Can You Stay Awake?

And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? (Mark 14:37)

I am not sure why, but this verse came to my mind this morning as I was lying in bed talking with God. Actually I was misquoting it in my mind and was surprised when I looked it up that it didn't say what I thought it said. I was all ready to put together some interesting ideas based on the wording that I thought was in this verse but had to rethink my assumptions after realizing that this verse did not say what I thought it did.

What I thought Jesus asked was for His disciples to pray with Him for one hour. But upon looking more carefully at the verse and its context I realized that something else very important was here for me to discover. Jesus did not specifically ask His disciples to pray with Him necessarily, but He certainly did ask them to do something that is very relevant for me to pay attention to today. And just as the story reveals the weakness of the disciples and their inability to carry out such a simple request by Jesus in a time of extreme intensity in His heart, so too do I find that same weakness in my own flesh when Jesus asks me to do even simple things like getting out of bed a little earlier on a cold morning to have time to listen to Him and deepen my intimacy and knowledge of Him.

The first thing I wanted to do was to look up some of the original words to see what they might really mean. This idea of watching has never really clicked with me. It is another one of those words that religion has generally obscured the real meaning of for many of us. I always like to explore what the words I am hearing really mean before trying to unpack the larger meaning of a text.

I realize that sometimes people around me may think that I am very nit-picky or that I am simply trying to stir up controversy because I ask so many questions about what is really being conveyed in language, especially in the study of the Bible. But I sincerely want to understand much better what is real and unmask what is fake and confusing or blurred over by tradition and counterfeit ideas embedded in our language and culture. I have found it very liberating and refreshing to discover over and over, new and exciting truths as I have challenged the common assumptions about nearly every text and passage that I grew up hearing about.

This word watch means to keep awake, watch (literally or figuratively), be vigilant, wake, watchful. That is pretty much straightforward as far as it goes. But I felt that there was still something I was missing. Why would Jesus only expect His disciples to stay awake and nothing more? So I went back a few verses to find out what it was He had asked them to do in the first place that they were not doing.

And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch." (Mark 14:34)

"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." (Mark 14:34 NIV)

What I discovered in this verse was something that really caught my attention. When looking at more of the words in the Greek I noticed that the word for remain here is the very same word used throughout the Bible that is one of the most important things we need to know in order to grow as a real Christian. This word is used repeatedly in the discourse in John 14 and 15 when Jesus was sharing with His disciples how they needed to live. And in fact He had just finished telling them all of this only minutes before He asked Peter, James and John to practice what He had just told them about.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. (John 15:4)

Remain here and abide are translated from the very same word in the original. So what Jesus was asking three of His disciples to do was to practice for at least one hour what He had just taken time to describe to them in great detail. In essence He was saying to them, I have just told you all about how you must live in order for you to be my loyal disciples successfully. You must learn to abide in me and I in you so that you will be prepared for anything that might happen to you. Now that I have taught you verbally this lesson it is now time for our first test on what you have heard and find out if you were really listening. Take what I have just taught you and practice it for one hour. If you do, you will be empowered to meet what is about to happen to us. If you don't take this activity seriously you will find yourself helpless and clueless as to how to act like yourself when a massive assault is launched against us in a few minutes.

Well, most of us know how that first quiz turned out. They all failed quite spectacularly and ended up running away in fear and shame. Many theologians have analyzed endlessly the events that ensued that night as to why Peter denied his Lord, why each of the disciples did what they did and why everything seemed to go wrong. But much of this would have turned out very differently if just three of the disciples had taken the words of Jesus seriously and instead of thinking more about themselves and fighting over who was the most loyal and most important among themselves, they had actually listened with their heart and received the warnings that Jesus had been giving them all evening.

It is very sad to think about the tragic outworking of their bad choices that night. But the story is not really over yet. Each one of us also receives the very same instructions from Jesus to learn what it really means to abide in Him. And Jesus is hoping that maybe we just might learn enough from observing the results of those disciple's failures in this story to make a different choice ourselves.

Am I willing to learn what it really means to abide in Christ and allow Him to abide in me? Am I ready to carefully study and ponder and meditate on what the real meanings of His words are to me today? Am I willing to practice in real life situations how to abide in Him even when I meet the little difficulties that I am sure to encounter?

