²⁸  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)   -(Jesus)

We live in a world of ever-increasing speed, technology, overload of information, newsfeeds of disaster, fear, and anxiety, and most people would love to get off that merry-go-round!  But we don’t think we can; so we count the days until our next vacation or “getaway”, and then post pictures on Facebook from our vacation at the beach or mountains or lake or exotic island so that other people can feel envious and then hurriedly plan their next getaway from the “rat race” of everyday life! And the cycle never ends…

I’m just finishing reading a book that has really challenged me and stirred my soul in this area. The book is called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, by a young pastor in Portland named John Mark Comer. The primary focus of the book is on this statement above from Jesus. I’m going to restate that passage above, one line at a time, and I invite you to slowly read each line separately, meditating on that line for a moment, and then ask yourself “Can I identify with this?”, and “Do I really want the life Jesus is offering here?”

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,

And I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon me and learn from me,

For I am gentle and humble in heart,

And you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Pastor and author Eugen Peterson, who wrote “The Message”, a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible, translates this passage like this:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me— watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TAKE THE “YOKE” OF JESUS?

In farming, 2 oxen would be yoked together to pull a cart or plow. That would ease the burden on each, and it forced them to walk at the same pace and balance the load and have more energy to go farther. So if you are yoked to Jesus, he will not only share your life burdens, but he will actually carry much more of them than you can, because he is much stronger! Plus, he will slow your pace down to his rhythm and make your life much more restful and peaceful.

 But there is a more significant idea of yoke here that we often miss! Jesus was considered a Rabbi, or teacher, and in his day the term yoke was considered the Rabbi’s way of teaching the Torah, the Bible they had then. Not only that, it was his set of teachings on “how to be human” and deal with all the weight and issues of life. Jesus’s disciples, or apprentices, were not only to learn his teachings, but even more importantly, learn his lifestyle as well! Following Jesus can be can be reduced to 3 major goals:

1) Be with Jesus.

2) Become like Jesus in your lifestyle.

3) Do what he would do if he were you!

⁶  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6 (ESV)

Notice Jesus is offering us 3 vital things we need, and they all only come through him!

He offers us an abundant LIFE, which begins when we trust our lives to him, and that new life will last forever!

He offers us the TRUTH, which is the Bible, and especially his teachings of what that new life will look like.

But he also offers us the WAY, which is not only the way to connect to his Father, but the way of life Jesus lived, the lifestyle that we are to take on as his followers!

The early Christians were called ”The Way” by others because of the strange, counter-cultural lifestyle they adopted from Jesus. The western church in our culture has lost the understanding of what that lifestyle is and how Jesus invites us to live each day. We don’t live any differently than the rest of our busy, confused, exhausted, anxious non-believing friends!

I hope to begin a series of blogs now that focus on the PRACTICES OF JESUS that allowed him to live a life that was never hurried, but always focused on exactly what was most important, the mission of wonderful, abundant life the Father sent him here to give us! These “practices” of how Jesus lived every day have historically been called “Spiritual Disciplines”, which in our culture sounds like no fun at all, and something we certainly don’t have time to do! So, let’s just fool ourselves and call them the “cool lifestyle practices of Jesus” that can lead to rest, joy, peace, fearlessness, and a way of living that will make us fulfilled, purposeful, and the envy of our hurried and frazzled friends!

I will confess that even as a pastor, I have not been very good at learning and practicing this actual lifestyle of Jesus! My wife was a busy school teacher as well, and with school, church, kids’ activities, and friends and family, I fear our pace of life would be often categorized as part of the “rat race”. Looking back now, I regret wasting too many moments of life on useless and trivial pursuits, when I could have had many more quality moments with my wife, kids, friends, and God himself! And what is life, if not but a series of precious moments that God gifts to us every 24 hours?

Well, I would like to do better at living the lifestyle of Jesus for the remainder of my life, and I hope you desire that as well! I will try to share what I learn as I grow in these practices of life that Jesus showed us, and I encourage you to try that as well.  (If you want to buy John Mark Comer’s book, I would encourage you to do that and get a better idea of what I’m talking about.)  Here are a few simple suggestions that you may try, to start:

– Try reading one of the gospels slowly (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John), but don’t read it so much for just the teachings of Jesus, as vital as they are. Try reading it as a “biography” of Jesus, and pay attention to HOW he lived every day. How did he focus his time? How did he deal with interruptions? What was the pace of his life? Who did he choose to talk with, and who didn’t he? What was important to him, and what wasn’t? How did he avoid distractions of his culture?

