How My Children And Minecraft Taught Me The Only Thing That Matters
My children have taught me so much.
One of the greatest lessons of my life that I’m still learning came from playing with them a computer game called Minecraft.
Minecraft is like a digital version of the toy building blocks I grew up with as a kid called Legos. But, rather than building an object as you would with Legos, in Minecraft an entire world is generated on the computer that you can build and exist within.
It was a place you could both explore and shape to your vision with resources made available from within the game: wood, stone, metals, gems, crops, animals, etc.. You were only limited by your ambition, your imagination and your computer’s computational power.
We built grand houses and whole villages. We went on adventures spanning great distances across different biomes (green forests, snowy mountains, sandy beaches). We even built machines that automated processes such as harvesting animals into food. We explored and mined vast, dangerous caves to stock our chests with materials and priceless treasure to expand our builds or to use in our next adventure.
Among the heights of items sought after were enchanted diamond tools, weapons and armor. These items were coveted because if you had them, you could practically get anything else. I never achieved this feat, but my much more skilled boys did. It took exorbitant amounts of time, exploration, and great risk to collect all the items required.
We spent hours, sometimes days or weeks building or learning to build our Minecraft world. We even had our own private hosted server (before Microsoft Realms was available) called Blockhaven.
Today, we don’t know where any of that stuff is. The server has been shutdown. The great houses, territories, troves of diamonds, lapis lazuli, ender pearls, the wonderful inventions we worked so hard and invested real time (even real tears were shed) to achieve are all gone. Even many of the memories have faded away. But, the things that remain are the relationships we built and the closeness we developed. They are forever.
Therein is the lesson.
What we learn, what we do, what we achieve, what we build only matters to the extent of what it builds in and establishes with others.
What we build in and establish with others makes everything matter, whether we’re a potato peeler or a Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist. Without it, nothing matters whether we’re a potato peeler or a Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist.
One day, this server that we exist in will be shutdown.
Consider 2 Peter 3:11-12,
“Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”
And, Hebrews 12:27,
“Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
But, for those in Christ, we focus on what cannot be shaken —the eternal.
“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.””
—2 Corinthians 4:18
What is eternal? What cannot be shaken? What can survive the fervent, purifying fire of the coming day of God?
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3
What is eternal, what cannot be shaken, what can survive the fervent, purifying fire of the day of God? Life —to be of the same kind of fire as the coming fire of the day of God, us being set ablaze by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
—John 1:4
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
—1 John 4:17
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”
—Hebrews 12:28-29
The time you get to work does not matter,
That report does not matter,
That money does not matter,
That elite, grand achievement does not matter,
That world changing discovery or breakthrough does not matter in or of itself.
It only matters to the extent of how its done or how its used to build in and establishes with others something eternal.
This is why it is written in Colossians 3:23,
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men”
Today, I implore us to believe Jesus so we can truly see what matters: what we build in and establish with others; the only thing that is eternal —relationships and closeness developed in Christ.
What Do You Do?
My job title doesn’t sound too shabby. Actually, I’m honored to do what I do professionally.
But, I’ve always found the question, “What do you do?” off-putting.
I hate it actually, and I’ve never really understood why, until now.
Ask a flower, or any living thing what it does and the answer is simple and profound, “It passes on life.”
When people ask this question, it’s largely a product of the plastic, manufactured system of this world.
And, when people ask, “What do you do?”, it’s though they’re sitting back waiting to calculate how much respect to give you as though your value is being assessed on the Dow Jones.
The question is essentially asking “What thing do you produce that might be of value to me according to this world’s value system?”
But, we’re not machines on a production line, we’re persons —we’re living things.
And, as with all living things, we’re part of a delicate ecosystem. Something that seems small and insignificant, such as the seemingly benign phytoplankton or the understated honey bee, would spell utter disaster for the entire world if they were loss.
God speaks of us as members of a body, a living thing, having placed each one of us purposefully, as He pleases:
“But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
—1 Corinthians 12:18
And,
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
—1 Corinthians 12:20-22
So, we are not machines to produce dumb things to be sold and traded, but we are persons, living things created for a purpose: to pass on life.
