OH HOW HE LOVES...

So, we're about 16 posts into this blog and the majority of the subject matter has been less than positive. I mean, I've spent a great deal of time attempting to tackle the deep and heavy subject of suffering within Christianity and to be honest, I haven't even gotten into the revelatory depths of this subject yet.

You may be wondering at this point what the benefit of Christianity is. I mean if being a follower of Christ is all about suffering and pain, what's the upside? If God's ultimate goal is 'conform us into the image of His son', what exactly does that look like? If you know your Bible, you know that Jesus' story wasn't exactly something that most people would aspire to copy unless you've got masochism issues.

Of course, as with all things relating to God and His Word, Will and Ways, there is much more to Jesus' story than suffering and death.

At the risk of oversimplifying a very complex system of doctrine and faith, I would like to summarize Christianity in one word: Relationship.  This entire exercise that God has engaged in is all about relationship; specifically, restoring a healthy relationship with His creation gone wrong.

I'm going to tread very carefully on the bleeding edge of blasphemy here and attempt to look at this world through the eyes of its creator. Consider for a moment the Genesis account of creation from God's perspective. You have just spoken the universe into existence with the power of your Will and Word. You have carefully planned and executed the creation of a planet with a widely diverse ecosystem and an equally diverse assortment of creatures from single-celled amoebas to Blue Whales and everything in between. You have endowed these creatures with inherent instincts that are vital to their survival as a species. You have placed them on a vibrant and fertile planet capable of sustaining their existence till the end of time.

But the crowning achievement of your creative abilities is a creature unlike any other. You have specifically created this being in your own image and given them the same abilities you have, albeit at a considerably diminished level. This creature is not governed by raw instinct but by thought and reason. Like you, this being has the capacity to create, to plan and execute that plan, to laugh and love. This creature is much more to you than an instinct driven animal or an animated clay figurine. This creature is your offspring, your heart's delight, your child.

Like a loving parent, you provide your child with everything they will ever need to live an life of abundant joy, love, peace, and prosperity. Since you are omniscient, you know this creature will need purpose and so you give your precious creation the responsibility of oversight of your perfect paradise. This responsibility is not a punishment or a hardship but a primary facet of this creature's purpose. 

Only you can know this creature's potential. Only you can see that in due time, this creature has the capacity to build on the foundation you have laid and create works of art, music, architecture, literature, and so much more. Only you can see the kingdom that you and your precious creatures can build together; a kingdom that will surpass the animal kingdom, insect kingdom, or any other kingdom that You have already put into place. A kingdom that will be based on you as king and on your relationship with your children. A kingdom that, when completed, will make the paradise you've created on Earth look like a fixer-upper. A kingdom that, when finished, will last forever.

But, there is one caveat to this plan. You have given to your child one more ability that will make or break this entire plan. It is this ability that sets him above everything else You have created. This ability is the power of choice and you have given it to your child for a very specific reason.

You have created everything from angels to a zoological paradise but the one thing you want more than anything else is a creature that will choose to walk with you in the cool of the day because they love you, not because that's what they were created to do. You desire to have a relationship with your children because of the choices they have made and not because they were pre-programed to love you. What you desire more than anything else is for your children to desire You above everything else on the planet.

So you put a test in place; a rule that will force them to make a choice. The rules are simple. You have provided them with everything their hearts could ever desire. Just stay away from this one thing. If they obey your one rule, then you have what you desire. But, if they choose to disobey you, they will lose their perfect relationship with you. They will open their hearts and minds to an alternative plan that establishes them as kings and queens over their own little kingdoms. If they disobey your one rule, your place in their hearts will decrease as their wants, wishes and desires for themselves increase.

Of course, we all know how that test turned out.

There's a story in John 11 that I would like to invoke now as a perfect encapsulation of what I'm talking about. The story is Lazarus' death, burial, and resurrection. If you aren't familiar with the story, I'll summarize it for you.

Lazarus was the brother of Martha and Mary. Word reached Jesus that Lazarus had fallen ill and was near death. The Bible records that when Jesus heard this report, He stayed where he was which was several days journey from where Lazarus and his sisters lived. Two days later, Lazarus died.  By the time Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had been buried for four days.

As Jesus made his way to Lazarus' grave, he had to face the sorrow-filled accusations of Lazarus' family and friends. Martha led the charge by meeting Jesus outside of town and straight up accusing him of neglect ("Lord, if you had been here...").  By the time Jesus reached the tomb, he was surrounded by weeping mourners.

