Lessons from Leviticus

Being in the midst of reading the Bible in 90 days, Roger and I were discussing the Levitical code- i.e. the laws found within the book of Leviticus. We were marveling at how pervasive these laws are. They encompassed nearly every facet of life, from diet to bodily fluids. It struck the both of us as to how much this must have played into the formation of the Jews as a community. They truly were a people set apart by God.

It was impossible for them to forget their covenant relationship with God, because God had given them laws that kept that covenant always before them. Nearly every moment of every day was lived with the awareness of God's presence in their lives. Every part of their life was given or dedicated to God through the Law.

Any sane person would sigh in relief and offer a prayer of thanks that God has released us from much of this Levitical code. Living by such a code would radically alter our western culture lives. For an interesting and sometimes comic look at following these laws in a modern world, check out A. J. Jacobs' book, The Year of Living Biblically.

Jacobs', though not a religious person himself, decided to take on the task of living the laws of the Bible as literally as possible. One of the funnier segments is his attempt to stone a sinner. By the end of the book, one thing is certain. This attempt entirely altered his life.

All of this leads me to the following thought. While we are certainly thankful for not having to follow many of these laws, are we perhaps missing out on the depth of understanding of how all pervasive our relationship with God is to our lives. As Christians, we talk about surrendering our whole lives to God, but few of us will ever do that to the level required by God of His people Israel. When St. Paul talked about giving our lives as a "living sacrifice" to God, as a Pharisaic educated Jew he genuinely understood and appreciated the magnitude of what he was saying. Our commitment to Christ should EXCEED that of the Law.

Imagine the witness of a community of believers so sold out to God. Imagine the power of such lives to transform the world they live in into the likeness of the Kingdom of God. What would your life be like if you had such a deep and all encompassing covenant relationship with the Father through His Son Jesus Christ? Would we then fully experience the promise of that covenant, the filling of the Holy Spirit? Would it be said of us like Noah and Abraham and Isaac that we "walked with God"? Would we more readily HEAR the voice of God? Yes, yes, and yes! Oh, how I want that for my life! Oh, how I learn the truth of those words as I increase my surrender to the will of God! May we all learn what it means to offer ourselves really and truly as a "living sacrifice."

Birthday Musings

So, as I am writing this, I have just turned 46 years old. Certainly, age is a perspective and to some of you reading this that might seem quite young while others may shocked at how someone so old can look so young. Okay, maybe not, but you get the idea. How old one appears (or feels) is really a matter of perspective.

I was thinking about being 46 and wondering if my best years of productivity are behind me. Then I began to wonder, "What if I have another 46 years?" What would prevent them from being the most productive years of my life? Why would I stop growing? In my faith? In my wisdom? I think of someone like Billy Graham who reached far, far more people with the gospel between the age of 46 and his current age of 90 then he did in his first 46 years.

Ultimately, however, I thought this: Is not God bigger than all this? Is not God larger than any one life (save Jesus) could contain? Believing that with all my heart, could I not expect to grow in Christ my entire life? Indeed, the only thing that can prevent this is myself. If I believe I have reached my full capacity or decided I had done enough with my life, then I could certainly hinder the effectiveness of my life. I could put a halt on and fail to realize the full potential of the life God has planned for me.

May I never do that and may you never do that. May you keep living this life until such time that you join Christ in the resurrection and then may you continue to live your life to the fullest in Him. May you never believe that your life is meant for anything less than the greatness God has planned for it. May you live with anticipation of each day and unwrapping the lifelong gift of potential that is ours from God. And most of all, may you live in utter awe of how big our God is.

The Learning Circle

I've been asked to blog about this teaching that I've shared with a number of people. It is a way of processing the positive change that God wants to create in our lives. We call it the Learning Circle. It is one of the discipleship tools from an overall set of tools called LifeShapes.

When we speak of time, as is often the case, the Greek language (the language the New Testament was written in) has multiple words to indicate multiple types of time. Chronos is the type of time associated with a clock. One minute after another, it is the passing of time. It is where we get the word "chronological," indicating an orderly series, a progression.

