Hebrews – Letter to the Jewish People

Scripture: Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16; Luke 12.32-40


Please move to another seat.

How many of you sit in the same place every time you’re in church? I was telling someone the other day that, growing up in church, my family sat in the same pew week after week. It was our pew. I’m sure that if somebody else had sat in it, we would be okay with that, but it wouldn’t have felt quite right.

So if you’re feeling uncomfortable now, I quite understand.

Most of us may not be aware of how much we like to be in control of a situation. We like to know what to expect and not have anything unplanned for happen. Even those of us who pride ourselves in our flexibility and spontaneity like our spontaneity in manageable and friendly doses. The sudden onset of a stomach virus is not a rollicking good surprise no matter how rosy our outlook. A good surprise is spontaneous fun. A bad surprise is, well, I’m losing control!

Our need for control really gets in the way of living a life of faith. “Control” and “Faith” are, by definition, different ways of viewing and living your life.

Control – to keep within bound; Restrain; to have power over

Faith – the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Webster’s defines faith as putting absolute trust in a person. If you have to be control all the time, then there is little room for trust. Trust is about letting go of control.

The letter to the Hebrews is the great statement on the nature of faith and what it means to be the people of God. Biblical heroes are lifted up as examples of really ordinary people choosing to live their lives in faith with no guarantees of the outcome. Abraham set out on a life journey because he believed God told him to, “not knowing where he was going.” By faith he and his wife Sarah, when they were too old to buy green bananas, nevertheless trusted in God when God said they would have a baby. They laughed at God’s great joke and they laughed when the joke became true. They never had control, they just had faith.

I remember the summer God told me to go to Europe on a short term mission. How did God tell me that? Well, he didn’t write it in the sky or spell in out in my alphabet cereal. But when I asked God about it, he definitely didn’t say no, so I took that as a yes. I traveled to a continent thousands of miles away from my home, to a place where I knew not a soul. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. I felt out of control. But boy, did my faith sure grow! I left that summer mission feeling a thousand times more competent and powerful as an individual. I left feeling a thousand times more trusting, that come what may, wherever I go, God is going to be there with me. And that it a good place to be.

God doesn’t explain everything to us. He simply promises to always be there with us. And that is the key to having faith. Believing God is here.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. He would please God must first believe that He is.

Faith provides a secure place from which one can confidently face intangible things – things imperceptible or things in the future. Faith itself can seem to be the most illusory and imperceptible of things. And that is why we must not give in the doubts that sometimes plague us! Always believe in God! Question Him, badger Him, cajole Him, get angry at Him. But never let your faith in Him waver. If you’ve got that, you’ve got everything.

Fate is the worldview of the world. Fate says we are at the mercy of unseen and random forces. There’s nothing we can do.

Faith is the worldview of a believer. By Faith we understand that everything that is visible came from the invisible by the word of God (Hebrews 11.3). Faith says that there is a reality undetectable by normal means that is working for our good. Unpredictable things may happen. Bad things may happen but we are never at their mercy because we lean on another Mercy, the One who saves us for eternity.

So then, how do people with faith live?

Jesus tells people of faith to “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.”

Faithful people live in an attitude of relaxed readiness. You know what I mean. It’s like the difference between two persons leaving on a trip. The first person has been preparing for weeks, maybe even months. Their plans have been made, destination reserved, extraneous details cared for. Their bags are packed, their car gassed up, their plants watered. They are ready to go. Unplanned things may happen, probably will , but they’ve done what they could. They trust everything will work out fine. They are excited for the adventure.

The second person, however, just started getting ready that morning. They think they want to go to the same place but they’re not sure. They have no reservation. They have packed nothing yet. They have a thousand details to worry about. They approach the trip with dread. They hope nothing bad will happen. They’re not sure if they want to leave.

Our lives really are in relentless change. As soon as we get comfortable we know that probably something’s gonna happen to disturb that peace. But people with faith can handle it. We can handle anything. The Bible says people of faith are special people. The world’s not good enough for people like us. God is proud of us. He has a lot of good things planned. Are you ready? Get dressed and light your lamp! It’s gonna be good!

Soul Food

Scripture: Luke 12.13-21; Colossians 3.1-11


A mafia godfather finds out that his bookkeeper has stolen 10 million dollars from him. The bookkeeper is deaf. It was the reason the bookkeeper got the job in the first place. The godfather figured that a deaf bookkeeper wouldn’t be able to hear any secrets that he could testify about later in court. When the godfather goes to shake down the deaf bookkeeper over the missing 10 million, he brings along his attorney, who knows sign language.

