real power

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 NLT)

God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT)

Have you ever been afraid, really afraid? Maybe it was a situation totally beyond your control. Maybe it was the fear of something upcoming that you could do nothing about or were uncertain about.

All kinds of stuff make us afraid. Job changes, possible job losses, bills that are unexpected, confrontations – the list can go on and on.

And there is nothing wrong with being afraid of something that you cannot help. It is purely a human reflex and God made us that way. Only a fool walks through life totally unafraid. If nothing else, sooner or later you find yourself in a part of town you aren’t usually in and your motorcycle quits and the streetlights go out. Then real fear can set in. (That happened to me, BTW)

But at the same time, God also gave us something else: his power, his absolute, unmitigated and raw power.

You remember, this is the God that spoke the universe into being. He just said, “Light be,” and light was. No big thing for him.

This is also the God that can send that power into the lives of ordinary people. People who are addicted are freed. People who are lost and mired in sin are redeemed. People who have nothing to live for find purpose and meaning in their lives.

People who are totally and absolutely without any redeeming qualities, pure slimeball junk as people, become in his grace, productive human beings, valued in society.

That is power. And it is the kind of power that says that you don’t have to be afraid. It is the kind of power that says that God is in control, that no matter what happens – job loss, unexpected bills, confrontations – God is in us and he will take charge if we let him.

How far can God work? The Bible says immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. How? By the spirit of power, love and self-discipline. Our God can do stuff better than you can ask or imagine, more than you could ever conceive.

He is a God of power and a God of love at the same time. It is like the guy I used to know who was so immensely strong, unbelievably powerful – yet he could hold a baby or shake hands with an arthritic elderly lady without hurting her. That is power: restrained yet potentially absolute.

Are you afraid of life? You don’t have the Spirit of God if you are. He doesn’t say you trip along like a little wienie, being stupid. But he does say that he will give you power.

And that is a big Amen!

daily java

Daily Java: 

While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” (Luke 21:1-4 NLT)

A gift given from the heart, no matter how humble it may be, is far better than an expensive one given by obligation.

Jesus was watching the poker game they called the offering. The watchers sat in a kind of gallery so they could see the holy men giving their money.

One would bring up his money and offer it, “humbly” dropping it in the basket with as much panache as possible. He might give a little genuflection and offer up a prayer, then, with head humbly bowed, go back to his seat. His little entourage would ooh and aah appreciatively.

The next man would come and call that offering and raise it. He would go back to his seat and his entourage would ooh and aah appreciatively.

The third man, the fourth until it was all over, each calling the one’s offering before him and raising it. Then the first man would make the comment that he had not finished, that he had to come back to get the rest and it would begin again.

Each offerer was determined to be the most generous. However, in their generosity, each was giving what amounted to pocket change and they only gave it to be seen.

A widow came up quietly and dropped in two small coins, money that the others wouldn’t even bend over to pick up.

Jesus, as he watched, must have felt disgust. These men were using the offering as a means of gain. They wanted power, prestige, position – and the money they gave was to that end. God was incidental in the matter. And they didn’t give a flip about the poor the offering would go to. It was all show.

But when he saw the woman offering her money, her two small coins, he turned to his disciples and said that she had given more than all the rest, because she gave from her heart and gave all she had.

I would imagine that Jesus didn’t care if his voice was overheard. Those who had worked so hard to be noticed may have heard him. They didn’t feel ashamed, because this was a way of life. They probably felt disdain because obviously Jesus was too stupid to appreciate quality like his betters.

They may also have felt angry that he would dare to question them. Whatever they felt, it probably cast a little pall over their show.

But the point was made. The important men were giving pocket change without caring. The woman had given all she had and probably cared a lot. She gave out of love; they gave out of desire for prestige.

Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 did the same thing. Those in the early church were helping their own who had been hurt by the persecution that came on the Christians. They were giving things to the apostles to be sold to buy food.

And they were probably being thanked and noticed.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to be noticed. But they didn’t want to part with everything. So they struck what they felt was a good compromise: they only gave part and said they gave all.

God didn’t require them to give a lot. It didn’t matter either way. They were under no obligation.

But what they wanted was to be noticed. So they lied.

And because of it, they died. They were used as a test case by God to show his church that this was not an opportunity for promotion, it was an opportunity for sharing.

It was a harsh lesson, but the result was: Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened (Acts 5:11).

There is nothing wrong with noticing people who do things. But if all you do it for is to be noticed, it is worthless.

daily java

Daily Java:

“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised — even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.” “Well said, Teacher!” remarked some of the teachers of religious law who were standing there. And then no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Luke 20:37-40)

You can imagine what it is like to be in a situation where people were constantly waiting for you to make a verbal mistake, listening to your every word, to find something you say that is wrong.

There was the story of a guy named Gordium who tied a knot that was so intricate no one could untie it. It was said that the one who could figure out how to untie the knot would be King of Greece. Alexander the Great tried and failed, so he took his sword out and just cut through the center of the knot. He “cut the Gordian knot” as the old expression says.

Jesus did  that a lot. He just cut through all the junk and found the answer.

Those who didn’t like what Jesus said were desperate to trip him up. They would bring out every old argument they could think of to see if he would make a mistake.

But he never did and that infuriated them. In fact, usually, he would go a third way on their arguments. Generally, when they argued, there were two camps of thought on the subject. Jesus would introduce a third line of argument which would surprise all of them, infuriate some of them and delight the others. He was a good debater.

As far as dead being raised, it was an old argument. Some of the Jews took the idea that there was no afterlife, nor angels, nor anything supernatural. The other group took the idea that there was a large supernatural part of the afterlife. Both argued a lot.

When they tried to involve Jesus in their argument over resurrection, Jesus pointed out that their scriptures mentioned Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as if they were still alive.

Some of the teachers, said, Well said, Teacher! They recognized a good answer when they heard it. And even if they didn’t like him, they had to admire the turn of phrase Jesus had the knack for.

But one thing for sure. It shut the rest up. They quickly found that there was no way to try to trip Jesus up without coming out looking like fools themselves. And that was no fun. At least not for them.

The crowds, on the other hand, loved it. They hated those stuck-ups that thought they were so much better than anyone else. And Jesus was one of them, they felt. He came from nowhere, had been a carpenter of all things, had no formal training, yet had the ability to impale these teachers of the law on their own arguments.

The word of God always shuts up the words of earthly wisdom. For one thing, the true word of God, the real thing, is always simple. The more complex the argument, the less likely it is to be true.

Psalm 19:7says: The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

Psalm 119:130 The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.

The apostle Paul said that the message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

Jesus did not come so that we could argue theology. He didn’t come to argue but to save. And the message God brought us is a simple one.

I, for one, am glad.

cutting the gordian knot

Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He saw through their trickery and said, “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they became silent. (Luke 20:20-26)

When you are not getting what you want, and getting what you want is the most important thing to you, you will stoop to anything. Including pretending to be honest.

Some people have to pretend to be honest because they are not honest naturally. They have done things on the sly for so long that they have lost the ability to just be honest.

The problem is that they couldn’t get what they want by being honest. What they want is power and control. And they can’t come right out and say that. “I want power and control over you.” If they did that, everybody would turn away from them immediately because they could see their greed.

