"I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel." Isaiah 45:3
"I have never been in this place before. It is new ground for me and I find I am way out of my comfort zone. I am scared to death to trust Him at this level. I had to confess to the Lord I have not been able to accept or believe His love for me in this area." Those were the words I expressed to a friend when I was in a difficult place in my life recently. It was that day when I confessed those words that God led me to this passage of scripture.
What we perceive as dark periods in our lives are designed to be treasures from God. They are actually riches stored in secret places. We cannot see those times in this light because of the often accompanying pain or fear that prevents us from accepting these times as treasures. They have a particular purpose from God's viewpoint; "so that you may know that I am the Lord who summons you by name."
You see, unless we are cast into times in which we are completely at the mercy of God for breakthroughs in our lives we will never experience the faithfulness of God in those areas. We will never know how personal He is or that He can be trusted to meet the deepest needs in our lives. God wants each of us to know that we are "summoned by name." Every hair of our head is numbered. Every activity we are involved in He knows. His love for you and me knows no bounds, and He will take every opportunity to demonstrate this to you and me.
Has God brought you into a place of darkness? Trust Him today to allow Him to reveal that hidden treasure that can be found in this darkness. Let Him summon you by name. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Col 3:15
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful" Col 3:15
"Be thankful." Such a simple phrase, but what did Paul mean? Be thankful for what? To whom? Let's think about it.
The first thing that comes to mind is to be thankful to God for giving us salvation through His Son, Jesus. That's good. If it weren't for that, our lives would really be meaningless. If there were no "eternity," why would we spend so much time being "good?" Without salvation, what purpose would there be in living for anyone by yourself? We all know self-centered people. They tend to be miserable individuals - and no one really likes being around them. Yes, thank you Father that you have given us a reason to be "good." Only in obeying your laws and accepting your free gift of grace through Jesus do we find "sanity."
Next think about being thankful to others. Most of us know people who are good to us. Granted, some of us may have to search a little longer than others, but there are always those who love us and bless us with their goodness. How long has it been since you said "thank you?" Have you thanked your spouse lately? They give up a lot for you. I know my wife gives a lot of herself to make me comfortable. (Thank you, honey!) Have you thanked your parents, your children, your pastor(s), your teachers, your neighborhood policeman, your postman, your paper delivery person, the pizza delivery person, the cashier at the grocery store, the clerk at the bank? The list is endless.
Finally thank yourself. WHAT? Yes, thank yourself - for accepting salvation through Jesus - for marrying such a wonderful person - for your part in having such wonderful children. We need to develop a "thankful" spirit. One that will be gracious and kind in all circumstances - yes, even when you open that ugly tie that great aunt Paula gives you for Christmas. So what if it still has gravy stains on it from when uncle Paul was alive! It's the thought that counts. Be thankful in all things. Praise God, Amen and Amen.
"Be thankful." Such a simple phrase, but what did Paul mean? Be thankful for what? To whom? Let's think about it.
The first thing that comes to mind is to be thankful to God for giving us salvation through His Son, Jesus. That's good. If it weren't for that, our lives would really be meaningless. If there were no "eternity," why would we spend so much time being "good?" Without salvation, what purpose would there be in living for anyone by yourself? We all know self-centered people. They tend to be miserable individuals - and no one really likes being around them. Yes, thank you Father that you have given us a reason to be "good." Only in obeying your laws and accepting your free gift of grace through Jesus do we find "sanity."
Next think about being thankful to others. Most of us know people who are good to us. Granted, some of us may have to search a little longer than others, but there are always those who love us and bless us with their goodness. How long has it been since you said "thank you?" Have you thanked your spouse lately? They give up a lot for you. I know my wife gives a lot of herself to make me comfortable. (Thank you, honey!) Have you thanked your parents, your children, your pastor(s), your teachers, your neighborhood policeman, your postman, your paper delivery person, the pizza delivery person, the cashier at the grocery store, the clerk at the bank? The list is endless.
Finally thank yourself. WHAT? Yes, thank yourself - for accepting salvation through Jesus - for marrying such a wonderful person - for your part in having such wonderful children. We need to develop a "thankful" spirit. One that will be gracious and kind in all circumstances - yes, even when you open that ugly tie that great aunt Paula gives you for Christmas. So what if it still has gravy stains on it from when uncle Paul was alive! It's the thought that counts. Be thankful in all things. Praise God, Amen and Amen.
Monday, March 29, 2010
2 Sam 5:19
"So David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?" And the LORD said to David, "Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand." 2 Sam 5:19
There's nothing better than discussing a major decision in life than talking face to face with your spouse or a good friend. The next best thing is talking on the phone. These forms of contact give us an assurance that what we are about to do is right.
David had that kind of relationship with God. Note today's verse, "Shall I go up against the Philistines?" This is a major decision for anyone. "Is it appropriate for me to go up against a major enemy at this time?" It's a life or death matter. If I go and the time is wrong, I may die. If I don't go and the time is right, the opportunity may never come again - and they may remain an thorn in my flesh forever. Decisions, decisions, decisions! But David was asking the right individual.
He was asking the God of creation, the King of kings, the Master Strategist. If God didn't have the answer to this question, He didn't have the answer to any question. So ask David did - and answer God did! "Go, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand." David did. God did. And David won the battle.
You know, you can have that same relationship with the Father. You really can. No, it won't happen overnight. It won't happen next week. It will happen like it did with David. He began building his relationship with God at a young age. He worked at it in the wilderness as he tended his father's sheep. He developed it when he went to the front lines and heard Goliath's challenge. He knew he was on the right track when he killed that giant of a man with a single stone from his trusty sling.
But that wasn't the end of the relationship's development. God sent him into exile. He lived in caves. He dwelt with heathens. He dealt with fools. All the time he was building a relationship with the Father. Sure, he had other counselors. Some of them were really good friends. But it was the God of the wilderness to whom he turned when he really needed to know what to do. He had learned that God never failed him. Never did - never would.
God will develop that relationship with you over a period of time. The more you get to know Him, the more you learn to trust Him. The more you talk with Him, the more you know His voice. The more you read His word, the more you know His mind. All of these shape a confidence that allows you to ask, "Is it time to take on this enemy?" And you will hear the voice of God. You will know His mind. You will proceed - and you will be victorious. Praise God, Amen and Amen.
There's nothing better than discussing a major decision in life than talking face to face with your spouse or a good friend. The next best thing is talking on the phone. These forms of contact give us an assurance that what we are about to do is right.
David had that kind of relationship with God. Note today's verse, "Shall I go up against the Philistines?" This is a major decision for anyone. "Is it appropriate for me to go up against a major enemy at this time?" It's a life or death matter. If I go and the time is wrong, I may die. If I don't go and the time is right, the opportunity may never come again - and they may remain an thorn in my flesh forever. Decisions, decisions, decisions! But David was asking the right individual.
He was asking the God of creation, the King of kings, the Master Strategist. If God didn't have the answer to this question, He didn't have the answer to any question. So ask David did - and answer God did! "Go, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand." David did. God did. And David won the battle.
You know, you can have that same relationship with the Father. You really can. No, it won't happen overnight. It won't happen next week. It will happen like it did with David. He began building his relationship with God at a young age. He worked at it in the wilderness as he tended his father's sheep. He developed it when he went to the front lines and heard Goliath's challenge. He knew he was on the right track when he killed that giant of a man with a single stone from his trusty sling.
But that wasn't the end of the relationship's development. God sent him into exile. He lived in caves. He dwelt with heathens. He dealt with fools. All the time he was building a relationship with the Father. Sure, he had other counselors. Some of them were really good friends. But it was the God of the wilderness to whom he turned when he really needed to know what to do. He had learned that God never failed him. Never did - never would.
God will develop that relationship with you over a period of time. The more you get to know Him, the more you learn to trust Him. The more you talk with Him, the more you know His voice. The more you read His word, the more you know His mind. All of these shape a confidence that allows you to ask, "Is it time to take on this enemy?" And you will hear the voice of God. You will know His mind. You will proceed - and you will be victorious. Praise God, Amen and Amen.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-8; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 23:1-49
When we look at what happened during Palm Sunday to Good Friday at Jerusalem some two thousand years ago, it was almost like one of those “Good news and Bad news” moments, or even like one of those good news and bad news jokes. It is also very similar to what often happened to us during our life time, good news one moment, bad news another moment.
The good news in what happened during Palm Sunday was that our Lord Jesus Christ reached the very high point of his earthly ministry; the very high point of his popularity during this particular week two thousand years ago. He rode just like a king of peace in a triumphal procession into the holy city of Jerusalem.
There was a very big parade with lots and lots of pomp and circumstance. It seems as though everybody in the city had turned out, the disciples were, naturally very impressed; after all, they were only human beings. The Pharisees and the Sadducees suddenly realized that they had all this time underestimated this simple Galilean teacher and miracle worker.
With all this very high level of public approval, Jesus went to the temple, the very centre of the Jewish faith of the time and began to teach and preach there.
From Sunday all the way to Thursday there was nobody who could stop Jesus from doing what he wanted to do in the holy city of Jerusalem.
As we can read from the Bible, there were several times when opponents of Jesus tried to trick him – but all the time they got nowhere at all. Each time Jesus turned the tables on them and exposed their treachery to the people present at such encounters.
Nobody ever seriously complained about any of Jesus’ activities, and even the Temple guards did nothing when Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers as well as let the sacrificial birds loose.
During this very same period of time, as you may remember as recorded in the Gospel of John 13:34: Jesus established the basis of a new commandment to love one another, just as he has loved you, you should also love one another. This is the commandment that forms all the basis of all the commandments, for how can you say that you love God if you do not love your own brothers and sisters in Christ, who are all His children? If you do love one another, will you be hurting them by stealing from them, from killing them or their loved ones, or by committing adultery? You will not, right?
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
It was also during this week that Jesus began a new ceremony with bread and wine which would later on, become the sacrament of Holy Communion or the Eucharist.
You might just turn around with impatience or puzzlement and ask me, “So, what is the bad news out of all that?”
The bad news is that on Thursday of that particular week some two thousand years ago our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed and arrested, and on Friday he was hung up on a cross just like a common criminal and died. The death and what happened to him before he was killed was the most humiliating and cruelest method of execution that the Romans could have come up with.
Today we are having the palms – tomorrow we will be having the passion – good news and bad news – unfortunately not a joke at all.
The very sad and grim truth we had from the reading of today is that it was some of the very same people who shouted “Hosanna” on Sunday who shouted “Crucify him,” just a few days later.
The hero of everybody on that Sunday in Jerusalem became a bloody sacrifice, as well as an object of scorn, insult and hatred of some of the people who cheered him.
Is there anything at all we can learn from all this?
Of course there is, otherwise, I will not be standing here wasting your time or my time talking to you about it. It has been the custom of many preachers in looking for that lesson by focusing on the experience of the people around Jesus at the time, and from what they say and do and than come up with a message that goes like this:
“Do not be like those who cheered one day and jeered the next day. Be faithful and see yourself as one of Jesus’ loyal follower every day, every hour, every minute, every second of your life in this world.”
That by itself is already a very good message – and that message lies underneath our prayers and our liturgies of today.
However, I would like to suggest to you, very briefly, that perhaps there is something that we may be able to learn from putting ourselves in the place of Jesus rather than in the shoes of the people surrounding him.
What do you think was Jesus’ experience in the middle of all this up and down? What do you think was Jesus’ feelings on this whole big bundle of events and happenings that took place all the way within the short space of only a few days, from Palm Sunday to Good Friday?
Perhaps it is much easier to get at this by asking the question which no many people dare to ask: “What if Jesus had stayed in Galilee and retired at the end of the day as an old rabbi full of wisdom and compassion?”
Indeed what would have happened? Maybe this question can help to remind all of us of something that some of us find easy to forget – maybe it can help us to remember that Jesus was the one who CHOSE his own path. Maybe it will help us to remember that it was his own choice to leave the relative safety of Galilee and his ministry in the hills and villages, and instead of safety he CHOSE to confront the powers of both politics and religion of his day in the very centre, in the holy city of Jerusalem. What he did was all his own choice. It was his choice to be obedient to the will of the Father. To be obedient all the way to death, and the most humiliating and painful death of all, death on a cross.
This is a reminder to us that all the uphill – downhill, good news – bad news, palms one day – passion the next day, had nothing REALLY to do with what Jesus was all about.
Jesus saw in all this, the entire purpose of his life in this world. A life in terms of proclaiming to all of mankind a new relationship with God, a relationship full of intimate familial love, and nothing could truly intervene in the purpose of his. Not even popularity, or acceptance from the people, or the full knowledge of the kind of fate awaiting him.
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he was neither excited nor deceived by the applause of the crowds. Nor was he feeling downcast by the treachery, or the desertion of his disciples, and the seemingly complete reversal of fortune that he would have to go through.
As we have been hearing during the last few weeks of Lent – Jesus knew what will be happening to him. He even knew that Peter will be denying him three times, and that his closest disciple and friend would be the one claiming to have no knowledge of him and have absolutely nothing to do with him when Peter was put to the test.
Whether with popular acclaim – or in all the denial and rejection – Jesus made it plain to everyone that he was not ruled by human feelings and events of the minute, but rather he was walking step after step along a path which would eventually lead him to the one and only source of true and lasting meaning for him and ultimately for everyone of us. He was moving towards all the way towards the fulfillment of God’s will, both for him and through him for the whole world. He was walking all the way towards the achieving and fulfilling of God’s plan of Salvation for mankind.
It did not matter to Jesus whether the path seemed to reach a peak from which there was no way to go but down. Jesus knew that his goal in this world was not the top of the mountain, not popularity from the masses, or earthly power or applause from the people.
It also did not matter to him that the path seemed to lead into, and end in the valley of the shadow of death, although he would have willed for himself some other course, if that course could still be true to the will of the Father, the will that he accepted as perfect.
No, regardless of appearance, regardless of the popularity that Jesus found himself to be in with the people, and regardless of the suffering and the humiliation that Jesus knew that he will be going through soon, Jesus chose to be true to his mission, he chose to be obedient to the very end; knowing, hoping, praying that in that, regardless of what might be happening, he will be under girded, surrounded, and encompassed by the presence, the mercy, and the love of God the Father.
It is a very good lesson for all of us to remember.
Indeed it is a good lesson for every one of us to remember.
If we depend upon the events of life to give us reward and satisfaction, then we may never be able to achieve them or we may have them snatched away in the very moment of tasting victory. We are after all, never sufficient to help even ourselves, or to prolong our life in this world by even one day, however, with the help of God, whose powers and grace are all sufficient, we can with certainty achieve victory, if not today, tomorrow.
Many years ago, I was working as marketing manager of the building materials department of a German trading company here in Hong Kong. I managed during the first year of my employment with that company to increase business volume by over 100 per cent; I was winning tenders after tenders, I was the hero of the company and of the suppliers at the time. One of the supplies was so happy with me that they sent a manager from Germany to see me. He was to present me with a bottle of champagne, a gift and to buy me the most expensive dinner that they could buy in Hong Kong. During the second year increased business volume of that particular department by an additional twenty per cent. However, due to the company thinking that the department is now on track can go on being successful without me, and they could save a lot of money by getting rid of me, and promoting one of my junior salesmen to take my place, I was literally thrown out of the company. What a perfect example of being popular and of defeat!
We may be at the peak of our lives, with money, health, security, friends, but – in those terms – there is nowhere for us to go but downhill in the weeks, months, and years ahead of us.
On the other hand, we – like Christ – have the chance and the opportunity to walk our own unique path of obedience towards God, our Father in heaven.
It is a path which may see us surrounded by enjoyment, possessions, and popularity, or it may very well lead us into loneliness, misunderstanding and even poverty. What does wealth and riches means to you and me, even if we are as wealthy and successful as people like Li Kar Shing or Stanley Ho, if we are to die the next moment and ended up at the very gates of hell?
None of these worldly things will finally give life its meaning. They are all pointless. They are all vanity.
Up hill or down hill, it is the final destination which really counts at the end of the day, and nobody’s life can be more well spent than in seeking to find and to do God’s will. If we seek and do God’s will, we can at the end when it is time for us to go home to our Father in heaven, claim that we have run a good race, and fight a good fight.
Because, after all, the journey from Palm Sunday to Good Friday was not just one of those good news – bad news joke.
There was the final good news of the resurrection of Jesus which redeemed all of us, and which reminds us that God can take any situation – no matter how bad or hopeless a situation may seem to be to us human beings, and make it into good news for everyone of us.
Practically everyone has known the taste of Palm Sunday, the sweetness of success and popularity, and nearly all of us have tasted the bitterness of Good Friday, of failure and rejection.
What saves us from an endless round of ups and downs, what frees us from the tyranny of events over which we have absolutely no control is our commitment to press forward in total obedience to God – it is trust in God’s love to bring about Easter morning, - knowing full well that the meaning of life is to be found in the knowledge and love of God, – and in sharing that knowledge and love with those who accompany us on the way.
