A Future and Some Hope

Have you ever hoped for something…only to have your hopes dashed?  Have you ever found yourself really disappointed by life?  Many of you, during this reign of Covid, have probably had many plans thrown by the wayside.  Seniors…is this the year that you were hoping it would be?  I know it certainly isn’t the life I was expecting to be living just one year ago.  Remember last January?  We were barely hearing things about Covid…and it was happening somewhere over in China…so who really paid attention?  And now…note even 10 months after the shutdown, we have had over 425,000 deaths just here in the United States.  Crazy!  

And whenever huge stuff like this comes along, trusting in anything goes out the window.  The qualifier for just about every plan is worse than Atlanta traffic.  We used to say, we should be somewhere in South GA or Florida, and then we used the qualifier…depending on Atlanta traffic. Now all of our future plans, activities, trips, etc. have one big qualifier.  What is it?  Yeah…depending on Covid.  So everything seems uncertain, tenuous, scary and trust in anything seems to go out the window. 

Have you also noticed that trusting in God is even harder under these circumstances?  Ever noticed how hard it is to trust God, even though the Bible says over and over again that He is trustworthy?   But we’ve grown jaded.  Cynical.   Skeptical.   What we read and what we see seem to be two different things. Especially in this time of Covid, when things that we once had hoped and dreamed for keep falling by the wayside. I bet, Seniors, that you were hoping for more for your senior year.   I bet that all of you are just looking for the day that we can shed these masks and be normal again.  Where is God in the middle of Covid?  Why doesn’t He do something.  Why does He seem silent?

When it comes to trusting God with our future, we often opt for what we think we see over what scripture says about God.  And the devil uses the seeming contradictions to widen the trust schism between us and God.

Ever heard one of these?  “If God is so good, why does He allow innocent children to die of starvation?”  or “What kind of God would allow so much suffering in the world if He has the power to do something about it?”  or “I trusted, I prayed, I believed, and my loved one died anyway—so  how can I ever trust Him again?”   Or the most recent one… “Where is your God now?  Why doesn’t He do something about this horrible disease?”  Ever heard any of those?  If so, you’ve heard the devil speak to you.

Satan himself is the cause of all of the misery that we are suffering, and he looks up from his latest victim, with blood on his hands and screams—“If your God is so good, why didn’t he stop me from killing this one?  If He’s so powerful, why didn’t He step in and do something?”

And while this is not a sermon on death and dying and fairness and good versus evil, the question does beg an answer.  Perhaps a story by author Max Lucado from His book He Chose the Nails can help us understand more on this trust issue.  Listen to this.

Ever tried to convince a mouse not to worry? Ever succeeded in pacifying the panic of a rodent? If so, you are wiser than I. My attempt was not successful. My comforting words fell on tiny, deaf ears.

Not that the fellow deserved any kindness, mind you. Because of him, Denalyn screamed. Because of the scream, the garage shook. Because the garage shook, I was yanked out of dreamland and off my La-Z-Boy and called to defend my wife and country. I was proud to go. With shoulders high, I marched into the garage.

The mouse never had a chance. I know jujitsu, karate, tae kwan do and several other ... uh, phrases. I've even watched self-defense infomercials. This mouse had met his match.

Besides, he was trapped in an empty trash can. How he got there only he knows, and he ain't telling. I know, I asked him. His only reply was a mad rush around the base of the can.

The poor guy was scared to the tip of his whiskers. And who wouldn't be? Imagine being caged in a plastic container and looking up only to see the large (albeit handsome) face of a human. Would be enough to make you chuck up your cheese.

"What are you going to do with him?" Denalyn asked, clutching my arm for courage.

"Don't worry, little darlin'," I replied with a swagger that made her swoon and would have made John Wayne jealous. "I'll go easy on the little fellow."

So off we went-the mouse, the trash can, and me, marching down the cul-de-sac toward an empty lot. "Stick with me, little guy. I'll have you home in no time." He didn't listen. You'd have thought we were walking to death row. Had I not placed a lid on the can, the furry fellow would have jumped out. "I'm not going to hurt you," I explained. "I'm going to release you. You got yourself into a mess; I'm going to get you out."