The godfather asks the bookkeeper, “Where is the 10 million you embezzled from me?”

The attorney signs the question to the bookkeeper. The bookkeeper signs back, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

The attorney tells the godfather, “He says he doesn’t know what you are talking about.”

That’s when the godfather pulls out a 9mm pistol, puts it to the bookkeeper’s head and says, “Ask him again!”

The attorney signs to the bookkeeper, “He’ll kill you for sure if you don’t tell him!”

The bookkeeper quickly signs, “Okay! You win. The money is in a brown briefcase, buried behind the shed in my cousin Enzo’s backyard in Queens!”

The godfather asks the attorney, “Well, what’d he say?”

The attorney replies, “He says you don’t have the guts to pull the trigger.”

I knew I could count on you to get the humor. Everyone, at least in our culture, understands the allure of money and wealth. We understand it, because whether we admit it or not, we are wealthy people by almost any historical or contemporary standard.
According to a recently released report from the U.S., Census Bureau, a picture emerges of the typical American lifestyle:

We are media saturated. We spend almost 10 hours a day either watching television, surfing the Net, reading books or magazines, or listening to music. We are almost never quiet.

We are fat. Foreign travelers come to our country and are stunned at how out of shape most of us are. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, one-third of whom are medically obese. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization estimates that one third of the world is well fed, one-third is underfed, and one-third is starving.

We are rich. Half of U.S. households own stocks and bonds, which sounds normal until you realize that one in six people in the world live on less than a $1 a day. The average American’s net worth amounted to $144,000 in the year 2000, more than 100 times higher than the average Indian, whose assets totaled $1,100.

We are a culture of stuffed barns. Stuffed barns, where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, the parable:

A certain wealthy farmer produced a such a good crop that he didn’t know where to store it all. Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods.

The rich man thinks his problem, indeed, his problems, are all solved. He says, “There ya go Soul. You’re set. Let the happiness ensue!” He was, of course, mistaken.

But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have saved for yourself?”

“You can’t take it with you,” is the truth that we glean from this fat story. There are no hearses pulling U-hauls, and the like. But if we stop with that truth and don’t continue then we miss what is the more important teaching that the Master wants us to hear. There is more meat on this parabolic bone.

I know Jesus is thinking about more important things with this parable because when he is asked to settle a family estate dispute, he answers, somewhat annoyed, “What has that to do with me?”

No. Jesus is thinking about our souls. He is thinking that while we get fatter, our souls are starving for some real food. In fact, the rich man in the parable thinks that by accumulating wealth he has, in some way, taken care of his soul, that maybe it can be bought, or peace for his soul can be.

The devil visits a lawyer’s office and makes the lawyer an offer. “I can arrange some thing for you,” the devil says. I’ll increase your income fivefold. Your partners will love you; your clients will respect you; you’ll have four months vacation each year and live to be a hundred. All I require in return is that your wife’s soul, your children’s souls and their children’s souls rot in hell for eternity.”

The lawyer thought for a moment then asked, “What’s the catch?”

Hey, if we’re honest we’ve all had those moments when we’ve thought, “If only I had this much, then I would be happy. I would be satisfied; even peaceful.”

Peace won’t, in fact cannot, be found with more money, a bigger house, a well, you fill in the blank ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________.

What really feeds our souls and produces joy and peace is the food that comes from heaven. Be rich with the stuff that comes from heaven is what Jesus would advise.

Again, its not enough to recognize that we have to cut back. Start there, sure. So, if you have twenty pairs of shoes, maybe you can get by on ten. If you have four cars in the driveway, maybe only three are necessary. If you have to rental storage space, well. . .you know.

But that’s only half the battle. In his book, How To Be Good, Nick Hornby writes about a family that undergo a sort of spiritual conversion. Their eyes are opened to the selfishness and snobbery of their lives. To correct this, they take radical steps to change themselves and their community. They invite homeless kids to live with them. They give away most of their accumulated savings. They attempt to make amends with all whom they have wronged in the past. It’s all good stuff. But in the end, they feel like failures and phonies. Their hearts aren’t in it. They end up despising the ones they are trying to help. They find out that even good works, by themselves, leaves them feeling, well, starved and dying.

Jesus tells us to value God and God alone. Make Him your treasure. And God will take care of all those other things. He’ll teach you how to put food and clothes and possessions in proper perspective.

