One Fall from Being in Serious Trouble

My wife Jeanette has walked with a slight limp as long as I have known her. She has had joint issues that required her to exercise caution when moving about. For years some degree of numbness has been present in her hands and feet. Earlier attempts to identify and correct these matters were not successful. So, she learned to adapt, endure, and move forward without complaint. Her aches and pains have not stopped her from taking care of her home, serving as a pastor’s wife, being a denominational servant, or serving as a mission volunteer. But in recent years these issues have become more of a challenge. In the past two years her pain has been excruciating and her mobility has been limited. In the past year she has required a cane and then a walker to move around the house. The pandemic slowed the journey to discover the causes of these problems. Our efforts were further delayed by deaths in the family. But in the course of time, it was revealed that she had spinal stenosis in her lower back and neuropathy in her feet. Medications and physical therapy helped with the pain and enhanced her mobility to a degree but it was obvious that her problems were numerous and complicated. In January we had a consultation with a neurologist who did a thorough examination. He concurred that she had neuropathy in her legs and suffered from stenosis, but these things should not be causing the current level of weakness in her legs, her unnatural gait, enhanced reflexes, and the tingling and numbness in her feet and hands. He ordered a battery of blood test and though he was not convinced of the need for it, determined that an MRI of the neck should be performed. Within a couple of hours, we saw the results of the MRI on line. It revealed severe spinal stenosis in her neck at the C-4 ,5, and 6 area. That very afternoon the neurologist office secured an appointment with the neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon showed us the MRI images and explained how the spinal stenosis was putting severe pressure on the spinal cord and that surgery to relieve that pressure was necessary. He did not promise that it would correct any of her existing problems but said the surgery needed to be done in order to prevent much more crippling effects.

Jeanette had surgery on February 15. The surgery went well. Later that day the surgeon’s physician assistant was visiting with Jeanette and in the course of conversation asked her “when was the last time you fell”? She replied that it had been 3-4 months. He said they could tell by the bruising on the spinal cord that she had endured a blunt force impact that likely had been caused by a fall. Then he said, “one more fall and you would have been in serious trouble”. When My wife relayed that story to me my soul cried and rejoiced at the same time. The Lord had been gracious, and she had been spared from severe physical injury. She is now recovering from the surgery, we have seen some positive results, and we await to see what the next steps of the journey might be.

But the words of the physician’s assistant keep ringing in my heart and mind “One more fall and you would have been in serious trouble”. There is a spiritual lesson in those words for us as a missionary people. Every day we encounter people who physically and spiritually are on the pericope of death and Hell. They are one fall from an irreversible eternal destiny. You and I stand before them with the healing gospel of the Great Physician. The saving power of the gospel is the only hope they have. We are the ones who must confront them with the truth about the severity of their predicament and we are the ones who must deliver the crucial plea for them to believe the gospel and come to faith Christ. The gospel may sound like foolishness to them, but “one more fall and they will be in serious trouble”.

In Search of the Prince of Peace

 Some folks are so broken, much time and resources they do take

Time with them is exhausting, from such efforts we need a break

There are those who like to argue, they have venom in their veins

Their souls cannot find satisfaction unless they hold the reigns

Some neglect truth and justice, bound by the pace of status quo

Squelching hope and progress, leaving souls to wither and plateau.

 

Yet into this world of darkness came a great glorious light

Illuminating fear and blackness with a beam shining bright

Stepping into the confusion, devilish minds did deploy

Overriding deep division, increasing faith, love, and joy

Lifting burdens from our shoulders, rough and heavy was the freight

Giving courage to the weary as we struggle with life’s weight

 

This strength and light came through a child, from a woman he was born

A son with God’s genetics, heavens gift to a world forlorn

He came to give counsel, teaching us to walk paths that are right

He came as the savior, to forgive and redeem from sin’s might

He gave us this mission, to tell the world of his work and love

Spread the story of salvation, of eternal life above

 

As we continue earth’s journey, filled with sorrow, grief, and death

Dealing with pain and conflict until we take our final breath

When our hearts seem heavy, when there is no jingle in our soul

By grace through faith look to the Christ child, keep heaven as our goal

While on earth love and serve him, until the time of our release

Then We’ll gather in the throne room, and worship the Prince of Peace

Being the Sons of God

The world is in great need of peace. But how do we find it? Do we really even want it? Do we understand the cost of peace? Understanding the cost, would we pay the price? If history is our guide and predictor of the future the answer is no.

The church is supposed to propagate peace. After all, our savior, the one whom we call master and Lord, bears the name Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). But the occupants of the church are also occupants of this world. Thus, we find ourselves caught in a trap, constantly pleading “peace, peace” while all the time peace illudes us.

It was not any different in the days of Jesus. Matthew tells us that Jesus saw the crowds, all of whom were torn and tattered by the concerns of this world.  Needing some distance from the crowds Jesus retreated to a hillside and sat down. But his disciples gathered around him. Redeeming the time Jesus began teaching them about how they needed to live if they were to be his followers. He instructs them about how to live a blessed life. If they really wish to be blessed and truly desire to be identified as being his disciple, they will not just pursue peace but they will seek to be peacemakers. For “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

There not very many peacemakers in the world. In fact, there are not very many peacemakers in the church.

I have discovered however, both outside the church and inside the church, there are a lot of peacetakers. Peacetakers, are those who require a lot of the energy of those who are around them. Peacetakers are not evil. They are also not benevolent. Either out of necessity or out of selfishness their lives are focused on their needs and desires and they are unable or unwilling to be of much help to others. One of the hard facts of life and ministry is that we are going to encounter a lot of peacetakers. We must love and minister to these folks. They are no different than the crowds that Jesus ministered to. They are like sheep without a shepherd. So instead of complaining we ought to understand that God has given them to us to shepherd and we ought to be thankful that we are a sheep that has heard the call and obtained the ability and means to be a shepherd.

We are also going to encounter people who are peacebreakers. These folks have evil intentions. They will destroy peace. They understand the mechanics of dividing and conquering and in their tool box they have the necessary wrenches and screwdrivers and chisels to do the job. Peacebreakers are calculating souls. They will do whatever is necessary in order to propagate their selfish ideas and agendas. Jesus had other names for peacebreakers. He called them broods of vipers and whitewashed sepulchers. We might want to refrain from name calling. But while we strive to be as gentle as doves let’s remember to likewise be as wise as serpents. Because peacebreakers will destroy a family. They will demolish a nation. They will disassemble a church. Peacebreakers need to be identified, ostracized, and immobilized lest they dismantle the good and perfect things God has established in our world.

Then there are those who are peaceseekers. Peaceseekers do not like conflict.  Peaceseekers will try to stay out of the way when things are not going well. They are determined to not incur any wounds and to make it through the war without any scars. They may be your “friends” but when you need their help, they are likely to leave the battle field and in search of a place of peace.