Am I am willing to learn in the little things how to trust God, to stay awake when it is easier to roll over and fall asleep? Am I willing to marinate in the presence of God and soak up more of His kindness, His goodness, His grace and be filled with His peace? If I am willing to take to heart the example of the failure of those disciples and in humility choose to take a better option in my own life, I can in some way rewrite the story of that crisis and demonstrate in my life what Jesus intended for all of His disciples to experience. I can learn to abide, to pray and stay alert and listen and be ready to be strengthened by angels of glory just as Jesus experienced in the garden. And if I choose that option in obedience to the invitation of Jesus to abide in Him and stay alert, my story can be different than the stories of His disciples during that last tragic weekend of His crucifixion.

Jesus, teach me what it really means to abide in You today. Help me to pay attention to the messages from Your Spirit to my heart. I choose to listen to You and obey Your promptings today. Help me to avoid all the interfering noise of the world designed to drown out your quite voice inside of me. Make me alert and ready to act instantly for You whenever You need me to be a channel of blessing, comfort or encouragement to one of Your children. Thank-you for Your faithfulness and love in my life.

Ignorant Unbelief

Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:13) I have been starting to read in 1st Timothy over the past few days after finishing up my two year study of the book of Romans. So far I have not decided to do as intensive an examination of this book as I did in Romans, partly because I want to cover more spiritual ground in less time and partly because I did that in Romans because it was one of the more difficult books for me to understand. But I do want to continue to take time to think carefully and meditate on what I am reading and reflect in my spirit on whatever God may want to reveal to me each day. And since I have found that writing has been a most useful process for helping me think more clearly I want to continue to use that tool to help me listen to God each day. In verses 3-7 Paul writes some very compelling things about people who have a lot to say but little understanding of what they are talking about. I thought about exploring this deeper but for now I have decided to camp on the above verse instead. The issue of unbelief is something that I have been thinking about and warned about in my spirit at different times and here I find some very helpful insight about unbelief that I had not thought about much before. I have long believed that unbelief is an extremely dangerous thing, and I still believe it is. However, as I look at this verse more carefully this morning I am seeing that there may be different kinds of unbelief or at least different reasons for it that may create mitigating factors in how successfully God can reach our hearts in this condition. I want to be completely free of all unbelief when it comes to the things of God and the real truth about God. So I welcome knowing how God can rescue me from this most subtle of self-deceptions that prevents God from working freely in my heart and life. I have observed that unbelief is possibly the single greatest reason that blocks people from hearing God's voice to them, from experiencing His miracle-working power in their lives and from perceiving His will for them more clearly. Unbelief keeps us in a lukewarm spiritual condition, feeds our mediocrity in the church and prevents us from being effective witnesses for the real power of God to transform lives. Unbelief keeps many of God's blessings at arm's distance from us and frustrates God's desire to fill us with His true Holy Spirit. It is unbelief that lies at the root of many of our questions, though not always. We must be very careful not to judge others in this area and to keep ourselves reminded of the words of Jesus to remove the log from our own eye before attempting to identify and remove a speck from someone else's. We need to become aware of our own unbelief, confess it clearly and be healed from it before we will be able to assist others in getting freedom from it. Amazingly, pride and unbelief are the means by which puny human beings can successfully hold off all the power of the universe brought to bear on them for their own good. Even though God has unleashed all power in heaven and earth to attract us into a saving relationship with Him, if we choose to remain in unbelief against the truth about Him we can successfully resist His supreme authority and cause ourselves to lose out on heaven and eternity. And sadly this most often happens while believing strongly that we are in fact assured of a place in heaven and we think we are following God. This was the condition of Saul before his conversion on the way to Damascus. Unbelief is a most pernicious and deadly condition, but it is not hopeless as this verse points out. What is interesting to note here, though, is that the unbelief that Paul describes from his own past experience is an unbelief based on ignorance. This ignorance I believe is the lack of a true knowledge of what God is really like, not a lack of knowledge about religious facts. Paul grew up as one of the most