Blood. It always blows my mind how an idea that is so complicated can be drawn and explained by a single word. If you think about blood cells from a biological point of view, they are the single most effective carriers of anything. This is why when you have a blood disease the molecular structure of said disease looks a lot like a nutrient or mineral that the blood is designed to carry. While there is some diversity to that statement, you must be asking yourself why I'm talking about blood.
What's so important about blood that I've taken an entire paragraph to explain one mechanic of the stuff? Well for one, blood in the Bible is heard. When God says to Cain that He can hear Abels blood (Gen 4:8) It makes it clear that there is not just a nutrient that is carried by the substance, but a voice. Not only that but the simplicity of the remark "The blood of the lamb takes (or carries) away the sins of the world." Not only can blood carry a voice, or a nutrient, but it also carries the icky black stuff that gets all over our flesh and makes us unclean in the sight of God. It takes away what makes our rags dirty, and it allows us to receive gowns and crowns that are pure and clean.
When God sees us, He is looking through the lens of the blood of the lamb, which is kinda funny because you'd figure that would make things fairly "rose-colored" as you may have heard some say, and yet it is the most real thing we as believers have. This purity is simply handed to us, this identity, completion. There are many words you could use to describe it, but we are well aware that there is no one like Jesus who lived a completely perfect life, and the fact of the matter is that if there was He wouldn't be worth worshipping.
However, He did come, and He did succeed in completing the will of the Father perfectly, in absolute obedience, and because of that He has atoned for the sins of the world, and more than that He has been raised to life and been awarded a Bride who is absolutely perfect for Him, who is still being perfected. The now/not yet concept comes into play here.
So what do I mean by the "Bride Heart"? Well, we have to ask ourselves as a Church how much we are living with the reality that we are in covenant with the Most High King. The covenant has been sealed, and every believer that has received that seal is absolutely sealed by the blood of the Groom who came to die for her, and thus not only renewed his vows to be faithful but rewrote the contract so that we became completely His, and He became completely ours. Or to even make the language even more personal, Jesus became completely Mine as His bride. How does that even work? I don't know honestly, I just know that that's what Jesus did, and that's how we ought to celebrate Him. I think it's a significant point looking at Philippians 3 which explains that we've been given one mind, one accord, and really expositing it, one love. One blood covers us all, just as one veil covers one bride. Yet soon this veil will be lifted, our eyes will be lifted up to heaven, our knees will bow to the ground, and we will absolutely know what it means to be a Bride.
So I think that the Bride is constantly looking in expectation, as the parable of the ten virgins who are wise. I think the Bride heart means that we are imagining and loving our soon to be Groom with such intimacy that we might as well already be married. We are constantly trying to sneak a peek at His face behind our veil, pushing ourselves into His loving arms. We are constantly moving closer, looking deeper, discovering and learning more about Him, because frankly we as a bride are completely obsessed with Him. I think this is the Heart of Flesh that God gives us so faithfully. Completely abandonment to Him and His life, not just because of how much He's done, but how much He does! Because His character and justness outweigh any glories we could have in the world. Because His love and presence are so sweet that our quality of life just continues going up.
Because of the blood that cleans us, because of the identity that has been freely given.
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Monday, January 20, 2020
Monday, January 13, 2020
Fear of Death
So. I always seem to start my blog posts with a propositional statement bringing into light something that correlates with the title and I haven't really figured out how to stop doing that. Maybe it's because we as humans have a strong aversion toward spoilers, and expect to know what we're getting into immediately, and maybe I like to open in a traditional sense by providing a hook, a clause, and a point, just as I was taught to write. To understand where I'm going with this you'll simply need to read because at this point I'm more entrenched in the idea of transitions and explanations than I am with stylistic writing that allows for ease of reading.
Or I could turn around right here and attack the point straight on. Why does it sound like I'm avoiding a subject, or trying to change the topic before we get there? Because I am. Why am I doing that? Because this topic is heavy and deep. It doesn't frequently allow for words to come up because this topic is generally unconscious. But it is also the most debilitating, systemic, truly attached to humanity issues that could really come up, in my opinion. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it would be more interesting to stop fearing death that it would to figure out why we have a sin problem.
I don't know anyone who has achieved it, and I don't believe anyone who tells me that they don't fear death, which could be why I've never met anyone to achieve true fearlessness. It's such an interesting subject though, no matter where your views lie. Say you're an atheist and you're reading a Christian blog for some reason, and you stumble upon this post talking about the fear of death. If you don't believe in an afterlife, and you are nihilistic enough that there is absolutely no purpose in life, especially if you subscribe to the most scientific way of looking at things, then what purpose do you have to fear death? If there is truly no afterlife, no God, no Judge, then why are you so worried about the effect that you have here on earth?
