Laws

One day I asked my son, “What did you learn is Sunday school today?”  Tom answered, “Lynn talked to us about laws and asked if we had any rules in our house.”

“Do we have any laws?”  I asked.  Tom looked at me in disbelief as if to say, “Are you kidding?”  Then he spouted out, “Don’t run down the hall!” “Don’t yell in the house!” “Don’t slam the doors!”  He added a few more before he said, “And I told Lynn that I was glad that we didn’t live on a farm because we’d have to collect the eggs, feed the pigs, and milk the cows!”  Needless to say, I was amused by what he said.

I must have the same look on my face when I hear Christians say that there are very few laws in the New Testament.  I hear and see a law every time Jesus speaks and every time an apostle picks up a pen.  This might be because I have issues with authority, but listen to what Paul writes: “Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.” (And that’s only 5 verses—there’s more—See Romans 12).  I’m fairly confident that these are not heavenly suggestions or apostolic advice, but are commandments.

It is burdensome to keep all of the New Testament laws and I often feel oppressed.  Yet, in the midst of my weariness, I am constantly reminded of one command.  You know the one.  It’s when our Commander-in-Chief declares, “Come to Me!”

Whether I’m badly wounded, despairing, desperate, despondent, or exhausted, I hear the command, “Come to Me,” being linked to a promise—the promise, “I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28-30) And even when I still have the slightest strength to be resistant to this command, I also hear an invitation to find relief.  (FYI, thus far, I have surrendered to His demand because I have found His Word is irresistible and true.)

Living Color

Now that basketball season is in full swing, I was reminded of a conversation between Dennis and Marcella.  This conversation took place on a Sunday morning several years ago after the UConn Husky women thrashed one of their opponents.  Dennis asked Marcella how she could watch such a lopsided game.  As Marcella started to answer him, they were interrupted and did not finish their conversation.

Like Dennis, I take no pleasure in watching blowouts, however I do enjoy competition.  Marcella, on the other hand was not absorbed in the contest.  Marcella was experiencing the game as an art—like listening to music or looking at the details of a painting.  What I heard Marcella describing was the harmony and the majesty through unselfishness, precision passing, and calculated positioning by the players to give their teammates a wide open access to the goal.  Marcella was watching the game from a different point of view.

The conversation between Marcella and Dennis reminded me of something I read, “When we read scripture, do we see it black and white or do we see it in living color?”  From hobbies to theology, life is about perspective.  And it’s especially true about relationships.  How do we look at the people that we are in relationship with?

Sometimes we view the people that we know in black and white.  This is because we’ve known some people for a long time and we know what they’re like and we know how they will respond in certain situations.  They are consistent in their character.

However, it’s not a good idea to assume that we know people so well that we know what they will say and do in every circumstance.  We should anticipate and expect an occasional surprise or even shock by their response.  It’s not because the person has suddenly become indecisive or schizophrenic.  It is because the person may see something about a situation that we are blind to.  If we are attentive to the subtleties in people, we can behold them in living color.

When we look at the world, examine life, and reflect on scripture how often are we startled by the splendor and radiance of God in it?  When we read about Jesus, do we hear the same old story or are we frequently amazed and astonished by this Person?

After being with Jesus, John writes, “We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  I don’t think that John was speaking of a one time event.  I think John was fascinated by “Immanuel”, that is, “God with us.”  I think that John saw Jesus in awesome living color and I think many of us do too.

Yet, I wonder how many of us look at the God of the Old Testament and see Him in black and white.  I wonder how many of us see a petty, spiteful, intolerant, and short tempered God.  It’s almost as if we’re saying that the Old Testament God is not the same God as the New Testament.  Either that or we’re saying that God is schizophrenic.  I don’t think that the Old Testament writers would agree.

Jeremiah said: “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

What I hear Jeremiah saying is that we are not worthy or deserving of standing in the Presence of a Righteous God.  However, when we behold the kindness of God, we will witness the grandeur of God afresh every day.

David also helps us reframe our point of reference. When David was confronted with who he was, he cried out, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” then he begged God, “Do not cast me from Your Presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:10-11).

LORD, help us to be like David.  Help us to see You for who you are, that we might join our voices with David’s and declare, “You who are my God and Savior, I will sing of Your righteousness.” (Psalms 51:14).

Meaning

Try and read the following.  It is not a computer glitch and I have not suddenly become illiterate.  I ran across this in one of my files and I thought this was interesting:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulacity

uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.  The phanonmneal

pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a

rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t

mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,

the olny iprmoatant tihng is taht the frist and

lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.  The rset can be

a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a

porbelm.  Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not

raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a

wlohe.  Amzanig huh?  yaeh and I awlyas thgougt

slpeling was ipmorantt

When we study Scripture, we often search for meaning through the original language, what the speaker said, and what the original hearers heard.  Yet, I often wonder if we are missing something.  The reason I ponder this is because centuries after Moses, the religious scholars were arguing over their interpretation of what God gave to Moses.  Then when Jesus showed up, they all had a problem with His interpretation.

I am not bashing scholarship because I think it is important, and we should not be ignorant (II Timothy 2:15).  (By the way, I appreciate my spell checker).  What I am pondering is that language and meaning can be incredibly challenging between natives, but how much more between God and man.

In the marriage seminars that I have attended, one of the biggest hurdles that a couple has to overcome is communication.  This is why I marvel at how incredibly brilliant God is in communicating His message.  He knew that the written and verbal word would be misunderstood, so He thought of a way to overcome this obstacle.  This is why John writes:

In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning…The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…The One and Only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with The Father, has made Him known” (John 1:1, 2, 14, 18).

The writer of Hebrews adds, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son…[who is] the exact representation of His being…” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Through the Biblical writers, I hear God saying, in case you don’t understand what I said, I will come and not only repeat what I said, but demonstrate what I mean in Person.  Then when Jesus came, He said, “I am He” (Matthew 5:17, my paraphrase).

Jesus’ interpretation of Scripture produced many conflicts.  Yet, I see no lack of clarity in Jesus.  Jesus claimed that He knew God and had a relationship with Him (John 10:30); Jesus knew scripture and embodied it (John 5:39); Jesus was confident in His interpretation of scripture (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-34, 38-39, 43-44) and He understood it in the context of life (Matthew 7:24-27).

If we want to see God, scripture, and life clearly, and the biblical writers calls us to “fix our eyes and thoughts on Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1, 12:2).  Jesus Himself invites us to “come to Me and learn from Me, I will take away your stress, exhaustion, and confusion” (Matthew 11:28-31, my paraphrase again).

A couple of weeks ago John reminded us that God’s gift to us is Jesus.  He also reminded us of Paul’s words: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

If we are not blessed in every area of our lives, let us be like the wise men and continue to seek Him.