Flashpoint

I have a framed photograph my husband and I picked up long ago on one of our travels. Recently I unwrapped this picture so I could hang it. Yes, four years after our move and I still don't have everything hung up...don't judge! It's a photo of a massive lightning strike over a sandstone formation somewhere in Arizona, entitled "Flashpoint." I was intrigued by the title and looked up the definition. A flash-point is the point at which eruption into significant action, creation or violence occurs.

Interesting. Then I researched how lightning grows from nothing into a massive spark. Without getting into a lot of technical, sciencey jargon: air is normally filled with evenly distributed positive and negative charges. During a storm these charges become separated--mostly positive charges concentrate in the top of the clouds and mostly negative in the bottom. The earth carries a positive charge. Opposites attract, so at some point critical mass is achieved and an invisible 'stepped leader' of negative charge rushes toward the earth. Once it connects, a positive electrical charge rushes back up that 'stepped leader,' releasing a burst of electrical light and power which we see as lightning. The stepped leader naturally moves toward the highest object in the area, which is why we don't stand outside in an electrical storm. Sometimes as the initial stepped leader is descending, the opposing charge rises from earth to meet it.

Soooo, lightning is essentially Earth's visible response to an invisible touch from Heaven. Obviously I can't take the analogy too far, but that speaks. That so clearly and loudly speaks. God is always prior. He is the initiator. He is the source. What I see as my choice, my love, my seeking after God is actually the natural response of a created being to her Creator. He is before and above and in all things primary. When He reaches to me, my spirit leaps to Him along a path He had already made. When His love touches me, closing the circuit, my heart is pulled inexorably to His. 

I like that idea of spiritual flash-point, that moment when love and longing attain critical mass and Abba's gaze and presence reach down. So I want to make myself a likely target for His presence by being intentional in my relationship with Him. It's not that I make anything happen; it's not dependent on my knowledge or my maturity, but my need. My felt need for more of Him drives me to actively present myself before the Lord, worshipping, praying, fasting, musing on the loveliness of God in Scripture. That builds my hunger for Him and sets me in an atmosphere in which my Father is likely to draw near. Like standing on top a tall building in a thunderstorm, I simply present myself as the most likely target when His presence touches down.

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord

And to meditate in His temple.

Psalm 27:4 NASB

The Just Shall Live by Faith

But that no man is justified by the law
in the sight of God, it is evident;
for the just shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:11

Sometimes when I read the accounts of the ancient Israelite people, I get to feeling a little exasperated. I mean, how thick do you have to be to see what they saw and hear what they heard and still not believe that God is God, that He should be trusted and obeyed? But when the sun of reality burns away the fog of fantasy faith, I know that I am so very much like my spiritual ancestors. Stubborn, just like them. Hard-hearted and stiff-necked and rebellious...just like them. If I had been there, I would have worshiped the golden calf. If I had been there, I would have griped about the lack of water and the bland, 'what is that?'  manna. If I had been there, I would have complained about God's leadership choice of Moses. If I had been there, I would have cheered for Jesus when he entered Jerusalem and I would have jeered at Jesus during His trial. When God crafted a people to teach us about Himself, He knew their example would speak to us, because humanity--Jew and Gentile alike--is uniformly broken and sinful.

I am thankful we serve a God of loving mercy and steadfast grace--a God requiring faith, not works in order to save and keep us. Everyone knows this; it's a basic tenet of Christianity. What seems less well known is that Israel knew that God too. No one--whether from Old Testament times or New--has gone to heaven except by the grace of God. If you're not sure I'm right, do a quick Bible review and name one person who was justified by keeping the Law. Take your time. Consult your pastor. Use Google if you want. Name one person--besides Jesus--who never broke any of the commandments...never sinned, never slipped up. Adam? Nope. Abraham? Nope. Moses? Nope. David? Are you kidding me? Every single one of our Old Testament heroes of the faith were men and women of clay who followed the God of Israel as best they could, trusting that a loving and merciful God would extend His salvation to them in the end. 

The just shall live by faith is in the New Testament because Paul was quoting Habakkuk 2:4 (which is definitely in the Old Testament). Somehow between that time and today, we've come to the conclusion that God moved from salvation through the law to salvation despite the law. But God does not have a split personality; He is the same God all through the Scriptures. The Old Testament showcases His plan to create a people and teach them how He was different than the pagan gods. Through the Law* God taught His chosen people His unapproachable perfection and holiness so they would not be tempted to try for their own righteousness. Through the Law they (and we) could see the absolute impossibility of attaining rightness with God on our own. They, just like us, had to trust in the character of God...to trust His plan for salvation. They had to access God through faith.

Many Christian ministries characterize Jesus' earthly ministry as flouting the Law, teaching it was irrelevant...even offensive to God. But He would have had few Jewish followers if that had been the case. The Jews of Jesus' day were well aware that Moses (their revered Law-giver) had given them a test for a false prophet. Anyone one who taught the people to reject and disobey God's commands was immediately identified as a false prophet (Deut. 13:1). That is why the Pharisees and scribes kept trying to catch Jesus saying and doing things that broke a commandment. They were applying Moses' false-prophet test, looking for a valid reason to reject Jesus' teachings and stop His growing ministry. The fact that the religious authorities finally had to rely on false witnesses to condemn Him is a good indication that Jesus nowhere told them to disobey God's commands. Instead He taught them how to follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter. He took the Law and fleshed it out, making it a way of life that was full of life. 

