Sabbath Rest

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. (Hebrews 4:1)

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. (Hebrews 4:1 NRSV)

I spent some time this morning in Hebrews 4 because I felt that I wanted to understand better the rest that I am supposed to enjoy on this Sabbath. I know that very, very few people have much of a grasp on the real nature of the rest that God has designed for us to experience, either on the Sabbath or in our life in general. What I didn't expect to find was a striking parallel to what I have been flushing out in Hebrews 12 over the past few weeks.

Without spending a great deal more time uncovering all the potential parallels, I have immediately noticed the familiar phrase come short of which alerted me to potential insights that could be enhanced by comparing both of these passages. Sure enough, they have a lot in common and I find that what I have been learning from 12 translates well into learning about the rest in 4 and vice versa.

Some of the key ideas that are either identical or very similar are:

• The need to live from the heart focused more on internals than externals.

• The need to avoid hardening of the heart, which can come from external-oriented religion.

• The coming short of something very crucial to living successfully as a real Christian. In chapter 12 it was grace and in chapter 4 it is rest – quite interesting.

• The element of faith in both chapters. Chapter 12 follows on chapter 11, the famous faith chapter and 12 begins with the greatest example of faith ever – Jesus. In chapter 4 it is shown that the reason the rest was come short of was because the good news was not mixed with faith.

• The listing of examples of people on both sides of the issue.

The opposite of coming short of that rest (which is also experiencing grace) is found in verse 11. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:11) I like the rendition of this verse from another translation.

Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders. (Hebrews 4:11 BBE)

I do not claim to be within the full definition of this rest at this point yet in my life. I believe that God is guiding me into that experience as I learn what it means to live from an unhardened heart, to know the real truth about what the good news is and then to mix that with faith. I think that means choosing to consciously apply it to myself. It also comes from understanding in these texts that rest and grace have a great deal in common with each other and I need to have a rich experience in both.

I am saddened as I look around at the lack of real spirit-rest in so many who claim to be “keeping the Sabbath” holy. They are convinced, as I have been for much of my life, that Sabbath-keeping is primarily an external exercise in figuring out what is acceptable and what is not and then trying very carefully to walk that gauntlet. This focus on the externals generally causes a strong distraction away from noticing the condition of the heart or paying attention to what is going on in our spirit. It often fosters a subtle spirit of bitterness to some extent and their spirit takes on an edge that can effect others, though they do not realize it themselves.

In our attempts to keep the Sabbath holy we become so obsessed with getting the appearances correct that we often make them more important than the way we treat each other or the feelings induced in those we are around. We somehow believe that God will overlook the damage going on at the heart level (of which we are usually unaware) if we just satisfy His strict requirements for getting our act right during the 24-hour period that comes around each week.

I am not just pointing the finger at others on these issues. I am just as guilty of external Sabbath routines as many others. However I am becoming aware of the false sense of security that many find in what they believe is proper Sabbath-keeping that is a counterfeit of the assurance of salvation that is only found in complete trust in the grace provided by Jesus Christ. We preach and teach and talk about grace and salvation but we very often still don't really get it. It is still true of us that we too have not yet entered into His rest.

Father, please enlighten me much more about how to really rest in You, to know the assurance of real grace, to be animated with the abundant life and joy of Jesus living inside of me. Mentor me in this business of entering into Your rest and make me an example of Your grace.

(next in series)

Jesus or Esau?

...He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. ...to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12:10-11)

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. (Hebrews 12:14, 17)

As I move toward the end of this chapter and even the end of the book of Hebrews, I am seeing a stark polarization emerging. It is much like the parable of the wheat and the tares that Jesus told about. He said that they were to grow together until the harvest when it would be quite clear what the difference was between them and then the angels would separate them. In this passage the difference is starting to become more clear.

At the beginning of this chapter and as the grand finale of the list of people of faith from the last chapter, Jesus is set out as not only the ultimate example of faith but as the author and finisher of faith. This creates the background for one side of the polarization, those who live in submission to the discipline and discipling of God in order to share His holiness. This relationship yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness and is the process of sanctification in order that we may see God. By implication these are also those who have found a place for repentance in their hearts and are not rejected or repulsed from inheriting the blessing of God due to the infection of bitterness.

Those emerging on the other side of the polarization have a number of potential symptoms that may likely revolve around some sort of bitterness sooner or later. They may have some sin that they have allowed to keep them entangled instead of running the race toward God's face with endurance. They have not made Jesus the focal point of their attention and affections but instead have looked elsewhere, even to religion itself, for their inspiration.

These people may have lost heart from the weariness of the struggle against sin. They may have become weary of enduring the discipline of life under the parentage of the Godhead and aborted their privilege of being legitimate children under His authority. They may have nurtured resentment for the lameness and pain of disjointed knees or failed to engage in helping to straighten the paths toward God. Instead of following on to be healed they came short of the grace of God and became bitter instead. Ironically they may still be very religious and careful to do everything “right”, but their heart is growing cold and hard from neglect or suppression.

