God is Dead...Fred

“God is Dead…Fred”

1 Kings 19:14-15a Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword.  And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”  The Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness…”

          Many years ago, when I was just a church rat, my mother would stay working late or waiting for the last committee meeting to end before she could lock up.  Meanwhile, I would wander up the steeple, sit quietly in the still emptiness of the sanctuary or sometimes with enough courage work my way up to the darkness of the attic where the youth would congregate on Wednesday nights.  One of the rooms in the attic was reserved for the youth to inscribe their thoughts on the walls with marker, chalk or whatever else they had in hand.  I would systematically start from left to right, top to bottom and read them all once or twice a week to search for new insights and maybe laugh a little.  On the northern facing wall, to the upper right of the doorway, one etching always gave me pause… such that I remember it still to this day.  It scared me a little even though I found it a humorous each time.  It stated, “God is Dead… Fred” and then just below it in another handwriting it continued, “Fred is Dead… God.” 

          Now perhaps that was an anonymous zinger written by a darkly humorous student or perhaps it was a jab at the 19^th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famous for pondering the death of God/religion due to the enlightenment.  Regardless of who wrote it and why, it stuck with me and has me here some 30+ years later wondering, “have we really progressed or have we been killing God all along?”  I know each night you read social media posts and maybe even do some navigational reading from time to time to strengthen your knowledge.  And during each of those endeavors you have no doubt run across more than a few so-called advancements that fill you with wonder about how much we have moved forward over the years.  But have we really?  What has all of this “advancement” really achieved?  As a child of the ‘80s when I think about our progress since I stood there reading in that attic it feels like we have plateaued despite the wide publicity of medical marvels, scientific achievement, progressive worship and forward thinking philosophies.  Follow with me for a moment.

          Where exactly is all the progress we hear so much about?  Is it in our diets?  I don’t think so.  Nobody can decide from week to week if eggs are good for us, the brussel sprouts upon which I was begrudgingly raised now supposedly kill my testosterone, bananas cause you to bloat… no wait, eat bananas with every meal, with bacon… no wait, no bacon… with avocado, no those are fattening.  But wait, it is good fat!!  Count your calories, no your fat content, no your transfat content, no your carbs, no your carb to protein ratio.  Not to mention we are being told that we are magically all of the sudden allergic to that dastardly gluten which I must only imagine looks like Satan’s pitchfork under the microscope.  And despite how sickly it might make you feel, vegan is the best way to go… God forbid we kill and eat the way God instructed Peter.  Yet heart disease is at an all-time high and life expectancy reached it’s crescendo in the early 2000’s and has been going down ever since.  Meanwhile I ate buffet pizza with no sneeze guard, drank raw eggs like Rocky Balboa did, ate bloody steaks, had bread with every meal, and took salt pills while never getting dehydrated in the 80’s and life expectancy was only a few years lower while testosterone levels were higher than they are today.  No.  Diet and nutrition have not advanced.  We have just become more confused and are equally as susceptible to fads today as we were in the 1800’s to the local snake oil salesman.

          So perhaps we have had this substantial leap in medical advancement?  No doubt, new medicine is coming out every day and many of these medicines are a great help to some.  But where is that real chasmic leap?  We are supposed to be in a time of such great development, but when did we cure the last disease?  AIDS became epidemic in the 80’s, it is still epidemic now.  The dangers of cancers have been identified in cigarettes, household poisons and asbestos- but which cancers have we cured?  Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s continue to wreak havoc with no end in sight.  Yes, we have had some great strives in certain areas, don’t get me wrong, but where is that one thing that has caused us to move into a new age of medicine or have we just making small incremental improvements since the 80’s in reality?  Some will point out nanotechnologies at this point but right now this is just experimental and the concepts of nanotechnologies have been around since the Magic School Bus and Honey I Shrunk the Kids part whatever.

          Is the advancement in world relations?  Nope.  Still wars all over the world and people dying needlessly because cruel leaders want what is best for themselves, not mankind as a whole.  The only advancements in this area are the increase in the number of civilians who die in wars and the increase in martyrdom worldwide.

Have we advanced in the reduction of bullying in schools?  Doubtful.  With increased awareness comes increased self-victimization.  What I mean by that is, with increased awareness that I can blame a bully for my problems, and an increase in adults who will swoop in and punish the bully for me, comes the increased probability that I will blame a bully for my problems.  Hence, I will never face the bully, never get stronger and therefore remain a victim throughout my life at an increasing rate because I have become overly sensitive to every pointed finger, sideways remark or smug look. 

How about in space travel?  Surely space travel?  Wrong again.  We haven’t put a man on the moon since 1972.  That is almost 50 years ago.  Most of what we are currently learning about space comes from the Voyager probe which was launched in 1977.  The Hubble space telescope was nice (1990), but it just amounts to a big telescope that we put into low orbit and doesn’t really have any astoundingly new technology to shake a stick at.  I guess the latest achievement is the Mars rovers that were sent out in 2003 to explore the plant remotely.  While I don’t want to sound like we have accomplished nothing, if Kennedy was imagining in 1969 from the perspective of the first moon landing what we would be accomplishing in 2020, don’t you think he would be devastated at our supposed progress?

Perhaps this progress comes in the form of racial relations?  Not really.  Racial tensions are higher now than ever.  With the increase in social media comes an anonymity that has emboldened people to speak in such a divisive way, and without consequence, that those who contain any morsel of bitterness or ignorance are given a platform to spread their disease worldwide.  Although I would admit that there is increased awareness of social justice issues, have we seen any real reform or acceptance?  I say no, but hate has been given new kindling and pushes us further and further apart.  Even with the election of a minority President of the United States, which should have represented a leap forward in this arena, there has only been created a worsening of that division.

