Deep-spirited friends

Philippians 2:1-8

1 -4 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5 -8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

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The highlighted part is good, no doubt. It certainly sets the example for us all. How much are we to love others? As Christ loved the church. The Bible says there is not greater love than that kind of love. That's laying it all on the line, it's giving it all, holding nothing back for ourselves. That's a tall order. There's no ambiguity there, just straight up commitment. Reading that reminds me of the people that asked Jesus, "How many times do I forgive my brother, seven?" and Jesus said "Oh no! Much more than that! 70 times 70!" In other words, "Don't stop, just keep forgiving and forgiving!". That's why He said in his example prayer that we should pray "Lord forgive me as I forgive my offenders.". Our loving/giving is to be limitless, like free re-fills at McDonalds. Just keep it coming baby!

The stuff I didn't highlight is some of the practical working out of how to make this happen. Paul mentions this same idea in other places too. It's the idea that is soooooo counter to our culture. Pull back and promote others. Lift others up and learn to play second fiddle.

Our culture hates that concept. That's why loving others is such a radical command, it's revolutionary, it turns the world's idea upside down and inside out. Our world is all about self preservation, self promotion, and self gratification. No so in the kingdom of God. It's about giving, forgiving, and giving more. It's about emptying ourselves of ourselves and instead becoming a resource for other people. As an American I can say that I think that sucks. But as a Christian I understand it and believe it.

Oddly enough, this is a pretty good way to live. Oddly enough, that love ends up coming back to you. Imagine if a church did this in a serious, committed way. Each person looking out for the needs of others. Each as he has giving to the need of others as the Spirit guides. That's the way it's supposed to be. Sure, I'd be giving out. But I'd also be receiving as others gave to me. What a cool way to live. Call it communism or socialism or whatever. It's still cool.

I've only recently begun to try to implement this in my daily living. I'm pretty new at it so I'm pretty clumsy about it. But, it does work. I'm the boss where I work and as I've given myself to my subordinates and put their interests before mine I've seen an exponential difference in their attitude, their production, and their loyalty to me. Whereas before I used to lead the charge, now they're leading the way and the creative synergy that's come out of it is incredible. I win, they win, the company wins, my boss wins. It's a win-win-win for everybody. I've begun framing this value in the context of "teamwork" and the team is gelling like nobody's business. My employees are actually talking to my boss about promoting me, it's the strangest thing. All because I began living the law of love in my work and putting other people before myself.

Don't get me wrong, living love is often hard and brings hardship and scorn from others. It's not always and easy way nor does it always bring you financial gain. Most of the time it costs you something. But that's ok. Sometimes it's beneficial too. No matter what we do it has to be for love's sake, not our own gain, otherwise it's worthless.

How many relationships would be repaired or restored if someone would lay down their pride, their interests and instead do what it took to make the other person happy? Jesus told us that if a man sues us that we ought to give him what he's asking for and give him more than that in order preserve the relationship and live the law of love. Do we really do that in practice?

How many times are we jealous of the success or public promotion of other people? How many times do we fantasize that we could sit in the seat of honor? More often than we'd like to admit I'm sure. But Jesus said that if we want to be first then we are to serve. That's what he was trying to teach his social climbing disciples in the Upper Room when he insisted on washing their feet. He told the leaders of the church that if they want to be true leaders then they'll be servants of all. Isn't that soooo counter cultural? To us the sign of success is when we can lord over people and they serve US and we lead THEM. In the kingdom of God the first shall be last and the last will be first.

The Road Less Travelled

Ephesians 3:14-4:3
14 -19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20 -21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Ephesians 4

1 -3In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

Smoke or Life?

I was reading Paul's letter to the Galatian believers while eating tacos at Jimboys today. (I don't recommend the tacos for breakfast.) Anyway, I was reading and in this letter the Apostle is riding on the Galatian believers pretty hard for their backsliding into legalism. Evidently some religious people were trying to get the Galatians to stop being so free in their living and instead were trying to convince them with smooth talk and emotional manipulation to express their faith by living according to rules instead of living by faith and love. Paul outlined the whole purpose of the law and laid out the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Mosaic law and then compared it to just being free and living by faith.

In a nutshell he said this, the law was temporary and it was to show us that religion and religious practice is not the answer to having a relationship with God. The essence, the core, the basis, the "main thing" in the expression of our relationship with God is this: faith expressed in love. Love. Faith in God and loving God and loving people. No more, no less. The rest of it is smoke that makes us choke. This is what Paul was saying I Cor 13, we can do all sorts of religious stuff but the more we do that the more likely we are to become merely religious and lose touch with the reason for religion, love.

Galatians 4 -6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

13 -15It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.

