Friday, September 7, 2012

Reclaiming the Image of God: The Beauty of Jesus...in His Humility

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays:  he will not be a sort of greasy, swarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody.  Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.  If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily.  He will not be thinking about humility; he will not be thinking about himself at all.C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Have you ever thought about the humility of God?  That not only is He the Most High but the Most Lowly, too?  The more I think about it, the more it actually makes sense to me, you know?  Especially when I consider that anything good (including humility) finds its origin and fullest expression in God; and, too, that God seems to take great pleasure in seeing humility spring forth from within His children.  Because humility seems to be such an intimate and all encompassing part of God's Nature and Personality, I have this feeling that God is intensely pleased when He is invited to share such parts of Himself with us.

Marriam-Webster offers the following definitions for humility:

1.     The state of being humble;

2.     The absence of any feelings of being better than anyone else;

3.     Having or showing a consciousness of one's shortcomings;

4.     Modest;

5.     Lowly; unpretentious; and

6.     Abased.
Despite these multiple (and, I think, useful) articulations, I am not quite sure MW is really getting at the essence of true humility.  As such, I'm wondering if humility is just one of those rare states of being that, in many ways, defies adequate description.  In fact, I would venture that it is our indirect experience of humility that lets us know when we've encountered it.  And it is this particular reality that, I think, hints at why humility may be so important to God. 

When I look unto Jesus, "the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being" (Hebrews 1:3a), I think upon Philippians 2:5, which teaches that this Jesus, Who being God, "made himself nothing" when He came to earth as a man.  Made Himself nothing.  Are you as intrigued by those words as I am?  Other translations of this verse read as follows:

1.     "stripped himself of all privilege" (J.B. Phillips New Testament);

2.     "made himself of no reputation" (New King James Version); and

3.     "emptied himself" (New American Standard Bible).
I love these, and I believe that together they give us a glimpse into the humility of He Who is the Standard-Bearer of true humility.  YHVH, The Name of Existence, emptied Himself, stripped Himself of all privilege and reputation, and made Himself nothing so that He might reconcile all things to himself.

Yes...these things are very intriguing to me.  So...for the next little while, I'd like to delve into what I believe to be three key components of humility.

Becoming Nothing

For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to The Beatitudes in Jesus' Sermon on the Mountespecially to His first beatific if-then statement:  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).

The older I get, the more convinced I am that, aside from the confession of sin (and the repentance from it as well!), there is nothing God lauds or asks of us that He Himself does not already possess or practice.  A basic example of such a hypothesis would be God's command to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  The reason God asks this of us is because He Himself is Love by definition.  For us to obey God in this manner is to, quite simply, be like Him in that respect.  Take the act of laying down one's life for another.  While such a virtuous deed is not overtly commanded by God, Jesus regards such a thing as the greatest act of love one man (or woman) could do for another (see John 15:13).  The reason Jesus was able to make such a judgment was because He Himself was just days from laying His life down for the whole world.

But what of the condition of being poor in spirit?  Was this true of Jesus when He walked the face of the planet?  Having given this considerable thought, I have no doubt but that He was.  Jesus did not just preach poverty of spirit, He embraced itembodied it, even.  Not only did He make Himself poor, but He adopted the posture of a lowly slave and opened Himself up willingly to the problems, neediness, and spiritual oppressions we all face to one degree or another.  Throughout the gospels, one cannot help but notice how Jesus seemed to live from day to day on what His Father gave Him.  Jesus, as a human, was limited; He knew He was in enemy territory, and He knew, too, that He had needs that could only be met external to Himself.  In becoming nothing, Jesus enslaved Himself to a paradigm where He could do nothing but look to God to provide for Him, protect Him, and empower Him.  Think about that for  moment...Jesus, God Almighty, stripped Himself of the privilege, power, and majesty of His preexistent state and allowed Himself to be born into slavery so that He might in His humanness do that which only a human (the second or last Adam [see 1 Corinthians 14:45]) could do to redeem back humanity from the clutches of sin, death, and enemy control.

How willing are you to strip yourself of all that you are and have so that you might benefit another?  The interesting thing is that only God has to power to do this.  Jesus got His ability from God, and so can we, for that is how we are meant to live.

