Philippians 2 SAME-SAME but …different…

Christians are to be unified. How? By accessorizing the same? Not exactly;

SAME IN SPIRIT OF HUMBLE SUBMISSION TO SERVE THE CAUSE OF LOVE

We are called to be about wise love (see Philippians 1). If we have parts of the package (some unity about love) maximize the joy by filling out the unity:

complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love (2:2)

What is our definition of love? John 3:16, or, Philippians 2:5-11. God's purpose is more important than our status. Ironically, when we stop grabbing for status and just serve, we are worthy to be lifted up as an example of God's love. That is what happened in Jesus, the ruling Messiah.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him (2:8,9)

How do we do that? With fearful awe that God himself is at work through our lives, making us more than complainers (2:12-16). We can actually become pure and blameless children (remember 1:9-11) who don't wander between the former place of slavery and the future place of abundant living. Here and now we hold out the word of life, shining like points of light in a vast but meaningful universe. That is the life we were saved from missing.

So do we become blended together in one plastic cluster of happy, shiny people? No. Timothy is a great Christian in his diligent sojourning ministry. He travels to new places and helps forms healthy communities. Paul thinks of him as a son.

But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. (2:22)

Is that the only way to be a meaningfully dynamic Christian? No. Epaphroditus went on a short trip because it was needed, but he really belong in his home town. He was very different in his way of living even if he was the same in his faith.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. (2:29-30)

I rejoice when I see a spirit of unity in the way of Love. I doubly rejoice when I see that the deep unity of love allows for the amazing diversity of live lived from that love.

CHRISTIAN LOVE? SAME-SAME

but

CHRISTIAN LIVES? …different…

Philippian 1: joyfull confident, clear and courageously creative

The letter to the Philippians is a great little New Testament book. It is useful in establishing a mature and informed joyful attitude even when going through difficult times. If you understand Paul's perspective about life as a result of Christ's resurrection and coming display of victory, you will be able to understand and follow the examples he gives.

FIRST – Confidence! The problems for the church are that the one who lead them to faith is in danger of being killed as a criminal, some Christians are making things worse instead of better, and even in the church some people are arguing. It looks like all the things they first believed in were for nothing. That is not true.

"He who began a good work in y'all will bring it to TELOS (maturity/completion) at the day of Jesus Christ." (1:6)

Without yet explaining how, Paul just lets them know: he believes that their faith is still on course in spite of problems. For those of you in our church who have shown faith in the things you have said and done from your heart… have the same confidence!

SECOND – Clarity! What does TELOS faith look like? Wise love; that is what Paul prays will show up from their faith (1:9-11):

Your love growing and showing in leaps and bounds is the point!

How? With increasing ability to know and choose the best in situations.

Why? So that you won't be mixed up, you will be pure, consistent.

Consistently what? Righteous, not wrongeous!! You know, blameless.

How? Through Christ (his word, his Spirit) for God's glory.

THIRD – Courage! If Paul is confident that your faith will actually make it from where it starts all the way to wise love that is right on and glorifies God, what will it look like as you get there? A scary struggle met with bravery.

It has been granted to you for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict. (1:29-30)

You are not called to be someone who just avoids naughtiness. You are called to be someone who can deliver righteousness. Being 'naughty' is most disappointing not for its direct damage, but more so for its failure to be reliable in regard to the cause. The cause is the Creator, and we who are created in his image to be creative. It is overcoming the rebellion that lets the non-creative (creation) try to rule over the creative. Sinning is not creative, it is destructive. Uptight religious is not creative either. Righteousness, that is creative, strong and beautiful!

Joyfully be: CONFIDENT / CLEAR / COURAGEOUSLY CREATIVE

Testimony from a friend with a life threatening condition

My doctor asked me what did I do so differently this time. Indeed, I did things very differently throughout this period of waiting on the L.

Just thought I should to share to encourage those who might be going through trials and suffering and seeking for relief. I believe the principles are the same. But the practical application of course is personal with the L.

One key verse:

JC: "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God"

• It's clear to me that only His word could sustain and revive me. Hearing God every step of the way was key for me.
  
• But without discarding what I must do in the natural – taking the medicine my doc prescribed; eat more fruits and veg (advise from our doc friend who led the example); and taking vitamins supplement etc as the L provides.
  

Three Purposes

The L then impressed upon my heart that this flare was His design. Not only that the L knows and allows, it is from Him!