He never calmed down. He never sat still. He never-well, he never trusted me. Even at the last moment, when I tilted the can on the ground and set him free, did he turn around and say thank you? Did he invite me to his mouse house for a meal? No. He just ran. (Was it my imagination, or did I hear him shouting, "Get back! Get back! Max, the mouse-hater, is here"?)

Honestly. What would I have to do to win his trust? Learn to speak Mouse-agese? Grow beady eyes and a long tail? Get down in the trash with him? Thanks, but no thanks. I mean, the mouse was cute and all, but he wasn't worth that much.

Apparently you and I are.

You think it's absurd for a man to become a mouse? The journey from your house to a trash can is far shorter than the one from heaven to earth. But Jesus took it. Why?

He wants us to trust Him.

Explore this thought with me for just a moment. Why did Jesus live on the earth as long as he did? Couldn't his life have been much shorter? Why not step into our world just long enough to die for our sins and then leave? Why not a sinless year or week? Why did he have to live a life? To take on our sins is one thing, but to take on our sunburns, our sore throats? To experience death, yes- but to put up with life? To put up with long roads, long days, and short tempers? Why did he do it? 

Because he wants you to trust him.   Even his final act on earth was intended to win your trust.      He Chose The Nails, p. 89 -91.

And so we return to the question: —“If your God is so good, why didn’t he stop me from killing this one?  If He’s so powerful, why didn’t He step in and do something?”

The answer: He did.  But He did it in the only way that still allows you a choice.  God valued your choice so much that He Himself will not violate it.  And so He wanted to show you that He can be trusted, but that trusting Him is a choice.  He never wanted to remove from you your power of choice, otherwise, He would have played into Satan’s accusations that God was not fair   And so the choice remains; your choice, my choice, and even Satan’s choice, along with the possibility of God being misunderstood and maligned.  And Satan uses that very choice to cause many to turn away from God.

But if you look past the apparent contradictions, you will find that there is ample evidence to trust Him.  Yet it still remains that it is all about the choice.  YOUR choice.  

And so we weigh the evidence. On the one side, we can see that God loves us.  He came and died to save us.  He’s promised to come back for us.  But on the other hand, we can also see that there is much evil in the world.  As Billy Bob once said, “That don’t take no rocket surgeon to figure out.” 

It is much easier to go with what is seen than to trust the unseen.  We can see all the violence and disease and death.  So much so, that sometimes it seems impossible to see God.  But that’s where the choice comes in.  We will see what we choose to look for.

I went to Prater’s Mill with my daughter, Andrea, several years ago when they were  having the old time country fair.  One of the exhibitor’s there took photographs of birds.  All of his photographs were of some type of wild bird.  He had an incredible display.  But there was one picture that really spoke to me.  The framed version was $195.  I’m too cheap to pay that much, but I had to have the picture, so I looked through all of  his mounted photographs, and finally found it.  And bought it.  

Check out this picture.  What do you see?    An old window frame. Cracked and peeling paint.   Broken glass.  Dead weeds.  Painted window panes.   Even some bird poop.  These are not the things that spoke to me.  We see those type of things all the time.  What spoke to me is what is in the lower right quadrant of this picture.

In the face of all the ugliness; in the midst of the old and broken down, your eye begins to see a few sprigs of green vine.  Signs that there is life in the brokenness.  But if you look a little higher, you will see a magnificent ruby-throated hummingbird sitting on the sill where glass has been broken out, and he is looking UP!

That’s the way God works.  In the midst of our broken and shattered lives, we’ve got to be looking for the tiniest evidence that shows that our God is still with us.  It’s all about the choice.  What are we choosing to focus on? The ugly and broken in this world?  The cracked and peeling paint of our lives?  The bird poop events that happen to us?  Or are we choosing to look at the tiny gorgeous ruby-throated  hummingbird promises that God has left for us.  I have had this picture in my office for years on the back wall directly in front of my desk chair, so that no matter what life may throw at me...it always reminds me that I have a choice.  You have a choice.  We get to CHOOSE where we place our focus.