Jesus fulfilled the law....not as in completed and cancelled but as in filling it full. He routinely taught "you have heard it said, but I say to you." Rather than erasing the commandments, He filled them full of the meaning God intended. Jesus tweaked the Pharisees about their traditions, but told His disciples to be even more scrupulous than the Law required (Matthew 5:20). The Law was given for Man's benefit, but God knew men would turn it into a heavy religious burden. Jesus showed how to keep the Law the right way...a way filled with grace and spirit that brings life...life the way God had always intended it to be. Jesus showed the people that the way of God could be lived out in a joyful, abundant way that both pleased God and blessed people. His sacrifice ended the necessity of animal sacrifice to cover sin, but never ended God's plan for how we should live.

Our God never changes. The God of Israel extends hope to the world that does not rest on perfect rules-following but on His character...on His plan for salvation...on His lovingkindness. That makes my heart sing.

...the righteous shall live by his faith." Habakkuk 2:4b

*Torah is usually interpreted with the generic English word "law," but it literally means Teaching...essentially, the way God means us to live. As Paul exclaims in Romans 7, "Am I suggesting that these laws of God are evil? Of course not!"  

Whose Report Will We Believe?

When Moses sent spies to the Promised Land they brought back a good report. The land was fertile and productive. God had indeed directed them to a land where they could flourish. But Numbers 13 says when ten of the men saw the defenses they were overcome with fear. What they saw with their natural eyes carried more weight than what God had told them. Despite the pleading of Caleb and Joshua, the report of the ten spies won out. You know the rest of the story; it was 40 years and a lot of funerals before the Chosen entered the Land.  When I read through Numbers 13 and 14 I noticed two things. The first was that God told Moses to send the men...leaders from each of the tribes. So He didn't have a problem with the people knowing there were giants in the land. If you frame the theme of the entire Bible as “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” this makes perfect sense. God didn’t want to give the infant nation a false sense of their own abilities. He wanted them to know without a doubt that they needed to rely on Him. He had already trashed the mightiest empire on the planet, rescued the people from slavery (carrying gold, silver, livestock and other goodies) and brought them through a sea walking on dry land. He miraculously gave them food and water and physically showed them where and when to travel. None of that was possible in the natural. None of that depended on human wisdom or strength or ability. God did it all. Here then was another chance to see God work miracles for them. All they had to do was do what He said, but we all know that is often easier said than done.  Today is much the same--God has made promises of a victorious church, yet everywhere we turn the report is bad--the dark is rising and gaining strength. The world is giving itself to any and everything as it loses hope that there is anything worth living for. Things have tilted badly off-center and appear headed over a cliff. Whether the crisis is global, national or personal, it is difficult to look on giants without fear. It is only natural to consider all this with the eyes of the ten spies. This brings me to the second thing I noticed:  the good report came “from a different spirit.” Caleb and Joshua saw the same things the other spies saw--walled cities, giants, and the impossibility of the task before them. Were they naturally brave? In denial? Terminally optimistic? I think not. I also don’t believe they were somehow supernaturally immune from fear. I think the answer lies in Exodus 33. On their travels, Moses had pitched a tent for seeking the Lord. This Tent of Meeting was outside the camp so folks could come to a place separate from daily life, to seek God and worship. Moses went there regularly to be with the Lord. It is where God spoke to Moses, "face to face as a man speaks to his friend."  The closing verse in that section is almost a throw-away but holds the key to Joshua's different spirit. "When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent." Joshua was present when the Presence descended on the Tent of Meeting. There he too met the Lord. He learned to love God's presence, to hear God's voice, to fear His name. The relationship he built during those times of worship and encounter was a place of shelter from which he could view giants with calm confidence. Joshua knew Israel couldn’t take the Land. He also knew that God could and had told them that He would. That is the report Joshua and Caleb chose to believe. In times of crisis, information about God is too flimsy a support, we must lean on God Himself. This is possible if we spend time knowing Him, learning to press into His loving kindness, rest in His peace. Then even in confusion and pain we can focus on Him, trusting that He will bring us through...whether it’s winning the Promised Land, American politics, or personal turmoil. We can expect reports of persecution, violence and lost hope to continue, but there is another report. As we face our own giants we can turn our eyes to God, believing His word just as Joshua and Caleb did. Jesus told us that the darkness will increase, but the light will increase also. While acknowledging the one we must look to the other. Caleb and Joshua were able to give a good report because they knew that it is not the bigness of our challenges but the bigness of our God that matters. Let's encourage one another with the good things that God is doing in His ever advancing Kingdom. Let's lean on God and wait for His salvation, which is surely coming. Maranatha!

Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said,

“Let us go up at once and take possession of it; for we will certainly conquer.” 

Numbers 14:7b-9 [Caleb and Joshua] spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we passed as spies is an exceedingly good  land.

If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us,

a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord;

and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us.  Do not fear them.”