Things I learned from the movies.
If you wait long enough, the bad guy will shoot his own henchmen.
Enemy soldiers are notoriously bad shots.
Nazis when talking with themselves, speak with English accents.
If Scotty says "you canna change the laws of physics," then he is about to change the laws of physics.
All prostitutes have hearts of gold.
All heads of major corporations are bad guys who regularly have people murdered.
Terrorists are never Arab. They are usually Germans, Russians, Irish, or Swiss.
Action heroes are made of an indestructible rubber, and keep bouncing back.
Jack Baur will have a bad day. (wait, that's television)
Vacations usually end in someone shooting at you.
In Disney films, pouring paint over a guy's head will teach him the error of his ways.
All police captains are large, intemperate black men.
Murders are always committed by the least suspicious person in a house.
Homeless people always have magical powers and/or important life lessons to share.
Low level bad guys are easily detectable by facial stubble.
When you're dead you stay dead, unless you are a serial killer, or a hero.
When a helicopter is chasing you, it is easily foiled by a mall pistol, a rock, or a flock of birds.
Gorillas are infatuated with blond human women.
Aliens will always speak English.
Giant monsters will always go first to the largest major city, where they are sure to be noticed.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Discipline of Grace
I lived in Florida between and air force base and the Space Center so we saw a lot of strange things in the air. Once I saw an unusual airplane. It looked like it was flying backwards. The little wings, the stabilizers, were on the front of the airplane, while the big wings were in the back. There was no tail. It looked like it could never fly, but it did.
It was an experimental aircraft—a prototype, according to the newspaper, It shouldn’t be able to fly. It should spiral out of control. But this plane was equipped with state-of-the-art computers that could make constant corrections in the speed and elevation faster than a human pilot. This constant correction enabled this airplane fly.
The Christian life is like this. Loving God and keeping His commandments isn’t easy. It’s so hard, in fact that no one can do it God, who is constantly correcting us to keep us straight
This constantly correcting process requires an element missing in most religions—the element of grace. It is the only thing that makes the Christian life possible.
Grace is the forgiveness bought with the blood of Jesus. It is the one thing that all believers have in common.
Not every Christian looks at grace the same way. Protestants and Catholics differ on this. Protestants look at grace as something we received once and forever. We don’t have to confess or go to communion to get more grace when we sin. We have all the grace we need.
Catholics believe that they get grace daily, not all at once. Every time the go to confessional, they get some grace. When they take communion, they get a little more. If you don’t get enough grace in this life, you go to purgatory to earn more after you die.
It’s not hard to see through this. If you have to earn it, it isn’t grace. It’s a scam. The church controls the flow of grace, so they can demand whatever they want. We don’t want to go down the Catholic road on grace.
But even so, there’s a kernel of truth in what they say? The Bible tells us clearly that salvation is based only upon the grace of God, and forgiveness is all from him. But do we need to receive grace a daily? In a sense we do.\
Read the great Christian writers Read Paul’s epistles. Read the church fathers. Read the great saints of the middle ages like Francis of Assissi and Thomas Akempis. Read the Reformest—Luther, Calvin, Cramner, Knox, and Zwingli. Read the Puritans. Read the great hymns of the church. Do we really experience grace in our lives the way the saints of old experience it in theirs? Are we as devoted to the Cross of Christ as they were in their day?
I confess that while I believe assuredly in God’s grace, I sometimes have trouble experiencing it the way church fathers and mothers knew it. Those people ate, drank and slept the grace of God. They lived in a state of permanent gratitude. The longer they lived the greater that gratitude become. I believe most believers lose their gratitude for the cross for one reason. It is not a constant part of their daily lives.
Suppose someone saves your life. You thank him with great emotion and sincerity. But as you grow older, you think less and less of that moment when a man saved your life. It fades from your feeling and your memory, as all things do. It would not become the guiding basis for your life. Yet that is precisely what the grace of Jesus is supposed to be for us. The longer we serve Him, the greater our joy should become. How is that possible?
Grace is a discipline, not a feeling. It is not a one time event something we must rediscover daily. For us to see it the way the old saints did we must stop seeing it as a one-time event and recognize it as being continually in our lives This is what we see in I John 1:5-2:1.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense Jesus Christ, the Righteous One
The discipline of grace is not about having eternal life, but living eternal life. God wants us to live gracefully in this life as well, so that when we come to the end we can look backwards and see a straight furrow behind us. That is why the old saints grew in the joy of the Lord from year to year..
The discipline of grace is three-step process. First, comes Confession. John says.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live by the truth.
Christians lives ought to be like glass or clear water, open and hiding nothing. There is no fooling God. He knows it all. So if we claim to be right with God and we aren’t He knows. If we say we are right with God and we aren’t we are liars.
Then John goes farther. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words, if you think this doesn’t apply to you, it does. You are the sinner he’s talking about.
Some people’s dishonesty is obvious and inescapable, Others are much better at hiding theirs. But God knows it, nonetheless. He can see that you are lying. We have all been liars when it comes to sin. There is not one of us who have not been guilty of deception, both of ourselves and of others. We must readily and openly admit we are sinners.
We have been raised in the church, so we readily admit to sin in general. But admitting that we are generally sinners does us no good unless we confess to specific sins. Without specific confession, there can be no specific correction.
Second comes Repentance. Repentance means to change course or direction.
It’s one thing to make a life changing choice of repentance, to turn from Satan to God, from selfishness to love. But that’s not the only kind of repentance we need to make. Repentance is also all the small changes done every day. It is what we do when we take a bite of the cake we shouldn’t have ordered in the restaurant and leave the rest. It is slowing down when we’ve been speeding for the last twenty miles. It is when we turn off that show we shouldn’t have been watching. We hope we will not ever do these sins again. But we can’t guarantee that. We can only say that we won’t do it today. We repent today of what we have been doing today. And if when we find ourselves again turning wrong in the future, we will repent again as well
One of the most destructive attitudes we can have rigidity--the “all-or-nothing” approach. If we can’t guarantee that we will never do something again, we may as well cnot stop. We do not have to be perfect, just repentant when we we aren’t. John tells us.
“Little children, I write these things to you in order that you do not sin but if anyone sins, we have and advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” Don’t sin. He says, Turn and repent.
But remember what must come next forgiveness.
Forgiveness is what makes the confessing and returning worthwhile. We confess and repent, and Jesus pleads our case to the Father. We confess and repent again, and Jesus again pleads the case. This is how we constantly regain the path to heaven. We keep falling and keep returning, every turn coming closer, drawing ever nearer to the perfection of heart and soul that God wants for us. As we do, we find greater joy in the forgiveness of God the Father.
Imagine an orphan who is placed in a series of foster homes. First he is put in the home of a neglectful father. He stays drunkg, never paying attention the boy. The boy grows more and more wild.
The when the judge finds out about this, he removes him from the home This time, he puts in a home with a strict foster father. This man expects a lot out of him. So much, in fact that nothing the child does is right. Eventually the boy rebels.
Once again, the judge acts, this time the boy is placed in the home of a loving father who spends hours every day with the boy. When he’s out of line, he corrects him. But he also constantly and repeatedly tells him he loves him and that he will stay with him until he is on the right path. Gradually the boy grows in stature nd character. More than that he grows to love the third father more and more. The love he feels with him is greater than the love he feels at the beginning.
God is that man. He stays close with us, showing us the right way. We learn to walk daily in confession, repentance, and forgiveness before our loving Father.
You can’t be good without God. But with God, you can be better than you could even begin to imagine. God’ love protects and cares for you.
So confess and repent, and God will bring you back, and bring you home in the end.
It was an experimental aircraft—a prototype, according to the newspaper, It shouldn’t be able to fly. It should spiral out of control. But this plane was equipped with state-of-the-art computers that could make constant corrections in the speed and elevation faster than a human pilot. This constant correction enabled this airplane fly.
The Christian life is like this. Loving God and keeping His commandments isn’t easy. It’s so hard, in fact that no one can do it God, who is constantly correcting us to keep us straight
This constantly correcting process requires an element missing in most religions—the element of grace. It is the only thing that makes the Christian life possible.
Grace is the forgiveness bought with the blood of Jesus. It is the one thing that all believers have in common.
Not every Christian looks at grace the same way. Protestants and Catholics differ on this. Protestants look at grace as something we received once and forever. We don’t have to confess or go to communion to get more grace when we sin. We have all the grace we need.
Catholics believe that they get grace daily, not all at once. Every time the go to confessional, they get some grace. When they take communion, they get a little more. If you don’t get enough grace in this life, you go to purgatory to earn more after you die.
It’s not hard to see through this. If you have to earn it, it isn’t grace. It’s a scam. The church controls the flow of grace, so they can demand whatever they want. We don’t want to go down the Catholic road on grace.
But even so, there’s a kernel of truth in what they say? The Bible tells us clearly that salvation is based only upon the grace of God, and forgiveness is all from him. But do we need to receive grace a daily? In a sense we do.\
Read the great Christian writers Read Paul’s epistles. Read the church fathers. Read the great saints of the middle ages like Francis of Assissi and Thomas Akempis. Read the Reformest—Luther, Calvin, Cramner, Knox, and Zwingli. Read the Puritans. Read the great hymns of the church. Do we really experience grace in our lives the way the saints of old experience it in theirs? Are we as devoted to the Cross of Christ as they were in their day?