We can either grow jaded or joyful.  We can grow bitter or better.  Stronger or weaker.  Hopeful or Hopeless.  It all depends on what we choose to focus on.  

Satan screams while God whispers.  In our current world it may seem that God is silent, but He isn’t.  He’s still speaking to those who will listen.  And you can be sure of this, while He may start in a still, small voice, one day God will thunder and Satan will whimper.  Our perspective makes all the difference.  

Which reminds me of a story I read.

A number of years ago, there was a little girl that walked daily to and from school. Though the weather that one particular morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to the elementary school.

As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning. The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she herself feared that the electrical storm might harm her child. Suddenly, there was a roar of thunder, and lightning, like a flaming sword, cut the sky.

Now fully concerned, the mother quickly got into her car and drove along the route to her daughter’s school. As she did so, she finally spotted her child.  Rather than being terrified by the lightning, she saw her little girl walking along, and at each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up and smile.

Another and another were to follow quickly, each with the little girl stopping, looking at the streak of light and smiling. After witnessing the fourth flash, the mother, shook off her amazement, rolled down her window and called her to come and get in the car. When the young girl was safely in the car her mother asked,  "What in the world were you doing?  Why didn’t you hurry?"  The child answered, "Well, I meant to come right home, but God just kept taking pictures of me."

How do you face your storms?  Are you fretful and worried, or do you see God taking your picture for his Faith Hall of Fame?  It all depends on how you choose.

Which brings us to the future.  How can you trust God with your future?   Wouldn’t it depend on how you see God operating in your past?

Christian Author and speaker, Ellen White, once wrote: In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what God has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history. {CET 204.1} (Christian Experience and Teaching by Ellen  White)

Did you catch that?  We have nothing to fear for our future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us…

How can you trust God with your future? Let me quickly take you through some things that can help, no matter if you are trying to figure out what to take in college or if your world  has caved in and you don’t know if you can go on, or if you are just simply seeking to make it through the day.  But rather than you hearing my words, let me take you straight to what God, Himself promised.  

First of all look at how He has led you in the past.  Go over His blessings to you. Look at His miracles in your life.  Remember what He did for you on the cross and what He continues to do for you now.  If you can see His faithfulness in the past, it is easier to trust God with your future.  Has He saved you in an accident or seen you through a critical illness or surgery?  Did He provide a way for you to be here at GCA?  Has he worked anything out for your family?  Can you see his faithfulness in the past? If so, remember it.

Secondly, choose not to worry but to look to God. Choose to trust that God will make a way. 

Psa. 37:3    Trust in the LORD and do good.

Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

⁴  Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Psa. 37:5    Commit everything you do to the LORD.

Trust him, and he will help you.

⁶  He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,

and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

When your heart lines up with His heart, He will give you what you desire…which is exactly what He desires.  Not only will He give you the desires of your heart, but God himself promises to walk with  you.

Is. 43:1    But now, O Jacob, (and here you could insert your own name instead of Jacob) listen to the LORD who created you.

O Israel,(insert your name again) the one who formed you says,

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.

I have called you by name; you are mine.

²  When you go through deep waters,

I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty,

you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression,

you will not be burned up;

the flames will not consume you.

Third, learn to wait on the Lord and seek His guidance.

Lam. 3:25    The LORD is good to those who depend on him,

to those who search for him.²⁶  So it is good to wait quietly

for salvation from the LORD.

Waiting quietly can help you refocus your energy on what is really important. 

Matt. 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God^a above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

We often spend so much time and energy in worrying about the future, rather than in seeking God.  But it is in the waiting and the seeking that we find our strength.

Fourth, Know that God has a plan for you and it includes hope.  Again, though, it is in seeking the Lord that we find that hope.

Jer. 29:11-13   For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹²  In those days when you pray, I will listen. ¹³  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

Is. 40:28-31 Have you never heard? Have you never understood?  The LORD is the everlasting God,  the Creator of all the earth.  He never grows weak or weary.  No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

²⁹  He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.

³⁰  Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.

³¹  But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

Fifth-Don’t get hung up on past failures.  Look expectantly to a new future with God.

Is. 43:18,19“But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.

