daily java

Daily Java:

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

The point made here was not the stuff done. It was the service and selflessness behind the stuff.

Those who had helped Jesus, who had fed him and clothed him and all, never knew it was Jesus. They are surprised. “We didn’t know it was you. We fed a lot of people but don’t remember you.”

Jesus answer: when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. I was there in the midst of those people that needed help. I was there in their hearts and I was there in your heart when you helped.

Those who didn’t help said, “Wait. If you had told us it was you, we would have given you the best of what we had. All we saw was a bunch of poor people.” And again his reply: when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.

Again, the point was that those who were in Christ helped as they were helped. They loved as they were loved. The others waited for just the right opportunity so they wouldn’t waste their money.

I read an article the other day that said that conservative people tend to give a lot more money to charities and church and the like than liberal minded people. Their mindset is different.

You can imagine the liberals being at the front of any well-publicized event, with names in the paper and pictures taken. The others just do it out of love.

Jesus said here that if you love him, you are going to help others in some way. You may not have a lot of money, or things to give, but if you love him, you will do so.

When his heart is in your heart, you share your heart with others.

daily java

Daily Java:

Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. The lampstand will stand in the Tabernacle, in front of the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron and his sons must keep the lamps burning in the Lord’s presence all night. This is a permanent law for the people of Israel, and it must be observed from generation to generation.  (Exodus 27:20-21)

God is a God of light, not of darkness. He always wanted people to know that. He never intended to be worshiped in dimly lit church buildings. He is a God of light.

In the Old Testament, he had the temple area constantly lit. They used a set of special made clay lamps filled with pure pressed olive oil and they were to be kept lit all night.

The devil, on the other hand, is a god of darkness. He lives in darkness and those who worship him stand in darkness.

That darkness carries over into other parts of life too. God is a God of knowledge, the devil is a worshiper of ignorance. The less you know, the better off he is.

God is a God of enlightenment. He wants us to know his will, to learn what he says and to talk about it, to discuss it, to make it part of your inner being. No one ever pleased God by remaining ignorant.

Churches sometimes like ignorance because it gives them the ability to tell people what they want the will of God to be. It may be in the from of church-approved study material that only covers certain aspects of the Christian faith, or it may be in the necessity of their ministers coming from approved schools, schools that “do not teach error.” It may be in limiting the translations you can use to those that are so archaic that it takes an official church-approved interpreter (the minister) to explain it to you.

God always wanted his people to know, to be lit with the light of knowledge and wisdom.

Then and only then can one be truly pleasing to God.

daily java

Daily Java:

You must not offer the blood of my sacrificial offerings together with any baked goods containing yeast. And do not leave the fat from the festival offerings until the next morning As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.  (Exodus 23:18-19)

The old law was a law of micromanaging people’s lives. The laws were exquisitely detailed in their scope. They dealt with every part of the Israelites’ lives.

But we forget something. Mainly that those laws were never intended to be for us in the first place. They were made for a group of people who lived 1500 years ago and continued until the time of Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross and came back to life, he broke that law completely. He finished it, relegating it to the past and making it obsolete.

His new law was different. It was a law of the heart and not one of detail. It was intended to rule one from the inside, rather than the outside.

It was a law that knew that micromanaging would do no good. If one’s heart is not in order, all of the details would do no good.

It said that people are not saved by details, by the number of things they have done. It is a law that recognizes that sooner or later, by design or accident, someone is going to cook a goat in its mother’s milk. And it also says that, whether or not the goat is plain or with cheese, it will not matter if the heart is not saved.

In other words, you can do all of the stuff perfectly and still not have God in your heart. And if you have God in your heart, you will try your best to do what God wants anyway.

The new law took away the need for detail and brought in the need for commitment. And the commitment needs to be from the heart and not just from the actions.

That is the new law. It is a law that says love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22). It is a law that says just because you have not done wrong doesn’t mean anything if your heart is not right (Matthew 5:28).

It is a Royal Law (James 2:8) and it was given us by the King who loves us and wants us to be more like him.

And he is a God of love. When we live in him, even when we make mistakes, we ourselves fill our lives with love.

That is the new law.

daily java

Daily Java:

Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?” Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. And 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. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come. (Matthew 24:3-8)

The apostles wanted a leg up on the opposition. They figured they could ask Jesus and he would tell them when he was coming back. They really weren’t sure where he was coming back from or where he was going or why. But he had talked a lot about it. How would they know when he was coming back.

His answer: you won’t. There won’t be any signs. Things will happen just like they always have happened – wars, threats of wars, problems in the world just like always. But Jesus knew he would come back when God got ready.

