I have borrowed the phrase, “Tiny buckets of our minds”, from Chris Anderson who partnered with Joe Tyrpak and Carl Trueman to write the encouraging, “Gospel Meditations for Prayer”. I’ll get to that next but let me first tell you about a sewing competition. I was watching a rerun of Project Runway where the competitors shopped at JC Penney’s for a model, hiding as a mannequin, in the sportswear department. The challenge was to take the two clothing pieces worn by the model, shop for one additional piece, then combine all three items into one outfit for evening wear. It sounds complicated and it was. What I want to point out is that a different designer created each of the three individual pieces that were chopped. The finished product had ‘pieces’ of the original designs but designers used them to make something the NEW designer imagined – completely mixed up as required in the challenge.
If I were to compare that to seekers of the one true God, it is like someone picking several religions they ‘like’ or think is true and works for them and combines those favorite ideas. The original designer no longer owns the design but the new ‘designer’ is playing God. He/She does not need to believe in a power greater than them because they are deciding their choices. It is like loading a plate, as I did today at a reception following a funeral. I took what looked yummy and left the rest behind. This system works for clothes and meals but diminishes the one true God to our level. We try to control God.
By definition God is more than us. We can’t chop a thing because, as good as we are and as hard as we try to love our neighbor, we are chopping God in the tiny buckets of our minds. The devotional by Chris Anderson references Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Over time, God has created all there is, man disobeyed our loving Father, God sent Jesus (fully man and fully God – the effulgence) and we are currently awaiting the return of Jesus when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Let me remind you that our powerful God is not limited to math story problems. Jesus CAN be 200% because God created math and is not bound by it. I know we try to understand scripture but the real goal is not clarity but trust in God. Read the entire Bible then pray that God will open our eyes.
Anderson focuses on two prayers. “Open our eyes, Lord, to see Your immeasurable glory (Ephesians 1:15-23). He prays that the triune God-Father, the Son, and especially the Spirit – will impart to us spiritual wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him…that we might comprehend three things: the hope we are called to, the richness the gospel provides, and the resurrection power in Christ that is now in us.” The second prayer is “Open our eyes, Lord, to see Your unfathomable love (Ephesians 3:14-19), that we may have strength to comprehend the vast love of God and grow in our experience of God Himself”. All of this is relational and not head knowledge chopped to fit us. There is no combo Christianity – it is all or nothing. Again, don’t pray for understanding/wisdom as much as for faith that is the, “…substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1.
A recommendation is to take the gospel of Matthew and study it with the idea of accepting the miracles of the virgin birth, incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ. Try it all on and ask God to open our eyes. Oh how He wishes we would. Once that gift of faith is in place then there is the question of how should we then live. A good friend shared a TikTok message about a change of heart after someone suggested that a person try, for one week, to treat people as if they are Jesus. Three things happened the first day. His Mom is doing dishes and he helps her. Next he asks his Dad about his day and listens. Finally, there is one more hamburger remaining at dinner so he offers it to his brother. I’m sure I’m not telling this as well but I think this is the opposite of how Jesus works. Jesus needs nothing from us. Jesus is in us doing His will through us. We don’t serve Jesus but He serves us. Look at your Mom, Dad, and Bro as Jesus does and those actions will follow. We are His beloved and if we have the faith to confess our sins and ask forgiveness, we grow in compassion because He demonstrated true compassion. Don’t you know that that is why Jesus spent three years with twelve guys (three favorites) instead of growing a ministry that was based on popularity like the prophets for all the many false religions. He loved twelve (and others) well and trained them to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, soul, and mind, and to love their neighbor as yourself – just like Jesus. Being a good person is the result but never the goal of Christianity. It is faith and not works but faith without works is dead.
