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Secondly, are we becoming more aware of toxins in our lives that obscure the perfect picture of Jesus?  Are we walking in a biblically framed relationship with Jesus, or have we allowed the world to define who Jesus is and what He expects of us?

Some toxins are easy to spot.  Not long ago a cable network introduced a reality show about mega-church pastors.  The show focuses on the extravagant lifestyle of the pastors and the drama that exists in their unusual brand of faith.  I don’t mean to suggest the ministries depicted in this show aren’t being used by God to change lives.  God has shown me He can work through almost anything to help people find grace.  But the show also reinforces a lot of unfortunate stereotypes our world has of the church that leads them to resist the kingdom.  In a market-driven show about the work of Christ, it is easy to spot the toxins.

Other impurities are not so easy to detect.  We have secret sins, hidden phobias, resentments, regrets and prejudices.  Our work for the Lord is sometimes tainted by selfish ambition and self-absorbed theologies.  How was it possible for Judas to walk with Jesus throughout His ministry and remain unchanged?  How could Peter listen to Jesus’ warning about his denial and not have the courage to claim Him as Lord in the courtyard?  Why did John Mark grow fearful and desert Paul and Barnabas during their first missionary journey, and what led Simon the Sorcerer to accept Jesus then try to buy the miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit from Peter?  Three of these four examples had an opportunity to change course, purify their lives and let the 100% Jesus inhabit their hearts.  One, Judas, was unable to recover from his crime.

Spiritual toxins, just like those occurring in the natural world, seep into our hearts undetected.  Because they are so prevalent in every aspect of our environment change only occurs when the Holy Spirit convicts and the perfect person of Jesus calls us to a higher place.  The process of detox is painful, but rewarding as we become more effective conduits of God’s grace to a lost and dying world.

Sharing the 100% Jesus 

We return now to our initial goal of sharing Christ in our toxic world.  If we hope to be on mission in every area of our lives, allowing God’s Word to filter out everything that doesn’t look like Jesus, then we must ask ourselves how we are doing.

First, is our passion for lost people growing?  Do our hearts break at the thought there are those who need Jesus whose image of Him might be obscured by gross misrepresentations of His teaching and character?  Does it matter that we might not share Him as He is, or that our lives might be filled with so many contradictory habits that others are unable to appreciate our Lord?  Are our words seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6), or have the toxins of the world trampled down our witness and left our message a bitter pill for others to swallow?

If salvation isn’t important, then our attempt to reflect Jesus is eternally irrelevant.  We might be better people, but we are still without hope.  But if there is a life after this one, and if the present world is going to become obsolete, then we must make sure the world sees the biblical Jesus, and hears His call to a new life.

When I meet missionaries who have spent their lives sharing the gospel in hostile regions of the world, I am struck by their enthusiasm and sense of purpose.  It is true they are susceptible to seasons of discouragement, and sometimes depression.  They are also often targets of unwarranted harassment and open persecution.  But even when I encounter these front-line warriors at their worst, their eyes light up when they tell me how God has worked in their circumstances.  It seems they are blessed and forever blessed.

The loss of loved ones to death is the most difficult separation most of us will face, and I have walked with many through its barren desert.  We have talked about many things: the meaning of life, abandonment, the existence of evil, and the nature of faith.  I have seen the demons of anger, regret, guilt and bitterness.  In some ways, none of us ever completely heal from such losses,  but we can find peace in them as we draw on God’s grace and infinite wisdom.  Sadly, I have known those who never find this peace and instead turn their back on God.  I understand their disappointment, yet their response breaks me.  If only they would run into the arms of their Creator He would carry their pain.  God has never promised He will make life pain-free, but as our divine Shepherd He has proven He will direct and comfort us with His “rod and staff.”  I don’t fully understand the constitution of those who have been through grief’s deepest pit and emerged with their souls intact.  I know they are forever changed by their nightmarish journey.  Still, in the midst of everything they seem to be blessed and forever blessed.

