Author Archives: Ashish Joy

Reading — Jude 1–2

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I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ and brother to James, writ­ing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ. Relax, everything’s going to be all right; rest, everything’s com­ing together; open your hearts, love is on the way!
Mes­sage

What does it mean when Jude says “slave to Christ”? Jude’s life was so given over to the per­son and work of Christ, that he con­sid­ered him­self a slave to Jesus. He was a dou­los, one who will­ingly gave up his life for the ser­vice of his mas­ter. May we grow in the real­ity of Christ as our Mas­ter, and that our lives are com­pletely under Him.

As Chris­tians, as those who fol­low Jesus, we are (1) loved by God, (2) called by Christ into rela­tion­ship, and (3) kept safe in the beauty of that rela­tion­ship by His power. As Chris­tians, it is not our power, our sheer force of will, or our schem­ing that we are being saved. God’s restor­ing grace and power is work­ing in our lives. The Holy Spirit is reveal­ing Christ in our lives. Jesus holds it all together for us. Our lives are found com­plete in sub­mis­sion to Jesus.

In our fol­low­ing and sub­mit­ting to God, in our accep­tance of the Father’s love, in our will­ing­ness to fol­low Jesus in kingdom-​​living, in our daily sub­mit­ting to the Spirit, we find mean­ing and pur­pose. There is no moun­tain, no val­ley, no obsta­cle, no prob­lem, no cir­cum­stance that can sup­plant the supremacy of rela­tion­ship with God. In that inter­ac­tion of life lived sim­ply in beau­ti­ful rela­tion­ship with God, we find that all of life comes under His Lordship.

There is an increase of kind­ness and gen­tle­ness in our lives, where we reveal God’s good­ness. There is an increase of hope which leads us to live at peace, know­ing that God is work­ing all things together for our good. There is an increase of love, know­ing that God’s love is work­ing in our lives and we can but only love more.

Ques­tions To Consider

  1. Jude reminds us of the beauty of a grow­ing, thriv­ing rela­tion­ship with God. He reminds us that we can live in the real­ity of God at work in our lives. How is the real­ity of Jesus grow­ing in your life?
  2. Jude speaks of us being loved, called, and kept by God. How does the love of God affect how you view your­self and the world around you? How does know­ing that you are called and kept by God, affect your circumstances?
  3. Jude pro­claims that every­thing is going to work out. How is it pos­si­ble that we can trust God in the midst of our bro­ken­ness or suf­fer­ing or hard­ship? How do we hold fast to the hope we have in Christ?

Lord If You Will

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When he came down from the moun­tain, great crowds fol­lowed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, say­ing, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, say­ing, “I will; be clean.” And imme­di­ately his lep­rosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say noth­ing to any­one, but go, show your­self to the priest and offer the gift that Moses com­manded, for a proof to them.”
Matthew 8:1–4 ESV

A Bro­ken Man

We can live our lives dis­con­nected, bro­ken, or sep­a­rate. We can bear the stigma of a cer­tain con­di­tion that keeps us at odds with our com­mu­nity. We could be the recip­i­ents of some­thing unfair. We can think that we are alone and unloved, for­got­ten by society.

This leper found him­self in that con­di­tion. He could never face peo­ple again. Lep­rosy was a seri­ous phys­i­cal con­di­tion, but it also had seri­ous soci­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal impli­ca­tions for the indi­vid­ual. This man was ostra­cized from soci­ety, left to wan­der, and forced to announce his arrival when­ever he showed up anywhere.

A Desire For Restoration

This leper was not just ask­ing for phys­i­cal heal­ing. He was not just look­ing for the Mes­siah to ‘fix’ his prob­lems. He was ask­ing for a restora­tion that began first in the phys­i­cal, but then moved to emo­tional and relational.

Inher­ent in the leper’s ques­tion to Jesus, is a desire to be accepted and loved. He pro­claims, “Lord if you will,” reveal­ing his deep inse­cu­rity and inabil­ity to be accepted and loved. If Jesus wanted to heal him, then this leper would feel like there was finally some hope. This leper wanted to know that Jesus was not just pass­ing out ‘heal­ing’ indif­fer­ently to who­ever needed it, but that he had Jesus’ atten­tion and compassion.

Trans­for­ma­tive Healing

When Jesus says, “I will,” He is say­ing that He accepts this man. He is say­ing that His inten­tion is to restore this man more than just phys­i­cally. Jesus cares about this man emo­tion­ally and psy­cho­log­i­cally. He is restor­ing his mind, will, and emo­tions. He is tak­ing him from the state of an out­cast to a per­son accepted by the community.

