Three Simple Things

God’s message to us is not complicated. Through His birth and life among us He declared; I’m here, I’m real and I love you. In His death and resurrection He affirmed; I’m still here, I’m very real and I love you more than you can imagine. The implications of this should impact every aspect of our lives yet how often do we live with a “see You in Heaven” attitude or allow fear to control our lives as though He isn’t real and lack trust as though we are unloved?

I read the news today…

-and sobbed over the state of the world. Young people with seemingly everything going their way committing suicide, a jogger randomly shot because some young men were bored, a man freakishly dying while on vacation with his family and an 88 year old veteran beaten to death. And that’s not even a drop in the bucket. There is so much tragedy and so much pain, it’s overwhelming.

What can we possibly do? Is there an answer? I know there is and I know it isn’t christianity. The answer is Jesus pure and simple. Not the jesus you believe in, not the jesus you control by doing this or that according to the rules. The answer is the Jesus that you know for real, personally, intimately, the Jesus that lives in you, The Jesus that the hurting world is desperate to know, The One that truly is the only answer for their/our pain.

The Secret

The secret to living a Jesus centered life is having Jesus at the center of your life. Okay so there isn’t a secret. Again, “the matter is quite simple, the Bible is very easy to understand…” – Soren Kierkegaard

Interpretation

One of the most radical things about Jesus, the thing that really set the religious folks off was His interpretation of scripture. Man had twisted The Word to fit his own agenda and Jesus came to set things straight, after all it’s His Word. It’s a shame history repeats itself. Fortunately the simplicity of Christ’s teaching can be as clear today if we’ll trust in Him. Don’t let religion complicate.

If We Love One Another

1John 4:12
…if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

Perfecting love is not our job, when we take that upon ourselves the result is the exact opposite, we end up in the center. When love is selfless and simple, when its roots are in Him; our love is not perfected, His love is perfected in us. This is the kind of love that touches difficult people, this love allows us to love those that disagree with us, this love puts individuals above issues and this love can change the world again.

Jesus

He’s the whole of the matter! It really can be that simple. Whatever the issue, going through it with Him is far better than any other seeming solution. He knows you and loves you like no one else and is waiting for you to call His name. He’s the best answer and not just to Sunday School questions.

Ordinary

“I used to think I had to be somebody important to accomplish things, but now I know Jesus uses ordinary people more.” –Bob Goff, Love Does

With God nothing is impossible. We may seem ordinary to those around us but with Him we are extraordinary. The foolish confound the wise, the weak shame the strong, that’s the way God so often does it. I think it’s better for us that way.

The Law of Parsimony

Or the law of succinctness is the principal that says when confronted with competing theories, it’s best to choose the one with the fewest assumptions. In other words the simpler the answer the better, this is also known as Occam’s Razor. It has always seemed odd to me that this line of thinking gets used to deny there’s a God. Doesn’t the existence of God answer way more questions than not? The very idea that God doesn’t exist creates many more holes for me not to mention the myriad of assumptions you’d have to make.

Simple

Really, God is simple? Theologians will tell you that God’s attribute of simplicity means that He is not made up of the sum of His parts. We’ve been saying this; He’s not sometimes this and sometimes that like we can be. He just is and He is all the time. But I think God’s simplicity is more than that. Scripture tells us that He is not the God of confusion however we imagine Him as complicated far too often. Unfortunately we think this way because it makes it easier to ignore what His desire is for us. I love this quote from Soren Kierkegaard:

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly.”

By attaching complexity to God we create religion. It becomes easy for us to leave the work of the Kingdom to the professionals, to put the Pastors and Priests between He and us. We become content with showing up each week and having just a little bit more of the mystery unraveled for us so that someday we will be able to be and do what God wants. Most often someday never comes. Today is the day, right now is the only time we can be with God. He is the God of the present and His greatest desire is for us to join Him in it, not to put it off.

For clarity’s sake I need to point out that there’s always more of God for us to know. His depth is infinite. But this is the kind of knowing that is personal not to be confused with understanding, which is intellectual. Sorry I got a bit wordy today. I so want each of us to get this or more accurately, get Him. His love for you brings me to tears.

Used by People

There will always be people around that take advantage of others in order to get what they want or what they think they need. This demonstrates a lack of trust in God to carry out His promises. They believe that in order accomplish their wishes they have to do it themselves, usually at the expense of those around them.