sojourners and exiles

And you shall be my people,

and I will be your God.

Jeremiah 30:22

This is the heartbeat of God’s covenant-making, covenant-keeping character. It is what God promised to Israel. It is what Jesus promises to His church. It is about a unique protective, providing, loving relationship. The God of the universe chooses to care for a people He tenderly loves and leads. And even when those people may fail, God is still faithful.

These words were spoken by God through Jeremiah, His prophet, to Judah as they mourned in the early days of the Babylonian captivity. Even though the Jewish nation had turned their back on the covenant and were now suffering a seven decade exile from their homeland, God still kept His covenant. He kept it as the curse of the Law corrected his people. He kept it in the assurance that Israel was still His people. He kept it in the promise to return a new generation to their homes.

Jesus calls us to be His people, even as the church sometimes is less than obedient in following our Savior. Christians are a chosen group as well. We are called a priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9). We are God’s people, recipients of His great mercy in Christ, called to shine His light (1 Peter 2:10). And like the exiles to whom God sent encouragement to hang on and live as His people in an unfamiliar temporary home, God sees Christians as sojourners and exiles, still waiting to be brought back to their true home (1 Peter 2:11-12). We live in a way where we cannot quite be at home in this world. We long for a much better one!

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

C.S. Lewis

Can we be Christian community?

…complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Philippians 2:2

Christians have a unity in community that is beautiful to experience when we are really reflecting Jesus together. It is what makes the church more than just a gathering of diverse people. It is what turns us into the Body of Christ. And Paul tells the Philippian church to examine the experience he commends them to know.

Philippians two opens with a conditional proposition. Paul is asking Christian to examine what should be true of their lives together. “If there is encouragement in Christ…” (Yes… always!) “If there is comfort in the love of Christ…” (of course there is!) “If we participate in the Spirit…” (Absolutely… He indwells every believer.) “If there is affection and sympathy…” (Well… there should be when Jesus is changing us to be like Him!) Those conditional questions are asking us to remember the evidence of change the gospel brings to us, and to live in all those qualities together. This forms the foundation upon which we grow in unity and love in the Church.

Paul then emphasizes this unity with the call to bring him (as the church’s founder) complete joy by being “of the same mind”. This is not a mindless uniformity. It is instead a transformative, joyous unity of purpose and action together as Christ’s unique people. It is both emotional and volitional as Christians choose to love each other well. It is also agreeable and extensive: all Christians in a local church setting fully in agreement and showing in this love, worship, and gospel community, the love of Christ. This is what we live for as Christians… together under Jesus, for the gospel, loving one another.

How do we show this? Well… that’s where Philippians 2:3-11 paints as a more detailed picture. We put away selfishness and pride. We humble ourselves individually. We see other people as more significant than ourselves (OUCH!). We put self-interest at the bottom of our daily to do list. And we hope to think like Jesus. That is how Christian community becomes the greatest society ever set up by God on earth.

Anti-Shepherds

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:1

They are bold.

They are loud.

They confidently gather a crowd.

They are evil.

They use shame

to control a people and increase their fame.

Having an appearance

of false godliness

they give off an air of smug worldliness.

They mock.

They deride

anyone else not on their side.

They don’t care.

They aren’t right.

They often live and die for the fight.

Lives are destroyed.

Churches a pig pen

filled with gospel-less legalistic doctrine.

People are scattered.

But podcasts and web posts proliferated

as the love of Christ is obliterated.

Purveyors of hate…

Their end is prophesied.

God will destroy all shepherds apostatized

God has declared.

Jesus will lead.

The sheep will thrive on the gospel they heed.

Woe to false shepherds

who destroy and scatter!

Only the gospel is what will ultimately matter!.

.

advancing in adversity

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

Philippians 1:12-13

Our most difficult circumstances are never a mistake. Look at how Paul found his most limiting situation to be an actual display of God’s liberating truth. Yes, when Paul wrote to the Philippian church he was in prison in Rome. Yet that was hardly a concern in regards to effective ministry. It meant he wrote more, which gave us much of our New Testament. And imprisonment did not stop the gospel. Look at how Paul describes it…

The gospel advanced. The confines of Roman prison did not stop Paul from committing to preaching the gospel. He kept proclaiming the gospel at every opportunity. In his case, a brand new mission field opened up among his fellow prisoners and guards. Paul saw it as a means to advance the gospel. Imagine how our worldview would change if we just saw adversity as a means of advancement!

The gospel was made known. People heard the truth. People responded to Jesus as Lord and Savior. A revival broke out in Rome’s highest security facility! The entirety of the elite Roman imperial guard, the equivalent of special forces and secret service agents today, knew that Paul preached Jesus. There were no limits! A new group of people were familiar with Jesus because of Paul. And Paul was happy to be in those circumstances.

Lord,

Let me face any difficulty with the truth in view. Jesus, I will seek to make You known, no matter what! May the gospel always advance wherever You place me.

Amen

Praise: a gem of hope buried in the dust of lament

Sing to the LORD;

praise the LORD!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hand of evildoers.

