Answered Jesus and said to her, “if you knew the gratuitous gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would have asked Him and He would have given to you water which is alive.”  She says to Him, “Sir, you do not have anything with which to draw, and the well is deep.  From where therefore do you have this water, this living water?  As for you, you are not greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well, and he himself drank from it, and his sons and his cattle, are you?”  Answered Jesus and said to her, “Everyone who keeps on drinking of this water shall thirst again.  But whoever takes a drink of the water which I shall give him, shall positively not thirst, no , never, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a spring of water gushing up into life eternal.”

OK…

I have to confess to you that this has not been my experience.  Oh, i have moments when i feel as though something is gushing up inside me that feels like God, but then it goes away.

Know why?

I drank the wrong water.

I drank the water of salvation.  The water of “if I believe in Jesus, I will live forever.”  The water of “if I tweek my life a little here and there, I will be a disciple.”

It was the wrong water.

I drank the water of me.  blah blah blah, me me me, blah blah blah blah, me me me.  This is the water of human love… self love.

The water of human love will never satisfy because it has itself as it’s ultimate object.

The water Jesus is offering is the water of Father’s Love!  The love that only gives.  Love that takes no thought for it’s own life.  Love that leads to a cross.

Father’s love is a free gift.  It will become a spring of water gushing up to life eternal!

Did you get that?

It is a spring.  It never stops.

The electricity can go off…

It keeps flowing!

The sun can go down…

It keeps flowing!

I can get tired…

It keeps flowing!

It keeps refreshing!

It keeps giving forever and ever!

The water of human love, of self love drives us back to the well moment by moment.  We are continually focused on slaking our own thirst for more.

God’s love is greater than the human body, the human will, the human condition…

It’s why Jesus was able to say to his disciples a few moments later “I have food you know nothing about”

Wait a minute!  Jesus was at the well because he was so hungry he couldn’t go on!  His disciples left him and went for food!  He was hungry!

And then he could say “I already ate”… ?

It’s because Father’s love sustains us in every way.

I don’t know this from experience.

But I will.

I am drinking different water today.

The thing is this…

I cannot drink from the well and the spring both.

I have to fill in the well, cap it, weld it shut.

“You cannot serve two masters, either you will love the one and hate the other or hold firmly to one and despise the other”

That is why I have to die.

“…unless the grain of wheat, having fallen into the earth, die, it itself remains alone.”

That is why the cross.

“Assuming that anyone desires to come after me as a follower of mine, let him disregard his own interests, and let him at once and once for all pick up and carry his cross day after day, and let him take the same road with me that I take as a habit of life.”

That is how it becomes a spring, a resurrection.

“…whoever will declare a sentence of death upon his soul-life for my sake, this one shall save it.”

Here’s to death!

Enjoy new life!

In this post I referred to the thought that nurturing and giving of ourselves brings order and taking for ourselves rather than receiving from the abundance of God brings chaos.

I spoke of it in a passing way as if it is a self evident truth and  I believe it is to anyone who has spent time thinking about it.  However, not everyone has spent time thinking about it and of those that have, some have not thought about it deeply.  So i want to share my thoughts in this regard.

In the garden of Eden, before the fall, all seems to be idyllic.  There is friendship with God, friendship with each other, shameless and sinless public nudity, fulfilling work, and in regard to physical needs everything was provided.  This was the way it was while our attention was on “the other.”

Our attention did not remain on the other.  No one knows how long the beauty of life in the garden lasted, it might have been lifetimes or just a few days, but there can be little question it was too short a time for those who walked there with God.

God gave us a choice early in our lives with Him, live with Him or die apart from Him.  Life with Him brought beauty, plenty, love, peace.  Life apart from him would bring ugliness, strife, famine, hate, war, and death.

One day The Pernicious One questioned the validity of the choice we had made.  He suggested a different choice and made two troubling claims:  God had lied to us (“It is not true that you will surely die…”), and God was holding back a part of Himself which if we had access to, would surely draw us closer to Him and each other. (God knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”)

We chose, we continue to choose, poorly.

