Year 5, Day 107: Job 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

There is a huge part of me that wanted to focus on Job’s critique of his friends and their advice.  And while Job has some great things to say about their advice, I think my time is better spent elsewhere.  Rather than focusing upon one human’s critique of another human, I’m going to focus on the root of Job’s faith.

Job talks about God in two different ways in this passage.  In the middle of the passage, Job speaks about contending with God.  Job begs for the opportunity to give his case before God.  Job desires an opportunity to hear God explain away this tragedy.  This may seem arrogant, and it actually is!  Who among us can truly argue against God?  Who among us can truly win a debate regarding God’s character?

But here’s the thing.  Job knows that God is the Father.  What can a father do really well?  A father is in a great position to hear the critique of the child and still love them in spite of the incorrect critique.  A father is in a great position to accept the petulance of the child and show them a better way.  This doesn’t mean the child has the right to be that way.  But the father is the bigger person and meets the brash critique of the child with love.

I believe that this is why Job can talk at the end of the chapter about still having faith in God.  Even if Job would like to give God a piece of his mind, Job knows that it won’t be the end of the relationship with the Father.  Job’s hope will be in Him.  Job’s salvation is in God.  Job knows that a true Father doesn’t walk away just because a child doesn’t understand.  This is why God is our Father.  He’s the only one who can take our worst and still give us His best.

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Year 5, Day 106: Job 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

God is King.  We confess that to be true.  We believe it to be true.  But it is one of the hardest things to put into practice!

Look at Job’s response here in these verses.  Job continues to struggle with why this is happening to him.  He continues to be absolute firm in the defense of his innocence in spite of three friends coming and telling him that he is in need of repentance.  Job continues to wrestle with how a righteous God can stand by and watch while all of this happens to Job.

I honestly can’t say I can blame Job.  I know he’s wrong; but I also can completely understand how he feels.  It stinks to be in the middle of something like Job is going through.  It stinks to feel like your life is in turmoil and it is way beyond your control.  It is so incredibly easy to get mad at God because we think that He should be the one calling the shots and therefore He should consider our protection paramount.

But this perspective shows how we actually don’t always consider God as our king.  If God was always my king in every thought, word, and deed, would I be as concerned about fairness to me as I am concerned about fairness to God?  If God was always king in my life, would I not be able to always place full confidence in His ability to make things right?  If God was always my king and I never wavered in that allegiance, could I ever find fault with God and His ability to protect me and make things right?

You see, God is king.  Even when we accuse Him, he is still king.  Even when we wrestle with Him, he is still king.  But our wrestling shows doubt.  It shows a chink in the armor of faith.  When I wrestle with God as Job wrestles with God, it doesn’t mean I don’t believe at all.  But it does mean my doubting humanity has come to rear its ugly head.

God is King.  All things work out to His glory.  I should not doubt that which I so firmly believe.  But remembering that God is king and entrusting everything into His most capable hands is far easier said than done.

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Year 5, Day 105: Job 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

http://enteeremo.blogspot.com/2012/04/year-2-day-105-job-11.html

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

I’ve spoken much over the past few days about the need to listen.  I think that listening involves patience as well.  One cannot listen unless one is patient.  One cannot listen unless one is willing to let the other person speak before speaking yourself.

Once more in Job 11 we see a friend of Job seem to jump to the wrong conclusion that Job is in this predicament because of some horrid and tragic sin.  Much of Zophar’s advice is great, but on this point he makes the common mistake that those who came before him have made.  These friends of Job are not listening.  While they certainly have access to wisdom, when it comes to listening they don’t have the character within themselves to put aside their own thoughts for a moment.

This has caused me to wonder about how much of having the character of God is being willing to listen to Him?  After all, can we really obey unless we’ve taken time to hear?  Can we truly do the right thing if we haven’t taken the time to listen to God regarding what the right thing is?

I think that listening has much to do with character.  To listen means to be willing to put someone else first.  To listen means to be willing to accept something from another person.  To listen means to acknowledge that the world doesn’t revolve around me.  I believe all of these things are tied to the idea of character.  Having character means having the ability to put aside my desires and wishes and do what is right regardless of what I may really desire to do.  In other words, character is listening to God and listening to the needs of the world around me and trying to follow God into meeting those needs.

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Year 5, Day 104: Job 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Vision

• Vision: Vision is most needed when we are our most human. Vision is most needed when we have a typical D₂ moment. Vision is partnered by Time and Grace.

