Open Wounds

Open Wounds

Psalm 38:11 NIV

My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.

Do You Know Someone Who Is Wounded?

Years ago when I was still in high school, my father, who was a police officer took me in his squad car and let me sit up front with him on his patrol.  It was during the early seventies and there was plenty of animosity among teens and young adults for those in authority including police officers.  I was stunned by the anger shown my dad on the faces of students at the local high school as he drove past them.  He got a call to respond to a home where there was a family dispute.  I waited in the car until finally my dad returned.  He had been called to the apartment because an eleven year old boy had shaved off his eyebrows.  I wasn’t told why he did it and my dad may not have even known why.  I pictured that boy going to school without eyebrows, walking into a store without eyebrows, visiting the dentist without eyebrows, getting his haircut without eyebrows or eating out with his family not having eyebrows.  Everywhere he went people would look at him and wonder what happened to his eyebrows.  What would you have thought if you heard the boy had shaved off his eyebrows?  I can imagine that as the story got out among the neighbors and family friends, everyone would have had an opinion about the boy and maybe even of his family life.  Was he emotionally disturbed?  Did he do this out of rebellion?  Perhaps he was abused or neglected or just extremely immature.  It would be hard not to form an opinion of the boy and his home life if you found out he had shaved off his eyebrows and the police had been called after it happened.

What do you think of those who judge others?  Do you like to be judged?  Is it fair for others to judge you?  What is your first thought when you hear someone got a DUI or her pit bull attacked a child?  Do you form an opinion of someone who decides to get a divorce or file for bankruptcy?  What if someone comes in late for work?  Does it matter to you if your co-worker isn’t doing her job well or is blaming you for her mistakes?  What do you think of someone who cheats on his wife or lies to you?  Have you had someone walk past you without responding to your greeting?  Do certain people irk you?  What do you think of those who don’t show you respect or seem to not like you?  Once you form an opinion of someone, is it difficult for you to change that opinion?

I am fascinated by the account of Hannah who was so distressed over her infertility that she sobbed as she prayed in the Tabernacle for God to give her a child.  The High Priest, who was sitting off to the side thought she was drunk and so he approached her with his rebuke.  As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." (1 Samuel 1:12-14 NIV)  Hannah fended off the accusation by stating the purpose of her trip to the Tabernacle.  "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." (1 Samuel 1:15-16 NIV)  Imagine how embarrassed Eli the priest must have been to assume the worst about the poor woman.  Haven’t we all been in that same place, humiliated by our assumptions? Here Hannah was, assuming she was safe emotionally to pour out her heart to God and she was accused of something terrible!

The sad account of Michal and her troubled marriage to King David provides us with a painful reminder of how bitterness can degrade the human personality.  She had married David when they both were young but her father’s jealousy of David drove a wedge between them.  To save his life, David had to flee without Michal and for ten long years they were separated.  Michal remarried and David took additional wives but when David was made king of Israel, his only condition for taking the crown was that Michal be restored to him as his wife.  This was a terrible demand as Michal had rebuilt her life with someone who deeply loved her.  Yet David wasn’t interested in Michal’s feelings, he just wanted to consolidate his power by being linked through marriage to the previous king.  Clearly Michal never forgave David for what he did and her bitterness surfaced in the form of criticism of David’s extravagant worship of God.  When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"  (2 Samuel 6:20 NIV)  David did not have the least bit of sympathy for Michal and her sense of loss but blew up over Michal’s criticism of him and the two never slept together again.

Many times criticism is formed in the heart due to deep wounds that have never healed.  We may feel justified by our critique and even think we are quite wise in our assessment but how can we be certain that our disapproval is rooted in a fair evaluation of the situation and not the result of our psychological wounds.  There is a certain sort of pleasurable pride in every sinner discovering some fault in another person.  This is a universal trait found in even the kindest of human beings empowered by psychological damage sustained though sin.  What must always be considered is that the force of our criticism and even the assumptions behind it very well might be rooted in our own dysfunction rather than any legitimate source of wrong committed by the other person. 

