The Perspective With The Destination In View

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-2 NASB)

The comforting words of Jesus to His troubled disciples help me with a view of my Master.  He didn't tell them they wouldn't go through the next 72 hours without problems or sadness.  He didn't tell them that it was really enjoyable, they just weren't seeing it right.  Jesus Himself wasn't looking forward to it.  Instead, Jesus seeks to give them perspective.  I need that; desperately.

It's really easy for me to get caught up in the moment and the circumstances around me.  My bank account and bills not working out like I want haunt me.  The things I think are good that I want to do, my Master doesn't enable me to do.  I see people around me I care for suffering or under stress that I am powerless to do anything to fix.  And what I need in these times is perspective.

I attend a church called Journey Community.  Often in this culture it's popular to focus on life as a "journey" and try and ignore the "destination".  "It's not the hill, it's the climb" or other cliche is used to downplay the destination in favor of the journey.  Perhaps the cliche "the ends justify the means" has been abused to the point that the pendulum has swung absurdly far in the other direction.  But a journey has to have a destination to make sense.  Journey Community sees this, or tries to; but it's often difficult.

So where is my destination?  Jesus encourages His disciples with , "in My Father's house are many dwelling places," and I like that perspective.  In the Greek, the word for "dwelling place" is rather rare in Scripture, only being used in this chapter of John, and only twice.  It is a more "generic" term for a place to live than "house".  It's as if it could refer to any place used to live, but I like to think of it as the difference between a "house" and a "home".  Almost any thing can be a home with the right elements; a house isn't necessarily one of those required elements.

"In My Father's house are many dwelling places," means that I am headed home.  I'm not there yet, but I am headed that way.  This passage also includes Jesus telling His disciples that they know the way there already.  They're confused by this, but He clarifies to say, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  So, the way has been laid out before me.  Jesus is the "Bread of Life" sustaining me on the journey home.  He is the Light that illuminates where I walk on the journey home.  He is the Door through Whom I pass to get on the journey home.  And He is the Way, the True Way I follow, and the Life I hope for when I reach there.

Why is it that my perspective gets so stunted that I can't see beyond my current difficulties?  When I look at these same circumstances in the context of the destination I head toward, they look very different.  They don't go away; Jesus' disciples didn't avoid the pain and sorrow of the following 72 hours, but after the fact, they saw those hours differently.  I need the perspective of my Master so I can see my circumstances from His perspective, and enjoy the joy of expectant hope; hope in the destination, my Father's house with many dwelling places.  Some of those are for me and my house.

The Long View...Again

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.  And you know the way where I am going."

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" 

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."
(John 14:1-7 NASB)

Jesus is encouraging His disciples after a long tough week.  But even now, they don't really get it.  Jesus isn't surprised, but He needs to "front-load" them to lead His people after He ascends back to His Father.  So, to encourage them, He points them to where He is going, telling them they will one day be there too.

That is the key for me.  Knowing Jesus is the "way, truth, and life" only makes sense with heaven in view.  In fact my life only makes sense with heaven in view.  One day I will be present before the great alabaster throne of Yahweh beholding the uninhibited glory of my Master.  What can possibly compare with that?

My lovely wife is away on a business trip, and I'm lonely.  The house is quiet, and will be most of the day (until the dogs bark anyway).  Yet, I'm not purposeless, I'm headed somewhere.  I may not like this day and what's in it, but I'm not home yet either.  One day I will live in a house with many dwelling places (and therefore lots of very close neighbors).  One day my Master will come back to take me along with Him so that I might be where He is.  One day makes today endurable, but also full of joy and hope.

When I encounter people unacquainted with Jesus, they are supposed to be bewildered by my hope.  I wonder how often that happens.  Do they notice my hope?  Does joy characterize my life in general, and with others specifically (including my family)?  Essentially, do people wonder about me in a way that does not necessarily draw attention to me, but what's going on with me?  Like a vagrant or transient, do they wonder what happened to me without really wanting to get involved and know my name? 

I'd have to say no at this point.  I need this long view more in my life.  I have tried to gain it through astronomy, and that does provide a glimpse of the amazing wonders millions of years old by the time I see them.  But it's not quite like focusing on the path to heaven.  I believe in heaven, and I have faith in heaven.  Yet, while faith enables me to get there, it's love that enables me to bring friends.  Do others see hope and joy in me and wonder about it?  Do I love them?  Or is my day and week about me?  Heaven help me!

Trading Peace for Panic, and then Back Again

One of the things that drew me to the church I attend is that the experience of the formation of this congregation is a lot like the process I went through with my family coming out here.  So, there is a similar attitude and perspective.  I look back and see the steps (although I sometimes forget the order they came), and I’m reminded that I was brought here.  All along the way, I have been amazed at how my Master met all the needs I was concerned about, and sometimes worried about.  At times I tried to make something happen and it just refused to materialize.  I had to wait for my Master to connect the dots.

I remember the difference in feelings when I tried to accomplish something, and when my Master had to make it happen.  When I worked at it, I was stressed.  When I quit trying to make it happen, there was peace, and my Master met the need.  This happened over and over.  What is still amazing to me is that I continue to try to make things happen.  After such a dramatic lesson, I would think it would be obvious that what I can do doesn’t amount to enough to warrant the stress it causes.  I guess it’s learning to differentiate between obedience and busyness; that is really my problem.  I still want to do something, which springs from a core problem.

I know that feeling, that feeling of wanting to accomplish something.  It usually comes when I start to believe that everyone around me is better than me; has better skills, knows more, whatever.  Instead of replying with an obvious, “well, duh” I try to demonstrate my own knowledge and skills.  To quote my daughter, “FAIL!”  It is not about me!  It is not about “them” and me, “them” compared to me, or even “them”!  What is so difficult about that lesson?  Well, I am.  The capital “I” continues to live, breathe, and have too much influence.  My focus needs to be on my Master.

