What is church?

Alan Hirsch makes this excellent post concerning the definition of church. I'm impressed with the entire thing, but especially the second point down at the bottom of the post.

Alan says that a definition of church must include this activity: "Cultivate covenant community." Hey, three consecutive occurences of "c" in a row! Let's unpack it for just a second.

Cultivate. This is what you do in the garden to help your plants grow. You rake and hoe around the plants to kill weeds, and to keep the soil stirred up and soft which helps watering be more effective and allows nutrients to get more directly to where they need to be. It's putting forth effort toward the good of the plant.

Covenant. This is a promise. It's the nature of relationship in the church, because our common denominator is Jesus, and our relationship to him. We have in common our promise to him, and that includes promises to care for each other, to be involved in each other's lives.

Community. This is actually being together. Most people are involved in multiple communities. Work. School. Friends with whom they stay in regular contact. Church. Small group (Sunday School is one).

10 things i love beginning with the letter 'M'

Antony suggested this meme and assigned me the letter 'M.' I'm afraid this is way too long, but here goes.

Mercy –

I love receiving this. I love being merciful, also. Goes right along with empathy and encouragement. It's a relational act, this giving of mercy. If you're not pulled closer in relationship as you give mercy then I think it's indifference. If you're not pulled closer in relationship when you receive mercy then I think it's ingratitude. It's a formative element in relationships.

Memes –

I'm fascinated with memes. Units of cultural information that spread by verbal or physical repetition, is what the Wiktionary says, more or less. The power of a bad meme is scary. I find their viral nature very interesting.

Mars Trilogy – Kim Stanley Robinson –

_Red Mars_, _Green Mars_, _Blue Mars_, _The Martians_ (put out after the trilogy, it's stories that didn't make it into the trilogy, plus other stuff). I love the way this guy writes. I love the characterization. I love his voice, though it is not as evident here as it was on earlier novels like _The Memory of Whiteness_ and _Icehenge_. I love that he's a big fan of prog rockers Yes. I'm a big fan, too.

Music –

I love music. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years. I love the layout of the fretboard. I love theory, without knowing a great deal of terminology. I love melody. When I was a sixth grader, we lived in married-student housing, a small apartment. I was taking piano, but had no piano on which to practice at the time. I really wanted my dad to get me a cheap little melodica – basically a song whistle with it's own little one octave piano-like keyboard.

"What would you do with it?" my dad wanted to know.

"Sit around and play melodies," I said. This explains a lot about me.

Mullins, Rich / Mark Heard –

Our sadly departed poets laurate of Christian music. I love the stuff these guys did. Favorites of their catalogs: Mullins – _A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band_ / Heard – _Satellite Sky_. Mmm mmm good. I think we lost a lot when these two departed.

Marsha –

This is my wife of 25 years, and my best friend. That sounds really mushy, but there you go. She's smart, funny, good-looking, and the mother of my three children. She's who I want to talk to most of the time. She's who I want to sit beside quietly when nothing needs to be said.

Maledil –

From C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, this is the fictional cosmic name for Jesus, so I'm using it here as a cheat to mention Jesus, our Emmanuel (I could have put Manny, like in Philip K. Dick's _The Divine Invasion_), so it also functions as code for the Incarnation, or incarnational.

Meta –

I really love this whole thing. Meta-document: a document about documents. Meta-map: a map about maps. Meta-narrative: a master narrative informing all subsequent narratives.

I think we're headed more and more in this direction in the church, because we're more and more aware of how things change. We don't want to tie up our local church bodies years down the road after we're gone, so rather than write up by-laws of this is what a staff must consist of, we're starting to write down something like meta-by-laws, which would consist of things like "how do we decide to change the staff line-up, and what might some helpful guidelines be?" And even include some stuff like, "and this is why we think that's a good idea," and maybe even "here's our reasoning based on these scriptures," which would be, you see, not proof-texting, but simply the sharing of criteria, so that future generations could see where we were coming from, and decide if that was still the best application of scriptural understanding.

Meta is the thing that helps you think like this.

Missional –

I'm just learning about this, through blogs and books and sometimes podcasts. But I like the idea. I know it's kind of trendy, but I think there's meat there. I think this is a useful way of looking at stuff, as long as we don't fall for just looking and theorizing and never actually doing the stuff.

Mother Theresa –

What little I know about Mother Theresa is really appealing. Humility. Service. Love for Jesus as he appears in the guise of the poorest and sickest. When I think of how I would like to be, how I would like to pursue becoming more like Jesus, this is one of the major human examples that come to mind.

Love in the middle

Col 3:14 (NIV) "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." (TM)

Binds is the key word here. Holding together. Taking disparate items and joining them together into a useful compound. Unity.

Love is kind of like the milk in a batch of pancake batter. You mix the milk in thoroughly, but you don't stir forever. Your batter can handle small lumps of dry flour in there, because the milk will soak in during the cooking process and moisten it. But if the lumps are too big, then you'll have big, gross, icky lumps of dry flour in your mouth when you're eating.

