“FOR YOU HAVE NEED OF HUPOMONE”

Our faith must be tested to become active, and it must be tested to produce patience (Rom. 5:3-5) which is so essential to our growth as spiritual beings betrothed to God’s Beloved Son. We have need of patience (Heb. 10:36). Patience, the Greek hupomone, is patience, perseverance, endurance, determination, courage, self-control and consistency, demonstrating faith and emulating the virtues of the Godhead. Due to the “richness” of the Greek language, it is important to understand the full meaning of the Greek word “hupomone” which is variously translated patience, endurance, and perseverance in the New Testament:

Hupomone has little meaning or usage outside the context of pressure, being in the wine press of life.  Within this context hupomone is patient, calm and self controlled, willing to wait without complaint.  Hupomone is courageous endurance, standing fast no matter what, standing fast when you’ve done all you know to do (Eph. 6:13).  Hupomone is persistent perseverance, dogged determination to walk by faith, trust God and do the things pleasing to God.  This is the perseverance of Job saying, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15 NKJV). Hupomone is that quality of God’s character in us that does not allow surrender to circumstances but maintains consistency in thought, word and deed, and, above all, does not waiver or doubt the Blessed Hope we have in Christ.

Hupomone is, ultimately, faith in the face of adversity: *Trusting God’s goodness in spite of any apparent evidence against it. *Believing that He is good, sovereign and present when life is hard, cruel and out of control. *Knowing He will never ever leave us or forsake us, that His presence is enough to sustain us during adversity of any sort. This is the consistency of Job saying: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.  My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.  I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:10-12 NKJV).

We all “have need of hupomone” (Heb. 10:36) to do God’s will and receive God’s promises.  God is never absent from the adversity in the life of His children... He is ever present... and He cares. The gaze of the Christian should be on Christ who demonstrated “hupomone”, who demonstrated “God’s patience” in His life, in His suffering and in His death on the cross. So God gives us calm assurance, the strength to stand fast, the will to persist and consistency in all of these as a product of our trial.  This is the very character and nature of Christ being produced in us!

“BY YOUR PATIENCE POSSESS YOUR SOULS”

TEMPTATION’S DOOR

Blessed... happy and to be envied, is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive the victor’s crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted from God; for God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil and He Himself tempts no one. But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited, by his own evil desires, lust and passions. Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death. Do not be misled, my beloved brethren.

Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands, who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm, take heed lest he fall into sin. For no temptation -- no trial regarded as enticing to sin, no matter how it comes or where it leads -- has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man. That is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear. But God is faithful to His Word and to His compassionate nature, and He can be trusted not to let you be tempted, tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance -- beyond your power to endure. With every temptation God will always also provide the way out, the means of escaping sin’s snare, that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.

In a sense all sin is idolatry, loving, venerating or desiring anything more than God, the product of weak faith overwhelmed by wrong desires. Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun -- keep clear away from and avoid by flight if need be -- any sort of idolatry, of loving or venerating anything more than God.

ALL SIN IS IDOLATRY

(James 1:12-16, 2 Cor. 10:12-14, Amplified Bible)

