The Wrestle of Your Life!

I have been considering strategies for creating healthy places of recovery. Recovery from all kinds of things: abuse, anger, adultery, sexual lust, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, etc, etc, etc. If we are going to have a church in the neighbourhoods we are called to we have to figure out how to create spaces of "RE" within our small group relationships(RE-genreation, RE-covery, RE-storation, RE-habits). These RE-demption groups have to be safe places where people are able together to wrestle with God until the Gospel leads them to giving up to His RE-vival in their lives.
Genesis 32, I would argue is a definite turning point of RE-covery, in the life of Jacob- the cheater, manipulator, liar and selfish sinner.
Four lessons stick out to me as I look at one of the darkest nights of Jacob's life. Four lessons that have some kick back for me. Reality is if we are going to be able to set up as a church that has RESTORATION and REDEMPTION at the heart of it then anyone who wants to fully enter into this type of church will have to recognize their own selfish addiction under the bright light of the Gospel. Jesus came to save sinners and I'm the one most in need of a Savior.
The four lessons briefly are these:
1.MY LEGS ARE TO SHORT TO OUTRUN MYSELF Gen. 31-32:24a Jacob is running from the manipulation, abuse, and addiction to self in his present - towards the hope of finding some rest, restoration for his future and he runs face first into the manipulation, abuse, addiction and selfish hurt of his past. Past, present, future he has overwhelmed himself with himself. No matter where we run, the friends we change, the spouse we get rid of, the habit we transfer to, or the location we move away from we discover late at night, all alone, that our worst enemy is still there. My legs are to short to outrun myself!

2. MY KNUCKLES ARE SORE FROM HITTING MYSELF Gen. 32:24b Jacob gets ambushed by this warrior who comes out of no where. This is not a daddy and a child wrestling. This is no fake WWF stuff. This is hand to hand combat. This is UFC style without the referee! Jacob was wrestling for his life- he didn't know if this was one of Esau's men who had come scouting, perhaps to kill him and win the day? Or if it was a crazed robber who wanted him dead to then take what little he had with him. Either way, there was smashed, bloody knuckles, gulping, burning lungs, smashed faces, skinned knees, moments of terror and exhaustion. They fought for the better part of the night. Jacob could not make any progress against this warrior. He felt like he was getting exhausted without getting any where. That's the way we feel when we are just trying to overcome our sinful habits, and selfishness on our own. We exchange one habit for another equally addictive pattern of behavior. It's like a constant pummeling of our own faces with our fists! Hard to find freedom this way. We need to be surrounded by those who are willing to fight for us and with us in the hope of the gospel against our own self destructive sin.

3. MY HIPS ARE TOO WEAK TO FIGHT WITH GOD Gen 32:25 Jacob finally in sheer exhaustion, in the breaking of the dawn of the longest night of his life is defeated. The Warrior with whom he wrestles, who is called the man of God (probably a reference to Jesus), reaches down and pops his leg out of joint so badly that the inner tendons of his thigh are torn! Wrestling with God may mean a true experience of terror as our addiction to self is torn away. Jacob can do nothing else accept to wrap his arms around Jesus and hold on! This is the shear rawness of the Gospel, we can do nothing about making our sin better. Sin has to be torn from our soul by the work of Christ. We can only grab hold of Him for the hope our life! With Jesus, brokenness becomes the good fruit of submission and the posture of blessing!

4. MY ONLY HOPE OF WINNING IS TO TAP OUT Gen 32:27-29 There it is, the hope of REDEMPTION! Blessing, life, victory and all the "RE" of life can only come by dieing to self and holding onto Christ for new life!

What are the RE-sults of this wrestle of Jacob's Life? Read on in chapters 32 and 33. He is given a NEW name, NEW walk, and RENEWED promise. Further the brother who hated Jacob, sought to kill him in the past, now comes to him weeping, kissing him and with his four hundred warriors, escorting him back home!
My God is the God of great RE-versals and RE-storation! Willing to know that type of God, in that type of community? REDEMPTION calls you to the wrestle of your life!

God Gets A Bride!