You figure, Jesus himself didn’t know when he was coming back. In Mark 13:32, Jesus says: However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

There will be famines, earthquakes, stuff will happen and things will get bad and worse, but God would send him back when he got ready. Nobody has any advance warning. We just need to be ready for when it happens.

No matter what anybody tells you about the state of the world today, and the “signs of the times”, God will do what he wants to do when he is ready. And nobody, not even Jesus, knows when that is.

part of a line

Now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. (Galatians 3:29)

There were people who were instrumental in bringing me to the Lord and in putting me into ministry. And in turn, I have put people into ministry. And they have done the same, as will the people they have touched.

There are people who brought you to the Lord, and hopefully, you have done the same, as will the ones you touch.

All of us are part of a line. And that line begins with Abraham. If we are children of God, we are all spiritual descendants of a man who lived during the stone age more than five thousand years ago. He lived in a country far away, spoke a language that would be unintelligible to us, wore clothing we would consider strange and lived a lifestyle that we would find truly alien. The only thing he has in common with us is his humanity and his faith in God.

Yet he is our spiritual father. The Bible says that, as the children of God, we are his children too. Just as God is our heavenly father, we trace all of our physical spiritual roots back to Abraham.

And as he was faithful, so we strive to be faithful. The Bible tells us that his faith was what saved him, and it is that faith that was handed down to us.

Our service to God is not measured in things, in commands kept, in boxes checked. It is measured in faith. When we believe and have faith in his ability to save, we are saved. We are his.

My father died last year in February. He was probably the most influential in bringing me to a knowledge of God. He had his failings and his blind spots, but so do we all. My children see mine and their children will see theirs. It is the way life goes.

In that same way we see the faults of Abraham. He had trouble trusting God at times and twice lied to save his life. But at the same time, his acts of faith were so strong. And he was known as the father of all who believe (Romans 4:16).

When we come to Jesus, we stand in that line of faithful people. My relatives were all active in their churches going back a long ways. Sister Ella’s were the same, I suppose. There is a line both of us come from that is long and faithful.

Of course, not every relative followed Jesus. Some didn’t and some won’t. But in general, we have.

And it is that line, that huge crowd of witnesses that Hebrews 12 mentions, those who have come before us and stand waiting for us in heaven, that keeps us going strong.

I do not want to let them down. Neither do I want to let my Father down.

So I remain strong and in that line of faithful and I remain faithful. And I serve God.

our apartment in germany

The bed you have made is too short to lie on. The blankets are too narrow to cover you. (Isaiah 28:20)

Our apartment in Germany was so small. How small was it, you ask? It was so small that we had to go out in the hall to change our minds. Ba-dum-dum. Thank you. I will be here all week.

Seriously, though, it was small, probably no bigger than our current living room, which is not very big itself.

But we were newlyweds and really didn’t care at the time. We were together, we were in a fascinating foreign country, eating interesting food (when we could afford it – a GI’s salary was not very big), seeing things we had only read about.

We had a red 1962 Volkswagen with a sun roof and drove around all the time. If we were not driving, we walked, or rode the electric streetcars or the electric trains.

It was great. I had learned some German, Ella was from a German background and looked like everybody else and we would just go out and try to blend in. Of course, I was about six inches taller than most Germans but still, we got to where we looked downright native.

But back to the apartment. It was $200 a month (almost half my salary) and was on the third floor of a doctor’s house. It had two rooms with a bathroom that almost as big as one of the other rooms. We were fortunate in that, as the rest of the people on our floor had to go down the hall to a bathroom. It had an enormous bathtub that Ella washed clothes in. She hung them up to dry on the radiator.

In the main room was a banquette table with two chairs and a L-shaped bench. That was all the seating. There was a little kitchen inside a cupboard and a cabinet for storage. In the bedroom was an odd shaped bed (longer and narrower than American beds) up against the wall with a chifferobe and a dresser. I had also an old German army footlocker at the bottom of the bed. There was about three feet of floor space to do stuff in.

It had two big windows, one in each of the rooms that had shutter things that would come down and seal in the room with no light.

Across the street was a beautiful park that was attached to a Russian university down the street. Beside the Russian university was a Russian Orthodox cathedral used by Czar Nicholas of Russia when he would come to visit the in-laws, Alexandra’s parents. It was inlaid in gold and had a gold mosaic reflecting pool in front of it. (One of the reasons the peasants revolted against the Russian aristocracy).

In front of the apartment was a small cobblestone drive. We had to park a couple of streets down as there was no parking on the street and I didn’t want to pay for parking in the garage attached to the house.

The apartment was tiny. Ella would sit in the window, as German women would do, and watch people walk by. When I came walking up from the car, I would see her, this cute little 19 year old girl, sitting in the window watching for me. She would wave, I would give back a manly wave. I would climb six flights of stairs (something I did so easily that it amazes me) and I would be home.

