Do You Want to Get Well?

Every time I pick up the Bible, I see (or rediscover) something fascinating.  This morning I was thinking and reading about the invalid at Bethesda.  In John 5, Jesus appeared out of nowhere to an invalid near a pool and asked the man, “Do you want to get well?”  Do you remember how the man responded?  The man gave an excuse.  Jesus asked the man a question and the man’s answer did not match Jesus’ question.

Doesn’t this episode remind you of the kinds of conversations we have today?  I mean, there is a lot of talk, but no real dialogue.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been involved in a conversation and chased a rabbit.  The end result was like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz exclaiming, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto!”

In the story, the man was so preoccupied by his illness that he did not hear Jesus’ question, but answered from his feeling of helplessness.  Jesus must have understood this, so He just healed the man.  This is how God’s grace usually works.  God intervenes many times in our lives and we don’t even know it.

Later, when the leaders of God’s people saw the man, they confronted him because he was breaking one of God’s laws.  The man explained to the religious leaders that the stranger who healed him, said to him, “Pick up your mat and walk.”

This episode reminded me of how John introduced us to Jesus.  In John 1:10-11, John writes,

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.  He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.”

It wasn’t until later that Jesus revealed Himself to the man.  Then the man went back to the religious leaders and told them that it was Jesus who made him well.

Jesus is a snapshot of our heavenly Father (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus might be the “Kodak Moment” in people’s lives.   May we be the ones who recognizes the Hand of God in the world and be the finger that points back to Him

Be Ye Perfect

I like the King James Version of Matthew 5:48 when Jesus says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  I preach this to myself and I quote this verse in conversations.  I do this intentionally, not to stir up trouble, but to help us (including myself) to hear what Jesus is saying.

What Jesus says should be disturbing and shocking. What Jesus says should sound unrealistic, irrational, illogical, and unreasonable.  Why do I say this?  Read Matthew chapters 5 through 7 with Matthew 5:48 in full view.   I am convinced that if we heard, “Be like God” the way Jesus intended, we wouldn’t need the adjective, “perfect.”

If you had heard Jesus saying this to you, you probably would have responded to Him with, “Yeah, but…”   I know I have—more than once (but who’s counting?).  Yet, this is the cost of discipleship—the price of following Him.  We are to lose or give up our lives for His sake in order to find His Life.

I know this sounds counterintuitive, but remember how Jesus ended His sermon on the mount?  Jesus ended with two prophetic parables.  In the last one, Jesus said if you trust Him in this life, you will be able to withstand the storms in life.  In the one before the last parable, Jesus said that if you trust Him in this life, He will recognize you in the life to come.  These are the words that I hear coming from the One who later rose from the dead with these final words in the book of Matthew, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me.  Therefore…” (Matthew 28:18-20).

When I hear these words, the words following, “Therefore” (Matthew 28:19 or Matthew 5:48) may not matter.  Why doesn’t it matter?  Unless the issue of Sovereignty is settled, the response doesn’t matter.  However, once Jesus’ Lordship has been resolved, it opens the door to the kingdom of heaven, to a new life, and to a relationship—a relationship with the promise, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I Hate My Parents

One day as I was talking with my daughter Sarah, she said to me, “I hate my parents because they gave me morals.”  She continued, “If I didn’t have morals I could do what I want, when I want.”

“I know what you mean” I answered.  I continued, “You could just turn your back and walk away from a situation or a person or you could call a person an idiot who’s acting like a jerk.”

“Yup” she answered.  “Life would be so much simpler.”

“Absolutely!” I exclaimed.  “But then you gotta live with yourself afterwards.”

To which Sarah replied, “I hate you dad.”

I am reminded of Moses who “chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward” (Hebrews 11:25-26).

Whether we believe in God or the after life or not, life is bigger than ourselves or the moment.  The Hebrew writer goes on to say, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  In other words, we reap what we sow.

