Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied. Psalm 17:15 (NLT)
This morning as I read David’s lyric that he would “see [God] face to face” I was struck by the notion. In fact, what seems to be a simple thought seemed to be an audacious statement. In all my journeys through God’s Message, I’ve come to understand that seeing God “face to face” is a momentous deal. Few people in the recorded histories of God’s Message actually saw God face-to-face and those who did reacted to the experience – most commonly falling face down to the ground in awe and righteous fear. In fact, whether they knew it or not, their encounter with seeing God’s face was a life threatening experience from which they were graciously spared. God told Moses directly: “No one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20)
If you’re interested in a little extra-credit research, here is a short list of a few who saw God face-to-face and their experiences:
Abram (Genesis 17)
Jacob (Genesis 32)
Moses (Exodus 3)
Isaiah (Isaiah 6)
Peter, James & John (Luke 9:28ff)
Saul (Acts 9)
Today, I’m reminded that I serve Jesus who, God’s Message says, is the risen and glorified Creator of the universe. I trust His promise that I will someday see Him face-to-face and will dwell with Him in His glory. I’m equally reminded that my finite human mind cannot comprehend the enormity of it.
Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Psalm 115:1-2 (NLT)
In my daily vocation I help assess the quality of customer service being delivered on the phone by the individual sales and service agents of our clients. Our methodology is to drive our clients to be the absolute best that they can be. We don’t want them just to appease the customer, but to provide memorable, positive experiences. Therefore, our assessment scales tend to measure against a high standard. It is hard to get 100% on an assessment because it requires most agents to step out of their comfort zone, go the extra mile, break old habits, and develop new service skills that make them stand out in the customer’s mind.
I’ve been surprised over time how much push back we get, not so much from front-line agents who don’t want to change, but also from supervisors and managers who believe in low standards. Many managers start with the premise that everyone should score 100% on every assessment and build their assessments to make that happen.
As I read today’s chapter it read like a Quality Assessment form for life. Who is going to make it onto God’s Holy Hill and into heaven? At first reading it’s easy to think, “Oh yeah, I do that for the most part.” But, thinking back to my post yesterday I realize that you can find plenty of examples of me blowing it on every piece of criteria outlined on Psalm 15’s assessment form. God sets an impossibly high standard – moral perfection, in fact – for entrance to His Holy Hill.
Our customer service QA forms set a high customer service standard, but even we don’t expect perfection. How can I possibly measure up to God’s standard of perfection?
I can’t, and I never will.
That’s one of the biggest misconceptions about God’s Message. It’s not about what we do. It’s about what God did when He sent Jesus to bear the penalty for our shortcomings, to forgive us, and to pay the way for our entrance to God’s Holy Hill. My daily striving to live up to God’s standard continues, not because I’ve got to earn my entrance to heaven, but because I want to please the One who paid the ultimate price for my entry fee with His own blood.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” Acts 5:3-4 (NLT)
I have found that most of the world views their own eternal standing in terms of balance:
“I do some good things, and I also do some bad things. I therefore look at life like a set of Justice’s scales. I weigh my good against my bad and try to maintain a good to bad ratio that favors the good. If, at the end of my life, the scale tips to the good then I’m golden. God’s going to let me in to heaven.”
The premise of this thinking, is that our salvation is ultimately determined by what we do and that God will ultimately judge us based on how the scale reads at the end of our life. God’s Message, however, reveals a completely different picture.
Jesus said that the little bit of bad we do is like yeast in bread dough. It’s the smallest of ingredients, yet it taints the entire loaf. Once the yeast is in the dough you can’t reverse its effect. In the same way, even the “little white lies” that we tell, like Ananias and Sapphira in today’s chapter, taint our entire soul. There is no amount of good that we can do to negate and purify us from the effects of the bad that we have done. Salvation is not determined by what we do because no amount of effort can eradicate it from our hearts and lives. Sin is a lethal, spiritual super virus. Once it’s in our system (and it’s in all of us) there is no regimen, no matter how rigorous, that can flush it out.
Riches won’t help on the day of judgment, but right living can save you from death. Proverbs 11:4 (NLT)
Silvio
Stake my future on a hell of a past
Looks like tomorrow is coming on fast
Ain’t complaining ’bout what I got
Seen better times, but who has not?
Silvio
Silver and gold
Won’t buy back the beat of a heart grown cold
Silvio
I gotta go
Find out something only dead men know
Honest as the next jade rolling that stone
When I come knocking don’t throw me no bone
I’m an old boll weevil looking for a home
If you don’t like it you can leave me alone
I can snap my fingers and require the rain
From a clear blue sky and turn it off again
I can stroke your body and relieve your pain
And charm the whistle off an evening train
I give what I got until I got no more
I take what I get until I even the score
You know I love you and furthermore
When it’s time to go you got an open door
I can tell you fancy, I can tell you plain
You give something up for everything you gain
Since every pleasure’s got an edge of pain
Pay for your ticket and don’t complain
One of these days and it won’t be long
Going down in the valley and sing my song
I will sing it loud and sing it strong
Let the echo decide if I was right or wrong
Silvio
Silver and gold
Won’t buy back the beat of a heart grown cold
Silvio
I gotta go
Find out something only dead men know
The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” Mark 10:26-27 (NLT)
I believe that the most prevalent false notion I’ve witnessed thus far in my journey is that our salvation is somehow dependent on our goodness or badness.
