Author: Paul Nordman

Categories
Uncategorized

The “U” in Unity

Middle-borns are often peacemakers: they tend to mediate, negotiate, and even manipulate in pursuit of common ground. Born a middle child, I have lived all these things. My taste for manipulation vanished early in my faith life, fortunately, and while I still have a proclivity to pursue commonality among the divided, I have more recently come to realize that I alone cannot bring about unity in anything. The restoration of oneness requires a change of heart among all those mired in division, and no one can change another’s heart, except the Holy Spirit of God. Yet Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,”1 so there must be something we can do to foster peace and unity around us. But what?

I think a healthy premise in pursing oneness is to understand that we are already one with each other in Christ through same the Holy Spirit who lives in all believers. Writes Paul, “We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”2 This is identity, this is foundational; this is us. Then how do we live into this oneness? We choose to. If we can decide to entrust our soul to the person and saving work of Jesus Christ, we can just as well choose to obey His commands. Yet even this is God’s grace, for through Ezekiel He promised, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. . . I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”3 And so, in Christ, He has.

Then ours is to appropriate this grace as the body of Christ, each of us beginning with ourselves. Regarding judgmentalism and accusation — which reduce oneness into splinters — Jesus exhorts each of us to “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye!”4 For when the Holy Spirit lovingly reveals our own shortcomings and gently redirects us away from them, we experience His kindness and savor His grace. Then through the corrective lenses of freedom and joy, we may see each other’s faults — and their struggle against them — differently. Compassion triumphs over condemnation. Blame gives way to balm. Separation fades amid support. Only in the love of God are we free to live the imperatives of peace: “Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”5

Unity among us begins with each of us; unity begins with “U.”

Father, You are the God of restoration. As You have made us one with Yourself through the redemptive work of Your Son, lead us as one through the transformational work of Your Spirit. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 5:9
2 Romans 12:4-5 ESV
3 Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV
4 Matthew 7:3-5 NASB
5 2 Corinthians 13:11)

Categories
Uncategorized

Couch Dynamics

One evening a couple weeks into our marriage, Peggy and I had just finished cleaning up the dinner dishes when she said, “Let’s sit on the couch.” “Ok,” I replied, and so we sat. “What do we do now?” I asked. “We talk,” she replied. “Oh. About what?” echoed my response from a chasm of cluelessness. “Anything. Our days, maybe,” she said. And so we did. We’ve since come to call this “couch dynamics” — purposefully carving out time to share and hear what’s on our minds. We can, and often do, accomplish the same on our walks together; either way, we regularly and intentionally take time to relate to our “other half.”

Believers are fond of saying, “Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship.” Actually, it is both. Have you ever noticed, though, that even as we tout “relationship” with God theologically, we too often feel distant from Him experientially? We wonder why, yet the answer is close at hand, for when asked about daily time in prayer and the Word, we mumble our confession, “Not so much.” But if Christianity is a relationship, doesn’t it follow that we regularly and intentionally relate with Him who has made us one with Himself? Then how?

We purposefully carve out time with God to share and hear what’s on each other’s minds. Think of it as celestial “couch dynamics.” Then to hear Him, where better to go than to His Word? It is life itself,1 and it is truth.2 The Word is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that [we] may be complete, equipped for every good work.”3 His Word is “alive and powerful. . . .It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires”4 when we cannot understand them ourselves. It is “a lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path.”5 Yes, God speaks.

Yet the Father also listens; we are heard. Through Jeremiah He promises, “You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.”6 John, too, assures us, “this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”7 No wonder Jesus himself “would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”8 He was relational, intentional; He still is. Then let us likewise take time to relate with Him.

You know, like couch dynamics.

Father, grace me to “[store] up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”9 And “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!”10 Amen.

1 Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3
2 John 17:17
3 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
4 Hebrews 4:12 NLT
5 Psalm 119:105
6 Jeremiah 29:12 ESV
7 1 John 5:14 ESV
8 Luke 5:16 NASB
9 Psalm 119:11 ESV
10 Psalm 141:2 ESV

Categories
Uncategorized

Living on the Patibulum

No, we’re not speaking about water frontage, like living on the French Riviera. Nor is it the same as living on the dole, relying on government unemployment funds. For a patibulum (pa-TIH-byu-lum) is the horizontal beam on a Roman cross. Likely you have seen Christian relationships illustrated by a cross, the vertical pole representing our oneness with God, and the horizontal timber — the patibulum —symbolizing our unity with others through Christ. For “Christ is all and in all”1 and “in him all things hold together.”2 In Christ we are “one” not just with Him, but also with all who live in Him through faith.3 So perhaps we can think of “living on the patibulum” as living in Christlike love for others. For “we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”4 He who lives in you lives also in me, each of us entirely by grace.

Yet living as a people united is by no means easy, for we all harbor “the flesh,” that self-willed part of us that insists we live life our way and not God’s. So, while we aspire to love God with our whole heart, our embrace of brotherly love is somewhat less enthusiastic. But we have a saying in Kairos Prison Ministry: Christ loves our enemy as much as he loves us. This notion agitates us a bit, for relinquishing resentment toward an unfriendly foe is far different than basking in the beauty of a sinless Savior.

Then we could write volumes about latitudinal living, but let’s just focus on a couple thoughts on life on the patibulum.

Use your words. Often when offended, we share our grievances with everyone but the offender. But Jesus sends us straight to the source of our agita: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”5 Engage with a heart set on restoration and relationship. Do your best to resolve conflict there and leave it there, “between you and him alone.”

Forgive anyway. Dying in innocence upon the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”6 Did you ever notice, though, that no one there ever asked Jesus for forgiveness or even confessed their wrong? But Jesus forgave anyway. So Paul writes, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”7 No conditions. Just pardon.

Loving others as ourselves can be incredibly greater than any fleshy surrogate we substitute for it. Eager to listen, eager to resolve, eager to forgive — life on the patibulum.

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” — Romans 12:18 ESV

Father, in Christ, we are one. Lead us together in Your way of selfless love. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Colossians 3:11 ESV
2 Colossians 1:17 ESV
3 John 17:20-26
4 1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT
5 Matthew 18:15 ESV
6 Luke 23:34 NIV
7 Colossians 3:13 NIV