The faith journey of Abraham has had some incredible twists and turns. Hebrews 11:8-12 describes for us, in a snap shot, the varied highs and lows of how believing the promise of God is truly a journey.
Looking at the various points of his life you soon learn that every step of faith takes a complete act of surrender. It doesn't matter if that step might be later seen as a baby step compared to what you face today. When you were faced with that baby step it required a commitment of all that you could give at the time. For Abraham the call to take his wife, family, his all on the basis of a promise and leave all that he knew of life behind- that required a complete act of faith, and trust, all that he had at the time. Later in his life the command to sacrifice his only son, the son of promise, would cause this step of moving to a new land a baby step. Nonetheless, both required complete acts of faith and trust in the promise of God. Both required a complete giving up of self for that moment.
How could Abraham have taken the steps of faith required at every given moment? He grabbed hold of the promise of God and began to press this promise into every area of his life!
When Abraham came to the end of his life, as we read in Genesis 23, 24- He continues to do the same. In sorrow, the death of his wife Sarah, he presses the promise of God into securing a land for burial. Trusting that God will give back to him the burial plot and more, all the surrounding land, he purchases the field for burial.
Abraham growing old, probably pushing 150, with a son now pushing 40 steps out in faith once again, to find his only beloved son a Bride. Abraham sends out his servant with a joyful and burdensome oath- the joy of finding the perfect wife for the Son of promise. The picture that unfolds is an unmistaken allusion of the Father God, sending His Spirit, into the world to find a Bride (the Church), for the Beloved Son, Jesus.
A couple of notes in this same flow: The Testimony of the Servant and the Response of the Bride. The testimony of the servant to the family of Rebekah is a not a testimony about his own faithfulness, or his own gifts, authority or power. The servant, a picture of the Holy Spirit, speaks only of the blessings of the Father, all of the treasure and the beloved Son. This is the work of the Holy Spirit to press in on the Bride the promises of the Father through the Son! Isn't this not the essence of the Gospel being worked out in us?! It is not for us to look inward to see what gifts we might have or not have. What talents we posses or special spiritual words we can conjure up that we tell others are from God, or sensational experiences we can point to as a proof of an extra-ordinary mature spiritual faith. No. This kind of spiritual self nominating actually points more to self-idolatry and spiritual immaturity.
What does spiritual maturity, spiritual teaching, preaching and spiritual growth look like? It is fully Holy Spirit led and therefore presses in only the person and work of Jesus into our lives. The Holy Spirit is Gospel centered, Christ-o-centric in His ministry among the Bride! (John 15:26; John 16:13-15)
The Response of the Bride must then be more then a mental assent. Rebekah couldn't just be in awe of being asked to enter into the Father's blessing through relationship with the Son. She had to actually by faith enter into this promise for herself. She had to leave behind the family she knew and by faith be drawn into relationship with Isaac. This is a surrender of self and a pressing in of the promise into her own life. She shows us how we too must abandon self and press into the promise of God in order to enter into this relationship,enjoy the inheritance of relationship in the Son, Christ.
Looking back over my life I wonder now, like no other time in my life, how has the Spirit of God continued to press the promise of the Gospel into the complete areas of my life? May we allow God to woe us with the Gospel to be the Bride who enjoys a transforming relationship with God!

