September 1, 1996
What kind of qualities are the most helpful in getting you to the top of the ladder of success? If we take for granted that you actually have the skills needed to do the job, then you likely will be told to take the offensive, be bold, aggressive, assertive, forceful, and zealous.
It seems like businesses are looking for middle linebackers to take a killer instinct into the work place. Governments and politicians on both sides of the issue aggressively demonize the other side. It's hard to find anyone who really wants to play a genuinely friendly game of touch football!
The common assumption is that if you are not forceful and bold you will be ground up in the stampede. This assumption was developed into a full blown philosophy by Fredrick Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a German theologian Hitler studied and applied.
Nietzsche said the biggest mistake Jesus ever made was saying, "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth." He reversed it and made his own beatitude. It reads, "Assert yourself, it is the arrogant who take over the earth." See how this appealed to Hitler?
I suppose most of us in our more honest moments would admit we're not especially attracted to the quality of meekness. Most of us have experienced pushy people getting ahead, stepping on us in the process. We don't like it. So when things aren't going our way at home, or work, or in the neighborhood, our strategy of first resort- at least some of the time- is to push back!
But when we read in God's work that the proof of God's presence in our lives is a different response: Galatians 5:22, 23 says, "...gentleness and self-control." The word for gentleness is the very same word for meek in Matthew 5:5
Gentleness or meekness is a symptom of being filled with God's spirit. Does it surprise you that this is a character quality God says must be planted in your heart? Many of us would agree if it is ever going to happen it will take an operation of God to pull it off (I can't grit my teeth and do it), but why is God so insistent on this quality?
To answer that question let's first find out what this quality does not consist of. Then let's look at an accurate definition. Finally we can look at its relevance to our families, neighborhoods, jobs, and our church. How important is gentleness to our lives?
First, what it isn't: obviously it is not a know-it-all attitude; it is not demanding, dogmatic, pushy, domineering, overbearing, harsh, or abrasive. This should almost go without saying, but sometimes when preachers are done defining and redefining, some point that seemed obvious is suddenly confusing.
But now the not so obvious: The English dictionaries define "meekness" as: shy, compliant, passive, spiritless, submissive, weak, and yielding. It is no wonder we don't like the word. Here we see a graphic example of how language changes. In 1611 when the King James Version translators used the word "meekness" to translate the original word, prautes, it had a much different meaning in English. This is why we need to keep updating our Bible translations: because language is a constantly changing thing.
Another of today's dictionary translations of meekness is timid or cowardly; but Revelations 21:8 lists eight kind of people who will go to hell. Among them are the usual suspects: murderers, the sexually immoral, liars, but the very first quality listed is "the cowardly." Obviously meekness or gentleness is NOT the same as a spineless, weak kneed, fainthearted doormat because those people are going to Hell!
So now we must move on to a working definition. Aristotle defined prautes as the middle point between too much anger and too much apathy. A meek person got angry for the right reasons, at the right time and to the right degree. It is passion under control.
Gentleness is not weakness, rather it is a cool headed dignity, a poise, or composure that frees a person from compulsively proving how strong they really are. It was a word used to describe a spirited animal that had been well trained.
Hadden Robinson tells about a young soldier in the Greek Peloponnesian wars who wrote his fiancée about a gift he had for her. It was a white stallion. He described it as "the most magnificent animal I have ever seen. He responds obediently to the slightest command. He allows his master to direct him to his fullest potential." And then he wrote, "he is a meek horse."
No one would mistake this stallion for an old plow horse that would let you beat it and abuse it and it would just stand there. He meant it was a spirited, powerful horse, disciplined and under control. It was a powerful horse with composure!
Read Matthew 21: 1-13 (11:29)
Jesus is the perfect example of gentleness. He was never a bully nor was He ever a doormat. He could wash the disciples' feet, and He could rebuke them with very stinging remarks. He was not schizophrenic. He was all the power of God under perfect control and composure.
So what is the relevance of this quality for you and me? I think there is a lot of evidence to prove that the arrogant and pushy do not "inherit the earth." They may reek havoc for a while, but do they ever establish ultimate control?
Hitler applied Nietzsche's beatitude to the full and ended up in a musty, smelly bunker with his only option suicide. Down through history nations such as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Rome seemed invincible; leaders like Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin appeared in control.
Appearances are deceiving. At the height of his power, Stain slept in seven different bedrooms in a randomly selected fashion- each with an elaborate locking system. He always had five limousines travel together with the curtains drawn. He had a special guardian for his tea bags. Does he sound like someone enjoying his control? Or even in control?
Even if you want to consider an individual unknown, how far does a cocky, abrasive, know-it-all really get? No one actually wants a rude, self-seeking person as a close friend. Power hungry people are routinely lonely.
Pride, arrogance, or conceit is a weird disease. It makes everyone sick except the person who has it. And it usually puts a target on the back of that person. As the mother whale said to her baby, "When you get to the surface and start to blow, that is when you get harpooned."
Nietzsche's beatitude is really a curse. It is fairly accurate, even in this world to say: Cursed are the cocky, the arrogant, and the boastful; unhappy are the elbowing, the pushy, the crowding, doomed are the hot-headed, the unapologetic, and the rude- they are miserable here on earth and have no hope of heaven.
But the need for gentleness reveals our weakness. We cannot grit our teeth, bend our back, clinch our jaw and turn ourselves into gentle people. It is a result of the Spirit living in us. Without the Holy Spirit, people with strength use it selfishly, and people without strength hate those who have it. With the Spirit, you can be a content person, a person of composure, a person confident in God's resources.
Showing posts with label Matthew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matthew. Show all posts
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Fruit of Patience
July 7, 1996
One of the most marked characteristics of our time is impatience. We're always in a hurry and we want everyone else to hurry. This is dangerous.
Several years ago a Navy jet fighter shot itself down over the Nevada desert while testing a new cannon mounted on its wing. The plane was flying at supersonic speed but the shells were subsonic. The jet actually ran into its own shells which had been fired several seconds earlier. It was traveling too fast for its own good.
In a culture that loves fast food, one-hour-photo processing, one hour dry cleaning, CLIF notes, and cramming for finals, waiting seems like a throwback to evolution. Yet the Bible describes many benefits of patience. It says, "A patient man has great understanding, but a quick tempered man displays folly" (Proverbs 14:29). "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city" (Proverbs 16:32). "Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone" (Proverbs 25:15).
I would love to have a great understanding, calm quarrels, be better than a warrior, and be able to persuade rulers. I would like to be a patient man, but I'm so impatient with the process that it takes to acquire patience.
I am not the only Christian who has wants to get patience and spiritual maturity- right now! Rick Warren writes, "With book titles like Four Easy Steps to Maturity and The Key to Instant Sainthood doing well in Christian book stores, it would seem a lot of folks are looking for shortcuts."