We also come in contact with those who are peacekeepers. Peacekeepers will try to stop the fighting. Yet they will do very little to address the source of the turmoil that causes the fighting. Peacekeepers never resolve anything. They are content with the status quo if that is what is necessary to “keep the peace”. Peacekeepers strive to keep the loudest voices happy even if those voices are selfish voices. They will allow the preferences of a few to take precedence over the priorities of the kingdom. This results in gospel abating policies rather than gospel advancing strategies.

Peacekeepers will try to keep the pot from boiling over but they will not do anything to turn down the flame or get the raging pot off the stove. Peacekeepers will tolerate dysfunction, justify vile attitudes, and cover up sin, all in the name of “keeping the peace”. Peacekeepers will marginalize the victims and protect the villains. Peacekeepers will ignore truth and allow a false narrative to prevail. Peacekeepers will placate the powerful and punish the weak and they will rationalize that it is ok if that will allow the accepted ways and means of our lives and institutions to continue as they are. Righteousness may not prevail but that is ok so long as we “keep the peace”. 

But Jesus did not come to be a peacekeeper! “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36 ESV).

Jesus came not to “keep the peace” but to make peace. Jesus did not make peace by avoiding conflict. Rather, he spent his life stepping into the middle of conflict, ultimately making peace by the blood of his cross (Col. 1:20).

Jesus encouraged his disciples to be peacemakers. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Peacemakers do not relish conflict. They are aware of the dangers of conflict and they approach conflict with fear and caution. Nevertheless, they trust God and seek to make peace in the midst of conflict. They seek to resolve problems rather than continue in chaos. Peacemakers are not just trying to tidy up the house and sweep the ugly stuff under the bed. Peacemakers are not just seeking to negotiate a ceasefire or even to disarm the enemy. Peacemakers realize that lasting peace will become reality only when the heart is changed. Peacemakers know that the only way that peace will come to our broken society is by actively engaging people with the redemptive purposes of Christ. Jesus demonstrated how we should live here on earth and how we can live for all eternity. So, to be a peacemaker we must point people in the direction of Jesus. If we do that, we will be called the sons of God.

If you were to see a picture of my dad and I together you would have no doubt that we belonged to each other. People have often said to me “You look just like your daddy”! I would reply “Well, he was a good-looking man”. We did look alike. My wife would say that we also thought alike and acted alike. That is not too bad either.

Twenty years or so ago I was with my dad and he introduced to me to one of his friends. The friend looked at both of us and said “Well, that nut did not fall far from the tree. You sure could not deny him”. My dad said “I would not want to deny him”. 

I don’t want my heavenly father to deny me either. I want to look like Him, and think like Him, and act like Him. If that is going to happen, I need to be a peacemaker. Because peacemakers are called the sons of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Influencing the Earth

When we hear the word meek, we picture someone who is weak. But this is not how the Bible portrays a meek person. Numbers 12:3 says “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth”. The context in which the Lord made that statement was when Miriam and Aaron were speaking against and thinking themselves to have equal status with Moses. Moses did not confront them for this behavior, but God did. He called them into the tent for a private meeting and stood before them in a pillar of cloud. With a stern voice God said “hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord” (Number 12:6-8a ESV). God made it clear that Moses was in charge and was to be followed. God communicated with Moses not in the haze of a vision or the figment of a dream but he put his lips directly upon Moses’s lips. He breathed his very words into the mouth and mind and heart of Moses. God did so because Moses was the meekest man in all the earth. Therefore, he was in tune with God and could be trusted. That is a mural of strength.

Jesus surely considered the character of Moses when he said “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5 ESV). Someone who is meek is tame as opposed to acting wild. They are wise rather than foolish. Insightful, not disruptive. Steady not static. Useful instead of harmful. A meek person is strong yet they possess a gentle demeanor. We might describe the meek individual as being self-controlled. But in a spiritual sense it is far more than that. To be self-controlled assumes that we are in charge and accountable only to ourselves. Yet no matter how much self-control we have we are lessened by our flaws. We are subject to human frailties. Somewhere in life’s journey our self-control will meet its match and our souls will surrender in defeat. To be meek is to be God-controlled. A meek person is one who has been tamed by God. A meek person has submitted themselves to God and has allowed the Spirit of God to shape and mold their character. Moses had been subjected to the arrogance of Pharoah’s household for forty years. Then he spent forty years as a herdsman in the wilderness. In the barrenness of the desert with his nostrils filled with the stench of sheep he discovered the aroma of God’s grace. Submitting himself to God he became a meek man that God could use.

The meek person through his God-tamed strength will inherit the earth. That does mean that he owns the earth. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” Psalm 24:1 ESV). The meek person may not hold many deeds to property. They may not hold jurisdiction over defined territories. Their names may lack notoriety. But the meek inherit the earth because they are able to influence the earth for God and for good. Leadership is influence. A meek person is able to influence those in their realm and encourage them to move in a Godly trajectory.

The world is filled with statues. Buildings and roads bear the names of powerful people. History books tell the stories of conquests and empires. Some of these great leaders have been agents of good and some have been tyrants for evil. But eventually statues will be torn down. Buildings will decay and roads will crumble. The memorials we erected will just be aging pyramids full of bones. In time the historians usually will expose the complete story.

The meek will inherit the earth because what has preserved the earth for generation after generation is not the conquering tactics of ambitious men. Rather, it is the goodliness and godliness of those who have lived in submission to the principles of our righteous God. This is what brings blessings to our world and blessedness to our own souls.

 

Blessings found in Mourning

 

Mourning occurs because we have lost something. Our losses might be precipitated by mistreatment, misunderstanding, mistakes, mishaps, miscalculations, misplacement, misdeeds, and various other misconstrued events of life. If we lose something of limited value we don’t mourn very much. But if we lose something that is really important to us the grief may seem almost unbearable. The shock factor alone may open a furrow so deep that it engulfs part of our life burying it forever. We are going to lose things as we travel the rugged winding roads of life. Those losses will sometimes rip things from our souls that cannot be replaced. No matter how hard we try there will be pieces of ourselves that we cannot find. When that happens, we mourn.

In full knowledge of this certain predicament Jesus made this promise “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt.5:4). To be clear, this promise is to people of faith. The promise is to people who out of desperation will seek God. Our ears must not be shut to the voice of God. Our eyes must be open in order that we may see the hand of God at work. Our minds must be receptacles willing to receive new insights from God. Our hearts must be permeable so that we can be saturated with the love of God.

We cannot obsess about the unfairness of our mourning no matter how true that may be. Rather we must use our mourning as an opportunity to reflect and readjust and reprioritize for the future God is developing for us. The cause of our mourning occurred in our yesterdays. But the promise of comfort is experienced in our todays and tomorrows. “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5b).