Before I stop, I would like to share a story with you:
The donkey woke up, even after a good night’s sleep; his mind was still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” he thought. But they did not notice him. They went on drawing their water from the well and paid him no attention whatsoever.
“Throw your garments down,” he said crossly. “Do you not know who I am?”
They just looked at him in amazement. Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move.
“Miserable heathens!” he kept on muttering to himself. “I will just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.”
But the same thing happened there as well. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the market place.
“The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!” he shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!”
Feeling hurt and totally confused, the donkey eventually returned home to his mother.
“Foolish child,” his mother said to him gently. “Do you not realize that without the Lord Jesus, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
Just like the donkey that carried Jesus in Jerusalem, we are most fulfilled when we are in the service of Jesus Christ. Without him, all our best efforts are like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. When we lift up Christ, however, we are no longer ordinary people, but key players in God’s plan to redeem the word. Nay, not just key players, but ambassadors of God.
It is now time for you to decide as to whether you will be obedient to the Father. All have sin and it is, unfortunately human to keep on sinning, no matter how good we want ourselves to be. Repentance is an act that has to be repeated time and time again. It is time for you to repent of all your past sins, and to decide today as to whether you will be the one to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It is also time for you to acknowledge that without Jesus, without God, we are nothing at all. All our efforts in doing anything are in vain; all we have are from him; we are not sufficient to provide or supply ourselves with our own needs. We can do nothing without God. Make your decision today. Make your decision to repent and to follow Jesus if you had not already done so, for it is not too late to do so now! Make this Lent as your most meaningful Lent in your entire life! If you feel that God is calling you to respond, please do make yourself up to the altar after the sermon during the singing of the hymn and we will pray for you.
May we always remember to rely on God and all His goodness. Amen.
The good news in what happened during Palm Sunday was that our Lord Jesus Christ reached the very high point of his earthly ministry; the very high point of his popularity during this particular week two thousand years ago. He rode just like a king of peace in a triumphal procession into the holy city of Jerusalem.
There was a very big parade with lots and lots of pomp and circumstance. It seems as though everybody in the city had turned out, the disciples were, naturally very impressed; after all, they were only human beings. The Pharisees and the Sadducees suddenly realized that they had all this time underestimated this simple Galilean teacher and miracle worker.
With all this very high level of public approval, Jesus went to the temple, the very centre of the Jewish faith of the time and began to teach and preach there.
From Sunday all the way to Thursday there was nobody who could stop Jesus from doing what he wanted to do in the holy city of Jerusalem.
As we can read from the Bible, there were several times when opponents of Jesus tried to trick him – but all the time they got nowhere at all. Each time Jesus turned the tables on them and exposed their treachery to the people present at such encounters.
Nobody ever seriously complained about any of Jesus’ activities, and even the Temple guards did nothing when Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers as well as let the sacrificial birds loose.
During this very same period of time, as you may remember as recorded in the Gospel of John 13:34: Jesus established the basis of a new commandment to love one another, just as he has loved you, you should also love one another. This is the commandment that forms all the basis of all the commandments, for how can you say that you love God if you do not love your own brothers and sisters in Christ, who are all His children? If you do love one another, will you be hurting them by stealing from them, from killing them or their loved ones, or by committing adultery? You will not, right?
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
It was also during this week that Jesus began a new ceremony with bread and wine which would later on, become the sacrament of Holy Communion or the Eucharist.
You might just turn around with impatience or puzzlement and ask me, “So, what is the bad news out of all that?”
The bad news is that on Thursday of that particular week some two thousand years ago our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed and arrested, and on Friday he was hung up on a cross just like a common criminal and died. The death and what happened to him before he was killed was the most humiliating and cruelest method of execution that the Romans could have come up with.
Today we are having the palms – tomorrow we will be having the passion – good news and bad news – unfortunately not a joke at all.
The very sad and grim truth we had from the reading of today is that it was some of the very same people who shouted “Hosanna” on Sunday who shouted “Crucify him,” just a few days later.
The hero of everybody on that Sunday in Jerusalem became a bloody sacrifice, as well as an object of scorn, insult and hatred of some of the people who cheered him.
Is there anything at all we can learn from all this?
Of course there is, otherwise, I will not be standing here wasting your time or my time talking to you about it. It has been the custom of many preachers in looking for that lesson by focusing on the experience of the people around Jesus at the time, and from what they say and do and than come up with a message that goes like this:
“Do not be like those who cheered one day and jeered the next day. Be faithful and see yourself as one of Jesus’ loyal follower every day, every hour, every minute, every second of your life in this world.”
That by itself is already a very good message – and that message lies underneath our prayers and our liturgies of today.
However, I would like to suggest to you, very briefly, that perhaps there is something that we may be able to learn from putting ourselves in the place of Jesus rather than in the shoes of the people surrounding him.
What do you think was Jesus’ experience in the middle of all this up and down? What do you think was Jesus’ feelings on this whole big bundle of events and happenings that took place all the way within the short space of only a few days, from Palm Sunday to Good Friday?
Perhaps it is much easier to get at this by asking the question which no many people dare to ask: “What if Jesus had stayed in Galilee and retired at the end of the day as an old rabbi full of wisdom and compassion?”
Indeed what would have happened? Maybe this question can help to remind all of us of something that some of us find easy to forget – maybe it can help us to remember that Jesus was the one who CHOSE his own path. Maybe it will help us to remember that it was his own choice to leave the relative safety of Galilee and his ministry in the hills and villages, and instead of safety he CHOSE to confront the powers of both politics and religion of his day in the very centre, in the holy city of Jerusalem. What he did was all his own choice. It was his choice to be obedient to the will of the Father. To be obedient all the way to death, and the most humiliating and painful death of all, death on a cross.
This is a reminder to us that all the uphill – downhill, good news – bad news, palms one day – passion the next day, had nothing REALLY to do with what Jesus was all about.
Jesus saw in all this, the entire purpose of his life in this world. A life in terms of proclaiming to all of mankind a new relationship with God, a relationship full of intimate familial love, and nothing could truly intervene in the purpose of his. Not even popularity, or acceptance from the people, or the full knowledge of the kind of fate awaiting him.
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he was neither excited nor deceived by the applause of the crowds. Nor was he feeling downcast by the treachery, or the desertion of his disciples, and the seemingly complete reversal of fortune that he would have to go through.
As we have been hearing during the last few weeks of Lent – Jesus knew what will be happening to him. He even knew that Peter will be denying him three times, and that his closest disciple and friend would be the one claiming to have no knowledge of him and have absolutely nothing to do with him when Peter was put to the test.
Whether with popular acclaim – or in all the denial and rejection – Jesus made it plain to everyone that he was not ruled by human feelings and events of the minute, but rather he was walking step after step along a path which would eventually lead him to the one and only source of true and lasting meaning for him and ultimately for everyone of us. He was moving towards all the way towards the fulfillment of God’s will, both for him and through him for the whole world. He was walking all the way towards the achieving and fulfilling of God’s plan of Salvation for mankind.
It did not matter to Jesus whether the path seemed to reach a peak from which there was no way to go but down. Jesus knew that his goal in this world was not the top of the mountain, not popularity from the masses, or earthly power or applause from the people.
It also did not matter to him that the path seemed to lead into, and end in the valley of the shadow of death, although he would have willed for himself some other course, if that course could still be true to the will of the Father, the will that he accepted as perfect.
No, regardless of appearance, regardless of the popularity that Jesus found himself to be in with the people, and regardless of the suffering and the humiliation that Jesus knew that he will be going through soon, Jesus chose to be true to his mission, he chose to be obedient to the very end; knowing, hoping, praying that in that, regardless of what might be happening, he will be under girded, surrounded, and encompassed by the presence, the mercy, and the love of God the Father.
It is a very good lesson for all of us to remember.
Indeed it is a good lesson for every one of us to remember.
If we depend upon the events of life to give us reward and satisfaction, then we may never be able to achieve them or we may have them snatched away in the very moment of tasting victory. We are after all, never sufficient to help even ourselves, or to prolong our life in this world by even one day, however, with the help of God, whose powers and grace are all sufficient, we can with certainty achieve victory, if not today, tomorrow.
Many years ago, I was working as marketing manager of the building materials department of a German trading company here in Hong Kong. I managed during the first year of my employment with that company to increase business volume by over 100 per cent; I was winning tenders after tenders, I was the hero of the company and of the suppliers at the time. One of the supplies was so happy with me that they sent a manager from Germany to see me. He was to present me with a bottle of champagne, a gift and to buy me the most expensive dinner that they could buy in Hong Kong. During the second year increased business volume of that particular department by an additional twenty per cent. However, due to the company thinking that the department is now on track can go on being successful without me, and they could save a lot of money by getting rid of me, and promoting one of my junior salesmen to take my place, I was literally thrown out of the company. What a perfect example of being popular and of defeat!
We may be at the peak of our lives, with money, health, security, friends, but – in those terms – there is nowhere for us to go but downhill in the weeks, months, and years ahead of us.
On the other hand, we – like Christ – have the chance and the opportunity to walk our own unique path of obedience towards God, our Father in heaven.
It is a path which may see us surrounded by enjoyment, possessions, and popularity, or it may very well lead us into loneliness, misunderstanding and even poverty. What does wealth and riches means to you and me, even if we are as wealthy and successful as people like Li Kar Shing or Stanley Ho, if we are to die the next moment and ended up at the very gates of hell?
None of these worldly things will finally give life its meaning. They are all pointless. They are all vanity.
Up hill or down hill, it is the final destination which really counts at the end of the day, and nobody’s life can be more well spent than in seeking to find and to do God’s will. If we seek and do God’s will, we can at the end when it is time for us to go home to our Father in heaven, claim that we have run a good race, and fight a good fight.
Because, after all, the journey from Palm Sunday to Good Friday was not just one of those good news – bad news joke.
There was the final good news of the resurrection of Jesus which redeemed all of us, and which reminds us that God can take any situation – no matter how bad or hopeless a situation may seem to be to us human beings, and make it into good news for everyone of us.
Practically everyone has known the taste of Palm Sunday, the sweetness of success and popularity, and nearly all of us have tasted the bitterness of Good Friday, of failure and rejection.
What saves us from an endless round of ups and downs, what frees us from the tyranny of events over which we have absolutely no control is our commitment to press forward in total obedience to God – it is trust in God’s love to bring about Easter morning, - knowing full well that the meaning of life is to be found in the knowledge and love of God, – and in sharing that knowledge and love with those who accompany us on the way.
Before I stop, I would like to share a story with you:
The donkey woke up, even after a good night’s sleep; his mind was still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” he thought. But they did not notice him. They went on drawing their water from the well and paid him no attention whatsoever.
“Throw your garments down,” he said crossly. “Do you not know who I am?”
They just looked at him in amazement. Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move.
“Miserable heathens!” he kept on muttering to himself. “I will just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.”
But the same thing happened there as well. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the market place.
“The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!” he shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!”
Feeling hurt and totally confused, the donkey eventually returned home to his mother.
“Foolish child,” his mother said to him gently. “Do you not realize that without the Lord Jesus, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
Just like the donkey that carried Jesus in Jerusalem, we are most fulfilled when we are in the service of Jesus Christ. Without him, all our best efforts are like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. When we lift up Christ, however, we are no longer ordinary people, but key players in God’s plan to redeem the word. Nay, not just key players, but ambassadors of God.
It is now time for you to decide as to whether you will be obedient to the Father. All have sin and it is, unfortunately human to keep on sinning, no matter how good we want ourselves to be. Repentance is an act that has to be repeated time and time again. It is time for you to repent of all your past sins, and to decide today as to whether you will be the one to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It is also time for you to acknowledge that without Jesus, without God, we are nothing at all. All our efforts in doing anything are in vain; all we have are from him; we are not sufficient to provide or supply ourselves with our own needs. We can do nothing without God. Make your decision today. Make your decision to repent and to follow Jesus if you had not already done so, for it is not too late to do so now! Make this Lent as your most meaningful Lent in your entire life! If you feel that God is calling you to respond, please do make yourself up to the altar after the sermon during the singing of the hymn and we will pray for you.
May we always remember to rely on God and all His goodness. Amen.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Psalm 69:30
"I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving" Psalm 69:30
It does not take a rocket scientist to tell us that If you blow air into a balloon, it will get bigger. That seems logical - and true. No one inflates a balloon just to make it smaller. Of course some balloon sadists inflate them just to see them burst, but that's beside the point.
Just like a balloon, something happens in the spiritual when we praise God with thanksgiving - He gets bigger! No, not physically - and how can the God of the universe get any bigger anyway? After all, He did create everything. But God does get magnified - in our hearts. You see, God doesn't need to get bigger for His benefit. But we need Him to be enlarged in us.
When we first become a believer, our God seems very large - we ask, He provides. It makes no difference whether it is a store front parking spot or a new house or lost souls. He seems to be able to pull them all out of the box. But eventually, we become more experienced in our faith and realize that God is too busy for all of our little requests. In essence, He becomes smaller to us. It may be because He finally said "no" to a request or two. Or it may be because we quit asking. Whatever the reason, we put God in a box - a very small box of our own making.
But we are never satisfied with a small God. We always remember the past with fondness. We frequently long for it to happen, but it never does. Why? Because we keep God in His box. He doesn't want to be there. We don't want Him there. But we never open the lid.
Eventually, we learn that praise and thanksgiving are good things to do. We begin to earnestly thank God for His goodness. Then, low and behold, something happens. The door to the God box we made is opened a crack and God oozes out (not that God is gooey). That seems fine to us. We begin to see prayers answered. The more we see answers, the more we rejoice with thanksgiving. The more we rejoice with thanksgiving, the more God does for us and with us. He gets magnified in our eyes - in our lives - in the lives of those around us. Soon we find that God is bigger than any box we could build. We discover that He can do far more than the self-centered requests of our spiritual childhood.
We find that He is the almighty one. There is nothing too great for Him. He is the all powerful. Nothing can stand in His way. He is the King of kings. All powers have to - no absolutely must - bow before Him. See how God is magnified through our praise and thanks giving? Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
It does not take a rocket scientist to tell us that If you blow air into a balloon, it will get bigger. That seems logical - and true. No one inflates a balloon just to make it smaller. Of course some balloon sadists inflate them just to see them burst, but that's beside the point.
Just like a balloon, something happens in the spiritual when we praise God with thanksgiving - He gets bigger! No, not physically - and how can the God of the universe get any bigger anyway? After all, He did create everything. But God does get magnified - in our hearts. You see, God doesn't need to get bigger for His benefit. But we need Him to be enlarged in us.
When we first become a believer, our God seems very large - we ask, He provides. It makes no difference whether it is a store front parking spot or a new house or lost souls. He seems to be able to pull them all out of the box. But eventually, we become more experienced in our faith and realize that God is too busy for all of our little requests. In essence, He becomes smaller to us. It may be because He finally said "no" to a request or two. Or it may be because we quit asking. Whatever the reason, we put God in a box - a very small box of our own making.
But we are never satisfied with a small God. We always remember the past with fondness. We frequently long for it to happen, but it never does. Why? Because we keep God in His box. He doesn't want to be there. We don't want Him there. But we never open the lid.
Eventually, we learn that praise and thanksgiving are good things to do. We begin to earnestly thank God for His goodness. Then, low and behold, something happens. The door to the God box we made is opened a crack and God oozes out (not that God is gooey). That seems fine to us. We begin to see prayers answered. The more we see answers, the more we rejoice with thanksgiving. The more we rejoice with thanksgiving, the more God does for us and with us. He gets magnified in our eyes - in our lives - in the lives of those around us. Soon we find that God is bigger than any box we could build. We discover that He can do far more than the self-centered requests of our spiritual childhood.
We find that He is the almighty one. There is nothing too great for Him. He is the all powerful. Nothing can stand in His way. He is the King of kings. All powers have to - no absolutely must - bow before Him. See how God is magnified through our praise and thanks giving? Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Rev 12:17
"And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev 12:17
There is a reason - a very good reason - why the devil is angered at the Church. He wanted to destroy Israel, but he couldn't. He thought he had destroyed Israel when he sent them into exile, but Israel survived and returned to their promised land. He thought he had finished them off with the death of the last prophet of God about 400 BC. He was sure he had done it when he killed their Messiah in 33 AD. Having failed in all those attempts, he left little doubt when Titus over ran Jerusalem in 70 AD. But God had other plans. He sent Israel into exile again - and this was a protection for them. Not that it was pleasant. But the chosen of God were so scattered that Satan had no focal point to attack. He could never destroy them all. They were too numerous and too scattered.