Christians get fooled by looking for a spiritual encounter that will be the end instead of a beginning. They look for a seminar or a revival speaker, or a book that will instantly transform them into a mature believer. This kind of search is futile. We may be able to make instant coffee, instant potatoes, liposuction for instant weight loss, but there is no such thing as instant maturity. Some Christians have spent so much time looking for the magic short cut- that ten years after they began their journey with Jesus, they are as immature in faith as the day they started. Spiritual growth takes time, patience, and waiting for Jesus to guide.
The good news is, you can become more patient by understanding and also practicing the Bible's teaching on patience. Start with Galatians 5:22.
This verse reminds us that the indwelling Spirit provides resources to resist and defeat impatience.
Impatience ultimately is a question of confidence in God, and especially His timing. That doesn't mean waiting is supposed to be fun. In Psalm 13:1 David expressed his pain in waiting when he asked, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" This is during a time where David is running from Saul with a price on his head.
Who likes to wait? Who chooses the long lines at the bank or grocery store? Who says, when you don't get the check you were expecting in the mail, "O good, I get to wait at least one more day?" But really this (lines, letters, phone calls) is minor league stuff. What about the waiting of a childless couple for a baby? Or the waiting of an unemployed person for a job? Or the waiting of a sick person for health? Or the waiting of a single person for marriage?
Waiting is one of the big challenges of life. But pushing down closed doors isn't a lot of fun either. In fact, one of the definitions of patience is, "a willingness to wait rather than try to force circumstances." Impatience is "not putting up with delay." Patience is putting up with irritations whether they come in the form of people or circumstances.
It is easier to joke about patience than to be patient. Frequently Christians advice each other to not pray for patience because if God is going to develop patience in you, He will have to allow frustrating people and circumstances to cross your path. But if that is true, you shouldn't pray for more Christian love, either. You see, Christians love their enemies. You don't impress God when you love an easy to love person. You impress God by loving the hard to love. It is easy to be at peace when things are going good. Real peace is for times of outward chaos.
In fact, God produces more intense levels of the fruit of the Spirit by allowing us to experience the opposite challenges. God is far more concerned with our character than our comfort and prosperity. His plan is to bring us to maturity not please our every whim. God may be so serious about developing patience in you that He will allow some of your wants, and dreams, and perhaps even needs to be delayed.
More often, we create our own school for patience by insisting on short cuts and quick fixes. The farther we get from an agricultural setting (fruit of love, peace, joy, etc), the easier it is to expect short cuts. There are very few short cuts on the farm.
The law of the farm is without mercy. Stephen Covey asks," Can you imagine a farmer forgetting to plant in the spring, taking a long summer vacation, and then hitting it hard in the fall- "ripping the soil up, throwing in the seeds, watering, cultivating- and expecting to get a bountiful harvest overnight?"
Can you imagine planning to run a marathon but not training until the day before? Students violate the law of the farm all the time. They play all semester and then cram during finals week. Some even think they've learned something when they get a passing grade.
Urgency is a challenge to patience. God defines urgency differently than I do. It is amazing that Jesus was never in a hurry. There are no pictures of Jesus frantically scrambling in a chaotic frenzy. He came on the most important mission the world has ever had, yet He never panicked or looked for short cuts or was in a hurry.
Charles Hammel writes, "We live in a constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is, the important task rarely must be done today, or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study, a visit with a non-Christian friend, careful study of an important book: These projects can wait. But the urgent tasks call for instant action - endless demands, pressure every hour and day."
Patience can sort out the unimportant, urgent demands from matters of importance. But the best kind of patience is supernatural patience. You get this through close intimate contact with Jesus. Jesus invites you to Himself- in one place- specifically in order to set you free from "the tyranny of the urgent."
Read Matthew 11:28-30.
In this passage, Jesus addresses several issues that deal directly with the concerns of an impatient person. First, Jesus knows all about your impatience. He knows you are wearied, and burdened, and irritated, and annoyed with the demands of the urgent. You're just the person He is looking for. He wants you with all your frustration, and irritation, and impatience to come to Him.
Second, Jesus wants to give you a new way to live. To do this He proposes an exchange of yokes. A yoke is a kind of harness, normally used to pair up two animals so they can pull a plow. It was also used in the ancient world by conquering armies to subjugate defeated foes and make them slaves. Ancient rabbis also spoke of their schools as yokes. In a symbolic way, when you entered a certain rabbi's school, you took on his yoke.
Now Jesus proposes an exchange of yokes. You have one that is irritating, heavy, and burdensome. He has one that is light and very comfortable. Now your question is- why do I have to wear a yoke at all? In fact, some of you are saying, "I don't wear a yoke!" I say you do, and more importantly the Bible says you do, but if you insist you don't- I'm sure you are a very happy person never touched by grief, emptiness, loneliness, or confusion!
I'm inclined to think that yokes are temporary (70-90 years tops)- just for this life. After we've learned what Jesus wants to teach us in this life, we won't need a yoke in the next life. At any rate, our sin has created a heavy and irritating yoke which we are tied to and Jesus wants to make the exchange.
It is interesting that the Old Testament forbid a mature ox and a young ox to be yoked together on identical terms. In this situation a training yoke was required. The mature animal carried a much heavier side and the way it was arranged, pulled a far bigger share of the load. All the younger ox had to do was walk in step with the mature animal. The young, rambunctious trainee had to give up the right to lead, the right to choose the course, and the pace, but they also did not have the responsibility for carrying the burden.
As we team up with Jesus, He will carry the heavy part of the burden and set the pace and choose the direction that fits us. The impatient disciple/apprentice will want to pull ahead, or go around the difficult terrain or take a short cut to the barn. Jesus is never in a hurry! You and I almost always are. Our impatience wears us out. Sometimes we think Jesus wears us out, but that is not the case. Jesus said He wants to, "Give you rest." Have you ever noticed how the impatient want to skip the rest stops- they are uncomfortable with a day off? If they have to stop for a break, they're pushing others to, "hurry back so we can get going!"
The weekly day of rest is God's idea. Waiting is a spiritual event. David who waited ten years to become king after he had been anointed wrote, "Wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). God does not come to the impatient. He does not show up for those who are not waiting.
The prophet Isaiah said, "Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not fall" (Isaiah 41: 30, 31).
Jesus knows your frustration and the source of your impatience, He wants to exchange your heavy and irritating harness for His easy and light one. You need to let Him carry the load, choose the direction, and set the pace. It will involve waiting on occasion, but it is in these times that He is giving you rest.
David reported in Psalm 40:1, "I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry."
One of the most marked characteristics of our time is impatience. We're always in a hurry and we want everyone else to hurry. This is dangerous.
