A Moth to A Flame

"Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam
Do the jitterbug out in Muskrat Land..."

These were lyrics in my head when I awoke this morning, and that's when I knew for sure the week had been a little too much for me! My husband's back, my dog's bladder, a massive tree covering half our driveway ( for starters)...all just life circumstances but it's had us discussing how we deal with pain and inconvenience. 
What do we run to when dealing with ongoing challenges?
Our American culture is in this "Opioid Crises" for a reason, 
people are in pain.
Life feels adversarial and
people want relief.
After forty days in the desert, without food, I'm sure Jesus wanted relief.
I want relief when I miss breakfast!
Luke 4 describes the first recorded interaction of Jesus with His adversary Satan:

"4 1-2 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights, he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.

3 The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”

4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”

5-7 For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.”

8 Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”

9-11 For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?”

12 “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”

13 That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity."

I never realized that Satan doesn't show himself in Biblical History until this interaction. We have the serpent in Genesis which seems to be a creature embodying Satan...but the account of Jesus' temptation is the first time Satan appears without disguise to tempt Jesus with relief.
"You have the power you need to feed yourself! Do it!
But instead of allowing his appetite to cause Him to act independently of His Father, Jesus depends on God's timing and ability to sustain Him.
"Why go through all this pain to make everything how you want it to be? I'll do that for you right here, right now!"
Jesus was able to discern the shortsightedness of this offer. What Satan offered had no lasting substance. The only way to accomplish all He had come to do, meant His Father's time, His Father's way.
"If you want people to start believing in you, you should make a spectacle of yourself! Get them to pay attention to you...show off!" 
And to this Jesus reminds Satan that God is no one to push around.

Jesus responds to Satan with complete focus on His true hope: relationship with His Father God, His Spirit (clearly revealed in the passage by the words: "Jesus being full of the Spirit") and the Word.
When I think of our temptations in life to appease, escape or avoid pain,
when I think of the adversarial circumstances and people we come up against,
I am reminded of the moth. A moth is driven to a flame by something called transversal orientation.
Equipped with a navigational system to orient itself to a distant, natural light (the moon)
a moth becomes disoriented by artificial light and drawn into heat it cannot survive.

So true for us. In moments of intense need,  the most destructive things can seem like such bright ideas...holding out the promise of relief and blinding us to certain wreckage.
We are made to orient ourselves, understand life and discern our course of action by the light of God the Father, His Spirit and His Word. His timing, His way is THE way through our pain to our future.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Heb.10:23

Before the show...

Jesus rose from the waters of the Jordan, to the voice of His Heavenly Father, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." Matt. 3:17
Of all His relationships, this one captivated Jesus' mind, heart and will .
The first time we see Jesus' heart for His Father, He is twelve.
His mom and dad are hurt and confused by His disappearance.
"Did you not know," He asks, "that I would be with my Father...?"capital F.
Over and over again in Jesus interaction with others, even as precious to Him as own mother, He makes it clear that the only one He answers to was God; His Father.
This is puzzling... this relationship of the Trinity.
I'm not equipped enough to claim I fully get it.
But I believe Jesus' life has always been completely sustained by God the Father. Jesus is equal in authority and power but yet He cannot exist apart from the life and life-giving nature of Father God. Hence, "Father". The term is not reflective of human gender as if God were in our image, but of God's capacity to initiate and sustain life.
Jesus knew God the Father, as His Father, was His only source of life.
Again, we know nothing of intervening years until His baptism, and here God says..."Son, you please me to no end."
Before the miracles, before the preaching, before the self-sacrifice...Jesus was a delight to God.
This Father-Son relationship should inform us about how God delights in us...
before we talk, before we work, without making a show of ourselves, before we make a show of Him!
I think of how my own parents would look at me sometimes and I would know they loved me and delighted in the fact that I was their daughter. It made me want to please them...not to convince them they could or should but because they already did-love me.
This is what I think of when I read the words of Father God to His Son Jesus. God is pleased with children who believe that in Him is life
and bathe in the river of His love.
Father God can appear heartless when we arrive at the crucifixion account, so for now look at God through the eyes of Jesus, His devoted Son and be reminded that what was to come was driven by a son who knew He was loved.

The Right Connections

"Hey,I know a guy. Somebody knows somebody who might know how to help you meet the somebodies who can help..."

