The Bible frequently makes contrasts between two kinds of people, to make a distinction between those who belong to God and those who have nothing to do with Him:
• the righteous (or blameless) and the wicked (or ungodly);
• the wise and the foolish;
• those who fear God and those who do not;
• the children of God and the subjects of God;
• the faithful and the adulterous;
• the wheat and the tares.
But other times, two kinds of people are contrasted not by what is external and immediately apparent, but by a condition of the heart which is evident only over time. It is a contrast made between those who abide in Jesus Christ and His words, and those who are merely "externally and mechanically attached to Him" (using the words of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown):
• those who walk according to the Spirit and those who walk according to the flesh;
• the good servant and the lazy servant;
• the fruitful and the unfruitful.
"Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
~ John 16:24 (NKJV)
Any one of us can be the kind of people who ask God to indulge human will and attach "in-Your-name-amen" at the end of our words.
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
~ John 15:7-8 (NKJV)
But only some of us will prove to be the kind of people who so deeply root ourselves in Jesus that we produce the astonishing spiritual fruit of prayers which glorify the Father to the extent that He does not deny them.
Lord, please make us this kind of people, that You may be glorified.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
But
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now..."
~ John 16:12 (NKJV)
Though we often forget it, the Lord knows well that we are frail children of dust. He is so sensitive to how much we can bear that He reserves some truth for us until the hour we need it, lest it prove to be too much for us in the meantime.
It might therefore seem logical to conclude that God never allows His children to suffer more than they can bear.
As Billy Coffey astutely observed in his novel, "Snow Day," the axiom that says God doesn't give us more than we can bear isn't exactly true. What the Bible does say is that we won't be tempted, or tested, beyond our ability to bear it ...
... but.
Of all the critical uses of "but," this occurrence ranks right up there with the most important ones:
No temptation [test, trial] has overtaken you except such as is common to man ... God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted [tried, tested] beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV, amplification and emphasis mine)
We will face situations that are beyond our ability to bear without an escape. And we are asked to believe that a good God allows suffering not only to test the love and compassion of those who observe suffering, not only to refine us from sin, but also so that we will seek out escape.
"... However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth."
~ John 16:13 (NKJV)
The same Spirit Who reveals truth at the needed hour is also our escape in the needed hour—and He rarely provides immediate escape via separation from suffering. Escape is obtained by being yoked with Jesus, and trusting Him to bear us all the way through temptation and testing, lest we fall into it.
Lord, please help us to stay closely connected with you, through every moment of the day, so that we will be able to stand in the hour of testing, that we may bear the hour of suffering.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ John 16:12 (NKJV)
Though we often forget it, the Lord knows well that we are frail children of dust. He is so sensitive to how much we can bear that He reserves some truth for us until the hour we need it, lest it prove to be too much for us in the meantime.
It might therefore seem logical to conclude that God never allows His children to suffer more than they can bear.
As Billy Coffey astutely observed in his novel, "Snow Day," the axiom that says God doesn't give us more than we can bear isn't exactly true. What the Bible does say is that we won't be tempted, or tested, beyond our ability to bear it ...
... but.
Of all the critical uses of "but," this occurrence ranks right up there with the most important ones:
No temptation [test, trial] has overtaken you except such as is common to man ... God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted [tried, tested] beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV, amplification and emphasis mine)
We will face situations that are beyond our ability to bear without an escape. And we are asked to believe that a good God allows suffering not only to test the love and compassion of those who observe suffering, not only to refine us from sin, but also so that we will seek out escape.
"... However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth."
~ John 16:13 (NKJV)
The same Spirit Who reveals truth at the needed hour is also our escape in the needed hour—and He rarely provides immediate escape via separation from suffering. Escape is obtained by being yoked with Jesus, and trusting Him to bear us all the way through temptation and testing, lest we fall into it.
Lord, please help us to stay closely connected with you, through every moment of the day, so that we will be able to stand in the hour of testing, that we may bear the hour of suffering.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Monday, March 19, 2012
High Risk Occupation
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
~ John 15:13 (NKJV)
Whatever my inclination toward the dramatic or the adventurous, I suspect I'm not the only person to read the above words and imagine saving someone else's life at the cost of my own.