Merry Christmas: A Promised Son -Laughter Turned to Joy

I asked a couple of nurses in our church, who work in 'Deliveries,' what has been some of the memorable reactions they have witnessed as a new life has entered the world. The answers ranged from fainting, to questions of "Do we have to take him home?", to uncontrollable weeping for joy.
This past Sunday PAX looked at Abram's reaction to a Promised Child:
Genesis 15 The Need for Assurance Why do people spend countless hours attending church services or religious rituals? Why do we spend millions of dollars a year on self help books in North America? In large part I think it is probably for a sense of "ASSURANCE". Assurance that I'm alright, or can make myself alright, or at least better. Assurance that I have all the basics of morality, a sense of goodness, and self worth. Assurance that I'm not as messed up as I often feel or wonder and that if there is some reason out there greater then myself I have done something (lit a candle, said a prayer, spoke a confessional, recited a mantra, burnt some incense, spend time in quiet emptiness of self and reaching in to find the spark of me) to make myself more certain- Certain of WHAT?! Being protected, fulfilling betterment, becoming, hope, getting rewarded in this life and the next?
Abram, 10 years ago from this point in Genesis 15, took all his belongings, his wife, his servants and the rest of all that were of his household, and went off to a foreign land because he felt God told him that he should. He has had some affirming and anxious moments over the time. In fact he just came off of a huge victory against impossible odds in chapter 14! He refused to take any reward from the world around him for his victory, choosing instead to hope in a promise that God has made with him. We find him now anxious, afraid, wondering and needing assurance.
God visits with Abram in the time of his need for assurance and tells him, "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." Then in this incredible chapter God gives him three assurances followed by symbols and reminders of this assurance! Assurance of God's Word - Followed by the Object Lesson of the Stars Gen. 15:1-7 Abram still wants a greater assurance of God's very presence in the midst of his hope so God graciously leads Abram to make an ancient binding contract with Him, Gen. 15:8-16 Think of it- God places himself in contracted (coventantial) promise with Abram. In the Assurance of God's Commitment we see the picture of animals slain, cut in two, set up on either side of small depression in the ground so that the blood could flow down the middle of the trench between. The implicit statement being if in anyway I break this contract let it be done to me what has been done to these sacrifices! Look at what happens next: Gen. 15:17-22 God causes a deep, dark, paralyzing trance to fall on Abram so that he cannot move; He cannot get up to walk through the trench of blood in order to make his half the coventantial promise to God! Oh no! How can he enter into the covenant of following, obeying, and not turning to anything else for assurance accept the Promise of God? He can't, he won't, it would not be keep able, doable and God would, by way of covenant contract need to pour out His wrath! But what happens? God himself, by way of symbol of flaming torch and smoking fire pot walks down through the blood fulfilling the contract on behalf of Abram to himself- by doing this God is saying, "If Abram breaks the covenant I will bare his part! Let my blood be shed!" In the next couple of chapters there is the promise given of a son through whom the covenant of both God and Abram would be fulfilled.
The very next chapter Abram and Sarai, in very Eden-esk ways, try to make God's promises happen through alternative ways- breaking the contract of trusting God (the re-occurring theme of the chapter is misery!)
Genesis 16 Miserable Alternatives
God however is faithful to his Covenant and sends a son of promise who changes the skeptics laughter of both Abram and Sarah into the fullness of Joy.
Genesis 17 Laughter to Joy
Do you need assurance today? Look what God has done in keeping His Word to you and I and covering the covenant of promise for us! Isaiah 9:2-11
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Christmas is a symbol of assurance for those who need help from God to believe and to be found whole! He has given us a Son who turns our skeptic laughter to fullness of Joy!
Merry Christmas!