When we mourn, we find comfort through new discoveries about ourselves and God. The Lord corrects aspects of our thinking that are wrong. He tweaks our understandings of truth and solidifies our grasp of his eternal values. We find comfort because the Lord is always doing something brand new in our lives. Jeremiah wrote “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

We find comfort in the midst of mourning as the Lord instills new ambitions within us. Mourning presents us with new opportunities that we should not squander. In our sorrows the Lord may give us visions for new avenues of ministry. In his grace he provides comfort to us and we are able to join his tribe of wounded healers.  

We find comfort because of new perspectives. We come to realize that we are not the only person who has suffered loss. In the process of mourning, we find comfort as we learn to focus less on our pain and more on helping others solve their pain. We become less attached to this world and we grasp for the hope found in the next world. In mourning we are comforted because the past grows dimmer and the horizon of heaven gets closer. The past is bitter but heaven becomes sweeter and sweeter as the days go by.

Benefits of Being Poor

 

Being poor is inconvenient. It limits our choices. It makes it harder to navigate our worlds. Having riches would add a lot of benefits to life. But Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:4). Since I have enough resources to get along pretty well in life, I find comfort that Jesus emphasized being “poor in spirit”. Even though I am not a pauper I can still be blessed and have a place in God’s kingdom. But Luke’s version of this teaching says “Blessed are you who are poor” (Luke 6:20). Indicating that physical poverty precipitates the benefits of the kingdom.

If we are poor in terms of physical assets it might make us mean in spirit and drive us from God. Jesus is saying that being poor should humble us and cause us to recognize our need for God and drive us to trust God.  If we possess the riches of this world, we have to find ways to divorce ourselves of the power of riches and recognize our need for God. To be poor in spirit means that in spite of whatever riches we possess we humble ourselves ultimately trusting God for every sustenance in life.  When we cast our cares on God in this fashion, we access the power and benefits of heaven.

Wealth and talent and pride have the power to rob us of humility. They can rob us of eyes that recognize God. They can cause us to have faith in things that diminish and neglect to trust in the eternal powers of God.  

The pains of life are sufficient to make our spirits poor. But we need to embrace that impoverished spirit with enough desperation to put our trust in God. We may lose everything this world has to offer. Our hands may become empty. Our accounts may be dry. But if our fingers cling to Jesus the kingdom of heaven belongs to us.  

Serving the Crucified Christ

Filled with hate, ignorant of truth, lacking in faith, and void of righteousness the Jews had plotted to kill Jesus. Rome took ownership of their plot and made a statement of their authority in the act of crucifixion. In the course of less than twenty-four hours Jesus was arrested, accused, lied about, endured six mock trials, cursed, beaten, and in humiliation crucified naked before the viewing world. As the sun made its downward turn, he breathed his last and hung dead on the cross. As the dark of evening approached there emerged from the shadows a servant named Joseph who was from the town of Arimathea.

Some refer to Joseph as a secret disciple of Jesus. But his thoughts regarding Jesus were not that secret. The gospel writers tell us that he was a member of the council, “a good and righteous man” who was himself “searching for the kingdom of God”. If his attitude regarding Jesus was private it lost its privacy when in a council meeting, he refused to consent to the majority opinion to work toward the demise of Jesus. 

Joseph did not have the power to stop the violent death of Jesus. He lacked adequate information about the meaning of the event. But he had enough theological understanding of the significance of Jesus and enough admiration for Jesus to serve him by administering proper burial.

We think of servants being poor but Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. One does not need to be rich to be of service to the Lord. But we are to use whatever means we have to serve the Lord and His cause. If we have great means we are called upon to use those means to advance the kingdom and minister unto people. “To whom much is given, much is expected”.

Joseph was a servant with courage. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was a weak ruler, so we might think that did not take much courage. Under Roman law the body of someone who had been executed was considered state property. Pilate could grant that body to anyone he so desired. Or he could refuse to relinquish the body to anyone. In such cases the bodies might be thrown into the nearby garbage dump and burned or at best buried as a pauper in the local potter’s field. Joseph took the risk of requesting the body from Pilate. But his real act of courage was that he, a member of the council, was identifying himself with Jesus. He risked being ostracized by his faith community. He risked trouble with the government. He risked losing business and position.

Joseph was a rich man but he was not afraid of difficult work. He engaged in the gruesome task of taking the tortured body of Jesus down from the cross. He purchased a new linen shroud and with the help of Nicodemus prepared the mangled body of Jesus for burial. Joseph had a heart willing to sacrifice. He took Jesus and laid him in his own tomb that had been freshly cut of the rock nearby. This was the tomb Joseph of had built for his own burial. It had never been used. But now it had been defiled with the body of one who had been executed as a criminal.

In reality Joseph’s tomb was occupied by the one who bore the richness of heaven, the richest of the rich. But Paul reminds us that for the sake of our salvation Jesus “became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (II Cor. 8:9). At the time of his burial Jesus had become the poorest of the poor, stripped of all his wealth by the weight of our sins. Yet by the sovereignty of God and because of Joseph’s servant heart he lay in a rich man’s tomb awaiting the day of resurrection when all the richness of heaven would be restored to him.

 

Seeing the Crowds

Jesus spoke a simple message of hope to people and provided practical help by healing their diseases and afflictions. So, the crowds gathered around him. The crowd in one town would follow him to the next town until soon the crowds were very large. The crowds that gathered were filled with sick, afflicted, and oppressed people.

The setting for the Sermon on the Mount is revealed in Matthew 5:1. “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him”.

Jesus always saw the crowds. He saw them not just as gathered masses of humanity but as sheep in need of care. Jesus went up on the mountain not in order to get away from the crowds but so he could observe them. From the vantage point of the mountain Jesus and his disciples could view the crowds for what they were. They were people in need of love, grace, mercy, and instruction. To the government, business, and religious structures of their society they were just tools, instruments to be used to enhance the desires of the power structures under which they lived. But to Jesus they were human souls created in the image of God. The crowds would have siphoned emotional energy from Jesus yet they strengthened him because in them he saw his purpose for being in the world. He had come to work for justice in the present world and provide the path for salvation that would ensure eternal life in the world to come. On the mountain, with his eyes on the crowds and with his disciples gathered around him, Jesus posturing himself as a teacher “sat down”. The disciples stood in the position of learners. Jesus began unfolding truths about the character they needed to possess and develop if they were going to emulate him and fulfill the purpose to which he was calling them.  

We do not know how attentive the disciples were or how well they understood. Our real concern should be how much attention we give to the teachings of Jesus and how well we follow the instructions. 

He Opened His Mouth

Matthew 5:2 tells us that Jesus “opened his mouth and taught them”. What followed were the profound teachings of the Sermon on the Mount.

Many people open their mouths yet teach us nothing of value. Profound lessons do not just erupt from our voices. They must first be processed in a sound mind. They need to be filtered by a righteous heart.

