A song in my heart

Christians live in the time/space of two overlapping kingdoms; the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. We experience both at the same time. This is expressed in the words of Jesus…

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Jesus says His people will have tribulation and peace, not one after the other but both at the same time. This means that the peace He gives is not freedom from trouble or conflict. Nor is it an escape from lies, persecution or mistreatment, or being misunderstood. Instead, it is a joy of heart that rises above these things and carries us to a bliss that is unknown to those who do not know Him.

We live in these two kingdoms, two worlds, where one is filled with distraction, cares, deprivations, and miseries and the other realm where tears are wiped away and there is no more death, sorrow and pain. In this second place, we know the presence of God, our Father who loves us unconditionally and whose peace transcends all understanding. We know the Holy Spirit who grants to us love, joy and peace, no matter what that first world is doing to us.

In my personal history, the overlap began with my salvation, but in actual history it began with the cross and resurrection. Jesus came, lived and died, then conquered death and brought into this world the option of eternal life. All who embrace that option are ushered into the kingdom of light where we begin to learn what it means to be “seated in heavenly places” and fully reconciled to God. We discover His amazing peace, amazing because it is so rich it cannot help but overflow from His glorious kingdom into that other one that is not so glorious.

I woke up this morning singing, “Glorify Thy name, glorify Thy name, glorify Thy name in all the earth…” thankful to be alive and thankful that even here, where wickedness seems to prevail over righteousness and justice, the power of God can still bring the delights of heaven to my heart. He gives me rest from spiritual battles and rest from my work. I know wars in my soul, but also respite from those wars and the delights of being satisfied. I know trouble and sorrow, but also “peace that surpasses understanding” and the unending joy of Jesus Christ.

Most of all, I know freedom from fear, that I will not face the wrath of God because of the loving sacrifice of His Son. Whatever else this world might stir up in the form of tribulation loses its sting because Jesus overcame it all by dying for my sin and giving me eternal life.

He has delivered (me) from the domain of darkness and transferred (me) to the kingdom of his beloved Son. (Colossians 1:13)

For in this way there will be richly provided for (me) an entrance into the eternal kingdom of (my) Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:11)

One day, I will take flight from the kingdom of this world and not miss it at all, and that is the reason that I sing...!

A divine invitation to breakfast

Some people do not eat breakfast. For millions around the world, it is because they have no food. For many in North America, it is because they do not have the time. Sleep in, rise up, rush out becomes a daily schedule. I have no sermons about the importance of breakfast, but just know what happens to me if I am not fueled for the day, both physically and spiritually.

After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples went fishing, caught nothing, then were directed by Him to try the other side of the boat. He’d been waiting on the shore for them, and even before they hauled in their catch, he’d kindled a fire and cooked some fish. Then He said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” (John 21:12)

Today’s devotional touches my heart. The bombardment against my soul has felt like the waves of a violent sea, but at last the waters are calm and I am ready to do something else besides fight against the enemy who has been trying to drown me. So what does Jesus do now that the buffeting has stopped and my heart is also calm? He invites me to eat with Him!

In a parable about another meal, the host in Jesus’ story sent out a servant to tell his guests, “Come, for everything is now ready.” (Luke 14:17) The last words in the Bible offer the same invitation. The meal is ready.

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17)

Jesus also says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever…” (John 6:51) showing that this is more than food but also a spiritual feast, a sharing in His life.

I get the message; Jesus is telling me to feast on Him, on the eternal  life that He gives, the fruit of the Spirit that He supplies, the everlasting life that is mine because the Bread of Life offers all that He is for all of my needs.

There is significance in that this post-resurrection meal is breakfast. According to God’s Word, days are not reckoned the same as we reckon them. We know the changeover is at midnight, but usually consider a day begins around daybreak. However, in Genesis 1, the Bible repeats, “And there was evening and there was morning, the… day.”

In the mind of God, day begins with darkness and ends with light. How true of life and of the cycles of life for those who walk with Him. I enter spells of doubt, failure and disappointment , sorrow over my failures, pain over ministry without victory, and then, as I hear the Master calling out directions from shore, and as I follow His commands, the light rises in the east. Daybreak comes and the shadows of the night are driven away.