I spoke about vision a few days ago.  As I read through Job’s words in Job 10 I went straight back to those words from a few days back.  Again we hear Job speak alarmingly dark words.  Again we hear about Job being willing to give up his life if God would just take it.  Again we hear Job speak darkly about God’s intentions and motivations.  Again we hear Job say some disparaging things about God.  But again we don’t see Job cross the line of faith – or giving up his faith.

Job is living is a place with no vision.  When your skin has broken out in puss-filled boils, you tend to not have vision.  When all of your children are tragically taken from you in one brief moment, you tend to not have vision.  When your body aches with every move you make, you tend to not have vision.  When the best advice your spouse can say is, “Curse your God and die,” you tend to not have vision.

Once again I think that this is a very significant point to ponder.  If I find myself listening to a person in Job’s position, what do they need the most?  They certainly don’t need a scathing accusation of their so-called transgressions – especially if they may not be founded on reality!  No, what a person in Job’s situation needs is vision.  They need to see the future.  They need to have something onto which they can hope.  They need to know that the story will be well again and that especially it will end well.  Let’s face it.  With the Christian understanding of life eternal, we know that it will!

But I think that it is also important for me to understand this about myself.  There are days when I feel beaten by the world.  Don’t you?  On those days, it is important for me to remember my own need for vision.  I need to either look for vision myself or seek those who can cast it into my life.  We all get down at times.  We are all sad and despair from time to time.  We all need to remember our own need for vision.

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Year 5, Day 103: Job 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Grace

• Grace: Grace comes to us when we make mistakes and have a failing of character.  Grace comes to us when we have a typical D₂ moment.  Grace comes to us when we need space to recognize a mistake, repent of it, and allow God to redeem it while calling us back into His will.  Grace is partnered by Time and Vision.

Today I’m going to focus in on one particular verse: Job 9:33.  In this verse, Job claims that there is no arbiter between God and man.  In Job’s day, he is absolutely correct.  Who can come between God and mankind, laying hands upon both as if to bridge the gap between the two? 

You see, Job may not realize the scope about what he speaks, but he completely understands the problem of original sin!  What man can go into the presence of God and survive?  Who can go before God righteously as an arbiter for an unrighteous humanity?  We cannot save ourselves because we cannot even find among ourselves and arbiter between us and God.

I believe Paul has this verse in mind when he writes 1 Timothy 2:5.  Job cannot see into the future, but he knows that what mankind needs most is an arbiter.  In 1 Timothy 2:5 Paul tells us that there is one mediator between God and man: Jesus Christ.  God had to solve the problem for us.  God became the arbiter by taking humanity upon himself and becoming God-made-man.

I feel bad in that Job gives us this incredible bit of wisdom and never sees the answer in real life.  However, we know Job believes in the answer.  We’ll get to Job 19:25 soon enough, and there we’ll discover just what Job’s faith is all about.

That’s the grace that Job needs in the midst of his pit of despair.  He knows that he is not at fault.  Yet at the same time he also knows that he is sinful and cannot go into the presence of God and survive.  He knows that an arbiter is needed.  God’s grace is that an arbiter is given to us in Jesus Christ.

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Year 5, Day 102: Job 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

The more I read through the book of Job, the more I value the ability to listen.  I used to love to talk.  Okay, I still do love to talk.  But I have learned the value of talking less.  Many of the deepest conversations I have begin with me doing a good 15 or 20 minutes of listening where I don’t say much of anything.

You see, good listening skills help to make people competent.  When we listen, we get a better handle on what is actually happening.  When we listen to what is actually happening, we can get a better grip on what actually needs to be said or done.  If we want to be competent, we need to have more than a good education or a profound understanding.  We need to listen.

Listen to Bildad here in this passage.  Bildad starts off with some really great pieces of wisdom.  He knows what to say!  He seems like he’s got all the clichés memorized and knows how to put them out there.  When looking on the surface of these words, it is easy to read what Bildad says and completely miss the error.

The error is in his application.  Bildad doesn’t know Job as well as he could have.  Apparently Bildad hasn’t been listening.  Bildad wants to jump straight to the problem.  Bildad believes – because he hasn’t taken the time to listen competently – that Job is in turmoil because he’s lost his righteousness.  Bildad believes that if Job can just become righteous again that God will once more fight on behalf of Job.

Bildad’s missed the point.  For all of Bildad’s understanding and all of his clichés, he’s missed the point.  Job’s not in turmoil because he is unrighteous.  Job’s in turmoil because he is righteous.  Bildad’s inability to listen leads him into incompetency.

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Year 5, Day 101: Job 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Vision 

• Vision: Vision is most needed when we are our most human. Vision is most needed when we have a typical D₂ moment. Vision is partnered by Time and Grace.

