Medicine Hat Joe

Week 49  2 Thessalonians 1

Paul told the church people in Thessalonica he was praying for God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live…This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.
When it comes to me successfully living a worthy and good life it’s the Lord who makes it all possible.
Thinking about it from the other side I figure it’s completely possible to live a fairly worthy life on my own. I can make good lifestyle choices (follow the Golden Rule & be helpful kind generous selfless sympathetic & like that). I figure there are lots of people who live good lives. Good lives lived independently.
Paul doesn’t actually call it this but I think his view would be that living a good life – an independent good life – would be a Life of Limited Goods (goods with in-built ceilings). Paul wasn’t talking about that kind of life. There’s two features to the life he was talking about: a) it honoured Christ & b) it was made possible (only) by the grace of God.
Is it possible to live a good life minus the Lord? For sure. But it would be a different kind of good life. Not Paul’s. Same word. Different meaning.

Note: quote from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (NLT)

Week 49  Philippians 2

Paul makes an interesting comment about how following the Lord is a collaborative venture: continue to work out your salvation with fear and  trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
So following the Lord isn’t a one-sided affair. There’s Part 1: I work hard to do my part. And Part 2: the Lord works on his part. There’s a partnership (me working out and the Lord working in).
I don’t have comprehensive knowledge about the Lord’s side of things (what-all his working-in-me involves) – but I figure it’s safe to say that he’s taking adequate care of his part of the effort so as to (as Paul says) fulfill his good purpose.
My bigger concern (maybe my only concern) is my side of the deal. The department I’m running. Me.
I realize I have to be incentivized to work my side (I also know very well that having the inclination & the want-to-ness & the appetite isn’t an automatic state-of-living for me). Plus…even with the motivation I still have to actually act – do some things that are contributing to my being a follower of the Lord.
I figure that one simple & general & realistic rule on the practical side of doing-my-part is: Doing What I Can Realistically Do. One example: I can start to tell the truth regularly. That’s a fairly do-able starter. I’m pretty sure that when I’m not lying I’m working-out.

Note: quote from Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)

 

Week 49  Philippians 2

Paul gave this advice to readers of Philippians: do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but to the interests of the others.
So…it’s a kind of double-whammy:
• Don’t be motivated by my own self-centered ambition
• Consider other people to be more valuable than I am.
It’s a potent combination and no doubt Paul anticipated the How-Do-I-Do-That? question because he went on to say that I have to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
Then to illustrate Christ’s mindset Paul launches in on a long and fairly complicated description of how Christ voluntarily took on the role of a poor working-class man. He made himself nothing. It’s a tricky concept because it raises the technical question of what-all exactly was involved in Christ’s becoming “nothing”. How much of his divine self did he offload?
But I have to be pretty cautious. I’ve got to remember that – as important as it is that Christ made himself nothing – that’s not really Paul’s point. It’s the example illustrating the point (and the illustration can’t be bigger than the point). So a couple of bible reader’s reminders:
First: my focus has to be on The Point (which in this case is to learn humility).
Second: I have to remember that The Illustration is there to illustrate (no matter how elaborate it is).

Note: quotes from Philippians 2:3-4 5 7 (NIV). And see the whole passage 2:3-11.

 

Week 49  Philippians 1

Paul caught my attention near the end of the chapter: live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of Christ… Don’t be intimidated by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that…you are going to be saved… For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.
I noticed two things: a) don’t be intimidated by your enemies and b) (a pretty sobering note) you get to suffer for the Lord.
I think about the connection of intimidation & suffering. I know that Paul’s style is to sometimes just throw ideas together as they come into his mind (although I don’t know for sure if his ideas are genuinely random or if I just can’t dope out the connections).
Anyway my feeling here is that the paragraph is cohesive – that intimidation & suffering are connected. Suffering-for-the-Lord is part of the mix. And oppositional intimidation is also what happens (and is one source of my suffering).
That said my preference would be to reorganize the passage so the suffering gets top billing. I prefer: you have been given the privilege of trusting in Christ and also the privilege of suffering for him. So don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. Instead live as a citizen of heaven. Conduct yourself in a manner worthy of Christ.
It’s a minor adjustment & a small difference. But it’s important to me.