So he chose to war with those of Israel's offspring who not only kept God's commandments, but clung tightly to their faith in Jesus, the Christ, their Redeemer and Savior - that's the Church - you and me and our believing ancestors and fellow saints around the world. I honestly don't believe Satan thinks he can destroy the Church. If Israel was protected by scattering, the Church is even more so. No, he may make war against the saints, but he does not expect victory there. He still has his sights set on Israel - the new Israel - the reborn Israel inhabiting the land given to them by God through Abraham many centuries ago.
Soon, he will marshal all of his efforts on their destruction. The Palestinians can't do it. All of Islam can't do it. But he thinks all the forces of the East can. It's a shame that Satan can't read, because the end of the book says that God wins, Satin loses, and Israel and the Church live on forever! In all of this, whether peace for you and me, or persecution, or rapture, or suffering, remember that GOD IS IN CONTROL! There is no doubt about it. You can read! Read the end of the Book! All is well as long as we are in the palm of God's hand! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
There is a reason - a very good reason - why the devil is angered at the Church. He wanted to destroy Israel, but he couldn't. He thought he had destroyed Israel when he sent them into exile, but Israel survived and returned to their promised land. He thought he had finished them off with the death of the last prophet of God about 400 BC. He was sure he had done it when he killed their Messiah in 33 AD. Having failed in all those attempts, he left little doubt when Titus over ran Jerusalem in 70 AD. But God had other plans. He sent Israel into exile again - and this was a protection for them. Not that it was pleasant. But the chosen of God were so scattered that Satan had no focal point to attack. He could never destroy them all. They were too numerous and too scattered.
So he chose to war with those of Israel's offspring who not only kept God's commandments, but clung tightly to their faith in Jesus, the Christ, their Redeemer and Savior - that's the Church - you and me and our believing ancestors and fellow saints around the world. I honestly don't believe Satan thinks he can destroy the Church. If Israel was protected by scattering, the Church is even more so. No, he may make war against the saints, but he does not expect victory there. He still has his sights set on Israel - the new Israel - the reborn Israel inhabiting the land given to them by God through Abraham many centuries ago.
Soon, he will marshal all of his efforts on their destruction. The Palestinians can't do it. All of Islam can't do it. But he thinks all the forces of the East can. It's a shame that Satan can't read, because the end of the book says that God wins, Satin loses, and Israel and the Church live on forever! In all of this, whether peace for you and me, or persecution, or rapture, or suffering, remember that GOD IS IN CONTROL! There is no doubt about it. You can read! Read the end of the Book! All is well as long as we are in the palm of God's hand! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Psalm 119:160
"The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever." Psalm 119:160
Every word, every letter, every comma and period - if it's from God's Word, it is truth. The Bible is the only book that was written by multiple authors over centuries of time, in several languages - and never contradicts itself. How can it be that the Bible can be so perfect? Because God inspired it. It is His word. Whether the subject is history, literature, prophecy, or letters of instruction, every word of this Book is true and valid for you and me.
Some people have a habit of saying "that verse was meant for the Corinthians, it doesn't apply to us." In essence those people are tearing a page out of God's Word. If everyone held that philosophy, there would be precious few pages left. All of us can find something that we do not agree with - and because we do not agree with it, it must be invalid!
Who are we to challenge God? If He said it and it is recorded in the Bible, then it is for us today and our children tomorrow and our grand children after that. Sure, here are verses that don't seem to apply - because we are not being tested, corrected, challenged, or tried in that area. But wait until tomorrow. Trust me one of those verses will come to your aid. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Every word, every letter, every comma and period - if it's from God's Word, it is truth. The Bible is the only book that was written by multiple authors over centuries of time, in several languages - and never contradicts itself. How can it be that the Bible can be so perfect? Because God inspired it. It is His word. Whether the subject is history, literature, prophecy, or letters of instruction, every word of this Book is true and valid for you and me.
Some people have a habit of saying "that verse was meant for the Corinthians, it doesn't apply to us." In essence those people are tearing a page out of God's Word. If everyone held that philosophy, there would be precious few pages left. All of us can find something that we do not agree with - and because we do not agree with it, it must be invalid!
Who are we to challenge God? If He said it and it is recorded in the Bible, then it is for us today and our children tomorrow and our grand children after that. Sure, here are verses that don't seem to apply - because we are not being tested, corrected, challenged, or tried in that area. But wait until tomorrow. Trust me one of those verses will come to your aid. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Col 3:16
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" Col 3:16
I visited a castle in England some years ago. As we toured that fantastic structure, we viewed amazingly carved paneling, rich furnishings, wonderful tapestries - all the things that make for a rich dwelling place. Even the stables were fancier than some of the homes of some people I know here in Hong Kong. We all tend to be awed by the dwelling places of the rich and powerful.
Paul encourages us to let the word of Christ dwell in us. Something happens when we do that. The Word can take a plain, simple human and make him something wonderful. He took a simple mountain boy and made him a great evangelist. We know him as Billy Graham. He took a shoe salesman and made him an evangelist who turned the world upside down. We know him as D. L. Moody. He took a 48 year old plumber, set him on fire and he worked miracles worldwide. We know him as Smith Wigglesworth. He took an ignorant man, made him a monk, and gave him the wisdom of the ages. We know him as Brother Lawrence. When the word of Christ takes residence, he makes the humble abode into a palace - no a temple, richly adorned with all the finery do a King.
Are you feeling a little in the dumps today? Feel like you have traded your palace for a slum tenement apartment,like some of the slum dwellings in Venezuela? STOP! Remember who you are - a child of God. Remember who is dwelling inside you - the King of kings. Remember where He found you - in the miry pit of sin. Remember what He has made of you - a temple for the Spirit of God to dwell in. Shake off the dirt and the mire and the slum mentality. Put on the garment of Christ - the rich trappings of a son or daughter of the King. And rejoice in the indwelling presence of your Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
I visited a castle in England some years ago. As we toured that fantastic structure, we viewed amazingly carved paneling, rich furnishings, wonderful tapestries - all the things that make for a rich dwelling place. Even the stables were fancier than some of the homes of some people I know here in Hong Kong. We all tend to be awed by the dwelling places of the rich and powerful.
Paul encourages us to let the word of Christ dwell in us. Something happens when we do that. The Word can take a plain, simple human and make him something wonderful. He took a simple mountain boy and made him a great evangelist. We know him as Billy Graham. He took a shoe salesman and made him an evangelist who turned the world upside down. We know him as D. L. Moody. He took a 48 year old plumber, set him on fire and he worked miracles worldwide. We know him as Smith Wigglesworth. He took an ignorant man, made him a monk, and gave him the wisdom of the ages. We know him as Brother Lawrence. When the word of Christ takes residence, he makes the humble abode into a palace - no a temple, richly adorned with all the finery do a King.
Are you feeling a little in the dumps today? Feel like you have traded your palace for a slum tenement apartment,like some of the slum dwellings in Venezuela? STOP! Remember who you are - a child of God. Remember who is dwelling inside you - the King of kings. Remember where He found you - in the miry pit of sin. Remember what He has made of you - a temple for the Spirit of God to dwell in. Shake off the dirt and the mire and the slum mentality. Put on the garment of Christ - the rich trappings of a son or daughter of the King. And rejoice in the indwelling presence of your Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Matt 6:33
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" Matt 6:33
Jesus said: "Seek first the kingdom of God." That was to come first; it was to come ahead of everything else... We say, we do not want to seek the kingdom of God first. We have a good many things that must be attended to before we seek the kingdom of God... The whole living world is seeking for something.... Then why not seek for the best things?
If people will so seek for temporal things, doesn't it serve to show that you do not believe that God is real; or else you would first seek the kingdom of God, and find it before any of these other things?
Instead of worrying about what we cannot do, we need to focus on what God can do. To "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness" means to "give him first place in your life." It means to turn to God first for help, to fill your thoughts with his desires, to take his character for your pattern, and to serve and obey him in everything.
What is really important to you? People, objects, goals, and other desires all compete for priority. Any of these can quickly bump God out of first place if you don't actively choose to give him first place in every area of your life. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Jesus said: "Seek first the kingdom of God." That was to come first; it was to come ahead of everything else... We say, we do not want to seek the kingdom of God first. We have a good many things that must be attended to before we seek the kingdom of God... The whole living world is seeking for something.... Then why not seek for the best things?
If people will so seek for temporal things, doesn't it serve to show that you do not believe that God is real; or else you would first seek the kingdom of God, and find it before any of these other things?
Instead of worrying about what we cannot do, we need to focus on what God can do. To "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness" means to "give him first place in your life." It means to turn to God first for help, to fill your thoughts with his desires, to take his character for your pattern, and to serve and obey him in everything.
What is really important to you? People, objects, goals, and other desires all compete for priority. Any of these can quickly bump God out of first place if you don't actively choose to give him first place in every area of your life. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Colossians 3:16
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16
Music is second only to television in influencing and shaping the values of our children. How can you help your kids recognize the subtle seduction to evil in some contemporary music and encourage them to make wise choices about what they listen to? Here are some practical suggestions:
1. Avoid the "do as I say, not as I do" syndrome. Before you can help your child evaluate his music, you'd better evaluate your own (Matthew 7:4, 5).
The lyrics of some soft rock, easy listening, and country-western tunes are as suggestive and immoral as those performed by heavy metal groups. One of the best ways to teach your child to avoid harmful lyrics is by modeling the same behavior.
2. Be willing to find middle ground. Your personal taste in music should not be the determining factor or what you allow your children to listen to. Nor should your child's taste determine what you listen to. Try to find some middle ground with your child when it comes to the kinds of music you will allow in your home. The key is to teach your child to be moderate and discerning, just as you are.
3. Stay informed and involved. When was the last time you looked through your child's music collection or sat down with him to listen to and discuss the lyrics of his or her favorite songs? You won't be able to understand the impact of the music in his life unless you are aware of it and what he thinks about it.
4. Take time to listen to your child's emotional struggles and notice how the music they listen to influences their behavior. Be as encouraging about their good choices of music as you are corrective of the bad choices. Someday they will thank you for the harmony you helped bring to their lives. Amen and Amen.
Music is second only to television in influencing and shaping the values of our children. How can you help your kids recognize the subtle seduction to evil in some contemporary music and encourage them to make wise choices about what they listen to? Here are some practical suggestions:
1. Avoid the "do as I say, not as I do" syndrome. Before you can help your child evaluate his music, you'd better evaluate your own (Matthew 7:4, 5).
The lyrics of some soft rock, easy listening, and country-western tunes are as suggestive and immoral as those performed by heavy metal groups. One of the best ways to teach your child to avoid harmful lyrics is by modeling the same behavior.
2. Be willing to find middle ground. Your personal taste in music should not be the determining factor or what you allow your children to listen to. Nor should your child's taste determine what you listen to. Try to find some middle ground with your child when it comes to the kinds of music you will allow in your home. The key is to teach your child to be moderate and discerning, just as you are.
3. Stay informed and involved. When was the last time you looked through your child's music collection or sat down with him to listen to and discuss the lyrics of his or her favorite songs? You won't be able to understand the impact of the music in his life unless you are aware of it and what he thinks about it.
4. Take time to listen to your child's emotional struggles and notice how the music they listen to influences their behavior. Be as encouraging about their good choices of music as you are corrective of the bad choices. Someday they will thank you for the harmony you helped bring to their lives. Amen and Amen.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4(b)-14; John 12:1-8
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Some time ago now, I heard that in The United Methodist Church in the United States, there was a movement afoot called "Quest for Quality". During that time one United Methodist Bishop spoke to the pastor and three lay-leaders from each of the churches in his diocese. The meeting was about a new paradigm for the church.
The old paradigm, said the Bishop, is that we have been focusing on problems. If we don't have enough money we focus on stewardship. If we don't have enough people, we focus on membership drives.
The new paradigm, the bishop said, is "to make sure that the main thing is the main thing". The main thing for the church is spiritual growth, nurture, Bible reading; not meetings, money, membership, or even (I hate to say this) doing justice. If we take care of the main thing, feeding people spiritually, then they will be able to take care of everything else.
According to this paradigm, the important thing to understand is the flow. The flow is circular. People come into the church where they ought to be fed and nurtured spiritually, through prayer, Bible study; and then they go out into the world to do their ministry in the family and work place. Then they come back to church bringing others with them and the cycle starts again.
I think that the bishop is right. I think we in the church all too often focus on the wrong things - both in our life together as a community or family of believers, and in our lives as individuals within the larger world.
And I think people's grouchiness in the church and at home, their critical natures, their power and control issues, are a result of this wrong focus.
That seems to be what the problem is with Judas in today's gospel reading, and that seems to be the problem with many other people today.
If we focus on what other people are doing or not doing to make things work the way we think they should work. If we focus on the problems that we have as a church, or the problems that we have as individuals, that will not fix the problem.
It will just make us feel aggravated - anxious - and resentful. We need to do much more than focus on the problems we have. We need to focus on the solutions.
Or as the United Methodist Bishop put it - on the "main thing".
For us in the church - and indeed for us as we go beyond the church we need to focus spiritual growth and nurture, on what Paul calls in today's epistle reading "the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ." If we are focused on that - then if the Bishop is correct - and I know he is - everything else will fall into place.
Recall what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount about anxiety and worry. About being focused on our needs rather than upon God:
"Do not worry, saying, what we will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear? Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Rather strive first for the kingdom of God and God's righteousness and all these things will be given you as well."
It's quite a challenge isn't it? A challenge to a different way of looking at things. A different way of dealing with problems and worries that we face as a church and as individuals.
John Wesley used to ask his people on a regular basis: "What's the state of your soul?"
It is a great question - but it's not one we ask very much anymore. We can get so busy within the church going to meetings and worrying about money and about human resources that the "main thing" gets lost - and our behaviour - our words and actions - can end up working against the main thing instead of for it.
And outside the church - in our homes - the main thing - is often virtually invisible. We not only don't walk the walk, we often don't even talk the talk - reserving it all, as it were to Sunday mornings.
Think about it.
We talk more about who will win the World Cup than we talk about where we are going in life. We focus more on the condition of our neighbours' back yard or whether or not we should get a new car - than we do on seeking the mind of Christ and asking him what we should be about. We worry more about how our children will do on the school soccer team or volley ball team than we do on whether or not they will grow up to be people who know the Lord and his love in their lives and are able to show that love to others.
My brothers and sisters-in-Christ - concern for the poor - such as Judas may well have had and giving extravagant gifts, like the gift Mary gave to Jesus, are not mutually exclusive things.
Neither are a fondness for sports and a dedication to doing God's will necessarily contradictory.
And our children most certainly can be encouraged to excel in physical things - while at the same time learning to live a deeply spiritual life.
The question is - what is the main thing in our lives? What do we give priority to as part of the church of Christ Jesus? And as individuals when we go home afterward?
"Oh why are we so haggard at heart, so care coiled, care-killed, so fagged, so fashed, so cogged, so cumbered?" wrote the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins.
Why indeed?
Why indeed do so many of feel so scattered? So overwhelmed?
Could it be that we try to do too much?
Or could it be that when we are doing things - we are approaching them from the wrong angle?
Perhaps it is a little of both. Perhaps it is a question of focus, of knowing what the main thing is - and making it the main thing.
Paul understand that when he talked about his background, and how blessed he had been by the cultural and religious standards of his day, and then said:
"Yet whatever gain I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus"
The past is not what is important my friends, nor is what lies to either side of us, those things that can cause us to run off in all directions at once. The goal is what is important, and following the course that gets us there.
For many of us, our hopes and dreams in life centre on our jobs. That's not surprising. That's where we spend most of our time. Our jobs give us the resources for achieving our goals in life. It is natural that we should have dreams concerning our work.
Research shows, however, that around age 45, those dreams begin to change. By then men begin to have some idea whether they are going to keep growing in their work or whether they have gone as far as they will go. If they conclude they have reached their limit--that there is no dream out there for them to pursue - they shift their dreams toward retirement. In fact, some of them retire then and there in their minds. That is why some men in the middle years of life, when they ought to be in their prime, become somewhat listless and begin feeling tired all the time.
The problem is not physical. It's spiritual. They've lost their dream.
Meanwhile women who have spent most of their adult lives as care givers are beginning to taste freedom for the first time. So while their husbands are winding down, many women are thinking about going back to school or starting their own business. They are excited. They bubble over with possibilities
How you feel about life is related to your sense of purpose. To what you consider the main thing.
How the church - how we - manage to deal with our problems also relates to our focus - to what we exert our efforts towards.
Paul is rather found of sports images, of images taken from the World Games of his day.
In I Corinthians - chapter nine - he writes:
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I discipline my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
Five simple things can help us discipline our spiritual life - and bring us closer to winning the prize of our calling in God. Five things can help us meet our problems as a church and as individuals from an entirely new angle - from an angle that focuses not on the problems - but on the great problem solver - God.
First - Recognize your strengths and virtues - but resist complacency. There is nothing positive in thinking that you are devoid of good. But there is danger in being satisfied with the degree of goodness and closeness you have with God today. God can always make you more like Christ than you are right now.
