Blinders

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.   (Luke 14:1 NIV)

There are only two reasons to carefully watch Jesus.  Either you do so to know where to turn away from Him or you do so to know where to turn into Him.  Jesus put the Pharisees and religious leaders on the spot when He asked them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath.  If they said, “yes”, then they would begin to turn into Him but if they said, “no”, they would move away.  Jesus is the way; every turn from Him is toward hell and the bitterness of perdition.  Turn into Him and your soul begins to light up with the golden blaze of heaven and the comfort of His glory.  The move into Christ is subtle and quiet, away is loud and boisterous.  The cheers of the world give you a great boost as you jump out from His shelter.  It is exhilarating; freeing to turn outward and gain something fresh and pretty.  Yet the maggots begin to eat at the corpse and it soon becomes clear that the move out is one of the grave and the façade gives way to a very real end point. 

Turn inward though to Christ and the stillness of the move shocks you for you had hoped it would be more glorious, livelier than that.  You had planned on a great pleasure to overtake you, a mighty rush of joy to prove your rightness but it is more still than the breeze of the butterfly or the whisper of the creeping lizard.  The aloneness of the move inward frightens you for it is at once quite final and at the same time uninspiring.  Yet you are alive and living will take you captive, just as the antibiotic takes you captive with its dripping health.  The death of self is not a dying death; it is a living death that becomes more vivacious as you escape into Christ.  Your tears will come alive along with your wounds and terrifying doubts for the deadness of them before will wiggle free with the life of Jesus.  All wounds will be cause for glory, all heartache a well of sweet freedom and hope, all doubts a cup of faith.  Turn into Christ with each moment of the day, every trial you face and temptation stumbling your plodding steps and you will gain a bit more life, a bit more dynamic gumption.  Your mind will grow free of the former bondage that fooled it into thinking it was already free.  You will see and love and bless and be a well of living water springing up at the moment within the hub and bub of your normal contentious day.  Someone will feel your touch and it will be the touch of the Spirit slipping to them with all the power of the resurrection of Christ Easter morning.

The Right Spirit

The Right Spirit

 

A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?  (Proverbs 18:14 NIV)

 

Of the many tasks a church may have, certainly high up on the list is making certain none of its members have a crushed spirit.  There are countless ways a spirit can be crushed but never should it be a Christian who does it.  Jesus rebuked and sometimes fiercely.  His admonishment of Peter for insisting that Jesus would not suffer death was astonishingly stern and yet we can tell it did not crush Peter’s spirit nor was it intended to do so.  When our pride is struck a blow, our self-interest threatened or our greed throttled, viciously we go after the spirit of another and with the force of a hammer come down upon it with all we have.  We must pierce our own sin with the same tenacity of a surgeon going after infection but it is not ours to go after the sins of another.  We are too prone to cut off the arm when we find a sliver in the hand which we would never do about our own slivers. The tender generosity we have toward ourselves is not what we show toward the sinners we have grown to dislike.  We can tell just how far we have come by the way we view the atrocities of family members with whom we have grown weary.  A husband or wife or parent or sibling is our best barometer of real spiritual pluck.  If we give in to the temptation to try and batter the spirit of those closest to us for “making us” not like them, we know just where we are.  We have lost our mooring and strayed far from the Spirit’s shore.  It is hard to pray for one you dislike but it is the beginning point for regaining the love of Christ and the happy Christian life.  Certainly, if you cannot pray for the beast, then keep your mouth shut and stop being the beast.  Give yourself a chance to be the one those closest to you love to think about and find when they are with you gain renewed strength to rise above the sickness that comes upon us all.

Hatred Unveiled

 

…a time to love and a time to hate, (Ecclesiastes 3:7a NIV)

 

We are known not for what we love but for what we hate.  It is the easiest thing in the world to love something…whether it be sleep, solitude or survival.  Hate is a bit more tricky because it has a piercing odor to it, like reeking of garlic or onions.  We see hate and it startles us; makes our stomach turn at times.  We cannot imagine fully the hatred of God for it is such a disconcerting thought.  What would He hate?  Who would He hate?  How would His hatred look?  The warning in Malachi that God hates divorce and a lifestyle of violence gives us pause.  In Amos God announces His hatred of religious festivals when justice and righteousness are ignored.  Jesus said every person is bound to hate one Master.  The question is not if but who.  What master will you hate?  God does not shy away from the violence of hatred.  He means “hate” but do we when we contemplate our masters?  It is impossible to love one master if hatred is not scorching the attachment of another master.  Given the severity of the consequence, has the world become a loathing to you or are you more like Lot’s wife, leaning back in your retreat?  Do you love forgiveness with the same intensity as a grudge, purity with same passion as a brief fling with lust, kindness with the same fervor as your desire for ease?  Even in Heaven there is great hatred or else pride, selfishness and envy would have their places next to humility, generosity and contentment at God’s table.  Be careful what you love but certain of what you hate.