And, what is life?
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3
So, the measure of my success is not in the things I produce.
Jesus said,
“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
—Luke 12:15
But rather, the measure of my success is in the fruit I produce, life being passed along to others.
And to be clear, Christ is the vine. I am just a branch and can do nothing without Him.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
—John 15:4
So, when I’m asked “What do you do?”, I will respond with the answer to the better question, “How are you passing on life?”
And, my answer will be a description of however Jesus is producing beautiful life in me in that season, and how I’m sharing it.
I’m doing it now.
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
—John 15:7-8
Prayer
Prayer is not talking in the air.
Prayer is spiritual.
Prayer is companionship with God
through communication,
“to open into each other” (etymology),
mediated by Jesus (as matter is to sound -without it nothing carries. He is The Way.)
and facilitated by the Holy Spirit (as language is to sound -without it no information is transferred. He is the Spirit of Truth).
God shares,
I share,
to be understood and to understand.
Prayer is sharing that builds on each other and illuminates the hearts.
The purpose is to be clear, to have no darkness at all -the truth in love removing every offense (anything that would cause me or another to stumble – lies block love), to be made one, so that I can walk according to His light, so that His light might shine through me.
“God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
—1 John 1:5
To this end, with full expectation,
I pray.
I speak to be seen.
I listen to see.
Because of Christ, God hears me.
Because of Christ, God is a Father to me and so speaks.
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name…”
—Matthew 6:9
The Father’s speech is the pressing of the keys of the kingdom in our heart.
“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
—Matthew 16:19
The more we consume His Word -the person of Christ, the more we work with a full key-board when we pray and the closer, and consequently (God’s love burns away sin), the more clear we become
for His glory.
#prayer #definitions #heartdictionary #heartwords #perfectourlove
Should Christians Be Passive?
Are Christians supposed to be passive?
No.
It’s not that we’re not supposed to fight. The issue is we don’t understand what to fight for.
Christians are big on fighting for all the wrong things; standing up for themselves and their rights.
Does Jesus do this?
No.
But, if you dare come between the Father and His children, Jesus starts whopping folk and flipping over tables.
Complaining Is Evil
Complaining is evil. It is thought and speech in service to the evil one.
Complaining weakens the hearer (I can even weaken myself from my own internal dialogue)
directing attention and energy
away from God
and to my dissatisfaction or displeasure.
Complaining is contempt for the reality I’m faced with while cowering from the responsibility to make it better.
Complaining shirks that responsibility and shifts it to another, often in the form of blame.
Complaining denies my duty to glorify God (by keeping Him central, maintaining attention on His goodness) and abandons my responsibility to represent the goodness of His kingdom order in every situation that I face.
“Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as [it is] in heaven.”
—Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2
Complaining is cowardice.
And, no coward will be counted among the children of God.
“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
—Revelation 21:8
Believe Jesus. Repent and be saved.
#heartwords #heartdictionary
Complaining Is Weak
God wants to glorify Himself through me.
But, the Spirit has revealed weakness in me that is not in Christ
that He must burn away
so that I am able to reflect His glory.
The Holy Spirit said to me, “You have a problem with complaining.”
It’s a weakness that hinders my use for God’s glory. I repent.
Something I do a lot in my internal dialogue is express contempt for a situation I’m facing and always saying what I don’t want to do.
Jesus never did that.
“Not My will, but Yours, be done.” —Luke 22:42
Jesus did not complain, even as He was being crucified.
“He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.”
—Isaiah 53:7
“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
—Philippians 2:8
He was not deterred by the difficulty of the situation.
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”
—John 12:27
He did not try to shift the burden to another in the form of blame.
He didn’t concern Himself with who’s fault it was.
Jesus did not cower. He came. He confronted.
He committed Himself to the work of reconciliation. He focused on God and directed our attention to the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He set His hand to the task of bringing everything, all of creation back into God’s kingdom order, at any cost.
He put His hand to the plow and never looked back.
This is the man I want to be. This is the man I’m becoming, who God is making me.
He’s burning away the flesh, to reveal Christ that’s being formed in me, bit by bit.
I thank God for His love that both comforts my heart and burns away sin.
