“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, IN HOPE that the creation itseld would be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20-21)

Accepting the death of a loved one is always a challenge. It seems that, whether a life is ten minutes, ten years, or ten decades, when the inevitable end comes, it is always too short. Sometimes, when the circumstances of death seem particularly brutal or unnatural or tragic, the challenge seems impossibly overwhelming.

Still, the whole creation has been subjected to that same challenge, that same grief, that same emptiness, that same frustration.

In this emptiness, this grief, this frustration, there is embedded a quiet and persevering hope for those who try to listen to its still, small Voice.

What is that Voice saying?

Maybe it is saying that the life that has just passed was God’s gift to him and to all who knew him.

Maybe it is saying that every good gift comes down from the Father of heavenly lights.

Maybe it is saying that we are like small children on Christmas morning. Our greatest temptation is to cling to the gift and forget the Giver.

Maybe it is saying that it is OK that we are little children, if only we would admit that we are (Matthew 18:3).

Maybe it is saying that every good gift must return to the Giver (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7), and that even the best gifts only stay good if they return to the Giver. (Matthew 19:17)

Maybe it is saying that his passing is also a wake-up call for all of us. He is not GONE, he is just GONE BEFORE. My own time is coming soon enough. Then, I will not be GONE, just GONE BEFORE.

Maybe all of this makes me angry and I just want that Voice to shut up.

Maybe, in the next breath, I pray desperately that the Voice will not stop speaking.

Maybe the Voice knows how much it hurts.

I believe the Voice is right, and there is always a Resurrection Hope. . .

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. . . for those who listen to the Voice.

In Christ,
Conrad

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in their hearts, brought together in love, and full of the fullness of understanding so that they may know the mystery of God, Christ.” (Colossians 2:2)

We are made to revel in the mystery of God. That mystery is summed up in one person, Jesus of Nazareth. In this one man, heaven (the divine) joins itself with earth (humanity). Our greatest delight is walking in that mystery. Our attitude is best when we have the attitude of Christ (Philippians 2:1-12).

But what is the attitude of Christ? Scripture reveals that He is God. He has True Glory. But he doesn’t cling to glory.

This concept of glory is worth exploring. People love glory. I believe we are made for glory (Romans 8:28-30). The problem is not that we are glory hounds. The problem is that we define glory wrongly. Hence we chase empty glory.

Christ walked away from true glory while we cling to and chase empty glory. It appears his attitude is very different from our own.

The Old Testament prophet Zechariah gives us some insight into the Mind of Christ. Zechariah does this by letting us see Christ before He even came as Jesus. In a night of visions, Zechariah see the Angel of the Lord. “Angel” just means “messenger.” And this particular messenger is Himself the message. He is the Word. Therefore He is a wonderful character to observe.

Even in his preincarnate state, the Word fulfills two roles beyond his essential nature as the I AM. He reveals the I AM to people and he intercedes for people before the I AM. In both roles he rarely (but not never) calls himself “I AM.” Zechariah 3 illustrates this dual role. Here Zechariah sees a vision involving three characters (plus a group group of angels who are watching):

1. The messenger/Angel of I AM,
2. Satan, and
3. Joshua the High Priest of Israel in 520 B.C..

Note that the LORD/ I AM says to Satan, “the LORD/ I AM rebuke you.” (Zechariah 3:2) Yet it is the Angel of the LORD/I AM who is speaking. So, the angel of the LORD does not call himself the I AM, but Zechariah does. As does the Father in Hebrews 1:10-12. But the Angel/Word doesn’t call himself that except when pressed or cornered like in John 8:24, 28, and 58). He is the ultimate fulfillment of the Proverb, “Let another praise you and not your own mouth; someone else and not your own lips.”

The Word is eternally generated by the Father. Though that participation in the Father’s eternality rightly means the Word is in very nature “I AM,” it seems that his place as the generated rather than the generator brings with it a certain deference and “ego-lessness.” He is most Himself when he is revealing and interceding as mediator. Not when he is talking about himself. His glory/delight is in his emptying.

He delights in being emptied. We delight in being noticed. Therefore His glory is real. Ours is empty.

Word of the Father, help us be more like you.

We do not analyze. We INTEGRATE
~ Bruce Lee

When we spend so much mental energy analyzing endlessly an unpleasant experience, we aren’t really analyzing at all. We are simply integrating all of that anxiety and stress into our present reality, which is the only reality we actually have. The future (and the past) is non-existent except in our minds. By integrating all of that fear about the future (or regret about the past) into our present lives, we drain the only energy we have, making it more likely that we will not handle stress well, if and when it becomes a present reality, because of our depleted state.