Few have contemplated the implications of a comment made in the rarely read book of Lamentations.  The verse is an example of what is known in the study of literature as personification.  Jeremiah uses the picture of a young virgin to describe the situation the city of Jerusalem faced.  What can I say for you?  With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem?  To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion?  Your wound is as deep as the sea.  Who can heal you? (Lamentations 2:13 NIV)  What is important for our discussion here is how Jeremiah points out a critical component of the human condition.  The heart is vaster and less explored than the oceans of the earth.  There are great sections of the heart that are completely unknown to us.  Wounds that cripple us and warp thoroughly our decision making and evaluation processes are buried deep in the ocean of our hearts.  Sadly we act as if it does not matter at all how corrupted and damaged our hearts are.  We freely and contentedly judge and criticize without giving a whit how much our thoughts about others are influenced by wreckage embedded in our hearts and not by what those we criticize are actually doing. 

There is always one more fact we haven’t considered when we begin to criticize someone or think poorly of him or her.  The strange case of Noah and his drunkenness comes to mind.  Sometime after he and his family left the Ark following the flooding of the earth, Noah planted a vineyard and got drunk from the wine he made.  Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.  When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. (Genesis 9:20-21 NIV) The reaction of his son is notable.  Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. (Genesis 9:22 NIV)  This may sound completely reasonable and normal but the response of Ham’s brothers was much different.  But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. (Genesis 9:23 NIV)  Noah exploded with rage when he found out how Ham treated his drunken nakedness.  When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son (Ham) had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan (Ham’s son)!  The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." (Genesis 9:24-25 NIV)

Whether or not Noah was right in his violent outburst is beyond the scope of our discussion today.  God certainly upheld Noah’s curse of his younger son.  Ham seems to have been disrespectful of his father and maybe even critical of his dad’s behavior.  Let us consider Noah’s actions.  Perhaps we would agree with Ham that Noah was wrong to get drunk and ignore the rules of common decency by lying around naked.  We might even contend that Noah had no right to get drunk since God had rescued him from the judgement of the world.  Yet consider what Noah had buried in his heart.  If there was no one on earth God wanted to save, if everyone was so wicked that He decided to kill them all, what must have life been like for someone like Noah who is called in Genesis a “righteous man, blameless among the people of his time…” (Genesis 6:9 b NIV)  How many murders had he come across in his six hundred years, how much cursing, how many acts of perversion, how many times was he threatened, attacked, mocked, humiliated and despised.  The wounds buried within Noah’s heart must have been as numerous as the fish in the ocean.  He was battered psychologically and maybe even physically.  What would it have done to any of us to have been surrounded by such ugliness and hatred?  Is it any wonder that Noah might have collapsed into a drunken stupor after it all was over?  What buried pain did Noah suffer that made him act in ways that others who did not know all Noah had been through might lead to criticism and contempt.  There is always something in every person’s life that we do not take into account when we evaluate their actions and judge their motives.

Jesus gave no wiggle room for judging but gives us carte blanche to pray for anyone we want.  Paul said that we are to “pray without ceasing” and that is the only reaction we can be certain God approves when we get frustrated or disgusted by someone else. There are forces at work that go even beyond what is buried within the heart and they are supernatural forces that wreak havoc on every person we come across.  We may not be able to see how much good we do praying for others we don’t like, whose behavior we don’t approve or that irritate us but God assures us that there is immeasurable good we do praying for each person He brings us.  We stop forces of destruction and bring into reality forces for good each time we pray.  Just because we don’t see what we stop and start is not indicative of all we bring to pass when we pray.  Never forget what Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:12-14 NIV)  Never let this great promise of God slip very far from your day.  Always remember how great you have been made in Christ.  Such great lives have no time for criticism when they are busy changing the world.

Theological Christianity

There is nothing "philosophical" about Christianity.  It is not even theological unless your theology results in Godly living.  Jesus did not command us to "think" about what He said but to do what He said.  The chief criticism of Christianity, and there is validity to it, is that its advocates don't look very much like the picture the Bible presents of a Christian.  The only way we can actually live out Christianity on a daily basis is if we have the Holy Spirit working in us and out of us.  There are certain people that are impossible for us to love, certain lusts we cannot control and decisions to make that we are unable to adequately process.  The Christian, who does not walk in the Spirit, will make a mess of her Christianity.  It will be a continual headache; trying to do what one does not have the capacity nor real determination to do.  The reach of the Christian always falls far short of his intention if the Holy Spirit is not fully active in Him.  We must invite the Holy Spirit to take authority over our lives and let Him decide for us what we will do or not do.  This demands an act of the will.  We consciously tell our Lord that He is in charge of us and that we want Him to have rule over our lives.  When that happens, God will begin to test your resolve.  You will face a difficult decision, Satan will tempt you to ease up on your determination to follow the Lord, and you will have to "get into the water".  It could be that the Holy Spirit will demand you back down from an argument or act kindly toward someone who has betrayed you or go visit someone who is prickly but needs a friend.   It may be that the Holy Spirit will call for you to talk about Jesus with someone you just met or give far more than you ever have as an offering.  It will be out there for you, this call of God to obey and you will either grieve the Holy Spirit and push Him out of your consciousness for a time or you will bless God and gain greater access to His work in you.  The joyful Christian is not the one who has all the irksome difficulties plucked out of her schedule; the joyful Christian is the one who truly walks in the Holy Spirit and can with great hope and patience face whatever Satan throws at her without turning aside from how God is leading at the moment.

Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.    Ephesians 5:15-18 NIV

The Worthiness of Jesus

Mark 1:22 NIV

The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

What Do You Think of Jesus?

I make it a regular practice of weighing myself on our bathroom scale.  Recently it started indicating that I weighed 120 pounds, 17 pounds and 3.8 pounds.  Now I am more than glad to lose weight but that was a bit extreme and so I changed the batteries but it continued to give me similar readings.  Why it was so important to me to know precisely how much I weighed as if where my belt notched did not give me all the information I needed, I can’t say.  Maybe it is a mild form of masochism; perhaps I needed a fresh dose of bad news each day.  I was determined to get an accurate measure of my weight though, so much so that I bought a new scale.  I was very happy to read that with the new scale, I apparently had lost 75 pounds.  Unfortunately, my belt told me that could not be the case.  Off I went back to the store to return my new scale so that I could have an accurate measure of one important area that I judged myself.

One of the characteristics of being human is that we regularly measure not only ourselves but more often others on a wide range of scales.  Is he smart?  Is she unsophisticated?  Is he creative?  Is she strong willed?  What is she really?  Talented?  Funny?  Depressed?  A good conversationalist?  Honest?  Caring?  Egotistical?  Full of love?  When it comes to Jesus, there is perhaps no one in history who has been categorized as often.  Yet, what do we really know about Him?  If you were hanging out with Jesus at Starbucks, what sort of impression would He leave you?  He was a carpenter and perhaps poor.  Would that be what struck you?  Would you have considered Him charismatic or witty or quiet and thoughtful?  Today we will consider just one aspect of Jesus and that will be His mind.

Early in Jesus’ life He famously camped out in the Temple of Jerusalem for perhaps an entire week and met with the Jewish teachers there.  Luke described Jesus’ conversations with the teachers as being eye-opening for all who were a part of the discussions.  Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.  When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.  After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.  Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.  When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.  After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:41-47 NIV)  Clearly, Jesus was a mentally sharp young man who gave great thought to the Scriptures and had a well-organized mind.  The best teachers in all of Israel were at the Temple and they were impressed by Jesus’ thinking.

Nearly two decades later Jesus taught on a hillside and a large crowd came to hear what He had to say.  This extended teaching session became later known as the “Sermon on the Mount”.  At the time, Jesus’ fame was growing but not many yet had heard Him speak.  When He got finished, the crowd was in awe of what they heard.  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:28-29 NIV)  No one, as far as we can tell from ancient writings, came close to Jesus’ insight into ethics and moral decision-making.  His teaching that day was pure genius.  Like the crowds, we too are amazed by how He interpreted Scripture and the way He presented a complete approach to life.

The Gospel of John gives a similar assessment of Jesus’ effect on others.  Temple guards who had been sent by the priests to arrest Jesus were not psychologically prepared for the task.  Their “mistake” was they took the time to listen to Him preach.  When Jesus finished, rather than arrest Him, they returned to the priests with genuine awe at what they heard and reverence for the one who delivered the message.  When asked why they had not seized Him, their response was not what the priests expected.  "No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared. (John 7:46 NIV)  The Pharisees who had sent them were not impressed by the guards’ assessment of Jesus’ sermon.  Certainly we can guess that the guards themselves were not expecting to come away as captivated by Jesus’ words as they were.  The guards were not “spiritual groupies”.  They were full-blown skeptics who found Jesus’ mind captivating.