Spiritual Distancing

I am an introvert so the social distancing edict that was pronounced does not effect me as much as Robin, who is an extrovert.  Every day as this law is in effect, I see the effect that is on Robin and the struggle she goes through.  For the most part, I am immune to this struggle.

However, this morning I am reminded that the struggle that Robin and others like her are going through in the world may not be much different than my struggle with my spiritual life.

I often feel like there is a huge spiritual distance between me and God.  The Psalmists’ cries of, “My soul is in deep anguish.  How long, LORD, how long…” (Psalms 6:3), “Why, LORD, do You stand far off?  Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble…” (Psalms 10:1), and “Answer me when I call to You…give me relief from my distress…hear my prayer” (Psalms 4:1) resonates within me.

As I reflect on our current condition, I am also reminded of how spiritual distancing began when God exiled man from the garden.  I am also reminded of how man has tried to get back to God and how futile it was because God has all of time and space to hide Himself in.

The Good News of Scripture is that God has closed the gap by sending His Son, Jesus.  Jesus is the bridge or “the way” back to the Father with the promise, “I am with you always.”

With this assurance from Scripture and Jesus, why do I still feel (at times) like God is still so far away?  Because the “pandemic” that is in the world is not over yet.  In Romans 8, Paul tells us that all of creation is groaning because the redemption of creation is not complete…So we groan.

Paul doesn’t stop there.  He brings more clarity by letting us know that the groaning of creation comes from the pains of childbirth.  In other words, we are in labor.  Yes, there will be stress, anxiety, worry, and fear.  However, Paul gives us an expectation with a vision of the end.  No, it will not end with a still birth, but with the “revealing of the children of God.”

Paul describes the climax of life a little differently to Timothy, but it sounds the same to me.  In II Timothy 4:8, Paul tells Timothy, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who have longed for His appearing.”

Isn’t this good news?  Doesn’t this help close spiritual gap a little?

Such A Time as This

Joseph was 17 when God gave him a dream.  Decades and lots of drama later, his dream came true.  As best as I can tell, Abraham was 85 years old when God told Abraham that his descendents would be slaves for 400 years.  When Abraham was 100 years old, his son, Isaac was born.

The prophets of the Old Testament predicted that a Messiah was coming.  Centuries later when Herod asked the religious scholars the whereabouts of this Messiah, the scholars pointed to Micah, who prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  Paul later commented, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son…” (Galatians 4:4)

When I read Scripture, it’s hard not to miss the sovereignty of God.  When I look at how the lives of the people of God unfolded, I ask myself, “Is this a coincidence or is this divinely orchestrated?”  This is the bottom line question; it comes down to the Sovereignty of God.

Even as I ponder life and the very details of life, I ask myself, “Is this accidental or is this deliberate?”  The answer to this question is thought provoking and it invites me to ask a few more questions.  First, “If life is an accident, then does it matter what I do?”  And second, “If life is not an accident, what is its purpose” and ultimately, “What is my purpose?”

God answered this question for Jeremiah.  God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appoint you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

Later on, God answers that question for the Israelites.  Through Jeremiah, God said, “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart…and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”  (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

Scripture continually convinces me of the sovereignty of God.  This is why I look at the pandemic that our world is facing and contemplate the words of Mordecai to Esther, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

If nothing else, I am reminded that our “history,” as we know it is coming to an end.  As the Old Testament points to the Messiah to come, I hear the New Testament writers crying out, “Jesus is coming back!”

My search for purpose is answered with the question, “Am I looking for Him?”

Identity

I don’t know if it still exists, but I loved the “Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop.”  I’ve never been to Oklahoma or attended one of these events, but some of the men from this area would attend these meetings and would come back and tell me about them.  They even brought back cassette tapes of some of the lectures and loaned them to me so I could benefit from these gatherings.  That was over 30 years ago, but I am still being blessed by some of the things I remember.

One of the things that I remember was a preacher who spoke on being “God’s Man.”  I don’t remember the context or even the preacher’s name, but I remember what he said about our identity—knowing who we are in Christ, and used the Apostle Paul as the example.

