MATTHEW 5:13-16

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Salt and Light

While I was in seminary I began cooking more since I was home before Karen most nights. I would watch some of the cooking shows and try to copy their recipes. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it was disaster. My favorite cooking show is Iron Chef America.

I have watched several episodes of Iron chef and at the end of the show the judges sample the food and give their remarks. The comments are all directed at the judge, whether the flavors and ingredients used bring compliments or criticism.

Jesus told the crowd, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and praise your father in heaven. In other words, we are just the ingredients in the world. When we respond to the preparation of the great chef (God), He should get the credit. We are only doing what we are supposed to. Salt is supposed to taste salty. Light is supposed to pierce the darkness.

So why not let the chef worry about the final presentation of the meal and how it tastes in the mouths of others and instead simply be good ingredients that respond to the chef’s preparation. The world will surely get a taste of something great.

God your recipe sometimes calls me to be an ingredient I would rather not be. Give me the grace and love to be the ingredient of your choosing in the recipe of your choosing. - Dan Jones

Pass the salt please.

I love salt I lots of food. I know, I know, my heart and arteries don’t share my delight. This summer I’ve especially enjoyed western New York tomatoes – with salt on them. Salt is all about flavor for me. When Jesus spoke these words salt also played a key role as a preservative.

Following Jesus results in a life that helps preserve the world around me and flavor it so that others not only have a better world to live in because of me, but a more delightful world. How do I do this?

I think the clue comes when Jesus shifts the metaphor to light. I accomplish my salty mission by shining the light of my good deeds on the world. Truly caring about people and doing those things that will increase their experience of justice and mercy, these kinds of actions cause others to think about things beyond themselves.

We sang a 1970’s song in church yesterday. “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” The words guided all of us into the commitment to “guard each man’s (person’s) dignity and save each man’s (person’s) pride.” I think this is salt and light stuff. And I suspect this involves both actions directed at individuals and on behalf of individuals.

Salt and Light mean working for justice and mercy through helping social systems becoming more just as much, perhaps more, than it means acting mercifully and justly in my own interaction with others.

Lord, grant that the way I vote this fall contribute to greater justice and mercy in our culture. And show me ways you want me to maximize my saltiness through my own good deeds. - Mike Leamon

MATTHEW 5:1-12

One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied.
God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

Say what!?

Jesus is crazy! I’m not. How my culture has taught me to think is the right way. It’s the logical way. How could anyone think differently?

Poverty is for losers, in fact most people are poor because they made (make) bad choices! Only those with large egos claw to the top of the heap. They take hold of the power the US presidency brings, the chair of powerful congressional committees, the CEO of multinational corporations with power greater than many nations. The pure (read “good”) die young, and then after a dull life. And those peaceniks are wimps, the kind of people who weaken our country’s position in the world.

But I’m a Christian, a follower of Jesus. So I need to reinterpret Jesus’ sermon because he surely couldn’t mean what he seems to say. So, surely he talks about spiritual poverty without any connection to material poverty. Humility only speaks to my teachability (and only by those I choose to listen too!). A pure heart just means I have faith in Jesus. After all mere mortals cannot really have a totally pure heart. Can they? And peacemaking means I need to work at getting along with my spouse and kids, maybe you too.

I’m much more comfortable with this paragraph. So now I can do my Bible study in relative comfort. Thank God for my logical mind.

So why do I have this nagging sense that Jesus had something far more radical than I want to deal with; ideas that would totally upset the carefully crafted justification for my lifestyle, politics, and culture bound assumptions?

Lord God, grant me the kind of faith that fully follows your Son, even and especially into ideas that would unravel my world and reconstruct something discordant with the way things are. - Mike Leamon

Good people Bad things

The very first words of this classic sermon are disturbing. Jesus starts off by affirming bad things will happen to good people. God in fact blesses us when bad things happen to us and we respond the right way. I have been trying to help people who have had some really bad things happen to them lately and honestly, it is hard to see God’s blessing.

