Now, for the point of this post… Speaking as one with experience, I ask that you take a moment to pray for the missionaries around the world.  They need, and appreciate those prayers.  It amazes me each and every time I think of all those who give up their time and life and family, to travel to a foreign country for God.  Many of us struggle with rather or not we will put more than a few dollars in the offering plate, while these people have selflessly given up everything (including safety in some situations) in order to follow Christ.

I have been in prayer specifically for a younger couple I know who are in Thailand.  She is 7+ months pregnant with their first child.  My instinct would be, “they need to come home to have that baby!”  Yet they are staying in Thailand, trusting in God, and having their family there!  How amazing is that testimony.

So please take time today and pray for your missionaries, wherever they may be serving.  And also, take a leap of faith and support them financially too.  Bless them, as they continue to sacrifice in order to bless others.

From Provocations by Soron Kierkegaard:

Jesus says, “Forgive, and you will also be forgiven” (Mt. 6:14). That is to say, forgiveness is forgiveness. Your forgiveness of another is your own forgiveness; the forgiveness you give is the forgiveness you receive. If you wholeheartedly forgive your enemy, you may dare hope for your own forgiveness, for it is one and the same. God forgives you neither more nor less than as you forgive your trespassers.

It is an illusion to imagine that you have forgiveness while you are slack in forgiving others. No, there is not a more exact agreement between the sky above and its reflection in the sea below, than there is between forgiveness and forgiving. Is it not pure conceit to believe in your own forgiveness when you will not forgive others? For how in truth can you believe in forgiveness if your own life is a refutation of the existence of forgiveness?! Yes, to accuse another person before God is to accuse yourself, like-for-like.

People so gladly deceive themselves, so gladly imagine that they can have, as it were, a private relationship with God. But if you complain of your enemies to God, he makes short work of it and opens a case against you, because before God you too are a guilty person. To complain against another is to complain against yourself. You think that God should take your side, that God and you together should turn against your enemy, against him who did you wrong. But this is a complete misunderstanding. God looks without discrimination upon all. Go ahead. If you intend to have God judge someone else, then you have made God your judge as well. God is, like-for-like, simultaneously your judge. If, however, you refuse to accuse someone before God he will be merciful towards you.

Let me illuminate this with an example. There was once a criminal who had stolen some money, including a hundred- dollar bill. He wanted to get this changed into smaller bills and so he turned to another criminal to help him. The second criminal took the money, went into the next room as if to make change, then came out again and acted as if nothing ever happened. In short, he swindled the first criminal out of the hundred-dollar bill. The first man became so embittered over this that he brought the case to the authorities and reported how shame- fully he had been deceived. Naturally the second man was imprisoned on the charge of fraud. Alas, in the trial the first question the authorities raised was: how did the accuser get the money in the first place? And so there were two trials. Thus it is with respect to God. When you accuse another person, there are immediately two cases; just because you come and reported an- other person before God, God happens to think of how it also involves you.

Like-for-like. Yes, Christ is so rigorous that he even affirms a radical inequality. He says, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Mt. 7:3). And even if you do not see the log, even if no one else sees it – God sees it. Is this not rigorousness, this which makes a gnat into an elephant? But if you truly understand how God is continually present in everything, then you will indeed be able to understand this rigorousness, you will understand that seeing the speck in your brother’s eye is always high treason. God is always present, and if he is present, he also sees you!

How rigorous is this Christian like-for-like! The world’s like- for-like is: see to it that in the long run you do to others what others have done to you. But the Christian like-for-like is: as you do to others, God does to you in the very same mode. Christianly understood, what others do to you should not con- cern you. You should concern yourself with what you do to oth- ers and with the way you receive what others do to you. The direction is inwards; essentially you have only to do with your- self before God. To love human beings is to love God and to love God is to love human beings. What you do to others you do to God, and therefore what you do to others God does to you.

If you are embittered towards those who do you wrong, you are really embittered towards God, for ultimately it is God who permits wrong to be done to you. If, however, you gratefully take wrongs as if from God’s hand, “as a good and perfect gift,” you will not become resentful. If you will not forgive, you essentially want something else, you want to make God hard- hearted. How, then, should this hard-hearted God forgive you? If you cannot bear the offenses of those against you, how should God bear your sins against him? No, like-for-like.