Several years ago a Navy jet fighter shot itself down over the Nevada desert while testing a new cannon mounted on its wing. The plane was flying at supersonic speed but the shells were subsonic. The jet actually ran into its own shells which had been fired several seconds earlier. It was traveling too fast for its own good.
In a culture that loves fast food, one-hour-photo processing, one hour dry cleaning, CLIF notes, and cramming for finals, waiting seems like a throwback to evolution. Yet the Bible describes many benefits of patience. It says, "A patient man has great understanding, but a quick tempered man displays folly" (Proverbs 14:29). "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city" (Proverbs 16:32). "Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone" (Proverbs 25:15).
I would love to have a great understanding, calm quarrels, be better than a warrior, and be able to persuade rulers. I would like to be a patient man, but I'm so impatient with the process that it takes to acquire patience.
I am not the only Christian who has wants to get patience and spiritual maturity- right now! Rick Warren writes, "With book titles like Four Easy Steps to Maturity and The Key to Instant Sainthood doing well in Christian book stores, it would seem a lot of folks are looking for shortcuts."
Christians get fooled by looking for a spiritual encounter that will be the end instead of a beginning. They look for a seminar or a revival speaker, or a book that will instantly transform them into a mature believer. This kind of search is futile. We may be able to make instant coffee, instant potatoes, liposuction for instant weight loss, but there is no such thing as instant maturity. Some Christians have spent so much time looking for the magic short cut- that ten years after they began their journey with Jesus, they are as immature in faith as the day they started. Spiritual growth takes time, patience, and waiting for Jesus to guide.
The good news is, you can become more patient by understanding and also practicing the Bible's teaching on patience. Start with Galatians 5:22.
This verse reminds us that the indwelling Spirit provides resources to resist and defeat impatience.
Impatience ultimately is a question of confidence in God, and especially His timing. That doesn't mean waiting is supposed to be fun. In Psalm 13:1 David expressed his pain in waiting when he asked, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" This is during a time where David is running from Saul with a price on his head.
Who likes to wait? Who chooses the long lines at the bank or grocery store? Who says, when you don't get the check you were expecting in the mail, "O good, I get to wait at least one more day?" But really this (lines, letters, phone calls) is minor league stuff. What about the waiting of a childless couple for a baby? Or the waiting of an unemployed person for a job? Or the waiting of a sick person for health? Or the waiting of a single person for marriage?
Waiting is one of the big challenges of life. But pushing down closed doors isn't a lot of fun either. In fact, one of the definitions of patience is, "a willingness to wait rather than try to force circumstances." Impatience is "not putting up with delay." Patience is putting up with irritations whether they come in the form of people or circumstances.
It is easier to joke about patience than to be patient. Frequently Christians advice each other to not pray for patience because if God is going to develop patience in you, He will have to allow frustrating people and circumstances to cross your path. But if that is true, you shouldn't pray for more Christian love, either. You see, Christians love their enemies. You don't impress God when you love an easy to love person. You impress God by loving the hard to love. It is easy to be at peace when things are going good. Real peace is for times of outward chaos.
In fact, God produces more intense levels of the fruit of the Spirit by allowing us to experience the opposite challenges. God is far more concerned with our character than our comfort and prosperity. His plan is to bring us to maturity not please our every whim. God may be so serious about developing patience in you that He will allow some of your wants, and dreams, and perhaps even needs to be delayed.
More often, we create our own school for patience by insisting on short cuts and quick fixes. The farther we get from an agricultural setting (fruit of love, peace, joy, etc), the easier it is to expect short cuts. There are very few short cuts on the farm.
The law of the farm is without mercy. Stephen Covey asks," Can you imagine a farmer forgetting to plant in the spring, taking a long summer vacation, and then hitting it hard in the fall- "ripping the soil up, throwing in the seeds, watering, cultivating- and expecting to get a bountiful harvest overnight?"
Can you imagine planning to run a marathon but not training until the day before? Students violate the law of the farm all the time. They play all semester and then cram during finals week. Some even think they've learned something when they get a passing grade.
Urgency is a challenge to patience. God defines urgency differently than I do. It is amazing that Jesus was never in a hurry. There are no pictures of Jesus frantically scrambling in a chaotic frenzy. He came on the most important mission the world has ever had, yet He never panicked or looked for short cuts or was in a hurry.
Charles Hammel writes, "We live in a constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is, the important task rarely must be done today, or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study, a visit with a non-Christian friend, careful study of an important book: These projects can wait. But the urgent tasks call for instant action - endless demands, pressure every hour and day."
Patience can sort out the unimportant, urgent demands from matters of importance. But the best kind of patience is supernatural patience. You get this through close intimate contact with Jesus. Jesus invites you to Himself- in one place- specifically in order to set you free from "the tyranny of the urgent."
Read Matthew 11:28-30.
In this passage, Jesus addresses several issues that deal directly with the concerns of an impatient person. First, Jesus knows all about your impatience. He knows you are wearied, and burdened, and irritated, and annoyed with the demands of the urgent. You're just the person He is looking for. He wants you with all your frustration, and irritation, and impatience to come to Him.
Second, Jesus wants to give you a new way to live. To do this He proposes an exchange of yokes. A yoke is a kind of harness, normally used to pair up two animals so they can pull a plow. It was also used in the ancient world by conquering armies to subjugate defeated foes and make them slaves. Ancient rabbis also spoke of their schools as yokes. In a symbolic way, when you entered a certain rabbi's school, you took on his yoke.
Now Jesus proposes an exchange of yokes. You have one that is irritating, heavy, and burdensome. He has one that is light and very comfortable. Now your question is- why do I have to wear a yoke at all? In fact, some of you are saying, "I don't wear a yoke!" I say you do, and more importantly the Bible says you do, but if you insist you don't- I'm sure you are a very happy person never touched by grief, emptiness, loneliness, or confusion!
I'm inclined to think that yokes are temporary (70-90 years tops)- just for this life. After we've learned what Jesus wants to teach us in this life, we won't need a yoke in the next life. At any rate, our sin has created a heavy and irritating yoke which we are tied to and Jesus wants to make the exchange.
It is interesting that the Old Testament forbid a mature ox and a young ox to be yoked together on identical terms. In this situation a training yoke was required. The mature animal carried a much heavier side and the way it was arranged, pulled a far bigger share of the load. All the younger ox had to do was walk in step with the mature animal. The young, rambunctious trainee had to give up the right to lead, the right to choose the course, and the pace, but they also did not have the responsibility for carrying the burden.
As we team up with Jesus, He will carry the heavy part of the burden and set the pace and choose the direction that fits us. The impatient disciple/apprentice will want to pull ahead, or go around the difficult terrain or take a short cut to the barn. Jesus is never in a hurry! You and I almost always are. Our impatience wears us out. Sometimes we think Jesus wears us out, but that is not the case. Jesus said He wants to, "Give you rest." Have you ever noticed how the impatient want to skip the rest stops- they are uncomfortable with a day off? If they have to stop for a break, they're pushing others to, "hurry back so we can get going!"
