In and out

He is the door. He is the Good Shepard. I'm only a grateful sheep. It's none of me all of Him.

From the ODB passage, that's my take away. But I've been wrestling with another thought today.

The challenge I have been confronted with repeatedly is to take my own advice. In my role of technical support I found myself reminding a caller of the age old "GIGO" principle. Though it pre-dates the computer age by a few millenia, it was from early computer programmers that I first heard it called "Garbage In; Garbage Out." The caller expressed disappointment at the output of the program on their computer and I had to remind them that the program can only return what has been put into it.

Okay, Andy. Listen to yourself. So you don't like the outcome? Review what you are putting in:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9 NASB)

But

Today's passage of Ephesians 5:1-10  is a total contrast while the first four verses are the death and decay of the world, verse five begins "But God" and then twelve more times He is reference (as God, Christ, He, Him or His).

Again, I am reminded that He has done the work. While verses 8-9 are ever popular, it's verse 10 that makes it clear that none are saved to sit. We are all adopted into His family to take the place on the team accomplishing His mission that He has had in mind for us all along.

I spent a long time wondering an fretting over what that is that He has for me to do. All the time I am worrying about that (read sinning - Philippians 4:6), I am not doing anything for Him. The one thing I know that I am to do is pursue an ever-deepening relationship with Him, so I am focusing on doing what I know and trusting Him to reveal the tasks He has for me in His time.

Mission

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19 NASB)

Wedged between the ever popular verses about being a "new creature" and being "ambassadors of Christ," these verses clarify with these two questions:
Why have we been "made new"?  – to be reconciled with Him through Christ!
What is our mission as His "ambassadors" – the ministry of reconciliation

Reconciliation is about restoring relationships and is epitomized by Christ. He has made the way for my sinful soul to relate with holy God by paying the penalty for my sin so that it would not be held against my account. Now in my new life, I now have one job as His ambassador: to spread the word of reconciliation that I have experienced that others can be restored in relationship with Him also.

Drifting

In short, Hebrews 2:1 is the reason for this blog. Knowing that I made a promise to myself, my friends, and my Lord that I would "pay closer attention" to my walk with Christ by being in the Word DAILY (a practise I had neglected). Our Daily Bread has a focus passage and my promise to do this blogging of my thoughtful response keeps me accountable in a measurable way (before myself and my brothers) to be keeping my promise.

My initial goal is to foster anew the habit of beginning and ending my days in prayerful, thoughtful time in the Word. I have confidence that this will in turn rekindle my love for the Word and for the Author.

The Word must be my lifeline and cannot be (as I had allowed myself) neglected. As the New Living Translation rendered Hebrews 2:4 - "So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?" The Bible IS the words of hope delivered to us by those who walked and talked with God Almighty. I am blessed to have scripture translations and helps so that I can dig into them and an indwelling Helper to understand and apply them. How dare I say I love Him yet spite this gift He has given me to draw closer to Him?

Servanthood

"... not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" (Ephesians 6:6 NASB)

Some might say watching the Matrix movie trilogy has warped my thinking, but I have come to believe that slavery is not optional. The problem is that the world has bought into Satan's lie that freedom is an absence of authority. The truth is that there is an authority structure over each of us and freedom is found in working within that structure in submission.

Scripture tells us "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11 NASB). Willingly yielding to Him now is true freedom for both now and eternity. It must lead to respect and obedience to all the authorities He has placed over me following His example.

Whether in a role of leadership or of servanthood, the call is the same: be an ambassador of Christ being transformed into His image. To exhibit the authoritative submission of Christ will certainly make you stick out in the crowd.

Enough

He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
And they said, “Seven.” (Mark 8:5 NASB)

Jesus could have miraculously provided for the people by other means (just pick it off the ground as He did for all Israel [Exodus 16] or have the birds bring deliveries as He did for Elijah [I Kings 17]), but in this miracle as well as the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6) He took what His disciples had and multipled it to be abundantly more than enough. Why? I think He was training His disciples – and in turn through the recording of the events, training us. Training us that, though He could do it alone, He desires that we take our part in joining Him in the service of our Heavenly Father.

He will accomplish the work, he only asks that we do the work. It is His provision, His power, His purpose, my role is "Yes, Sir! Right away, Sir!"

What's the object?

For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. (1 Cor. 13:9-10 NASB)

Like most Christians who get married, 1 Corinthians 13 was read during my wedding ceremony. The challenge of the passage that without love as the foundation of all that we do, it's all just noise is certainly appropriate for that context. While I was young, the group DC Talk had a song with the reminder that "Love Is a Verb" and I wanted to get more specific about that. Love is a transitive verb, meaning that it must have an object. To hear someone say "I love" is incomplete and leaves us wondering what's coming.

While behaviorists are quick to point out that Christ stating the second commandment as "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt.22:39) has loving ourselves at its core, they clearly haven't sought to understand Christ's teaching. Luke 14:26 records Christ challenging His followers for His rightful place as object of our love. The love due Him is so much higher it must make our love in every other relationship – including not only the most intimate we can have with another human in marriage but also one's own life – seem as though it is hate.

My challenge from this passage is that to be more than just noise, I must love Him foremost and (as Luke 14:27 reminds) count myself a "dead man walking" that I may live through Him and allow His love to pour through me. Right now, I have such a poor understanding, but I have faith in this: face-to-face with my Lord's perfection this partial understanding will be no more.