Not only does a fresh look at Jesus turn my eyes from that dark night of struggle to His light, but He also brings a feast to fill the empty spaces created by the darkness. He invites me to enjoy “Living Bread” in the dawn, not of a new day, but of one that has been dark and stormy but transformed by His presence. He lovingly prepared to feed my hunger while it was still dark, and as the light came, so also is His invitation to “Come and dine.”

By His Command…

Imagine spending a whole day fishing without a single nibble — only to discover that all the fish are on the other side of your boat!

After Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples were befuddled and didn’t know what would happen next. Peter decided he would not wait to find out, so declared that he was going fishing, going back to what he did before Jesus called him to follow Him. Others went with him.

Perhaps fishing had been a satisfying calling before Jesus came along, but Peter had left that life. He and the others hoped to be part of the new kingdom. Then Jesus was killed. Even though He was alive again, that event threw the disciples for a loop. Peter was confused. Perhaps he felt like a loser whose life was not anything he’d hoped or wanted. He may have thought he had no other options now, and resigned himself to being a fisherman. Not that there is anything wrong with this occupation, but after a few years of walking with Jesus, fishing was not going to do it for him, particularly with the failure of this first venture back at his old job.

Then Jesus appeared on the shore and called out to Peter and the others who went with him. They’d already seen Him, saw Thomas touch the thorns in His side, and knew that He could appear whenever He wanted. This this change was too much for them. The former days, as challenging as they were, were better than trying to cope with this new version, this risen Christ and the fact that they didn’t know what would happen next.

He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. (John 21:6)

The normal lesson teachers and preachers offer from this is a life lesson for those who toil and never find the satisfaction they are longing for. They challenge readers with words like, “Christ knows more about the proper management of your life than you do. He told them where to fish. He knows most about life, and the common things of life. He knows where peace and happiness are found…”

 
But this is not the lesson I am getting today from this incident. Being happy isn’t the priority that Jesus has in mind, nor is it a catch of fish, whether literal or spiritual. He is simply teaching the disciples to do what He tells them, to obey even when the commands do not make sense, or go against the grain of all that they know. 

Life is full of examples. I went to visit my uncle in the hospital. My mother (his sister) told me not to talk about spiritual things with him because it would just make him angry, but Jesus clearly laid it on my heart to talk to him about spiritual things.
 

When mom left the room to visit another patient, I did as Jesus asked and my uncle was eager to find out what he must do to be saved. Imagine my mother’s astonishment when she returned to his room just as he was praying the sinner’s prayer! Both of us felt like the disciples must have felt as they hauled in that big catch of fish.

I can think of opposite examples too. I’ve gone “fishing” and left Jesus on the shore. I did this or that, hoping for success and coming up empty because I never found out from the Master what He wanted, or when He wanted it, or what He wanted me to do, or not do, or any other details. After all, I knew how to fish.

Sometimes I still forget that relying on what I know is not going to cut it. More and more I come up empty when I do not first turn to Jesus before going out on any fishing venture, or trying to do anything else. For me, the lesson is not about the right way to find success so much as it is about paying attention to Jesus, about obedience.

One reality is that success is not mine to measure. Much of what God asks of me may not result in any visible or immediate result or reward. I cannot be motivated by the outcome or aim for “success” but must instead listen and do what I’m told. Only God knows the end result of obedience — and I’m often oblivious to whether or not my net is filled with fish. 

Practical Faith

After moving to a new home, a different church, making new friends, and no longer involved teaching a Sunday morning class, I’ve felt out of the loop, as if God has taken me into the wilderness. As when it happened to Jesus, I’ve had severe temptations. As when it happened to the children of Israel, I’ve experienced wandering and complained about my lot in life.

As I work on theology courses to finish a degree, I’m relearning things about God. He is also opening my eyes to new truths that never before entered my head. Yet in doing the ordinary chores of life, I’ve also seen that God is here with me, and that faith in Christ is practical, whether I am studying, cleaning the house, going for a walk, or interacting with our neighbors.