So what's the point? Love needs to permeate every level, every part of your project, your community, your life, your whatever. You don't need to force it or be a nazi about it, because love just needs to be in close proximity to do its thing. It will have its influence on everything nearby.

Love at the beginning

Mt 22:36-40 (NIV) "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (TM)

So love is foundational. That means it's something you build on. That means it's a pre-requisite, meaning, you need it first. Then the other stuff. It's not just that Jesus says these are the two greatest commandments. That's pretty big, all right. But, no. It's that he said, "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." That's what makes it foundational. Jesus saying first love, then everything else.

So that might be a good thing for us to be mindful of. Love first, then everything else.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Outline for Sunday 17 December

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 1 Whether I can speak with the utmost intelligence or the greatest spiritual insight, without love I'm just making noise.
• 2 If I'm able to say what God's up to, and understand my environment, and figure out all kinds of things, and if I can hear God and work in concert with him, but don't have love, I'm nothing.
• 3 I can give away everything to help the poor, or even become a martyr for the faith, but without love, I've gained nothing.
• 4 Love is patient and kind. It doesn't envy, or boast, or become proud.
• 5 It's not rude, it doesn’t look to please itself, it doesn't fly off the handle quickly, it doesn't keep score.
• 6 Love isn't happy about bad things, but good things, true things.
• 7 Love does this: protects, trusts, hopes, and hangs in there no matter what.
• 8 Prophecies will one day end. Tongues will one day quit. Knowledge will one day pass away. But love never quits, never fails.
• 9 We know only partly, and we can prophesy only partly.
• 10 But once the perfect comes, it doesn't leave any room for the imperfect.
• 11 When I was a child, I acted like a child. But now that I'm a man, I've had to put away childish things.
• 12 Now what we see is like what you see in a really bad mirror, but then what we see will be like standing face to face. Now I only know some, my knowledge is incomplete; but then I'll know details and the big picture, just like Jesus completely knows me.
• 13 These three remain: faith, hope, and love. The single greatest one is love.

1 Peter 1:3-13, 18-21 Outline for Sunday 10 December

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 3 Praise God! Through his mercy, God has allowed us to start fresh in new hope through raising Jesus from the dead,
• 4 and into a forever inheritance, kept in heaven for us,
• 5 who, by faith, are protected by God's power until the day we have it all.
• 6 You can count on this, and be really happy about it, even though you might have to go through some tough times on the way there.
• 7 Gold put through the fire shows its purity; faith put through trials shows its reality when Jesus returns
• 8 Even though you haven't seen Jesus, you love him, and even though you don't see him now, you are experiencing super-strong happiness
• 9 because of the work of this faith in you – you're being saved
• 10 The prophets were looking forward to this salvation, really searching it out,
• 11 They were trying to find out when all this was going to happen,
• 12 And it was revealed to them that it was to be in the future, so their work was serving us (as future persons) rather than themselves, when they talked about the gospel. Angels would love to look into this stuff.
• 13 So get ready. 1) Be self-controlled, 2) depend on God and nothing else.
• 14 Be obedient like a good child. Don't shape your life around the evil desires you had when you didn't understand anything about God.
• 15 Instead be holy like God is holy.
• 16 God's the one who says that.
• 17 Since you call on a God who sees everything for just what it really is, live like a stranger here on earth, never completely comfortable with things, and have a healthy respect for God's desires.
• 18 Because you know that it wasn't earthly stuff like gold or silver that redeemed you from the empty way of life our culture is steeped in,
• 19 But with the special, donated blood of Jesus, like a sacrificial lamb without any blemish, completely perfect.
• 20 This sacrificial plan was in place from the beginning of the world, but only revealed to humankind late in the game.
• 21 It's through Jesus that you're able to believe in God, who raised Jesus from the dead and drew all eyes to him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Isaiah 55:1-13 Outline for Sunday 26 November

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 1 If you're thirsty, come here. If you have no money for food, come here. You can get what you need here for free.
• 2 Why spend money on things that don't feed you? All the things you need are found here. They're very good.
• 3 Listen to me, and come here. Life is here. I promise my love to you like I promised to David.
• 4 Not only was David great at leading the people, he was also a great example.
• 5 You will have unbelievable things to do, and people will come to you in unbelievable ways, all because of the Lord's annointing you, or painting you, with a bit of himself.
• 6 Seek the Lord now, while the notion is still with you. You have no guarantee that you will be able to find him later. The problem will be with you, not him. Strike while the iron is hot.
• 7 If you're on the outs with God, turn to him, and he will receive you as he forgives you.
• 8 "This might not seem likely or make much sense," says the Lord, "but then, you're not me."
• 9 "My ways are way higher than your ways."
• 10 "Just like the rain and snow come down, and don't evaporate back up to heaven without first watering the earth,"
• 11 "that's how it is with what I say. My words don't return to me empty, but get done what I wanted to get done."
• 12 "So you'll be seriously happy, heavy joy, and with perfect peace. Even nature will be transformed, a lasting monument to me, living evidence."

