Showing posts with label Musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Musings. Show all posts

Friday, January 31, 2014

I Can Do All Things...

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Youversion, the makers of world's most downloaded bible app for all platforms (123 million installs) recently published an infographic to show how users engaged with the bible in 2013. Their "Verse of the Year" was Philippians 4:13 – "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" – having been "bookmarked, highlighted, and shared" more than any other verse during 2013. This got me thinking...

During the past few years i have heard this verse used, overused, abused and misused. Let me illustrate a few such instances from the more serious - an acquaintance has no gifting or ability to accomplish a task which has been wrongfully expected of and thrust onto him; his response? I can do all things... People have no money to make a much desired purchase; pep themselves up with, I can do all things... Students have  not studied for an exam and walk into the exam hall thumping their chest saying, I can do all things... To the trivial - a viral infection has caused the person's throat inflammation and pain on gulping / swallowing; person claims, I can do all things... before eating. Person's teeth pain when drinking anything cold as infection has set in; person claims, I can do all things... before drinking water. Its really cold and foggy, going out is not the most pleasant thought; person says, I can do all things... before stepping out. Power is out and person has to climb 5 flights of stairs; I can do all things... To the absolutely comic - Guy wants to propose to girl, musters courage by saying, I can do all things... Girl wants to speak to dad to break news of love for boy, peps herself up with, I can do all things... Faced with food that has never been eaten by person, but common in traveled to local culture; I can do all things... Stomach is full, can't eat more; relatives are force feeding? How do we survive it? Absolutely - Philippians 4:3: I can do all things... It is sad but true that most times people use of I can do all things... is grossly out of context and intended application; with little or no correlation to what Paul intended to say.

So what is the true meaning of the verse? And what is its application to our lives? To start with most basic hermeneutics we need to remember that context (the text before and after a passage) is critical for the most accurate, robust interpretation. On close examination, we find that this famous verse is closely "hinged" with the preceding two verses (Phil. 4:11, 12) in which Paul explains how he is able to come to the point that he can make the glorious, profound declaration in this passage. Paul knew that God was able to change his circumstances, but that He was much more interested in changing Paul and this is still His desire for His children. In short, he had learned the "secret", he had counted the cost and paid the "cost", and in the crucible of testing wrought by both good times and bad times, he had come to the point of realization that his sufficiency was solely in his Savior. This principle is echoed in his second letter to the church at Corinth, where Paul writes...

"It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. (Greek = hikanotes = sufficiency, competency, ability, capacity, fitness = state of being qualified for something)  He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life." 2 Cor. 3:5,6 (NLT)

In this context, a look at the original Greek script for Phil. 4:13 will read as "panta ischuo en to endunamounti me". The verb ischuo is mentioned 28 times in the New Testament - Mt 5:13; Mt 8:28; 9:12; 26:40; Mk 2:17; 5:4; 9:18 = (here ischuo refers to power as evidenced by extraordinary deeds); Mk 14:37; Lk 6:48; 8:43; 13:24; 14:6, 29, 30; 16:3; 20:26; Jn. 21:6;Acts 6:10; 15:10; 19:16, 20; 25:7; 27:16; Gal. 5:6; Php 4:13; Heb 9:17; Jas 5:16; Rev 12:8. Ischuo which mean 'Can Do' means to be strong in body or in resources. Ischuo can speak of physical power (Mk 2:17, 5:4, 9:12). It can speak of having the required personal resources to accomplish some objective as here in Phil. 4:13 or conversely with the negative speaks of that which is good for nothing (Mt. 5:13). Ischuo is the equivalent of to have efficacy, to avail or to have force. So in essence, when Paul said that he could do all things, he meant all things which were God’s will for him to do. He had learned that the Lord’s commands are always the Lord’s enablements. Where the finger of God points, the hand of God provides the way. Therefore Paul is constantly to putting His trust on Christ—to attain a  greater knowledge of Christ—more rich and  sweet experience of His grace and love—to be  more strongly rooted in His love. He must have his heart, his hopes, his affections more with Christ, and his soul more swallowed up in the ocean of God's everlasting love in Christ—that he may be more conformed to Christ's image; and that thus, as a good soldier of Christ, he may manfully fight under His banner against the world, the flesh, and the devil, unto his life's end. 