I confess that while I believe assuredly in God’s grace, I sometimes have trouble experiencing it the way church fathers and mothers knew it. Those people ate, drank and slept the grace of God. They lived in a state of permanent gratitude. The longer they lived the greater that gratitude become. I believe most believers lose their gratitude for the cross for one reason. It is not a constant part of their daily lives.
Suppose someone saves your life. You thank him with great emotion and sincerity. But as you grow older, you think less and less of that moment when a man saved your life. It fades from your feeling and your memory, as all things do. It would not become the guiding basis for your life. Yet that is precisely what the grace of Jesus is supposed to be for us. The longer we serve Him, the greater our joy should become. How is that possible?
Grace is a discipline, not a feeling. It is not a one time event something we must rediscover daily. For us to see it the way the old saints did we must stop seeing it as a one-time event and recognize it as being continually in our lives This is what we see in I John 1:5-2:1.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense Jesus Christ, the Righteous One
The discipline of grace is not about having eternal life, but living eternal life. God wants us to live gracefully in this life as well, so that when we come to the end we can look backwards and see a straight furrow behind us. That is why the old saints grew in the joy of the Lord from year to year..
The discipline of grace is three-step process. First, comes Confession. John says.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live by the truth.
Christians lives ought to be like glass or clear water, open and hiding nothing. There is no fooling God. He knows it all. So if we claim to be right with God and we aren’t He knows. If we say we are right with God and we aren’t we are liars.
Then John goes farther. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words, if you think this doesn’t apply to you, it does. You are the sinner he’s talking about.
Some people’s dishonesty is obvious and inescapable, Others are much better at hiding theirs. But God knows it, nonetheless. He can see that you are lying. We have all been liars when it comes to sin. There is not one of us who have not been guilty of deception, both of ourselves and of others. We must readily and openly admit we are sinners.
We have been raised in the church, so we readily admit to sin in general. But admitting that we are generally sinners does us no good unless we confess to specific sins. Without specific confession, there can be no specific correction.
Second comes Repentance. Repentance means to change course or direction.
It’s one thing to make a life changing choice of repentance, to turn from Satan to God, from selfishness to love. But that’s not the only kind of repentance we need to make. Repentance is also all the small changes done every day. It is what we do when we take a bite of the cake we shouldn’t have ordered in the restaurant and leave the rest. It is slowing down when we’ve been speeding for the last twenty miles. It is when we turn off that show we shouldn’t have been watching. We hope we will not ever do these sins again. But we can’t guarantee that. We can only say that we won’t do it today. We repent today of what we have been doing today. And if when we find ourselves again turning wrong in the future, we will repent again as well
One of the most destructive attitudes we can have rigidity--the “all-or-nothing” approach. If we can’t guarantee that we will never do something again, we may as well cnot stop. We do not have to be perfect, just repentant when we we aren’t. John tells us.
“Little children, I write these things to you in order that you do not sin but if anyone sins, we have and advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” Don’t sin. He says, Turn and repent.
But remember what must come next forgiveness.
Forgiveness is what makes the confessing and returning worthwhile. We confess and repent, and Jesus pleads our case to the Father. We confess and repent again, and Jesus again pleads the case. This is how we constantly regain the path to heaven. We keep falling and keep returning, every turn coming closer, drawing ever nearer to the perfection of heart and soul that God wants for us. As we do, we find greater joy in the forgiveness of God the Father.
Imagine an orphan who is placed in a series of foster homes. First he is put in the home of a neglectful father. He stays drunkg, never paying attention the boy. The boy grows more and more wild.
The when the judge finds out about this, he removes him from the home This time, he puts in a home with a strict foster father. This man expects a lot out of him. So much, in fact that nothing the child does is right. Eventually the boy rebels.
Once again, the judge acts, this time the boy is placed in the home of a loving father who spends hours every day with the boy. When he’s out of line, he corrects him. But he also constantly and repeatedly tells him he loves him and that he will stay with him until he is on the right path. Gradually the boy grows in stature nd character. More than that he grows to love the third father more and more. The love he feels with him is greater than the love he feels at the beginning.
God is that man. He stays close with us, showing us the right way. We learn to walk daily in confession, repentance, and forgiveness before our loving Father.
You can’t be good without God. But with God, you can be better than you could even begin to imagine. God’ love protects and cares for you.
So confess and repent, and God will bring you back, and bring you home in the end.
Truly Repentant
We who believe in God have a problem defending His justice. He is supposed to reward the good and punish the wicked. Yet God rewards the good, how do we explain the persecutions of Christians throughout the world? If God rewards the good, shouldn’t they be treated better?
Punishment for the wicked is even more perplexing. Innocents suffer, while guilty do not. How can He punish the wicked sometimes, and not others?
An easy answer would be to say that there is no God, or that God exists but doesn’t care about us. But then we see things that happen that cannot be explained naturally. Sometimes God does something so spectacular that we cannot deny His existence. Sometimes, he does miraculously punish the wicked and reward the good.
But God does not make a habit of breaking into time and space, violating the laws of the nature he created. If He did, then the laws of nature would not exist. Yet He always rewards the ood an punishes the wicked. Look as Ezekiel 18; 26-32.
If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die.
Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Are my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?
"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”
God punishes the wicked and rewards the good in two ways.
First, when we die. Even if a wicked man escapes now, he will not escape in the next life.
Jonathan Edwards illustrated this in his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of And Angry God.” Edwards preached on the text in Psalm 73, which says “Their feet shall slide in due time.” Edwards offered three points of explanation. 1) That their feet will certainly and inevitably slide 2) That they would not know the end time or the means of that sliding. It could come at any second. 3)When the it comes, it will be utter, complete and permanent.
He concluded that sinners are like spiders, dangling by a single thread over the yawning flames of hell, to which they may plunge at any moment and meet their doom, unless they find repentance and forgiveness.
Not a very cheery thought, is it?
With the same certainty, those who trust Jesus will receive riches and blessings in heaven. He will welcome His faithful to Him, were we will rule with Him. We who suffer in this earth receive reward in the next.
But this is not, I think, what Ezekiel is talking about. There is another judgment—an earthly judgment. The laws of nature bring their own rewards and punishment. He has given His word to show us the way to navigate this life. Ignore that guidance and you will be lost.
Michael Shaara’s book The Killer Angels, a novel about the battle of Gettysburg, opens with the arrival of a southern spy in General Lee’s camp. The spy tells him that the Northern army is just ahead. Lee is suspicious of this message. For one thing he is an actor--a profession that was despised by many in his day. Besides that, he is also a spy. Like most commanders of his day Lee considered espionage to be unmanly and unfair. He ignored the warning and marched into defeat.
There are certain virtues which lead us to reward--thrift, generosity, love, self control, perseverance, and others. There are also certain vice which, when practiced result in disaster—waste, self indulgence, laziness, procrastination, gluttony, arrogance, selfishness, stinginess, drunkenness--the list goes on and on.
Repentance means to turn around. We have to reject our vices before we can embrace our virtues. We must reject the darkness before we can embrace the light. But how
One of the best known prayers of the church begins by saying “Lord, we know we have sinned by thought, word and deed. We have left undone those things we should have done, we have done those things we should not have done, and the truth is not in us.” This prayer suggests that the idea of being good is much more complicated than most people imagine. We sin in attitude, appetite, action, and omission.
We have allowed ourselves to have the wrong attitude. We harbor arrogance and hatred, selfishness and sloth. We know we shouldn’t feel this way, but we tell ourselves we can’t help it. Instead of stopping right there and digging out the roots of our bad attitudes, we allow them to take root in our hearts.
We have indulged our appetites. We hang over sin like a drunk college student hanging off a balcony ad Myrtle Beach. We get as close to danger as we can, thinking that we’ll never fall. We’re wrong. We will.
We have sinned in action. We have committed awful sins. What makes it even worse is that we’ve done it so much that we no longer notice how awful they are.
We have omitted to do the right thing. Sins of omission are worse than sins of commission. The worst part about sins of omission is that no one even enjoys doing them. We do them because we are lazy. Because we don’t enjoy them and can be committed so easily, we assume they must not be as bad as the other kind. We’re wrong. They are.
At the heart of every sin there are three lies—not lies we tell to others, but lies we tell to ourselves.
First we tell ourselves that we don’t have a problem. The first lie of the addict (and all sinners are addicts of one kind or another) is that there is nothing wrong with what we are doing. We deny it to others and even to ourselves. An sin addict has learned to compartmentalize his life, so that he can be good at times and wicked at others.
We tell ourselves we’re normal. It’s normal to drink a six pack of beers a night. It’s normal to eat whatever you want whenever you want. There’s nothing wrong with sleeping with strange women if you are not in town. We say it’s not a problem and we hide our sins even from ourselves.
