The Things Left Undone

I had asthma as a child, and it didn’t take me long to figure out how to use it to my advantage. Anything I really didn’t want to do — time for an asthma attack, or at least the threat of one. Unfortunately for me, my parents were sympathetic to my plight and bought my ploys : hook, line, and sinker. Unfortunately for me, because it deeply ingrained in me a habit of avoiding anything I didn’t want to do. Combine this with the fact that I am extremely lazy, and you get someone in serious need of some self-discipline. This lack of self-discipline was unfortunate in childhood, but tends to be downright tragic as adulthood runs its course. Nearly all my personal failings as an adult are rooted in this lack of self-discipline. It is the one pit left that I still tend to stumble into when left to my own devices.

Hebrews 6:13 "Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, 6:14 saying, “Surely I will bless you greatly and multiply your descendants abundantly.” 6:15 And so by persevering, Abraham inherited the promise. 6:16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute. 6:17 In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath, 6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain, 6:20 where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since he became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. 7:1 Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him. 7:2 To him also Abraham apportioned a tithe of everything. His name first means king of righteousness, then king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 7:3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, he has neither beginning of days nor end of life but is like the son of God, and he remains a priest for all time. 7:4 But see how great he must be, if Abraham the patriarch gave him a tithe of his plunder. 7:5 And those of the sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have authorization
according to the law to collect a tithe from the people, that is, from their fellow countrymen, although they too are descendants of Abraham. 7:6 But Melchizedek who does not share their ancestry collected a tithe from Abraham and blessed the one who possessed the promise. 7:7 Now without dispute the inferior is blessed by the superior, 7:8 and in one case tithes are received by mortal men, while in the other by him who is affirmed to be alive. 7:9 And it could be said that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid a tithe through Abraham. 7:10 For he was still in his ancestor Abraham’s loins when Melchizedek met him."

God’s nature and His promises are unchangeable. God does not suffer from a lack of self-discipline. His ways are intertwined and identified with who He is: perfect and perfectly holy. He makes promises on the basis of His divine nature – He swears by Himself, since there is no greater guarantee of fulfillment. When He makes promises to us, they are guaranteed eternally, provided the conditions of the agreement are met.

In the ancient Middle East, there was a specific protocol for contracts, agreements, treaties, and so forth. These were typically between a superior and an inferior, in terms of class status. The significant characteristic of these contracts was that they were brought about on the superior’s terms. The inferior party would either agree or disagree with the terms, but they were determined by the superior party almost entirely. This is the form in which God’s promises come in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, God appeared to Abraham and made promises of land and descendants, on the conditions that Abraham walk before God and be holy (Genesis 17:1-3). Later, God made promises to the children of Israel through Moses about the Promised Land, provided they put away their foreign gods and serve Him only (Leviticus 20:22-24). More recently, God made promises to His people through David, Solomon, Elijah, Hezekiah, and many others.

But now, God has come to the primary component of His plan to save the human race. With Jesus, all the former promises will still be honored, but now those promises are extended beyond the Jewish people to everyone who will agree to the conditions of the contract: Believe, Confess, Repent, Be Baptized, and Obey. We know God will hold up his end of the bargain – the question is, will we?

Bottle-fed or carnivorous?

 If there was any one point where I would criticize American Christians, it is that they are very shallow. While  there are significant exceptions, most Christians in our country do not spend more than one hour a week doing anything about their faith – and that is assuming they attend church every Sunday, which many do not! These baby Christians are content to just stick with the basics: Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead, and  that’s about it. There is no time for daily meditation on God’s Word or focused prayer, no time for pursuing a deeper spiritual understanding of things. And so, the American Church is one giant nursery.

    Hebrews 5:11 "On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. 5:12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. 5:13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.  6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, 6:2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 6:3 And this is what we  intend  to  do,  if  God  permits.  6:4  For  it  is  impossible  in  the  case  of  those  who  have  once  been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6:6 and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt. 6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. 6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned. 6:9 But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation. 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints. 6:11 But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, 6:12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises."