I confess my sin and submit to His scalpel.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” —1 John 1:9
I trust Him. He is faithful. He will finish the work.
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete [it] until the day of Jesus Christ;” —Philippians 1:6
The work God is doing in me isn’t flashy, but it’s miraculous.
May God be glorified.
#GodsLoveBurns #perfectourlove
God’s Love Burns
We gush about the blessings and kindness of God’s love, but what about the change His love demands and causes?
Our God is a consuming fire.
His love burns.
It both warms the heart and burns aways sin.
If I’m not experiencing both, I’m not experiencing God’s love.
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It would probably be better said, “His love ‘ignites’ the heart and burns away sin”, because we were completely dead before, we had nothing to warm.
It was for reason of our common understanding of the expression that I chose “warm the heart” as in the pleasant warmth often associated with being loved.
But His love is not just pleasant, it’s transformative. It creates new life in us and eviscerates the darkness of our former selves.
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
—John 1:4-5
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“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
“Little children, LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
—1 John 3:1-2, 7-9
A Non-obvious Encounter With God
Is God real?
The natural approach to the concept of God often leads to the search for the super-natural, that is a super-event that is still along a natural continuum, a sign, an observable phenomenon, something bound by space and time that we can perceive with our five senses.
But, God is spirit. (John 4:24)
An authentic encounter with God is often non-obvious and imperceptible to the natural eye because it’s spiritual.
“Philip said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father?”‘”
—John 14:8-9
An encounter with God is a committed, consistent, all consuming burning that transforms us.
“And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?'”
—Luke 24:32
“For our God is a consuming fire.”
—Hebrews 12:29
We can know and experience God.
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
—John 10:10
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3
Everyone who does is transformed by it. No one who sees Him remains the same.
“You must be born again.”
—John 3:5
It’s a miraculous reality unbound by time that always is; before you were born and after you die.
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”
—Ephesians 1:4
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
—Ephesians 2:4-7
That’s spiritual. That’s supernatural.
It is real.
It’s a reality on a higher spiritual level, that’s not always obvious on this natural one, but its effects are (Galatian 5:22-23).
When The Flower Passes
I constantly struggle, especially as I age and face the certainty of death, with the feeling that what I am doing isn’t big enough, isn’t grand enough and that I’m a failure.
Perhaps that’s another way of saying that I’m seeking approval or recognition.
Honestly, I’m not sure, but it is a lie that’s blocking love and needs to be purged. This is why I must continually expose my heart to the Word of God to search such things out.
When I brought this to God, this is what the Spirit gave me.
A meditation, a poem:
When The Flower Passes.
A flower,
stretched toward heaven,
taking in the Son,
passing Him on,
so others would live,
pleases God,
and that is enough.
I Am Accepted In The Beloved
I am accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)
This is what we’re built for,
This is humanity’s greatest suppressed desire,
This fills the God-sized hole in each of us,
It is the reason for our social bent,
To be accepted truly, purely, safely, irrevocably, ultimately by the Father.
I am accepted in the beloved.
To really recline in that I need two things:
to be completely satisfied with being accepted by the Father —alone, to be perfectly content and full of joy with the Father’s acceptance whether anyone else accepts me or not,
and to understand that I’m accepted on the basis of His goodness, not mine.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” —Romans 5:8
I cannot mess this up.
There is nothing I can possibly do to mess this up.
Oh, what amazing grace! Praise your name God our Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ!
Hallelujah!
This is at the heart of righteousness.
Righteousness is having a right relationship to everything.
This reality, that I am accepted in the beloved, changes my posture.
Accepting it changes how I relate to everything. It makes righteousness possible.
It allows you to stand tall and stand firm for what is good and right, like a mighty tree that gives shelter to others and feeds them with the fruit from The Tree Of Eternal Life who’s leaf never fades and is always in season.
Consider Jesus.
This cradle of absolute safety was established so that you could be conformed to His image without fear of failure or rejection, so that no matter what happens, Jesus is the result.
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete [it] until the day of Jesus Christ;”
—Philippians 1:6
I am accepted in the beloved.
Rest in that, and be transformed by it.