¹⁹  For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

God can make you prosper even in the driest of times or the worst of times in your life.  And as you grow in your trust relationship with Him, He will cause you to grow stronger and stronger.  What He doesn't deliver you from, He will bring you through to in order to strengthen you.

Sixth- Walk each day in trust and you will find new strength

Psa. 20:7,8 Some nations boast of their chariots and horses,  but we boast in the name of the LORD our God.  ⁸  Those nations will fall down and collapse,  but we will rise up and stand firm.  See, trusting God helps you stand firm

Psa. 125:1 ¶ Those who trust in the LORD are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. ²  Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem,  so the LORD surrounds his people, both now and forever.

Seventh—Look  for the next natural step and be willing to take it.

Prov. 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart;  do not depend on your own understanding. ⁶  Seek his will in all you do,  and he will show you which path to take.

As you follow His leading, the whole picture will come together for you.  If you focus on Jesus, He will order the pieces of your world and they will fit together perfectly.  Which reminds me of another story.

There was a man who had a little boy that he loved very much. Everyday after work the man would come home and play with the little boy. He would always spend all of his extra time playing with the little boy.

One night, while the man was at work, he realized that he had extra work to do for the evening, and that he wouldn't be able to play with his little boy. But, he wanted to be able to give the boy something to keep him busy. So, looking around his office, he saw a magazine with a large map of the world on the cover. He got an idea. He removed the map, and then patiently tore it up into small pieces. Then he put all the pieces in his coat pocket.

When he got home, the little boy came running to him and was ready to play. The man explained that he had extra work to do and couldn't play just now, but he led the little boy into the dining room, and taking out all the pieces of the map, he spread them on the table. He explained that it was a map of the world, and that by the time he could put it back together, his extra work would be finished, and they could both play. Surely this would keep the child busy for hours, he thought.

About half an hour later the boy came to the man and said, "Okay, it's finished. Can we play now?”

The man was surprised, saying, "That's impossible. Let's go see." And sure enough, there was the picture of the world, all put together, every piece in it's place.

The man said, "That's amazing ! How did you do that ?" The boy said, "It was simple. On the back of the page was a picture of a man. When I put the man together, I taped it so it wouldn’t mess up, and then I turned it over and the whole world was together.”

Matthew West has a great song called “Take Heart”. He premiered it just a few weeks after Covid caused the shutdown here in the US.

The lyrics start this way:

Woke up this morning

And life as you know it

Looks nothing like the kind of life you knew before

All of a sudden

Fear stole the headlines

And it don't feel safe to even step outside your door

In this world you will have trouble

But I have overcome the world

So take heart—- Listen to this.

If you just trust in Jesus, your problems will find resolution.  If you trust in Jesus, your fears can be quelled.  If you trust Jesus, your future will be sure.  If you trust Jesus with your future you will have not only hope, but a very bright future.    Pray with me.  

Rom. 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This blogpost  was taken from the manuscript of a talk I delivered to the students at Georgia-Cumberland Academy on Friday night, Jan. 29, 2021.  

Godliness with Contentment

Years ago, Russell Conwell told of an ancient Persian, Ali Hafed, who "owned a very large farm that had orchards, grain fields, and gardens... and was a wealthy contented man." One day a wise man from the East told the farmer all about diamonds and how wealthy he would be if he owned a diamond mine. Ali Hafed went to bed that night a poor man--poor because he was discontented. Craving a mine of diamonds, he sold his farm to search for the rare stones. He traveled the world over, finally becoming so poor, broken, and defeated that he committed suicide. One day the man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm led his camel into the garden to drink. As his camel put its nose into the brook, the man saw a flash of light from the sands of the stream. He pulled out a stone that reflected all the hues of the rainbow. The man had discovered the diamond mine of Golcanda, the most magnificent mine in all history. Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own garden, then instead of death in a strange land, he would have had acres of diamonds.   (G. Sweeting, in Moody Monthly, May, 1988,  p. 95.)

True story.  And we look at Ali Hafed and we say, “Dude, you should have stayed put!”  but almost everyone of us is infected with the same thing.  A lack of contentment with what we have.

If I were to ask you to name three things you wish you had, what would you tell me?  

