Author Archives: tombeaman

Let Go and Jump

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Here’s a riddle:

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.   (Matthew 16:25)

Jesus spoke that riddle as an explanation for an equally tough statement:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  (Matthew 16:24)

But what may seem unreasonable and harsh, is actually an invitation to wild adventure.  The thing about adventure, however, is it is unavailable to those afraid to leave the house.  You can’t experience adventure by watching it on TV.  You must leave the trappings of security behind and dare to trust your guide.

A monk named Brother Charles understood this best and wrote this prayer:

My God, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.  Whatever you may do, I thank you; I am ready for all, I accept all.  Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures – I wish no more than this, O Lord.  Into your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my God.

I get the image of a tandem skydive, holding on to Jesus.  You gotta jump…

Your Bill

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When you open your credit card bill  do you ever get a shock?  You gape in disbelief and think, “I owe how much?  Oh yeah, I forgot about that smart watch; why did I buy that thing?” 

What if you got a bill from God: how much would you owe?   No doubt you would be in for a much bigger shock.  There would be uncountable line items on that bill, ones you had long since forgotten.  I got thinking about such a bill when I read this:

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.”  (Matthew 18:23-24)

We miss the point of this unless we know that ten thousand talents is a bill of roughly $6 billion!  And the guy who owes that much is a servant to a king.  Consider the vast difference in authority and status between the two.  Heap on the $6 billion debt, and then zero in on these words: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…”  There’s your bill.

You can see how inadequate religious attempts to pay the bill are.  Some require bringing a sacrifice.  Others assign various acts of penance after you confess a short list of sins.  It is literally hopeless to attempt to square accounts with God by such piddly measures, especially since the bill grows greater each day.

Although it is hard for us to fully understand, only God could settle up for us, by forgiving the debt, as the king in that parable did.  When you forgive a debt, that means you accept the cost.  God’s method to zero out our accounts was foretold by Isaiah and fulfilled by Jesus.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  (Isaiah 53:5-6)
 

Infants of Faith

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Hold up a baby so his feet just barely touch and he makes little walking motions that anticipate the day when he will walk and run.  I believe our capacity for faith is immature and poorly formed like that.  One day, with the coming of a new, perfect heaven and earth, we will use faith as naturally and effectively as we use our other senses.  We will go from being held aloft and coaxed to sprinting and dancing.

Faced with His disciples inability to help a demon-possessed boy, Jesus said,

… “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? ….”   (Matthew 17:17b)

I think Jesus’ expression of frustration was due to His full awareness of how poorly formed and limited our capacity for faith is in this corrupted world.  When asked why they couldn’t do what He did to help the boy,

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”  (Matthew 17:20)

Jesus, I believe, was yearning for the day when His followers would apply faith as naturally and powerfully as He. For now, although our attempts are comparatively immature and weak, we are meant to keep at it, gradually strengthening our “faith muscles.”  As we do, our Father holds us up.  He smiles and dreams of the day we will walk and run by faith.

Clean Hands, Dirty Heart

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Where was this Bible verse when I was growing up?

“to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”  (Matthew 15:20b)

If I had only known.  Jesus said it; it must be true.  Gospel truth, no less.  I could have had that verse memorized and ready to quote at opportune moments.  Alas…   Of course, now I know better.  Jesus wasn’t giving hygiene instructions for little boys.  He was challenging hypocritical religious leaders, the ones who wanted to control others with nit-picky rules.  Jesus’ point was that righteousness (or the lack thereof) is determined by what is in our hearts and not by what may be smudging our hands.

“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:17-20)

Wash all you want and you cannot cleanse corruption of the heart.  Only the Holy Spirit, living within can pull that off.  Happily, that is exactly what God promises to do.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

(Isaiah 1:18)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (1 John 1:9)

Time with Dad

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My dad’s time was stretched pretty thin, what with six kids, bills to pay and a constant and growing list of repair projects (everything from a stuck disposal to a tangled slinky).  As a result, personal time with Dad was a rare and precious thing.  I treasured those few times when we had a chance to hang out and talk things over in a casual way.  Priceless.

To say Jesus had a tough day would be understating it, somewhat.  His cousin had been beheaded and, when He tried to get away to grieve, mobs of people swarmed around Him, seeking His help.  Then they ran out of food and He was called upon for some on-the-spot catering.  Finally, when all the dust had settled, the people fed and tucked in for the night, the disciples off, crossing the lake,

Matthew 14:23b
“… he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,…”

Jesus went up by Himself to talk things over with His Dad.  Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know how that conversation went?  I’m quite sure the net effect was restful and restorative.  No distractions, no specific agenda, just Jesus and His Dad, talking things over.

Sound good?  Better.  And get this: You have been invited to do it too.  Your Heavenly Father has time for you, whenever it would feel good.  That’s one of the amazing benefits of a trust relationship with Jesus.  He opens the door to the One He called, “My Father and your Father.”  Need a break? Leave behind everything that might distract (people, cell phones!) and just go hang out with “Dad.” 