Genesis14-18: Followers and Posers

Being called out as a poser is never a good thing. I play some guitar. Learned through hanging around with musicians. I wouldn't call myself a musician. But I do like to play a bit of guitar. Sometimes, because I have my guitar alongside of some musicians, I'll get asked to play a song or for some event. I kinda get an uneasy feeling in my stomach, and shift allot in my chair, "I'm not really much of a guitar player", I stammer. Och, called out- poser! I read through Genesis 14-18 (the parts about Abram and Lot) and I see someone who is a true follower of God, right alongside a true poser.
The Bible makes it so plain: Being a Follower of God has a cost but being a Poser costs more then you thought.
Being a Follower or a Poser is a difference of Place Ch 18;1-7; 19:1-3 - The messengers of God show up to both Abram and Lot, in fact Jesus shows up to talk to Abram face to face. But these two God worshipers were in different places. Abram was in Hebron- the place of God's promise. Lot was at the gates of Sodom, with it's 'valley culture'. This place was definitely the wickedest little valley in all the land.
Being a Follower or a Poser is a difference of Captured Heart Ch 14:1-15
Lot's heart had been captured by the wickedness of Sodom. I find it curious that as we are told of the battle in the Canaan and the Red Sea Valley, by the kings of these cities against the rising super power of the day, that Lot was captured at home. Obviously although he had a heart turned towards Sodom's wickedness it wasn't something he wanted to be known as fighting, or maybe dieing for. The warning for my heart: be careful not to be captured by something that is not worth fighting for!
Abram's heart has been captured by the heart of the power of God's promise and so he fearlessly rushes out into battle against four kings and their armies. In one night, with only 317 men, Abram does what the 5 defeated kings could not do in a years worth of battle! Abram had grabbed hold of the power of God's promise and went to war to redeem his kinsmen!
Being a Follower or a Poser is a difference of Response ch 18:16-32;19:4-14
When Jesus tells Abram what He is about to do to Sodom, Abram intercedes. He appeals to God, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" He pleads for God's mercy to be poured out for even a mere ten found righteous, out of the thousands who probably live in these two cities. After all Abram knew there was Lot, his wife, his two daughters (that's four) as well as all those who must have worked for lot, and perhaps a few of Lot's friends or his daughters' fiancees and family? Surely there must have been a mere ten influenced by Lot, a follower of Abram's God. Sadly, we find in chapter 19 the answer to be NO! This is a sick picture.ALL the men of the city gathering around the house of Lot to have a sexual orgy with two innocent strangers who have come into the city! Lot offering his two young daughters to these hundreds of perverts! What a wicked evil, sinful, despicable response! Then after the angels urge Lot and his family to flee for their lives because God is going to wipe out these cities they 'linger' and have to be 'seized' and placed out side of the city by force!
2 Peter 4:6-8 wrecks my thinking! Here Lot is called a righteous, yet tormented, man of God- Lot is a deep spiritual Poser. A man who had faith in the God of Abram so that he experienced 'fire insurance' yet gave his heart to the wickedness of the world. Lot is called righteous in 2 Peter because, as the Bible bears out, we cannot make ourselves righteous. Righteousness is a gift from God at the moment of belief. we have the righteousness of Christ because of the grace of God, when we believe. Lot however never thought compromise and taking advantage of such grace would cost him this much- his home, his wealth, life as he knew it. The compromise was so complete that it infiltrated his entire family. In the end his wife paid the ultimate price, and his daughters were so twisted that they committed incest with their daddy. How terribly sad.
I like to think that I would be like Abram not Lot. The truth is Abram shows us more Christ then Christians. He believes the promise of the Father. Goes to battle against the worst of enemies -sin, death and hell; Comes back from battle bloodied and victorious. Presents the 'booty'- the rescued kinsmen- before God and is given the rightful birthright!
We are Lot! Heart bent on sin, wickedness, driven by the standards of the world. Unless we are rescued by the Gospel our choices of self indulgence will cause us to live and even die for something we really weren't willing to fight for..... the good news for us is that we by faith can grab hold of the Redeeming Victor- who came in a manger- Christ!

"How much do you have to hate somebody NOT to proselytize?""

This is too good not to rip off and put up on PAXblog. Thanks Darryl Dash for posting it! (A shout out to Dash House, points for thoughtful blog entries that are relevant to Canadians and the Gospel.)
SO SHOULD YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH?!

Penn of Penn and Teller is an atheist. His response to being evangelized after a show may surprise you.

"I don't respect people who don't proselytize. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, and you think, 'Well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward'...How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?"
PENN on PROSELYTIZING!