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” is how the Apostle Paul phrased it. “Put on the clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. . .and above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3.2,12,14

Ask For More

Scripture: 2 Kings 2.1-2, 6-14; Luke 9.51-62; Galatians 5.1, 13-25


A pastor called the children to the front of the sanctuary for a children’s message one Sunday. It was the Sunday before July 4th, so he told them about freedom in this country and more importantly, our freedom in Christ. One boy exclaimed, “I’m free!” Not to be outdone, another boy proudly announced, “I’m four!”

St. Paul tells us in Galatians that our freedom in Christ is not given so that we can indulge ourselves. Rather our freedom provides the way to become all that we can be for the Kingdom and for the world. Freedom is given to so potential can be realized to God’s glory. And as we shall find in the story of Elisha, potential is realized with one part skill and two parts inspiration.

Elisha is the young apprentice to the great prophet Elijah – the one who defeated the priests of Baal, who predicted the great drought and then made it rain again, who spoke against the wickedness of Queen Jezebel, who heard the still small voice of God in the wilderness. Elijah was a great prophet, but if he had a flaw it was that he tended to think he was the only one who served God. In fact, he said so. And God answered by giving him Elisha, the apprentice, and saying, “Here is the one who will replace you.”

Now, suppose your boss at work came up to you tomorrow and said, “Here. I’d like you to meet Sally – she will be replacing you at the end of the year. In the meantime, I want you to train her and teach her everything you know.”

How would you feel about Sally?

There must have been a little of those feelings in Elijah toward this young apprentice. But after that initial time of awkwardness and even resentment, you get the sense that there is a growing bond of respect between the two men as they share in God’s work and the various trials that come with it. Elisha is there with Elijah on the national stage of politics and war as various kings come to the prophet to curry his favor and hear his judgments. It was heady and it was dangerous. And through it Elijah showed Elisha how to speak for God.

This is how an apprentice learns. Remember, church, this is the definition of a disciple – one who apprentices themselves to the master. You learn how to do what the master does by living with the master, watching how he does things, and doing those things with him. It’s a very active, purposeful thing. You can’t do it part-time. Elisha initially tried that.

“I’ve got to go back and see my father and mother first, and then I’ll come with you.” 1 Kings 19.20

That’s got nothing to do with me, was Elijah’s response. When you’re ready to follow, follow. And Elisha did. He learned the skills by experience with the master. Jesus said the same thing to a would-be apprentice:

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9.52

One part skill. Now here comes the other parts.

“Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind. . .Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.’

Elisha said, ‘Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.’” 2 Kings 2.1,9


I want double of what you’ve got, is what Elisha is saying to Elijah. Now, in a way this is very flattering but it’s also very presumptuous.

I remember when I was twelve or thirteen years old. It was a summer day and I was sitting on our front porch at 2327 Newberry street when my younger brother came outside wearing a baseball cap. Now, my brother Scott is a lot of things, a lot of good things: He is smart; he is kind, he is good-looking. (He’s a Morris, after all). But what he isn’t, he wasn’t, and never will be is particularly athletic. And what he certainly wasn’t back in those days was a baseball player. When he walked out on the porch that day, he wasn’t wearing his baseball cap, he was wearing my baseball cap. Not only that, he was wearing my All-Star Baseball Cap!

You can imagine my outrage as I hollered, “What are you doing??!! That’s my hat! You didn’t play. You didn’t earn it. I did!


Elisha wanted to wear Elijah’s baseball cap, err, well, his mantle, the symbol of his prophet office. Elijah must have been feeling a little like, “Are you sure you’ve earned it?” A mason has to first mix mud before he lays brick. A doctor has to first crack books and make rounds before he performs surgery. A prophet has to walk with God a long time to get double the spirit of a man like Elijah.

It was a hard request, as Elijah acknowledged. And yet, there was also something good in all of young Elisha’s presumption; the good of a heart hungry for inspiration from God. Elisha had come to the point of unreserved passion and commitment to God. His very request was a sign that he was ready to become the master.

Some of you are here because not so long ago you decided, “It’s time for to me to ask for more out of myself and my life.” You started coming to worship and inquiring of the things of God.

Some of you have been coming to church a long time but your commitment was like a shallow river – a half-mile wide and three inches deep. Maybe there is a holy discontent with just dabbling in the things of God. Maybe you are ready to actually apprentice yourself to the Master. Maybe you’re ready to ask for more.