To be blessed is to find ourselves in greater harmony with the heart of God through life’s experience.  To be forever blessed is to be confident God hasn’t finished His work in us, and will continue to lead us in His truth until we reach our final rest.  When we finally learn to live in the pure presence of the 100% Jesus and His unpolluted vision of the Father’s will, we find the quiet assurance of faith’s certainties.

Revelation 20:6 is best known for its “thousand years” reference and the volumes that have been written about it in an effort to define the biblical millennium.  This is an important subject to be sure, but perhaps not as important as the promises found in the other portions of the verse: “Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ.”  We are made pure, and are in the process of becoming pure.  In the meantime, we do not fear death because we have experienced the power of our risen Lord and His indwelling Spirit.

We are heirs, faithfully administrating His grace to a lost world.  This brings us full circle to our motive for seeking an organic faith in the first place.  We want to see Jesus clearly, but if we know Him it is more critical that He be seen clearly in us.  It may be a cliché to say we are “blessed to be a blessing”, but if this were not the case, then why else would Jesus leave us here in this difficult place as we wait for His appearing?

The Christian perspective on the blessed life transcends the world, but it also confounds onlookers.  How could obsessing over the will of God make one happy?  And while it might make sense that a life of obedience translates into a life with less trouble, what about the paradox of persecution?  Those who receive mercy are promised mercy, and peacemakers will be called sons of God.  And then they are persecuted?  How nonsensical it all seems.

But for those who know Jesus, there is no contradiction.  Eternal purposes produce everlasting joy.  Participating in the suffering of Jesus enhances our spiritual vision and makes us part of kingdom lore.  We may not rush headlong into trouble, but when it comes our hearts are purified and we see God.  This is our choice.  We can invest the majority of our time in the next big thing the world has to offer, or we can see God.  This is not an indictment against the world’s pleasures.  If God hadn’t wanted us to enjoy some of our own creations, He would have stripped us of our gifts and dreams.  On the other hand, had he wanted us to be the center of the universe, He would have remained silent.

He has not been silent.  Instead, the Creator has spoken to us through the patriarchs, prophets and apostles.  And most of all, He has revealed His very nature in the person of His Son.

There is more to life than meets the eye.  So which will it be: the latest thing or the God of the universe?  Will we fill up on junk food called “temporal” or hunger and thirst for His righteousness?  “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

…sorry for the accidental inclusion of a sermon video link in my last post.  A correction has been made on my main site: http://www.storiesofvalue.com.

Blessed and Forever Blessed

If the term “beatitude” is the Latin word for happiness, and if lasting happiness is received as our will is given over to the will of the Father, then we want to pursue Jesus’ instruction with a passion.  We are reminded of the cider grinder and the role of the cloth that filters out impurities with each pouring.  All of God’s Word is a filter through which our souls pass, and as it convicts us, more of the 100% Jesus is revealed.

We filter our hearts, but we also fasten our gaze on perfection.  The filter removes dross, but the grace, peace and love of the Savior up our empty places and brings light and life where death once reigned.

It is true our world has a very different view of happiness.  Here, we focus on satisfying every desire, and are forever tempted by envy and selfish ambition.  We approach the diseases of the heart and mind in a secular fashion, and seek to find peace by denying the existence of sin and relinquishing our responsibility to a moral creator.  There is, of course, a healthy ambition, and the secular sciences have many truthful observations to share.  But to be blessed in the deepest sense we must know God and embrace His will for our lives.

Centuries ago Solomon discovered this principle.  He wrote, “I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly–my mind still guiding me with wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 2:3a).  But after he had exhausted every possibility he concluded, “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).  Real happiness comes from above.

Continued from last Friday…When I was a child my Sunday School teacher taught me a song to remind me to defend my heart against life’s toxins.  I sang, “Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little eyes what you see.”  There was also a stanza about ears, lips, hands and feet.  The message was clear: “if you don’t want sin in your heart, don’t let it in your life.”  The Apostle Paul said it this way: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:10-11).