Note: quote from Philippians 1:27-29 (NLT)

Week 49  Philippians 1

Paul begins his letter talking about the idea of progress – about advancing in my life as I follow the Lord. He says: he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. The good work that the Lord started in me will eventually come to completion at the day of Christ (by which I think Paul means the end of my life). It began with a good beginning. It’ll end up as a completed project.
When Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be born again Nicodemus was fixated on the starting point – the re-birth. He wasn’t so concerned with the (important & obvious) follow-up question: “What do I do once I’m born-again?”) Paul filled-in that gap here. In ~20 words he sketched-out the life-of-faith as a continuum: Beginning – Middle – Ending.
I start at the Beginning. I’m in the front door but really don’t know much about anything. Just groping my way along. My basically infantile existence needing a lot of help & support & back-up.
Over time I eventually move into stage two – the (important) Middle. A period of (hopefully) development & gradual advance. There’s a lot of watching-listening-observing-imitating-experimenting-questioning. There’ll be a lot of developmental trial-and-error. Progress-and-Regress. Assessment-and-Reassessment. Stops-and-Starts. Ups-and-Downs. Certainties-and-Doubts. Depending on my age when my Beginning began the Middle Phase will likely turn out to be the longest stage of my life.
And finally there’s the Ending. I’m done.

Note: quote from Philippians 1:6 (NIV). Nicodemus’ story is in John 3.

Week 48 Philippians & Acts 16

Since I was ahead of schedule I decided to re-read Acts 16 before starting the Philippian letter (last year I made a reminder note to do that – if I had time).
Acts 16 is the backstory to the letter. I wondered if reading it would help me understand Philippians a bit better (unfortunately it didn’t).
Luke described three main events that happened with Paul & Silas there in Philippi:
First there’s Lydia. She already believed in God but when she heard the story of Jesus she came to faith.
Second is the story of a demon-possessed slave-girl. She made money for her handlers by telling fortunes and they got angry when Paul exorcised the demon that boosted the woman’s. So Paul & Silas were jailed.
Finally there’s the episode of Paul & Silas in jail:
a) the Lord intervened by sending an earthquake
b) the jailer came to faith in the Lord
c) Paul & Silas were released the next day (and soon after they left town).
So with that background info I tried tracking Lydia & the slave girl & the jailer while I read the Philippians letter. But I didn’t find any mention of them.
They might have been included in Paul’s final words – give my greetings to all the Christians there – but not by name.

Note: quote from Philippians 4:21 (NLT). The backstory is in Acts 16:11-40. End of the month reading report: 93% finished in 92% of the year (still ahead but cutting it a bit fine).

 

Week 48  2 Corinthians 10

Verses three-four-five seemed pretty important. I re-read them. Copied them. Added a couple of notes:
3 For though I live in the world, I do not wage war as the world does (so destructive industrial-scale physical combat & death-dealing isn’t my approach)
4 The weapons I fight with are not the weapons of the world (no rockets drones tanks bombs missiles)
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (Paul says here that these divinely-powered weapons  can demolish strongholds. In the next verse it looks like strongholds are arguments and pretensions)
5 I demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (arguments & pretensions are Strongholds of the Idea & Thought-World. I’m up against intangibles – lies deceptions false-appearances fakeries inaccuracies & make-believes. The war is a conflict between Knowledge-About-God & Deceptions-About-God).
and I take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (where do I go from here? I take a look at the thoughts that are swirling around in my own head. And it looks like I have two kinds of thoughts: a) the pretend-fake ones (that need to be captured) and b) the ones that are legitimate (and can be left free)).
So my thoughts in category (a) – the lying non-truths about the Lord – have to be identified and arrested. Which is a beneficial take-away today: focus on identifying & getting-hold of my erroneous & deceptive thoughts.