The preacher said Paul was an evangelist and a missionary who was beaten up and thrown into prison.  If Paul’s identity was tied up in what he did, he would have despaired.  Instead, the preacher said, “Paul sat back and asked himself, ‘What can I do?’ and answered himself, ‘I think I’ll write some letters.’”  Isn’t that an awesome picture of what it is to be God’s Man?

I was reminded of this sermon as I considered what’s happening in the world today.  Even thought the News reporters are saying, “We’re going to get through this” and “We’re in this together,” I still hear and see the cries of despair and desperation from the reports.  I see isolation and confinement and hear the cry, “How long…”

As I contemplated these things, I was reminded of the video of the Abilene’s virtual choir that the Elliotts forwarded to us the other day (“The LORD Bless You and Keep You) and another virtual choir (“It is Well With My Soul”) that I saw this morning.  Besides being performed by individuals from all over the words, they were awesome and all these “events” reminded me that our God is present and cannot be limited.

The question that I hear this morning is, “How can we (individually and collectively) be God’s people in this present time?”

The Gospel

Over the years, our congregation has been blessed by numerous visiting speakers.  When Robin and I were new to the congregation, Jim Woodruff and Terry Smith were invited here to do a seminar on the Gospel—the Good News.

In one of their sessions, Terry made the statement that his friend Jim goes around telling people that “if Jesus was in hell, he’d go there to be with Him.”  Jim’s statement startled Terry at first, but Terry said the more he thought about it, the more he embraced this idea.  In fact, as he thought of the Apostle Paul writing, “I Paul, a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he began to translate it as, “I, Paul am captured by Jesus…”Aren’t these marvelous thoughts?

Over the years, I have kept Jim and Terry’s ideas close to my heart and I have discovered that this is not only what the New Testament writers are proclaiming to its readers, but I hear this declaration also coming out of the shadows of the Old Testament.  Listen to what a couple of our ancestors have declared:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for You are with me.  –Psalms 23:4

 If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up form here.

–Exodus 33:15

Your love is better than life… —Psalms 63:3

The Good News is clear to me—Hell is not hell when God is present.  The question to me is, can I sing wholeheartedly with they hymnist, “Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home” with my lips and will my life be a witness and testimony to it?

What Is Normal?

I recently heard someone say a woman would be worried if she began experiencing symptoms like fatigue, headaches, mood swings, nausea, and weight gain.  However, if she knew she was pregnant, she’d know that these symptoms were normal.  After I heard this I remembered a marriage counselor asking, “What is normal?” in the context of a relationship.  The counselor’s answer was, “Normal is a setting on a washing machine.”  I guess he was saying every relationship is different.

In the face of the current pandemic, I’ve heard some people wishing, “I hope things get back to normal soon” while others proclaiming, “There’s going to be new normal.”  This is why I’ve been pondering the counselor’s question about “what is normal” in life?

I think normal is for us to desire a comfortable, stress free, and trouble free life.  But to have this as our expectation is setting ourselves up for disappointment, disillusionment, and despair.  It is unrealistic because life is unpredictable, uncertain, and unfair.  Does this sound negative and pessimistic?

Remember what Peter said?  He said, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as if something strange were happening to you” (I Peter 4:12).  Jesus said it more bluntly when he told His disciples, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).  And Paul tells Timothy Christians should expect adversity (II Timothy 3:12).  In other words, adversity and suffering is normal in life and Christians should expect it.

This doesn’t sound good, does it?  It even doesn’t sound right.  It flies in the face of the popular messages of today.  Yet, as unpleasant as it sounds, adversity and suffering should make us lean on God (II Corinthians 1:9) and to seek God (Acts 17:27) until it becomes natural or a normal in our lives.