After all, He is the bread of life, we are to feed upon Him daily. He is the water of life, which our souls are to drink of constantly. He is our righteousness, we are to put Him on continually. So then, we not only have a precious Christ—but we are also to use Him—and enjoy His preciousness! He is not only a well of salvation—but we must draw water out of it with joy—and drink of it to the refreshing of our souls! For we are strengthened in Him alone. Further, Paul uses endunamoo commanding the Ephesian saints to be strong (endunamoo = present imperative = command to continually be empowered via union with Christ) in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Paul used this word repeatedly in his epistles to Timothy, initially writing "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve Him" (1 Tim. 1:12 NLT). Knowing the trials that Timothy would experience, Paul exhorted him "Timothy, my dear son, be strong (present tense = be continually empowered) through the grace (God's enabling power) that God gives you in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 2:1 NLT) In the last recorded chapter knowing that his death is imminent,  Paul affirms the trustworthiness of the Lord's empowerment, writing to Timothy "But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death." (2 Tim. 4:17 NLT) From these uses of endunamoo note how from from beginning to end Paul expresses his need of and dependence on the empowerment of His Lord.

Through Christ who strengthens me: Of the strength which Christ can impart, Paul had had abundant experience; and now his whole reliance was there. It was not in any native ability which he had; not in any vigor of body or of mind; not in any power which there was in his own resolutions; it was in the strength that he derived from the Redeemer. By that he was enabled to bear cold, fatigue, and hunger; by that, he met temptations and persecutions; and by that, he engaged in the performance of his arduous duties according to the will of the Lord and His leading.

Application of Phil. 4: 13 to our lives:
Vernon McGee wrote, "When Paul says all things, does he literally mean all things? Does it mean you can go outside and jump over your house? Of course not. Paul says, "I can do all things in Christ"—that is, in the context of the will of Christ for your life. Whatever Christ has for you to do, He will supply the power. Whatever gift He gives you, He will give the power to exercise that gift. A gift is a manifestation of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. As long as you function in Christ, you will have power...Now Paul is not saying that we can do all things. I can’t jump like a grasshopper can jump. When I was in school I was the high jumper, but I can’t jump anymore. You see, I can’t do all things, but I can do all things which God has for me to do from the time He saved me to the time He will take me out of this world." Thus from Phil. 4: 13 we learn:
1. That we need not sink under any trial, for there is one who can strengthen us.
2. that we need not yield to temptation. There is one who is able to make a way for our escape.
3. that we need not be harassed, and vexed, and tortured with improper thoughts and unholy desires. There is one who can enable us to banish such thoughts from the mind, and restore the right balance to the affections of the soul.
4. that we need not dread what is to come. Trials, temptations, poverty, want, persecution, may await us; but we need not sink into despondency. At every step of life, Christ is able to strengthen us, and can bring us triumphantly through.

Dr. Ben Witherington calls Philippians 4:13 "the superman verse," because it is sometimes referenced by athletes during high-stakes games. But in actuality Witherington's suggested rendering of Phil. 4:13 is "I know a humbled state, and I know also surplus. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of how to be satisfied, even if hungry and being able also to do without. I am able/strong enough [to endure] all things in Him who empowers me." Repeating that the apostle Paul was not suggesting that he could accomplish anything "with a little help from the Lord," the Asbury professor adds of Phil. 4:13, "It is about Paul submitting to God's goals and plan, and God giving him the strength to do so, even when he must endure house arrest (as he did when he wrote this), and hunger, and deprivation."

That verse is not a manifesto for self-esteem and possibility thinking —although it is often used that way. People quote the verse as if it meant "With Jesus' help you can achieve whatever dream you have for yourself." That’s not the idea at all. Phil. 4:13 is Paul’s secret for being content in all situations. That's it! Do every thing through Jesus and you can be content in everything. It isn't about what you accomplish, it is about how you do whatever you do. 

Some people may think they've lost something special when they realize they've misinterpreted the verse. But did they really think that Jesus was going to help them win every race, get every job, get A’s on every test, leap tall buildings, etc.? Being content sounds bland compared to our worldly desires, but what a phenomenal blessing the real interpretation of Philippians 4:13 is! How wonderful would it be to have contentment in every situation in life? That's the true promise of scripture that we seek and rejoice in.


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Tuesday, January 14, 2014

On Celebrating the New Year

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Christmas and New Year is that time of the year when everybody's spirits the world over are uplifted (usually because of being filled with spirits'). Regardless of which part of the world they come from, people celebrate the New Year albeit on different dates based on their culture. On the flip side however in a not so recent trend, some Churches and Christian groups across the world have been calling their members and all true Christians to not celebrate New Year at all. What do we make of this?