– Try to take a short period of time (start with 10 minutes?), and get away by yourself, away from all noise and people. Breathe deeply and slowly, and focus your mind on the quietness and imagine that you are in God’s presence (because you always are!). He may bring something to your mind, or not, but relax and be grateful that God loves you and wants to spend time with you!

– Ask yourself what REALLY matters most to you in life, and how are you spending your time and resources to focus on those areas? How many activities of our day are just distractions, and costing us precious moments that can never be regained?

Jesus came to offer us a new way of life, a restored humanity, that can begin now and carry on into eternity into the new Earth and Heaven combined in his Kingdom! Most of us are settling for just a tiny fraction of what Jesus came to bring us, and many will miss out on this eternal life completely, lost in the pursuit of this world’s deceptions. Jesus warned us of that:

²⁵  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? – Matthew 16:25-26 (ESV)

I’ve lived a wonderful life, and a favorite expression in our family is true for me, “I have been richly blessed”. But, I’ve also missed out on many moments that God had for me, because I was too distracted with the cares and worries of this world to fully grasp the better life he offered, if I would only listen!

I want to finish better, and I hope you do as well! I want to live the rest of my life as close to the lifestyle of Jesus as I can. I can’t do it by myself, but God gives us his Holy Spirit to empower us and help us abide in Jesus.

Won’t you join me? Why settle for only what the world offers, when we can have so much more in Jesus?

I will pray for you on this journey, and pray for me as well! I close with a marvelous prayer from Paul that we can all pray for each other:

¹⁶  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸  may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ²⁰  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  -Ephesians 3:16-21 (NIV)

¹¹  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. -Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

As I write this, the world has been captured by the courage and bravery of the Ukrainian people! Led by President Zelenskyy, a common man and not a typical politician, they have seen his courage and willingness to sacrifice his own life for his country and their freedom. He has inspired mothers, old men, and even grandmas to take up weapons and be willing to fight to the death for their freedom. Social media and cable TV has allowed the world to see their amazing stories of sacrifice and courage! But, we also see the horror and ravages of war as never before as innocent people are slaughtered by a ruthless, evil, cold-hearted dictator whose only concern is to rebuild an evil Russian empire and leave a warped legacy for himself. Even his own people don’t want the war he has forced upon the world!

So, what should we Christians be doing? Should we pray for God to supernaturally rescue the Ukrainians? Should we help them fight?  Why will God allow innocent people to suffer?

 In order to answer those questions, I think we need to first understand God’s eternal perspective on our lives and our world.

Jeremiah 29:11 (above) is one of the most popular and quoted verses in the Bible! I have been on Christian Mingle, a Christian dating site, for over 9 months now, and this is probably the favorite verse on that sight! And why not?…  When you have lost a loving spouse too early (in your eyes), or seen a marriage disintegrate that you had hoped would last a lifetime, who wouldn’t want God to give us hope and a great future?

The problems is… this verse is wildly misused and taken out of context!

 Here’s the background: for generations, the people of Judah and Jerusalem have refused to worship God seriously and trust him for their lives, and God is disgusted with them and uses the evil nation of Babylon to take them away as captives to serve them in Babylon! In Chapter 29 of Jeremiah, they are already being taken captive to Babylon, and God tells them that if they obey him for 70 YEARS in captivity, THEN he will bring them back!

NOW, we get to what Jeremiah says in verses 10-11:

¹⁰  This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  -Jeremiah 29:10-11 (NIV)

Wait, what? In 70 YEARS God will bring them back to Judah? That basically means the present generation will all die in exile, never to go home again. This means the adults going into exile will NOT have the hope and future they wanted!  That promise is only for the children & grandchildren!

That’s not the hope and future they wanted! Was God lying to them, or unable to really help and deliver them? Maybe you’ve wanted God to answer specific prayers about your future, only to find him seemingly not answering those prayers at all, or answering in a way that seems disappointing to you and doesn’t make any sense!