I feel for Job in this chapter.  Here is a man whose world is crumbling around him.  Furthermore, he has the misfortune of being surrounded by people who assume that misfortune equals trespass and error.  In some cases that’s true.  But remember that here Job is in this predicament because of his righteousness and not because of his sinfulness.  But it doesn’t change the fact that Job is in a miserable place in life and surrounded by people who are doing everything except casting a hopeful vision of the future.

Can there be any wonder that Job finds himself wallowing in misery and wishing that he was dead?

When we are in despair, it is vision that we need most of all.  We need someone to come along beside us and remind us of what the future might look like with God.  We need someone to come alongside of us and struggle with us while forcing us to pick up our head and look down the road.

When I read most of Job’s words, I hear the words of a man who has lost his vision.  It’s understandable, mind you.  He’s lost everything; why not lose his vision, too?  But that’s what he needs to regain to move forward.  He needs to remember that life is defined by God and God’s reality.  Life is defined by what God can make of the future.  Life isn’t defined by our finite human perspective – thank the Lord!  Life is defined by what God can make of life – even a life that has been reduced to rubble.

I wish someone had been there to respond to Job and tell him to not long for death.  I wish someone had been there to remind Job of the infinite capacity of God.  Here is a man who desperately needs vision.  What a great reminder for each of us that when we find people in despair we need to respond in some manner that incorporates vision into the mind of the one despairing.

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Year 5, Day 100: Job 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father, King

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.
• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

As I reread my blog post from 3 years ago in conjunction with this post, I couldn’t help feeling shame for the point at the beginning when Job thinks of God as an adversary.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not judging Job here.  I didn’t feel the shame for Job.  I felt the shame for me.  I know what it feels like to be attacked and accused and to have one’s life thrown in turmoil.  I know what it is like to lay the blame at the feet of God.  I know what it is like to think that if God is all powerful then He’s directly responsible for any turmoil in my life – or at least responsible for not preventing it.

Just so I’m clear, although I know what that feels like, I also know that it is flat out wrong to feel that way.  Hence, why I feel shame.  I do it, but after the fact I know it’s wrong.

Let’s look at what God has done.  First of all, He created us in the first place.  We shouldn’t even exist.  But we have life because He created.  As far as my own life, I need to say that God has always provided in the midst of turmoil.  God has always had a “next thing” once the turmoil is done.  God has never failed to bring the next opportunity to serve Him into my life.  God has sheltered me through turmoil and brought other things along my path.  What a great reason to praise His name rather than accuse Him!

You see, we don’t worship a God who peppers us with His arrows and gives us poison to drink.  In our short-sightedness we may think that occasionally.  But we serve a God who is a Father to us and who provides opportunities after the turmoil has passed.  We serve a God who is King over the universe and set it in motion in the first place.  It is unfortunately far too easy to lose sight of both of these details.

We may lose sight of this fact, but that doesn’t make God any less of a Father or a King. In fact, it makes Him even more righteous because He desires to remain our Father and our King even when we turn our back upon Him and attribute things to Him for which He is not responsible.

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Year 5, Day 99: Job 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

I am amazed at how easy it is to hear the words of Eliphaz today.  So much of the beginning of his argument sounds like good sound theology!  He says, “As for me, I would seek God, who does great things,” and “He frustrates the ways of the crafty,” and “He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,” and “He wounds, but He binds up.”  Who wouldn’t believe such things?  All of these things are rooted in truth!  Certainly God does such things.

There is a danger in listening to people who know the trite expressions of godliness.  Anyone can hear the typical phrases of godliness and spit them out.  Anyone can say things that make a person sound like they have a genuine relationship with God.

But look at where Eliphaz ends.  As he closes his argument, Eliphaz is making the point that the true test of one’s relationship with God is how long you live and how much success you experience.  He says that a person in relationship with God will be “hidden from the lash of the tongue” and “your tent is at peace” and “your offspring shall be many” and “you will come to your grave at a ripe old age.”  Essentially what Eliphaz is saying is that we can know a person has a good relationship with God when the live a long, peaceful, and prosperous life.

I can’t help but stop and wonder.  Is this true about Jesus, who had the best relationship with the Father?  Was He hidden from the tongue, produce many offspring, and live a long life?  What about Jesus’ own disciples?  Did they lead long and peaceful lives?  Or what about Paul?  Did he lead a long and peaceful life?

Why do we believe that relationship with God ends in a long, peaceful, and prosperous life?  We believe it not because it is God’s truth but because it is what we want to believe.  We believe it because of our own ambition.  Our own personal ambition tells us that we are in a good relationship with God when we are at peace and successful.