Jeremiah 20:13

This psalm of praise, a call to worship God Who delivers His suffering saints, is an anchor of hope in an otherwise dismal bit of lament-filled poetry. These words were written out of a situation of pain. Jeremiah chapter 20 opens with the account of Jeremiah’s persecution by the high priest in Jerusalem. The officials did not like Jeremiah’s preaching that God had decreed irreversible judgment upon Jerusalem. So the high priest publicly shamed the prophet. He locked Jeremiah in stocks at the public gate near the temple… a lesson to all of Jerusalem. In so doing he rejected God‘s message from the hated prophet.

Upon releasing the prophet the next day, the high priest warned him no longer to prophesy. Jeremiah‘s response was to admit that although he would love to shut up the message, he could not. It burst from him like fire from his bones. And then Jeremiah penned a psalm of deep personal lament. You might say he was depressed by all the constant rejection and physical persecution.

Reading this lament is rough. But it is holy scripture nonetheless… look at the raw feelings pouring our from it:

1. Jeremiah feels used up by God (Jeremiah 20:7).
2. Jeremiah feels humiliated by people (Jeremiah 20:7).
3. Jeremiah is confused that God’s Word is reproached and derided (Jeremiah 20:8).
4. Jeremiah tries to withhold prophecy, but cannot do so. He MUST speak (Jeremiah 20:9).
5. People conspire against Jeremiah to his face (Jeremiah 20:10).
6. Jeremiah turns in trust to God. This is a deliberate choice despite feelings and circumstances (Jeremiah 20:11-13).
7. Jeremiah still feels a terrible depression: Cursing the day of his own birth, wishing he’d never been born (Jeremiah 20:14-18).

The lament “sandwich”, hopeful in God in the middle, but opening and closing in deep pain, ends with a downer: “Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:18). The point: It is OK to throw at God the hard questions that only God can answer! It’s OK to release pent up difficult emotions to the God Who already knows what we feel. We can still praise the God Who leaves us wresting with hard questions. As I approach the year anniversary of my most lament-filled season of life, I too find comfort in the middle part of this lament of Jeremiah’s, knowing God is still the Deliverer, even as my experience is full of questions. I wrestle these questions WITH God, not against Him!

withstand and stand

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Ephesians 6:13

There are two important Christian lifestyle skills that require strong conviction supplied by Christ Himself for us to accomplish. Paul creates a wonderful illustrative image to help us gain these skills: Christians are to don a spiritual armor supplied by God. It is that armor, described at length in Ephesians 6:14-18, that helps us live with these skills at work in our daily experience.

The first skill in Ephesians 6:13 is withstanding evil.  This is why we need the armor. The world is on the attack against the righteousness of God. It always has been. This was Paul’s expectation. Jesus warned His disciples that we would be hated. We should expect the same. It we choose to live like Jesus, for Jesus, to be changed by Jesus to live in Jesus, we will not go unopposed. And Satan loves to bring Christians who are unarmored to defeat. We are always under attack… always. And armor is defensive not offensive. God keeps us spiritually alive and in His service, but we must actively wear what He provides for our protection. We cannot withstand evil without the gospel, faith, salvation, scripture, and prayer… the elements of our armor.

Not only do we withstand evil, but we can have confidence to stand firm. That is the second skill here at the end of Ephesians 6:13. The armor of God is our strength. The gospel is our strength because good news equips the soul! The salvation found in Christ is our strength because it is our only means of being saved from all that imperils us! Faith keeps us strong because we must believe so that our minds are renewed! The Word of God is strong for us because we cannot trust our own words on any subject. Prayer is a strengthening practice because it works the muscle of our souls to trust the power of God. 

We gain power, strength, and resolve in the armor of God. Evil is deflected. Faith is strengthened. Our security is sure in faith in Jesus Christ. In our armor we are undefeated! Thank You, Lord! May Your people, Christians around the globe, withstand evil and stand firm in salvation, in faith, in prayer, for the gospel, believing and proclaiming Your Word, so that the gospel armor can also cover others You are longing to save! 

unconcealed

For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.

Jeremiah 16:17

Lord,

What must it be like for You, perfect in Your holiness, to behold all the evil in this world? And You see it, not just in broad terms, such as systematic oppression, war, disease, poverty, or starvation. Those things are certainly difficult enough. Yet You see so much more… so much individual evil. You know the thoughts of billions of people on this planet all at once. You see the darkest secret sins. You witness not just murders, but hatred. You know all there is to know about each one of us. There truly are no secret sins.

What must it be like for You, the Savior I profess to love and trust, to see the sin I still harbor as well? You know my ways. You know my heart. You know my thoughts. You see me when I want to try to do right and I fail. Nothing I think, say, or do is hidden from You… ever. You see me choose sin over salvation time and again and yet You still love me. My iniquity is never concealed in the dark or behind any door. This is why the gospel is my daily need. I still confess this sin, trust my Savior, repent of my deepest dark impulses, and seek for Your transformative grace to guide me. Honestly… I know You know me. And the miracle of grace is that You still love me despite my broken and disgusting sin. You still change me. You still equip me to please You, my God! I am grateful for the grace that You pour over me, despite what I know You see. I am thankful to be clothed in righteousness that is not my own. I am whiter than snow in the righteousness of Christ! Thank You my holy, merciful Lord!

Amen