Brendan Manning writes about an incident that happened while he was in rehab, recovering from alcoholism. A new patient had just joined his small group. He complained that he did not belong here—he was only here because his wife nagged him into coming. He was not an alcoholic. He was confined there unjustly.
“Do you drink?” asked the therapist.
“Sure,” he answered, “but not much. A beer or two a day.”
“Oh, really?” said the therapist. “Let’s find out.” The therapist brought out a telephone and called his wife. She said he at least a six pack every night, until he passed out.
“She’s exaggerating,” he said.
“Okay, let’s call your bartender.” He called the bar where he usually drank on his way home. The bartender told that he was a sloppy drunk and had been repeatedly asked to leave.
“Anyway,” he said. “It’s never interfered with being a good father and good worker.”
“Let’s call you daughter.” He said. His daughter told of the times he beat her in a drunken fit. His boss told of the missed hours and the sloppy work. By the end of the session the man was lying on the floor, sobbing. His deception had been broken. Now his healing could begin.
Second, we tell ourselves that we have a problem, but it’s not so bad. We play the comparison game. We point fingers at everyone else and say that we all do it. There is always someone worse than we are. If we can’t find anyone worse, then we say “I can stop any time I want to.” We can’t stop. We are addicts. If we could have stopped, we would.
Then there is the “tomorrow” lie--procrastination. We simply put it off. We assume that there are things more urgent than our problem Once we get those things straightened out, we’ll deal with what’s really ruining our lives. But tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow there’s another excuse, and another, and another. There is always something more immediate. We are today is what we will be tomorrow, unless we change today while we have it.
Disaster does not come at once. It results from the slow collection of little sins. We didn’t become fat in one meal--we did it day by day, always eating a little more than we should. We didn’t suddenly fall into adultery. We allowed ourselves the indulgence of ogling women and pornography. Then one day, we discover we’ve crossed a line from a sin of the appetite to a sin of action.
If we admit to all this, there is one more lie we must overcome, the “old dog” lie. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” We do not believe we can change, so what is the use of trying? We run from our despair to the very sins that are already ruining our lives.
Ezekiel exposes this lie. If we repent, we live. We will not escape the consequences, but at least we won’t add to them. In time, we will recover the way we have lost with God’s help. But if we do not change, we will die. It is as simple as that. Sin and die. Repent and live.
What do we do about it. We must reverse the lies. Instead of denying our problem, admit it. Instead of telling ourselves that it is not so bad, admit that it is even worse than we imagined. God only hold us accountable for the sins we know, not the sins we don’t know. But that doesn’t mean we can ever know all our sins. The closer we come to God, the more we realize that our righteousness is filthy rags. Instead of putting it off, do it now. Instead of saying that we can never change—change, not matter what the cost. If you are struggling with addictions, resolve that you will do whatever it takes to change it. If you’re appetites are out of control, flee temptations. Don’t let your appetites bring you to destruction.
Repentance is not about God’s wrath. If God were a wrathful god, then repentance would do you no good. But God has provided a place of forgiveness at the Cross of Christ. He died to forgive our sins, and set the prisoners free.
Don’t let your sins ruin your life. Turn around now, while you still have the chance and discover the wonderful path to strength in Jesus Christ.
Punishment for the wicked is even more perplexing. Innocents suffer, while guilty do not. How can He punish the wicked sometimes, and not others?
An easy answer would be to say that there is no God, or that God exists but doesn’t care about us. But then we see things that happen that cannot be explained naturally. Sometimes God does something so spectacular that we cannot deny His existence. Sometimes, he does miraculously punish the wicked and reward the good.
But God does not make a habit of breaking into time and space, violating the laws of the nature he created. If He did, then the laws of nature would not exist. Yet He always rewards the ood an punishes the wicked. Look as Ezekiel 18; 26-32.
If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die.
Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Are my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?
"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”
God punishes the wicked and rewards the good in two ways.
First, when we die. Even if a wicked man escapes now, he will not escape in the next life.
Jonathan Edwards illustrated this in his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of And Angry God.” Edwards preached on the text in Psalm 73, which says “Their feet shall slide in due time.” Edwards offered three points of explanation. 1) That their feet will certainly and inevitably slide 2) That they would not know the end time or the means of that sliding. It could come at any second. 3)When the it comes, it will be utter, complete and permanent.
He concluded that sinners are like spiders, dangling by a single thread over the yawning flames of hell, to which they may plunge at any moment and meet their doom, unless they find repentance and forgiveness.
Not a very cheery thought, is it?
With the same certainty, those who trust Jesus will receive riches and blessings in heaven. He will welcome His faithful to Him, were we will rule with Him. We who suffer in this earth receive reward in the next.
But this is not, I think, what Ezekiel is talking about. There is another judgment—an earthly judgment. The laws of nature bring their own rewards and punishment. He has given His word to show us the way to navigate this life. Ignore that guidance and you will be lost.
Michael Shaara’s book The Killer Angels, a novel about the battle of Gettysburg, opens with the arrival of a southern spy in General Lee’s camp. The spy tells him that the Northern army is just ahead. Lee is suspicious of this message. For one thing he is an actor--a profession that was despised by many in his day. Besides that, he is also a spy. Like most commanders of his day Lee considered espionage to be unmanly and unfair. He ignored the warning and marched into defeat.
There are certain virtues which lead us to reward--thrift, generosity, love, self control, perseverance, and others. There are also certain vice which, when practiced result in disaster—waste, self indulgence, laziness, procrastination, gluttony, arrogance, selfishness, stinginess, drunkenness--the list goes on and on.
Repentance means to turn around. We have to reject our vices before we can embrace our virtues. We must reject the darkness before we can embrace the light. But how
One of the best known prayers of the church begins by saying “Lord, we know we have sinned by thought, word and deed. We have left undone those things we should have done, we have done those things we should not have done, and the truth is not in us.” This prayer suggests that the idea of being good is much more complicated than most people imagine. We sin in attitude, appetite, action, and omission.
We have allowed ourselves to have the wrong attitude. We harbor arrogance and hatred, selfishness and sloth. We know we shouldn’t feel this way, but we tell ourselves we can’t help it. Instead of stopping right there and digging out the roots of our bad attitudes, we allow them to take root in our hearts.
We have indulged our appetites. We hang over sin like a drunk college student hanging off a balcony ad Myrtle Beach. We get as close to danger as we can, thinking that we’ll never fall. We’re wrong. We will.
We have sinned in action. We have committed awful sins. What makes it even worse is that we’ve done it so much that we no longer notice how awful they are.
We have omitted to do the right thing. Sins of omission are worse than sins of commission. The worst part about sins of omission is that no one even enjoys doing them. We do them because we are lazy. Because we don’t enjoy them and can be committed so easily, we assume they must not be as bad as the other kind. We’re wrong. They are.
At the heart of every sin there are three lies—not lies we tell to others, but lies we tell to ourselves.
First we tell ourselves that we don’t have a problem. The first lie of the addict (and all sinners are addicts of one kind or another) is that there is nothing wrong with what we are doing. We deny it to others and even to ourselves. An sin addict has learned to compartmentalize his life, so that he can be good at times and wicked at others.
We tell ourselves we’re normal. It’s normal to drink a six pack of beers a night. It’s normal to eat whatever you want whenever you want. There’s nothing wrong with sleeping with strange women if you are not in town. We say it’s not a problem and we hide our sins even from ourselves.
Brendan Manning writes about an incident that happened while he was in rehab, recovering from alcoholism. A new patient had just joined his small group. He complained that he did not belong here—he was only here because his wife nagged him into coming. He was not an alcoholic. He was confined there unjustly.
“Do you drink?” asked the therapist.
“Sure,” he answered, “but not much. A beer or two a day.”
“Oh, really?” said the therapist. “Let’s find out.” The therapist brought out a telephone and called his wife. She said he at least a six pack every night, until he passed out.
“She’s exaggerating,” he said.
“Okay, let’s call your bartender.” He called the bar where he usually drank on his way home. The bartender told that he was a sloppy drunk and had been repeatedly asked to leave.
“Anyway,” he said. “It’s never interfered with being a good father and good worker.”
“Let’s call you daughter.” He said. His daughter told of the times he beat her in a drunken fit. His boss told of the missed hours and the sloppy work. By the end of the session the man was lying on the floor, sobbing. His deception had been broken. Now his healing could begin.
Second, we tell ourselves that we have a problem, but it’s not so bad. We play the comparison game. We point fingers at everyone else and say that we all do it. There is always someone worse than we are. If we can’t find anyone worse, then we say “I can stop any time I want to.” We can’t stop. We are addicts. If we could have stopped, we would.
Then there is the “tomorrow” lie--procrastination. We simply put it off. We assume that there are things more urgent than our problem Once we get those things straightened out, we’ll deal with what’s really ruining our lives. But tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow there’s another excuse, and another, and another. There is always something more immediate. We are today is what we will be tomorrow, unless we change today while we have it.
Disaster does not come at once. It results from the slow collection of little sins. We didn’t become fat in one meal--we did it day by day, always eating a little more than we should. We didn’t suddenly fall into adultery. We allowed ourselves the indulgence of ogling women and pornography. Then one day, we discover we’ve crossed a line from a sin of the appetite to a sin of action.