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV). Where Paul used ‘we’ I personalized it – changed it to ‘I’.

Week 48  2 Corinthians 9

I was thinking about charitable giving so went back and re-read 2 Corinthians 9:8-14.
To try to clarify the paragraph for myself I worked it over a bit.
I deleted a couple of things. Changed some of the wording. Did some reformatting. Revised & personalized it. But I tried hard to retain what I figured Paul actually meant. Here’s what I got (the MHJ Version):

God will generously provide all of my needs
That means that:
• I’ll have everything that I need (my necessities)
• I’ll have plenty left over to share with others
• God will produce a great harvest of generosity in me
Since I’ll always have what I need I can always be generous
Two good things will result if I give:
• people in-need will have some of their needs met
• people will thank the Lord (Paul also says they’ll give glory to God)
Being generous means I’m being obedient to the Lord
The people I give to will (hopefully) pray for me.

So after my revising exercise I come away with an obvious reminder that if I give to someone who needs help he’ll be in less need.
I get a (reassuring) reminder that giving won’t leave me bankrupt.
I see that there’s also a religious side to charity – helped-people will thank the Lord.
And there’s this idea that I’ll be “harvesting righteousness” by giving – which sounds like a positive thing for me (even if I’m not sure specifically what it is).

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 9:10 13 (NIV)

Week 47  2 Corinthians 9

Paul endorses voluntary financial contributions to my church & charities but he adds: I want it to be a willing gift, not one given under pressure.
So do I have to give to my church? I don’t think so. I might feel like giving from time-to-time. But not if I really don’t want to. (Not being forced to give fits right in with my normal tendency to a) Keep Everything I Have for Myself and b) Not Give to Other People.)
Anyway Paul talks about giving in terms of a Planter’s Principle – he says the Planter’s Principle (which is an absolute rule in agriculture) is a rule that works in charitable giving too. It goes like this:
a) if I plant a few seeds I’ll get a small crop
b) if I put a lot of seed into the ground I’ll get a big harvest.
Paul doesn’t actually say that the Planter’s Principle in the real-world agricultural sector carries over in a precise & point-by-point way to the charitable-giving dimension. But he says there’s a correspondence. With charity there’s the Part a) (I give money) and the Part b) (some kind of harvestable crop – a payback).
Paul doesn’t spell out exactly what the payback will be. But he says that the Lord won’t forget my good deeds – which sounds like something’s being put-on-hold for me.
Making charity look less like an outright financial loss & more like a long-term investment.

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 9:5 9 (NL T)

Week 47  2 Corinthians 6

Yesterday I was thinking about Paul’s advice about not teaming-up with people who don’t like the Lord.
I figured a simple breakdown was to divide interpersonal connections into: 1) First Level Connections and 2) Second Level Connections.
It’s totally possible for me to have a personal connection with a person who disliked – maybe even hated – the Lord. But Paul said that Second Level Connections had limitations.
For instance he said that between righteousness (First Level) and lawlessness (Second Level) there couldn’t be a partnership
Between light and darkness there was no fellowship
Between Christ and Satan no harmony
Between a believer and an unbeliever no common ground.
A believer can fraternize in any number of regular & day-to-day ways with a not-believer. I’m following the Lord and at the same time having a lot of Second Level Connections with people who don’t follow the Lord.
I can have pretty decent Second Level Connections but when it comes to the fundamental level of my renewed spiritual-life connections (my First Level Connections) I don’t really have anything in common with an unbeliever. That’s just the way things are.
At some point I accept that my Second Level Connections and my First Level Connections are different. So I have to differentiate between them. It’s possible for me to have both connections. But it’s a balancing act. They don’t mix. They’re compartmentalized connections. Friendships with fences.

Note: quotes  2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NASB)