And while adversity and suffering is normal, the New Testament writers remind us that this should not be our expectation or the climax of our lives.  Paul says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles…” (II Corinthians 1:3-4)

We should look forward to be comforted to by God Himself.  Notice that Paul doesn’t end there.  Paul goes on to say, “…so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we have receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so our comfort abounds through Christ.” (II Corinthians 1:5).

This is what’s normal in the new creation.

Living Sacrifice

Someone was once talking to me about Romans 12:1-2 and being a living sacrifice.  As this person continued to talk, I could tell that this person did not grow up in the country or on a farm because this person was “romanticizing” what it meant to be a living sacrifice.

My grandfather lived next door to us as I was growing up and he raised chickens and pigs.  I have memories of what it was for these animals to be sacrificed for the family.  So when the Apostle Paul tells the Romans to be “living sacrifices,” it sends chills up and down my spine.  When Paul uses this metaphor, a living sacrifice is something that is not attractive nor is something that I am eager and willing to do.

However, when I stop cringing and open my eyes, I notice Paul pointing to Jesus as he starts off with, “In view of God’s mercy…” (Romans 12:1)  Instead of hearing Scripture demand that I be blindly obedient; or the apostle sugar coat the request that I be led to the slaughter ignorantly, I hear Paul pleading with me for being a willing sacrifice is quite reasonable.

I never heard Jesus say to the Father, “…a body You have prepared for Me…”  Yet, this is what the Hebrew writer claims Jesus said.  In fact, this is what the Hebrew writer said Jesus proclaimed:

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

But a body you prepared for me;

With burnt offerings and sin offerings

You were not pleased.

Then I said, “Here am I—

it is written about me in the scroll—

I have come to do Your will, My God.”

—Hebrews 10:5-7

Paul may not have been the author of Hebrews, but I think this is what Paul had in mind when he urged the Romans to be living sacrifices.  I think this is Paul’s intention for all God’s people as Paul repeats this message throughout all his epistles.  Read Philippians 2.  Let me start you off—

Let this mind which was in Christ Jesus, be also in you…

Six Word Stories

Last week I was introduced to “Six Word Stories.”  I guess it began when someone challenged Ernest Hemingway to write a story using only six words.  Heminway responded to the challenge and wrote: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

This idea fascinated me so I Googled “6 Word Stories” and found out that there are books—(yes, books) containing these 6 word memoirs by famous and obscure writers.  In one article, Stephen King had these words, “Everyone believed he was getting better.”

I was captured by the idea and wondered if I could write stories using 6 words.  I thought of the Biblical characters and came up with these:

Really.  She made me do it.  –Adam

He spoke with a forked tongue.  –Eve

I persuaded.  She ate.  Heh.  Heh.  –the serpent

But she really is my sister.  –Abraham

I came.  I saw.  It spoke.  –Moses

Gold went in.  Calf came out.  –Aaron

She was hot.  I got burned.  –Samson

He wants us to do what?  —Joshua’s soldiers

I cried. He heard. He delivered. –Psalmist

I really thought I knew Him.  –Job

Swallowed by fish.  Saved from drowning.  –Jonah

Size 16EEE.  Still way too small.  –Peter

We had hoped . . . He IS risen!  —Cleopas

Are you bored and have time on your hands?  Try writing some of your own stories with six words.  Better yet, try writing your spiritual journey in six words or less.

What's In the Box?

When Robin and I were studying the Bible with our international friends, we had many different cultures come through the doors of our church building.  At first we had an influx of Koreans.  In our latter years it was mostly Chinese.

One day Robin and I came to class with a box and we asked our Chinese friends to guess what was in the box.  They held the box, shook it, and guessed.  I don’t recall what their guesses were, but because the box was so light, one of them guessed that there was nothing in the box.  No one could guess what was in the box.  Finally we opened the box and pulled out a picture of Xi Jinping, the President of China.  Everyone was surprised.  We then told them that the Bible was the Revelation of God and like the box, if we did not open it we could not know God.