So they pretend to be honest. They pretend to be concerned for other things. They pretend to be concerned with health, or politics and leadership, for the welfare of others.

But underneath, it is just the plain old greed for power and control over others.

In this case, they wanted Jesus to trick himself and be shown as either a revolutionary against the Roman government or a puppet of the Roman government.

Now these people hated the Roman government because they were an occupation force. But still, any port in a storm. So they brought up taxation.

If Jesus said, yes, we should pay taxes, he would make all of the conservatives mad because they hated taxation by an oppressive government. If he said no, the government would step in and arrest him as a troublemaker.

As far as they were concerned, he was stuck.

But, Jesus did something they hated. He went a third way. Show me a coin and tell me whose picture is on it. Well, Caesar’s, of course. Then give what is Caesar’s back to him and give what is God’s to him.

What it did, was scare them. It amazed them. In fact, it was such a good answer that it shut them up for a while. They even had trouble discussing it among themselves because it was so masterful. Jesus just cut the Gordian knot and said something that even they couldn’t disagree with.

Man, they hated him.

daily java

Daily Java:

One day as Jesus was teaching the people and preaching the Good News in the Temple, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?” “Let me ask you a question first,” he replied. “Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human?” They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. But if we say it was merely human, the people will stone us because they are convinced John was a prophet.” So they finally replied that they didn’t know. And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Luke 20:1-8 NLT)

I would imagine that it got kind of old. Every day somebody was challenging Jesus’ authority. Everybody, including the challengers, could see the authority of Jesus in what he did and in how he did it. It was obvious that he was from God.

The problem was, those who were in authority didn’t want it to be from God because it was not how they wanted stuff from God to be. It just didn’t line up with their desires.

For one thing, generally, when Jesus told a story with a bad guy, it was them. Not only that, but the crowds followed Jesus around, not them.

If the crowds had any degree of intelligence, they would follow those leaders around. They were the ones who had been to seminary and knew all of the stuff worth knowing. Not this upstart who came from nowhere.

But Jesus went on blithely doing miracles and teaching and just in general doing whatever he wanted in spite of the advice from his betters.

So they kept trying to give him the opportunity to change, to recognize them and their authority. But in every situation, he refused. Not only that, he would turn their own words back on them.

They asked, who told you that you can do these things? Then Jesus had the audacity to ask them who told John the Baptizer he could do what he did.

John was an anomaly to them. It was obvious that he spoke with authority and had a message from God. But they had never liked prophets much. And even if they would not admit it, their predecessors had the history of refusing to accept authority from prophets. All through the Old Testament, they had killed them rather than accept them.

They hoped it would not come to that with Jesus, but, well, if it did, he brought it on himself for being so presumptuous.

They talked about his question – whose authority was John – and finally decided to take a firm middle ground stance. We don’t know.

Jesus’ answer really surprised them. He refused to tell them. Your problem, he said, is that you would not recognize authority if it bit you on the ankle. So there is no reason for me to waste time with you on the subject.

You can imagine how mad they were at this. How dare he blow them off. He had less regard for them and their authority then he did for these stupid unwashed people that loved him.

The problem is, and Jesus shows it strongly here, is that people who do not want to recognize authority will never recognize authority. To them, authority is granted by earthly organizations, by degrees and credentials, by tenure.

But real authority comes from God, not people. All people can do is recognize it. They cannot confer it.

And it sure gets tiresome trying to explain that to people who refuse to see it simply because it doesn’t match up with what they want.

So Jesus quit and went on about his business.

i just used a book

I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, be sure to bring the coat I left with Carpus at Troas. Also bring my books, and especially my papers. (2 Timothy 4:12-14 NLT)

I just used a book. Now I recognize that is not earth shattering, stop the presses, alert the media stuff, but at the some time, it has been a while since I used one quite like that.

I was looking at Hebrews 2 for tonight’s Bible class. The passage, Hebrews 2:10 says (in the NIV) In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

I was wondering what the word perfect there was in the original Greek. The NLT uses the phrase And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

NLT uses fit instead of perfect. What is it?

As it turns out, it is the word teleios, a word which means “perfect, (a) complete in all its parts, (b) full grown, of full age, (c) specially of the completeness of Christian character.” According to Strong’s which agreed with several others. (Now the definitions I got off the internet).

But I looked into an old copy of the Interlinear Greek New Testament by Berry. The copy is undated, as the copyright page is missing, but it is pretty old.

What struck me was something that used to be a considerable part of my life. It was the smell of the old book.

It hit me with such memories. I used to pore over books, holding them, looking at them, smelling them, using them. I had quite an extensive library and liked using it.

Then a few years ago, I sold the vast majority of my library. I kept my Greek and Hebrew language books for some reason, but everything else went.

And I rarely used them. In the age of the internet, you can find whatever you want online instantly, without having to search through a book.

But by not searching, you miss the experience of holding a book. It is something that future generations, unless there is a resurgence of written materials, will miss.

I read an article not long ago in which Thomas Edison prophesied that books would be written on hyper thin leaves of pure nickel, which he said would be ultralight. The Encyclopedia Brittanica, he said, would fit in a book of an inch thick weighing less than a pound.

He was wrong, of course, as were so many of that era. How could they have possibly known.

But I miss my books, and the smell and feel of them.

I have regretted selling the library, but, of course, how could I have them after what we have gone through in the past few years? But still.

daily java

Daily Java:

About that time David’s son Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, began boasting, “I will make myself king.” So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him. Now his father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time, even by asking, “Why are you doing that?” Adonijah had been born next after Absalom, and he was very handsome. (1 Kings 1:5-6)

King David was always beset with family troubles. First Absalom, his son, took the kingdom from David and David had to run. Finally, Absalom was killed and it was all over.

The David became an old man and his next son decided that, since he was oldest, he would be king. But David was going to make Solomon, son of Bathsheba, the king of Israel.

Adonijah was a spoiled brat. The scripture above says that David had never told him no. He had never disciplined him, never even questioned him when he was doing something.

It is no wonder he decided he was king. He figured that whatever he wanted was automatically the will of everybody, he was the center of the universe, a special and unique little snowflake.

It was somewhat logical that he would be king. He was oldest. And it was somewhat logical that he would think so. But he just decided on his own that he would be.

He had always decided on his own to do things and no one would ever tell him no because, after all, he was the king’s son.

David was a man of the people. He had been a shepherd, he had been a warrior. Everybody like him because he was a prefect example of  a commoner coming into kingship. The Israelites could relate to him because they understood him.

Unfortunately, his kids were spoiled rich kids. They had always had their own way and there was no one to stop them. So a lot of them died violent deaths that were their own fault.

In America today, we see this same thing. Men from an ordinary background will work hard for what they have and gain a fortune by extreme talent or hard work. Then their daughters will be the recipients of all this wealth.

Unfortunately, their daughters have been brought up in extreme wealth and are not worth much character-wise. They have been given everything and denied nothing.

The train wrecks that are their lives are evident. And they are sad.

The parents are to blame and at the same time, are not to blame. They were raised in ordinary circumstances and understand what it is like to be without. Their kids haven’t. The parents want their children to have the best and not have the deprivations they had as kids, and that is understandable.

They give these kids things because they love them. But it is their love that is killing the kids.