 Spiritual shallowness was a problem in the early Church as well. It seems like no matter what era you live in, most people are content with a simple grasp on their relationship with God, and are perfectly happy to call it good. And so for the next 40 years, they are in a spiritual holding pattern where not much  changes in their hearts and souls. Issues like living a life of holiness, righteousness, advocating for God’s justice, caring for the poor, orphans, and widows, self-sacrifice, even fasting are all reserved for those in  full-time ministry. But according to the New Testament, there is no difference between Christians who get paid for it and Christians who don’t. The same demands are placed upon both groups.  The Church in America will remain weak and lazy until there is a reversal on this matter. God’s work is not being carried out because we are too fat and sleepy to see and understand. We walk right by  opportunities God has placed in front of us because they might require us to get involved. Our faith is not simply “fire insurance,” it is designed to grow like the mustard plant from the seed, filling the garden  of this world with its branches. And the only way to grow that faith the way it is designed to is work. We must be actively working to fertilize, prune, and weed so that our mustard seed faith can spring up.  

Jesus Our Advocate

 I have now adopted four children internationally, the first from Russia and the other three from Ethiopia. It is a complicated process that involves  a ton of paperwork, notary public stamps, communications with foreign  embassies and governments, and a lot of patience. In each instance, we went through an adoption agency who paid people to advocate for us in Russia and Ethiopia. In each case, their representation and knowledge of the  system made the difference between having children and not having  children. When we traveled to both countries, we were dependent upon our  advocates to make sure we completed the process and brought our children home.

While we were in these countries, it was necessary for our advocates to translate everything we said and what the government officials were saying. We did a lot of standing around, feeling stupid and helpless because, as Americans, we were used to making our own way and getting things done.  It was very difficult to rely on others to get the job done.

    Hebrews 5:1"For every high priest is taken from among the people and appointed to represent them before God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 5:2 He is able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring, since he also is subject to weakness, 5:3 and for this reason he is obligated to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. 5:4 And no one assumes this honor on his own initiative, but only when called to it by God, as in fact Aaron was. 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming high priest, but the one who glorified him was God, who said to him, “You are my Son! Today I have fathered you,” 5:6 as also in another place  God says, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” 5:7 During his earthly life Christ offered both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion. 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through the things he suffered. 5:9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 5:10 and he was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek."

In one of the most insightful passages in the Bible on the Incarnation of Jesus, Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our high priest. He acts as our advocate before God, whereas otherwise we would be helpless and lost. And his work goes both ways, because not only is he an advocate for us before God, arranging our adoption into the Kingdom, he is also completely sympathetic to our individual situations, because he is human also.  And while he never rebelled against the will of his Father, he does understand what it is like to be human, with all the frailty and fumbling that goes with it. In addition to acting as high priest, Jesus is unique in another aspect – he is also the necessary sacrifice for payment for our sins. The only way for justice to be served in the case of our rebellion is death – either ours or his. He stepped up and paid the price in his own blood, and set in motion a tidal wave of salvation across this world.

Some of the writers of the early Church considered the Incarnation to be the beginning of salvation, not just simply the crucifixion and resurrection. When God became a man and brought his divine nature into the world, the evil that dwelt there saw the light and fled. And as Jesus walked this earth, he freed people from bondage and healed them, forcing back the creeping darkness. Our high priest came with a mission to destroy the stranglehold sin had over us: by blinding Light, carrying our burdens, translating our pleas,and paying for our adoption as sons and daughters of God.

There's Lazy, and Then There's Rest.

I am a lazy person by nature. Sometimes I am so lazy I even feel guilty about it, especially when I really  should be helping my wife or playing more with my kids. It seems like every time I get a chance to relax a bit, I take it, which drives my wife crazy. My wife is the kind of person that can’t rest when there iswork around the house to be done, whereas, aside from the basics like dumping the trash, I rarely see anything real problem with the current state of the house. I would rather rest from my long, hard day of sitting on my rear.

    Hebrews 4:1 "Therefore we must be wary that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it. 4:2 For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith. 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” And yet God’s works were accomplished from the foundation of the world. 4:4 For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” 4:5 but to repeat the text cited earlier: “They will never enter my rest!” 4:6 Therefore it remains for some to
enter it, yet those to whom it was previously proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience. 4:7 So God again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, “O, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts.” 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken afterward about another day. 4:9 Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. 4:10 For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. 4:11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper
than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow;it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. 4:13 And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. 4:14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of  God, let us hold fast to our confession. 4:15 For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. 4:16  Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need
help."