How do we reconcile the blessing of God and bad things that happen to us? Trust. When life does not make sense, there is only one thing we can do, trust God. Hard times in life either make or break us. Depending on how we respond we will either move forward in faith or struggle with doubt and despair. The difference in the two directions lies in our ability to trust God’s sovereign power.

Trusting God to bless despite bad circumstances is not natural. But then, God never asked us to continue on in normalcy after our salvation encounter with God. God wants to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12). Renewed minds trust no matter what. Knowing what is coming in this classic sermon, much of it will not jive with my natural tendencies, but I praise God for calling me out of the normal into the supernatural.

Father, I do not understand how blessing comes from persecution or danger or hardship but I trust you to do as you have promised in your word. Help me to trust you in the pit of despair as well as on the mountain. I praise you for the hope of blessing despite bad circumstances. - Dan Jones

COLOSSIANS 4:7-18

Tychicus will give you a full report about how I am getting along. He is a beloved brother and faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord’s work. I have sent him to you for this very purpose—to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you. I am also sending Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, one of your own people. He and Tychicus will tell you everything that’s happening here.

Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin. As you were instructed before, make Mark welcome if he comes your way. Jesus (the one we call Justus) also sends his greetings. These are the only Jewish believers among my co-workers; they are working with me here for the Kingdom of God. And what a comfort they have been!

Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God. I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas. 15 Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house.

After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them.

And say to Archippus, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.”

Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul.

Remember my chains.

May God’s grace be with you.

Greetings,

Some of the most important words we hear all day flow in one ear and out the other. We are greeted multiple times a day by our family, co-workers, friends, people we meet on the street, drivers in traffic and even the people on the radio and TV reading the news. We dismiss greetings because they have become a simple formality acknowledging a person’s presence giving us permission to move into the “important conversation.”

I confess, when I come to the end of one of Paul’s letters, I want to skip the section with all the names. Say hello to so and so and remind so and so to do this and that. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda! But in the midst of these greetings there stands an important principle. These people mattered to Paul and to God.

By taking the time to name individuals in the church, Paul gives credibility to the value of each person before God. Many of the people named are lay-people working alongside the pastors and evangelist. They are the behind the scenes people. They are important people.

Instead of blowing off a good morning greeting, let it remind you of the important place you fill in that person’s life. Think about the value of each person in your life and next time you say “hello” remember to thank God for the gift of other people in your life.

God of the universe who knows each person on the face of the earth, I thank you for being a personal God. Thank you for calling me by name. Help me to value each person who crosses my path today and thank you for the blessing of community. - Dan Jones

Why, Paul?

Onesimus?! It’s good to hear Mark’s name. Seems he and Paul have reconciled after the blow out before Paul’s second missionary trip. But Onesimus. Paul doesn’t mention here that he’s sending an escaped slave (owned by a member of the Colosse church!) back to his Master; back into a dehumanizing situation at best and death at worst. There’s another letter that Tychicus and company carry; this one addressed to Philemon, Onesimus’ owner.

As the 19^th century United States tumbled into Civil War this is one of those biblical precedents that southern slave owners quoted against their northern counterparts when they refused to return escaped slaves to their plantations in Dixie. How do you argue against such a clear biblical example?!

Thanks Paul for not attacking the institution of slavery from the get go of Christianity. Neither did he attack the subservient status of women. In fact, no household relational role either of parents, spouses, or slaves found itself under assault and subsequent redefinition from Paul’s pen. Well, this is almost true. Paul never mounted a frontal assault on culturally defined hierarchical household roles where men were the absolute authority over (and owner of) everyone.

I think that Colossians, and the rest of the New Testament, is a backdoor assault.

Declaring that traditional distinctions between slave and free, or male and female have no bearing in Christ (Col. 3:11 and Gal. 3:28) or, in these final instructions, calling Onesimus a “faithful and beloved brother” both undermine all hierarchical roles in the household, including slavery.

I think Paul knew that to launch a frontal assault on such socially ingrained assumptions would detract from the spread of the Gospel which, alone, would provide the ultimate undermining force. Too bad, after nearly 2000 years, slave owners in a so-called Christian nation didn’t get it. Too bad that, while it seems that the 21^st century western cultures have gotten the biblical implications (and then some), many Christians today are still locked into hierarchical models of male and female roles. Pitty our dullness indeed.

