We Live in Such a Way

One of the methods I use to meditate on a passage is to act it out so I can get a feel for what the people were experiencing; I can imagine what they saw, smelled, tasted, touched and heard. I also try different inflections for the words. For example, say the words from John 7.31 like you'd imagine a Jewish butcher saying the rhetorical question--"When the Messiah comes, is he going to perform any more miracles than this yunger-man, this mentsch?" (paraphrase obviously).

Another method is to emphasize different words. Let's take 2 Corinthians 6.3. Just before this, Paul begs the readers not to ignore God's gift of Christ's sacrifice so that we can be right with Him. Today is the day of salvation.

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry" (2 Cor. 6.3 NLT). It's similar to Romans 14.13. Since as believers we are called also to be ministers of Christ, let's look closer at the verse to see if we can pull out different applications for our own lives today.

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry." It's our responsibility.

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry." We can't hide in seclusion; that wouldn't be living by most cultures' definitions.

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry." What complaints do people have about you? Do you not listen? Are you apathetic? Are you irritable? Impatient? What other aspects of your life are like the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit?

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry." This includes everyone we come in contact with, including those on social media venues. And those who have heard about us from other people. It especially includes other believers. Here is the toughest group: your spouse, your kids, your parents, your boss, your co-workers, your grumpy old neighbor, your disrespectful young neighbor, your bus mates, your car pool buddies--in short, everyone in close, close contact with you.

"We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry." Christ's reputation is in our hands as His ambassadors. We can block people from understanding who He is and the gift of grace and mercy if we're not living in a gracious and merciful manner. We can lead people astray thinking it's okay to ignore our "respectable sins" (Jerry Bridge's book) because they see us doing it.

Think about these different aspects and you've done some meditation on a verse. Let it seep into your being throughout the day. Then you've fulfilled the command of Deuteronomy 6.6. It will be as if it's written on your hands, forehead and doorposts. You'll see it in your heart wherever you go.

Blessings on you.

There is No Scorecard

In the news recently has been a guy who wants to encourage Christians to vote. So he's created a scorecard with a maximum of 600 points. The purpose is for his political action group to reach out and contact them and inundate them with literature to get them to vote for the appropriate candidates: the higher the score, the more contact you get.

The problem is how he thinks Christians ought to behave and what affiliations they should have. According to the news report, you get points for fishing and enjoying NASCAR, home schooling your kids, being on an anti-abortion mailing list and a list of an organization that's fighting for traditional marriage.

So what if I'm a believer and disciple who'd rather play soccer than waste hours watching hunks of metal circle at high speeds going nowhere? What if I believe the community needs to be strong as a form of loving my neighbors and one way to do that is to support the local public schools? I'd rather get points for being in a small group bible study than because I'm on some church's mailing list as a regular attender. (Regular attendance is important, but being conformed in the image of Christ is more important.)

God's thoughts are higher than a person's thoughts. Just when we think we have it figured out as black-and-white, God upends our dichotomistic thinking for more holism. Touch the ark and die. Yep, that happened. Commit adultery and die. Nope, that didn't happen for Judah, David or the woman caught by the teachers of the law in Jesus' day. In fact, the earthly lineage of Christ comes from prostitutes, adulterers, foreigners and probably some other miscreants (like Abraham's multiple lies). If it hadn't been for adultery, David's lineage wouldn't have happened nor Christ's.

"So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Cor. 5.16-17)

If we insist that other believers conform to our life, our old secular and non-spiritual life, than we are not seeing with God's eyes. We are seeing with human eyes. We would see Christ as the 'son' of a whore, a mere carpenter's son, who hangs out with drunkards, gluttons and other sinners. We would not see the life transforming and life-saving Messiah. We would be looking for a Dale Earnhart Jr decal on his pickup beside the lake while he casts his line fishing for fish, instead of fishing for people.

Group magazine a few years ago asked: DWKJWETKWHWD? Don't just ask what Jesus would do. Ask whether you know him well enough to know what he would do. "Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 7.22). This includes those who did great spiritual acts. Does setting up a voter point scorecard count, Lord?