God rested also, but I don’t think it was the kind of rest we think of. He rested because his plans were complete and set into motion. I have wondered why God, knowing ahead of time what would inevitably happen, created free-willed human beings. Why would he subject himself to such frustrations? I suppose he did it for a similar reason as when people decide to have children. Even though they know that parenthood is one of the most difficult tasks a human being can take on, and that the child will disappoint and disobey them, they choose to do it because of all the good stuff that comes out of it. To raise a child with your values and love them unconditionally, and to watch them grow up into a person full of potential – that is why parents have children. The icing on the cake is when they love you back. In the same way, I believe God wanted to have his children grow up with his values and be loved unconditionally. He knew that, even though we would have the ability to rebel against him, and in fact would do so, true love is born out of free-will.
Even though God knew our future before we were even created, he set everything in motion anyway. Why? Because God had a contingency plan. He knew that the only way for us to return home once we  left  was to go, find us, and bring us back. And he did this through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ – God  in the flesh. He found us, wandering the streets with no money in our pockets, dirty clothes on our backs, a bounty on our heads, and he brought us home. And when we got back home, we slept for days and days.

The Blessedness of the Unknown Future

When I was six years old, my family moved to Boulder, Colorado. My dad was a young Christian, and he believed that God was calling him to pull up stakes and move. While we were living there, my parents helped plant a church that began in our home. I remember sitting in the living room with a group  of people and singing praise songs in my pajamas.
  My dad was a contractor, and during the time we lived in Colorado he built a house for us to live in. I remember the first night we spent in it when it was all completed – I liked my room because it had a really cool walk-in closet. But during that winter, two events occurred that were catastrophic for my family: the  first was it was 1977 and the prime interest rate went through the roof, so house payments became almost impossible; the second was a particularly harsh Colorado winter in which our pipes froze and the basement filled up with water. It wasn’t long after that we moved back to California. These events continue to  have a tremendous impact on my dad’s perspective on life, and I suspect that, had he known ahead of time what was going to happen, he would have gone out of his way to avoid it.

    Hebrews 3:1 "Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, 3:2 who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s house. 3:3 For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken. 3:6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. We are of his house, if in fact we
hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,  “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! 3:8 “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness. 3:9 “There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years. 3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering and they have not known my ways.’3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” 3:12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living  God. 3:13 But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception. 3:14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence firm until the end. 3:15 As it says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 3:16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership? 3:17 And against whom was God provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? 3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? 3:19 So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief."


We are the house of God. In former times, the house of God was an actual building called the Temple, and before that, the Tabernacle. There was nothing wrong with either of these two arrangements, in fact, God had commanded that they be built. But they were not meant to last forever – they were a foreshadow of the final dwelling place of God within us.

Moses was possibly the greatest servant of God – he was even called “the friend of God.” But for all that Moses did for the children of Israel, it was still only a temporary thing. Because of Jesus, our eternal high priest and apostle, a new era has dawned. No longer is God considered to be in a particular location,He inhabits the soul of every soft-hearted believer in the world – from Portland to Pakistan. God has written His word on our hearts, instead of on stone, and we are One in Him. But just like in Moses’ day,rebellion enters easily into the human heart, and rebellion can corrupt the beautiful house of God. I see rebellion in the hearts of people when they value comfort over reaching the lost – an entrenched, almost invisible rebellion. I do not think people intend to place their priorities over God’s, but over time it just
happens, until they are trapped.

 God told Moses to lead the children of Israel out from Egypt, through the desert of the Sinai peninsula, and into the land He had promised to give them. But along the way, the people rebelled, and a journey that was only supposed to take a few weeks lasted forty years, until everyone but a tiny few died. It was the next generation, the children of the slaves in Egypt, born in the desert, who entered the Promised Land. Even Moses, God’s friend, was denied entrance in the end, because of his own rebellion. I  seriously doubt the children of Israel would have ever left Egypt if they knew what lay ahead of them. But through them, even though they were rebellious and generation after generation of them continued to be rebellious, God was laying the foundation for Jesus to inaugurate a new way of living. Of all those people who dropped dead in the desert, I wonder if at least one of them glimpsed this future in their dying moments.

The Sin Eater

There is an ancient custom among the peoples of northern Europe and the British Isles. Every village had a person who was designated a “sin-eater.” The custom dictated that when a person died, bread and salt were placed on the chest of the corpse. The sin-eater would be called, and he or she would come and eat the bread and salt. The belief was that the sin-eater would take on the sins of the dead person, absorbed into the bread and salt, and the deceased person would be absolved of their sins. This custom still survives in some areas, but is considered a cardinal sin by the Roman Catholic Church, and a person involved in sin-eating will be excommunicated, since the practice involves absolving a person’s sins outside the purview of the Church.