Father, I’m ready to go on the attack against some of the culturally ingrained assumptions that even many Christians hold, but are profoundly inconsistent with your Word. However, I suspect that a frontal assault only detracts from the power of the Gospel. Grant me wisdom, the wisdom of Paul, to know how to keep the Good News front and center. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 4:2-6

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

Dehydrated
I have been lifting weights for one month now and am beginning to feel stronger. Yesterday was lifting day and we were working on shoulders and triceps. Most days I am increasing the amount of weight I lift from the last time, but yesterday I struggled to lift as much as I did the time before. So much for feeling strong.

My lifting partner asked if I was feeling well and then he asked me how much water I drank. I replied I had one glass at breakfast and one glass at lunch. “No wonder you feel weak,” he said, “your muscles are mostly water and if you are dehydrated you cannot lift as much.” I had no idea water would help me lift.

It is the same way with prayer. We pray at meals and perhaps a few minutes after a devotional if we squeeze one in today, but that is not nearly enough to keep us spiritually hydrated. Paul recommended being devoted to prayer 24/7. Pray without ceasing. Drink up the Spirit of God by being drenched in payer all day. Constantly communicating with God makes it possible to live wisely among people who see life differently than we do. It also keeps us strong when the enemy comes against us with doubt, fear, anger or any other weapon.

Spirit of God, flood me with the water of life today as I open myself to your voice all day. I want to listen to your Word and share my thoughts of thanksgiving, praise, and concern with you today. Thank you for helping me to be strong in the LORD today. - Dan Jones

I’m all talk
I’m a talker. While I like to get off by myself and sink into silence on occasion, I need conversation. My personality feeds on social interaction. But I think the need to talk is common to everyone, whether or not we are avid conversationalists. We’re wired to talk to somebody at least sometimes. And thus the power of the waging tongue. (And the proliferation of cell phones!)

These verses encourage talking, the best kind. Talking to God is an ongoing conversation. If people can browse down a grocery story isle chattering to an invisible other through an appendage growing out the ear – or for that matter, in the next bathroom stall – then speaking to an invisible God in those same places isn’t so strange.

The Bible warns us about gossip, talking to people about other people in harmful ways. Let’s be honest. The drive to talk leads most of us to say things about others that really should be left unsaid. I think, talking to God about anyone and anything (gossiping to God?) can help satisfy the need to talk about the people in our lives. Such conversation offers the opportunity to ask God to provide for them.

Paul encourages healthy conversation with those outside the faith. Perhaps if we take care of the need to talk about people in conversation with God, our conversation with those who do not believe will be more attractive. Ordinary and healthy talk can open opportunity to share about our faith. So talk on.

Eternal God, thanks for sending the Word into my world to talk words like the Sermon on the Mount. Thanks for the gift of speech. Help me to reflect Jesus’ use of speech this week. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 3:18-4:1

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.

Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.

Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.

Puzzled, again!

I’m puzzled in a new way by this set of instructions relating to household relationships. That’s good because a furrowed brow can be the beginning of deeper understanding. But it also means that what I thought I had down pat, isn’t so settled.

I have always read these instructions out of my own non-slave owning cultural context. This meant that I took the words to wives, husbands, and children just as they are presented but ripped the words to slaves and masters out of the household context and made them speak about labor and management. I’ve treated one part of what is clearly a unit –household relationships – differently from the other parts. I’ve made the mistake of jumping to application of this text before searching out the original meaning for writer (Paul) and readers (Colosse Christians). Ooops.

Nineteenth century southern slaveholders got at least the original meaning right when they argued for slavery from texts like this. Paul, more accurately God through Paul, never commanded the abolishment of slavery! Slavery is assumed throughout the Bible as it is here and the sister passage in Ephesians 5 and 6. Not only is it assumed, but God gives instructions about how to relate as slave and master, just as he does with husband and wife and parent and child.