Surrender

Marriam-Webster defines surrender as such:

1.     To yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand;

2.     To give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another;

3.     To give (oneself) up into the power of another especially as a prisoner; and

4.     To give (oneself) over to something (as an influence).

In a nutshell, to surrender is to willfully accept and yield (as a slave or, even, as a prisoner) to the will of a dominating force or higher power.  Jesus lived what I believe to be "the surrendered life".  As a human being, He surrendered himself totally and completely to God; He also submitted to His parents (see Luke 2:51) and to the religious and civil authorities of His day (see Mark 12:17 and John 18:1-19:27).  This is seen not just in His day to day life but also during the darkest times of His existence:  While He anguished in the Garden of Gethsemane, and while He suffered on the cross at Golgotha.  In my own prayer life, I have adopted and strung together two things Jesus prayed during these last two events of His life.  The first is found in Luke 22:42, which Jesus said while in Gethsemane:  "Not my will but thine"; the second is found one chapter later in Luke 23:46, which Jesus cried out to the father while He hung on the cross:  "Into your hands, I commit my spirit".  Combined together, these two prayers read as follows:  "Not my will but Thine; into Your Hands I commit my spirit."  For many years, this particular prayer has been my own personal anthem of surrender and consecration.

A surrendered person has not only been consecrated (made holy, set apart, branded) by God, but has embodied that consecration.  What does a surrendered person's life look like?  Drawing from the life of Jesus and from the many themes of surrendered living portrayed throughout both the Old and New Testaments, one is, I believe, on the narrow road of humility when he or she…

·        Does not have to have a particular thing happen (for example, get THAT job or marry THAT person) to feel like his or her life will work out.

·        Needs neither notoriety nor to be noticed, esteemed, or, even, recognized by others.

·        Is genuinely happy for and rejoices with a peer when such a one does well on a difficult exam, is promoted, is blessed in ministry, lands a fabulous job, wins the heart of the prettiest girl in school, gets in to grad school, gets married, has a baby, etc.

·        Prefers to serve rather than to be served and adopts such a posture unassumingly, without presumption and without announcement.

·        Lends or gives to others without expecting anything in return, including repayment.

·        Is committed to the local community of faith and values harmony as that community seeks to express the love of God toward each other and toward those outside their community.

·        Has fun helping others to discover their dreams, to live-in to their own unique happiness, or just to enjoy themselves.

·        Gives back to God far more than just "the tithe".

·        Listens to the Whispers of God’s Spirit and is readily available to serve God whenever God says, "Now...".

·        Does not have to be the best, the brightest, the most good looking, or the most talented.

·        Has an almost unquenchable desire to please his or her Abba-Daddy.

·        Speaks the truth in love, even when doing so is unpopular or feels incredibly uncomfortable.

·        Would choose 100 out of 100 times to be the one stolen from as opposed to the one who steals from another…even if he or she were assured of never being caught.

·        Actively embraces a heart of gratefulness in most situations, and complains rarely, if ever.

·        Is not easily offended.

·        Forgives without so much as a thought because such a one decided long ago to forgive before anything was said or done.

·        Is not ashamed of Jesus or of His gospel.

·        Is comfortable with silence and stillness.

·        Is an expressive worshiper of God.

·        Recognizes that everyone on earth is in the same boat:  And that is, that we are all in desperate need for God to do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves.

·        Loves purely for the joy of loving others and does not consider not being loved in return that big of a deal.

·        Delights in inviting God to be a part of every thought, feeling, word, and action.

·        Always has enough to share with another.

·        Endeavors to do the right thing—especially, when he or she is alone.

·        Has been thoroughly tamed by God and treats others with the utmost kindness, respect, dignity, and compassion.

·        Sees himself or herself as nothing more than a conduit of God’s loving-kindness, joy, compassion, and blessing to those around him or her.

·        Is happy…pretty much all the time…even when feeling sad or broken.

·        Loves language and words and feels things intensely, but is, surprisingly, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

·        Listens without interrupting (or without trying to think of what he or she would like to say) while another is speaking.