My spiritual heritage is rooted in religion. For sure, there is a remnant there that do love God and do love people. Just like He showed the prophet that felt he was the last one in Israel to love God, God showed me there are some that follow the inner law of love even in the midst of stifling religion. However, it is stifling nonetheless. At the end of the day, when I finally woke up to my ultra-religious state, I realized I was cold, judgemental, hard hearted, rebellious, contentious, unsympathetic, unkind, selfish, arrogant, divisive, irrational, and all sorts of ungodly things. In my pursuit of holiness I had become very unholy and was a tree bursting with the fruit of religiousity. On top of all that I had no peace, no rest, no joy. I was stressed out in every way.

What's ironic is that so much of religion is couched in messages and thoughts that make us feel good. They're messages that concern our "happiness" and how we view ourselves. They're navel gazing introspection that pander to our pride, our ego, and the idea that we are the center of our universe. Instead of teaching us to honor God and love others they vault our own interests and concerns to the top of the list. Religion becomes about us, not about God or others. That's anti-Christ, in my opinion.

This is what Paul is saying to the Galatians. Stop being so darned religious and just live by faith and express that faith by loving others. I can almost see him kicking a chair and saying "Jeez! Keep it simple, stupid! Why can't you see that?".

Living by the law of love simplifies life to it's bare minimum, to it's foundation. If we make our decisions and actions based on loving God and loving other people then many of our choices are clear as a spring day in the mountains. There is no question, the way is easy to see. But when we're clouded by self interests and pride the way is murky and frought with questions.

Living life according to what's best for others and what honors God is the way to peace. Jesus said that He's the road, the way, the truth, the life. Jesus is love. He is the Holy Spirit, the friend living in us. We just need to move ourselves into the way and let love rule our actions. That's the simple life.

I Corinthians 13

The Way of Love
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Community 2

Another thing that I've done to help foster a sense of community in my neighborhood is to invite my neighbors over to my house for dinner. I like to cook so I usually make a big dinner. But that's not really necessary. Just invite your neighbors over for a BBQ. Be sure to try to invite people who don't know each other very well. It's amazing how friendly peope become when you put food in front of them. Remember, there's no goal here to try to save them. Just help create a sense of community in your neighborhood. By doing so you are tearing down the walls the enemy creates between people. You're connecting people when the enemy tries to divide them. It's a good thing.

Community

The big C word. It's been a buzz word in Churchianity for awhile. But what can we do about it? What is it? How can I help create and sustain it?

Jesus told us to not worry so much at first trying to take his message to some foreign country. He said to start right in our own neighborhood. Isn't that the way we are? When our imagination gets fired up we start dreaming all sorts of big, fancy, schmancy ideas about conquering the world. Sometimes God just wants us to love our neighbors. Well, honestly, he wants us to do that all the time.

But sometimes he just wants us to put down our evangelistic telescope and look at our actual neighbors. You know, the ones that live next door. Or above or below us or across the walkway from us. The ones whose dogs poop on our front yard and whose cats pee on our BBQ grill covers. The ones who gripe about the neighbor down the street who doesn't live by the CC&R's but whose sparkling new storage shed violates at least three CC&R's that you know about. Yeah, those neighbors.

God wants us to love them. Accept them. Don't try to Christianize them. Just be their friend. Be careful to pay attention to their needs and help them out whenever possible. Basic love stuff.

Once neat way to minister to your neighborhood is to try to foster a sense of community there by having a block party once or twice a year. I remember living in a house for 10 years and when I left hardly knew any of my neighbors the whole time. Sadly, one of them was happy to see me leave, I must confess.

But when I moved to the new neighborhood I asked God to help me be a better neighbor. So he told me to have a block party. It's really easy. Just get two or three other neighbors together that'll help out (you'd be surprised at how eager people are to help) , set a date, and plan easy food like hot dogs, burgers, potato salad, and sodas and then pass out a flyer to everybody in the neighborhood. Charge $10 a house to help pay for expenses and have a blast. It's really cool to see people hanging out, getting to know each other beyond the casual wave out through the windshield as they pull into the garage.

Helping build a sense of community in your community is a powerful way to bring a little taste of the kingdom of love into your neighborhood. What happens is that people get to know each other and start liking each other. It's more difficult to stab somebody in the back when you like them. It's harder to believe false stories about somebody when you know that person. People like to help people and when they know other people they tend to help them more, what's more "Christian" than that? People ministering to each other and participating in the acts of loving their neighbor is better than people who nod their head in church when the preacher says "Love your neighbor!".

Block parties are an awesome way to infect your world with the spirit of community.

