Today I spent some time reading the book of Hebrews. I commented to Lyn that there is a fine line between Christian and kingdom, between law and grace, between man’s way and God’s way. The facts about relationship with God through Jesus are right, are good, are essential. But for living life, they are not enough. The law is also good: the precepts, the principles, the ways of God…these are excellent, but on their own they only emphasize our need of something more. Best practices, human logic, intelligent thought, considered opinion…thesetoo are good, but they are not enough to please God.

There is a fine line, but there is also a vast chasm between good and best, between rational and obedient. The writer of Hebrews expresses it well as he spoke of the nation of Israel. They had information but they lacked inspiration. They analyzed the facts, but failed to mix them with faith. “…the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith”

We believe we have heard a message. In fact, we are overwhelmed by the extent of the prayers, the prophecies, the dreams, the visions and the Scriptures that have been received and given concerning a place. But we can take all of that and lay it on the desk of human logic and say, “We have a stretching but reasonable way to proceed with purchasing a property.” And for some, this may be fine. But for us, we want to hold out for more. Hebrews also says, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” We don’t just want the house that man built: we want to see something so over the top that all will have to acknowledge, “God did this for his own glory. He built this house.”

Hebrews 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Doing life God’s way means resting from doing it through our own work, our human effort, scheming or ingenuity. This is hard to grasp sometimes because we are made in God’s image. God works, we like to work to make things happen, and it is a lot of fun to co-create with God. But there is a fine line between working with God, and working to ‘help God out’ or make stuff happen on his behalf…especially just before he does things in his better way. (King Saul knew all about sacrificing the best on the altar of the immediate.)

We are a complex bundle of thoughts, feelings, passions, desires, motives and actions, all wrapped up in the integration of our body, soul and spirit, so much so that it can be hard to fathom what we are doing “in faith” versus through our own volition. “Well, Brett” I hear you ask, “if it is a fine line and the issues are complex, how do we know what side of the line we are on?” Read on.

12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The Word quickened by the Spirit cuts through everything and lays it bare before the Father. And of course the Father knows whether we will settle for doing things consistent with even his principles, his precepts, his laws, his ways, but without the mixed-in faith that holds out for the very, very best. He knows, and he informs us of what he knows. (Psalm 25:14 “The Lord confides in those who fear him.”)

Finally, the truth of Hebrews 6:10 gave us added vigor to stand for the best. Many of you know that Lyn and I have not been hanging around coffee shops in America schmoozing people with deep pockets in hopes of cajoling them into giving towards the property. True, we have periodically shared the vision with folks outside our core community. But pressing in for a mini-campus has not detracted from us doing the job we are called to do. Between us we have done something like 40 trips since May. We have visited many past clients, prayed, preached, taught, wept with, laughed with and been mutually encouraged by people in the US, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Nigeria. As I visited a company in Benoni, South Africa, and thought for a moment about whether I shouldn’t be back in the US “fund raising” for the property God whispered to me, “You do what you are meant to do, and I will do what I do.”

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” Hebrews 6:10

Friends, God is just. We prayed this verse back to God this morning. Lyn and I stood and remembered your prayers, your words, your acts of service, your faith-seeds and added the ingredients that Hebrews doled out to us of faith and hope and patience, and we put them in a figurative mixing bowl and stirred them all together in prayer, and presented them in faith as an offering to the Father “behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.” (Heb 6:19,20) So, let’s praise God that in these pressing remaining days, because he will not forget our collective work, he will do what he does…which is always above and beyond.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:35,36)

PS: Lyn says, “If you have read to the end of this, please email me at lynj@inst.net — you deserve a prize!”

Or just post a comment.

You will arise and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show favor to her;
the appointed time has come. Psalm 102:12

We are on the edge of a big property move. In light of this, Lyn and I have been discussing the difference between knowing a principle and having a rhema word about a place. This is where Psalm 102 comes into the picture. It appears that things are not going well for the psalmist, and then in verse 12 he says this:

You will arise and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show favor to her;
the appointed time has come.

My question is this: “Is this the appointed time for us, for The Institute, for the Johnson household, to have a place, a campus?” The rest of the psalm shows me seven reasons as to why the psalmist thought it was the appointed time.

1. They had a love for place.
For her stones are dear to your servants;
her very dust moves them to pity.

2. It was not just about them, but as always in kingdom things, it was about the nations.
The nations will fear the name of the LORD,
all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.

3. God responds to the prayers of destitute people.
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
he will not despise their plea.

4. God wanted the next generation, the one who had seen the parents go through hard times, to not get disappointed with God.
Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the LORD

5. It is in God’s nature to release prisoners, to set captives free.
“The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high,
from heaven he viewed the earth, 20 to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.”

6. Giving them a city created a place of worship.
So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem when the peoples and the kingdoms
assemble to worship the LORD

7. It would establish God’s multi-generational purposes.
The children of your servants will live in your presence;
their descendants will be established before you.

This still doesn’t answer the specific question, of course, but it creates a backdrop against which we can lean into God to hear his whisper. I am excited to listen with you; a 100 people listening and re-whispering God’s word makes a good sound.

“But he did not know that the Lord had left him.”  Judges 16:20

The Samson story is amazing. His birth was a miracle, given that his mother was barren. His parents met twice with the Angel of the Lord, and they lived. The Lord blessed Samson. “He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him.” (Judges 13:25) But he didn’t seem to own—to value, to grasp, to cling to, to prize highly—his calling. His parents had some grasp of it, and he must have known he was different growing up with an alternative hairstyle and eating habits. “Mom and Dad, why am I different?” “Because you are a Nazirite. Mom was barren, we prayed, God showed up, and you came along shortly thereafter. You are God’s, and he has a plan for your life. Eat well, avoid the barber, and God will use you.”

