daily java

Daily Java:

Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. (John 21:1-3)

Jesus had died and had come back from the dead. He had spoken to the apostles and done some other things. But the apostles were at loose ends. What do they do now? For three years or more they had walked around with Jesus and had a rather exciting time. Now they weren’t really doing anything.

Before long, the Spirit would come on them and they would understand all this stuff, but for now they just did not know what to do.

So Peter does what he knows. He goes fishing. The rest of the apostles were kind of used to hanging around together and thought, Well, we are doing anything else. So they went too.

Sometimes you do not know what to do. You are through with something really important and you are at loose ends. So you do what you are used to.

There are times when that is good. Peter probably enjoyed fishing and to the rest of the apostles, it was different and interesting. they had always done other things and fishing seemed a good way to pass time until something better came.

But there are also times when it is isn’t a good idea. People who have gotten in trouble with their friends and maybe even have gone to jail don’t need to go back and do the familiar things. They come to a point where they are bored or again, at loose ends, and they start doing some of the same things that got them into jail or trouble in the first place.

Later on in this passage, Jesus tells Peter that fishing is not what he is meant to do. He tells Peter that teaching is going to be his life. Feeding God’s sheep will be Peter’s life. Peter has moved in his life from manual labor to something greater.

Not that there is anything wrong with fishing, but Peter and the rest of the apostles are not cut for that. They are made to teach and preach and serve God in a totally different way than they did before. Others will fish. Peter will spend the rest of his life feeding the sheep of God, teaching the church about the grace and power of Jesus.

You were not made to do stuff. You were made to serve Jesus. You might serve him in the working of your occupation, but ultimately, you are a servant of God. That is what he wants you to do.

daily java

Daily Java:

But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord,
      praising him to everyone.
For he stands beside the needy,
      ready to save them from those who condemn them. (Psalm 109:30-31)

I still remember the first night I was in the army. All day long, people had hollered at us. We had flown to El Paso from Houston and gotten off the plane to what seemed like never-ending abuse. No suggestions, no comments – all orders, screamed it seemed at the top of well-exercised lungs.

One of the first orders of business was to get out heads shaved. The guys all were standing around with what was probably the most interesting assortment of tans I had ever seen. There were indications of sideburns and longer hair, mustaches, whatever. If it was hair on the head, it was gone.

Then we got uniforms, olive green cotton sateen shirts and pants, along with black boots, belts, caps, etc. also our dress greens, the dress up suit we wore for special stuff.

We went to our barracks and were assigned bunks.

As we were sitting, a guy came by that some of our group knew. He was wearing a full leg cast, having evidently broken his leg. He was proud. They were going to let him out. They figured that his recovery time would be so long, he would never get a chance to do anything so they discharged him.

In my fear, I suddenly saw an opening. If I could break my leg, I could get out of the horror. Because horror it was. I had never experienced anything remotely like this. It was as if we were prisoners and were treated abominably.

That night, I lie on my top bunk thinking now if I could just fall off, land on my knee, break it, I could go home.

Finally, in disgust for myself, I turned over and went to sleep.

Two years later, I got out.

When it comes down to it, we can do what we need to do. I needed to be a soldier, so I became one. I never was that good at it, since I do not meld into the group mind that well. But I did it. And I came out alright.

I could run, fast, and could do situps and pushups and walk with my hands hanging from something. I could shoot. In fact, I found out I was an expert marksman. I could crawl fast, I could go long periods of time without water (our basic was in the desert outside of El Paso). I could function fine.

And most of all, I could listen to idiots scream at me and take it, even though I knew they were inferior human beings. I could obey inane orders given by a guy who got stone drunk every night.

Once, an assistant drill instructor made me stand on my knees so I would know what it was like to be short. In my mind, however, I knew I wasn’t short. Rather I was standing on my knees in front of one who would never know what it was like to be tall in any way, who would hide behind assumed authority all his life and would probably never amount to anything.

It was a good experienced over all. Every young man needs to know, at some point in his life, that he is not the center of the universe. It makes him better as a person to know that he can subsume his personality into something else without dying.

I am glad I did it.

daily java

Daily Java:

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Romans 13:7)

When I came home on leave from the army in 1969, my mother wanted me to wear my uniform to church.

I didn’t want to. For one thing, I had been wearing a uniform places for several months and was looking forward to wearing my civilian clothes. I was in great shape from basic training and looked pretty good. Really, the last thing I wanted to wear was my uniform.

The other reason was that uniforms were not very welcome in the age group in which I was. It was the height of the Vietnam war. Protesters were everywhere. There were rumors (unfounded, for the most part) that people had spit on soldiers in uniform and called them “babykillers.”

I just didn’t want to wear that uniform.