Everything that doesn’t look like Jesus

The great artist Michelangelo is credited with saying, “I saw the angel in the marble, and carved until I set him free.”  This is a useful principle in the detoxification of our souls.  We remove and refuse anything that doesn’t look like Jesus.  All of Jesus’ teachings seek this end.  He is truth, therefore to grasp and apply His teachings is to become like Him.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Truth is both cumulative and repetitive.  We are forever recognizing more truth and deepening our understanding of it.  For this reason we want to know everything Jesus taught, and we want to consider what He taught from every perspective.  As our awareness grows, undesirable additives in our lives are increasingly evident, and our desire to put on the character of Jesus intensifies.  This is, in summary, the blessing of the Beatitudes.

Can you think of something people in our culture mistakenly associate with Jesus?  Look a little deeper than His European image in art, or the occasional misquote from those who use Him to support their cause.  The real problem, in our context, is those who use Jesus as a vehicle for their ambitions.  Jesus has become the mascot for political, financial and commercial gain.  Unfortunately, Jesus’ followers have come to believe if they spiritualize their cause, they should be able to expect the support of the Lord’s people, and can question their Christian commitment if they refuse.

I am not talking about moral causes which must be defended with all certainty.  Our culture will always rebel against biblical morality and its adherents.  But I cannot help but believe it would be easier to uphold truth if there wasn’t always something for us to gain in the process.  The first Christians also stood for truth, but they were willing to lose their lives if necessary.  I fear modern believers are sometimes more concerned with the bottom line of their human ambition than the tragic outcome for those who die without Jesus.  This is probably the most prevalent misperception our world has about Christians: that they really aren’t ultimately about Jesus, or His message.  The course humor we see depicting Jesus in blasphemous ways is not so much directed at Him as it is at what His followers have made of Him.

I don’t mean to suggest the perceptions our world has are correct, or fair.  It really doesn’t matter.  If there is one shade of truth in them, we should be concerned.  The things we add to Jesus for our own sakes must be removed for the sakes of those whose souls hang in the balance.  The organic plea from our world is to give it the saving message of a Savior without the toxic side-effects of our self-absorbed endeavors.  Isn’t this how we received Him?  Isn’t this how the Father presented Him as he “became obedient to death—even death on a cross?” (Philippians 2:8)

Avoiding the Toxins

The process of purification in our hearts involves more than removing things that don’t belong.  As James reminded us, religion that is acceptable to God is “to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).  In other words, what we avoid is as important as what we extract.

In the book of Daniel we read the account of some young men of God who courageous refused to compromise their faith.  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had brought several young Jewish captives of royal birth into his court.  They were “without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace”(Daniel 1:4).  The king’s official was asked to feed the captives the king’s meat and wine for three years before entering his service.  But Daniel had other ideas.  He drew three young men, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, into an inner circle and asked the official to feed them only vegetables and water.  When the official refused, Daniel was able to convince his guard to provide vegetables and water as a ten-day test.  At the end of the test the four young men looked so much better than those with meat and wine the guard allowed them to continue their diet.

it is doubtful Daniel did this because he was a vegetarian. As a Jew, he would have eaten the Passover lamb with his family in his home country.  But the test he devised was symbolic of the way God blesses us when we rely on Him.  Incidentally, after three years Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel and his friends brought before Him, and he could find no one equal to them.

We are made pure by the blood of Jesus, we become pure by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and we manage purity by steering clear of sin.  Every fall I wash and wax my car to prepare it for the harsh winter elements.  I am always amazed at how dirty the surface has become.  The cleaning and waxing changes my focus.  Suddenly, I see every smudge and streak, and when I drive through a mud puddle I can’t wait to wash it off.  Then, as time goes by my enthusiasm wanes and I fail to notice the new film of dirt as it forms.

In the case of Daniel, the sin was not in consuming the king’s food and drink, but rather the temptation to let a pagan leader usurp his reliance on God.  He and the other young men of Israel were in Babylon as captives, partially because their nation had replaced the worship of God with pagan idolatry.  Perhaps it was because Daniel and his friends had lost so much they weren’t about to turn their backs on God again.  They weren’t ready to let the dirt collect again.