But rest assured, that is not the portrait Jesus paints.  We will be eternally at peace with God for sure.  But with respect to the world, those who are in a great relationship with God will naturally be at odds with the world.  This is largely what the whole of Matthew 10 is all about.

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Year 5, Day 98: Job 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

As we look at Eliphaz’s speech, I believe we can see the error of Approval creeping into his words.  In my blog post from 3 years ago, I focus on the idea that so much of what Eliphaz says seems to have a snippet of truth within it.  It begins with a thought that seems to run with truth.  But when it comes time for a conclusion, the truth fades away and we are left with only a human expression.

For example, Eliphaz says that nobody is righteous in God’s eyes.  This is true.  None of us are righteous on our own merit.  However, Eliphaz concludes that people die insignificant deaths that aren’t even noticed by God.  Of course this is a lie!  God does know us and care for us individually!  Furthermore, while we cannot be righteous on our own merit, we can gain our righteousness from Him.

Eliphaz’s advice to Job in this chapter is riddled with thoughts like this one.  Eliphaz often begins with an experiential truth; but Eliphaz often ends with a theological lie.  Eliphaz takes the world that he sees around him and lets it lead him to a false conclusion.  This is often – but not always – an error of Approval.

Eliphaz’s error is in where he begins.  Eliphaz believes that he can derive universal truth by watching the experience of the world around him.  For Eliphaz, the experience of life around him is in his Up position.  What a proper attunement to God looks like is a person who starts with the universal truths of God and then tries to apply them to shape and mold the life around him. 

Yes, we can learn about the human condition and life around us.  But we should not think that universal truth can be derived from observations of human life.  Rather, human life can be improved through the application of universal truths to life.  We learn those truths from God.

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Year 5, Day 97: Job 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Vision

• Vision: Vision is most needed when we are our most human. Vision is most needed when we have a typical D₂ moment. Vision is partnered by Time and Grace.

Let’s face it.  Job is having one heck of a D₂ moment here.  Job has hit a serious low spot in his life and he is having to wrestle through it and process it.  I don’t have any issue with what Job is doing here in this chapter.

It’s completely natural for Job to focus first upon the pain and suffering.  After all, the list of health issues with which Job was inflicted would not have made for a pleasant life.  When we add to this the turmoil inflicted upon him in the first chapter with the loss of family and the ability to provide for himself, can there be any wonder that Job is in a dark spot in life?

Job does what we all need to do to get through dark spots in life.  He begins to process it.  In fact, I commend him for processing it with other people.  He needs to get the cesspool of emotional garbage out of himself so that it no longer consumes him from the inside.  So he lets it out.  He does what he needs to.  He puts voice to the feelings within him.  Note that to Job’s credit that he never once attacks God or God’s character while he does it.

However, let’s also note what Job is missing: vision.  Of course Job is missing it; who among us can ever see the end-game in a bleak situation like this?  Job cannot see the end.  He cannot see the bigger picture.  He cannot see past his own suffering right now.  It is vision that will eventually carry him beyond the natural short-sightedness of his pain.  Of course, he will need time before he is even willing to see that vision.  And in the end he will need grace to be forgiven of his natural self-centeredness brought on by this trauma.  But fundamentally, this chapter – and moments like this in each of our lives – are brought on because we simply lack the vision necessary to cope sensible with trauma in our life.  Job’s no different.  What he does here is completely understandable.

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Year 5, Day 96: Job 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

I think the whole book of Job revolves around this issue of character.  What do we do when life is tough?  What do we do when our chips are down?  What do we do when the easiest thing to do would be to curse God and assume He’s not on our side anymore?

Job’s wife gives Job some pretty bad advice here.  “Curse God and die.”  In other words, if your life stinks, you might as well end it.  What horrible advice!  If this advice isn’t the root of self-centeredness, I don’t know what is!  Job’s wife seems to believe that the sole point of life in having a good time.  Don’t get me wrong, life is better when it is enjoyed.  But when life is determined to be useful only when it is enjoyable we miss the real point of life.  It says something about our character when we are ready to give up on life when things don’t go our way.

Then we get to Job’s friends.  In this chapter, the friends appear wise.  They don’t say anything.  They sit in patience with Job, content to minister in presence to what Job is experiencing.  It shows a lot about their character that they are willing to mourn and grieve rather than simply assume that they have something important to say.  However, we’ll note that the vast majority of the rest of the book of Job is dedicated to what happens when Job’s friends do open their mouths.

