First Advent Meditation: Jesus is Speaking

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

He is Wonderful Counselor. Two observations: 

First, this is the only one of the four names that includes a verb.  The other three names consist of nouns and an adjective.  Counselor is actually a verbal participle. The emphasis is on the action. It is not - wonderful is the counselor (though that is also true) but more specifically - wonderful is the counseling.

And secondly, the word wonderful had a different connotation for Isaiah. For us today we can enjoy fresh baked cookies from the oven and declare, "They are wonderful!" - meaning that they are very much and very easily to our liking. But Isaiah uses the word peh'-leh which means something that is hard to understand yet is good. In other words, there is a kind of good complexity in Jesus' counsel that makes it wonderful but not always simple.

So why is this important to know?

1.Jesus is speaking - Are you listening?

Jesus' counsel continues to speak to our hearts. His sermon on the mount is as relevant for today as it was for His first disciples. His question, "Who do you say that I am?" continues to be asked and requires an answer from every person. His final declaration to be His witnesses in all the earth has not changed for 2,000 years. Jesus is speaking; He is giving counsel, and His words are good. But are you listening?

Many people spend most of their lives telling Jesus what they want rather than listening to what He wants for them. Jesus is not a counselor that sits back and passively listens to you, hoping you will feel better. He counsels us - able to pinpoint the heart of the matter immediately. For many that can be frightening. But for those who are courageous enough to listen and receive, it is life-giving.

I'm wondering today if you think Jesus has become silent in your life but actually the problem is that you have stopped listening to Him? 

2.Jesus is speaking - Are you confused?

Isaiah tells us that His counseling is hard to understand. It is Wonderful. It is good but requires faith to walk in it - trusting that He is unfolding purposes that are beyond our ability to comprehend. 

Jesus does not delight in keeping us confused. It's not a manipulative head game. Rather, He delights in holding us through the confusion until clarity emerges and peace, once again, floods our hearts. The wonder and mystery of Jesus is there to constantly remind us that the One who is above and over all things is fully sufficient but not always fully understood.

I'm wondering today if your confusion can become access to Jesus instead of a barrier to Jesus? If that which you have been interpreting as bad is actually a hard-to-understand-but-good path back into His loving and outstretched arms?

He is a Wonderful Counselor.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

Enough

Is Emmanuel (God with us) enough? The culture of outcomes, deliverables, ROI's, and consumerism is crushing our souls - invading our spaces of worship and sacred practices like a hostile take-over. No wonder we are spiritually malnourished and far from being whole.

God told us upfront that He would be with us always - a rare promise in Scripture for all for all time. Why is it not enough? It flows from our lips with responses of "Amen" from our listeners but then bounces off our hearts. Perhaps our obsession with tangible empirical results cloud our ability to truly enjoy His Presence?

It has for me. And I want to change. I want to know the joy of being with Him without immediately wondering how that might translate into "wins" for the Kingdom. He has already won.

Emmanuel is not an excuse to be lazy or guilty of poor stewardship. We have a Great Commission that is action oriented. But He proclaimed Emmanuel before He proclaimed the Great Commission. We tend to proclaim it in the opposite order. Rightly practiced, our steps should be birthed out of His Presence. But mostly practiced, our steps are great in number long before we consider His Presence.

I have a long way to go before I fully develop this spiritual practice. But it is essential that I do. Maybe for you too? 

May Enough be reclaimed in our hearts and in the hearts of our churches.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

   

 

An Ex-Expert on God

In the beginning I believed that my study of God would make me an expert on God. That my submission to His refining fire and discipline would get me access to the inner workings of His Rule and Authority. That I might even be summoned at times to give spiritual insight and explanation of the Lord's Ways. God, of course, needs another Daniel, right?

But it's now 35 years later.  And the outcomes I anticipated are different from His outcomes. In retrospect my original desired outcomes were purely self-serving.  They put me at the center of it all rather than the Lord. I was quietly, even somewhat unknowingly, hoping that I would increase and He would decrease - the very opposite of what is supposed to happen.

Apart from the gift of Salvation, one of the greatest expressions of grace and mercy from our Lord is His patience in allowing our secret motives to change. He steadfastly grants us space and time to fully and truly move Him to the center of our lives - even though we spend years proclaiming He is already there. In the spirit of confession, I even struggle as I write this, to wonder if I'm writing it for personal affirmation or to purely affirm His Lordship in my life.  Maybe you can relate to that tension?

So where does this leave me/you? First, my pursuit and desire to know God has not lessened in the least bit.  If anything, it is intensifying with time.  But my understanding of all this is coming more into alignment with His desires not mine. Specifically, His Process in me is becoming more important than an obsession with His Purposes for me. Process-First faith seems to always keep Jesus at the center while Purpose-First or Performance-First faith seems to always keep me/you at the center. Process, Purpose, and Performance are all important and good as long as Process leads to Purpose and Performance - not the reverse. Otherwise, we have hearts that will continually drift towards self-promotion.