Now…if I were to ask you for three things you are thankful for, what would you tell me?

Which was easier to come up with?  Why?  Did you know we spend far more time thinking about the things we wish we had than we do being thankful for the things we do have.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote "Being content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor." 

It isn’t about how much you have.  It’s about how you view your circumstances.  The apostle Paul tells us the same thing in his first letter to Timothy and he’s talking to him about people who call themselves Christian teachers who do so for financial gain. 1Timothy ch. 6.  These are men who stirred up debates and controversies, criticizing what they saw, arousing suspicions against ones that called them out, going so far as to talk maliciously about them and trash their characters.  Why?  To seek to show themselves more godly and perhaps even more conservative in order to pull down the big dollars.  Of course that doesn’t happen in our day.  Let’s look at what Paul says. 

1Tim 6:3-11   If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,  4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  6   But godliness with contentment is great gain.  7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  11   But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Did you notice verse 6?  He’s been talking about all of these things and how men who have been robbed of the truth think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  And then he says: .  6   But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Did he say more stuff was the way to great gain?  Owning more land?  Better cars?  Bigger houses?  No… godliness with contentment.  Let’s take that apart for a minute.

In the original language, the word for godliness is actually two words meaning literally to worship, to be god-fearing and devout, well,well done.  In other words Paul is telling us that the first component to true gain is to worship, be god-fearing and devout, beyond the best of our abilities—that is, we can’t even do it on our own.  It has to be done in us by God.  So we are seeking God continually and seeking to worship Him and follow His ways.   And the second word, contentment, is translated, sufficiency or to be sufficient.  

So Paul says great gain is not found in wordly wealth, but in seeking to worship God and follow His ways while we find our sufficiency in Him.  

Put another way, when we finally understand and believe that God can and will take care of what we need, we will be content and that will show in our worship.  It won’t be about money and things money can buy.  It will be about knowing that God knows you, sees you and hears you and will take care of your needs.  That’s sufficiency.  That’s enough.  That’s contentment.

Tell me: Are you content?

Your Gethsemane Experience can Lead to a Resurrection

 I just finished re-reading the book of John this morning, and I began picturing the closing chapters describing the Gethsemane experience of Jesus, agonizing in the dark aloneness before His Father, feeling the weight of the sins of the world descending on Him and causing Jesus to feel the separation from His Father. This was followed by the betrayal of a friend, and the abandonment of others who said they would never forsake Him, a one-sided trial, physical abuse and suffering and finally a crucifixion and death.   

And for the disciples, all hope was totally smashed and they spent the darkest, loneliest, most fearful weekend of their lives.  They questioned all that they learned and been through over the past 3 and a half years.  They wondered if it were all for nothing.  They forgot that just hours before, Jesus had told them plainly that He must suffer and die (read John ch 13-17)  And as they grieved, the oppressor of humanity came and peddled despair to add insult to injury.  Nothing had gone the way that they had hoped or planned.  But they had forgotten something.  God wasn’t following their plan. He was fulfilling His!  And His plans always turn out better than ours.

At the tomb, Sunday morning, a dejected Mary arrives to find it empty.  She makes assumptions and then  Runs back to Jerusalem and tells the disciples that Jesus’ body had been taken.  Peter and John run to the tomb and find the grave clothes and wonder what in the world had happened.  And though that dawn had split time in two, it had yet to dawn on them.  They left dejected as Mary finally got back.  

Let’s pick up the story in John 20.  John 20:11    Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. ¹² She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. ¹³  “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. 

 “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14   She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. ¹⁵ “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” 

 She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

16   “Mary!” Jesus said. 

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

17    “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18    Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

Later, Jesus Himself appeared among them, and at the risk of sounding cliché, the light finally dawned.  And new hope sprang to life. And they found, in Christ, all they had ever hoped for and more was resurrected within them.

Which leads me to this.  ALL of us will have our Gethsemane experiences.  We will feel separated from God.  We will feel the tempter and oppressor of our souls breathing his ugly, dark breath down our necks as he seeks to peddle despair to our discouraged hearts and snuff out any flicker of hope that may be seeking to rise.  He will have friends betray us, people abandon us, others judge us unfairly and then heap abuse on us in many various forms.