The weekly day of rest is God's idea. Waiting is a spiritual event. David who waited ten years to become king after he had been anointed wrote, "Wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). God does not come to the impatient. He does not show up for those who are not waiting.
The prophet Isaiah said, "Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not fall" (Isaiah 41: 30, 31).
Jesus knows your frustration and the source of your impatience, He wants to exchange your heavy and irritating harness for His easy and light one. You need to let Him carry the load, choose the direction, and set the pace. It will involve waiting on occasion, but it is in these times that He is giving you rest.
David reported in Psalm 40:1, "I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Fruit of Peace
June 30, 1996
How many of you have seen a bulldog ant? They're native to Australia, and since I've never been there, I don't believe I've ever seen one. But I am told, if you cut a bulldog ant in half, the two halves will enter into a savage fight. The head will seize its own hind quarters with its teeth, and the tail will sting the head with a fierceness. The fight might last for hours.
Have some of you ever felt like that on the inside? Like two significant parts of yourself were fighting each other? Do you ever wonder if contentment is an illusion? By the way, who is more contented: the person with a million dollars or the person with ten children? Obviously it is the man with ten children because he doesn't want any more!
The Bible says, "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." The same could be said for anxiety, or fretfulness or just about any flavor of discontentment.
Some kinds of anxiety are normal. Most of us feel a little anxiety prior to a dentist appointment, or during a driver's test, or at our own wedding. You and I can understand Job when he says, "I have no peace, no quietness; I have felt no rest, but only turmoil." "Don't worry, be happy!" would be a sick doctor's prescription for Job after what he had been through (loss of all assets, all children, and horrible physical affliction). But even Job was able to work through his affliction and heartache, and find restored peace by relying on God's resources.
Is it an exaggeration to say just about all of you have a strong desire to experience peace? Students, homemakers, career people, unemployed, and the retired - all of you would give a lot to enjoy long lasting peace of mind.
What is it that robs you of peace? Who are the people who have your number? What makes you discontent, anxious, and fearful? Would you like the answer to peace? You can enjoy peace by following the lessons found in the New Testament. Let's start with Galatians 5:16-26.
Peace is one of the ingredients in the fruit of the Spirit. It is a quality that spontaneously produces itself when the believer is under the direction of the Spirit of God - who is also called "the God of Peace."
I used to think of peace as the absence of something: conflict, trouble, guilt... But the Bible doesn't stop there. It makes peace a positive quality. Yes, it is the absence of conflict and all the rest, but it is the positive presence of those things that make for a "wholesome prosperity," such as the ability to work for a living and a supportive family, community, and God.
This kind of peace doesn't come from reading self-help books that teach you how to be more assertive so you can get your way. People who seem to always get their way are as plagued with discontentment as the rest of us.
Tranquility is not a product of mind altering drugs. Certainly there is a temporary escape that, by many testimonies, is highly pleasurable, but the side effects destroy peace rather than create it.
Peace is a product of living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but the first step toward peace is described by Paul in Romans 5:1, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Peace with God makes possible peace within, which makes possible peace with people, which makes possible peace with nations. I'll say it again. We won't have peace in the world until we have peace in our neighborhood and families. We won't have peace in our family until we have peace within ourselves, and we can't have peace within ourselves until we have peace with God.
You and I have peace because we have accepted God's forgiveness, based on Jesus' life work. Peace with God brings peace within. The first requirement for peace, then, is a restored relationship with God. You can take your guilt and badness to Jesus and exchange it for purity and wholeness.
It sounds too good to be true, and Satan will do everything possible to keep you from the exchange. Even after you've made it, he will try to steal your peace. He will trigger memories of past moral failures using a piece of music, or TV ad, or face in a crowd; and you will think, "I can't be forgiven!" But this is the deal Jesus wants to make: your failures for His success.
He made it personal when He said in John 14, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
Jesus called it His own peace, because He is the one who achieved it for you. The prophet said, "He was wounded and crushed for our moral failures; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5).
The first step toward peace is to accept God's deal: bring all the corruption of your sin out from under the rug you've swept it under, and give it to Jesus. Then receive back from Him total forgiveness and power to live right.
The second step is to offer forgiveness to those who've hurt you. This affects your inner peace as much as it does your social peace. Forgiving is not an easy thing to do. If it was easy it wouldn't be called forgiveness. It would be called oh-that-doesn't-matter-it-wasn't-important-anyway-ness! If someone hurt you accidentally then they need to be excused. They didn't mean it, they were clumsy. Forgiveness is not excusing.
Forgiveness is hard, but so is bitterness, and a vengeful attitude, and festering anger. They ruin your peace and probably don't even annoy the one you're upset with. No wonder Jesus said, "If you forgive men when they sin against you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14,15).
In Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom shares her difficult story of forgiving one of her cruelest guards from the concentration camp. For the excerpt, click here. Her weakness illustrates not only the need to forgive, but the third lesson: the need to make mid-course corrections in our walk with the Holy Spirit.
The quality of this inner peace may be a good barometer, tracking change in your relationship with Jesus. Anytime you feel a tugging dis-ease it might be time to ask, "Who is first in my life?" A lack of tranquility may be a signal that someone or something has taken Jesus' place as master.
Read Matthew 10:34-39.
This is an astounding passage. Frankly it is strange sounding. We've already heard Jesus say, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you." Now He says, He didn't come to bring peace but a sword. The crusaders took this passage in a crudely literalistic way.
Some Christians slip back into a dangerous lifestyle of compromise. They want the blessing of God - His peace - and they give up most of their old life that was wrong, but there remains one secret thing they want God to ignore.
Now what do you suggest? Should Jesus allow them to feel contentment? The person who grows content without Jesus, is in the worst of all possible positions - like a person content to camp right next to a raging out of control forest fire saying, "I don't mind a little heat."
Jesus said He came to run a sword through the heart of that kind of contentment. That kind of contentment leads to hell, not abundant life or eternal life.
In the Old Testament, once in a while a prophet would come along and preach nice sounding words to the backslidden nation. They would say, "All is well - all is well; Peace and prosperity." God judged them very harshly for feeding contentment to a people who needed a wake-up call.
Jesus came to destroy false peace, the wrong kind of contentment, so that you can enjoy real peace. Real peace comes through accepting God's forgiveness, offering real forgiveness to those who've hurt us, and making mid-course adjustments when you or I begin to find inner peace outside of Jesus' will.
The Bible says, "the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit (indicating occasional course corrections) is life and peace."