His purpose is:

1. To Pay Attention to Him and His Word

• Job 36:15, "But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For He gets their attention through adversity."
  
• Ps 119:71, "My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees"
  

2. To Discipline me

• Job 33:19-20 "God disciplines people with pain on their sickbeds, with ceaseless aching in their bones.20 They lose their appetite for even the most delicious food."
  
• This perfectly described what happened to me in the earlier stage. I lost appetite for food.
  

3. To Protect me from Ultimate Destruction

• Job 36:16, "God is leading you away from danger, Job, to a place free from distress. He is setting your table with the best food.
  
• Job 33:17 "He makes them turn from doing wrong; he keeps them from pride". (NLT
  

In Two Phases:

Phase One: Is 50:4

"The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning,
He awakens my ear
To hear as the learned"

• For the past 6 weeks, I would 'automatically' wake up, read and mediate on His word
  
• Systematically reading through Job; the Minor Prophets; the epistles NT. And the Gospels.
  
• The L pointed out 6 wrong things He is dealing with in my inner life. And many right things I should do but have neglected.
  

Phase Two: James 5:14,15

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

• On the eve of the medical consultation, I asked my leaders, Dr Tan and Dr Isaiah, to pray over me.
  

What's Next?

Is 50:4

"The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning,
He awakens my ear
to hear as the learned"

• The L willing, He would use my experience to encourage those who are going through trials and sufferings.
  
• Yes, it is without doubt that our L can heal immediately, but when He chooses otherwise, it is simply because he wants to draw us into His sweet presence.
  

 

Ps 27:

4 The one thing I ask of the Lord—

the thing I seek most—

is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

delighting in the Lord's perfections

and meditating in his Temple.

5 For he will conceal me there when troubles come;

he will hide me in his sanctuary.

He will place me out of reach on a high rock.

6 Then I will hold my head high

above my enemies who surround me.

At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,

singing and praising the Lord with music.

Tolstoy retells a fable about death and honey

There is an Eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveller overtaken on a plain by an enraged beast. Escaping from the beast he gets into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon that has opened its jaws to swallow him. And the unfortunate man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes s twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it. His hands are growing weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he clings on. Then he sees that two mice, a black one and a white one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he is clinging and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and he will fall into the dragon's jaws. The traveller sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish; but while still hanging he looks around, sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig, reaches them with his tongue and licks them. So I too clung to the twig of life, knowing that the dragon of death was inevitably awaiting me, ready to tear me to pieces; and I could not understand why I had fallen into such torment. I tried to lick the honey which formerly consoled me, but the honey no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night gnawed at the branch by which I hung. I saw the dragon clearly and the honey no longer tasted sweet. I only saw the unescapable dragon and the mice, and I could not tear my gaze from them. and this is not a fable but the real unanswerable truth intelligible to all.

The deception of the joys of life which formerly allayed my terror of the dragon now no longer deceived me. No matter how often I may be told, "You cannot understand the meaning of life so do not think about it, but live," I can no longer do it: I have already done it too long. I cannot now help seeing day and night going round and bringing me to death. That is all I see, for that alone is true. All else is false.

The two drops of honey which diverted my eyes from the cruel truth longer than the rest: my love of family, and of writing - art as I called it - were no longer sweet to me.

"Family"...said I to myself. But my family - wife and children - are also human. They are placed just as I am: they must either live in a lie or see the terrible truth. Why should they live? Why should I love them, guard them, bring them up, or watch them? That they may come to the despair that I feel, or else be stupid? Loving them, I cannot hide the truth from them: each step in knowledge leads them to the truth. And the truth is death...

"Art, poetry?"...Under the influence of success and the praise of men, I had long assured myself that this was a thing one could do though death was drawing near - death which destroys all things, including my work and its remembrance; but soon I saw that that too was a fraud. It was plain to me that art is an adornment of life, an allurement to life. But life had lost its attraction for me, so how could I attract others? As long as I was not living my own life but was borne on the waves of some other life - as long as I believed that life had a meaning, though one I could not express - the reflection of life in poetry and art of all kinds afforded me pleasure: it was pleasant to look at life in the mirror of art. But when I began to seek the meaning of life and felt the necessity of living my own life, that mirror became for me unnecessary, superfluous, ridiculous, or painful. I could no longer soothe myself with what I now saw in the mirror, namely, that my position was stupid and desperate. It was all very well to enjoy the sight when in the depth of my soul I believed that my life had a meaning. Then the play of lights - comic, tragic, touching, beautiful, and terrible - in life amused me. No sweetness of honey could be sweet to me when I saw the dragon and saw the mice gnawing away my support.