Secondly, God is not asking us to become an expert on Him. He is telling us that He is an expert on us. That He created us; loves us; knows us; and receives us because He paid a Ransom for us.  He is telling us that we can enjoy spiritual intimacy with Him that will then give birth to all we need as well as keep us away from all that we do not need. Father, may that be enough. May we resist the temptation to blend temporal and worldly additives to the purity of Your Presence.

Thirdly, there is a kind of powerful clarity and comfort in the mystery of God. While most of the time mystery leads to confusion, it need not do so with the Lord. His mysterious ways are not for the purposes of cruelty, as are the powers of this world. Rather, they are due to His Greatness and Love for us which invite us to be enveloped by that which is magnificently bigger and better for us - even when it doesn't feel that way. Thank you, Father, for your Glorious Mystique.

And finally, God does not want another Daniel.  He wants another you - the one He created and designed while you were in the womb.  The one He loves and desires to walk with as He once did with Adam and Eve. The one who is not here by accident but by His Grace.  The one who will continually experience uprootedness apart from Him.  The one He is, right now, patiently in Process with for your benefit.

From one Ex-Expert on God to another.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden      

Know Him

We need to pay close attention to the prayers of the Apostle Paul for the churches he instructed through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  

In the first half of his prayer for Ephesus (1:16-17) we learn of a spirit of wisdom and revelation that is essential for cultivating first-hand knowledge of God.  As this spirit is given, emerging in us as we lean into the heart of our Father, the harmony of wisdom and revelation begins to sing within us.  The beauty of these two practices, never to be separated but always intertwined with purpose, provides us with the process we need to grow spiritually.

Wisdom (a sophisticated clarity) and revelation (an unveiling that you suddenly see or understand) are the two-fold dimensions of this spirit that are available to us in Christ.  Their purpose is so we might come into greater knowledge of the Father. Period.

Probably like you, I struggle with this being enough.  I struggle with drawing near to our heavenly Father to simply know Him.  I routinely attempt to leverage these moments for my personal benefit as if, ridiculously, I'm buttering Him up for my asks. God forgive me.

I wonder what would emerge if our spiritual lives functioned continually with a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him? I suspect that the longings of our heart would be taken care of at the appointed time; that our concerns would become covered in His peace; that our fears would become enveloped by His Presence; and that we would be able to enter His rest in all of it.

Let's know Him.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

Every Spiritual Blessing

From his imprisonment, with a guard chained to him at all times, Paul is inspired to write: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).  Some time later Paul was dragged off and beheaded.

The flippant and self-centered way this scripture verse is interpreted, taught, and used today by so many is not only shameful but severely stifles spiritual maturity.  So let's set things straight.  Here are the cliff notes version:

Study

1.    Eulogetos:  1st use of blessing/ an adjective/ it is only used of God/ God alone is worthy of all this kind of blessing or praise from all people/ Blessed be the God
2.    Eulogeo:  2nd use of blessing/ an action/ it means that a good word has been spoken that confers that which is beneficial/ Christ did this and we are the recipients/ the One who has blessed us
3.    Eulogia:  3rd use of blessing/ a noun/ a bountiful gift or blessing that is the benefits of the blessings in Christ/ BUT this blessing comes with lots of clarity:  every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ
1. Every:  all our spiritual needs are provided in Christ
2. Spiritual:  Pneumatikos - the invisible sphere where the Holy Spirit brings faith and revelation (understanding) of Christ
3. In the Heavenly Realms:  Epouranios - epi "fitting" and ouranos "heaven" - we receive what is "fitting" from the standpoint of the heavenly realms
4. In Christ:  it came from Christ and is contained in Christ

Why Does This Matter?

1. Christ is to be received and honored, not so we can get all our little whims and wishes and limited perspectives satisfied, but so that we may be filled with all spiritual blessings from heaven.

2. Spiritual blessings are not necessarily connected to healings, miracles, or financial prosperity.  If they are, God will need to apologize to Paul.

3. If we focus on cultivating the spiritual blessings available to us in Christ (forgiveness, redemption, holiness, hope, peace, love, godly wisdom, joy, and so much more) then God will take care of the rest.

Have you fallen into the habit of only associating the blessings of Christ with those things that you want?  Those things that only align with your limited perspective?  

We receive what is "fitting" from the standpoint of the heavenly realms.  And the last time I checked, heaven does not consult with me on these matters!  This is why mature faith is so important.  It moves us into a place of contentment and peace and alignment with the heavenly realms regardless of our limitation in understanding His ways.  As for me, I hope to be found striving for that however challenging it might be.  For only in Christ is every spiritual blessing contained.

And then Paul was dragged off and beheaded.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

When He Saw The Crowds

It's interesting that what seems to have prompted Jesus to begin teaching the Sermon on the Mount was when he saw the crowds (Matthew 5:1).  Why would growing popularity and the presence of a swarming crowd inspire Jesus to teach some of his hardest sayings?  If miracles and healings were drawing a crowd, why jeopardize this momentum with a series of teachings that would most certainly drive many away?