These latter ones did not lack the desire for the blessing, however. They were likely very interested in being saved, in going to heaven and enjoying all the benefits of salvation and eternal life. They may have even been very religious, pious or even careful in their upholding of doctrinal purity and strict lifestyle. They paid very careful attention to all the external symptoms of sin and worked very hard to perform every requirement to the best of their ability and even “with God's help”. They may have achieved wonderful results with their evangelism and good works. But in the day of judgment they will be shocked to learn that God had a completely different standard of measurement than what they had always insisted that He used. Jesus – the same Jesus mentioned at the beginning of this chapter who is the champion example of faith – will say to them after politely hearing their list of religious achievements, “I never knew you...” (Matt. 7:23) They will be shocked to find that they are lumped in under the ones represented by Esau instead of Jesus.

Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to be Christians. {SC 47}

As I have looked at this word rejected over the past few days each time I visited this passage it always stirs something inside that bothers me. It has the ring of an arbitrary attitude of rejection on the part of someone other than Esau. It seems to reinforce the harsher view of God so common in religion and that I am becoming fiercely opposed to lately in my increasing awareness of the real truth about God. Is it really true that God just rejected Esau because he didn't qualify or measure up to God's high standards? When compared with the deceitful, conniving, slippery character of Jacob in the story from the Old Testament, Esau looks more like the victim than the problem if we weren't so biased by the rest of the stories that follow. What does this word rejected really mean?

So I looked it up this morning from the Greek original and as I expected there was a more consistent definition of this word that explains what is really going on here. These are the potential definitions of both the word and the two words that composes it.

Rejected

apodokimazo – to disapprove, i.e. (by implication) to repudiate: – disallow, reject.

apo – in composition (as a prefix) it usually denotes separation, departure, cessation, completion, reversal, etc.

dokimazo – to test (literally or figuratively); by implication, to approve: – allow, discern, examine, (ap-)prove, try.

What can be clearly seen here is that God was not so much rejecting Esau as much as Esau was being repulsed from being able to receive or connect with the Source of blessing due to the disharmony of his spirit. It was not so much that he had failed to perform all the external requirements but that he had disqualified himself internally to be able to enjoy the vital connection with God necessary to participate in the blessing. It was almost like he had created the wrong magnetic field in his heart that when faced with close proximity to God's presence would push the two spirits apart.

Another reason we struggle to understand this story about the blessing passed on from Isaac to his sons is our almost total lack of awareness both of the culture of the mid-eastern mindset and the ways of God. Our own perceptions of religion and of God have become so distorted, particularly in western thinking, that religion has become primarily an external part of life based on intense intellectually strong opinions with emotions sometimes mixed in. We have only a vague idea at best of what the word blessing even means and usually associate it with external economic benefits and advantages over others. We may even think that being blessed by God may also include extra protection over our lives so that we feel somehow exempt from having to suffer ill health or mistreatment by others.

But if we line up our typical notions of blessing with the description of the complete list of those referred to in Hebrews eleven we would find that it does not fit very well at all with the things that happened to the great cloud of witnesses who have lived in faith before us. It is very clear that we need a lot of radical adjustments to pretty much all the religious words and phrases that we throw around so blithely. We must look much more closely at the Word and receive the warnings implicit here that can save us from the shock of those described by Jesus in Matthew seven.

What is becoming very clear to me here is the two classes of people represented by Jesus and Esau. The first class are in close relationship to God, are subject to the Father of spirits and are learning the importance of making the internal and unseen more important than the externals or the physical things that can be scientifically proven. The rest of this chapter is a blatantly clear description of the stark contrast between living a life or religion based on externals verses living in the spirit, living from the heart and focusing our attention of that which cannot be seen, touched, heard or perceived with any of our usual physical senses. This is admonishing us to radically change our ideas of what constitutes real reality.

Because Esau chose to depend on the physical, external world more than pay attention to the condition of his spirit, he discovered too late that he had lost his ability to be qualified to receive the blessing. He certainly did not lack the desire for it as evidenced by the fact that he even cried tears of agony when deprived of it. He even obeyed everything his father asked him to do in order to prepare for the reception of the blessing. But he had failed to nurture the inner life of the spirit which is the only equipment that humans have by which to receive the real blessing that God has for us. This is the same problem experienced by those described by Jesus in Matthew seven. No amount of religious accomplishments or doctrinal purity will qualify us one whit to receive the reward and blessing of God if they do not flow from the inner heart of a person who's spirit is open and in relationship with the Father of spirits.