I, with most everyone else over the past 150 years, am convinced that the instructions given for master-slave relationships, along with other biblical declarations (not the least of which rests just a few verses earlier! – 3:11) undermine both the practice of people owning people and the absolute authority of one person over another. God intended for radical social change as more and more people faithfully followed Christ.

How can I be consistent and treat one teaching about household relationships this way while treating the other parts as if nothing nearly as radical was happening?! Men not only owned slaves, they owned their wives and children as property. As such, they held absolute authority.

So many in the church today argue that God intends for men to be forever in authority over their wives and children; that God intends households to continue on a hierarchical model – just without slaves. Is it possible that undermining ownership includes pulling the props out from underneath the very notions of hierarchy and authority in every household relationship? Is it possible that God intends that every aspect of household relationships undergo radical reorientation?

Helper and Teacher, Spirit of God, grant that my household relationships reflect more and more of you and less and less of sinful human culture. - Mike Leamon

Favorites

Favoritism in families is destructive. It creates resentment, envy, jealousy and anger. Those who are favored often become spoiled and are engrained with a life-view that they are better than others. Those who belittled often struggle with inferiority complexes and low self-esteem.

Think of the dysfunction that took place in Jacob’s family because he favored Rachel and then Joseph. Brothers were pitted against brothers in a classic struggle.

Praise God there are no favorites in God’s family. He looks at us all with the same love and passion. Paul’s instructions for living together in family are clear: Treat each other as God treats you. Wives, husbands, children, slaves, masters; all are on the same plane from God’s perspective. We all fill different roles in the family but we are all part of the same family and need to demonstrate a unity that transcends role divisions.

I wonder how our testimony as a church would improve if we lived out God’s love for each other. I am not even talking about loving those still undecided for God. I am referring to loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Family squabbles are the most destructive. The Bible calls us to love each other. The example of God’s love for the world should first become visible in the way we love each other in the church.

Father of all believers, I confess I do not always love my brothers and sisters the way I should. Help me today to love your people the way you do so that the world may see you in me. - Dan Jones

COLOSSIANS 3:12-17

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

The risk and beauty of holiness

Living a holy life has nothing to do with being a religious prude and everything to do with relationships. I grew up with the religious prude model. People were scolded for dishonoring the sacred Christmas season by sending humorous Christmas cards. A quartet broke up because one of the members grew a beard. The call to holy living has always come with great risk of misunderstanding.

Being holy means only that both God and I have set aside my life to only love and to love only in life-giving ways – just the way Jesus did. It’s all about healthy and whole, beautiful and pure relationships.

Perhaps the hardest element in holy living is this business of making allowance for each other’s faults –especially at this moment in history. We are such touchy people! We get offended at everything. And we feel obligated to criticize and condemn every real or perceived fault. Our mouths and our sensitivity reveal an unholy self love – obsession with our own opinions, feelings, likes, insights, and convictions.

Holy people, those who have dedicated their lives to following Jesus so thoroughly that his way of loving defines them, are the best hope for a touchy and fractured society. This is so not because they push a political or social agenda, but because they model what it’s like to live in a community (the church) where people practice mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness! They show the world what it looks like for love to cover a multitude of sins.

Holy God of Love, forgive me when I descend into ugly unholiness. Drive out of my life everything except your love. - Mike Leamon

Mismatched clothes

I like to dress nicely but sometimes I fail to understand the rules of matching. The things I pick out to wear together, I am informed by wife, do not always go together. Sometimes it is the tie I pair with the shirt or the shirt I pair with the pants, but either way, when my wife sees me wearing something that does not work, I am sent back upstairs for a change of ensemble.

Paul encourages us to clothe ourselves with the things of God. Peace, joy, holiness, righteousness and other godly traits. I like wearing these new clothes God has placed in my wardrobe, but neither do I want to give up the old clothes that I have become so accustomed to wearing. Like the old T-shirts in my closets with stains and tears, I want to hold onto the old things in my.