Many people open their mouths and teach us falsely. They are either ignorant of truth or deniers of truth or maybe just plain liars. The motive of their heart is to de-rail truth by manipulating facts or deceiving the audience by withholding information. Corrupt minds and vile hearts will never compose and propagate truths that lead to wholesome societies and upright behaviors.

When Jesus opened his mouth, he taught with clarity. Without apology he taught divine truths that his mind had processed and formed into language that simple humanity could understand. He spoke not just words of truth but thoughts that were ripened and seasoned with wisdom. When Jesus spoke, he did so with a heart filled with love, compassion, fairness, and concern. The words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart were found acceptable in the sight of God.

The teachings that came from the mouth of Jesus are not easy for us to adopt and assimilate into life. In fact, it is pretty tough to follow the teachings Jesus unfolded in the Sermon on the Mount. Some of them may seem unpalatable to our depraved psyches. But the words of Jesus reveal the expectations he has for those who desire to follow after him. He leaves no doubts as to how we should structure our lives.

When Jesus opens his mouth, we need to take it as truth. We may find it necessary to meditate in prayer with him about the details. It may be prudent to engage in questions and discussions with our fellow believers to get a better understanding of how we can apply his teachings in practical ways. But the principles set forth by Jesus are clear. They are not up for negotiation or amendment. When Jesus opens his mouth, the proper response is to listen and to obey what we hear.

 

Personal Resurection

 

Matthew 28 takes us to the first Sunday morning after the crucifixion. Two days prior the disciples and friends of Jesus had witnessed his brutal execution and saw his body placed in the tomb. Many of them had restructured their lives in order to follow Jesus. They had found pride in being a part of his movement, but now they were afraid of being identified as part of His group. Friday night would have been long and restless and the sabbath they awoke a dreary experience. When Sunday came, they found nothing in life worth getting up for. Jesus was dead and their souls were filled with a deep, dark, dreadful deadness.

While the disciples slept the women had enough gumption to get up and make their way in the dark to the tomb in order to anoint Jesus’ body. Sometimes when the death rattle of grief gurgles within us we need to visit the place that reminds us of our despair and engage in useful activity. An earthquake caused the ground to tremble that Sunday morning. In the aftershock they saw an angel descend from heaven and roll the stone away from the tomb. 

This caused the Roman guards to faint. But these women of faith were attentive as the angel said “Fear not, I know you come looking for Jesus who was crucified, but He is not here, for he has risen”. Then the angel tasked the women to “Go wake up the disciples. Tell them that this is a great getting up morning because Jesus is not dead but alive. He is on his way to Galilee and he wants to see you there”. As they were leaving, they encountered Jesus. They had come to the tomb with deadened souls now fresh life was palpitating within them.

Hearing the women’s story, the disciples made the trip to Galilee. It may not have been a journey of faith but they went in curiosity. When they arrived, Jesus met them. “And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted” (Matt.28:17).

Jesus was not surprised by their mixture of faith and doubt. He understood that faith is a process.  He was aware that they were filled with fear and worry and lacked vision and purpose. He knew that deadness had captured their hearts and that they were in need of personal resurrection. That day in Galilee Jesus began infusing life and hope into his disciples. For some the infusion took longer.

I am an observer of churches and the believers who comprise the church. Instead of having inescapable hope we are on a death trajectory.  We need an infusion of life through an encounter with the living Christ.

From the hillside in Galilee Jesus told his disciples how to live with a resurrection faith.

We must first grasp the authority of the resurrected Jesus. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt.28:18).

Jesus “emptied himself” of much of his heavenly authority when he came to earth. But when he came out of the tomb he took back everything that he had voluntarily emptied himself of. We all face death. No of us shall escape it. The grave has authority. But Jesus conquered the grave proving that all authority on earth was His.

Jesus returned to heaven having completed the act that made the salvation of man possible. And he sat down at the right of the Father. Now all authority in heaven was his. If we want to live with the power of personal resurrection in our souls, we must grasp the fact that the resurrected Jesus has authority over all things. No man or nation, can stand in his way.

Secondly, we need to adopt Jesus’ commission to make disciples of all nations. As resurrected people, we must recognize that our mission and purpose is to take the gospel not just to the folks in our corner of the world but to people in every corner of the world.

Through it all we need to rejoice in the forever presence of Jesus. Jesus said “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). “Always” means right now. “To the end of the age” means for all eternity.

Whether we live or die we have Jesus! No matter how deep our sorrow, how great our opposition, how depressed the world might be we can experience personal resurrection. Even if we don’t want to get up, we can get up, because Jesus got up.

 

Treasures New and Old

The teachers of the law spoke with dull words that usually failed to increase understanding and propagate faith. They spoke truth but their logical explanations did not invoke interest in the human heart or instigate passion in the human soul. But Jesus could stir a crowd with the power of a story. The words of Jesus did not enable His listeners to grasp the history of their traditions or the nuances of their theology. But they went home inspired. Jesus’s parables had one simple point. The listeners surely did not remember the details of each parable but what they did recall gave them great lessons to mull over and discuss. 

Jesus did not give deductive lectures that the crowds had to choose whether or not to be a part of. But in His parables Jesus presented inductive thoughts that encircled those who gathered to listen. When I read the parables of Jesus, I find myself in the middle of the story. I cannot just walk away from it but I must make a decision. I can either reject the truth being taught or I can ponder that truth and examine it. My examination of the truth portrayed in the parable may still not cause me to embrace it. But it forces me to make another decision. I must decide to journey with Jesus by following the lessons He taught or choose to walk another path.

In Matthew 13 Jesus told a series of parables that compared familiar activities and events to the kingdom of heaven.  Each parable taught a lesson about the value and the priority of the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus finished speaking, He asked the disciples “Have you understood all these things?”. Maybe Jesus grinned when they quickly answered “Yes”. Surely, they had not understood everything taught in those parables. None of us have. Jesus did not quibble with their answer but gave a one sentence reply “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52 ESV).

The scribes were the teachers of the law.  Humbly it occurs to me that I, a Baptist preacher, am a scribe who has been trained for the kingdom. God in His sovereignty called me and gave me some of “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 13:11 ESV). Jesus said a trained scribe was like master of a house. The master of a house was in charge of the welfare, the instruction, the mission, and the hospitality of the house. If one is a benevolent master of a house, he does not distribute junk to those who live in or who are guest in his household. But he reaches into his treasure and brings out the good stuff. The good stuff is that which we value and protect. It is that which we have discovered in the word of God and store deep within us. The good stuff, our treasures, are the basis of our convictions. We handle them carefully and display and dispense of them with prudence.

The scribe who is like the master of the house reaches deep into his treasure and brings out something new and something old. I ask myself “what can I retrieve from my treasure, both new and old, that will enhance the kingdom? How can I take the old truth and communicate it in fresh new ways”?

