Dirty, Stinking Feet

When I am dining out, be it at the local diner or for a dinner at a good restaurant, I really  appreciate good service. Wait staff who are attentive, keeping coffee cups filled, but not hovering, who get the meal right the first time, are rewarded with a generous tip. It does not take me long to recognize whether the server is just ‘doing his job,’ or if he is fully engaged, intent on making dinner pleasant for those he is serving.

How do you serve?  Yes, it is a question for ALL of us.

On the night of His betrayal, the most stressful night of Jesus' earthly life, He was not pre-occupied with His own needs. John tells us that 'He knew His hour had come.' Despite knowing that His own death was imminent, Jesus was not focused on Himself!   We would not find it strange if we read that He asked the disciples to "Gather 'round me, guys. Give me support for this terrible time." Indeed, later at the Garden of Gethsemane He would ask to pray with Him but, at dinner, while they bickered about their standing, about who was most important, He got up, took a towel and basin, and served them. "He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love … poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him." (John 13:5, NLT)

Foot washing was one of the most menial jobs in an ancient household. It was a nasty, but necessary job in a day when there were no sidewalks, lots of livestock, and little in the way of modern sanitation. Sandaled feet were dirty, stinking feet and needed to be cleansed of the filth that no one wanted dragged into the house. The host never did it. It was a job for slaves. Yet, in this amazing anecdote John tells,  Jesus washed the feet of the men who walked and talked with Him because He loved them! He wasn't shaming them for their fighting about self-importance. He wasn't looking for their admiration. He was just doing what needed to be done.

He made it a teachable moment.  "After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table. Then he said, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as 'Teacher' and 'Master,' and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other's feet. I've laid down a pattern for you. What I've done, you do." (John 13:12-15, The Message)

There are many ways to take up the towel and the basin, disciple.

Are you living as a servant, caring for people with genuine concern that flows out of a heart of love?
We wash someone's feet when we absorb their anger without retaliation.
We wash someone's feet when we offer them affirmation when we are crumbling inside.
We wash feet when we forgive another's selfishness, letting go of our rights.

We wash our spouse’s feet when we learn to who they are and enter their dreams.

We wash our children’s feet when we gently, firmly, show them how to live without exasperation.

Americans tend to think that others owe them service.  It’s part of our present culture of entitlement. Do thoughts similar to these run through your mind?

- "I've worked hard, who's going to thank me?"
- "If somebody doesn't show some appreciation 'round here, I'm going to start doing the minimum required of me."
- "Doesn't anybody realize how important I am?"
- "Back off, man, this is my territory."

Take this word from the Word into your heart today. It will produce amazing transformation.
"Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.
Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28, NKJV)

Jesus leads us into a different kind of life. Here's the principle we learn in John 13.
Greatness in Christ's eyes does not come from ordering others to serve your agenda. 
It comes from being the servant of many, empowering others to become the persons God desires.

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Make Me A Servant

Make me a servant, humble and meek.

Lord let me lift up, those who are weak.

And may the prayer of my heart always be:

Make me a servant, make me a servant,

Make me a servant today!

Kelly Willard © 1982 CCCM Music (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)

CCLI License # 810055

Are you good enough for God?

When I entered high school, my Dad made me a promise:  graduate at the top of your class and I’ll buy you a new car!  He never paid up on his promise. He did not have to because I did not make the condition of his promise.  My Heavenly Father has promised me a home in Heaven.  Am I good enough to own it?  I know the answer to that question. Yes!  There is a place prepared for Jerry, my name is already on the door.   How do I know that?  Because the conditions of God’s promise are fully met by another on my behalf.

Using Abraham as an example, Paul writes - "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Romans 4:20-25, NIV)  God called Abraham and told him that if he would follow Him in faith, He would make him the father of the faithful.  The patriarch trusted God and received the gift of being right with God, completed justified.  That gift was ‘not for him alone, but also for us!’

Prior verses in that chapter talk about the rite of circumcision which marked the sons of Abraham. Many came to trust the rite as being the means of their being right with God.  Keeping Sabbath, eating kosher, and being circumcised turned into a way of measuring goodness.  Their focus shifted from the covenant God made to how well they kept the Law.  And, that remains a common misunderstanding among people today. So many wonder, “Am I good enough for God?  Can I hope for eternal life?”  Gripped by unrelenting guilt they compare themselves with others, hoping that they have done enough – going to church, being baptized, giving to the Church and the poor, being morally upright – to earn their place in God’s family.

