EMBRACING INFINITY

A new creation in Christ Jesus.  The Holy Spirit now residing within me.  I am not sure how this can be.  I don’t feel different as if wholly new but yet changed enough as to not be askew.  A temple to the Lord they say, but holy and sacred this temple does not stay. A grand edifice or pilgrimage terminus this temple is surely not. I wonder, based on what I see, how can He in me and what is a lot?

Made one in Christ, we are told as marriage is meant to be.  Why should I be surprised in struggling to understand the oneness of the divine when the illustration often eludes being defined.

As I gray, I have learned that oneness is much more than an act of coitus. Marriage is a blending. Where do I end and she begins? We are a new creation; something different than from what was when we said “I do”.  This new is no longer she and he but we.  We is an entity of one, a union not created by an institution.  Whole in all of me but nothing without all of her. Never to be divided without being blighted.  The we becomes a diamond, more precious than the separate carbon assignments.

Too often, the focus drifts to the parts mayhem rather than the gem.  Scrutiny is dedicated to the raw material rather than ethereal.  A temple is more than sweat and stone.  The value lies not in a bill of material alone.  Even more disappointing is when we miss the lesson in the example of the mortal which is pointing to more beyond the portal.

Oneness, in marriage, I cannot define.  I cannot explain how it can be, but I say look and see.  Oneness is on display when you cannot help but see the her when you see the me.  That is the moment when a glimpse is revealed of the mystery of this new creation called we.

The whole of wedded oneness is so much more than a goal. It is a sacred symbol written in our DNA. A new creation is marriage’s ballet.  This mysterious mixture of the infinite with the finite. Yet, unlike our example of mortal marriage, 50% XY and 50% XX, the spiritual composition is infinite God and something less.

Consider if the new creation was the number 7 in all its perfection.  What would my portion be?  Surely, not much more than 0.1 of a part can be me.  That is 70 parts, 69 His and 1 me.  That doesn’t seem right, so let’s make it a little more trite, maybe .0001, which will be 70,000 parts with only one of me.  I must confess that it still seems too much credit to the edited element of this new installment. Let’s stretch it out, further and further.  What are the portions to be?  Based on value, He is the treasure by far.  Test it toward holiness, what a joke, there is no contribution from my lowilness.  Examine the value inherent, my worth comes from His image, which is apparent.  What about my contribution to this new creation?  How can one be impressed by the ignorant who merely prayed yes?

Stretch out this mental marathon further to the edge of humilities dawn; divide by 10^-10, 10^-100, 10^-1000.  Move the decimals farther and farther to the right; go as far as your fright.  As humility pushes each place holder to the left, we come upon the cleft of zero’s nothingness, the absence of value, humility’s rest.  We encounter the mortal sin of maths innovators; dividing the numerator by numbers traitor.  It is not that the equation no longer works.  A quotient sin, as man defines, lies in the loss of vicinity, an inability to grasp infinity and the uncertainty in a human’s ability to do anything.

The same is glimpsed when this new creation is split.   A new creation in Christ is a phrase so commonly used, but how to comprehend the me’s and you’s. The infinite in me, no beginning and no end, the alpha and the omega, made one with the finite, infinitesimal me. How can this be?

Oneness, in Christ, I cannot define.  I cannot explain how it can be, but I say look and see.

This new creation is out of sight, but what can see is Him through my small light.  That is what is on display when one’s light burns bright.  If you see me in my small minute, then I have dimmed the infinite.  For those in Christ, when observed in this finite, you cannot help but see the infinite or so it should be.

I wonder if this isn’t the curse in which we all are enmeshed. We cannot be rid of this sinful flesh.  Our portion it must always thresh. No matter how large or small that portion remains, we struggle to find humility’s domains. The place where we can finally see the revealed glory of infinite God without the clouding of you or me.  Maybe, that is the blessing of death, the reduction to nothingness. Knowing my place, to truly participate, in the oneness of Christ Jesus and me.  No longer, Him in me with my portion trying to be stronger.  I long for the day when it will be, I in Him, complete, and all glory to Thee.  Then I will embrace infinity, where there is nothing left for one to do but to praise and glorify the One who is so much more.