Unfortunately, my mother is the person who when she gets an idea in her mind, she considers it absolutely right, and she almost demanded that I wear it. It was easier to do so than to fight it, so I wore it.

I will have to admit, I was striking in my uniform. One of my friends told me that I looked like a recruiting poster. I was 6’3” tall and 185 pounds of mostly  muscle. I have always stood straight anyway, so I stood tall and straight. She was proud.

I did what millennia of young men did and gave in to my mother. So everything was fine. I was put out for a moment, but she got what she perceived of being the  glory of having a son in the army. People commented on it. And I came home and changed clothes afterwards.

You figure, I was in good stead. Even Jesus gave in to his mother. In John 2, he performed his first miracle because his mother forced him into it.

She saw me as a representative of the government in the honorable age-old class of warrior. I saw a uniform that my generation wanted to eschew. She saw a symbol of freedom. I saw what the music I listened to considered a symbol of oppression. She saw honor and I didn’t.

But she was right and I was wrong. Just like Jesus giving in to his mother’s wishes that he make some wine miraculously at a party, I was right for giving in to the wishes of my mother.

She wanted to show me honor for my sacrifice, and, of course, reap some of the honor from others for her sacrifice of me to the protection of her country. It didn’t hurt her any that she was standing beside me while I was in uniform and got reflected glory.

We have become a nation – and we began with my generation – of people who disparage more than honor. We denigrate, we put down, we lessen others when we should be giving them honor.

Whatever I felt about the war in Vietnam – and I have to admit,  I was a sheep of my generation with no real convictions beyond the cool philosophy in the music of the time – people owed me a little honor for my sacrifice.

And I owed other young men honor for theirs. I owe people honor for any time they give their lives to a nobler cause than sitting around, eating chips, watching movies. I owe honor to anyone who serves his country.

And I will give it.

daily java

Don’t demand an audience with the king
      or push for a place among the great.
It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table
      than to be sent away in public disgrace. (Proverbs 25:6-8)

Christmas of 1964, my first date. I was in ninth grace, Mary Sue Beckhusen was in eighth grade. The church had a dress-up dinner at the Holiday Inn. I invited her to go with me as my date.

The Holiday Inn was a place of unimagined fanciness, or at least it seemed to me in 1964. And if a dinner was held there, surely I had to have a good suit to go. So my parents took me to Sears in Pasadena, TX, to get a black suit to wear.

I was nervous as this was my first date. My parents drove us and I picked her up. She had on a gold brocade semi formal dress. And we were off.

We walked into the Holiday Inn banquet hall and the tables were all set up. We found chairs and sat down. Not long after we had sat down, someone came to me and told me that where we were sitting was the head table and we had to move. It was embarrassing, but we did.

I have never made that mistake since. In fact, I make it a point to never sit at the head table unless someone specifically tells me that I need to.

So many people have a problem with that. It is the desire for pre-eminence and it will get you in trouble.

To our credit, back in 1964, we sat there in ignorance. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a head table. I just sat somewhere that turned out to be the wrong place.

Right now we are going through the presidential campaign. It is an orgy of people seeking the head table. They want to be in charge. Many come into that campaign with the desire to be the head of the USA, the leader of the free world. Sometimes there is no real desire to serve, it is just the desire to live big, be seen, be kowtowed to, be respected.

I believe the presidency is a good thing and needs a good man to fill the position. But at the same time, one who just wants to sit at the head table can do a lot of harm before he is taken out of the office.

The apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 5:1-4) says: As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor.

In other words, you are not in charge because you are so wonderful, you are in charge to help the cause of Jesus.

In any organization the church included and maybe especially, people want to be in charge. They want people to see them and admire them, to respect them and defer to them.

But Jesus, when he came, gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a servant  and was born as a human being. (Philippians 2:7). When Jesus came, he came as a servant, not as an autocrat.

If more public servants would realize the servant part, that they are there to serve us, not us to serve them, more good things would be accomplished.

The same with the church. If we focused more on service and less on self-aggrandizement, the church would grow and become stronger.

The desire for the head table is vanity. Anyone who insists on being deferred to and who thinks their opinion is the only one is a fool. The Bible says that (Psalm 53:1) in that they have supplanted God and replaced him with themselves.

daily java

Daily Java:

But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

It is easy to get our priorities messed up.

What is our job in life as Christians? Ask people this and you will get interesting answers.

Our job is to fight the devil and remain pure. Our job is to do what God says so we won’t be lost. Our job is to live a Christian life.

All of those are wrong.

I saw an illustration once that stayed with me for years. Four people were picked out of the audience and told they were firemen. The first one was to polish the fire engine. The second was to maintain the hoses. The third one was to keep the equipment in order. The fourth was to take care of the Dalmatian dog.