David’s love for Adonijah ended up with Adonijah’s death. He was so used to getting his own way that he ended up dying for it.

The word says, in Proverbs 13:24: Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them.

If you love your children, you will tell them no, or they will suffer for it.

a scary world

You will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. (Matthew 24:6 NLT)

It is a rough world, that is a fact. And it can be scary, especially when you see the influence of Christianity that has been so strong in America waning.

We have gotten so used to Christianity being dominant in our culture that when we see it going away, it is a bit frightening.

And it is frightening to our culture, too, even though they do not recognize it.

I have seen two violent altercations in a neighborhood McDonald’s on the news and YouTube lately. A group of teenagers beat up somebody else for some reason.

That seems to be symptomatic and representative of our culture at the same time. If you read the news much, you see incident after incident like that happening.

It is easy to say, God is gone! We are doomed!

But he isn’t and we are not. It is just that our culture no longer polices itself the way it used to. God is still here and he is still in charge. However, when people want to do what they want to do, he will allow it.

All we can do is to preach him and teach him and, as one old preacher said, if necessary use words. We can only live in such a way that two things happen. One is that people see his love and power in our lives and two, we put to shame those who do wrong.

Now admittedly, the kids who did these things are not really sorry. They are sorry they got caught and that everybody saw them, but on the other hand, they are also glad everybody saw them. It gave them a notoriety they could never have achieved in their miserable little lives otherwise.

Andy Warhol said that sooner or later, everybody gets their fifteen minutes of fame. Theirs is now. It will be gone and life will continue.

But these things will continue to happen and God will still be here.

Like Jesus said Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Stuff is going to happen, Jesus says, but it is because that is the way people do. It is human nature. And when God is taken out of the equation, human nature rules. When it rules, things are bad.

But God is still in charge. And he will triumph in the end.

daily java

Daily Java:

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.” Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man  came to seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus always made those who were in leadership mad. Instead of kowtowing to them as he was supposed to (at least in their minds), he went to the wrong kind of people. Zacchaeus was the wrong kind of people.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector. A tax collector worked with the occupation army taking taxes from the Jewish people on a commission basis. The Romans had to have a certain amount and the more the tax collectors could get, the more they could keep. It was a situation ripe with graft and extortion.

They were considered traitors. And as a result, they were hated.

It was the same feeling as the French had in World War II when French women would give themselves to the Nazi soldiers. If the French caught them, they would shave their heads and throw them into the street. The French felt the same was towards anyone who colluded with the Nazis.

The Jews felt this way about those who worked for the Romans, especially the tax collectors.

But who did Jesus go to dinner with? A tax collector. Who did he hang around with? People like this. All of them felt welcome with Jesus.

While he was at Zacchaeus’ house, the people (mostly the leadership and those they could get to gripe with them) were mad because he had gone to the house of a notorious sinner.

While they were complaining, inside the house, Zacchaeus blurted out that he would give half his wealth to the poor and recompense anyone that felt they had been cheated on their  taxes four hundred percent.

The leadership whined because things weren’t done their way and Zacchaeus did things God’s way. good things happened inside where Jesus was while stupid things happened outside where Jesus wasn’t.

The outsiders brought Jesus in while the insiders left Jesus out.

The outsiders always felt comfortable with Jesus and the establishment didn’t. But because the outsiders were with Jesus, and because Jesus is the kind of person who not only loved people, but changed them, the outsiders became better. The establishment didn’t.

It is the same today. The Christian establishment is never comfortable in the presence of the real Jesus. They like the one they have cobbled together over the years, a Jesus who is as judgmental and traditional as they are.

While churches that portray the real Jesus are changing lives, churches with the judgmental and traditional Jesus are dying.

And it should be that way. Jesus did not come to make people happy and to keep things the way they were. He came to change people. He was the ultimate change agent. He never left anyone unchanged.

Even if the change he left was anger, people were always changed when he came around.

I want to be changed and I want to have a place where people are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Without that change, that glorious change, Jesus’ coming is worthless. Unless Jesus had gone with Zacchaeus and his group, nothing good would have been accomplished that day.

Jesus wanted change and he brought change whether people wanted it or not.

arguing on facebook

How wonderful and pleasant it is
      when brothers live together in harmony!
For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil
      that was poured over Aaron’s head,
      that ran down his beard
      and onto the border of his robe.
Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon
      that falls on the mountains of Zion.
   And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing,
      even life everlasting. (Psalm 133:1-3 NLT)

I was discussing with a couple of friends the other day about what we wear to church.

It had begun oddly enough with a picture of an Easter Parade in New York City in 1904. I commented that it seemed like a different universe.

The response was odd enough and became what could have been vitriolic enough that I took the post down.

I said that I had worn a suit Easter morning. One person said that he felt it best that we dress as best as we can. The other seemed to say that we had an obligation to not make people feel uncomfortable when they came.

The two had what seemed like an online argument over what to wear. I stepped in and said that I had not intended to make any judgments, but that I just commented on what I wore. One of them made another comment and I took the post down.

I think they were arguing apples versus oranges, respect versus culture.

It made me feel slightly embarrassed. It wasn’t my fault, but it is hard to know what to put up and what not to.

Yesterday, I made a recommendation of a movie about Alice in Wonderland, a 1985 TV miniseries that I liked. Someone else had to make a comment about the prevalence of homosexuality in modern America (or at least it seemed to be).

I like Facebook and I like the online conversations we have. I have also made some friends that I either didn’t know before or hadn’t seen in years. I like that.

But I do not like the need to argue that can sometimes affect Facebook users.

We have become an argumentative society, a society that seems to want to have the last word. rarely do debates solve anything anymore.

I am not really sure they have accomplished much in the past one hundred years, but that is another question. They used to be an integral part of our culture before the days of mass communication, when people would use them to argue their points of view.

In those days, they were done civilly and usually put in print afterwards for others to read. It is a fact that many time, in the print version, the losing side would win the debate. The oral debate was won too often on ability to speak rather than organization and effectiveness of thinking.

I could not have known that such an innocuous picture as one of an Ester Parade one hundred years ago would engender such a strong debate.

And I didn’t like it when two friends and brothers argued so bitterly.

daily java

Daily Java:

For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. (Colossians 1:27-28)

Because the kingdom came out of the Jewish faith, the Jews thought they had primary rights to both the entrance into the faith and establishing entrance requirements for everybody else. And as far as they were concerned, to become a Christian, you had to become a Jew and do it their way.

Paul said no. God is a God of grace, not of works and the old system was based on works.

Arguments ensued and Paul was run out of town in almost every occasion by those who were his spiritual kin. He didn’t do things their way so they beat him and threw him out.

Many times, that is how it works. Those who have been somewhere a long time begin to want to decide how others can come into what they perceive as their property. We want the church to grow, it is said. Well, how will the church grow? By doing what we want, by doing what we did when we were young.

As America gets older, the licensing departments in almost every organization gets more and more complex. In the old days, all a person had to do to be a lawyer was take the bar exam. Now he has to go to an accredited school before he could. Most lawyers before about 1950 or so had never gone to law school. They just had a mentor show them how it worked and they read a lot. Then they passed the exam.