It is a very human trait to ascribe reward to merit. As children we are generally rewarded for doing our chores, getting good grades and keeping our noses clean. If we are bad, Santa Claus will give us a lump of coal, but if we are good he will give us a lot of presents under the tree. In extra-curricular activities we are rewarded when we work hard and display exceptional abilities. As adults we learn that if we do good work our employer will not only pay us, but might also give us a bonus. Conversely, our “bad” deeds may earn us fines and punishment.
How easy, then, to slip into the belief that the God of the Universe operates on the same human paradigm. If we are good we will go to heaven. If we are bad we will go to hell. So, we carefully consider our behavior and try to keep the “good” side of the ledger ahead of the “bad.” If we start getting a little concerned about how things will shake out, we begin to play the comparison game as if to prepare our case for admittance through the Pearly Gates. “Sure,” we say to ourselves, “I’m not perfect, but at least I didn’t kill millions of people like Hitler or swindle people out of their life savings like Bernie Madoff.”
Jesus made a few things abundantly clear in His teaching:
We can’t avoid having enough check marks on the “bad” side of the ledger because our sinfulness is not a matter of our bad deeds but the condition of our hearts. Like a drop of food coloring in the cake batter, one drop of “bad” taints the entire being and renders us unacceptable to God. As Jesus put it, the person who shouts “you idiot” in anger is as guilty as the mass murderer in God’s economy.
We can never be “good enough” to earn our way into heaven. No amount of good deeds can wipe away the sin that taints the very core of our being (see #1). Go ahead and try to keep a list if you want. It will never be long enough. Jesus said it himself. It is humanly impossible to enter God’s kingdom.
No lack of badness or amount of goodness can merit the entry fee to God’s kingdom. The only way to enter is by going directly to Jesus, who paid the entry fee for us when He died on the cross and took upon Himself the penalty for the “badness.” God loved us so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever would simply believe in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.
And, that’s the true reason to be excited about Christmas.
“He replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?'”Matthew 20:13-15 (MSG)
As a business owner, manager, and consultant working on-site in a plethora of different operations, one of the most fascinating things I’ve witnessed over the years has been the way different people respond to time, work load, and earnings.
I’ve witnessed those whose mindset is like the workers in the parable of the talents. They take what they are given, invest themselves in being responsible and earning a return for their employer. Rarely complaining, they work hard and regularly go the extra mile for customers, coworkers and employers trusting that, in the end, they will be duly rewarded for their efforts.
I’ve witnessed others who are like the workers in Jesus’ parable from today’s chapter. They have an eye incessantly on the clock, their co-workers, and their paycheck. Regularly feeling they’re being taken advantage of, they constantly compare their compensation package and work load to others. Effort is made to get away with doing as little as possible for the maximum amount of money, generally complaining at any and every perception of inequity.
Is it possible, even probable, that the type of worker we are on the job translates into the type of worker we are in God’s kingdom? When the Day of Judgement comes, will I be one content when God says “Well done, here is your reward” or will I be getting in queue at heaven’s HR office to file a complaint with the management that the guy who squandered his life and muttered a deathbed confession got a better reward than me?
[Pondering this aside today: Are Lucifer and his fallen angels roughly equivalent to a labor union in the economic system of God’s kingdom?]
The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night. Isaiah 35:9-10 (MSG)
"Do you know where you're going?" Wendy asks me as pull out of the driveway on a trip.
"Yes," I reply, "Short term, and long term."
[cue: rim shot]
"Do you know where you're going?" is such a great question. Do you know where the road of life is leading? Do you have a destination in mind? Are you walking with purpose?
A few weeks ago, Wendy and I attended the funeral of our friend, Mike. Mike was a gifted musician and he fought a long, courageous battle with cancer. I was so blessed to watch from afar as Mike entered the homestretch of his journey on Earth. It reminded me of the final verses of today's chapter. He planned his funeral, and it was obvious from the numerous songs and hymns that he chose for us to sing and the scripture passages he picked out for us to read out loud that he knew where he was going - short term and long term.
So, do you know where you're going?
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and john
God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: "Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me—The very thing you've been unwilling to do. Isaiah 30:15 (MSG)
Reading today's chapter I was reminded of this song. I've always loved this song because it makes me laugh and I think it so honestly captures what I believe to be the most common lie that we deeply believe: That on the great balance scales of life, we're basically good people. I'm an alright guy. And, if I put forth a little effort to keep the "good" outweighing the "bad" then God will give me the thumb's up and reward my effort.
The more I read God's message, the more I realize that in the economy of God's kindgom there is no amount of good works that can earn me the thumb's up. God doesn't grade on a curve. It's a pass fail test and only one red check mark guarantees my failure (you should see my list of red check marks – oy!).
I know. It doesn't seem fair. If that' true then no one can pass that test. We've all done something wrong.
Exactly. That's the point.
That's why God sent His son to pass the test for us and, while He was at it, to take the punishment for our failure. We can stop our silly efforts to save ourselves. No more trying to do enough to keep my "alright guy" status. It has nothing to do with what I do. It has everything to do with what Jesus did for me. The reality is that Jesus was the one and only "alright guy" and my dependence on Him is my one and only hope.
Then Elijah told the people, "Enough of that—it's my turn. Gather around." And they gathered. He then put the altar back together for by now it was in ruins.1 Kings 18:30 (MSG)
I have, at times, prayed for fire from heaven as I stood next to the ruined altar of my life.
Silly me.
God didn't answer Elijah until the altar, which lay in ruins, was repaired.
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Elijah