knowledgeable people of his day as far as religious facts were concerned and God did not reach his heart by teaching him more facts or new doctrines. Instead, He transformed his whole perspective of reality and God by revealing the truth about His kindness and compassion that melted Saul's resistance and exposed his misinterpretations of all the religious facts that he had amassed and misused throughout his life up to that point. This leads me to ponder what other kinds of unbelief there may be. If Paul here describes unbelief that is based on ignorance, then evidently there must be another kind of unbelief that is not based on ignorance. And quite likely that unbelief is likely much more dangerous if not impossible from which to recover. For as Paul wrote elsewhere, once a person has tasted the goodness of the Lord and then turned away from it back to his old life – of unbelief – it is now nearly impossible for that person to once again repent and return to a real saving relationship with God. Some have become so frightened by this scenario that they sometimes think they may have committed the unpardonable sin if they sin against God after becoming a Christian. Satan has used these verses and others like them to discourage many people into giving up trying to be a Christian because they believe they have gone too far for God to save them. But this is not at all what the Bible is talking about. These notions are all schemes of the enemy to prevent us from really experiencing the infinite goodness and forgiveness of God and believing the real truth about Him. This is not the kind of unbelief in spite of seeing clearly God's glory but is unbelief based on ignorance of the true character and mercy of God. When Paul, then Saul, was living in unbelief in his younger years, that unbelief in the real truth about how God relates to people caused him to be a very violent person against anyone who disagreed with his religious perspective. Likewise, today it is still true that believing wrong ideas about God that we insist have to be true will cause a person to become very defensive and aggressive against others who do not share their viewpoints. There is a large and growing segment of people in my own denomination that are gravitating in this direction and some of my own family members have been caught up in various forms of this intensity. But as dangerous and argumentative and even hateful as these people may become, I must remind myself to see them through the eyes of heaven just as Jesus could see the secret inner condition of Saul even while he was violently persecuting and oppressing the people who followed the teachings and example of their Master. I must remember that as a Christian who is learning the real truth about God and who is under obligation to follow the instructions of the One who came to reveal the heart of the Father to us, I am to pray for my enemies and bless those who persecute me, not curse them. To do this, it makes it easier – though maybe only slightly – to keep in mind that these people are very possibly acting in the ignorant kind of unbelief that can be reversed when their inner heart catches a glimpse of the real truth about God's passionate love and unconditional forgiveness for them. Of course the frightening thing is that God wants to demonstrate His love and forgiveness to them through my own life in response to their mistreatment of me. If I will be so transformed in my heart and spirit by God's presence that I reflect the spirit of Jesus and allow Him to live out His life in me during these assaults against me, then His enemies will get a close-up chance to see the face of Jesus in me and have their hearts offered an opportunity to melt in the presence of God's kindness and grace and mercy through God's presence in my life. This is one of the ultimate callings and responsibilities of each child of God. The grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 1:14) God can deal with ignorance. But we tend to be far more impatient and judgmental against people who are violent aggressors and often label them for life based on their outward behaviors from the past. But we easily forget that ignorance is a strong mitigating factor in the eyes of heaven and that our own spirit of judging is far more egregious to God than the apparent wickedness of those who oppose us. We are not called to judge other people's motives no matter how obvious they may seem to us. We are called to allow the Spirit of Jesus to so dwell in us that our spirit and attitude and actions reflect the real truth about God. Then as the beauty and attractiveness of God becomes evident through a living human being in the face of evil, God is again reincarnated in human flesh and His true character is allowed to be demonstrated to draw all into His healing heart of love. Father, this is a very difficult revelation to obey. It sounds so good on paper but when I am under attack or am accused falsely or judged or persecuted, it is so much easier to react in defensiveness and in fear. Please fill my heart and mind with Your love that expels all fear. Show me more clearly Your face, Your grace, Your faithfulness and beauty and perfection so that my life and the atmosphere surrounding me will reflect only Your character and not anything from my flesh. Your will be done, not mine.