On the relative merit of your idol

Isaiah 44:9 (NIV): "All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame." (TM)

Super heavy, a real condemnation, which is to say: in this verse, God has taken the gloves off. He's laying down the law with little regard for what kind of impact it makes, or maybe that's exactly what he's doing. It's a very straight-up kind of statement.

"All who make idols are nothing" ties your very existence to him, which is only appropriate, given that he created us. And so our very existence is tied to our relationship to him in proper context. What is idol making if not the act of put something else ahead of God in our lives? And when you do that, presto, you fade out shockingly fast, just like the weekly victim on Without a Trace.

Now, for blissy types or those simply in desperate need of a good night's sleep, that might sound okay, but don't kid yourself. Bliss requires a presence, sleep is something you sink into, and what God describes here provides a platform for neither of those occupations, or anything else at all, for that matter. No matter how spacey you might be, you do want to be present for all of life's little joys. Replacing big G God with some little g god just takes yourself off the table, out of play, nowhere.

Then he says, "and the things they treasure are worthless." Which means that making an idol of something is of no point whatsoever. It means that if you catch yourself making an idol, you shouldn't only stop it, but now you need to reevaluate everything. How have my values changed such that I would be making an idol?

Because repentance is an actual turning away from prior activity, identifying root causes might be a useful tactic. This is a Spirit-lead activity. We shouldn't rely only on our own perspective to unpack our sin. Our perspective lead us into the sin in the first place. So lean on the Lord, not your understanding. (Proverbs 3:5) (TM)

Let's Dig Ourselves into This Hole Just a Little Bit Deeper

Isaiah 41:5-7 (NIV): "The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward; each helps the other and says to his brother, 'Be strong!' The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil. He says of the welding, 'It is good.' He nails down the idol so it will not topple." (TM)

In verses 1 – 4, Isaiah is writing about how God is challenging everyone to come to a little contest, a contest to see which is the strongest of the gods: God, or all the idols made by man.

It's as though they can't resist, because here they come. They're scared to death – the end of verse 5 says that the ends of the earth tremble. You'd think they'd be caving in, trying to imagine what to say to God, or how to apologize to him for their failures in the past to acknowledge him as God.

However, that's not what's going on. They're encouraging each other, telling each other to be strong. "Hang in there!" they're saying. "It's going to be okay," they're telling each other, but that's hardly the case, and how could anyone think that it would be?

It's disturbing, this tendency we possess, to clench our eyes all the more tightly shut against what, in 20/20 hindsight, is so clearly the word of the Lord. At the same time, we clutch our foolishness closer and closer, as if it had life, as if it had some ability to help us.

In verse 7, we see the different crafts getting their heads together, working on the idol together, and encouraging each other in their work. "One more thing, boys," they say. "Let's nail it down real good, so that it won't fall over!"

How do you prop your idols up? What do you do to make sure they don't fall over 1) from their own weight, or 2) (the more obvious reason), because they can't stand on their own?

The Lord is calling us forward to a place where we'll compare the relative merits of all gods, great and small. The only greatness a "small 'g'" god can have is the greatness you give him by allowing him to dominate your life. Idols are already having a bad effect on you. Don't dig the hole deeper by propping them up, or by trying to "improve" them.

Isaiah 40:18-22, 41:5-7, 44:9, 18-20, 45:20-22 Outline for 19 November

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 40:18 To what can you compare God?
• 40:19 An idol: different craftsmen make it and adorn it.
• 40:20 For someone too poor for a fancy one, they look for wood that won't rot and for a good craftsman so the thing won't fall over.
• 40:21 Do you still not understand?
• 40:22 God is so huge. He sits on his throne above us, and we're like grasshoppers beneath him. He spreads the heavens to suit himself as his personal canopy or tent.
• 41:5 Everyone has heard the Lord's challenge, to come to the God vs. idols contest, so they come.
• 41:6 They encourage each other to be strong.
• 41:7 The different craftsmen encourage each other as they make last minute adjustments to their idol. They nail it down so that it will not topple.
• 44:9 Everyone who makes an idol is nothing; the things they love are worthless; anyone that takes up for them is blind and shamed by their own ignorance.
• 44:18 These people know nothing. Their eyes don't work, being sealed shut, and their minds are the same way: closed, so that no truth can get in.
• 44:19 None of these people has the power of mind to realize that they themselves constructed these idols out of the everyday things of their lives: half of this wood I burned for heat, I cooked over it. Am I now going to go against the living God and make another god out of the wood that is left, and then bow down to it and worship?
• 44:20 Even though this person is feeding on ashes, his heart is so tricked and deluded that it prevents him from realizing. He can't save himself by saying, "Isn't this just a creation of mine? Isn't this just a lie?"
• 45:20 All you people come and listen. People with idols are ignorant. People that pray to gods that cannot save are ignorant.
• 45:21 Discuss this among yourselves. Who predicted this a long, long time ago? It was I, the LORD. There's no one like me, no God but me, your savior.
• 45:22 Turn to me, and be saved. I'm your only chance.

