Tonight we started a series on Psalm 1 and looking at God’s blessings. Our working definition of “blessed” is living God toward us. That means resting in Him so we looked at the concept of how rest for the Israelites entering into the land parallels our rest in salvation and we have just barely scratched the surface.
In Hebrews 4 we saw, in verse one, that we come short of rest when we apply our own works. Then in verse 3 we saw that to believe is to rest with out works. The connection of these thoughts is Jesus, as the author talks of Jesus as greater then Moses in the first part of chapter 3 and Jesus as our High Priest in the last part of chapter 4.
To discuss this feel free to flow any tangent you want or use the list of Scripture to spur your study and our dialogue on (Psalm 95; 133:8-14; Numbers 14:20-35; Deuteronomy 1:34,35; Exodus 31: 14; 33:14; Genesis 2:2; Joshua 22:4; Isaiah 66:11).
Blessings…
5 comments:
OK, Psalm 1, "Happy the man..." What is striking about this psalm is that Jesus fulfills it. He does not walk in the ways of the wicked and yet he keeps company with the wicked (namely you and me).
This is at times an overwhelming paradox. There are moments in my life when I don't consider myself "Christian" because of what I do or fail to do -- things that I once that were mandated by the Gospel but were in fact merely mandated by the dominant (i.e., pagan) culture.
Then I reflect on the ways in which Christ has permeated my life. I know of his presence through my wife, friends, and the "falling away" of certain evils that once threatened to destroy me.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger says somewhere in "Introduction to Christianity" that our faith is not about ETHICS but about ONTOLOGY. That is, faith in Christ is not centered on simply (?) keeping the 10 commandments but allowing the grace of Christ to permeate all quarters of our lives.
So at times I feel I am "no better" with Christ than without him, but then I recall that it his presence that would allow me to think such a crazy thought (were I living without him, I would KNOW the disaster that ensues).
Sorry if I got a little Buddhistic on this, my first post to your blog, Dustin! Peace!
I don’t think that these comments are within the realm of a Buddhist reality; for if they were they would deny passion for the blain nothingness of nirvana. Instead, by being real about our human condition, they affirm that Jesus came to replace our passion for sin with a passion for Him! At this realization we follow Jesus’ way for our life not out of legalism to earn His favor, but by His grace.
Crumbs2, I could be wrong but I think PostPaganBaby agrees with you! PostPagan is saying that a lot of what we “DO” in church is “centered around maintaining a religious stereotype” (in your words). I agree with you (and I think PostPagan does as well) that consumerism in the church distracts us from reflecting Jesus!
Also Crumbs2, regarding your first response on this thread, I think rest is both literal and spiritual.
Literal in the sense that (I think) there is a future for Israel in the millennial kingdom, in which “rest” i.e., full occupation of the land promised in the covenant will be fulfilled and both literal and spiritual for us today.
What I mean by the latter is that, spiritually we have a piece of that rest for Israel (as Hebrews address’) and literal in the sense that this is not license for business in the church.
One can take the spiritual application and turn it into “filling our lives with the chaos of daily living” (in the words of Crumbs2) BUT THAT WOULD BE WRONG and unfortunately most of the American church operates this way.
As Paul says of thought of sinning so more grace may abound in Romans 6 MAY IT NEVER BE. In fact that is the point of this blog and what we’ve been learning in the Edge, we are not sanctified by our works but by grace!
So Literally we are to rest in Jesus. This is not an ethereal spiritual truth but must tangible impact our humanity. That is what the author of Hebrews means when he/she (gender inclusive pronouns because we don’t know who the author is) says “lets enter that rest”.
Crumbs2 asked what a "church of Christ centered people" would look like. I've seen glimpses of this, but I think that is largely what we get in this life. When Christ comes again in glory, the whole cosmos will be Christ-centered.
I think our task is to become those holy men and women who see Christ in all things -- even in our brothers and sisters who are perhaps "baptized pagans" and don't reveal Christ to us.
Our Lord has allowed me to be scandalized by the attitudes of priests and laity alike, yet I see His hand in it all. Crumbs2, I think you're yearning for perfection (not at all a bad thing!), and you're getting hit in the face with the sinners in the pews. My favorite observation in this regard comes from the novelist Flannery O'Connor who (cynically? :)) observed that we are called more often to suffer FROM the Church than FOR the Church.
I'm not in the advice business, so I'm not suggesting you lower your expectations. Nevertheless, there are human limitations in the here and now. God isn't limited, but our willingness to respond fully to his grace is something he does allow. Would we want it otherwise?
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