Why the spiritual life?

When we who are disciples of the Spirit, seekers after an experience with God and the Divine, resonate to a Word of Scripture, it is like a bell gonging - it tells us that a moment of insight is here for us.

"Taste and see," was the message that impacted me today, and it issues a new challenge for spiritual disciples - and disciples-to-be - about how to see our relationship to the Divine in the middle of daily life and also, how to understand the difficulty of this insight.

Taste ye and see that Jehovah is good, O the happiness of the man who trusteth in Him. (Young's Literal Translation, Psalm 34:8 )

A simple verse, yet with profound resonances. They echo from other passages in the prophets and in the letters.  The verses dialogue back and forth about what it means, the call to this tasting and seeing experience.

Echoed In other Psalms, 

• My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness
• my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips

In the prophet Jeremiah,

• my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

In the letter to the Hebrews,

• those who were once enlightened... have tasted of the heavenly gift, and [have been] partakers of the Holy Ghost,
• have tasted the good word of God, 

In the first letter of John,

• That which was from the beginning (Jesus, eternal Son of God), which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled

A Vital Experience

The experience being spoken of (1) boldly calls us - it is a command that compels us in sensory, concrete, unambiguous ways; (2) it calls us to something intimate, visceral, and transformative - the lived encounter with Divine Being, proving encounters with Him, revealing who He is, and (3) it calls us to a real, whole-being experience - tasting and seeing and reacting to the details of that experience. 

Consider what is in store with such an invitation - it is an awesome prospect, and not for the faint!

At the same time, we want to consider that there are substantial obstacles to yielding to this invitation.  We want to address and overcome these obstacles - and in the end, encourage others.

• The call implies that requests will be made, perhaps demands
  
• The call begs the question of authority: who is calling? What is the right being enacted to demand our attention in this way?
• The promise seems too much, too good to invest in
• So, the call can be perceived as unrealistic, maybe not believable, and therefore something to be disregarded
• The cost may appear too high in light of its radical presuppositions about our yielding

True Community

Still, what my heart hears, and my own call to you is to push through to this 'new life,' as it is called.

Push through to taste and see how this life experience, how this approach delivers better than the many other offers on view today - the motivational speaker, mega-church, extreme-fitness, personal gurus and lifestyle coaches and reality show experts, always-on, always competing, dog-eat-dog and me-first experiences today.

Taste and see the foundational and balancing strength experiencing the Divine gives, shaping our approach to everything else in our lives lived today.

My call is for you to take this on - taste and see.  This is our first charge.

A man who told me my life

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.

were the excited words of the Woman from Samaria, calling to her friends and associates in town.   As the story in John 4 goes, this is a woman who those of us aware of Bible accounts may never have seen as the kind of person who would be fit to proclaim anything "spiritual."

But she goes on to share her heart and draw others into her encounter with Divinity -

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (v29, ESV)

And with this outcome, from a powerful, penetrating encounter between the divine and human man in Jesus, Christ, and this seeking, searching, fallen woman, we have some awesome realities about God:

• He really does get us - he sees through to the the core of our hearts.
• That stuff in us that He ignites, the passion and the vision, is what he uses to transform us into His kind of people and to draw others into His community. 

Read into this complex and powerful story.  More on this later.

Blessings  

    

God is not shocked at our sins and failings!

This passage from the week's study on reforming the life challenges but ultimately reassures the believer - in the midst of our very tempting, relativistic culture.  It addresses our tendency to be weak and fall - but talks about it as we look at the rock-like certainty of Jesus power to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Paul encourages the Corinthians, saying,

13, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (ICor 10).

No temptation! - meaning, even then those under the sound of Paul's voice were dealing with nothing that hadn't happened before.  In Israel's ancient days...

 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come (verse 11).

Paul then hammers home the point --

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, [fn] that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ (I Cor 10:1-4)

 And the sad fact that --

with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness (ICor10:5) 

Temptations are not new, and believers are called to avoid and escape them! God was not pleased with that generation's response to temptations.  Their judgment time of death found them on the wrong side with God.  They gave in to their sin-problems and failed to draw on Jesus' power to live differently -- Scripture shows us the way,

The Psalmist warns, the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong (Psalms 125:3).

Jesus' heart has plumbed ours, saying I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:32)

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment (2Pe 2:9)

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again (2Cr 1:10).

With public apologies pouring from podiums and pulpits all around us today in the culture - here is a strong Word reminding the believer of the very different standard God expects.  May we continue to be strong and confident in Him!