Instead of grasping at straws

Praying through Lauds this morning, there was this short reading: 2 Cor 12:9-10: (Jerusalem) "I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me, and that is why I am quite content with my weaknesses, and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and the agonies I go through for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong." (NIV) (TM)

". . . very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast. . ." is blowing me away. I guess, even though I didn't know it, that I'm so performance oriented, that I'm no different from anyone else. I'm just carrying this pride, and these expectations of myself in a different arena. I'm thinking about my issues with the soccer team (that I coach) here.

I can say (and I do mean) that I don't care if we win or lose. But if we perform badly, or give subpar effort, I experience really bad feelings – things I don't want to have anything to do with: disgust, self-loathing, worry over what the parents will think of me as a coach, aggravation at the players. So I'm as bad, really, as someone just obsessed with winning. All I've done is shift it over a bit.

And this is saying that I should be "very happy" to brag about my deficiencies in this area. Because this will cause the "power of Christ" to "stay over me." I guess this is to prevent me from applying a Band-Aid and opting for that brand of self-sufficiency instead of choosing to keep Jesus "on the job" for this area, a known deficiency. Some people don't like this type of self-deprecation, feeling that the person doing it is fishing for a compliment, or calling undue attention to themselves, but this passage seems to offer the behavior prescriptively. Talk about how you're a screwup.

I bet there's a right and wrong way to do it, though. I'm sure we can be more aggravating about this than we have to be, and that's probably where the distaste I was talking about comes from.

We evangelicals don't like to acknowledge weaknesses, much less brag about them. Maybe this reflects on the Ted Haggard thing that Scot McKnight blogged about on Nov 6 under "Ted Haggard and the Evangelical Environment": "Christians and pastors, because of the environment of condemnation of sin and the absence of a mechanism of confession, bottle up their sins, hide their sins, and create around themselves an apparent purity and a reality of unconfessed/unadmitted sin."

So my response to this scripture will be to not pretend I can handle my shortcomings, that I will brag on the Lord's willingness and ability to drag me through these weaknesses I have, that I will trust him, and not me, to successfully deal with these things.

Love and peace. Love and peace. Love and peace.

Grasping at straws

Isaiah 8:21-22, NIV(TM): "Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness."

Sometimes we avoid doing what would obviously be the right thing to do. And following that, sometimes we keep trying everything but what we should do. We'll try anything.

That's the case here. Instead of taking their problems to the Lord, they've at least toyed with the taboo (see Deut 18:10-12 (TM)) idea of trucking with mediums, while avoiding the Lord with their problems.

That refusal is the springboard to a whole world of misery. From that point, they go on to try one thing after another. They have a hunger to see things happen, but find themselves unwilling to seek the Lord. When nothing works, they will become so frustrated that the scripture says they "will curse their king and their God." The irony is a little strong. Grasping at straws, they find themselves completely in the dark.

Paul talks about this in Romans 1:21 (TM) where he says about people who refuse to acknowledge God as God: "their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

A grim, cautionary tale for us.

Isaiah 8:18 - 9:7 Outline for 12 November

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 8:18 We are signs and symbols in our place
• 8:19 Why ask dead people, or try some tricky device for getting at the truth? Ask God.
• 8:20 No other source of information is any good.
• 8:21 Resultless yet hungry for results, they will try one thing after another. When they are really starving for results, they will blame all authority over them.
• 8:22 They will look around again, and find no hope, and they will just be stuck.
• 9:1 No more gloom for those who've been hurting.
• 9:2 Those walking in the dark have seen a great light. For those living in the valley of the shadow of death, it's like a light has dawned.
• 9:3 God, you have created joy.
• 9:4 This joy comes from your removal of the yoke that enslaves them, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod that punishes them unfairly, an impossible victory, just like Gideon's defeat of the Midianites.
• 9:5 All implements of war will be collected and burned, no longer needed.
• 9:6 Why? Because we've been given God's son, his child has been born to us, and this child will take care of us, judging us fairly. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, being the very word of life, Mighty God, being the express image of God, Everlasting Father, having the heart of a father, and Prince of Peace, as just his presence brings storms into submission.
• 9:7 It will just get better and better. It's the Lord's enthusiasm for taking care of us, his enthusiasm for justice, that will get this done.

Rebellion

Isaiah 1:3, Amplified : "The ox [instinctively] knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know or recognize Me [as Lord], My people do not consider or understand." (NIV) (TM)

The Amplified bible tells us that the flavor of "knows" is "instinctive," meaning automatic. So, the ox automatically knows his owner. This echoes Jesus in John 10:14, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me." This is the natural order of things. Jesus walks in, and you just know it. You recognize him in some natural/supernatural way, because he's the one who made you. If you're open in any way, you get it.

The Amplified says that the donkey knows his master's crib, the NIV says his owner's manger. The message is the same: the donkey knows his place is what the master has provided. The correct order of things is to know where you belong.

If you don't have the willingness to have this type of recognition, then you're in rebellion. The Lord is saying that this is as easy as pie, but his people Israel just don't get it, and the idea is that they choose to be this way. Look at the Amplified for Isaiah 1:4.

” Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised and shown contempt and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have become utterly estranged (alienated)." (NIV) (TM)

Isaiah 1:2-4, 10-20 Outline for 5 November 2006

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 2. Listen up! The Lord says, "I brought up children and they have rebelled against me."
• 3. "Animals know their master, but not my people."
• 4. This whole group is guilty and corrupt. They have turned their backs on the Lord.
• 10. You're as sinful as Sodom and Gomorrah. Listen to the word of the Lord. Measure yourself against the law.
• a. Romans 3:20 (TM)
• 11. "I'm not into all these offerings you bring to try and buy me off. It doesn't do anything for me."
• a. 1 Sam 15:18-23 (TM)
• 12. "You come before me, but not when I've called you."
• 13. "Don't try to bribe me with an offering. You're not even in the ballpark."
• 14. "All your ritual is pathetic. It's a pain."
• 15. "When you reach out to me, praying for something, I'm going to deliberately not see you, even if you pray and pray and pray. You're hands are bloody; you're in the wrong; you're guilty."
• 16. "Clean that up! Deal with those things correctly. Get forgiven, and really repent; turn away from your evil deeds."
• 17. "Learn to do the right thing and do it. Love justice. Take up for the weak."
• 18. "Let's talk this through. Though you are as guilty as can be, you don't have to remain that way. You can be guilt-free."
• 19. "If you have the right attitude and obey me, you will have it good."
• 20. "But if you fight me and rebel, you'll be destroyed."

2 Tim 3:1, 10-17, 4:5-8 Outline for 29 October

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 3:1 Terrible times ahead
• 3:5 There will people that are religious on the outside, but who don't tap into, or even acknowledge the power there
• a. Avoid these people
• 3:10 You know all about me: my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,
• 3:11 persecutions, sufferings – all the stuff that happened in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. But the Lord rescued me from all that.
• 3:12 In fact, all serious followers of Jesus will be persecuted
• 3:13 while evil people and fakes will just get worse, deceiving and being deceived
• 3:14 But you:
• a. Continue in what you've learned
• 1) remember that you've been convinced of it
• 2) remember who you've learned it from
• 3:15 You've been learning the scripture your whole life
• a. it's able to make you wise for salvation
• 1) through faith in Jesus
• 3:16 Scripture is:
• a. God-breathed and therefore useful for:
• 1) teaching us
• 2) showing where we are wrong
• 3) correcting us
• 4) training us in righteousness
• b. so that we can be properly equipped for whatever
• 4:5 Do this:
• a. keep your head in all situations – stay calm
• b. put up with hardship – endure it
• c. share the good news
• d. do your complete ministry – do all the things needed/required
• 4:6 For:
• a. I'm being sacrificed, like pouring out a drink offering
• b. my life is drawing to an end
• 4:7 I have:
• a. struggled to make certain I have done what I was supposed to
• b. completed all that I was assigned to do
• c. kept the faith, meaning:
• 1) I haven't abandoned or betrayed the Lord
• 2) I took my orders from God speaking to my heart
• 3) I've maintained and pursued a deeper relationship with the Lord
• 4:8 I will be rewarded by the Lord, and so will all who have wanted desperately to see him

You could be, like, a nice bowl

2 Tim 2:20-21, NIV: "In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." (TM)

Here's the figure: you are the house, your life is the house. It's a large house because people are complicated. You've got gold/silver things in your life, as well as wood/clay things. Go caveman for a second: gold/silver good, wood/clay bad.

So what are these things? I would say they are areas in your life. You might call it something different. Activities. Attitudes. Whatever. Anyway, in our example they're like bowls. The gold/silver ones are intended for "noble" use, i.e. for food that you're going to eat. The wood/clay ones (unsealed, this is the first century) are for trash, unclean stuff. You wouldn't take your trash can and eat out of it. By the same token, the Lord doesn't want to use trash cans for his work. So that's why we're called on to clean up our act, so that we can be used for whatever he wants to use us for.

Why's that a big deal? It's to keep ourselves, and specifically our trash, out of the mix. And yet God has chosen to use us for doing stuff. What's he to do? Get us to clean our act up.

Notice that this is not a requirement for being saved. You don't have to clean up your act before you come to Jesus. You come just as you are for that. The desire for change and the desire for Jesus are the only requirements. What this is, is a requirement for being used. For getting off the bench and into the game. For shaking things up and doing your part for the kingdom.

We all want to be able to do things for the ones we love. This is how you qualify to be able to do those type things for God.

Nevertheless

2 Tim 2:19, NIV: "Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: 'The Lord knows those who are his,' and, 'Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.' (TM)

Paul has just been talking (in verses 17-18 (TM)) about Hymenaeus and Philetus. They have messed up big time, teaching that the resurrection had already come and gone. This was causing believers trouble, the NIV saying it was "destroying" faith, while The Message puts it more mildly, saying it was "throwing believers off stride." This probably represents the two extremes that occur when false teaching is introduced into the church: being thrown off stride on the one hand, and destruction on the other.