If we admit to all this, there is one more lie we must overcome, the “old dog” lie. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” We do not believe we can change, so what is the use of trying? We run from our despair to the very sins that are already ruining our lives.
Ezekiel exposes this lie. If we repent, we live. We will not escape the consequences, but at least we won’t add to them. In time, we will recover the way we have lost with God’s help. But if we do not change, we will die. It is as simple as that. Sin and die. Repent and live.
What do we do about it. We must reverse the lies. Instead of denying our problem, admit it. Instead of telling ourselves that it is not so bad, admit that it is even worse than we imagined. God only hold us accountable for the sins we know, not the sins we don’t know. But that doesn’t mean we can ever know all our sins. The closer we come to God, the more we realize that our righteousness is filthy rags. Instead of putting it off, do it now. Instead of saying that we can never change—change, not matter what the cost. If you are struggling with addictions, resolve that you will do whatever it takes to change it. If you’re appetites are out of control, flee temptations. Don’t let your appetites bring you to destruction.
Repentance is not about God’s wrath. If God were a wrathful god, then repentance would do you no good. But God has provided a place of forgiveness at the Cross of Christ. He died to forgive our sins, and set the prisoners free.
Don’t let your sins ruin your life. Turn around now, while you still have the chance and discover the wonderful path to strength in Jesus Christ.
The Long Furrow
A farmer was teaching his son to plow. He said “Son, that first furrow you cut in the field is the most important. So get a pole and stick it on the ground at one end of the field where you want to end up. Then keep that pole right between the mule’s ears as you. When you get to the end, it will be straight.”
The son did what his father. He got a stick and set it in the ground where he wanted to end.
The father saw what his son is doing and shook his head. “That pole’s not tall enough. You’re gonna need a bigger pole.”
The son argued. “Maybe you do, with your old eyes, but I can see that well enough. I don’t see any reason for me to have to go find another pole.”
“Suit yourself, but you’re gonna need a bigger pole.”
So the boy started plowing. At first it was easy to keep the pole sight between the mule’s ears. But as he got closer and the day grew hot sweat got in his eyes. As he got closer the angle of the mule got in the way. He lost sight of the pole
“I should have had a bigger pole,” he said.
Young believers think the path is simple--just follow God and obey his commandments. Simple, easy truths owe think sufficient to get us through life,. But we underestimate life’s complexity. Truth is never so easy as that.
Most people think that as long as they start off right, they will end right. But the beginning is not where we get lost. It is middle age and old age where people lose track of the path. We have time to discover our mistakes when we are young. We don’t have time when we are old.
Life is a long furrow. It requires diligence and clarity to keep straight all the way to the end.
Old people, let me ask you--do you remember names and dates better now, or when you were young? Is your eyesight better now, or when you were young? If our memory and our eyesight was better then, what makes us think our memory for God’s truth is any better?
Wisdom does not come with age. Wisdom is enlightened stupidity. A wise man is a fool who learned from his foolishness. If we do not have the courage to be fools, the humility to make mistakes, and the flexibility to change, we will never be wise.
Moses was just such an enlightened fool. Before Israel reached the promised land, Moses got them all together and gave them a five lectures. These are known as the Deuteronomy—the Second Law. The first law was at Sinai, at the beginning of their wanderings. But that was forty years earlier. It was time for a refresher course. The message is the same, but this time it focuses more on motivation. In the promised land everything was about to change, so he had to raised the pole of wisdom higher. Same pole, different circumstances.
That pole is the same now as it was three thousand years ago—love God and keep His commandments. Don’t just love God because feeling without actions is foolishness. Don’t just keep His commandments, because obedience without emotion will never last. We need both—love and actions.
In the audience were people of all ages. But Moses does not address them all. He focuses on his own generation.
(1-7) Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them.
It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.
It isn’t your children who need this message, but yourselves.
Old people think that older is better. Their music is always better than modern music. Their age was better, their lives were simpler, and their world was safer. Never mind that almost none of this is true, that’s what they believe. Today is not better or worse than yesterday, it is simply different.
The old have the unrealistic expectation that the young are going to listen to them, even though they did not listen to their parents. We learned by making mistakes, but we hope they will learn by listening to our wise counsel.
Quit looking at your kids and start looking to yourselves. Your kids may not know better but you should. Their children didn’t see God deliver them from Egypt, but Moses’ did. They did not see how God punished the wicked, you did. They did not see how God provided manna in the desert and water out of stone, when their stomachs were hungry for bread and their tongue was swollen from lack of water.
This was a critical moment for Israel, just before the entered the Promised Land. It was a time of parting. Moses had been their leader for over forty years, but he was about to leave them and another was about to take over. Along with Moses, went all his contemporaries, his lifelong friends. They may not be dying, but they are about to step into a less active role. Their children will fight wars, face enemies, and slay giants. Whey will fight arthritis, fatigue, and boredom. Each has its own unique challenges.
The end of life is not the time to get our eyes off the pole, to forget the greatness and might of the Lord. Now is the time to shout it from the rooftops, to tell it to or children and grandchildren, to fix it in their minds and hearts. Their promised land is different from ours, but God remains the same. He is the one unchangeable thing in a revolving and evolving universe.
Moses tells us in 8
Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
My generation was the “baby boom” generation. That means I was born in the earl Fifties to parents who had lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They had a hard life growing up, and they were determined to make life better for their children.
And we did have it better—we had it better than any other generation in the history of the world. We lived in more luxury than the kings of old. But it was a false luxury, created by parents who sheltered us from the storm. As we grew up, we gradually (and lately) found that life was a great deal harder than we thought it was. We couldn’t spend all our times in bell bottom trousers, singing songs on hillsides with flowers in our hair. Someone had to work to pay the bills. We needed to learn to be strong and self-reliant.
It’s amazing how a few wars a good recession can improve the work ethic of an entire generation. But nothing, no human circumstance can help the person who will not love God and keep His commandments. You cannot change the laws of the universe. Idolatry and immorality still lead to ruin. Godliness, goodness, and love still lead to happiness. Without Godliness and obedience, we will leave nothing of value behind for the next generation.
Moses adds in verse 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Retirement is a kind of promised land. We save up all our lives to be able to afford it. Most of us have images of travel, hobbies, free time, sleeping late, and so on. But many of us never live to see that promised land. We don’t save our money. We let ourselves get fat and lazy, until diabetes and heart disease catch up with us. All the time we are saying to ourselves that we have plenty of time to turn around. Tomorrow, we will start to save, not today. Tomorrow, we’ll diet and exercise, not today. Then tomorrow comes and, like the grasshopper, not the and in Aesop’s fable, we have nothing laid up for the winter of our lives.
Even if we take care of our bodies and store up our treasure, we are still not prepared for retirement, unless we are spiritually prepared. We may live on beyond the years of all our contemporaries, but why do we want to? What will we be living for? Life at the end can be a hell and a horror, unless understand its reasons. Life is loving God. Life is keeping His commandments. We can enjoy it to the end, if we know what we are living for.
The next thing he says is more to the old than to the young. 10-12
The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.
But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
When you get to your promised land, you are going to have to live differently. While you lived in Egypt, you were slaves, but you were allowed to keep a garden. Your master allowed you to hook your gardens into the Egyptian irrigation system, so you were able to have water in the desert. This gave you some sense of control over your destiny. But the land you are going into is not like that. It’s going to be a lot harder to have gardens. You are going to have to depend upon the rain and the weather. God is going to be your source of sustenance, just like he was in the desert. You are going to have to learn to depend upon Him,
What a parable of age! All our lives we live with the illusion of control. We think that the food on our table is merely there because we earned it, and we think that we will continue to earn our way. No one has to do for us, we’ll do for ourselves, thank you. But this is an illusion. All we do, everything we have is in God’s hands. All of us are one heartbeat away from losing it all and standing before our God.
We don’t like losing control in our lives, but we do. We all do. We actually never had it. So we must come back to the beginning. Love God, and keep His commandments. It is the beginning and end of wisdom.
How high is your pole? How straight is our furrow? Do you still have your eye on God?
The son did what his father. He got a stick and set it in the ground where he wanted to end.
The father saw what his son is doing and shook his head. “That pole’s not tall enough. You’re gonna need a bigger pole.”
The son argued. “Maybe you do, with your old eyes, but I can see that well enough. I don’t see any reason for me to have to go find another pole.”
“Suit yourself, but you’re gonna need a bigger pole.”
So the boy started plowing. At first it was easy to keep the pole sight between the mule’s ears. But as he got closer and the day grew hot sweat got in his eyes. As he got closer the angle of the mule got in the way. He lost sight of the pole
“I should have had a bigger pole,” he said.
Young believers think the path is simple--just follow God and obey his commandments. Simple, easy truths owe think sufficient to get us through life,. But we underestimate life’s complexity. Truth is never so easy as that.
Most people think that as long as they start off right, they will end right. But the beginning is not where we get lost. It is middle age and old age where people lose track of the path. We have time to discover our mistakes when we are young. We don’t have time when we are old.