You need what Elisha needed. We all need what Elisha needed – more skill, more experience, and more inspiration. We can never go wrong asking more of God’s Spirit to be with us. So ask for more. Ask for a double portion and become the kind of person God intends you to be.

Why We Are Environmentalists

Scripture: Romans 8.18-25; Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43


Lots of people care about the environment these days. Even if you don’t normally attach the word “environmentalist” next to your name, still, I would suggest that we live in a time of heightened awareness of environmental issues affecting us locally and globally. We care about the quality of water we drink and food we eat. We watch Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. We hear about global warming, and no matter where you are on that scale of concern, you care about the planet.

There is no such thing as Nature, according the Bible. There is the Creation. Nature is an impersonal thing arising by chance, studied and measured by scientists. Nature is the temple of scientific naturalism. Creation, by contrast, is the ongoing, visible and invisible work of a Good and Intelligent God. God has put a lot of thought and effort into this Creation. The Bible is clear – Don’t trash God’s place!

The Bible recognizes that the Creation is in a fallen, or imperfect state due to the corruption of humanity. The world has suffered for the sin of Adam’s race. We should ask ourselves what might the planet still look like if we had remained in innocence and obedience to God in Eden? What would the course of this planet have been in God’s perfection intention?

“But the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope.” 8.20


What this passage seems to be saying is that God said, if humanity is gonna fall, the creation is gonna fall with them. But God is not tearing is house down in anger like some child destroying his play blocks. Rather, God is saying I have hope for human beings yet, the crowning achievement of my creation. When they are totally redeemed in glory, then too will the creation be set free from the sorry state its in. The creation will be returned to a new glory.

“the creation itself also will be set free from it’s slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. . .”

You don’t have to be a scientist to wonder, without the Fall of Man, would there even be a Second Law of Thermodynamics, “everything must eventually break down.” Do healthy cells really have to grow tired or grow cancerous? Do deserts have to spread and water grow scarce? Does the growth of one species have to mean the death of another?

These questions and the potential of the Creation to be what God intends, as I have suggested, depends on us. The Bible inextricably binds the fate of the planet with the fate of humankind. Creation is a vital part of the Redemption plan which in turn will bring us full circle to a new heaven and a new earth.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” Revelation 21.1-2

One of the least understood aspects of Christian faith is what will happen to this world in God’s future. We all assume that believers will be zapped up to heaven and planet earth, I guess, thrown away. But listen to this scripture – it mentions a new heaven and new earth, but I believe its talking about the new glory that this present world will inherit when Christ’s kingdom comes in fullness. Nowhere are we told the earth will be annihilated nor are told we will be whisked to another planet or universe. This is it. However, eyes have not seen nor minds imagined what this earth and these heavens will look like when the Kingdom Comes. Hallelujah!

What do we do in the “mean time?” Here are some important truths:

Reconnect with the Creation as a vital witness of God’s truth and goodness. The Bible says that the Creation is a primary witness to all human beings that there is a God and God is true and good and powerful (Romans 1). The Creation continues to witness to “all who have ears to ear”; to all “who taste and see that the Lord is good.”

That’s why a book like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is so disturbing. It asks the question, if the earth essentially died, would there still be a God to believe in? I think I know the answer to that, but the question shows me how important the goodness and the vitality of the Creation are to our faith in the Creator.

Get out in the woods. Take a drive in the country. Plant a garden and you will meet the Lord of Life there.

I took the boys to the Blair County Youth Field Day last Saturday. Our own Sam Dunkle had a learning station there called Litterbugs. We learned how long different pieces of trash would last in the environment - Cigarette butts last months, newspaper lasts years, an aluminum can will lay there in the woods for 500 years. Then we saw a big character in a Litterbug constume spread litter around the place and in the end the kids where asked to help clean up the litter. In return, the kids got a dollar for helping (so they could go out and buy something that would produce more litter!)

We are superconsumers. Faithful living leads us to less consumption of resource, cleaner living and simpler lifestyles. The earth and the created order has an amazing power to renew itself, or perhaps more accurately, be renewed by God. But when the man and woman were set loose with the command, “Go and fill the earth,” the command was to rule, order, steward; not use up.

Dave Matthews has a song called “Too Much” that pretty well describes the lifestyles of most of us. The Lord calls us to live with at least a preference for simplicity. If I can go smaller, cheaper, fewer, or without altogether; more often than not, I should.