So Paul says, "Nevertheless." That means, all this bad stuff has happened, for sure, but anyway, but still, but in spite of all that. . .

In spite of all that, God's work stands firm, the church's foundation stands firm, and Paul says that it is sealed with two inscriptions.

One says that the Lord knows who belongs to him. Have you ever been a member of something, and the top dog won't give you the time of day? Maybe the leader doesn't even know who you are. That's discouraging, but God is not like that. He knows everything about you, even how many hairs are on your head. And when you belong to him, he knows about it. He is totally aware that on August 16, 1998 or whenever, you gave your heart to him. You know how embarrassing it is when someone who should know who you are, doesn't? That never happens with God. He knows, and he knows you.

The other inscription says that if you claim the Lord then you have to turn away from bad stuff. A lot of people hear this and think that they're expected to immediately and suddenly become perfect, never sinning, never falling short in any way of what God wants from them, but that's not what this verse is saying.

This verse is talking about your whole life. Look at 1 John 1:8-10 (TM) and Romans 7:15 (TM). The point is that we all struggle; we all make mistakes. You are going to fall short at times. I am going to fail sometimes. But turning away from our failures has to be done. If it's a problem with hating Fred, then I have to turn away from hating Fred, and turn toward loving him the way Jesus wants me to. I might do something hateful to him again tomorrow at 3:00 pm. This means that at 3:01 I'll have to turn away from hating Fred again, and I'll have to do it again as many times as it takes. That's what this second inscription means.

Watch your mouth in both directions

2 Tim 2:16, NIV: "godless chatter." The Message: "pious talk that is only talk." Looks like two sides of the same coin, doesn't it? On the one hand, "godless chatter" sounds like things we say that we really shouldn't say - mean things, ugly things. And on the other hand, "pious talk that is only talk" sounds like somebody trying to appear religious, or to appear really together spiritually. Both are bad, and the advice in the verse is good: don't do it. Those who do just get more and more ungodly, or further and further from reflecting Jesus.

What comes out of your mouth is really important. Jesus talked about it in Mt 15:10-11 (TM). Some pharisees and teachers of the law had come to him with a complaint that his disciples were not washing their hands as the dietary traditions demanded. Jesus skewers them on their own inconsistencies, and then he delivers the real teaching. "What goes into your mouth isn't what makes you dirty. What comes out of your mouth is the thing that makes you dirty."

Peter asks for a further explanation a little later, and in verses 17-20 (TM), Jesus tells him that food goes into the body and then out of the body, but what comes out of our mouth comes from the heart. Mt 12:33-35 (TM) says that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Meaning that, when you're bumped hard enough, what comes out of your mouth will be evidence of what is in your heart.

James talks about this, too. In 1:26 (TM), he says that not keeping your tongue in control means your religion is not operating the way it should. In 3:3-5 (TM), James gives a couple of examples.

We put a bit in the mouth of a horse, and by that we guide it around. The idea is putting control over our own mouth, and that affects our entire person. Are you an angry person? Control your mouth, and that can begin to change. Are you a negative person? Control your mouth, say things that are more positive, and you will become a more positive person.

The second example is a big ship with a little rudder. I mean, all rudders are little, compared to the ship, but even so, the little rudder steers the big boat around. The idea here is very similar to what we talked about with the horse. The mouth is our control point. Exert control there, and you will begin to have more control over your entire life.

K.I.S.S.

2 Tim 2:15, NIV: " Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." My outline said, "Do your work with confidence, having no reason to be ashamed of your work, and K.I.S.S." What do I mean by the "Keep it simple?"

You hear football commentators talk about a running back going north and south, as though this is a really good thing, and it is, it is indeed. It means that the running back doesn't spend much time making a lot of fakes, or just running toward the sideline, but rather he's taking the shortest path to paydirt, running north and south, the straight line to the prize. Paul is saying something like that. Spiritually speaking, we should not spend too much time on lace and frills and what not, but rather on making headway toward our goal. North and south. That's what K.I.S.S. means right here.

It has to do with the "correctly handles the word of truth" in the NIV. Eugene Peterson rendered that as "laying out the truth plain and simple" in The Message. It's another way of saying focus on what's real. Focus. If we can correctly handle the word by sharing it plain and simple, then we've somehow reminded ourselves to keep it simple, not complicated by opinions or silly quarrels.

And what we can do for the Lord is the stronger for it.