When I mismatch God’s clothes and my personal favorites from the past, God sends me back to the dressing room. A verse of Scripture reminds me I am not matching well. A person remarks on my bad attitude and the Holy Spirit whispers I need to change my shirt. The good news is that God has supplied me with a completely new wardrobe free of charge courtesy of Jesus Christ. So why should I wear the old dirty clothes anymore, God has given me new clothes for every situation in my life.

Holy God and wardrobe supplier, I confess my tendency to go back to the old clothes in my life. Help me to give up the old clothes completely and to eliminate them from my closets. Replace these attitudes and habits in my life with your perfect love and mercy as you fit me with new clothes fit for employment in your Kingdom. - Dan Jones

COLOSSIANS 3:1-11

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Projected life
I am just old enough I remember film strip projectors. Teachers in school would bring out the projector and load the reels of film on them to show movies. The first two or three feet of the film were always blank allowing the bulb to shine its white light on the screen uninhibited by the colors and shapes of the pictures on the full frames.

During these blank frames, numerous fingers making different designs and figurines would flash on the screen as my classmates inserted their hands in the beam of light casting shadows on the screen. This always brought a stern reprimand from the teacher.

Paul reminds us to get our “hands” out of the way of God’s projector too. Live in the reality of heaven not earth. Stop clouding the clear and brilliant light of Christ with earthly shadows and images.

Whenever a shadow emerges on the screen we immediately lose focus on the big picture and focus on the small shadow. How often do we do the same thing with our spiritual lives? We walk around looking at the “hands” on the screen and ignore the reality of what is happening on the rest of the screen.

What would happen if we stopped looking at the shadows, especially those created by our own hands, and began to watch the beautiful story of life God is unfolding around us?

Director of life and creation I stand amazed at your awesome work of art in creating life. I confess I am too quick to try and insert my own action onto the screen of life and lose sight of the big picture. Help me to maintain my focus on you and your plan for my life and this world. - Dan Jones

Tested and found lacking
Right now I’m thinking a lot about the mundane things of earth, like air conditioning, a kitchen, bookshelves, and outlet plates – material things that will complete the house and office into which my wife and I just moved. I know these things are not the most important pieces of my life. In fact, Paul points out that things like having a kitchen sink in which to do dishes don’t determine the quality of my life when I am defined by Jesus Christ and the eternal realities of heaven.

On the other hand, these earthly things reveal just how much of the old sinful nature I struggle to put off. I struggle not to be consumed with the incomplete state of my living and working environment. It wears on my emotions and so I descend into lust – an overpowering desire for a finished kitchen and central air, or anger that I allowed myself to get into this kind of material situation.

Doing without many material things I’ve taken for granted for the past many years (even for a few months) has reminded me how much I am defined by physical comfort and material convenience. Just how thoroughly these things define me shows itself on those days my emotions go haywire. They are like a thermometer revealing the state of my soul!

Christ my Lord, your lordship in me has been my confession and commitment for years. I really do want to be defined by you. Yet I see again in these days how much sinful, earthly things lurk within me. Help me grow to new levels of knowing you so that you really do become all that matters. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 2:16-23

So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

School without rules

School is starting again in NY this week. One of the first packets of information students bring home is the discipline code or student handbook explaining the rules. We live in a rule saturated society out of necessity due to our propensity towards evil behavior.

Churches can have a lot of rules too. I am part of a denomination with more rules (we prefer expectations, it sounds nicer) than most denominations. We have lots of “do not…” expectations for our members in an attempt to provide guidelines for holy living. I am not saying our expectations are wrong, but as Paul clearly states, they have done nothing to help conquer our internal evil desires.

No matter how many rules you require your members to follow you cannot change a person’s heart by enforcing rules. The glorious message of the cross is that religion (enforced rule living) is done away with and a new relationship between the creator and created has been consummated. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Why then do we insist on creating rules to define this freedom?

The answer lies in Mike’s blog yesterday. We want results now. We want measurable progress reports and the only way we can see that is by establishing a set of criteria (rules) to measure our changing progress against.