The fountain of the heart must be purified before the streams can become pure. He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. There is no safety for one who has merely a legal religion, a form of godliness. The Christian's life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. {DA 172}

Priests and scribes and rulers were fixed in a rut of ceremonies and traditions. Their hearts had become contracted, like the dried-up wine skins to which He had compared them. While they remained satisfied with a legal religion, it was impossible for them to become the depositaries of the living truth of heaven. They thought their own righteousness all-sufficient, and did not desire that a new element should be brought into their religion. The good will of God to men they did not accept as something apart from themselves. They connected it with their own merit because of their good works. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul could find no place for union with the religion of the Pharisees, made up of ceremonies and the injunctions of men. The effort to unite the teachings of Jesus with the established religion would be vain. The vital truth of God, like fermenting wine, would burst the old, decaying bottles of the Pharisaical tradition. {DA 278}

Rather than give up some cherished idea, or discard some idol of opinion, many refuse the truth which comes down from the Father of light. They trust in self, and depend upon their own wisdom, and do not realize their spiritual poverty. They insist on being saved in some way by which they may perform some important work. When they see that there is no way of weaving self into the work, they reject the salvation provided.

A legal religion can never lead souls to Christ; for it is a loveless, Christless religion. Fasting or prayer that is actuated by a self-justifying spirit is an abomination in the sight of God. The solemn assembly for worship, the round of religious ceremonies, the external humiliation, the imposing sacrifice, proclaim that the doer of these things regards himself as righteous, and as entitled to heaven; but it is all a deception. Our own works can never purchase salvation. {DA 280}

We need to break up the monotony of our religious labor. We are doing a work in the world, but we are not showing sufficient activity and zeal. If we were more in earnest, men would be convinced of the truth of our message. The tameness and monotony of our service for God repels many souls of a higher class, who need to see a deep, earnest, sanctified zeal. Legal religion will not answer for this age. We may perform all the outward acts of service and yet be as destitute of the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit as the hills of Gilboa were destitute of dew and rain. We all need spiritual moisture, and we need also the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to soften and subdue our hearts. We are always to be as firm as a rock to principle. Bible principles are to be taught and then backed up by holy practice. {6T 417, 418}

A legal religion has been thought quite the correct religion for this time. But it is a mistake. The rebuke of Christ to the Pharisees is applicable to those who have lost from the heart their first love. A cold, legal religion can never lead souls to Christ; for it is a loveless, Christless religion. When fastings and prayers are practiced in a self-justifying spirit, they are abominable to God. The solemn assembly for worship, the round of religious ceremonies, the external humiliation, the imposed sacrifice-- all proclaim to the world the testimony that the doer of these things considers himself righteous. These things call attention to the observer of rigorous duties, saying, This man is entitled to heaven. But it is all a deception. Works will not buy for us an entrance into heaven. The one great Offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe. The love of Christ will animate the believer with new life. He who drinks from the water of the fountain of life, will be filled with the new wine of the kingdom. Faith in Christ will be the means whereby the right spirit and motive will actuate the believer, and all goodness and heavenly-mindedness will proceed from him who looks unto Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Look up to God, look not to men. God is your heavenly Father who is willing patiently to bear with your infirmities, and to forgive and heal them. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). By beholding Christ, you will become changed, until you will hate your former pride, your former vanity and self-esteem, your self-righteousness and unbelief. You will cast these sins aside as a worthless burden, and walk humbly, meekly, trustfully, before God. You will practice love, patience, gentleness, goodness, mercy, and every grace that dwells in the child of God, and will at last find a place among the sanctified and holy. {1SM 388}

A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God. The hard, rigid orthodoxy of the Pharisees, destitute of contrition, tenderness, or love, was only a stumbling block to sinners. They were like the salt that had lost its savor; for their influence had no power to preserve the world from corruption. The only true faith is that which "works by love" (Galatians 5:6) to purify the soul. It is as leaven that transforms the character. {MB 53}

...Those who take comfort in their legal religion, in their form of godliness that is devoid of the power, feel that they have been personally rebuked and injured by the repentance of those who have aroused and returned unto the Lord. Instead of humbling their hearts and confessing their backsliding, they resist and oppose the message the Lord has sent. They oppose their finite wisdom against the wisdom of the Infinite. They allow their prejudices and passions to hold sway; they work on Satan's side of the question. Thus the advocates of truth are brought into an unexpected conflict, and they are forced to bear witness to the truth, and to resist the hostility and hatred of those who would make the truth of God of none effect. Thus dissension comes in like a sword to divide believers and unbelievers. {BEcho, March 26, 1894}

There will be among us those who will so blind their eyes that they will fail to perceive the most wonderful and important truths for this time. Truths which are essential to the safety and salvation of men will be set aside, while ideas that are in comparison to the truth as the merest atoms, will be dwelt upon, and magnified by the power of Satan, so that they will appear of the utmost importance. The moral sight of those who forsake truth has become dim; and yet they do not feel their need of the heavenly anointing, that they may discern spiritual things. They think themselves too wise to err. But those who have not a daily experience in the things of God will not move wisely. They may have a legal religion, a form of godliness, there may be an appearance of light in the church; all the machinery – much of it human invention – may appear to be working well, and yet the church may be as destitute of the grace of God as were the hills of Gilboa of dew and rain. {RH, January 31, 1893}

(next in series)

A Place Called Home

For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. (Hebrews 12:17)

And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. (Revelation 12:7-8)

Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. (Genesis 8:8-9)

I am still intrigued by this phrase, found no place. So I looked up the words in the original which is helping me get a better grasp on what the real problem was with Esau that is the same problem we are warned to avoid here in Hebrews.

