This chapter reminds us that the world is still in need of an ethical standard. The last 100 years have held to high ethical teaching and ironically some of the worst human behavior the world has ever seen.

The terror of Idi Amin in Uganda, Hitlers’ fascist state (six million Jews, 7 million other ethnic groups and WWII slaughtered), the Soviet form of Communism (including the Holodomor executed against Ukraine), the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, Saddam Hussein extinguishing his own citizens, there is an exhaustive list atrocities committed against humanity in the last 100 years.

One line from the chapter… “Practicing what traditionally would have been regarded as blatant evil is now a dominant feature of our world.”

Jesus is no longer the light of the world, ironically darkness is the new light of the world.

God invites us to be ambassadors in this world we call home. How can we find ways to be salt and light in a world that can’t understand us? Thus the importance of fixing our eyes on Jesus, while reaching out to humanity that doesn’t know what they don’t know. Sometimes our attempts to focus on humanity leads us away from what God says. That problem is alive and well today in our churches.

Learning to love without manipulating while learning to stand up for what’s right without arrogance.

Again, another chapter in giving us some perspective on what growth looks like in our spiritual life. We spend a lot of time considering the physical development as new parents. What a baby looks like in the womb at each stage, norms of growth for the first few years etc… There is something familiar enough about it for everyone that book after book can be published. So it is with our spiritual journey, much of this has order and predictability, but you have to really pay attention to see it.

Much of the work of the beginning of this has to do with God. His seeking after us, His death, burial, and resurrection that makes a way for us to be reconciled to Him. But there are parts that are specific to us, our recognition of a need for salvation, our repentance, our turning from a life lived my way to a life lived His way.

While the salvation moment is a reflection of God’s work to benefit us, there is the ongoing work of sanctification where we live in some work that belongs to us. 2 Peter invites us to “make every effort.” which is a different line than “make minimal effort”, or “don’t really bother, it’s not that important.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 puts them out there in some sort of order or steps we keep taking.

We are instructed to add to our faith…

Virtue: Training ourselves to do the good that God instructs. Add to that…

Knowledge: We aren’t inclined to know or do the right thing. These are things we have to learn. I never had to teach my kids any vices. They learned to be selfish all by themselves. We have a journey to learn a new way. Add to that…

Self-Control: Knowing that I ought not lie is not the same as not lying. So, when I come into some new knowledge about how God invites us to live life, it becomes important for me to have the self-control (fruit of the Spirit) to not do the thing I know not to do. Add to that…

Perseverance: Not only is my life to exhibit self-control once or twice but to persevere in self-control. Add to that….

Godliness: These new things become so deeply ingrained is us, that we begin to simply live in a reflection of the character of God. Add to that…

Brotherly Kindness: The result of choosing God’s way over and over again means we begin to see the world around us in a different way. It begins to alter our interactions with others. The three-year-old who couldn’t imagine sharing a toy can become an older person who can give their toy and many toys away as a blessing to others. Add to that…

Agape Love: The kind of love that characterizes God himself, giving his life as a ransom for many.

I think this is a journey we repeat over and over as God continues His refining work in us. Some issue in our life works toward being yielded to Christ. Living closer to light that light reveals a new knowledge that steps through the list above. God in his grace reveals a few things to us at a time otherwise I think we would be so overwhelmed we wouldn’t know how to handle it. But the gentle shepherd he is continues to move us to another green pasture and so we learn to be more in love with Him than the pasture we’re on (that seems like a great sermon too!!).

The title of the chapter gives us some direction…”What Children of Light are Like.”

1. No hesitation to do what’s right. It’s not a deliberation to possibly do what they know to be wrong.

2. Avoiding paths of temptation and poised to do right without thinking. Moral decisions have moved beyond knowing right/wrong and into the world of instinct to choose the right without having to think about it much.

3. A level of transparency rooted in a lack of need to conceal their thoughts and feelings OR the need to manipulate and manage others.

4. When found to be wrong, there is no need to defend themselves. The offer of an apology becomes an easier task. We are justified through grace this grace that overwhelms a soul should become easy to dispense as well.