The same is with ministers. At one time, all one did to be a minister of many denominations was to announce they had that desire and, if their lives showed evidence of that desire, a church would employ them.

One of the denominations I was associated with in the past had an incredibly detailed entrance examination. In just a couple of years, their history and polity course increased a thousand percent in size and complexity.

This was a denomination that had come out of extremely common people and I could be wrong, but I think they were trying to prove to the rest of the religious world that they were cool now, too. And yet they bemoaned the fact that no young people would advance in the ordination process.

These young ministers would achieve the first step and then stay. The reason, of course, was that they didn’t want to hassle with all of the bureaucratic steps. They felt God had called them and didn’t feel the need to have a bunch of people make them confirm that by paying a lot of money for unnecessary courses and jumping through unnecessary hoops.

That may or may not be true. The denomination came out of a group of people who were at times proud of their ignorance and known for their ignorance. They needed to move beyond that. But at the same time, they had to recognize that God empowered people, not denominations.

In other words, if Christ lives in you,  you are empowered. Yes, you need to read and not look like a hick. Ours is an increasingly complex and educated world. For a pastor to do well, he has to fit in. An ignorant preacher will not do much good in most of society.

At the same time, what we preach can only be what is in us. We can only present them to God, perfect in their relationship to God if we have him in us, perfect in our relationship.

We can only teach with all the wisdom God has given us if we have wisdom in us in the first place. And we can only get that wisdom from God who gives wisdom.

God empowers, man obeys. I do not believe in ignorant preachers. But an highly educated credentialed minister who does not have God nor his wisdom is worthless in the sight of God. You cannot teach what you do not have, no matter how credentialed nor how educated.

You can only preach Jesus if you have Jesus in your heart.

being blessed in sharing

Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. (Hebrews 13:15-16 NLT)

We were out driving around this afternoon. There is really nothing to see in Lincoln. This is Nebraska and for the most part, everybody passed through here on their way to somewhere else.

Only the ones who broke down stayed.

The mall was closed today on account of Easter. After I got bored of looking at all the “scenery”, and we had gone into a large WalMart and looked around, I decided to stop at a couple of grocery stores.

Grocery shopping is a sort of hobby to me. Grocery prices are at a horrible high, yet we have a full stocked freezer and pantry. There are few things we need. The reason is my method of shopping.

I have written before about how I go into a store in the mall. I am a hunter. I view the surrounding countryside and if something looks good, I go and shoot it. I am not interested in getting up close and personal with all of the clothing in the mall like Ella is. I am tall and can look over all the racks to see if there is something good worth shooting. Ella likes to finger everything and check out everything. Not me.

Yet I have bought all of Ella’s clothing and she is quite classically stylish. As I said before, if left to her, she would still dress as she did in 1978. So it is up to me to keep her up to date.

The same goes for grocery shopping. I have a route in all stores, even the ones I have not yet been to.

In general, the layout is the same, maybe reversed, but other wise alike. You go into the produce section first. This is usually to the right. The bigger WalMart we went into today was to the left. Threw me off completely.

But I managed.

In the grocery stores, I go through the produce just casting a casual eye. Unless I have been there much, I do not look much at the produce. If I have been in there a lot and know what they have, I go to that section and see if it is on sale. One store has good bell peppers and onions. Another has good jalapenos and passilla peppers (kind of like Poblano peppers).  Others have their strengths.

But I go through there first. I rarely buy anything in those sections unless they are a great price. The funny thing is, the way I shop, I see a lot of good things like that. Again, the hunting/overview way of looking.

Next is the meat. I look for marked-down stuff. We have bought almost all of our meat on marked-down sales. Today, for instance, I got ground chuck for $1.29, an almost unbelievable price. I also got a good deal on Cheddarwurst sausages.

I do such a good job that I no longer feel the need to buy any more meat. I only get it if it is just too good to pass by – like the hamburger today.

Then I go by the cheese, both shredded and block. Most stores will have $1 cheese on occasion, the 8 ounce packages, maybe $1.29. If it is, I buy a lot – maybe ten packages. I can always freeze the shredded stuff (but not the block kind – nothing worse than a block of thawed out cheese). We use a lot of cheese in our entertaining, so I need it.

Then I go through the rest of the dairy and buy sour cream on sale, cottage cheese, cream cheese, etc. However, only if they are on sale at about $1 a tub. I also look for good buys on butter. I like the real stuff and it freezes fine. The rest doesn’t, but we use an awful lot of it.

I pass through the bakery section, but rarely get anything there. If there are samples, I will get some for me and Ella, but otherwise, I don’t find much. I did find 98 cent whole wheat buns the other day. Bought two packages. They freeze fine.

I end up around the center aisle, where all of the specials are located. I check on a few things we use a lot of: mayonnaise, salad dressing, etc.

I rarely ever spend much, but it is amazing what I find like this. As I said, I have filled two refrigerator freezer compartments with meat.

We do a lot of entertaining. It is one of the gifts God gave us and we do it. We have always tried our best to feed people. Since we do, the Lord has blessed us with a lot of food.

As long as I do not count it and all, we keep a lot. Once I counted it and tallied the amounts on the freezer door. We got down to almost nothing. I repented and since then, I look at what we have, but I am careful not to count it.

As you recall in the Bible, King David counted Israel and God punished him for his pride (2 Samuel 24). Kind of the same thing happened to us on a much smaller scale, of course. God gives us the stuff, pride does not.

It is odd that grocery shopping is a hobby, but it is. And it has been a fruitful one. The bacon for 99 cents a pound, the hamburger patties for $1a pound, the sirloin steak for $1.99 a pound, other things.

It is all from him. And as long as we share it, the freezer stays full. Occasionally, we even tithe it to someone else, bless someone else with our abundance. It is easy for people to get canned goods when they are down, but it is hard to get good meat.

That is our ministry. And it is my hobby.

the end of my seven day fast

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

        Who has believed our message
           and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
           and like a root out of dry ground.
        He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
           nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
        He was despised and rejected by men,
           a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
        Like one from whom men hide their faces
           he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
        Surely he took up our infirmities
           and carried our sorrows,
        yet we considered him stricken by God,
           smitten by him, and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our transgressions,
           he was crushed for our iniquities;
        the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
           and by his wounds we are healed.
        We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
           each of us has turned to his own way;
        and the LORD has laid on him
           the iniquity of us all.

It is the end of my seven day fast. I ate a little breakfast this morning at the church function after our Sunrise Services, and then I had lunch with some friends. All in all, I am pretty stuffed. Considering that I have had nothing to eat for a week then real food, it is not surprising.

I am not sure that anything came out of my fast. I have heard no mighty words from God. I have decided that from now on, I will probably go in three day increments, at least for a while. A week or more does a lot of damage to my system, especially this close to the last one.

But even though I have not heard answers from God, I am sure he heard me. He knows my heart and I think he heard me.

Father God, I ask you for power from on high. Give me strength to do what you want and the love you have for your church placed in my heart. I praise  you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Today is Resurrection Day. It is the day in which we remember the Lord’s resurrection.

Of course, we do that each Sunday, just as we remember his death on each Sunday that we take communion.

But today is special. Today commemorates the day that it all happened. We had Good Friday services to remember that day, that dark and tragic day, when the forces of evil, and satan himself, tried to snuff out the light of the world.