Accepting

I was reading in Romans and I Corinthians today where Paul told the believers to accept one another and to respect one another's divergent views on what is right and what is wrong. He said that it's best to squash your own preference for a time in order to not offend someone else who may consider your freedom to be a sin. Paul's reason for this? So that the church would be unified in love. It is more important that unity prevail that our egos be propped up. In I Corinthians Paul told the believers that it's better to swallow a wrong and allow injustice to come to us and preserve unity rather than go to court against a brother. Only a person who views life through the lense of love would be able to do these sorts of things.

Personally, I don't like these injunctions of the Apostle. They get on my nerves. A liberty for me is good for everybody and it bugs the snot out of me that other people live their lives shouldering weights that slow them down. I want them to be free. But, the fact of the matter is that it's not my job to lead them to this freedom, it's His job. If for some reason he hasn't told them these things yet, or they haven't received it yet, then how is it my job to try to hijack God's job? It's not. My job is keep my mouth shut and submit my will to the will of the Father and show respect to my brother by doing it his way when I'm around him.

If somebody wrongs me I want to them to pay! I want justice! But Jesus desires mercy over sacrifice. That's the law of love. If a brother insists on ripping me off I'm supposed to bear it, not take them to court. Ok then, I'll be like the Pharisee who asked Jesus the definition of "neighbor", who is my brother? Is it necessarily somebody in my church? Or somebody who's theology is similar to mine? What if I'm suing a business owner who also professes to be a Christian? Hmmmm.... Perhaps it's better to accept a wrong and trust God to reprimand my enemy rather than take matters into my own hand, or worse yet, give an increasingly ungodly system the authority to rule over matters of the spirit. Besides, if it's money that's the issue aren't I merely a steward of God? If so, then they're wronging God, not me.

No matter. It's best to try to live at peace with all men whenever possible. There are enough people who will bother at me just because I'm a believer for me to add to their number by offending people and living in unforgiveness and drawing the line of division between us for them. Love requires the humility to let even the big stuff slide for the sake of peace.

Entering

I was reading the Gospels this weekend and noticed something that convicted me.

I read where Jesus was asked by the religious scholar "What's the most important commandment?". Jesus answered that it was to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. The scholar commented that Jesus was correct in this and that the Law and Prophets all hinged on these commands. It says that the Jesus saw that the scholar was insightful and said that the scholar was standing at the edge of the kingdom of God.

What? Only on the edge? I would think that if you understood this that at least you were a step or two inside the circle. That seems a little odd to me that Jesus would say that because he stated that he was opening up the kingdom of God to people in the present but that this man, as insightful as he was, was only at the edge and but not IN the kingdom. He was still on the outside looking in.

In another place another Jesus asked a religious person the same question and the man answered what Jesus said about loving God and loving others. Jesus told him this was the truth and that if he did this then he would live. In other places Jesus said that life in the kingdom was the only real life there is and that if you're not in the kingdom you're dead. Therefore if you obey these commandments and live then you're in the kingdom.

Over and over again Jesus told people to embrace this message, to live it, to mix it in with their daily living. Like yeast in bread dough, the law of love must be inexorably intertwined with the very substance of our living. Like breathing. He said that if we did then we're like the house built on a rock that can withstand the storm. If we don't live this message of love then we're like houses built on sand that collapse at the first good life storm. How true.

It's a simple thought. Don't just talk about it, do it!. It's not enough to understand it and say, like Jesus said of that generation, "Yes sir!" and nod our heads in agreement. He was frustrated with them because they weren't actually DOING it. They were just going through the motions, practicing religion. Saying all the right words but not doing the message in life. Like the insightful scholar who knew the key to the kingdom but hadn't actually ENTERED the kingdom through his actions, how many times do we talk about it, agree with it, speak it, say "Amen!" to it, but we don't actually DO it. We don't give ourselves 100% to the law of love. Well, at least I don't.

Jesus also said that on Judgement Day that thousands would come and want into the banquet feast but would be denied. He said they'd be people that would point to their lives and say "Look, we lived for you! We did many miracles and all sorts of great and spiritual things in your name! Let us in!". But Jesus said that he'd refuse them because they never really got it, they were spinning their wheels. They lived at the edge of the kingdom but never came in.

Too many of us have squinty eyes. Jesus said that the light of our body is our eyes. He's talking about our attitude. If we're generous and giving and live with an attitude of wonder and awe (like children!) then we're in the kingdom and will have life. But if we're self-centered and stingy and greedy that our lives are like dark, dank, moldy basements. That's the difference between the law of love and the living by the way of the world, self-centeredness.

Baby steps and Planet Sushi

In this thing called love I'm definitely a babe in Christ. I take baby steps as a friend of mine would say. I do little things that are palatable and relatively easy. Maybe someday I'll have the stomach to eat meat, but for now milk is about all I can handle.