Certainly the normalization of homosexuality and the legalization of homosexual marriage represents a leap forward in thought and/or freedoms, whether you agree with it or not?  Perhaps this cultural revolution is the “progress” our generation refers to when they swoon over our advancements?  I would again have to say nope.  Attempted suicide rates among those with homosexual orientations continue to be upwards of 40% while the life expectancy for a homosexual male in the United States is only around 45 years old despite their more widely accepted lifestyles. Suicide rates in same-sex marriages continue to be twice as prevalent than those in opposite-sex marriages; it would appear that this “progress” does not seem to equate to the happiness that it professes to achieve.

      So if it isn’t diet or social injustice or space travel or medicine, where is it?  The internet?  Nope.  That was an 80’s idea becoming mainstream available in 1990.  The computer?  Nope.  Theories propagate widely on the first computer with some going all the way back to the abacus or slide-rule in the 1600’s while the first computer with a modern operating system was used in 1968.  So where is this modern advancement?  Where is this radical growth in the wisdom and technology of mankind since my childhood?  I would counter that it is much easier to argue that we have been going backwards. 

          Advancing in our belief that we are wiser while growing more ignorant in the process, we have been killing God all over again.  It is evident in simple things that we often ignore.  We used to live in the universe (uni- one, verse- spoken word) because God created the universe with His word, but now we live in the cosmos instead.  We used to discuss the construction of the great pyramid of Giza around 2500 B.C. (Before Christ), but now it is around 2500 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era).  We used to talk about “time, space and matter” because Genesis 1:1 uses that order saying that in the beginning (time), God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter) but have subtly changed  this phrasing to “space, time and matter” to coincide with the belief that the “space” existed before “time” and then “matter” exploded the world into existence.

          With such amazing advancements which once flurried in this country such as the abolition of slavery, women’s rights to vote, the first flight, the industrial revolution, the civil rights movement, space travel and yes, the invention of the internet… what do we have to show for all of our most recent forward thinking and what has been improved since?  Nothing.  Just a whole lot of arguing and trillions of dollars in research which will ultimately arrive at nothing less than the conclusion that God determines the days of a man, love is the only thing that improves relationships, God’s ways provide the only true justice and joy, humility is the only assurance of prosperity, and sin and its father are the only enemies not each other.  But as our society pushes God further away, effectively killing Him out of our worldview, these advancements are stunted and the plateau in which we live becomes our reality.

           But don’t get your dauber down Christian.  God is not dead, no matter what Fred said.  He is alive in you.  He is alive in this world.  And while I would encourage you to only cautiously wonder at the “achievements” of man, I would hope to persuade you to never cease to wonder at the achievements of our Savior in this world full of sin.  Yes martyrdom is at record levels, but so are the stories of faith, hope and love.  Yes transgender adolescents are fighting for their rights for sexual reassignment but so are men and women fighting for their marriages.  Yes minorities continue to be discriminated against but the with the year to year increase of interracial marriages comes the dissolution of any races at all.  Yes wars persist but friends of ours are daily winning their battles against drugs and alcohol.  Yes loved ones are withering away with atrocities such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s but God is still in the healing business and there are amazing stories of His hand either offering a cure or blessing us with comfort.  Be careful to whom you listen, be cautious of what you soak in, but be always assured that Jesus Christ is alive.  He is risen and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  We are risen with Him and have an eternal place in His presence.  The achievements of man matter as much as the heights to which the Tower of Babel reached, but the achievements of God have been accomplished once and for all.  The world is suffering, but don’t let it choke that truth out of you.

          What have we achieved and in what ways have we advanced?  Very little and very few, but God is still on the throne and He still welcomes us in.  When Jesus Christ said upon the cross, “It is finished” mankind had advanced in all the ways that were eternally necessary.  The rest is just butter… don’t eat it, it will only raise your cholesterol… I think.  

Bearing Fruit or Fruiting Bare?

“Bearing Fruit or Fruiting Bare?”

1 Kings 19:14-15a Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword.  And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”  The Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness…”

          I know, I know.  This is a blog about fruits so I am supposed to quote Jesus saying, “I am the vine and you are the branches…” or maybe Paul defining the fruits of the Spirit.  But that isn’t really what this is about.  I want to talk today about the perils of bearing fruit and what happens when we are not cautious to daily take care of the tree… or vine if that is a reference that makes you more comfortable in fruit talk.

          The Bible tells us the story of Elijah in 1^st and 2^nd Kings and I think his story is the one that most aptly gives us this warning.  Elijah was a tremendously powerful prophet but lived at a time when the Lord was being greatly dismissed from the people of Israel.  He was faithful to do everything that was asked of him from the Lord.  He spoke many wise things by God’s own words and even performed several miracles in the land by the power of God working through his hands.  Yet here he sat on this desolate mountain top awaiting a refreshing word from the God he followed faithfully only to hear God say, “Go back to the wilderness.”  Ouch!

          You see, even in bearing bountiful fruits in the name of the Lord, Elijah was showing unsettling signs.  Signs that became evidence that his faith was being shaken, even as God cast down fires from heaven at his beaconing and raised the dead at the sound of Elijah’s request.  So what were these signs you ask?  There were two, so let’s look at them both.

          First, Elijah was afraid.  Not that fear alone is a sign of faithlessness, but Elijah’s fear was one that was perceiving a threat that was not there.  Jezebel said she was going to have him killed.  That part was very real, but that isn’t why Elijah ran.  Not at least according to his own words.  When God said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13) Elijah quoted our core verse for this lesson reasoning the he fled because “I alone am left”.  What is wrong with that?  Well, he wasn’t alone.  He had with him his servant, he had been given provision by angels, by ravens and by a widow.  Shortly after this passage we see that he was also aware of a contemporary prophet in Obadiah who had protected two caves full of prophets from Jezebel.  Then God mentions 7,000 others that He was raising up for Himself in addition to Elisha who would be his successor.  He was not popular, but he was certainly not alone.  Fear can make us perceive things as being quite different from what actually is.  Elijah ran because he was “alone” despite having a bare minimum of 7,102 plus the angelic army by his side.