Second - Accept the need to work and struggle spiritually. Salvation is a free gift. But a vital, intimate relationship with God does not come effortlessly. No relationship does. Athletes know their abilities. They also know that they must work to keep those abilities up to standard - let alone to improve them.
Third - Study the Bible - especially the gospels. We can't be more like Christ if we don't really know what he was like. Meditate on how the scriptures show Jesus dealing with life. Pay attention to his priorities, to his conflicts, to his actions, and to his teachings. Let these things be used by God in your life to challenge your thinking - to test how you do things. Every athlete studies the techniques of those who are better than him or her so that they might improve themselves.
Fourth - Continue in prayer. Confess your failings and open your life to the transforming power of God. Don't forget to listen as well as to talk. In prayer face the reality of whose you are and learn to submit yourself to God's purpose for you. Let him show you the direction you should run in - the path you should take. Athletes have their coaches to show them what to do and how to go about doing it. They don't ignore them. Nor should we ignore ours.
And Fifth - Don't fear change. Change is the name of the game. We need to change. When we are open to God not only will we change – but things around us will change. Growth is a process of changing – and that process is not always pain free. If you notice in the middle of the word Growth is the word OW. There are some things we will have to give up. There are some people who will turn on us. Let it happen. What we will receive in their place is far better.
My brothers and sisters - what we regard here today in the church and in our personal lives as a problem is really an opportunity - a challenge - An opportunity to ask what our main thing is - And a challenge to work towards it.
May God bless us in the meeting of that challenge. Amen.
Some time ago now, I heard that in The United Methodist Church in the United States, there was a movement afoot called "Quest for Quality". During that time one United Methodist Bishop spoke to the pastor and three lay-leaders from each of the churches in his diocese. The meeting was about a new paradigm for the church.
The old paradigm, said the Bishop, is that we have been focusing on problems. If we don't have enough money we focus on stewardship. If we don't have enough people, we focus on membership drives.
The new paradigm, the bishop said, is "to make sure that the main thing is the main thing". The main thing for the church is spiritual growth, nurture, Bible reading; not meetings, money, membership, or even (I hate to say this) doing justice. If we take care of the main thing, feeding people spiritually, then they will be able to take care of everything else.
According to this paradigm, the important thing to understand is the flow. The flow is circular. People come into the church where they ought to be fed and nurtured spiritually, through prayer, Bible study; and then they go out into the world to do their ministry in the family and work place. Then they come back to church bringing others with them and the cycle starts again.
I think that the bishop is right. I think we in the church all too often focus on the wrong things - both in our life together as a community or family of believers, and in our lives as individuals within the larger world.
And I think people's grouchiness in the church and at home, their critical natures, their power and control issues, are a result of this wrong focus.
That seems to be what the problem is with Judas in today's gospel reading, and that seems to be the problem with many other people today.
If we focus on what other people are doing or not doing to make things work the way we think they should work. If we focus on the problems that we have as a church, or the problems that we have as individuals, that will not fix the problem.
It will just make us feel aggravated - anxious - and resentful. We need to do much more than focus on the problems we have. We need to focus on the solutions.
Or as the United Methodist Bishop put it - on the "main thing".
For us in the church - and indeed for us as we go beyond the church we need to focus spiritual growth and nurture, on what Paul calls in today's epistle reading "the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ." If we are focused on that - then if the Bishop is correct - and I know he is - everything else will fall into place.
Recall what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount about anxiety and worry. About being focused on our needs rather than upon God:
"Do not worry, saying, what we will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear? Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Rather strive first for the kingdom of God and God's righteousness and all these things will be given you as well."
It's quite a challenge isn't it? A challenge to a different way of looking at things. A different way of dealing with problems and worries that we face as a church and as individuals.
John Wesley used to ask his people on a regular basis: "What's the state of your soul?"
It is a great question - but it's not one we ask very much anymore. We can get so busy within the church going to meetings and worrying about money and about human resources that the "main thing" gets lost - and our behaviour - our words and actions - can end up working against the main thing instead of for it.
And outside the church - in our homes - the main thing - is often virtually invisible. We not only don't walk the walk, we often don't even talk the talk - reserving it all, as it were to Sunday mornings.
Think about it.
We talk more about who will win the World Cup than we talk about where we are going in life. We focus more on the condition of our neighbours' back yard or whether or not we should get a new car - than we do on seeking the mind of Christ and asking him what we should be about. We worry more about how our children will do on the school soccer team or volley ball team than we do on whether or not they will grow up to be people who know the Lord and his love in their lives and are able to show that love to others.
My brothers and sisters-in-Christ - concern for the poor - such as Judas may well have had and giving extravagant gifts, like the gift Mary gave to Jesus, are not mutually exclusive things.
Neither are a fondness for sports and a dedication to doing God's will necessarily contradictory.
And our children most certainly can be encouraged to excel in physical things - while at the same time learning to live a deeply spiritual life.
The question is - what is the main thing in our lives? What do we give priority to as part of the church of Christ Jesus? And as individuals when we go home afterward?
"Oh why are we so haggard at heart, so care coiled, care-killed, so fagged, so fashed, so cogged, so cumbered?" wrote the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins.
Why indeed?
Why indeed do so many of feel so scattered? So overwhelmed?
Could it be that we try to do too much?
Or could it be that when we are doing things - we are approaching them from the wrong angle?
Perhaps it is a little of both. Perhaps it is a question of focus, of knowing what the main thing is - and making it the main thing.
Paul understand that when he talked about his background, and how blessed he had been by the cultural and religious standards of his day, and then said:
"Yet whatever gain I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus"
The past is not what is important my friends, nor is what lies to either side of us, those things that can cause us to run off in all directions at once. The goal is what is important, and following the course that gets us there.
For many of us, our hopes and dreams in life centre on our jobs. That's not surprising. That's where we spend most of our time. Our jobs give us the resources for achieving our goals in life. It is natural that we should have dreams concerning our work.
Research shows, however, that around age 45, those dreams begin to change. By then men begin to have some idea whether they are going to keep growing in their work or whether they have gone as far as they will go. If they conclude they have reached their limit--that there is no dream out there for them to pursue - they shift their dreams toward retirement. In fact, some of them retire then and there in their minds. That is why some men in the middle years of life, when they ought to be in their prime, become somewhat listless and begin feeling tired all the time.
The problem is not physical. It's spiritual. They've lost their dream.
Meanwhile women who have spent most of their adult lives as care givers are beginning to taste freedom for the first time. So while their husbands are winding down, many women are thinking about going back to school or starting their own business. They are excited. They bubble over with possibilities
How you feel about life is related to your sense of purpose. To what you consider the main thing.
How the church - how we - manage to deal with our problems also relates to our focus - to what we exert our efforts towards.
Paul is rather found of sports images, of images taken from the World Games of his day.
In I Corinthians - chapter nine - he writes:
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I discipline my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
Five simple things can help us discipline our spiritual life - and bring us closer to winning the prize of our calling in God. Five things can help us meet our problems as a church and as individuals from an entirely new angle - from an angle that focuses not on the problems - but on the great problem solver - God.
First - Recognize your strengths and virtues - but resist complacency. There is nothing positive in thinking that you are devoid of good. But there is danger in being satisfied with the degree of goodness and closeness you have with God today. God can always make you more like Christ than you are right now.
Second - Accept the need to work and struggle spiritually. Salvation is a free gift. But a vital, intimate relationship with God does not come effortlessly. No relationship does. Athletes know their abilities. They also know that they must work to keep those abilities up to standard - let alone to improve them.
Third - Study the Bible - especially the gospels. We can't be more like Christ if we don't really know what he was like. Meditate on how the scriptures show Jesus dealing with life. Pay attention to his priorities, to his conflicts, to his actions, and to his teachings. Let these things be used by God in your life to challenge your thinking - to test how you do things. Every athlete studies the techniques of those who are better than him or her so that they might improve themselves.
Fourth - Continue in prayer. Confess your failings and open your life to the transforming power of God. Don't forget to listen as well as to talk. In prayer face the reality of whose you are and learn to submit yourself to God's purpose for you. Let him show you the direction you should run in - the path you should take. Athletes have their coaches to show them what to do and how to go about doing it. They don't ignore them. Nor should we ignore ours.
And Fifth - Don't fear change. Change is the name of the game. We need to change. When we are open to God not only will we change – but things around us will change. Growth is a process of changing – and that process is not always pain free. If you notice in the middle of the word Growth is the word OW. There are some things we will have to give up. There are some people who will turn on us. Let it happen. What we will receive in their place is far better.
My brothers and sisters - what we regard here today in the church and in our personal lives as a problem is really an opportunity - a challenge - An opportunity to ask what our main thing is - And a challenge to work towards it.
May God bless us in the meeting of that challenge. Amen.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
2 Timothy 4:7
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7
Satisfaction in life comes from living righteously and seeking to raise the level of quality in the relationships, services and products you are involved with. Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Do you really believe that? If you did, what would you be doing? You would spend more time feeding your spirit than trying to satisfy your fleshly desires. Have you ever tried to satisfy the flesh? It can't be done. The more you feed it, the more it wants.
What causes you to become dissatisfied? It's usually because the quality of the relationship, service or product has diminished. I often ask people when they became dissatisfied. Inevitably they identify the time when the quality of a relationship, the service rendered, or the product produced diminished.
Satisfaction is a quality issue, not a quantity issue. You will achieve greater satisfaction from doing a few things well than from doing many things in a haphazard or hasty manner. The key to personal satisfaction is not in broadening your involvement's, but in deepening them through a commitment to quality.
The same is true in relationships. If you are dissatisfied in your relationships, perhaps you have spread yourself too thin. Solomon wrote: "A man of many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). It may be nice to know a lot of people on the surface, but you need a few good friends who are committed to a quality relationship with each other. We all need the satisfaction which quality relationships bring.
Paul accomplished what he was called to do. He left a lot undone, but he fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith. Jesus also left a lot undone, but He did His Father's will and was able to say, "It is finished." You may not be able to do all you want to do for Christ in your lifetime, but you can live obediently and faithfully day by day. Amen and Amen.
Satisfaction in life comes from living righteously and seeking to raise the level of quality in the relationships, services and products you are involved with. Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Do you really believe that? If you did, what would you be doing? You would spend more time feeding your spirit than trying to satisfy your fleshly desires. Have you ever tried to satisfy the flesh? It can't be done. The more you feed it, the more it wants.
What causes you to become dissatisfied? It's usually because the quality of the relationship, service or product has diminished. I often ask people when they became dissatisfied. Inevitably they identify the time when the quality of a relationship, the service rendered, or the product produced diminished.
Satisfaction is a quality issue, not a quantity issue. You will achieve greater satisfaction from doing a few things well than from doing many things in a haphazard or hasty manner. The key to personal satisfaction is not in broadening your involvement's, but in deepening them through a commitment to quality.
The same is true in relationships. If you are dissatisfied in your relationships, perhaps you have spread yourself too thin. Solomon wrote: "A man of many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). It may be nice to know a lot of people on the surface, but you need a few good friends who are committed to a quality relationship with each other. We all need the satisfaction which quality relationships bring.
Paul accomplished what he was called to do. He left a lot undone, but he fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith. Jesus also left a lot undone, but He did His Father's will and was able to say, "It is finished." You may not be able to do all you want to do for Christ in your lifetime, but you can live obediently and faithfully day by day. Amen and Amen.
Friday, March 19, 2010
John 7:37-38
"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38
The story is told of a prospector in the last century who had to make a four-day journey across a burning desert. He couldn't carry enough water to make the journey without dying of thirst, but he was assured there was a well halfway across the desert. So he set out and sure enough there was a well right where the map indicated. But when he pumped the handle, the well only burped up sand. Then he saw this sign: "Buried two feet over and two feet down is a jug of water. Dig it up and use the water to prime the pump. Drink all the water you want, but when you are done, fill the jug again for the next person."
Sure enough, two feet over and two feet down was enough water for the prospector to prime the pump or to finish his journey. Should he pour the water down the well or should he drink it?
To tell you the truth, I'd drink the water that was buried! I don't know who wrote the sign on that rusty old pump. It could be a cruel joke. I'd pour that water down a worthless well only to watch my life drain away for lack of water.
Faith always has an element of risk, but there is one factor in the above story that doesn't exist when it comes to God. I know who wrote the sign. When I pour myself into a life of faith, I know that out of my inner being shall flow rivers of living water. God said so, history verifies it, and I, for one, can testify that it is true. In the final analysis, God is not only true, He's right.
There is more than enough water in God's well for everyone, but the pump is only activated by faith. Remember: "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
The story is told of a prospector in the last century who had to make a four-day journey across a burning desert. He couldn't carry enough water to make the journey without dying of thirst, but he was assured there was a well halfway across the desert. So he set out and sure enough there was a well right where the map indicated. But when he pumped the handle, the well only burped up sand. Then he saw this sign: "Buried two feet over and two feet down is a jug of water. Dig it up and use the water to prime the pump. Drink all the water you want, but when you are done, fill the jug again for the next person."
Sure enough, two feet over and two feet down was enough water for the prospector to prime the pump or to finish his journey. Should he pour the water down the well or should he drink it?
To tell you the truth, I'd drink the water that was buried! I don't know who wrote the sign on that rusty old pump. It could be a cruel joke. I'd pour that water down a worthless well only to watch my life drain away for lack of water.
Faith always has an element of risk, but there is one factor in the above story that doesn't exist when it comes to God. I know who wrote the sign. When I pour myself into a life of faith, I know that out of my inner being shall flow rivers of living water. God said so, history verifies it, and I, for one, can testify that it is true. In the final analysis, God is not only true, He's right.
There is more than enough water in God's well for everyone, but the pump is only activated by faith. Remember: "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
1 John 3:2a
"Beloved, now we are children of God" 1 John 3:2a
Having a right relationship with God begins with settling once and for all the issue that God is your loving Father and you are His accepted, adopted child. That's the foundational truth of your spiritual heritage. You are a child of God, you are created in His image, you have been declared righteous by Him because you trust that what Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection is applicable to you.
As long as you believe that and walk accordingly, your daily experience of practical Christianity will result in growth. But when you forget who you are, and try to produce in your daily experience the acceptance God has already extended to you, you'll struggle. We don't serve God to gain His acceptance; we are accepted so we serve God. We don't follow Him in order to be loved; we are loved so we follow Him.
Your perception of your identity makes such a big difference in your success at dealing with the challenges and conflicts of your life. It is imperative to your growth and maturity that you believe God's truth about who you are. The Bible says, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are " (1 John 3:1). Tragically, many believers are desperately trying to become something they already are, while others are living like something they aren't. It's true: "Beloved, now we are children of God". Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Having a right relationship with God begins with settling once and for all the issue that God is your loving Father and you are His accepted, adopted child. That's the foundational truth of your spiritual heritage. You are a child of God, you are created in His image, you have been declared righteous by Him because you trust that what Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection is applicable to you.
As long as you believe that and walk accordingly, your daily experience of practical Christianity will result in growth. But when you forget who you are, and try to produce in your daily experience the acceptance God has already extended to you, you'll struggle. We don't serve God to gain His acceptance; we are accepted so we serve God. We don't follow Him in order to be loved; we are loved so we follow Him.
Your perception of your identity makes such a big difference in your success at dealing with the challenges and conflicts of your life. It is imperative to your growth and maturity that you believe God's truth about who you are. The Bible says, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are " (1 John 3:1). Tragically, many believers are desperately trying to become something they already are, while others are living like something they aren't. It's true: "Beloved, now we are children of God". Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Matt 11:21
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes" Matt 11:21
There's something about success that brings arrogance. I guess it comes naturally. If you are the best, then you are the best and no one can deny that. The problem with arrogance is that it breeds contempt. Contempt is an attitude that says "I'm the best and you are nothing." Obviously, that is a dangerous position to take. No one likes to associate with a contemptuous person - they just seem to make you feel small. But it doesn't stop there. Contempt gives way to complacency. Complacency is that position which says "I'm the best. No one can touch me. Therefore I will lean back and take it easy."
If I recall my childhood stories correctly, it was complacency that brought an end to the rabbit's reign as the fastest of the animals of the field. You may remember the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare. Mr. Rabbit was so far ahead that he though he could take a nap - so he did. Mr. Turtle knew he was not fast, but he kept plodding along at his slow but steady pace. Eventually he slipped by Mr. Rabbit who was cutting a few "z's". At the last moment the rabbit awoke, realized what had happened and cut in the afterburners - all to no avail. The tortoise won by a "hair" (sorry for the pun!)
What's the point? Israel was "so far ahead" of all other nations that they thought God would never turn on them - after all they were the "chosen of God!" Jesus pulls their heads out of the sand by saying that Tyre and Sidon - two very ungodly city-states destroyed generations before by God, would have repented of their sins with great mourning if they had seen what Israel had seen in the form and actions of Jesus. God would bring destruction upon Israel again if they didn't repent and accept Jesus as their Savior! (And so He did in 70 AD when the Roman army breached the walls of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple - which has not been rebuilt to this day.)