To try to understand how God views our world, think of it all on 2 tiers:

GOD’S 2-TIERED PERSPECTIVE:

2 REALMS OF LIFE, AND 2 BATTLEFIELDS!

2 REALMS:

Realm 1: This is the physical world we all live in as human beings. The Bible says that because of the curse of sin (and we ALL sin), this world is under the control of evil (Satan), at least for now. God hates sin and it’s consequences, including the horror in Ukraine! OUR sinfulness has totally contaminated this world, and is why we have war, hatred, murder, crime, hunger, physical death, and every awful thing we wish weren’t here and can’t get rid of by ourselves.

Understand, the world was not created this way! God created us to live WITH HIM in this world, without sin. He also gave us free will and the ability to choose to trust and follow his ways or not. From the first decision to doubt and rebel against God by Adam and Eve, we have ALL suffered and been infected by sin, and there’s no human way to overcome that. Since that first rebellion when we told God we don’t need him and can do life ourselves, we have continually lived in darkness and confusion and have not been able to stop the ravages of sin. For example, if nations were to come together and do EVERYTHING they could to stop Putin today (and they should!), history proves that sooner or later another evil ruler will come along and do the same horrible, inhumane thing to another group of people. That is the history of our world!

IT GRIEVES GOD THAT WE HAVE REBELLED AGAINST HIM AND DON’T TRUST OR LISTEN TO HIM, AND HAVE SUFFERED THE HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN BECAUSE OF THAT!

But, he loves us so much, in spite of that, that he was willing to rescue us by sacrificing his own life when he came down to earth as Jesus, his Son. Jesus died in our place to forgive us and give us power to overcome sin in our lives and have a 2^nd chance at a restored relationship and a new world with him. That is described as…

Realm 2: The Kingdom of God! This new realm was created by Jesus when he came to earth 2000 years ago. This is a new way of life that begins now, and we enter this realm by putting our faith and trust in Jesus to forgive us and empower us to overcome sin, and live a new life as his followers. Any follower of Jesus now lives with one foot in both realms. It is only partial for us now, but will be fully released when Jesus returns. When Jesus returns a second time (and it’s always getting closer), he will come to rule the earth. He will remove all evil and sin from the world, and create a new earth and heaven combined, and we who choose to follow him will live forever in this amazing new existence, plus we will get new bodies that will never get sick or die! (Can’t wait for that!)

2 BATTLEFIELDS:

Battlefield 1: Because we all live on sinful planet earth presently, we still fight sin and all it’s effects: injustice, racism, hatred, poverty, abuse, wars, starvation, disease, death, etc. But because we believers also live in Realm 2, and know we have a completely restored future awaiting us, God gives us courage and strength to face evil unafraid! When I was a pastor and people wanted to confess their faith and join the church, I began by asking them 2 questions:

“On behalf of the whole church, I ask you:

Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

These are tough questions, and apply to BOTH realms of life!

In this present, sinful world, God expects us to fight evil in many ways. Because of social media and cable news, we see the valor of the Ukrainian people as well as the horror, evil, and senseless destruction of war. Those people fight bravely because they KNOW war, oppression, and slavery is not right, and there has to be something better than this that we all want and deserve! Deep in our hearts, every normal human being knows this is evil and wrong and that we should always fight evil and protect the innocent, weak, and oppressed in our world.

But, we rarely do. Politicians and leaders throughout history always are concerned for their own interests first, and offer to appease evil, which almost never works at all. Satan and his evil followers (Hitler, Putin, etc.) won’t stop their evil until someone stops them, or they allow God to change their heart (which sometimes happens!).

Battlefield 2: This is a spiritual battle, in the spiritual realm, in which Satan seeks to destroy us forever, but God loves us and offers to forgive us, redeem us, and restore us. This is a battle for our souls, the essence of who we really are. We can’t SEE this realm, so most people scoff at this idea. But in God’s perspective, this is the ULTIMATE BATTLEFIELD! Our choices here determine out eternal destiny!

We may lose temporary earthly battles in Realm 1. But God has already defeated Satan and his power through Jesus’ death and resurrection, and God will give us power to win every battle in the spiritual realm!