I recall days of yesteryear when I stood to preach with quivering knees and fluttering heart. It was not just nervousness but it was a Holy Spirit induced unction to accurately share what I had learned from God. I hope I can still pull from my treasure a passion for the word of God that translates into orations of substance that will move the listener or reader toward a greater commitment to the Lord. I trust that the words that flow from my soul enable people to have a wide peripheral kingdom vision. I pray that the criteria of the meditations of my heart are not based on biased earthly allegiances. The church is languishing because we have divided the kingdom with terms like left and right, white and black, contemporary and traditional. May God help us who are scribes trained for the kingdom of heaven to bring from our treasure ideas both new and old that will lead the church to a broader functionality.

I need Wisdom

 

I need wisdom. I need knowledge also.  But I have a reasonable measure of knowledge and I know how to learn. Acquiring knowledge can be difficult but it can be gained by our personal grit and study and with the help of others who know how to point us in the right direction. But gaining wisdom is more difficult. Wisdom is gained through a lifetime of failures and successes and the painful experiences along the way. Even then wisdom will not be fully gained unless we have a desire to learn from our experiences. Wisdom is ultimately acquired when we seek God’s advice and allow His mind to interact with our minds as we journey through life. Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. In James 1:5 we read “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him”.

If we are honest, we will all agree that we lack wisdom and thus all of us are in need of wisdom. We understand however that wisdom comes from God and that God is delighted to dispense wisdom to us. Wisdom is available to us when we pray and ask God for insight and understanding and application. We need knowledge but wisdom is far greater because wisdom enables us to practically and properly use the knowledge that we have. Wisdom makes knowledge productive. God desires to be generous in dispensing wisdom to us. God is not harsh but gives generously to all without reproach. This means that God is not looking for flaws within us that would disqualify us from receiving wisdom. God is not looking at our faults to find reasons to not grant us wisdom. If He did none of us would be worthy of God’s gift of wisdom. God desires to lavish us with all the wisdom we need. But we do need to ask God for wisdom and we need to ask God for wisdom believing that God will indeed give us wisdom.

Receiving wisdom from God requires faith. James wrote “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). Getting wisdom from God requires a focus that is grounded by faith in God. This does not mean that we do not struggle in our faith. God is not asking us to have blind faith. Faith in God is not ignorant of the realities of the world. God is not saying that we must have a faith that does not struggle with doubt. Indeed, that level of faith does not exist in frail humanity. We all struggle in our faith. Faith and doubt are often, maybe usually, mingled together. But faith needs to be dominate in our lives. The world around us is a doubting world tossed about by the wind and the movement of the earth. People who succumb to this kind of doubt are filled with so much duplicity that they are unable to find stability. In that predicament they will never discover God’s gift of wisdom. To have faith means that when the waves of doubt come, we stand firm holding onto to whatever amount of faith we have. It might not be much faith. It may be faith no bigger than a grain of mustard seed. It may be a weak faith that finds us crying out “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”. But yet it is a faith that is certain of God’s love for us and is committed to fulfill our life’s purpose of serving God. It is a faith to which God will reward an abundance of wisdom.

Christmas in COVID Times

 

Midst efforts to resolve a viral pandemic

Causing global illness and death epidemic

As we process the merits of our heartfelt fears

Mixed with worry, doubt, dread, anger, and sometimes tears

Let’s not forget about the virgin who conceived

A child sent from God, so our sins could be relieved.

 

As we shelter in our places of seclusion

Where once welcomed visits are now an intrusion

As we inhale and exhale covered by our mask

While simple routines are now a cumbersome task

Let’s recall that to the virgin a child was born

Who would bring hope, joy, and peace to a world forlorn

 

When six feet apart striving for social distance

Has become the new normal of our existence

When our multiple efforts of sanitation

Instigates within us constant aggravation

Visit the manger, see Joseph and his betrothed

Gaze upon the child who in swaddling rags was clothed

 

When the news of more COVID cases scours the land

When the ones who govern hand down a new demand

When after each encounter we wash our hands clean

As we hope and pray each day for a new vaccine

Listen to the voices of the angelic throng

Announcing the Messiah’s presence in their song

 

As new stipulations create family strain

And events occur causing economic pain

When we come in close contact with those infected

Then obey rules of quarantine as directed

Let’s treasure the glorious news of a savior

Who came to remedy our sinful behavior

 

When we grieve a cherished friend or loved one who dies

And we can’t properly gather to say goodbyes

When we want to weep and give each other a hug

But we are restricted to a stare and a shrug

Let’s join the angels in praising the Prince of Peace

For in His grace and mercy we will find release

 

When each retail store bears the sign “masks are required”

And every adventure makes us tense and tired

When we learn that someone had a positive test

And we retreat to our homes for much needed rest

Let’s treasure Jesus, ponder His truth in our heart

With fresh faith in Him tomorrow a new day start

 

Midst our expressed concerns about the world’s future

Worrying that the wounds are too deep to suture

When mental anguish and fear are out of control

When encouraging words lack power to console

Recall that our purpose is to give Christ glory

And our mission is to propagate His story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COVID Weary

I am COVID weary! I guess we all are. The region in which I live has not yet been touched heavily by the virus. In some ways hiding out and laying low and limiting what I do is more of an inconvenience that begs for an answer. Nevertheless, I am COVID weary. I am weary of the fears and the news and statistics and the disruptions and the politics and the economics and the complaints and arguments. I am weary of hearing about sickness and death and dying. I am weary of the warnings of danger and seeing people in face masks and being told it is not safe to do simple ordinary things. This is not an argument of whether those things are reasonable acts of mitigation or not. I will assume that many of the precautions we are asked to abide by have merit. But I am just weary this mess.


In the midst of this weariness I have by calling and vocation been tasked with helping people, specifically church leaders, develop an adequate faith response to this crisis. I have been in Christian ministry for 41 years and this is the most difficult period of time to minister to people I have ever experienced. In some ways I think the church is thriving in spite of the stresses we face. But it is a difficult time to walk in faith and help others explore the grace and mercies of God. So like most everyone else I am COVID weary.


A couple of days ago I was reflecting on my weariness and the Lord whispered in my ear the ancient warning of the Apostle Paul “and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9 KJV). The weariness of the times can cause us to be weary even as we make good faith responses to the situations of the day. Paul’s warning “Be not weary in well doing” is vital for our day.


When we get weary in well doing we tend to ignore the word of God. Oh we may still read it and understand what it says and may even try in general to follow the guidelines presented. But we do not internalize the word and allow it to saturate our souls and permeate our minds. We don’t find any joy in the lessons of the word of God. The actions of faith we take become perfunctory. They are just laborious tasks carried out with boredom rather than acts of love performed with joy.