Resurrection Sunday, however, is the day when we celebrate the fact that, as it has done since time immemorial, sin and the forces of darkness failed.

How many times did they fail? The Bible is full of examples.

The fall of humanity in the Garden of Evil is one. satan had thought he would remove people from God. But instead, God set up, had indeed already set up, a plan to bring them back. He even told satan at that time, One of these days you will be hurt. Yes, you will hurt the one who is coming, but he will crush you (Genesis 3:15).

He tried to stop Israel from being a nation, but they were anyway. He tried to kill all of the prophets that God sent, yet their message remained. He did all he could do but none of it worked.

Then Jesus came, and satan figured that now God was his turf. He had ruled (or so he thought) humanity for millennia, so it stood to reason that he would rule Jesus.

But he didn’t. And Jesus broke his back. He died, yes, just as all who are on satan’s turf will do, but he had not sinned (1 Peter 2:22) and he died anyway.

And – here’s the real kicker – and he came back to life to show satan that he, satan, had no power over God’s people.

Resurrection Sunday is to remember that victory. As God’s people, satan has no power over us. He can do a lot of damage, yes, but when it comes down to it, he is toast as far as his power over God and his people are.

None of the forces of darkness have ever been smart. That they could thwart the purpose of the Almighty God, Lord of Hosts, with their puny little power? No gonna happen, no way, no how. Not here or in the world to come. All the powers of hell will not conquer it (Matthew 16:18).

I love this day. Bunnies and eggs hold no power for me. But I love a day in which we can focus on his awesome power in bringing Jesus and his grace to this earth.

Praise the Name of Jesus!

day seven of my week long fast toward resurrection sunday

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

        Who has believed our message
           and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
           and like a root out of dry ground.
        He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
           nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
        He was despised and rejected by men,
           a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
        Like one from whom men hide their faces
           he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
        Surely he took up our infirmities
           and carried our sorrows,
        yet we considered him stricken by God,
           smitten by him, and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our transgressions,
           he was crushed for our iniquities;
        the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
           and by his wounds we are healed.
        We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
           each of us has turned to his own way;
        and the LORD has laid on him
           the iniquity of us all.

It is day seven of my week long fast toward Resurrection Sunday. I am not really sure what I have accomplished in this fast.  Again, I have lost a lot of weight. I am smaller now than I was at the end of my 21 day fast. I wear clothing smaller than ever before. That doesn’t hurt my feelings. However, that is not why I went on the fast.

On this fast, I have found that I need to connect more strongly with the church and with the Lord. That has been on my mind a lot.

I need that very badly.

I have given myself to both the Lord and to the church for almost forty years. I love both. I love the Lord more, but as I have made myself the servant of his body, I have a lot of love for it.

I guess the problem is that it has not always loved me back.

The church has driven my son away from the Lord. He saw the things that it was capable of and associated it with God. I tried to make him understand that the two were to necessarily synonymous, that God worked differently than the church did. I tried to tell him that God loves us even when his people don’t.

But, it is hard to argue with an experience. He saw them as being that way and it was hard to bring him to a different conclusion.

Now my daughter would go to church if the people there hit her with a stick on her way into the building. She  just loves God and loves his church.

Two kids, both responding in different ways to things that the body of Christ has done to their father.

I try to remember that Jesus, as he was dying, forgave those who were killing him. I try to have that same attitude in me as was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2), but it is hard.

I find myself here in Lincoln, near the end of my life, far from those who love me and all my family.

But no matter – but it does matter – I love this church, this body of people who try their best to live like they think God wants them to. They are not always right in what they do, but that is my mission as a pastor: to teach them.

And it is my mission to love them. I do this in various ways.

I try to be with them in times of trouble. I feed them, both physically and spiritually. I give them coffee. I wait when they disappoint me. I laugh with them and cry with them. I am patient when they fall short of what I think they need to do.

And, above all, I love them.

Father God, I ask you for more strength in loving your people. Give me the same attitude toward them as you have. Make me more tender to them. I praise you. Amen.

Hallelujah, jesus is alive

I love this song. Tomorrow morning, Ella and I are going to sing it.

Praise be to God for his Son Jesus!

JESUS IS ALIVE!
For all the earth had trembled, the sun had did its face.
All the men that walked with him has turned and run away,
they crucified our savior and laid him in a tomb.

The life that once brought love and hope, slipped away that afternoon.
Satan gleamed with pleasure that day at Calvary,
for he thought he had won a mighty victory,

And like him all of the demons of hell began to cheer,
oh but little did they know that their end was drawing near.
'Cause early Sunday morning just like Jesus said,
he broke the curse of sin and death and he rose up from the dead. 

Now we have a new beginning, in a kingdom that has no ending,
Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Hallelujah, Jesus is Alive, death has lost its victory and the grave
has been denied; Jesus lives forever, he’s alive, he’s alive! 

He’s the Alpha and Omega, the first and last is he, the curse of sin
is broken and we have perfect liberty;
the Lamb of God is risen, he’s alive,  he’s alive! (repeat)

He's the Author and the finisher of our faith,
the stone they threw away is the Cornerstone today.
Death has no more victory and the grace has no more stain,
Hallelujah, hallelujah!

Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God is he, the Everlasting Father,
he's the precious Prince of Peace. 
He's the Word that lives forever, he's alive, he's alive!
Hallelujah,     Jesus is alive!

YES LORD
Yes, Lord, yes Lord, I believe.Yes Lord I believe you're alive in me. 
I'm gonna shout aloud to the Rock, the Rock of my salvation.
Yes Lord, yes Lord I believe
I believe the tomb is empty, cause I know my heart is full
with the glory and the wonder of your name. 
I believe the power that raised you is alive in me right now,
and the joy within my heart can't be contained.

daily java

Daily Java:

The king was overcome with emotion. He went up to the room over the gateway and burst into tears. And as he went, he cried, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son.” (2 Samuel 18:33)

David’s favorite son, Absalom, had mounted a military coup and tried to take over the kingdom of Israel. For a while it looked like he may win. But ultimately, he was killed. When they brought the news to David, they figured he would rejoice. Instead, he mourned.

There are things that happen in our lives that we did not want to happen. And the outcomes are things that are almost worse than the occurrence.

Someone you love hurts you in some way, and then has misfortune fall on them. Neither the mistreatment at their hands nor the end result was what you wanted. What you wanted was for  life to go on normally.

David’s heart went out to his son, Absalom. They had been estranged for a while because of something that had happened in the past, something that David had found hard to forgive and that Absalom had not asked to be forgiven for.

But even so, David loved Absalom. He was a handsome kid with a winning personality, the very things that caused him to go overboard in his desire for power. At his core, however, their was not the strength that his father had, nor the honesty with others nor himself that so attracted people to David.

David was a real man, with strengths and flaws and he knew it. He was painfully aware of his weaknesses and he knew his strengths. Absalom just saw his strengths. He was the kind of guy that everyone had told from his birth that he was wonderful and soon came to believe it.

When he came into a real life or death situation, he had no way to deal with it and he died.

And in that death, David’s heart was broken. It was broken not only because Absalom had died, but because he had put himself into a situation that would result in his death. Not only that, but David himself was thrust into the situation, too.

