The Heart’s Cry!
Discipleship Questions for
Sunday February 3, 2008
Scripture
Readings:
First Reading:
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm:
146
Second
Reading: Philippians 3:7-14
Gospel:
Matthew 17:1-9
Ex. 24:12
The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on
the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the
law and commands I have written for their instruction.”
Ex. 24:13
Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide,
and Moses went up on the mountain of God.
14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to
you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved
in a dispute can go to them.”
Ex. 24:15
When Moses went up on the mountain, the
cloud covered it, 16
and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud
covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from
within the cloud. 17 To the
Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the
mountain. 18 Then Moses entered
the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty
days and forty nights.
Psa. 146:1
Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2 I will
praise the LORD all my life;
I
will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Psa. 146:3
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit
departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Psa. 146:5
Blessed is he
whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven
and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause
of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The
LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD
gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over
the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
Psa. 146:10
The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.
Phil. 3:7
But whatever was to my profit I now
consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I
consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not
having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by
faith. 10 I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to
attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Phil. 3:12
Not that I have already obtained all
this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing
I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press
on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus.
Matt. 17:1
After
six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and
led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the
sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them
Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Matt. 17:4
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good
for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one
for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Matt. 17:5
While he was still speaking, a bright
cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I
love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Matt. 17:6
When the disciples heard this, they fell
facedown to the ground, terrified. 7
But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8
When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Matt. 17:9
As
they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone
what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
But whatever was
to my gain – my profit - I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
“Whatever was to
my profit I now consider loss.” This is
a massive statement. Can you allow
yourself to reflect upon the breadth of this statement?
Try to imagine a
scale with Christ on one side and anything and everything else that ever meant
anything to St. Paul and what Paul is here saying is that the weight of Christ
outweighs everything else.
This is
the extravagant language of committed love!
Everything that I
once considered profitable – my reputation – the good opinion of other people,
the respect of my peers, my reputation,
the security of a large savings account and so on – all of this I now
consider profitless! Indeed not only is
it without profit for me any more but it’s actually a loss to me! And I do all of this for the sake of my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ! He trumps
everything!
He’s what gives
everything value and without Him nothing has any value at all!
Phil.
3:8 – 14 The Message
Now look with
me at verse 8 Yes, all the things I once
thought were so important are gone from my life.
What is speaking
here? It’s not Paul’s head it’s His
heart. A heart hopelessly in love with
the Lord!
There has been a
purging in Paul’s life – a cleansing – a washing – a purifying – a letting go
of anything other that what will draw him closer and closer to His beloved – to
Jesus. Are there things in our lives that
we need to purge? And in so doing he is
cleansing himself of anything that will seduce him away for His beloved!
This is the act of
a lover who wants never to be seduced by another lover! This is truly the language of romance!
Now let’s ask
ourselves this question, “is there anything in our
lives that you and I still think of as important and which clearly draws us
away from Jesus?”
If there is then
we need to ask God to cleanse it from our lives right now!
Pray for
this . . .
Reading on:
Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand,
everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve
dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ 9 and be
embraced by him.
Did you hear that
– I’ve purged myself so that I can embrace Christ and so that He can embrace
me! That’s relationship – with nothing
in the way! That’s the heart of a lover
wanting to hold the beloved and to experience his or her touch – the embrace –
of the beloved!
Reading on: I
didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping
a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting
Christ—God’s righteousness.
Phil.
3:10
I gave up all that
inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection
power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death
itself. 11 If there was any way
to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
Wow! Now that’s a mouthful – look with me again at
verse 10: I gave us all that inferior
stuff so that I could know Christ personally.
The inference here is that “that inferior stuff” drew me away from an
intimacy with Jesus! Knowing Him
personally brought me to experience His resurrection power – I was and felt
like I had been raised from the very dead to life eternal here and now!
And somehow this
freed me up to stop living a life of self-protection and released me to live a
life in willing partnership with the resurrected Christ and it often involved
my suffering but this always carries with it the certainly of my own personal
resurrection. Jesus has given me life
eternal here and now and nothing and nobody can rob me of that!
Reading
on:
Phil.
3:12
I’m not saying
that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way,
reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. 13 Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no
means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the
goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. 14 I’m off and running,
and I’m not turning back.
This is such a
powerful and enchanting expression of humility and love . . . don’t you think?
I can imagine one
lover looking into the eyes of the other and saying words similar to these.
“I’m not perfect –
O I am frightened of my weaknesses for they may affect our love. But I I’m going to run the race as well as
these feeble legs will carry me. My goal
is to love God and you and all else will follow!”
Think about
it: Paul is giving himself body soul and
spirit to Jesus Christ! You see what
we’re hearing here is the expression not only of Paul’s mind-set but more
significantly of his “heart-set!”
These are the
words of love and of commitment that allow no quarter! They are absolute!
What God is challenging us to do is to reflect
upon the loves in our lives and to recommit ourselves to love our Lord over and
above all other comers and it’s then and only then that our love for the others
will be large enough for all!
We are the bride and He is our Bridegroom!
What we’re talking about here is the language of
love!
Now let me tell you an imaginative story and see
if you can see yourself in it:
Samuel
Rutherford once wrote: “Since He hath
looked upon me my heart is not my own. He hath run away to heaven with
it.”
I
sometimes dream of a bright and exquisite land in which old people never die,
babies and children never fell down and hurt themselves
and all of the people in the land love one another.
But
it’s hard to dream of that land because it makes me sad as I am reminded of how
much the world in which I live is so different from this land!
When the thought of it comes to me that sadness returns and I
become thoughtful as if looking for a memory that has flown away. And God claps His hands and whispers – “This
is your home – I, your Beloved, have a place made to order just for you here
but I want you to call this into your world of now.”
And
this occurs just as I pray silently: “O
Lord – Thy Kingdom Come – Thy will be done. . . . “
and God smiles from heaven and sends another angel to take something of His
heaven – our eternal home - into my heart.
And it sits there and cries to be born!
Incarnation
– heaven born to earth – is not an easy thing!
It is the work of the heart – a heart seeking to please her Beloved’s
desire.
And
God cries – call this our home down to earth and then we can be one – all of us
– forever and ever and ever and ever.
Amen!
And so you and I cry out with Paul,
Phil. 3:13
Brothers and sisters, I don’t consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Amen!