          Second, Elijah believed he had to do everything on his own.  He certainly recognized that he accomplished nothing but by the hand of God, but what he did not recognize was that he could have accomplished nothing if on by himself.  He would have starved if not for the widow and her son, his messages would never have reached Ahab without Obadiah, and he wasn’t going to change the hearts of the Israelites by himself.  Even the Lord’s fires consuming the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on Mt. Carmel had only a minimal effect.  In fact, the people of Israel would not have their hearts changed in the life of Elijah at all but it was to be after him that change would occur.  And it is surely exhausting to try and change the entire world on your own while blinded to the help God has sent.

          Here Elijah was on the mountaintop asking that God would just kill him and get it over with.  But as he pleads with God to end his misery, God says, “Go back into the wilderness.”  With what does God equip him to muster up the strength to go?  Does he give him a flaming sword or a horse with wings?  Nope.  He parenthetically says, “You are not alone.”  He tells him that there are others, and that finally brings me to my point.

          You see, we are called to bear fruit.  We are called to give that fruit away over and over because it is God who provides the growth and so the source is limitless.  And as Christians we believe that and hold that truth very dear but then, often times, we find that is not in line with the experiences we have in reality.  That isn’t to say it isn’t true, that is only to explain that sometimes things sneak into our lives unknown to us that begin to tamper with our fruit production such that we are no longer bearing fruit, but we are fruiting bare.  However, since we are just going about life the same as always, we stubbornly continue giving that fruit away over and over because that is just what we are supposed to do; God will provide we reason.  Friends come to us and need a word, the lost are all around us and we have a desire to reach them in some way, loved ones suffer and we are willing to give them anything they need even if it hurts. 

Over and over, we invite one after the other to come take of the fruits… but then it happens.  One day, we invite someone to take of the fruit and there is nothing there.  A neighbor needs to talk about a sorrow they are enduring and rather than having our attention all we can think about is, “How long will this be?” or “I swear I heard this same story last week.”  A friend wants to borrow your truck and you know that is code for can you help me move but instead of offering you say, “I will leave the keys in the potted plant out front.”  Your son experiences a teachable moment and you just let it pass because, “I just want one night where nobody asks me for anything.”  Not only has the constant production of fruit ceased almost completely, but now when those invitees come to take and find nothing, you offer them a leaf… and then a branch.  Before long you have been stripped bare and you can feel that you have nothing left to give.  You have become a stump.

We have all been there, don’t feel guilty.  But how is it that this limitless fruit indeed has limits?  Is it because you are not following the Lord or because you are not reading His word enough, or you are not worshipping hard enough?  Do you need to go on a 40-day fast and prayer diet or surrender to a 3-month foreign mission?  Maybe, but that sounds a lot like trying to do it all alone like Elijah doesn’t it?  And if you have nothing to offer your son, how is it you believe you would have something to offer a foreign nation?  Perhaps instead you need to gather around with a group of believers and tell them what is going on.  Receive some encouragement from people who have been where you are.  Let someone in on what has been distressing you.  Elijah was hiding in a cave by himself while there were two caves full of other prophets out there going through the same exact thing.  Maybe instead of running from Jezebel we need to have our faith renewed by finding our Elisha who emphatically exclaims to Elijah 2^nd Kings 2:6b “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”  Maybe instead of asking for God to just kill us we need to politely say “No” to being one of the 20 percenters at the church and instead be revived before we get back into the game. 

Now, I am saying all of this with the understanding of your maturity.  I am not at all saying that you should only do what you feel like doing, but what I am saying is that you should take a look at your toolbox before agreeing to build a house.  If you are a few wrenches short, perhaps God is not calling you to fix the car but instead to invite a mechanic to also partake.  You don’t have to do it all alone and if it doesn’t get done it isn’t necessarily your fault.

Secondly, don’t let that which is ungodly sneak in and cause you to perceive things as they are not.  Elijah was not alone, perhaps he just needed to get back into metaphorical wilderness with the rest of the prophets.  You are not too busy… perhaps there are godly changes that need to be made in your life.  You have not been abandoned… perhaps you were freed.  You are not useless… perhaps you were doing something for which you were not created.  You are not too old… perhaps your ministry is evolving towards wisdom.  You are not barren… perhaps it is time to look around you and see where God is already working and go be a part of that.  You are not fruitless… perhaps you are being called to involve others in the fruits God is producing.

Isaiah was called to render the hearts of the people insensitive to the Lord; producing a stump out of which would come the shoot of Jesse, but not in his lifetime.  Elijah was called to slap around the monarchy of Israel so that the prophets would arise and win back God’s people, but not while he remained on Earth.  Moses was called to lead God’s people out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the promised land, but not while he had breath in his lungs.  They each had very difficult ministries, but they were not alone.  Isaiah had his wife and sons, Elijah had Elisha among many others, and Moses had Joshua, Jethro and his wife.  Although I have not done a complete scan, I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who did what they did all by themselves even if God were at their side.  For completions sake, even Jesus required not only the Father but twelve companions on which He relied in order to have the strength to bear the fruit He bore.  If Christ alone were not even alone, why should we be an exception?  If we try, we are likely to be giving away branches instead of the fruit; the stump which gets left behind is still good for offering a seat on which to rest for the weary, but God has plenty of stones for that.  He has proposed a much greater and more living ministry for you. 

Worship God regularly, read His word daily, stay fervent in prayer, take that sabbatical and do not neglect these things.  But don’t forget that the tree God has planted (you) is human, and as humans we have the need for companionship, for encouragement, for an ear to hear us vent, a shoulder to cry on, and a loving touch to ensure us that we are not alone.  In that soil, even in our fallenness, we will bear much fruit.