When the Lord walked with Israel, He commanded Moses saying the following: The Lord said to Moses, "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet. You must do no ordinary work on that day. Instead, you are to present special gifts to the Lord." (Leviticus 23:23-25 NLT) 

This month was called Tishri, which falls during the months of September and October; it is also the first month on the Jewish civil calendar. It signifies the time of the year when summer was over, the harvest had been gathered and the fall season had begun. This first day of Tishri was Israel’s New Year celebration, "a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation." Jewish tradition states that this is the birthday of Adam; many Biblical scholars agree that this was also the actual birthday of Christ, the "last Adam." So it is remarkable that on this day, as the trumpets were blown all day long in Jerusalem many years ago, little did anyone know except a few humble shepherds, that not far away in Bethlehem the true King of kings was born.

What is more interesting though is the fact that this and the other six festivals that the Lord commanded the Israelite's to observe are in fact referred to as festivals / feasts of the Lord. "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, these are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts." (Leviticus 23: 2 ESV) The Hebrew word used for feasts is 'mo'edim', which means "appointed times" or "appointments." Therefore celebrating these appointments is saying that God has set up these appointments with us and so we rejoice in Him! Further, the Hebrew word for convocation is 'miqra', which means "a rehearsal".  God gave the festivals to be annual "rehearsals" of the major future events in His redemption plan of mankind.

Finally, not just are we celebrating the Lord, we are celebrating the life we enjoy in Him; encouraging each other to live better lives for Him. As Hebrews tells us, "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT) As the world around us worsens, we desperately need to encourage and be accountable to other like-minded Christians. Considering others' needs and helping them ends up helping us. But if we don't make the extra effort to attend church services when we can, we will begin to drift away from God and to lose our motivation.

In short, festivals / feasts are good and the Lord instituted festivals in the life of Israel in order for them to cyclically remember His redemption plan for them; without getting lost in the hub-bub of everyday life. This ensured that they gathered to rejoice and celebrate the life they enjoyed in Him; all while continuing to edge each other on, to live in Him. They most importantly signify the need for emotional, spiritual and physical renewal that our creator knew we would burn out without.

Equate these facts then in the light of Colossians 2: 16 - 17 (NLT), "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." It becomes clear that these festivals are but a shadow of the reality revealed to us in Christ. But more importantly it tells us that we are not to be legalistic in our understanding of and living out of God's Word in our lives. We as humans still have the need for an emotional, spiritual and physical renewal cyclically; we were designed that way. We need celebrations and more importantly in times such as these we need to gather as often as possible in His name. What better time than the New Year which signifies the advent of the new to do this?

So in the light of the scriptures, let us celebrate New Year by all means; only focusing on the Lord, His Word and making resolutions to lead better lives for His glory. God bless us all as we deliberate on living our lives for Him this New Year!

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Friday, October 11, 2013

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

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Matthew 6 : 9-16
New Living Translation (NLT)

9 Pray like this:
   Our Father in heaven,
   may Your name be kept holy.
10 May Your Kingdom come soon.
   May Your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need,
12 and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one.

James 1:13 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one" (James 1:13). 

That’s true. But the Bible also says, "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matthew 4:1). 

This line (In Matthew’s version of the Lord's prayer) has never made sense to me, although I continue to recite it since this is the way it is usually translated; but I cannot really appreciate it as is. Sometimes, it is translated "do not put us to the test" (In Luke’s version), which still seems strange and problematic. Why would God "lead" us into temptation or "put us to the test" to begin with? Is human life an obstacle course, a testing ground? Are we all on trial? I thought God’s usual job was to lead us away from temptation! Why would we need to ask God to NOT lead us INTO temptation? 

Understanding the Old Testament Background
I began with a word study on the word 'peirasmos' as it appears throughout the Bible. The word 'peirasmos' in the Old Testament is most commonly the name of a place, Massah. This place is named in Exodus 17:7. 'Massa' is simply the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word 'peirasmos'; it seems to be derived from the word 'piel', a feminine singular participle of 'nasah', meaning to test or put to the test, hence place of putting to the test. In the OT, Massah was the paradigmatic place where Israel’s relationship with God was fractured and God became somewhat distant from them, despite His covenantal commitment just recently demonstrated in Him delivering them from Egypt. 

In Exodus 14-15, God had saved the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, taking them through the Red Sea. Exodus 14: 30, 31 states "Thus the LORD delivered ('errusato') Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses."

But no sooner had God delivered Israel from the Egyptians, then they began to grumble and complain against God their deliverer. They had been delivered through two walls of water 'into the wilderness', and their first act on being delivered was to complain about the lack of water (Exod 15:24). They seemed to think that the God who had just parted the Red Sea couldn't give them a few mouthfuls of water in the desert! From that time on, God's relationship with the Israelites was a relationship characterized by 'testing'. God gave them water, but in doing so He 'tested' Israel to see if they would obey His commandments (Exod 15:25). Next, they complained about food, so He gave them bread, but even the bread-giving included a 'test' from God, a command not to gather too much (Exod 16:4)—which many failed (Exod 16:20). Then, once again, in Exodus 17 the people complained about lack of water. Moses ominously describes this complaint as 'putting the Lord to the test', that is, 'testing' God to see if He really loved them and cared for them (Exod 17:2). God again gives them water, but the place is named from that time on Massah, the place of testing (Exod 17:7).

