Getting an Alignment

Have you ever checked your tires only to discover a kind of wear pattern that looks like big scoops taken out of the sides? Or maybe one side looks new but the other side looks bald?

You need to remember to have an alignment done.

You see, if your tires are out of alignment, they start to fight against the direction of the car. They start to stutter and shimmy, or they are turned in or out and, thus, they end up ruining your nice new steel-belted radials.

Think of your relationship with God a little bit like a new set of tires. If you stay properly aligned, your relationship will hum along as it was intended. But get a little bit out of alignment and you will begin to show signs of wear and tear.

What do I mean by alignment? The most basic truth we should understand is that He's God and I'm not. That is, He is the Creator of all things. I am one of his created things. When I fail to remember that in any way, I start to go out of alignment.

This is what happened to Satan. He was the highest being who was created to worship God and to lead all of God's creation in worship. He is called helel (shining one) in Isa. 14:12, from which the Latin translation, Lucifer (morning star) comes. In Eze. 28:14, God said that he was ordained as a "guardian cherub." But at some point, he got "out of alignment." Isaiah prophesies about his downfall. He begins to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself LIKE THE MOST HIGH'" (Isa. 14:13-14).

This is the original sin. Satan became conceited and deceived in a desire to be worshipped like God was worshipped. He was out of alignment because he forgot that "He's God and I'm not."

And so Isaiah tragically records: "But [instead], you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit" (Isa. 14:15).

Mankind's fall was similar. The temptation in the Garden of Eden was for Adam and Eve to take over God's job. "Sure God, you said that we were not to eat the fruit of this tree. But we aren't sure you have our best interests in mind. Therefore, we think we know better than You what is best for us. We will take the steering wheel from here on out and begin to run our own lives." (Perhaps I should have said, "ruin our own lives?")

Christian conversion in many ways is merely the re-aligment of our lives to match God's intention for all of His creation. When I become a Christian, as the old "Four Spiritual Laws" tract said, I am getting off of the throne of my own life and putting Jesus on the throne. It is getting the ultimate cosmic alignment job.

Worship is also alignment. It is the spiritual discipline that makes me place myself in proper alignment relative to my Lord. He's God and I'm not. Therefore, I worship Him.

This is what the Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian life are all about. They are the regular rhythms of spiritual discipline that keep our lives in proper alignment. Daily devotion and prayer time with God. A plan for regular reading through the Bible. Other regular activities like prayer, silence, solitude, journaling, and faith gatherings: small groups and the larger church celebrations.

But most of all: worship. You see worship is proper alignment with the Creator of the Universe.

How's your alignment? Need an adjustment? Just begin to worship and see what happens.

Wine Mixed With Gall

"There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it" (Matt. 27:34).

In the middle of the story of the Crucifixion, as Jesus arrives at Golgotha, someone offers him a drink which he refuses. Why? The answer to that question has implications for our salvation.

The first thing to note is that what he was being offered was not just the regular wine that everyone drank. In fact, while Jesus hung upon the cross, he later accepts a drink of "wine vinegar" (Matt. 27:48; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36; John 19:28-30). This occurs at the end of his ordeal.

The one offered before he was crucified was refused. The one offered at the end of the crucifixion was received.
The difference between these two drinks is important to note.

Mark tells us that the first drink was "wine mixed with myrrh" (Mark 15:23). Mark's Gospel is generally accepted to be the earliest one and Matthew drew upon it for his work. So, Matthew changes the specific word "myrrh" for a more generic word that really means "something bitter." You see, Matthew, throughout his Gospel, wants to emphasize that Jesus, in all He did, was fulfilling the scriptures. And here, he changes the word to
reflect the fulfillment of Psalm 69:21, "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst."

For both Matthew and Mark, the point is that Jesus was being offered a pain-killing drink, a kind of narcotic that would help him through the experience in a drugged state. It was  like offering Him a shot of morphine to put him into a stupor.

Jesus refused to deaden the pain of His ordeal. Why? Because He needed to bear the entire weight of mankind's sin and our offense against God. To numb the pain would be to lessen the efficacy of His substitutionary act of atonement. Jesus was not willing that anyone should perish and so He needed to be fully present to the task at hand.

For those of us who struggle with any kind of addiction (and that is probably all of us), we can find comfort that Jesus died for us, fully present to our pain, rather than opt for self-medication. Avoidance of pain is the essence of addiction. I am grateful that Jesus did not avoid the pain, but fully embraced the cross so that I can be fully free.

So, if Jesus refused the first drink, why did He accept the second one?

As John's Gospel makes clear in 19:28-30, Jesus was thirsty after completing the work of atonement. He had one more thing to do, and that was to fulfill the scripture quoted above, "and gave me vinegar for my drink." This drink was entirely different.