The place that is referred to here is not simply a spot to occupy. It has much deeper meaning than that. It means a place to belong and feel comfortable in, a home base, the place of security and acceptance that is the most likely place to return to after traveling. It refers to a harbor which, in the minds of a sailor would be considered the home port. It contains the idea of home in the more settled way of thinking.

I think it helps to see the other places where these words are used to get a better idea of what this is saying. First I look at the last verse listed here referring to the dove that Noah sent out from the ark.

The dove spent considerable time flying around looking for a place to feel comfortable other than the ark, which was by now probably not a place that a dove would particularly want to hang out given all the commotion and tension of hundreds of increasingly restless animals and people. But the dove could not find any such place no matter how intense its desire was to do so and it had to return to the very unpleasant conditions of the ark and wait for another opportunity. In its journeys it only found endless restlessness and devastation while the waters were still subsiding from the earth.

The second verse above from Revelation talks about the time when Lucifer and all those under his growing demonic influence left heaven. The very same Greek words are used here as in Hebrews. Many believe that somehow God and maybe the angels had some kind of pitched battle and Satan and his angels were forcibly expelled from heaven against their will. But in my growing understanding of the true nature of God and His dealings with all His created beings I am beginning to realize that such a view is completely inconsistent with the truth about God.

What I have been learning and realizing is that Lucifer, at that point becoming Satan (which simply means “accuser”) had made himself completely obnoxious and an irritation among all the loyal subjects of God remaining in heaven. Because he could not convince any more to agree with his ideas, the disharmony and emotional conflict of the sharp differences between his views of God and the truth believed by loyal angels prevented him from having any place where he could feel at home or could call his home base. Everywhere he went he basically found closed doors and closed hearts to the ideas that he believed and promoted and there was no longer any place where he felt welcome. Quite literally there was no place found for him in heaven, for heaven is where God lives and Satan was becoming so unlike God that living that close to His loving, unselfish presence and around so many beings reflective of that loving attitude was simply becoming very miserable. The only left for him to do was to leave and set up a new home base somewhere else where he could find more sympathetic ears. Unfortunately he created just such a place when he was able to deceive and induce that very sympathy in the minds of Eve and Adam and the rest is history.

With this context for the idea of no place found, the repentance that Esau needed to fully engage into the covenant blessing of God was not something that found a home in Esau's heart. The conditions fostered in his heart were not conducive to living in harmony with God's character of unselfish love and he had repeatedly spurned the gift of humility or the idea of turning to God when in need of help. He had fostered a spirit of fierce independence. He was a self-made man who was proud of his achievements and skills and did not need any mamby-pamby sissy God to take care of him like his sniveling, crafty brother. Unfortunately the favoritism practiced by both of their parents only tended to contribute to the problems of both boys. But Jacob still had a place hidden deep in his heart which God's Spirit could access. And though it took many years and an enormous amount of pain and troubles, Jacob finally began to see the attractiveness and began to value God's care and real desire for him and experienced genuine repentance while literally fighting the very God Who longed to bless him.

So what does this text mean for me personally?

Well, I sense that God is not finished sharing all the answers to that question with me yet. But raising a question also raises awareness and allows me to be more alert and receptive when situations or insights come to remind me of it. And come to think of it, maybe that is really what this lesson is all about – cultivating a place in my heart where God can feel at home and continue to work in me to transform me to feel more at home in His heart.

Again I am strongly reminded that the heart work is so much more important than the head knowledge or getting all the words in the right order. It is daily practicing the habit of opening my heart more and more to the influence of the Holy Spirit and cultivating the habit of turning to God for help, for advice, for emotional strength, comfort or just companionship at many times throughout the day. This does not require any formality or even physical, external adjustments, though at times I may feel moved to do that. But what is far more important is that I encourage my heart to move toward a more open, vulnerable attitude toward God and keep choosing to cooperate with His desires for me. I do not have to understand His plans, but I can choose to trust His heart.

(next in series)

To Covenant or Not

That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. (Hebrews 12:16-17)

There is a great deal of wisdom and insights in these verses that is well beyond my reach with my limited knowledge of both languages and mid-east culture. But I have learned enough about some of these to realize that this could be studied for a long time with very effective results. I will at least try to pursue whatever I can learn from digging deeper into the background as much as is possible for me and depend on the Holy Spirit to inform and guide me to learn the things that will be helpful and transformative for me.

I looked up the words for immoral and godless and saw more interesting allusions. Immoral has to do with transforming and debasing something that contains immense internal value into something external that is merchandised, thereby cheapening it. It is clearly following the same path as Lucifer followed by moving his value system from internal character beauty and worth to investing and trusting in externals, value based on external performance, external importance and external beauty. This process when condensed becomes identified and exposed as prostitution. It does not have to involve sex but it often does, because that is exactly what happens in sexual prostitution and pornography.