2 Tim 2:14-26 Outline for 22 October

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 14. Continue to remind them of the essentials.
• a. Warn them not to quibble over non-essentials
• 1) it is of no value
• 2) it's only bad for those who listen
• 15. Do your work with confidence
• a. having no reason to be ashamed of your work
• b. K.I.S.S.
• 16. Watch how you talk
• a. ungodly talk makes you less and less godly
• b. pious talk that isn't actually reflected in your life just hurts you continually
• 1) it accumulates in you
• 17. Bad talk, whether it's the godless chatter or the religious posturing, can be infectious
• a. hurting others with your sickness
• b. Hymenaeus and Philetus are examples
• 18. Their talk has led them away from the truth
• a. they say the resurrection has already happened
• b. they are harming some people's faith
• 19. But God's foundation stands as firm as ever
• a. Engraved with "If you name God's name, turn away from wickedness."
• 20. In a nice house, there are containers for good things, and containers for garbage
• 21. be the kind of container that's for good things, by cleansing yourself of the other uses
• a. this clears the way for God to set you apart
• 1) useful to the Lord
• 2) and versatile – ready for anything
• 22. Run, don't walk, away from evil desires
• a. pursue, instead, these things:
• 1) righteousness
• 2) faith
• 3) love
• 4) peace
• b. and do so in community, with those who really want to go after God
• 23. Don't get into these stupid arguments
• a. they just make for fights
• 24. Because you must not be getting into fights
• a. instead he must
• 1) be kind to all
• 2) be able to teach
• 3) not be resentful
• 25. When people oppose you
• a. gently teach them
• 1) in hopes that God will grant them repentance
• A) and that this will lead them to experience/know the truth
• 26. So they can come to their senses
• a. so they can escape this trap of the devil's
• 1) the devil has taken them captive for the purpose of doing what he wants them to do

You have been conceited

Verse 3 is a diagnostic. You know, like the mechanic at the dealership hooks your car up to a machine and runs diagnostics to see what's wrong. Well, this is a diagnostic, and here it is. If someone is spreading wrong ideas and they won't agree to the words of Jesus and they won't agree with other godly teaching. . . That's three things, quite a lot, so we're not talking about people who are simply wrong, but rather people who are wrong and cannot be persuaded even by Jesus himself. They are stuck in their wrong-headedness and really proud of it. The first part of verse 4 completes that thought. This person is conceited and understands nothing.

We shouldn't read the word "conceited" here as some kind of hate word. We say something like "he's so conceited," and we basically mean that he's the devil, I hate him, and so on, but that's not what Paul, or the Holy Spirit through Paul, is saying here. He's saying this person is so full of his own thoughts and ideas that there's no room for God's ideas.

Each one of us has been at this point at least once in our lives. When, in our minds and from our perspective, our ideas got bigger than God's ideas. You want an example of this? Look at Acts 10. Peter has a vision of this huge sheet coming down with different animals on it, and a voice says, "Kill and eat."

Peter had been a Jew before he knew Jesus, and the Jews have some strict dietary laws. This stuff on the sheet was against the law for Jews, what Peter had been, and so Peter says, "No way. I have never eaten anything unclean!" Which is what that kind of food was called by the Jews.

The voice from heaven says, "Don't call anything unclean that God has made clean." The Bible says this happened a total of three times.

Do you see how Peter had his head full of his own idea? And God kept telling him, "Don't call this stuff unclean because I've made it clean." Or, ineffect, "Peter, you're wrong and I'm right. Now wise up."

And amazingly, Peter still argues. He's not a bad guy, he's just conceited. That's conceit in it's simplest, least mean-spirited state. It's how most of us get conceited.

The rich are vulnerable

Let's talk about verse 9. My paraphrase said "People who want to get rich are vulnerable." What the NIV says is "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." (TM)

It's like you open your heart up in a dangerous way when you want to be rich. There are other examples of this same thing.

Imagine a boy who wants to be regarded by his peers as brave or daring, he thinks that will solve all his problems, and so he decides that he will attempt something very dangerous, like maybe jumping his bike over a ditch filled with broken concrete, pieces of rebar sticking up into the sky.

Imagine a young, single mother with a new boy friend, and she thinks that he completes her, that this relationship with him will solve all her problems and make her feel appreciated, but he doesn't really like the children, and he's about to walk because of them. So she does something awful to the children, because they're in the way of the thing that will fix her life. That one's been in the news.

Imagine a young man who believes that having plenty of money will fix all his problems, make his life more exciting, and cause people to respect him in a new way, so he lays aside all conviction and does anything it takes to make it: he ignores his family, he betrays friends, he does things that are dishonest, anything to make the dollars.

All of these examples show a vulnerability that occurs when we decide to really go for it, placing our trust in something other than God. A quick search through the NIV for "our trust" yields interesting results. Six of eight verses directly support this thought. One shows the opposite (placing trust in false gods results in shame). One (the one from Titus) is talking about something else.

Psalm 62:8 (TM) is my favorite. "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."

One more time about treasure in heaven

This business about coin seems so apt, so crucial.

Say you just came across something that turned your world upside down. It's so exciting; it's so fascinating. It's just what you'd love to devote all your free time to. If it makes you happy, it must be the thing you ought to do, right?

Sometimes we feel that any pretty little thing that catches our eye is put there by God Himself. That's not necessarily true. We have a theology of open doors that goes right along with that. We think that any opportunity must be a divine appointment. That's not necessarily true, either.

American culture tells us that the greatest good is to "follow our dreams." Anything might be sacrificed to facilitate this one thing. Think of it: you might sacrifice anything for a sufficiently amazing outcome.