God is himself the pure rendition of how you yourself are. If there is wrath in you, then God is wrath in you; if there is mild- ness and mercifulness in you, then God is mercifulness in you. You know well enough that echo which dwells in solitude. It corresponds exactly, oh, so exactly, to every sound, to the slightest sound, and duplicates it, oh, so exactly. If there is a word you prefer not be said to you, then watch your saying of it. Watch lest it slip out of you in solitude, for the echo duplicates it immediately and says it to you. If you have never been solitary, you have also never discovered that God exists. But if you have been truly solitary, then you have learned that everything you say and do to other human beings God simply repeats. He repeats it with the intensification of infinity.

And, at times, those prayers seem to go unanswered.  Sometimes those prayers seem to fall on deaf ears, if they fall on ears at all.  However, Jonah shows us in stunning colors, that what we want is not always best.

When we look at the story of Jonah, we find that Jonah wanted to flee from the presence of the Lord.  Jonah 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:  2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah 1:3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.

Jonah wanted to get away from God, he believed, rather because of fear of going to Nineveh or due to a self-righteous spirit, Jonah believed it would be better to flee from the Lord, rather than listen to Him.  And unfortunately, Jonah got what he wanted.

In Jonah 2:4 Jonah announces that he finally obtained that which he desired.  Jonah says, “I have been banished from your sight;”  And although he accomplished his goal, I think we will all agree that his prayer being answered, was not best for his well being.

Now sure, this is an extreme case.  I’m sure many of you are thinking, I’m not trying to get away from God.  Yet many of us ask for things that God doesn’t give us.  And sometimes we struggle with why that is.  “God I’m faithful, God please… please just this once.”  And yet they fall on deaf ears.  I think a question for us to remember though is our own priorities.  If God is first, maybe we should strive more to uphold that relationship, than worry about an answered prayer.  Remember, God knows (Matthew 6:31-32).  He is omnipotent.  Sometimes it’s better that we don’t get what we ask for, but instead grow in our relationship with God.

Now, I want to add a caveat here… This does not mean stop asking for things.  Matthew 7:7-8 reminds us to keep on knocking, keep on asking, keep on seeking.  We must continue to look to God.  What I am saying is that sometimes God doesn’t answer us because we don’t see all ends, thus an answer to our prayers could lead us away from God instead of closer to Him.

How often does this happen to us? When we have a habit that we were taught and continue? It may not be a “sinful” habit (after all, going to where there is food is no sin), but it is repeated. It is in these moments, when it is necessary for God to break in… for God to redirect us out of our habits… to lead us to something better.

When God does this, and we listen, it grows our faith. It produces in us an ability to trust more because we had experienced Gods sovereignty in the past. It allows us to be strengthened for the future. Steps of faith take time, we grow slowly. Perseverance is so necessary in our spiritual lives. Take the time to allow God to redirect your paths and trust in Him to grow your spirit.

We have all heard the expression, “What would Jesus Do?” and may have used it yourself in one fashion or another.  And although sometimes that questing leads to an abstract reality, here in John we find the very thing that Jesus does as an excellent model for us today.  In these few verses, Jesus provides for us an excellent example that we can follow in our everyday life.

Imagine the scene of Jesus, sitting around with His disciples knowing that at this point all things had been given into His hands.  Did you catch that?  All things! Everything!  It was all given to Jesus!  All power to work and do and make and create.  He had received it all!  Jesus was given a “cosmic promotion” and was now in charge of ALL THINGS!!!

I often sit around and say things like, “if I was in charge…” and then finish with a way that would make life easier (read that as “my life easier”).  And we see this in society too.  So many people work themselves to the bone to get to a place of authority, to climb the social ladder so that they can make their life easier.  But that mind-set, although extremely common, is so counter to what Jesus does in this passage.

Instead, Jesus shows us what we are to do when we get to the top.  Upon realizing that Jesus had all authority over everything, He got up and served!  He got up and made every effort to make the disciples life easier/better.  He, Jesus Christ, humbled Himself to the position of the lowest servant and served to provide for His disciples.  What a lesson!  What a contradiction to this worlds view of the “proper” use of power.  It is a lesson we should look to see “what would Jesus do?”  When we receive power, I believe we are called to leverage that power to ensure those below us have a better life.  We are called, as Christ did, to serve from our positions of power and authority, for the benefit of others.

Throughout human history we see images of mankind trying to emulate or become like God.  The dependent man, dependent on God for his very life, trying to become like the independent God who created him, seems almost laughable.  Even though it was God that created the world (Gen. 1:1), it was God who created us (Gen 1:27), it is God who even sustains us (Psalms 119:117), humanity continues to attempt a reversal of roles and claim themselves to be God.  And this is no more clear than in Genesis 11.

In Genesis 11, the people refused to obey the command of God, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28, 9:1).  Instead, they intentionally decide to build a huge tower that will prevent them from filling the earth (Gen 11:4).  This is where the irony of things come to a noticeable conclusion.