We were happy. It was our home, our own. And we loved each other. I miss it. It would be horrible to live in such a small space now, but it was all so new.

daily java

Daily Java:

No one could answer him. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.  (Matthew 22:46)

Near the end of Jesus’ life, the questions from the religious leaders got fast and furious. They were trying their level best to trick him into some open heresy that everybody could hear. But they never could.

Every time he answered them, he would answer them with an obscure reference that dealt with their question perfectly. And he, so often, would preface it with “Have you not read?”

Of course, they had read. They were big men, important in the Jewish faith. They had advanced degrees and loved to show off their learning and education. But they were thinking in terms of entrapment, and Jesus was thinking in terms of God’s will. The two do not go well together.

And when he would answer them in such a way as to make them look foolish, it made them so angry. In fact, angry enough to kill him.

They finally got to the point that they didn’t dare ask him anything else. They were into damage control as it was. The crowds loved Jesus’ ability to skewer the leaders and their self-importance. They loved his ability to make those who were making their own lives hard look foolish.

And what was even better, he did it so easily, considering that he was one of them: just an ordinary guy from somewhere ordinary. Jesus was just a carpenter from a small town. He had never been to seminary, he had never had a lot of formal education.

Yet he had the ability to say just the right thing to shut these people up. And the crowds loved it.

But the leaders hated it. And so the plans for Jesus’ death were born. Not out of noble reasons, or heavy religious thought, but out of jealousy.

For the most part, people get mad at church leaders not because of what they say, but because they themselves are not treated as important. To them, Jesus’ problem was that he did not give them the respect they felt they were due. And they were willing to kill because of the jealousy.

In churches, there are people who feel like they should be in charge. And if not in charge, then respected, looked up to, made to feel important. And if they are not, they are willing to drive the preacher and his family out, tear the church up, rip and shred.

Their own desire for preeminence is greater than their desire for the will of God.

They were then, and they are still today.

How it must break Jesus’ heart.

finding my wife

Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed.  (Genesis 2:22-23)

It was April 6, 1969, Easter morning, when I came to the Sun Valley Church of Christ and found my wife.

We had seen each other three times before and the third time we just didn’t click. But I gave it one more chance.

I had gotten a job with the Telephone Company and moved to Houston, TX, and gotten an apartment. I moved on Friday since at that time the Telephone Company employees (as were most companies) were off on Good Friday. I hung around town on Saturday, and then decided to give her one more chance.

I was extremely early that Sunday, as I usually am and always have been. I sat around for an hour before anyone else showed up. Her family was the first.

She got out of the car and was wearing a delft blue dress (white with a soft blue pattern). I was wearing my usual church clothes: black pants, white shirt, tie and a black and white checked sport coat. Mr Cool.

She was surprised to see me. I am not sure she knew for sure that I really was planning to move there or if that was just a line.

That night, I picked her up to go with me to church. Before church, we went and got ice cream at Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. She was wearing a pink dress with pearlescent hose. The dress was kind of short and rode up when she got out of the car. She was embarrassed. I looked.

We hit it off great. In fact, I had supper at her house that next Thursday night (I ended up eating there almost every night). And our first date was the next week – on a weeknight! – when we went to Piccadilly Cafeteria for supper. Her friends were astounded, her parents were perplexed. She had always been such a shy girl and now dates on a school night. Fortunately she was an honor student so her grades were no problem.

Our first real date was to the Jr-Sr Prom alternative the Houston area Churches of Christ had each year. It was a formal affair. I wore a white dinner jacket (like the one James Bond wore), she had a yellow formal with long white gloves.

One of my favorite pictures is me trying to pin her corsage to her dress. I had never done that and hadn’t a clue how. We finally made it.

It was an all night affair, a formal dinner at a fancy hotel ballroom to begin with followed by bowling and then with a movie – Funny Girl.

The night ended with breakfast at a church about 6 in the morning. I went to sleep driving on the way home and we almost crashed. We stopped at a Dot Coffee Shop for a break.

As many things do in life, it seems so short ago. But it was forty-three years ago this April.

Life goes so fast. We dated, I got drafted into the army, I came home and we got married and lived for six months in Germany, we came home. I worked a few jobs then went to seminary and started preaching. The children were born, grew up and got married themselves. My hair has turned gray, hers is going.

And I still look when her dress comes up.

The Lord God made her for me and when I saw her, I said “At last.”

daily java

Daily Java:

Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. “If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”  (Exodus 16:1-3)

The Israelites had a point. God had told them to go into the wilderness to be delivered from slavery. But the problem was, were they being delivered from the fat into the fire? Was the delivery worse than the slavery?