It is a strange thing in us that causes us to think that analyzing actually brings peace. In truth, greater inner peace brings more accurate analysis. Peace is only a present phenomenon. No one has peace tomorrow because tomorrow does not exist. And lamenting the past only hinders inner peace at the present moment.

The fruit of the Spirit includes peace. But I can only be filled with the Spirit right now. No one is promised a filling for tomorrow or even the next hour or minute. Walking in the Spirit is a stringing together of successful moments of present peace.

The typical mindset: If happy, then content.

The rarer mindset: If content, then happy.

No one can be content when stuck in “anxiety analysis.”

In the end, we are servants and managers and stewards. Not owners. Accepting this truth is paramount. “Most of all, it is required that a steward be found faithful.”

This is the position in which Adam and Eve find themselves in the Genesis account. They are sacred stewards. We know the story. They sinned. They fell. They violated their stewardship. They sought to possess for themselves what they could really only administer for God. They came under the serpent’s spell.

So humanity fell. But how does that impact us today? What does it mean to be “under the Serpent’s spell?” Beside the obvious penalty of physical (and more importantly, spiritual) death (Gen. 2:17), how has our perception changed? What has changed about how we think and how we feel?

God does give us some insights in this area. He says to Eve, “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 2:16) He says to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it…. By the sweat of your brow… until you return to the ground… for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 2:17-18).

There is a temptation to make these statements too gender specific. They are better understood as summaries of the fallen human condition. They may tend to follow something of a more specific pattern in marriages, but nevertheless they are applicable to all people in various degrees. These feelings and thoughts we have are not illusions. They are real responses to our fallenness and the fallenness of the world we see all around us. Here they are in a nutshell:

• Desire
• Dominion
• Defiance

They idea behind “desire” (Gen. 2:16) is one of “a turning to something (Septuagint) to meet our excessive desire (Masoretic) for fulfillment. The first step toward healing is to accept that my desires are excessive and cannot be satisfied by any other person, place, or thing. To ever think that a created thing could satisfy me when I am made for an infinite Creator is part of the Serpent’s spell. Now, our desires are excessive and will drag us into dangerous territory (James 1:4, 13-14)

The idea behind “rule over you” or “dominion” is that we tend to be controlling, willful, and determined to get our own way. Our willfulness is destructive and insensitive to God and others. The lengths we will go to to try to fulfill our excessive desire and impose our malignant will on others is hard to measure.

Finally there is life’s innate “defiance.” Life is hard. Our excessive desires are unfulfilled and our insensitive willfulness brings no real peace. In the face of life’s frustrations, we are inclined to develop a victim mentality because of the hardness of life.

These three things (our excessive desires, our insensitive willfulness, and our victim mentality) are the immediate consequences of falling under the Serpent’s spell. They color our view of God, others, life, and what constitutes true happiness and blessedness.

But there is a final ‘D”:

• Deliverance

There is deliverance. There is one man who can crush the Serpent’s head and save us from our self-inflicted wretchedness. One man who emptied himself of his rights and desires. One man who completely surrendered his will back to God. One man who refused to play the victim in the face of life’s hardness. Instead of protesting about his deadly fate, he gave his life to that which would try to take it. What you are proactive in giving away no one can then take from you, for you have already given it.

He needed no deliverance for himself. He had no need to repent. His core “mind” did not need to change because his perception was not bewitched by the Serpent. His name is Jesus Christ. He can help free us from the cursed spell.

But we have a part to play. We have to BELIEVE what God’s Word says. We have to admit that our desires are excessive. We have to admit that our willfulness is destructive. We have to stop playing the victim. It is not enough to say, “I will stop doing this or that.” Particular behaviors are not the root problem. They are evidences of the root problem. Begin the journey back to the mind of Christ and reclaim your birthplace as God’s steward.

How did they get into such a state? How do we?

Malachi points out many behaviors that contribute to their condition. Maybe such behaviors contribute to our own indifference.

They had no heart for sacrifice, for GIVING to God’s kingdom. God got the leftovers (1:8, 1:12-13, 3:18).

Their leaders had no real personal intimacy with God (2:7).

The men were caught up in the ancient world’s version of pornography (2:12).

The vows of marriage were held as trivial (2:15-16).

They envied the arrogant and defined success by worldly definitions (3:15).

They lacked any clear ability to distinguish good from evil (3:18).

These behaviors had consequences. In the end, as Israel indulged in such behavior, they lost the ability to feel God’s love for them. Perhaps we do the same thing. Since we are so emotion based (not a bad thing in and of itself), we struggle and fall when we don’t feel God’s love for us. Eventually, we become dull and indifferent.

Malachi could point out the problem but he couldn’t provide the solution. He had no cure. However, by the bit of foreknowledge God gave Malachi, he could see the Cure approaching (4:2). Behavior gives evidence of heart condition, but stopping the “don’ts” and starting the “do’s” doesn’t cure an indifferent heart.

Thinking that we can cure ourselves is like thinking that by our works we can make the sun rise. We cannot do it. But that does not mean the sun will never rise. “The sun of righteousness WILL rise, with healing in its wings.” (Malachi 4:2).

We all need the sun of righteousness to rise. The winter of our dead, cold, indifferent works must break. Righteousness is the cure. Wholeness is the cure. Jesus is the cure.

If we are brutally honest, we are bound to indifference in the end. As willing as it might be at times, our human nature is weak at best. We don’t have the energy to make righteousness rise in our lives. We are all bound by a spiritual, internal second law of thermodynamics. In the abyss of our inner space, all of our efforts will end up as little more than low-grade warmth dispersed over far too great a distance to sustain any life.

But there is another source of energy. God calls it “righteousness.” Righteousness heals. Righteousness is a gift offerred to all. It is the one thing in the abyss of our indifference that makes a difference. The Book of Romans tells us how some end up with it. Old Testament Israel never moved from Malachi to Romans. They never moved from Indifference to Difference. Will we?

There was one man who had this inexhaustible energy. Energy to make a difference. He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they SHALL BE FILLED.” This verse, like much of Jesus’ teaching, reveals a paradox. We cannot maintain our own righteousness anymore than we can make the sun rise. But that doesn’t mean we can be passive and “wait” for it to happen. Passivity = indifference. We have to hunger and thirst, and desire that such hunger and thirst be quenched even if we know we ourselves can never quench it.

Romans tells us how Jesus does it. How Jesus quenches the unquenchable. How indifference becomes difference. When “indifference” becomes “in Christ,” what you have left is “difference.”

You can be different. Better yet, you can make a difference…if the Difference Maker lives in you.

God’s timing in sending His Son to be born in this world would hardly have been the time we humans would have picked! An oppressive foreign government forced Joseph and Mary to leave their home when it was about time for Mary to give birth. When they arrived in Bethlehem and time for Mary’s labor, they couldn’t find a place to stay. Apparently they lacked even the birthing assistance common for that time as they had to make do with Jesus being born in a stable and then laid in a cow’s feeding box for His bed. . . With Jesus less than two years old, they had to leave Israel at a moment’s notice in the middle of the night to keep Herod from killing Jesus, and so the account goes on! Even Jesus’ fantastic teaching and healing ministry was cut short by His suffering an unjust, violent death at the prime of His life of 33 years.

Most of us by nature are risk-averse. When it comes to the plan of redemption, that means we probably would have never sent Jesus into this dark world. If we had, we might have sent Jesus back in King David’s day, when he could have been protected by a good and powerful king.

Apparently God knows that love and grace are by nature risky propositions. No risk = no love/no grace. Which brings me to my point.

The darkness does not have to do much to win the culture war of the next generation. All it has to do is get the male of THIS generation to abdicate. To abandon spiritual leadership. To become risk-averse in the name of comfort and security.

The stereotypical Christian male isn’t as likely to abdicate, but he does become risk-averse. He settles for being the beast of burden. He goes out, works, and provides. He comes in from his burden and settles at the troth of the dinner table, the TV, and the computer. The next day he maintains his faithful ox-like drudgery and does it all again. There is a quiet nobility in this. As the Pink Floyd song says, “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.” Inwardly the man yearns for something more but he sticks to his task because he sees no truly GOOD option.

He settles. Eventually his kids are grown up, his wife is bored, he is bored, and he wonders why his kids never call. In a few cases, he may seek to soothe his boredom by pursuing extreme sports or the destructive risks of the “mid-life crisis.” So, he may take somewhat empty risks, but he will not take NOBLE risks.

He won’t go serve in a soup kitchen.

He won’t adopt one of the millions of orphans in the world.

He won’t take his son with him on a missions trip to a third world country.

Instead, he settles. He simply wants to go quietly out to his well planned, self-absorbed retirement pasture.

He is not a noble stallion. He is not Jesus of Nazareth.

He is a dependable gelding. He is Nicodemus in John 3. He is a good, decent, religious man. But he COULD be the Nicodemus of John 7:45-52 and John 19:38-42. He COULD accomplish so much for God’s kingdom. He COULD take a stand for Jesus.

But that would require personal risk.

Be a man of grace.

Take a noble risk.

In Christ,
Pastor Conrad