God is not issuing report cards at 10 week intervals, he is changing our hearts. Rules are irrelevant when our hearts our right before God. If our inner desire is to love God with all we are and have and to love our neighbors like ourselves we do not need rules to tell us what not to do. Through Christ we can escape living in a measured box of rules for a life of freedom in love.

Thank you God for breaking the rules religion and I set up to determine what is right and wrong. Thank you for setting me free from myself to live in the freedom of love. Help me each day to experience the liberty that comes from the change you are working in my inner being. My desire is to totally live in your love. - Dan Jones

Haunted by the shadows

Remember the fuss some time ago about whether or not certain political candidates wore an American Flag lapel pin? We live in the shadows of the truly important. I remember church members getting angry because the pastor took the youth out to pizza Sunday evening. He broke the Sabbath, they said. We live in the shadows of the truly important. They let their kids go trick-or-treating! She went to an “R” rated movie! He went to the bar with the softball team! Christ-followers of Paul’s day and ours have an uncanny knack for living in the shadows of the truly important.

I don’t. Instead, I struggle with shadows haunting me. It’s taken most of my adult life to step beyond the haunting.

Rejecting a rules approach to life, especially after growing up with particularly suffocating rules, I found it easy to fall into unhealthy (and therefore unholy) practices. Thinking one is dashing out of the shadows and into God’s glorious light, the newly freed person forgets he or she is not running about willy-nilly, living any way except those ways that even hint at the former rules.

Sabbath is one good example. I’ve rightly jettisoned the crusty layers of rules generations of sincere Christians accumulated, just like the generations of Pharisees before them. Problem was, I feared developing a weekly rhythm that looked anything like the old rigid patterns. I’ve struggled to develop refreshing, Christ-centered Sabbath in my life. And the truth is, following Jesus means stopping when he stops; sitting along the road, munching on granola and wiling away an afternoon – when he does; slipping away from the needs of people for a day of worship, prayer and napping – when he does; even setting aside one day every once and awhile, maybe even most weeks, and refusing to have any business contact – when he does.

Living free of the shadows doesn’t just mean stepping beyond them. It also means stepping beyond the fear of them.

Lord Jesus, I recommit myself to faithfully following you. Thank you for steadily leading me beyond both the shadows and the fear of them. Grant me growing sensitivity to you through the promptings of your Spirit. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 2:6-15

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Public Shaming
There are complete cultures that work off the principle of shame. Those who break the law are not put into prison, they are publicly shamed. The Amish practice this. If you break faith with the community you are shunned. It is as if you did not even exist.

Amazingly this is exactly what God has done to every spiritual force that once controlled those who are now in Christ. We were once dead, like road-kill on the highway of life, until Christ took our sin on the cross and we received a full pardon from God. In the cross, Christ suffered the shame of bearing our sin but the spiritual forces in opposition to God suffered the public shame of annihilation.

Paul writes, “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” The spiritual forces that are tying to destroy me and pull me down are no longer armed. They are merely taunting me. Like a leashed dog, they cannot attack me.

The only problem is, I struggle to remember these forces are impotent. I hear them barking and think they are hot on my trail and about to devour me. I tie myself up in worry about something powerless to defeat me. When I focus again on the cross, however, I discover what I was afraid of has already been put to shame and what sounded like barking was really whimpering defeat. In Christ I have victory even when I don’t feel victorious.

God of greatness and power, I confess my tendency to listen to the wrong voices when I am discouraged. Help me to always focus on the cross of Christ and therein find my victory and strength. Help me see the limitations of the enemy and the unlimited power of God. - Dan Jones

Extreme Home Makeover
What a show! I’ve only watched it a couple of times but am impressed by the speedy and total transformation – actually demolition and rebuilding – of a home. With almost unlimited cash and creative talent, the end product inevitably amazes the returning family and fills them with profuse thanks.

I wish God worked an extreme makeover to my life in a matter of weeks. I’d be happy for months or a couple of years. But then I’m a bit more complex than a house, and thankfully (painfully?), possess personhood. So my extreme makeover takes a lifetime and then some.