In a land long ago and far away, (when I evidently didn't think one high risk occupation was sufficient), my positions as a police officer and volunteer firefighter-EMT made the willingness to lay down my life daily and real. In the present day, where I am a homemaker and home school teacher, the biggest risk I face is keeping a good temper with other drivers on the road and with my live-in students at home.
Do you believe me when I tell you that facing just those two groups of people still makes the willingness to lay down my life daily and real?
Then [Jesus] said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."
~ Luke 9:23-24 (NKJV)
Jesus—God Himself!—calls His disciples His friends. If we are to follow Him as His disciples, the need to crucify our own desires and comforts is a daily demand and requires a very real laying down of life of Self. Perhaps it helps to thus define "Disciple of Christ" as a high risk occupation—and train accordingly.
Father, forgive me for all the times I protect Self at the expense of someone else's interest. Forgive me for all the times I look after desires of Self rather than emulate the example of Jesus. Please help me to think so highly of You and of others that my only desire is to honor You Who calls me friend.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ John 15:13 (NKJV)
Whatever my inclination toward the dramatic or the adventurous, I suspect I'm not the only person to read the above words and imagine saving someone else's life at the cost of my own.
In a land long ago and far away, (when I evidently didn't think one high risk occupation was sufficient), my positions as a police officer and volunteer firefighter-EMT made the willingness to lay down my life daily and real. In the present day, where I am a homemaker and home school teacher, the biggest risk I face is keeping a good temper with other drivers on the road and with my live-in students at home.
Do you believe me when I tell you that facing just those two groups of people still makes the willingness to lay down my life daily and real?
Then [Jesus] said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."
~ Luke 9:23-24 (NKJV)
Jesus—God Himself!—calls His disciples His friends. If we are to follow Him as His disciples, the need to crucify our own desires and comforts is a daily demand and requires a very real laying down of life of Self. Perhaps it helps to thus define "Disciple of Christ" as a high risk occupation—and train accordingly.
Father, forgive me for all the times I protect Self at the expense of someone else's interest. Forgive me for all the times I look after desires of Self rather than emulate the example of Jesus. Please help me to think so highly of You and of others that my only desire is to honor You Who calls me friend.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Commandment Number 13, Conclusion:
Radical Joy
Our church drama team did a full length presentation (90 minutes?) earlier this year—"Baggage Claim"—set at a quirky bed & breakfast. I played giddy Clarisse, the hostess whose unearthy and radical joy causes her to dance her way across the lobby whenever she moves. Clarisse seems hilariously absurd until the final scene, when the allegory turns deadly serious and Clarisse is the angelic messenger of judgment.
I'm not accustomed to dancing for an extended period of time. During Act I, Scene Two, I had only a few lines, and spent most of the scene dancing in the background. The scene itself was perhaps 15–20 minutes, plenty of time to work up a respectable heart rate. But rehearsals could extend that time to a couple of hours, long enough to grow downright tired.
I'd never before considered seeing a day when I might rather sit down than dance. But the radical joy of the Lord births a truly unearthy strength.
Can you imagine what would happen if, during a live stage production, an actor or actress decided they'd had enough and dropped out? While such a character would rest, there'd be no joy in the performance. Every other disrupted actor would fumble to cover for the missing member. Critical lines could not be delivered effectively by the wrong person, and the story would be seriously impaired. The poor audience would be hopelessly confused, and leave the auditorium disappointed.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus …
~ Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)
Last week, someone close to me and dearly loved attempted suicide. Our unrelenting enemy the devil constantly bombards us with lies, Christians and non-Christians alike. If a person gives him an ear, he ruthlessly attempts to steal, kill and destroy whatever he can.
I understand how a person can become distracted enough from Jesus, or neglect spiritual armor, and begin to believe those lies.
This problem is never going to change.
There's no other way out of the pain.
It's okay to bow out a little early.
Yet there really is a time to dance, and a time to mourn; a time of war, and a time of peace. The script of our lives is not one we can skip out on. Yes, others would fumble and move on, but not without impairment. Our story incomplete, we'd never experience fullness of joy. And that great cloud of witnesses would be most disappointed.
… looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
~ Hebrews 12:2 (emphasis mine)
Among the enemy's most damaging and prevalent lies are these:
You're not loved enough.
Your love doesn't make any difference.
Love matters. Love is deadly serious.
While faith and hope will find their fulfillment and cease, love never ends.