I am asking the Lord to help me not be weary in well doing. I do not want the weariness of COVID-19 to steal the beauty and happiness and satisfaction of serving the Lord Jesus. Paul’s warning comes with the promise that if we can avoid becoming weary in well doing there will be a day of reaping. These are difficult days but they may be some of the best days of the church. They may be days that lead to revival. If we can learn to serve God faithfully, patiently, and constructively during these days I believe we could see a great awakening in the church. We are all COVID weary. But “let us not be weary in well doing”.

Resurrected Wounded

Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb on the morning following the Sabbath for the purpose of anointing the body of Jesus for burial. But when they got there the tomb was open and it was empty. There they encountered an angel who said to them “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you” (Mark 16:6-7).


We learn here of a bodily resurrection. A man who had been publicly butchered on a cross, pronounced dead, and hastily buried inside a nearby tomb sealed by a huge rock had come back to life. Not just enough life to make a few restless movements where he was laying but enough life to get up, shed the burial garments, move the heavy stone and walk out. That had never been heard of because it had never happened before. A dead man had come back to life. This once dead man was on his feet walking and the angel knew his plans and whereabouts. Knowing his plans the angel gave the women an errand “Go tell his disciples and Peter that he will meet them in Galilee”. This was a bodily resurrection. Jesus had not been whisked off to heaven. That would happen later but for now he was on earth in same body he had had for 33 years. He was walking around in the same body that had been killed. That body bore the marks of crucifixion. Jesus had been resurrected but he was resurrected wounded.


We know this to be true because after the resurrection Jesus presented himself alive to all of his disciples except Thomas. Not being present Thomas refused to believe saying “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe”. (John 20:25). Shortly afterwards Jesus appeared to them again and gave Thomas the opportunity to place his finger in the mark of the nails in his hands and place his hand in the gaping wound in his side.  Seeing and being with the wounded resurrected Jesus was necessary to prove his dominion over death and to build faith not only in the lives of the disciples but all the generations since that time.  


That morning the women found an empty tomb and received that wonderful message from the angel “He is risen; he is not here.” With excitement they left to spread the news and Jesus met them on the way. They saw the wounded resurrected Jesus and Jesus reiterated the assignment the angel had given them “go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Matthew 28:9-10).


Let’s understand the magnitude of that. It is 78 miles from Jerusalem to the town of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. That is a 3 day walking journey if you go through Samaria. If you take the longer but safer route it is a 5 day journey. Jesus is going to make that journey on wounded feet. The Roman government with encouragement from the Jewish community had put him to death in the most debilitating way ever devised by man. He was buried and then with the miraculous powers of heaven was resurrected in human bodily form. In that human wounded body he was going to make a 3 day journey along mountainous goat trails and dangerous roads.


But why was he going to Galilee? First of all it was a safe distance from Jerusalem. The reality of the empty tomb and the rumor of resurrection would have the government searching for him. Secondly, Galilee was home. It was a place where Jesus and his disciples could feel safe. Jesus had spent three years ministering in the region of Galilee. It was from there he had called them and instructed his disciples. Now he is calling his them to re-gather with him. It will be a time of fellowship. It will be a time of forgiveness. Peter had betrayed Jesus terribly. But we should note that the angel specifically said that Peter should be given the word that Jesus wanted to see him in Galilee. “Go tell my disciples, and Peter, to meet me in Galilee”. Peter was a failed soul but Jesus forgave him and had a great plan for how he would be involved in the kingdom. For Peter and for all of the disciples Jesus needed to gather them in order to instruct them and make his commission clear in their lives.


Jesus went back to Galilee in his wounded human body to demonstrate to his disciples that they could go into their worlds in their human bodies with all their faults and frailties to tell his story and fulfill the commission that was given to them. It is the same for us. We are called to serve Jesus. We are not called to serve him with what we do not have but we are called to serve with what we do have. What we have are our human bodies and our human minds. We are not Jesus and we have not been wounded in the fashion that he was. But we have been wounded. We have first of all been wounded by our sin but Jesus has forgiven us. We were dead in our sin but in Jesus we have been resurrected to new life. Because he lives we shall live also.  We have been hurt in this world but we have the comfort and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. We live wounded but in Jesus we can go forward with the imperfections of our wounds to fulfill the commission of Jesus and promote the character of Jesus.


After a period of time Jesus went back to heaven where he reigns forever glorified. As believers we can look forward to a time when we will be with him with a new body in heaven. But at the present time we are the resurrected wounded. So let us strive to fill our wounded hearts and minds with the compassion and love of Christ. Let us journey forward with wounded feet. With wounded hands let us serve others, bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Tatooed on the Palms of God's Hands

On September 12 of this year we lost a giant among Illinois Baptist. Bill Weedman was a faithful servant of our Lord, first as a pastor and then for 25 years on the IBSA staff. He was a humble man, beautifully educated with a PHD from Southern Seminary, yet people rarely addressed him as Doctor. He was quiet and unassuming in so many ways, never drawing attention or recognition to himself. On the other hand all eyes were upon him because you knew he was someone who would be true to His word and what he knew to be truth. If you needed a job done correctly you called upon Bill. He was a wealth of information. If you asked him a question you better be ready for the long answer. He would start exhaling information and about the time you thought he was through he would inhale a breath of air and start exhaling more facts and figures and stories. And he could preach! His sermons were scholarly and at the same time pastoral, his delivery clear and without a note. Bill pretty much worked until failing health got the upper hand. For the last 6-8 years his public presence faded until it was non-existent. When you are not seen your importance dwindles and slowly you are forgotten. If people’s memories of you dwindle you just slowly fade away.

 

His memorial service was not held at a church but a funeral chapel. From 1:00PM until 3:00PM is not prime time. I think it is correct to say that while Bill knew a lot of people he had close relationships with only a few.  When time and memories of a person have elapsed and what is left of the physical body is just a sack of cremains maybe it is hard to justify showing up at a memorial service. I am not sure how many people came to the chapel and signed the guest book and left but when the memorial service began 29 people were in attendance. Only 29 people, just two dozen and 5. I was not among the crowd. My wife was there and I am taking some solace that I at least paid my respects by proxy.

 

I find it a little sad. It is disheartening that after a life of ministering to people and assisting others in ministering to people that only a small crowd comes to acknowledge your importance. If we view this only from the eyes of this world it is a discouraging thing.

 

In Isaiah 49 we discover a word of hope for Israel. They were a land, a nation, a people, who surely were depressed. Their city was in ruins and governments who were not sympathetic to their history, values, and faith ruled over them with a contrary hand. But the prophet says they ought to take courage for God has seen their affliction and is responding in compassion for them. God is writing a new song that will break forth as such decibels that the mountains around them dance in singing.

But they have not experienced that yet.

 

Isaiah 49:14 “But Zion said. ‘The Lord has forsaken me; My Lord has forgotten me.’”

             

Here is God’s response.