The text indicates that it wasn’t long before the consequences of our choice confronted us.  No longer would Adam choose to nurture the soil, he would rather do everything to take from it for himself.

It would fight him with thorns.

Chaos.

No longer would Eve choose to invest herself in those around her, she would become obsessed with her husband. The addition of children to her family would be through tremendous pain.

It should have been different.

It should have brought order and beauty and peace and love.

Instead, the first human child murdered the second.

Taking for ourselves assumes lack.  The truth is there is abundance available to any and all who choose to live with Him.  When we choose friendship with God, we assume a posture of altruistic giving.  We expect no repayment, no return on our “investment”,  knowing that God is The One Who Repays!

“Be setting free, and you shall be set free.  Be constantly giving, and it shall be given you, a generous measure that has been pressed down hard and which has been shaken thoroughly and which is running over shall they give into the pouch of your outer garment, for with the measure by which you are accustomed to measure, it shall be measured to you again.”

On the contrary, taking, assuming lack, fighting to get for ourselves leads to chaos.  All we need do is look at the world around us, how many wars are there being fought on the planet right now?  How many starving?  How many dying of obesity?  How many addicted?  How many murdered?  How many aborted?  How many alone?  How many suicides? How many imprisoned? How many poor?  How many rich? How many abused, enslaved, raped, tortured???

These things do not come from the altruistic love of God!

They may, at times, come from religion.

They may even come from “Christian” religion.

They do not come from God’s heart or from his design for us.

“…it is necessary in the nature of the case for the Son of Man to be lifted up, in order that everyone who places his trust in Him may be having life eternal.  For in such a manner did God love the world, insomuch that His Son, the uniquely-begotten One, He gave, in order that everyone who places his trust in Him may not perish but may be having life eternal. For God did not send off His Son into the world in order that He might be judging the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

The choice is still ours.

The choice is still the same, it has not changed,

live with Him

or die apart from Him.

Order

or

Chaos.

Every person who continues to choose well brings a bit of order to the chaos of this world.  When we become His, we work together in a synergistic way.  As more people choose it brings exponentially more order and love and plenty to the world.

I’m not talking about choosing to get up and go to church.

I’m talking about loving God and my neighbor with a divine and self-sacrificial love, just like Jesus loves me!

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Although this is a different kind of a moment, you can see here what it had been… they were in the habit of walking together in the garden in the cool of the day.  Can you imagine this was some rigid reporting of the employees to the boss?  I can’t!  The wording evokes visions of three friends walking together and discussing the beauty of the garden, the color of the sunset, or the way the young antelope punch their mother’s udder with their nose when they nurse.

We were created for friendship with God.

“Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food…”

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. “

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

What I see here is a giving God who created us to be giving.  Taking was not necessary in this scenario.  We literally only had to turn when we were hungry and pick a leaf or a fruit!  Rather, he gave us the job of nurturing, our work was to give of ourselves for the good of others, in this case the living things in the garden.

We are created for participation in the kingdom by giving ourselves to nurture others thus bringing order to the chaos of the world and maintaining it.

“He (Jesus) was going around in the whole of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and making a public proclamation of the good news regarding the kingdom , and healing all chronic and serious disease and all occasional illness among the people.  And the report concerning Him went off into the whole of Syria.  And they brought to Him all those who were in a miserable condition physically, suffering with various kinds of chronic and serious ailments and acute pains, and those who were demonized and epileptic and paralytic, and He healed them. And there followed with Him great multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judaea and beyond the Jordan.”

“…I (Jesus) am saying to you, stop worrying about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, and about your body, with what you will clothe yourself…  But be seeking first the kingdom and His righteousness, and these things, all of them, shall be added to you.”