The Organic Walk

We face many obstacles as we strive to remove the additives that obscure the presence of Jesus in our lives.  Ironically, even the steps we take to acquire an organic approach to our faith can turn toxic.  It is common to find churches using the terms “real” and “authentic” in their marketing strategy.  What do these terms mean, and who determines when worship is real or authentic?  Is it defined by our casual dress, an acoustic feel in worship or the passionate expression on people’s faces?  Or is it something more, or altogether different?

One of the interesting characteristics of Jesus’ Beatitudes is that most of them can be pursued with little public display.  Other people can’t see the work God is doing in our hearts, and it may not be obvious how hungry or thirsty we are for righteousness.  Mercy is sometimes administered through non-action and meekness involves the surrender of our will in our private moments of prayer.

This does not mean our spiritual walk is purely private.  Far from this, the purpose of removing toxins from our lives is to allow the truth of Jesus to shine for the whole world to see.  Yet, it is wrong to assume we can determine whether or not someone is real or authentic in a single encounter.

The organic walk is just that: a walk, not a sprint.  It is a lifestyle where the nature of Christ is revealed daily in the decisions we make.  We are full of flaws, but determined to overcome them, tempted to seek revenge, but tempered by the cross, spiritually needy, yet thirty and hungry for more.  Perhaps the shortest and most accurate description of this life comes from John when he writes, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6).

The only responsible place to dispose of our old life, whether sin or sin’s carcass, is at the foot of the cross where Jesus’ blood poured out on our behalf.  We cannot trivialize our past, blame it on others, compare it to others, or claim to save ourselves through righteous acts.  Jesus’ teachings in the Beatitudes, or any other body of scripture, always bring us to a place of repentance.  Repentance is how all spiritual detox begins, because without it, we are not willing to surrender our will to the will of God and seek the better life He has planned for us.

This marks the difference between merely learning more about Jesus and letting His teachings transform our inner being, as well as our view of the world.  What we know won’t change the world, but what we do with what we know will.

Did you know it is possible to be confronted with the truth and remain unchanged, just as it is possible to know there are toxins in our food supply and do nothing to improve the situation?  James wrote, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).

There it is!  The Beatitude word “blessed.”  If we apply the Lord’s truths to our lives and let Him change us, we will be blessed.

Releasing the Toxins

Every cleansing process produces waste.  The dirt on your clothes and dishes goes down the drain and ends up in a treatment plant.  Medical supplies in a hospital are quarantined in separate containers and managed carefully to avoid the spread of disease.

I live by a river that flows into the Chesapeake Bay.  Some of the sewer drains in our community have little fish emblems painted on them to remind us to be careful with toxins.  What goes down the drain ends up somewhere.

So what happens to the dross that emerges when Jesus purifies us through His truth?  We want to live organically so more of Jesus can shine through our lives, but what happens to our bad attitudes and behaviors in the process?  Perhaps I am carrying the organic metaphor too far, but I feel the question must be asked.  Maybe the answer is as simple as saying our old life is being crucified daily on the cross we have taken up in the name of Christ.  But I sense things are a bit more complex.

Do you remember how the Pharisees in Jesus’ day removed toxins from their lives?  In Matthew 23 Jesus exposed their practice of pronouncing themselves pure and condemning others.  They wanted to be praised for their righteousness (Matthew 23:5), and masterfully crafted a holy life that looked righteous on the outside, but inside was full of “dead men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27).  The Pharisees were forever concerned about distancing themselves from pollutants, but their hearts were filled with “greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25) and in the end they only distanced themselves from the people who needed God most.

When we are confronted with truth we can react in a number of ways.  We can defend our honor by denying responsibility for our actions, blame other people for our troubles, or pretend we are something we are not.  Not only are these options dishonest, but they also keep us from the kind of change we should be experiencing when we take Jesus’ teachings to heart.

After Jesus shared His Beatitudes He made two parabolic statements.  Those who follow Him are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  But if salt loses its saltiness and light is hidden from view, what good are they?  In other words, when our idea of righteousness is devoid of real transformation, it is difficult to point the way to God.  It is hard to reflect the 100% Jesus of the Bible when we have merely rearranged the toxins in our lives to make us look better.  How, then, do we properly dispose of those things in our lives that obscure our Lord?  What can we do to insure the purity we embrace is more than a show?