"To Him be glory forever": July 2019

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Ordinary Day

True story.

One day a man named Paul, and his friend, Barnabas, were walking through the city of Lystra. They were minding their own business, talking with people. A man, one with crippled feet, overheard Paul. Paul looked at the man and sensed the man believed the things Paul was talking about. And so Paul told the man to stand on his feet. And the man did. Whatever had ailed the man had been healed, in an instant.

There were some witnesses to this dramatic event, and they did what witnesses to great events often do. They hung around Paul and Barnabas, making a big fuss about them. They went so far as to give Paul and Barnabas acclaim as being gods.

This treatment was over the top, as far as Paul and Barnabas were concerned, especially since they had been about the business of proclaiming to people the good news about Jesus. Jesus, they knew, was truly God, and they most certainly were not. And so either Paul or Barnabas said this to the crowd:

“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God…"

The healing that Paul did was extraordinary, but everything else in the story was ordinary. The over-reaction of the crowd, with its instantaneous elevation of Paul and Barnabas as celebrities. The teaching or preaching of Paul that preceded the healing. The call after the healing to turn from "vain things" and turn to a "living God." All very ordinary.

Things aren’t much different today. Celebrities wherever you happen to look. People's lives consumed by all kinds of things that create distance from God. Not things that are always inherently bad, but there are things that can be a problem when we pursue them to such a degree that we are moving away from God. And the call to turn from those things, and have faith in God. All very ordinary.

Jesus gave the ordinary call himself this way in Mark 1:14-15:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Here is perhaps the best part of the whole story. It hasn't all been written yet, and so you and I still have the time and opportunity to turn from vain things to a living God. To the living God.

We don’t need a special act to convince us. All we need is to see our need, and see our only hope, the hope received by faith in Jesus. An ordinary day will do. After all, it’s a true story.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Killing Sin

In the Old Testament book of Judges, chapters 4 and 5, there is a little detail that has mystified me. Judges 4 tells the story of Israel's oppression by an enemy, and a man named Barak being raised up to defeat them. But Barak is hesitant, refusing to do so unless Israel's judge, Deborah, goes with him. Deborah agrees, but tells Barak that because of his hesitance, the honor of the final victory will go to someone else.

The leader of the enemies is a man named Sisera, who army is crushed in the battle. Sisera escapes and takes refuge on the way home at the tent of Jael. While he naps, Judges 4:21 tells us this:

"But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died."

Judges 5 is the song of Deborah and Barak, basically repeating the details of the story, describing the death of Sisera like this:

"She sent her hand to the tent peg
    and her right hand to the workmen's mallet;
she struck Sisera;
    she crushed his head;
    she shattered and pierced his temple.
Between her feet
    he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet
    he sank, he fell;
where he sank,
    there he fell—dead."

Judges tells the history of God's people shortly after the time they took possession of the Promised Land. Because they were often disobedient to God they had a lot of trouble with their neighbors. The story of Judges 4 & 5 is one of God's mercy as he delivers them from an enemy. But today, several thousand years later, do we read anything within the story besides a historical account? Is there anything here to guide us as we live by faith in Jesus? I believe there is, and that it is seen in the details of the death of Sisera.

Israel is victorious as Sisera flees from the battle. But Sisera is still a danger, and so his death is necessary. Similarly, sin is defeated by Jesus on the cross, but it remains a danger to those of us living with faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

We cannot live lives that are free of sin, but we mustn't play with our sin, or minimize it, or ignore it, or pretend it doesn't exist. We must deal with it. We must put it to death.

We all have sins that we struggle with. The story of Sisera reminds me to see mine for what they are, and to seek God and his rescue from them. May you also seek the Lord's help as he shapes you in his image, killing the troubling, persistent sins in your life.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Anticipation

This coming Saturday is the third Saturday of July, which in Dulce means that this is Little Beaver week. Little Beaver is the community celebration that includes a dog show, ice cream social, mud bog, 72 mile horse race, archery and horseshoe contests, carnival, rodeo and powwow. And a few other events. And a parade. Did I mention that there is a parade?

The parade is a big deal. In my opinion I think it is a first-rate parade and somewhat remarkable for a community of our size. It happens on Saturday morning and this year, like every year we have been here, people claim their spots for watching the parade early. As I came back to town Tuesday evening I saw the first places marked off, and the marking has been increasing during the day today. In the photo there are several trucks parked on the route and you may be able to see some orange plastic tape strung up to mark another spot. Saturday morning, for roughly a mile, every linear inch of the parade route will be filled on both sides of the street.