GIVING THE BEST OF OUR TIME – Feb. 1

“…I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing…”  2 Samuel 24:24b

February 1!  How did that happen?

Hourglass Shadow (Photo credit: Bill David Brooks)

I find the realization of that date rather troubling.  One-twelfth of 2013 is already gone and I still have to make a conscious effort not to date documents 2012.  I know that it will not seem that long and I will be packing Christmas decorations back up stairs as 2013 is coming to a close.  Blink and 2013 will be gone.  We realize how precious time is when it is gone or we don’t have enough of it.   We feel its flight when we look back at pictures whose time-stamp doesn’t match up to our internal clocks.

There are whole professions established to protect our assets.  Banks have large vaults to protect our valuables.  There are financial experts to guide us to the investments that have the best opportunity to cause our assets to increase.  We can get security systems to help protect our house and vehicles.  What about our time?

Time is our most valuable asset.

The lawn-care industry exists because people don’t want to spend the time mowing their own lawn.  It is preferable to pay someone else to do that job so they can have time do something more preferable.

Most of us are not independently wealthy.  Therefore, we have to work a job.  When we go into work we are making a transaction for our time.  We are willing to sell our time to an employer in exchange for money.  I am not going into work unless my employer is willing to buy my time.  My time has a value.

The problem with these transactions is that they are not reciprocal.  You can sell your time but you cannot buy more of it.  You can spend money and time to live healthy and active but that is merely stretching time.  Time can be used to reclaim lost money but money cannot be used to reclaim lost time.

An asset is valuable only if it is scarce.  Gold would not be valuable if it was in everyone’s backyard.  Diamonds would not be valuable if we were digging them out of the treads of our shoes.  We all have a limited number of days – no one knows what that number might be.  That makes time a very scarce resource.

Our time is a scarce resource, which makes time our most valuable asset.

What are you giving God of your most valuable asset?

David understood that worship of God should never be cheap or careless.  God wants our best.  He deserves our best.  He is worthy of our “first fruit.” A person who loves God with all that they are will want to give God their best.

Proverbs 90:12 “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Thinking about the number of our days makes us invest our time wisely.  I have heard and used the many excuses about conserving my time:

“I can’t find time to read my Bible.”

“I can’t find time to pray.”

“Our Church has paid staff to serve those people.”

“I don’t want to give up vacation time for that.”

The tendency is to give God the blemished part of our time – to spend time with Him when we are exhausted and about to fall asleep – to be so busy with other things that there is not time to serve Him and His sheep – to help out only when it is convenient.    That is all time that doesn’t cost us much.

That is our blemished time. 

I will agree that giving blemished time is better than nothing at all but does anyone of us really want to be making that argument?  I want to be worshiping God with my best.  I want to be gratefully worshiping God with my most valuable asset – my time.  I can think of no wiser use of my time than giving it as an offering to my King.

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for not giving you my best and first-fruit of my time.  Father, help me to be wise about how I spend my limited time on this earth.  Give me a heart that is generous with my time.     Amen

THE ANSWERS ARE UP CLOSE – Jan. 31

“And they say, “How can God know?  Is there knowledge in the Most High?”” Psalm 73:11

There is nothing new under the sun.  I was reading through Psalm 73 this morning and was struck by the reality that man does not really change, we just get better toys.  There have been incredible advances in knowledge and technology since the time of the Psalmist.  I love what those advances have brought.  I love that we understand this incredible creation better.  I am a huge proponent of modern medicine, computers, motorized vehicles, infrastructure, etc.

Yet, the philosophical questions about God and the origin of knowledge persist.  We have been unable to answer them.

