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Song: Twila Paris Daughter of Grace

Scripture
Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.  And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. Galatians 2:24-29

Observation
Expectations are a disability. People have expectations of us and we try to achieve them. Even when we are not working we are fretting about ways to live up to expectations or escape from them. Even more disabling, we have expectations of ourselves. Those are the hardest to live up to. They are often hitched to old family mottos, echoing words from parents or teacher from years gone by, or a dream that has held us for ransom all of our lives. Of course, the most demanding expectations of all are those God has for our lives. Those none of us can achieve.

The Bible word for expectations is “the law”. Paul did not mean by “the law” simply the words Moses wrote; the phrase means any attempt to use the law to gain God’s approval. The law was not given to save us but to reveal that we need a savior. The law is a babysitter we endure until daddy comes home with grace.

Most of us spend our whole lives either trying to live up to expectations or by running away from them. Either way, we still feel this tug inside that what we are is not good enough and that we need to work harder to get there. We become tense, driven, compulsive, striving, stressed, impatient, dissatisfied, and discontented. The bottom line problem is that we are working for acceptance rather than from acceptance.  We imagine that some achievement out there somewhere will give us the resting place we are searching for. Until then we are restless searching for it.

Application
When I really follow Christ I am set free from expectations. I don’t need a babysitter any more; I have a Father who rejoices over me. What would happen in my life if I stopped measuring my days in terms of either “getting there” or “slipping away” and rested in the acceptance of God that I am “already there”. My ministry would be marked with security, grace, kindness, patience, endurance with joy and more. Everything changes when we work from acceptance rather than for acceptance. God has no expectations for me when it comes to receiving his love. Sure there is potential he calls me to develop, but the first order question is already solved: I am loved. Now I must work from the security of that. Maybe the reason I’ve been allowed to live up to expectations so long is to bring me to this point of releasing them into the acceptance of the Lord.

Prayer
Father, it is a lightheaded feeling to stand in you presence without expectations. There is constantly a sense that we should be doing something or doing more to please you, yet your smile and emanating love tell me that all of that is a waste of time. You simply want me to be with you, just as the disciples were with Jesus. I accept your acceptance. That is the core of faith. Today, I chose to work from that. Amen.

Scripture
But Joseph was upset when he saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head. So Joseph lifted it to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. “No, my father,” he said. “This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused. “I know, my son; I know,” he replied. “Manasseh will also become a great people, but his younger brother will become even greater. And his descendants will become a multitude of nations.” Genesis 48:17-19

Observation
Joseph was like any father, he wanted the best for his sons. He hoped for the right schools and college, boy scouts, little league, and varsity sports…well at least Egyptian style. In Egyptian culture the first born son was nothing short of a demigod. Manasseh would have slept in a special raised bed, unlike his little brother Ephraim who had a mat on the floor. Manasseh was the designated favorite. Bursting with pride in his first born son Joseph hurried his boys to grandpa’s house for a final blessing before he died.

Joseph wanted the best for his sons, but God wanted what was right for them. What Egyptian culture said about the destiny of Mannessah was not God’s plan for the boy. Ephraim would be given more responsibility, not because he was loved any more, but because it was what fitted his potential. The boys were different and God used their differences to please him.

Application
Jacob was relaxed about the unpredictable ways that God uses people, so the old man went with God’s flow. I want to be relaxed about the uneven blessings of God as well, for my children and even for myself. God uses people differently but loves each of us totally. If we can become secure in his love for us then we will be comfortable with the differences in life outcome.

Jacob in a sense said that all people are great. “Manasseh will also become a great people,” he said. This implies that it was not as if one boy were superior and the other inferior, instead they were just different. If I can accept God’s uneven ways I can come to bless those like me who are used in more remarkable ways. I can come to accept the uniqueness of the way that God uses me.

Prayer
Father, I chose today to base my security not in my life outcome but in the fact that I loved by you. You bless me because you love me. That blessing is different for me than for others because I am unique. And because I am unique you love me differently than all the rest. I thank you that each of us is so greatly loved we would be excused to think we were the only ones on earth loved by you. Thank you for the unevenness of life, for it shows me that you know me personally and give me what fits me best. Amen.

Scripture
But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Matthew 15:22-23

Observation
How could Peter plummet from hero to zero so quickly? In one paragraph Peter was an honor roll student while in the next he is a dunce. How did he get it wrong? How can I get it right?

Here’s the secret: look at all of life from God’s point of view.

Peter was commended by Jesus not just for seeing that he is Messiah, but that “my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.” (16:17) What mattered most to Jesus was not that Peter had the right answer but how he had come to the right conclusion. Peter had taken time to ask the Father. That mattered most. Peter had been able to push past the denseness of the disciples and the criticism of the Pharisees and had seen the world just as God sees it. That meant that his heart was open, teachable, and looking beyond circumstances to God. Peter was asking and listening.

Peter was reprimanded because he was “seeing things merely from a human point of view not from God’s.” He saw the cross without the Father and could not imagine any good thing coming from that. But had he given God space to interpret it to him, Peter might have grasped the plan of salvation in advance. Abraham saw Jesus’ day and rejoiced from 2000 years before. Why not Peter just months away?

Application
I need in every life setback, to ask the question: Father, how does this look from your perspective? Tomorrow I’m going to a funeral that is very sad. A cousin of Leslie my wife died at just 31 years of age. She was newly married and had not yet had a family. It’s impossible to ignore the tragedy of a virus that destroyed her internal organs in just a few days. But there are things God can see if we will dare to look at the future through his eyes.

Prayer
Father, there is plenty of roadkill on my journey with you that I do not understand, but I ask that you would help me to see things from your point of view. I give you space and time to show me how the cross leads to the resurrection even in the events I walk through today. Amen.

Scripture

Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Acts 26:16

Observation

It has been said that Jesus came not to obliterate our will but to liberate it. For that reason, when Saul fell to his feet at the vision of Jesus, the Master first called him to stand up. Jesus did not appear to Paul to pulverize his potential, he came to give it a new direction.

There is no greater call than the one to follow Jesus. The first encounter cannot be forgotten but it can fade. Throughout his life Paul told and retold the story of his first moments with Jesus. Because he kept returning to his first directive Paul did not end his life by propping up his feet in a Mediterranean villa. Instead his last human act was to lay his head on the chopping block because he kept doing what Jesus told him first to do.

Application

We must constantly retell the first time Jesus communicated with us so that we never live beneath our life potential. How sad on the last day if Jesus were to show me a graph of what he asked me to do compared to what I had actually achieved.

The sun was setting on a Sunday evening. I was just four years old sitting on my mother’s lap in service. Her arms were around me holding the maroon Praise and Worship hymn book as the setting sun washed her face in gold. As she sang I would lower my ear to her chest and listen to the warm tones resonate. I lifted my head to listen to the lyrics but I found I liked hearing her sing best through her heart.The song she said was this,

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.

The song reached down into my own heart. I consciously remember thinking, “I want that in my life.” With the lilting melody she went on to sing these words,

Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

Those first words of Jesus to me have not changed. In those early encounters he told us what he wanted us to do for the rest of our lives. We are not to dilute those as youthful fantasies. Jesus was in them. Instead the older we become the more we must return to what Jesus said first to us. For in those first sentences are the instructions of how we are to live today.

Jesus has come to give us new direction. He has asked us to stand up and to follow him. Until he gives us new directions we should stay with what he last commanded us to do.

Prayer
Father, take me back to what Jesus first said to me and help me to find my life purpose in that. Amen.