First, as the tower began to be built toward the heavens, their separation from God became greater.  The tower of babel was, in some ways, an ongoing progression of humankind’s persistent departure from the will of God.  Secondly, the intentions of the people consisted of them “making a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4).  Proverbs 16:18 reminds us that pride goes before destruction, and these people craved fame in the midst of their disobedience.  Which is ironic because they did receive fame, though not in the way they had hoped.  The final irony I wish to highlight in this passage (though there are certainly more) is how God dealt with this situation.

I find it extremely ironic, that mankind strives to build a great tower, that will reach the heavens and cement for themselves a place in history.  It is a lofty project, with high aspirations.  Yet even though it is, we see in verse 5 that God must come down to see the city and tower.

So how does this apply to us?  Well, first we must dedicate ourselves to God’s will and purpose for our lives, and not strive for our own fame and fortune.  Secondly, our intentions must be toward God and our actions must follow.  Thirdly, it is important to keep in mind that no matter how lofty our own goals or personal achievements may be, they will always be less than (read below) what God has planned for us.  So listen to God, stay pure in heart and be dependent on Him.

What other applications can we get from this passage?  Leave a comment and let me know what you find in this passage.

We have all been there at one point or another.  We have all been in situations where it seemed like everyone surrounds us and demands not just our undivided attention, but an answer to some issue as well!  It is definitely a demanding world in which we live.  But how we respond to these demands is very telling of  the spirit within us.

It hasn’t been too long ago that I worked in a manufacturing plant where there was always an emergency!  No matter how calm things may seem, sooner or later there would erupt a “fire” that need to be put out.  I often think the people would almost create issues so there was something for them to yell and scream about and take the rest of us off our purpose and mission.

Here in John, I find some of those same types of people doing it this to Jesus.  People bringing an “emergency” in which they demand an answer.  And although, when life does this for us, we often get caught up in the chaos, here in verse 7 Jesus shows us a picture of peace.   A picture of calm, even in the midst of a life-and-death issue.   Even when the world closes in and demands an answer; during the high stress situation where His word will have a huge effect, Jesus stays calm and quiet.  Then, He produces the right thing to say; that will speak hope, love, forgiveness and life into a situation that was spiraling out of control.   What a great example for us to emulate; what an awesome and wise God.  How often do we take the time to reflect and calmly answer those who are so demanding around us?  How can we speak peace love and hope into those situations?  And how valuable are these situations to the growth of our own faith?

What does this have to do with anything?  I think we often get ahead of ourselves in our spiritual lives as well.  We look forward to that glorious day when we are sharing eternity with Christ.  We feel the emotions stir in us as we imagine the New Heaven and the New Earth, when there is no more death.  What a beautiful joyful day that will be.  However, dwelling on this time overlooks our current dilemma.  Look around and see just the brokeness of this world.  In a moment we can discover just how cold it is in this place.

So we must look for patience.  Patience to forgo our future dreams and visions of perfection, and strive for redemption of this world here and now.  We must exercise patience as we work today to bring into view the warmth of a new day for someone else.

It is amazing how trapped we can become by our habits.  They so often start as things that make us feel better.  They develop in such a subtle way.   And eventually we see that that have trapped us into their routine.  We become comfortable with them.  These habits provide us with a sense of security, and we begin to feel that they are part of ourselves.

Unfortunately, some of these habits are bad.  The very things that provide us comfort, become stifling and restrictive.  And the idea of changing is difficult at best, and horrifying at worst.  This last month has brought extreme change to my household.  The very place where consistency is expected, enjoyed and coveted.  Our children experienced change in friends, schools, schedules and surroundings, while Kelly and I struggled with moving to a  new location, finding our way around, shopping issues, school issues and yes, even friend issues.

It was in this time, as we changed to align ourselves with the plans God has for us, that doubt, despair and discouragement abounded.  But that is to be expected as change occurs.  And now, we continue to push through these feelings and work to develop and establish a new sense of “normal” beyond our old habits.  Is it hard? Yes.  Difficult? Yes.  At times frustrating?  Yes.  But it was all necessary to develop the new habits that will allow us the opportunity to better perform the work God has for us.

Change is not only found in our life.  It is also found in yours.  It is found in your jobs, in you families, and even in your church.  But as uncomfortable as it is, changing our old habits are necessary.  Changing our habits, for the right reasons, can help better equip us for the work that the Lord has given us to do as a community.  So expect change: expect to feel discomfort; expect to find frustrations and feelings of futility.  But remember that these are mere growing pains, that we all experience as we reach out with purpose.