There is a fascinating response of Jesus in Matthew 22 to those who did not believe in a resurrection from the dead. The ones who argued against a resurrection were influential and no one had been able to refute them because they refused to turn to anything other than the first five books in the Bible as authoritative on the matter.  Bible scholars at the time who believed in the resurrection could not find a scintilla of evidence for it in Genesis to Deuteronomy.  Jesus however quoted from Exodus God’s arresting call to Moses at the burning bush as proof of life after death.  But about the resurrection of the dead — have you not read what God said to you, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."  When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 22:31-33 NIV)  And why not?  Who would have ever considered such an argument as that?  Jesus did though.

Let us look at one final example of Jesus’ mind at work.  John 8 is the explosive account of Jesus being brought the woman caught in adultery.  The background of this is fascinating.  The text in the Greek indicates that the woman had been caught in the very act of adultery; as she and her “lover” were in bed.  To catch them so, especially given the very delicate circumstance of committing adultery and not wanting to be caught indicates that somehow the Jewish leaders who brought her to Jesus knew in advance what the pair were about to do and where.  At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.  But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  (John 8:2-7 NIV)

If we strip away all the maneuvering of the teachers of the Law to get Jesus to say something that could land Him in trouble with Roman authorities for promoting an execution or cause Him to lose face with the Jewish crowds who would rebel against Jesus allowing for sexual immorality, we come to these two primary aspects of this report.  First, are we not impressed with Jesus’ shrewdness to give permission to whoever was without sin to begin the stoning of the woman!  Not a man in the crowd dared say he was sinless.  What sort of great mind is able to turn the tables on a crowd out for blood?  It is simply spectacular how quickly Jesus thought of a solution to the dilemma He faced.

Let us though turn to the second revelation we have in this passage of Jesus’ mind.  At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"  "No one, sir," she said.  "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:9-11 NIV)  What is most illuminating in Jesus’ response to the woman is how Jesus’ mind worked.  Mercy saturated His thinking and His decision-making.  If He was going to have to choose between condemning someone and being merciful, He decided upon mercy.  He made this clear in the Sermon on the Mount.  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7 NIV)  That is how Jesus thinks.  I will be merciful.  I could criticize.  I could judge.  I could condemn and be justified in blowing up a person’s life for what she has done.  That though is not how I think.  I will be merciful.  What about us?  How do we think?  Will our first choice be mercy?    Will we think like Jesus?  Will we give up our right to judge and criticize and condemn and like our Savior, be happy to show mercy?  What kind of world might we have if just Christian people (we won’t concern ourselves with any other sorts of people) would live by this one approach to life, “If I will err, I will err on the side of mercy.”

Conversion of the Mind

Matthew 7:1 NIV

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Are You Opinionated?

It is one of the most natural of all human behaviors, judging others.  We may not let people in on what we are thinking but we are constantly critiquing and evaluating.  We make determinations regarding the lectures of our professors, the performance of our servers at restaurants, the job done by our hair stylists and the conversational skills of those we meet at parties.  We judge the effort given by our co-workers, the intelligence of our doctors, the creativity of our friends on Facebook and the friendliness of the clerks at supermarkets.  We give everyone we meet a quick evaluation…how well they have dressed, how they smell and how they look.  Often we pride ourselves on how accurately we assess others…their honesty, skill levels and worthiness of our time and friendship.  Fans who have never played above fourth grade baseball somehow know more about baseball than major league managers and millions watching football on TV believe they would not have thrown the “stupid” interception or made the bad pass the point guard made because they are smarter than the players they are watching.

A part of being human is the capacity to judge the skill and effort of others as well as ourselves.  Adam, even before he sinned, was given the task of naming all the animals based on his evaluation of them.  We see in the Bible a number of examples of judging, evaluating and assessing the motives and decision making of friends and co-workers.  King Saul famously decided that young David, his general, was a risk to Saul’s throne and that David’s popularity among the people of Israel might go to David’s head.  Saul came to the conclusion that David was greedy for power and could not be trusted so he tried to kill him.  Was Saul right in his determination?  Did Saul see something in David that warranted his concern?  Perhaps there was a smirk on David’s face when the women of Jerusalem sang about his exploits in front of King Saul.  Maybe David was not as respectful in the way he addressed Saul as Saul thought he should have been.  Whatever evidence Saul had though for judging David disloyal and a traitor, the King later realized it was not sufficient to warrant his mistrust.  He later admitted to David, "You are more righteous than I," he said. "You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.”(1 Samuel 24:17 NIV)