A short study of the history of philosophy will reveal that these questions have been pondered for centuries.  Theories have been proposed and modified and modified and rejected and re-proposed and modified. I appreciate the honesty of the Psalmist:

“But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,” (Psalm 73:16)

I think that there are many who ponder these types of questions or have these types of questions thrust upon them do find them wearisome.  The Psalmist is once again of help:

“until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” (Psalm 73:17)

Those who set themselves apart from God in an attempt to answer these larger philosophical questions of the universe are setting themselves on very unstable ground:

“Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.” (Psalm 73:18)

“For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;…” (Psalm 73:27)

The problem is that when man sets himself apart from God he is inevitably lost. There are many who arrogantly pride ourselves in their intellectual prowess and our ability to discern what is truth and what is not.  There are many who think that they have the ability to discern between good knowledge and bad knowledge.  There are many who place their confidence in the logical devices of man to dissect the mind of God.

I don’t think any of us fully understands how completely blind we really are.

Cloudy Mountain (Photo credit: mikey.saltas)

A friend of mine told me a story of a ski experience he and his family had while at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  They had ridden the gondola to the top of the mountain into a dense cloud bank.  They could not see more than thirty feet and they were on a mountain that they had never skied before.  They proceeded to work their way through the fog by following the natural slope of the mountain.  They came to a yellow barrier and followed the yellow line until they got below the cloud.  The next day the mountain was clear and they went back up to the top.  They realized at that moment the danger that they had actually been in.  The yellow barrier that they had followed was at the edge of a fifty foot cliff.  The day before they had casually followed this barrier but now the proximity to the cliff was actually fear inducing.

Jesus tells us, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46)  Proceeding without Christ is like trying to find your way down a cloud encased mountain.  We need a guide.  We need a light to our path.  We need a yellow barrier that will lead us to safety.  We need the darkness removed.

We are incapable of removing the darkness.  We don’t have the eyes to see clearly.  We need the Light of the world.

That is the folly of seeking the answers of God by separating ourselves from him.  When we do that, we are merely stepping out into the darkness.  The answers lie in getting closer to God.

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory.” (Psalm 73:23-24)

We have to draw close to God so that He can take us by the hand and guide us with His counsel, which is the Bible.  It is when we draw close to God that He guides us to glory.  Otherwise, we are left groping in the darkness and will eventually fall over the cliff to our own destruction because we don’t have eyes to see.

I echo the conclusion of the Psalmist:

“But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” (Psalm 73:28)

Amen!

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for mercifully coming to show me the way.  Thank you reaching out and grasping my hand.  Father, please don’t let go of me.  Pull me in close to your shelter.  I want to be fully in the refuge of you my Lord and my God.  Lord, you know that I am prone to wander away.  You know that I can be arrogant in my own understanding.  Father, keep me close to you; bind my right hand to you and lead me to glory because I cannot find it on my own.     Amen

AIMING THE LAMP OF MY LIFE- Nov. 17th

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.” Luke 11:34-35  

I have been watching what I eat. It is not because I am a picky eater. I am the opposite of that. I have to watch what I eat because I can easily pound 4,000 calories. I know what happens when I consistently do that; I don’t like those results. Therefore, I am willing to give up ice cream because I prefer fitting into my pants more than having dessert.  I have freedom but I have given it up because I want something better. We have similar decisions that effects our soul. This world if full of light & darkness. Gods’ word is a light shining into this dark world (Ps 119:105, Prov 6:23). However, it has no effect unless it gets inside. Once inside, God’s light will clean house. There is no “twilight” living for a person filled with the light of God but it has to get in. Therefore, it comes down to our eyes – the lamp of our body. Our eyes will either let in light or darkness. They are dependent upon what we set them upon. This is not difficult to understand. Most just don’t want to think about it. We want to live like there are no consequences to what we do & don’t do. When we set our eyes on the darkness of this world (I know what the spiritual ice cream is for me), that is what you will become – the darkness of this world. When you don’t set you eyes on God’s word & the things of the Spirit, that is going to have an impact. We want to think that a diet of filth will have no impact on our spiritual health. How absurd is that?  We do what we want most. What is that for you?

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for being the light in the very dark world. Lord, fill me with your light; remind me every time I am confronted with an appealing dessert of this world. I don’t want that darkness. I don’t want to suffer the effects of letting that darkness into my heart. I delight in you; you are better than anything this dark world has to offer. Lord, today I will set my mind upon you and all the things of your Spirit; help me.   Amen