The parade is a big deal and it is a lot of fun to watch it with friends. It is fun to watch the floats go by and throw candy to the kids. It is fun to call out to people riding on the floats who have become our friends. And the kids really like the last vehicle in the parade. It is almost certain to be a hot day, and they absolutely love being sprayed at the end by a fire engine.

The thing that I am mindful of today, as people claim their places for Saturday morning, is the sense of anticipation. The parade will be fun and people want to make certain that they have their spot to enjoy the fun as the parade goes by. They are marking out a spot as early as four days ahead so that they won't miss anything come Saturday morning.

Anticipation can also be found among Christians, as we look forward to the joys of heaven. The Bible has a few things to say about this, particularly in Revelation. Two images that I am fond of are Revelation 21:2

"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,"

and Revelation 21:4,

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away."

Beautiful words from God about the delights of the true home for his children. And reserving your spot is as "simple" repenting of your sin and trusting in Jesus for salvation.

I put "simple" in quotation marks, because coming to the point of seeing your need for salvation and then turning to Jesus for that salvation can be a long and arduous journey. But that is a blog post for another day.

Fellow sister or brother in Christ: Your place with the Lord has already been reserved. Live with a sense of joyful anticipation of the day you see, and join in, the celebration.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Many Rooms

I don't know this for a fact, but our family lives in one of the biggest houses in Dulce. A story-and-a-half, with a full basement. Five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. As we have arranged things inside there is plenty of space for our family of five, and a spare bedroom for guests who stay with us.

The house was built in 1914, for the first pastor of our church. I think that he and his wife had six children and the house used to have six bedrooms. Somewhere along the way one bedroom was converted into a bathroom. The house was built to last, with an adobe exterior, which keeps things a bit cooler in the summertime.

Yesterday I preached from John 14:1-6. Among the things that John writes there are these words of Jesus:

"In my Father's house are many rooms."

As Jesus gets ready to leave his disciples he does not simply say "See ya later!" but wants them to know, with certainty, God's long-range plan. And part of God's long-range plan is to gather every single one of his children and bring them home. That's where the imagery of a house comes in.

A house represents a home, a place where a person can come and rest. A place where, ideally, everything will work out fairly easily. Meals, conversation, recreation, sleep…whatever the activity may be in the ideal home it will happen without trouble. And if there is any home that is ideal, it is certain to be the one to which God gathers his children.

"Many rooms." It’s a large house. It’s a spacious house. And it’s a house whose capacity can always handle another resident.

I think the idea of "many rooms" means two things. One is that we who have faith in Jesus can be assured of having a place there. It won’t be like when I was a child and shared a room with two brothers for a period of time. Each person will be able to have a place of their own.

And the other thing is that we can extend an invitation to others to come and join us. To move in with the family, so to speak. Every Christian knows people who, today, are outside of saving faith in Jesus. If you are like me, you probably know and dearly love people who don’t have saving faith, and it is the desire of your heart that one day they would cross that line and be welcomed to that home.

It's a house with many rooms. One for you, and maybe one for someone you dearly love. Pray for that person and pray that God would give you an opportunity to share the love you have received from him with them.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Are You Offended?

Have you ever seen, known, or maybe even been, someone who seems to be offended by everything? From their perceptive there seems to be a problem with virtually everything that comes along. Every action someone else does. Every word someone else says. There are never any exceptions. Unless they said it, or did it, or thought it, it was wrong.

I've been there. Perhaps not to the extreme I describe, but close enough. Whatever it was, I was right and everyone else was wrong. On my better days I kept those thoughts to myself, but there were plenty of times when the words came out my mouth, and I never cared who would happen to hear them. Praise God that that way of seeing and living in the world is not my default any more.

In a curious paradox there is one person who, at the same time, is both the most offensive, and the least offensive, person who ever walked the earth.

Who could that be? The Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaking to the disciples of John the Baptist in Matthew 11:6 Jesus tells them,

"And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

Jesus assumes, rightly, that what he has to say to people will be found by many to be offensive. One place where we see this is in John's gospel, in what are known as the "I am" statements. They are:

1. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35)

2. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12)

3. “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7)

4. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11)

5. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25)

6. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)

7. “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2)

Seven statement in which Jesus says something that is radically exclusive. Seven statements in which Jesus says that the only way is his way.

Our natural inclination is to see our way as the best way, in all things. We are offended by the idea that someone else's way, for anything, is the only way. And perhaps more than anything else, we are offended that Jesus' way is the only way to peace with God.

Praise God that one day I came to see that his truth in Jesus really was best. I still read things in the Bible that I'm not fond of, but for the most part they are the words that show me where things still need to change in my life. Perhaps not the words I want to read, but certainly the words I need to read, as I live day by day with faith in Jesus.

The words of Jesus are no longer offensive, but words of God's love for sinners, like me and you.