One of the problems with judging others is that we may be dead wrong in our evaluations and a friendship or alliance that could have been wonderful and beneficial might be lost.  Family relationships can be destroyed by our judging.  Absalom, one of David’s sons became enraged when his half-brother Amnon raped his full-sister Tamar.  Their father David didn’t do anything about the crime though despite being king and having the power to punish Amnon any way he wished.  After three years, Absalom gained his vengeance on Amnon and had him murdered.  This did not settle the account fully though in Absalom’s mind.  He decided that David was wrong in this for not taking up the cause of his sister and thus not competent enough to be king, that he was an unfair and unjust ruler.  He began to gather evidence that David was not just in his other dealings.  Absalom interviewed men and their families as they entered Jerusalem on visits and asked them what they thought about the justice in the land with David as king.  “Did he treat everyone fairly?”  “Did David play favorites, only advancing the careers of those from Judah but disregarding the needs of those from other parts of Israel?

For four years Absalom criticized his father’s fairness as king.  He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, "What town are you from?" He would answer, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel."  Then Absalom would say to him, "Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you." And Absalom would add, "If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice." Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him.  Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. (2 Samuel 15:2-6 NIV)  With Absalom, the judgmental attitude toward his father festered into hatred that careened out of control.  Not every critical thought morphs into disgust and loathing. Some just fade to ambivalence and disinterest.  However, never does a critical and judgmental thought disappear from the mind.  It always leaves its mark; always damages in some way our personality.

Two of the Disciples, James and John, responded with rage to the lack of interest in Jesus and His ministry shown by the leaders of a Samaritan village and they made a rather troubling request of Him.  When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"  But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.  (Luke 9:54-56 NIV)  This was an extreme reaction to a mundane occurrence.  It is not like these people were ripping into Jesus or wanting to stone Him to death.  They just weren’t interested in hearing Him because He was going to Jerusalem.  Was this the only collection of people who had some sort of reason for turning aside from Christ?  Of course not!  But James and John for some reason believed they were far worse than all the other critics and skeptics of Jesus.  Our Lord rebuked them for their judgmental response to the Samaritans.  We can be certain that there was a much bigger concern of James and John than that these poor villagers didn’t want Jesus lecturing them about religion.  Perhaps racism was at the root of their criticism…perhaps it was their nationalism rearing its head in them…they were not happy that the Samaritans had a bad opinion of Jerusalem.  Whatever the case nearly every time we become judgmental, there is something behind our criticism that fuels it.  Something that runs much deeper than our sense of fashion, political beliefs or loyalty to God!

Jesus’ command during His Sermon on the Mount is unequivocal.  We must not judge others!  "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7: 1 NIV)  Luke quotes Jesus almost exactly the same way.  "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.” (Luke 6:37 NIV) This is an astounding demand of God.  We all are so good at judging others.  Not only that, our criticism is always warranted or so we think.  Yet it seems that our Lord does not care how smart we believe we are or how wise we decide our evaluations, we are not to judge others critically.  Of course this is not saying judgments are never to be made.  Those in places of authority are directed by God to make judgments when the law is broken.  Murder, vandalism, theft; God puts it in the hands of those in authority to judge crimes and determine guilt or innocence.  God has established Law as a protection for us from the evil in people’s hearts.  Jesus is not dealing with authority judgement in these passages.  He is commanding against personal judgment.

Let us be clear about this.  There is never a time when a Christian, who is not in a position of authority under the law or as a part of his or her occupation, is given permission to judge the character, motives or actions of another person, whether that person is Christian or non-Christian, in this life.  To do so puts us in direct opposition to God and His mercy.  If you or I judge someone, the Lord will judge us and we would be hard-pressed to find an instance where God’s judgment was pleasant.  Yet our Lord has made us judging people, with critical minds and discerning hearts.  Why is it that, if we are not to use those skills unless we are circuit judges, we have the instantaneous judging mechanism up and running all the time?

