Freedom Isn't Free

It has been a while since I've posted.  There has been a lot going on and frankly I have been in a bit of a funk.  So maybe I can blog my way out of the doldrums. 

So yesterday was Memorial Day and such days of unbridled patriotism make me think of my dad who has been with Jesus for over a year now.  I think of watching him in parades and of the salutes from NCO's as we went into the PX.  I think of the nightmares he had when he came home from Vietnam, all unmentioned by him.  He shared little until many years later when my little brother became a Marine too and even then he would not share everything.  His private horrors were unknown.

I watched the HBO series The Pacific with my brother over Christmas vacation.  Those men and countless more men and women suffered hell so that you and I could be free!

All of this led me to dive into Galatians this morning.  Jesus literally suffered hell so that we can walk in freedom.  So today and everyday from now on I want to live in a way that says I appreciate the cost of freedom, the freedom I enjoy as a citizen of the USA but most especially the freedom I have as a citizen of God's kingdom.  "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened agian by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

IT IS FINISHED!

IT IS FINISHED!  The most powerful words in human history!  What it takes three words to express in English the apostle John records in the single Greek word-tetellestai.  Finished!  Complete!  This is no whimpering word of surrender-no throwing in of the proverbial towel, though one may well imagine that Jesus' enemies and indeed the enemy of our souls believed it so!   No!  This is a victory shout; for in surrendering His will to the Father, in surrendering His back to the smiter and His body to the executioner JESUS IS VICTORIOUS!
Tetellestai-IT IS A VICTORY SHOUT  for Jesus and for us!

In Greek it is an artist's word-the word a sculptor  would use when having put down his chisel he stepped back to admire his work!  Finished!

It is a merchant's word often scribbled atop invoices and shouted in the marketplace to proclaim a debt paid in full!  TETELLESTAI  Our debt paid in full, God's masterpiece of redemption accomplished!

The tense of this verb is interesting though.  It conveys the sense that while it is an accomplished work it is somehow ongoing, leading scholar Richard Niehaus to conclude that perhaps the best translation for John 19:30 is, "It is finished but it's not over!"  Indeed our work has just begun as Jesus gives us the task of sharing the "goodness" of this Friday with a world lost in sin.  Redemption's story demands that we live our lives in such a way that when we are ready to give up our spirits we can say with Paul, "I have finished the race"  and with Jesus, "Father, I have accomplished the work that you gave me to do."

It is finished but  it's not over because to borrow a phrase from a sermon oft quoted by Christian sociologist Tony Campolo, "It's Friday but Sunday's coming!"

TETELLESTAI!  IT IS FINISHED!

Mercy Triumphs

This evening I am posting from my iPad, a gift from some very dear folks at my church. The grace and love shown me at Resurrection transforms me much as the Beast and Belle are transformed. (Spent the past few weeks helping out with CUCA's production of Beauty and the Beast.). Maybe more on this at another time.

Today I am contemplating why it is that when I witness someone do something dangerous or stupid in traffic I get angry and cry out for justice? When someone is late or doesn't come through for me, I want justice. I yell loudly (at least in my head) for vindication. However when I am the perpetrator, the transgressor as it were, I demand mercy.

The cross of Jesus means that "mercy triumphs over judgment". He didn't just pay for my sin. The words of a song from a number of years ago proclaim that the wrongs we have done and the wrongs done to us were nailed on that cross.

So because justice was satisfied on that cross, I should not be so swift to demand satisfaction for other's offenses. I need to learn mercy and it's triumph, for Jesus sake. Paul reminds us that He is a God rich in mercy. Good thing because I am a person in such need of mercy.

"Can these Bones Live?"

I have been asking the title question frequently of late, since I am aging and spending time at the gym is not as effortless as it once was!  You may recognize the query as the one the "Son of Man" asks the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 37.  As I have thought about the question I have come to see it as an encouragement for Ezekeil and by extension us to see things differently.

Where Ezekiel saw not just bones but dry bones- not just dry bones but very dry bones, the Lord saw hopelessness and a need for His powerful prophetic word to breathe life. In short, Ezekiel saw a problem, the Lord saw an opportunity, a need that He was fully capable of meeting.  He wanted Ezekiel to see what He saw and to speak life. 