You see, people didn't really drink plain water very much. That is because the quality of the water was generally poor. Often they would mix it with wine vinegar to kill germs (although they would not know there were such things as germs). This drink would have refreshed Jesus and woken Him to the moment. Instead of avoiding the painful trial, it would have sharpened His senses.

In other words, Jesus wanted to stay alert until the very end. No swooning. No passing out. Even with the blood loss and probable dehydration, He stayed fully alert until the end. That is why He could cry out in a loud voice His final word from the cross, "Tetelestai" which means "It is finished!" Our obedient Savior had pushed through the pain and humiliation and temptation to quit and had completed the task that the Father had sent Him to accomplish, the atonement for ALL sin for ALL people for ALL time.

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--YET HE DID NOT SIN. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16).

"But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands...He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption" (Her. 9:11-12).

A Pebble In My Pocket

I carry a little pebble in my pocket to remind me just how much God has done for me in the last three years.

Little did I know when I wrote my last post on "Romance and the Journey of Faith" (Feb. 12, 2016) that I would end up arriving home again, myself. Here it is a year later and I have pretty much made the entire trek, "There and Back Again."

Here's a little bit about my recent journey: In March of 2012, in obedience to God, I closed the church I had planted in July 2000, the Walnut Valley Vineyard Church, and gifted most of the equipment to the Can2 Vineyard, a new Cantonese-speaking congregation that was planted out of the Vineyard of Harvest (a Mandarin congregation) by my friend, Pastor Kenneth Kwan. I began working on planting a new Vineyard Church in Brea, California called "The Journey." It was exciting to begin a new adventure. We gathered a small group of great leaders, all of us anticipating what God was about to do. Little did we know that we would wander in the wilderness for a couple of years.

During that time, leaders came and then had to leave for a variety of reasons until, in October of 2014, we decided that it would be best to suspend everything. As you can imagine, it is a bit of a shock to realize that "God is just not that into your church plant." And even though I was disappointed at the end of The Journey (pun intended), it was not really the end of my journey.

Although I had gotten used to sleeping in on Sunday mornings (The Journey met Sunday evenings), we continued to attend a really great home group. I knew we needed to find a church home. It is never good to "give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing" (Heb. 10:25). The painful process that follows any loss, called the grieving process, can be difficult enough without also withdrawing from the loving support of the community of faith.

In January of 2015, we started to attend the Vineyard Community Church of Pomona/Claremont. My friend, Alan Strzemieczny, aka Stretch, became my pastor as I sought to find work in the secular world. I was selling doors and windows for another good friend, Kelvin Chin. Then I was hired by a Property Development and Construction company close to my home.

By the end of 2015 I was feeling pretty miserable in my new job (all of which was my own stuff--it was not a good fit). And I began to pray for God to open the door back into full-time ministry. By April of 2016, He partially answered my prayer by cutting back my hours at the Construction company. In order to make ends meet, I began driving for Uber (which I am still able to do when I have time). With all of this, I was not really making enough to live on.

Besides that, I yearned for the privilege of, once again, fulfilling my purpose in life. God made me a pastor and I don't think I'll ever be able to be happy doing anything else again.

In August of 2016, God answered the second part of my prayer, when the Pomona Vineyard hired me as an Associate Pastor. There and back again.

On Good Friday 2016, I picked up a small stone to remind myself to pray this prayer every day, "Lord, please open the door back into pastoral ministry." And even though the prayer was answered in August, I continue to carry that pebble in my pocket as a reminder to be thankful for all that God has done. Even when ministry gets hard, which it inevitably does, I want to remember how thankful I am to be doing what I'm doing.

What does your journey look like? Are you asking God to lead you to a preferred destination? Remember that  He is "the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul" (1 Pet. 2:25). You are never wandering alone when you stay connected to Him.

Romance and the Journey of Faith

G. K. Chesterton, in his classic book, “Orthodoxy,” tells the story of a man who sets out in a boat from his beloved England on an adventure of discovery. Caught up in a storm, he loses any sense of direction, as he is driven on by the gale-force winds. But soon the skies clear and he espies land in the distance. As he approaches shore, he can see a strange palace with onion-shaped spires. He pulls to shore, thinking he has discovered some exotic isle, only to find that the palace is the Royal Pavilion at Brighton Beach. He has arrived back home in England!

Chesterton tells us that this is what “romance” means in the classical sense. It is not just a feeling of dreaminess or infatuation. Instead it is a combination of a sense of adventure and of coming home.