F.O.G. Friday's- Function of the Gospel in My Relationships

We are knee deep into the Holiday season, so as I reflect on how the Gospel functions in my life I am forced to face 'family'. Isn't this one of the great and not so great things about holidays for most people? Don't we all have a weird uncle who shows up at the most inappropriate times and makes a bunch of rude comments that ticks off all the mostly sane members of the family? Relationships are what we are made for and long for, so why are they so often our greatest point of hurt, stress and regrets? How does the Gospel lived out affect these important relationships in our lives?
We have been studying the book of Genesis at PAXnorth, as you can tell if you read some of the more recent blogs. One of the things I love about the Bible is that it doesn't pull any punches. We don't get a beautiful 'saintly' utopia feel from the lives or family life of those we often call saints. More often we get the full on truth of their messy families, broken relationships and poor ungodly decisions. If you don't believe me read Genesis 3-11 and count how many messed up relationships emerge. The good news is that we are not alone, the challenge is how do we do something different in our relationships? For the next couple of Friday blogs I want to address some of this family brokenness in light of the Gospel.
First let me remind you of the irreducibles of the Gospel of Jesus. What is the Gospel? I Corinthians 15:1-3 reminds us that the Gospel is Christ, crucified, and risen from the dead on our behalf. What does this have to do with my relationships?
Take a piece of paper and list on one side all that the Cross of Christ means to us:
Forgiveness, Atonement(at-one-ment),temptations of sin waded through and overcome, God's holy just wrath satisfied (propitiation), our sin removed from us (expiation), a relationship with God is possible and a reality by an exercise of faith in Jesus! These are only a few things, read Ephesians 1, and Romans 8 to continue the list. Now on the other side of the paper list how this matters to my relationships. For instance
because God does not hold my sin against me because of His son- I can live out of a posture of forgiveness to my spouse, my parents, my family. After all isn't this the process of "working out our salvation?" (Phil. 2:12) or also called the process of sanctification. Over the next couple of Friday's I want to blog about how this fleshes out in our relationships. How does this address generational hurt, abuse sin? How does this work out in conflicts and criticisms? How does this work out in even the mundane, everyday maintenance of relationships. So take some time this week...make the Gospel list.... try and work out the reflections of this in your relationships...I think you'll find this has the potential to change your outlook and bring about incredible change in your relationships! You never know it may actually help us to enjoy family in a whole new way over the holidays.

Treadmill Rebels: Genesis 5,6 Living Different

Genesis 5-6 covers about 1656 years of human history through genealogy. These two chapters cover about as much history as does the rest of the Bible! Yeah, WOW!
When you think about the progress of mankind over that period of time you expect, being so close to the original creation, that there would almost be a developing utopia of human goodness. After all if humanity is not born in sinfulness, like universalism tell us, the early generations being so close to the original designs of God the society would not have been as wicked, as our social environment is. There would have been a great progressing of the goodness of man and the ability to create a social environment of peace, love and joy- by merely growing up in these surroundings. Wouldn't that be what you expect, if humans were not born with a sinful condition and pre-inclinations towards sin continually? So what's the status? What do we find after 1600 years of human progression? READ IT! Genesis 5 What strikes you about this passage? He is born, he has breakfast, he has kids, he dies; He is born, he has breakfast, he has kids, he dies; He is born, he has breakfast .... BORRRRRING! Same old thing!
Now look at Genesis 6:5, not only was it the same old get born, get breakfast and die TREADMILL cycle but it was a continuing growing cycle of self worship- evil!
What did you notice though, in the middle of the treadmill of sinful humanity? Two BLIPS on God's radar screen. Enoch...blip...Noah...blip. What is different? They walk with God. By God's favor (Hebrew word for grace- meaning the actions of a superior, bowing or showing favor to an inferior), two pagans were given the grace of God. They responded with rightness! They turned their attention, their hearts, their lives, over to a relationship of knowing, loving, obeying God.
Here is a good lesson on Living Different in a Culture Addicted to Wickedness.
You want to be a REBEL to that 'treadmill of the same old'? Everyone around us is rebellion against God, living their own rules, making their own way, filling their own lives up with the brokenness of their own decisions... look around you! We get up , we eat breakfast, we serve our lusts, wants, self, we die, or walk out, or jump from one shattered relationship to the next. All the while trying to set new standards of happiness, skinniness, coolness, fame, or even religious good-feel-ed-ness! All in all it is a sad attempt to make ourselves god of our lives.... treadmill rebellion!
You want to be a real TREADMILL REBEL?
Get up and get on your knees before God! Confess your need for Him, cry out to Him. Begin to search, pray on, feed on His Word, looking for what His intentions and purposes for you life are. Find out what He loves, and love that. Find out what breaks His heart and let it break your heart. Find out what He hates and hate that! BLIP.......BLIP.... whoa something powerfully different then the same old treadmill of life.
You will begin to discover that God calls us to live out a sacrificial love because of the love His Son demonstrated for us on the cross; forgiveness because of the offense of sin that is forgiven us because of the cross; peace because the wrath of God was satisfied in the person of Jesus at the cross. You will live out a genuine authentic relationship with God through Jesus- discovering a change of new life in your relationships and purpose beyond yourself! Christ lived out in you, your home, your relationships, your work place, your school holds an a true countercultural attraction for those you 'do' life with. GO AHEAD REBEL!