Exodus 17:7 "And He called the name of the place Massah ('peirasmos') and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested ('peirazein') the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

"God had delivered them from Egypt because of His love. But He had then led them into 'testing' in the wilderness, the place where God tested their commitment to Him and where the people tested God's love for them. Later on, just before the people are about to enter the Promised Land, they again 'tested' God. God had promised them the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey to be theirs. But the people didn't believe Him. They were afraid of the previous inhabitants of the land, they suspected that God didn't love them and they didn't trust God. They didn't enter the land. As a result, God told them they would not inherit the land for forty years. This 'test' was the final straw for God; His people didn't trust Him and so He banished them to forty years' wandering in the wilderness (Num 14:22-23). Throughout the rest of the OT, Massah is referred to as that terrible place of testing, the place where mutual suspicion entered into the relationship between God and His people (which was not God’s fault of course, for He was always faithful to His promises. They had no right to test God). The law and the prophets began to refer to Massah, the 'place of testing', as if it applied to the whole wilderness experience, from the crossing of the Red Sea until the entry into the Promised Land 40 years later. (Deut. 6:16, 8:2, 9:22, 33:8; Psa. 78:18, 78:41, 78:56, 95:8-9, 106:14) In the end, Israel emerged chastened and humbled by the whole 'testing' experience (Deut 8:16). But even then, the people still had a problem: they did not fully trust God, and so the testing continued throughout Israel's history. God tested them to see if they would obey Him (Deut 13:3; Judg 2:22, 3:1, 3:4; 2 Chron 32:31) and they generally failed; for their part, the people tested God to see if He really cared for them and loved them and would keep His promises (Judges 6:39). In the light of the OT, Matthew 6:13 literally means Don't lead us into Massah. That is, it is a prayer asking God to make sure that we don't relive that desert experience of Israel, where they suspected God of foul play, and God (quite rightly) suspected them of ungrateful and disobedient hearts.

Testing and God’s Redeemed People
God never tests His people in the NT like He did in the OT. Christians certainly do undergo 'tests' in the NT, but these 'tests' are not an act of God 'testing' us to see if we will obey Him, like a distant examiner or a suspicious husband. Christians never undergo special 'tests' such as God gave His people in the wilderness, but simply the 'trials' that are common to humanity (1 Cor 10:13), or the temptations of Satan (1 Thess 3:5). God always provides a way of escape from these type of trials (1 Cor 10:13, 2 Pet 2:9). They are described like a refiner's fire, proving our trust in God and our willingness to follow Jesus (1 Pet 1:6, 4:12). In all these things, God's attitude to us is always as a loving heavenly father, never as a 'suspicious heavenly examiner'.

The book of James provides an extended commentary on the theme of testing, applying the 'testing' that Jesus mentions in His prayer to a Christian's everyday life with all of its economic inequalities - (modified ESV):

James 1: 2 - 15 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet testings ('peirasmois') of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under testing ('peirasmon'), for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tested ('peirazomenos'), 'I am being tested ('peirazomai') by God,' for God cannot be tested ('apeirastos') with evil, and He Himself tests ('peirazei') no one. But each person is tested ('peirazetai') when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

Applying Matthew 6:13
Hence the prayer of Matthew 6:13 is a prayer of confident trust, asking God to keep us trusting His loving care for us. It is a prayer that God our Father will keep our focus firmly on His ultimate act of care and provision for us: the deliverance from sin provided by Jesus' death on the cross. It is a prayer that, in the midst of the common trials of this life, God will help us remember that He is not distant from us, He is not standing back and testing us to see if we will obey, He is not inflicting these things on us as a test; but that He is lovingly refining us and making us more like His Son Jesus Christ. It is a prayer asking God to 'give us our daily bread', not to test us to see if we will obey Him (as He did when He gave bread to the people in the wilderness), but simply to provide us with what we need as our loving heavenly Father. It is a prayer to deliver us out of the clutches of Satan, who lies to us, who tells us that God does not have our best interests at heart in the midst of these trials, who wants us to become suspicious of our Father and forget how much He loves us. The evil one wants us to think that we know best, and that God doesn't love us as much as we love ourselves. We may not know exactly why we are suffering; like Job, we may never find out the precise reason for it until the Lord returns – all we may know is that God is compassionate and merciful in our suffering (James 5:11). But that is enough!