The abrupt transition from Healer to Teacher that occurs in Matthew 4:25 - 5:1 should jump off the pages for us with repeating shouts from Jesus: Take note of what I am modeling for you.  Be aware of crowd-infatuation and it's potential to lure you away from the core principles of the Kingdom of God.  I submit that this abrupt transition by Jesus, in all its meaning, is actually the first teaching of the Sermon on the Mount not "blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

While the specific thoughts and intent of Jesus are not revealed, I would like to suggest that Jesus' prompting to begin teaching was due to this truth:  Miracles and healings create a crowd, but they do not create disciples. And Jesus' mission was, and continues to be through the Church, to reconcile humanity to God by cultivating disciples.  Crowds, miracles, and healings are great and should be anticipated along the way, but discipleship is the mission.  And the two do not always go together.

Now, in anticipation of the "but what about __________?" questions that can often be asked, as they should be, in response to this kind of observation - namely the complexity of crowd-drawing v. discipleship tensions that exist in ministry - here are some clarifying statements:

• Crowds are not bad.  3,000 people believed in Jesus on the day of Pentecost.  Quite a big crowd.  But how crowds influence you determines whether they are bad or good.

• Discipleship efforts should never be used as an excuse for lack of water baptisms.  Salvation is the first step of discipleship.  Ministries without new declarations of faith in Jesus will die. 

• The quality of discipleship happening in a ministry should be multi-layered throughout the community - not solely dependent on one sermon a week.

• "Holy Remnant Mindset" (which I define as "we are small because we preach the hard, true gospel here and only a few holy people are willing to receive it") is antithetical to the Gospel.  The Good News attracts - not all the time but much of the time.  If your leadership is chronically driving people away, there are flaws in your leadership.

• Challenging, Kingdom principles can be taught to those on the margin of faith with a tone of love, hope, patience, and goodness that draws them in to a deeper walk with Jesus.  We don't need to assume that they are only looking for entertainment. 

• Leading a large ministry requires significant leadership capacity and skill.  We should never assume that a large ministry means a shallow ministry.  There are large and small ministries that are unhealthy, and there are large and small ministries that are healthy.

• Creativity is not necessarily an indication of an entertainment-only ministry.  The first characteristic of God we discover in Scripture is that He creates with endless beauty and awe-inspiring works for our senses.  Let's use all the tools available to us to spread the Gospel.

• Laughter is good.  Discipleship does not equal seriousness only! Scripture says, "The joy of the Lord is our strength."  A ministry that does not laugh together is a ministry that is limiting the work and strength of the Lord in their midst. 

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

It's Not About Us

Why couldn't we drive it out?  
Mark 9:28

After having front row seats to Jesus' life-changing work in a young boy and his father, the disciples could only think of themselves.  I never cease to be amazed at our capacity to make everything about us.  We're so good at turning God moments into "us" moments.  I often wonder if the core of our sinful nature is simply good ole fashion selfishness?  We say that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, but we actually live loving ourselves with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

So how did Jesus respond?  First, Jesus did not rebuke the disciples.  Are you not so grateful for the grace of Jesus as He grows us?  He mostly teaches.  Rebukes are reserved for only the occasional necessity.  Jesus matures us through new revelations of Spirit and Truth rather than through fear or condemnation.

Secondly, Jesus elevated the importance of prayer over ability.  Prayer connects us to the One who prepares and empowers us to flow in Kingdom authority and discernment.  Ability implies human effort and skill.  In short, Jesus was saying to His disciples and to us:  "You" will never drive it out.  It's not about you; it's about the power of God flowing through you.  

There is a subtle yet significant difference between those statements.  The former turns the attention to us.  The latter turns the attention to the Great I Am - in whom all power, authority, life, and love exist eternally.  You and I exhibit these qualities not from anything we have done but entirely from what He has done for us.

And thirdly, Jesus' response implied that the kind of prayer He is referring to is a lifestyle of "pre-prayered-ness." I'm not sure if anyone else has already laid claim to that phrase?  If not, I claim it now!!  Interestingly, Jesus never prayed right before He healed the boy.  So He is not referring to a special crafted prayer in the moment.  Rather, He is implying and teaching:  Pray without ceasing.  Be prayed up daily so you are ready when called upon.  These kind come out only when your life is in continual alignment with the Father.

There is a special kind of power that flows through us when we are called upon to minister or pray or encourage or help or heal, and the will of the Father has already been stirring in us from prior times of prayer.  That, my friends, is pre-prayered-ness.  It is what Jesus modeled for us and is that which we are to strive for daily.

I conclude with a question directed to myself first and you second:  How many remain lost, broken and/or wounded as Believers remain selfish and powerless from refusing to cultivate a life of prayer without ceasing?

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden