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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)

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…

Slaves and Sons

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How could God treat His people so differently in Old Testament times as compared to the New?  The Old Testament is full of long lists of rules and regs, along with severe penalties to be exacted upon those who break them.  The New Testament is all about grace and tells those in Christ they are free of the law.  What gives?

This is no big mystery.  The first part of the Old Testament was written for people who, for more than 10 generations, had lived as slaves.  After God sent Moses and arranged for their freedom, they obviously needed a bit of clearly defined structure.  The New Testament is about Jesus inviting us to become sons and daughters in God’s family.  For those who accept, He gives His Spirit as an internal guide, making rules irrelevant.

Ask yourself this question: Did you treat your two year old in the same way when he or she became 32?  I would imagine you began with rules, such as, “We never cross the street by ourselves.”  Later on, that rule changed to, “Always look both ways before you cross the street.”  And then, “‘Bye; Have a nice time!”

Here’s a great explanation of how God’s approach changed and why, taken from the New Testament:

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.  (Galatians 4:1-7  NIV)

God’s Bad Rap

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How could a good God send anyone to Hell?  You’ve heard that question and maybe asked it.  Fact is, God gets a bad rap; He doesn’t send anyone to Hell.  We do that.  What God does is try to rescue as many as possible.

“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”  –  (Ezekiel 18:31)

Why wouldn’t He rescue everybody?  It is because He doesn’t want to take away one of His most precious gifts to us:  Free will.  God wants to protect you from Hell, but only if you are willing.

Willing to do what?  Turn around.

Turn from what to what?  Turn from all the stress and temporary stuff of this world, stuff that promises to make you happy and fulfill you, but doesn’t.  Turn to Jesus to receive His gift of abundant, eternal life, and a get out of Hell pass.

Why do I have to turn?  If you are fixated on the temporary and unfulfilling stuff, striving for it and stressed out by the rat race, you won’t be able to understand about Jesus.

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.   – (2 Corinthians 4:4 New Living Translation)

 

Blog Jam

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If you follow this blog, you get an email when a new post is available.  But sometimes when you click on the link, you get a message saying it isn’t there.  This is a software glitch that the techies are working to fix.  Sorry for the frustration!  Most of the time, the post will show up in a few days, when it was scheduled to appear. 

Bound Up and Freed

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If the ability to fix broken hearts is an identifying mark of the Messiah (See the previous post: “What to Do with a Broken Heart”), what about James Taylor?  Remember his song,”Handyman?”

Hey girls, gather round, listen to what I’m putting down.
Hey babe, I’m your handy man.
I’m not the kind to use a pencil or rule, I’m handy with love and I’m no fool,
I fix broken hearts, I know that I truly can.

Nobody who starts out with “Hey girls, gather round…” knows how to truly fix a broken heart.  I think the same critique can be leveled against a newer song by the group, Indecent Obsession.  (“Fixing a Broken Heart”  –  Really?  With an indecent obsession?  Give me a break!)   When Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted, it was by the power of the Holy Spirit, a genuine healing, not the temporary whitewash of a new infatuation.  It was that genuine healing or “binding up” that marked Him as the Messiah.

But it was not the only identifying role of the Messiah.  Here’s a bit of the rest of what Isaiah prophesied:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound  –  (Isaiah 61:1)

There is more to it, but some of what the Messiah (Jesus) was sent to do was to bind up broken hearts and to set free those whose hearts were bound up as prisoners or slaves.  Most of us know what it is to be broken-hearted.  And most of us know what it is to be stuck or bound in our hearts with an unhealthy habit or addiction.  Jesus came to fix both circumstances, especially since the things that bind our hearts are frequently also what caused our hearts to be broken.  Much of the time, I suspect, this is the case.

Before you try to grapple with the deeper issues of sin and atonement, the cross and resurrection of Jesus, make sure you understand this part of what He came to do for you.  He came to repair what is broken in your heart and to set free what has been held captive there.

Why would He do that for you?  Because He made you and He loves you.

Beyond “Wisdom”

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“Help! Rape!”  My little boy eyes bulged as wide as yo-yo’s as I read the damp message I’d found in a bottle, floating in the lake.  I knew it was something bad, but back then, little boys were not taught much about rape, or even sex.  I had no recourse but to ask my mother what it meant.  I laugh to think back on that moment, the look on her face, because she would have been profoundly uncomfortable if I’d asked her what necking was!  She went through a few inarticulate false starts and then informed me that rape meant “misbehavior.”  Aha!  New information, I thought.  I hurried over to my brother to impress him with my advanced knowledge and wisdom.  “I know what rape means,” I proclaimed.  “Really?”  “Yes,” I said, drawing myself up to my full, second grade stature, “it means misbehavior!”   That was a moment of great pride for me.   That is, until I began to realize how incomplete my lofty wisdom really was.

There have always been people who think they know it all, who draw themselves up and make proclamations based on the fullness of their great wisdom.  God laughs.  In their wisdom they have been blinded to some of the most basic elements of reality.  So Paul wrote:

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”.  (1 Corinthians 3:18-19)

Every year about this time, as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, we hear from the “wise” who consider us foolish. They draw themselves up and proclaim how ludicrous it is to believe in a God Who would allow His Son to be tortured, and how naive it is to think He could have been restored to life.  Which is tragic, because Jesus endured that torment out of love for them, to rescue them.  And they cannot see it.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”  –  (1 Corinthians 1:18-19)

Before you bet your life on the wisdom of those who sound smug, consider the difference between what it means to be “perishing” and “saved.”  No doubt, there were some experts on the Titanic who knew it was folly to think such a ship could go down.  After all, it had been designed by the best engineers to prevent such a thing.  If only they had been able to see beyond their own wisdom…    Just possibly, the God of the Universe knows a bit more than those who think they are wise here on earth.

Fisherman’s Tale

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This wasn’t about the one that got away but the ones that didn’t.

So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21:11)
Not “about 150” but “153.”  Why that exact number?  Fishermen always counted their catch because their next stop would be to sell them.  John said 153 because that is how many they caught.  And because he was there!  When you read the Gospel of John you are reading an eyewitness account written by a close personal friend of Jesus.  Friends know friends better than anyone else.  When John wrote his account of Jesus, he tagged it with these words, referring to himself in the third person:

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.  (John 21:24)
In the light of that, reflect on this other statement by John:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  (John 20:30-31)

Apology

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A software glitch on WordPress has acted to post some of my blogs earlier than they were scheduled. When I discovered the problem I took them down immediately but not before some of you we’re automatically notified by email. I’m sorry for the inconvenience and have been working with the engineers at WordPress to figure out the problem.