In an upside-down world, where wrong has rights and right hides in fear, a story comes from Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race. Three mushers have been punished for protecting, not abusing, their dogs. White-out conditions forced six mushers to scratch; and three others to shelter their huskies with them. San Diego U/T 3/28/22
"Unfair advantage for the dogs," the race marshal declared. Their offense dropped those accused to a lower place in the standings. Jesus won't treat us like dogs: sequestering us when opposition flares and attacks—because he publicly stood his ground on every cause he advocated. He won't dismiss us from service when we can get hurt—because he bore nail marks in his side, wrists and ankles as wounds in forgiving us. He won't let us reduce or compromise his CLAIMS—because he fearlessly articulated them for all to hear. As his followers experienced in the closing decades of century one, through periodic persecution in century two, into the first decade of century three, he exposed his believers to brutality and death. What the Teacher experienced his disciples expect to repeat. Indeed, the only way God criticizes us is in claiming exemption from repeating in our faith the costs Jesus paid to established THE FAITH. He paid a price to save us. We pay a price to serve him.
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Ft. Washington should have been: Forts Mifflin and Mercer.
The March 27, 2022 Parade Magazine featured a Losers We Love article: those producers, directors, stars and movies that never won an Oscar. Among the most famous were Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Singing in the Rain and The Searchers. The battle for Ft. Washington in the American Revolution, and at the village of Lanzerath in the WWII Battle of the Bulge, join the underserved unheralded. WWII History, Feb. 2022, p. 34
The spiritual point. To the shame of every generation, in every nation, in every culture East and West, Jesus Christ has been the Unheralded, Unrewarded God in the flesh. God's judgment rests on Western Culture for dismissing him as Essential to humanity; and on Eastern Culture for never considering him as Essential. Obnoxiously snubbing him in history, governments and individuals insult him by disregarding his impact on history—dismissing his positive contribution as a humanitarian. See the book If Jesus Had Never Been Born for examples. Those who support hospitals, children's homes, colleges and benevolent institutions of all kinds HAVE THEM to support because Jesus came. That is all "small stuff" compared to his MAJOR contribution to humanity: his Once for All perfect sacrifice to forgive, remove and banish sin from human lives and improve the daily effort to live in peace with each other. All of that is the result of Jesus Christ's authority over heaven and earth until he "has put all his enemies under his feet" I Corinthians 15:24-28. Only spiritual depravity explains how such a PERSON can be considered irrelevant by a humanity so glutted with humanism it won't admit it needs help at all! And what shall all those do THEN who NOW consider Jesus unnecessary—when they see him on his Throne as JUDGE pronouncing them unqualified to enter God's Presence? I'm reminded of a poem I memorized long ago. "You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done." It gets better as you read the powerful lines.
The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery left Fort Clatsop, March 23, 1806, but a shadow of itself when leaving Fort Mandan a year before. Instead of canoes filled to the gunwales with trade goods, only items for survival remained: weapons, powder, scientific instruments, dried fish and roots, 95 percent of their trade goods spent. Undaunted Courage, p. 353 Yet, the very paucity of supply proved the success of their expedition to that point. They had braved incredible dangers, suffered physical and mental stresses and persevered until reaching the Pacific Ocean. All of this applies to the cost of discipleship: the opposition believers encounter by holding firmly to God's Word; the wounds suffered by identifying with God's solution, not by identifying with people with the problem. The latter invariably leads to compromising God's Word. The former to repentance needed by sinners. Remember, Christians: the only clean jersey in a football game is worn by a bench-sitter. Those engaged get dirty. But they have the assurance the bench-sitters don't: they entered the contest and engaged the opposition. One more positive point existed for the Expedition. They had wisely cached supplies between Great Falls and the Ocean on their way West. Those caches would replenish their return East. Christians have as their spiritual cache the ever-present, ever-empowering Holy Spirit. And we don't have to wait to find him. He stands READY at any time to replenish any effort expended in Christian service. And those who TRY, LOVE and CARE enough to get involved with Jesus in his ministry to lost, needy mortals can appreciate the SPIRIT'S refreshment whooshing through our human spirit at warp speed, FILLING...OVERFLOWING the vessel. In Matthew 22:37 Jesus established love of God as the primary motivation of our relationship. LOVE HIM FIRST Jesus said...not FEAR HIM first. That wasn't an exercise in semantics, but an accurate appraisal of LOVE over FEAR. Indeed, fear of God IN love establishes the respect for God that prevents careless inattention to our duty and his awesome sovereign power. It disciplines the "cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does," I John 2:16.
In pointed emphasis on discipleship, it inspires productive service, according to the Parable of the Minas Luke 19:11-27. The first two servants, inspired by respect of the master's authority, returned their gift in kind. The third, shackled by a fear of the master, refused to invest it. The point being: whatever our view of God, we OWE him a spiritual return on our life. We can never refuse to offer that return by claiming we had questions about God, or didn't LOVE and RESPECT God. All that refusal brings is a loss of any spiritual potential we may have had. II Thessalonians 2:9-12 addresses that fact from a different perspective. To summarize, as love of God increases, our fear of God decreases—a principle of the spiritual life I John 4:18. And...since we never perfectly love God, guaranteeing a residual fear of God, even that fear is healthy, so long as love dominates. Yours for a discipleship that LOVES GOD with our entire being, but trusts Faith and Grace to empower us to keep trying to be like Jesus. Our effort, bolstered by perseverance, maintains us in Grace AS we mature in Faith. In Luke 21:12-13 Jesus warned of obstacles Christians would face and the opportunities each offered. The obstacle would be the suffering entailed being a witness for him. The opportunity being the chance to be a bold witness whatever they experienced.
The book of Acts presented a series of obstacles and opportunities we'll call Problem: Solution. For example, the loss of Judas posed a Problem. While the selection of Matthias offered a Solution Acts 1:15-20, 26. Thus, while Judas failed as a disciple, Matthias succeeded in an ongoing mission. For example, the Jewish leadership created a Problem by rejecting Christ's Messianic Presence. God's Solution declared him both Lord and Christ by his resurrection Acts 2:36. Sinners can interfere with God's plans. They can never overcome them. For example, the Jewish leadership posed a Problem when warning the apostles not to speak "at all" in Christ's name. God's Solution empowered Peter to declare they couldn't stop speaking in Christ's name Acts 4:18-29. Servants of Christ can be harmed. His message can never be stilled. For example, Ananias and Sapphira desired the reputation Barnabas enjoyed as a financial blessing to the church, Acts 4:36-37, while harboring greed—the Problem—that made them lie about the size of their contribution Acts 5:1-2. God's Solution: protecting the integrity of Christ's apostles—who as his Vicars could not be deceived—came by striking both sinners down Acts 5:5, 9. Evil people die, God's work proceeds! In Acts 6:1 burgeoning growth in the Jerusalem church posed the Problem of favoritism in the distribution of food. The widows of Judean Christians received more attention than those of Grecian ancestry. A possible split coming, at the very start of Christianity? No...for God's Solution through the apostles was the selection of 7 Grecian men to represent the interests of Grecian widows in the distribution. And these are but a few of the Problems Posed, Solution Offered in the first six chapters of Acts. The point for us is: life will never stop creating problems; enemies of grace will never stop corrupting it into license; weak Christians will always find ways to increase problems in the fellowship. BUT...thank God...the Holy Spirit will always have a Solution, whatever the Problem. We won't stop the former. Will we pray for insight to find and implement the latter? How many PROBLEMS that arise in congregations, resulting in church fights and splits, could be avoided if God's people PRAYED to see the SOLUTION available to maintain unity, not experience division? Hearing the Master's teaching in Luke 17:1-4, the disciples sought reinforcement strong enough to be his kind of followers: "Increase our faith"! Every believer in Jesus has that response when:
Our response is, must be and cannot be anything but..."Increase our faith"! We cannot see Christ's life of self-denial and want to be self-serving disciples. Or yielding his life to God's will, even when it meant separation from God on the cross, and wanting to be God's child at a lesser cost than obedience. Or hearing him forgive his enemies THEIR self-imposed ignorance, Luke 23:34, while we hold grudges and take revenge for petty offenses. Nor can we EVER see Jesus stand by his Teachings, whatever the opposition, and find ourselves compromising his standards by sitting with his enemies, Simon Peter's style Luke 23:54-61. Blessed rather are disciples true to Psalm 1:1-3. Whenever discipleship becomes too imposing, demanding or dangerous, let us NOT withdraw into the safety of personal discipleship. Let us instead victoriously plead with Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith to make us more than equal to our role as your people in a depraved age." We may safely say, "We don't have the ability." We must always say, "But YOU DO. Empower us with yourself." Fourth, each writer retained Christ's Hebraic and Universal Nature. Matthew, writing of his destiny as Jewish Messiah, nevertheless stressed his universal, history-long Authority in 28:18-20. Luke, while teaching Christ's Universal Authority, put his ancestry in a strictly Jewish milieu: a Jewish girl; a Jewish man; a Jewish village; a Jewish Sabbath; a Jewish circumcision, et al.