Resetting the Bore

“Resetting the Bore”

Titus 1:16a They profess to know God but by their deeds they deny Him,

          Living in Houston, you can’t help but pick up a term or two from the oil and gas industry.  I suppose I could have called this “Fracking For Jesus” or “Roughneck Religion” but that would have just been cute for cuteness sake and would not have reflected the thoughts I want to convey to you today.  Also, I figured if I put “boring” in the title, people won’t be too disappointed if it turns out this blog isn’t so great.  So what does drilling have to do with Titus 1:16?  “Well,” give me a “caisson’s” length of “horizontal deviation” and I will “directionally drill” to the “target zone.” 

          In the drilling industry, when the geologists are seeking to reach a target that is well beneath the surface, they have to allow for and even predict a certain amount of the afore mentioned horizontal deviation because the drill bit doesn’t react the same with every soil or rock type it encounters.  The upper sediments are usually loose and easy to drill but as the boring rods reach bedrock depth and below, the earth begins to wreak havoc on drilling equipment and, in traditional boring methods, can dictate the direction of the overall borehole.  At extreme depths, the borehole will encounter other difficulties such as fault line slippage and even rock that is so hot that it essentially flows rather than providing resistance to the bit. 

Between 1970 and 1994, the Russian’s efforted reaching the Earth’s mantle by drilling the Kola Superdeep Borehole near the Russia/Norway border.  Though the borehole took many years and encountered even more troubles, they eventually reached a record depth that still stands today.  Some 7.5 miles (40,230’) beneath the surface, the Russian’s finally had to call it quits.  Even though the unpredicted heat (356º F) did not allow them to reach their target depth of 15,000 meters, a successful hole of 40,230’ is astounding to imagine.  Using this as our case example, this 9” borehole was insignificant when you consider that small amount of steel twisting in 356º temperatures 7.5 miles beneath the surface.  As a result, the horizontal deviation in this hole reached as much as 10,000 feet (close to 2 miles) off-center from the drilling rig on the surface.  On a few occasions they even reset the borehole and tried again, but ultimately the same forces twisting it crooked to begin with just twisted it similarly once more as very few changes to the process were attempted.

          Now, you are both wise in the ways of drilling and properly prepped for where I am going with all of this.  “His Next Rung” has not had a post since October of 2017.  I would love to say that life just got away from me, the new job kept me busy, I was off somewhere doing greater things, or perhaps I was on some sort of sabbatical.  None of those would be true.  So what has been happening for the past two years?  I hit some dense sediment, the rig failed, the drill bit fractured, the rods twisted, the heat was too intense, I noticed that secondary forces had begun to guide my way and so I pulled back to reassess.  Do I continue drilling in the same direction or has my horizontal deviation led me so far off course that it was time to completely reset the bore?

          You see, the words from Titus 1:16 began to ring in my ears and penetrate my conscience.  Despite my attempts to serve God and make Christ the center of everything, my deeds just did not seem to be lining up.  Titus 1:16 told me that there are those that profess to know God but that their deeds show otherwise.  While I professed to know God, and even to teach others to do the same, I had to face the reality that my deeds were not in alignment.  The stories of faith that used to roll off of my lips started to become stale because they were stories from many year’s past with nothing new or fresh to take their place, the inspired words from the Holy Spirit became pieces I cut and pasted from lessons learned in some section of my distant past, the vision I had for where I was being led began to grow dim and I found myself twilling in circles looking for any point of light towards which to begin running, and the produce generated from this path seemed to smell more rotten then fresh.

          Over the last two years, I have pulled up the drilling rods completely and I have been scanning the surface for a new site upon which to probe.  One that would not twist me in the same direction all over again.  One that would not lead to the same staleness but would reach the target in which God promises a life lived with an abundance (John 10:10) of vigor and potency.  I had to conclude that if the Holy Spirit was in me, which I know He is, then the path I have taken has deviated so far from His plan that He can no longer associate my direction and His path except through void.  He could no longer scream direction my way while I plugged my ears and claimed to be following Him.  And so He allowed me to see, hear, feel, smell and taste His absence; and it has sucked.  Whatever way I was following may have been His way while the sediment was loose and the drilling was easy going, but as I lost site of the rigging, the fault lines and molten rock sheered away my passion, motivation and even my anointing.

          So what now?  Can you bear more drilling references?  Now there is a method known as “directional drilling” which actually allows the operator to receive feedback from the drill bit about the substance through which the bit is boring and the direction it is going so that it can be course corrected.  I also realized that hundreds of geologist, engineers, researchers and drilling experts are instrumental in any large-scale drilling project that is undergone today.  So how can I begin to drill down beneath a superficial life with Christ and still maintain direction, working directly beneath the rigging? 

First, I need a solid operator.  And it can’t be me this time.  And I can’t claim it is God but then do what I feel is best.  And I can’t lose sight of the surface saying to myself, “I got it from here.”      

Second, I need a target.  Yes God can course correct anytime He wants, and yes there will be secondary missions that all occur within the drill, but everything must point towards the target.  When the rock gets hot, I need to have strong convictions from which I refuse to waiver.

Last, I need hundreds of people to make this work.  When my equipment fails, I may need to borrow a rod or two, a jump start or maybe some grease.  The deeper I go, the easier it is going to be to horizontally deviate unless I have godly men and women surrounding me and analyzing the core; holding my samples up to the light to see if everything is adding up.  

Then, and only then can I feel good about starting up the engines again.  Until then, I sit here on the surface sharpening the bit.  That is where I am, that is why “His Next Rung” has been pulled, and that is why this blog only rests at the surface.  I know the Operator, albeit from a fresh start.  I have some resonating guidance towards a target.  I just need the people; and I have a feeling we all do.  If you would agree to be one of those, please comment below.  If you need help with this or any of the three components I have listed, please reach out to me and I will tell you what I have learned in the past two years of backing off prescribed Christianity and towards something more authentic.  We are not in this alone, and I don’t want to do it alone anymore.   

