Good Morning Friends,
The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is difficult to observe. Sure, we can see those who go to church and those who do not. However, behavioral statistics in life outcomes are not all that different from the general population. Traditional lines separating Christians and non-Christians have become blurred because many of those who claim to follow Christ exhibit no change in behavior. People want to know if Christ makes a difference. But, Are We Asking The Right Questions?
Scripture: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Romans 8:1-11 (NRSV)
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”
Luke 13:1-9 (NRSV)
Message: A friend once greeted me by saying, “Hi. How’s God treating you?” “Just fine,” I replied. Then he asked, “And how are you treating God?” That question challenged me and got me to thinking. If we have all the answers, maybe we are asking the wrong questions. And this got me to thinking just what questions we should be asking. In business we ask Peter Drucker’s five questions: What is our Mission? Who is our Customer? What does the Customer Value? What are our Results? What is our Plan? But in life there is more to it than rational thought will guide us into experiencing. Maybe we could look for a question that opened a door of understanding of the heart, a relationship with a two-way alliance of the mundane and the profound. Here as God pours out love and mercies and we return love by glorifying God in our actions, doors are opened and so to hearts. So, what’s the most important question we can ask? Then it dawned on me we are already asking it — we all are — but most of us aren’t aware of it. It is that question that lives outside our conscious awareness but affects almost all our behaviors coloring everything. …that is the question to ask. Oh, I assure you it is very real even though it seems virtual. It is hard to capture the virtual question about how God’s inner experience is shared in our unity with the divine. Words just do not capture the joy and shalom…and the amazing significance of the question about questions. Paul in the letter to the Romans asks a lot of questions about focus and power. Jesus asks a lot of questions too and many times the questions they asked were never meant to be answered. Teaching by asking questions was a standard rabbinic practice. You see life is not about the correct answers but the correct questions…a reflective accounting of our own hearts. It is here in the questions that we discover directly that we need to recommit ourselves with a heart of compassion to reach all people with the question that frees us. It is here that we discover that we live in a world of mixed up and messed up people who know little about God. It is here we too often ask the question of why Jesus and are immediately diverted into asking questions about how, when and where we can love in creative ways. It is here in the sharing of our encounter that we discover the surprisingly simple answer.
You see, our virtual questions shape our experiences by helping us to receive something that is always available. If healthy it is a mystical question. And by mystical, I mean something we receive of significance from God. It is very difficult to give you a clear idea because words do not convey the message. One must become the word and then discover a new word that must remain unspoken. In virtual questions we discover something mystical that is profound and yet we are incapable of expressing it. It carries great authority and yet is indescribable or unutterable like the name of God. Here we experience both anguish and ecstasy, divine truth and skillful lies. Inarticulate though they remain the experience carries a revelation and illumination that has a powerful but fleeting affect. We are held in the curious grasp of the divine power with our own in abeyance but just for a moment.
And So, our answer to the ultimate question will determine how much we know and experience of God our Father and the Holy Spirit, our source of power even though we can deny it. The great I AM is who we seek to engage in a relationship and God will be who God will be and we will be who we will be. The thing that separates us from those who are non-Christian is the experience of not just feeling the love of God but in also knowing Jesus and following the plan to free us to live purposefully. For learning who Jesus is helps us to interpret life. If we are honest, every one of us has questions about our faith and how to live. We ask ourselves things like: ‘Is the Bible true?’ ‘Why does God allow suffering?’ ‘Am I truly forgiven?’ ‘Will I really go to heaven when I die?’ There are at least a hundred questions Jesus asked. They are not hard to understand just hard to live by. Still one of them stands out. Ultimately it is not a “what if” question or a “why” question that is the most important. It is a “who” question. The next time someone seeks to distinguish those who accept Christ from those who reject Him, you can know in which group you fall. In Christ we experience a genuine change that is visible to all God chooses to reveal Himself.
Pray we have a common friend in Jesus. Pray we are not victims but victors. Pray
our condition, character, concentration and confidence are made better each day because of our relationship with Jesus.
Pray we rejoice in our commitment to the Lord Jesus and the cause of Christ in a way that increases our field of consciousness. Pray the questions we ask not undermine us but shape our brain, our habits, our actions and our life. Pray as we experience the mystical that we would ask what love in is simplest form would do next. Pray we are witnesses to the right questions being asked in us. Pray we take up the challenge of asking the right questions. Pray we entertain a child’s simple question. Pray we not turn away when the question is shocking. Pray we yearn for the questions that take us on a spiritual journey. Pray we not be fearful about asking the life changing questions about love. Pray the questions we confront prompt us to creativity and charity. Pray we discover what it is to be born again and again and again. Pray we discover the place of answers to life’s enduring questions about God and life. Pray that as mature Christians we wrestle honestly with the tough questions because we trust that God has the answers. Pray we enjoy the power of asking the question without the drive to find the answer. Pray we believe and receive.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 