Martyrs vs. Conquerers.

In Romans 8, Paul writes to the believers about suffering.

He reminds them that "God works for the good of those who love Him...for those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son."

Paul begins by stating that God is using all the circumstances of our lives for good, and that, through those circumstances, He is working to make us more like Jesus.

A few passages later, Paul asks a question:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

And following that question, Paul quotes a verse from the Old Testament. This is VERY important for the meaning of Paul's argument. Whenever an Old Testament verse is quoted, take note and go back and read the whole passage. Biblical Jews knew the text from memory, and would have immediately taken the verse in its entire context. Since we don't know the Bible as well as they did, we must go back and read the full passage, so as to get the entire meaning of the argument and what is being asserted in Paul's words.

The verse quoted is this:

For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

This is a passage from Psalms 44. In this Psalm, David is wrestling with the Lord. He begins the Psalm by reminding God of what he has been told from His fathers about all the Lord has done in the past. Then, David challenges the Lord, saying,

But now you have rejected us and humbled us, you gave us up to be devoured like sheep...all this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant...if we had forgotten the name of our God...would not God have discovered it?...Awake Oh Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

In the midst of all this, David speaks the verse that Paul quotes: for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered...

Do you hear the attitude that rings out in this Psalm, the message that is being implied to God from David?

God, look what we have done. we have not forgotten your covenant, and yet, you leave us as sheep to be slaughtered. How can you abandon us like this? Where are you? We've done our part, now You need to do yours. We are faithful. But YOU, you remain silent.

Basically David tells God He is being unfair.

It is the attitude of a martyr.

And what does Paul have to say about that spirit of matrydom?

NO.

We are not matryrs. And we have no right to claim ourselves as such, as if we had anything to offer God, as if God owes us anything.

Not even when it feels like we are sheep being led to slaughter - not even when it seems like God is hiding His face from us.

No, even then, God is working.

Who has the right to condemn? Jesus, and Jesus alone. The only person who gets to claim martyrdom is Jesus himself. Because He alone was blameless, and yet gave Himself up for us.

And it is only because of His grace, the grace that springs up from that sacrifice, that we are CONQUERERS.

HE sacrificed. HE saved. HE conquered.

And when we look at our circumstances and our sufferings as something that we are giving to God, as something good that we are doing, as something that He in turn, owes us for - then our heart is in the wrong place.

Because God does not owe us anything.

He never did.

And yet, He did not spare even His own Son, but sacrificed Him for OUR GOOD.

There is no room for self-righteousness in this equation. There should only be gratitude, humility, love.

And no matter the circumstances, whether they be good or bad (life, death, angels, demons, present, future, height, depth, or ANY powers), we need to know and claim that Jesus has conquered all things, and that we are conquerers with Him.

His martyrdom makes us conquerers, and nothing can separate us from that truth.

God is working for our good. He is trying to make us like His Son. And through it all, we conquer.

And so, when suffering comes, we rejoice. Because through it we have an opportunity to become more like Jesus, a man who was well-aquainted with suffering.

A man who suffered for no other reason than His love for us.

Haverim.

“No one should live without a Rabbi or die without a disciple.” – rabbinical saying.

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I have always loved this quote, because I believe the idea behind it to be so true - that God desires for each of us to be both mentor and disciple, teacher and student.

But I think the quote needs an addition.

Because there is mentorship and there is discipleship, but there is also friendship.

So in my head, I think the quote should go like this:

No one should live without a Rabbi, die without a disciple, or let one day pass without a Haver.

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Haver is the Hebrew word meaning friend, companion, or comrade.

In the Biblical Jewish tradition, the word haver could mean something like a study-buddy – a companion who read, studied, recited, and asked questions of the Word alongside of you.

Basically, a haver is someone who you seek God with – a relationship between friends that works to sharpen and mutually encourage.

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This idea is at the forefront for me this week, because after only 3 days in Costa Rica with my friend Anna, God has taught me so much.

I have been reminded, once again, of the importance of Haverim.

Because God has used Anna, already, in incredible ways to reveal to me who He is – to speak to me, to challenge me, and to make me extra excited about His Word.

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In Matthew, Jesus promises us that when two or three are gathered in His name, He is with them.

And because God fills and teaches and relates to each person in unique ways, when we come together with others and seek God with them, our eyes can be opened to new truths, big truths, powerful truths – truths that we might not have gathered on our own.

God’s word tells us that we “are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

These verses show us that we are each a part of the ONE house, and that God is building us together as a place that He might dwell.

God is communal, and God is discovered and seen and experienced through relationship. Without it, we can never fully know Him.

To the church of Epehesus, Paul writes:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

This verse packs so much into so little, but the basic concept (I think) is this:

The Spirit of Jesus is graciously given to each one of us, as individuals, so that we might have strength to believe.

After we are rooted and established in His love, personally, we are then to come together as a community of believers in order to experience the FULLNESS of God’s presence and love.

A big part of understanding how wide and deep the love of Jesus is comes through the love we experience and offer in fellowship with fellow believers.

Disciples. Haverim. Rabbis.

COMMUNITY.

We can experience God’s love on our own, but we cannot experience the FULLNESS of it unless we are in relationship with others.

And I believe this to be true, I claim it and witness to its truth, because I have experienced it in my own life.

I see God so much better when I see Him through many sets of eyes.

His love seems so much more astounding when I am asked to love others myself and realize how much it really requires – His grace seems so much more beautiful when I am offered it by others – His joy feels so much bigger when it is shared.

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So - If you have people in your life that you respect and that are seeking God and that you learn from and feel encouraged by, be intentional about those relationships.