Same Old Same Mold

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It happens to musicians. It happens to authors. It even happens to scientists. I’m talking about extreme pressure to conform, to fit the mold. Musicians are pressured to be more commercial. Authors are pressured to imitate John Grisham. Scientific research is more likely to get published if the results are “sexy,” whatever that means to the guys in lab coats…

It happened to Jesus, too. He got slammed because He didn’t fit the mold, the religious expectations of the leaders. But Jesus knew it’s moldy in the mold. He said:

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ (Matthew 11:16–17)

Notice, it is “we played” and “we sang.” The people wanted to call the tune, to define what Jesus and John the Baptist should be like. Jesus compared them to spoiled children who fuss if they don’t get their way.

People still object to Jesus because He doesn’t fit their expectations. Rejecting eyewitness accounts, they redefine Him to fit their own mold. That’s why you hear some say Jesus was married, that He was mistaken about His identity, that He was merely a prophet or a good man. But it is Jesus who calls the tune. He proclaimed Who He was and His actions smashed the moldy molds.

He said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.“. (John 14:9b)

And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:6)

For Roger, Too

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Maybe you’ve seen the quotes from the Baptist pastor, Roger Jimenez, who seemed glad about the shootings in Orlando.  He claims to represent Jesus and preaches in a church named “Verity” that claims to stand for truth.  Neither claim is in line with Jesus’ teachings.  It is true the Bible teaches homosexual practice is out of sync with God’s design.  But so is heterosexual lust for someone not your spouse.  And greed, gossip, and coveting something not your own.  Jesus taught the inclination of our hearts in the wrong direction is just as serious as the worst act of that inclination.  For example, anger against your brother is akin to murder, He said, and just as bad.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.  (Matthew 5:21-22)

Every one  of us is equally guilty in the eyes of God when it comes to doing, or even thinking about doing, things out of sync with His design.  To point fingers with a judgmental, holier-than-thou attitude is as serious before God as pulling the trigger.  Roger Jimenez should have known that.  He also should know Jesus did not come for those who considered themselves to be morally pure.  He came for those who know they are not.

And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  (Matthew 9:11-13)

Fact is, God loves the Orlando victims and sent His Son, Jesus to save them.  He came for Roger, too, if he can get over himself and see it…

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  (John 3:17)

Like Peter’s Mom

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And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. (Matthew 8:14-15)

I wonder if Peter’s mother instantly felt 100%.  Maybe, after Jesus healed her fever, she still had lingering side effects.  If so, maybe, taking Him at His word, she began to act with full assurance those lingering side effects would go away.  If that was the case, she is a model for us.

Since I trusted Jesus, even though I experience the amazing rush of new life, there are still lingering side effects of my old, dead style of existence.  You too?  Probably.  Jesus intends for us to imitate Peter’s mom, trusting Him for the full fix in due time. Get up and serve Him now.

Howzat?

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There’s something funny going on here and I don’t find it funny. Tell her to drive up the drive.

You probably understand those two sentences even though the word, funny, and the word, drive, are used in two different ways.  But sometimes word meanings are more ambiguous. Such is the case with the word, faith.

The word, faith, can refer to a set of beliefs: Keep the faith. The same word can refer to a personal decision to trust: Have faith. If you told me that you were a surgeon I may have faith that you are telling me the truth. If I need surgery, and trust you to cut me open to make changes inside me, that’s a different kind of faith..

The Christian faith is a body of beliefs.  You can casually subscribe to this set of beliefs with no big change in your life. But when someone decides to surrender to Jesus, he or she is exercising the second kind of faith. It is this type of faith that comes with new, eternal life, the life of the Holy Spirit.

This active kind of faith was in mind when Paul wrote:

For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.” ( 1 Thessalonians 3:5 )

But then, after acknowledging that their faith is in good shape, that they are truly alive in Christ, he adds this thought:

“… we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?”
.. ( 1 Thessalonians 3:10 )

Which makes no sense unless he is talking about the body of their beliefs that make up the faith.

I know, maybe you weren’t really worried about that this morning. But my prayer is you have faith.  And keep the faith.

A Tribute to Fred Cunningham

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My brother in law, Fred, fought Parkinson’s the way he approached most everything else, with quiet strength.  His grandson, Kyle, wrote these words of tribute:

Early this morning my grandpa passed. He was a minister of the church 40 years, married one of the most wonderful women on earth, and fathered three children who have all grown into being role models for me. The way he lived his life influenced me perhaps more than any other person I’ve known.

He believed in humane service and action as a privilege, rather than duty. He ministered to a small congregation on the poorer end of Kalamazoo, half of whom had been diagnosed with serious mental illness. He taught me to find courage in those people, where others may have only seen weakness.

If that was all Kyle had written (it was not…) it would have been impressive.  When I read those words I think, “That’s how I would like to be known, what I’d like to be when I grow up.”  If Jesus read them, He would think:

“… Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”  (Matthew 25:40b)

Fred left a big hole…