The very Sacrament of the Table speaks to such simplicity. Its almost laughable in our age of gluttonness consumption that the Lord calls us to a Table, come and eat, and what we are offered is bread and wine, and the meagerest of portions at that. We don’t get a menu. We don’t sit down to a fancy meal with all the fixings. It is far, even, from a Happy Meal at a fast food joint. But it is a banquet given to all without price and all come away full for the fullness comes from the presence of God.

“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14.17)


God has placed us in the very important position of gardener in the fields of the Lord. We go out to the fields and look in dismay at the weeds that have grown up among good crop. But according to the parable, God is not too worried about those weeds. “I’ll take care of them at judgment time.”

What God asks us is what kind of gardener are you? What kind of person are you becoming? Do you give thought only to your own needs of today or do you live with mind for a hopeful future for you and others?

Have you been faithful in a few things so that he “can entrust you with many things”? (Matthew 25.21)

This Creation is eternal. We are eternal. The intention of God is that we should each become the kind of person whom he can set free in his universe, empowered to do what we want to do.

That’s an amazing thought - we will become persons that God truly can trust and let loose to go all the good we want. We will “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father,” (Matthew 13.43)

Eternity is a long time and I believe God has much for us to do. He’s got plans. We won’t be just sitting around staring at each other. It won’t be just one long church service. There will be wonderous creation going on. There will be amazing activity and productivity and the true meaning of peace. Are you the kind of person ready for that eternity?

The Tyranny of Bad Habits

Scripture: Philippians 2.12-13; Romans 7.14-17;


Today is Pentecost Sunday. This is the celebration of the Gift of the Holy Spirit in fullness and power to all followers of Jesus. As such, Pentecost is truly the birth of the Church. When we think of this event and we read Acts 2, we associate, I think, the Holy Spirit with dramatic, religious scenes – strange tongues and healings and the like.

But the Spirit of God is not so much into drama as into being present in the stuff of daily living. The Holy Spirit can meet you doing dishes as well as going to church.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of God’s continual and very near presence. This was hard to believe for the first disciples of Jesus. In our Gospel reading we hear Philip saying to Jesus,

“You talk about the Father all the time; just show us the Father and that will satisfy us.”

Jesus responds by saying, “Haven’t you understood who I am? When you see me you see the Father.” The problem that the disciples were having was believing that God could be as good as Jesus was – that patient, that merciful, that wise. Incredibly, God is that good. God is good at life. Jesus shows us that. He is Maestro. The birds sing for him, or they “hush their singing” as the hymn says, when Jesus walks in the Garden. When Jesus comes to town prostitutes are forgiven and start new lives, sick people are given back their health; demons tremble.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit is the power of Jesus to change our lives at our most fundamental need, character, and lifestyle. This morning I want to talk about those fundamental need areas where the Holy Spirit would like to work change in us.

In Romans chapter 7 the apostle Paul says, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do (the good) I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . .So then it is no longer I that do it, but the sin which dwells in me.”

Paul points out this quality of sin and sinful habits that became second nature to us. We fallen creatures, who live in a fallen world, acquire ways of thinking and acting that in time, fit us like our own skin. We become so used to our “sin skin” that we don’t even think about it much anymore. “I do not understand my own actions,” Paul says.

It is rare that what we do wrong is the result of careful deliberation. Habits are what “our body know to do” without thinking. Speaking, doing the dishes, riding a bike no longer require much thought. Unfortunately this remains true when what our body knows to do is wrong.

How many times have you said to a child, “Why did you throw that candy wrapper on the ground ?” or “Why did you leave your dirty socks lie there?” Their answer – “I don’t know.” And in a sense, they are telling the truth – their bad habits have become so natural they don’t think about what they are doing – they don’t know.

This is true not just of children but adults as well. Our attitudes and behaviors have become automatic in us. We react predictably to certain cues and certain situations with anger, lust, depression, and so on. Our bodies have learned how to sin like a piano player’s fingers learn the keys.

We were in New York City last weekend. By the way, you’ve heard about all the dangers of the city, the crime, the subways the gangs. It can be scary. I had such a moment standing in line for the ferris wheel at Toys R Us. I looked behind me and there were three ladies with red hats and purple outfits on. I got scared. They’re everywhere! They’ve followed me to New York!