This reinforces what I have been learning over the past few months about the whole system of civilization we are immersed in and developed from the earliest days of Babylon. It is what I sometimes call the false trinity, viewing life and reality through economics, hierarchy and law. It is the basis of the whole counterfeit system of governance created and promoted by Satan himself and adopted by men as the standard by which to measure everything and everyone. It is the great distortion that causes most of our problems in trying to perceive God correctly, because we view Him through the distorting lenses of these assumptions. But what I see in the meaning of this word is the description of what it means to view reality and God through these paradigms. Basically it is immoral, it is prostituting the truth about God and reality into these false perceptions of reality and religion.

The word godless follows closely along the same lines in some respects. But from what I see in the original words it additionally involves the concept of covenants. For those who have learned something about middle-eastern culture and perceptions from which both our religion and the roots of civilization spring, covenants are an integral part of that mindset. It is so deeply embedded in that culture that it is often just an assumption in their minds that baffles most western thinkers. We in the west are most familiar with contract-style relationships and have almost totally lost all concept of what a covenant means or involves. For a much more thorough explanation of covenant thinking I always highly recommend the teachings on this subject available from Family Foundations.

What caught my attention in the meaning of the original word translated godless was the strong reference to threshold and foot. One of the important covenants in mid-east culture is called the threshold covenant. It is the deep-seated and very strong belief in their minds that if a person is welcomed into your home and steps across the threshold of your doorway with their foot, then the host of that house is duty bound by an assumed covenant to not only provide all the needs of that person, but the visitor comes under the protection of that host even to the point of the host giving his life to protect them. This is true even if the host does not like the person or that person is an enemy. In their mind it is an act of honor more important than life itself to protect and serve their guest until that guest leaves the house. Then the covenant is no longer in force and the host can treat them any way he wishes. This is covenant thinking and culture.

What I find in the meaning behind the word translated to godless is either a blatant violation of the principles of covenant terms or it is entering into another covenant with those opposed to God and the covenant He has with us. Whatever it is it is clearly associated with the idea of covenant and the problems that can arise from that.

As I wrote previously, when looking at the story of Esau and considering what this passage has to say about him, it becomes clear that he had almost nothing but disdain for the terms of the covenant that God had with his family. He was far more concerned with satisfying his external desires and had almost no use for anything spiritual except when it might be exploited for his own benefit and selfish pleasure. Because of this attitude cultivated throughout his life, when the opportunity came for him to consummate the covenant with his family's God he could not find the ability or capacity within him to have the spirit and attitude necessary to confirm and connect with the covenant-keeping God.

Even though he intensely desired the benefits of the covenant when they became apparent to him, he had spent so many years ignoring and even despising the very internal character traits needed to bond in a true covenant with God that when the time finally came those traits were simply missing and there was nothing he could do then to recapture them. Once the character has become set through repeated wrong choices there is no longer left the ability to cultivate the needed character to live in covenant relationship with God. This highlights the immense importance of focusing on the internals, the issues of the heart and not become so distracted with external piety and performance or selfish pursuits and gratification that we fail to nurture the only parts of our heart critically necessary to enter into total intimacy with God.

Marriage is about the only covenant example that we have left in the western world and even it is becoming so misunderstood and distorted that it is often a poor example of a covenant. But properly understood, a healthy, strong, vibrant and intimate marriage relationship is just a small foretaste of the relationship that God intends to have with every one of us who accept His offer of grace and salvation. It is a foretaste of the covenant that God has offered us where He is willing to provide for and protect us even to the point of giving up His life for us.

This is what Esau rejected and then found that because of his lifetime of choices he was no longer capable of entering into the joy-bonds of the covenant. His example is given here as a sad but clear warning of the danger everyone of us faces if we do not pay attention to the condition of our hearts and respond to the drawing, transforming work of the Holy Spirit who desires to prepare us for the full intimacy of the covenant relationship God wants with us.

This also make very clear that there does come a point of no return in our life where we become so callous in our thinking, so external in our orientation that it becomes impossible to grow the plants of grace in our heart. When we allow our hearts to become so hardened that the presence of Jesus cannot thrive in our soul, then God will be forced to respect our determined decision to live apart from Him and we will find ourselves facing eternal death. The saddest part about this condition is that it often takes place in the life of a person quite taken up with religion itself. For the real problem is not whether a person is religious or not but is whether they are willing to live from their heart, to make themselves vulnerable in honesty and be open to the transforming grace that God is eager to provide to nourish real life within them.

God, I have a great deal to learn about living from the heart. Please continue teaching and mentoring and discipling me in this growth. I choose to open myself to You today to receive the grace that only You can provide for me. Fill me with the spirit of genuine repentance while I still have opportunity to nurture Your seeds in my heart. Rain Your Spirit onto the ground of my soul and cause Your Word to spring up and bring out Your fruit in my life as You continue to remove all the bitter roots still buried in me. Make me Your experimental garden of grace as an example of Your skill and love.