PLIABLE CRUCIFIED HEARTS

“My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” “Formed” is from the Greek word morphoo, a Greek philosophical term referring to the outward expression one gives of his inmost being, an expression which comes from and is representative of one’s inner spiritual nature.  So this passage speaks of the change in a saint’s character, becoming conformed to the character and nature of Christ in actuality, not merely in semblance. This could be translated “Christ be outwardly expressed from within you.” The verb, “formed”, is in the aorist tense where the progress or completeness of the action is a process unspecified by time. And “formed” in the passive voice which tells us the subject of the verb, Christ, is inactive (i.e., passive) and is acted upon by someone or something else. At salvation the heart of the believer becomes the temple... holy of holies, of our Lord, who dwells there in a passive state. This passivity is defined by the meaning of the verb, “formed”, so Christ is not inactive in His fellowship with the saint or in ministering on behalf of the saint as the saint’s Advocate with the Father. But Jesus is passive in this “forming” process, in manifesting Himself – in expressing His life and His nature in and through the life of the saint -- for it is the Holy Spirit’s job to manifest Christ in the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit is the “someone else” who acts upon Christ to release His nature in the heart of the believer, releasing the Christ-Life. Jesus said in referring to the work of the Holy Spirit: “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you”, He will take the very DNA of My nature and release it in and through you. The Apostle Paul speaks likewise of predestined believers conformed to the image of God’s Son, and transformation that renews one’s mind: “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The practical application of this passage: If the Lord Jesus is to be visibly manifested in the life of the saint, His nature -- The Fruit of the Spirit -- must be released through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s ministry requires pliable hearts yielded to the Lordship of Christ, crucified hearts that put Self to death on the cross to make a place in our cluttered hearts for a new and better way of life to form. This is the essence of the Apostle Paul’s declaration: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Christ is formed in us through transformation, the Spirit progressively releasing the nature of Christ within as we progressively make room for His life by crucifying our Self-Life, what scripture calls our “old man”, our fleshly carnal nature. This process is Walking in the Spirit. Pliable crucified hearts have made a place within for the Christ-Life to form and come forth, and, with passionate determination and singularity of focus, they continue down the road of transformation till Christ is fully formed in them. There is nothing in Christendom more important than the continued transformation of the saint’s heart... until Christ is formed in each of us...

WALKING IN THE SPIRIT…

CONFORMANCE INTO CHRISTLIKENESS  

(Gal. 4:19; Jn. 16:14; Gal. 5:16, 22-25; Eph. 5:9; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:29, 12:1-2)

GOD’S IN OUR SANDBOX

Anyone out there who is struggling and thinks God has deserted their sandbox... think again! Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life.” So… we should not be surprised when difficult stressful times invade our life-journey for The Way home to be with God is pockmarked with physical, financial, emotional, and relational difficulties. A powerful and profound command of our Lord confronts our attitude during adversity: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” This passage is one of only three passages in the Bible where something is expressly stated to be “the will of God.” Giving thanks during hard times recognizes our submission to God and His sovereignty over our life. We are not in control, but our all powerful, all knowing everywhere Daddy is. When we give thanks we are casting our cares in dependent trust on the only one who can fix our problems, demonstrating unshakable faith… “Though He slay me” trust. There is no place of comfort for the powers of darkness when confronted with a thankful submitted believer who has determined to fully embrace our Lord and abide by His eternal word. Obedience to this command is not easy, going against everything our natural mind wants to do, but then our transformation – God’s real goal here – never is.

Life will be difficult and stressful: We will need patient endurance waiting on the God who owns time to fix our problems, and we won’t really know how God will intervene. But somehow, knowing God is right there in our sandbox... real-time, makes everything bearable. The clearest personal promise of God in scriptures is “Fear not, for I am with you.” This point is documented with some variation in over thirty scripture passages, normally in the Imperative Indicative, a command followed by an undergirding statement of fact: “Fear not”, the command, followed by “For I am with you”, the statement of fact: “Fear not, for I am with you.” Being thankful during adversity demonstrates our trust in the God who is always right there with us, working our things... our difficulties, into good in accordance with His divine purpose. If we look closely we will see His footprints in the sand... feel His breath on our shoulder...

(Matt. 7:14; 1 Thess. 5:18; Job 13:15; Is. 41:10; Rom. 8:28)

“IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS ... FOR I AM WITH YOU”

LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Better interpreted: “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” Our faithfulness to God is inexorably linked to our love for God in this conditioned statement which is neither a command, request, nor exhortation, but rather a statement of fact. Faithfulness to God is a product of our love for God: “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.” Our obedience flows from and demonstrates our love, and is directly proportional to our love. So, our struggle with sin... disobedience... missing God’s mark, is a measure of our love for God. The more we struggle the weaker our love.

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.”  Abiding in God’s love is inexorably linked to our faithfulness to God in this conditioned blessing. Abiding in God’s love is a product of our obedience. “Abide’, the Greek meno, is a powerful word meaning to dwell in, continually remain in... literally, to take up residence in the love of God. Residing within the love of God will fertilize and grow our love for Him – “We love Him because He first loved us” – which in return will strengthen our faithfulness. “My commandments”, as spoken by the Lord, means the commandments embodied in His words, and, by extension, in all New Testament revelation birthed in our Lord’s ministry. This “IF” is a big IF, making faithfulness essential to the day-to-day experience of God’s agape love embracing our life. If we are adhering firmly and devotedly to God’s word we can expect His love to lavishly overflow our hearts... awesome...