Anyway, I wanted to take the boys to the Museum of Natural History, which is on Central Park West. Our hotel was on the Upper East Side. I figured we could walk across Central Park to the Museum. I knew it would be a long walk, but doable. We walked the five or six blocks to the park and entered around the Museum of Modern Art. We aimed for the turtle pond on the map because I had never been there. We found the pond and then headed west, or so I thought. We exited Central Park near this big museum-looking building. Aha, we’re here I thought. But the boys, who were tired and whiny by this time, said “Dad, we were here already.”

“No we weren’t.”

“Yes we were.”

“No, we weren’t!”

“Yes, we were.”

“Okay, boys, I’m the grownup, just be quiet.” But as we walked closer to the entrance to this Museum, I saw the sign for fine art work and I realized we have been here before. We had done a big circle in the park and were no closer to our destination than when we began. I tell you this story because our behaviors were so predictable. It was predictable that when my flawless sense of direction and general rightness was questioned I would respond with irritableness and anger. It was also predictable that the boys would become whiny when they got tired. How did that walk to the Museum end? If you predicted we got a cab, you would be right.

Sin is predictable. Sin is trivial.

When the Nazi’s were being brought to trial at Nuremberg for their crimes, Adolph Eichmann was one of the biggest fish to fry. He was the head of the S.S. extermination squads and death camps. But most of the world didn’t know much about him, didn’t even know what he looked like, until the trial. And when the world saw him and learned about him, the world was shocked by how ordinary he was. He looked like the chicken farmer that he used to be before the madness of the Third Reich. People expected, people wanted, to see a monster. They saw a little man in glasses. Sin is ordinary. Even great evil is banal rather than awe-inspiring.

Likewise in our ordinary lives we must embrace the truth that our bodily habits are the primary form in which human evil exists in practical life. Patterns of anger, scorn, and lust illustrate the basic triviality of the drive to wrongdoing. Anyone who bothers to reflect on his or her experience will be able to identify their patterns and the things that cue them.

These sins in us are powerful, but they’re not laws. It’s not like the law of gravity. Falling out of a tree is not like a bad habit. Cultivating anger, lust, and greed are. Those who say they “cannot help it” are either not well informed about life or have not decided to do without “it.” Usually the latter.

Jesus call to repentance is a call to think about how we have been thinking. To challenge the tyranny that these bad patterns and habits have over us. Habits can be changed.

But they’re not changed just by talking about what “we ought to do.” You don’t learn to ride a bike by just talking about it. You do it, with whatever help you need.

If we would change and become truly what God intends for us, a whole and holy person, we must allow the patterns of these automatic bad behaviors to be interrupted and eventually, by training, be broken and replaced with good habits.

This training and work will not be done for us – it is a joint effort that we make with the Holy Spirit of God.

Dallas Willard says there is a threefold dynamic to spiritual growth, a golden triangle if you will.


In Philippians Paul exhorts us to “work out the salvation” we already have. The sense here is that of developing and bringing to fullness of what in its nature it is meant to be. But this isn’t simply our project. It is God also is at work in us. We do what we do – and it will not be done for us – “with fear and trembling” because we know who else is involved.

Next week we are going to elaborate on this threefold dynamic and “how to” become a disciple of Jesus.








Planned Discipline to
Put on a New Heart
Colossians 3.12-17
2 Peter 1.5-10
Ordinary Events of Life
“Temptations”
James 1.2-4
Romans 5.1-5

The Action of the Holy Spirit
Romans 8.10-13; Galatians 5.22-26
Centered in the Mind of Christ

Philippians 2.12-15

The Strengthener

Scripture: Acts 11.1-18; John 13.31-35; John 14.25-26

In the movie, Hoosiers, a young basketball player regularly prays for his teammates and their performance on the court. There is some implication in the story that his prayers work.. In one playoff game, the prayer warrior himself, who regularly sits the bench most games, gets in and quickly becomes a scoring machine. This is so out of character for the player that his coach asks him, in disbelief, “What’s gotten into you?”

“It’s the Lord,” the boy responds. “I can feel his strength.”

The scene is both inspiring and amusing. Pray to the Lord and he will give you a better jump shot? That’s funny. I mean, sure, on some theoretical level, I guess, God is able to help you play basketball better. But is God really that involved with our lives? Is God with us all the time, even at basketball games?

Jesus says yes. Peter would agree as well. In fact, Peter was an eyewitness to God’s unusual activity in the lives of some very ordinary people.