The Church is in much the same position. We have seen so many "moves of God," we have participated in so much evangelism, we have been so close to God, that we feel invincible. "Because of all we have done, it is inconceivable that God would ever turn His back on us," is the common thought. The problem is that this is an inaccurate statement. When God sends Jesus to collect His bride, He will come for a purified bride - one that is spotless and pure - not one that had compromised and played the part of the unrepentant harlot. That "bride" will be shunned. Jesus is trying to "clean us up," but the Church often refuses. Instead she continues to be "inclusive" towards those who are in direct opposition to what we read in God's Word. She defers to popular opinion rather than God's Truth. She waters down the Gospel we preach so no one will be offended. Jesus is calling the Church to repent! Let it begin with me - and you! AMEN and Amen.
There's something about success that brings arrogance. I guess it comes naturally. If you are the best, then you are the best and no one can deny that. The problem with arrogance is that it breeds contempt. Contempt is an attitude that says "I'm the best and you are nothing." Obviously, that is a dangerous position to take. No one likes to associate with a contemptuous person - they just seem to make you feel small. But it doesn't stop there. Contempt gives way to complacency. Complacency is that position which says "I'm the best. No one can touch me. Therefore I will lean back and take it easy."
If I recall my childhood stories correctly, it was complacency that brought an end to the rabbit's reign as the fastest of the animals of the field. You may remember the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare. Mr. Rabbit was so far ahead that he though he could take a nap - so he did. Mr. Turtle knew he was not fast, but he kept plodding along at his slow but steady pace. Eventually he slipped by Mr. Rabbit who was cutting a few "z's". At the last moment the rabbit awoke, realized what had happened and cut in the afterburners - all to no avail. The tortoise won by a "hair" (sorry for the pun!)
What's the point? Israel was "so far ahead" of all other nations that they thought God would never turn on them - after all they were the "chosen of God!" Jesus pulls their heads out of the sand by saying that Tyre and Sidon - two very ungodly city-states destroyed generations before by God, would have repented of their sins with great mourning if they had seen what Israel had seen in the form and actions of Jesus. God would bring destruction upon Israel again if they didn't repent and accept Jesus as their Savior! (And so He did in 70 AD when the Roman army breached the walls of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple - which has not been rebuilt to this day.)
The Church is in much the same position. We have seen so many "moves of God," we have participated in so much evangelism, we have been so close to God, that we feel invincible. "Because of all we have done, it is inconceivable that God would ever turn His back on us," is the common thought. The problem is that this is an inaccurate statement. When God sends Jesus to collect His bride, He will come for a purified bride - one that is spotless and pure - not one that had compromised and played the part of the unrepentant harlot. That "bride" will be shunned. Jesus is trying to "clean us up," but the Church often refuses. Instead she continues to be "inclusive" towards those who are in direct opposition to what we read in God's Word. She defers to popular opinion rather than God's Truth. She waters down the Gospel we preach so no one will be offended. Jesus is calling the Church to repent! Let it begin with me - and you! AMEN and Amen.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Phil. 4:13
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13
One day Sister Teresa told her superiors, " I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage."
"Sister Teresa," her superiors said, "You cannot build an orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can't do anything."
"I know," she replied, "but with God AND three pennies, I can do anything."
When God gives us a task, He also will give us the resources to perform that task. It just doesn't always seem that way at the time. In the natural we might look in our purse and see only three pennies and become discouraged saying, "Well, I can't do what God wants me to do, I don't have the resources." But think for a moment about what you are saying. The one who gave you the task is the Creator of the Universe. He owns all the animals on the hills and forests of this world. He also owns the Hills and all the resources of the world.
Do you believe God to be a pauper? Do you think he really doesn't have the ability to bring to pass what he has commanded you to do? Do you believe God to be a tyrant? Do you think he will command you to do some thing, but then not provide you the materials with which to work? Is that the sort of God we serve?
Of course it isn't. If God gives you the task, he will also give you the wherewithal to complete the task. What we have to do is trust him and begin working on what he has for us to do.
Lord, remind me today that you will provide me with every thing I need to fulfill your will in my life. Amen and Amen.
One day Sister Teresa told her superiors, " I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage."
"Sister Teresa," her superiors said, "You cannot build an orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can't do anything."
"I know," she replied, "but with God AND three pennies, I can do anything."
When God gives us a task, He also will give us the resources to perform that task. It just doesn't always seem that way at the time. In the natural we might look in our purse and see only three pennies and become discouraged saying, "Well, I can't do what God wants me to do, I don't have the resources." But think for a moment about what you are saying. The one who gave you the task is the Creator of the Universe. He owns all the animals on the hills and forests of this world. He also owns the Hills and all the resources of the world.
Do you believe God to be a pauper? Do you think he really doesn't have the ability to bring to pass what he has commanded you to do? Do you believe God to be a tyrant? Do you think he will command you to do some thing, but then not provide you the materials with which to work? Is that the sort of God we serve?
Of course it isn't. If God gives you the task, he will also give you the wherewithal to complete the task. What we have to do is trust him and begin working on what he has for us to do.
Lord, remind me today that you will provide me with every thing I need to fulfill your will in my life. Amen and Amen.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Jeremiah 10:2-3
"Thus says the LORD: "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the axe." Jeremiah 10:2-3
"I've learned that the easiest way to find happiness is to quit complaining." Age 19 "I've learned that Santa Claus has good years and bad years." Age 10 "I've learned that true happiness is when your newborn sleeps through the night" Age 30 "I've learned that you should never lend your brother your allowance." Age 11 You guessed it right again, you ARE good!
I've learned that some things are better off not being learned. Smoking is an example. Once you start, you CAN quit, over and over again. It's the same way with drugs and drinking. It is better not to start than to have started and try to quit. It is better to not learn to lie than to lie and then try to cover it up. Do you know how hard it is to keep your story straight? It's better to have never learned to appreciate any of the bad things your mother and your father told you not to do. You will only find out that they were right and you were wrong, and that makes it all feel worse than it already is.
I've learned that the best way to finish drywall, is to hire a professional. He will do it in half the time and ten times better! Unfortunately, I can't hire a pro so I have to do it myself... and it will take me a week to do one room and it will not be perfect, but so what. It is the best I can do... and I will be proud of my work when I have a good coat of paint on it.
I've learned that telling everything I've learned is a never-ending process because I never stop learning. As a matter of fact, I've learned that when a person stops learning, he stops living. My father always told me that he went to university, SHK University, the "School of Hard Knocks." That school has many great alumni, and all of us can claim to have taken classes there. It does seem that some of our greatest lesson are learned because we make mistakes. I've learned that mistakes can be one's undoing or one's success. They are our undoing if we wallow in them and allow them to stifle our growth and progress. They are our success if we use them as a stairway to achievement.
Well, there you have it, my list (incomplete) of what I have learned so far. What have you learned so far? Feel free to email me with a sample or two. They may become food for thought in a later series. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
"I've learned that the easiest way to find happiness is to quit complaining." Age 19 "I've learned that Santa Claus has good years and bad years." Age 10 "I've learned that true happiness is when your newborn sleeps through the night" Age 30 "I've learned that you should never lend your brother your allowance." Age 11 You guessed it right again, you ARE good!
I've learned that some things are better off not being learned. Smoking is an example. Once you start, you CAN quit, over and over again. It's the same way with drugs and drinking. It is better not to start than to have started and try to quit. It is better to not learn to lie than to lie and then try to cover it up. Do you know how hard it is to keep your story straight? It's better to have never learned to appreciate any of the bad things your mother and your father told you not to do. You will only find out that they were right and you were wrong, and that makes it all feel worse than it already is.
I've learned that the best way to finish drywall, is to hire a professional. He will do it in half the time and ten times better! Unfortunately, I can't hire a pro so I have to do it myself... and it will take me a week to do one room and it will not be perfect, but so what. It is the best I can do... and I will be proud of my work when I have a good coat of paint on it.
I've learned that telling everything I've learned is a never-ending process because I never stop learning. As a matter of fact, I've learned that when a person stops learning, he stops living. My father always told me that he went to university, SHK University, the "School of Hard Knocks." That school has many great alumni, and all of us can claim to have taken classes there. It does seem that some of our greatest lesson are learned because we make mistakes. I've learned that mistakes can be one's undoing or one's success. They are our undoing if we wallow in them and allow them to stifle our growth and progress. They are our success if we use them as a stairway to achievement.
Well, there you have it, my list (incomplete) of what I have learned so far. What have you learned so far? Feel free to email me with a sample or two. They may become food for thought in a later series. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Joshua 5:9-12; II Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3,11-32
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
The Scribe and Pharisees criticized Jesus, because he ate with sinners.
And so Jesus told them a story. The story of what I would call the story of "the prodigal family".
That story is very familiar to those of us who have been attending church
for a few years. Many of us have it heard it several times, read it several times, perhaps even taught it several times.
It is a very rich story - a story that can be told or examined from a
great variety of views. A story that can be identified with from a variety
of vantage points.
MANY LOOK AT IT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE YOUNGEST SON - the prodigal
- the one who wasted his living in a foreign land and ended up going from bad to worse till - at last - he comes to his senses and flees homeward hoping against hope that there he can put his life together again – even if must be as a servant - for he knows that in his father's house even servants live better than does he.
John Newton - the writer of one of the Church's favourite hymns, Amazing Grace identified himself with the youngest son.
In the year 1779, after a tumultuous life as a sailor, a dissolute life, a
bitter and angry life in which he mocked those who believed in God and
tore down the faith of those who lived decently, he came to his senses and he gave his life to Christ, and he found in Him a welcome - a love – that till that time he had only dreamed of.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.
T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved,
how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
OTHERS OF US IDENTIFY WITH THE FATHER IN THE STORY - especially those of us who happen to be parents of children who have gone, or are going, wrong.
Think of the father in today's gospel for a minute. Think of his pain.
His youngest child - his youngest son has turned out badly.
He loves the child dearly - and what happens? The lad demands his
inheritance, what he claims will be his when his father dies,and upon
receiving it leaves home and is not heard from again.
We don't know why the father gave in to the demands of his youngest son for the money. Loving parents know that children are different.
It is impossible to treat children exactly the same, because each child is
unique. That makes child-rearing the most complex of all human tasks.
Doc Blakely once said that no man knows his true character until he has
run out of gas, declared bankruptcy, and raised a teenager.
Perhaps the father gave in because he figured if he did not his son would
only become more rebellious. Perhaps he gave in because he did not what else to do.
Whatever the reason - I think many of us here today can identify with the pain that the father must have felt; the pain - the second guessing – the constant worry -and the constant wondering...
- Will my boy make it?
- Will he survive?
- Will he become a decent man?
- Will he ever come home?
And so there are people who understand what happens at the end of story of the prodigal son. They understand why the father upon seeing in the distance his son returning home lifts his robes up around his thighs and runs down the road to meet him.
They understand - and they pray that such a seen might be enacted in their own lives. That they might be able to embrace their own child
and say to him or her - welcome home.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SON IN THE STORY? What about the oldest brother?
How many of us, I wonder, identify with him?
Let me do something for a second - let me take a poll - How many of you are the oldest child in your family? How many first-born do we have? Would you stand?
O.K., thank you. Please be seated.
Now, how many of you were the baby or the favourite in your family?
Would you stand, please? Thank you.
Now, for those in the first group - the oldest children. How many of you
felt like the baby of the family got away with things you never could have gotten away with? Would you stand please?
I do think about the older brother in the story of the prodigal family.
The older brother is like a lot of us.
He gets up and goes to work every day and tries to be responsible.
Indeed he feels he must be. It is expected of him. So you can understand why he would be upset with his baby brother.
First of all, that brat asked for his inheritance early, while father was still alive. That was selfish and an insult. It was the same thing as wishing father was dead.
And then, it was just like that baby brother to wasted it all. He never was responsible. He took it and went away and just wasted it. All that money that it had taken our family generations to accumulate. He just spent it on sports cars and women and high living. It served him right that he wound up feeding somebody's pigs. He deserved it.
But now he comes home. And wouldn't you know it, Dad throws a party for him. He always could get away with murder around here. Nobody ever threw a party for me. Nobody ever appreciated that I stuck around and did what I was supposed to do. I didn't waste Dad's money. I worked hard in the fields every day. And do you think anybody ever butchered anything for me so I could have a party with my friends? No!
And who do you think will be the one to be responsible enough to take care of Dad when he grows old and feeble? Do you think it will be that brother of mine? No. It will be me. Because I am the responsible one around here.
Yes, Dad, little brother can come home - but don't throw a party! Make him grovel a little. He asked to be a servant. Let him do that for a while.
He doesn't deserve to wear your fine robes.
Sound familiar?
It should - because that older brother is that responsible part in all of
us who doesn't like it when somebody else gets something for nothing.
The older brother is that part of us that measures and weighs every deed
for its value - every person for what they have earned or deserve - and
has decided that by comparison we aren't getting the deal we deserve to
get - or that someone else is getting more than the deserve.
It's important today that we understand whom Jesus told the story to that
day long ago in Israel and why he told it.
The tax collectors and sinners with whom Jesus ate are not simply friendly people who have been misunderstood. They were the kind of people who were making a good living taking money from their own people for the sake of the occupying forces. Sinners were so designated because their behaviour had gotten them ejected from the synagogue.
The Pharisees and other guardians of law and order could see the corrosive effect of not distinguishing between good and evil people.
Do the sayings: "birds of a feather flock together" or "evil companions
make evil morals" sound at all familiar?
Think about it - doesn't forgiving look a lot like condoning?
To Jesus' listeners 2000 years ago, and perhaps to us today, the party is what is really offensive in the story.
Let the penitent return, there's nothing wrong with that. Both Judaism and Christianity allow for that. But let him return to bread and water not fatted calf and fruit of the vineyard; to sackcloth and ashes not to expensive robes and rings and merriment....
Those who to whom Jesus told the story of the prodigal family were
responsible people. They followed the letter of the law. They did what
they were supposed to do. And what did they see when they saw Jesus?
They saw a man whom they recognized as a holy man - a man whom many said was the Messiah, one whom some said was the Son of God,
welcoming sinners and eating with them. Showing them the honour of his presence. Telling them that God loved them.
The Pharisees didn't like that one little bit. Because those sinners hadn't toed the line. Yes, let them come in. But make them grovel a little.
The Pharisees, in all their super-responsibility were missing the party.
They weren't getting the message. They couldn't hear that God had enough love for them too.
Who are you in this story?
Are you the older son, jealous that somebody else is receiving God's love?
Are you the younger son, afraid to come home and ask for God's love?
Are you the Pharisee, so aware of what you have done and what others have failed to do that you can't enjoy the party? That you resent your God for being loving and forgiving?
The youngest Son learned an important lesson while starving in a foreign land. He learned about priorities. He learned that his father was a life giver.
That is something that we all need to learn.
What our real priorities are in life.
Where life is to be found - and how good that life really is.
In our lives here sometimes it seems that love is limited. That our
parents, our wives or husbands, or our children, simply don't have enough love to go around. But that my friends is not so in the family of God.
In the story that Jesus tells to the scribes and pharisees who resented
his eating with sinners, in the story he told to the oldest brother or
daughter that lives inside our hearts he says:
"My child, you are always with me. You are very special to me.
Indeed all that I have is yours - understand that - and rejoice with
me that your younger brother - he who was as good as dead, is alive -
he was lost - but now is found."
Hear the Good News. God's love is for you.
Let your heart soften a little.
Throw away the things that are blocking you from receiving the fullness of the love that God is aching to give you - and party a little.
Embrace your brother or your sister.
Welcome them. Pray for them. Give thanks for them.
The world won't end if you do.
In fact it will become a better place for everyone. Amen.
The Scribe and Pharisees criticized Jesus, because he ate with sinners.
And so Jesus told them a story. The story of what I would call the story of "the prodigal family".
That story is very familiar to those of us who have been attending church
for a few years. Many of us have it heard it several times, read it several times, perhaps even taught it several times.
It is a very rich story - a story that can be told or examined from a
great variety of views. A story that can be identified with from a variety
of vantage points.
MANY LOOK AT IT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE YOUNGEST SON - the prodigal
- the one who wasted his living in a foreign land and ended up going from bad to worse till - at last - he comes to his senses and flees homeward hoping against hope that there he can put his life together again – even if must be as a servant - for he knows that in his father's house even servants live better than does he.
John Newton - the writer of one of the Church's favourite hymns, Amazing Grace identified himself with the youngest son.
In the year 1779, after a tumultuous life as a sailor, a dissolute life, a
bitter and angry life in which he mocked those who believed in God and
tore down the faith of those who lived decently, he came to his senses and he gave his life to Christ, and he found in Him a welcome - a love – that till that time he had only dreamed of.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.