And he will seek to have you, in the midst of your distress,  pursue a course that would have you terminate your existence. And many do, as they often opt for a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and the enemy sweeps them into eternity.  But here is where Jesus’ death and resurrection made it possible for you and I to flip the script.

If you and I can only see it differently, we would see that in our darkest moments, we don’t have to give in to the temptation to end our existence, or our marriage, or whatever the temptation to give up on is, or even to lose hope.  But we can, like Jesus, pray for either the temptation to leave (let this cup pass from me) or for God to give us the strength to bear up under it.  (But not my will, YOUR will, Father) 

In either case, it leads to a death. But not a final one.  It actually becomes a death that leads to resurrection.  Paul called it “the death to self”(Gal 2:19) and even said, “I die every day!” (1 Cor 15:31). And this dying to self allows for a new resurrection.

You lay down all of the abuses, the judgments, the abandonment, the betrayal and look to Christ for restoration.  You choose to give up yourself and your will,  in deference to the Father’s will for your life, recognizing that HIS plan is always better than yours, and HE will remake things for you.

This winter, I have personally gone through what Mother Teresa, when speaking of her experience with God over the course of almost 50 years,  termed her “dark night of the soul”.  I have been beset by trauma’s in my youth perpetrated against me, stupid choices made in trying to work my own way out of difficulties, temptations from things that I thought were long since buried, discouragement in my work, depression and darkness and hopeless feelings and a desire to cash in 40 years of ministry.  And where I found hope was recognizing that I was in my own Gethsemane experience.  It was all dark around me…and the tempter of souls was screaming a thousand lies into my head…and he almost won.  I almost cashed it in and walked away from ministry and from God.   But I continued to hold on to my devotional habit and I forced myself to continue to go into the Word each day…though the rest of my day was often beset with darkness and depression.  

Where I found renewed hope was back in Gethsemane, the cross and the resurrection.  It is a metaphor for so much of what we experience.   We experience the darkness…sometimes the death of dreams or hopes…but God is a God of resurrections.  And He is restoring me daily.  I had to die to a few things in the darkness…with self being the one that I, like Paul, am having to relearn to die to daily.   And in the resurrections is where new hope is found.

Don’t run from your Gethsemane experience.  Stay there and ask God for the strength to endure it and then to rise once again to walk in the newness of life.

Be PERFECT--OR ELSE!

As a child in the 60’s, my experience in church was one of legalism and church community enforced behavioral standards.  Live “right” and all would be well.  Pushback against anything…even if, or especially if, your personal understanding of scripture happened to be a bit different, and it would NOT go so well with you.  Whether this is a totally accurate picture or not, I do not know, because, as a child, my perceptions were still being formed.  But my perceptions were based on how I experienced the church, and my experience was one, with a few very noted exceptions, of a church community that tended to be a bit harsh and unbending.

Conformity of thought and external behavior seemed to be valued above a personal heart relationship with Jesus.  Scriptures were interpreted for you by the ordained pastor in charge of the church, and if there was any disagreement between he and his elders (and yes, in those days it was always a “he”) then we kids in the pew never knew about it.  For us, the pastor and elders represented a formidable wall of moral judgement, seeking to decide who measured up and who didn’t.  If one didn’t, it seemed they were often put away privately…that is, they simply vanished from our church community and were never spoken of again.  I don’t know where they went.

As I grew, pressure mounted for me to conform.  Baptismal classes at age 11 centered on following Jesus, but life in the church centered on conformity to community set standards.  It was confusing.  And if I, or one of my friends, began to stray a little, we were always admonished to “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect!” (Mt 5:48) And what I actually heard was- Be perfect-or Else!  Be perfect or you won't make it to heaven.  Be perfect or you are going to be lost eternally!

And the roots of perfectionism and legalism were planted deep in my soul.  I wanted to be perfect, but somewhere in my little ADD brain, ideas sprang forth to sabotage my best intentions.  And about the end of my elementary journey and the beginning of my high school years, I experienced perfectionistic burnout as I reasoned, “Well, if Jesus burden is so light, then why is the church’s burden so heavy?”