Caring in Whole Not in Part

Matthew 25:40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”

          So there is this wonderful little parable that Jesus tells to His disciples at the tail end of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25.  In it He depicts two types of people:  #1 those that feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in a stranger, cloth the naked, comfort the sick and visit those in prison, #2 those who don’t.  Jesus says, on the day of judgment, that #1 will get the ticket to ride on the J-Train (permission not given by Toby Mac to say that but he doesn’t read my blog, YET) and #2 will get thrown into eternal punishment; presumably the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Not sure exactly what that means but whatever it is, it is scary and sounds about as peaceful as being tumble dried with a family of porcupines. 

          If you are like me, you have probably excluded yourself from among those at the porcupine laundromat because we are decent people.  We would certainly not pass over someone who wanted a drink or tell a sick person they should just go find a hospital and stop bothering you.  That being the case, we are good, right?  Well… not so fast.  I am of the opinion, and I think the theology bears out, that there is a much deeper layer that Christ is showing us.  And like me also, we may have neglected a few things.  You see, if this is all about physical things we do for people then doesn’t that mean that Christ and His sacrifice are unnecessary to my salvation?  He says it right in the red letters!! As long as you take care of these people you will be welcomed into the Kingdom with open arms.  Or so it seems.  But to believe that would mean we have to throw out almost the entire New Testament (and Old for that matter) to hold on to our faulty conclusion; including the most known verse from Tim Tebow 3:16….errr… John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  So if Tim Tebow is right, and we get into the Kingdom by repentance and believing on the sacrifice of Christ to pay the penalty of our sins, what the heck is Jesus talking about here?  And what do hungry people have to do with anything?  That is why I believe there is another layer.

          Go back and read Matthew 25:34-46 for a minute……  Seriously……  Dude, go read it!!  I will wait….  You didn’t do it did you?  Sigh.  Ok, now then, as I mentioned, Jesus points out six different categories of people we are to help.  And He addresses the physical need of what should be done to help them.  But in every parable there is always a spiritual meaning underneath; something the disciples generally ask about and Jesus will explain but in this case He did not and we are on our own.  That explains why for so many years I thought I was doing just fine.  I get the physical needs: food and water, place to stay, warm clothes, comfort to the sick, visitation to the prisoners.  But what are the spiritual needs and am I meeting those needs?

          Let’s just roll through them one by one.  First, the hungry.  They need food.  But they need to be fed spiritually.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, Jesus is the Word, therefore meet their spiritual needs by administering the Word of God in their lives.  See how easy that is?  Well they get harder.

          Number two, those who are thirsty.  They need water.  Jesus gives living water and in John 4 says that if you take of His cup you will have a well of water springing up to eternal life.  So what am I supposed to do Jesus?  Dig wells?  No.  I mean you can, but they won’t save anyone.  Well, yes but not spiritually.  Ugh.  I should have thought this through before I typed.  Digging wells and giving people water is awesome, do that.  But it will only have eternal value if it is combined with the giving of living water.  In John 4:37-39 Jesus clarifies that the living water is the Holy Spirit.  But that doesn’t really help me a lot because I can’t tell the Holy Spirit where to go or what to do.  John 3:8 says He goes where He wants to go.  So how do I spiritually give someone something to drink?  How about by offering them eternal life?  Telling others about the sacrifice of Christ, the water of repentance, the washing of the sins, the bathing of the Holy Spirit and receiving of the “sloppy wet” kisses of the Father (don’t worry Matt Redmond also not a fan).  Dig a well, yes.  As deep as the soul and fill the need by inviting the Holy Spirit to take up residence.  Have you ever done that?  A little more than just handing out water bottles after a hurricane, huh?

          Then there is the stranger.  He needs a place to stay; a home.  We may not invite strangers into our home much anymore but certainly you would be available to take someone if given the right circumstances and safety assurances.  But what about spiritually?  What could a stranger need?  Well, pretty much the same thing.  They need a home, some place to belong; a family.  We can accomplish this by inviting someone to be a part of the Church eternally.  That can start by inviting someone to YOUR church, to be a part of YOUR family and to belong as a part of a body of believers where YOU worship.  And if that is too much how about just introducing yourself to someone that seems to have a spiritual need.  It worked well enough for Forest Gump!  Momma said not to be taking rides from strangers but Forest introduced himself to bus driver Dorothy Harris and then said, “Well now we ain’t strangers any more.”  If it was in the movies, then God surely approves of this tactic.  Rolling eyes.  I think however you do it, the emphasis is on being spiritually welcoming and eternally minded.

          As for the naked, this could get interesting.  Not so sure I would recommend welcoming a naked stranger into your home but luckily Jesus separates the two so we don’t get into trouble.  First you have to clothe them.  And spiritually?  Well this is up for interpretation but God not only clothes us in Christ but He clothed us another time too, remember it’s parallel in Scripture?  It was in the garden of Eden and He did so because Adam and his wife were naked and ashamed.  Contrary to a sometimes popular opinion, church is not the place for fancy dressed parishioners.  It is the place for those who need to be clothed in Christ and a place where the shamed should be able to come in naked and find refuge.  Not a place for judgmental stares but a place for warm blankets of love and compassion for those in need of spiritual balm.  Back to the answer we have to give the King, you may drop off used clothes at the Goodwill but do you sit next to the new visitor who wore shorts because he doesn’t usually go to church and wasn’t aware of your dress code?  Do you pray with him?  Did you invite him to lunch?  Me either.