Since I am neither European nor Catholic, I don’t run into sin-eaters too often. But, on occasion, it seems that people treat me like one. Being a pastor, some people think, includes some mystical ability to change people’s hearts and even absolve them of sin. Every now and then I am asked by someone, with all sincerity, to visit with some neighbor or family member of theirs that doesn’t know the Lord, in the hopes that something I say or do in that one encounter will convert them. While I don’t doubt their good intentions, I am usually reluctant to do this very often because it makes everyone involved very uncomfortable and rarely achieves anything. One woman I knew a while back set me up to meet with her son at his apartment, but when he found out about it he invited a whole bunch of people over for a barbeque at the same time. He then spent the rest of the evening avoiding me.

Hebrews 2:1 "Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2:2 For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, 2:4 while God confirmed their witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. 2:5 For he did not put the world to come, about which we are speaking, under the control of angels. 2:6 Instead someone testified somewhere: “What is man that you think of him or the son of man that you care for him? 2:7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while. You crowned him with glory and honor. 2:8 You put all things under his control.” For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not
yet see all things under his control, 2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God’s grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone. 2:10 For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.2:11 For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 2:12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” 2:13 Again he says, “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, with the children God has given me.” 2:14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), 2:15 and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. 2:16 For surely his concern is not for angels, but he is concerned for Abraham’s descendants. 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 2:18 For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted."

Jesus is our only Sin-Eater. He is a plurality of necessary roles for us: God, the Son of Man, our High Priest, and our sacrifice. He is the only one who can absolve people of their sins, and he is the only one who can change hearts and minds toward him. Because he has tasted death for everyone, no one need die, if they choose. The Sin-Eater has taken their sins into himself and carried them into the grave, where he left them when he rose again. Because of this, Jesus has become our way into eternal life with God, not as mourners watching a dearly departed one buried into the ground, but looking up, seeing him become hidden in the clouds as he ascends into the heavens.

As for me, I am merely a witness of these things. Jesus came upon my dead rotten corpse, and ate my sin from off my chest. But I was not then put into a coffin and buried, I was resurrected too. I rose up and went ahead, announcing the arrival of the Sin-Eater in every village I entered.

The Sun and the Son's rays.

The sun is constantly bombarding us with stuff. As the sun spins,  fumes, and explodes, it sprays its own mass  out over the solar system, much like a lawn sprinkler. The stuff is magnetic, electrically charged, radioactive, and mostly invisible. In addition to visible light, this stuff includes ultra-violet light, infra-red light, gamma radiation, hydrogen and helium particles, and other chemical  elements. This constant pulse of sprayed material is called the solar wind.  While much has been studied about the sun, it being our closest star, there are mysteries yet remaining. The outer atmosphere of the sun is  about one million degrees Celsius, while the visible surface is only  about 6,000 degrees Celsius. No one knows why it is cooler near the  source of the sun’s power than farther away.

    Hebrews 1:1 "After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, 1:2 in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. 1:3 The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 1:4 Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs.     1:5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? And in another place he says, “I will be his father and he will be my son.” 1:6 But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” 1:7 And he says of the angels,  “He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” 1:8 but of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.    1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.  So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing.”  1:10 And,  “You founded the earth in the beginning, Lord, and the heavens are the works of your hands.  1:11 They will perish, but you continue. And they will all grow old like a garment,  1:12 and like a robe you will fold them up and like a garment they will be changed,  but you are the same and your years will never run out.” 1:13 But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation?"

The book of Hebrews is all about how Jesus is better, better than all other religious figures, better than the Jewish Law, better than the angels. The author states that Jesus is better because he is the “radiance  of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (NIV). In the same way that the sun sends the  solar wind shooting out over the solar system, carrying the same ingredients that make up the sun, Jesus was sent to us. And he is better than anything that has come before, or will come in the future. Jesus is  superior because of his superior nature, he is exactly God, but a sent God, the original Apostle.

The old Joni Mitchell song “Woodstock” has an interesting line in it: “we are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” It is true that we are stardust, the sun is covering the  earth with it all the time, and in that Garden long ago, God scooped up some of that stardust and we were indeed golden. Can we get ourselves back to that Garden? No, but the Solar Wind, the Sent One, can,  and he can make us golden again.