And while externally maintaining “good boy” exterior, I began engaging in a full-scale rebellion of the heart- a double life, so to speak.  I was doing the things externally that I needed to do to not become an outcast at church, yet exploring the darker side of life in private and with some of my closest friends who felt the same way I do.

A few years of that and I was exhausted with the dual roles I was trying to play.  I had to decide which way I was going to go.  A guest speaker at our Academy Bible Conference came and presented such a compelling picture of Jesus, devoid of the legalism and perfectionism, that I was overwhelmed that such could be the case.  I had a wrestling time with God and slowly the Holy Spirit broke over me with a conviction that God was not calling me to wrestle sin by myself and that I didn’t need to conform to what everyone else thought.

I relented and chose to follow THAT Jesus rather than the one of my childhood.  But over and over again, through my academy and later my college years, I continued to encounter people who would bring up the “Be ye perfect…” text.

As I studied to enter the ministry, I began learning about contexts and original meanings in the Greek and the setting, etc. and how important those are to understanding scripture.  I began seeing that a simple reading and deducing of scripture from the King James (or any other English Translation) wasn’t enough to always be accurate to what scripture intended, because the meanings of words change the further away from the original you get.  (Think the old game of “telephone” or “gossip” or whatever you called it.  Much meaning gets lost in translating what you think the other person said.)

So I began studying Matthew 5:48 from that perspective, and in fact, that changed my whole understanding of the passage and the meaning.  What I found, first, is that it is NOT a stand-alone verse.  If I consider the context, it is found in the middle of what we have called “The Sermon on the Mount”.  (See Mt 5-Mt 7). It is simply one thought in the middle of a discourse that is much longer and much more involved that mere perfectionism.

So let’s look at context first, then we will take a look at the original word and meaning in the Greek to see if we can come to a more complete understanding:  I would suggest reading all of Mathew chapters 5-7 to fully get the entire context.  But let’s start in Chapter 5.

Matthew 5, Jesus is teaching His disciples…(and the crowds that began to gather) about what it meant to be a follower of God.  Don’t pull the text out of its original context.

Vs 3-12 are listed what we have come to call the Beatitudes.

Then He tells the disciples v. 13 YOU are the Salt of the earth.  But what good is salt if it isn’t salty?

V14 YOU are the light of the world…and light is to be logically shared in the midst of darkness.

v.17 DON’T misunderstand why I have come.  Not to abolish the law of Moses but to accomplish their purpose.  What was their purpose?  To point forward to a coming Messiah who would save the world from their sins as first promised in Gen. 3:15.

Then He comes to a hinge point moment.  He suddenly flips the script on them and ups the ante.  It isn’t about keeping the law of Moses.  It’s about raising the bar.  v 20. Unless your righteousness is better than that of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom.

WHAT???  These were the professional religious people!  They spent ALL DAY EVERY DAY seeking to live out the law of Moses…at least externally.  The rest of us don’t have time for that.  We have to make an honest living.  But Jesus isn’t done yet.

V21-48 He raises the bar so hopelessly high that most may have despaired.  He begins a series I have termed: The Law Says…But I Say.  It’s a teaching of taking what they considered to be the route to be saved and what they considered the minimums of religion and showing them how hopeless they actually were at being able to live them out.

Jesus is giving them a list of things that they have believed for centuries and then raising the bar.

V 21 Law says: Don’t murder.  I say…if you are even angry with someone you are subject  to judgement.  If you call someone an idiot or your curse them, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

V27: Law says: Don’t commit adultery.  I say…if you even look at a woman with lust, you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart.

V.31. Law says: A man can divorce his wife by simply giving her a written notice.  I say…if you divorce, unless there is unfaithfulness involved, you cause her to commit adultery and if you marry a divorced woman you also commit adultery.

v.33. Law says: You must not break your vows to the Lord.  But I say…don’t even make vows by heaven, earth or Jerusalem, because you have to power to keep them.  Simply say yes or no and leave it.

V 38 Law says. Eye for eye.  I say..if they slap the right side turn the other cheek

v 40 Law says: If sued for your shirt…I say…give them your coat too.