T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved,
how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
OTHERS OF US IDENTIFY WITH THE FATHER IN THE STORY - especially those of us who happen to be parents of children who have gone, or are going, wrong.
Think of the father in today's gospel for a minute. Think of his pain.
His youngest child - his youngest son has turned out badly.
He loves the child dearly - and what happens? The lad demands his
inheritance, what he claims will be his when his father dies,and upon
receiving it leaves home and is not heard from again.
We don't know why the father gave in to the demands of his youngest son for the money. Loving parents know that children are different.
It is impossible to treat children exactly the same, because each child is
unique. That makes child-rearing the most complex of all human tasks.
Doc Blakely once said that no man knows his true character until he has
run out of gas, declared bankruptcy, and raised a teenager.
Perhaps the father gave in because he figured if he did not his son would
only become more rebellious. Perhaps he gave in because he did not what else to do.
Whatever the reason - I think many of us here today can identify with the pain that the father must have felt; the pain - the second guessing – the constant worry -and the constant wondering...
- Will my boy make it?
- Will he survive?
- Will he become a decent man?
- Will he ever come home?
And so there are people who understand what happens at the end of story of the prodigal son. They understand why the father upon seeing in the distance his son returning home lifts his robes up around his thighs and runs down the road to meet him.
They understand - and they pray that such a seen might be enacted in their own lives. That they might be able to embrace their own child
and say to him or her - welcome home.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SON IN THE STORY? What about the oldest brother?
How many of us, I wonder, identify with him?
Let me do something for a second - let me take a poll - How many of you are the oldest child in your family? How many first-born do we have? Would you stand?
O.K., thank you. Please be seated.
Now, how many of you were the baby or the favourite in your family?
Would you stand, please? Thank you.
Now, for those in the first group - the oldest children. How many of you
felt like the baby of the family got away with things you never could have gotten away with? Would you stand please?
I do think about the older brother in the story of the prodigal family.
The older brother is like a lot of us.
He gets up and goes to work every day and tries to be responsible.
Indeed he feels he must be. It is expected of him. So you can understand why he would be upset with his baby brother.
First of all, that brat asked for his inheritance early, while father was still alive. That was selfish and an insult. It was the same thing as wishing father was dead.
And then, it was just like that baby brother to wasted it all. He never was responsible. He took it and went away and just wasted it. All that money that it had taken our family generations to accumulate. He just spent it on sports cars and women and high living. It served him right that he wound up feeding somebody's pigs. He deserved it.
But now he comes home. And wouldn't you know it, Dad throws a party for him. He always could get away with murder around here. Nobody ever threw a party for me. Nobody ever appreciated that I stuck around and did what I was supposed to do. I didn't waste Dad's money. I worked hard in the fields every day. And do you think anybody ever butchered anything for me so I could have a party with my friends? No!
And who do you think will be the one to be responsible enough to take care of Dad when he grows old and feeble? Do you think it will be that brother of mine? No. It will be me. Because I am the responsible one around here.
Yes, Dad, little brother can come home - but don't throw a party! Make him grovel a little. He asked to be a servant. Let him do that for a while.
He doesn't deserve to wear your fine robes.
Sound familiar?
It should - because that older brother is that responsible part in all of
us who doesn't like it when somebody else gets something for nothing.
The older brother is that part of us that measures and weighs every deed
for its value - every person for what they have earned or deserve - and
has decided that by comparison we aren't getting the deal we deserve to
get - or that someone else is getting more than the deserve.
It's important today that we understand whom Jesus told the story to that
day long ago in Israel and why he told it.
The tax collectors and sinners with whom Jesus ate are not simply friendly people who have been misunderstood. They were the kind of people who were making a good living taking money from their own people for the sake of the occupying forces. Sinners were so designated because their behaviour had gotten them ejected from the synagogue.
The Pharisees and other guardians of law and order could see the corrosive effect of not distinguishing between good and evil people.
Do the sayings: "birds of a feather flock together" or "evil companions
make evil morals" sound at all familiar?
Think about it - doesn't forgiving look a lot like condoning?
To Jesus' listeners 2000 years ago, and perhaps to us today, the party is what is really offensive in the story.
Let the penitent return, there's nothing wrong with that. Both Judaism and Christianity allow for that. But let him return to bread and water not fatted calf and fruit of the vineyard; to sackcloth and ashes not to expensive robes and rings and merriment....
Those who to whom Jesus told the story of the prodigal family were
responsible people. They followed the letter of the law. They did what
they were supposed to do. And what did they see when they saw Jesus?
They saw a man whom they recognized as a holy man - a man whom many said was the Messiah, one whom some said was the Son of God,
welcoming sinners and eating with them. Showing them the honour of his presence. Telling them that God loved them.
The Pharisees didn't like that one little bit. Because those sinners hadn't toed the line. Yes, let them come in. But make them grovel a little.
The Pharisees, in all their super-responsibility were missing the party.
They weren't getting the message. They couldn't hear that God had enough love for them too.
Who are you in this story?
Are you the older son, jealous that somebody else is receiving God's love?
Are you the younger son, afraid to come home and ask for God's love?
Are you the Pharisee, so aware of what you have done and what others have failed to do that you can't enjoy the party? That you resent your God for being loving and forgiving?
The youngest Son learned an important lesson while starving in a foreign land. He learned about priorities. He learned that his father was a life giver.
That is something that we all need to learn.
What our real priorities are in life.
Where life is to be found - and how good that life really is.
In our lives here sometimes it seems that love is limited. That our
parents, our wives or husbands, or our children, simply don't have enough love to go around. But that my friends is not so in the family of God.
In the story that Jesus tells to the scribes and pharisees who resented
his eating with sinners, in the story he told to the oldest brother or
daughter that lives inside our hearts he says:
"My child, you are always with me. You are very special to me.
Indeed all that I have is yours - understand that - and rejoice with
me that your younger brother - he who was as good as dead, is alive -
he was lost - but now is found."
Hear the Good News. God's love is for you.
Let your heart soften a little.
Throw away the things that are blocking you from receiving the fullness of the love that God is aching to give you - and party a little.
Embrace your brother or your sister.
Welcome them. Pray for them. Give thanks for them.
The world won't end if you do.
In fact it will become a better place for everyone. Amen.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Isaiah 26:10
"Let grace be shown to the wicked, Yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, And will not behold the majesty of the LORD." Isaiah 26:10
"I've learned that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles these three things: a rainy holiday, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights." Age 52 "I've learned that kids need hugs more than they need things." Age 43 "I've learned that the smart husband knows that the wooing never stops." Age 59 "I've learned that having football games in the house isn't a good idea." Age 9 You guessed it. The omplete Live and Learn and Pass It On.
I've learned that money doesn't buy happiness. Have you ever been rich? I mean filthy rich? Most of us haven't. But most of us know of people who have a lot more than we do. And, unless they are firm believers in Jesus Christ, they are no happier than we are, and most of them are downright miserable. The husbands work long hours to get richer. The wife is unfulfilled in all of her "charity work." The kids don't know what a parent is, and they are spoiled rotten because daddy tries to buy their love with things instead of quality time.
Now compare that scenario with the poor but believing people you know. Many of them have found contentment in what they have. It may not be much, and what they have is not from the best stores, but it is theirs. They have earned it, and they are happy to have what they possess. You will also find that they are the ones most willing to share what they have, especially their faith in Jesus. They are the ones who open their doors to those in need of a place to stay or a humble but nutritious meal. They are the ones most likely to give of their poverty to the work of God. They are the tithers, the workers, and the faithful in all things.
I've learned that all generalities are false, including this one and the one above. We probably all know rich people who are genuinely happy. And some of them may not even be Christians. The latter is rare, and the former is scarce. Jesus didn't say, "It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle," just to pass the time of day. He knows that a rich man is often devoured with the desire to become richer, even those who sit in a pew on a regular basis and put hefty checks in the offering plate. Likewise, he lifted up the widow and her two pennies for the same reason. He found that the poor were indeed the salt of the earth. They give out of their poverty what the rich will not give out of their abundance.
I've learned that God's blessings for my generosity are not always "gifts-in-kind. When Carmel and I began to tithe on a consistent basis (shortly after we were married). We had good health we had no medical insurance. It was sales at the grocery storeo when we could not have afforded food any other way. It was someone buying me shoes when I did not have money to buy them myself. It was a miraculous healing when the doctor said surgery was essential. God provides in mysterious ways.
That's what I have learned so far. Amen and Amen.
"I've learned that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles these three things: a rainy holiday, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights." Age 52 "I've learned that kids need hugs more than they need things." Age 43 "I've learned that the smart husband knows that the wooing never stops." Age 59 "I've learned that having football games in the house isn't a good idea." Age 9 You guessed it. The omplete Live and Learn and Pass It On.
I've learned that money doesn't buy happiness. Have you ever been rich? I mean filthy rich? Most of us haven't. But most of us know of people who have a lot more than we do. And, unless they are firm believers in Jesus Christ, they are no happier than we are, and most of them are downright miserable. The husbands work long hours to get richer. The wife is unfulfilled in all of her "charity work." The kids don't know what a parent is, and they are spoiled rotten because daddy tries to buy their love with things instead of quality time.
Now compare that scenario with the poor but believing people you know. Many of them have found contentment in what they have. It may not be much, and what they have is not from the best stores, but it is theirs. They have earned it, and they are happy to have what they possess. You will also find that they are the ones most willing to share what they have, especially their faith in Jesus. They are the ones who open their doors to those in need of a place to stay or a humble but nutritious meal. They are the ones most likely to give of their poverty to the work of God. They are the tithers, the workers, and the faithful in all things.
I've learned that all generalities are false, including this one and the one above. We probably all know rich people who are genuinely happy. And some of them may not even be Christians. The latter is rare, and the former is scarce. Jesus didn't say, "It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle," just to pass the time of day. He knows that a rich man is often devoured with the desire to become richer, even those who sit in a pew on a regular basis and put hefty checks in the offering plate. Likewise, he lifted up the widow and her two pennies for the same reason. He found that the poor were indeed the salt of the earth. They give out of their poverty what the rich will not give out of their abundance.
I've learned that God's blessings for my generosity are not always "gifts-in-kind. When Carmel and I began to tithe on a consistent basis (shortly after we were married). We had good health we had no medical insurance. It was sales at the grocery storeo when we could not have afforded food any other way. It was someone buying me shoes when I did not have money to buy them myself. It was a miraculous healing when the doctor said surgery was essential. God provides in mysterious ways.
That's what I have learned so far. Amen and Amen.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
"I've learned that if you stay focused on yourself, you are guaranteed to be miserable." Age 71 "I've learned that no one can keep a secret." Age 17 "I've learned that you shouldn't handcuff yourself to your little brother and dare him to swallow the key." Age 11 "I've learned that the exact size drill bit I need is always the one that's missing from the set." Age 46. Again all from the same book!
I've learned that no matter what happens, if I believe God is in control and trust Him completely, He will make everything work out all right. I was flying to Okinawa some years back. As the plane was about to take off, clouds began to form. If you've ever flown through and above those "cotton candy clouds", you know how beautiful are. Unfortunately, when I left Okinawa after ten days' stay, a typhoon entered behind us, thunderstorms began to form. We were, however, above the tops of even those clouds or were able to fly around them. As I looked out the window, I noted to a friend sitting next to me that this is how storms look to God... light and fluffy... while we see only the dark, churning, underside of those same clouds!
When I am able to look at my storms through God's eyes, they become so much less significant. Sure, the winds may blow, and the rains may fall. Typhoons may destroy and floods may wash away houses, but from God's viewpoint, these are simply temporary setbacks on the path to our real home... the home where neither moth nor rust corrupts.
This had been a hard winter for parts of the world. Many areas had experienced severe flooding. Snow has left many without power for days. Severe cold has left a path of ruined crops. Perhaps you are among those who have suffered such losses...or worse. Trust the Lord. Maybe you suffer from physical disease that promises to destroy this life. Hold fast the course. God sees your beginning and your end. It could be that you have suffered the loss of a loved one. God not only feels your pain, He is able to be your comforter and ever-present companion. Rely upon Him.
I've learned that nothing surprises God. He has seen it all. He knows how to handle every problem we may face. All we have to do is allow Him to do His job. He will work it out for our good. Oh, it may take a while for us to see the positive in the negatives that are hounding us. But they are there... just as the storm clouds that dumped rain on Okinawa were nothing but white, bright, fluffy clouds at 35,000 feet!
I've learned to keep my eyes open when riding a roller coaster. That way I can see where I am going and lean into the curves and prepare for the hills. Life is a roller coaster filled with some of the most unusual and torturous twists imaginable. We must keep our eyes open and focused upon the One who holds our future. He will see us down the final hill and into our heavenly homes!
This is what I have learned so far. Amen and Amen.
"I've learned that if you stay focused on yourself, you are guaranteed to be miserable." Age 71 "I've learned that no one can keep a secret." Age 17 "I've learned that you shouldn't handcuff yourself to your little brother and dare him to swallow the key." Age 11 "I've learned that the exact size drill bit I need is always the one that's missing from the set." Age 46. Again all from the same book!
I've learned that no matter what happens, if I believe God is in control and trust Him completely, He will make everything work out all right. I was flying to Okinawa some years back. As the plane was about to take off, clouds began to form. If you've ever flown through and above those "cotton candy clouds", you know how beautiful are. Unfortunately, when I left Okinawa after ten days' stay, a typhoon entered behind us, thunderstorms began to form. We were, however, above the tops of even those clouds or were able to fly around them. As I looked out the window, I noted to a friend sitting next to me that this is how storms look to God... light and fluffy... while we see only the dark, churning, underside of those same clouds!
When I am able to look at my storms through God's eyes, they become so much less significant. Sure, the winds may blow, and the rains may fall. Typhoons may destroy and floods may wash away houses, but from God's viewpoint, these are simply temporary setbacks on the path to our real home... the home where neither moth nor rust corrupts.
This had been a hard winter for parts of the world. Many areas had experienced severe flooding. Snow has left many without power for days. Severe cold has left a path of ruined crops. Perhaps you are among those who have suffered such losses...or worse. Trust the Lord. Maybe you suffer from physical disease that promises to destroy this life. Hold fast the course. God sees your beginning and your end. It could be that you have suffered the loss of a loved one. God not only feels your pain, He is able to be your comforter and ever-present companion. Rely upon Him.
I've learned that nothing surprises God. He has seen it all. He knows how to handle every problem we may face. All we have to do is allow Him to do His job. He will work it out for our good. Oh, it may take a while for us to see the positive in the negatives that are hounding us. But they are there... just as the storm clouds that dumped rain on Okinawa were nothing but white, bright, fluffy clouds at 35,000 feet!
I've learned to keep my eyes open when riding a roller coaster. That way I can see where I am going and lean into the curves and prepare for the hills. Life is a roller coaster filled with some of the most unusual and torturous twists imaginable. We must keep our eyes open and focused upon the One who holds our future. He will see us down the final hill and into our heavenly homes!
This is what I have learned so far. Amen and Amen.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Proverbs 1:5-6
"A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles." Proverbs 1:5-6
"I've learned that you can be in love with four girls at the same time." Age 9 Note: he will learn not to let them know of his love for another at about age 16! "I've learned that if you take good care of your employees, they will take good care of your customers." Age 49 "I've learned that if I eat donuts today I wear them tomorrow." Age 34 "I've learned that encouragement from a good teacher can turn a student's life around." Age 44
Again these are taken from The Live and Learn and Pass It On book. For those who may not have known what the "throne room" is, that is the place where the water closet is found!
I've learned to listen to other people, especially those who are older and wiser than I. I used to spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel. You know what I mean? I believed that I was the only person who ever had an original idea and it was my responsibility to develop that idea into something perfect. Unfortunately, I would finish my "masterpiece" only to find that someone else had beat me to the idea, usually by years, and did a better job of developing it. Then I learned that I could take another person's idea and improve on it. When I mastered this concept, I became a better person and the world around me benefited from my improvement on an existing concept.
I've learned to learn from other people's mistakes! Why should I fall into a pit when I know other people have fallen into the same one? Why don't I listen to them tell their stories and learn to avoid the pit? Have you ever wondered why most of us do not learn from other people's mistakes? I've come to the conclusion that this personality flaw stems from arrogance, pure, simple, pride.
"Sure, John fell into the lake because he came too close to that loose shoreline. But, I'm better than John. I know how to walk lightly on loose banks. I will not fall in, SPLASH!
I've also learned that I should not always take the advice given me by those who are older and wiser than I. A really wise man weighs the advice given and compares it to the Word of God and the direction the Holy Spirit gives. Then, the wise man makes his decision. Only a fool will do everything a wise man tells him. If this is the case, the seeker is nothing but a pawn of the counselor.
