My Morning Meal

I guess I don’t normally think of God as a seeker. Maybe that’s because I don’t think of God as in need of anything. But while God has no need of anything there are some things He desires. This morning I read of something the Father seeks . . . something that He’s actively pursuing . . . something, in a sense, He craves . . . something, go figure, that I can provide.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.” (John 4:23 ESV)

God is a seeker . . . He seeks people to worship Him.

The woman tried to debate the Lord Jesus on the “form” of worship (John 4:19) . . . the way of the Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim or the way of the Jews at Jerusalem. But Jesus was more interested in the “function” of worship. The “where” and “what” of worship were secondary to the “how” and “heart” of worship. True worship, said Jesus, was worship offered in spirit and truth.

Authentic worship isn’t tied to rite and ceremony, but is sourced in the simplicity and sincerity of the inner man. The real meal deal isn’t about going through the motions, its about the motions going through you . . . being sourced in the heart . . . finding expression on the lips. True worship is worship in spirit.

True worship is also worship founded on truth, Jesus said. Not in shadows or types, which is what Jerusalem worship offered, but in the substance which those shadows and types pointed to. Yes it would be worship based on a sacrifice, but not the shed blood of lambs or goats . . . instead the shed blood of the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world. Worship in truth is not worship offered from afar . . . carried by another into the holy place . . . instead it is brought personally by believer priests who have been freed from the bondage of sin by truth . . . bringing their own offerings, as it were, in to the very holy of holies . . . entering the very presence of God. Direct access worship is worship in truth.

People who worship in spirit . . . people who worship in truth. The Father seeks such people to worship Him.

And so, in a sense, God is a seeker. And I ask myself, does God find in me what He’s looking for? Am I Seeker friendly?

Oh, that my offerings would be sincere . . . sourced in thoughtful consideration of the One who I desire to worship. That they would be heartfelt . . . earnestly brought before the One who is worthy of the sacrifice of praise from my lips. That I would beware of going on “autopilot” with thanksgiving . . . but that, instead, it would be the fruit of adoration.

That my offerings would be grounded in His word and His ways. That I would resist the temptation to improvise and bring before the altar that which seems right to me. Rather, that my worship would be a response to the grace and truth found in Jesus . . . that the cross would ever be my “permission” to boldly approach the Father of lights.

Seeker friendly . . . that’s what I want to be . . . by His grace . . . and for His glory.

You gotta love John the Baptizer. Sure, maybe his dress was a little unorthodox . . . not sure I would run out and buy a new breakfast cereal that he created with his very own “secret ingredients” . . . but spend just a little bit of time considering him, and he’s pretty inspirational. And maybe the reason I don’t often take note of him is because that was his whole purpose . . . not to draw attention to himself but to Someone else . . . not to be in the limelight but to shine the spotlight on Another. But I think there’s some value to noodling on this guy a bit . . . after all, Jesus said of him, ” I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28). Here’s what caught my attention this morning . . .

John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:27-30 ESV)

Context? Some of John’s disciples come to him with a problem they’re picking up on. John’s losing his following as they go to Jesus to be baptized and follow Him. The ministry’s coming to an end . . . the flash mobs have stopped centering around John . . . they are going to another. “What are we going to do about that?” they ask. John’s response? In essence, “Rejoice!”

When it came to Christ becoming the focus, John was more than content to step to the side. After all, he says, the wedding isn’t about the wedding party, it’s about the bride and groom. The wedding attendants stand aside as witnesses of “those two crazy kids” coming together to unite their lives . . . the friends are on the sidelines . . . lost to themselves . . . completely focused on the union about to be formed. The friend of the bridegroom knows that he’s not really the “best man” . . . but that the guy next to him offering the ring to his blushing bride is really the best man. The friend doesn’t want to do anything to attract attention to himself but instead do everything he can to ensure that the focus is duly placed on the one who’s voice people need to hear.

John was thrilled to be part of the wedding party . . . to be able to get close enough to stand next to the Bridegroom. He rejoiced just to be near enough to hear the Bridegroom’s voice . . . and seeing people flock to Jesus, even if it meant that John’s “day job” was drying up, made John’s joy complete.