I remembered this incident as John talked about the Spirit filled life.  What I think I heard John say was that prayer and knowing scripture were two things that were essential in combating temptation in our lives.  He said that if we didn’t know scripture we would not be able to see clearly how God is working in lives; we would not be able to know His will for us; we would not be able to see God’s fingerprints in the world around us; and we certainly wouldn’t know God.  (John, I apologize for paraphrasing you.  I can’t remember exactly what you said, nor am I saying it as eloquently as you said it.  Sorry.)

James 4:8 tells us, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”  John has been encouraging us to draw near to God.  But what I am hearing from John is not only will God draw near to us, but as we draw near to God, we will know how near God really is to us.

Should We Question God?

When we got together on Sunday John asked, “Should we question God?”  He then got a whole gamut of answers.  Lynn said we should not question God.  Robin said God invites us to engage Him citing Isaiah 1:18, “Come, let us reason together.”  Tom said the Psalms are filled with people questioning God.  Joyce said it depended on the nature of the question.  And Eric said God knows our hearts.  I thought John asked a great question and I thought he got a great response.

The question and responses reminded me of when Eric and I used to pray together.  (This was years ago).  Eric told me when he prayed he was honest because God knew what was in his heart.  And like the song The Gambler, Eric gave me an “An ace that I could keep.”

Over and over Scripture tells us that God knows everything and there’s nowhere to hide from God.  So it is to our benefit to “come clean” and tell God what’s on our minds and hearts.  Transparency—this is the basis of how we build trust and intimacy with God.  In other words, we cannot know God unless we are honest with Him.

We often define prayer as a conversation.  Yet, we understand that if only one person is talking, it is not a conversation.  I could be wrong but in Scripture we always see people praying to God yet, we never see God praying to people.  Instead what we see after people prayed are words like, “God heard” or “God answered.”  Therefore, I’ve come to the conclusion that prayer is not a conversation, but it can be part of a conversation.

The reason why I’m saying all of this is to call our attention to Jesus.  Jesus is Immanuel, that is, “God with us.”  If we can redefine or imagine all the words that were spoken to Jesus as “prayer” to God, we can also see how God would answer us.

If people talked to me the way that they talked to Jesus, all my insecurities would surface.  I would feel angry, threatened, insulted, disrespected, and afraid (to name a few).  The way I would respond to this would not be very pretty.  Yet in Jesus, we see the beauty and majesty of God.  John says He was full of grace and truth (John 1: 17).

Going back to John’s original question, “Should we question God?”  The answer is, Jesus answers that question.  However we should brace ourselves because the way He answers will demand our highest respect and utmost devotion for Him.

Be Still

As I’ve been watching the news and we’ve been reflecting on the Psalms, I was reminded of Psalms 46 in which I hear the Psalmist’s voice:

the earth give way

the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

…waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging…

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall…

The earth melts…

While this might not be exactly what’s happening in the world, this is the cry that I hear coming from the multitude of people as we face the current pandemic.  I see and hear: disruption, upheaval, distress, anxiety, fear, desperation, terror, panic, Apocalypse, doom…

On the other hand, we have the optimists who tell us: “have patience…hang in there…this will make us stronger…we’re resilient…we’re in this together …things will get better…this too will pass…we will overcome…

As these two attitudes are in the world, I think these two voices are also inside all of us.  On one hand, we see life as it is.  Then on the other hand, we see life as how we want it to work out.  Like the unrest in the world, we have the same tension in ourselves.

I think this is why before the Psalmist talks about the precariousness, instability, and volatility of life, he declares:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalms 46:1)

What I hear the Psalmist saying is that we can have all optimism we want, but if God is not present, then we should be afraid.  No one except God can protect and comfort us in our time of need and the Psalmist says that He’s “ever-present.”

The irony of human beings is that we want to do something.  We want to fix things.  We want to make things better.  We want to make ourselves comfortable.  All too often we “take control.”  And we know how that works out.

The Psalmist admonishes us to do something counterintuitive.  He says God tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10).