The Primacy of Word

3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light...

6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened...

9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened...

11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened...

14 Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened...

20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” 21 So God created...

24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened...

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth,and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27  So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

(Selections from Genesis 1, NLT)

There are times when I speak to my kids, but it seems like I am speaking into a strange vacuity that only exists when I, or my wife, happen to speak to them. "I need you to get ready to go to the church," I might say. A few minutes later: "Hey, you two, we have to leave in 15 minutes, time to get ready!" Finally, "HEY! GET UP OFF THE COUCH AND GET READY NOW! THIS IS THE THIRD TIME!"

I suppose every parent knows the struggle. We cannot always speak action from inactivity. At times we cannot create the desired result when people are floating around in their own "void," and what we wish we could just speak into existence often has to be coerced.

Maybe it has to do with the foundation laid. If you have not laid a foundation of love, structure, order, and vitality, you can't just expect a child to hop to it at a moment's notice.

I find the order of creation--specifically what and how God spoke things to be--to be enlightening. Consider the pattern of "filling" that God accomplishes.

• Day 1: He speaks light into existence... darkness and death are driven away (life cannot exist in what we read about, pre-creation).
• Day 4: The parallel: He speaks lights into existence, putting the activity of future living beings into order.
• Day 2: He speaks an expanse into existence... Chaos was given boundaries. Water was, to the Hebrew mind, a place of disorder and chaos and death. A space for life had to exist.
• Day 5: The parallel: He speaks the creatures of sky and water into existence, filling both with life, His Word empowering each to further fill the earth with life after its kind. Even a place of seeming "chaos and death" was filled with life.
• Day 3: He speaks land and sea into existence, further bordering off the places of apparent order and chaos. He speaks the plant life into existence, filling the earth with what would sustain the life He would soon create. Sometimes overlooked is the fact that the sea itself also contains its own kinds of vegetation that could feed the life it houses!
• Day 6: The creatures of the land are created, filling it with life, also being empowered to expand life. Mankind was created with particular purpose, to govern over the order of life God created.

All of this happens by the Word of God. Interestingly, God did not speak and mankind just came to be. Before humanity was even made, we see God filling this creation with purpose that exceeds the purpose of any other created thing.

God speaks foundations of life into existence (often speaking separation into existence to make this possible... see my earlier post, "Primacy of Separation"). God speaks into existence the life that fills these foundations.

When He speaks, God separates and fills with life and purpose!

God still speaks. I will not attempt to define the boundaries of how He speaks. I know He speaks through His Word, Scripture. He speaks His Word through Holy Spirit. He speaks through people. He speaks in dreams and visions. He speaks through thoughts. There are surely other methods I have not thought of. But He does speak!

Maybe He is speaking a "separation from chaos" into your life today. Maybe He is speaking a foundational message you need. Maybe He is speaking boundaries into your existence. Maybe He is speaking something life-giving to you.

Of these kinds of words, maybe of others, how has God spoken to you? What could He be speaking to you today?

The Primacy of Separation

6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.”...

9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good...

14 Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened.

(From Genesis 1, NLT)

One day contains 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, and 86,400 seconds. Each of us are guaranteed nothing, and those days, minutes, and seconds go by quickly. If we are honest, we confess that the next second is not known.

One day contains a lot. According to an article in cnbc.com, "Average in America is a prison--here's what it looks like and how you can break free," published February 7, 2018, the average American watches 33 hours of TV a week (closing on 283 minutes per day, or just under 20% of the day);  works 34.4 hours per week (not quite 5 hours a day over 7 days, or almost 295 minutes, just over 20% of one day); spends 116 minutes per day on social media (about 8% of the day); spends 5 hours per day on their cell phone (about 20%); and exercises 17 minutes per day (just over 1%).

This is the day of your typical, American, rat-race day. To put it in another way of the Rodentia order, it is the kind of day most of us jump on the hamster wheel for.

Does anyone else find this way dangerous and chaotic? I think it is due to its aimlessness. If we do not order our lives, we just fall into the hamster wheel of life and keep running until we are dead. The same article quoted above points out the habits that set successful people apart from the average: 

• They pursue their own dreams and goals, and not those of parents, family, or friends.
• They engage in deliberate practices.
• They don't rely on passion or motivation. They forge good daily habits that put them on autopilot for success.
• They don't stop trying, and because of this, they hit that "lucky spot."
• They are frugal.
• They do not gossip.
• They read to learn, spending 30 minutes or more each day to gain knowledge about their career, craft, or industry.
• They experiment.
• They seek feedback.
• They create a blueprint for the life they desire.