(next in series)

The Poison of Grace

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

I spent a little time looking up some of these words this morning and also where and how they are used elsewhere in the New Testament. I did not find anything very unusual from the word root; it seemed to be pretty straightforward in meaning just what it says, a root of a plant. This fits well with the meaning of trouble which can mean to crowd in. But the application here as something that can defile or contaminate many others would tell me that potentially this root contains something poisonous or dangerous, at least to some degree. However, when I looked up the uses for the Greek word translated comes short, I found a couple very interesting links that shed light on its relationship here to the grace of God.

First of all I found a similar phrase in Romans that parallels this one in Hebrews and also expands what it is that we come short of from God's perspective.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:21-23)

I have been learning more and more about what the true meaning of glory is even though I know there is much farther to go. Given the similarity in these passages I see two things: first that God's grace and God's glory are either very similar or are in fact one and the same thing, at least in part and secondly, I see that quite likely sin is the opposite of grace and glory. Sin is to glory and grace like darkness is to light; it is the absence of it. Therefore, when we fail to enter into the presence of God's glory or come short of accepting His grace that condition of lack in our heart is called sin.

I believe this is a far more accurate description of sin in place of the typical ideas of sin as external acts of disobedience to rules and standards. That has been the favored definition of sin for many centuries but fails to address the root of the problem, the internal heart issues that produce those outward symptoms. Simply cutting off the shoots that spring up from bitter roots repeatedly is not the method that effectively deals with sin in our lives, that is nothing more than a lot of hard work that both exhausts us and drives us to despair eventually. The roots are hidden out of sight, they are the internal causes, the false ideas and beliefs about ourselves and God buried in the heart that are not so apparent and therefore are often ignored in favor of attempted behavior management. But if the roots of bitterness are exposed to the grace and glory of God they will be eliminated or transformed and will no longer be a source of poison to infect us and those around us.

A couple days ago something came to my mind along this line that I quickly wrote down so I could remember it. Grace is the poison that kills the roots of bitterness. It is also possible that grace – or the glory of God, they likely are overlapping – can transform those roots into springs of living water producing life instead of death, to mix the metaphor.

One reason this may have come to my mind is that years ago I used to work during the summer in Texas killing trees for paper companies. Our job was to load up a tank of poison on our back which was attached to a special hatchet with a hose. The liquid traveled through the hose up through the handle in the hatchet to a spring-loaded piston in the head of the hatchet. Whenever we would strike the side of a tree and open up the bark with the hatchet, the poison would be squirted into the cut and would eventually be drawn down into the roots of the tree through the sap system and would cause the tree to die. We had to pay particular attention to completely ring certain species of trees with cuts that were all at the same height or they might survive the assault and keep on growing.

The reason we were sent in to poison most of the trees was so that a year or two later the only trees left standing would be the ones that the companies wanted to harvest for paper. The rest of the trees would all be dead and would be easy to get out of the way so they could harvest more easily. Then after all the cutting was finished some of us were sent back in to plant a new crop of pine trees to start the harvest cycle all over again.

In a strange sense, I realized that grace is like the poison that we used to kill the roots of those unwanted trees. Even though some of the trees were very hearty and vigorous in their resistance to our plans, if we were thorough in our application then the roots would fail to produce the life needed to keep the unwanted trees alive and the forest would dramatically be changed in its composition.

The same could be said in my own life. As I become more and more exposed to the reality of the glory of God and become infected with His grace and goodness, the roots that feed my bitterness and outward symptoms of sin begin to die and the landscape of my life slowly becomes more externally changed. It may take awhile for the results to be seen, but if I am faithful to continually receive the antidote from God, which is poison to the bitter roots, then the “poison of grace” will accomplish its work and the glory of God will become more clearly seen reflected in my own life.

Another text was found in my research this morning in the same book as the one I am studying. It also had some important insights to add to my understanding of this verse.

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. (Hebrews 4:1-2)

What I see in these verses in relation to roots of bitterness and the effect of grace to neutralize them is that I need to respond to it by uniting faith to what is coming to me from God. If I choose to respond by believing what I am learning about God's grace and glory and allow it to affect me at the heart level, then I will find that I can enter into His rest (which is another word that is mostly understood in religion). This rest is the internal rest of soul and heart that is often referred to by Jesus as His peace.

But just like the Israelites talked about throughout the book of Hebrews who failed to enter into the rest of God because of their stubborn externalism and resistance to believing in His love and grace, I am always in danger of focusing too much on an external symptom-oriented religion instead of allowing His grace and glory to fill me with peace and rest no matter what circumstances are going on around me. I am realizing more and more the importance of spending time just resting in God's presence, contemplating the aspects of His character and glory and allowing Him to ravish me in His love and grace instead of constantly trying to stay busy with my left brain analysis or being distracted with a formula religion. I need to know from my heart what real rest is and what it can do to transform my spirit and attitudes if I allow it time and space to work in my life.

