Feet

 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing?  John 13:12

We love to embrace the character traits of Jesus. His love, His mercy and compassion. His kindness, His strength, His purity. I could go on and on. There really is no end to the make-up of His character and personality. However, I think there is one aspect of who He is that we easily overlook and really aren't that anxious to emulate. His humility. We see that best in the above Scripture. He washes the feet of His disciples. 

The washing of feet was a great part of middle eastern culture. Every visitor to a household was honored with his feet being washed by a household servant. Always the lowliest of the servants. That's the role Jesus took upon Himself. It's a role He calls us to as well. How well do we answer right now? 

Author Chris Tiegreen makes some compelling points about this act of the Lord Jesus. He said as Jesus washed His disciples feet, He knew exactly where those feet would soon be. The feet of Judas would be in the dwelling place of the Pharisees, selling his Lord for 30 pieces of silver. The feet of Peter would be in the courtyard where His trial would take place, as he denied, with a curse, that he even knew Him. The feet of all the others would be found fleeing His presence upon His arrest. Their feet were made unclean by far more than the dirt and dust of the landscape of Israel.  Yet, He was on His knees before them, washing their feet, displaying His love, in complete humility.

Someone said that we'll discover just how much of a servant's heart we have when others begin to treat us like a servant. Servants aren't much noticed and rarely honored. Servants bring no attention to themselves and have as their desire putting all attention upon the ones served. This is hard on the pride within every heart. Can we be honest enough to say it would be hard on ours? That it is hard on ours? Especially if His call to be one involves the washing of the feet of those who have betrayed us, denied us, and abandoned us. I think this is a great reason why humility is not a virtue that we preach and teach a great deal on. Not many of us want to live very deeply in it.

I, like the disciples, have had my feet washed by Him. I, who once rejected Him, who denied Him, mocked Him, ran from Him. So have you. He would have been right to drive us from His presence, but He didn't. Instead, He comes to us with a towel and a basin, and offers to wash the filth of our sin from our souls. Jesus, the King, majestic and glorious, takes on the place of the suffering servant, and washes the feet of those who have been His enemy. Such love, such wondrous love.

As I dwell on all this, I realize how much pride remains in my heart. I realize how little I resemble Him in this. There's still, in too many areas of my life, far too much of me and far too little of Him. Can you say the same? I think you can.

Lord, may you give to me, to us, the heart of John the Baptist, who, when confronted with the ascending of Jesus' ministry and the diminishing of his own said, "I must decrease so that He may increase." Lord make it so in us. May I, may we serve You in humility, with the towel and the basin you call us to.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Maneuvering

 In his book, Shattered Dreams, Larry Crabb says, "We're more prone to maneuver our way through life than abandoning ourselves to Him." I think he's right. In my own life, I can think of too many times when faced  with a pressing need or problem, my first response was to try and figure a way out. What could be wrong with that? Didn't He give us minds to think and wisdom to make choices? He did. Our problem is that we tend to do so apart from Him. Far apart. We relegate Him to a kind of "interested observer." We do this at great risk. Someone said, "Whatever parts of our lives that are not invaded by Him, we invite the enemy to wreak havoc there." We've experienced this, yet we continue our maneuvering. Why? Crabb says that churches are filled with "worshippers" who've reached the conclusion that there's no real help in God. "He's left them to make it on their own, as best they can.

How can such a conclusion be reached? A reason could be that we tend to see Him as some kind of vending machine. If we put in the proper "currency," be it formula prayers or formula living, we'll get from Him what we want. It took me time to learn He can't be known or reached through formulas and 5 steps to abundance programs. He can only be known through faith, and real faith works best in the dark. In places where there is no light to maneuver, or no space if there was. We can only abandon ourselves to One we trust and believe. You can't have that kind of relationship with a vending machine or through a formula. We'll never see Him on those roads, but we try. After all the disappointments, we come to the conclusion Crabb speaks of; God may have great power, but He doesn't seem much interested in using it on our behalf. We have to make it as best we can.

Throughout His Word, He tells us that He is cloaked in mystery, but it's a mystery He longs for us to enter into. When we do, piece by piece, the mystery becomes knowledge. Formulas will never work and neither will manipulations and maneuverings. We'll only discover Him by abandoning ourselves to Him, casting both our cares and ourselves upon Him. Upon His mercy, goodness, and love. He promises that He is these things and more, but we can only know it through abandonment to those virtues. 

Paul said that He knew who it was that He'd believed upon. That He was completely convinced that He was fully able to keep all that he'd committed (abandoned) to Him, until that day. For Paul, all maneuverings were over. Are they over for us? Or, do we go on maneuvering and manipulating through life, doing the best we can? Darkness and mystery may be all around. Don't fear it. He's in the midst of it. He calls us to enter into it, to abandon ourselves to Him, and discover that all He has promised to be, He is and will be. He will keep it all. To that day......and beyond.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Trying Or Trusting?

 In His book, In Pursuit Of His Glory, Gerald Fry writes of the difference between trying and trusting. He says, "Believe me, it's the difference between heaven and hell." He says that each of us must come to a place of surrender where we say, "Lord, I cannot do it, therefore I'll no longer try to do it." This is the place of consecration, where we really place all things into His hands. It's a decision for life and a decision for each day. Have you made this decision, or are you still trying?

In Mark 9:23-24, Jesus tells the father of a demon possessed boy that, "Anything is possible if a person believes." The father, struggling to do that, says, "I do believe. Help me in my unbelief." How like him are you and I in our life matters that require the deepest trust? Those things that are precious to us; marriages,  relationships, children, futures, finances, ministries. All that makes up our lives. We do trust Him, but we also can't let go. Pastor Mark Buchanan says that we tend to trust to a degree....and then we don't. We just can't let go. Somehow, we feel that if we're given enough time, we'll figure a way through or out. We'll work with and manipulate the circumstances and people involved to bring about the result we're looking for. We feel if we just have enough time, but time is running out, or already has. In my prayer journal, in response to Fry's words, I've written, "I know I can't. Help me to put all my trust in Your, 'I can!' " 

The father of the demon possessed boy pleaded with Jesus. "Do something, if You can." Jesus, in effect told the father, "I can." Here was the father's struggle. He'd been trying to find deliverance for so long. Could he stop trying now? Could he trust? Could he believe? Can we? Where in our lives have we been mightily trying....and failing? Trying to straighten what's crooked? Repair what's broken? Make right what's wrong? Yes, there are definite steps we can take in this, but the response of people or circumstances, and the dealing with the impossibilities involved, is not in our hands, but His. They have to be given over to Him. We must cease trying and simply trust. 

Today, where are you trying but not really trusting? Your answers are found in where the stress, anxiety, and fear is found in your life. The father believed, but desperately desired help in where he struggled to believe....and trust. Jesus took his despair and defeat and turned it into joy and victory. He gave his son back to him whole and free. Can you bring that thing, that situation where you've been trying so hard, to Him, and then trust Him? Will you say at last, "I can't do it anymore. I won't try to. I put my trust in Your 'I can?' " We can't. Jesus can. This is truth. This is freedom.

Blessings,

Pastor O