Finally, we have a good look at Job’s character.  I am always stunned by Job’s expression when he is cursed.  “Should we expect the good blessings of God and not accept it when bad comes, too?”  This is an incredibly mature statement.  Are human beings really so self-centered that we honestly expect everything to go our way?  Job demonstrates incredible character in these verses.  He is content to be in relationship with God regardless of whether good or evil comes.

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Year 5, Day 95: Job 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

I think this is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible.  This chapter evokes so much raw emotion out of my ability to think about God and His ways.  This chapter also evokes so much out of my humanity and my natural desire to find fault with God as this chapter unfolds.  If you want to read more about that struggle, read my theological commentary from three years ago.

Ultimately, though, the reason that I love this chapter is how this chapter ends.  Job hears that all of his wealth has been consumed.  He also learns that all of his children have died in a rather freak accident.  Talk about your worst-case scenario kind of day!  But look at Job’s response.

Job tears his clothes.  He does certainly mourn.  But then he praises God.  He’s lost everything – everything in the world, that is.  But he still has his God.  Even on the worst day of his life, Job says, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Wow.  Now there’s a role model.  There’s a man whose Up is good to go.  When Job is at his lowest, he still blesses the Lord.  Job understands that he can lose everything except his relationship with God and he is still winning at life.  So long as he has God, Job has a reason to live.  He absolutely has a reason to mourn.  But relationship with God gives him a reason to live as well.

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Year 5, Day 94: 2 Corinthians 12 & 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Grace

• Grace: Grace comes to us when we make mistakes and have a failing of character.  Grace comes to us when we have a typical D₂ moment.  Grace comes to us when we need space to recognize a mistake, repent of it, and allow God to redeem it while calling us back into His will.  Grace is partnered by Time and Vision.

Let’s face it.  We all make mistakes.  We all have lapses in judgment.  As much as we may be aware of this fact, I don’t think anyone is as aware of this fact as God.  He knows even better than we do about our mistakes and our lapses in judgment.

Yet here’s the thing.  I have to confess that I am the man I am today largely because of the mistakes I’ve made.  I am the man I am today because of the hardships and trials that I’ve faced.  They weren’t easy.  I’ve often wanted to quit.  While I may like to talk about the successes and the victories, it is actually the hardships, persecutions, and turmoil that has impacted me into being the man that I am today.

This has got a good bit to do with how Paul ends this letter.  Paul himself had a thorn in his side that he begged to be removed from him.  But instead of being able to be perfect, Paul had to rely upon God’s grace in his imperfection.  Likewise, Paul begs and pleads with the Corinthians to recognize, repent of, and move beyond their own mistakes.  He recognizes that making mistakes can teach us about who we are and how to be different.  But ultimately Paul wants them to move beyond their mistakes.

This is a moment of grace.  Paul could have easily dumped them.  He could have easily pushed them aside and only maintained relationship with those who were easy to deal with.  But this is not what happens.  Paul wants to continue with them.  He wants them to repent and move on into a greater place.  That’s a calling of a grace that recognizes that we all make mistakes.  We all have thorns in our sides.  We all have skeletons in our closet.  But God is calling us out of them into greater things.

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Year 5, Day 93: 2 Corinthians 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

As I’ve gone through the Bible in this second cycle of reading, I’ve intentionally looked through the lens of discipleship.  It doesn’t surprise me that in the past 458 blog posts since January 1, 2014 that I’ve blogged the most on identity.  This will be the 62^nd post in a little more than 1.25 years.  That’s roughly 14% of the time reading through the Bible that I’ve been drawn to the issue of identity.  I’m not surprised.  In fact, I think I could have easily doubled this had I wanted to write even more frequently on identity.

Think about it.  What is the biggest challenge facing our humanity?  Submission.  In order to follow Christ, I have to abandon myself.  In order to follow Christ, I have to crucify myself and let myself die so that Christ can live instead of me.  Fundamentally, this is an issue of identity.  What do I care more about: asserting my own desires or obeying the desires of God?

It is no surprise that when Paul writes to a church that he cares about that he likewise spends a good deal talking to them about identity.  That is what this whole chapter is all about.  Paul warns them to make sure that their identity is actually coming from God.  He warns them against people who preach a Gospel other than salvation through Christ’s death alone.  He cautions them against people who are manipulating their hearts in order to fill their own pockets.  Church should not be about supporting other people’s lifestyle.  Church should not be about conforming to anyone’s standard other than Christ.

