Coffee With The Lord

Don’t know about you, but I have a deep concern for the situation today in the Middle East (as it relates to Israel and her Arab neighbors, and others).  The situation there at the present time is a “powder keg” waiting to explode!

Today, I was challenged as I read these words from Psalm 122 as a part of my Bible reading during “coffee with the Lord…

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ … to give thanks to the name of the Lord… Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!  May they be secure who love you!  Peace within your walls and security within your towers! … For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.” (from Psalm 122)

Gotta tell you, I grieve that a Moslem holy site, the Dome of the Rock, is situated on the traditional site of the Jewish temple!  I look forward to the day when Ezekiel’s prophecy of a restored eschatological temple will be fulfilled! (Ezekiel 39:25 – 48:35)  I am praying for “the peace of Jerusalem!”  I am praying that Jewish people will turn to Christ as their Messiah!  I am praying for Scripture to be fulfilled in the coming of the Lord!

In the meantime, I rejoice that there is a real “temple” in Jerusalem (and elsewhere in the world) of the kind that is spoken of in Ephesians 2:11-22 and 1 Peter 2:4-10 where the Living God makes His presence known among both believing Jews and Gentiles who embrace Jesus Christ as their Messiah…

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, GROWS INTO A HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD.” (Ephesians 2:19–21 ESV)

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, YOU YOURSELVES LIKE LIVING STONES ARE BEING BUILT UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, TO BE A HOLY PRIESTHOOD, TO OFFER SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES ACCEPTABLE TO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST… You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (from 1 Peter 2:4-10 ESV)

Symbolism and imagery matter!  They can make things vivid and real to us!  …And that’s especially true of water baptism.

I think if I were pastoring a church today, I’d do water baptism services like this…

I’d encourage those being baptized to wear old, worn out clothes to the place where they were going to be baptized in water as a testimony to the fact that they were abandoning their old way of life to follow Christ.  The more old, tattered, worn out the clothes were, the better.  Those would be the clothes they would be baptized in.

Then after they were baptized (buried, so to speak, in the waters of baptism – symbolizing the fact that they were abandoning their old way of life, dying to sin and self-pursuit to follow Jesus) I’d have them change into new, fresh, “Sunday, go-to-meeting, best” clothes, celebrating the new life they had been given through faith in Christ.

All of that came to mind as I read the following passage this morning in the Bible (a passage that I’m convinced Apostle Paul wrote with water baptism as the imagery behind it)…

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  On account of these the wrath of God is coming.  In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.  But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator… Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (from Colossians 3:1–17 ESV)

You see, baptism really is a burial service!  When we do it in faith and commitment we fully identify with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.  We bring our old, tattered lives of sin and we die to them through the one who died for our sins on the cross.  That old life is buried, so to speak, in the waters of baptism.  Then we are raised from the waters of baptism, identifying with the resurrection of Jesus, to live a new life… That’s where we celebrate our new life in Christ by putting on our “Sunday go-to-meeting best!”

As I say, imagery and symbolism matters!  And may there be, behind every water baptism, a spiritual reality!

What kind of neighbors do you have?  Do you like the neighborhood where you live?  Neighbors can be a source of constant irritation.  The neighborhood where you live can be an embarrassment, a source of unhappiness and even fear.  How should a godly person deal with the issue of “neighbors?”

That is the issue the surfaced in my Bible reading today.  Here is how the Psalmist expressed his frustration with “neighbors” in Psalm 120…

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.  Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue! … Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!  Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.  I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!”

Ever feel that way about your neighbors or neighborhood?  The Bible indicates even Lot, Abraham’s nephew, struggled with his neighbors in Sodom and Gomorrah (read 2 Peter 2:7-8).  I know the feeling – I’ve lived next to a neighbor or two whose lifestyle, language, music (they played it very loud)… (even their kids and dog) bugged me to death.

The thing is, the Bible seems to teach us to be “nice” to our neighbors – to demonstrate Christ’s love to them… even to be a redemptive influence in our neighborhood.  There’s a parable that teaches it… the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37).  In it Jesus asked a probing question (“who proved to be a neighbor to this man?”) and gave a direct command (“go and do likewise” – i.e. be a “neighbor” to someone).  In the Old Testament, this was God’s guidance to those living in exile in Babylon: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7)  Jesus put it this way: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43-44)

So I guess the deal is this… Christians may not share the values or lifestyle of their “neighbors” – in fact, if the truth were known their neighbors may “bug ‘em to death” – they may even, in the natural, intensely dislike their neighborhood – but God’s will is for us to “love ‘em” and be a redemptive influence in our neighborhoods (“salt and light” – Matthew 5:13-16 ).  God help us ‘eh?