Life is a long furrow. It requires diligence and clarity to keep straight all the way to the end.
Old people, let me ask you--do you remember names and dates better now, or when you were young? Is your eyesight better now, or when you were young? If our memory and our eyesight was better then, what makes us think our memory for God’s truth is any better?
Wisdom does not come with age. Wisdom is enlightened stupidity. A wise man is a fool who learned from his foolishness. If we do not have the courage to be fools, the humility to make mistakes, and the flexibility to change, we will never be wise.
Moses was just such an enlightened fool. Before Israel reached the promised land, Moses got them all together and gave them a five lectures. These are known as the Deuteronomy—the Second Law. The first law was at Sinai, at the beginning of their wanderings. But that was forty years earlier. It was time for a refresher course. The message is the same, but this time it focuses more on motivation. In the promised land everything was about to change, so he had to raised the pole of wisdom higher. Same pole, different circumstances.
That pole is the same now as it was three thousand years ago—love God and keep His commandments. Don’t just love God because feeling without actions is foolishness. Don’t just keep His commandments, because obedience without emotion will never last. We need both—love and actions.
In the audience were people of all ages. But Moses does not address them all. He focuses on his own generation.
(1-7) Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them.
It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.
It isn’t your children who need this message, but yourselves.
Old people think that older is better. Their music is always better than modern music. Their age was better, their lives were simpler, and their world was safer. Never mind that almost none of this is true, that’s what they believe. Today is not better or worse than yesterday, it is simply different.
The old have the unrealistic expectation that the young are going to listen to them, even though they did not listen to their parents. We learned by making mistakes, but we hope they will learn by listening to our wise counsel.
Quit looking at your kids and start looking to yourselves. Your kids may not know better but you should. Their children didn’t see God deliver them from Egypt, but Moses’ did. They did not see how God punished the wicked, you did. They did not see how God provided manna in the desert and water out of stone, when their stomachs were hungry for bread and their tongue was swollen from lack of water.
This was a critical moment for Israel, just before the entered the Promised Land. It was a time of parting. Moses had been their leader for over forty years, but he was about to leave them and another was about to take over. Along with Moses, went all his contemporaries, his lifelong friends. They may not be dying, but they are about to step into a less active role. Their children will fight wars, face enemies, and slay giants. Whey will fight arthritis, fatigue, and boredom. Each has its own unique challenges.
The end of life is not the time to get our eyes off the pole, to forget the greatness and might of the Lord. Now is the time to shout it from the rooftops, to tell it to or children and grandchildren, to fix it in their minds and hearts. Their promised land is different from ours, but God remains the same. He is the one unchangeable thing in a revolving and evolving universe.
Moses tells us in 8
Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
My generation was the “baby boom” generation. That means I was born in the earl Fifties to parents who had lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They had a hard life growing up, and they were determined to make life better for their children.
And we did have it better—we had it better than any other generation in the history of the world. We lived in more luxury than the kings of old. But it was a false luxury, created by parents who sheltered us from the storm. As we grew up, we gradually (and lately) found that life was a great deal harder than we thought it was. We couldn’t spend all our times in bell bottom trousers, singing songs on hillsides with flowers in our hair. Someone had to work to pay the bills. We needed to learn to be strong and self-reliant.
It’s amazing how a few wars a good recession can improve the work ethic of an entire generation. But nothing, no human circumstance can help the person who will not love God and keep His commandments. You cannot change the laws of the universe. Idolatry and immorality still lead to ruin. Godliness, goodness, and love still lead to happiness. Without Godliness and obedience, we will leave nothing of value behind for the next generation.
Moses adds in verse 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Retirement is a kind of promised land. We save up all our lives to be able to afford it. Most of us have images of travel, hobbies, free time, sleeping late, and so on. But many of us never live to see that promised land. We don’t save our money. We let ourselves get fat and lazy, until diabetes and heart disease catch up with us. All the time we are saying to ourselves that we have plenty of time to turn around. Tomorrow, we will start to save, not today. Tomorrow, we’ll diet and exercise, not today. Then tomorrow comes and, like the grasshopper, not the and in Aesop’s fable, we have nothing laid up for the winter of our lives.
Even if we take care of our bodies and store up our treasure, we are still not prepared for retirement, unless we are spiritually prepared. We may live on beyond the years of all our contemporaries, but why do we want to? What will we be living for? Life at the end can be a hell and a horror, unless understand its reasons. Life is loving God. Life is keeping His commandments. We can enjoy it to the end, if we know what we are living for.
The next thing he says is more to the old than to the young. 10-12
The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.
But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
When you get to your promised land, you are going to have to live differently. While you lived in Egypt, you were slaves, but you were allowed to keep a garden. Your master allowed you to hook your gardens into the Egyptian irrigation system, so you were able to have water in the desert. This gave you some sense of control over your destiny. But the land you are going into is not like that. It’s going to be a lot harder to have gardens. You are going to have to depend upon the rain and the weather. God is going to be your source of sustenance, just like he was in the desert. You are going to have to learn to depend upon Him,
What a parable of age! All our lives we live with the illusion of control. We think that the food on our table is merely there because we earned it, and we think that we will continue to earn our way. No one has to do for us, we’ll do for ourselves, thank you. But this is an illusion. All we do, everything we have is in God’s hands. All of us are one heartbeat away from losing it all and standing before our God.
We don’t like losing control in our lives, but we do. We all do. We actually never had it. So we must come back to the beginning. Love God, and keep His commandments. It is the beginning and end of wisdom.
How high is your pole? How straight is our furrow? Do you still have your eye on God?
The Church: The family of God
In I Peter 4:17, Peter uses another metaphor for the church—the family of God.
What makes a happy family? It isn’t the amount of time we spend with each other. Some people see their family every day and wish they didn’t. Others see them once a year, and hope to see them more. A family is not about how often we each other, but the love we have for one another whether we live across the street or across the country.
The thing that makes a family is mutual support. When we need them, they are there.
The first family crisis I remember was the death of my grandmother. One thing that struck me was how the family seemed to automatically know who was going to do what. They just sensed who would arrange the food and make the funeral arrangements. There was no disagreements, no quarrelling. The family just clicked into place. Most of all, I remember the openness and heartfelt feeling we had for each other.
Love was underneath the surface, the foundation for everything we had. We were proud of one another, proud of being a part of something bigger than ourselves which gave us our identity and our purpose.
Peter calls the church the “family of God.” As a Christian, we are members of two families—God’s family and our own.
Which is more important? To Peter, God’s family came before his own family. Throughout the Bible, the bond of faith is greater than the bond of blood.
There were very few extended families in the early church. Many had been cast out of their family for their faith. If blood had come before faith, there would not have been a church! Peter was married, but we read nothing of his wife. Jesus himself, when own mother and brothers came to take him home, pointed to the crowds who followed him and said, “These are my mother and brothers.” He said that if we do not deny our father and mother and follow Him, we cannot be his disciples.
I know how hard. Our concern for family is a huge part of who we are. But the concern we have for the family of God must come before our own. It is true for missionaries, who forsake their homes and their loved ones for years at a time and travel to foreign countries. It is true for ministers who leave their communities to become part of another. It is true for soldiers who give their lives for something greater than themselves. If blood comes before faith, then families become idols, and familial love becomes idolatry.
The church is our true family. It was true for Peter; it is true for us. In Peter’s time, the family of God was under attack by persecutions from without and heresies from within. Christians had to stand up and be counted as Christians, or face destruction. Peter told us what we should expect. He also told us how to react when God’s family is under attack.
The end of all things is near Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
1. As a family, we need to have a clear vision of our Father.
I keep all my pictures in my computer. Sometimes in idle moments I like to look at them. I have pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents. I even have pictures of many of my grandparents who died before I was born.
But I have no pictures of my Heavenly Father. All pictures I have ever seen of Jesus are artistic imaginings, The only thing I see of my Heavenly Father is his handiwork.
This may be why we find it so much easier to focus upon our earthly family, and so hard to focus on our heavenly one. Our children may be the future of the family, but our fathers and mothers are the binding that holds it together. Without the knowledge of our ancestors, and the appreciation of our parents, families fall apart.
Peter believed that the end of the world was near, so encouraged the church to have a sober, clear-headed vision of the Father. The closer we draw to Jesus, the closer we will in turn draw to one another.
Mixed iron filings with sawdust, and pour it on a table. It would take a long time to sort them out. But holding a magnet above and the iron filings rise to the magnet. In the same moment, they would be purified of the sawdust, and draw close t the rest of the iron. The magnet is both unites and a purifies the filings.
In the same way, the church is united by the view we have of God. The more real he is to us, the more we will want to be part of His family and the closer we will all become.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
2. As a family, we need to have a genuine affection for each other.
We may love the brethren, but we do not always like them. As one wag put it.
“To live above with saints above, oh, won’t that be the glory/But to live below with saints we know—well, that’s another story.”
Peter doesn’t mean that we should love each other in the abstract. He expects us to love one another with genuine, real affection.