Nor was that all. Had I simply understood that life had no meaning I could have borne it quietly, knowing that that was my lot. But I could not satisfy myself with that. Had I been like a man living in a wood from which he knows there is no exit, I could have lived; but I was like one lost in a wood who, horrified at having lost his way, rushes about wishing to find the road. He knows that each step he takes confuses him more and more, but still he cannot help rushing about.

It was indeed terrible.
(don't worry, there Tolstoy is raising the questions, the answers come later)

November 15 Reconnect

Sojos church, I wanted to reconnect via the blog site. I posted the lyrics to the song about Egypt. It really had an impact on a number of us. The weariness in this world, the wilderness wandering, inevitably entices us to look back to a time more familiar. We left 'there' with all of its problems with the hope of a promise. Jesus describes our destination is a life where rivers of living water flow through us. Fresh, alive, even sparkling. But in the story of the escape from slavery to the land of promise, there is such a prolonged trail of sorrow and doubt. The living water life, with all of its abundance, is ahead, not behind, but do people ever wonder? Of course we do. But let's not wander, lets reconnect with our hope.

Philippians 3 has built up to Paul's own testimony of the life in Christ. He has conveyed his confidence in the troubled church and has deflected concerns about his well being. He refers to Christ as the ultimate example and then uses Epaphroditus and Timothy as living examples of Christ's example. Now he is ready to explain the driving motivation in his life. His purpose is to invite us into the same promises; promises of faith, of suffering, and ultimate victory.

As we gather at the Cole house, we should come focused on the essence of our faith. We will not focus on what it takes to get into the family (adoption is by grace through trust), nor in the safety of being in the family (how casual of a Christian can we be and still be Christian?). Rather, we will be revisiting the faith that is willing to get to the bottom line. What are you willing to die for? Are you even willing to live for the same? If so, have courage and press on with a determination that the life of promise is more ahead than behind. There is a belonging, a citizenship with its own peculiar ethos waiting. Do we want it?

Painting Pictures Of Egypt

  ------Sara Groves

I don't want to leave here
I don't want to stay
It feels like pinching to me
Either way
And the places I long for the most
Are the places where I've been
They are calling out to me
Like a long lost friend

It's not about losing faith
It's not about trust
It's all about comfortable
When you move so much
And the place I was wasn't perfect
But I had found a way to live
And it wasn't milk or honey
But then neither is this

I've been painting pictures of Egypt,
Leaving out what it lacks
The future feels so hard,
And I wanna go back!
But the places that used to fit me,
Cannot hold the things I've learned
Those roads were closed off to me
While my back was turned!

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy
To discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
I am caught between the Promise
And the things I know

I've been painting pictures of Egypt,
Leaving out what it lacks
The future feels so hard,
And I wanna go back!
But the places that used to fit me,
Cannot hold the things I've learned
Those roads were closed off to me
While my back was turned!


If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
And if it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

The Apostle Paul in 1 Sentence

From Gorman's Reading Paul:

Paul preached, and then explained in various pastoral, community-forming letters, a narrative, apocalyptic, theopolitical gospel (1) in continuity with the story of Israel and (2) in distinction to the imperial gospel of Rome (and analogous powers) that was centered on God's crucified and exalted Messiah Jesus, whose incarnation, life, and death by crucifixion were validated and vindicated by God in his resurrection and exaltation as Lord, which inaugurated the new age or new creation in which all members of this diverse but consistently covenantally dysfunctional human race who respond in self-abandoning and self-committing faith thereby participate in Christ's death and resurrection and are (1) justified, or restored to right covenant relations with God and with others; (2) incorporated into a particular manifestation of Christ the Lord's body on earth, the church, which is an alternative community to the status-quo human communities committed to and governed by Caesar (and analogous rulers) and by values contrary to the gospel; and (3) infused both individually and corporately by the Spirit of God's Son so that they may lead "bifocal" lives, focused both back on Christ's first coming and ahead to his second, consisting of Christlike, cruciform (cross-shaped) (1) faith and (2) hope toward God and (3) love toward both neighbors and enemies (a love marked by peaceableness and inclusion), in joyful anticipation of (1) the return of Christ, (2) the resurrection of the dead to eternal life, and (3) the renewal of the entire creation.