Danny Panter

Above All

Re:Verse passage – Philippians 1:27-30 (day six)

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven…Philippians 1:27a

In a world increasingly divided into tribes (i.e. conservative or progressive), each brandishing their own weapons of war sharpened by deep-seated arrogance and loathing, Paul calls us into something otherworldly.

Faith and joy in Jesus binds us to a new kind of tribe, with a new set of weapons to advance a different mission. Arrogance and loathing are replaced with the two-edged sword of humility and grace, with mercy, and kindness rounding out the arsenal. The fruit of this heavenly tribe’s tactics isn’t death and annihilation, but new life and unity.

You see, you can always distinguish the tribe by the weapons they carry.

So, above all, live as citizens of heaven (aliens and exiles), soldiers in the Gospel tribe.

Unfiltered

Re:Verse passage – Philippians 1:20-26 (day six).

“Right now, we see things as if we are looking through a dark piece of glass, but then we will see face to face.” -Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:12 (my paraphrase)

“For me, living is Jesus, and dying is gain.” -Paul, Philippians 1:21 (my paraphrase)

When I was a boy living in Lome, Togo, my parents bought an old but sizable telescope from a German man. It came in a large hefty solid wood box with latches on the side. Included with the telescope were a set of filters; one was used to look directly at the Sun. By the looks of it, it was virtually black. It was so dark a filter you couldn’t see anything at all looking through it, but when we put it over the lens of the telescope we could look directly at the Sun. It was marvelous.

With the filter, it was a marvel to behold the glory of the Sun; we even could identify sun spots on its surface. Of course, looking at the Sun without the filter would be dangerous; you can only handle the Sun filtered. You can’t really see it in all its glory.

That’s what Paul meant by dying is gain. He longed for the unfiltered gaze into the glory of the Son. He longed for the unfiltered life, and it came by dying (and resurrecting into new life).

True Grit

Re:Verse passage – Philippians 1:12-19 (day six)

What I appreciate most about Paul is that his theology is not theory. His theology is not pie in the sky, with all talk and no action. No, Paul practiced what he preached. When in prison he wrote, “Don’t worry about me, God is really using my imprisonment.” When jealous preachers tried to make things worse for him he wrote, “I still rejoice, because at least they are telling people about Jesus, even if they do have the wrong motives.”

So, when you go back and read things like Romans 8:28 (NLT),

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

you believe Paul, because it was his life. He lived what he wrote. Now, we might be tempted to marvel at Paul’s grit and endurance, but what shines brightest is not Paul’s character, but the object of his affection-Jesus.

Paul’s life and words only make sense because of Jesus.

Slave

Re:Verse passage – Philippians 1:1-11 (day six)

This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:1

Many translations translate douloi as servant, while its most literal translation is slave. I imagine slave rails against our most basic American sensitivities-our inalienable rights, independence, freedom. Servant just feels better; on the surface it even seems more noble, but it doesn’t really capture Paul’s intent.

It was Paul’s desire to convey their captivity. They were held captive by Christ, in much the same was the Earth is held captive by the Sun. The gravitational pull of the Sun forces the Earth into its orbit. The Sun is literally center to the earth’s existence; it could not pull away even if it had the desire. Furthermore, it is the Sun that provides the energy for life to thrive on Earth. So, it is not only held captive by the Sun, it absolutely needs the Sun.

Paul lives in relation to the Son in much the same way; He can’t help himself. He’s a slave to the gravitational pull of the Son, and it is there, and ONLY there, that He will thrive.

Are you a servant of Christ, or a slave?

Winning the War of Words

Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. Psalm 36:1

The Holy Spirit speaks. His role is to whisper (loudly) the words of God deep within our hearts. Fullness happens when we listen. And His words, like seeds, buried deep into the human heart bear fruit.

The spiritual battle that rages in the human heart is a war of words. After all Jesus said, “From out of the heart the mouth speaks.” The Psalmist would agree. (Psalm 36:1)

While sin can no longer condemn, it still whispers bullets in this spiritual battle. Lies and half-truths hurling like 9mm slugs. But as children of God, the Spirit offers us a new voice, defensive measures and counter attacks.

