daily java

Daily Java:

Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus. (John 12:20-22)

Next week is Palm Sunday, the Sunday Jesus makes his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. People just do not know what to do with him. He is phenomenally popular, so the religious leaders can’t figure him out. The others, the regular people, want to see him and meet with him and to talk with him. His popularity is growing.

But there is a problem. He is a volatile figure. Those who consider themselves to be in charge are always having confrontations with him. And those confrontations are getting worse the more popular he gets.

Jesus calls them dishonest, unethical, murderers – since they stand in the line of the people who killed all the prophets who came before him. He is out of control in their eyes and they have to do something. They just do not know what.

Even people who are not supposed to care about what the Jews are doing are coming to talk with him. Everybody (but them) likes him and his firebrand style of preaching and theology. He brings a fresh new way of looking at things and it scares them.

They have to do something. But what? They cannot quite outright kill him. The crowds love him and that would turn them away from them. And they have no real charges against him. So what do they do?

They bide their time. They wait. Waiting is the best thing anyone can do anyway.

And it works. In their minds, Jesus goes just a bit too far. In Mark 14, Jesus said that they could destroy this temple and he would raise it up in three days. Even though he was talking about his body and that he would rise again, they took it another way, and they had what they wanted.

They set the stage for his arrest (quietly with Judas) and for his subsequent trial and execution. In just a week, he comes into Jerusalem in a publicly popular procession and then adds to their anger by clearing out the temple of all the money changers.

Of course, the waiting worked two ways. They got what they wanted, but it turned out to be exactly what God wanted too. It was time for Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. That was the part they didn’t mean, but it was perfect.

Next week, Palm Sunday, and the plan of God begins to be revealed.

today has been my birthday

I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

Today has been my birthday. I really do not enjoy getting older, but there is little I can do about it.

I was thinking about birthdays in the past including the one in the picture accompanying this post. Forty years ago today, I had my 22nd birthday. I was high on the world at the time, just having come out of the army, living with my new pretty little wife in Houston in our own apartment. I had a good job with the Telephone Company, we went to a church that had accepted us.

I had not yet had my major car wreck, and some other things were waiting over the horizon. But in general, it was a good time.

Other birthdays are remembered over the years. I remember my 35th in Washington State, just before my life blew apart. There was my fortieth in Goliad, TX, my 51st where I threw a party and hired a band to play. Those seem to stand out for some reason.

You figure though, when you have had 61 birthdays dinners in your 62 years of life, they do tend to run together.

Today was an odd one. I shared a cake with my son-in-law, Mike, who turned 57 yesterday. I cooked his dinner and mine and we had zero money. The van is broken and is in the shop for a new starter and I am unemployed. We live in a bedroom at my daughter’s house. It is not a good birthday.

My family tried, but the cards were against them this year. I just didn’t feel like a party. The past year has been rough and I am depressed by it and the prospect of getting one year older with so little to show for it.

In fact, the past five years have been the hardest of our lives. I truly regret wasting my time in the Pentecostal churches I have pastored. We were not welcomed and had nothing but trouble and financial ruin for having done so.

I keep thinking things will get better, but I do not know if they will. Having left ministry, I do not have the slightest idea what I will do. Add that to the fact that I came into the work force in a depression where men my age are the most unemployed or underemployed in the nation and it is hard.

I suppose the class I teach on Sunday nights is the high point of my week. It is a good class and I enjoy it. It is the one time I am alive.

If it were not for my wife and her love, I am not sure what I would do.

But I am, as Tennessee Ernie Ford sang, another year older and deeper in debt. I am going to do my level best to make this next year better. I am not sure how, but I am going to go down fighting.

I know the Lord has something for me. the alternative is too much to bear. So I wait for him.

As my Facebook scripture of the day says: I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him (Psalm 62:1). All I can do is wait on him. He is my God.

daily java

Daily Java:

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. (Genesis 29:20)

Have you ever wanted anything so bad you would do anything to get it?

I still remember getting my first credit card. 1972, it was a JCPenney card issued to Johnny Cliver. We were going to buy something – I believe a TV – and they gave us the credit card. The man said, and I remember it so well, go get you a couple of shirts or something while we get the TV ready.

Wow! It was like a door opened. I had a credit card. Gone were the days of layaway and having to wait for stuff. I could have it now.

Of course, it was not long until I got bitten by the card. The problem with the card and its instant access to stuff I wanted was that sooner or later the bill came due and I had to pay it.

There is something to waiting for things over getting them immediately. In the old days – he said, clicking his dentures – you put something in layaway or you saved up yourself until you could get it. That meant that when you got it, it was yours. Completely.

And there was a great pleasure that came from having saved up and paid for it.

The word is delayed gratification. Waiting is good.

Jacob wanted Rachel and was willing to wait seven years for her.

Ella and I were engaged for a year before we got married. During that year we were in Germany. So not only did I have to wait, I didn’t get to see her. It was almost like she was taken back into layaway and I had to pay for her for a year.

But when we saw each other, January 4th or so in 1971 when I got off the plane, it was worth it.

The old expression is “act in haste, repent in leisure.” Do something quickly and many times you regret it.

I discovered several things through the years about getting things now as opposed to waiting for them. It never really works. I do badly with credit cards. I do best with layaway.

The first thing we bought like that was a stereo in 1972. It was a nice one with air suspension speakers and an eight track and it cost $150. That was a pile of money in 1972 dollars. We paid half down.

Then a week later, we decided that we wanted it pretty badly. So we paid the other half. We almost didn’t have enough money to eat that week. But the stereo was ours. Nobody could repossess it. And we ate bologna and listened to our new 8 track stereo. Far out!

As the old expression says, anything worth having is worth working for. And I might add, worth waiting for.

That goes completely counter to modern day thought but it is absolutely true.

daily java

Daily Java: I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.  (Psalm 40:1-3)

You go along for a while and nothing is good. Then something happens. It is really not much, just a small thing. But it is a positive thing.

And when it does, your whole perspective is changed. What was bad is now good, what was sad is now happy.

It is kind of weird, really, that something can change so rapidly. But it can.

We wait for the Lord. That is hard. We know that he has his own time table and will do things when he pleases. He is after all, God.

And a god who is on call to our whims is not really a god. He is a sham.

It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. That is Philippians 2:13 and is absolutely true. He does things when he is ready. And you wait for him.

Then, when he does work in you, when he moves to change something, when he lifts you out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, things are great. Suddenly your feet are on a rock, a firm place. You don’t feel like everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

There is joy in your demeanor, happiness in your heart, a new song in your mouth. You suddenly feel like praising. And people see that difference.

What caused it, they ask. You say, oh, nothing in particular. I just feel as though God has moved in my life.

The psalmist is speaking somewhat metaphorically, of course, when he says that they will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Sometimes they just think you are weird.

But you know, and you tell them about it, if they will listen.

And you sing the new song.