Real peace is found in:
How many of you have seen a bulldog ant? They're native to Australia, and since I've never been there, I don't believe I've ever seen one. But I am told, if you cut a bulldog ant in half, the two halves will enter into a savage fight. The head will seize its own hind quarters with its teeth, and the tail will sting the head with a fierceness. The fight might last for hours.
Have some of you ever felt like that on the inside? Like two significant parts of yourself were fighting each other? Do you ever wonder if contentment is an illusion? By the way, who is more contented: the person with a million dollars or the person with ten children? Obviously it is the man with ten children because he doesn't want any more!
The Bible says, "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." The same could be said for anxiety, or fretfulness or just about any flavor of discontentment.
Some kinds of anxiety are normal. Most of us feel a little anxiety prior to a dentist appointment, or during a driver's test, or at our own wedding. You and I can understand Job when he says, "I have no peace, no quietness; I have felt no rest, but only turmoil." "Don't worry, be happy!" would be a sick doctor's prescription for Job after what he had been through (loss of all assets, all children, and horrible physical affliction). But even Job was able to work through his affliction and heartache, and find restored peace by relying on God's resources.
Is it an exaggeration to say just about all of you have a strong desire to experience peace? Students, homemakers, career people, unemployed, and the retired - all of you would give a lot to enjoy long lasting peace of mind.
What is it that robs you of peace? Who are the people who have your number? What makes you discontent, anxious, and fearful? Would you like the answer to peace? You can enjoy peace by following the lessons found in the New Testament. Let's start with Galatians 5:16-26.
Peace is one of the ingredients in the fruit of the Spirit. It is a quality that spontaneously produces itself when the believer is under the direction of the Spirit of God - who is also called "the God of Peace."
I used to think of peace as the absence of something: conflict, trouble, guilt... But the Bible doesn't stop there. It makes peace a positive quality. Yes, it is the absence of conflict and all the rest, but it is the positive presence of those things that make for a "wholesome prosperity," such as the ability to work for a living and a supportive family, community, and God.
This kind of peace doesn't come from reading self-help books that teach you how to be more assertive so you can get your way. People who seem to always get their way are as plagued with discontentment as the rest of us.
Tranquility is not a product of mind altering drugs. Certainly there is a temporary escape that, by many testimonies, is highly pleasurable, but the side effects destroy peace rather than create it.
Peace is a product of living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but the first step toward peace is described by Paul in Romans 5:1, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Peace with God makes possible peace within, which makes possible peace with people, which makes possible peace with nations. I'll say it again. We won't have peace in the world until we have peace in our neighborhood and families. We won't have peace in our family until we have peace within ourselves, and we can't have peace within ourselves until we have peace with God.
You and I have peace because we have accepted God's forgiveness, based on Jesus' life work. Peace with God brings peace within. The first requirement for peace, then, is a restored relationship with God. You can take your guilt and badness to Jesus and exchange it for purity and wholeness.
It sounds too good to be true, and Satan will do everything possible to keep you from the exchange. Even after you've made it, he will try to steal your peace. He will trigger memories of past moral failures using a piece of music, or TV ad, or face in a crowd; and you will think, "I can't be forgiven!" But this is the deal Jesus wants to make: your failures for His success.
He made it personal when He said in John 14, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
Jesus called it His own peace, because He is the one who achieved it for you. The prophet said, "He was wounded and crushed for our moral failures; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5).
The first step toward peace is to accept God's deal: bring all the corruption of your sin out from under the rug you've swept it under, and give it to Jesus. Then receive back from Him total forgiveness and power to live right.
The second step is to offer forgiveness to those who've hurt you. This affects your inner peace as much as it does your social peace. Forgiving is not an easy thing to do. If it was easy it wouldn't be called forgiveness. It would be called oh-that-doesn't-matter-it-wasn't-important-anyway-ness! If someone hurt you accidentally then they need to be excused. They didn't mean it, they were clumsy. Forgiveness is not excusing.
Forgiveness is hard, but so is bitterness, and a vengeful attitude, and festering anger. They ruin your peace and probably don't even annoy the one you're upset with. No wonder Jesus said, "If you forgive men when they sin against you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14,15).
In Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom shares her difficult story of forgiving one of her cruelest guards from the concentration camp. For the excerpt, click here. Her weakness illustrates not only the need to forgive, but the third lesson: the need to make mid-course corrections in our walk with the Holy Spirit.
The quality of this inner peace may be a good barometer, tracking change in your relationship with Jesus. Anytime you feel a tugging dis-ease it might be time to ask, "Who is first in my life?" A lack of tranquility may be a signal that someone or something has taken Jesus' place as master.
Read Matthew 10:34-39.
This is an astounding passage. Frankly it is strange sounding. We've already heard Jesus say, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you." Now He says, He didn't come to bring peace but a sword. The crusaders took this passage in a crudely literalistic way.
Some Christians slip back into a dangerous lifestyle of compromise. They want the blessing of God - His peace - and they give up most of their old life that was wrong, but there remains one secret thing they want God to ignore.
Now what do you suggest? Should Jesus allow them to feel contentment? The person who grows content without Jesus, is in the worst of all possible positions - like a person content to camp right next to a raging out of control forest fire saying, "I don't mind a little heat."
Jesus said He came to run a sword through the heart of that kind of contentment. That kind of contentment leads to hell, not abundant life or eternal life.
In the Old Testament, once in a while a prophet would come along and preach nice sounding words to the backslidden nation. They would say, "All is well - all is well; Peace and prosperity." God judged them very harshly for feeding contentment to a people who needed a wake-up call.
Jesus came to destroy false peace, the wrong kind of contentment, so that you can enjoy real peace. Real peace comes through accepting God's forgiveness, offering real forgiveness to those who've hurt us, and making mid-course adjustments when you or I begin to find inner peace outside of Jesus' will.
The Bible says, "the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit (indicating occasional course corrections) is life and peace."
Real peace is found in:
- the great exchange: my corruption for God's forgiveness
- the heroic work of forgiving (give it!)
- constant willingness to adjust to the spirit's control.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Heaven on the Brain
December 27, 1998
During the installation of new lighting inside an old English cathedral, an electrician working on the top floor, accidentally left the elevator door open. This prevented the elevator from returning to the ground floor. Visitors were stunned to see the Clerk of Works standing in the middle of the cathedral, yelling heavenward, "Peter! Close the gates!"
Most of us would wait until we ourselves were in before closing the gates of heaven. How often in a day or week do you think about heaven? Is eternity an important part of your plans for the future? I'm convinced that if you and I are to live with any kind of gusto under Jesus' leadership, we need to have a basic grasp of what our future life will be like. That future must make sense to us. It must be something you can plan on and make decisions in terms of.