V 41 Law says: If a soldier demands you carry his gear for a mile… I say…carry it 2.

42 Give to those who ask…don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.

43 Law says Love your neighbor and hate your enemy… I say…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  You will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.

He gives sunlight to both the evil and good.  He sends rain on the just and unjust.

It's easy to love only those who love you…If you are only kind to your friends how are you different than anyone else? And then we come to our verse. Matt. 5:⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Quoted here from the New Living Translation).

Now in its original context, Jesus doesn’t stop talking right there, but goes right on teaching.  “Watch out!  Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.” Matt 6:1

He then goes on to contrast what the Pharisees do with what His disciples should do.

Phrases from the following verses would include: v2 “don’t call attention to yourself” , v 3“don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” v4 “give gifts in private and the Father will reward you.”

V5 Don’t pray in the streets to be seen.  Pray in private. V7 When you pray, don’t babble on and on… but pray like this: and He gives them a sample prayer.

V14 If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you, but if you refuse to forgive others your Father will not forgive your sins.

He goes on to talk about fasting, and storing up treasures in heaven so that your heart will follow your treasure.  He talks about being careful what you look at and what you set your heart on so that you won’t be enslaved by your love of money.

Then He points out our need not to worry, but to trust.  And so on.

The context is not talking about working your way to heaven, or a formula for perfectionism.  So let’s go now to the actual word translated "perfect" in this passage.

The word translated “perfect” in verse 48 is the Greek word “telios” (tel’i os) and means literally: brought to completion; fully accomplished, fully developed;  complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); without shortcoming in respect of a certain standard.

So a more literal translation of that verse might be: Be complete (spiritually mature) as your Father in heaven is complete.   Or Be fully developed spiritually as your Father in Heaven is already fully developed.

What would that mean in this context?  Jesus has already told them that they will have to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees if they are going to make it.  He has already pointed out what the law said and then raised the bar.  He goes on to say, in essence, “…and there is a whole lot more!  Deeds aren’t to be necessarily seen, forgive freely, pray in private for what you need, look towards your treasure in heaven, so your heart will be there and not here.

And I can imagine the disciples thinking…”this is going to be next to impossible.”  But in the ensuing weeks and years, they began to see that though they weren’t equal to the righteousness that Christ was calling them to attain, that HE, in fact, was, and that He was calling them to live in HIS righteousness.  They began to realize that they had salvation through their faith in Jesus, by the Grace of God, and that it was God Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit that was leading and growing them into the followers the HE was desiring. 

In fact, Paul, in the books of Ephesians and Philippians attests to this idea. Quoting now- but all emphasis mine)

Eph. 2:4    "But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of HIS grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

Eph. 2:8    God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

NOTE: So I can’t make myself perfect OR complete.  It is Christ’s work in me.  My job is to simply focus on experiencing Christ and learn of Him and then HE does the work changing me to be more like Himself.  Paul continues this line of thinking in Eph 3:14-21.

Eph. 3:12    Because of Christ and our faith in Him,^a we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. ¹³ So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored.

Eph. 3:14    When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,^{a 15} the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.^{a 16} I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Eph. 3:20    Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ²¹ Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Phil 1:⁶ And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

So my takeaway… God wants me to be spiritually mature (perfect) able to look, act and emulate the Character of Christ.  NOT because “I” work hard at my own perfection, but because I spend my time putting down my roots into the love of Christ and drink the nutrients of HIS love into my life and allow Him to change me.

Much like a tree cannot produce good fruits by choosing to pull its roots up to focus on the fruit it is producing above, nor can I, if  I am simply focusing on my fruits. (choosing not to lie.  Choosing not to do some sin, etc)  Instead of pulling up my roots to inspect my fruit, I have to send them down into the soil of the grace of God and simply absorb Jesus into my very being and let Him be lifted up through the core of my being and HE does HIS work in me to transform me to be more like HIMSELF…so that when that day comes, HE presents me to the FATHER as a perfect person, (“telios” completed, fully accomplished, fully developed, without shortcoming in respect of a certain standard) even as my Father is telios!  Praise God I’m not left to fend for myself.  NOR are you!