When my wife Claudia fought her 18 month battle with cancer (both a physical and spiritual battle), God gave her a verse that brought her hope and encouragement:

¹⁵   This is what the LORD says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.  -2 Chronicles 20:15b (NIV)

Some may say “Well, she lost the battle to cancer, so God lost the battle too”.  Yes, it was awful to watch cancer destroy her body, day by day; but I also observed something else that was truly amazing! Because God dwelt within her, she actually grew stronger and more at peace in her spirit. She encouraged others by sharing her journey, she prayed for others, and she modeled for her family and friends how to face death with courage, peace, and hope. She knew God had plans to give her a wonderful “hope and future”! See won the spiritual battle, and now she’s free from sin and disease, and having an amazing time in Jesus’ presence, forever!

There is more than this sinful, broken world and what we can only see now. God has amazing plans for our future, but we have to trust Jesus for what can’t see now, and trust our lives to him completely! That’s the very definition of faith! Jesus told us that:

²⁵  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
²⁶  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? – Matthew 16:25-26 (NIV)

This world, and our hearts, are being shaken with dread and fear over the world events today. But we Christians, who live in the Kingdom realm also, should know that the events of the present are not the final story, and therefore we should NOT live in fear!

So, Christians, how should we live at the same time in both realms?

1) In this fallen human realm, resist and fight evil and oppression in any way you can!

– The worst that can happen is they will kill you! I know, that’s pretty scary! But remember, we’re all going to die anyway. Someone recently reminded me “none of us are going to get out of here alive!” Even though our bodies will die, our souls will live forever with Jesus when we trust him with our lives (plus, we get that cool, new body he promises!).

So, our lives should be focused on fearlessly helping and loving the hurting and lost, and as we do that, sharing the hope and future that can become theirs by trusting in Jesus!

We really have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by fearlessly loving others and helping them out of sin and darkness into God’s light and God’s Kingdom!

2) Since we live in the Kingdom realm also, act and live like Jesus did!

When Jesus began teaching about his new order of humanity, his Kingdom, people didn’t get it!

The Kingdom is counter-cultural and doesn’t make any sense to fallen humans.

His followers thought he would fight and defeat the evil Roman Empire and set up a new Hebrew nation, but Jesus had a better plan! Jesus knew SIN cannot be defeated by better laws and even armies fighting on righteous principles. So he started his eternal Kingdom, a new order of restored and redeemed creation and humanity!

SIN CAN ULTIMATELY ONLY BE DEFEATED BY A CHANGE IN OUR HEARTS, WHERE GOD CHANGES US FROM THE INSIDE-OUT AND CLEANSES OUR HEART AND TAKES AWAY THE POWER AND APPEAL OF SIN!

Not only does God change our hearts completely, but he promises us to live in us as his Holy Spirit dwells within us to teach us and empower us to live new, Kingdom lives!

We will still struggle some as this transformation takes place over the rest of our lives, but God will help us to become more and more like Jesus!

So, just how does that look to live like Jesus as Kingdom men and women?

Jesus taught a lot about that, but it all starts with God changing our thoughts, motives, and perspective to see the world like Jesus does.

Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 that we must “walk in the Spirit”, meaning a daily life led by God that resembles the character of Jesus. The fruit, or “proof” of that is that we will grow in qualities such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Add to that such things as humility, caring about other’s interests more than   yourself, and constantly praying for others, and you begin to look more and more like Jesus to the world!

Our change in character and thoughts will lead to actions that are counter-cultural and will leave others shaking their heads! Read Jesus’ teachings in the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew chapters 5-7. There’s a wealth of teaching there, such as :  love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; do not resist an evil person, and if someone slaps on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also; if you forgive other people when they sin against you,  your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, you Father will not forgive your sins… and much, much more!

SO, as a fellow human in this world, always be willing to fearlessly resist evil and oppression, and always seek justice and righteousness as much as possible! Love those hardest to love, and put other’s interests before your own.

But as a Kingdom man or woman, seek to think and act as Jesus did, as God continues to give you a new heart and a new identity as a son or daughter of God!

God wants people to see the change in us and ask “What happened to you? You’re not the person you used to be!”

And when they see the change in us, they will ask “How can I get what you have now?” and then we can lead them to Jesus and the never-ending, amazing hope and future that he offers his followers!

May  God’s Kingdom come to earth each day in new ways, and may we all be used by God to bring others into his Kingdom daily, looking forward to the new hope and future he offers us!

The best is yet to come!