In this season, focus on my Master should be easy.  This is the season celebrating the coming of the Prince of Peace.  In church tradition, both the Advent of the divine Child, and the return of the Lord of heavens armies are both celebrated.  This and Easter are my favorite holidays.  I have decorated my yard with that as my focus.  My house has more manger scenes than any other decoration (my daughter collects them).  This should be a time of intense focus on Jesus.  Yet, here I feel most inadequate, and I don’t know why.  The year is closing?  The future is rushing at me?  Perhaps cold short days are affecting me?  I don’t really know why.

It’s true for lots of people, testified by the increase in suicides and so on.  But why it would be true for me is not easily accessible to me.  Such peace I cannot comprehend is available to me in this season, and I sulk in self-pity and fear.  That’s crazy; especially since I know it’s crazy!  Hello!  I am here because I was brought.  I am where my Master clearly wants me.  I must let my fear of others fall away, let the drone of other voices fade into a hum, and embrace the warmth of my Master’s presence.  And then I must do it again, and again, and again.  And then I’ll do it some more.

For my Master loved His human creatures so much that He wrapped His Son in humanity and entered our history as a baby.  He did this so that any of His human creatures who believe in Him will not be wiped from creation, but live eternally in His presence.  This is the truth wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And just as there was no room in the Inn two millennia ago, there so often is no room in human hearts today.  With such truth in my mind, I feel it enter my heart, and I tremble.  Why then would I let anything distract me from such beauty?  Not today.  Today, this minute, hopefully this hour, is my Master’s.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, December 14

Is Obedience the Key to Usefulness to my Master?

In John 14, the “pep-talk” Jesus gives His disciples is full of rather peculiar elements.  Chambers says that Jesus never insists upon obedience, and yet Jesus says to His disciples in the same discourse referenced by Chambers that, “a new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  Is a commandment not insistence?

 

I suppose such a command is not insistence like Chambers is referring to.  He basically means that Jesus doesn’t force obedience, but allows choice regarding obedience.  It does seem rather strange that in this I have choice, in salvation not so much (am I the elect?).  Here again, I see his point, but I also believe he goes a bit far with it.  He says that my Master does not give me rules, and yet He gives me a new commandment.  True it’s not a rule in the traditional sense, but it has a few similarities.

 

What I can’t do is limit my Master to what He will accomplish, even through me.  I have seen far too often in retrospect, that my Master will accomplish something through me almost regardless of me.  I think He does this because it demonstrates how little I am needed for His work.  I’m invited, but not indispensable. That’s comforting, because of the sheer number of mistakes I make, I’d hate the stress of believing someone else’s eternity depended upon me.  So, I don’t posit my Master’s ability to reach through me on me.  What I posit on my obedience is the degree to which I participate and the degree to which I am aware of His work.

 

When my fear stops me from engaging obediently in my community, then I cut myself off from the blessings of seeing my Master work.  He still works, and will even use me from time to time, I just don’t see it except in retrospect.  I miss the blessings of joy and excitement to see my Master accomplish the miracle of redemption in the lives of people around me.  That’s a big blessing to give up just because I don’t know what might happen.

 

I hope to have a teacher meeting this afternoon, and perhaps that will provide an opportunity to engage obediently with my community in a real manner.  But there may be others.  I had a remote control helicopter crash two back yards away, which gave me the opportunity to meet some neighbors I don’t normally see.  I guess I just never know where the opportunities may come from.  Perhaps I need to fly the silly helicopter more and meet more people that way?  I’m sure there are better ways, like… wow, such a lack of creativity.  I am so dependent upon my Master, even for creative ways to meet the neighbors.  Maybe I need more coffee this morning.

 

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 2

Even Greater Things of Prayer

At first I thought Chambers over emphasized prayer by calling it the "greater things" referred to in John 14:12. But as I continued reading, and as I remembered the examples from even recent church history, I admit, he may be right.

He mentions at the end the things that will be done when my orders are received from my Master, but those are not the "greater things", those are the things which Jesus did. Greater things result from the contact with my Master that is really life anyway. But I need to be disciplined to do it.

The pastor at my church yesterday spoke from Galatians 5 and covered the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. He was right on point with the lack of compromise in my Master, but present in so much of those claiming faith in Him; including me. Those compromises more often than not are what keep me from connection with my Master. If that connection is the "greater things" than my Master did in His earthly ministry, then my failure is even more huge. Not only am I giving up time with the Maker of stars and Tracer of quarks, but I am failing to accomplish His greater things in my life.

Had the "greater things" been more dramatic like healing, raising the dead, or feeding five thousand with rocks, then failing would be difficult to pin to me. If I look at it as prayer, all my excuses evaporate like the thin mist they are. What stands revealed is the compromise I have made that keeps me from my Master's presence; the greater things I am called to.

To the degree that this blog is prayer, and to a degree it is, this process I go through each morning helps keep me in my Master's presence. The problem is that I don't blog all day. This is the same problem I have always had with prayer. At some point I stopped praying, and life swept away the effects of the time I just spent with the Master of the universe. That wasn't always the case, but it was a very real problem for me.

What I need is the daily grind prayer life that permeates my whole day. I'm not even close to that yet. I see it, and have mentioned it several times. It needs to become my focus as I try to wrap my mind around that being the "greater things" I do because my Master is before the Father once again. Part of what I need to do is unlearn the scale of success put in place from my youth; the number of souls won to the Kingdom. I need to replace that scale with how saturated my life is with conversation with my Master. Maybe if I use a hammer, the paradigm shift might work easier. I'll start with a rubber mallet though.

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost for His Highest, October 17