You may recall several weeks ago we talked about how Peter’s whole belief system and ministry was radically changed by a vision that he had of a big sheet full of animals falling down out of heaven. In the vision, God tells Peter that it’s okay to eat everything he sees. Peter then begins to understand in his ministry that the Gospel is for all people. You don’t have to be a good kosher Jew to receive God’s salvation through Jesus.

But it wasn’t the vision alone that convinced Peter. It was Peter seeing with his own eyes God’s Spirit falling upon irreligious Gentiles. Acts 11 records this event. Peter remembers the words of Jesus, “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” And he saw this promise come to reality in the home of a Gentile named Cornelius. God’s presence filled that house.

“Who was I to stand in the way of God?” Peter concluded.

It is crucial for us always to remember that God wants to be with people. In fact, God has always been near. The creation is one of the heavens being not only some distant place, but the very air and space immediately around us as we walk into the grocery store.

“In him we live and move and have our being.” Eternity is happening right now. So God has always been present, but Jesus have given us access to the reality of God’s presence and Kingdom in an unprecedented way.

In John 13 we see Jesus teaching the disciples how he is with them now in body but that presence will soon be at an end. The great promise comes in the very next chapter,

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all thing, and help you remember all that I have said to you.” John 14.25-26

The Holy Spirit is a Counselor. Maybe even a better translation here is the Holy Spirit is our Strengthener. By the Holy Spirit we are “dressed with power from on the heavens.” God continually gives us the strength to live with Him and live our lives like Jesus would live them if he were us.

This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus – live our lives, not someone else’s, not even the life Jesus lived in Palestine years ago, but our lives the way Jesus would live them if he were us.

Do you see any implications here?

For one, the Holy Spirit is not reserved for religious occasions in which we pursue an experience or a feeling. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a daily possibility for those who decide they want to be a disciple of Jesus.

So if my job takes me to a factory 40-50 hours a week. God goes there with me. And if that is not something I am opening myself up to, then essentially I am closing myself off to the influence of God most of my waking hours. Conversely, to be baptized into the Spirit of Christ is to be “engulfed with his presence.” It is to do everything “in the name of Jesus.”

What does that mean at your school or your place of work? It doesn’t mean, in Dallas Willard’s fine phrase, that you are to be “the Christian nag-in-residence, the rigorous upholder of all propriety, and the dead-eye critic of everyone else’s behavior.”

If any of you watch the TV show, The Office, Angela is the perfect example of this negative “Christian.” She loves to judge other people. She disapproves of her coworkers on a daily basis. She frowns a lot.

It’s sad. Because this is what many people think a Christian is like who tries live their faith outside the church building. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

To live in the Kingdom at work is to do your job the way Jesus would do it if he had that job. What does that look like? Jesus works gracefully, not obsequiously. He does relatiate to wrongdoing nor does he participate in it. He prays for those around him. He listens to others a lot. He speaks fitting words in appropriate times with beauty and power. Above all he works hard, sweats, tries to make the best pipe fittings, or tacos, or students, as he can.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is the paracletus, the One who comes alongside of us and does the lifting with us. Even the One who helps us play our best game of basketball. He is Strengthener.

Notice again, this has very little to do with what we consider “religious activities.” Nor is it exclusively concerned with belief and doctrine. As important as our beliefs are, the prompting of the Holy Spirit is very much “just do it!”

Most of our adult lives we express ourselves religiously by talking in our holy huddles to each other about doctrine and opinion.

Jesus said, “Why do you call Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” Luke 6.36

Routine obedience is the fruit of intentional discipleship, the choice of apprenticing ourselves to the Master of Life. When Jesus talks about entering the Kingdom by the narrow gate or the narrow road, he isn’t talking about doctrinal correctness. The narrow gate is obedience.

We obey God as we choose to be engulfed by His presence and move with his tutelage and understanding.

“By this all people will know that you’re my disciples, if you love one another.”

It’s No Secret

Scripture: John 10.22-30; Psalm 23


It’s Hannukah in Jerusalem. The festival then, as now, remembers that the Old Temple built by Solomon was desecrated by the Seleucid King Antiochus. Antiochus had erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple. This sparked the Maccabean revolt and a period of freedom and autonomy for Judea lasting until the Roman occupation. Hannukah is the feast of rededication of the Temple to the One true God. It also hints at the anticipation of the Messiah who will set God’s chosen free forever from oppression and foreign rule.

Not much is left by this time of the Old Temple in its original form. Just Solomon’s porch. This sacred spot was used by Jewish kings to speak to the people and make rulings on important occasions. Jesus is walking on this porch when the Jews gather around him and want to know, “So are you the Messiah or not? Clear it up once and for all!”


