Note: the blogs this week come from the writer’s inability to sleep in the early morning hours Monday. He suddenly sensed the Holy Spirit’s inspiration in the arrival of the words recorded. It cleared his mind and removed stress. If anyone can profit by what is written, Praise Jesus Christ.
By recording examples of Bible heroes, and leaving Scripture for our instruction, Jesus encourages us to become more informed about God and to associate with Christians whose lives challenge us to grow beyond ourselves. He wants us to speak with, listen to and question those whose knowledge of God and experience in faith are broader and deeper than ours. That necessarily means we limit the time spent in relationships that mostly remind us of our past and keep us there, strait-jacketed inside the limitations it imposed. True, there we find comfort levels of speech, subjects and habits, but they cannot challenge us to grow beyond to Christ’s more excellent ways. Jesus always calls us from lesser to greater spiritual depths; from what we have allowed ourselves to become to what his power can make us, given the chance. Sometime in AD 61, 26 years after Jesus opened Paul’s mind by closing his eyes, the apostle reviewed his experience with the Master. Replete with honor Paul may have been; much he had learned and whatever success he enjoyed as an apostle. Replete with honors he may have been. Learned as any writer of sacred scripture he certainly was. And successful as any apostle he had become. He nevertheless viewed it all as a beginning. He realized that the transformation he had experienced in Christ’s service had only begun to mature him. Towards that greater maturity he continued to grow. The best that Jesus had for Paul AWAITED him. Paul always lived each day for the future, where God’s BEST awaits. We would profit by following his example, one of the most challenging and rewarding in scripture. –End Part II-
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When the Israelites milled in confusion at the Red Sea, and lookouts shouted the approach of Egyptian chariots, the people “were terrified and cried out to the Lord.” God told Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on” Exodus 14:10, 15.
When the apostle Paul summarized his discipleship in AD 61, with a lifetime of experiences fueling his quarter-century apostolate, he refused to consider he had “arrived” at spiritual maturity. Indeed, he pressed on “to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me...Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on...” Philippians 3:12-14. Jesus always calls us forward to him—because he’s always ahead of us! To his tremendously exciting, transforming presence he calls us. To the ever-deepening experiences of his spiritual life. To the delight of finding in his word the new spiritual discoveries that strengthen our faith. He also calls us to increase fellowship time with those already beyond our discipleship level. They serve as models of what we can still become. In his book At Ease, General Eisenhower offered challenging advice, based on his acquaintance with General Fox Conners. Knowing him later opened doors for Ike. Which he appreciated. But more importantly, Conners was a person who made Eisenhower a better person by associating with him. The late Frank Broyles modeled that persona. One of the boys who played football for him at the University of Arkansas said he couldn’t necessarily make you a better player but being with him made you a better person. The obverse of Christ’s call to fellowship with stronger Christians is to decrease the time spent with those uninterested in Christ’s new dimensions; who remain mired in old constructs of thought and behavior, rutted in empty, frivolous opinions and discussions. That’s always Christ’s will for us. To go forward with him, whatever changes he makes in us; to desert the past with old acquaintances that always keep us chained where we WERE and never challenge us to freedom that moves us FORWARD to Jesus. –End, Part I- The goodness of God that Jesus expressed in teaching and miracles always had believers swooning in delight; and found unbelievers in various degrees of malevolence rejecting it.
To this day critics want to know why God doesn’t cancel war, poverty and disease. They never ask themselves why their minds are closed and their hearts hard against the Grace of God in Christ. The former gives them a feeling of power: they can actually excuse their rejection of God by posing questions he answers only in his word, but not without study. Satan’s head-to-head collisions with Jesus resulted in the devil at once beaten to a pulp and Jesus untouched. The writer discussed this in detail in his book Face to Face With Jesus. Why then do humans, likewise encountering Jesus face-to-face, so often ignore, revile or defer him to a later time? Because Satan knows the facts about Jesus and mortals don’t. If unbelievers had information about Jesus to which Satan is privy—and his knowledge of the Trinity isn’t exhaustive—they wouldn’t so casually consider their opinions important to God. They wouldn’t so confidently assert their limitations against Almighty God’s sovereignty and their opinion against God’s truth. With that knowledge, Satan knows he must obey when Jesus orders it; bereft of it, mortals think they have a better alternative. However, Satan’s control of humans can obstruct God’s will, but never overcome it. His influence over mortals has limits. For example, as the Temptations of Jesus proved, the devil didn’t want Jesus to die. Yet he died at the hands of wicked men. Why did the Jewish leaders kill Jesus when Satan wanted to prevent it? Because the devil can influence mortals only to a point, after which he loses control and God asserts his. As Pharaoh’s hostility to God proved, no one, however strong or wrong, gets beyond the authority Jesus possesses and exercises. Satan is a temporary intruder in life against God; he will one day be cast into the Hell created for him and his angels. That will be his end forever and ever. All suffering will then cease and only Joy in God and his Christ will continue. –Fini- We see good done for people wherever we look in the ministry of Jesus. We see God’s miraculous provisions. But always with different responses. Some works received only encomiums: healing of nobleman’s son John 4:46-54, the first exorcism in Capernaum Mark 1:21-28. Some received accolades with criticism. Approval came from the people, criticism from the leaders: healing the Capernaum paralytic Mark 2:1-12; giving sight to blind men Matthew 9:27-34.