It is during this scene that a very curious verse appears. It is commonly referred to as the shortest verse in the Bible. In fact, it is so short that if you blink, you can completely miss it.  The verse contains two simple words that speak volumes about the depth of God's love for His creation.

"Jesus wept." - John 11:35

Now, I need to ask, why do you suppose Jesus cried at this moment?  I mean, if you consider how this story ends, it is reasonable to assume he is not crying over Lazarus. After all, Jesus knew he was going to raise Lazarus before he ever started on his journey toward Lazarus' tomb so it is logical to conclude he isn't mourning over a man that is going to be resurrected in a few minutes.

So, is it the mourners?  Is Jesus so overcome with compassion for these people that he loses his composure for a few moments? God knows I've been in similar situations at far too many funerals where I struggled to maintain my composure in the face of overwhelming emotional displays from mourning loved ones. Certainly that could be a reasonable explanation.

But I believe Jesus' tears go much deeper than this small gathering of mourners. Again, Jesus knows what he is there to do and understands those tears are about to be wiped away with one miraculous act. So, while it is nice to picture our savior displaying compassion in a moment of sadness, I tend to think God's tears were not limited to this impromptu funeral.

Consider where Jesus is in this scene. He's standing at a tomb of one of his precious children. If you understand Jesus' part in creation, you understand that Jesus was the one who did the actual creating. It was Jehovah God who formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. It was the pre-incarnate Christ who put his hands into the earth and put the creative plan of the Triune God into motion. It was this same Jesus who was rejected by Adam in Eden and who had spent the last few millennia watching his precious creation stumble, fumble, and fall into sin and death.

I believe Jesus wept, not for the moment of death and sadness that surrounded him but for what humanity lost when the choice was made to hide from God instead of walk with Him. I believe Jesus wept over all of sin-cursed mankind in John 11 and not just for one man that would shortly walk out of his tomb.

Now, I could be completely wrong here. But when you consider the price God was willing to pay in order to reestablish the broken relationship with his precious creation, I don't think it is a stretch to see the incarnate God standing in front of a symbol of man's greatest failure surrounded by tear-soaked faces and imagine him thinking back to a time when mourners and tombs were not in his children's future. I think we can all understand why God would cry over His children when you consider that God's original plans for us never involved funeral homes, morticians, or graveyards.

Perhaps, when viewed in this light, we can begin to understand why God is so desperate to transform us from selfish sinners into selfless saints. Maybe we can start to grasp why God has sacrificed everything to provide us with a way to regain what was lost in Eden. Maybe you and I can stop looking at the seasons of suffering as punishment against our sin and see God's methods for His children as the actions of a loving parent who desperately wants more for us than our eyes have seen or our ears have heard.

Maybe we can understand why we've all got an appointment in our Potter's kiln.

NEXT: MORE MUSINGS FROM THE KILN

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF A PERFECT GOD

Ok, if you're still reading this blog, you have my eternal gratitude. I know I'm sharing some things that are not easy to hear. To be completely honest, I am going through my own personal sifting process as I write this thing and my 'flesh' is screaming at me to burn this blog and walk away from this study because, frankly, this stuff is not fun. It's not fun to write about it and it certainly is not fun to be going through it.

But it is necessary.

You may be wondering why it is necessary for God to 'sift' us. Why does the Potter have to put us through circumstances and situations that strip us down to nothing and bring us to our knees? Why do we have to lose absolutely everything, including our sanity at times, for God to finally get us where He wants to get us?

The short answer is because of our inherently sinful natures.  The longer answer is: God has an image problem.

If you were to do a man-on-the-street style interview and just ask random people to say the first word that comes to their mind when you say the word "God", the number of different answers you would receive would probably blow your mind. Obviously people who are not knowledgable of the scriptures or who don't go to church aren't going to have a healthy understanding of who God is. How could they? Expecting an 'unchurched' person to give an accurate description of God is as insane as expecting Stevie Wonder to correctly describe the color blue.

However, God's image problem doesn't stop at the doors of your average church. Do that same man-on-the-street interview of faithful church attendees all over the land and you'll come up with the same mind-blowing diversity of answers. The truth of the matter is, most of God's people do not have a full understanding of God. It's not their fault, of course. Even the scriptures tell us the depths of God's wisdom and knowledge are beyond our finite capabilities and His ways and means are 'past finding out'.