          As for the sick and those in prison, I want to address them together.  Physically they both need comfort and visitors, but why did Jesus separate them out into two groups?  Well, once again it is open for opinion but as always I have one.  These are the people who can’t leave and we have to go to them.  In both cases they are people who we don’t just come across in daily life but we have to be intentional about going out to them.  Maybe this is just your neighbor or maybe this is foreign missions, but either way they need you to go to them and bring them comfort and healing.  Who is the Healer?  Who is the Comforter?  Okay, so you know what they need spiritually but again, why did Jesus separate them?  You see I think there are two types of people who need us to go to them.  There are the sick:  those who are ignorant of their sin and ignorant of the love of Christ.  Then there are those in prison: those who are shackled in sin, desperate for a Deliverer but set against Him.  We are called to both.  It is a little easier to go to those who are unaware than it is to go to those who are belligerently against the message of Christ.  It sure would be nice if I could just tell Jesus to send someone else who has the particular gift go to all the annoying and arrogant but He called all His disciples to go to them.  Even to the difficult ones.  Do you approach them with the message of salvation or do you turn your eyes to the left and act like you don’t see them?  Me too.

          Upon further review.  I don’t have it all together.  Maybe you are feeling the same.  Good.  I don’t want to be alone with the porcupines.  No, that isn’t what would happen.  This does not mean, Christian, that you would lose your salvation for pinching your nose rather than giving a Bible to a homeless man.  But what it does mean is that if I am not meeting the spiritual needs of those in the world than I am not yet arrived in my relationship with Christ and need to go deeper.  Don’t rest on your laurels in your relationship with Christ.  Go on foreign missions, visit the darkest penitentiary, hand out encouraging letters in the hospital….but don’t forget WHY you are there.  To expose them to the Bread of Life, pour out to them living water, give them a home of belonging, cover their guilt and shame, disciple their ignorance and undo their shackles in the name of Christ.  Yes the porcupines await some but the love of God awaits you and that is your inspiration to go.  So go!

Seeking Safety

When a brook finds a home in halting

Its upstream is sure to pool.

With last corona of waning sun

The earth, it is known, must cool.

And so when wind blows great trees to

They always return by fro,

And since clouds whose changing azure shapes

Are relentless in their flow.

Our lives too have certain certainties

Although some seem all but safe.

Nature’s Master scribes our destiny,

And protection comes from faith.

Still the occasional sparrow falls,

The abstruse is in His plans,

But if that sparrow flails in Heaven

It’s brought rest in gentle hands.

Our Lord is our hope, lacking languish.

He so gives without receive.

Since peace and rest and joy He does will,

We have only to believe.

Choosing Between Religion and Grace

Matthew 15: 3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

Matthew 15:6 “And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”

            So what exactly is going on that Jesus is being so particular about?  Well let me get into a little history for a second and then bring us all back to earth by describing how we are still guilty of doing this same thing today.  Fair enough?

            Many, many years ago in a land far, far away, God gave unto Moses what has been calculated at about 613 Laws contained in the first five books of the Bible.  Now not to be too presumptuous but one of the purposes, so says the New Testament, of giving all of these laws was to be a tutor which would lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).  In other words, the Law is so extensive and our human nature is so flawed, our inability to successfully complete such a monumental task as perfectly observing all the Law was to bring us to utter dependence on Christ; i.e. faith.  The Law was to lead us to repentance and the dependence on the grace of God and His strength to perfectly fulfill this Law on our behalf. 

            In comes the problem.  Problems such as basic humanism and pride began to beset those Jewish adherents to the Law and they developed the arrogant opinion that 613 was too easy.  As a result they began to write down oral traditions that were accessories to, or additions to, the current 613.  Because God’s requirements were so easily met among the truly righteous, so they reasoned, they could begin to add more weight to the Law and separate the super righteous from those who are only modestly righteous.  In comes the Mishnah.  The Mishnah was a written record of these additions which accounted for somewhere near 4200 new “laws” that the super righteous were to implement into their daily lives.  Now these were not inherently bad things.  They were intended to be reverent and help people focus on God and His holiness, etc.  The problem is that God didn’t write them.  They were entirely man made and therefore many of them actually contradicted the ACTUAL word of God in lieu of trying to honor Him.  That accounts for why Jesus, in this exchange, snapped at the Pharisees quoting Isaiah and exclaiming, “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” (Matthew 15:9)  You see they did not see through to the true heart of the message contained within the Law and so thought they were adhering to it when in fact they were failing in most every respect.

            One of these Mishnah laws was detailing the very specific procedures necessary to wash before you ate anything.  Now this is not to speak poorly of our Purel generation, but quite frankly, Jesus is letting them know that washing your hands before you eat is not going to somehow make you super righteous; sorry moms.  And not washing your hands before you eat is not going to somehow disqualify you from church membership.  You would think that was pretty straightforward, however, because the Mishnah laws had become so ingrained within this society post-Babylonian exile, they believed that Jesus was breaking the Law of God.  As a result they pressed on Him and wanted to tear down any clout Jesus may have been building among the Jewish cohort of disciples.  Primarily because Jesus didn’t do things the way they did things.  Jesus made them feel uncomfortable because His devotion did not look or feel like theirs did.  His ways were not their ways.  And furthermore, He was not educated or formally trained, so how would He know anyway?!

            Not moved by the Pharisee’s and their interpretation of piety, Jesus helped them to understand that not only could they not meet the 4200 laws, they also could not meet the 613, they couldn't meet even the great 10 and so teaches them to follow only the 2 (to love God with your all and to love your neighbor as yourself).  So this is where we jump ship from the history lesson and start looking for practical application today.  I am sure it is quite easy to look at their Pharisees and scribes and think, “They were so stupid.  How could they miss something so obvious?”  But do you realize that in saying that you have become one of them?  Here is the deal, we do the same thing all the time and do so MOSTLY within the church!  Not sure what I mean?  Let’s think about it for a second.