The leaders became increasingly vocal in their malice. Healing the paralytic in John 5 led the Pharisees first to persecute Jesus for the healing, then to killing him for claiming to be God’s Son 5:16,18. After restoring a man’s withered hand in a synagogue, the Herodians gathered to plot a way to kill Jesus Mark 3:1-6. Even the common people grew so fearful of Jesus that they banished him Mark 5:17-18. Wherever we look in the Bible, God loves people, but critics denounce him for loving too little. God helps people and critics assail him for not doing more. God saves people from sin and critics refuse to believe they need a Savior. God resurrects the dead and critics wish they had remained in the tomb! -End Part I- We can be a pastor by looking at individuals, not crowds. We can also remember we don’t need to worry about saying the right words. The third way to be a pastor is to value Silence. Merely showing up when crisis strikes qualifies us. Letting people know we care by being there.
After all, silence is also a gift. John Adams esteemed George Washington’s silence as one of his greatest gifts. It highlighted what words he did speak. More than a few compulsive talkers speak because silence makes them uncomfortable with themselves. Only by speaking do they recover any self-esteem. We will always more often regret hasty words than repent of silence. Different from every other task, which demands specific skills and education, being a Christian pastor doesn’t demand training or memorizing ten rules. It demands only an experience with Jesus we can share with another. A willingness to express the mercy to others Jesus offers us. To do for them what he’s done for us. That’s why a hug, a handshake, a heartfelt, “I’m sorry, my sympathy to you” is pastoral and Christ-like. One of our members works in a medical facility. She saw a young woman leave the doctor’s office in tears. She immediately left her desk and escorted the lady to her car. She instinctively hugged the woman and kissed her on the cheek. I texted her, thanking her for being a Christian Pastor to that woman. Our member didn’t consider it unusual since she’s always been sensitive to people in need. We can create our awareness of other peoples’ needs by remembering how sensitive Jesus is to ours. And, as he said in another context, we then should go and do likewise. –Fini- Four scriptures in the first blog proved Salome a pastor of God’s people. The question we face is how to translate her nature into everyday discipleship?
First, by looking at individuals, not crowds. We can’t help everybody; we can help someone in particular. A lot of people came to the Cross to see a spectacle. More than a few came to identify with a Person. The difference between spectacle and person being CARE shown. The crowd had the energy to beat their breasts—perhaps in anguish and grief—that someone so good had been crucified. While those who loved that Man, who believed in him as God’s Son, felt obliterated, no energy left, no more tears to cry, no hope available to cheer them. What they witnessed only bent their shoulders beneath a burden too heavy to carry and hung their heads in a despair they never expected to have lifted. In 1998 an Army Major drove into Washington D.C. during morning rush from Alexandria, Virginia. He saw an overturned van and a crumpled, bloody body, partly on the highway. He stood by her side 45 minutes before help arrived, while traffic whizzed by, windows down, insults and obscenities hurled for creating a traffic jam. He forgot the crowd by thinking of the person. San Diego U-T, 4/23/98 Disaster can harden people: like those hurrying to get to their jobs in D.C. while an unfortunate woman lay at roadside critically injured. As we experienced Sunday, August 5, 2018, when Hwy. 78 was closed 14 hours due to a three-car accident. We figured our inconvenience didn’t equal the loss the family of the deceased 33 year old woman suffered. The sight of problems can become so commonplace we lose concern for the person involved. Teddy Roosevelt had high blood pressure that led to easy bleeding. His family grew calloused to it. One day he cut his scalp on a farm windmill and hurried into the house to have it dressed. His less-than-caring wife scolded him, wanting him to do his bleeding in the bathroom, not on her rugs. Sounds just like an exasperated wife to an erring husband. American Heritage, October 1964, 83 Two, by remembering the difference between being a preacher and a writer. People instinctively fear trying to comfort the stricken because they can’t think of the right words. They needn’t worry. Writers consider words as precious gems they string together into beautiful necklaces. Pastors know that words are sometimes unnecessary and irrelevant. They’re clumsy, not clever. –End Part II- The following blogs use Salome—wife of Zebedee, mother of James and John and sister of Jesus Christ’s mother—as an example of a pastoral nature.