When would you need to pray, ‘Lead me not into temptation’?
Maybe you have accepted that Jesus died for you and brought you into heaven … But you still think your life is a desert wilderness, and you need stuff to fill up the void. You suspect God because you don't trust that He will give you what you need. So instead of generosity and love, your life is about greed and holding on to things that you don't really need. Satan is just as active in material things as he is in spiritual things. You then need to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

Maybe you are tempted when it comes to your relationships. Maybe you're unhappy with whatever relationships you have, or unhappy because you don't have a relationship that you long for. You may be single, widowed, divorced, married, friendless, unappreciated, just tired of giving. And you know that God has saved you from sin, and given you eternal life. But you suspect that He doesn't really have your best interests at heart when it comes to these human relationships. And you think He's being mean; He's saved you from the greatest enemy of all—sin and death—but He's just brought you into a dry desert wilderness and He's not going to give you anything to drink.

Of course, that can lead to disaster, can't it? You are tempted to look for other ways to gratify your desires, ways that God hates. You join in with your mates when they drink too much so you’ll be accepted by them. Or you look for cheap thrills. But you don't care because God doesn't seem to care for you. You then need to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one', trusting God's goodness, even in the desert.

Addiction can be a form of temptation too, can't it? When you start to feel that some thing can look after you, or ease the pain, because you think that God doesn't care. Whether it's alcohol or pornography or sex or even food.

Of course, it might be helpful to take some active steps to remove these temptations from your life. Don't watch the TV shows that provoke you to greed or lust. Put porn blocking software on your computer. Whatever it takes to keep yourself for the Lord! But the most important thing you can do is to pray.

And do you know, this prayer is quite an amazing prayer? Because the act of praying it is itself part of the answer to the prayer! If you ask God to not lead you into temptation, to help you to trust Him, that prayer is itself an act of trust. When you talk to God, you trust Him. And the more you trust, the less you suspect Him of being mean, and the less you are tempted; because you know that God is good to you, even in the hard times.

You may not know why your life seems like a desert now. You may never know until the end of time. But we do know that God is our Father. And God is our Father because Jesus has died for us and made us God’s children.

As Paul says in Romans 8:34-39 - So God does not do the tempting—He does not put evil desires in our hearts (for He can have no evil desires in His heart) - but He does allow us into the presence of many tests and temptations. "A man's steps are from the Lord." (Proverbs 20:24). 

In fact, every step we take is a step into the presence of temptation. There is no moment of your life that is not a moment of temptation - a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility. 

The Lord's prayer does not teach us to pray against that kind of sovereign guidance. 

What it teaches us to pray is that the temptation does not take us in. Don't lead me into temptation. Deliver me from this evil that is set before me. 

Today we stand before innumerable temptations. That's what life is: endless choices between belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. But, O mighty God, forbid that I would yield. Hold me back from stepping inside the temptation. 


"And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one."




P.S: This completes the last installment of the Lord's prayer and hopefully the beginning of me getting disciplined with my writings.
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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Forgive Us Our Sins

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Matthew 6 : 9-16
New Living Translation (NLT)

9 Pray like this:
   Our Father in heaven,
   may Your name be kept holy.
10 May Your Kingdom come soon.
   May Your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need,
12 and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound; that saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost, but now i'm found; was blind but now i see...

These words deserve for me nothing less than me on my knees; crying in awe of the God who gave it all to redeem a wretch like me! And cry unashamedly i will, for the Lord, our God, the creator of all, in whom all there is, lives and moves and has its being (Acts 17:28); chose to leave aside His home and come as a babe, that you and i might be with Him for all eternity (Phil 2:6). Wow, truly what child is this!

And forgive us our sins
But here is something interesting about this line in the Lord's prayer - and forgive us our sins. Notice that it starts with the conjunction 'and'. So in effect there is a joining with the previous sentence of the Lord's prayer when we asked the Lord to Give US this day our daily bread. Perhaps the Lord was teaching us to recognize that every time we ask for and receive our 'suprasubstantial' daily bread we ought to remind ourselves of His pardon that we so need too. There is a deeper implication to this - the Lord by this was asking us to remind ourselves of a fact that we all as humans get very complacent about. We all love to get into the 'I deserve better..' mode. But if we were to truly talk about what we each deserve, we deserve no good thing. For all of us have sinned and fallen short (Rom 3:23), more times than we are willing to accept or even truly comprehend. 

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. (Isaiah 64:6)

But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one! (Psalm14:3)

Do we truly deserve his pardon, let alone His love? I think not!