It is this chasm between our human understanding and the reality of God that makes this entire spiritual exercise so difficult. Generally speaking, we humans do not naturally gravitate toward subjects that do not elevate us. With few exceptions, we all want to be seen as 'special' or 'extraordinary'. Do you think the modern popularity of superheroes like Batman and Spider-Man and the mythologies that surround them is an accident? Like the Greek/Roman myths of antiquity, our modern-day myths are filled with tales of average human beings elevated to superhuman levels to either take over the world or save the day.

How about our cultural obsession with celebrity? Humanity loves to lift up those who are extraordinarily gifted and worship them as our 'heroes' (we also enjoy tearing them down, but that's a different blog subject). From movie stars to professional athletes to award-winning singers, our culture has created a religion around those we recognize as worthy of our praise. The underpinnings of that worship is the belief that if Brad Pitt, LeBron James, or Taylor Swift can do it, maybe we can too. Hence the popularity of talent shows like American Idol.

Generally speaking, most of us want our 15 minutes of fame. A large percentage of the population want to be seen as special or extraordinary. Some of us even want to be the hero.

Christianity is the antitheses of all of that. Christianity dares to put man in his place as a creation gone wrong. From Eden to Armageddon, mankind is described in scriptures as 'lost', 'wicked', 'sinful', and in need of saving from themselves. For a culture obsessed with evolving into something extraordinary, those concepts aren't just unpopular, they despised and are easily rejected and filed away in the same realm as the Greek/Roman mythologies.

If you think what I'm describing hasn't infiltrated our churches, you aren't paying attention.

Perhaps you've heard of the famous sermon preached by Johnathan Edwards in the 1740s entitled "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God". The history surrounding this sermon involves a season of revival that spread throughout the American colonies that came to be known as 'The Great Awakening'. Pastor Edwards' sermon is widely acknowledged to be the theological centerpiece of the teachings that were birthed in that great revival and promulgated over the last 200+ years of our nation's evangelical history.

The foundation of this sermon is the concept of God as a vengeful God who will bring eternal torment upon those who die without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. While this teaching wasn't new in 1741 America, the emphasis on God's wrath against sin and those who choose to revel in it had a freshness to it that brought countless millions to a spiritual crossroads, forced people to face their morality and mortality in the same breath and challenged them to make a decision of repentance and salvation from God's wrath.

I'm certainly not going to refute any of that. There is plenty of Bible to support Pastor Edwards' seminal sermon to say nothing of the generations of evangelical sermons that were birthed from The Great Awakening. But what I will say is there is much more to God than an angry deity searching for reasons to punish his wicked creation.

Over two centuries of preaching on the wrath of God against sin has produced a lot of spiritual decisions and if recent church history is any indication, not all of those decisions have been positive. There is an imbalance in the Body of Christ that has introduced a considerable amount of problems, not the least of which are generations of Bible-believing preachers and teachers who are still looking to be elevated to a form of ministerial celebrity within the Christian ranks.

When I was a kid, the churches I attended were known as Independent Baptist Churches. Like most denominational churches, there was a certain amount of pride attached to our specific brand of church. I couldn't begin to count the number of sermons I've heard in my lifetime from chest-thumping (dare I say, praise-fishing) preachers proclaiming the 'unedited truth' of God's word as disseminated from doctrinally approved Independent Baptist theology. Other denominations, including other Baptist churches, were regularly painted as errant mutations in need of education in 'the truth' or complete and utter antichrists in need of judgement and destruction. Only the Independent Baptists had the full understanding of scripture. Only our brand had 'the truth'.

I grew up with that mentality and fully believed it throughout my young adulthood. It wasn't until I got outside of that Independent Baptist box and began to see and experience God outside of the confines of my Independent Baptist upbringing that I began to see, if not fully understand, several actual truths that have formed my limited understanding of God in my adult years.

Truth #1 - We absolutely cannot put God in any man-made box. Doing so feeds our pride and creates unteachable sermon critics instead of humble sheep in need of feeding from the bread of life.

Truth #2 - Any time you come to a place of relational comfort with your understanding of who God is, you had better buckle up because God is about to set things in motion that will shake you out of your comfort zone and challenge your beliefs about Him and your image of Him to your core.

Truth #3 - Blind loyalty to any man-originated system that focuses on a limited number of God's characteristics creates an unhealthy imbalance in the Body of Christ. This imbalance is what has created the denominational confusion that is predominant in modern Christianity.