First By Provisioning Jesus, recorded in Luke 8:2-3 and Mark 15:40-41. She and Zebedee invested their finances in the kingdom in which their sons had invested their lives. Second, By Standing With Mary at the Cross, recorded in John 19:25-27. Mary seems to have been removed from the scene at the beginning of the crucifixion. As expected, the sight of seeing Jesus on the cross provoked uncontrolled outbursts of wailing and tears in her. That inspired a friend to gently lead her away. The very response we have seen repeatedly when disaster strikes: the one most traumatized is removed from the scene. By putting Mary under John’s care, Jesus completely separated himself from all earthly concerns and relationships. Indeed, from that moment on, Mary would refer to Jesus as her Savior and as her Lord, but never again as her son. He would never again be brother or son to anyone, but always and only Savior, Lord and God! Third, By Staying at the Cross to the Bitter End, recorded in Mark 15:40-41. From 9 AM to 3 PM the faithful women stood near the cross. They watched as Joseph and Nicodemus removed the corpse, washed it, wrapped it in linen, enfolding 75 pounds of spices inside. They followed as servants carried the Master’s bier to the private garden. They gazed while the body of Jesus was carried into the tomb, then enclosed by the stone. Fourth, By Being First at the Tomb on Sunday. The women brought their spices to anoint the Lord’s body. In one of the great “hadn’t thought of that” moments, they wondered how the tomb could be opened! God solved the question by opening the tomb himself. That led to the women seeing the men—angels—inside who ordered them to tell the disciples that Jesus had risen. Which they didn’t at first; the sheer impossibility of their experience choked their testimony. –End Part I- I have explained in another article what I consider the best understanding of Matthew 26:19. This blog stresses the devotional thought from there. Remember that it’s essential to the Master’s institution of the Lord’s Supper. And the meaning of the Supper relates entirely to his sacrificial death for sins, our renewed life in discipleship AND the new body believers inherit after Christ returns.
With that understanding, only the Christians who proclaim his sacrifice as the reason he came—to be the SAVIOR, Christ the Lord, Luke 2:11—and who proclaim that reality as Christianity’s primary message, truly represent Jesus before the unsaved. The rest may preach a pleasing message, but not God’s primary message. No matter what the unsaved sinners want to hear, this they must hear because it’s God’s Priority outreach to them. Let us be warned: however methods change, God’s message does not. And we must not delete from the Gospel the essential that distinguishes it from all other messages. We must NEVER reduce to secondary or tertiary what God demands FIRST. LOST the unsaved are, and they remain lost till they accept what God says finds them. They must accept that truth about themselves before they’re candidates for conversion. They can be won to a program without that emphasis; to a church fellowship without it; to a small group study without it. But they’re won to Christ only through admitting they’re sinners and he’s the SAVIOR! Sponsored by the Japanese Buddhist Temple, they will gather in Balboa Park this Friday to celebrate the “spirits of their ancestors.” They compare their festival with the Catholic Dia de los Muertos festival on All Saints Day. Though different in practice and traditions, each celebrates their ancestors.
Of course, they will sell food and drink; have Bon Odori—Bon dance—like the country line dancing but done in a large circle with repetitive movements (based on a Buddhist tradition I won’t bother to divulge); and the chance to shop for Japanese art and clothing at the Resale Store. Proceeds benefit the Buddhist Temple scholarship fund. San Diego U-T, 8/2/18 Good old tolerant America; welcome everyone, of every religious or atheistic persuasion; parade your religion or lack thereof in public; use the Speckles Organ Pavilion grounds to celebrate your beliefs. Welcome everyone...except God in Christ! Pray to dead ancestors, who can’t help you, but not to the Living God, who can. Keep prayers to God in Christ private, in church services and Bible studies, but publicly appeal to the dead! Meanwhile...as we dig our national depravity deeper, God’s Unilateral Rule of History through Jesus Christ warns of his judgment to come on our society. God cannot be mocked, Galatians 4:7 says, and history proves. Not...won’t be mocked or shouldn’t be mocked...but CANNOT be mocked...as in, is impossible to be mocked. Since He is alone Sovereign of ALL, any person or society holding him in contempt will be held in contempt by him: inevitably, certainly, unavoidably. It wasn’t bad enough that 17 of 31 people aboard a Duck Boat died on Table Rock Lake, Branson, Missouri. The NTSB hasn’t yet ruled on the initial and ultimate cause. Nevertheless, lawyers for the family losing nine—count ‘em—9 members have found 53—53, count ‘em—people who filed suit against the boat company. San Diego U-T, 8/1/18. A fecund family; or is it simple greed?
While law schools teach rules and precedents, they shouldn’t ignore legal ethics—as in not using a tragedy to make as many people as possible wealthy. Proper reimbursement for surviving nuclear family, yes. But 53 people, who have suffered such “unfathomable loss” that they demand reimbursement running to $100 Million? Don’t be ridiculous! Sam Darnold, a 21 year old quarterback the New York Jets drafted in this year’s NFL Draft, has finally signed for $30.25 million. That included a $20 million bonus. U-T, 7/31/18 May all professional teams, whatever the sport, who pay such ridiculous salaries to unproven players, go bankrupt! Only lawyers, who love to argue cases, can keep a straight face when telling Americans a 21 year old anybody is worth such ridiculous sums! Of course, the contracts swell the lawyers’ already-bulging financial portfolios. That’s my opinion. What’s yours? |
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