Hearing His voice is our superpower. And eventually His words turn battlefields into orchards.

Faith

Re:Verse passage – 1 Thessalonians 1:2-6 (day six)

Have you considered, what in your life requires faith? Choosing one thing over another because its future reward is greater than the immediate promise of the other?

Because of persecution, the Thessalonians had to decide if this Gospel was true and worth it. Was it worth giving up safety and security, for a future promise? Was it worth putting their family through almost certain hardship, maybe even death? At any moment, with a word, they could have chosen safety over the promises of the Gospel. But they didn’t because their assurance and joy in the future promises of the Gospel were greater than the temporary promise of safety in abandoning the Gospel. Paul attributes this kind of faith and assurance to the Holy Spirit.

I have never had to ask myself those kinds of questions. Never.

Do you have the kind of faith that is super-powered by joy in the Gospel? Would it sustain you through suffering that you could otherwise avoid?

Even though I have never faced persecution for following Jesus, would Paul describe my faith in the same way? I sure hope so. While I don’t share in their persecution, I do share in the Holy Spirit. My faith can muster, because the power of the Spirit is the same in me, as it was in the Thessalonians in the first century.

Transformation

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 5:18-19 (day six)

This is no surprise, the Holy Spirit’s end game is our transformation into the likeness of Jesus, but often that is not what we think of when reading Paul’s words, “be filled by the Holy Spirit.”

Instead of transformation, we tend to think possession; an intermittent movement of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. While He may do that, and often does, I don’t believe that is what Paul means at all. Paul is alluding to a way of life, the steady drinking from the fountain of God’s revelation through the Holy Spirit that a rewires our way of life.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is hearing and following the Word of God.

Personal

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day six)

And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit...Ephesians 4:30

We don’t often think of the Holy Spirit in personal terms, like having sorrow or grief, and yet clearly he does. In fact, according to this verse we can be responsible for His sorrow when we neglect our new heritage as children of God.

The Holy Spirit is not a force, or a particular feeling; He’s not goosebumps, or overwhelming emotion. He is a person. If you want to hear his voice, read the Bible. If you want to follow his leadership and bear His fruit, obey what He has written.

Don’t neglect what the Holy Spirit has clearly revealed to us in pursuit of a mystical experience that may be more of your own making than His.

I promise, He will take it personally.

Sovereignty

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:13-14 (day six)

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Ephesians 1:4

In the spring of 2015 I stood under a canopy of stars in the heart of Ethiopia. There were no other lights other than those twinkling back at me. It is likely, growing up in Africa, I had seen similar night skies, but I couldn’t remember. It was as if I was seeing them for the very first time.

Vast. Beautiful. Incomprehensible.

There wasn’t a vacant spot, without a star beaming in it. And like a glistening vail, the Milky Way appeared to hold stars in their place.

In those moments I felt so small against the back drop of the immeasurable. Stars that would swallow our own like a whale swallowing a speck of plankton. Distances measured in billions of years.

I didn’t just feel small. I was in awe. Enraptured. Seeing, but capturing only an infinitesimal fraction of the universe’s truest nature.

I imagine, even in eternity, that is how we will feel gazing into the full scope of God’s sovereignty.

Kingdoms

Re:Verse passage – Romans 14:17-19 (day six)

The kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink… Romans 14:17

“I’m more concerned with what comes out of your mouth than what you put in your mouth.”-Jesus, Matthew 15:10-11 (my own paraphrase)

We can make such ado out of the most insignificant things (what we wear, eat, drink…); building our own little kingdoms around matters that have very little to do with God’s. As lord’s of our own kingdoms, we tend to pass judgment rather than build alliances. We dig moats and draw bridges, rather than avenues for peace.

One is the work of the flesh…the other of the Spirit.

Pursue the latter, abandon the former.