THE HEART OF THE MATTER

I have spent much time trying to figure out how to do relationships well. But I realize it is worthless to come up with a list of right and wrong behavior toward one another. It’s not really about our outward behavior, but our hearts. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.

Let me be more personal. If I do not love God with all of my heart, then I will spend my time focused on the honors that I think I deserve, and the natural fruit that will result in my life is jealousy, competitiveness, and hurt feelings (either in myself or in someone I offend). If I do not love my neighbor as myself, I will not be protecting him behind his back, and what is in my heart will come out of my mouth. If I have not forgiven my sister from the heart, bitterness, backstabbing, bursts of anger and arguments will result. So the heart of the matter is the matter of my heart, and not just the tongue.

The church in the city of Corinth was a poster child for bad relationships in a church. Though they were not lacking in any spiritual gift, and were therefore a “Spirit-filled church,” they were deeply dysfunctional in their relationships. There were divisions in the church from the beginning, as some were converted through the influence of different apostles. They tolerated open sin in their midst and did not confront when they should have. When they came together for the so-called love feast, further divisions came to the surface, as people were not sharing their food or waiting for one another before they started. The church seemed to be marked by division. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:20, “For I am afraid that when I come to visit you I won't like what I find, and then you won't like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, backstabbing, gossip, conceit, and disorderly behavior.” (NLT) That’s quite a list of shame! And it comes from a heart-sickness of self-interest. To borrow from his advice to the Galatians, “If you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out or you will be destroyed by one another.”

Those eight negative qualities are the opposite of what Jesus said were marks of a “blessed” life. Those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are pure in heart, who are peacemakers, and who are persecuted and lied about (without striking back) are the ones who are blessed. They are blessed because their hearts are right.

If I were making a choice, I would rather be “blessed” than to be eaten up. It all starts in the heart fully submitted to God, dying to myself and living only for His glory. Then my relationships are right, even when I am being lied about, or when I am confronting sin, or living in the midst of enemies of the gospel.

Take courage! Life is made up of relationships, and relationships are messy. But relationships are all we have. God has invested heavily in order to have a relationship with us, and He has often been burned, holding out his hands all day long to a stubborn and obstinate people. He has been sorry that he ever created humankind, and He has been ready to wipe out an entire nation when they have rejected Him. All of history is filled with the story of God’s attempt to be in relationship with people, and people’s selfish rebellion against His love. And yet . . .

And yet, God chose the risk. Love is risk. And love is worth any cost to God.

HE IS GOOD

God is good. He is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

But He didn’t have to be good, you know. He could have created a cruel and unfair world. He could step on us or torture us like some celestial schoolboy with common ants. He could make a promise and then change.

Yet, if He wasn’t good, He would still be worthy of praise, because He is Creator. As Creator, He sets the rules. And the rules of the Creator must be right, even if they are not what we would see as morally or ethically fair. We, as His creation, would glorify Him because He is the all-powerful Creator.

We claim that God is good. Is there any objective evidence to suggest that God is, in fact, good? Does creation support the claim that God is good?

Psalm 19 says that the heavens are telling the glory of God. For example, the psalmist describes how the sun is faithful and powerful.
Romans 1:18-20 says that God’s eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen through what he has made.

Many have concluded that God is bad, based on their personal experience or observation. Personal grief and loss perhaps makes God seem unfair. Perhaps they have observed the harshness of so-called “acts of God,” such as a tsunami, tornado or drought. Maybe they have seen the injustice of humans toward one another, and see no intervention from heaven, and they conclude that God is either not loving or not powerful. Like the servant who buried his talent in the ground, they say to God, “I know that you are a hard man.”

But perhaps it is we who are not good. Perhaps God had established a truly perfect world, which itself is now fallen due to sin. Perhaps the Great Flood, for example, came because every thought and action of mankind, not of God, was evil.

So perhaps what creation proclaims loud and clear is the grace and mercy of God. Perfect. Fallen. Restored. Paradise made. Paradise lost. Paradise found. Jesus Christ came into the mess of this world to restore, to heal, and most importantly to join us in our state.

Praise God. He is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

LETTING GO

Dear Father in heaven,
My youngest girl, Cora, is on a plane right now,
Flying halfway around the world
To serve You for the next three months.
Lord, I am missing her as she goes,
And I don’t know if she is missing me the same,
But in case she is having a hard time falling asleep on the flight,
Could You put her to bed for me?
You will be her only Father for the next ninety days,
And I know she’s not five years old anymore,
But if You don’t mind, I need to pass our old routine off to You, for my sake.
After you pray with her, it goes like this:

Good night, Cora.
Sleep tight.
Don’t let the bed bugs bite.
And if they do,
Take a shoe,
And beat em till they’re black and blue.
I love you.
Here’s a kiss.
Eskimo kiss. (giggle)
Butterfly kisses. (giggle)
Mickey Mouse kiss. (giggle)
Fish kiss. (giggle)
Giraffe kiss. (giggle)
Elephant kiss. (giggle)
I be wuvin you, Coawa Bee.
See you in the morning.
Yes, I’ll leave the door open a crack. How’s that?
Good night.
I love you.

Is what I’m feeling tonight what it felt like for You
To give up Your Son
For the sake of risk
(such is love)?
It must have been wonderfully terrible.
Beautifully painful.
Painfully beautiful and bittersweet.

Of course, You had no regrets of
Conversations You had passed up
Due to distractions or neglect.
But You did forsake Your Son, didn’t You?
I guess Jesus was not the only One who wept
During the years of His sojourn on earth.

So wrap Cora in Your arms of love tonight,
And squeeze her extra tight for me,
Since my arms are so much shorter than Yours.

Good night, Daddy.
Good night, Cora.

Well...the Great Adventure is just about over...well...this 3 weeks of it anyway! What a happenin' thing to get to do! Ken and Daniel have done so much more than spend some 'quality time' together. They have done something that, i suppose, millions of dads and sons would love to have done at some time in their lives together, but for millions of reasons, never did. Even more sad is the fact that there are as many that would never WANT to do that with their dad or son. With his job at CCU, Ken has always, as so many of us do, battled between his committment to his job, and spending more time with the family. And, as with many of us, the family didn't always come out on top. But that has changed in recent times. And this sabbatical until the first of the year is a reflection of that. And "The Trip' is something that neither of them will ever forget.

i have followed closely each day, the antics of Ken, Daniel, and Moo! And what a great adventure it has been! i almost feel as if i had been there with them! The ball games, the strange looks and comments, doing things on the spur of the moment just because....well...because why not! The hot dog judging, and...being on the field when ya weren't supposed to be....DANIEL! That musta been rich, man! And the end-of-the-day insights were also great. Commenting on 'life elsewhere' as they saw it. A trip of worship....INDEED!

i wanted to keep up with them by e-mail as they went, but felt that it would've been...well...an invasion of privacy, i guess! They certainly had enough to do keeping the AWESOME web page full! And just bein' with each other. After all...relationships are the only things that really matter....everything else is gonna burn anyway! Relationships....what a great gift from God!! mark s.