All of these acts separate them from the chaos of life and order them for success. This is not unlike what God did for us at creation, and what He did created such a blueprint for humanity's success.

Consider His actions from the verses above:

• God separated light (which reveals) from darkness (which obscures). 
• God separated the waters (a place of death and chaos) above from the waters below, creating sky (heavens, or atmosphere, the abode of God to the Hebrew).
• God separated sea (chaos and death) from land (order).
• God created the lights to govern (bring order to) humanity's days.

Consider the purpose and activities God gave to humanity in the creation story:

• "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and govern it. Reign over..." (verse 28).
• God gave humanity a defined purpose, to work the ground from which the man was created in the Garden God created as his home (Genesis 2:7-8, 15).

God separated so we could live apart from chaos and death. He separated so we live in the open, without shame, and with order. He separated so that life could thrive as He intended it.

God separates so He can give us His kind of life! Even now, He can separate us from the chaos of the "hamster wheel" of life so we can live a life worth living! He can separate us (another word for making separate is to make "holy," actually) to being citizens of His Kingdom, even as we live in this world, and I dare say most people need to see how awesome that is before they will be part of His Kingdom.

What has God separated you to? Is it a matter of living with greater intentionality, following the patterns of success that, to be honest, are more Godly patterns of living anyway? Is it a matter of being reminded of your purpose to care for what God has given you to care for? Could it be that some of us may need to be separated from a phone? A relationship? A job? A habit of chaos for a habit of growth?

What is your purpose? What does it mean for God to "separate" you from chaos to order? What habits of intentionality can you form that lead you to the awesome life God wants for you?

The Primacy of Presence

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)

Miracles witnessed make for unforgettable memories. A few of mine, all of which came with anointing with oil, include...

• Praying over two women, on two separate occasions, who had cancer, yet each of whom attended their next doctor's appointment to hear the doctor say, "You do not have cancer!"
• Praying with another woman who was diagnosed with MS the night she was in pain from symptoms. After prayer, the pain was gone and did not return!
• Praying over a man with diagnosed HIV and learning the next week that the doctors said he did not have HIV!

Original misdiagnosis? Maybe. Who is to say that the God I serve did not orchestrate a healing in such a way as this as well? All I believe is that God hand was in the healing, regardless of our human explanations.

Miracles uncomfirmed can be confusing and disheartening. There are prayers I have prayed that did not come out as I would have chosen, or as someone else would have chosen. I witnessed prayers over a deceased loved one once, prayers praying for an instant resurrection, that seemed to go unanswered and left a wife disillusioned.

I have come to the conclusion that we are praying for the Presence of God in such situations. His Presence brings both healing and miracles... and the wisdom to understand what is needed versus what we want. Clearly, they don't always match up. However, we learn some important things about the first mention in Scripture of the Presence of God that may help us.

The truth of the Creation story's beginning--the "genesis of Genesis," if you will--is the invasion of God into the place of nothingness, the place which lacked life. The Bible teaches that the earth was without form and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. Water was, to the Hebrews from which Moses (who authored this account) came, a place of confusion and death. When they faced the Red Sea, they were challenged to place a foot into the place of water, and when the waters covered the Egyptians, death came with it. Darkness was a place of secrecy (and also a source of confusion), a place of things hidden, and was complemented by the "emptiness" of the verse.

The Spirit of God enters all of this, and everything changes.

• His Presence is the beginning of bringing order from chaos. The story tells us that the dry land emerged from the chaos.
• His Presence brings secrecy into the open. The story tells us that He speaks light into existence. Darkness cannot exist when there is light present.
• His Presence fills emptiness. The story tells us that the world, over the course of 6 days, was filled with the infrastructure to support life, was given that which would order life's times, was filled with the life itself, and that the life was given purpose.

The Creation story is the the primacy of who God is and the primacy of His Presence--bringing order from chaos, openness from secrecy, light from darkness, fullness from emptiness, and life from death.

When I witness the miraculous intervention of God today, I have to think that such activity is the norm with God. We call it a miracle, but is it really? Is it possible that the "miraculous" brining of life from death and decay is really what God has done all along? What His Presence has always brought? 

