SECURE IDENTITY

     Last time I pointed to several instances where Jesus says the Father judges no one and neither does the Son. I then said since the only one capable of judging rightly does not judge us, we are now free to forego judging ourselves or others.

     This is very good news. Think about it. When we renounce judging, life becomes so much easier and lighter. Jesus says, 

"My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:30

     We are not happy when we are judging. Judging is heavy, tiresome, and painful. It is pure drudgery. The abundant life Jesus promises becomes more abundant in our experience when we renounce our judgments.

     We cannot, however, stop others from judging us. They will. But we do not have to be significantly affected by their judgments. Paul knew this. This is how he responded to his critics in Corinth. 

"I care very little if I am judged by you or any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself." 

1 Corinthians 4:5

     In the past, I have been judged negatively for what some call my "over emphasis on God's grace." One of my critics is a very senior Christian theologian. Most of you have his books in your library. He wrote in a magazine article, "Dr. Blue is an able expositor but his over emphasis on grace is dangerous to your spiritual health." Paraphrasing Paul, in 1 Corithians 4:5, I responded with, 

I have a low opinion of your opinion of me. 

 I have a low opinion of my opinion of me. 

God alone will assess you and me in the end.

     If we are secure in our identity as the much loved children of the non judgmental Father, we can learn from our critics, yet not be disheartened by them. 

     Unfortunately for my team, Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game of football. If someone told him he sucked as a quarterback, it would be water off a duck's back. He is secure in his football identity and for good reason. However, if someone told a 14 year old Q.B. that he sucked, that judgment could be devestating. The point is obvious. When we are secure in our identity, the criticism and judgment of others is of little effect.

     Our identity is, in fact, secure. 

We are OK because Jesus made us OK. 

We cannot be more secure. 

We can only awaken to that truth and speak and act as if it is true.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

     We cannot imagine a world without judgment or judges. In our fallen state, we find the necessity to judge between right and wrong. We see the need to reward the right and punish the wrong.

     We must judge, reward, and punish to hold our society and world together.

     We find it natural then to project all of this onto God, making him the ultimate judge. But this is an illusion. We made it up. What do you make of Jesus saying, 

"The Father judges no one." 

John 5:22a

?

   
  No one has seen the Father but the Son (John 6:46). He is the expert witness on who the Father is. The only one who has seen the Father says he 

"judges no one."

     Following this, Jesus says, 

"The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son."

John 5:22b 

John 5:27

     So, if the Father judges no one and has entrusted all judgment to the Son, then does Jesus judge us? Jesus answers this question, 

"Do not think I accuse you to the Father." 

John 5:45

and, 

"I do not judge anyone." 

John 12:47

     The Father gave the Son authority and capacity to judge and Jesus refrained from doing it. So if the Father judges no one and Jesus, who could judge but doesn't, then who judges?

     In John 8:15, Jesus explains, 

"You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one."

     There it is. We live in a world held together by judgment based more or less on arbitrary human standards. We are the ones who judge others and ourselves. We can't imagine our world working in any other way.

     We judge ourselves because we feel guilty and we often judge others for the same reason. The biggest criticism of the church that I have heard over the past forty years of ministry is that it is so judgmental. I have always thought this very odd, since we claim to represent the God who judges no one.

     You may judge that you are not spiritual enough, don't pray enough, etc., or that you are too fat, too stupid, or too wrong in some other way. That judgment is yours and yours alone. You either made it up or you accepted someone else's opinion of you. 

Enough pain.

     Don't compound it by thinking God shares your opinion of you. He doesn't. When the Father looks at you, he sees his Son in whom he is well pleased. He has the same affection for you as he has for his Son. That Son says, 

"I do not judge, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." 

John 12:47

     So let's let him save us. 

Save us from judging ourselves and everyone else.