Samson developed a knack for making the Philistines angry—this bit he got right. But Samson did not seem to develop intimacy with God. When he spoke to God, it seemed to be when there was a crisis, rather than out of communion. One day he killed 1,000 people, was thirsty, and then cried out to God. “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst…?” It doesn’t sound like a posture of faith; it does not have the tone of intimacy between a son or daughter and the Father.

Samson also misused the power God had given to him, turning it to his own advantage. He demanded his own way, insisting on having a Philistine wife. He told his parents what to do, overriding their concerns: “Get her for me; she is the right one for me.” He ends the wedding celebration by striking down 30 men, stealing their clothes, and going home angry.

Perhaps he also succumbed to the notion that a high calling and great power gives one a license to sin. Being used by God can make one feel one is above the law. (The David and Bathsheba story is another example of this.)

We can have lots of power, but we still have a need for relationship. So if Samson did not press into God in a way that was commensurate with his calling, where did he go for intimacy? Women. There was his first wife, which did not last more than a week. She was given to a friend, then murdered by the village. (Note the cost of Samson’s willfulness). Then there was a prostitute in Gaza. Then there was Delilah. She was not the cause of his downfall; she was the inevitable destiny of a man who held his calling in relative disregard. Once she had his secret, she sold it, and we know the rest of the story. He awoke from his sleep, presumptuously thinking that he was still empowered. “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” This is followed by a sad statement which indicates that Samson’s presumption had probably led to self-deception.

“But he did not know that the Lord had left him.”

A miraculous beginning does not guarantee a magnificent ending. So let’s pray along with Paul from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, so that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he will fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Application

• Do you see God’s calling on your life the same way he sees it?
  
• Have you misused your calling to fulfill your personal needs?
  
• Is your friendship with God at a level that supports the extent of his call on your life?

“Your troops will be willing on your day of battle” Psalm 110:3

We live in a time of war. There is no question about it. There are a number of “major wars” under way, with tens of lesser conflicts. These wars will most likely be with us until the end of time. If you believe in good and evil—or just evil—you will recognize that warfare in the natural is often an expression of spiritual warfare. There is a battle in the heavenlies between God’s forces, and the forces of darkness. Like it or not, you are a participant, or at least you should be.

Psalm 110 is one of those passages that looks forward prophetically to the time when Jesus vanquishes his foes for eternity. When it says “on your day of battle” it is the Father speaking to the Son, and he promises Jesus that his troops will be willing.

1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. 3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of your youth. 4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. 6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.

It is interesting that it does not say, “Your troops will be able on the day of battle.” Who cares if people are able if they are not willing? God is not impressed by ability, but by availability. Heaven does not stand and applaud our talents; angels do not cheer for our selling, deal-making or strategizing capabilities IF they are not employed in God’s battle. The question then is this: am I willing? Are you willing?

Do we have a choice about getting enlisted? Yes, we do. While others go to do battle to see the kingdom of God advanced, we can do our own thing. We do not need to be a deliberate participant in Jesus’ day of battle, taking sides with him and doing what you can to help in the battle. We can be unwilling, we can be oblivious, we can abdicate and throw in the towel, we can dodge a battle or two, but we cannot avoid the war. Ephesians 6:12 says it this way in The Message: “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”

I am alarmed by how little thought we give to the greater context of what God is doing in history. Businesspeople make decisions as if they own their own businesses, or have rights to their own careers. We are not our own. When we were bought with a price, God’s prize for Jesus was that we would become enlisted soldiers, “willing on your [Jesus’] day of battle.” Being “saved” without being enlisted is less than what God had in mind for you and me…and for King Jesus. Perhaps you are enlisted: what about your friends? Are you recruiting them for battle, or is it best to leave them thinking there is no war?

“To God who fulfills his purposes for me”  Psalm 57:2

Is it an automatic thing that “God fulfills his purposes for me”? Is it a certainty? David starts the psalm by saying that disaster opposes the purposes of God, and goes on to indicate that there is opposition to the purposes of God.

• “When disaster has passed”
• “Rebuking those who hotly pursue me”
• “I am in the midst of lions”
• “I lie among ravenous beasts”

He is not talking about literal lions, but the opposition from man. Saul was after him; he was hiding in caves. Things were not looking good for David. In the middle of this list of opposition he makes this proclamation:

“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.”

His praise takes the battle ground out of the cave and to a new level of reality—above the heavens. He lifts God up, because he knows that when God goes up, he goes up. So first he punches a hole into the heavens, a vertical, upward thrust of praise and proclamation. Then he tackles the horizontal, the scope of God’s purposes on earth.

“Let your glory be over all the earth.”

David is not oblivious to the realities on earth.

• “They spread a net for my feet”
• “I am bowed down in distress”
• “They dig a pit in my path”

Such are the forces that oppose the purposes of God for your life. But David has already affirmed God, his purposes, his sovereignty, and the scope of his glory. Is there anything else to take care of?

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.”

God’s purposes are one thing; whether we steadfastly align our hearts with his purposes is another matter. We have to stand in the gap between God’s spoken intentions for us and the reality we see on earth. David had the anointing to be king, but not the coronation. The in-between is when our hearts most need to be steadfast. We activate steadfastness by a choice to praise.

“I will sing and make music.”

Then he speaks to his very soul. “Awake my soul!”

Awake my iPod. Awake my CD! Awake my guitar! Whatever will help you sing and make music…get it out, turn it up, and praise God!

“I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations.”

There is nothing quite like being out among the nations as you praise God! Why? Because it affirms the rightful scope of his purposes.

“I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.”