Love is Obedience

I just finished reading John 15, which just has to be one of the most beautiful passages of the whole Bible. Jesus is the vine. We are His branches. We are to spend our lives on this earth bearing fruit for God's glory, and in that we will find joy and our "joy will be full" (John 15:11).

But to abide in Christ, the vine, means we must love Him, and there is a little twist to loving Christ; it means we must obey Him. There is really no getting around this in Scripture. I can't love Christ and disobey Him. I can't love Christ and obey Him most of the time or when its conveninent or easy. In John 14, Jesus says "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (v.15), and then again is John 15, He says "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (v.14). Sometimes this obedience "if" is a big "IF". My pathetic, selfish heart does not always want to obey God. Now that I am married, my biggest tester of obedience is Micah (whether he knows it or not), because I see him so much more than anyone else. Micah is an amazing husband, but he's not perfect. There are times when Micah is legitimately sinful toward me (and, of course, I sin against him as well), and it's in these moments when I look at Micah's sin that I feel myself not wanting to obey Christ. What I want to do is point out Micah's sin, at least once, maybe twice, get angry, then give him the silent treatment, and resent him for the next couple of days. Then I remember that the Bible tells women to win over their husbands with their "respectful and pure conduct" (I Peter 3:1, even if their husbands are unbelievers! How much more should I respect my husband who is a believer? And that's when I have to stomp out my pride and show God my love by obeying Him, which means forgiving my husband and talking about things patiently when I am hurt or mad. It's not always fun, but I can say that it leads to so much more joy in my marriage than harboring bitterness or erupting in anger.

And I will leave you with one my all time favorite C.S. Lewis quotes:

I may repeat 'Do unto others' till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself:  and I cannot love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him. 

A Brief Geography Lesson

One thing that I have gained a better understanding of by reading the study Bible is the geography of the New Testemant. During the OT, the Hebrews conquered the Promised Land and established what came to be known as Israel. During the times of David and Solomon, Israel expanded to its greatest area of land, but due to Solomon's sin at the end of his reign, the country eventually divided into two kingdoms, the North and the South. The North Kingdom was soon conquered by the Assyrians and its people were exiled. Centuries later, the South Kingdom, which was made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and revolved around the capital of Jerusalem, was also conquered, but by the Babylonians. I have lots of previous posts about this. The OT leaves off  with the Israelites, who were permitted to return to the area of Jerusalem once again, attempting to rebuild their diminished, underpopulated teritory, still under the control of the Persian Empire. While the temple was rebuilt, the OT leaves off with a feeling of sorrow and axieity, a longing for the Savior of the Jews to arrive.

By the time Jesus does arrive on earth, some crazy things have gone on in history and geography. The area of Israel is now ruled by the Roman Empire. Israel never did return to its former state nor was it able to occupy much of its former land. Instead, the area of Judea is its own little territory of sorts. Imagine it as one county or region in the midst of a huge country or continent ruled by Rome. Judea stems from Judah - and this is the area surrounding Jerusalem. Above Judea is Samaria, and this is the territory where the Samaritians are from - those people who were separated from and disliked by the Jews. When Jesus is kind to the Samaritian woman, it's surprsing to the disciples because Jews don't associate with the Samaritans (John 4). The well-known parable of The Good Samaritan is surprising, because it was a Samaritian that was willing to stop and help the hurt Jew, instead of the other Jews who passed the man by (Luke 10). These were not normal practices in this society. The Samaritans were of mostly mixed Jewish decent. They were Jewish peoples who had married interracially or interculturally after the exile, so they were looked down upon by those who had distinctly Jewish ancestry (think Pureblood and mudblood HP fans...). The Samaritans also worshiped Yaweh, but they did not go to Jerusalem to worship. Their culture and their religion were both mixed entities and the Jews did not like that.

However, to get from Jerusalem up to the region of Galilee (the territory surrounding the Sea of Galilee) by the most direct route, one would have to pass through Samaria. And of course, the region of Galilee was where our Savior grew up and where he spent most of his ministry years. The common places frequently named in the Gospels, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Nazareth, Bethsaida, were all in this region of Galilee. And, if you can imagine, compared to the urban center of Jerusalem, Galilee was in the boonies. Certain cities such as Capernaum, where Jesus performed many miracles, were more developed than others, but tiny towns such as Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph were from, were basically "the sticks." Tiny, poor population of uneducated people. And this is where Jesus was from, which is why Phillip asked "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).

Understanding these regions has given me a whole new view of Jesus during his ministry. I can see why the Jews were so anxious for poltical Savior to free them from the grasp of Roman authorities and to restore their land to them. It was probably frustrating to live in small regions, mixed with pagan cultures, when your people used to have their own powerful country. However, Jesus came to "seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10) - which is far better than poltical restoration, but something so many Jews could not understand.

And now... my first attempt to add photos to the Bible blog...

The Kingdom of Israel during the time of David and Solomon:

 The first one shows the region right after the Jews returned from exile; the second one is what the area looked like during Jesus' ministry:

Departing and Praying

When studying Jesus' life and ministry in the Gospels, many will often point out the times Scripture states that Jesus woke up early in the morning to spend time with the Lord. Clearly, this sets an example for us as believers that time of solitude with the Lord is to be a prominent and essential part of our lives.

However, I have been learning this year, through both Mars Hill sermons on Luke and through my own reading of the Bible, that Jesus' time with the Lord was so much more than a quiet time here and there. Luke 5:16, after describing the start of Jesus' ministry, the calling of the first disciples and one of the first acts of healing, says "But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray." The Greek construction of these words (imperfect verb and two present participles)  can also be translated "was regularly withdrawing and praying." This was Jesus' way of life. And when we he do it? Not just early in the morning, and not just when He had time for it. He continually did it. It was a pattern of His life to withdraw from his disciples, apostles and the crowds that followed him in wonder, to spend uninterrupted, prayerful time with His Father... our Father.

What would my life look like if I was "regularly withdrawing and praying?" I feel blessed to have fulfilling, fairly lengthy times with God every morning. However, my time is still mainly made up of studying Scripture and rarely includes prayer (confession of sin). It is my compartmentalized chunk of time set aside every morning. I am in no way planning to forsake this time that God has given me, but what if I also withdrew to pray throughout the day? And not just when I have time for it. For Jesus, it seems to be when he had the least time that he would make a point to WITHDRAW and pray. Withdraw from what? The constant crowds who needed spiritual and physical healing, the needy apostles who had willing hearts but were immature in their faith and needed constant teaching, the proud teachers of the law who needed rebuke. In the very verse before 16, it says "...great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities, BUT he would withdraw to desolate places and pray" (Luke 5:15b-16). What would my life look like and how would my faith grow if I could become like Jesus and withdraw and pray during the least convenient, most busy times of my life? Clearly, that's when we need God's guidance and rest the most.