How do we get that affection? First, we must spend time to each other, listening and learning about their lives. Old people don’t get along with young people. Young people don’t like older people. Rich people and poor people don’t mix, neither to people of different social, ethnic or racial backgrounds. /the more we look at differences, the more we remain strangers, the less we can fulfill Peter’s command to love each other differently.
Some people enjoy only people who are exactly like themselves. Other people enjoy those who have interesting differences from themselves. But neither similarities nor differences are strong enough to enable us to find a genuine affection for everyone. But what if we looked to see what is like Jesus in everyone we met? The image of God is on all His people. Each of us has a different part. If we can find the aspect of others lives that is most like Jesus, we will love them from the heart
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
3.As a family, we need to open our homes and lives to each other.
Hospitality is an essential part of loving each other sincerely. We have become afraid to open our homes to anyone, even friends. It’s not that we fear for our lives, but we fear the embarrassment of not having perfect homes. We close our doors on others, because we think our job is to impress and entertain.
Nothing could be further from the truth. No one cares what your house looks like. They only care about knowing you. Homes are the natural place to get to know each other. If we are still afraid to open our homes, then meet each other at restaurants and shopping malls. Take one another fishing and hunting. Do whatever we can to welcome other people into your lives, just like you would your own family.
10--11 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides,
so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
4.As a family, we use our gifts for the benefit of all.
Have you ever seen one of those composite picture, where an image is made up of other images. Each photograph is complete in itself. Those photographs look nothing like the whole, but when you put them all together, they make an entirely different picture.
The church is like that. God never expects us to be like Jesus. He expects us to be like Jesus when we are put together.
Peter mentions some of these . Some people are good at speaking. Those are the people who are our preachers and teachers. Others are good at making friends. Those are our evangelists and pastor. Others are good at serving. Those are our deacons and doers of mercy. There is not a single one of us who cannot contribute in some way to the manifestation of Jesus.
When you put it all together, the church forms a single picture of God’s grace through Jesus. We do not see it alone. We are imperfect, foolish, selfish, and unreasonable. But put us together, each one encouraged to do what we do best, and together we form an incredible whole. We form the body of Christ,
12-19 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God ; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
5.As a family, we suffer together.
Today, there are more people living on this earth than have existed in all the years past.—more than six billion souls. There is instantaneous communication throughout the world. Everyone of us is attached by at least three transportation and communication to whe whole world—radio, television, roads and transportation, cell phones, internet, email, social networking, and others that are being invented all the time. Even so, all this connections has not made us united. Quite the opposite. We have never been more lonely.
We can go for days, months, even years in lonely isolation, with the illusion of connection by our electronic devices. When we suffer, we discover there is no substitute for flesh and blood. We need the touch of skin on skin, a kind look from someone else, and soothing words spoken directly to us, and not to others. In times of trouble, we need a family.
It used to be said that the average American had three good friends. Today, the number has decreased to two good friends. Many, many people do not even have one. We live in loneliness.
We must not allow anyone in the family of God to suffer alone. It is vitally important that we visit one another, and hold each other’s hands, offering spiritual, emotional, and physical support.
What makes a happy family? It isn’t the amount of time we spend with each other. Some people see their family every day and wish they didn’t. Others see them once a year, and hope to see them more. A family is not about how often we each other, but the love we have for one another whether we live across the street or across the country.
The thing that makes a family is mutual support. When we need them, they are there.
The first family crisis I remember was the death of my grandmother. One thing that struck me was how the family seemed to automatically know who was going to do what. They just sensed who would arrange the food and make the funeral arrangements. There was no disagreements, no quarrelling. The family just clicked into place. Most of all, I remember the openness and heartfelt feeling we had for each other.
Love was underneath the surface, the foundation for everything we had. We were proud of one another, proud of being a part of something bigger than ourselves which gave us our identity and our purpose.
Peter calls the church the “family of God.” As a Christian, we are members of two families—God’s family and our own.
Which is more important? To Peter, God’s family came before his own family. Throughout the Bible, the bond of faith is greater than the bond of blood.
There were very few extended families in the early church. Many had been cast out of their family for their faith. If blood had come before faith, there would not have been a church! Peter was married, but we read nothing of his wife. Jesus himself, when own mother and brothers came to take him home, pointed to the crowds who followed him and said, “These are my mother and brothers.” He said that if we do not deny our father and mother and follow Him, we cannot be his disciples.
I know how hard. Our concern for family is a huge part of who we are. But the concern we have for the family of God must come before our own. It is true for missionaries, who forsake their homes and their loved ones for years at a time and travel to foreign countries. It is true for ministers who leave their communities to become part of another. It is true for soldiers who give their lives for something greater than themselves. If blood comes before faith, then families become idols, and familial love becomes idolatry.
The church is our true family. It was true for Peter; it is true for us. In Peter’s time, the family of God was under attack by persecutions from without and heresies from within. Christians had to stand up and be counted as Christians, or face destruction. Peter told us what we should expect. He also told us how to react when God’s family is under attack.
The end of all things is near Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
1. As a family, we need to have a clear vision of our Father.
I keep all my pictures in my computer. Sometimes in idle moments I like to look at them. I have pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents. I even have pictures of many of my grandparents who died before I was born.
But I have no pictures of my Heavenly Father. All pictures I have ever seen of Jesus are artistic imaginings, The only thing I see of my Heavenly Father is his handiwork.
This may be why we find it so much easier to focus upon our earthly family, and so hard to focus on our heavenly one. Our children may be the future of the family, but our fathers and mothers are the binding that holds it together. Without the knowledge of our ancestors, and the appreciation of our parents, families fall apart.
Peter believed that the end of the world was near, so encouraged the church to have a sober, clear-headed vision of the Father. The closer we draw to Jesus, the closer we will in turn draw to one another.
Mixed iron filings with sawdust, and pour it on a table. It would take a long time to sort them out. But holding a magnet above and the iron filings rise to the magnet. In the same moment, they would be purified of the sawdust, and draw close t the rest of the iron. The magnet is both unites and a purifies the filings.
In the same way, the church is united by the view we have of God. The more real he is to us, the more we will want to be part of His family and the closer we will all become.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
2. As a family, we need to have a genuine affection for each other.
We may love the brethren, but we do not always like them. As one wag put it.
“To live above with saints above, oh, won’t that be the glory/But to live below with saints we know—well, that’s another story.”
Peter doesn’t mean that we should love each other in the abstract. He expects us to love one another with genuine, real affection.
How do we get that affection? First, we must spend time to each other, listening and learning about their lives. Old people don’t get along with young people. Young people don’t like older people. Rich people and poor people don’t mix, neither to people of different social, ethnic or racial backgrounds. /the more we look at differences, the more we remain strangers, the less we can fulfill Peter’s command to love each other differently.
Some people enjoy only people who are exactly like themselves. Other people enjoy those who have interesting differences from themselves. But neither similarities nor differences are strong enough to enable us to find a genuine affection for everyone. But what if we looked to see what is like Jesus in everyone we met? The image of God is on all His people. Each of us has a different part. If we can find the aspect of others lives that is most like Jesus, we will love them from the heart
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
3.As a family, we need to open our homes and lives to each other.
Hospitality is an essential part of loving each other sincerely. We have become afraid to open our homes to anyone, even friends. It’s not that we fear for our lives, but we fear the embarrassment of not having perfect homes. We close our doors on others, because we think our job is to impress and entertain.
Nothing could be further from the truth. No one cares what your house looks like. They only care about knowing you. Homes are the natural place to get to know each other. If we are still afraid to open our homes, then meet each other at restaurants and shopping malls. Take one another fishing and hunting. Do whatever we can to welcome other people into your lives, just like you would your own family.
10--11 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides,
so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
4.As a family, we use our gifts for the benefit of all.
Have you ever seen one of those composite picture, where an image is made up of other images. Each photograph is complete in itself. Those photographs look nothing like the whole, but when you put them all together, they make an entirely different picture.
The church is like that. God never expects us to be like Jesus. He expects us to be like Jesus when we are put together.
Peter mentions some of these . Some people are good at speaking. Those are the people who are our preachers and teachers. Others are good at making friends. Those are our evangelists and pastor. Others are good at serving. Those are our deacons and doers of mercy. There is not a single one of us who cannot contribute in some way to the manifestation of Jesus.
When you put it all together, the church forms a single picture of God’s grace through Jesus. We do not see it alone. We are imperfect, foolish, selfish, and unreasonable. But put us together, each one encouraged to do what we do best, and together we form an incredible whole. We form the body of Christ,
12-19 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God ; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
5.As a family, we suffer together.
Today, there are more people living on this earth than have existed in all the years past.—more than six billion souls. There is instantaneous communication throughout the world. Everyone of us is attached by at least three transportation and communication to whe whole world—radio, television, roads and transportation, cell phones, internet, email, social networking, and others that are being invented all the time. Even so, all this connections has not made us united. Quite the opposite. We have never been more lonely.
We can go for days, months, even years in lonely isolation, with the illusion of connection by our electronic devices. When we suffer, we discover there is no substitute for flesh and blood. We need the touch of skin on skin, a kind look from someone else, and soothing words spoken directly to us, and not to others. In times of trouble, we need a family.