 

Isa. 49:15-16 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, That she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”

 

It is unfathomable that a mother would forget her nursing child. It is almost unheard of that a mother would forget the child she has borne. It could happen but God would never forget His people. This is a strong affirmation of God’s love and care for His people. God opens His hand and challenges them to look and see what is “engraved” on the palm of His hand. He has done this not with some kind of weak ink that can fade or be erased. But it is permanently carved into His metaphorical flesh. The object engraved on the palm of God’s hand is a drawing of the walls of Jerusalem. But which walls? Is it the broken down walls or the glorious walls of the future city? I say that it does not matter. The walls of Jerusalem is a reference to the people of God that had been and those that were yet to be engraved on the hands of God. It is a picture that tells us that God remembers us whether our walls are erect or whether they are crumbled on the ground.

 

How does this apply to you and me today? We are not Israel. We are not Jerusalem. We are not a nation enclosed with geographical boundaries. No! We are better than that! We have seen the Messiah. We have heard his teachings. We have seen Him crucified on a cross. We have acknowledged His resurrection. We have heard His gracious offer of forgiveness and salvation and by faith we have accepted that offer. We are a part of the church of the living Lord Jesus. We are the new Israel, we are the new Jerusalem. As such we are the recipients of all God’s promises and blessings and we are the ones responsible for propagating His mandates.

 

Thus this word of hope that Isaiah preached applies as much if not more to us than it did to those it was originally spoken to.

 

God has not forgotten us and He never will. He remembers us now here on this earth and He will remember us for all eternity. This promise is ours corporately as the church and as individuals.

 

Isaiah 49:16 is a beautiful picture of how God remembers and cares for His people.

 

The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) translates that verse like this “Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before me”.

 

What’s that?  Did it just say that God has a tattoo? Isn’t that something? God has a tattoo!

 

I dislike tattoos. I don’t understand why somebody would want one. The reason is that I have written so many dumb things in my life that I have learned that before I publish something to make sure it is something I don’t want to erase.

Recently a young woman told me she wanted to get a tattoo on her arm. My response was "please don't do that. Someone as beautiful as you does not want to mess up her beauty with a tattoo”.

 

But God has a tattoo. I suppose that if you are going to have a tattoo you ought to make sure it is of something significant. God’s judgment is great enough that He would not tattoo something onto His hand that was not significant.

 

His tattoo is a picture of His people. It is an image of His church corporately and it is a picture of you and me individually!  I ask the question: God why would you do that? God’s answer is “I love you so much, and I think you are so beautiful that I have tattooed a picture of you on the palms of both of my hands”.

 

Let me make three quick applications in regards to what this means for us.

It Speaks of  God’s Protection. 


He has engraved our image not on the back of His hand but on the Palms of His hands. In the palms of His hands he hides us and protects us. If the tattoo was on the back of His hand we would be subject to all the elements of the world. We would be exposed to gawking of all our enemies and all the enemies of God. In one sense we experience that anyway because we cannot be followers of God and live reclusively and still be effective. Yet we can rest assured that though the world around us may gawk at our faith and our values and even our existence we find security engraved on and enclosed in the palms of God. 


We are not forgotten. Jesus said “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”. John 10:28 


 It Speaks of God’s Preservation 


Why do we protect something? We protect it so we can preserve it and thus be able to enjoy it. 


I have a picture of my wife Jeanette and me taken just after we were married. I used to carry it in my wallet but now I keep that picture in a drawer in my desk. Every now and then I get that picture out and look at it and I get a visual reminder of what she looked like then. I get the picture out and look at it so I can enjoy it.  


God tattoos an image of us on the palms of His hands so that we will be preserved for His eternal enjoyment. Now is part of eternity! We are going to be in heaven with the Lord forever but God enjoys even now and He carries around an image of us on the palms of His hands. He can open His hands and look at us anytime He wants to.  


It Speaks of God’s Presentation


There is going to be a day when we all stand before God. It is a day of judgment, a day of accountability. Frankly, I have a little fear of that day. But my fears are calmed because I know that standing beside me on that day will be my savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was and is the physical hands of God on this earth. 


I don’t know what that day will look like but with a little sanctified imagination I hear my name being called and I see Jesus opening his hands and presenting me, presenting you, presenting His church to the heavenly Father. Can you get that picture? There in the midst of the nail scarred hand is a tattoo of me and you and all the redeemed of all the ages. We are not forgotten but we are presented to God eternally secure.

Slipping Away Into the Crowd Unnoticed

Today I saw an ambulance with lights flashing on the way to the hospital. As the vehicles passed me I noticed that the scripture reference John 5:13 was written above the back door. This evening I looked up the reference. It says “But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there”. One Sabbath day in Jerusalem Jesus met a sick man who was lying near the pool of Bethsaida hoping someone would put him in the waters so that when the waters were stirred he might experience their magical healing effects.  

That might seem silly but if you have been sick 38 years like this man had you will cling to any hope you can find. Jesus encountered the man and asked him a simple question, “Do you want to get well?” without answering the question the man gave both an excuse and an explanation that since he had no one to put him in the water that someone else always got in the pool ahead of him and thus received the benefit of the stirring waters. Without arguing the man’s reasoning’s and without discussing the effects of the waters Jesus simply looked at this man who had been sick for 38 years and told him “pick up your mat and walk”. Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Without saying or doing anything else Jesus slipped away into the crowd and the man who was healed did not even know who it was that healed him.

I suppose there are several reasons why Jesus slipped away into the crowd unnoticed. Certainly He had other things to do and other people to engage. Maybe He did not want to hang around and listen to the complaints and the questions of the Jews as to why He had healed a man on the Sabbath. For Jesus discussing rules concerning when and how and where one could do good deeds was a fruitless and senseless endeavor. Jesus simply went about doing good and ignored man made illegalities. Perhaps there is another reason Jesus slipped away into the crowd after healing the man. Jesus had come to seek and to save the lost. He had come to serve not to be served. Jesus was not interested in receiving accolades. He wanted the attention not upon himself but on miracle of a sick man made well and the grace of God that had made it possible.

If we wish to be faithful servants of Christ we need to not be positioning ourselves hanging around in order to receive praise and credit. Like Jesus we need to do good and then slip away into the crowd unnoticed.  

The difference Between Passing Through and Passing By

We love to sing the old familiar song “This world is not my home I'm just a passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore”. The song jingles in our head and flows from our lips and gives warm thoughts in the heart as we think of the beauties of heaven, the loved ones who are already there, and the thoughts that we will one day dwell there also. I understand the sentiment. But if we are not careful we can be so busy focusing on our heavenly destination that we lose sight of the journey that has been set before us. We rush through life oblivious to the sights, sounds and stories and situations around us. We are headed to glory but we forget the gospel encounter that is enabling us to have the hope of glory. In doing so we fail to communicate the doctrines of grace that will help others join us in glory.