The worst part was, it was in the name of David that he was killed and those who killed him thought that David, his father who loved him, would be glad.

A large part of David’s heart died along with Absalom.

This was the boy who he thought would inherit the kingdom, be the next king, lead the nation of Israel into greatness, be with David when he died, love him.

When Jesus was crucified, I would imagine God had many of these feelings, too. On the one hand, his child died. On the other, his children were killing him. Who do you blame and who do you punish? You love both.

On the cross, Jesus said, Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34) Even though he was being killed, Jesus forgave. And Romans 5 says that in that sacrifice, even though it involved so much personal pain, God forgave us.

David’s and God’s situations were different, of course. Absalom brought on his own downfall. But even so, there is in both the cry of a father who is so in conflict. His son dies and his people cause it.

Thanks be to God for his sacrifice, and for Jesus who gave his life.

the seven last words of jesus

Today is Good Friday, the day we mourn the passing of the physical body of the Son of God.

It is not the end, but really, merely the beginning.  If begins our life in Jesus, our participation in the Kingdom of God, our place at his table.

There was no way we could touch God. It would be like plugging our toasters into the high wire line. It would explode. The power and goodness of God is too great and we are too sinful.

So he sent his Son. He became human like we are, yet lived his life with no sin. He alone of all that have ever lived can touch God. And because he was human, he can also touch us. He is the bridge between us and God. We touch him, he touches God and through him, we touch God.

It is that power of being able to come into the throne room of God that Jesus brought us in his death.

1 Timothy 2:5-6 says: For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

There is no election to decide who will bring us to God. Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna – there are no other choices. It is either Jesus or nobody.

Acts 4:12 says There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Jesus alone is our Savior.

As he died on the cross, several things went through his mind. These are seen in the seven last words that he said. In them is all of the sorrow, sadness, humanity and triumph of his death.

The Seven Last Words
Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing (Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.).

I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:35-43  39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”  40 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”  43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”).

Dear woman, here is your son.” “Here is your mother (John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.).

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? (Matthew 27:46 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock.  At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” and Mark 15:34).


I am thirsty (John 19:28 Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips.).


It is finished (John 19:30 When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.).

Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands! (Luke 23:46 Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.)

That I can go to meet my God like he did.

day six of my week long fast

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

        Who has believed our message
           and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
           and like a root out of dry ground.
        He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
           nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
        He was despised and rejected by men,
           a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
        Like one from whom men hide their faces
           he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
        Surely he took up our infirmities
           and carried our sorrows,
        yet we considered him stricken by God,
           smitten by him, and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our transgressions,
           he was crushed for our iniquities;
        the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
           and by his wounds we are healed.
        We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
           each of us has turned to his own way;
        and the LORD has laid on him
           the iniquity of us all.

It is day six of my week long fast looking toward Resurrection Sunday. I have come to the point that I am no longer hungry now. Food looks good, but I don’t feel the driving need.

The quesadillas I made Ella last night were awfully good looking, more than any of the other stuff on her plate. But I am the master, not food.

That is a battle I have fought all my life. I always were amazed at people who forgot to eat. How can you forget to eat? I hardly ever forgot to eat. But I found that after this last fast, a couple of days, I just forgot to eat. Surprised the fire out of me.

Maybe I am getting there. I would like to have God have control over my body, not food. Maybe it is coming. A few hundred more fasts and maybe it will be here. Or dead, one or the other.

I love the church of Jesus Christ. I always have. I have not always liked it, but I have always loved it. You can love something without necessarily liking it.

I knew a boy and girl when I was young who loved each other dearly, but were always in arguments. They really didn’t like each other. I have found out in later years how that can be possible, but at the time, it baffled me. How can you love someone without liking them?

But I am sure Jesus wasn’t exactly liking all these jeering people standing around the cross as he died. I am sure that his affection didn’t brim over for the apostles as he heard them deny they knew him. Pity maybe, but not liking.

And I have found in my life that it is often hard to like someone you feel pity for. Pity is too strong. And it is hard to like someone who is doing things to hurt you.

Love them, yes. I gave my life to the church because I loved the church. But I have had to recognize that it did not always love me back. That didn’t stop my own love, but it sure put a damper on my liking.

In fact, some of the people I love, I can barely stand to be in the same room with.

But, of course, that is human nature.

My mother-in-law used to say of some people, I love you but I hate your low-down ways. I guess that sums up things well. It sure sums up how God feels: love the sinner and hate the sin.

Father God, I ask you for strength to love your church more, to see your church as you see it. Let me be like Jesus. I praise you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 17: 11-19)

The funny thing about this passage – well, actually there are two funny things. But one is that he tells one of the men that his faith had healed him. but in actuality, all of them were healed by faith.

They had heard of Jesus and his power and called out to him to have mercy on them and heal them. Jesus did, but only one came back to thank him.

They all believed in the power of God through Jesus enough that when he said to go show themselves to the priests (which was how they verified their healing) they went. And they were healed on the way, not at the moment of Jesus’ comment, but after they had already started.

All of them, grateful or ungrateful, were healed.

The other funny thing is that Jesus didn’t take back his healing when the other nine didn’t come back to thank him. He just commented on the fact that only one did.

Now it could be that they came back later and thanked him. It may be that they were so intent on doing what he said that they were just in a hurry to get it done. It may be that all of them intended to thank him in the future.

It could even be that a couple of them figured he was just doing his job, that it was his duty to do this. So there was no need to thank him for doing what he was hired to do.

But the thing is all of these men were healed on faith and most of them didn’t bother to thank Jesus or give glory to God.

Jesus never took stuff back when people were undeserving of it. Even his death, that which we celebrate this time of year, was for those who did not deserve it.

It amazes me to read 1 Corinthians 14 and to see the misuse of the spiritual gifts in that church. Paul never says, you guys be careful or the Lord will take those away from you. Instead, he says don’t misuse them.

Of course, if they misuse them and turn their backs on God, I don’t think they will do any good in their lives and I figure they will die out. But still, God gives faith and doesn’t take it away even when we act like idiots.

As to the ungrateful part, it has happened to me a lot. And many times, people just figured I was doing my job as a pastor, I was hired to do that. There was no need to thank me or show any gratitude.

It hurts when that happens. People eat your food and drink your coffee and accept your love and then turn on you.

But they did that to Jesus, too. And he still loved them.

So, if he does, I will. what I give isn’t wasted anyway. I gave it to God, just through those people.

I want to be like Jesus, not like the ingrates who used him.

the missionaries in rambo had a bad idea

Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

I just finished the movie Rambo. It was about a group of medical missionaries who went into Burma to help heal people and to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They, by the persuasion of the lone woman, were taken in to the interior by John Rambo.

They were captured and some were killed. The minister of the church that sent them out came and spoke to Rambo. Rambo and a group of mercenaries went in and rescued what was left of their group.

That brings up a question. The missionaries went into a country that is known at the time (the movie was made in 2008) throughout the world to have the worst civil rights record towards Christians of any country in the world. Were they stupid or faithful?

They had the best of intentions, but quite frankly, even to me as a minister who dearly loves both the Lord and the church, their rationale sounded lame. “If people were to lay down their weapons, everything would be okay.”