            How many Christians do you know that in arrogance state they will never see an R-rated movie because they want to be sure to keep anything impure from before their eyes?  Noble, yet are not The Passion of the Christ and Hacksaw Ridge two of the most spiritually exhilarating movies ever made?  Mishnah.  How many Christians do you know that say they don’t listen to anything but praise and worship music?  Disciplined, yet do not Jonny Lang and Lifehouse sing some of the most powerful worship music available even though in the secular market?  Mishnah.  Don’t invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

            Greater still, should a good Christian condemn another Christian for missing church?  What if that church missing sinner was absent due to the fact that they had recently discovered their mother had contracted cancer and couldn’t face people that day?  Mishnah.  When a teen girl becomes pregnant due to making a poorly thought through decision, should a good Christian be sure she understands that she needs to be repentant for her sins?  What if she is already self-condemning and really just needs a friend?  Is it not more important that among the children of God she recognizes that she is special and truly loved?  Mishnah.  Don’t invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

            What if a pastor does not deliver an alter call at the end of every service?  What if there is not a particular scripture reading at your men’s Bible study and instead you just fellowship?  What if your devoted prayers are spoken with your eyes open and while driving your car instead of kneeling in your prayer closest?  What if your unbelieving neighbor asks you to come over for a beer because he has some life questions to ask you?  What if you have to mow your yard on Sunday to avoid a HOA violation ticket that would inhibit your ability to get groceries for your kids this week?  On and on and on.  Don’t invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

            God’s word is clear and succinct.  He doesn’t beat around the bush and makes His commandments pretty clear.  But there is always a reason that He says the things He says.  And the reason always defaults to one thing:  He loves you.  Or better said, He loves His children.  Do you first and foremost respond to situations with this in mind?  Or do you first and foremost respond based on what you have interpreted from a passage of Scripture that may or may not be speaking into the context with which you are currently presented?  Do not take wrong what I am trying to say.  Should the Sabbath be observed?  Of course.  Is it good to protect your eyes from viewing unclean things?  Beyond the shadow of a doubt.  Should a pregnant teen be aware of God’s will for her life?  You bet she should.  But do we default to condemnation and judgment or do we love.  Jesus says in Matthew 11:30 that His burden is light.  The church and its people should not then be going around and adding burden in response but rather directing people to Him to let Him take the burden for Himself. 

            Have a beer with your neighbor and talk to Him about why you love the Lord.  Hug the neck of the pregnant teen and tell her that you will always be available to her if she needs to talk.  Mow your yard and feed the little blessings that God has put under your care.  Watch Hacksaw Ridge and take the whole family.  Listen to Jonny Lang's “That Great Day” even if you have to go to the House of Blues to hear it.  Matthew 22:38 “This is the foremost and greatest commandment.”  Throw down the Mishnah in your heart and love the Lord and His people.  Extend a little grace on the front end and see what happens to the sin on the backside.  There is always time for judgment but the Holy Spirit does a pretty good job of that on His timing and in His great ways; not mine.

            

Does God Honor My Free Will?

                

                I never hear this question:  “Does God honor my free will?”  I always hear it phrased as a definitive statement such as:  “God would never force someone in anything because He is a gentleman and honors/respects our free will.”  But then the people that say this never back it up with any biblical proof.  This assumption that God honors/respects (does not encroach upon) our free will just does not hold much water with me so I wanted to do the following study to see what the Bible says. 

                First of all let me make a few points about this “assumption statement” to simply voice some things I find irritating about the statement in general.  For one, why would someone define God as a gentleman?  I love God, but “gentle” is a pretty strange way to describe Him because it is such a small part of who God is.  Gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit so I have no problem with saying that God is gentle, but describing Him as a gentleman would be much like referring to George Washington as Episcopalian.  Okay so he was an Episcopalian but he was much more to the history of this country than that right?  In the same way, God is truly gentle but He gets done what needs to be done even if it requires His commands, His rebuke, His discipline, or even His wrath.  It doesn’t feel gentle when I am being rebuked; how about you?  At the very least I think we could agree that God has other attributes as well and He does not always operate in ways that are gentlemanlike.  In addition to that, let’s not forget that many “gentlemen” in the south owned slaves who were of course held to work against their free will so being a gentleman does not preclude someone from imposing their own will.   Sorry, the idea of confining God within the simple guidelines of a gentleman limits His abilities to within human institutions and I serve a limitless God who surprisingly (tongue-in-cheek) exists outside of our regard for Him.  Exodus 22:20, 22-24 “He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed.  You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.  If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”  Gentle, huh?  And just so you know it is not just an Old Testament thing:  Matthew 16:23 “But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’”  In both of these examples God is speaking to believers not unbelievers.  Of course God turns His wrath on those who dishonor and deny Him, but the thought that He is beyond treating believers with anything but gentleness and courtesy is asinine. 

                Second, the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9 KJV).  God does what He does with some regard to me only because He loves me (John 3:16) but He does not wait for my approval before He acts.  That would imply that I am god not Him.  This thought is, in fact, entirely prideful and humanistic and reveals the self-centered arrogance Satan has convinced us is true justice.  Can’t you just hear Satan whispering in the ears of the immature “God would not surely make you do something outside of your own will, would He?”  Doesn’t that sound eerily like the conversation with the woman in the garden, “You will not surely die…for God knows in that day…you will be like God.”  Let’s not assume what God says, but instead look and see what God’s word ACTUALLY says.  Romans 9:15-18 “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’  So then is does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’  So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”  Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble but these verses clearly spell out that God is not altering His will just because you will something else.  It is, in fact, only when we align our will with God’s will that we will receive what we desire (Psalm 37:4).  He is not changing for anyone just because they “free will” something different.  Job 23:13 “But He is unique and who can turn Him?  And what His soul desires, that He does.”  Hello?   

                I am not going to take the time to go through each verse of the Bible that speaks to God’s sovereignty, His predestination of events or His all-powerful nature, etc.  Instead I figured I would just compile some of the stories littered throughout the Bible and see if we can identify any times where God enacted one plan while the subject “free willed” something different.  Maybe the weight of the evidence will point to whether or not God honors our will or His own….just sounds funny even saying it, doesn’t it?  Is this seriously even an argument?

