Beware the unquenchable fire. Luke 3:1-20
John is a passionate preacher, and he tells it like it is. Straight-up, right there, he answers the tough questions and doesn't skirt the issues. When those he is teaching ask what they should do, he calls them out on their sins and tells them to stop judging, give up their possessions, he rebukes sin. Without worry about the possible repercussions, he tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him God.
Q & A:
-Are you chaff or wheat? Seriously, this is an important question and sometimes it's good to reflect on the product of our lives? Would you be gathered for usefulness or burned for, well, not being so useful?
Funny you'd ask...this is just was I was hardcore struggling with last weekend, have struggled with for awhile, and am still struggling with now. I fear living a life that disappoints God (if you really wanna know about this, see my blog post about it here). I feel like I am passionate about tons of things, really passionate. I am beyond pumped to adopt kids, I can't wait. It's gonna be so awesome. I cry when I see and hear the documentaries and statistics about slavery. Girls, boys, children, sold into the sex-slave industry, my heart breaks. Injustice enrages me in a good way, an empowering way, a way that makes me want to change things. And I want to love people, I want to be as much like Jesus as I can and just show people how much He loves them, how much He gave for them, His grace, mercy, and deep care for them. But I'm afraid that I don't make a difference, that I have all these seemingly great things I want to do for God, and that nothing comes of them. I was talking with my mom about it just last weekend, ironic that now I get to think about it here too!
So yeah. I don't exactly know how to answer this questions. I hope and pray that I'm wheat. My desire in life is to be wheat. I want to make a difference, not for me, but for Jesus. I just have to wait and see where He takes me, I guess.
-Who do you know who might be considered chaff? What does your heart feel towards them?
Seeing as this is a public forum, I will not voice my opinion or feelings in a name-based manner. Though I don't think there are that many people who as a whole I feel are chaff, rather certain decisions or opinions they have feel quite chaff-like. A huge example would be the increasing frustration I feel towards the self-centered/focused attitude that much of American society seems to have. The extent to which this occurs was really brought to light with the Kony 2012 campaign. There were so many incredible insensitive, just utterly horrible things posted about that. To be honest, I stopped following the DU Meme page because I couldn't handle the horrific number of just awfully uncaring memes that made light of people's tragedy and suffering (and once more, I will direct you to my more extensive thoughts here, here, and here). I feel like that attitude, and people who care only for themselves or think America's economic discomforts (in the grand scheme of things) should be put above legit tragedy (starvation, genocide, slavery, etc), that sort of perspective is very much chaff, and people with that perspective...frustrate me. We'll just leave it at that. I mean I know that God loves them, and therefore I do too, but that doesn't mean I like them. I love them, but I do not like them. And yes, that makes perfect sense haha.
-Fire is a cleansing agent; it burns off the impurities in precious metals and leaves behind pure, uncontaminated metal. How does Jesus cleanse us with fire? What impurities have been or need to be purged from your life?
This is a super deep question that I feel would deserve many blog posts to actually cover. But I think generally speaking, Jesus purifies us in many ways. I mean first answer - He died for us. Quite simply, that's it. His sacrifice cleansed us, purified us, from all unrighteousness. But in our lives, after purification, we still need cleansing, because despite Jesus' sacrifice and forgiveness, we still sin. Jesus keeps forgiving us, but I think sometimes He also allows us to keep sinning. When we're really stuck in a sin and we aren't willing to give it up, I think sometimes Jesus lets us keep going down that wrong path until we realize what we're doing. He doesn't leave us, never, but like parents allowing their children to figure some things out on their own so they can better learn, Jesus lets us learn. And we grow because of it.
As some of you may know, I become progressively more open and deeper in conversation the later at night it gets, so I guess I'll actually answer the second part of that question though it's rather personal. At this point in my life I obviously have tons of sin, but I think the two I struggle the most with are pride and gossiping. Pride the most, though. I think I can trace just about everything back to pride. I hate it. I want to be humble so badly, and then I start feeling like I'm getting there, and I get all proud of my humility! Whoa now, that's not helping! As our leader at Passage, Flammer, said last Sunday, ""Humility" is often pride in disguise." Crap. I'm screwed.
So yeah, that's my struggle, and I would like them to be purged from my life very badly. God and I are working on it, and when I say that, I really mean God is working on it.
-How does John portray humility towards the coming Messiah? How can you approach Jesus with the same humility?
"But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." Oh man. Not worthy to touch Jesus' feet. John was really looked up to by the people. They saw him as a wise teacher, they respected him, his opinion was worthy, his blessings and baptisms powerful. John was in a place where he could have begun to feel pretty great about himself, but he didn't. No, instead he didn't just say he wasn't worthy of Jesus' love, or of being best friends with Jesus or something like that, no, he was unworthy of even untying Jesus' feet (which would be an act of servanthood). That's intense.
I think it's way too easy to be so focused on the relationship and the friendship and the fatherhood aspect of Jesus (which are all super important, don't get me wrong, Jesus is my best friend), that we forget about how incredibly, utterly unworthy we are. We do not deserve anything Jesus has given us. What do we deserve? Death. Harsh, I know, but it's true. Yet, we have been given so much love, so much blessing, and I think we need to remember how unworthy we are of that free free free gift. And we need to look up to Jesus, thank Him for that sacrifice, thank Him for His love, but remember that we are not worthy of untying His sandals. Our sin on His shoulders, we are not worthy. But side note - it's just so beautiful, that we are so unworthy and yet He still loves us! I just love it. It makes me so excited. That much love, it's just so beautiful and wonderful, it can't not be a joyful thing!
-Jesus is the one whom John is speaking of in this passage. What do we find out about Jesus and His role through John?
We find out that He's coming, and that He is great. That He is a better teacher, and far more holy, than John. We find out that He is coming to save the people from their sin, but also to burn the chaff, to harvest the wheat, to bring people to Him and strengthen those who believe(d). John was preparing the way for Jesus, getting people excited, telling them there was someone greater coming, giving them hope. Hope is also one of the greatest things. I love that too.
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