Who talks about heaven any more? What difference can a lesson on heaven make in my life today? I heard about an English professor who assigned his class to make their own funeral arrangements: pick out a casket, write the order of service, and even write out how they would like their life to be eulogized. Many of the students discovered their lives had no meaning. They realized they had wasted their lives- up to that point- and that their plans for the future were as pointless as their past.
When you ask someone for advice about a crossroads decision you have to make and they point to one option and say, "I can tell you that choice has no future," they're saying it has no meaning, no significance. A human life holds together around its prospects for meaning- its view of the future. A meaningful life is not a nice extra. Having a purpose in life is like having enough to eat and drink, enough air to breath. If something has no meaning we say it has no future. Meaninglessness stifles our souls.
Jesus teaches that ultimate meaning is found in life under His leadership. We are nourished in this life by understanding how our future with Jesus relates to our life with Him today.
In Luke 10 Jesus was hearing the reports of 72 apprentices. They were rejoicing that their short term mission had produced some dramatic victories over Satan and the demons. Jesus agreed with their assessment but said, "Do no rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven (v. 20)."
In Jesus' mind our heavenly destination should be a key landmark determining how we navigate our lives. Sailors use the stars to determine their course. You and I use heaven. Heaven is more important than any earthly landmark.
According to Jesus our destination is a custom-made home. The night before His crucifixion He told His followers, "I am going there to prepare a place for you." At His first advent Jesus prepared us for the Place. He has returned now to prepare a place for us. His second advent will be for the purpose of bringing the prepared people into the prepared place. He said in John 14:3, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
What is that future life going to be life? If I could know that, chances are good I wouldn't be able to find the words to describe it. The Bible uses symbols and comparisons to help. Everything points to an enhanced life without limits- an intense aliveness with all the necessary energy needed to live it vigorously.
The new age influences have caused us to think of heaven as a place for disembodied spirits. The primary activity is thought to be choir music or reminiscing about the good old days. However, the Bible says when we pass through death, we do not lose the good things of this world. Indeed we see this world and everyone in it, for the first time as it really is. In this regard Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
He had just reminded the Corinthians that in this life we are like little children who have only a vague idea of what is going on around them. But on the other side of death or the second advent, we shall know fully, "even as I am fully known."
Paul does not tell us who fully knows us now, but we might guess that beyond God/Jesus/Holy Spirit we are fully known by the angels and the righteous followers of Jesus. They see and know things as they are. Beyond that concerning our future, we know we will have bodies like Jesus' resurrection body. Jesus' resurrection was the very first of its kind. The Bible calls it "the first fruits" and refers to Jesus' new life as "the Pioneer of life." Without the first advent, without the incarnation, there would be no resurrection and no resurrection bodies.
Jesus forced open a door that had been locked since the death of the first man. Jesus defeated the ruler of death. Because of that the Bible speaks about, "the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:25)." Sometimes we think of Jesus' resurrection as the undoing of the incarnation. NOT SO! It is the final stage of the incarnation. Jesus' life and death, and your confidence in His leadership prepares you, too, for that stage of "body life."
When Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us, we can take it to mean He is preparing a renovated space and earth. A new place that will provide the perfect conditions for our glorified bodies.
Just as our brain obeys our mind, other parts of nature may obey us. Remember Jesus was not confined by walls or locked doors. He could walk on water, yet He insisted He was not a spirit and sat down and ate dinner to prove it. That is a model of your future body!
Romans 8:11 says, "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies." Suppose you are going to live forever and there is nothing you can do about it, except to do the things that would make your future existence as desirable as possible? You can not choose eternal sleep or nonexistence.
As far as your future life is concerned the question you need to answer is: what kind of character have you and Jesus together been developing? Have you allowed Jesus to shape your values and beliefs? Have you found Jesus to be the most fascination person in the universe?
Socrates did not know Jesus, but he knew character development was "priority one" for eternity. Plato's account of the last hours of Socrates has him saying:
Read Matthew 25:14-46
Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven: how we enter it in this life and how this life impacts the next stage of life. God has placed in our life various gifts and skills and potentials that will prepare us for "real life" if used and developed properly. This parable leads us to ask why should God entrust us with eternal riches if we cannot be trusted with temporary wealth. How can I be trusted with a supernatural body if I cannot control even an earthly body?
C.S. Lewis writes in Miracles:
During the installation of new lighting inside an old English cathedral, an electrician working on the top floor, accidentally left the elevator door open. This prevented the elevator from returning to the ground floor. Visitors were stunned to see the Clerk of Works standing in the middle of the cathedral, yelling heavenward, "Peter! Close the gates!"
Most of us would wait until we ourselves were in before closing the gates of heaven. How often in a day or week do you think about heaven? Is eternity an important part of your plans for the future? I'm convinced that if you and I are to live with any kind of gusto under Jesus' leadership, we need to have a basic grasp of what our future life will be like. That future must make sense to us. It must be something you can plan on and make decisions in terms of.
Who talks about heaven any more? What difference can a lesson on heaven make in my life today? I heard about an English professor who assigned his class to make their own funeral arrangements: pick out a casket, write the order of service, and even write out how they would like their life to be eulogized. Many of the students discovered their lives had no meaning. They realized they had wasted their lives- up to that point- and that their plans for the future were as pointless as their past.
When you ask someone for advice about a crossroads decision you have to make and they point to one option and say, "I can tell you that choice has no future," they're saying it has no meaning, no significance. A human life holds together around its prospects for meaning- its view of the future. A meaningful life is not a nice extra. Having a purpose in life is like having enough to eat and drink, enough air to breath. If something has no meaning we say it has no future. Meaninglessness stifles our souls.
Jesus teaches that ultimate meaning is found in life under His leadership. We are nourished in this life by understanding how our future with Jesus relates to our life with Him today.
In Luke 10 Jesus was hearing the reports of 72 apprentices. They were rejoicing that their short term mission had produced some dramatic victories over Satan and the demons. Jesus agreed with their assessment but said, "Do no rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven (v. 20)."
In Jesus' mind our heavenly destination should be a key landmark determining how we navigate our lives. Sailors use the stars to determine their course. You and I use heaven. Heaven is more important than any earthly landmark.
According to Jesus our destination is a custom-made home. The night before His crucifixion He told His followers, "I am going there to prepare a place for you." At His first advent Jesus prepared us for the Place. He has returned now to prepare a place for us. His second advent will be for the purpose of bringing the prepared people into the prepared place. He said in John 14:3, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
What is that future life going to be life? If I could know that, chances are good I wouldn't be able to find the words to describe it. The Bible uses symbols and comparisons to help. Everything points to an enhanced life without limits- an intense aliveness with all the necessary energy needed to live it vigorously.