It used to be said that the average American had three good friends. Today, the number has decreased to two good friends. Many, many people do not even have one. We live in loneliness.
We must not allow anyone in the family of God to suffer alone. It is vitally important that we visit one another, and hold each other’s hands, offering spiritual, emotional, and physical support.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Can This Town (or church) be saved?
http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/9009/10370005/Florida_family_gives_up_on_small-town_North_Dakota I came across this news story on my home page news, and I had to share it.
It concerns a little town of Hazelton, North Dakota, population 240. It was one of those little rural villages that dot the plains of America, aging and shrinking in the winds of modernity. The town consisted of three churches, a grain elevator, a city hall and a bar. More than that Hazelton was a way of life for those who had spent there entire lives there. Those people could not bear to see it wither and die.
That was when the town council came up with an original idea. The would pay people to move there. An anonymous donor put up the money. They advertized that they would give a free lot and money for a new home to anyone anywhere who would move to their town. They would also work to get them established in the community, with jobs for all. What a deal!
Thousands of people inquired. Hundreds were serious about it. Dozens of families came and visited the town. But in the end only one family, Jeanette and Michael Tristani of Miami took them up on the offer.
The people of Hazelton were overjoyed to see them and their two children. They gave them two lots, not one, and twenty thousand dollars besides. Jeanette got a job working at city hall. Michael opened up a diner. They purchased a third lot beside the first two for fifteen thousand dollars. It seemed like a wonderful thing, for them and the town.
That was in 2006. In 2010, they packed up and moved back to Miami. Hazelton, N.D. became the town that they literally could not pay anyone to inhabit.
What went wrong? Several things. After reading the article, I realized that the town had the same problems of many older, estabilshed churches. many churches, including my own have seen people age and attendance shrink. They love their churches, and the culture they represent. If they could, they would probably pay people to come, so the church would be full again. But in spite of their best efforts, they end up like Hazelton, with empty pews, empty nursuries, and forgotten programs.
The rest of the article tells wha twent wrong. you can look it up at the address above if you wish, but let me just summarize a few of he problems for you.
First, they had a motivation problem. The author of he article, James McPherson, describes Hazelton as "a dwindling town of about 240 that has attempted to attract young families to stay on the map. " Right there is the first problem. There is no such thing as a free gift. The elders of Hazelton were not really giving anything away--they were buying people to preserve the institutions they loved. They were not motivated by the goodness of hteir heart, but by fear of seeing something they had invested their entire lives in disappear.
The Tristani's however, did not come there to preserve their institutions. They came for their own reasons. They had their own customs and culture, and they had no investment in someone else's life work. Nor should they have been expected to.
Most of us want to see our churches survive. The we have to ask, though is why. God had never expressed any interest at all in preserving our personal culture or memories. We all love the things that remind us of our past. That is good and natural. But it is also unreasonable for us to expect strangers to share our sympathy. God is not now nor has He ever been interested in preserving bits of human culture. Preservation of the world's institution is not His desire, but the transformation of those institutions by the power of the Gospel. God has no interest in preserving musical styles, archetectural styles or community organizations. He is only interested in people.
Jesus said "he who saves his life will lose it." That is just as true for an entire church as it is for an individual. When the motivation for outreach is the preservation of a local congregation, it is bound to fail. God will allow a church to succeed only when our love for the lost excedes our love for those who are already here.
The second problem was culture. The Tristanis were not there long before people became suspicious of them. Michael wore a Rolex watch and drove a Lexus. "People thought I was a drug dealer," he said. These North Dakota people had never seen anything like them. The Tristanis found themselves excluded from the community that once welcomed them.
Small towns and small churches put all newcomers through the screen of their own culture. If they do not fit, they reject them. The smaller the church, the smaller the screen. They know that anyone who has any other exprience but their own is a threat to what they have already done, so they reject them before they can change anything.
The third problem is opportunty. The nearest town of any size was Bismark, forty-five minutes away. They had to go there for anything. While those who lived there had become used to the great distances the Tristanis were not. Jeanette tried to get her parents who lived in Miami to join them there, but they refused.there was just nothing there for them. Besides, the cold weather put them off.
The people of Hazelton did not understand the problem. Hazelton was heaven to them. Who wouldn't want to live in heaven in spite of the inconvenience.
Small towns and small churches do not have all the opportunities of larger ones. But they have some things that more than compensate for them in the minds of those who remain--family, friendliness, and intimate involvement in one another's lives. But take those things away and what do you have? Going to them is like going to someone else's family reunion.
Small churches are at a disadvantage, but that doesn't mean they are hopeless. The Hazeltons knew those disadvantages when they first moved there. But they had expected that the warmth and friendliness of the people would more than compensate for it. They expected invitations to people's homes, ball games in the summer sun, and sleigh rides with happy, loving neighbors. That didn't happen. they people invited each other out, but they did not invit the Tristanis. They probably thought the Tristanis ought to invite themselves.
Then there was jealousy. Michael opened up a diner in town. About the same town, someone else did, too--a native. the rivalry between these two places became personal. The owner of the other diner rode by their home, shouting curses at them and their children (of course, everyone said, it had to be Tristani's fault. Our people would never behave that way!) Soon, no one would go to his business, for fear of ostracism by their neighbors. today, both cafes are closed.
Small churches want people to come to their church. they just don't want them to own any of it. They do not want to share leadership with people they hardly know. Sooner or later, this puts them in the position of saying "this church isn't big enough for the two of us!" and the newcomer leaves. Only when the newcomers outnumber th old timers and leadership is shared do the newcomers find a place. Then the old timers usually leave.
What happened in Hazelton has happened in small towns all across America, in small churches in the city and the country. If we are going to be salt and light in the world, as Jesus wanted, we have to love the world we are in more than we love our own culture and tradition We have to realized that if we live in the past, in fading communities, we will die with the past. But if we embrace the lost around us, and show them the true love of Jesus, the essence of what made our community great will be carried on not only in the next generation, but in many generations to come.
It concerns a little town of Hazelton, North Dakota, population 240. It was one of those little rural villages that dot the plains of America, aging and shrinking in the winds of modernity. The town consisted of three churches, a grain elevator, a city hall and a bar. More than that Hazelton was a way of life for those who had spent there entire lives there. Those people could not bear to see it wither and die.
That was when the town council came up with an original idea. The would pay people to move there. An anonymous donor put up the money. They advertized that they would give a free lot and money for a new home to anyone anywhere who would move to their town. They would also work to get them established in the community, with jobs for all. What a deal!
Thousands of people inquired. Hundreds were serious about it. Dozens of families came and visited the town. But in the end only one family, Jeanette and Michael Tristani of Miami took them up on the offer.
The people of Hazelton were overjoyed to see them and their two children. They gave them two lots, not one, and twenty thousand dollars besides. Jeanette got a job working at city hall. Michael opened up a diner. They purchased a third lot beside the first two for fifteen thousand dollars. It seemed like a wonderful thing, for them and the town.
That was in 2006. In 2010, they packed up and moved back to Miami. Hazelton, N.D. became the town that they literally could not pay anyone to inhabit.
What went wrong? Several things. After reading the article, I realized that the town had the same problems of many older, estabilshed churches. many churches, including my own have seen people age and attendance shrink. They love their churches, and the culture they represent. If they could, they would probably pay people to come, so the church would be full again. But in spite of their best efforts, they end up like Hazelton, with empty pews, empty nursuries, and forgotten programs.
The rest of the article tells wha twent wrong. you can look it up at the address above if you wish, but let me just summarize a few of he problems for you.
First, they had a motivation problem. The author of he article, James McPherson, describes Hazelton as "a dwindling town of about 240 that has attempted to attract young families to stay on the map. " Right there is the first problem. There is no such thing as a free gift. The elders of Hazelton were not really giving anything away--they were buying people to preserve the institutions they loved. They were not motivated by the goodness of hteir heart, but by fear of seeing something they had invested their entire lives in disappear.
The Tristani's however, did not come there to preserve their institutions. They came for their own reasons. They had their own customs and culture, and they had no investment in someone else's life work. Nor should they have been expected to.
Most of us want to see our churches survive. The we have to ask, though is why. God had never expressed any interest at all in preserving our personal culture or memories. We all love the things that remind us of our past. That is good and natural. But it is also unreasonable for us to expect strangers to share our sympathy. God is not now nor has He ever been interested in preserving bits of human culture. Preservation of the world's institution is not His desire, but the transformation of those institutions by the power of the Gospel. God has no interest in preserving musical styles, archetectural styles or community organizations. He is only interested in people.
Jesus said "he who saves his life will lose it." That is just as true for an entire church as it is for an individual. When the motivation for outreach is the preservation of a local congregation, it is bound to fail. God will allow a church to succeed only when our love for the lost excedes our love for those who are already here.
The second problem was culture. The Tristanis were not there long before people became suspicious of them. Michael wore a Rolex watch and drove a Lexus. "People thought I was a drug dealer," he said. These North Dakota people had never seen anything like them. The Tristanis found themselves excluded from the community that once welcomed them.