How often do I fall into thinking that the wedding is about me? Oh, maybe it is to some degree if I consider myself as the bride . . . but even then, my blessed place on “at the altar” is all about the price He paid for my sin as the Lamb of God and, about His persistent pursuit of me, a wayward sheep, as the Great Shepherd who came to seek and save the lost. I might do well from time to time to think of myself more as the friend of the bridegroom . . . there because of Him . . . there for Him . . . fully prepared to fade into the background . . . not desiring to draw attention to myself but asking only to be a magnifying glass through which Jesus is brought into clearer view by those who need to “come.”

Instead of my joy being dependent on how much recognition I get . . . or the amount of blessing I perceive to receive by being at the wedding . . . my joy, instead, should be made complete when Jesus is exalted . . . when Jesus becomes the object of attention . . . when people, as it were, turn their back on me because they instead see the glorious Bridegroom.

Truly, He must increase . . . I must decrease . . . if only in my own eyes . . . if only as part of my own agenda. It should be enough to just be standing there with Him . . . my eyes fixed on Him alone . . . doing nothing that would distract others from setting their gaze upon Him . . . a friend of the Bridegroom . . . by His grace . . . and for His glory. Amen.

It’s a pretty common past time, I think. To look at a newborn . . . or a toddler . . . a kid . . . even an adult, at times . . . and take note of how much they look like one of their parents. Same face structure . . . same chin . . . same eyes. Not surprising that a child takes on the physical attributes of a parent. And so often it goes beyond just the physical traits . . . how often do you note personality characteristics that are similar between child and parent . . . especially as the child grows older? Some of it’s “nature” . . . some of it’s “nurture” . . . but how often is it true when we say, “He’s the spitting image of his father?” . . . or, “She’s just like her mother?” Someone spoke truth when they said, “That which is born, takes on the nature of that which gave it birth.”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8 ESV)

I don’t hear us using the term “born again” a lot these days. “I found Christ” . . . “I asked Jesus into my heart” . . . “I came to the Lord” . . . seems to be the more common terminology in describing what happened when someone became a Christian. But I’m reminded this morning, that while those things may be true, what happened at the moment that I believed and received the gospel message was that I was born again . . . I underwent a new birth . . . I was made a new creation . . . I was, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “born of the Spirit.”

Sparks didn’t jump off my body at the moment of salvation . . . a glow didn’t appear around me . . . but on the authority of Scripture . . . and the reality of what has since transpired . . . I was changed. I was fundamentally rewired . . . brought out of darkness into marvelous light . . . an enemy of God by nature, I became a child of God with a new nature . . . a “sweet tooth” for the things of the world gave way to a craving for the things of the kingdom of God. The things of the natural started being understood in the context of the supernatural . . . life was no longer just about “here below” but started to be lived with one eye fixed on “things above”. Not because I willed these things to be so, but because I was born again . . . I was born of the Spirit . . . and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. In a sense, I’ve got His eyes.

It occurs to me that, as time passes, as the work of sanctification progresses, this guy who was “born of the Spirit” should be becoming more and more of a “spiritual man.” It’s in my regenerated spiritual DNA. It’s in the nature of Him who “begat me” . . . and thus, through rebirth, is in me as well. I’ve been given the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2:16) . . . and so I should be thinking more and more like Him. I have been given everything I need to become a “partaker of the divine nature” (2Peter 1:4) . . . and thus, I should be “doing life” more and more like the Son of God would . . . growing in grace . . . exhibiting the love of God . . . confidently resting in the One who’s will I desire to do. Having been born of the Spirit, I have this wonderful potential to reflect the things of the Spirit.

Having been born of the Spirit . . . and being in “new nature” like the Spirit . . . shouldn’t I desire to be known practically, more and more, as one who is filled and led by the Spirit? Isn’t this what being conformed to the image of Jesus is kinda about? Taking on more and more the attributes of the Son of Man through the rebirth I’ve experienced and the reshaping He has undertaken in me? Shouldn’t I, as a child of God, expect that some of His attributes would be known in me to some degree as He takes to completion that transforming work He began in me the day was born again? Shouldn’t it be noticeable by others . . . shouldn’t someone say, “He’s got His eyes?” I’m thinkin . . .

Oh, that I would not be unaware or complacent concerning the work begun in me when I was born again. Might I desire to “live up” to my heritage . . . by His grace. Might I yearn to be more and more like Him . . . for His glory. After all . . . I’ve got His eyes . . . amen?