Jesus did not make the mistake of just passing through. In Luke 18:35-43 we read the story of Jesus and the blind beggar. The blind man was sitting beside the road cobbling together a living by the only means available to him. He was begging. He could not see but he could hear and feel the commotion of the crowds and he inquired about what was going on. The people told him “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” (Luke 18:37). I submit to you that there is a measurable difference between passing by and just passing through. Jesus demonstrates what that difference is.

When you are just passing through you take the easiest route. You take the interstate and by pass the towns and crooked roads and the crowds and congestion. You want to get through the territory and make it to your destination as soon as possible and with limited stress. But when you are passing by you take the interesting route. Jericho was a less than desirable town and there was a road that went around it. But Jesus did not avoid Jericho but ventured right into the middle of it. He waded into the thick of the crowd where he could touch them and feel their pulse. He heard their stories. He saw their struggles and recognized their pain. He stopped and engaged in conversation with the people. His followers did not understand his concern and methods. When the blind man cried out for mercy Jesus’ disciples tried to silence him and blockade his access to Jesus. But Jesus stopped amongst the masses and asked that the man be brought to him. The disciples and the crowds saw the blind man as a freak to be shunned but Jesus saw him as a man in great need. The disciples were in passing through mode but Jesus was in passing by mode and so he stopped and engaged in a dialogue with the blind man.

The blind man was desperate and lonely and needy. When asked what he wanted Jesus to do for him he answered quickly and clearly “Lord, I want to see. It has been a long time since these eyes have functioned. Let me recover my sight”.  Jesus said ok. “Receive your sight”! The man’s vision was recovered and he followed Jesus around the rest of the day, glorifying God, telling people what Jesus had done for him. And all the people who saw it began giving praise to God.

We live in a world that is blind in a multiplicity of ways and for a myriad of reasons. They need the touch of Christ. They need the power of His mercy and grace. They need the gospel that loves and the gospel that saves and the gospel that heals. They are not going to encounter that gospel if we just pass through. But if like Jesus we will take the slower difficult road and pass by and stop and engage them with the power of the gospel, lives will be changed. Jesus himself does not walk physically upon this earth today. But we do. While we do let us tell the story of Jesus and administer the help and forgiveness that Jesus has to offer.  

 

 

The Value of a Tombstone

Two weeks before my grandmother Ada Cloyd was nine (9) years old she lost her mother to tuberculosis (TB). Grandma did not talk much and if you wanted information you had to pry it out of her. I asked her once what she remembered about her childhood and she said she remembered that when her mother died she and her two older sisters, ages 13 and 11, and her younger brother, age 7 were all sitting on the bed around her father as he told them what had happened. She said that all of them were crying. That may have been my grandmother’s only lasting memory of her parents because two weeks later her father was found dead under a tree where he had been plowing with his mules. He was buried on my grandmother’s 9^th birthday, May 27, 1916. Uncle Vince and Aunt Lucy and their daughter, who lived just down the road on the neighboring farm, moved into their house and provided the care and guidance needed until she and her siblings were grown. I am sure there were lots of stresses and struggles with that arrangement but my grandmother always held Uncle Vince and Aunt Lucy in high regards.

Her parents were buried in the family plot in a country cemetery. I have visited that cemetery a few times and have observed that many of the older graves are simply marked with sandstone rocks without name or words of eulogy or notations of the deceased date of birth and death. Such was the case with my great-grandparents when they were buried there in 1916. Poor people have poor ways. There were more critical things to spend money on than a properly cut and inscribed stone. It was left to family and friends to remember where their loved ones were buried. It was the responsibility of the older generations to pass this information and the accompanying stories along. Though my grandmother had a limited experience with her parents, preserving their legacy and memory was important to her. Those barren sandstone grave markers were not sufficient to honor their lives. When she became an adult, perhaps twenty or more years after her parents death she purchased out of her own funds granite tombstones that have now for decades marked the resting place of Noah and Izabel Gill. I was born 41 years after the deaths of my great-grandparents. But I know their story because someone told me. I can find their graves because someone respected them enough to buy a tombstone. It is right to honor our dead. It is good to preserve our memories. It is healthy to recall who we are even if when we do not know the ancestors in our lineage that made us who we are.  Remembering our loved ones who have gone on demonstrates our love and gratitude and regard for them. Taking the time and effort to do so adds value and dignity to our own human story.

A Tribute to Billy Graham and Thelma Perkins

Two of the greatest saints of God who ever lived died today and entered the glories of heaven.

One of those saints, Billy Graham, was well known. In his 99 years he had touched every corner of the earth. In one sense he was a simple Baptist preacher. In another sense he was a giant of a man. Billy Graham stated "My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ". That being so he fulfilled that purpose well. He preached in 180 countries and in the process preached to an estimated 250 million people. I have known of Billy Graham all of my life. As a kid growing up we used to gather around the television and listen to him preach. Many years later I had the privilege of serving as a counselor in one of his crusades. I stood within 40 feet of him but never had the opportunity to meet him personally. I think there were smiles in heaven today when Billy Graham arrived. And I think there was a smile on his face when he stood before the throne and met the Lord Jesus.

The other great saint that passed from earth today and began her days of heavenly rejoicing was Thelma Perkins. She was not known by very many people outside of the locality of where she lived. But I knew her well. I first met Thelma Perkins when I was seven years old. Our family was new in town and we joined the Gano Avenue Baptist Church where Thelma and her family were members. She became a lifelong friend to all of us. But we found her worthy of so much respect that none of us, not even my mom and dad, would address her, by any other term except “Mrs. Perkins”. Mrs. Perkins spent her 94 years on this earth loving and serving the Lord through her church and loving and encouraging the people that God placed in her path. Mrs. Perkins was a homemaker caring for her husband and raising three children. She was a kind neighbor. She was a gracious host. You would always get a good meal at her house but more importantly you felt love and warmth and kindness in her home. She never said unkind words about others and her presence made you cautious about engaging in unworthy speech as well. She was one of those people that the love and grace and mercy and kindness of Jesus just oozed out of. Her kind of character and demeanor is rare in the world. Mrs. Perkins was an ardent student of the Bible and was a Sunday School teacher for over sixty-five years. She had a great interest in missions and though she never traveled that much she prayed for people all over the world. I know she prayed for me. Her life and example has been an encouragement to me and many others.

Billy Graham got to heaven early this morning. Mrs. Perkins got there about 10:20 AM eastern time.  I am not sure what the protocol of heaven is like. But somehow I think that with these two great saints arriving on the same day that protocol was broken. There must have been applause. Maybe the heavenly choir got a little extra excitement and danced while they sang. Surely somebody shouted. I was not there so I don’t know. But I think that when the Rev. Billy Graham and Mrs. Perkins stood before the throne today the face of the Lord Jesus was beaming when He said “Well done, my good and faithful servant”.