Paul boasts in Christ.  His identity is fundamentally rooted in Christ.  He boasts in the persecution that he’s received because of Christ.  He boasts in the hardship that he’s endured because of Christ.  As he boasts in Christ, we can tell that his identity is in Christ.  After all, if Paul’s identity was not in Christ, he would’ve left long ago.

I can’t help but ask where my identity is.  Is my identity in the place I worship?  Is it in the fact that I drink wine instead of grape juice at communion?  Is it in the fact that I was baptized by immersion instead of sprinkled?  Is my identity from the fact that I sit in the 5^th pew from the front on the left-hand aisle?  Or is my identity in Christ?  Am I willing to follow Christ and be persecuted for Him or do I prefer to continue on with my own human expectations in order to simply stay comfortable in my life?

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Year 5, Day 92: 2 Corinthians 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Kingdom

• Kingdom: We live in God’s creation, but it is fallen.  We do not yet live in the fullness of God’s Kingdom.  But we do know that the Kingdom of God is drawing near.  We do get to see glimpses of the kingdom each and every time that God works in us and through us as He tries to demonstrate Himself to the world.

I love the opening verses of 2 Corinthians 10.  In these verses we get a true sense of how Paul saw the world.  He walked around in flesh and blood; but he lived a spiritual battle.  Paul walked around in God’s creation, but he knew that this creation was a battlefield.  It is a battlefield between the ways of the world as influence by Satan and the ways of God as influenced by Christ.  Make no bones about it.  We are all flesh and blood.  But this is a battlefield.

Every once and a while I think it is important for people to stop and ask for which kingdom they are fighting.  Am I really fighting for the kingdom of God?  Are my decisions based on the advancement of God’s kingdom?  Or are my decisions based on my own feelings and my own desires?  Am I pursuing what God desires or what I desire?  Is life about God’s mission or is it about me?

I also think that it is important for our Christian gathering places to ask this same question.  When I go to church, is the body of Christ focused on God’s mission or is it focused on self-promotion?  Is it about living a godly life or being together in whatever way suits us and our style and our desires?  I think it is important for us to always ask which kingdom our churches are promoting.

After all, that’s exactly what Paul is doing here to the Corinthian church.  He is reminding them that while they’ve begun to make life about themselves, godliness is about living for God’s agenda.  We are to be working for God’s kingdom all the time.

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Year 5, Day 91: 2 Corinthians 8 & 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I am focusing on provision on a day where Paul is talking about charity and giving to the needs of the poor in Jerusalem.  After all, Paul makes a great case in these two chapters about giving generously.  Paul makes a great case for people who give because God has been generous to them.  After all, we serve a God who can manage it so that those who gather much have just enough and those who gather little find that they have no lack.  God knows our needs.  He provides.

But if He provides and we are to imitate Him, should we also not be generous?  What better way to demonstrate God’s love than by giving without cause to those who are in need?  What better thing is there in life than to be the very hands and feet of God’s provision into the life of another?

Before we leave this topic, I do feel that it is important to mention that we aren’t just talking about money, though.  God needs more of us than our pocketbook.  God provides us time that we can use in the lives of others.  God provides us talents that we can use into the lives of others.  God does way more than provide financial resources so that we can eat and clothe ourselves.  God provides wisdom, kindness, joy, peace, compassion, love, intellect, patience, and a whole host of skills that we can use to be a part of God’s provision for others in their life!  What a generous God we serve!

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Year 5, Day 90: 2 Corinthians 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Relational Capital, Spiritual Capital

• Relational Capital: Relational capital is that which we have between one another.  This capital is secondary only to spiritual capital.  It is a capital that binds people together and allows us to help one another out.  It is our relational capital that drives community.
• Spiritual Capital: Spiritual capital is capital that we have spiritually.  This is a capital that binds people together in Christ.  This is the capital that binds us to God.  This is the capital that allows us to delve into one another’s lives at a truly deep level: probing who we are and what God has called us to do.

As we talk about 2 Corinthians 7, I can’t help but see the relational and spiritual capital that Paul has built this conversation around.  Do you hear Paul’s words?  He worried after he sent the last letter to them.  He worried that it would drive them away from him.  He worried that it would push them away from God.  I don’t know a single person that when they are in a situation of giving advice or correction doesn’t worry about these kinds of things.

This is why it is so important to understand where our spiritual capital resides.  I cannot give solid but challenging spiritual advice where I do not have spiritual capital.  I cannot give personal advice where I do not have relational capital to give.  When I try to give spiritual or communal advice in places where I do not have relational and spiritual capital, I end up sounding like a noisy clanging gong.  I end up offending more than anything else.