I say these things, not to slag on Independent Baptists, but to speak from personal experience of a problem within the Body of Christ that is hardly indigenous to that one denomination. Pick a denomination, including non-denominationalism (which has become a denomination in itself) and it won't take much time to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.

I could go on for while here, but I'll summarize my views of denominational Christianity by describing a scene of a group of children trying to put the same puzzle together but each one taking a few pieces of that puzzle and proclaiming the picture complete while spewing anger and hatred at the other kids who are doing the same thing with their own collection of puzzle pieces.

The number of different denominations all claiming to have 'the truth' from the exact same book as all the other denominations use is frustrating. Dig a little deeper and take a look at all of the sub-denominatons there are (like the different types of Baptist churches, Pentecostal churches, Assembly of God churches, etc) and your brain will literally explode.

All of these groups all claim to worship the same God, get their truths from the same book, and all claim to have a corner on the theological truth market.  Is it any wonder why God has an image problem? Can you maybe see why God would want to put an end to all of this by transforming His people from self-governed, pride-filled representatives trying to build their own little fifedoms of doctrinal truth into Spirit-led, Spirit-filled followers who know their place in God's kingdom and are submitted to working with Him and His people to build His kingdom?

Can you see where God might hate sin, not because of how we act when our moral compass is out of whack but because of what our selfishness and pride does to His plans for us?  Can you see where God would want to separate Himself from and punish those who are dead-set on never listening to His Word but would want to reason with those who have the capacity to have ears to hear?  Can you see where God would have grace and mercy on those to whom He will have grace and mercy and wrath and vengeance to those whom He would have wrath and vengeance?

Is God is looking for reasons to punish sinners or is He looking for sinners He can reason with?

"Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord.  Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." - Isaiah 1:18

Or is He both of these things and much, much more?

STAY WITH ME. WE'RE GETTING TO THE GOOD STUFF NOW...

THE SIFTING OF THE SAINTS

"But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." - Luke 22:32

At the risk of entering hyperbolic territory, I have to start this blog post by saying this single verse of scripture has changed my life. My growing understanding of the deeper meanings behind this verse has begun a reprogramming of my expectations and thought processes about God and how He operates in the lives of His children. All of the truths about the Potter's vessel perfecting process that I have learned and am still learning are encapsulated in this single verse of scripture.

Understand that when I first caught a glimpse of the depths this verse contained, I was on the precipice of total self destruction. I was a burned out pastor fighting severe depression and a growing faithlessness in God and His Word that was about to envelop my life and negatively affect every decision I was about to make for me and my family. As my life as I knew it began to unravel in front of my disbelieving eyes, I was convinced I had been forsaken and abandoned by the God I had committed to serve for the rest of my life.

What I was completely blinded to was just how much I had in common with Simon Peter in Luke 22:32

We return to the upper room. Jesus has focused his attention onto Simon Peter and informed him of Satan's desire to 'sift [Simon] like wheat'. Sifting, if you don't already know, is an agricultural word that basically means "separating". In the case of wheat, the sifting process is a violent means of separating the wheat kernels from the stalks. I could elaborate further but really all you need to know about sifting is if Satan had suggested it for Simon Peter, it wasn't going to be pleasant. 

Jesus informs his hard-headed servant that His response to Satan's request is a prayer for Simon Peter.

A prayer.

A prayer from Jesus.

A prayer from Jesus for Simon...

...and that's it.

Let me put this a different way: Like Job, Satan asked for permission to destroy one of the Potter's vessels. Like Job's story, God's response to that request is the exact opposite of what we would expect from our "good Heavenly Father".

Jesus' response wasn't a "NO! You can't have him, Satan!"

Peter's 'Mighty Fortress' didn't say, "Get thee behind me, Satan! Simon's MINE!"

Simon didn't even get a "Sorry, he's about to be pretty busy feeding my sheep" or any variations on those themes.

Jesus' response to Satan's desire for Simon Peter is a prayer.

I'm not going to lie. My initial reaction to Jesus' response to Satan was a faithless eye roll. I mean, you and I both know one of the most overused cliches in all of Christiandom is the time-tested "I'll pray for you" when a very real and present danger encroaches upon a fellow believer. God knows I've used that cliche thousands of times as a very righteous sounding way of expressing my utter helplessness in an undesired situation. I'm not saying this cliche is inherently evil or even wrong, but I know I'm not the only one who has said "I'll pray for you" and then conveniently moved on with my life without uttering a single prayer for the individual.

But, we're talking about Jesus.  Obviously when Jesus says "I have prayed for you" there is a great deal of weight behind it. I mean who else would you want taking your needs and desires before the throne of God than the Son of God Himself? So while the phrase "I have prayed for you" may be marinated in powerless drippings of cliche, when Jesus is the one praying, that's a game changer, isn't it?

So, my next question then is what did Jesus pray for specifically?  I mean if Jesus is praying instead of just telling Satan where to go and how to get there, then the prayer itself must involve some form of powerful protection from this satanic sifting process, right?  Surely Jesus' prayer for his beloved disciple would be along the lines of Job's 'hedge of protection' or a legion of angels ready to ruin Satan's day or maybe that flaming sword that protected the Tree of Life in Eden or maybe just a surly guardian angel with a wicked left hook.  Any or all of those things would be awesome things for Jesus to pray for in the face of an imminent satanic attack.

But Jesus doesn't pray for those things. What Jesus DOES pray for seems generic and powerless in comparison to the situation. Jesus informs Simon that he has prayed for his faith not to fail.  When I read that, my heart sank. Because of my emotional condition at the time, I needed some kind of reassurance that my rock and my fortress was going to fight for me. I needed a Biblical example of the King of Kings taking the battle to the enemy and saving his chosen vessels from misery and pain.

Instead I got Job's story of suffering and anguish. All I could find were scriptures talking about the suffering of the saints or examples of God's seeming impotence in the face of Satan's real-time attacks. When I needed God to knock down walls and send plagues against my enemies, all I got was Jesus praying for Peter's faith not to fail.

Not only did Jesus pray for Simon Peter's faith not to fail, he makes an incredible statement that is a mixture of prophecy and instruction for Peter.

He says, "...and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."

Jesus knew Peter's path. The Son of God already foresaw the decisions Peter was about to make. On this night of nights with the weight of the world literally sitting on Jesus Christ's shoulders, the savior of the world takes a moment to inform Simon Peter that not only is Satan coming for him, the enemy would, for a time, succeed in separating him from his Master.

There is no judgement in Jesus' statement. Christ is not speaking to Simon as an angry parent to a disobedient child. He is simply informing his disciple that he is about to spend some time in Satan's sifter with God's blessings.

Do you see what I see?

There are some fundamental truths about the Potter's process in this verse that will absolutely transform your thinking about God's ways and means.

Truth #1 - Like Job, God has no problem allowing Satan access to his 'vessels' for the purpose of 'sifting' us.

Truth #2 - Generally speaking, we don't respond well when God does this.

Truth #3 - God understands the potential value of everything that happens to us while we're in Satan's sifter, including our rebellious decisions.

Truth #4 - The purpose of our time in Satan's Sifter is to get us to the place where we can be used of God to 'strengthen the brethren'.

Allow me to repeat myself here. God will use everything in his considerable power to conform and transform us from self-willed, self-governed Simons, Sauls, and Marthas into Spirit-led, Spirit-filled Peters, Pauls, and Marys...including use Satan to 'sift us like wheat'.

Jesus knew Simon was headed for some dark times of suffering in Satan's sifter. He knew Simon would deny him, forsake him, and all but disappear from the Biblical narrative during Christ's crucifixion. Jesus knew every single thing Simon would do while in Satan's sifter and not only was he not angry or upset about it, he knew Simon would 'return to [Him]' as a transformed man ready to 'strengthen his brethren'.

Do you understand that there is absolutely nothing we can do that will surprise God?  No matter how selfish and evil we may act, there is nothing we can do that will shock God or cause Him to react in anger toward our sins.  Yes, God hates sin. But I think we need to understand exactly WHY God hates sin so much.

It should probably not surprise you by now that God's reasons for hating sin and ours are somewhat different...

NEXT: SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF A PERFECT GOD

SIMON SAYS...

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." - Luke 22:31-32

I introduce you to our final, and probably most important, individual in all of scripture concerning this discussion of the Potter's Process. There is quite possibly no human being in the Bible that exemplifies the nuts and bolts of God's transformative process like Simon Peter. Job is a good snapshot of the method and the reasoning behind the Potter's process. Jonah is a great example of what happens when we rebel against that process. Paul is a good example of what someone who submits to the Potter looks like. 

But of all of God's vessels of honor on display for us, the process that Simon Peter goes through is the most detailed. Quite frankly, there are few people in scripture whose entire palette of strengths and weaknesses are on full display like Peter's. But most importantly, there is no one in the Bible with as much detailed one-on-one access to God as Simon Peter.

It is Jesus Christ's real time reactions and instructions to one of His most challenging lumps of clay that puts Simon Peter on the top of my personal 'vessel of honor' list. The secrets to God's thought processes behind His methods are found in the Peter-centric conversations throughout the four gospels and it is those moments of divine intimacy that have become the most priceless to me.

Forgive me if I gush a bit here but I simply love this guy. Of all of the characters in scripture, I relate to Peter the most. Headstrong, opinionated, and fully armed with a act-first-ask-questions-later mentality, Simon Peter is the antithesis of what modern American Christianity views as a viable candidate for ministry, generally speaking.

Had Simon Peter been around today, there is little chance he'd be considered a viable candidate to pastor a church, much less hold the position of 'Apostle' in the Body of Christ. He was too carnal; too 'worldly' in his thinking. He had no tact or diplomatic skills and seemed to have no filtering system in place to help keep his foot out of his mouth. Yet Christ hand-picked this tactless, stubborn, uneducated fisherman to not only participate in his Earthly ministry and be a part of his circle of disciples, but to hold a very special position in Christ's Church and His Kingdom.

But that position did not come easy.

I take you to the verse of scripture quoted at the start of this blog entry. Luke 22:31-32 has become a very important passage of scripture for me. Encapsulated in these two verses is a wealth of information about the Potter's Process. In fact, it is in these two verses of scripture that my search for this process began. Consequently, it is where we're going to begin to dig deeper into this process. 

The scene of Luke 22 is the upper room; the place of Jesus Christ's final meal before His death. Not coincidentally, this final meal coincides with the Passover feast. It needs to be noted that God's incredible foresight is on full display here. The full purpose and meaning behind the Passover feast that God introduced back in Exodus 13 is about to be fulfilled by the Lamb of God. On this night of nights, Christ replaces the original Passover feast requirements with what we now call 'Communion' or "The Lord's Supper".

You have to understand the full weight of what Christ is enduring in this upper room. He is fully aware of what awaits Him as he breaks bread with His disciples. Only Christ understands the importance of this night. Only the Messiah understands the suffering He is about to endure for the sins of the world. Despite the collective experiences of the 12 men seated around the table with Him, only Jesus fully comprehends what is happening.

I can say with confidence that the twelve disciples were relatively clueless because of what the Bible records about them. If you back up to Luke 22:14 and read Jesus' heartfelt words to His disciples, you can't help but see the passion and the power behind every syllable that falls from Jesus' lips as he introduces the 'new covenant' to his followers. He goes into detail about how his body is about to be broken for them and how his blood is about to be drained from his broken body for them. He even explains to his feasting followers that one of them will betray him that very night.

We would expect the twelve men who has forsaken all and followed Jesus for three and a half years to take notice of their master's words and the obvious weight He was carrying during this meal. We would think that the men gathered around Him would have expressed themselves in a manner befitting men who had repeatedly witnessed and experienced the power of God on countless occasions throughout Christ's ministry.

But, the response of Christ's followers upon hearing His prophetic words of His suffering and death is to argue with one another about which of them would be considered 'the greatest' in the Kingdom of God.

Yep, you read that right. As Jesus pours His heart out to His men, their immediate response is to fight among themselves.

The contrast on display here is stark. The temptation to shake our righteously indignant heads at the disciples' collective narcissism in the face of the greatest act of selflessness known to man is high. But understand this level of selfish, pride-filled self-governance among God's followers did not die in this upper room. In my lifetime, I have witnessed countless examples of selfishness within the church setting that would make these twelve men look like members of God's angelic host. Even my own personal history is full of narcissistic activity that had rendered me all but useless to God in His Kingdom.

Can you see why God might want to transform us into something more usable?

Jesus addresses the group's immaturity with one last bit of instruction, including some pretty important prophecy about their role in God's Kingdom.  Then, without blinking an eye, Christ turns his full attention onto Simon Peter.

The first time I saw what Jesus was communicating to Peter here, my jaw hit the floor.

First, pay attention to the name Jesus uses to address Peter.  He calls him 'Simon'. Now, Simon was the name given to him by his father, Zebedee. In the Greek, the name 'Simon' means 'he who hears'; the connotation meaning 'one who listens and obeys'. In a culture that put great stock into the meaning behind names, 'Simon' is a PERFECT name for a child.  Wouldn't we all love to have children who listens and obeys us?

Simon's name is changed to 'Peter' by Jesus Christ during His ministry. The name 'Peter' means 'a rock or stone'. The connotation behind that name speaks to an unyielding soul. Now, I think we can all agree a listening and obedient soul is preferable to an unyielding one. Yet Jesus changed Simon's name to a meaning that would be the exact opposite of what we would want in a follower.

The name change is significant. God changed people's name all the time in scripture (Abraham, Jacob, Saul of Tarsus, etc) and those changes were never without purpose. In every name change was a prophetic message of what that person was to become, should they stay on God's path for them and submit to His maturation process.  In Peter's case, the name change signified the type of vessel of honor he would be in God's kingdom. While most of us would see a name that meant 'an unyielding soul' as a detriment, God understands that an unyielding soul can be as powerful and beneficial as the Nile River so long as it is channeled in the right direction.

But in Luke 22:31, God does not call his hard-headed disciple 'Peter'. He calls him 'Simon'...TWICE. When God repeats Himself, it means 'PAY ATTENTION!'. So, Jesus looks his hard-headed lump of clay in the eye and calls him 'he who hears' because Jesus needed Simon to be an obedient listener instead of an unyielding rock.

The reason Jesus needed Simon to give Him his full, obedient attention is because of the revelation Jesus is about to drop onto him. "Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat."

This is big. Jesus has just informed Simon that He and Satan have had a Job-like conversation with Simon Peter as the main subject. The statement "Satan has asked for you" means exactly what you think it does. That Simon Peter has gained Satan's attention shouldn't be all that shocking to us. That Jesus informs Simon of Satan's intentions to 'sift him as wheat' should be considered normal. Truth be told, Satan desires to sift all of us like wheat; especially if we're actively involved in significant spiritual growth and development.

However, what IS shocking to me is Jesus' response to Satan's request to sift Simon Peter like wheat...

To Be Continued...

SUFFER THE CHILDREN...

"For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." - 1 Peter 3:17

Before we get too far down the road on this subject of pottery and spiritual growth, I feel the need to spend a little time on the subject of Christian suffering. 

"Why do bad things happen to good people?"  I'm sure you've heard this question asked. In fact, you've probably asked it yourself a time or two in your lifetime. It's a tough question to answer due to our collective and individual preconceived ideas about God.

We hear the phrase "God is good" a lot in the church setting. We like to chant it back and forth to one another during services or sing about how good God is during worship. We quote the scripture during good times and bad to remind us that God's character and nature is inherently 'good'.

But what does the phrase "God is good' really mean?

If you couple that phrase with the concept of God as our Heavenly Father, then we have a relatable concept to work with. We can all get our heads wrapped around what a good father looks like. Some of us even had the privilege of being raised by a man who exemplified what a 'good father' is.

A good father takes his responsibilities toward his children seriously

A good father provides for his children to the best of his abilities.

A good father protects his children with everything in his power.

A good father nurtures, encourages, and edifies his children instead of tearing them down.

A good father works hard to provide the best possible environment that will allow his children to grow up as healthy, well-adjusted adults.

I think we'll all agree that a good father does all of this and more.

So, if God is our 'Heavenly Father' and God is a 'good' father then it stands to reason that everything we know and understand about what a good father is and does would be exemplified in our omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, sovereign Heavenly Father.

Which is why when horrible tragedy strikes one of His children, the cry toward Heaven is typically not, 'thy will be done, Father' (or any variation on that theme). The collective cry from those afflicted is a nearly universal "WHY, OH LORD!"

When the tragedy ushers in a prolonged season of suffering, God tends to bear the brunt of the blame in the hearts and minds of His children, generally speaking. The longer the season lasts, the stronger the temptation to embrace bitterness and conclude God is hardly "good" and a very poor "father". Once bitterness is embraced, rebellion is the natural result. This happens every day in the hearts and minds of many of God's people all across the globe.

With all of this established, my question to you, dear reader, is simple. Why do we assume the phrase "God is good" automatically means we are exempt from suffering?

Job's story establishes the idea that God uses suffering as part of His transformative process. This single concept flies directly in face of our understanding of "good".

In our minds, a 'good' father does not intentionally cause or allow his children to suffer. In fact, any parent worthy of the title does everything in their power to protect and prevent suffering for their children. We spend an incredible amount of money every month on every imaginable type of insurance known to man as a form of protection from suffering. In short, in our collective minds, suffering in any form not only has no observable value, it is something to avoid at all costs.

But God's methods of maturing, growing, and transforming us into vessels of Honor definitely uses all manner of suffering and hardship. It is this contradiction in our thinking and God's that the enemy of our souls expertly exploits to distract us from the singular truth that 'God is good'.