Conclusion - 6

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 16:25-27) As I look at this one more time to see how all these elements fit together, I am more and more convinced that they all refer to each other almost equally. Especially the beginning and ending factors lend themselves easily to all of the following or previous ones respectively. So here is how they might be seen. Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel according to the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God leading to obedience of faith. Now here it is again but looking back from the other end. Obedience of faith is a result of... understanding the commandment, the will of the eternal God immersing one's self in the messages from the prophets having a revelation of the mystery about God in one's heart and mind hearing the presentation of the real truth about God as revealed in Jesus Christ learning the good news about God that is the essence of the gospel this obedience itself is what it looks like to be established by God. Surrounding this like a protective encasement that shields it from the deceptions and attacks of the enemy is the beginning and ending phrases referring to God the Father. Now to Him, to the only wise God... be the glory forever. Again, in this last verse there is a descriptor of how that glory is channeled. All the glory that is produced for God is a result of the work and example and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the revelation of God's glory and the one who attracts all praise and glory to be returned back to its source. Jesus takes God's glory and transforms it into understandable forms for others to understand and appreciate. And as that glory spontaneously produces praise, gratitude and love, all of those things are received by Christ and returned to the Father. This whole cycle is literally a circuit of life-giving love which is the current that powers all of the universe. It is crucial that each intelligent being find their proper place within this circuit and be aligned correctly with that current of power so that the whole circuit will fulfill its original purpose and design. And it is only as we discover and are restored to our proper place and function within this circuit will we find the deepest sense of fulfillment, satisfaction and joy in our own hearts. This is what we were created for in the first place and only this will bring us into alignment with what our deepest cravings long for. We are right now living in a time different from any other time in history. In this generation the final polarization is going to be completed. God is moving in dramatic ways to attract and permanently seal everyone who is willing to listen with their heart to His Spirit drawing them to Himself. Each one who responds and follows on to know Him and chooses to let go of their pride and independence will find themselves drawn closer and closer to others who are likewise being drawn into His intimacy. At the same time, all those who resist His drawing on their hearts and the messages of truth to their minds will have that resistance polarize them, blinding them and hardening their hearts. But because of the deceptive nature of this hardness they will not realize they are becoming hardened until it is far too late. They will believe that they are saved, that they are on the right track, that their form of religion or the emotional highs they get in religious services are what God designed for them to thrive on and live by. But if they do not humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, they can never be lifted up by that same hand and instead they will become more aligned with the counterfeit system of religion that feels like it is the real deal. Jesus said that narrow is the way that leads to life and very few will find it. It is not because God does not want us to find it or that it is too hard to find, but it is because the only way to find it and stay on it is with a spirit of humility and submission to the work of God in the soul which is very often painful and even abrasive at times. If I am not willing to endure the pain of the polishing and the extraction of the sinful cravings from deep in my own heart, then I will be embraced by the counterfeit grace that appeals more to my pride and independence. I will have my own desires reinforced by those around me and will become united in heart and spirit with the majority of the world in a spirit of independence and a thrilling sense of power. I want to have this mystery of truth revealed to me, to my heart and mind and soul. Further, I want to be a channel of this revelation to other hearts through the transformation of my life and spirit and soul. I want to be a “little Christ”, one who reveals the real truth about God's faithful love and compassion and goodness to others who are afraid of Him because of the lies they believe about Him. I want to be established by the eternal God in a solid, clear understanding of the gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. I want this passage to be a description of my life and my experience.

Conclusion - 5 The Glory

To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 16:27)

This is the glorious climax of the final exclamation of Paul at the very end of his letter to the Romans. It is not only a summary of and finale of what he wants to convey to us in this letter, but it is also something of a synopsis of the history of the great war between God and his archenemy who defected from the highest position of trust and honor in the whole universe.

These last three verses cover the whole history of the earth as well, from its beginning to the future eternity that we can experience with God on the earth restored and made new. They point out that there has been a mystery that has been hidden from mankind for many ages – since the fall of man really. But during those ages of mystery we were not left clueless about how God felt about us. God spoke important truths and interacted with those on earth through various means and at various times more directly. He used prophets in particular to communicate His thoughts and desires to His people on earth. Much of the Old Testament Scriptures is the records of what some of these prophets had to say on behalf of God as well as stories of how God interacted with those living on earth.

But all during those times God's will and His ways and attitudes toward humanity remained a mystery. People were baffled by the seemingly strange symbols that God used to reveal things about Himself. People became confused by the language and commandments of God reading much of their own cultural assumptions into the things God was trying to convey to them. The Old Testament Scriptures are often referred to, especially by those that He chose to be His people during that time period, as the Law and the Prophets. But even though the Jews had a long history of direct attention and divine favor from the God of heaven and they had the written words reminding them of all that God had tried to do with them, still the nature and disposition of God toward humans remained largely a mystery. Very few during the Old Testament period caught on to the true beauty and attractiveness of the glory of God.

But things changed at the appearance of Jesus the Christ (or Messiah – the one sent to rescue). Jesus was sent by the Father to change this situation, to radically disrupt our paradigms, to shatter our assumptions about a distant, frightening, intimidating God that appeared all too much like many of the other pagan false gods evolved from the imaginations and fears of selfish men. Jesus came to unmask the mystery that clouded our hearts from knowing the real truth about how God feels about humans. Jesus was sent to show us what the Father really is like and how passionately He desires to have us in close, intimate relationship with Himself. Jesus came to explode the myths about God that have haunted humanity ever since the days of sinful Adam, and to shine a brilliant light that would expel the deep darkness created by the myriad lies of Satan about the Father.