Another kind of time is kairos. Whereas, chronos is the passing of moments, kairos is an event. It is a moment in time. It is akin to saying, "I had the time of my life." You are not saying that there was a minute or hour that was particularly notable. What you are probably saying is that there was an event, a happening, an occurrence that was significant.

Jesus speaks of such a time, such a kairos. In Mark 1:15, we find the first words of Jesus ministry. As such, we can assume that they are important. These are the words that Jesus used to announce his message to the world. So what does he say? Jesus says, "The time has come…" The word for "time" here is kairos. Now when Jesus speaks of kairos, this significant event or occurrence, he is speaking about something very specific. He tells us what that is in the next part of this verse. "The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near." The kairos that Jesus speaks of is the breaking of the Kingdom of God into the world. He was announcing that where he is, there is the Kingdom. This same thing continues to be true in our lives. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Daily, constantly, Jesus Christ wants to enter into our lives. He wants to draw us closer to him and to his Father in heaven. He wants his Kingdom, his rule, his reign to break into our lives.

These "kairos moments", as we call them, happen all the time. They can come in a multitude of forms. Some may be seemingly negative experiences. Some may be positive. They can be big, life changing events or small, presumably insignificant occurrences. All of them represent an event that God wants to use to draw us closer to him. What we need to understand is how we react to them. Most people tend to react in one of two ways. The first is to ignore them. It may not even be that we consciously ignore them. We simply miss them. We let the moments of our life come and go without any consideration of what role God may have planned for them and us. We live life simply in the chromos, oblivious to the kairos moments.

Others of us are so affected by such moments that we become paralyzed. Often this happens with difficult or challenging kairos moments. We are so fearful that we become, in essence, stuck in time, unwilling to engage the change that God has planned for us.

But, there is a third way. We can engage the kairos. We can enter into it, learn from it, and allow God to change us. This is the way outlined by Jesus in his opening words. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Jesus tells us how we are to respond to the kairos moments in our lives: Repent and believe. These two actions make up the two halves of what we call the Learning Circle.

Let's start with repentance. Repentance is typically associated in a converse way with sin. In other words, we do something wrong (sin) and we need to stop doing that wrong thing and start doing the right thing (repentance). However, the greek word (the original language of the Bible) really indicates more than that. The word is metanoia. It means to change one's mind. So, rather than a negative context, repentance means, simply, to have a change of heart that results in a lifestyle or behavioral change. Repentance can be our response to good, bad, happy, or sad stimuli. The key is that it creates positive change. Repentance is the beginning of change that results in a disciple taking on more of the character of Jesus Christ.

There are three steps to help us work through the repentance halve of the circle. They are to Observe, Reflect, and Discuss. To observe means to simply think through the facts- the who, what, where, and when. Observation is important because it helps us to gain an objective view of the kairos moment in question. Next, we reflect. This is where we ask the why questions. Why did it make me feel this way? Why did it happen? Why does it seem important? We also begin to ask, "What change might God want to initiate in me through this?"

Progress is being made. However, we still need more clarity. So we discuss the kairos with a trusted friend who is walking the path of change with us, someone who also follows Christ. God created us to live in interdependence, not independence. So, we turn to others to help us through these times of change. With these trusted friends, we move from the repentance side of the circle into the believe side of the circle, for now we must put our thoughts into action.

That is one of the most important things to understand about the process of believing. It is an action word. Belief is demonstrated in action. So, the three steps of the believe half of the circle are Plan, Account, and Act.

First, we plan. We consider all that we have learned from observing, reflecting, and discussing the kairos, and now we develop a plan for positive change. We do this with the help and wisdom of others. We keep at least one other person completely informed of our plan. Why? So, they can keep us accountable. That is the next step in the circle- Account. We ensure that someone is prepared to keep us accountable for our actions, particularly the plan of action that has come out of this kairos.

Finally, then we must take the step that is necessary for the completion of the circle. We must act. We must do the thing God has moved us to do. We must act on the plan that has come out of our kairos.

These kairos moments are meant to produce positive change in our life. Positive change that allows the Kingdom of God (i.e. The Rule of God) to invade our lives and change that strengthens our relationship with Christ. I hope you daily become more aware of the kairos moments in your life.