1)      Jonah:  The prophet Jonah was commanded by the Lord (not asked) to go to the people of Nineveh and warn them that they were wicked and the Lord had taken notice and was about to destroy them.  Jonah, in his free will, fled.  He got on a ship headed to the ends of the known world.  Despite Jonah’s obvious desire to flee from God and the task God had commanded him to complete, God sent a storm in the path of Jonah’s flight.  The storm forced Jonah into the sea and he was swallowed by a great fish.  While in the belly of the fish, Jonah’s will to flee broke and he then willed to live.  The fish vomited him out on the shore and God again commanded him to go to Nineveh which he did. 

Thoughts-  I suppose God “gently” encouraged Jonah to change his mind?  Then He was patient and loving to Jonah in order to win Jonah’s heart?  I suppose God didn’t want to impose His will on Jonah so He drowned him (water-boarding) until he repented?  If I could be permitted to use my own words, I would say that God broke Jonah’s will like a glass vase in a cement mixer.  This hardly lines up with our original “assumption statement.” 

2)      Philip:  One of the original deacons in the Acts church, Philip in Acts chapter 8 comes across an Ethiopian reading out of the book of Isaiah.  After describing how this story spoke of the Christ, the Ethiopian was saved and Philip baptized him in a body of water along the road that connects Jerusalem to Gaza.  Then in Acts 8:39 the Bible tells us that “the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.”  Philip was miraculously transported to the city of Azotus where he continued to preach the gospel.

Thoughts-  “Snatched away?”  But what if he didn’t want to leave yet?  He was not compelled to leave.  He was not asked to go to Azotus.  He was “snatched.”  This is only further proof that God is not as concerned with our opinion as He is His own will.   

3)      Simon of Cyrene:  Simon was a Jew from North Africa who was in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion of Christ celebrating the Passover with his sons Rufus and Alexander.  We do not necessarily know that Simon became a believer but his sons undoubtedly did since they were known by the readers of Mark’s gospel as is evident in the language used in Mark 15:21 (see also Romans 16:13).  Mark tells us that Simon was “pressed” into the service of carrying Jesus’ cross while Luke tells us Simon was “seized” and they placed the cross on him.

Thoughts-  Now words like “pressed” and “seized” do not sound much like free will.  In fact, it sounds as if God was accomplishing His goals of crucifying His Son regardless of if Simon wanted to help out or not.  God was going to use Simon to accomplish His goals even if Simon was late for dinner or even if Simon was allergic to wood.

4)      Judas:  And on that note, how could we forget Judas.  He was the disciple who was hand selected by Christ to assure that He fulfilled God’s will to sacrifice His own Son so that He could bring Him back to life and redeem His Church.

Thoughts-  No doubt, Judas shows his free will when he sells Jesus to the Jews/Romans for 30 pieces of silver, but upon closer examination, it appears that Judas changes his mind and returns the money (Matthew 27).  So was he perhaps “forced” to do something outside of his will?  At the very least we can say that he was not allowed to change his mind no matter how desperately he wanted to.  I don’t think it was Judas’ will to have his guts spilled out in the Field of Blood, but that is what God did to him anyway.  What a gentleman!

5)      Joseph:  The favorite son of Jacob, Joseph was hated by his brothers and sold into slavery.  As he faithfully persisted to honor God no matter the circumstances, he eventually elevated to 2^nd in command of Egypt and saved a continent from starvation. 

Thoughts-  Not only was it the will of the brothers that Joseph died, it was the will of Ruben (the brother that saved him and sold him into slavery) that Joseph go away forever.  Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”  Do you see the contradiction between wills in that text?   Joseph did not expressly admit to having a different will than God’s but common sense would tell us that he was not asked if he would be willing to be sold to a foreign country.

6)       Nebuchadnezzar:  The king of Babylon the great who, because of his arrogance and pride, was made by God to go crazy and live out in the fields with the cattle for seven years.  God’s emphasis in this was that Nebuchadnezzar turn from his pride by being humbled, recognizing that “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.” (Daniel 4:17 & 4:32).  When Nebuchadnezzar was broken from this pride, his kingdom was reestablished by God.  He then concludes:  Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

Thoughts-  Again we see the example of God not being a gentleman, or respecter of persons, but outright asserting His authority which He has every right to do.  He does not hesitate to break us until we do as He commands.  That doesn’t sound like free will to me.  That sounds like sovereignty.  If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.

Did He ask Mary if she wanted to be the mother of Christ?  Did the Israelites want to be exiled into Babylon for 70 years?  Did the Hebrews impose a 40 year desert wondering on themselves?  Did they not even criticize Moses and say that he should have left them in Egypt because he took them out against their will?  Did He ask Mary and Martha if it would be okay if Lazarus died so Jesus could raise him? Did He ask the disciples if they wanted to follow Him or did He command them saying, “Follow me.”  So many stories where God uses us to accomplish His will whether we want Him to or not.  So where in the world do we get making claims like our assumption statement?  These are just a few examples off the top of my head but I am sure there are dozens more.  I think I have made the point adequately but if not just don’t make this statement around me.  We are often so concerned with retaining our self-worth and self-independence that we forget who it is that gives us worth and makes us free.  Many people will come back to say, “Well we are not just puppets or robots to God.”  To this statement I would agree that we are not “just” puppets but we are at least partly puppets.  That is kind of what I meant by surrendering my life over to His will.  Here are my strings.   You pull where you want me to go because I have made a wreck of things.  Not that He can now use me if He wants to because I give Him permission, but that He was using me all along and I am just going to stop resisting Him.  I don’t want my will to have to be broken like Jonah’s anymore.  If you are not His “puppet” then you need to take a look at your strings and see whose puppet you are.  The Bible says we are slaves; either slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin (Romans 6).  Slaves, I think most would admit, do not have the freedom to choose the way of life they desire.  They are tied to their masters and whatever they will.  So why is that so hard for us to swallow?  Because we want to be like God just as the woman in the garden did thousands of years ago.  Satan’s doesn’t have to get new tricks when they have worked all along.