Jared Longshore's Blog, page 2

Opened by the Book

Open the text again, for it is true,

The Book you open always opens you.

Tolle et Lege, try and find it true,

The bound Word waits to be made flesh in you.

Malcom Guite

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Better Than the Blood of Abel

One of the things our Lord reminds us of at this table every week is that our guilt is dead and gone. The body of Christ has been broken and your guilty charges were broken there with Him. He took them to the grave and didn’t bring them back when He rose from the dead. You have no right to talk back to Him about this matter. You have no warrant to crawl down into Hades and grovel in that guilt He has taken away.

You are on the mountain of the Lord at the feast of the Lamb, with bread and wine prepared, dressed in garments washed white by the blood of our Passover Lamb. It is your privilege and duty to live as liberated ones. This blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood cried out from the ground, testifying to Cain’s guilt. And this blood dries out through the cup. God hears. And the message concerning you is: not guilty. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Sprinkled Law

One of the gifts that the gospel brings us is the gift of form in freedom and freedom in form. Apart from Christ, the world runs for slavish form, as if they were marching in a North Korean missile parade. Then, after they grow sick of the straight jacket, they lurch into a freedom that has about us much structure as one of the more gnarly Picasso’s.

The better part attempt to hold form and freedom together but even they end up toggling back and forth only able to hold on to one or the other at any given moment. Christ, and Christ alone, brings forth the new man. As He does, what takes shape is a free man and that liberated man is formed into the likeness of God. When you read the commands of God in Scripture, those places where He is breaking out the construction equipment, one thing to avoid is thinking that you have left the realm of grace and entered into the land of law. No, you’re a Christian. You stand in a world of grace. Grace is before you, behind you, beneath you, and above you. And your Father’s directives are there with you, they too having been sprinkled by the blood of the Lamb (Hebrews 9:19, 23).

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By Faith Not the Eyeballs

Worry is poison. It spoils your life. And it is a pesky little racal because it can come in all seasons. You can worry when you don’t have two nickels to rub together. And that might seem like a natural time to do so. But you can also worry when God opens up the windows of heaven and pours you out a blessing. After all, where are you going to put it? And how are you going to keep the bad guys from taking it?

The key is to see that worry doesn’t die by peering into the future and seeing how things will play out. But worry dies when we walk by faith not by our eyeballs. Paul did not know what each new city held exactly. Abraham didn’t know what Canaan’s land looked like but he knew God said to go. When that Word from God becomes enough, generosity flows, industry flows, kingdoms are built, children are raised in the way they should go. So cast all of those cares before the Lord as you kneel and when you stand, don’t pick them up. 

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It Wasn’t Me

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

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Remedying Grabbiness

At this table, our Lord gives and we take. You are reminded of this every week, “Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.” The Lord wants you to take here. He commands you to take. But to take is one thing and to grab is another. You should not grab at this table, as the Corinthians were doing with one grabbing and eating while another went hungry, one getting drunk while another got no wine. 

But notice what is prohibited and and what is not. Ambition is not prohibited. Selfishness is. The selfish do not remember the people around them and they do not remember God. And the only solution for the selfishness that remains in us is to learn to take in the right way. And our Lord has told us the way: “Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.” So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Fruit of the Womb

Baptism is God’s sign and seal in which He places His triune name upon our heads. He does this because we are His children. The fruit of the womb is His reward (Psalm 127:3). This good news comes to us in Jesus’ name, which means the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the guarantee of God’s promise that we are indeed His. This sign of baptism points to that guarantee for we who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into His death. Therefore as Christ was raised from the dead, so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).

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Reaping Season

We have come to a time of harvest and so reaping is in season. As the fields of grain around us are gathered in, so Paul worked the fields in Asia, Greece, and Rome. Likewise, you work the fields God has assigned to you. When you students hit the books and write the papers, you’re working fields. When you moms criss cross our town in mini vans so many times in a day that the GPS locator gets tired, you’re working fields. When you men go to work in your vocations dealing with markets, people, institutions, or front end loaders, you are working fields.

As you do so, make sure that you do not begrudge the labor. The fields are white and laborers are few. But it is also true that the fields are white and the laborers are grumpy. Paul says ministers who labor that way don’t do any good to their flock no matter how solid the counsel and teaching (Hebrews 13:17). And the same holds true for your good works. They must be strengthened by the happiness of another. They must be done in the joy of the Lord. 

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Steady Now

If you flail, you fail.

James Geary

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Not Eaten in Secret

We are currently amid holy worship on Mount Zion. While we are not always worshipping the LORD on Mount Zion, we are always having had worshipped the LORD on Mount Zion. By he same token, we are now eating and drinking at the table of the LORD. And while we are not always eating and drinking at the table of the LORD, we are always having had eaten at the table of the LORD. This meal sticks with you and the truths delivered to you here by the hand of Christ continue to inform your life as you go out from this table.

One of those truths that sticks with you is that here you do not eat alone in secret. “Bread eaten in secret is pleasant” says the foolish woman (Proverbs 9:17). But lady wisdom says the opposite. She has slaughtered beasts and furnished a table for many. So as you come, remember your covenant brothers and sisters in Christ. You are one bread with them and you come as one bread. The voice of Wisdom Himself says here “Take and eat.” His generosity will follow you all the days of your life. And by faith in His continual generosity, you can be generous toward one another. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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