Yes. And if your grandmother had wheels, she would be a teacart.

Things are what they are. Which brings me to the point. Jesus himself said be careful. Don’t do things that are foolish. Be harmless, but also be shrewd. In other words, think about what you are doing before you do it.

I greatly admire people who are missionaries, especially those who go to hard places. But if you go to a place that you know will probably kill you, are you smart, or are you committing suicide?

These people came into conflict immediately. Government forces came in and shot everybody in the town and took them prisoner. If they had researched Burma (or Myanmar as it is also known), they would have known that Christians are killed as a matter of course.

Were they devoted to God or were they foolish? To do something that is that dangerous and then expect God to take care of you: is that truly being wise?

These people were noble, yes, and of course they were portrayed in counterpoint to the battle-hardened and world weary Rambo. And, of course, as this was his movie, he had to go in and rescue them.

They suffered and they died, but to what end? Did they really accomplish anything other than a good movie?

I do not know. But I think they should have used more sense. And the sponsoring congregation should have used more sense and discernment in sending them. The pastor was worried when he came and talked to Rambo. But he should have thought about it beforehand. It was a bad idea.

Sometimes missionaries are so full of their mission that they need someone objective to point out difficulties and, if necessary, stop them by, if nothing else, not giving them funds.

A good movie, but one that should not have happened.

day five of my week long fast

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

        Who has believed our message
           and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
           and like a root out of dry ground.
        He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
           nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
        He was despised and rejected by men,
           a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
        Like one from whom men hide their faces
           he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
        Surely he took up our infirmities
           and carried our sorrows,
        yet we considered him stricken by God,
           smitten by him, and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our transgressions,
           he was crushed for our iniquities;
        the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
           and by his wounds we are healed.
        We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
           each of us has turned to his own way;
        and the LORD has laid on him
           the iniquity of us all.

It is day five of my week long fast. We are moving towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life and the beginning of his kingdom.

This day is called Maundy Thursday. Sometimes it is also called Holy Thursday. Maundy comes from an old English word that comes from the Latin, mandatum or commandment. It was named after the comment Jesus gave in John 13 at the Last Supper. The new commandment superceded all the old commandments.

That new commandment is love.

Maundy Thursday is also a day in which foot-washing is traditionally done. Again following Jesus’ example.

But it is the last normal day of Jesus’ life. If you can call Jesus’ life normal.

But it is a full day. He celebrates the last Passover that will be sanctioned by God. There will be more held, but now the Passover and what it signified is gone. In a few days, Jesus will be our Passover.

In 1 Corinthians 5:7, the apostle Paul says: Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

Today he also sees a friend betray him. That is such an exquisite pain. It is heart-rending to see one that you trusted and loved turn on you for no real reason. It has happened to me and I suppose will happen again. One that ate at your table and accepted your love and hospitality can stab you in the back. And it hurts almost like that.

Jesus not only sees Judas betray him, but sees all his apostles, people he loved and trusted, turn on him.

About the only difference between them was that Judas got some money for it, while Peter and the others sold him out for a place at a communal fire.

Except for amount of return, there isn’t really any difference. Peter tried to fight first, at least, while Judas went out with a whimper.

But Jesus knew that would happen. And he loved them anyway. He kept the commandment.

1 John 3:16 says: We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

There was real love: to sacrifice yourself for people who run away from you.

Father God, I ask you for strength to love people anyway. I ask you to give me my fire back and renew my passion. I praise you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me. (2 Samuel 12:22-23)

King David had an affair with a neighbor and had her husband killed so he could marry her after she became pregnant. The Lord was angry with David. They had a son, who became ill. As David waited for the son to live or die, he fasted, lay on the ground – all of the things that an ancient Hebrew would do to show penance for his sin.

The son died. When David found out, he got up and cleaned himself up, worshiped the Lord in the temple and sat down to eat. His people asked him, why are you not sad anymore? His response was the scripture above.

In essence, he said: it’s all over and there is nothing I can do. So life goes on.

And it does. I am the world’s worst to think about things in the past and wish I could do them again. But it does no good.

Now that is easy to say but intensely hard to put in practice. There is no way to change the past, but we sit and dwell on it.

Omar Khayyam in his book the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam wrote something that is so true.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
  Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
  Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
What happened to you thirty seconds ago is as irretrievable as something that happened in Napoleon’s time. Both are in the past. Both are totally unreachable and unchangeable. And to weep over them is futile.

However, it also human to weep over past failures.

All we can do is to say that what we did, if it was wrong, we will not do again. It is called repentance. And we may suffer consequences, as David did. He kept his wife, Bathsheba. But he lost so much more. If nothing else, he lost the knowledge that he was a good man.

You cannot get that back. You can still be a good man, you can still do god things, you can never do that again. But you know how you are now and you know what you are capable of in the midst of your own lust.

David gained a knowledge of his ability to be bad, a glimpse into his inner heart.

And there was nothing he could do about it. It was in the past.

All he could do was go from there and do the best he could.

the fourth day of my week long fast

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
   and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
   a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
   he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
   and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
   smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

I am in my fourth day of my week long fast and already I am suffering some of the problems I suffered when I was on my last fast. The difference, this time, is that I started having difficulties earlier.

But it is amazing at how the things I read, I see with so much more clarity than usually. There is a – high, for lack of a better word that you get when you fast. It is the knowledge that you have been without the basic nutrient of life. But it is also a clearness of mind that can only come that way.

I have been thinking about Holy Week. Today is Wednesday. Depending upon who you read, Jesus was waiting. You have to kind of filter through the gospels to see the events.

On Wednesday, according to Matthew, he and the apostles were going to Jerusalem and wanted something to eat. He went to a fig tree and saw it didn’t have anything on it and he cursed it. An odd thing to do. By the next day it had withered and his disciples were amazed.

On Wednesday, according to Mark and Luke, he went into the temple and once again, drove the moneylenders out as he had done at the very beginning of his ministry in John. It also said that the religious leaders were afraid of him because of his popularity.

On Wednesday, according to John, he did several things. One was that he predicted his death. In 12:28, God speaks to him and verifies his ministry. Then he goes off to be by himself.

By the time he had come to this point, the political opinion of him was dramatically opposed. They were ready to kill him, but couldn’t figure out exactly how to go about it.

Whatever it was that he did, we know that he knew he was about to die. He had boldly walked into Jerusalem the Sunday before and let everybody see him. He had come back because of Lazarus dying. His apostles and everybody else tried to talk him out of it, buthe knew it was time.

I don’t know if he knew the exact timeframe or time-table, but you know he had to be dreading it. This was, after all, the man who sweated so heavily in the Garden the night of his arrest that it looked like the consistency of blood.

He knew he had to do it, but he was not looking forward to it. He was human, and he knew it was going to be painful and protracted. He knew he would be crucified because he  said so at least twice.

John 3:14 says And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. In this he may have thought that he would be lifted up as an example, not necessarily crucified. This was at the beginning of his ministry.

John 8:28 says So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I Am he. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me”.

Here he knew too well what would probably happen. This was much closer to the end. He knew the common from of death, that there were no merciful deaths except for Roman citizens. And he wasn’t one.

All in all, it was the middle day in a painful week and he is probably ready to be through.