Let's take it a step further, if you don't know that there's a God, and have never received evidence to have concrete proof in believing a God, or have an idea about God but fall away from Christianity due to complex religion and rules of man, and authority. What point is there to stop searching? If you haven't found proof of heaven, or hell for that matter, what stops you from researching? Sure you can google "is heaven real" but if we're dealing with the issue of death you're either going to have to speak with a dead person, or rely on someone who has come back from the dead, and to do that you're first going to have to admit that death is a place, or else you'll fall under the first category. Of course, you still won't be able to prove anything if you so happened to go the extra mile and off yourself in some comedic fashion trying to prove the existence of an afterlife, but at least you tried. Maybe there is a fear of lack of results though, and honestly that's a different topic, but I still think you fear death.
Alright, so what if there is an afterlife. Who's to say that you don't simply have a pre-existence or some sort of long lost ancestor line that you've been following for the past Seven Thousand years that you've inhabited as a sentient being for 3 separate generations? While that belief is much more spiritual and less existential, you would seem to have no reason to fear death. You'll just come back as another human being, so what's the big deal?
Let's call it here though. Because this is a Christian blog, and even though I enjoy the regular existential crisis, I am almost certain that most people don't. What reason does a Christian have for fearing death? I mean as far as topics go, this is one of the most interesting topics biblically, because we wouldn't have death if it weren't for God. We also wouldn't have life. We wouldn't know that there was a man who came in the flesh specifically to defeat death, and to do that he died himself, and then was risen back to life, just as we all will be. Without Jesus, we wouldn't know that there is absolutely a heaven, and that we have access to it freely. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that fearing death is not something we are meant to do as new creations. We don't need to, for what reason would we? We have an almighty God who has defeated death and taken its namesake, earned it for himself, and given us the keys to eternal life. Not only do we have a philosophical argument against death, if we really believe what we say we believe, we should absolutely not fear death at all ever. Any of the other categories have a great excuse, they simply don't know. We as Christians though, we do know. We absolutely know.
Or at least, we're supposed to say we do. I know that this is my most innate fear. I know that it is one thing that hardens my heart toward some controls, and softens it toward others. I know that this is why if it were just me ruling my life, I would choose a life of comfort and pleasure. I would choose a life of enjoyable habits. But then again, that's why I'm a believer in the first place, is because I got tired of choosing the stuff that didn't matter.
So we're left with this choice. This idea that death is defeated, and the only thing dying would accomplish is us going back to be with our Lord. What then? Do we all wait patiently for death? That would be selfish. Do we kill ourselves? Even more selfish. Do we share with others what the good news is? That they too don't have to fear death? That would be good.
But maybe we should start with not fearing death ourselves.
Or I could turn around right here and attack the point straight on. Why does it sound like I'm avoiding a subject, or trying to change the topic before we get there? Because I am. Why am I doing that? Because this topic is heavy and deep. It doesn't frequently allow for words to come up because this topic is generally unconscious. But it is also the most debilitating, systemic, truly attached to humanity issues that could really come up, in my opinion. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it would be more interesting to stop fearing death that it would to figure out why we have a sin problem.
I don't know anyone who has achieved it, and I don't believe anyone who tells me that they don't fear death, which could be why I've never met anyone to achieve true fearlessness. It's such an interesting subject though, no matter where your views lie. Say you're an atheist and you're reading a Christian blog for some reason, and you stumble upon this post talking about the fear of death. If you don't believe in an afterlife, and you are nihilistic enough that there is absolutely no purpose in life, especially if you subscribe to the most scientific way of looking at things, then what purpose do you have to fear death? If there is truly no afterlife, no God, no Judge, then why are you so worried about the effect that you have here on earth?
Let's take it a step further, if you don't know that there's a God, and have never received evidence to have concrete proof in believing a God, or have an idea about God but fall away from Christianity due to complex religion and rules of man, and authority. What point is there to stop searching? If you haven't found proof of heaven, or hell for that matter, what stops you from researching? Sure you can google "is heaven real" but if we're dealing with the issue of death you're either going to have to speak with a dead person, or rely on someone who has come back from the dead, and to do that you're first going to have to admit that death is a place, or else you'll fall under the first category. Of course, you still won't be able to prove anything if you so happened to go the extra mile and off yourself in some comedic fashion trying to prove the existence of an afterlife, but at least you tried. Maybe there is a fear of lack of results though, and honestly that's a different topic, but I still think you fear death.
Alright, so what if there is an afterlife. Who's to say that you don't simply have a pre-existence or some sort of long lost ancestor line that you've been following for the past Seven Thousand years that you've inhabited as a sentient being for 3 separate generations? While that belief is much more spiritual and less existential, you would seem to have no reason to fear death. You'll just come back as another human being, so what's the big deal?