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Better interpreted: “For this is the love for God, that we keep His commandments.” The very law of God’s being is love... this is the essence of the gospel. Love -- the divine agape love produced in the heart of the yielded saint by the Holy Spirit -- is what impels faithfulness to our Lord. As we behold the Cross... the beacon of Christ’s love for us, the Holy Spirit lavishly pours God’s divine love into our hungry heart, and we become His love, reciprocating His love back to Him... fulfilling the first and greatest commandment... Loving God.  In His... now our out flowing love we find strength for faithfulness becoming “more than conquerors”, Agape-Dwellers abiding in His inseparable... immeasurable... unconditional love.

In Summary: Our faithfulness to God is a product of our love for God. Our love for God is manifested in our obedience to His commandments. “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart.” God’s goal, and what should be our goal, is that we abide in His love. Abiding in God’s love – continuing in a state of 24/7 love -- is a product of our continual obedience. Disobedience – sin, missing God’s mark – is then a measurement of how weak our love is for God.

LOVING GOD IS NOT AN OPTION

(John 14:15; 15:10; 1John 4:19; 5:3; 2 John 1:6; 1 Tim. 1:5; Rom. 8:35-39)

LIFE’S HURDLES

When we understand the scope and breath of God’s sovereignty, we will know beyond any doubt it is impossible for saints to be a victim of their circumstances. Our Father, has placed a protective hedge... think Job, about each of His children preventing all attacks of the enemy except those, which in His great wisdom, He allows for our conformation. “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity”? The Hebrew indicates these actions, “good” and “adversity”, are a unity and cannot be disconnected. Longfellow had it right, “Into every life a little rain must fall.”

All of God’s children are predestined to be conformed into the image, the very nature, of Jesus. The biblical phrases new creation, new man, new nature, inward man, renewed mind, etc., speak to this transformation process. This lifelong molding and shaping of our heart takes, at times, great motivating pressures. In a very real sense we are clay on the potting wheel of life being molded and shaped by our Heavenly Potter’s hands: The pressures of His fingers are the adverse circumstances of our life.  

God, the great architect, engineers our circumstances so that we can partake of His divine nature through obedience. Our Savior learned obedience through the things He suffered. Likewise our obedience must be tempered in the fire of perseverance. Our Lord never said our life would be easy, but he did say He would never leave us alone. “Yet in all these things (i.e., adversity and affliction) we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” What the enemy means for evil God turns into His purposeful good, as He brings forth the nature of Christ in us... birthed in our adversity. Obedience, even in the smallest detail of our life, has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. Far from making us victims, life’s hurdles are Grace-Builders in disguise, enabling us to shuck-off all the false loves and allure of life in this world… enabling us to become truly Christlike...

GRACE-BUILDERS IN DISGUISE

(Job 1:10-12, 2:10; Is. 64:8; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 5:8; 1 Peter 4:1, 12-13;James 1:2-4; Rom. 5:3-5; Rom. 8:37)  

THE LASAGNA SAGA

My beautiful wife made lasagna which turned out to be inedible due to tough, rubbery lasagna noodles. I had noticed duct tape holding the lid shut on the lasagna noodle box but though little of it until we tried to eat the lasagna. It seems yours truly had found several open boxes of lasagna noodles in the back of a cabinet in the kitchen behind the bottom drawer where they had somehow fallen, when boxing to move in May of 2012. I had put the noodles in one box and duct taped the lid. Upon reflection, I have no idea how old the noodles are, or if they were even my noodles considering where I found them. They could have been behind the drawer in the kitchen cabinet when we moved into the old house eight years ago.

But this is not the end of this story. Yours truly decided to put the whole pan of lasagna down the garbage disposal, which we never use, for reasons known only to God. Upon reflection it probably would have been better to feed the lasagna to the garbage disposal a little at a time with lots of water instead of the whole pan followed by water –hindsight is painfully 20/20 – for by the time I knew I was in trouble... I was already in trouble. The other side of the double sink began to fill with ground up lasagna. After a trip to Lowes, two gallons of super-duper professional commercial drain cleaner, discovering the “sink tape” I purchased won’t fit the holes in the sink drain, and disassembling the plumbing under the sink, my sink is still stopped up. Day two begins...