We've been through this circus with our kids over and over again.  Make calls, do research, eat McDonalds six nights a week in a van, to get to a better team, to get to a better team, to get in front of better coaches, to get to the better school. This craziness begins in preschool.
Athletics is just one example of the rat race of making "connections"... perhaps you know a guy who may be able to make parking tickets disappear for example?!
Calling in a little favor is hard to resist...when you have connections.
John the Baptist was a character with connections.
Not only was he the cousin of the Messiah, but he was given the privilege of baptizing Jesus.  John was an eye witness to the dove that descended on Jesus and an ear witness to the voice that came from Heaven speaking divine approval. 
If I were to live an isolated life in the desert, tanning hides for my wardrobe, enduring beestings to secure my nourishment, and spending my days introducing people to someone they'd leave me for...I think I would be expecting to call in a few favors and retire well!
But this is not the kind of relationship John had with Jesus. Whatever expectations He had of what Jesus would or should do for him are simply stated in John 3:30,
"He must increase, but I must decrease." 
I'm not sure that John pictured his decrease to the extent of being imprisoned and beheaded. John had offended Herod by disagreeing with his "life choices", now he sat behind bars, awaiting his fate and hearing stories of his cousin, The Messiah, rescuing all sorts of strangers. How could he not wonder if he'd been mistaken about Jesus after all?
John's friends came to Jesus on John's behalf:

“Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?” Matthew 11:3

Can't you feel John's confusion? 
"Jesus, if you're who I thought you were, why am I sitting here? Why am I not reaping the rewards of working for you and knowing you personally?!"

Jesus sends word back to John, "Absolutely! I'm performing all kinds of miracles! The blind see and the lame walk. I even raise people from the dead! I'm spreading the good news that God is rescuing His people! But John, I'm not rescuing you from prison and I'm not rescuing you from your grotesque fate. Please, don't be offended." (paraphrase of Mt. 11:4-6)

Can't you imagine John's offense?
John's question still hangs in the air in 2017.
Jesus, are You who we thought You were or are we still waiting...for someone else to rescue us?"
I've never faced torture or deprivation as many around the world do, but I have had expectations and I have been offended.
This whole thing about "decreasing";  
decreasing my influence, my possessions, my rewards, my goals, my reputation...
well most of the time, I'd rather not.
After all, Jesus is my friend. I've been getting to know Him a long time. I do stuff for Him and I don't do stuff...for Him! I don't ask much either, not really. So, the least He could do is...

but sometimes, He doesn't. 

How could He treat His friends this way? 
I think there's a clue in Matthew 11:12. After Jesus honors John the Baptist He says this:
" From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence..."

John preached the Kingdom of Heaven at hand...
peace, justice, hope, joy
is here? 
Well, not by an immediate swift sweep of force. Instead, God's kingdom comes through individual hearts yielded to His love. Hearts that say: "Your way, not mine", one battle at a time.

"Our mission in His Kingdom is that His reign is "brought to bear where destructive powers have held sway. These powers will not give up without a fight. The fight itself and incurred suffering are not incidental but somehow the means by which Jesus' victory is applied.
One of the dangers of saying too easily 'the Messiah died for my sins' is to imagine that hereafter there will be no more dying to do, no more suffering to undergo."
-paraphrased from The Day the Revolution Began, NT Wright

Jesus did not spare John pain, He spared Himself no pain, and we ourselves will not be spared all pain...
We are at war. We feel the violence of the fight. 
But we know somebody who knows somebody...
a friend in high places,
who's called in a favor on our behalf.

"What shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all- how will he not also give us all things?
...in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:31-32,37