When I do not witness what I feel I should, is it possible that I can accept that God will yet bring light into my confusion? Understanding where something is now hidden from me? Wisdom out of my chaos? Maybe it happens now, maybe later, maybe in eternity, but I have to believe it will happen!

I believe that the God of creation is the God who is King and directs the affairs of the universe, including the part of it I inhabit. I believe that the God who is King of kings and Lord of lords is present, and His Presence still brings life.

How have you experienced the life-bringing, order-inducing, purpose-giving Presence of God in your life? What reassures you that He is in control and that this is the best possible thing that can happen for you even when you cannot see it in the moment?

Primacy - "God Created"

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

Not long ago, I paid a bit of money to be able to have access to records to records of my family online. I found "ancestry.org" to be a useful tool, actually. I saw government and public records--census data, voting records, birth certificates, etc.--containing names of family members long gone. They would contain interesting (and even sometimes a bit unfortunate) tidbits of information as to what they did, where they lived, and even what was going on at the time they were in particular places.

I was able to trace my ancestry through Ellis Island through one side of the family. I even found out I likely had a direct relative who sailed over on the Mayflower and could have been one of the first English teachers on the continent (interesting to me since my father has taught English for much of his career). I found records extending into England/Wales, France, Germany, and Norway. I discovered family who had been married in a church in Bristol, UK, a place I visited years ago while I was still in college. I found out I was related to the founder of the Mayo Clinic, and also am a distant relative of Howard Dean (on the democratic ticket for vice president in 2004, of "yeeeeeeeeaaaahhhhh!!!" fame during the campaign). There are Johnsons, Beckers, Fogelsangers, Bearys, Andrews, Perdues, Mullins, Harpers, Largents, Gilliams, Riches, Wilcoxes... all kinds of names in there.

Well, all of that is interesting enough to others, but to me it was important to know something at least of where I came from. I found out more than I ever thought I would!

Reverse the clock several millennia, and put yourself in the position of a freed slave, whose family has been enslaved for centuries. Your ancestors came to Egypt during a famine, a move you are sure God orchestrated. But over time, proximity to the worship practices and religious beliefs of the host nation likely seeped in a little. Maybe you would have been one who wondered--where am I from?

When he wrote Genesis, Moses, I am sure, wanted to remind his great big family (fellow Hebrews) exactly where they came from and exactly who their God was.

What he first wrote, in Genesis 1, would have been of primary importance to communicate:

1. God is King. It isn't Pharaoh. It isn't any of their gods. It is God--Elohim, the ruler, which when put into the plural intensive of that meaning translates as "the true God."
2. The King created. There is not a god in Egypt who could do this. He fashioned His creation with care and thoughtfulness and purpose.
3. Everything that would follow, in anything that Moses would write, is rightfully seen through the lens he creates in Genesis 1:
• God's Presence brings order from chaos.
• God's Word brings existence.
• God's intention is life.
• God's blessing is purpose.

If you were a Hebrew, having just been released from slavery, having just walked through the Red Sea, and facing a barren wilderness with a people who did not yet know how to be a nation, I would think this lens would be reassuring and would drive them to dependence on this. It did not always work out that way, as one would discover from reading the rest of Moses' writings (Genesis - Deuteronomy, or what they called "Torah," or "The Law"). But all of what God would say and do could be read with that in mind.

How about you? What is your chaos? How can belief that "God brings order out of chaos" help sustain you in the midst of chaos?

What can God's Word bring to existence in your life that is not there right now, that you need?

If you believe that God's intention is life--real life as He intended it--does that have any impact on your decision making? How you live each day? How you see the actions of God in your life?

Do you consider your purpose--what you are doing right now--to be God's blessing? I'm not talking about just your job or career, but your day-in, day-out reason for existence. Caring for what God cares for. Partnering with Him on His mission. Are you doing that, and do you see it as blessing?

May you feel God's Presence today. May His Word speak life into you, the life worth living, even that eternal life experience in the temporal of now. May He speak His purpose for you into your heart.

God's Address

I am struck today by how incomplete our idea of "peace" is. We look at that word and think about a lot of things. Peace between nations being the absence of war. peace between people being the absence of conflict. Peace in a home being the lack of shouting and disagreements.