As mentioned in Part Three ("Just One Thing"), we are commanded to love as Jesus loves us. Our Lord Jesus introduces His command while speaking of the Father's glory. Then among His final words before dying, He gives us another reason:
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
~ John 15:11-12 (NKJV)
If we are to find full joy—radical joy—we must love as Jesus loves us.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
I'm not accustomed to dancing for an extended period of time. During Act I, Scene Two, I had only a few lines, and spent most of the scene dancing in the background. The scene itself was perhaps 15–20 minutes, plenty of time to work up a respectable heart rate. But rehearsals could extend that time to a couple of hours, long enough to grow downright tired.
I'd never before considered seeing a day when I might rather sit down than dance. But the radical joy of the Lord births a truly unearthy strength.
Can you imagine what would happen if, during a live stage production, an actor or actress decided they'd had enough and dropped out? While such a character would rest, there'd be no joy in the performance. Every other disrupted actor would fumble to cover for the missing member. Critical lines could not be delivered effectively by the wrong person, and the story would be seriously impaired. The poor audience would be hopelessly confused, and leave the auditorium disappointed.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus …
~ Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)
Last week, someone close to me and dearly loved attempted suicide. Our unrelenting enemy the devil constantly bombards us with lies, Christians and non-Christians alike. If a person gives him an ear, he ruthlessly attempts to steal, kill and destroy whatever he can.
I understand how a person can become distracted enough from Jesus, or neglect spiritual armor, and begin to believe those lies.
This problem is never going to change.
There's no other way out of the pain.
It's okay to bow out a little early.
Yet there really is a time to dance, and a time to mourn; a time of war, and a time of peace. The script of our lives is not one we can skip out on. Yes, others would fumble and move on, but not without impairment. Our story incomplete, we'd never experience fullness of joy. And that great cloud of witnesses would be most disappointed.
… looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
~ Hebrews 12:2 (emphasis mine)
Among the enemy's most damaging and prevalent lies are these:
You're not loved enough.
Your love doesn't make any difference.
Love matters. Love is deadly serious.
While faith and hope will find their fulfillment and cease, love never ends.
As mentioned in Part Three ("Just One Thing"), we are commanded to love as Jesus loves us. Our Lord Jesus introduces His command while speaking of the Father's glory. Then among His final words before dying, He gives us another reason:
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
~ John 15:11-12 (NKJV)
If we are to find full joy—radical joy—we must love as Jesus loves us.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Commandment Number 13, Part Four:
Spiritual Tightrope
John 13 introduces the commandment from Jesus to love one another as He loves us—an impossibility. John 14 then introduces us to the Holy Spirit, with whom we are able to do the impossible.
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever."
~ John 14:16 (NIV)
The tightrope we face is to be aware of the strength (of Spirit) dwelling within us, to do the impossible, while remaining aware of the weakness (of flesh) dwelling within us, to keep us dependent. As soon as we become aware of the strength operating through us and think it comes from us, we start to slip.
A tightrope walker cannot afford to be distracted, by either a huge cheering crowd or a tiny mosquito. We must likewise allow no distraction which takes our eyes off the Source of our strength, whether exultation or annoyance.
Our strength lies in remaining so aware of our weakness that we cultivate utter dependence on God.
Lord Jesus, thank You for sending Your Spirit. Thank You for making His home in our redeemed mortal flesh. Please help us overcome any hesitation or distraction which hinders Your Spirit's work thorough us and in us—to the glory of the Father.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever."
~ John 14:16 (NIV)
The tightrope we face is to be aware of the strength (of Spirit) dwelling within us, to do the impossible, while remaining aware of the weakness (of flesh) dwelling within us, to keep us dependent. As soon as we become aware of the strength operating through us and think it comes from us, we start to slip.
A tightrope walker cannot afford to be distracted, by either a huge cheering crowd or a tiny mosquito. We must likewise allow no distraction which takes our eyes off the Source of our strength, whether exultation or annoyance.
Our strength lies in remaining so aware of our weakness that we cultivate utter dependence on God.
Lord Jesus, thank You for sending Your Spirit. Thank You for making His home in our redeemed mortal flesh. Please help us overcome any hesitation or distraction which hinders Your Spirit's work thorough us and in us—to the glory of the Father.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
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