Hidden progress

What is more fun then discovering a new favorite author?! I just started a book called "Anonymous" by Alicia Britt Chole. What could be better for writer's block then depending on far more accomplished authors to break through? Sometimes my progress in these studies is so slow and the new meaning so hidden, I am about to give up and then...a passage clicks together.
In studying Jesus' relationships with people, we've landed in between His birth and His baptism, Luke 2:41-52... So many hidden years of Jesus' early childhood! As the author points out: Jesus' birth was followed by hidden days, His circumcision by hidden months, His visit from the wise men by hidden years and His visit to Jerusalem by hidden decades. What did thirty years of living in obscurity, thirty years of waiting to step into His life mission, accomplish in Jesus?
These questions and this passage lead to a detested word: submission.
Submission- A choice to place one's own agenda under someone else's authority, someone else's needs, someone else's desires. Which, don't get me wrong, at times can be a bad thing. But for Jesus, it was all good.
Jesus' hidden years were lived in submission to His parents. In an environment of love (evidenced in His parents frantic, three-day search for Him) and His parents' own submission to God (evidenced through His birth story) Jesus grew in His ability to say: "Not my will but Thine". The Creator of time, took time.
At twelve, He was so wise He amazed everyone at the Temple yet returned for another twenty years to live with His parents (is He relevant or what?!) But it wasn't for His needs that He moved back in, it was to submit to their needs. At 30+, Jesus finally stepped out and into His ultimate mission and submitted to His Father's agenda to meet our deepest needs: to be set free from the power of sin and to be restored back into true worshippers of the true God.
Jesus' practice of obscurity, His choice to submit, turned the destiny of the world upside down and restored the ultimate agenda for all of us.
What could be more fun then discovering our new, our ultimate purpose?
What could be better for a "life-block", than depending on the One who breaks every chain?
But it takes time. Sometimes the progress lies hidden, obscure.
Be encouraged today, The Son of God Himself took 30+ years!

A Little Go and Tell

Remember "Show and Tell" on the first day of school? I had one classmate who told tales of Disney World vacations every year. I was so jealous.
Somewhat less exciting to me is the Jersey Shore.
The upsides: breezes that fluff and cool sweaty heads and steamy air. We enjoy breakfasts with a view, family face to faces and digging holes in the sand, wide and deep. The tide always washes them away. I take walks and watch baby clams gobble down and down. Every day, my husband paddles out and catches rides back in...out, back, out, back - for hours.
The downsides:
Seagulls hungrily snatch sandwiches and cheese curls from your clasp and pretty beach snacks, gone in a blink. This particular year, our small entourage attended the worst play possibly ever written, escaped before it ended and then tried to forget!
Another week on the Jersey Coast has ended.
Vacations have highs and lows; they come and go. Things come and go, come and go. People come and go. That's life.

Luke 2: 25-35 Simeon was an old man who knew that before it was time for him to go, He would see the Christ come.  On the day Jesus was dedicated by Mary and Joseph, there sat Simeon, waiting and longing, tired and hopeful. He recognized Jesus as "The Consolation of Israel" who would console him and his people for all that they had lost and suffered...Jesus was the greatest high in Simeon's life.
"Now I can go in peace" he said. (v.29)
"Now I see what I have believed without seeing...trusted without experience;
You God are a God who is making everything right after all for all.
This Jesus marks the going of what has been and coming of what was meant to be."
Simeon had to shout about it!
There was a woman at the temple who also noticed Jesus and saw what Simeon saw. She had been there night and day since the loss of her husband...surely over 50 years of devotion. Anna, a prophetess (spokeswoman for God) joined  Simeon in the affirmation of Jesus as Israel's redeemer, making sure the people who were waiting for Him would know that He had come to set them free.
Her people had let go of all God offered them as His children but the day they laid their eyes on Jesus was the day God was giving it all back...to Israel and to ALL His children.
Anna had to talk about it!
In Jesus, God accomplishes what no one can do for themselves,
forgiveness and restoration.
He not only saves us from our corruption, He makes it possible for us to live out the mission we were made for:
To know Him and make Him known.

Isaiah 52:9-10 
Break forth together into singing, (shouting, talking, blogging) 
    you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
    before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
    the salvation of our God.

However...
all of the coming and going, losing and gaining, highs and lows in life cause us to view God skeptically,
the illusive rhyme and reason for non-sensical pain, the outrage of heartbreaking injustice...why would we want to know such a God? And IF we could know such a God, why would we want to compel others to know Him?
I believe God, well aware of His reputation,  sent Jesus to shine a light on who He really is.
The Old Testament itself, the whole history of Israel and the church provides more than enough excuse for us to say :"No thank you. You say "come" Lord...but I think I'd better be going!"
 Jesus, the perfect representation of who God is, the perfect reflection of this baffling God's heart, speaks comfort:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God- trust also in me." John 14:1

With all this coming and going, losing and gaining in life
I am so thankful for Jesus, our Comforter, our Redeemer.
That's why I have to blog about it!