FINDING GOD'S WILL & GUIDANCE

     Some people are anxious to discover God's perfect will for their lives, especially when making big decisions, like who to marry, where to live, what job to take, etc. Behind this anxiety is the notion that if they miss God's leading and make the wrong choice, they will have to settle for less than his best. A softer version of this is a preoccupation with finding God's guidance in daily life. Such people often get stuck, wondering if they have really heard from God. 

     In early Israel, the adolescent days of the people of God, he led them by visible, audible signs: voices, fire, cloud, fleeces, talking animals, and prophets. That was the old way of knowing God's will. Now there is a new way. 

"In the old days God spoke to the fathers by prophets. These days he speaks to us by his Son."

Hebrews 1:1-2

    
      That is to say, God now leads us by the Spirit according to our knowledge of Jesus. We gain that knowledge by reading the New Testament, particularly the Gospels. At least 90% of all daily decisions are guided by what Jesus said and did. If we truly want God's will for our lives, we will believe what we find in Jesus.

What about the remaining 10%? 

The Bible doesn't tell us what car to buy or what job to take.

What now? 

The answer is do what you want to do.

Isn't this dangerous? 
Don't we all know people who have made a mess of things by following their own desires?

The caveat to this dilemma should be obvious. 

If we love Jesus and have his words and deeds in our thinking, we have his mind.

      If we have a teachable heart, we will not go too far wrong. And if we make a bad choice, it can be redeemed. After all, the biggest mistake we ever made was rejecting God when he came to us in the flesh of Jesus and that was spectacularly redeemed. So don't worry too much about making a mistake and don't get stuck.

     As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Guidance comes when we are in motion. Trying to turn the steering wheel of a parked car is difficult and pointless.

     If God wanted us to know his perfect will for our lives he would have told us to find it. He also would have told us how to find it. Nowhere in the Bible does he do so. Therefore, 

we are in no way responsible for getting everything right.

     When the Bible talks about God's will for our lives, it's always in terms of our character. For instance, 

"It is God's will that you be sanctified." 

I Thessalonians 4:3

 

     Marry who you want to marry. Take the job you like. Book the vacation you desire. Attend the church you enjoy. God's will for your life is not about these things. His will is that whatever you do and wherever you go, be the best you possible.

     As we get older and log some experience, guidance becomes easy - provided we have been paying attention. If we love God and trust him, he trusts us. After all, we are told to have the same mind in us that was in Christ (Philippians 2:5) and the Spirit is in us to will and do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). 

So do what you want.

CHOOSE LIFE

     The greatest power humans possess is the power and freedom to make choices. By the time we reach our mid 20's our life looks mostly like the choices we have been making. If we want better lives we are free to make different choices and in time, our lives will reflect those choices. Some bad things that happen to us, of course, are not of our choosing. But we are free to choose how we respond to those bad things. 

     Victor Frankel, the famous Jewish psychologist, made this point in his classic book, "Man's Search For Meaning." One of the core insights he gained from his years in Nazi concentration camps is that when we are utterly victimized, suffering helplessly at the hands of others, one final power we have that cannot be taken away is our power to choose how to respond. He says that those in the camps who chose hope and a future tended to survive. Those who gave up died.

     In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, God tells Israel to "choose life." 

Life equals prosperity, health, and long life for us and our children. 

     In the context of these verses, choosing life is:

loving God and listening to his voice. 

     That voice we most clearly hear is in the Gospels, the voice of God's visible image, Jesus Christ.

     Jesus is constantly calling us to make choices for life that result in life more abundant. His list of choices that lead to life is long. 

