong and take courage, he will preserve us who are faithful to rely on him. In fact, because of the cross of Christ and resurrection, our preservation has already arrived.

Lord, though my strength fails from my iniquity, be gracious to me.

Thursday, July 16

What I love most so far about the daily lectionary is that it is very thematic. The Psalms set the stage for the rest of the scripture reading. For awhile now the readings have been comparing the curses and struggles the wicked have, even in the midst of their wealth and earthly fame, with the blessings and comfort the righteous have in the midst of their rejection by society and attacks from the wicked. These passages have made me hunger for righteousness, or covenant faithfulness. Seeing how God provides and what awaits each person, I have been compelled more and more to pursue faithfulness to Jesus in all aspects of my life. The last thing I want is for Jesus to look at me and accuse me of having a hard heart as he does the Pharisees in the Mark reading. The passage suggests that the only righteousness the wicked have is self-righteousness, the counterfeit of genuine faithfulness and obedience to Jesus. The self-righteous one is too focused on self to think upon God. That is one of my biggest pitfalls right now. Knowledge, if not met by love and obedience, puffs up. I have been accumulating much knowledge lately, but my life has not reflected this knowledge. So I found myself being puffed up and growing in my self-righteousness.

God, may you ever shame my self-righteousness by displaying what your righteousness looks like. I want the benefits of the one who is righteous by your standards and not man's. Thank you for continuing to shape me.

Daily Lectionary Readings

Being that the process of becoming and being transformed by the gospel occurs in community with others, what better way to make sanctification communal than by us going through the same passages of scripture. This way when we dialogue about how the Lord is shaping us, we will all be pulling from the same passages, allowing us to speak into each other's lives that much better. Plus, this allows us to ask each other questions about passages with both people having wrestled and prayed through the passages already.

So here is how it works: there is a daily lectionary widget to upper right hand of this screen. Click on today's date and it will take you to a link that provides all the scripture passages for the day. Then post a response to the reading or to my comments. The goal is that we engage in dialogue and take the time to process Jesus' teachings through writing, thinking, and sharing.

May the Lord bless us as we seek to embed his teachings in our lives to shape us more like him.

communitas: What does this mean?

Communitas is different than community. Community can too often mean just a bunch of people, who have some things in common, just hanging out for fun. Communitas is a term coined by an anthropologist who studied an African tribe's tradition of ushering boys into manhood. The men would raid the women's camp and take the boys who lived with their mothers their entire lives. The men would then take them to the African bush, which is very dangerous and hard to survive. The men would then commission the boys to survive in the bush for 6 months at a time. If they are still alive by the end of the time, they would then be ushered back into the tribe, but this time as men. The term communitas is used to describe what happens to the boys out in the bush. They quickly learn that, in order to survive, they need each other. They form a group to fend of the predators, gather food, and support each other so they will be alive at the end of the 6 month period. Anthropologists call this a communitas, a group that gathers together because they are going through an ordeal that is very dangerous and very adventurous. I would say that describes Christianity very well. Allen Hirsch made this connection in a book called "The Forgotten Ways." He says that the community of Christ-followers are experiencing an ordeal that is very hard, yet very adventurous. The group dynamic is not optional if one hopes to survive the bush. The loner is as good as gone in the bush. The group dynamic is a necessity in the bush, so it is in God's story of redemption and reconciliation. If we are to experience and live out this story in our lives, we need a communitas around us because, well, the bush is very difficult and hard to survive.

for The Hill communitas at SMU

Becoming one who lives and tells the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ requires a community of fellow sojourners. Paul tells us in Ephesians that this becoming is something that is done among other Christians. Sanctification, then, is a communal act. It is not complete if just traveled by one person. In fact, the individual will often not finish the journey. The path is too trying; the environment too harsh. Paul would tell us today that we are not to live out the gospel as individual threads. Rather we are now woven into the fabric of Christianity comprised of different qualities, colors, and lengths of thread, yet united to form one fabric, unity-in-diversity. This blog is devoted to the fabric at SMU. The purpose of this site is to provide a place for us to consider and process the gospel story of Jesus and how it transforms our lives and debrief these thoughts among those with which we are woven together. As we engage the same passages of scriptures, the same themes that unfold according to the lectionary that we are going through, let us share our thoughts in order to build up the other threads of the fabric. We need each other if we are to embody the story of the gospel. It is the most dynamic message we will ever hear and experience, offering hope to the hopeless and healing to the broken. It is also an invitation to join the mission of displaying God's concern and righteousness to a world dying to hear it. Any time we spend considering the gospel and its implications in us and around us is time well spent. I can't wait for us to grow stronger together by drawing closer to the gospel who is Jesus Christ.

Let the becoming begin...