The question implies that Jesus has been playing it coy. Think of all the candidates for the presidency in 2008- John McCain, Rudolph Giuliani, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton. They began running last year. They were running before they had told anyone they were running. They were raising money. They were positioning themselves. But they didn’t want to look like they were positioning themselves. They didn’t want to be too obvious with their asking for money. And when asked if they were ready to declare themselves candidates, they played it cool, even coy. They waited until they deemed the time was right.

Jesus wasn’t being coy.

“I told you and you don’t believe me.”

There was, according to Jesus, a second testimony:

“The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me. . .”

Jesus was saying, Look at my track record. And what an impressive one it is
Dallas Willard writes, “The biblical and continuing vision of Jesus is of one who made all of created reality and kept it working, literally “holding it together” (Colossians 1.17).

“Jesus knew how to transform the molecular structure of water to make it wine. That knowledge also allowed him to take a few pieces of bread and some little fish and feed thousands of people. He could create matter from energy he knew how to access from the heavens, right where he was.

He knew how to transform the tissues of the human body from sickness to health and from death to life. He knew how to suspend gravity, interrupt weather patterns, and eliminate unfruitful trees without saw or ax. He only needed a word. Surely he must be amused at what Nobel prizes are awarded for today.

All these things show Jesus cognitive and practical mastery of every phase of reality: physical, moral, and spiritual. He is Master only because he is Maestro. “Jesus is Lord” can mean little in practice for anyone who has to hesitate before saying, “Jesus is smart.”

So, it would be amusing, if it weren’t rude and offensive to consider the question asked of Jesus, “So, are you a viable candidate for Messiah or what?”

How could so many people be so thick and uncomprehending? How could they watch Him feed thousands with so little, let alone watch the dead rise, and not believe and follow?

“You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.”

Remember the debate I referred to a month or so ago between the atheist, Sam Harris, and the Christian pastor, Rick Warren? There were letters to the editor in a subsequent issue of Newsweek in regard to the debate. Some of the letters remarked how unintelligent and ill-equipped Warren seemed. They inferred that Warren’s comments on how he sees God everywhere were nonsensical to the issues at hand.

My reaction to those comments were, “Did you read the same debate that I did?” Although Warren is not a philosopher by training, and there are a few names that I would have loved seen debate Harris, I thought Warren handled himself quite well. His comments were cogent and incisive. My reaction to the debate versus those other reactions illustrates quite well the limitations of argument over the issue at hand: atheists and agnostics don’t see much room or use for religious belief in a discussion of truth. What is rational is only what can be measured or verified. For a follower of Jesus, however, believing in Him is the most rational course you could take in your life. For a believer, Jesus has offered and continues to offer proofs and evidences for those who know how and where to look.

And more than that, for those who know how to listen.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

There is some mystery here as to why some people can hear God’s voice and why some can’t. It’s like the Red State/Blue State dichotomy in politics. The supposition is that people living in these colors have different sets of values and ways of seeing the world and their lives. Admittedly, this dichotomy is a superficial one that is maybe only useful for political elections.

The difference between belief and unbelief is a much more fundamental structure in our lives. It is a Grand Canyon-size difference. No, the difference between the person of belief and the person of unbelief is the size of the Universe. The two people can work in the same office or factory, live on the same street, and shop in the same stores, but they live in different worlds. Because they are attuned to very different voices.

I remember the summer I spent in Holland and the quiet summer nights I would walk out to the dike and look across the ocean. By the dike was a small sheep farm. At dusk, as I was watching a beautiful sunset, the shepherd would step outside his farmhouse and whistle for his sheep, and immediately they would call back and come running. They knew his voice.

There is a bit of mystery to why some can hear and obey God’s voice when others don’t know what they’re talking about. But it’s not all mystery.

In “How to Train Sheep” the shepherd writes “sheep love routine.” This is how they learn. They don’t seek to please like a dog. But they do learn through repetition and positive reinforcement. Sheep get to know the shepherd who is good to them, and spends time with them.

The Secret of learning to hear God’s voice in our lives is spending time talking to and listening to God every day. It’s letting the Maestro show you how the rhythm of life works for you. It’s no secret really. It just isn’t always done. And that’s the shame. The fingerprints of God are everywhere, in culture, in nature, in our relationships, in the Word. But so many don’t want to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd.

How can you listen more clearly this week?