I mentioned keeping my piehole shut in an earlier post. That's a baby step. Elementary. Physical babies mature by learning to talk. Spiritual babies mature by learning to keep their mouths shut and keeping their ears and hearts open. Pocket books too I imagine.

Another thing I've started to do is something the KJV calls "preferring my brother". I've been trying to apply in a variety of ways. I let other people make decisions instead of trying to be a "leader" all the time. I find that life is more interesting that way.

For example, some time ago I stopped suggesting restaurants when with other people. "Where do you wanna go?", they ask. "I don't care, wherever you want to go. What ever you want.", is what I say. It takes a little longer this way because they invariably want to let me decide because I so obviously don't WANT to decide. Honestly, I don't give a rip where we go, I'd rather they enjoy it. Whatever flips their switch is cool with me. I'm sure there's something on the menu I'd enjoy. Thank you Lord for that little victory.

Sometimes though this drives me crazy. I have one particular friend who is extremely indecisive when it comes to picking a place to eat. She literally will changed her mind 10 times while we're driving to the first place she picked. One time I drove back and forth across town three times until she finally settled on a restaurant that we'd already passed twice. It took everything in me to keep my piehold shut and not, at the very least, stop the car and throw myself into oncoming traffic. But, we finally ate and it was all good.

Yesterday this practice took me out of the familiar land of burgers and taquieras to the alien planet called sushi. A co-worker has been really helping me out lately so I wanted to treat her to lunch. She kept insisting I pick the place since I was paying. I almost had to stop the car and refuse to go further until she picked something she wanted. She finally picked....a sushi bar. Uh, I'm not a sushi person. Period. If it aint cooked I don't eat it. I'm sure the little devil on my shoulder was laughing his butt off at this one.

Laughing devil and all off to the sushi place we went. Out of about 50 things on the menu only one looked appetizing to me. Ironically enough it was actually an appetizer. And I enjoyed it. It was deep fried, thank God. My friend ordered some strange creations that I admit were pretty to the eye. Art on a plate. But I don't normally eat art. I admire it. I admired the art as she ate it.

And she loved it. She made me eat a bite and she laughed till she cried at the look on my face. You know what? Seeing her have such a good time was totally worth spending 30 bucks on a barely dead meat. She had a great time and she felt appreciated. I'm cool with that. In fact, I think I got more out of it than she did. And I'm the one that paid, how is that possible?! haha. Whoever it was that said it's better to give than receive was a pretty smart dude. Who said that anyway?

It's a hard row to hoe...

Honestly, the more I think about and the more I try to live a life of love the more I understand how hard it is. I think that's why Jesus said in Matthew 22 (?) that wide is the path to destruction but narrow is the way to life and few are they that find it. Love is hard. Putting others before myself sucks a lot of the time and it requires a lot of sacrifice on my part.

One sacrifice that comes to mind is our reputation. Heard a preacher talk this last weekend about how God doesn't care much about our reputation, he cares about obedience. It sounds somewhat heretical out of context, but in the context of what he was saying it made sense. It makes sense here too.

When you start talking about love and start trying to live it out in life people start to think you're a little kooky. Especially if you talk about it. The more you talk the more eyes glaze over and the more people start distancing themselves from you because they don't relate. It tends to isolate you, even from other Christians. Sure, everybody wants to say they believe in the power of love. We'll even sing songs about it in secular and "Christian" music and we love to buy books about it and we flock to the feel good movies that showcase it. We call it "inspirational!". But most of the time that's about it when it comes to our commitment to grabbing ahold of the law of love and living it.

I went to a meeting recently where everyone was all giddy about God and saying all sorts of stuff about spiritual things. Me included. But my heart was pricked to the core as I drove home in my fancy SUV and noticed the homeless guy who was at the meeting picking up garbage on the side of the road and putting it in his shopping cart. I'm not even sure I know his name even though he's being attending our church regularly for the last year. A real fine example of Christian love I am. We talk about all sorts of spiritual stuff but what could be more spiritual than helping the poor in my own spiritual community?

Anyway, back to the hard row to hoe idea. True Christianity is hard. True, Jesus said his burden is light. That's because of grace. He doesn't require anything of us for the redemption of our souls. His grace works outside of karma, that makes it easy for us. But the law of love requires that we lay down our life for our friends, there is no higher love. That's heavy stuff dude.

Am I ready to do that? Am I ready to sacrifice my ambitions, my money, my time, my energy, my thoughts, my prayers, my political beliefs, my nationalism, my lust for revenge, my greed, my whatever....for others? Am I ready to "die" for others? That's what love requires. It demands a full sacrifice and promises no returns. It's not even an investment. It's pure giving.

God's thoughts are expensive. I admit, I hesitate more than I leap when it comes to this kind of faith. Most of the time I just walk away.