Really, when you think about it, our modern definition of peace is pretty low-level. Sure, even the most minimalist definition of peace is not easy to come by in this world, but such a definition can still keep anger and resentment boiling just beneath the surface. Such peace is very delicate.

Biblical peace is not only a lot deeper, but "tougher" (meaning "more durable"), if it can be said as such. Biblical peace is really being right with God, and being right with God is only achievable through Jesus Christ, the righteous One who makes us right with God.

"Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right." (Romans 5:18-19, The Message).

This brings me to today's Psalm, Psalm 11. A few highlights...

"I've already run for dear life straight to the arms of God. So why would I run away now?" (from verses 1-2).

"... God hasn't moved to the mountains; his holy address hasn't changed..." (from verses 4-6).

"God's business is putting things right; he loves getting the lines straight, setting us straight. Once we're standing tall, we can look Him straight in the eye" (verse 7).

Think of all the times David was pursued or attacked. He certainly ran sometimes, sometimes he did not. Yet wherever he went, he could enjoy the presence of God, and he knew it! Perhaps in his moments of clarity, David knew that when he was in the right with God, he didn't need to "run," per se. He was in God's presence. He was at God's "holy address," and here he was safe. But that presence was wherever he went with God. So, "running" in this case would be running to places God did not take Him.

I love the idea of looking God in the eye. It is an statement of confidence and even feelings of comfort and safety. My takeaways from this...

1. Who God is does not change. His character remains the same.
2. To be in God's presence is to be in the presence of this character--and this is his "address."
3. In God's presence, He makes me right. In Christ, I stand and look him in the eye with confidence... the ultimate place of peace.
4. When my attention is on God, I move with Him, not in reaction to the pursuit and attacks of worldly and satanic foes, but in lockstep with Him.

This makes a big difference to me. It should make me less reactive to what is around me, and more reflexive to the movement of God. When my attention is drawn to my fear, issues in my life, my work, my society, I react. When I am attentive to God, I reflexively move with Him to deal with all of these things. So I am not running away from Him and His presence and His mission (ignoring all these things)... I am running with Him into the mission that solves these things!

I move with God to fix financial issues... social and community issues... personal struggles... and I am safe and confident in His presence!

What difference does this make for you in your life? What struggles do you face, what issues are you concerned about, that would be solve better and give you greater peace if you knew that you, in Christ, stand confidently in the "address of God"?

Decked Out

If I had an Armani for every time I have heard it said, "You should dress in accordance with being in the presence of the King of the Universe! You would never go into the Oval Office in a tee shirt and jeans!" or something like that, I'd belong on the red carpet of some award show. It seems like we put a premium on cultural standards of dress and how we would appear before people, particularly in worship.

I wonder, if we looked at each other as if the very presence of God is in them, and we realized that we lived there at all times through the Holy Spirit, would we feel the need to "dress up" at all times?

I do not hold it against anyone who feels the need to "dress up" for church services if that is what one feels the need to do. However, I would suggest that anyone, at any given moment, could already be "decked out" even if we don't see it with our human eyes.

I read Psalm 5 today in "The Message." I love the wording of a couple of phrases: "And here I am, Your invited guest--it's incredible!" David was clearly excited to be in the presence of God, flabbergasted that He would be invited by God as such.

Do I get, on a regular basis, so excited and amazed to realize that, at all times, I am invited by God into His presence?

He writes, "But You'll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to You. You are famous, God, for decking us out in delight." I don't know what "delight" looks like, exactly, but there isn't a thread that will create something like this.

I can only conclude some proclamations from this: I am invited! God decks me out in delight! I am clothed in  God's delight! If that doesn't amaze me, nothing will.

The Bible is chock-full of stories of people decked out in God's delight. Enoch walked with God, welcomed into His presence, and wound up walking with God right into heaven. Noah found grace in God's eyes and became the father of the rebuilt human race. Abraham was invited into God's presence, to walk with God to a new land, and became the father of God's chosen people to bring salvation to the world. Jacob wrestled with God--very much in His presence--and He was renamed for it (Israel means, "Contends with God," and it is said as a favorable thing). Moses noticed God and walked right into His presence at the burning bush, then was given the "clothing" of leadership to take Israel away from captivity. David was called a man after God's own heart. Daniel was honored in exile, given crucial prophecies, and worshipped only in the presence of the true God. The disciples accepted the invitation of God-the-Son, Jesus Christ, and followed Him, remaining in His presence and then establishing the Church.