Fifth. While the names included often present pronunciation problems, one factor makes it worthwhile: no names are too hard to say since they belong to family members. And family history isn't boring when it's OUR family. Which makes the Gospels' genealogy fascinating. Those are names of brothers and sisters in FAITH. In God's spiritual family. In every generation. They are loved ones with the good fortune, without knowing it, of being ancestors of the Greatest Man ever to live. And we'll one day talk over the different spiritual journeys we've experienced while living a common faith in God! Sixth, the two authors included different names in the genealogical lines. Which means Matthew traced Joseph's descent from David's son Solomon and Luke Mary's from David's son Nathan. (Could David have named him after the prophet Nathan?) Since genealogical tables usually stressed men, Christ's descent included three women, two of them Gentiles, the other a pretended prostitute. However, the importance of Mary's is her descent also from David. Seventh, and last for this blog, Angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph, Mary's betrothed, not to Mary's father, with information regarding Mary's pregnancy. Though Mary still lived at home till the wedding. God ignored cultural expectations by at once relieving the family of responsibility WHILE imposing it on Joseph. In the common opinion of Nazareth, he assumed accountability for her condition, though innocent of it. And by taking her into his house apparently admitted it! That has a spiritual lesson. God may ask us to assume responsibility for a situation we didn't create, but to which he feels we can contribute spiritual help. IF called to such a role, consider it a compliment. Don't quibble. Don't protest. Don't plead inability. Don't offer an alternative. God knows both the situation and the one capable of serving HIM in it. Be like Joseph. Obey immediately, as he did THREE TIMES—when called to it. Fini The Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock November 1620. Present-day descendants—amounting to at least hundreds in America—remember their ancestors as the original European settlers of New England. In 1992, a Connecticut family still farmed land their ancestors owned and on which they had grown food for General Washington's army. They still remember their origins.
The ancestry of Jesus deserves far more attention than it gets. This blog contains 3 of at least 9 spiritual lessons we can learn from Matthew's account, 1:1-17. One, each Gospel writer had a distinct purpose:
Two, as Hebrews 9:15 teaches:
Jesus literally sundered history into B.C. and A.D. which liberals today try to ignore by referring to A.D. as B.C.E.—before the common era. Their problem is, B.C. and A.D. don't constitute a simple equation. For without Christ's birth, ministry, death and resurrection ALL HISTORY would to this day be characterized by:
IF JESUS had not been BORN! Third, the genealogies prove Adam:
...the last regaining it by perfect obedience to God. Jesus as the LAST Adam to eliminate sin means no human WORKS can be the basis of entering Heaven. That obliterates the usual, "I'm a good person" explanation why people will get to Heaven. End Part I Two men had been POW's in Japan in WWII. One, when released by Allied soldiers, found a brutal Japanese guard and beat him to death with his fists. He broke both fists in the effort and sailed to America with both wrapped and taped. The other had a Bible given him for 3 days before it was removed. In those 3 days he found release from fear and hatred. He also found a new purpose in life: he would return to Japan as a missionary. Which he did in 1948.
Two men, two responses to harm inflicted by a merciless enemy. The first had the satisfaction of revenge on brutality inflicted. The second delight in preaching the Gospel in Japan for 30 years. It's possible the first man had permanent damage to his hands. If so, his crippled fingers would remind him of his vengeance. The second man experienced Christ's forgiveness of his sins, which led him to forgive his enemies their offenses against him. Do we want to be known for holding grudges and eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth retaliation? OR for so delighting in Christ's forgiveness of us that forgiving others proves a pleasure? Which discipleship reflects the mercy and grace Jesus embodied? |
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