I’m not one for ladders. Oh, I’m ok w/ 6 foot step ladders . . . but take one of those babies that you have to stretch out and climb up beyond just a few feet . . . where it starts to rattle, shake, and maybe bow a bit . . . and I just don’t “feel it.” Actually, I do . . . in my gut . . . kind of a queasy feeling. I’m pretty much a “keep your feet on the ground” sort of person. But the reality is, that for some things you just need a ladder . . . and I’m reminded this morning that encountering heaven is one of those things.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:47-51 ESV)

Heaven opened . . . angels ascending and descending . . . sound familiar? Yeah, if you go back to Genesis 28 it sounds like the vision that Jacob had at Bethel where he dreamed he saw a ladder set on earth and the top of it reached to heaven and “behold, the angels of God were ascending descending on it!” (Gen. 28:12) Almost identical . . . except, in Jesus’ version, the Son of Man is the ladder. Hmmmm . . . yeah, pretty much.

Nathanael was amazed to encounter Someone who knew him before He had met him . . . Someone who had seen him before He had encountered him . . . and Jesus says, in effect, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” There would be greater things to behold. And, at the essence of them all, was access to the very throne of God . . . heaven opened up and accessible . . . the holy interacting with men scarred by the fall . . . mere mortals engaging with the divine . . . the kingdom of God, with the chaos of men . . . people of darkness, with the unapproachable light of glory. And this access had been foreshadowed in Jacob’s dream . . . and it would leverage a ladder of sorts that breached the chasm between the wonders of heaven and the day to day realities of earth. And that ladder, Jesus said . . . was Jesus!

I wonder if I don’t take for granted these “greater things” that Jesus spoke of . . . this amazing access into the very realm and presence of God Himself. I wonder if I haven’t been “up and down the ladder” so many times that I forget the dynamics that make possible my ability to “boldly approach the throne of grace” . . .

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:19-22 ESV)

The ladder that accesses the things of heaven is Jesus . . . by His blood . . . through His flesh. The price paid to put the ladder in place is beyond my full comprehension. The love that was willing to pay the price is also beyond fully appreciating. And the access provided? . . . the new and living way opened for us? . . . how do you fully describe that? Amazing just doesn’t seem big enough . . . but it will have to do.

I am amazed. Amazed that before I knew Him, He knew me . . . amazed that while I was yet a sinner and enemy of God, He died for me . . . amazed that though I had gone astray, as a sheep wanders from the flock, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost . . . amazed that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son to redeem the world . . . amazed that through the blood of Jesus there is unfettered access into the Holy of Holies where I might behold the glory of God . . . amazed by the Ladder. You too?

It occurs to me that it really was a prophetic act upon the Lord’s part. He spoke of things that were yet to be as though they were already a done deal. He cast a vision of the future despite knowing how unlikely that future would appear to others over the next three years. And it wasn’t a prophecy concerning some great event . . . some cataclysmic happening. No . . . He spoke of a future name change . . . that’s all . . . of going from one arrangement of 5 letters (in English) to another arrangement of 5 letters. But in that prophetic word was a “here and now” commitment. Jesus, Himself, would undertake the work . . . of enabling a man to live up to his new name.

“One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas’ (which means Peter).” (John 1:40-42 ESV)

Personally, I like the name “Peter” better than “Simon” . . . just sayin’. But this wasn’t about getting an upgrade to the tag he wore . . . not about moving up in alphabetic order. This was at the essence of the call Jesus was putting on the life Simon, the son of John. And at this most foundational level it wasn’t a prophetic voice of what Simon would do, but about what Simon would become. It foreshadowed a change that would occur within the deepest areas of Simon’s life . . . an actual restructuring of his spiritual DNA that would manifest itself in his physical interactions with the world around him.

Some would say that Simon had a bit of flakey tendency. “Ready, fire, aim,” was kind of how he interacted with circumstance sometimes . . . act first, think later. Now give the guy credit . . . he was determined to be in the game . . . even if he didn’t always know which goal post his team was driving for . . . he might not know where he was going, but at least he was making good time. You gotta like the energy . . . the passion . . . the “let’s do it” attitude that he brought to the table. What it needed was some breaking . . . for that zeal to be harnessed and directed . . . for Simon, the flake, to be transformed into Peter, the rock! What he needed was an encounter (or a few of them) with the One who created him . . . knew him inside and out . . . loved him unconditionally . . . was committed to him whole-heartedly . . . was determined to begin a work in Him and then, complete that work. What he needed was a new name . . . and the power of heaven itself to allow him to live up to his new name.