However, Paul has built his relationship up with the Corinthians.  They see the spiritual capital at play in their lives.  Because of this, Paul can give them challenging words and they can respond positively.  They can be drawn closer to God through the challenge that Paul can give because of his relational and spiritual capital.  This is the place we all should strive to be in our lives.  We should all want people in our lives to whom we can speak and who can speak likewise speak into our life.

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Year 5, Day 89: 2 Corinthians 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

In this chapter Paul continues to lift up the banners of invitation and challenge.  He gives us a pretty good list of what we can expect when we embrace Christ more than we embrace the world.  He should know.  Paul knew the extremes of the joy in Christ and the rejection of the world.

Yet, look at that list.  Paul is inviting us into some very good things.  Paul reminds us that to know Christ is to know the Holy Spirit.  It is to be filled with the wisdom of God.  It is to be affected by God’s purity while our own filth is discarded.  It is to know patience, to speak in love and to have honor, and to wield the power of God!  We are being invited into a very unique place for a human being to go.  We are invited into an existence that we cannot come into on our own.

But there is challenge, too.  Look at the majority of the list.  To know Christ is to know beatings.  It is to know hardships.  It is to know rejection.  It is to face death at the hands of the world.

But the challenge is more than that.  Look specifically at the end of the list.  To know Christ is to endure all these negative things and have it not affect your outlook.  It is to be treated as imposters but to live as true people.  It is to be treated as unknown, and yet live as thought we are well known.  It is to be treated as though we are dying, yet live!  It is to be treated as punished, and yet live in spite of the abuse.  It is to be treated with sorrowful, yet live in a state of rejoicing.  It is to be treated as having nothing to offer, yet live to making many rich in Christ.  It is to be treated as having nothing, yet live knowing that we are in relationship with the person who owns everything.

To follow Christ is the challenge of living dichotomy.  From a worldly perspective we will give up much.  But we are to live with a smile on our face and joy in our hearts because we have it all.  The challenge is to keep our eye on the prize: eternal dwelling with God the Father!

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Year 5, Day 88: 2 Corinthians 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

This is a very powerful chapter on at least two levels.  The foundational belief for this chapter is that Jesus lived and died for our sake.  He met the cross so we could find reconciliation with God.  Jesus died – sacrificed His life – so that we could know forgiveness.  Jesus did not consider His own safety.  Rather, the work of God was important enough for Him to die.

This brings me to the idea of our own reconciliation with one another.  Do I live as sacrificially as Christ lived?  Is the proclamation of God’s forgiveness to the world worth sacrificing my life to the cause?  Of course it is!  But do I live that way?  Do I live as though there is nothing more important than putting God’s forgiveness on display regardless of the cost to myself? 

That’s how Christ lived.  That’s how we came to now reconciliation to God.  We know God’s love because He died for us.  How well do I follow that example?

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Year 5, Day 87: 2 Corinthians 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Today I looked up the quote that Paul gives to us in 2 Corinthians 4:13.  He says, “I believe and so I spoke.”  I was unfamiliar with the quote, so I looked it up.  It comes from Psalm 116:10.  It is in this same Psalm that we find the verse, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”  Psalm 116 is all about the glory of the Lord and how even in our persecution the Lord is righteous.

In this quote, Paul gives us a simple message.  Persecution will come upon the people of the Lord.  It is a matter of course for us.  Following God will not give us an easy life in this world.

What is important is what we do in our moment of persecution.  Do we turn on the Lord and curse Him?  Do we lose faith and walk away?  Or do we call out to the Lord in the midst of our persecution knowing that God will hear us and answer us?  Do we call out to God in the midst of our persecution believing that God will bring us through it?  This is why Paul says, “I believe, and so I spoke.”  This is why Psalm 116:10 says, “I believed, even when I spoke: ‘I am greatly afflicted.’”  For Paul and for the Psalmist, persecution is only a prelude to greater belief.  We call to God out of our persecution because we believe.  We call out in faith and confidence because we believe God can protect us.

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Year 5, Day 86: 2 Corinthians 2 & 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Forgiveness is one of the powerful messages of the early part of 2 Corinthians.  You’ll remember that in 1 Corinthians Paul had some harsh words for dealing with sin and people who needed to be corrected.  But now that the correction has occurred, the people need to be forgiven and the community needs to go forward.

You see, sometimes correction brings hurt.  Sometimes hurt has to happen in order for harm to be avoided.  As an obvious example, a mother slaps her hand across a toddler’s hand that is reaching towards a burning stove.  Another example is a parent refuses to let their child go to see a movie that they are not mature enough to deal with the content.  Another example is a pastor that counsels a dating couple to not have premarital sex.  In each of those examples, a person is prevented from doing what they want to do.  They experience hurt.  But the hurt is intended to prevent them from actually experiencing harm.