Small towns and small churches put all newcomers through the screen of their own culture. If they do not fit, they reject them. The smaller the church, the smaller the screen. They know that anyone who has any other exprience but their own is a threat to what they have already done, so they reject them before they can change anything.
The third problem is opportunty. The nearest town of any size was Bismark, forty-five minutes away. They had to go there for anything. While those who lived there had become used to the great distances the Tristanis were not. Jeanette tried to get her parents who lived in Miami to join them there, but they refused.there was just nothing there for them. Besides, the cold weather put them off.
The people of Hazelton did not understand the problem. Hazelton was heaven to them. Who wouldn't want to live in heaven in spite of the inconvenience.
Small towns and small churches do not have all the opportunities of larger ones. But they have some things that more than compensate for them in the minds of those who remain--family, friendliness, and intimate involvement in one another's lives. But take those things away and what do you have? Going to them is like going to someone else's family reunion.
Small churches are at a disadvantage, but that doesn't mean they are hopeless. The Hazeltons knew those disadvantages when they first moved there. But they had expected that the warmth and friendliness of the people would more than compensate for it. They expected invitations to people's homes, ball games in the summer sun, and sleigh rides with happy, loving neighbors. That didn't happen. they people invited each other out, but they did not invit the Tristanis. They probably thought the Tristanis ought to invite themselves.
Then there was jealousy. Michael opened up a diner in town. About the same town, someone else did, too--a native. the rivalry between these two places became personal. The owner of the other diner rode by their home, shouting curses at them and their children (of course, everyone said, it had to be Tristani's fault. Our people would never behave that way!) Soon, no one would go to his business, for fear of ostracism by their neighbors. today, both cafes are closed.
Small churches want people to come to their church. they just don't want them to own any of it. They do not want to share leadership with people they hardly know. Sooner or later, this puts them in the position of saying "this church isn't big enough for the two of us!" and the newcomer leaves. Only when the newcomers outnumber th old timers and leadership is shared do the newcomers find a place. Then the old timers usually leave.
What happened in Hazelton has happened in small towns all across America, in small churches in the city and the country. If we are going to be salt and light in the world, as Jesus wanted, we have to love the world we are in more than we love our own culture and tradition We have to realized that if we live in the past, in fading communities, we will die with the past. But if we embrace the lost around us, and show them the true love of Jesus, the essence of what made our community great will be carried on not only in the next generation, but in many generations to come.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Bible Stories
I had a wonderful time teaching tonight. Of all the things I do, I think I love Wednesday night the best, especially after I gave up lecturing.
We sat around a table, with the Bible in our hands and talked through the stories of Genesis. Everyone had something to say, and all of it was interesting.
Most people don't know the stories of Genesis, of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Oh we think we do, but we don't. We know the sanitized version of them, the King James version, full of these and thous and men in robes strutting across the stage like Hollywood actors. We can just see Charlton Heston ad Abraham, or Gregory Peck as Isaac. We completely miss the stories.
The stories are not like Sunday School, they are earthy, crude, and gossipy. They are full of betrayal, lust, greed, jealousy, and all those things we in the church don't usually like to talk about.
They drip with vice and virtue. If they really made a movie about those stories, it would get at least a PG13 rating. Dallas and Dynasty had nothing on the Bible for intrigue, backstabbing and sheer cattiness.
The stories of the Bible work on two levels. They have all kinds o f human lessons. Virtue is rewarded and evil punished, but there are no heroes and villains. Everyone takes a turn being right, and everyone has a turn at being wrong, just like in our lives. The Bible doesn't conceal the glaring flaws of its heroes.
Even so, there's a divine level to the story as well. It's all about the continuing covenant that God made with one family. In spite of their nastiness and crudeness, God doesn't let them go. He keeps on blessing those who bless them, and cursing those who curse them.
Why? I don't know. But that's what He wants to do. His love is constant as the star, and is not rattled by human disobedience.
Tonight we studied the story of Jacob and his vives and Laban, his father in law. They almost killed each other. For twenty years they were unsteady allies, alternately cooperating and betraying each other. It's a wonder that Jacob survived with his family intact,
But the did. That's the point, I think. He didn't deserve God's blessing, but he got it anyway, simply because God chose to give it. God used Jacob and his family in spite of themselves.
Jacob gives me hope for myself. God may have a use for me yet.
Jacob's story s one big laugh in the face of those who think that they deserve God's love, those who would look at other people and think themselves better. It's also a good natured joke at the expense of those who think they are unworthy of being used by God. If God can use a jerk like Jacob, he surely can use me. And you.
We sat around a table, with the Bible in our hands and talked through the stories of Genesis. Everyone had something to say, and all of it was interesting.
Most people don't know the stories of Genesis, of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Oh we think we do, but we don't. We know the sanitized version of them, the King James version, full of these and thous and men in robes strutting across the stage like Hollywood actors. We can just see Charlton Heston ad Abraham, or Gregory Peck as Isaac. We completely miss the stories.
The stories are not like Sunday School, they are earthy, crude, and gossipy. They are full of betrayal, lust, greed, jealousy, and all those things we in the church don't usually like to talk about.
They drip with vice and virtue. If they really made a movie about those stories, it would get at least a PG13 rating. Dallas and Dynasty had nothing on the Bible for intrigue, backstabbing and sheer cattiness.
The stories of the Bible work on two levels. They have all kinds o f human lessons. Virtue is rewarded and evil punished, but there are no heroes and villains. Everyone takes a turn being right, and everyone has a turn at being wrong, just like in our lives. The Bible doesn't conceal the glaring flaws of its heroes.
Even so, there's a divine level to the story as well. It's all about the continuing covenant that God made with one family. In spite of their nastiness and crudeness, God doesn't let them go. He keeps on blessing those who bless them, and cursing those who curse them.
Why? I don't know. But that's what He wants to do. His love is constant as the star, and is not rattled by human disobedience.
Tonight we studied the story of Jacob and his vives and Laban, his father in law. They almost killed each other. For twenty years they were unsteady allies, alternately cooperating and betraying each other. It's a wonder that Jacob survived with his family intact,
But the did. That's the point, I think. He didn't deserve God's blessing, but he got it anyway, simply because God chose to give it. God used Jacob and his family in spite of themselves.
Jacob gives me hope for myself. God may have a use for me yet.
Jacob's story s one big laugh in the face of those who think that they deserve God's love, those who would look at other people and think themselves better. It's also a good natured joke at the expense of those who think they are unworthy of being used by God. If God can use a jerk like Jacob, he surely can use me. And you.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A walk on a Snowy Day
Snowy das appeal to mhere is a hush on those days, unlke any other day A hush falls on the world under a blanket of white.
Well Saturday was not exactly a snowy day, but it was close. We had at least two inches of sleet, which is considerably more dangerous than snow Still, it had the same effect. The world stopped for two days. How many times do we see that?
Saturday afternoon, I donned my snow boots an headed out for a walk. I carried a small digital camera with me, not to take the usual snowscape pictures, but to look for the little wonders that you find nestled in the storm--icicles on trees, pine cones lying on the ground half hidden, the pattern of snow on a wood shake roof, that kind of stuff.
It was cold, very cold. The windblown ice slapped into my face and froze my beard. Nowhever did I see liquid water. I looked behind me on the path, and could see no foodprints. I was walking on a bed of ice crystals.
I started for downtown, and got about three quarters there, when I suddenly realized my face was freezing,, so I decided to turn around. No use getting frostbite. Along the way home, I go by the Museum of the Waxhaws, our local museum. Its a small building, only about twice the sze of my house. this year, they had added some new features in the small patch of woods beside it. There is a pioneer farm now, and a Catawba Indian encampment in the woods. I decided it would be a good place to tak pictures.
What a treat! It was a still, silent place, and I felt transported back a couple of hundred years. I took pictures of the log cabin walls, the barn, the green wagon parked beside it, the spring house, and just about everything else. Then I walked into the woods, over a wooden bridge, and took pictures of the black and white woods. A little bird hopped beside the path, trying to keep warm.
It is a very small wood. A few minutes later, I came out into the clearing beyone. Just then, there was a racket to my left. About thirty yards in front of me, a large white-tailed deer leapt out of the woods and bounded in front of me. It had a beautiful rack of six pointed antlers. Before I could reach for my camera it was gone, It did get a picture of it, though, about a hundred yards away stopped and looking at me behind a wooden fence.
I wonder why it stopped? It would have been more sens
ible for the animal to keep running, but it didn't It stopped and was staring at me. If it had a camera, it might have taken my picture. Was it curiI hous? Why should a deer be curious? Was it afraid, and wanted to observe a potential predator. Or was it enjoying the sight of me, the same way I enjoyed the sight of him.
I might have been a bit too anthropomorphic in this. there were other sounds of branches in the woods behind me. Perhaps it had a family in those woods, and was looking back in terror, hoping they would make it out. I do not know.
I was glad for the sight of it, though. He and I, and the bird I saw before, seemed to be the only living things in that icy landscape. Just the three of us. I was glad that day to be counted in their number.
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