Let's call it here though. Because this is a Christian blog, and even though I enjoy the regular existential crisis, I am almost certain that most people don't. What reason does a Christian have for fearing death? I mean as far as topics go, this is one of the most interesting topics biblically, because we wouldn't have death if it weren't for God. We also wouldn't have life. We wouldn't know that there was a man who came in the flesh specifically to defeat death, and to do that he died himself, and then was risen back to life, just as we all will be. Without Jesus, we wouldn't know that there is absolutely a heaven, and that we have access to it freely. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that fearing death is not something we are meant to do as new creations. We don't need to, for what reason would we? We have an almighty God who has defeated death and taken its namesake, earned it for himself, and given us the keys to eternal life. Not only do we have a philosophical argument against death, if we really believe what we say we believe, we should absolutely not fear death at all ever. Any of the other categories have a great excuse, they simply don't know. We as Christians though, we do know. We absolutely know.
Or at least, we're supposed to say we do. I know that this is my most innate fear. I know that it is one thing that hardens my heart toward some controls, and softens it toward others. I know that this is why if it were just me ruling my life, I would choose a life of comfort and pleasure. I would choose a life of enjoyable habits. But then again, that's why I'm a believer in the first place, is because I got tired of choosing the stuff that didn't matter.
So we're left with this choice. This idea that death is defeated, and the only thing dying would accomplish is us going back to be with our Lord. What then? Do we all wait patiently for death? That would be selfish. Do we kill ourselves? Even more selfish. Do we share with others what the good news is? That they too don't have to fear death? That would be good.
But maybe we should start with not fearing death ourselves.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
The Altar Heart of God
Many many years ago there were laws, that eventually turned into commands. Curiosity and systems that eventually turned into philosophy and what we refer to as legalism. You know, it's kind of interesting that we have so much Jewish literature to go along with the Old Testament, and it's a huge blessing. Clearly, we haven't even scratched the surface of all the layers within the New Testament even, especially when we consider there is over 800 commands given within the New Testament, and I'm sure there's a hidden parallel of Laws in the Torah (611 commands) and commands given by the Son of God. The reason I think so is that there are deep theological concepts ingrained into chapters like Leviticus 9. Within this chapter not only is Aaron commanded to make a different sacrifice than the rest of the Israelites, but he is required to sacrifice on behalf of them, on top of the sacrifices that the Israelites are thereby required to make. However I didn't title this post "the Altar Heart" for no reason, and whilst I am able to make connections toward how each of us has a different job in the Kingdom, we all must draw near to the Altar of the LORD. I think this is most accurately depicted in the beginnings of 2 Samuel when David is thinking up and founding the tent of meeting.
To draw a connection to something other than Romans 12 would be near heresy, because as far as Sacrifices goes Paul makes an absolute conclusion that we must offer ourselves as a Living Sacrifice unto the Lord. However what if we didn't have Pauls letters, do you think God would still have a way to tell us that Sacrifices are of some sort of intrinsic value to Him? That is the argument I'd like to make specifically about Leviticus 9, that God is showing us in the middle of the commands about food, sexual morality, slaves, and sacrifices, that He has a heart that is shaped like an altar that we all must come toward and offer sacrifices on. To take from 90's pop culture and say our hearts are shaped like a box would be quite the wrong sentence anatomically but because each of us have an altar both living inside of us, maybe Nirvana wasn't wrong. The altar within the Holy of Holies is even referred to as the heart of the tent, the host of the presence of the Lord, just as our hearts are nowadays.
We must remember though that God takes immense pleasure in righteous sacrifice, but if the sacrifice is attached to a string of selfishness, hatred, animosity, or even done in sin, it only leaves God with grief and turmoil. That's why even Jesus says "if you have anything against your brother, it is better to ask him forgiveness than to offer sacrifice. First, go to him, and remedy the situation, and then offer sacrifice." The Lord will help us with that, and we must look for that assistance in what we do, because we simply do not have the strength to make a proper sacrifice to Him. To honor His heart we must recognize the beat of His heart. That is how it goes.
To draw a connection to something other than Romans 12 would be near heresy, because as far as Sacrifices goes Paul makes an absolute conclusion that we must offer ourselves as a Living Sacrifice unto the Lord. However what if we didn't have Pauls letters, do you think God would still have a way to tell us that Sacrifices are of some sort of intrinsic value to Him? That is the argument I'd like to make specifically about Leviticus 9, that God is showing us in the middle of the commands about food, sexual morality, slaves, and sacrifices, that He has a heart that is shaped like an altar that we all must come toward and offer sacrifices on. To take from 90's pop culture and say our hearts are shaped like a box would be quite the wrong sentence anatomically but because each of us have an altar both living inside of us, maybe Nirvana wasn't wrong. The altar within the Holy of Holies is even referred to as the heart of the tent, the host of the presence of the Lord, just as our hearts are nowadays.
We must remember though that God takes immense pleasure in righteous sacrifice, but if the sacrifice is attached to a string of selfishness, hatred, animosity, or even done in sin, it only leaves God with grief and turmoil. That's why even Jesus says "if you have anything against your brother, it is better to ask him forgiveness than to offer sacrifice. First, go to him, and remedy the situation, and then offer sacrifice." The Lord will help us with that, and we must look for that assistance in what we do, because we simply do not have the strength to make a proper sacrifice to Him. To honor His heart we must recognize the beat of His heart. That is how it goes.
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