It is easy to be down on the Israelites. But the problem was, they were afraid. They were out in the middle of nowhere and they were running out of supplies. What were they going to do?

God had promised to take care of them, but their children were beginning to get hungry. They had plenty of god and jewels and such, because the Egyptians had given them anything they wanted just to leave after the last plague, the death of all the Egyptian first born sons. But you cannot eat gold. What were they going to do?

So they turned on Moses. Since they couldn’t see or touch God, they held Moses responsible for all the things happening to them. That, of course, is the downside of being in charge. You get the blame as well as the credit.

They began to glorify their life in Egypt. They were slaves, ordered about by stern taskmasters, people who delighted in making their lives miserable. But they had enough (at least in their minds) to eat. Pots of meat, all the bread they could eat, a great life they had in Egypt. In between whippings, they had a wonderful time. In between 14 hour days making brick under deadline with not enough material, they were really happy. Sitting around full, content, happy.

That was all in their minds, of course. The reality of the good old days is always worse than the memory. But in their minds, it was strong. They were better off doing things the way they had done them before even though it wasn’t a good life.

The same thing happened a little further down in the chapter when they got thirsty. “Did you bring us out here to die?” they scream.

It is a truth that people are never happy. They always remember their past with fondness and their future with fear. It has always been like that.

I know things did not always go well for me as a young man, but I remember it as a good time for which, sometimes, I yearn to recover. I was strong, I was healthy, I had a lot of dark hair, my wife was healthy and pain free. But I forget the times we had such financial trouble, the problems that came up in a new marriage, all of the attendant difficulties that came with being young.

Would I go back? Yes, in a New York minute. Would I be happier? Probably not. I would have to face all these difficulties again.

Were the Israelites happy in Egypt? No, they were slaves under a brutal master. Would they be happier there than in the wilderness? No, because they would still be slaves under a brutal master. In the desert, even with its problems, they were a free nation.

That came with some problems, of course, some uncertainties, some difficulties, some fear. But it also came with the blessing of being God’s free nation.

I don’t think they ever figured this out. They went from being mad at God for not speaking enough, to being mad at his prophets for speaking Too much (at least in their viewpoint). They worshiped every idol in sight until God finally punished them by taking away their free country, then they worshiped his law trying to get it back.

They could never worship him, just simply accept him. And their national fear made them angry, lashing out at anyone who disagreed with them

A sad bunch of people.

daily java

Daily Java:

When Jesus returned to the Temple and began teaching, the leading priests and elders came up to him. They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?” “I’ll tell you by what authority I do these things if you answer one question,” Jesus 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 us why we didn’t believe John. But if we say it was merely human, we’ll be mobbed because the people believe John was a prophet.” So they finally replied, “We don’t know.” And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”  (Matthew 21:23-27)

Jesus had shown miracle after miracle. He had given scripture after scripture to show that what he was doing was from God. He had debated and discussed and everything he could possibly do. And still the religious leaders would not believe.

And they came to him yet again demanding to know by what authority Jesus did these things.

But one thing Jesus was not. He was not a patsy, subject to other people’s whims.

He had shown his authority and they had refused to see it. What they wanted was to push him into doing more miracles, or giving some special ultra-secret sign that only they would recognize. The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had one thing they did not: a powerful presence of God in what he did.

And they wanted it badly. But if they could not have it, they would not let Jesus have it either. They would continue to badger him and push him and hassle him until one day he finally gives up out of frustration.

Of course, Jesus didn’t do this. And that made them madder.

They demanded his authority again. Jesus had gotten tired of all the silliness and asked them a question. Did John have authority from God, yes or no?

They were caught on the horns of a dilemma. If they said yes, Jesus would ask them why they refused to hear it. If they said no, a lot of people would be mad, as John was a very popular guy.

So they took the middle road: we don’t know. That was the answer Jesus expected, and told them in essence that they would not recognize authority if it came up and bit them on the ankle.

And furthermore, it was worthless to discuss it with them, since they were too foolish to recognize the authority of God when it was right in front of them.

There are those who will not recognize God’s authority. They will carp and gripe and tell you that you are not “anointed” (the death phrase for Pentecostal preachers) and plain refuse to listen to you.

But that really means nothing. It is God who gives the authority, not men. Men may ordain you, but that ordination really means little in the great scheme of things. What matters is that your authority comes from God. And when it comes from God, people can not take it away.

On the other hand, that means that people may not recognize it either. They refused to recognize Jesus’ authority, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any. It just meant that the people who were riding him were foolish.

Sometimes you cannot reason with people. And sometimes you cannot do enough to please them. They have made up their minds and you could raise dead people all around and they would refuse to recognize any authority on you.

All you can do is what Jesus did: just keep on doing what you are supposed to do. And God will bless you.