God, I choose to just sit quietly and listen to whatever you want to share with me, even if it is not something that can be formulated into words. I want to enter into Your rest, and I choose to put away all my own thoughts and imaginations as much as possible for a few moments and try to focus on whatever You want to communicate to my heart. Most of the time the things of the heart cannot be analyzed or quantified by my intellect, but I know that if I continue to expose myself with an open heart to Your presence and Your glory, my mind always appreciates the effects that come out of that experience and the time invested with You in intimacy. Set the tone of my heart this morning so that You may have more open access to my mind and influence my spirit all throughout this day. I ask You to use me as a channel of Your grace to help neutralize the poison from other people's bitter roots. Poison my roots of bitterness with Your grace and replace them with springs of joy. Demonstrate Your glory through me today for Your reputation's sake.

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Immoral and Godless 2

...that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. (Hebrews 12:16)

Yesterday I pointed out that a person who is immoral is not necessarily so sexually, even though that is usually how we view immorality. But the fact also remains that many times immorality does involve sexual issues. But my question is, what lies behind this? What is the real reason behind a person giving their sexuality over to another or even to a sexual activity without another person directly involved? What drives people's cravings for things of this nature that are outside of what God's will is for us? When all the condemnation is pushed aside that is usually present in this discussion, what is the real heart issues that drive so many into this trap?

Again, the timing is right on target so well that I have to believe that God arranged it. The devotional reading from Jon Pauline's book this morning was about this very subject and covered it so well that I saw this verse from yet a better perspective. Jon was commenting on the story of Balaam, Balak and the time when the Children of Israel were led into disconnecting from God's protection by alluring them into illicit sexual activity along with prostituting their allegiance to false gods. It all resulted in the death of 24,000 Israelites in the end and was a painful lesson for them.

What he brought out in today's message was the discussion about what's wrong with sex outside of marriage. Very many people today do not feel that there is anything wrong with enjoying sexual relations between consenting adults, particularly if they believe they love each other and may be planning to get married some day. It just seems that waiting for the “artificial” moment of being declared married before engaging in sex is just simply old fashioned superstition that most of society has outgrown today. That may be good enough for the older, more staid generations, but it just doesn't make any sense in today's realistic world.

This reasoning is very compelling if the rest of the truth is not factored in. But like all really good deceptions, no matter how compelling it may sound it is dependent on avoiding some very important fundamental truths that make up actual reality. Just like the Children of Israel found out in the agonies suffered after their loss of God's protection in the story mentioned above, those who buy into this emotional theory are setting themselves up for tragedies that far outweigh any enjoyment and pleasure they may be receiving in the present. And these consequences are not artificial punishments imposed by an angry, offended God as Satan would lead us to believe. They are natural consequences of violations of natural principles that govern reality just as strongly as the law of gravity holds things toward the earth.

But what drives many of us toward desiring these things even in the face of potential disastrous results? What is the underlying motivation that continues to urge us in this direction even when we agree that it is not good for us? I found the clearest answer in Jon's thoughts today in the following words.

“Promiscuous sexuality tends to occur when people have a low sense of worth. What they do not value they freely throw away.” (The Gospel from Patmos p. 63)

I don't think it could be put any better. What drives the whole industry revolving around the promotion of sex of all sorts is people's lack of self-worth. It is almost always masked behind layers of other issues, but when followed to its deepest core it will always be found that we just don't feel very valuable and our mind believes that engaging in sex with someone will somehow prop us up and make us feel loved or needed or valuable, at least a little bit or for a little while. So we take the gamble and give ourselves away sexually, even if only in our imagination, in hopes that maybe this will cure the deep pain of valuelessness that continually haunts our deepest soul.

Most of this reasoning goes on out of sight below our conscious radar, so it may come as a surprise to some and produce a lot of skepticism in others. But I believe that if we become transparent about what is really going on in our deepest heart that this scenario will be very close to the truth. Satan has embedded this false reasoning deep into our flesh and it feels so good that it is easy to override what God has revealed is for our best good. But not everything that looks and feels good for the moment is really for our best good. The very nature of deception is to act as a trap just like the traps set for animals. The animal is deceived into believing that they can grasp something that will bring them pleasure or satisfy their hunger only to discover that they become hopelessly caught in the overpowering grip of the hidden mechanism designed to ensnare and eventually destroy their freedom or their life. This is the same situation with sexual temptations.

Since the core hunger being utilized to entrap us with this bait is our lack of sense of real worth or value, what is the way we can satisfy this hunger without becoming entrapped? What is the healthy way for us to receive a real sense of value and feel loved and fulfilled? What is the original design for our heart to feel alive and thrive and grow in safety?

It is exactly at this point that I fear to say almost anything, realizing that many, many people are ready to switch off any attention they may still have because of their skepticism at hearing some religious platitudes that don't really work in the real world. I too am very skeptical of religious platitudes and simplistic answers and have spent years looking for more realistic reasons for why life works the way God designed it. Religion has fabricated and distorted nearly everything God has said with the result that the typical answers are often rendered ineffective or distorted.