A fur­ther point in this story is that Jesus sends him directly to the priest, so that the priest can ver­ify the heal­ing. Jesus is really ask­ing this man to enter back into soci­ety, through the pre­scribed laws of that soci­ety. Jesus is try­ing to legit­imize his re-​​entrance into com­mu­nity. Jesus knows what is required to re-​​enter com­mu­nity, to go back to friends and family.

Reflec­tion

  1. As Christ-​​followers, His Body upon the earth, how do we hear the cry of the bro­ken around us? Does our com­pas­sion lead itself to action?
  2. Are we engag­ing with the mir­a­cle that is demanded of us? Are we will­ing to accept and love as we bring Christ’s heal­ing to the world us? The issues are never what are just on the surface.
  3. Are we seek­ing to bring restora­tion to the indi­vid­ual? Do we have that individual’s best inter­est in mind?
  4. How do we accept restoration/​healing as a spir­i­tual com­mu­nity? Do we we believe that people’s lives can be changed by Jesus? Are we ready to assim­i­late that change?

Martin Luther King Jr.

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It was Mar­tin Luther King Jr. day yes­ter­day. Dr. King was a true hero, in the same breath as oth­ers we con­sider great and mighty in our Chris­t­ian tra­di­tion. Intrigue and admi­ra­tion would be what I think of, when­ever I’ve thought of this great man.

As a Chris­t­ian, Dr. King grace­fully and duti­fully held on to the impli­ca­tions of com­pas­sion, jus­tice, and truth. It was never just about black equal­ity or anti-​​war sen­ti­ments. He appro­pri­ately responded to what he saw around him in soci­ety and culture.

Dr. King was not tempted by the ease of the ‘unex­am­ined life’. He did not wait for soci­ety to change or adjust. He saw a sit­u­a­tion, spoke up, and did some­thing about it. He tried to mir­ror Jesus in his words, actions, and lifestyle. He was will­ing to stand up for what was right regard­less of the obsta­cles he faced.

As Chris­tians, we would honor the mem­ory of Dr. King, not by our adu­la­tion of the man him­self, but by instead look­ing to the bedrock of Dr. King’s faith and action in the per­son of Jesus. As a Christ-​​follower, Jesus would ask me to bear out the impli­ca­tions of fol­low­ing Him.

When I encounter the bro­ken­ness of the world around me
When I see my brother or sis­ter in need
When evil and injus­tice have trans­planted right­eous­ness and truth
When it is eas­ier for me to live in Christianity’s cocoon of reli­gios­ity
When my beliefs and ideals do not agree with my prac­tice and lifestyle

As I look at the life of Dr. King I am con­vinced more than ever, that if we incar­nate Jesus to the world around us, we will make a mas­sive dif­fer­ence. Stones might be thrown our way, our words might be mis­con­strued, our actions might be mis­rep­re­sented, and we might even have to give up our lives for a greater cause.

It wouldn’t be easy or fun, but it would be ful­fill­ing and sac­ri­fi­cial. Our first and per­fect exam­ple in all of this is Jesus…

I some­times won­der what life would be like in Amer­ica for me, a non-​​white immi­grant, if nobody fought for Civil Rights…

Dr. King lived true to what Jesus would asked of him, in the face of seem­ingly insur­mount­able obstacles.

I know I can too…

You Alone

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To a bro­ken world, weary under the dev­as­ta­tion of sin and sor­row
To hearts lost in the con­fu­sion and oppres­sion of evil and injus­tice
To mis­un­der­stood com­mu­nity grasp­ing at a God who was not there
To wor­ried souls find­ing no answers to their heart­felt questions

There is a God, who sees and hears and knows and speaks
There is a Sav­ior, who redeems and restores and releases
There is the Spirit, who woos us and walks beside

Let hope and faith and love
Rise from ashes of ruin and suf­fer­ing
Let joy and peace and good­ness
Grow from a place of utter brokenness

Jesus may we trust You more
As you reveal Your­self in us
May we walk hand in hand
Fol­low­ing your beckon and call

Spirit lead us toward
The place you have pre­pared
As we stand in the awe
Of match­less, unfail­ing love

May our prayers echo the cry
Of human­ity around us
May our lives speak truth louder
Than just words or actions
May our walk be to the tune
Of Your Spirit work­ing in us

We stand firm, true, strong
In the real­ity of You