5. Children of light should be easy to deal with. There is no need to guess what type of game someone is playing or how someone is just trying to manipulate me. This is my favorite quality of my wife. Her acts of love are 100% genuine with no hidden agenda anywhere to be found. What a great gift.

There is a very tangible part of moving into a heart renovated by the love of God. For the many ways I’ve witnessed that in the lives of others, it’s a beautiful thing!!

I love big picture reminders. life can become a lot of myopic naval gazing. The chapter starts off with a great big picture moment…

“According to the biblical picture, the function of human history is to bring forth an immense community of people from every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people, who will be a kingdom of priests under God. They will reign with him in the eternal future of the cosmos forever and ever.” Children of Light Chapter 52

It won’t be about the things we do or don’t do. Everything will be right in our hearts and everything we do will reflect that as well.

In our thoughts we will spend all of our thought energy on the greatness of God and the adoration of Him and every created thing will be a gift we can enjoy. There’s no dwelling on evil, simply on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, excellent or praiseworthy!! What a great infinite number of days that will be.

We will love our own life, the lives of others and mostly the life that God is giving us. thankfulness and gratitude will flow out from us like a never-ending stream. joy and peace will be a never-ending part of our lives as we won’t even consider engaging in our thoughts of rejection, failure and hopelessness.

As we look ahead to what is in store for us, maybe it can clue us in to the things that would be more important for our days here. And while the perfect place that awaits us is always a place to look forward to, maybe some thoughts about that would alter some of our moments here as our bodies groan for what lies ahead.

Being a coach for many years you recognize the boundary lines that are drawn in the midst of rules. The field isn’t any size you want, the number of players on the field at any given point in time has a requirement. You can’t pick up the basketball and run with it, you have to dribble (with one hand). The idea that there are rules that each team needs to abide by are such a given that for the most part, people don’t question the rules. The enforcement definitely, but no one sits there and argues that my freedom is taken away by only allowing 5 players on a basketball court.

In the course of my time coaching there is witness to a wide variety of ways in which a team lives in the rules but executes freely in the midst of a well-defined system.

You and I as parents set up systems in our homes when we have children. They can’t do everything they want, it’s reasonable and exceptionally useful for them to learn how to comply with whatever order we have laid out for them. At some point in life, they will have teachers, coaches, employers who will do the same for them.

Now if you were the originator of the universe, who planned everything to function in a certain order, would it be a good idea to come to some understanding about the way things work best or is it better to dive headlong into breaking as many rules as possible to your own self-obsessed ends?

I love watching small children play games and make rules. When some kid decides to make up a new rule have you ever seen them make up a rule that gives the advantage to their sibling? Rival? It usually goes like “everyone wearing a green shirt gets to go first.” Guess who has the green shirt?

God’s law is not just some code for the sake of compliance and punishment. God didn’t flip a coin to decide Lying/Truth telling? Heads it is, we’ll go with truth telling. God’s law is a reflection of who he is, God asks us not to lie because he doesn’t lie. Were invited to align who we are with who he is. When we lived aligned with him, everything in life would go better, except we live in a world where many others are choosing to lie too. Now we have to be truth tellers when other people get to lie, that’s sometimes tough.

Nevertheless, the invitation is to think the way David thought who loved God’s law, meditated on it day and not. Not for the sake being a book nerd or arrogant in regard to the law, but for the sake of truly knowing the God who has put this universe into existence and knows the best way for people to live in it. There is freedom in sports because everyone can’t do whatever they want. Gods’ world works the same kind of way, yet there is a lot of fist shaking. Live in the freedom of the game.

Happy Thanksgiving Week. I have accomplished a lot of work this week honestly, however, blogging here has not been one of those evidenced ways!!

Chapter 47 points us to the text about the well-watered tree, producing its fruit in season. A well-attended heart lives in the same moment as this tree, able to withstand the stuff of life that happens above ground, by being well rooted in God.

Chapter 48 addresses the state of our being and references several Psalms that speak about the condition of our soul in any moment. Our soul can be in anguish, weary, thirsting for God, longing and yearning for God, waiting for God and so many more. It’s an invitation to acknowledge our soul’s condition and ask God for help. Reminding us to put our hope in God, be awake, or find rest or simply praise Him.