The mystery has been dark for long ages, not because God wanted the truth about Him to be hidden from us, but due to the enormous mass of lies under which we have been buried – lies both about God and about the real truth about ourselves. This mystery has continued to be a mystery because of the blindness of our own hearts, not because God has been hiding from us.

Even during those long ages of dark mystery God had stated quite plainly at times that the real problem has always been with us, never with Him. Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2) It is this separation that has created and amplified the mystery for all the long ages past and for too many even yet today. For the core of the reason there is a mystery to begin with is our unbelief about the real truths about God and how He relates to those who rebel against Him.

The unmasking of this mystery became very intense in the life and example of Jesus while He lived among us here on earth. It was not just his sinless behavior that was helpful for us to see, but far more important was the attitude that He revealed about how God feels about sinners. The interactions of Jesus as He encountered all sorts of people in all kinds of situations was intended to show our hearts the real grace that fills the heart of the Father and the passion with which He desires to attract us back into a loving, trusting relationship with Him.

For those who feel determined to resist these revelations about the heart of the Father, the truth will continue to remain a mystery. In fact, sadly these people will find themselves becoming angry and scandalized by the revelations of the heart of the Father whenever they encounter them either in the stories of Jesus or in the lives and teachings of those being transformed into His image and likeness. For the real truth about God, His grace, His compassion, His unconditional love and forgiveness is so abrasive and contradictory to the things we have believed about Him in the past that without a radical new birth experience we cannot embrace them or believe them authentically.

But when a person surrenders to the love and becomes overwhelmed with the beauty and passion that emanates from the heart of God for each of His created children, that person is empowered to suddenly begin to perceive the glory of God as revealed in the life of Jesus as well as being able to experience it in their everyday relationship with Him through the presence of His Spirit. Instead of living in constant resistance to the love that is the life current that powers all of the universe, they will come into proper alignment with it so that it will become a source of life-giving power instead of pain-producing irritation. The things they once ridiculed and resisted they now embrace with enthusiasm and passion.

In the revelation of this mystery will be found true wisdom. I believe that most of us have very little real perception of what wisdom really means. We have some vague ideas of what we think wisdom is, but until we encounter a personal, radical, disturbing conversion experience in our deepest heart and thinking, we are unable to even perceive what constitutes true wisdom. Instead, we often believe that wisdom is the high intellectual constructs that we have created in our own intense study of various subjects including the study of God. We think that because our minds are acute and we have figured out how many things seem to fit together that we have found wisdom.

But real wisdom has far more to do with a vital and on-going interaction with the mind of God who is the only real source of wisdom than it has to do with figuring out how things work or the accumulation of enormous amounts of knowledge.

If we were to have our eyes opened we would be ashamed to see that we have created multitudes of false gods and worship all sorts of false idols just as much or more than the pagans and heathen did centuries ago. It is just that we do not use the same terminology for them as the pagans did so we don't often realize that we are worshiping things that have no wisdom in them.

Repeatedly throughout the Old Testament God pointed out the foolishness of those who worshiped idols that couldn't see or hear or think. And at times He even likened His own people to be just like the idols that they worshiped – not able to see or hear.

Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see; who have ears but do not hear. (Jeremiah 5:21)

Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 12:2)

This is the real cause of the truth about God being veiled as a mystery for long ages. It is a mystery largely because we live in a state of rebellion that has been going on far longer than even this world has been around. And on top of that we were born with a rebellious nature inherited from our ancestors and infused into our human nature by the sin of our parents in Eden.

But God is in the process of unveiling the mystery about Himself and the most prominent way that He has chosen to do that is through the revelation of Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. That is why the presentation of Jesus through preaching, teaching and living with Jesus in the heart is a powerful means of bringing light to shine in the hearts of those still enshrouded in the shadows of the mystery. And as we perceive the real truth about God and how He feels about His created beings, we also begin to see the wisdom that we have been lacking in our blindness of rebellion against Him.

As the wisdom of God becomes more evident to our hearts, the resulting amazement, gratitude and expressions of life and joy all add to the great concert of honor and praise from the rest of the universe which brings glory to the reputation of God. What I see here in this last verse of Romans is Paul's invitation for each one of us to join in this great, stirring, life-changing symphony of praise and worship that will prepare our hearts more deeply to glorify God throughout all of eternity.

To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

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