As a life-long fan of J. R. R. Tolkein, Chesterton’s definition of romance helps me understand something fundamental about his Middle Earth fantasies. Bilbo goes on an adventure and returns home again. And his memoirs are titled,, “There and Back Again: A Hobbits Holiday.”

And “The Hobbit” is only the prequel to the much weightier tome, “The Lord of the Rings.” But once again, in the larger work, the hobbits set out on an adventure only to return home. It is significant that Sam (perhaps the real hero of the story), returns to his home and family with the closing words of the book, “Well, I’m back.”

There and back again.

Why do I spend such a long time musing on the nature of classic romanticism? Because it is actually a comment on the great romantic adventure that God has called all of us to undertake.

“By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Heb. 11: 8).

We are all called to a life of faith, of stepping out of our safe place, our comfort zone—to go to a place where God promises to bless us. The stepping out is an adventure of massive proportions. But when we obey and go, we find ourselves arriving where we truly belong, our new home with Him.

What about you? Have you stepped out by faith on the road with God? I promise that by obeying Him in faith, you will be actually arriving where you belong—home with Him.

Tentmaking in the Kingdom

“And because he was a tentmaker like them [Priscilla and Acquila], he stayed and worked with them” (Acts 18:3).

In Paul’s day, Rabbis were trained in understanding the scriptures and in debating the spiritual and theological issues of their time. But they also learned a trade so that they could make a living wherever they went. Paul was a tentmaker. And Acquila, with his wife Priscilla, were also tentmakers.

 

Now some traveling teachers in the Greco-Roman world would attract followers who would pay to become their disciples. But evidently Paul did not live this way.

In fact, you could say that Paul actually bent over backwards NOT to collect for his services. Instead, he decided to work with his own hands.

In the midst of his argument about why the Corinthians should not eat meat offered to idols, Paul uses his own practice of self-support as an example. Let me summarize his argument from chapter 9 of 1^st Corinthians. “Even though I have the right to be supported materially by those who receive spiritual benefit from my apostolic ministry, and even though other apostles DO receive such support, I have decided not to exercise my rights. Instead, after I’ve finished my day job preaching the Gospel, I work with my own hands to generate the income I need to live. I do this so that no one gets a confusing message from me: ‘Salvation is a free gift that you cannot earn, now give me money for preaching.’ I am guided by the ethical principle that love for my brothers should guide my behavior towards them, not superior knowledge of my rights.”

Notice he hints at this attitude in Philippians 4. To paraphrase his words: “Thanks for sending the gift of monetary support. I don’t ask for money, but have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I find myself. I am more interested in the benefits that your generosity gives to you. May God supply all of your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus!”

As an aside, it’s interesting to think about Paul as tentmaker. Tents were temporary structures that you live in only when traveling through to a more permanent home. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived in tents because they were aliens in a foreign country. But the writer of Hebrews tells us that they were “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11: 9).

In the natural world, we are like “aliens in a foreign country.” We are traveling through to our true home, designed and built by God.

And it is also interesting to note that Paul’s spiritual vocation was “a wise master builder” (1 Cor. 3:10). He laid the spiritual foundations for the church, the structure that will last—all while he made tents by lamp-light to support his work.

Why am I talking about this subject? Because this is exactly where I find myself these days. Notice that it has been since September 2013 since I made my last Blog entry. During that time, God has moved me completely out of paid vocational ministry and into a full-time secular job. And what am I doing? Property development and construction. I am helping to build buildings.

But, in the Spirit, God has been placing me in peoples’ lives for their long-term development. So, my day job is construction, but my all-the-time job is building the Kingdom.

Where has God placed you in your life? Consider it tentmaking in the Kingdom.

Being Transformed

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your [heartfelt priestly service of worship].  Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Rom. 12: 1-2).

In a former post (A Daily Routine, June 9, 2012) I analyzed the underlying metaphor that Paul gives us in Romans 12: 1. Just like the physical daily ritual that the priests went through when they offered up the whole burnt offering (Lev. 1), we are now called to offer up a sacrificial offering, our own bodies, but not through a physical act. Instead, our sacrifice is from our hearts by an act of submission. This is our "heartfelt priestly service of worship."

The animal being offered in the Old Testament system had to be without blemish or defect. That is, it was to be "holy." Paul tells us that we are also to be "holy and pleasing to God."

Holiness means to be separated--separated from the world and separated to God in such a way that we are morally pure. Verse two expands on this idea of holiness. Rather than being conformed to the pattern that the world wants to imprint on us, we are to be "transformed" by the renewing of our minds.