The man who had appointed them asked each what was his job. Each would reply with the engine, or hoses, or equipment or dog. Again he would ask, what is your job? Each would reply again, hoses, equipment, engine or dog. Again he asked. As he got to one guy, the man stopped and said “Well, it is to put out fires.”

Each had gotten so involved in their minds with their sub-jobs, their small assignments, that they forgot the main job: fire-fighting.

It always struck me that in the Marines, everybody is a Marine, a basic rifleman who fights. Each may have other jobs – clerical, cook, motor pool – but each is an infantryman first and foremost. A marine’s job is to fight.

As Christians, we do not fight the devil, or keep ourselves pure, or resist evil, or any of these things. They will be done, to be sure, but we – first and foremost – have the job of worshiping him, believing in him, serving God.

When we serve God, he will resist, he will strengthen, he will guard. We cannot in and of ourselves. If we could, we wouldn’t need Jesus.

Our lives are not a battle against the evil one. There is no way we can overcome the devil. Our lives are service to God and his love and grace. If we serve him, he will take care of the other and will guard us. If we are faithful to him, he will be faithful to us. He gives us strength.

Our job is to worship. We let him take care of the rest.

daily java

Daily Java:  

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,  did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)

I have known a lot of people who could not function in a church setting unless they had a title. In fact, they have to be in charge or they will split the church over it.

There is nothing wrong with being recognized for what you do. That is part of the spurring one another on to love and good deeds that Hebrews 10:23 talks about.  It is a hard thing to work in something for a long time and have no one appreciate what you do.

But, on the other hand – which is what I considered naming this blog, because there is always an other hand – doing what you do for recognition removes all of the holiness out of it. When you have to be publicly acknowledged as pastor, or elder, or teacher, you are wrong.

Jesus said of the teachers and preachers of his day, They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’ But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:6-12).

They lost the point of what they did – teaching the love of God – and kept the position.

In 1 Timothy 6:4-5, the apostle Paul says that someone who is concerned about getting credit and honor are wrong. In fact he says that he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

He goes on to say in the next verse, Godliness with contentment is great gain.

I could never understand how a person can tear a church up when he doesn’t get his own way. Even after leaving, his jihad continues and he tries his best to poison the well.

A true servant of Jesus works for Jesus, not the position. It doesn’t matter that he or she doesn’t have a title. They have a ministry.

I was at a church recently that had a sign on the bulletin board that said that they wanted the people coming there to come looking for a ministry, a service, not a title. If you come looking for glory in recognition, we do not need you. If you come looking for glory in service, that is different.

In 1 Timothy 2, Paul says about leaders, If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. In other words, if you desire to be a leader, you desire something really good.

However, if you are coming to gain a title and an office, you come to the wrong place.

In the church I grew up in, many felt one of the qualifications in the 1 Timothy 3 passage of being an elder was the fact that he desired it. In fact, one man was turned down once because of the simple fact that no one had ever heard him comment that he would like to be an elder.

I have found out through my life that the men and women who talk about leading and who campaign for leader position are the very ones I do not want as leaders. Too many times they are not looking for the service, they are looking for the badge of office and the honor that they feel should go with it.

A leader is one who is already leading. Some of the best leaders I have ever known were men who were almost literally drafted into the job. They took it our of need and desire to serve rather than for the honor.

Jesus gave up Godhood to become a man. He will not put that Godhood on again, according to 1 Corinthians 15, until he comes again and conquers death for all humanity.

That is service. 1 John 3:16 says, This is how we know the love of Christ, that he laid down his life for the brothers. And you ought to lay down your lives, too.

I want to be like Jesus.

being in the army

For almost 40 years, no one has ever mentioned anything in connection with my military service. It was just taken for granted. I think most former soldiers are like that. It was time to go and they did, not necessarily gladly but know their duty. In the past couple of years I have had positive comments on my military service more than in all the years before. It is a strange feeling, but good at the same time.

Like most young men of my day, I did not want to go. But I did. And accepted what came. I went to Germany. The next guy probably went to Vietnam. Luck of the draw literally. But I have always been glad I went. It paid for seminary and I have VA benefits now. And besides, I am glad I went. Guys who didn't know they have missed out on a shared experience of my generation.

It is one of those things that you are glad you did in retrospect. With my lack of self-esteem, I probably would have been apologizing right and left for not having gone into the service.

But I did. I did not do a great job as I was the inveterate rebel but at the same time, I went.

As bad as it could be at time, I hold good memories of the time  I was in uniform. For one thing I got the inestimable pleasure of marrying my beautiful wife, Ella. That alone was worth the time.

And I got to see Germany. I would probably not have had the chance otherwise to see something so different from America.