Father God, I ask you for that kind of courage and ability to face what happens, no matter how negative and painful it may be. I praise you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

The death of Jesus looked like the end. The apostles were discouraged, the followers were ready to quit, the devil thought he had won a mighty victory. As the song goes, the demons of hell began to cheer, but little did they know that their end was drawing near.

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he saddled all of humanity with the knowledge of sin. All sin, Romans 3:23 says, and all fall short of the glory of God. And because we sin, we have no access to that Tree of Life that Adam and Eve were able to eat daily. When they ate the fruit of that tree, they were able to live forever.

But when God took them away from that Tree of Life, they began to die.

It took them a long time to die at first. They were still too close to the handwork of God in the creation. They lived for almost a thousand years. When God made something, he made it well. But even though they were very long-loved, they still began to die.

What a shock it must have been when someone caught the first illness, the first cold. When fatigue set in for the first time, or there was hunger, or even a cut. What a shock to see their blood flowing out.

They knew they were mortal now. And when the first person died, they knew that one day they too would die.

And everybody would one day die, because of sin. Including Jesus.

But Jesus didn’t sin (1 Peter 2:22). He did nothing wrong, yet he was mortal and as such would die.

Here was an anomaly. He didn’t sin, so he didn’t participate in what all humanity has in common: sin. Yet he was human, so he had to participate in another thing humanity all has in common: death.

But there is the power. When he died, the devil knew that he had him in his territory now. Death is the realm of satan and he has power there.

Or so he thought.

Because of his sinless life, Jesus was not bound by the fact of sin in his life and the tie all humanity has to Adam. Even though he was human, he didn’t have that tie of sin.

There was no reason for death to hold him. And God brought him back. He was under the power of God. He was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 1:4).

Because of that defeat of death (the one he talked about in Matthew 16:18: all the powers of hell will not conquer it), he gives us the power to overcome through him.

His strength is great enough to compensate for our weakness. We do not have to stay dead any more than he did. He had to die because he was human, so do we. But because he was also God, he didn’t have to stay dead. Neither do we through his grace.

It is only through grace we can come to God. Law gives power to sin, but grace ignores sin. By the death of Jesus, we gain life. And in that life, we gain grace.

without easter, christmas is worthless

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NLT)

Jesus was not the first person to come back from the dead. There are several instances in the Old Testament and Jesus himself raised three people: a widow’s son in the city of Nain, a little girl and his friend Lazarus.

But there is a difference between all those people and Jesus. The difference was that they were all raised by the power of God through Jesus. And he was raised by the power of God through his life.

Colossians 1 says:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
      He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
 for through him God created everything
      in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
      and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
      Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
      and he holds all creation together. (1:15-17)

That Word which was spoken was the pre-incarnate Christ, Jesus before he became Jesus. He is the one who created the world and he is the one who will conquer death.

His resurrection was not the only one. However, it is the only one that has power to bring us back from death in sin into his glorious light. His death gives us life.

All those other people died again. They got old and died natural deaths. None of them were raised for eternal life. They died and that was that.

Jesus, on the other hand, rose from his death to never die again. And because he will never die again, he gives us – by the power of God – the power to never die again.

Yes, we will die, or at least this physical body will. but our souls, that which makes us who we are, our nature, will never die.

When Jesus was there to bring Lazarus back to life, he told Martha, Lazarus’ sister: I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. (John 11:25-26)

When we die, and we will, we can know that we are not really dead. We still live. Our nature and our form is changed, but that which defines us as who we are is not changed. In him, we live forever.

That is the point of Easter. When it comes down to it, it is a much more important holiday than Christmas. Christmas only marks the beginning of Jesus’ earthly situation, his life on this planet.

Easter marks the beginning of his reign in heaven. Without Easter, Christmas is worthless.

Without Easter, Christmas is just the introduction of yet another child into the world. with Easter, that child saves the world.

Praise be.

day three of my fast

Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT

        Who has believed our message
           and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
        He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
           and like a root out of dry ground.
        He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
           nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
        He was despised and rejected by men,
           a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
        Like one from whom men hide their faces
           he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
        Surely he took up our infirmities
           and carried our sorrows,
        yet we considered him stricken by God,
           smitten by him, and afflicted.
        But he was pierced for our transgressions,
           he was crushed for our iniquities;
        the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
           and by his wounds we are healed.
        We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
           each of us has turned to his own way;
        and the LORD has laid on him
           the iniquity of us all.

It is day three of my fast. I have not been able to sleep well tonight for some reason.

At four o’clock I woke up. Shortly thereafter it began to hail. It was a pretty bad one. I do hope the roofs are not totaled again. I also feel sorry for the people next door with their brand new SUV. It is a nice one and they haven’t had it but a month or so. I hope it is not hurt too badly.

As is usual at this time of my fast, I am craving food. Unfortunately, I made up a big batch of one of my favorite foods – pimiento cheese – just the last part of last week. So it is calling.

I am also possessed with a deep sense of failure right now. That also is not uncommon at the beginning of a fast.

I am in this fast to partake of the last week of suffering with Jesus in what way I can. But I am also in this fast to find out what God wants of me. Where does he want me to go? I need to hear from him. I need to know what he wants of me.

Father God, I ask you for direction. I thank you for Jesus who gave me life and who gave me my ministry. Save me, Lord. I praise you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” (Luke 15:1-7)

It is so easy to lose track of your mission. What did God send you to do? To whom did he send you to minister?

On the one hand, there is the church. It is full of people who are usually pretty good people. Some are old and some are young. And they have needs. They need to be ministered to.

But then again there is a big world out there full of lost and dying sinners. And they have needs and they need to be brought to Jesus to experience his grace.

The problem comes when the difference between the two is noticed so much.

One group is the church, the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. The other isn’t. and it is easy for the group that is in Jesus to become smug and self-satisfied. We have made it. We are God’s children. Isn’t it great that we found the right church and worship the right way and live our lives in the right way?

It is so easy to begin to see yourself as the one that God is proud of.

Jesus faced that problem. Those that were here already felt a sense of entitlement. They had worked for this church and had gotten all this stuff together. They had paid for it and fixed it up.

Then comes the feeling that they were worth it. When the Messiah came, he was going to come to them and tell them how good they were. He would uphold the corporate theology and make sure they knew God loved them. He would put his stamp on the fact that they were the true righteous.

But when he came, he went to the other side. He hung around with people that were not like those who were in charge, those who had seniority. These people were sinners. They drank and they caroused, they didn’t dress like us nor act like us. Jesus had no right to be with these people and prefer them over us.

Jesus tried to tell them that the sheep who were already in the pasture were fine, that he came to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. In fact, he even goes so far as to tell them that God and his angels are happier when someone comes back, then when someone stays. Especially when they have the attitude of the ones who stayed: self entitlement.

It made him sad and it made him angry at times.

And I think sometimes it baffled him as to why they refused to accept him and what he had to say. He was, after all, human and subject to the same problems we have.

He finally found that they were not going to hear him and not going to listen to him. so, like the apostle Paul after him, he turned to those who needed him.

There is more to life than what the people in the church think there is.

Of course, it ended with his death. Or at least the church thought it did.

But our life came from that death. And our life came from the resulting resurrection.

Praise the name of Jesus.