However, the hurt really is only justified is there is also forgiveness.  A child who is disciplined because of bad behavior needs to feel forgiveness in order for the relationship to continue.  An employee who has been chastised needs to know that they are no longer in danger of losing their job once the employee has demonstrated that the lesson has been learned.  In the same manner, a sinner who is corrected out of their sin needs to feel forgiven so that they can experience union once more with the community at large.

After all, this is the pattern that we see with God.  We sin.  There is usually punishment and consequence to our sin.  But then we are forgiven.  Then we experience union with God once we have repented.  God does not hold onto our sin after He forgives us.  In His forgiveness, He removes our guilt from us.  In the same manner, we also should imitate God and forgive as He forgives.

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Year 5, Day 85: 2 Corinthians 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

As I read over my blog post from three years ago, I was struck by my focus on Paul’s disappointment.  As we read through 2 Corinthians 1, we can feel a sense of disappointment in the words.  Paul’s lived a hard life.  He’s encountered opposition in Asia Minor.  People are turning on him.  The Corinthians have not figured out their issues and require another letter.  The famine in Jerusalem continues and the need for his collection is growing.  Paul sounds like a disappointed man in this opening letter.

Yet, look where Paul begins.  Paul begins with the character of the God.  Paul begins with hope and mercy and grace.  Paul begins with consolation.  Paul reminds them that as they are consoled they are to console others.

To me, this is one of the most important characteristics of Father.  One of the things I loved about my dad when I was growing up was that he was always there for me.  When I fell down, he picked me up.  When I made a wrong choice, he helped me understand it, deal with the ramifications, and correct it.  When I need support he was there.  When I needed courage he helped me find it.

God is even greater than this.  God gives us eternal courage.  He gives us eternal hope.  He gives us eternal comfort.  When the world kicks us, God comes to us, reminds us of His promise to grant us life eternal, picks us up, and encourages us to try again.  That’s God.  That’s the Father.  That’s what comes out of God’s love.  Like Paul, no matter how much disappointment we face in life God is there to be Father to us and comfort us so that we can go and do likewise.

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Year 5, Day 84: 1 Corinthians 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

This last chapter of this book ends on both a note of challenge and a note of invitation.  Paul reminds them about their invitation to be godly.  They have a hope of a future life to come!  He reminds them about the love of our Lord!  He reminds them of God’s grace.  He reminds them about the importance of acting in love.  He even invites them into the work that God desires to do among the orphans and widows in Jerusalem.  There are physical and emotional invitations at the close of this letter. 

As followers of God, we are always being invited into greater things.  We should always be mindful of the great things into which we have been invited.  Is there anything greater than the love of God?  Is there anything greater than the grace of God?  Is there anything better than being allowed to work side-by-side with God in how He is moving in the world?

However, Paul also reminds the Corinthians of the challenge.  If we are to work side-by-side with God, we will have to be strong.  We will have to be courageous.  We will need to be faithful.  We will need to plan ahead.  We will have to submit to the authority of the spiritually strong. These are not easy things to do.  Most of them are just not human nature.  These are challenges in our life, challenges to which we must rise.

The life of a follower of God is always remembering our invitation into relationship with God.  Then it is about living out that invitation in challenging ways that cause us to rise above our human nature.

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Year 5, Day 83: 1 Corinthians 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

I haven’t spoken about challenge lately, so I think that it is time to do so.  So often when we think about forgiveness, we think of it in terms of grace and invitation.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is an incredible display of grace and it is probably the greatest invitation we could ever hope to receive.  So it is all about grace and invitation.

However, the way Paul talks about it here I can’t also help but feel the challenge.  Paul talks about the grain going into the ground to die.  The grain goes into the ground and something completely unexpected and totally different emerges!  That’s pretty high challenge.

I realize that Paul is using this analogy to talk about our pre-death and our post-death existence.  But does it have to be so limited?  Do I for a moment think that God is happy with me waiting until I’m dead and gone before I start to make that metamorphosis?  Isn’t part of taking up my cross and following Him something that requires change not unlike the grain that goes into the ground and comes out a plant?  Isn’t that what being crucified with Christ is all about – so that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me?

Whenever we talk about the crucifixion it is both a high invitation and high challenge conversation.  We are invited into God’s family through that act.  But we are also challenged to be more like Him.  Being a part of God’s family means being willing to be like that seed that dies so that something better and more useful can be brought forth.

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