The list, while longer than this, looks something like this:

• Repeatedly Jesus tells us to choose trust and faith over worry. Some of us find it hard to believe that worry is a choice, but it is. We can't choose not to worry directly. We just worry unless we choose to focus on and fill our imaginations with the Father Jesus knows. Jesus, who knows the Father personally, says he is a good, caring, providing, loving Father who is very fond of you. We are totally free to believe him and since what he says is true, we can believe with confidence.
• We can choose repentance over guilt. Shame is feeling bad for who you are. It is always wrong, wrong, wrong. What can we say except - just stop it. Guilt is the result of what we do. Feeling bad for doing bad is the evidence of mental health, but it shouldn't last long. You were forgiven every sin, past, present, and future in the death and resurrection of Jesus 2000 years ago. We access and feel that provision by owning our sin, making no excuses, confessing it and saying thank you for forgiveness.
• We can choose forgiveness over bitterness. Forgiveness is a choice. We can do it. We can state it. While we don't have to feel forgiveness to forgive, in time, we are likely to feel what we choose to do. Our forgiving may do nothing for the person forgiven, but in so doing, we set ourselves free. We open ourselves up to more life. We literally choose life.
• We can choose contentment over envy, community over isolation, love for the poor over indifference, prayer over T.V., etc.

     I know people, even have family members, who don't want life. They have chosen to see themselves as victims. Self pity is their dominant emotion. They say they are OK with that. Hopefully, you are not one of these.

     To make choosing life run more efficiently say out loud, many times a day:

Thank you Father for providing all I need in life. I'm so happy that you are fond of me.

WORRY THOUGHTS

     I have renewed my commitment to finding a quiet time during the day to sit and listen for God's voice. This morning I prayed, "Say anything you want."

     I sat in quiet and nothing came, so I opened my Bible to where I had left off reading. Matthew 6:34.

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." 

     I thought good luck with that. 

As with most of you, I do worry about tomorrow.

• I have 9 children, 4 of whom are overseas doing mission work in dangerous places. Two of these have recently faced real danger. 
• I worry about whether or not I have what it takes to do the work I think I have to do
• and keep the promises I have made. 
• And, of course, the perennial worry common to many, money. Will there be enough? Where will it come from? 
• Etc.

     I worry.

Then it hits me. I just asked God to speak to me and then Jesus says, "don't worry." That means, any worry thoughts about tomorrow are not from him. So if I want to think his thoughts, which I do, they will never be worry thoughts.


     Fretting about tomorrow is reflexive and it seemed to me like a responsibility. But, if Jesus' words are anything to go on, worry thoughts are not his voice and I don't have to entertain them. Jesus says in effect, "You're fired from your responsibility to worry." 

     Planning is ok. Fretful planning isn't.


     In Matthew 14:13-21, Jesus and his disciples are confronted with five thousand hungry people needing to be fed. Jesus tells his boys to feed them. They worry, "We only have five loaves and two fishes. Jesus tells them to bring what they have to him and he makes that more than enough.


     I think I am called to do more than I have resources for. Jesus says, "Bring what you have to me. My leading is my feeding."


     Most of us spend way too much time regretting the past and fretting the future. Jesus says that none of those thoughts are from him, so stop it.

And the freedom just keeps coming!

Long Blog - Apologies

     Last time I asked you to reflect on Mark 11:24 in light of God's promises and our response. I recently committed myself to believe what Jesus said in that verse, and its parallels in Matthew and John, and my life has changed as a result.

     On November 16, 2011, a friend I hadn't seen in years phoned to ask if I would go to Haiti to teach and train Christan leaders. Because of Haiti's recent troubles he thought they would be more open to my emphasis on grace, healing, and non abusive styles of leadership. Normally I would have said yes, but because of deepening depression and fatigue over the past 10 years, I told him I was limiting travel to keeping only the promises I had already made.

     Then he told me his healing story. Earlier in his life he spent years suffering from severe intestinal problems. He was in constant pain, could only eat chicken and water and doctors offered no help. Not even a good diagnosis. In despair, he decided to take his life. While in the final stages of planning suicide, he read about a man who was healed from a terminal illness by believing Jesus' words in Mark 11:24. My friend said to himself, "If believing Jesus' words worked for this guy, maybe there is hope for me." After months of proclaiming Jesus' words in Mark 11:24 and believing as best he could, he was finally healed. He has been mostly symptom free ever since.
    
     I responded to my friend's testimony by saying, I'm happy for you and all, but it sounds like the name-it-and-claim-it prosperity foolishness that I have so roundly criticized over the years.

     He said, "That word-faith stuff is about manipulating God, this is different. Read it again."

     So we hung up and I opened my N.T. to Mk.11:24. Jesus says, 

"Ask for whatever you will and believe you already have it and it will be yours."

     Although I have preached through the N.T. countless times I never preached on this verse or its parallels in Matthew and John. I didn't because I wasn't sure what to make of them or, more likely, I simply didn't believe them. My next thought was where do I get off choosing from Jesus' words what to believe and not to believe?

     At this point, I said to myself, OK, I have to think this through. Is Jesus really telling us to play make believe or live in denial, pretending we have something we don't? Then I saw it. 

     Wait a minute....

     I already believe what this verse is really saying. I have been preaching and writing for decades that we received all we will ever need for our life in and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus 2000 years ago. Along with Peter, I have been saying that all we need is provided for us already because of our participation in Christ (II Peter 1:34). I had simply never connected the "everything we need" with my own need for healing. This is ironic and embarrassing since I wrote the best selling book on Christian healing 20 years ago. Over those 20 years, I have prayed for many thousands and seen hundreds healed, and sometimes dramatically so. But if they were not healed, I never told them to believe regardless. I said instead, let's pray some more.

     At any rate, on the evening of Nov. 16, 2011, I said to God, this is the last time I ask for my own healing. I am now going to believe I have it and say thank you. That ends my responsibility in the matter. The "and it will be yours" is your responsibility. I look forward to seeing what you do.

     I thought, as with my friend, it would take time for anything to happen and was prepared to take a stand regardless. But I awoke the next day - and it was as if someone switched on a light. Depression lifted and I had more energy. There have been ups and downs during the past 40 days, but the trend is decidedly up. I have not felt this well in 10 years.

   COULD THE SOLVING OF SOME OF OUR PROBLEMS BE AS EASY AS ASKING FOR HELP, BELIEVING WE HAVE IT, AND SAYING THANK YOU?

     It seems too simple, too childlike. And of course, it is... 

"unless you change and become like little children..." Matthew 18:3.

     Oh, and I'm going to Haiti.

CHESS, ANYONE?

     I often think of my life as a chess game played with the Holy Spirit. He makes the first move. Then he waits for me to move. Then he makes another move, and so on. When he moves a piece, I have to respond to that specific move. He is not playing against me, rather for me and with me, helping me win. I have learned that he usually doesn't move out of turn and he doesn't make my move for me as a rule.
     God makes promises to us. We read those in the Bible. Those are his moves. Our move is to respond in faith and act as if we believe. Then, in time, he moves.
     Thinking of our lives as a call and response to the lover of our souls makes sense of so many Bible stroies:

•      He promised Abraham a son, making him the father of many. God's move. Then Abraham and Sarah, the old couple, had to couple. Their move. Then, Sarah, whose womb had long died, gave life. God's move.  

•      God tells Israel that Jericho will be delivered into their hands. His move. They had to march around Jericho seven times. On the sixth trip around there there was no evidence that God's promise would be kept. One more time around. Their move. The walls came down. God's move.

•      Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch it out. God's move. The man does as he was told. His move. Jesus healed his hand. God's move.

•      To the man born blind, Jesus said, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." Jesus' move. The man does it. His move. He receives his sight. God's move. 

•      Etc. etc.

     You see what I mean.

     For whatever reason, God wants to partner with us in everything. His call is his promise. Our response is faith in a person we can trust. Then he moves again. And as I have learned, he usually doesn't move out of turn.

     Even though we only need faith the size of a mustard seed and we get to pray, "I believe, help my unbelief," we still need to believe and act as if we do.

     In light of that, what do you make of Mark 11:22, 24?

Jesus said to them, "Have faith in God..."

"For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."