I think I have a new name too. I don’t know exactly what it is right now . . . but I will (Rev. 2:17). A new name is just fitting for a “new creation in Christ” (2Cor. 5:17). A “targeted outcome” would seem consistent with being “God’s workmanship” (Eph. 2:10). I don’t know exactly what the Potter has determined the final product to look like . . . but I have a good idea . . . sort of conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29) . . . but, I think, with an “individual nuance” reflective of the me He has wired together from my mother’s womb.

If I think about what I know of the journey Simon took to becoming “Peter”, it wasn’t always very easy. Some tough times along the way . . . some tough lessons to learn . . . some humbling before the Lord after failure . . . some tears shed . . . sometimes embarrassed by how much of “impetuous Simon” got in the way of being the rock Jesus had said he’d be. But, at it’s essence, it wasn’t Simon’s work . . . it was to be the work of the God who created him and then re-created him in Christ. God’s perfect work would be accomplished . . . as a wise man struggling with life reminded me in Ecclesiastes this morning, “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccl. 3:11a).

God’s in the business of transforming His people . . . shaping us into the men and women of God He has determined for us to be . . . shaping me into the “new me” He has called me to be . . . enabling me to live up to a new name . . . a name He will present to me on that day . . . by His grace . . . and for His glory.

“To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” ~Jesus (Rev. 2:17)

Sometimes it just makes sense to reset . . . to focus on the fundamentals . . . to break things down to the foundational stuff. When things get a little hairy . . . when life kinda feels a bit out of control . . . when you seem to be drowning in complexity . . . when you seem to falling because of uncertainty . . . that’s a good time to focus on getting your feet well-planted on solid ground . . . to making sure your head’s above water and breathing the pure air of heaven itself. Sometime you just need to go back to the beginning.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:1-4, 14, 16 ESV)

There is a very real sense of regaining stability when you go back to “In the beginning.” When my eyes are diverted from the chaos of circumstance . . . when my gaze shifts from the apparent unfairness of life’s random roads . . . and, instead, the focus becomes the living Word of God. When I consider afresh that He was in the beginning . . . that He was with God . . . and, that He IS God! When I’m reminded that this One who was “in the beginning” . . . that He who is the eternal Word . . . now lives in me so that the I no longer need to deal with the chaos on my own, but “the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Going back to the beginning reestablishes a measure of equilibrium.

He made all things . . . without Him nothing was made that has been made. He is Lord of the physical . . . the physical that works well . . . and the physical that doesn’t work so well. From cells gone rogue to weather patterns beyond withstanding . . . He is Sovereign over all . . . holding all things together . . . loosening His grip, as it pleases Him to fulfill His purposes . . . and to reveal His glory.

And we have seen His glory. Not like John did . . . not face to face (yet) . . . not transfigured and robed in unapproachable light (yet). But we have beheld the glory . . . through the inspired Word of God . . . and through the illuminating ministry of the Spirit within us and upon us. Through the eyes of faith . . . to all those who believed . . . we have encountered He who is the store of truth and grace . . . God’s fountain of living water . . . from the beginning . . . and for the present . . . and through eternal ages to come. Hallelujah!

And out of His fullness . . . from God’s eternal cistern carved out of the Rock of His Son . . . we can drink deep of “grace upon grace.” Unmerited favor beyond measure . . . heaven infused strength sufficient for the day and for the days to come. Found in Him . . . the Word . . . who was with God . . . who was God . . . in the beginning.

Oh blessed moments when the mind is distracted from the day ahead . . . when the soul can be still and know that He is God . . . when a divine “timeout” is taken . . . and things are reset . . . and foundation is reaffirmed . . . and I realize afresh that though my world can seem like shifting sand, I am, in reality, standing upon a Rock. When I find it hard to breath, I can draw deeply from the atmosphere of the heavenlies . . . when I’m feeling so out of control, I can rely and rest upon the Creator of all things who knows the way and has promised to shepherd me through the maze.

Yeah . . . sometimes, in order to step out into the the day ahead of you, it just makes sense to go back to the beginning. Amen?