The Way of Nourishment

Psalm 1

At the centre of this psalm is the image of the tree that is fulfilling its purpose in life, by taking in water, growing foliage and bearing fruit. Its purpose, in other words, is not just to be ‘productive’ but to be nurtured, be clothed in beauty, and bear fruit as a consequence of other aspects of its purpose. Like the tree, we will prosper in the way the Lord has in mind for us as we are rooted and clothed with him and his law – most generally understood as the design and purpose he has in mind for us.

Then we will not succumb to the progression of meaninglessness described in the opening part of the psalm: listening to the ungodly, getting caught up in their ways, and finally becoming one with the scoffers, who are really lost as the set themselves up in judgment of the Lord and those who find life in Him.

The conclusion of the psalm basically points out the obvious, but what should be underlined anyway: whatever we are rooted in now will have its inevitable consequence. Grace means, however, as we’ll discover in our journey through the Psalms, that a course can be changed.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for this amazing worship book of Israel. Guide our journey through its outpourings, that we may be filled with you. In Christ. Amen.

Yet to See God

3 John

The main theme of this letter to an individual is hospitality. I suspect that hospitality was, then, not just a matter of courtesy but a matter of provision. It was an issue of providing food and shelter to those who were undertaking the work of the Lord. It also became, then, sadly, a means of showing approval or not for persons in the ministry.

This leads to an urging to imitate what is good – no matter how people treat you, we might add. But the most intriguing comment here, for me, comes next. John observes that anyone who does good is from God, but then notes that anyone who does what is evil has not seen God (verse 11). What a healthy phrase to remember when, in our perception, we see people doing evil! They are not to be written off, or assumed to be of the devil or some such thing. They just haven’t had enough experience of God!

That puts the onus back on those of us who have seen him, and who have our experience of God reinforced in talking “face to face” (verse 14), and greeting one another “by name” (verse 14).

Next in Open Journal: The Book of Psalms

Prayer:
Thank you for your servant, John, for the life of his words now, and for your living Word seeking to have your Way in and through me. Make it my concern for you to be visible to even one person in a new way through my life, and my fellowship with others. In Christ. Amen.

Useable

2 John

Useful information. Data. Intelligence. Truth you can use – I even hear that as advice to preachers concerning what they should provide people. Everybody seems to be looking for what amounts to information ammunition: What data can I gather to further my goals, put so-and-so in his/her place, advance my position, justify what I’ve done? The evil one just loves all this. This is part of the deception he works in the world through supposedly clever people.

This little letter to “the chosen lady and her children” (probably a circular letter to a number of churches) underlines the theme of truth we found through 1 John. What does it mean to be in the truth, to walk in the truth (verses 1, 4). Practically, it means truly loving one another (verse 5), but that, in turn, comes back to obeying God’s commands (verse 6).

For the Christian, truth is turned around from the direction it has in most of the world’s dealings. We don’t use truth; truth uses us. Truth shapes us. Truth determines our daily agenda and our lifetime plan. If we are in Christ and he in us, it is his truth, and the truth that he is, that shapes us and give us what used to be called character (now it’s all about personality).

Let’s get truth going in the right direction, which keeps truth true.

Prayer:
Lord, let me love, seek, do and be your truth today. In Christ. Amen.

True Knowing

1 John 5:13-21

John has been addressing people who were proud of what they considered their special knowledge of spiritual things. They were above considering the divine and human to be one in the Jesus who walked this earth. John, therefore, has emphasized the real-life knowledge that he and others with him had actually experienced of Jesus, both as he walked this earth, and in the living relationship they now had with him (at the time of writing).

Because of this certainty, the Christian can be confident in prayer; this will lead to further experience of his action and presence in ways that are best for us. The sin of willfully rejecting him is considered especially serious, and John concludes this letter with a warning against idols. Idols epitomize falseness, the opposite and enemy of the truth that is known in Jesus Christ.

Prayer:
Thank you, God, that in Jesus head knowledge, heart knowledge, and practical living are all one. Keep us working at this together. In Him. Amen.

Convincing Spirit

1 John 5:5-12

If you find some of this a bit confusing or obscure, you are not alone. How do water, blood and the Spirit testify together (verses 7-8)? Some clarification may come in remembering who John is addressing: people who challenged the belief that the earthly Jesus and the Son of God were one. Verse 6 emphasizes the down-to-earthness of Jesus’ life and experience, and the Spirit of truth testifies to the believer of the oneness of Jesus of Nazareth with the Father and the Spirit. Without the fullness of that belief, the world has not been overcome through His sacrifice. On the contrary, the same Spirit who testifies to the truth of Jesus works in us to make us strong in faith in the midst of the world. He states it strongly in the negative by saying that not accepting God’s own testimony concerning himself, and what he has done and now is in Jesus, is to make God out to be a liar.

The faith that is certain of victory over the world (1 John 5:4) is not some spirit of optimism or that things have a way of working out, but rather is the faith, specifically, “that Jesus is the Son of God” (verse 5).