In the end, it is wise to seek counsel, but to test the counsel and choose wisely from the options presented. In this way a man will not "fly off the handle" at the first idea that catches his fancy, but will be guided in right paths. This is what I have learned so far. Amen and Amen.
"I've learned that you can be in love with four girls at the same time." Age 9 Note: he will learn not to let them know of his love for another at about age 16! "I've learned that if you take good care of your employees, they will take good care of your customers." Age 49 "I've learned that if I eat donuts today I wear them tomorrow." Age 34 "I've learned that encouragement from a good teacher can turn a student's life around." Age 44
Again these are taken from The Live and Learn and Pass It On book. For those who may not have known what the "throne room" is, that is the place where the water closet is found!
I've learned to listen to other people, especially those who are older and wiser than I. I used to spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel. You know what I mean? I believed that I was the only person who ever had an original idea and it was my responsibility to develop that idea into something perfect. Unfortunately, I would finish my "masterpiece" only to find that someone else had beat me to the idea, usually by years, and did a better job of developing it. Then I learned that I could take another person's idea and improve on it. When I mastered this concept, I became a better person and the world around me benefited from my improvement on an existing concept.
I've learned to learn from other people's mistakes! Why should I fall into a pit when I know other people have fallen into the same one? Why don't I listen to them tell their stories and learn to avoid the pit? Have you ever wondered why most of us do not learn from other people's mistakes? I've come to the conclusion that this personality flaw stems from arrogance, pure, simple, pride.
"Sure, John fell into the lake because he came too close to that loose shoreline. But, I'm better than John. I know how to walk lightly on loose banks. I will not fall in, SPLASH!
I've also learned that I should not always take the advice given me by those who are older and wiser than I. A really wise man weighs the advice given and compares it to the Word of God and the direction the Holy Spirit gives. Then, the wise man makes his decision. Only a fool will do everything a wise man tells him. If this is the case, the seeker is nothing but a pawn of the counselor.
In the end, it is wise to seek counsel, but to test the counsel and choose wisely from the options presented. In this way a man will not "fly off the handle" at the first idea that catches his fancy, but will be guided in right paths. This is what I have learned so far. Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Psalm 119:69-72
"The proud have forged a lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, But I delight in Your law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. he law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver." Psalm 119:69-72
"I've learned that it doesn't cost anything to be nice." Age 66 "I've learned that most of the things I worry about never happen." Age 64 "I've learned that just when I get my room the way I like it, Mom makes me clean it up." Age 13 "I've learned that lying in the green grass of an empty field makes you feel so good." Age 14
The above quotes are from a book titled, The Complete Live and Learn and Pass It On. Last year I did a series titled, "I have Learned..." so I thought I would make my own contributions to the vast world of knowledge... as though that was something new! Of course I must make my contributions on the basis of the Word of God, so here goes. I've learned that troubles are not always from the devil. The psalmist tells us that it was good for him to be afflicted. He must have been a sadistic character! At least by today's "Christian" standards that must be true.
Most of us have been taught that trouble comes as a result of sin. If turmoil comes our way, we ask, "What have I done now?" If trouble afflicts us with some disease, we wonder, "Why me?" Worse yet are those who listen to our problems and pray for our healing, then when the healing doesn't come, they tell us that our "faith wasn't strong enough!"
I've learned that this is rubbish. David learned God's statutes. The Hebrew word used here gives the picture of a Word of God that is inscribed in stone. I suppose that would indicate the Ten Commandments that were literally carved in the stone by the finger of God. But then again, many things God speaks to us are every bit as "etched in stone" as were those ten laws.
David's trials taught him far more than the "Thou shalt not's." He had been taught them from the time of his birth. David learned patience in his conflict with Saul. He learned respect for authority, same conflict. He learned to lead in a righteous manner. He learned that sin costs, and it costs dearly. He lost his first son with Bathsheba. Later, when he counted the people against God's expressed command, he found that it cost the lives of many of his subjects. David did indeed learn God's statutes, sometimes the hard way, translated "trouble."
But not all of David's troubles were self-inflicted. He certainly did not deserve the treatment he received from Saul! Still David learned God's words. Our troubles are equally valuable to learning God's statutes. I've learned that instead of asking, "Why me?" I should ask, "What is God wanting me to learn from this?" Amen and Amen.
"I've learned that it doesn't cost anything to be nice." Age 66 "I've learned that most of the things I worry about never happen." Age 64 "I've learned that just when I get my room the way I like it, Mom makes me clean it up." Age 13 "I've learned that lying in the green grass of an empty field makes you feel so good." Age 14
The above quotes are from a book titled, The Complete Live and Learn and Pass It On. Last year I did a series titled, "I have Learned..." so I thought I would make my own contributions to the vast world of knowledge... as though that was something new! Of course I must make my contributions on the basis of the Word of God, so here goes. I've learned that troubles are not always from the devil. The psalmist tells us that it was good for him to be afflicted. He must have been a sadistic character! At least by today's "Christian" standards that must be true.
Most of us have been taught that trouble comes as a result of sin. If turmoil comes our way, we ask, "What have I done now?" If trouble afflicts us with some disease, we wonder, "Why me?" Worse yet are those who listen to our problems and pray for our healing, then when the healing doesn't come, they tell us that our "faith wasn't strong enough!"
I've learned that this is rubbish. David learned God's statutes. The Hebrew word used here gives the picture of a Word of God that is inscribed in stone. I suppose that would indicate the Ten Commandments that were literally carved in the stone by the finger of God. But then again, many things God speaks to us are every bit as "etched in stone" as were those ten laws.
David's trials taught him far more than the "Thou shalt not's." He had been taught them from the time of his birth. David learned patience in his conflict with Saul. He learned respect for authority, same conflict. He learned to lead in a righteous manner. He learned that sin costs, and it costs dearly. He lost his first son with Bathsheba. Later, when he counted the people against God's expressed command, he found that it cost the lives of many of his subjects. David did indeed learn God's statutes, sometimes the hard way, translated "trouble."
But not all of David's troubles were self-inflicted. He certainly did not deserve the treatment he received from Saul! Still David learned God's words. Our troubles are equally valuable to learning God's statutes. I've learned that instead of asking, "Why me?" I should ask, "What is God wanting me to learn from this?" Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Psalm 100:1-2
"Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing." Psalm 100:1-2
Have you ever planned a major fun event and then asked yourself, "Are we having fun yet?" Fun in uninhibited spontaneity. Chances are the last time you really had fun it was a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment activity or event. Big events and expensive outings can be fun, but sometimes we plan and spend all the fun right out of them. I've often had a lot more fun in an impromptu pillow fight with my children.
The secret to enjoying uninhibited spontaneity as a Christian is in removing non-scriptural inhibitors. Chief among the inhibitors of Christian fun is our fleshly tendency to keep up appearances. We don't want to look out of place or be thought less of by others, so we stifle our spontaneity with a form of false decorum. That's people-pleasing and Paul suggested that anybody who lives to please people isn't serving Christ (Galatians 1:10).
I really like the uninhibited joy I see in King David, who knew the joy of being in the presence of the Lord. He was so happy about returning the ark to Jerusalem that he leaped and danced before the Lord in celebration. He knew there was joy in the presence of God. But Michal, his party-pooping wife, thought his behavior was unbecoming to a king, and she told him so in no uncertain terms. David said, "Rain on you, lady. I'm dancing to please the Lord, not you or anybody else. And I'm going to keep dancing whether you like it or not" (my paraphrase of 2 Samuel 6:21). As it turned out, Michal was the person God judged in the incident, not David (2 Samuel 6:23). You'll find a lot more joy in pleasing the Lord than in trying to please people.
Frankly, I think it's fun being saved. Being free in Christ means that we are free to be ourselves. We're free from our past, free from trying to live up to other people's expectations, free from sin and the evil one. What a joyful, uninhibited, spontaneous life for those who are free in Christ! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Have you ever planned a major fun event and then asked yourself, "Are we having fun yet?" Fun in uninhibited spontaneity. Chances are the last time you really had fun it was a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment activity or event. Big events and expensive outings can be fun, but sometimes we plan and spend all the fun right out of them. I've often had a lot more fun in an impromptu pillow fight with my children.
The secret to enjoying uninhibited spontaneity as a Christian is in removing non-scriptural inhibitors. Chief among the inhibitors of Christian fun is our fleshly tendency to keep up appearances. We don't want to look out of place or be thought less of by others, so we stifle our spontaneity with a form of false decorum. That's people-pleasing and Paul suggested that anybody who lives to please people isn't serving Christ (Galatians 1:10).
I really like the uninhibited joy I see in King David, who knew the joy of being in the presence of the Lord. He was so happy about returning the ark to Jerusalem that he leaped and danced before the Lord in celebration. He knew there was joy in the presence of God. But Michal, his party-pooping wife, thought his behavior was unbecoming to a king, and she told him so in no uncertain terms. David said, "Rain on you, lady. I'm dancing to please the Lord, not you or anybody else. And I'm going to keep dancing whether you like it or not" (my paraphrase of 2 Samuel 6:21). As it turned out, Michal was the person God judged in the incident, not David (2 Samuel 6:23). You'll find a lot more joy in pleasing the Lord than in trying to please people.
Frankly, I think it's fun being saved. Being free in Christ means that we are free to be ourselves. We're free from our past, free from trying to live up to other people's expectations, free from sin and the evil one. What a joyful, uninhibited, spontaneous life for those who are free in Christ! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Monday, March 8, 2010
1 Peter 5:9
"Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world." 1 Peter 5:9
I cannot accept someone saying, "The devil made me do it." No, he didn't make you do it; you did it. Somewhere along the line, you chose to give the devil a foothold. He merely took advantage of the opportunity you gave him. You have all the resources and protection you need to live a victorious life in Christ every day. If you're not living it, it's your choice. When you leave a door open for the devil by not resisting temptation, accusation or deception, you are vulnerable. And if you continue to allow him access to your life, he can gain a measure of control over you. You won't lose your salvation, but you will lose your daily victory.
Many Christians today who cannot control their lives in some area wallow in self-blame instead of acting responsibly to solve the problem. They berate themselves and punish themselves for not having the will power to break a bad habit, when instead they should be resisting Satan in an area where he had obviously robbed them of control. Anything bad which you seemingly cannot stop doing, or anything good which you cannot make yourself do, could be an area of demonic control.
God's protection from demonic attack is not something you can take for granted irrespective of how you behave. This protection is conditional on your willingness to respond to God's provision. We are told to put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14), to put on the armor of God and to stand firm (Ephesians 6:11), to submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7). If we irresponsibly ignore God's resources by failing to obey these commands, how can we expect Him to protect us? Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
I cannot accept someone saying, "The devil made me do it." No, he didn't make you do it; you did it. Somewhere along the line, you chose to give the devil a foothold. He merely took advantage of the opportunity you gave him. You have all the resources and protection you need to live a victorious life in Christ every day. If you're not living it, it's your choice. When you leave a door open for the devil by not resisting temptation, accusation or deception, you are vulnerable. And if you continue to allow him access to your life, he can gain a measure of control over you. You won't lose your salvation, but you will lose your daily victory.
Many Christians today who cannot control their lives in some area wallow in self-blame instead of acting responsibly to solve the problem. They berate themselves and punish themselves for not having the will power to break a bad habit, when instead they should be resisting Satan in an area where he had obviously robbed them of control. Anything bad which you seemingly cannot stop doing, or anything good which you cannot make yourself do, could be an area of demonic control.
God's protection from demonic attack is not something you can take for granted irrespective of how you behave. This protection is conditional on your willingness to respond to God's provision. We are told to put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14), to put on the armor of God and to stand firm (Ephesians 6:11), to submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7). If we irresponsibly ignore God's resources by failing to obey these commands, how can we expect Him to protect us? Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Isaiah 55:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
In her stunning book, The Shadow Man, Mary Oliver, the novelist, sets out to retrieve her father from the mausoleum of mourning. He had died when she was seven and for a long time she thought he was the most important person in her life. Thirty years later she began to ask who her father really was and discovered - in libraries, archives and her own memory - a man she never knew, a man who hid his past even from the people he loved most.
It is the kind of story, the kind of experience that should give all parents and children pause. Do we really know the people we say we love? Do we take time to know them? Do we allow ourselves to be known for who we really are - before time runs out?
Using what I take to be a dream image that bespeaks the heart of their relationship, her father visits Mary at night and knocks wildly at the door. For a long time, she does not answer. When she does she finds herself looking into her father's blank eyes.
I saw what a child must love
I saw what love might have done
had we loved in time.
- The Visitor
For when the biological fact of our relationships with one another is not fulfilled in spiritual communion, the result is always sadness.
We only have so much time and we don't always get second chances.
Jesus was a man in a rush.
His comings and goings up and down Palestine seemed almost compulsive. It was though he wanted to preach in both Galilee and Jerusalem at the same time. The Holy City had the effect on him that a burning candle has on a moth. He knew the journey to the centre of Israel's religious and political life would be dangerous; but he could not stay away. He had to preach his message to the nation's leaders. He had to risk being heard while there was still time. This is the key that unlocks this sometimes bewildering passage from Luke, which contains no less than three distinct stories, one of them another of Jesus' enigmatic parables. What is the passage all about?
In addition to Jesus' urgent disposition, Luke gives us clues. Not only is Jesus on his way to a final confrontation with his opponents, the previous chapter includes a whole section on the need for vigilance on the part of his followers (12.35-49) and astuteness in recognizing the signs of the times (12.54-56). Immediately preceding this week's passage is a saying on the necessity of reconciliation with an opponent. In other words, themes of impending crisis, preparedness and setting things right while you still have time lead right into today's gospel. "Are you ready?" Luke is saying to us. "Are you prepared for what I am about to say next?" And then, suddenly, there is striking news about a construction accident and a massacre of political rebels. They
... told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus himself recalls
... those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them . . .
They are the kind of stories, the kind of tragedies that make people think about things like "the injustice of things", about why bad things happen to good people; and that is precisely what we might be tempted to "make do" with such a text.
But Luke will not let Jesus go there. He simply avoids any discussion about that perennial human concern: is there some connection between suffering and sin? Maybe, yes. Maybe, no, the Bible seems to say, depending on whether you are listening to Deuteronomy (28.15) or Jesus (John 9.3). Jesus does not give an answer to why people suffer. He does clearly dissociate untimely death from both sin and guilt.
... - do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you...
This is not a passage about the so-called moral dilemma of tragic events. It is a passage about seizing life's opportunities.
... but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did
Jesus says. Just like those people who perished found out, the time for seizing those opportunities is shorter than you expect. Then Jesus tells a parable, Luke says, to underline his point. A fig tree that has not borne fruit is given some more time to produce. Not much time, but some. The fig tree's "time of grace" is like one of those windows of opportunity. The rocket is sitting on the launch pad, waiting for just the right moment to be sent on its mission into outer space. Everything must be functioning and in order at just the right moment or the opportunity for the launch will be lost - maybe for many months - and everything dismantled.
"If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down."
The crucial point Luke is making is that fruitfulness must be evident at the time of reckoning.
We know that the immense power and generosity of God's love preoccupied Jesus during his teaching life. We will hear this theme presented powerfully over the next few weeks. That does not mean, however, that we can underestimate Jesus' parables of urgency: that the time for us to respond to that love, that window of opportunity in our life, is rather short and maybe shorter than we expect. The difficult, bitter, but unquestioned truth these parables tell us is that life does not last forever, that for many of us more than half of our life is gone and we have only a small amount of it left to respond enthusiastically to the news that Jesus has preached.
What if all those people who were killed in the earthquakes of Haiti and Chile had known that they had only a few days left to live? How quickly would they have raced to set their lives in order, to make peace with God, to prepare to die? Few of us have such warnings. Few of us are not surprised by death. Few of us really believe that time is flowing through the hourglass and that we have, at best and at most, relatively little time left to make a difference before we die, to begin to live for others the way God loves us. It is later than you think, says Jesus. Hurry up!
As parents, we have children with us for only a few short years. When they are finally gone, off to school or work or beginning families of their own, do we not look back at that brief span of child raising and lament our lost opportunities? We didn't enjoy them as much as we might have. We didn't give them as much time as we might have. We didn't love them as much as we might have. We didn't get to know them and to let them know us as much as we might have. And, as children ourselves, do we not often feel the same for our parents. When they had relatively few years left, do we not often regret not having strengthened those relationships, straightening out the kinks, healing the hurtful memories, both offering and receiving gestures of reconciliation and gratitude to one another while we had the chance?
I saw what a child must love
I saw what love might have done
had we loved in time.
- The Visitor
Jesus is not threatening us in this morning's gospel. He is pleading with us - the way God does in every moment. He is simply and realistically telling us that the course of our lives is shorter than we think and that we would be foolish not to seize the opportunities to enjoy one another, to love one another, to do what we can to make sure there is a little less suffering in the world by the way we live of our lives - while we have the time.