"With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;
    it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
    and of glory for your people Israel." Luke 2:30-32 The MSG

If we long to be comforted in our losses, if we hope for better understanding of what we're made for-
Like Simeon and Anna we must come, "Taste and see that He IS good" Ps. 34:8

then- "Go and tell this great news". Mark 16:15

An Other Birth

We are anticipating a birth in our family. Crazy! Crazy the emotions that go with such an announcement. This is not just another birth...this is an "other"- adding, expanding our family!
Birth...
Anticipated 
Imagined 
Celebrated 
Feared
Human
Matthew and Luke recount for us the most conspicuous birth of all time.
Anticipated for hundreds of years
Imagined by Israel
Celebrated by billions
Feared by the powerful
Human arrival of the Creator of humanity...
So much more than just another birth.
God secured relationship with us through giving Himself in the man, Jesus.
What kind of relationship does He want with us?
Well,
To the ones waiting, listening, anticipating like Mary and Joseph, He promises: "The Lord is with you." Luke 1:28
and He comforts: "Do not be afraid..." Matt. 1:20

“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

To the ones who imagine freedom from an iron caste like the shepherds, He gives hope:
"I bring you good news of great joy which will be for ALL people!" Luke 2:10 
Ephesians 2:14-16 "He has broken down…the dividing wall of hostility…making peace…through the cross” 

To the ones who seek and celebrate understanding like the wisemen, He leads them into understanding. Matt. 2:1-12

“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true." 1 John 5:20

To the ones who fear the loss of power and influence like Herod, He is greater. "...this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets..." Matt. 2:23
 Isaiah 14:27 "For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?"
James 4:6 "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

To all humanity, Jesus came: 
John 3:17 "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved (rescued and restored) through him."

How's Your Hearing?

I have disjointed thoughts from the week's studies...it often feels like God is not fulfilling His end of the deal. 
He is being too quiet!
Anticipation jump starts the writing process on Monday mornings. Every week my anxieties become over-ruled by the fact that I think I think God IS saying something;
but I have to start punching these keys to hear it. Punching keys helps me ponder.

We are in the Gospels; 
attempting to chronicle Jesus' relationships.
We are beginning with His family, because family is where relating begins.
Jesus' extended family were the first to hear the long anticipated message that God was indeed ready to hold up His end of the deal.
And what was His end? We need to go all the way back to Genesis 12:1-3, when God broke another period of felt silence and promised Abram (Abraham) to give him a really, really big family; big enough to be its own nation in fact with its own land. And this family of Abraham's would actually be so special in the world that EVERY family would be "blessed" by them.
God's end of the deal was honoring this promise. 
Abraham's family though, had repeated hearing problems.
They were human after all. How many of us walk away from times of relating with our loved one's with several different versions of one interaction?
The Old Testament is full of Israel's spin on what God said and who He was. 
Abraham himself had lived in a world of idol worship and godless practices. No wonder God had to send him up on top of Mt. Moriah to sacrifice Isaac. 
That's the kind of "god" Abraham knew...gods demanded blood to make them happy. 
But instead, the God of the promise said, (my version) "I can see that you fear me...but I am not like other Gods. I am not just a god who simply demands to be appeased. I want to love you and I will provide the sacrifice myself, so that you can feel my love; 
love me because I love you Abraham 
not just because you're scared witless."
Abraham made so many mistakes. His listening skills were tainted by his history and his humanity. 
His family continued in this cycle of spiritual deafness, misdirected worship, severe consequences, cries for help, and divine intervention for a very long time before the silence between the Testaments. 
But thousands of years later,  some family members were still waiting to hear God's voice in faith that the promise would be kept.
One of them was Mary.
The Gospels talk about her "pondering" over and over again.
She had developed her listening skills and given her heart completely to God.
Luke tells us that God sent Gabriel to speak on His behalf. Mary heard clearly that God was indeed going to forgive Israel, fix their relationship with Him and make them a gift of His mercy to the world... in a son, Jesus. 
The devastation of sin on the whole human family was about to be reversed so that the family relationship could be restored and reset.
What hope!
She could not contain her excitement!
"My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Luke 1:46-47
Thousands of years later God still speaks. Maybe not through an angelic visit, but 
He still let's us feel the consequences of sin to say: 
"Everything and everyone else will always come         up short, but Me!" 
He still presents us with moments of profound beauty to say: "You were made for more...it's ME!"
He still calls to us through the Scriptures: "I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly" .(John 10:10)
He still promises: "This is MY body broken for you, this is MY blood, shed for you..."

Are you listening?