Prayer:
Some of us long for certainty, Lord. May your Holy Spirit work in us powerfully to believe, overcome all doubt, and overwhelm any negativity that can poison the joy in believing we are meant to have together. In Christ. Amen.

overcoming the world

1 John 4:19-5:4

Somber anniversary today, and wasn’t it a Tuesday? Yesterday’s notes on being free of fear of judgment come against the hard reality of fear in the world, from one another, fueled by a personal power of evil bent on wreaking havoc in God’s creation. We walk the balance of not wanting our children to live in fear, and yet we need to warn, prepare, equip them to deal with the real dangers of the world. Moreover, Scripture provides warrant, I believe, for legitimate authority to limit the effects of evil in the world. So we have police and military to do what’s necessary to try to keep utter chaos at bay. The tricky question (that gets more political than I care to here) is “What’s necessary (without making things even worse)?”

Whatever measures are necessary on the worldly plane, Christians know the basic and ultimate answer. “Everyone born of God overcomes the world,” John says. How can this be? Because there can only be love for one another in this world because of the prior gift of God’s love. That gift can only be realized as it is believed, confessed, and shared. Love of God is realized in love for one another. True love for one another, however, is conditional upon love for God, because it comes from him in the first place. We love one another truly because we love God and those others God loves. So then our love for one another becomes part of God’s love for others.

When that is realized, it is a great victory over the ways of the world. And we can be so certain of the victory that Christ won at the cross, and that will be made plain when he comes, that we can speak of victory over the world already having been won. I know, that doesn’t help the immediate circumstances of millions of people, but without the certainty of God’s power over evil there is no hope at all. But we can state it more positively than that, because Scripture does, as here. There is immediate hope because we are so certain of God’s reality and purpose that living the faith right now has an effect that nothing else can. Our hope and love must be grounded in something other than ourselves, this world, and its circumstances – and it is, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).

Prayer:
Thy will done on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.

source of confidence

1 John 4:16-18

How often do we think of God wanting us to know his love so that we will be confident? We want our family members to be confident of our love; we want to be confident of the love of others. We think of building up ability, experience, and self-esteem as sources of confidence, but love? God’s love?

There is a specific context for this confidence: “so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment,” and then, “because in this world we are like him.” Like him in what? In his love. This is possible because we can “know and rely on the love God has for us” (verse 16). It’s because of God’s prior will for us and action toward us.

“There is no fear in love” (verse 18). What a beautiful sentence! And then there is the explanation that fear has to do with punishment. God’s perfect love means he has provided for any punishment we have coming to us by pouring it all on his own Son. The one who judges has died for us, and even intercedes for us (Romans 8:34).

Prayer:
Thank you that I can be confident of your love, Lord, not because of anything about me, but because you are love. Let this confidence translate into faithful living. In Christ. Amen.

Spirit and Love

1 John 4:13-15

I am concerned when we in the church speak as if fellowship is a condition for the work of the Spirit. Scripture indicates that our love for one another is a consequence of our receiving of the Spirit. And that means being led by the Spirit to follow the purpose and do the work God in Christ has given us. The work God has given us is belief (John 6:26-29). We can do nothing else as we are meant to do it unless and until we are first totally focused on simply reaching people for Christ, and then everything else must be specifically and clearly done as a part of that primary purpose. Authentic Christian fellowship and love comes in relentlessly pursuing that purpose, empowered by the Spirit in both energy and discernment.

We tend to seek a spirit of unity, whereas the Bible refers to unity of the Spirit (see Ephesians 4:1-6).

Prayer:
Let us continually seek life and renewal in your Spirit, Lord. Amen.

God Is

1 John 4:7-12

To say that God is love is not the same as saying that love is God. Nor is the statement that God is love an all-encompassing definition of God. God is love; he is also light. The descriptions creatively play off against one another. In other words, God’s love is characterized by light (seeing things for what they are and being equipped to act on that perception), and God’s light is characterized by love (not mere knowledge but action for the other). Any attempt to describe or characterize God can only be a matter of doxology (praise), more than philosophy or head knowledge. Theology, best understood, is a matter of testimony: How, after all, do we actually experience God? As light and as love, at least.

Prayer:
God, no words can contain you. Our language, our praise, our study, even our actions, are, at best, approximations of your stupendous reality. Have patience us as we grapple with your awesomeness, and as we allow you to infiltrate our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Testing Our Spirit

1 John 4:1-6

A spirit doesn’t just influence you; a spirit moves you, takes hold of you, infuses you, carries you. There is an increasing polarity of spiritual influence that accompanies the time approaching Christ’s return. It is critical what influences we even give attention to, because they can be instruments of the one who against Christ, and therefore also those who would be his. John gives us to understand that there are two tests of whether something is of the Spirit of God: There is acknowledgement of the person of Jesus as the Christ (anointed one) of God; and the one from whom the influence comes has a life that matches the teaching. There is, therefore, credibility, as there was in the leadership of which John was part (verse 6).

Verse 4 of this passage points to a kind of ‘spirit’ in the more general sense, which the world would then detect in those who are of God’s Spirit. It is a spirit of victory, a spirit of there being nothing that can stand in our way, a confidence that has not to do with ourselves but the one who is in us. Enough of hand wringing or glancing over the shoulder of any individual, family, or body of believers who purport to be of Christ! The victory is won! We have only to believe, live, and proclaim it. It is a mission to the world around us that is non-negotiable. It is not an add-on to a community of faith that’s OK to pursue as long as the “interests of the people” are looked after. What could those interests possibly be but to take up the mission of Christ himself who has clearly passed it on to us (John’s Gospel, 20:21 and Matthew 28:16-20)? That is our ‘interest’, our life, our source of true unity, our nourishment, and its own reward.

Prayer:
Make us bold for you, Lord. Amen.