One moral of this story is always use fresh lasagna noodles, but there is another lesson... a spiritual one. You see, I let this little “trial” of life get me in a pretty pissy mood yesterday, I lost my joy and peace in the midst of doing battle with the Lasagna noodles. And worse, when I realized I was in a foul mood I begin to rationalize justification for being down. I believe saints are suppose to be unflappable, rejoicing in all things because of the Blessed Hope we have in Christ, treating everything as spiritual because... well, it is.  I begin to think about the things... tough things, saints are facing, things like cancer, tragic accidents, lose of employment, failed marriages, lost loved ones... and here I am being defeated by a lasagna noodle. Obviously I am not nearly as spiritually mature as I thought I was. Please forgive me Father. I am so very thankful that all I have to deal with today is a lasagna noodle. I pray that you will make Your face to shine upon all my brothers and sisters who are fighting real battles. Strengthen them, encourage them with Your presence, and give them peace and hope... and patience, as You work good out of their bad... In the mighty name of Jesus... Amen and So Be It.

CALLED TO BE UNFLAPPABLE

THOUGHTS ON CHURCH FAMILY

I don't know that I've experienced "church family" except in a small house church years ago. It gets pretty hard to be an organic body of believers... a family, when the group size gets much over 50 or so, but small churches don’t have much in the way of creature comforts or services... so... and thus begins the size dichotomy with churches trending ever larger. The church leadership -- pastors, ministries, administration, services, etc. -- may experience church as a family because everyone in the congregation wants to be in their inner circle and they get ample opportunity to share, care, support, and engage. For these individuals church probably is like a big extended family, but for the rest of us pew warmers, church family is a myth without reality. A quick read of Acts chapter two through four sheds light on the relational dynamic of an organic body of believers. Of course “small groups” was supposed to fix this problem... and didn’t. It is sad that so many are satisfied with so little, it's like contentedly eating crumbs off the floor, never realizing there is a banquet fit for a king on the table above.

God’s grand plan is for believers to love and relate to each other as spiritual brothers and sisters -- as sons and daughters of the living God – doing life together with Him at the center as the core that holds the spiritual family together. Individuals in church leadership are naturally drawn to other ministry members and their families as their extended family, the inner ring of most churches. The congregation, for the most part, wants to be in the inner circle with the church leadership as their extended family. But this rarely happens since the church leadership has a “full plate” with little time to engage additional “family” members beyond their inner ring of relationships. Congregants navigate the relational sea attempting to draw closer to the inner ring through relationally connecting with friends and family of leadership members, ignoring all the other “ships” in their ring.  This creates something reminiscent of C. S. Lewis’ essay “The Inner Ring” with the church leadership forming the inner ring and the congregants grouped into successive rings radiating outward reflecting increasingly less engagement with the inner ring. A rock tossed into a pond will induce circles of waves radiating outward from the innermost ring of waves with decreasing intensity. Like the wave the intensity of a congregant’s relationship with inner ring members will determine his ring location. Most people in a congregation are “outer ringers” to whom church family is a myth without reality.

The real fix is small churches that can really be an organic body of believers... an extended family, very much like the first century churches: Small groups of believers, meeting in homes, led by home grown Holy Spirit picked Elders (note the plural), sharing life, sharing God, sharing their “stuff”, demonstrating their faith through love for their brethren, worshiping God in the unity of the Spirit. 1Cor. 14:26-33 from The Message translation  paints a picture of this “participative” church family: “When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight ... Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other ... When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; He brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.” Sounds good, but taking on a real extended family is costly, both literally and emotionally: *Sharing our stuff and our life. *Loving others as we love ourselves. *Rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn. *Praying effectual fervent prayers for one another. *Humbling ourselves toward others. *Extending compassion and mercy. *Forgiving faults and transgressions. *Loving in deed and not in word? And this is just a partial list! Love, Sacrifice, Passion and Obedience, the things that bring a twinkle to our Father’s eyes, were the primary ingredients of first century churchs. What they lacked in luxurious facilities, creature comforts, and choreographed assemblies was dung... as Paul would say, when compared with the experience of living life as God intended, as a real family of brothers and sisters in Christ...

WE CAN’T LOVE THE BACK OF SOMEONE’S HEAD