·        Is frugal (yet extremely generous) with his or her time, money, and resources.
Emptying Oneself

Buddhist thought teaches that to enjoy peace of mind, once must live presently by emptying one's mind of all self-focused thought, meaning the  "hooks" and "sticky feedback loops" within the mind (regrets, unfulfilled longings, resentments, judgments, the desire to impress, etc.) that distract one from living in the here and now.  While I agree that empty-mindedness (aka mindfulness) is crucial to peace of mind, the concept of emptying one's mind and emptying oneself are not the same thing.
To empty one's mind is to let go of one's caressing attention to or fixation upon one's self-thoughts and to, instead, turn one's attention back to the physical aspects of existence—for example, to one's breath.  To empty oneself, though, involves not just the emptying of one's self-thoughts, but also the laying down of one's rights, one's needs, one's privileges, and one's personal desires.  There are two crucial elements to emptying oneself that I think point to things far beyond just the "emptying" exercise above; they are as follows:

1.     When we empty ourselves, we create room wherein God can give us that which He longs to give us;  more often than not, these are the very things we've been longing for our entire lives.

2.     When we empty ourselves and then receive that which God has given us, we can, in turn, "empty ourselves" into those around us (and give away that which we cannot lose!).
Jesus set the example in all these things.  Not only did He lay aside His powers, rights, and privileges as God, but He made Himself empty before His Father so that, paradoxically, His cup might be filled to overflowing with God's Touch and Presence.  And it was out of that fullness, which He drank of daily, that He was able to pour Himself out into those around Him.

Prayer of Humility

Holy Father...

My need for you far exceeds my comprehension of that need.  Help me, Lord, to walk in a manner that's surrendered before You...

...like someone who's made himself nothing...

...like someone who's been brought to a place of easy and continual emptying...

...so that I might be able to receive from You all that You have for me and then give it away to those around me.

I'm reminded, Lord, of something the missionary Jim Elliot wrote in his diary not long before he was martyred:  "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."  Lord...may my life be lived in such a manner.

Not my will but Thine; into Your Hands I commit my spirit...

Amen.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Reclaiming the Image of God—Part Two

Jesus...in His Holiness

How great the power and charm of a holy life!  The world is replete with beauty.  There is beauty in nature, beauty in art, beauty in countless forms; but there is no beauty like “the beauty of holiness.”  The brightness which gleams through a good man’s life outshines the sun in its meridian splendor.Octavius Winslow

Holiness, or, quite simply, the state of being sanctified (or set-apart from the world) unto God, is, I believe, that one trait which I think distinguishes the follower of Jesus from any and every other person on the face of the planet.  While we are to be known by our love (see John 13:35), the ever-present loving-kindness of God, when it is expressed in and through us as individuals, is enabled and channeled through the conduit of our own personal holiness.

God, Who is holy by definition, is set apart from all creation unto Himself.  We, as redeemed children of God, are holy, too, by virtue of the declarative will of Him Who has chosen to set us apart.  To be set-apart for service by God is an honor that is difficult to articulate adequately, let alone, well.  God, in His wisdom, holiness, and loving-kindness, has chosen to use us to fulfill His holy purposes in creation.  We have been "branded" by Him to live-in to His plan to bring about the reconciliation of all things.  When I write of this branding, it is my desire to convey the following similar, and yet different, thoughts:  (1) I believe we are branded by God for identification similar to the way in which a shepherd or rancher might brand livestock; and (2) I believe we are branded by God with His holy Name in a manner similar to the way a textile manufacturer might brand a line of clothing.  The seal (or branding insignia) of God, however, is His Blood, which cleanses us, His Word, which He has written upon our hearts, and His Spirit, Whom He has sent to live within each of us.

Jesus, when He came to earth as a man, was branded by God for a very special purpose:  Principally, to make a way for humanity to be reconciled to God and, as such, to become "fully" human again.  Sin, as I wrote of in part one, has been cataclysmic to all of us.  Its devastation is so systemic and far-reaching that, without the work of God, all of us will remain, hopelessly and forever, bound and chained to the continuous cycles of sin begetting death and death begetting more sin.  Sin dehumanizes and kills us because, with each sin we commit, we become less and less like God, Who is by definition Life.  In a manner, all of us in our sin have become like monsters and, as such, are in desperate need for God to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves:  And that is, to make us human again.

With respect to our branding, did you know that as followers of Jesus we have been branded with the very same branding with which Jesus was branded?  All of usand there are no exceptions—have been appointed (and anointed) to carry on Jesus' particular "brand" of ministry in the world, and that is, of reconciling creation and making things (especially people) whole again.

Holiness (set-apartness, brandedness) is neither a practice nor a set of practices.  No.  While it may (and, most-likely, should) affect our behavior, it is not the behaviors themselves.  Rather, it is an identification and a declaration/proclamation.  And it carries with it a sentence:  The universal, take-up-your-cross-and-follow-Me (Jesus) sentence that calls each of us to die to ourselves and to the world so that we might be used by  God to help redeem humanity and to infuse the abundant life of God back in to everyday living.