The new age influences have caused us to think of heaven as a place for disembodied spirits. The primary activity is thought to be choir music or reminiscing about the good old days. However, the Bible says when we pass through death, we do not lose the good things of this world. Indeed we see this world and everyone in it, for the first time as it really is. In this regard Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
He had just reminded the Corinthians that in this life we are like little children who have only a vague idea of what is going on around them. But on the other side of death or the second advent, we shall know fully, "even as I am fully known."
Paul does not tell us who fully knows us now, but we might guess that beyond God/Jesus/Holy Spirit we are fully known by the angels and the righteous followers of Jesus. They see and know things as they are. Beyond that concerning our future, we know we will have bodies like Jesus' resurrection body. Jesus' resurrection was the very first of its kind. The Bible calls it "the first fruits" and refers to Jesus' new life as "the Pioneer of life." Without the first advent, without the incarnation, there would be no resurrection and no resurrection bodies.
Jesus forced open a door that had been locked since the death of the first man. Jesus defeated the ruler of death. Because of that the Bible speaks about, "the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:25)." Sometimes we think of Jesus' resurrection as the undoing of the incarnation. NOT SO! It is the final stage of the incarnation. Jesus' life and death, and your confidence in His leadership prepares you, too, for that stage of "body life."
When Jesus said He was going to prepare a place for us, we can take it to mean He is preparing a renovated space and earth. A new place that will provide the perfect conditions for our glorified bodies.
Just as our brain obeys our mind, other parts of nature may obey us. Remember Jesus was not confined by walls or locked doors. He could walk on water, yet He insisted He was not a spirit and sat down and ate dinner to prove it. That is a model of your future body!
Romans 8:11 says, "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies." Suppose you are going to live forever and there is nothing you can do about it, except to do the things that would make your future existence as desirable as possible? You can not choose eternal sleep or nonexistence.
As far as your future life is concerned the question you need to answer is: what kind of character have you and Jesus together been developing? Have you allowed Jesus to shape your values and beliefs? Have you found Jesus to be the most fascination person in the universe?
Socrates did not know Jesus, but he knew character development was "priority one" for eternity. Plato's account of the last hours of Socrates has him saying:
If the soul is immortal, it demands our care not only for that part of time which we call life, but for all time...If death were a release from everything, it would be a blessing for the wicked, but since the soul is clearly immortal, there is no escape for evil people except by the development of a good and wise character. This is of supreme importance for beginning the journey there." ParaphrasedSocrates had no opportunity to know Jesus and Jesus' profound impact on character development. He did the best he could with what he had. You and I have Jesus.
Read Matthew 25:14-46
Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven: how we enter it in this life and how this life impacts the next stage of life. God has placed in our life various gifts and skills and potentials that will prepare us for "real life" if used and developed properly. This parable leads us to ask why should God entrust us with eternal riches if we cannot be trusted with temporary wealth. How can I be trusted with a supernatural body if I cannot control even an earthly body?
C.S. Lewis writes in Miracles:
These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to school boys. We must learn to control them: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether, but that someday we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining, and world-shaking horses- which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting the king's stables.God's plan is for you to develop as an apprentice to Jesus today- so that in another day you can take your place in the ongoing work of the universe. As a follower of Jesus you will encounter struggles and tests. Some will be in the form of adversity, some will be in the form of prosperity. You're asked to use Jesus' resources and do what He would do. If you do this consistently you will be victorious. Jesus said in Revelations 3:21, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne." Does that kind of future make sense to you? do you "see a future" in the kind of life Jesus calls you to live today? Is Heaven on your compass?
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Baby on a Mission
1st Sunday of Advent, 1998
A Christening was planned several years ago by a very wealthy European family. Many guests were invited to their home for the occasion. They came in their finest and most fashionable dress. Each guest was met at the door by a servant. After the usual socializing they were ready for the ceremony and the Priest called the parents, family, and friends together to get started. The nurse was sent upstairs to bring the baby. A moment later she returned in a panic. The baby was nowhere to be found! Several minutes later, someone remembered that the child had last been seen lying on one of the beds. After a frantic search the little baby was found smothered under the coats of the guests. Their primary reason for coming had been overlooked and destroyed.
Read: Matthew 1:18-23
The Christmas story is the story of a baby. That is a part of it's delightful pull on the mind and the heart. But it is also a liability, for a great many people become so focused with the beautiful story of a baby in a manger, that they miss the chief point of the story. They miss the challenge of Jesus the Man. We can become so enchanted with the story of a baby that we grow sentimental about it; the baby does not ask that we do anything except take care of Him. A baby does not demand any vital change in our way of thinking and living - unless you are his parents.
On the other hand the story can be lost altogether in the celebration of "The Season". But the story is beautiful and the drama is overpowering:
It takes the sizzle out of Miracle on 34th Street for me. It makes you wonder how a show about Rudolph or Frosty could hold interest, when the real story is so compelling. It's amazing that people would tune in to those stories when the Christmas story has so much to offer.
Christmas is the story of God breaking through to the visible world in the person of Jesus to rescue us from our sins and moral failures.
American Demographics says, the average US county resident will spend $365 per child on toys, games, hobbies, tricycles, etc.. However in Provo, Utah, where median income is very close to the national average, those county residents will spend $153 less per child. The magazine says it is because this is a Mormon county and Christmas is more about religion and less about toys. Interesting.
But the main point of the Christmas story is that the baby grew up! He grew up to become a challenge to a world of hard-headed power. Jesus was no sentimentalist; He was a terrible realist! Everything opposed to love and unity in our world, He declared flatly, is damned - reasoning that the center of the universe is a God of holy love.
The important question for you and me is this: Is Christmas still only a story about a baby, or a time to celebrate greed -- or is it the story of a baby who grew into the person who would redeem the world from it's sins, the story of the person who calls you into apprenticeship and partnership with His great and mighty purposes?
You and I must respond to Jesus both as our rescuer and our Master. He is not a helpless infant but the ruler of all creation. You must decide if you are on His side or against Him.
Don't let the baby be smothered by the allure of a romantic story or by the orgy of consumption that takes over our world this time of year. See the baby's full mission.
If you have felt touched by The Spirit or His Word I invite you to come forward for prayer. (Editor's note: If you are a blogger we invite you contact us thru the comment section or Facebook and we will talk to you about the life change that is available to you thru Jesus.)
A Christening was planned several years ago by a very wealthy European family. Many guests were invited to their home for the occasion. They came in their finest and most fashionable dress. Each guest was met at the door by a servant. After the usual socializing they were ready for the ceremony and the Priest called the parents, family, and friends together to get started. The nurse was sent upstairs to bring the baby. A moment later she returned in a panic. The baby was nowhere to be found! Several minutes later, someone remembered that the child had last been seen lying on one of the beds. After a frantic search the little baby was found smothered under the coats of the guests. Their primary reason for coming had been overlooked and destroyed.