In the makeover process, God never sends me off on vacation. Though I wish it could happen that way. Go off to Disney for a week and return to myself a totally new person doesn’t quite work. I’m the one who has to choose to follow Jesus every new day.

In each new situation I have to make the conscious choice to “let” God build my life on Jesus. I’m the one who either “lets” my life sink deeper into him or prevents it. The questions I ask, the assumptions I make, the responses I choose, the priorities I set, all become the construction materials God uses to build a new me.

God does the makeover, but I’m intimately involved each step of the way.

Whether a given step brings pain or joy, tears or celebration, I’m discovering that the more my life resembles his, the more thankful I am. It’s not the drop-your-jaw in awe kind of response that the TV family has when the bus pulls away and reveals their new home. It’s a quieter appreciation for my growing faith and the new, life-giving ways I am thinking and living. It’s a thankfulness for the rewarding qualities my life slowly takes on.

Thank you, God! Thank you for the tearing down demolition (or cutting off circumcision!). And thank you for the reconstruction; for the daily grace you give that enables me to follow you through entire process. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 2:1-5

I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.

I think I prefer to be unraveled!

Knit together sounds pretty interconnected, in fact, intertwined and twisted together. I’ve watched people knit and crochet, bringing different colored yarn together into a beautiful afghan or sweater. That’s fine for inanimate yarn, but I’m not so sure it’s what I want. I’ve got a mind and will of my own, along with values, assumptions, beliefs, and lifestyle commitments that define who I am.

Do I really want to be intertwined with people defined by the same categories but different content? Do I even want to be knit together with people with content very similar to my own? I am with my wife. And that makes life challenging. I am with my children. And that makes for an even more complicated life. I am, sort of, with my siblings and parents. And thank God we are separated by at least 5 hours at 60 miles an hour!

Now Paul wants me to be knit together with other Christ-believers with whom I have no family history; people who, except for their commitment to Christ, are very different from myself. As if this were not enough, in chapter 3, Paul celebrates radical differences like culture, economic, education, religious tradition, and language! Okay, Paul, knit me together with people who share fundamental common ground, and I squirm. But start pulling together those with fundamental differences and I go into spasms!

Without even considering a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-everything else church, truth is, I would be far more comfortable joining the thousands of professing American Christians who refuse to endure the pain of living knitted together with other similar people in the typical homogeneous church family.

Can’t I be a good Christian without doing the church thing!? Apparently not according to Paul. Well, then how about just hanging around the fringe of a church family? There would be fewer issues if the knitting was a super loose, huge loop, connection. Rather than “knit together by strong ties of love!”

My life would be far less complicated – but a whole lot more self absorbed, if the only knitting I had to deal with were the few closest members of my family.

Great Knitter in the Sky, I confess to sometimes wishing the Christian life was more isolated rather than interwoven with people different from me. But I know Paul’s “I want” really is a reflection of what you want for me. So grant me the selflessness I need to live knit together with others who are both a little and fundamentally different, but who share a common faith in you. - Mike Leamon

Infomercial religion

I was duped once by an infomercial. I was a teenager who wanted to buy a car and the ad said if you sent 50 dollars you would be given access to government auctions where they sold cars for pennies on the dollar. I talked my dad into letting me use his credit card and called. A week later I received a manual that told you to look in your newspaper for auction ads and to call your county government to get information on the sealed bid process they use to sell cars. I spent 50 bucks and did not learn anything new. I was taken in by a fine sounding argument.

Well-crafted arguments are pushed at us all day from billboards, op-eds in the paper, TV commercials and talk shows. Paul wanted to make sure the Gospel was never peddled, but proclaimed honestly. The Gospel truth is found in Jesus, for in Christ lie hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Christ is not a “good deal” he is the truth we have been searching for all our lives: contentment, peace, joy, blessing and love. We don’t have to chase down the too-good-to-be-true myths we are told, Jesus is the final answer.

Jesus, you are the answer to my deepest questions and needs. In you I find wisdom and knowledge. Help me to avoid running after flashy arguments and gimmicks and instead rely solely on what I find in you. - Dan Jones