Try as you may, if you are a follower of Jesus, you cannot escape this sentence.  Just as it was carried out in Jesus' life, so, too, will it be carried out in yours.  And in mine.  While the general term "sentence" may carry a negative connotation, the "sentence" that follows upon your set-apartness by God is anything but negative.  In fact, living-in to this particular sentencing brings with it the greatest of all delights:  The fullness that comes with identifying with Jesus through the surrendering of your life unto Him.  There really is no greater honor, my friends.  Or calling.  Your branding, your set-apartness, God's declaration of holiness over you, will and should affect who you are and how you live-out the remainder of life here on earth.

Prayer of Holiness
Holy Father...

There is no one like You.  You stand alone in Your uniqueness as all things are for You and find their existence and continuance in You.  Thank you, Father, for setting me apart, for declaring me holy and consecrated unto You and for Your service.  Dear God, I choose in this moment to take up my cross and to follow Jesus in His Ways of set-apart-ness.  May I indeed be a conduit of your reconciling power in the world, and may my knowledge of all this affect everything I do and say throughout the course of my life.

I ask all of this in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, my Lord and Savior, and the Author and Finisher of my life and faith,

Amen.        

In the next post, I will, Lord-willing, continue writing of these things by exploring a few significant ways in which Jesus' set-apartness affected how He approached His own life as a human being.  I want to do this because these things are what I believe made Jesus so beautiful.  In my heart, I feel that these very things are the essential ways of living and being that can enable us to reclaim our rightful place as image-bearers of Elohiym.

Until then, may God's peace be with all of you...

Dave

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Reclaiming the Image of God—Part One

The path of reclaiming God's image is, I believe, found in following Jesus, and, through such a following, reconciling with our own humanity.  As paradoxical as this might read, I am convinced that the more we become like Jesus in His humanity, the more truly God-like we become.  Our humanness is intended to be one way in which God manifests Himself uniquely in the universe:  Through the form of a human soul, or spirit-body, that adds a physical dimension to the divine that, until mankind was created, could not be grasped by any previously created beings (including the angels).  As the scriptures read, "The angels long to look into such things." (see 1 Peter 1:12).  We as humanity are a metaphoric expression of Who God is.  Our love, creativity, and physical labor echo God's lovingly creative work and allows those who observe such things to have a finite example (one that they can wrap their minds around) of the infinite loving-kindness, creativity, and "work ethic" of Almighty God.

The greatest human ever to walk the earth was Jesus of Nazareth, the God-Man, Who created everything that exists and then submissively inserted Himself into the Story that He Himself authored.  Many scriptures point to this very reality; a few, of which, are provided below:

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John testifies concerning him.  He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”  From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.—John 1:1-5, 14-17

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing, but taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!Philippians 2:5-8

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created:  things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.Colossians 1:15-20

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.Hebrews 1:1-3a

When asked to describe God's character and nature, many will use words like "loving", "just", "holy", "all powerful", "all knowing", and "everywhere present".  When describing His positional loftiness, many of the same people will acknowledge that He is Lord and King over all, that He is the Master of the universe, and that He is the Shepherd and Husbandman of souls.  How, I ask, are these things manifested in mankind?  To answer this question, we must look at Jesus, for, as I wrote above, Jesus is our Prototype, and it is He, Who, in His humanness, models for all of us what it means to be an image-bearer of Elohiym.

In the scriptures, we read in Hebrews 12:2a, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith"; and, along the same lines, in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we read, " But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."  To reclaim our true humanity as image-bearers, we must look unto Jesus intently and see Him as He is.  As marvelous as it might seem, we become like that which we focus upon.  Unlike any other machines or organisms on earth, we can service ourselves, evolve, and shape how and why we operate the way we do.  Ultimately, the key to this shaping is found in Jesus, and, more specifically, in our "seeing" (or "beholding") Him as He is.  For, as the verse above in 1 Corinthians 3 indicates, transformation within us occurs as we do this very thing.  With all this in mind, I would like to spend the next little while looking a little closer at Jesus, the One Who is, I am convinced, the definitive representation of what God intended for all of us when He made us.

Stay tuned for Part 2!!

Peace...

Dave