The Lord however through His grace and mercy chose to give us all good things (1 Tim 6:17, Jam 1:17), even much more than we can ask for or imagine (Eph 3:19-21). We are reminded therefore to not forget the fact that we need His forgiveness more than we need food; for we shall not live by food alone (Mat 4:4). After all, isn't it easier for the Lord to heal us of our infirmities that are a consequence of our sin, by first forgiving us? (Mat 9:5).

Sisters, Brothers, you and i take too much for granted the need for us to be forgiven each day. On this side of the bridge leading to eternity, we are bound to sin by birth. As such, in order to truly be new wine (vine) in a new bottle (branches) (Mat 9:17, Jn 15) we ought to seek His forgiveness every day like Daniel did (Dan 9).

The Lord was teaching us to pray seeking His forgiveness by confessing our sins (1 Jn 1:9), for He is faithful to forgive us. Where i do not accept the practise of confession in the Catholic persuasion, its main motive is unquestionable - we ought to take our sin seriously. Just in case, the Lord's coming to earth couldn't have made this clear enough, He taught us to the importance of the seeking forgiveness for our sins by including it in the model prayer He taught us.

But as everything else in the Bible there is a second side to this statement.

As we forgive those who sin against us
As with the previous statement, this one too starts with a conditional conjunction. The Lord was substantiating His teaching about not coming to His presence asking for grace and mercy without first treating others the same way (Mat 5:24).

The German philosopher Schopenhauer compared the human race to a bunch of porcupines huddling together on a cold winter’s night. He said, "The colder it gets outside, the more we huddle together for warmth; but the closer we get to one another, the more we hurt one another with our sharp quills. And in the lonely night of earth’s winter eventually we begin to drift apart and wander out on our own and freeze to death in our loneliness." Christ has given us an alternative: to forgive each other for the pokes we receive. That allows us to stay together and stay warm. For in the same way that we have freely received His forgiveness, we ought to give it too (Mat 10:8).

In essence we are asking the Lord to forgive us our sins LIKE we forgive those who sin against us. So we make our own forgiveness conditional to forgiving others first. Is that a trap? We seem to be after all telling the Lord to not forgive us if we have not forgiven others ; as a direct implication of the statement.

The biggest problem is any time a hurt happens to you, a crisis is initiated. A wrong was done by someone else, but you are left holding the bag of hurt. It’s not fair, but it’s very real. You are faced with the question of what to do with the pain.

What do you do, if forgiveness is your destination? You hold the wrongdoer accountable for what he or she did. It’s not forgiveness if you just slough it off and say, oh, it was nothing. It wasn’t nothing. It was hurtful. It was unfair. The person needs to be held accountable. By saying that I don’t mean that you necessarily have to confront the person. Sometimes that is exactly what you need to do, but other times it’s not feasible or practical. Maybe the person has moved halfway around the world, or has died. Or the person has no interest whatsoever of patching things up or apologizing. The place where you hold the person accountable is in your heart. You can do the work of forgiveness whether the person apologizes or not. Whether the person knows a wrong was done. Or not. Whether the person cares. Or not. It’s tough to accept, but we need to understand that sometimes people are just plain insensitive to the fact that their actions have hurt someone else.

Some people are fenceposts – insensitive, unaware. The good news is that you can forgive someone whether they take responsibility for their actions or not. Because forgiveness is something that happens in you.

Once you’ve acknowledged that the bag of hurt belongs to you, even though the wrong was done by someone else, you need to take a little trip to the dark side of your soul. The place where anger and rage and even hate sometimes live. Hate can be either passive or aggressive. In a passive kind of hatred you will not seek revenge, but you will not wish the person well either. Hate becomes more aggressive when you actively hope that the person suffers, and even want to help that suffering along. If you deny that you have such dark feelings and desires, you will get stuck in the mud on the road to forgiveness. You will find yourself mired in the muck and not even AAA can pull you out. You will be unable to live happily and fully. But if you face the feelings and acknowledge them, at least to yourself and God, then they can be a part of the healing process.

Hateful feelings are normal and you need to face them, but on the other hand, if you stay in them, they will kill you. It’s kind of like morphine. A little helps you through the pain, but if you keep taking it, it will take you. You have to move on through to the healing.

"If you cannot free people from their wrongs and see them as the needy people they are, you enslave yourself to your own painful past, and by fastening yourself to the past, you let your hate become your future. You can reverse your future only by releasing other people from their pasts." - From The Art of Forgiving, Lewis Smedes

Jesus’ model prayer underscores the essential connection between receiving divine forgiveness and forgiving others. As we experience God’s gracious forgiveness, we are called and empowered to forgive those who have wronged us. If we choose to hoard the forgiveness granted to us by failing to forgive others, not only do we disobey the Lord’s teaching, but also we miss the full benefit of forgiveness. God’s purpose in forgiving us is that we might be reconciled to him and to each other. The experience of divine forgiveness enables us to do what otherwise is beyond our strength.