Cultivate them.

God puts people in our lives for a reason.

And if you desire a Haver and you can’t think of someone who could fit that role, PRAY.

I believe that God desires community for us, and Jesus Himself promises that when we seek things of His will, we will find them.

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I leave you, today, with Shema.

Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts…talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (HAVERIM). Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates. — deuteronomy.

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Bendecire Tu Nombre.

Baruch Ha-Shem.

Blessed be The Name.

Shield.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice, ever jubilant as you shelter them, and let those who love your name exult in You. For you surely bless the righteous man, Oh Lord, encompassing him with favor like a shield.

-- Psalms, Kethuvim.

Being.

I'm frustrated tonight.

Really frustrated.

Angry, even.

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I'm angry because I have a very important life decision to make, and I just want God to tell me what to DO.

And He won't.

Instead, He keeps repeating to me over and over and over again who He wants me to BE.

And it drives me crazy because I live in a culture that DOES things in order to BE things.

But apparently God's culture looks a little different than mine.

Apparently God wants me to BE things so that I am equipped to DO things.

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Identity, then fruit.

not the other way around.

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The BEING, the WHO I AM, my IDENTITY IN JESUS, is step one.

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And I am challenged, once again tonight, to be intentional about what it means to BE.

Because I think for us to walk like Jesus did requires from us a constant state of surrender towards God's will.

It requires us to be a person who can say, in any circumstance, "not my will, but Yours Lord, be done."

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And getting to that point of surrender takes some wrestling. It takes some hard, intense prayer. And it takes a lot of time spent with God's Word.

Even Jesus himself, our Rabbi and example, had to wrestle against his own will in order to align it with God's.

Before He went to the cross, he prayed all night on top of the Mount of Olives, struggling and wrestling and pleading with God about His calling, asking Him to align his spirit with God's. He did this so that when the time came, He would be able to rise to the obedience that was required of Him with a submissive heart and say, "Father, Your will be done."

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Being like Jesus means doing everything possible to reach a point where our hearts and our desires are totally surrendered to God's will.

Whatever it takes - whether that's praying all night on a mountain (or maybe going to Costa Rica for five weeks?) - whatever it looks like for us to find surrender - we need to do it. And we can't don't until we reach the point of submission. Work it out with God, wrestle with Him, until we find ourselves able to accept (humbly and with gratitude) what He is asking of us.

Because when we are people who can say, "Not my will, but Yours, Lord," then we will be people who are able to do what is right and what is good and what God desires of us.

And it won't always be easy. Jesus showed us that.

But it will always be blessed.

And it will always bear fruit.

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And the idea of fruit fits in well with what Tim Keller says - that BEING is not mechanical, it's organic.

Being happens on the inside, and it's complex and grows and is ALIVE.

It is something that is planted, takes root, and transforms inside of us into something bigger and much more beautiful than when it began.

And that kind of change, the organic kind, requires assistance.

The growth and change of Being requires the Spirit of God.

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And so, tonight, I shift my prayers.

Instead of asking God what I should DO,

I stand before Him and I ask Him

to FILL ME with His Spirit.

I ask Him to REVEAL HIMSELF to me

and let His presence wash over me, root in me, and begin to grow.

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And I will do this,

the asking, the seeking, the wrestling,

again and again,

until I can say, "Your will be done."

Enough.

A job just fell at my feet.

A job that lines up perfectly with my schedule.

A job that I desperately need.

A job that I did nothing to get.

A job that God alone provided.

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HE. IS. TAKING. CARE. OF. THE. DETAILS.

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The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

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Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. -- malachi.

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I have seen Lord. Today, I see.

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Thank you, gracious provider, for the blessing.

Mountain.

I'm running.

I'm running like Elijah ran.

Away from the noise, the expectation, the questions, the chaos.

My desert, my mountain - Costa Rica.

I go there, Lord, because I'm tired.

I go there, Lord, because I need to be fed.

I go there, Lord, because I want to hear your voice.

Over the wind. Above the earthquake. Through the Fire.

Your still small voice.

I run like Elijah, Lord, trusting that You will do the same for me that you did for Him so many years ago on that mountain - trusting that You will meet me, you will speak to me, and that you will send me back again, filled up, fed, and restored for the next phase of my journey.

Speak, Lord, in these next five weeks. Help me to hear your voice above the rest.

great love.

I get lonely sometimes.

And although I am learning how to bring my loneliness to God, sometimes it doesn't go away.

Because sometimes what I am lonely for is strong, tangible arms to wrap themselves around me.

Sometimes (ok, lots of times) my loneliness is for human touch - for contact, for the physical, for someone to put their arm on my shoulder and let it rest there for a while.

And right now, that's a loneliness that can't be met in my life.

Which is hard.

And of course, lonely (duh).

But I think right now, just maybe, that kind of loneliness can be a good thing.

(it's all in how you look at it, right?)

It can be a good thing because it's a constant reminder in me of this deeply rooted desire I have to experience a great love.

A desire that was placed in me by my Creator.

A desire that motivates me to seek out not only God, but community as well.

And although, at this current moment in life, I can't get wrapped up in someone's arms or rest my head on someone's shoulder or hold someone's hand under the table - that's ok.

Because I can let God sit with me in my longings - let Him comfort me in my desires - let Him speak to me in my loneliness.

And I can be a part of the adventure He's putting in front of me, RIGHT NOW.

I can pray and love and sing and live and run and explore and journey and laugh and encourage and learn and write and be brave and study and share and smile.

And hope.

Yes, I can hope.

I can rest in the great love that is currently before me,

and I can hope.