He wants the same from us.  I am by nature somewhat of an Eeyore but I am learning to rebuke the Eeyore within and to ask the Lord to help me see through His eyes- to see the prophetic, life-giving opportunities that surround me everyday.  Even very dry bones can become a vast army when we acknowledge along with Ezekiel, "O Sovereign Lord, you know!"  He does know and He does care and He will breathe life even into very dry bones!

Your Kingdom Come!

First of all, I can see now that my goal of being a Monday, Wednesday, Friday blogger was a pipe dream.  Life often crowds in and crowds out some of my more enjoyable activities as well as the ability to ponder!  Often I become so busy with obligations that thoughtful devotion is difficult.  I am working on this!  Please bear with me.

Right now I am about halfway through Rob Bell's new book Love Wins.  (YES, I am reading it on my ipad.)  I am being very challenged by the urgency this pastor has to see God's kingdom come now.  If our idea of eternal life is only about where we will be after we die, then we are totally missing out.  Eternal life is not merely quantitative; it is qualitative.  Eternal life is about living in a way that makes a difference. 

Eternal life is letting God's spirit inhabit me in such a way that my neighborhood is powerfully affected because I live there.  As my friend Graham would say, "No one is safe from a blessing."  :)

So I am asking myself, what I am doing, how I am praying, who I am being that would ensure that His kingdom come and that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  AND I am crying out for mercy and grace because frankly I am really not doing much to advance the kingdom in my little neck of the woods.

May the Lord ignite us with His passions and fuel our hearts with His desires!

KIM

Handicapped Accessible

When I go to Phoenix to see my family I generally drive my mom's 12 year old Ford Taurus.  (It only has 60,000 miles on it.)  The perk to driving this car is that it comes equipped with a handicapped parking sticker so I can get those prime spots right by the door of most establishments.  However, sometimes I forget that I have that all access pass to premium parking and wind up parking pretty far away.  That's not a big deal except when it is 115 degrees in the shade at the height of summer. 

I thought about this while I was reading Romans 5 this week.  And yes I do know how odd my brain is!   That's a topic you will need to take up with Jesus.  Anyway, Paul writes that through Jesus "we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand."  How I praise God that the throne room is handicapped accessible!  Indeed my sin, my stubbornness and brokenness were/are more than a handicap!  They were totally debilitating and cut me off from God's amazing grace.!

The CROSS and my faith in the efficacy of its work gives me access to the riches of God's grace.The dictionary defines access as "The ability or right to approach, enter, exit, communicate with, or make use of."  That's awesome!  A whole lot better than premium parking; I stand before God soaked in grace! 

Yet often I forget the access I have, the permission, ability and right won for me to approach and communicate with the God of the universe.  I fail to take advantage of my all access pass and forget the grace in which it is my privilege to stand and the favor in which I walk.

JESUS PAID IT ALL!  I don't want to forget that!  I want to remember to say thank you and I want to take full advantage of the access He won for me!  I want to be soaked in God's grace so that when I am squeezed that's what comes out!  When I do that I'm not handicapped anymore!  I am whole.  That too is a gift of the cross.

KIM

My God is so Big!

So, last night at youth group we watched a Louie Giglio video called "Indescribable."    For those unfamiliar with Louie, he is the pastor who started the Passion tour from which all the Passion CD's come.  Anyway, I highly recommend the video!

Louie gave a timely visual reminder of how big God is and how small we are!  By showing the relative size of earth, the vastness of the universe, the beauty and order of creation he drove home the message I have been hearing for some time, "It's not all about you (or me)!"  The world does not revolve around me; planets do not orbit around me.  I am really pretty insignificant!

Oddly that thought brings me great comfort and hope!  It is pretty counter cultural.  Advertising and contemporary self-help psychology encourage me to focus on me!  What a recipe for disaster!

I was made to magnify!  When I magnify God things stay in perspective.  I recoginize that I am like a Who down in Whoville- small, sinful, and insignificant-UNLESS the indescribably big God of the universe chooses me, loves me enough to send His own Son to die for me.  Guess what?  He did choose me giving me even more reason to magnify Him and not me.

The picture is our galaxy!  Can you spot earth?  Ya, me neither.  Amazing that God calls each of the stars and you and me by name! 

Some favorite song lyrics come to mind- "I have made you too small in my eyes; O Lord forgive me!"  and then one of my cousin Marty's favorites which certainly puts things in perspective, "Great Big God-itty bitty devil."

And finally one of Mrs.  Hasty's favorites-  everybody sing:
MY GOD IS SO BIG! SO STRONG AND SO MIGHTY!

He really is!
KIM