When you forgive the person who did you wrong, the hurt and the hate are healed. Forgiveness does not change the past. But it changes how you view the past. You are able to let the pain go and move on. You can breathe again. Laugh again. Love again.

How do you know when the miracle has happened? When you have truly forgiven someone? It happens when you genuinely begin to wish that person well. You no longer daydream about them getting hit by a truck or getting AIDS or getting attacked by a pit bull. You genuinely wish them well.

Corrie Ten Boom's life reminds us of the same thing - she had been incarcerated in one of the worst concentration camps in Germany during the Second World War. Many years after that horrendous experience, she met for a second time one of the most cruel and heartless German guards she had ever known. He had humiliated and degraded her and her sister. He had jeered and visually raped them as they stood in the delousing shower. The former guard was among the audience at one of her talks. Now, the man stood before her with hand outstretched. "Will you forgive me?" he asked. Corrie writes: "I stood there with coldness clutching at my heart, but I know that the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. I prayed, Jesus, help me! Woodenly, mechanically I thrust my hadn into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing. The current started in my shoulder, raced down into my arms and sprang into our clutched hands. Then this warm reconciliation seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I forgive you, brother,’ I cried with my whole heart. For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard, the former prisoner. I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did in that moment!"

How can we pray this prayer today?
1. Forgive those who hurt you: Because if you do not forgive, you in essence are asking God to not forgive you too! But more importantly you are choosing to remain in bondage. Break it down in Jesus name!
2. Pray for wide spreading mercy: As a result our prayer and our own forgiveness becomes a wide spreading mercy. Our own forgiveness is not simply an individualistic thing, but a corporate. So ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’ echoes with a deeper meaning and a more eternal and cosmic significance than simply, “Help me to forgive the people who have hurt me.” Instead it becomes a great intercessory prayer pleading for forgiveness not only for ourselves, but for the whole world. Because let us not forget that like the remainder of the Lord's prayer, we are taught to ask that He forgive US as WE forgive those to sin against US.
3. Reflect Christ through your lives: It’s said that, “to sin is human, to forgive divine”. We’re never closer to God’s grace than when we admit our sin and cry out for pardon. And we’re never more like God than when, for Jesus Christ’s sake, we extend forgiveness freely and completely to those who have sinned against us.




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Friday, March 8, 2013

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

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Matthew 6 : 9-16
New Living Translation (NLT)

9 Pray like this:
   Our Father in heaven,
   may Your name be kept holy.
10 May Your Kingdom come soon.
   May Your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need,
12 and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one.

Give us this day our daily bread... probably the most universally used and recognized statement from the Lord's prayer. There is a beauty to this statement that even as a petition, it is endearing to one's heart. It shows dependence on the Lord to the extent that no matter what earthly resources one might have at their disposal, we are confessing our trust and hope in God to keep us through and provide us our needs. This one statement shows utter submission, dependence, hope and trust in the Lord all at the same time. Yet the best part of this statement lies in one word - 'us'.

Most of us never realize it, but it is interesting that the Lord would teach us to pray saying Give us... and not give me. It made me wonder what the Lord meant by using 'us' and who this 'us' signifies. To start with we understand the fact that we are His and He is ours, for our sake (Jn. 15). Just like the beginning of the Lord's prayer where we start with Our Father... we recognize the fact that we offer our prayers to the God, the creator of the whole universe, of all that exists - the provider of all that has life on earth. So when we pray 'us' we are asking for the Lord's provision for the entire community of believers in our local church, all over the earth; as well as humankind in general. But what are we praying for? We are praying for His provisions today for all of us... lest we be tempted to be selfish.

Our Daily Bread
This phrase makes for an interesting study in itself. The word used in the greek texts for daily is epiousion. It is a very rare form that was not used in any other place than the gospels. This is because it has a special meaning. In regular greek parlance the word that would be used for daily is kath hemeran; bearing the meaning for that day or according to the day. But the word used in the Lord's prayer goes to signify a meaning of essential or more literally translated suprasubstantial. This is interesting, as it signifies then not just the physical, but also the spiritual.

The spiritual sense of this word can be understood in understanding Jesus calling Himself the bread of life (Jn. 6: 35). This is of course in remembrance of the Lord's death on the cross, us partaking of His body (bread) thus making us part of Him and His. This eucharistic bread sustains us in our walk with Him. We are therefore taught to pray asking for His divine grace to sustain us through the day; that we might walk with Him and for Him through our day. Rahner puts this beautifully in a prayer stating - "for only through You can I continue to be in myself with You, when I go out of myself to be with the things of the world." We thus recognize that we cannot even walk His path, leave alone live for Him if not for His sustenance and grace for us through the day. While this part of our prayer we offer for the believing community, we ask for the unbelievers that they would find His spiritual guidance to see the Lord Christ for who He is - thus continuing on with the theme of this whole prayer being a missionary prayer primarily.