Today’s verse relates an incident that happened to the disciples of Christ after His resurrection. Everything had changed in their relationship with Him. They didn’t know what to do with themselves so they went fishing. They didn’t catch anything. Then Jesus stood on the shore and told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, a simple instruction, but when they did it, they could hardly haul in the size of their catch.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. (John 21:9)

Jesus made breakfast. There He is, in the ordinary things of life — a fire, some fish, some bread and serving a group of tired, hungry fishermen. In doing this, He affirmed that His resurrection had not broken his bond with these men. Beginning with common life, He was still with them.

“Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore...” and spoke to them about nets and fishing, simple concerns of simple people engaged in simple tasks. He met them where they were, not demanding that they be elsewhere. He showed them, and me, that ordinary life has dignity and value to God. As the today’s devotional points out, the only true indignity is sin and selfishness, but all of life is dignified when Jesus brings to it His love and purity, and helps His people to trust and obey Him.

For the most part, I’ve looked at the life of Christ and seen the healings, the miracles, His great acts of love and compassion. I’ve wanted to be like that, but this morning He reminds me that He was a child born in a stable, a boy in a carpenter’s shop obedient to His parents, a young man going to a wedding, an adult who went from place to place owning no place to lay His head. He knew loneliness and sorrow in a garden and felt abandoned by God. He lived among us, not above us, experiencing all that we experience.

To shut Jesus up in a church makes Him the pastor’s Christ, or the Christian’s Christ. To meet Him only in a seminary makes Him the thinker’s Christ. To relegate His presence to my perfect obedience makes Him the devotee’s Christ, yet He is more than that; He is the people’s Christ, everyone’s Christ.

In this verse, Jesus is the risen Christ, a fisherman on the shore preparing a meal for hungry people. I am challenged to “unlock church doors and let Christ out” — by living all of life holding His hand and remembering He is with me in all that I do. It might be in the ordinary chores, but also in simple interactions with others, kind glances, warm greetings, and ordinary chitchat over my garden fence.

(Image source)

Dancing rather than speculation

One of my pet peeves is the tendency of media to speculate. They project winners in political elections, consider the odds in sports events, figure out who is going to win tournaments, and chatter continually about the likelihood of this or that happening or not. While asking “what if?” has a definite place in the life of a fiction writer, it is almost always a waste of time and energy for the rest of us.

After Jesus died and rose again, and after He appeared to the disciples and over 500 others, He ascended to heaven. The disciples stood there, watching Him depart.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:10–11)

These two men, likely angels, rebuked them for their speculation. Yes, Christians are told our citizenship is in heaven and we are to store up treasure in heaven and consider things above, not things on the earth. So what is wrong with gazing into heaven?

The answer is in the context. Like all of us, these disciples were eager to know the exact time Jesus would come and claim His kingdom. Even though He repeatedly told them this was hidden from them, even hidden from the angels in heaven, their last question for Him was about that very thing. But He told them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7)

Christians have been asking and trying to answer the same question ever since. Predictions about the Second Coming of Christ have become so commonplace, that the entire subject is mocked. The Bible even says that, “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:3–4)

Not only has the promise of Christ been trampled on by speculation, so has the character of the church. Jesus told us to wait patiently for His return, believing that it will happen at the right time. Instead, our speculation has created date-setting and a host of doctrines and arguments that are divisive rather than edifying. Such a focus also breeds disappointment, skepticism and invites mockery and unbelief. The enemies of Christ blaspheme the very idea of His return, even as many Christians wonder if it will ever happen.

Is the guilt of scoffers shared by believers who speculate? What is worse: to say that He is coming at such and such a time and being wrong? Or the failure to confirm the Word of God that says, “Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32)?

Every time I start trying to figure out if this or that will happen, I am entering into forbidden territory, even if I am gazing up into heaven while I do it. Jesus didn’t intend that I stand there watching Him go or wondering when He is coming back. Even as I can pray to Him about everything and trust Him to answer my prayers, I have never been able to guess what He is going to do. He does not offer me that information.

Instead of wasting time in speculations that absorb energy and paralyze action, He wants me to leave that “mountain of ascension” and get busy in everyday life. I am to pray, but also to trust Him and wait in confidence for His grace to live each day. Like a dance partner, He wants me to hold His hand and follow His lead for each step, rather than trying to figure out when this song will end and heaven’s music begins.