And you might be throwing away your chance to lay up treasure in heaven.

It's a matter of opportunity cost.

Additional thoughts on treasure in heaven

The Message puts it this way: Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life. (1 Tim 6:17-19)

It echoes the parable of the talents (TM). I'm thinking that this is a model of how to lay up treasure in heaven. You take what is a big deal to you, in this case rich people and their money, and you turn that thing upside down – give it away, don't depend on it.

And notice, there are some rich people who aren't caught up in their money, but that doesn't let you off: it's still your big responsibility; it's still the area where you've really been gifted. You can't simply walk away from this stuff and say, "It's not important to me." You have to somehow turn it back over to God.

This seriously echoes what David said about giving things to God. (1 Chr 29:14) It echoes the parable of the talents. The master gives each person a number of talents. When he returns, the scope of the inquiry is very narrow: exactly what he had given them, and nothing else.

Give an accounting of what you did with the talents given you. All else is beside the point. Could it be that this is a key to laying up treasure in heaven? Sometimes it would seem that the conventional wisdom about heavenly treasure is generic. Generic in that you put money toward it somehow; it's an investment in some way. It doesn't seem to matter what it is, just pick a heavenly investment vehicle and . . . invest. Any coin will do.

But not any coin will do. The only coin the Lord is interested in receiving seems to be the self-same coin that He gave. Pay Caesar in Caesar's coin.

1 Tim 6:3-12, 17-19 Outline for Sunday 15 Oct

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 3. If anyone:
• a. teaches false doctrines
• b. does not agree to words of Jesus
• c. does not agree with godly teaching
• 4. Then he's a big, ugly dummy
• a. Unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in: stuff
• 5. Constant friction between men of corrupt mind
• a. they've been robbed of the truth
• b. they think godliness is a way to make money
• 6. But godliness with contentment is really good
• 7. We came into the world with nothing, and we'll take out nothing
• 8. Food and clothing are enough
• 9. People who want to get rich are vulnerable
• 10. The love of money is the root of many evils
• a. it has led some astray from their faith
• 11. But make sure you run, don't walk, away from all this
• a. instead pursue these:
• 1) righteousness
• 2) godliness
• 3) faith
• 4) love
• 5) endurance
• 6) gentleness
• 12. Fight to seize and hold on to the faith (God-given)
• a. Remember how you came to faith (God-given), and who was there with you
• 
  * * *


• 17. Tell the rich to strip themselves of pride and self-sufficiency because of their money
• a. which is here today and gone tomorrow
• 18. Tell them to:
• a. do good
• b. help others
• c. be generous and willing to share
• 19. This is laying up treasure in heaven

From verses 17-19, I'm thinking that this is a model of how to lay up treasure in heaven. You take what is a big deal to you, in this case rich people and their money, and you turn that thing upside down – give it away, don't depend on it.

And notice, there are some rich people who aren't caught up in their money, but that doesn't let you off: it's still your big responsibility; it's still the area where you've really been gifted. You can't simply walk away from this stuff and say, "It's not important to me." You have to somehow turn it back over to God.

This is very reminiscent of David's confession before the Lord: "...for all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You." (1 Chr 29:14 (TM) )

1 Tim 4:6-16 Outline for Sunday 8 Oct

Here's an outline for this week's scripture. You can always click TM for the passage in The Message .

• 6 You've had the advantage of being raised in the faith ( God-given ) and received sound teaching: pass it on.
• 7 Don't stray off into foolishness ( 1 Tim 1:6 ) TM , but concentrate on becoming more godly.
• A. In terms of service, and doing things, we concentrate on others, but in terms of criticism, or speculations, we must concentrate on ourselves
• B. Tend to your own knitting
• C. John 21:21-22 TM
• 8. Working out your body is okay
• A. Working out your spirit towards a disciplined life is good for everything
• B. It's of benefit in this life and the next
• 9. This is a faithful (God-given) statement and you can count on it.
• 10. This is why we're so invested, so insistent: we are totally counting on the living God, who is the savior of all, especially believers.
• 11. Publish this. Insist on it.
• 12. Don't be handicapped or pre-judged by your youth. Demonstrate the truth that lives in you by:
• A. word – what you say – James 1:26 TM
• B. conduct – what you do -
• C. love – 1 Cor 13 TM – putting others first
• D. spirit – attitude – how you go about what you say and do
• E. faith – ( God-given ) – how you stick with what God has given/shown you
• F. purity – walk what you talk – this only happens as God makes changes in you
• 13. Hang in there
• A. reading Scripture
• B. giving counsel/exhorting/encouraging
• C. teaching/explaining – we always have a reason that is demonstrable from the Bible
• 14. The gift in you
• A. recognized and acknowledged by others
• B. don't neglect it even if you're not always able to use it
• C. keep it limbered up
• 15. Think about these things
• A. Give yourself entirely to them
• B. Your progress will be evident to all
• 16. Hang in there with a firm grip both on your character and what you teach – stay focused
• A. It will lead to both salvation in you and those you influence