Chapter 49 invites us to consider the longing of our soul. It’s a familiar cry with everyone a need to belong, a plea for hope, a cry to be loved, be seen, to have a sense that my life matters. People spend their days spinning their wheels only to discover that all of this is met thoroughly with Christ. The endless quest for beauty, strength, importance in me comes from understanding our place in Christ. Society asks us to settle for the false answers that the world offers.

Chapter 50 is a bit different than the other three but certainly revolves around our interaction with others. The title really goes a long way into the explanation “Abandoning Outcomes”. So much of the anxiety of life is about unmet expectations. The invitation from the Lord’s Prayer is “Your Kingdom come; your will be done.” I think of the verse that says, “Your boundary for me falls in pleasant places.” The capacity to be thankful for what comes from Gods hand. What a gift. It reminds me of a song…

A well watered tree living in perseverance and thriving!!

The title of today’s chapter is “Steps Toward Genuine Love” After all our consideration of what going on inside of us, what’s the result in terms of how we interact with others? The writer gives us several ideas…

1. See ourselves as being the whole people God is making us into. It’s easy to get stuck on what’s been in the past and what is broken. Better to set our eyes on what is renovated and whole because of Gods work in us.

2. Abandonment of all defensiveness. It reminds me of one of A. W. Tozer’s vows, “I vow never to defend myself” This abandonment frees me from so many behaviors like self-justification, evasiveness, deceit, and manipulation. Imagine the simplicity of simply being right before God and being whole and well and uninterested in the thousand little opinions that surround us each day.

3. That transformation allows us to move into a genuine love that flows out from us, even while the world is only offering “I love you if…” messages.

4. Then we recognize the use of our time here on earth is to bless and redeem. God has given us this ministry of reconciliation, to be part of sharing the good news that people don’t have to be estranged from God but can be reconciled to him through Christs sacrifice on the cross.

The book then makes a long list of images about this lifestyle of love from Romans 12:9-21. What a beautiful picture of a heart rooted in God and interacting with the world.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:9-21

Abandoning defensiveness, extending yourself in blessing to others!!

Today’s chapter is a continuation from yesterday concerning this passive/aggressive way of interaction that we tend to have with each other. I appreciate the way in which it is laid out as it mentions parents who live that way in front of their children, and the implications it has as outcomes for them.

It starts off addressing one of our first problems…

“In modern life, individual desire has become the standard and rule for everything.”

How are we to live out the standard of serving one another as a standard if the above is the standard? Great question. Then the observation from the view of the family unit, if passive aggressive ways of handling conflict are the only things children witness in their home a natural result of that is a constant posture of withdrawal. It’s a place where little souls get hardened, discover loneliness and are set up for addiction, anger, isolation and all sorts of self-destructive behaviors. These witnessed behaviors become the source of understanding whats normal and the cycle is extended into a new generation.

Maybe it feels like childhood homes get too much blame, BUT, how often do you witness your children following your exact behaviors, words, and mannerisms? Monkey see, monkey do… so how do we fix it? That’s part of the next chapter, but the close of this chapter points to Jesus in a story.

Jesus was in a synagogue on the Sabbath. a woman who was crippled for 18 years came in and Jesus healed her. In this great moment to rejoice one of the crusty leaders calls him out for healing on the sabbath. Enter the world of the passive aggressive. Jesus could have just ignored him and walked away not wanting to stir up any commotion or make anyone feel bad(passive). Jesus could have been overly upset, through a tantrum, call the leader a bunch of name to humiliate him or cast the same sickness on him that had been on her (aggressive).

Jesus did something, he did speak up. “You’d water your ox on a Sabbath wouldn’t you, but you won’t let me free this woman?” Are your animals more important than people? Your norms have become foolishness. Jesus wasn’t going to act like that wasn’t true, bury his head in the sand and let the witnesses of the event wonder if their religious leaders were right. And he didn’t resort to name calling or visible judgements falling on people. (although it says his opponents were humiliated, but that’s what happens when your wrong about something really important.) See yesterdays blog.

There is a need in society to understand a third way that’s not simply passive or aggressive, but a third way that does like Jesus does in this story where a heart of love and compassion was able to override the cultural norms and press into Kingdom values and not just rules set up by humanity. A third way, a God-like way to interact with history and reveal His-story.