The signet ring of the king had a pattern worked into it. When he wanted to send a special letter, hot wax would be poured over the flap and the ring would be pressed into the hot wax to seal the letter. The wax "conformed" to the imprint of the ring. All who are born into this world are being imprinted with the pattern of this world. In Ephesians 2: 1-3, Paul says we are all subject to the prince of the power of the air. "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts..." (Eph. 2: 3).

In Eph. 4: 22 and 24, Paul also calls us to a holy transformation. Our old self, that was conformed to the pattern of the world, is like an old set of clothing that needs to be taken off. The new self is like a new set of clothing to be put on. But between these two verses is an interesting statement: "be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Eph. 4: 23). Once again, Paul says that the power of our transformation--from the old, worldly self to the new, godly self--is the renewal of our minds.

Notice that the renewal of the mind is not a "healing of the brain." When we come to Christ, our gray matter remains unchanged. But the patterns imprinted on that gray matter, the software that runs on that hardware, begins a process of change.

So just how do we change?

First, we change our allegiance. No longer are we living life as if we are the sovereign. The very act of salvation is a submission of my will to Him. He is now the Lord of my life. Like the sacrificial bull, I lay down my life on His altar. I take up my cross daily to follow His will for my life. I no longer am living to gratify "the cravings of my flesh and following its desires and thoughts" (Eph. 2:3). Instead, I am seeking to live a life of complete submission to Him. I leave my own kingdom behind and enter His Kingdom.

Second, I begin to fill myself with His Word. Our Lord has given us special revelation that communicates His heart to us. "The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Heb. 4: 12). But just head knowledge will not change us. We must seek to actually DO what it says. "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says..."(Jas. 1: 22).

Third, we must live out the Christian life in community with other believers. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another..." (Heb. 10: 23-25). The greatest commandment Jesus gave was that we should "love one another" (John 13: 34). It is impossible to fulfill this command alone. The only way to love one another is to gather together in community.

Finally, we have been given the "Holy" Spirit. God's Spirit indwells us at the moment we are born again and marks us with a "seal" that sets us apart from the world and identifies us as belonging to God. We must continually ask Him to fill us with His Spirit. "Do not be drunk with wine (that is, don't be controlled by the spirit of alcohol), but be filled with the Spirit (that is, be controlled by the Spirit that makes you holy)" (Eph. 5: 18).

Submission. Being filled with and doing the Word. Gathering together as the Body of Christ. Being filled with the Holy Spirit. Through this we will be renewed in our minds so that we can truly be transformed into the holy and pleasing people who demonstrate God's will, lived out through us.

Gardening in the Kingdom

When I was a kid growing up in Santa Clara, California, I would plant a vegetable garden every year. It was a habit I probably picked up from my Italian immigrant extended family. I still have memories of my grandmother picking squash in her own backyard garden in San Jose.

The first step was to turn the soil and break up the clods, maybe adding in some old grass clippings as mulch. Then I would make rows and mounds with furrows and moats for planting and watering. Then I would plant the seeds (no seedlings from the nursery back then). Zucchini squash, Italian cucumbers, Indian corn, string beans, tomatoes, carrots and maybe a watermelon. I would always plant radishes because they were the fastest growing and gave me a sense of hope early on.

All through the summer, I would water, weed, thin and pick off the amazingly plump tomato worms.

And of course, the most amazing of all experiences came at harvest--the reward for all the hard work.

"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A person scatters seed on the ground..." (Mark 4: 26).

Jesus ministered in an agrarian culture. So it is not odd at all that he so often uses farming to illustrate kingdom principles. The Sower and the Seed, The Wheat and the Tares, and here, the Patient Farmer.

This parable, however, makes it seem like the farmer hardly works at all. "Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, although he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head" (Mark 4: 27-28).

The kingdom principle is this: the life of the kingdom is in the seed itself. The farmer's job is merely to sow the seed. God's job is to then cause the life inherent in the seed to do its thing. In Jesus' time, there was no irrigation or fertilization. The farmer could not make the seed grow any faster by brooding over it, or holding his breath, or gritting his teeth.

Then, when the proper time came, and the life of the kingdom inherent in the seed produced what it was designed to produce--harvest time had come. And now the farmer goes to work again.

"As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come" (Mark 4: 29).

Kinda makes me want to become a farmer. Except that we all know that farming is not that easy.

The kingdom principle that Jesus is teaching is this: the Gospel that we are sowing has the life of the kingdom within itself and will produce fruit if we will trust it. As Paul says in Romans, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Rom. 1: 16a).

God has called us all to become farmers in His field. Our job is to sow, water, weed, fertilize and tend in that garden. His job is to cause the life of the kingdom to work as a result.

And when that life begins to produce fruit, we get the joyous chance to put in the sickle and feel the joy of the harvest.

How's your crop doing?