The physical sense of this word can be understood in the light of the manna our God provided for the people of Israel as they walked through the wilderness for 40 years. It also can be understood in the light of the Lord feeding the 4000 and 5000 with just a few loaves and fish. Our Lord knows our every need even before we have spoken or asked for it (Mt. 6: 8) and therefore He asks us not to worry about what we will eat or wear (Mt. 6: 31-33). But in the only statement in this entire prayer which asks the Lord for His provisions, Christ made sure He taught us to pray not just for ourselves but the for the community of believers and the world at large. We are taught to pray that He would provide 'us' our needs and not just me, my measly self and my needs.

This changes the usual understanding with which we pray this line - to making the focus 'us' as humanity instead of i,me and myself. And this is a much needed prayer - for while 1/2 of the world feasts, overeats and wastes, the other 1/2 of the world starves and searches for food to eat. While 1/3 rd of the world spends money to lose weight from all the over eating, the other 2/3 rds of the world  searches for money to meet their basic necessities. 

We are offering a prayer of hope for those who have none. We are asking for the Lord's provision for all humankind alike that all would have their suprasubstantial needs met; have the bread they need for their physical bodies and find the Lord (if they don't already know Him) and His grace to keep them to enjoy life and life in abundance in and through Him and His Spirit (Jn. 10:20).

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Putting it all together then, as we make this prayer; we are asking for God's provision for us. But the important thing to recognize is that we are taught to ask for His provision for today! Not tomorrow, not the day after or the years to come; but today.

This is important for us to understand in the light of what the Lord warns us in Mt. 6: 34 - "So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." We are taught by the Lord to ask for His provisions to carry us through today alone. In the light of the way the Lord provided supernaturally for the Israelites as they crossed the wilderness for each day, the Lord asks us to trust Him to provide for us for that day alone. Why one might ask?

The answer is simple - we cannot use today's grace to get us through tomorrow challenges. Today represents challenges enough for us to truly walk the Christian high road. Tomorrow will bring our way a different set of challenges to deal with which we can only use the experience of the previous day but not the strength the Lord gave us to deal with those set of issues. This is so similar to the way in which the Lord grants us 86400 seconds each day as if depositing it into the account of our lives. We cannot reuse those seconds once the day has past us, neither can we borrow more seconds to last us through a day.

We truly have our plates full for today. And the Lord teaches us not to worry about our futures but to just trust in Him with every fiber in our body to get us through today; in such a way that we will truly glorify His name and be victorious Christians. For a large part of it is living and truly enjoying His will for our lives today.

How can we then apply this prayer to our lives?

1. Daily Bread: During a recent trip to the North East of India, i realized just much we city folk take for granted the conditions a lot of people live in. When everything is just a hop, skip and jump away from us, it is easy to forget that our sustenance comes from the Lord alone regardless of who we are or what we possess on earth. We ought to remember this fact and remind ourselves that the Lord's provisions will reach us according to His will, no matter how bad a day we seem to be having. For we put our complete trust and hope in Him when we ask of Him to provide us everything we need emotionally, mentally, physically and financially to get through today.

2. It's always 'Us': When we pray for His will and provisions, let us remember that we were not created to be selfish - that attitude comes from our fall. Too often we forget to pray for the needs of those around us, even becoming insensitive to a certain extent to what our brothers and sisters are going through. I couldn't have realized this more when my wife underwent a surgery recently and i was waiting outside the operation theater looking at the concerned faces of all those waiting with me in the same lounge; anxious about their loved ones being cut open. The Lord sometimes takes us through situations that we might be more sensitive to the needs of those we meet or know, going through similar situations. How often have we paused to pray for them whether they are Christian or not, offer a word of comfort and encouragement? Do we make time to look beyond our own lives? Lets remember the Lord taught us to pray saying "Give US this day OUR daily bread..." 

3. His grace to live for Him: We too often overlook the fact that we cannot even breathe if He didn't choose to give us breath. Our being is in Him and as such as spiritual well-bring ought to be rooted in Him. Satan is out to get us like a lion (1 Pet. 5:8); and it is only God's grace that can enable us to overcome our selfish selves and live as unto Him. Our Daily Bread includes the spiritual. If we choose not to acknowledge this part of His bread of life for us; it is but our loss. Did you pray for grace to live for Him today?

May the Lord give us this day our daily bread!

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