Most religion makes God out to be the arbitrary punisher who is waiting to pounce on anyone He finds violating His rules and inflict as much pain and suffering as He feels like until He is sufficiently appeased or they are effectively taught a harsh lesson. I strongly reject this notion of God even though it is generally descriptive of the concept of Him that I grew up with. I have been increasingly aware over the past few years that these are all the lies of Satan to keep me blinded to the true beauty and attractiveness of the real God and I am determined to get past the huge smokescreen of lies and see the true glory behind all the smoke and mirrors of the enemy.

So what does this have to do with immorality and Esau and roots of bitterness? What I suddenly saw this morning when I again came to this text after reading Jon's thoughts on the problems with promiscuity was the realization that Esau did not really have a sense of real worth deep inside of him from a trust in God. His life revolved around a worth based only on his externals and a dependence on himself to take care of life with little regard for what God thought about him. Consequently, being disconnected from God he lost the only valid source of real worth and so was condemned to a life of intense activity to look after his own life in any way he could. He lived for the moment, for whatever would make him feel good today and whatever would fix his immediate pain without reference to God's view of reality or even what might happen in the future.

This text says that Esau was both immoral and godless. I now see that the two very clearly go together. Because God is the only reliable source of a real and lasting sense of value at our deepest core, when we disconnect from God as our source we become godless. That is not to say that we have no gods at all – indeed we exchange the one true God for many replacement gods that become more and more tyrannical in their control over our lives. But we become godless in that we have discarded the only true God from which we were designed to receive real life from so that we would be able to thrive and live and grow for eternity. To turn away from God as our source of identity and value to anything or anyone else is the very essence of sin itself. And the wages of sin is always death, not because God imposes it but simply because death is the absence of life and life can only come from the one Source of life.

The natural consequences of turning away from the only reliable Source of value and identity is turning to immorality to try to fill the void. Immorality is the counterfeit source of life that attempts in many ways to fill the gap created in our hearts by the loss of real love, of feeling cherished and nurtured by Someone who desires our best good and has all the provisions we need for life. If we do not accept the grace, the provisions for life and thriving that comes from the dynamic Source of all life, then we are forced to look anywhere we can to fill our inflamed hunger for satisfaction. Immorality then becomes the collection of gods that take over control of our life and enslave us in their ever-tightening grip of death. This immorality may or may not involve sexuality, but it will always be some form of false source of supposed life and satisfaction. It can even be religion itself that becomes our supposed source of life and value and identity in place of the real God. But anything outside of an intimate, life-receiving, on-going and growing connection with the Creator God who we were designed to live with will lead us in some direction that eventually ends in pain, loss and eventually death. That is the essence of immorality.

This has been the choice to make for everyone since the beginning of this whole tragic experiment with sin. We will either trust ourselves to the God who designed us for ever-increasing life and joy with Him or we will choose another way that produces disharmony, selfishness and tension. This is the core of the whole battle going on in the whole universe and has now become primarily focused on this planet.

See to it...that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. (Hebrews 12:16) Because Esau did not believe that the birthright from God had any current value for him because of his disregard for God's view of reality, then he was more than ready to exchange it for the immediate pleasure of satisfying his physical hunger for a few hours. Likewise, many who have disregarded God's gift of sexuality for bonding and intimacy in the God-like arrangement of marriage that reflects the original image of God created in Adam and Eve, are willing to exchange it for the pleasure of sexual release or supposed affirmation in an illicit rendezvous or even a live-in situation supposing that they can supplement their need to feel valued through such an arrangement.

But all counterfeits are destined to collapse sooner or later and the evil consequences always far outweigh the benefits when we attempt to extract value for ourselves from the imitation gods of our own making. Disconnecting from God's realities will always tend toward death just as disconnecting an electrical appliance from its power source sooner or later causes it to cease functioning.

But the good news is still available today. Where sin abounds grace much more abounds. (Rom. 5:20) The only thing between us and a return to Life is our choice to receive that grace and allow it to begin the work of salvage in our life. God yearns to save everyone who will give Him the chance to turn their hearts toward His heart of infinite love and passion for them. And I add my own prayers to His desire that anyone who might chance across this will choose to accept His offer of life and restoration for their heart right now.

God, thank-you for your grace and your infinite, unstoppable love and compassion. Fill my own heart with your passion and reorient my mind to see life and others through your eyes today instead of through my misconceptions. Use me as a channel of your grace and attraction so that someone will be willing to change direction and turn to you for real life that never disappoints. Fill me with more of your abundant life so that others will more easily believe the truth about you. You are my God, my Savior and my Lover. I give myself and my heart to you to be filled and satisfied and empowered with your value for me today however you want to do that. Thank-you for revealing more and more of the real truth about you to me over the past few months and years. You are so kind and generous and gracious. Surround me with your constant presence and keep transforming me into thinking, feeling and acting like you do so that your reputation will be improved by the exhibition of your work in my life.

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