In Revelation, "He who overcomes," and the one who "opens the door" when Jesus knocks gets to dine with Jesus, is cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, is honored by being invited to sit with Him on His throne.

Every day God welcomes those who seek Him into His presence. In the Holy Spirit we find ourselves before His throne. We who seek God and claim Jesus as Lord and Savior are "decked out" in His righteousness because of our faith in Him--decked out in God's delight because He Himself said, "This is dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy." (Matthew 3:17, NLT).

Some things to consider:

• Am I a welcoming channel for others into the presence of God?
• Do I allow God to deck people out in His delight, or am I claiming His prerogative as my own?
• Do I believe I am in the presence of God, even right now, through the Holy Spirit because of my faith in the righteousness of Jesus? Do I act as if I believe that?

Blessings today! Add thoughts of your own in the comments!

Community and Risk

We in America are a blessed people in a blessed nation.

The average American makes $73,573 before taxes. Strikingly, the average American spends $60,060 of that... again, before taxes. That does not leave a lot available to save, obviously. Breaking it down further, the greatest expenditures are housing ($19,884), food ($7700, $3000 of which is spent going out to eat), and insurance ($6771). If you combined going out to eat with entertainment (the 6th largest expenditure at $3203), this would add up to the 4th largest expenditure, but I digress... this isn't about critiquing all of that.

Really, what strikes me today is that insurance number. More than $564 per month is spent on this, and for many people, that is a low number. My job requires me to carry a high premium on auto insurance, for instance (I am fortunate that about 35% of that is offset by assistance to carry that much, but even after that it's more than a lot of people pay, all factors considered). Many pay big money for health insurance. And let's not forget that all these averages are just that: the average between high and low income earners and expenditures.

Big insurance categories include health, auto, homeowners, and life. Most insurances fall under those umbrellas, with several sub-categories. What I find amusing is "supplementals," or insurance that insures against insurance not insuring (covers co-pays and other things most policies won't)!

I'm not even going to get into it any further, because, well, I don't want to. It's a rabbit hole I don't want to dive into. It is just an illustration for a spiritual observation.

If followers of Jesus operated as the Bible instructs a community to operate, how much easier would it be to manage risk?

A few passages of Scripture come to mind:

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety." (Psalm 4:8)

"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have allen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 19:9-10)

"... Do not stand idly by when your neighbor's life is threatened. I am the LORD." (Leviticus 19:16).

"There should be no poor among you, for the LORD your God will greatly bless you in teh land he is giving you as a special possession." (Deuteronomy 15:4)

"... 'And who is my neighbor?'" (Luke 10:29, followed by the parable of the Good Samaritan)... "'Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?' Jesus asked. The man replied, 'The one who showed him mercy.' Then Jesus said, 'Yes, now go and do the same.'" (Luke 10:36-37).

After the first community of Jesus's followers was formed, in Acts 2:44-45: "And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need."

Historically, communities spread risk among its members. People hunted in groups to reduce the likeliness that one person would get gored by and elk or a bison. Goods were shipped among several caravans to insure against the whole shipment being stolen by bandits. The first written insurance policy could be found on the Babylonian "Hammurabi Code." In Judaism, the community was responsible to, together, assist their people in times of distress.

It isn't so simple as saying, "Let's get rid of all that insurance stuff and trust God and each other!" That would not be responsible and would lead to presuming on the kindness of others. However, I feel there are principles to at least consider here.

1. Individually, we begin by trusting God as the ultimate protection against ultimate risk. Ultimate risk isn't losing your house to a fire. It's losing your eternal life. It's falling away from the great plan of God for your life.
2. Followers of Jesus should be the community who cares so much for each other that that we eagerly build into the community the ability to help any of its members who are in need. We must eschew the attitude that says, "So sorry for what you are going through, but I am not responsible for your misfortune," in favor of an attitude of eagerness that says, "Whatever you are going through, we are here to help!"
3. Individually, as part of a community, we should not presume on others' kindness and generosity, or wrongly take advantage of people. If you don't contribute to the community as you are able, you really don't have the right to constantly ask for its assistance. Paul was pretty clear when he said that those who refuse to work should not be allowed to partake of the assistance of the church.

I'm sure more principles could be gleaned from this, beyond what I consider in my devotional time. What are your thoughts? Any principles you might add when it comes to the community of Christ-followers and how we help each other?