Here is what God says: "If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man: Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate. Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score." (Romans 4:4-8, The Message)

I know that there are those who turn God’s amazing promise of justification into a license to live willfully, sinfully, and selfishly. But, their failure does not change the glorious declaration that God has made on our behalf. Justification is a legal term, what God says is true about my standing with Him. There is another term that is about how His declaration is to affect my life – sanctification!  Yes, God makes me right with Him and asks me to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become sanctified, that is, to become a person who lives a holy life.  God’s promise, guaranteed by Jesus’ death and resurrection, is the foundation on which a holy life is built.  When we accept, by faith, what God says is true – we find freedom from guilt, the power of pride and shame are broken, and we gain great assurance.

Here is the word from the Word.  May the Spirit reveal the wonder to our hearts, causing us to dance with joy, to have great hope, to live holy lives.

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Romans 5:1, NKJV)  "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him." (Romans 10:10-12, NKJV)

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And Can It Be

And can it be that I should gain,

An interest in the Savior's blood?

Died He for me who caused His pain

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love, how can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father's throne above,

So free, so infinite His grace.

Emptied Himself of all but love

And bled for Adam's helpless race!

'Tis mercy all immense and free.

For O, my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,

I woke the dungeon flamed with light.

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose went forth and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread,

Jesus and all in Him is mine!

Alive in Him, my living Head,

And clothed in righteousness divine.

Bold I approach th'eternal throne,

And claim the crown through Christ my own!

Charles Wesley | Thomas Campbell

© Words: Public Domain

Flat on my face!

So, those good intentions about letting my light shine that I wrote about yesterday, I meant them but, at day’s end, I knew I missed that mark by a mile!  Frustrated by problems and pain, I spent much of the day angry.  I know, too well, the ever present influence of the sources of sin:  the world, the flesh, and the Devil!  I wonder if the Devil read my commitment to let the Light shine and his demons conspired to keep me from that holy calling? (Smile! Nothing so grand as that happened.  My angry day was a demonstration of the power of my sinful nature.) 

 I find this small comfort in the Word.  Even Paul failed and said: "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? " (Romans 7:24, KJV)

Do you find yourself torn between two worlds – one of the Spirit, one of the old sinful nature? 

I refuse to hide my angry sins behind excuses or to blame others for my choices. Were there ‘reasons’ my fuse was short yesterday?  Yes, there were real challenges, but the Lord also offers grace to overcome.  As I reflect this morning, it would be comforting to pretend that my temper was ‘their’ fault, that my failure to take God’s grace is just ‘being human.  However, if I want to grow, I will confess that how I lived is sin, period.

Freedom is found in looking into the mirror and admitting, "It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me." (Romans 7:21-23, NLT)

So, do we make a truce with that disobedience?
Should we choose to stay as we are,  full of good intentions, but falling far short of them?
Is this passage I’ve quoted giving us a pass from growing into the beauty of Christ? 

Some ‘sin and grin.’ They remain childish in faith and practice, slaves to the sinful nature. Christ, our Lord, calls us to grow up in Him, to live in a way that reflects the transformational power of His Spirit, Who lives in us.  How do we do that? Guilt does not work. Rigid self-regulation will not work, either. The Bible says that "These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence." (Colossians 2:22-24, NIV)  Religion’s wreckage surrounds us!  If we attempt to become godly using human techniques  we will most likely either slip into hypocrisy (out of touch with our own reality) or just give up and walk away.

The paradox is that holiness is found in authenticity. We see our sins without excuse and we own them with profound sorrow.  Don’t stop there!  We also see, in faith, beyond our sin to Christ, Who loves us even as He knows every what, why, and where of our lives.  Paul’s cry about his wretchedness is not the last word. He looks up and seeing the Cross exclaims:  "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4, NIV)

Guilt must not drive us simply to deeper resolve or even to self-hatred.  When we feel the sting of guilt we realize our spiritual bankruptcy and throw ourselves on His grace.  Yes, His is an amazing, undeserved, yet freely granted, gift. His grace is deeper than the pit we dig for ourselves, wider than the gap between our intention and our practice, greater than our guilt.  God’s grace really is amazing.   Today, when you fail, (yes, you will and so will I, at some point) don’t pretend, excuse, or blame.  Confess!  But, make it a full confession – of your sinfulness and of His gift of holiness.  Take what He offers freely to you though at great cost to Himself.  You will find victory over sin precisely at the intersection of your failure and His grace. 

Here is God’s promise to failures:  

"God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" (Romans 5:20-6:2, NLT)

"And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life." (Romans 6:8, NLT)

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Marvelous grace of our loving Lord.

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.

Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Sin and despair like the sea waves cold,

Threaten the soul with infinite loss.

Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold;

Points to the refuge the mighty Cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,

What can avail to wash it away?

Look there is flowing a crimson tide,

Whiter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace;

Freely bestowed on all who believe.

You that are longing to see His face,

Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace., grace ,God's grace-

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within!

Grace, grace, God's grace-

Grace that is greater than all our sin!

Grace Greater Than Our Sin

Daniel Brink Towner | Julia Harriette Johnston

© Words: Public Domain