Once the seeds of doubt in God's character and nature are sown into our hearts and minds, it doesn't take much hardship to grow those seeds into an orchard of anger and bitterness toward God. Once a believer is convinced God is not really all that 'good', the doors to our heart and mind are opened to anything Satan wants to pour into it.

This is the foundation of most forms of rebellion against God.

Yes, I said 'forms of rebellion. Like the sin of pride, rebellion comes in many flavors. The most obvious form is, of course, moral failings. The list of ways we can immorally act out our rebellion is legion. We've all seen the faithful brother or sister who suddenly drops out of church and starts systematically destroying their lives with sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. But rebellion isn't always so obvious.

As a matter of fact, our churches are filled with faithful 'churchians' who are living in rebellion while sitting in their favorite spots in their favorite church, singing their favorite songs, and listening to their favorite preacher.  To hear the Word of God is fine but to refuse to actually apply what we're hearing is, according to scriptures, a form of self deception or, in other words, rebellion.

The book of Isaiah starts with a long diatribe against God's people for their rebellious attitudes and pride-filled, self-governed ways. Right in the middle of Isaiah chapter 1 you find these amazing words:

"Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." - Isaiah 1:13-15

What God is basically saying to Israel here is, "Just stop coming to church. It's a waste of time for both of us."  The reason for this is simple, Israel was in complete rebellion against God WHILE observing all of the rituals, rules, and regulations that God had established back in Moses' day.

It is important that we understand God's perspective here. He's not interested in the outward show of religion. He's after our hearts. He doesn't want rebellious sinners masquerading as spiritual saints. He wants repentant, blood-washed saints who are willing to allow him to transform them into the image of His son. He's looking for men and women who are willing to allow Him to transform them into modern versions of Peter, Paul, or Mary. He's searching for believers who will not elevate style over substance. He wants people who are going to be committed to His Word, His Will, and His Ways, even if His ways means we have to go through a season of life-changing, world-destroying suffering.

I'll repeat, we all have an appointment in the Potter's kiln.  If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you'd better know God has a path for your life that your eye has not seen nor your ear heard about yet. You'd better understand God's desire for you is to create a 'new creature' out of you. He wants to transform you into something you probably aren't even aware is even possible for you to become.

He wants to transform you into a Spirit-filled, Kingdom-building world changer.

But to do that, He has to kill you.  He has to kill your pride. He has to kill our self governance. He has to remove the thought processes that cause us to run and hide from Him when He is seeking to commune with us. He is looking to exorcise the hard-headed, stubborn pride that draws us away from Him when we don't get our way in life. He wants to remove the sinful attitudes that cause us to fall into rebellion when He does not measure up to our expectations of Him.

His preferred method for doing this is for us to listen to His instructions and obey Him without question. Unfortunately, most of us aren't very good at that. So, because He loves us and wants the very best for us, our Heavenly Father does something that a good father does in order to modify our attitudes and behavior.

He uses suffering and hardship. He uses suffering because He loves us. He uses suffering because He is a good father.  He uses suffering because God knows the truth about suffering:

What doesn't kill you may make you stronger, but what DOES kill you will make you invincible.

NEXT: SIMON SAYS

INTERMISSION

I've had a very busy few days with very little time to blog. However, I don't want to be negligent in my commitment to myself in this area of writing.

The blog has been a cathartic therapy for me. I've had all of these pieces to this spiritual puzzle rolling around in my heart and mind for a long time and this blog is helping me put these pieces together. It's been a long journey back into the ministry sheep-fold and I'm not finished yet. There's still a few things I need to do before the next chapter in the Murphy family unfolds.

But, I'm on my way. I'm learning, growing, and changing in ways I did not think possible. I believe the journey we've been on can be used to God's glory and to help His people; at least, that is my desire and my prayer.

So, I'm getting back on the ministerial horse, as it were and last Sunday marked my return to preaching after a very long, self-imposed hiatus.  From a preparation and delivery standpoint, I definitely showed some rust.  In spite of that, I feel God was there with me using me again and THAT felt really, really good.

Here's a link to last Sunday's sermon, in case you're curious:

Your Way or Yahweh - 11/02/14

If you wanna play a game while you listen, count how many things you've read in this blog that found their way into this sermon, starting with the sermon's title.

I'll be back with more cathartic musings from the Potter's Kiln soon.  Stay tuned...