So, don't waste your time on good intentions. Don't postpone what you need to do to live more kindly, more humbly, more justly today. Don't even wait for this service to end, for God's sake, if you need to leave right now and do what you need to do while there is still time. It is slipping away. Don't waste any more of it!
May His Name be praised day by day! Amen
It is the kind of story, the kind of experience that should give all parents and children pause. Do we really know the people we say we love? Do we take time to know them? Do we allow ourselves to be known for who we really are - before time runs out?
Using what I take to be a dream image that bespeaks the heart of their relationship, her father visits Mary at night and knocks wildly at the door. For a long time, she does not answer. When she does she finds herself looking into her father's blank eyes.
I saw what a child must love
I saw what love might have done
had we loved in time.
- The Visitor
For when the biological fact of our relationships with one another is not fulfilled in spiritual communion, the result is always sadness.
We only have so much time and we don't always get second chances.
Jesus was a man in a rush.
His comings and goings up and down Palestine seemed almost compulsive. It was though he wanted to preach in both Galilee and Jerusalem at the same time. The Holy City had the effect on him that a burning candle has on a moth. He knew the journey to the centre of Israel's religious and political life would be dangerous; but he could not stay away. He had to preach his message to the nation's leaders. He had to risk being heard while there was still time. This is the key that unlocks this sometimes bewildering passage from Luke, which contains no less than three distinct stories, one of them another of Jesus' enigmatic parables. What is the passage all about?
In addition to Jesus' urgent disposition, Luke gives us clues. Not only is Jesus on his way to a final confrontation with his opponents, the previous chapter includes a whole section on the need for vigilance on the part of his followers (12.35-49) and astuteness in recognizing the signs of the times (12.54-56). Immediately preceding this week's passage is a saying on the necessity of reconciliation with an opponent. In other words, themes of impending crisis, preparedness and setting things right while you still have time lead right into today's gospel. "Are you ready?" Luke is saying to us. "Are you prepared for what I am about to say next?" And then, suddenly, there is striking news about a construction accident and a massacre of political rebels. They
... told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus himself recalls
... those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them . . .
They are the kind of stories, the kind of tragedies that make people think about things like "the injustice of things", about why bad things happen to good people; and that is precisely what we might be tempted to "make do" with such a text.
But Luke will not let Jesus go there. He simply avoids any discussion about that perennial human concern: is there some connection between suffering and sin? Maybe, yes. Maybe, no, the Bible seems to say, depending on whether you are listening to Deuteronomy (28.15) or Jesus (John 9.3). Jesus does not give an answer to why people suffer. He does clearly dissociate untimely death from both sin and guilt.
... - do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you...
This is not a passage about the so-called moral dilemma of tragic events. It is a passage about seizing life's opportunities.
... but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did
Jesus says. Just like those people who perished found out, the time for seizing those opportunities is shorter than you expect. Then Jesus tells a parable, Luke says, to underline his point. A fig tree that has not borne fruit is given some more time to produce. Not much time, but some. The fig tree's "time of grace" is like one of those windows of opportunity. The rocket is sitting on the launch pad, waiting for just the right moment to be sent on its mission into outer space. Everything must be functioning and in order at just the right moment or the opportunity for the launch will be lost - maybe for many months - and everything dismantled.
"If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down."
The crucial point Luke is making is that fruitfulness must be evident at the time of reckoning.
We know that the immense power and generosity of God's love preoccupied Jesus during his teaching life. We will hear this theme presented powerfully over the next few weeks. That does not mean, however, that we can underestimate Jesus' parables of urgency: that the time for us to respond to that love, that window of opportunity in our life, is rather short and maybe shorter than we expect. The difficult, bitter, but unquestioned truth these parables tell us is that life does not last forever, that for many of us more than half of our life is gone and we have only a small amount of it left to respond enthusiastically to the news that Jesus has preached.
What if all those people who were killed in the earthquakes of Haiti and Chile had known that they had only a few days left to live? How quickly would they have raced to set their lives in order, to make peace with God, to prepare to die? Few of us have such warnings. Few of us are not surprised by death. Few of us really believe that time is flowing through the hourglass and that we have, at best and at most, relatively little time left to make a difference before we die, to begin to live for others the way God loves us. It is later than you think, says Jesus. Hurry up!
As parents, we have children with us for only a few short years. When they are finally gone, off to school or work or beginning families of their own, do we not look back at that brief span of child raising and lament our lost opportunities? We didn't enjoy them as much as we might have. We didn't give them as much time as we might have. We didn't love them as much as we might have. We didn't get to know them and to let them know us as much as we might have. And, as children ourselves, do we not often feel the same for our parents. When they had relatively few years left, do we not often regret not having strengthened those relationships, straightening out the kinks, healing the hurtful memories, both offering and receiving gestures of reconciliation and gratitude to one another while we had the chance?
I saw what a child must love
I saw what love might have done
had we loved in time.
- The Visitor
Jesus is not threatening us in this morning's gospel. He is pleading with us - the way God does in every moment. He is simply and realistically telling us that the course of our lives is shorter than we think and that we would be foolish not to seize the opportunities to enjoy one another, to love one another, to do what we can to make sure there is a little less suffering in the world by the way we live of our lives - while we have the time.
So, don't waste your time on good intentions. Don't postpone what you need to do to live more kindly, more humbly, more justly today. Don't even wait for this service to end, for God's sake, if you need to leave right now and do what you need to do while there is still time. It is slipping away. Don't waste any more of it!
May His Name be praised day by day! Amen
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Isaiah 25:5
"You will reduce the noise of aliens, As heat in a dry place; As heat in the shadow of a cloud, The song of the terrible ones will be diminished." Isaiah 25:5
An interesting thing about God being in control - He not only takes care of the good people, he takes care of the bad ones as well. I don't know anything that will take the fight out of a man faster than a hot, hot, hot dry day. It's just impossible to continue a fight past noon. Why do you think the good people in some countries in the world take a nap after lunch? It's just too hot to work.
It would be good of us to consider the fate of our enemies. It would also be wise of us to show compassion to them rather than smug contempt. If something really bad comes our way - like a big bite out of a rotten apple - we say "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!" Yet, we in all seriousness tend to wish God's wrath upon those who oppose us. Do you really want God to destroy a person simply because he chooses to contend with us? - Or God? Do you think God wants to destroy them?
2 Peter 2:3 tells us that God is not willing that any man, woman or child should perish. There are no exceptions to "any". He doesn't say "my friends" or "those who agree with our political position" or "those who have the same physical characteristics that I do." No, God is patient with them just as He is patient with us. We need to follow His example. After all, He does encourage us to "bless our enemies, bless and curse not." (Rom. 12:14) Amen and Amen.
An interesting thing about God being in control - He not only takes care of the good people, he takes care of the bad ones as well. I don't know anything that will take the fight out of a man faster than a hot, hot, hot dry day. It's just impossible to continue a fight past noon. Why do you think the good people in some countries in the world take a nap after lunch? It's just too hot to work.
It would be good of us to consider the fate of our enemies. It would also be wise of us to show compassion to them rather than smug contempt. If something really bad comes our way - like a big bite out of a rotten apple - we say "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!" Yet, we in all seriousness tend to wish God's wrath upon those who oppose us. Do you really want God to destroy a person simply because he chooses to contend with us? - Or God? Do you think God wants to destroy them?
2 Peter 2:3 tells us that God is not willing that any man, woman or child should perish. There are no exceptions to "any". He doesn't say "my friends" or "those who agree with our political position" or "those who have the same physical characteristics that I do." No, God is patient with them just as He is patient with us. We need to follow His example. After all, He does encourage us to "bless our enemies, bless and curse not." (Rom. 12:14) Amen and Amen.
Friday, March 5, 2010
1 Peter 1:17-19
"And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" 1 Peter 1:17-19
So you say you are a Christian. You claim to be a child of the King. You believe that God is in control of your life. If this is so, you should be walking judiciously in this world.
"Walking what?" Judiciously - you know, circumspectly. "Circum whatly?" Circumspectly, you know with great caution. "Oh, why didn't you say so. Uh, what do you mean and why do you mean it?"
Glad you asked - I thought you never would! George Barna, noted Christian analyst, has found that Christians, for the most part, are hardly distinguishable from non- Christians in their lifestyle. We want the same things - and more of them. We work the same jobs. We drive the same cars. We live in the same neighborhoods. Our divorce rate is identical to the world's. Our giving patterns are hardly greater than those of non-believers. In short, under the looking glass of reality, we differ little from the world we live in. Yet, we claim to be a different people - a peculiar people - offering a life that brings hope to a frustrated and lost soul. How can this be? Why are we not really different?
Peter says that we who are believers should conduct ourselves with "fear" during the time of our life on earth. There are several things of note here. First, we should live in "fear"? Certainly - oh, I'm sorry, let's define fear. In this case, fear is the healthy respect or Reverence for God. So we can safely say that fear is not that "hide under the mattress the devil is after me" type of fear. It is the "I'm in the presence of the God who has the power of life and death over me" type of fear. The first brings destruction. The second brings a sense of awe.
Second, "during our stay." This indicates that we are not permanent residents of earth. We are just visitors. If we are not going to stay on earth, that means that we are residents of another place. Where is that? Heaven. We are here as God's ambassadors - His representatives. We should be busy doing His work - and we should be careful to live our lives to faithfully represent Him and His interests. We are not here to enjoy ourselves, to indulge ourselves, or to enrich ourselves. We are here to fulfill the mission God has given us. Our time here is short. We must be busy doing the work of the Kingdom.
Think on these things today. See if they don't hold true. Ask if you are living as a citizen of earth - or the Kingdom. Examine your life and answer faithfully and truthfully. You may be surprised at the answers. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
So you say you are a Christian. You claim to be a child of the King. You believe that God is in control of your life. If this is so, you should be walking judiciously in this world.
"Walking what?" Judiciously - you know, circumspectly. "Circum whatly?" Circumspectly, you know with great caution. "Oh, why didn't you say so. Uh, what do you mean and why do you mean it?"
Glad you asked - I thought you never would! George Barna, noted Christian analyst, has found that Christians, for the most part, are hardly distinguishable from non- Christians in their lifestyle. We want the same things - and more of them. We work the same jobs. We drive the same cars. We live in the same neighborhoods. Our divorce rate is identical to the world's. Our giving patterns are hardly greater than those of non-believers. In short, under the looking glass of reality, we differ little from the world we live in. Yet, we claim to be a different people - a peculiar people - offering a life that brings hope to a frustrated and lost soul. How can this be? Why are we not really different?
Peter says that we who are believers should conduct ourselves with "fear" during the time of our life on earth. There are several things of note here. First, we should live in "fear"? Certainly - oh, I'm sorry, let's define fear. In this case, fear is the healthy respect or Reverence for God. So we can safely say that fear is not that "hide under the mattress the devil is after me" type of fear. It is the "I'm in the presence of the God who has the power of life and death over me" type of fear. The first brings destruction. The second brings a sense of awe.
Second, "during our stay." This indicates that we are not permanent residents of earth. We are just visitors. If we are not going to stay on earth, that means that we are residents of another place. Where is that? Heaven. We are here as God's ambassadors - His representatives. We should be busy doing His work - and we should be careful to live our lives to faithfully represent Him and His interests. We are not here to enjoy ourselves, to indulge ourselves, or to enrich ourselves. We are here to fulfill the mission God has given us. Our time here is short. We must be busy doing the work of the Kingdom.
Think on these things today. See if they don't hold true. Ask if you are living as a citizen of earth - or the Kingdom. Examine your life and answer faithfully and truthfully. You may be surprised at the answers. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
1 Peter 1:13
"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" 1 Peter 1:13
Do you want to win? Do you really want to win? Then you must train. No boxer will enter the ring without proper training. It would be suicide. So with us, if we want to win the important battles, we must train.
Fortunately, Peter gives us a training schedule - the things that need to be worked on the most if we expect to win. First, gird yourself for action. This involves putting on the proper garments - We need to be wearing the full armor of God. We must prepare our minds with the weapon of our warfare - the Word of God. We must allow it to flood our thoughts so that we may fight effectively with our best weapon.
Second, keep sober in spirit. This doesn't mean that we can't have fun. It means that while we go through our lives, we need to keep alert. Like a soldier on the field of battle, we must keep our spiritual eyes always open - always looking this way and that for sneak attacks from the enemy.
Third, fix your hope completely on the grace of Jesus. There is nothing more important than realizing that the battle is ours. No matter how out numbered, how under powered, how grim the vision is, our hope and our faith is to be in Jesus Christ. If we will keep that in mind at all times, we shall remain strong in Him. And the battle will be ours - we will WIN!
You say you have no vision of grace? Sure you do. It was given to you the day you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Remember it? Remember how clean and fresh you felt that day? It is still there. Look to it. Attach your hope to it. It is a lifeline that you will never consume - it will always be there. Follow these three steps and victory is assured. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Do you want to win? Do you really want to win? Then you must train. No boxer will enter the ring without proper training. It would be suicide. So with us, if we want to win the important battles, we must train.
Fortunately, Peter gives us a training schedule - the things that need to be worked on the most if we expect to win. First, gird yourself for action. This involves putting on the proper garments - We need to be wearing the full armor of God. We must prepare our minds with the weapon of our warfare - the Word of God. We must allow it to flood our thoughts so that we may fight effectively with our best weapon.
Second, keep sober in spirit. This doesn't mean that we can't have fun. It means that while we go through our lives, we need to keep alert. Like a soldier on the field of battle, we must keep our spiritual eyes always open - always looking this way and that for sneak attacks from the enemy.
Third, fix your hope completely on the grace of Jesus. There is nothing more important than realizing that the battle is ours. No matter how out numbered, how under powered, how grim the vision is, our hope and our faith is to be in Jesus Christ. If we will keep that in mind at all times, we shall remain strong in Him. And the battle will be ours - we will WIN!
You say you have no vision of grace? Sure you do. It was given to you the day you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Remember it? Remember how clean and fresh you felt that day? It is still there. Look to it. Attach your hope to it. It is a lifeline that you will never consume - it will always be there. Follow these three steps and victory is assured. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Luke 8.45
"And Jesus said, who touched me" Luke 8.45
This verse comes from a familiar setting in scripture. Jesus you remember was swamped by people pressing his way through the crowd to go to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter. A woman ill for many years with an incurable disease pushes her way through the crowd desiring only to touch the hem of Jesus Garments so that she could be healed.
She makes it through the crowds and touches him and is instantly healed and Jesus asks his disciples, "Who touched me?" They are confused and say, "There are many people in the crowd. A lot of people touched you." Jesus says, "No someone touched me in another way. Virtue went out from me."
Many people brushed up against Jesus that day, but only one person truly touched him. And when she did her needs were met.
Today, we have a lot of people brushing up against Jesus. People go to church, sit in their pews, say all the right things, but they never touch Jesus. Why? Because it's all a surface religion. They go to church because their parents did or because it's good for business or because the kids should be in Sunday school or.... Maybe at one time they had a strong relationship with God, but they let it grow cold as the cares of this life pressed in around them. Whatever the reason, when they pray, its mostly form with little orno substance.
But some people do more than go through the motions. They know that God is still on the Throne and he is ready to hear and answer our prayers. They know that he is not limited in his power, in his goodness and in his love. They aren't spiritual giants. hey are simple Christians who believe that God's word is true. And when they pray, they do more than brush up against the savior, they touch him, his virtue flows through them, and they receive what they need.
Lord, help me to have the faith to keep pressing in until I lay hold onto your garment and receive your best for my life. Amen and Amen.
This verse comes from a familiar setting in scripture. Jesus you remember was swamped by people pressing his way through the crowd to go to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter. A woman ill for many years with an incurable disease pushes her way through the crowd desiring only to touch the hem of Jesus Garments so that she could be healed.
She makes it through the crowds and touches him and is instantly healed and Jesus asks his disciples, "Who touched me?" They are confused and say, "There are many people in the crowd. A lot of people touched you." Jesus says, "No someone touched me in another way. Virtue went out from me."
Many people brushed up against Jesus that day, but only one person truly touched him. And when she did her needs were met.
Today, we have a lot of people brushing up against Jesus. People go to church, sit in their pews, say all the right things, but they never touch Jesus. Why? Because it's all a surface religion. They go to church because their parents did or because it's good for business or because the kids should be in Sunday school or.... Maybe at one time they had a strong relationship with God, but they let it grow cold as the cares of this life pressed in around them. Whatever the reason, when they pray, its mostly form with little orno substance.
But some people do more than go through the motions. They know that God is still on the Throne and he is ready to hear and answer our prayers. They know that he is not limited in his power, in his goodness and in his love. They aren't spiritual giants. hey are simple Christians who believe that God's word is true. And when they pray, they do more than brush up against the savior, they touch him, his virtue flows through them, and they receive what they need.
Lord, help me to have the faith to keep pressing in until I lay hold onto your garment and receive your best for my life. Amen and Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