So what kind of place is the kingdom Jesus proclaimed?  It is the kind of place where He worked to care for and nurture all who came to him for help, giving of himself for others.

and what is His promise?

if we will seek this kingdom…

His kingdom…

it will be as in the garden…

we will have no need unfulfilled!

not only so but

“If anyone as a habit loves me with a divine and self-sacrificial love, my word he will keep, and my Father will love him, and to him we shall come, and an abiding place with him we shall make for ourselves.“

we will again walk the garden with our Father…

in the cool of the day!

Father’s intentions for us have never changed…

There is no doubt that the writers of the New Testament understood (correctly) the act of Jesus as substitutionary atonement…

However, I wonder if this is the only way to understand it? The answer, of course, is no. There are many ways to understand the life and death and Life of God in Jesus Of Nazareth.

I have been wondering how to interpret this Gospel to those who don’t know it and don’t know the sacrificial system, for whom substitutionary atonement is disconnected by time and culture. Is it possible to understand the Good News apart from an intimacy with Torah???  apart from experience with animal sacrifice?  Is there a way of understanding this singular life, death, and return to life that holds the truth and significance in perfect tension with what seems to be it’s inherent simplicity?

I have to believe there is!

These things seem to be in the process of dawning on me…

We are created for friendship with God.

We are created for participation in the Kingdom by giving ourselves to nurture others thus bringing order to the chaos of the world and maintaining it.

The snag is this, we choose to take for ourselves rather than give for others and in so choosing contribute to the chaos of this world.

Jesus lived without taking for himself… only giving. The bible calls his life “indestructible”!!!

As The One Who Still Lives, he offers the invitation to Life Indestructible. A life of giving rather than taking. This life is not attainable for us apart from Jesus! The invitation must be received from his hand… his nail pierced hand.

But we are finite beings. Beings who lack the capacity to see all that is real. A major component of the reality we cannot see is one who is Taker… one who is Worthless because he has nothing to give… one who would take us from God by wooing us into his life of taking for ourselves.

Taking turns us into beasts.

Lives of taking lead us into a state of chaos that is plain to see in the world… a world of takers.

However, lives of giving are, beyond questioning, the most beautiful. Not only so, but giving is the solution to all the problems of chaos in this world. What Jesus teaches us is that when we give to the exclusion of taking, our lives become Indestructible! This is only possible with God’s help… thus the invitation of Christ Jesus.

A word about faith… faith entails belief but is also conviction and conformity. Faith believes Jesus, bears conviction that his ways are The Ways, and conforms itself in action to the life of Jesus.

Care must be taken not to confuse the life of Jesus with religious activity! Jesus didn’t command us to go to church. Jesus commanded us to live lives of giving and loving for God and each other. Jesus commanded us to teach others to do the same.

If we throw ourselves into the life God intended, he promised to give us what we cannot take for ourselves… Indestructible Life.

Please understand, it is not easy, it is not without sacrifice… Jesus doesn’t polish the apple for us!  He promises it will be hard and cost much… even our lives in this body and in this time.  However, he also promises to give this body back and that, together, we will live in a place beyond the dimension of time.

But most of all, our life will continue in a world without taking or takers… without chaos and pain.  It will not end!  Ever!

That sounds like good news…

hope you like

How would you describe your purpose on this planet?

What does the word mean to you?

You probably shouldn’t read anything I’ve ever written… it’s probably garbage.

Furthermore, you probably shouldn’t read anything I may write from here on out.

If, by some strange compulsion, you should find yourself reading despite my warning… please understand, I have no knowledge, no understanding, no foresight, poor hindsight, and very low ability to to see what is right in front of me.

These are but the questions and ramblings of an idiot.

Peace

how does a man arrive at the place in his life where he believes it’s a good idea to stab a little baby to death?

we heard this tragic tale tonight… a man thought he’d get revenge on his girlfriend by taking the life of her baby.

the woman conveying the story to us said she couldn’t believe the lack of outrage in the town where this occurred.  she said she was talking about it with a friend of hers, mentioning her shock at the lack of response locally…

her friend said, ” i didn’t think it mattered that much, they were just a bunch of undocumented Mexican nationals…”

different question

how does a person get to the place where stabbing a baby to death isn’t a big deal if the people doing it aren’t like him/her?

