Tag Archives: Jesus

Words and Music

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As Albert Einstein lay dying, he gathered a faltering breath and spoke final words. Are you curious to know what he said?  Nobody knows, since his nurse didn’t speak German!  It was probably only a critical correction to his theory of relativity or something.  Famous last words…  Often the last things that a person says come from a very deep place.

When Jesus died on the cross, His final words were a quote from a psalm written by David, roughly 1000 years earlier.  He said,

“Into Your hands I commit my spirit…”   (Luke 23:46; Psalm 31:5)

If you read the rest of that psalm, it is uncanny how perfectly it expresses what Jesus must have been thinking and feeling, a complex mixture of anguish and trust.  Jesus also quoted Psalm 22 on the cross:

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34, Psalm 22;1)

Once again, David’s psalm eerily captures both the agony of Jesus,

“Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.” (Psalm 22:16)

and, later in that same psalm, His overriding confidence in God:

“You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” (Psalm 22:23-24)

Those who write songs frequently say they feel as though the words and music were already there, waiting to be discovered.  It must have been that David was so in tune with the heartbeat, the “words and music” of God, that the words he was inspired to write, were the ones spoken from the lips of the Son of God, moments before His physical death.

I’m not sure there is a lesson there, or any practical application.  But when I ponder that powerful connection between David and Jesus, it casts me into a deep, swirling pool of profound awe.  I hope it might do so for you, too.  I believe it is in such awe that we find ourselves more in tune with God’s “words and music.”

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Mutual Yearning

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You know the scene at the end of the chick flick, when the two lovers finally find one another.  It seems like it always happens in slow motion as they run toward one another through a field of flowers.  There is something powerful in that motif of mutual yearning finally fulfilled.

There’s a mutual yearning between us humans and the God Who created us.  We reach up; He has reached down.  Look at these two verses, one from the Old Testament and one from the New:

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, …” (Psalm 27:4a)

“Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)

We long to live with God; He comes to us and offers to make His home with us.  That’s the offer – our deepest mutual yearning perfectly fulfilled.  What’s that part about “obey my teaching”?  It begins with the simple act of trust, with saying yes to Jesus and accepting the offer.

They may not film it in slo-mo.  It might not be in flowers.  But it’s yours if you accept it.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Can You Hear Him Singing?

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At just the right moment, when I really needed to hear these words, a good friend texted me with this:

The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

Did you ever sing over your kids? Quiet them with love? When my daughter was an infant I used to sing her to sleep with a song I gradually made up as I held her and danced around. “It’s time for little Muffin, to go to sleep again…” Years later, for my son, I sang an old Merle Haggard tune, “Honky Tonk Moon, shining on my baby and me…” When I sang over my kids, they’d settle down and nod off and I’d experience a peaceful kind of joy. God sings over His kids with joy, quieting them with His love. Wow!

Maybe you think God sings you an Eric Clapton line: “The next time I see you, boy you’d better beware…” But old Zeph says God rejoices over His kids with song; He takes delight in them. If that does not seem possible, consider what he said God has done for His kids:

The LORD has taken away your punishment [on the Cross],
he has turned back your enemy [Satan].
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; [through the Holy Spirit]
never again will you fear any harm. [Eternal life]
Zephaniah 3:15 (NIV – with my additions in brackets)

So then, how do you get to be one of God’s kids? John tells us how. Speaking of how Jesus was not “received,” he says:

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
John 1:12 (NIV)

Receive Jesus, and God will be singing over you.

Becoming Fruit

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By the time anyone noticed, she had been underwater for way too long. They hauled her out and laid her out on the dock, her body a dark purple color, her eyes lifeless. I watched as a med student kneeled over her and began CPR. When she took her first breath, when the color of her body began to chameleon back to its normal hue, when she came back to life, the process seemed miraculous. I’ve been present as each of my two children were born and took their first breath. This was like that, except that in her case, no one expected she would ever breathe again. I’m guessing, if anyone ever asks that young girl about the best gift she ever received, she would say it was the gift of life itself.

We are so used to being alive we actually take life for granted. It is all we’ve ever known. We also take spiritual death as the norm. It is all we have ever known. Spiritual death is the condition of being disconnected from the Spirit of God. Designed and created to be filled with God’s Spirit, we have been cut off since Adam’s Fall. Since we are born in this condition, we initially don’t notice anything wrong. It’s like being born blind and not discovering until later on that we were supposed to be able to see. But eventually we do sense a problem. We sense that something is missing. What’s missing is real, full life, the life of the Spirit in us. We cannot fix it, anymore than anyone could perform CPR on themselves. Spiritually speaking, we are as dead as that girl laid out on the dock.

But check out this amazing good news:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

James 1:17-18

We gasp for spiritual breath in many ways, often with no real understanding that what we seek is life itself. God, the Giver of every good and perfect gift reaches down through eternity and offers to give us “birth,” birth into eternal, spiritual life. How so? Through His Son, Jesus, the One Who is the “Word of Truth.” Those who accept this gift by faith, become like the first harvest of fruit in the orchard, the first tomatoes on the vine, the first grain in the field. The difference between fruit and the plant on which it grows is that there is continuing life in the fruit. So too with those who have been given the eternal life of God’s Spirit through their faith in Jesus.

Don’t Touch That Dial…

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Changes are coming – big changes.  Over the last couple of years we have been working on an interactive audio ebook entitled “Who is Jesus?”.  It is almost ready!  Don’t touch that dial.   Over the next few days I’ll try to answer a few questions you may have, questions like, “What’s an ebook?” and “Who is ‘we?'”  Or, “How will I use it?”  and “What’s it going to cost?”  The last one is easy – the book will be free.  But let’s start with a more basic question:  “Who cares?”  “So what?”

The last line in the Gospel of John says this:

“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

What’s so great about yet another book – even an “ebook” – about Jesus?   Let me show you a picture I recently found amidst some family junk:Who Dat?

I had no idea who this picture was, until I spotted the names written on it.  It’s a picture of my grandparents!  But they were doing something very uncharacteristic.  In my memory, my Grandma and Grampa Andy were rather reserved and formal.  But here they are, horsing around like young lovers.  As I looked at this picture, it occurred to me that whoever took this picture probably knew some things about my grandfather that never got mentioned at family gatherings.  It would have been fun to sit down with that guy and have him tell me who my grandfather really was, what he was really like.  Friends frequently have a better understanding of someone’s character and personality than teachers, bosses, colleagues or even family members.  Friends know things…

John the Apostle knew Jesus as a friend.  His Gospel account of Jesus reads very differently from the others in the Bible.  I think that was partly because he wrote it as a friend.  If you want to know more about Jesus, you can’t do any better than listen to what John had to say.  And that is what this ebook will be all about: Who does John say Jesus is?

How do you get a copy?  Don’t touch that dial; we’ll get all the details worked out and let you know.

 

 Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Doubtless

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Swarms of vicious, rabid mice were attacking my son, nibbling at his legs.  Screaming in terror, he couldn’t hear my voice as I told him to remove his 3-D glasses.  He kept freaking out.  I shouted at him: “Take off your glasses!”  When he finally heard me, registered that it was my voice, believed me and then tentatively reached up to remove his glasses, the mice instantly retreated into the confines of the movie screen at the Walt Disney theater.  But for awhile there, he was too terrified to listen, much less obey.

The same principle is in play when we are stressed out or suffering and ask God for wisdom (See: Wise Up).  God gives wisdom, generously and without finding fault.  But if we are too distracted by our fears to listen, it does no good.  That’s why James added this next part to his teaching on asking for and receiving God’s wisdom:

“But when he asks [God for wisdom], he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (James 1:6-8 – with my added explanation in brackets)

We’ve all experienced the paralysis of indecision, when our minds resemble squirrels caught in the middle of the road.  Doubt can stop you dead in your tracks.  Satan’s first strategy in the Garden of Eden was to inject doubt between the humans and God.

” …He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”” (Genesis 3:1b)

When you ask Him for wisdom, you could doubt that God would answer, doubt His wisdom is true, or doubt that it is really God Who you have heard.  Any one of those doubts would interfere with your ability to hear His voice and apply His wisdom.  The solution for that is practice – practice before you really are in a desperate need.  If you get in the habit of asking God for wisdom, listening for His response, and following what He tells you, soon you will be able to recognize His voice and distinguish it from all the other voices.  With practice, you will learn to trust and follow what He tells you.

You will be very glad you practiced, the next time you get attacked by mice…

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

A Better Bargain

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Budweiser is scaling back on Superbowl ads this year.  Me too.  At $8 million per minute, plus production costs (roughly a million per minute), we just felt it made sense to cut back.  I hope that those of you who were looking forward to the Fresh Bread of Life commercial will not be too disappointed.

But think about how much money must be made selling beer and chips if it is worth it for them to drop $9 million or so to tell you about their product for 60 seconds!  Lots, apparently.  I read an article in Forbes that said buying a Superbowl ad is a bargain.

Maybe so, but here’s a better one:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Good Question

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If you could ask just one question of Jesus, you probably couldn’t come up with a better one than they did.  But Jesus refused to answer them.  But if you  asked Him, would He answer you?  Maybe, maybe not.  Let’s set the stage:

” Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”” (Matthew 21:23)

Trouble with that question is that most of the time it’s not really a question, it’s a challenge.  It translates as, “Who do you think you are?”  plus, “Don’t you realize who I am?”  People ask “by whose authority” in order to assert their own authority.  They aren’t really looking for an answer, just a surrender.  Jesus knew that and gave a masterful, “chess move” response.  He asked them to identify the authority behind John the Baptist’s baptism: was it from Heaven or was it from men? The priests refused to answer because either way they answered would have weakened their own authority over the people.

It was a beautiful trap – too detailed to explain in this short format, but worth reading (Matthew 21:23-27).  But with that question, Jesus established that they were not really interested in knowing Who had given Him His authority!  They were only interested in putting down His challenge to their own.  Think about that: the priests were not really interested in learning more about God!

 

But if someone really wanted to know the answer, that would be an excellent question to ask Jesus!  In fact, Jesus came to earth in great measure to answer that question!  God Almighty exists beyond the plane of human sight.  Jesus revealed Who He is in ways humans could understand.  In the same way you are looking at your computer monitor (or phone screen) to understand what is happening in the invisible realms inside your computer, Jesus came to make God visible and comprehensible.  He said:

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.  (John 14:9b)

If the priests and teachers had really been seeking an answer, He would have given them the answer, the answer that would have blown their minds open and transformed them.  They had a good question but missed out on the answer.  It’s easy to make that mistake when we read the Bible.  If you have a chip on your shoulder when you approach the Bible, if you read it to judge it, you won’t find many answers.  But if you come with a humble, open heart, the answers will amaze you and nourish your soul.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Risk it All

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Hey Mom!  Look at those funny skis; they are the oldest skis I’ve ever seen!  She tried to shut him up, but the damage had already been done – to my fragile ego.  It’s true I’d bought the skis (used!) in the early 60’s, some 30 years earlier, but I was proud of those skis because they weren’t made of wood and they didn’t have leather strap bindings.  Everyone else on the mountain was ignoring my shame, but not the kid.  Kids have a way of blurting out true but awkward things.

Like Who they knew Jesus was.  He’d just scolded the merchants who had set up shop in the Temple (Matthew 21:12ff) and then began miraculously healing people.  Check out the two reactions to what He was doing:

“But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.” (Matthew 21:15)

Jesus was revealing His identity to anyone who could see it. He was the promised Messiah, the Son of God.  The children got the picture and whooped and hollered.  The chief priests, the Bible teachers, the experts who should have known more than anyone else?  They were indignant.

Our first response is to criticize the priests for their blindness.  But not so fast: Let’s acknowledge that they had far more to lose by recognizing Jesus.  They had gradually advanced into positions of prestige and privilege.  They were comfortable.  If they acknowledged Jesus’ identity publicly, all that was at risk.  Even the way they had come to understand life itself would have been up for grabs.  The children had none of that baggage; it was easy for them to see the truth.

I was slow to recognize Jesus for the same reasons. I sensed doing so would put too much at risk.  I’d worked for years to develop a successful business.  My marriage, rocky at times, seemed to be in a comfortable place.  I couldn’t predict how surrender to Jesus would shake everything up, but I was afraid to risk it.  Until it became too hard to ignore what I knew was true.  Looking back almost 30 years later, my leap of faith really did shake things up in my home life and business.  But it did so in amazingly good ways.  There is no comparison between what I called life back then and what Jesus described as a more abundant life.  But I couldn’t experience that new life until I was all in, until I risked it all.

Maybe you can relate to the priests’ fear and blindness, too.  it’s pretty common.  If so, let me encourage you to look through the eyes of a child, to see the truth and risk it all.  You will discover knowing Jesus is really worth it.

Also, if you are interested in some classic Head skis…

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Buying God

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A few days before Christmas, “[Pope] Francis issued a blistering indictment of the Vatican bureaucracy Monday, accusing the cardinals, bishops and priests who serve him of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth, of living “hypocritical” double lives and forgetting that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God.“  “Vatican watchers said they had never heard such a powerful, violent speech from a pope…” (excerpts from Associated Press – 12/22/14)

The top leaders of the Roman Catholic church must have been pretty shocked.  What they expected to hear were some mild, innocuous, typical Christmas greetings.  But WHAM!  Stay tuned for how this plays out; it’s going to be very interesting.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem, receiving enthusiastic cheers and cries from a gathering crowd, most of whom expected Him to go into the city and begin setting up a kingdom in opposition to the Romans.  Those nasty, pagan, oppressive Romans were about to get their just desserts; Israel would become free at last.  But not so fast…   When Jesus entered the city, He turned against His own people, the leaders and bureaucrats in the Temple, not the Romans.

” Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’”” (Matthew 21:12-13)

The buying and selling at the Temple had gradually been put in place as a matter of convenience for traveling pilgrims.  Instead of bringing their livestock for the sacrifice, they could purchase an appropriate animal.  If they did not have the right currency for the Temple offering, they could exchange what they had when they got there.  All of this sounds reasonable, as does the need for those providing the service to make a profit.  So what was Jesus so worked up over?

There were a lot of problems represented there, including a form of racism.  But, the main problem was that the Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer (“for all nations,” according to this quote from Isaiah).  Not commerce.  Even so-called “religious” commerce transforms the mysterious and powerful process of communicating with God into a business transaction.  It is true that the “robbers” were charging exorbitant rates.  But the main problem was exchanging what was supposed to be a humble, personal interaction with God for an impersonal ritual involving money.

It’s as though the Temple leaders were encouraging the people to relate to God by saying, “Here, God, here’s a couple of bucks; go buy yourself something nice.”  Instead of reaching out to Him in heartfelt prayer.  Do we make the same mistake today?  To often, I think.  No doubt that’s part of what had the Pope so upset, too.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
AP quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/12/22/world/europe/ap-eu-rel-vatican-reform.html?_r=0