Read: Matthew 1:18-23
The Christmas story is the story of a baby. That is a part of it's delightful pull on the mind and the heart. But it is also a liability, for a great many people become so focused with the beautiful story of a baby in a manger, that they miss the chief point of the story. They miss the challenge of Jesus the Man. We can become so enchanted with the story of a baby that we grow sentimental about it; the baby does not ask that we do anything except take care of Him. A baby does not demand any vital change in our way of thinking and living - unless you are his parents.
On the other hand the story can be lost altogether in the celebration of "The Season". But the story is beautiful and the drama is overpowering:
- a young, unmarried girl is about to give birth to a child who is prophesied to rule His people
- a man so in love with his betrothed and so confident in God's faithfulness that he defies
- social customs and marries her anyway
- a band of mystics spend years following a star that they believe will lead them to a new king
- a greedy, insecure ruler commits murderous atrocities in a village in order to protect his throne
- a gang of teenage boys working the night shift witness an extra terrestrial worship service
- and a little baby, born in a stable, changes the course of history.
It takes the sizzle out of Miracle on 34th Street for me. It makes you wonder how a show about Rudolph or Frosty could hold interest, when the real story is so compelling. It's amazing that people would tune in to those stories when the Christmas story has so much to offer.
Christmas is the story of God breaking through to the visible world in the person of Jesus to rescue us from our sins and moral failures.
American Demographics says, the average US county resident will spend $365 per child on toys, games, hobbies, tricycles, etc.. However in Provo, Utah, where median income is very close to the national average, those county residents will spend $153 less per child. The magazine says it is because this is a Mormon county and Christmas is more about religion and less about toys. Interesting.
But the main point of the Christmas story is that the baby grew up! He grew up to become a challenge to a world of hard-headed power. Jesus was no sentimentalist; He was a terrible realist! Everything opposed to love and unity in our world, He declared flatly, is damned - reasoning that the center of the universe is a God of holy love.
The important question for you and me is this: Is Christmas still only a story about a baby, or a time to celebrate greed -- or is it the story of a baby who grew into the person who would redeem the world from it's sins, the story of the person who calls you into apprenticeship and partnership with His great and mighty purposes?
You and I must respond to Jesus both as our rescuer and our Master. He is not a helpless infant but the ruler of all creation. You must decide if you are on His side or against Him.
Don't let the baby be smothered by the allure of a romantic story or by the orgy of consumption that takes over our world this time of year. See the baby's full mission.
If you have felt touched by The Spirit or His Word I invite you to come forward for prayer. (Editor's note: If you are a blogger we invite you contact us thru the comment section or Facebook and we will talk to you about the life change that is available to you thru Jesus.)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Annie's Story ©
Editor's Note: I wish I could remember exactly when this sermon was first written, but for some reason it's not dated. He preached it for the second time at his parents' 50th wedding anniversary the summer of 2000.
Annie had been impatiently looking forward to her vacation in Greece
A typical cold and rainy day made it easy to say good-bye to Seattle London London Athens
And then the pilot himself was on the public address. The news was not good. He announced that a group with a strange religious name (Allah’s Right Arm of Vengeance) had commandeered the plane. Annie’s flight had been hijacked.
It felt like hours, but in fact a few minutes later the pilot came back on the intercom to say the terrorist group wanted to land on schedule in Athens
Three men with weapons walked back toward the middle of the plane. One began speaking in a loud, angry, ranting voice. A second man held a picture of Jesus, about 2 feet by 3 feet in size. The third man began to translate into English, the angry foreigner’s speech.
The tirade was filled with toxic hate for all Christians. They had contaminated and ruined his homeland. Every disease, industrial accident and criminal event was blamed on missionaries and Christians in general. To make it personal, the speaker’s only daughter had died during surgery performed by a missionary doctor.
Then the translator said non-Christians would be free to depart in Athens
Annie felt a movement and turned to see her neighbor jerk a crucifix from her neck and stuff it in the crack between the seats. Around the plane she heard muffled conversation and a few stifled sobs.
Annie thought she would vomit. Her stomach was so upset she couldn’t think or pray. She had never been so scared. The thought flashed through her mind: No one knows what Jesus looked like. In the picture the hijacker held – Jesus had blue eyes. Annie knew there wasn’t much chance of “the real Jesus” having blue eyes. And after all it was “just a picture”.
It seemed like only a few moments had passed before they landed and were parked in the middle of a runway. One emergency exit had been deployed. And then it began.
Apparently none of the first class passengers were Christians because Annie heard a lot of noise – shouting and crying and people sliding down the chute, but no gun fire.
When they came through the curtain into her section she could see some slobbery spit dripping down the picture. The first person pointed to got up and seemed genuinely glad to spit on the face of “the picture” – Annie had stopped calling it a picture of Jesus.
A few more were not so obviously happy about it. Some had tears, some just looked terrified but they all spit as much as they could muster . . . until a teenage boy was pushed forward. He tried to wipe the saliva off the picture with his sleeve. One of the terrorists clubbed him in the stomach with the butt of a gun. Two others screamed at him to spit. He said very softly, “I choose Jesus.” One of the terrorists shot him above his right ear. Two others dragged his body up to the front of the plane and threw it down to the tarmac. Annie thought she could hear the thud from where she was sitting near the back of the plane. If she hadn't hear it, she was sure she felt it.
The terrorists gave another frenzied speech about how easy it was to get off the plane alive – if they would just spit on Jesus.
Annie began to search her heart – how much action, how much commitment does faith require? What did Jesus mean in Mark 8:35 when He said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me . . . The Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in His Father’s glory.”
Did He mean that to apply in a situation like this? After all, had not Peter expressed real shame for Jesus, when he was afraid for his life?
The context of this passage is the Last Supper. The meal had just concluded when Jesus told them of their coming cowardice. The closeness and affection of this new covenant meal, intended to bond them into a family, was being ruined with talk of disloyalty and betrayal. This was ironic -- focus of the meal was violently spilled blood and broken body of their leader. None of the disciples seemed to hear the good news of Jesus’ rising after His death. The bad news was all they heard. Peter was especially offended.
In a way it was progress. Always before, when Jesus predicted the details of His death – the disciples ignored it. Peter is finally convinced that the crisis will not be avoided. But now he plans to join Jesus in the battle and if need be, die in a heroic death.
Peter does not doubt that others will fail – but he is so convinced of his own loyalty and strength that he declares that even if he is the only one left, he will not fail Jesus! Peter is not blowing smoke. His feelings are sincere. But he is clearly weaker than he knows. And Jesus tries to tell him.
I understand Peter’s protest. How often have you or I been convinced that a particular sin is the farthest thing from us – when it is the closest of all? The things we least anticipate are our sudden failures. Peter sincerely thought his loyalty was stronger than the rest.
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