(incidentally, the perpetrator is a US citizen)

this is happening in our own backyard

not only are we oblivious to it

we don’t seem to care

i’m not sure which makes me angrier

the murder/murderer or the total lack of compassion/empathy

i’m thinking about all this on the way home tonight, wondering why we don’t just kill people who kill babies

wondering where God is in all this

why doesn’t he kill the killer

i guess sometimes he does but i just don’t get this!

and how does he tolerate those who are so calloused?

and then i remembered this text…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. Those who trust in him are not judged…”

it was then that i realized i have come to believe that Jesus only came to save the decent

but it isn’t so

scripture teaches that God so loved the man who did this thing and the woman who cared so little that he poured all his Love out on the ground. this Love walked the earth in the hope that, despite the fact that he is a murderer of the worst kind and she apparently heartless …

they might spend eternity with me

and you

and Himself

God wants to restore us all

you might say “but what about the baby? how could God let that happen to a little baby?”

well, i don’t know… i’m not sure what it takes to look down on all of the awfulness in the world every day and not just destroy the whole thing

but i do know this…

that little child is already with him

where there are no tears

and there is no pain…

i think it is impossible for me to ever be worthy of God’s love because to tell the truth, i don’t think i could ever love the two people i’m talking about.

i’m too much like them

i’m guilty of the same selfishness and callousness

sure maybe it’s not directed at a baby

but if i’m honest

it is directed toward them

i guess it’s in moments like this that i’m really glad we have John 3:16

it’s a real joy and comfort to realize i’m part of a world that God loves so much!

culturally, it’s a strong temptation.  dealing with the old testament can prove to be a test, at best, when trying to communicate the truth of a loving God.  it’s easy to yield to the urge to soften some of the more harsh and tragic scenes…

but the thought that these scenes can be softened is ludicrous

anyone who is paying attention can see the hypocrisy of it

what can, and i think should be done is this

wrestle with the discomfort of it

trying to make it something it isn’t is dangerous

honestly wrestling with all the apparent inconsistencies and paradoxes seems to be the only good way of dealing with it

i’m generally not a fan of those who say they’ve got it all figured out… i don’t trust them.  anyone who claims to have it all figured out would seem to be either colossally egotistic or monumentally naive.

however, i can’t feel bad about anyone who says “i don’t know”…  i mean we’re talking about the Creator, the God of the universe, the Infinite.  what other claim really holds water?

that isn’t to say there aren’t things we can know about God!

and it certainly isn’t to say we can’t experience intimacy with him

but to say we understand issues like whether the omniscient God changes his mind, or how a compassionate God can destroy every air breathing creature on the face of the earth except for those who fit in a boat he designed, or how all the souls of this earth will spend eternity… well these are things we may never have answers for

at least this side of the grave.

it’s hard because there are those who would say that if we don’t somehow soften the jagged points then many will never come into relationship with God.  i know personally the difficulty of dealing with how alternate and un-biblical doctrines can woo those who don’t want to deal with the tension of mystery.

but paradox and mystery are things we need to get comfortable with

one way or another

why is this so difficult for us?  i think it has to be a cultural thing… a left over of modernism perhaps.  i find it frustrating, this idea that there has to be an answer for everything

i think it is in part a terrible aversion to vulnerability that makes us uncomfortable with mystery…

if we can come to the place where we just say what we believe and stop with the certainties about the inherently uncertain, adopting a healthy approach to “i don’t know, but this is what i think about it…” i think we’ll begin to have more credibility in the world.  i think most of the people in the world, even in our world, are OK with us not having all the answers.  on the contrary, i think the biggest problem most people have with us is the perception that we do have all the answers.

when we aren’t insisting we have the answers to everything…

when we’re acting out the answers we do have…

that’s when i believe we’ll see the Kingdom coming in glory

and this seems to be consistent with the teachings of Jesus