Our mind is wired this way by God that we might be skillful at prayer, quickly seeing what we need to bring to God and able to join with the Lord in what He shows us.  If you see an area of weakness in someone or a moral flaw, you take that to God as soon as you become aware of it.  Your professor is giving a boring lecture, pray for God to help her.  A friend has been gossiping about you, bring it to the Lord for Him to fix.  Your parent prepared something for dinner that is not very good, pray for God to help your parent do better.  A hotel clerk is snappy with you and it is irritating, rather than snap back at her or talk about her rude behavior with your wife or co-worker, bring her to the Lord for healing.  One of your relatives clearly doesn’t like you and treats you disrespectfully and you want to “tell her off.”  You cannot.  You must talk only with God about her and ask the Lord to change her ways.  The person of any use to God is the one who prays.  God’s way for us to help people is by letting Christ work through us and He will never do so if we judge them or criticize them.  Have we ever helped anyone with our criticism?  We probably have often hurt them with our criticism, but helped them…most likely not!   We can be certain we have never hurt anyone with our prayers, but we have most assuredly helped every one of those we have prayed for God to come alongside and build into perfection!  Greatness in our Lord’s Kingdom is never determined by our ability to see the faults in others but by our faithfulness to pray for each person God brings our way.

Love Brought to Life

At each moment of contact with another person, there is a crisis of faith.  Do we believe our Lord is working in this one and recreating him or her as He is doing with us?  If we don't, then we can criticize, despise and disregard the soul before us.  If we think God is active and alive in each person we meet, then it is demonic to have anything but real love for that one we have bumped up against.  The world's own can react in any fashion they wish when people come into contact with people: irritation, scorn, lust, contempt, fear, manipulation, idolatry.  If Christ though lives in us, there is only one way to approach even our enemies; with supernaturally empowered love.  Our tangle of Sin-enflamed responses can be crucified with Christ if we let our Savior live through us as each moment of contact arises.  Whether it be a post we come across or an argument that develops, our Lord can work through our reaction and His love convert our reactions into true and real love.  The moment we begin to criticize, judge or dehumanize, God will give us the check of the Holy Spirit to hold back our anti-love response and we can be a force of Christ or Satan immediately.  The check won't last forever and we must submit our will to our Lord's instantly if we are to be God's then and there.  Wait, deliberate, hesitate and it is gone and you will likely make a mess of the opportunity to love through Christ.  Submit to God's prompt and the glorious love of your Savior will come through you and someone will sense God's presence because you are near.  Consider the possibility that by means of the love of Christ, you may be the burning bush a Moses has waited a lifetime to encounter.  The love of God, poured out through His people, makes every encounter a supernatural one.

 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.     1 John 4:7 NIV

Fretting For What?

It is never the crisis that unsettles us but rather the deviation away from Christ.  We are so infatuated by how things will turn that we forget just how perfectly Christ is fitting Himself into us.  When the Lord reminded us not to worry about what we would eat or wear, do we think that was all there was to His point?  Jesus was not unsettled by criticism or temptation, by poverty or that frustrating co-worker.  He simply was not rattled and that is what God wants for us too and has for us.  This is possible not because we become skilled at scaling back our responsibilities or cutting out negative relationships; this is our personality in Christ.  The Lord does not want us to imitate Jesus but rather for Him to live in us.  As we give sway to Christ at every instance, we find the mind and emotions of God coming out of us in all sorts of exciting and surprising ways.  God did not die for us to just take away our punishment for sin; He died that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  That life is not a life of fretting, stewing or striving.  The life God died to give us is one with the Lord Jesus Christ living fully through us.  Each turn we take is an opportunity for the wisdom and love of Christ to manifest itself in what we do and how we think about all we encounter.  Lust, selfishness and pride are the archaic remnants of a dying breed.  The new man is being established as us: Christ joined to me, Christ joined to you in a dynamic synthesis that will be perfect.  As you read the Bible, don't look for ways to make something of your life; look for Christ to live fully and happily in and through you as He works out your day moment by moment.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:3 NIV

Imitation

Have you taken serious stock in your ability to be imitated?  It is the simplest thing in the world; to have someone watch you and then do the very thing you did.  It is happening carelessly in your daily routines.  Adam imitated Eve without giving it much thought.  You too are emulating the very ones who seem silly or irritating as well as the models of competence.   Keep your eye on the prize even as others watch you out of the corner of their eye all the while looking for the prize too.  If you can imitate Christ just this one time, it might make it easier for the person next to you to do the same thing.  Love is rich with observable declarations of your real intention.  Even if you spend your time imitating the love of others, eventually it will be yours and then someone near you will make it theirs.  Actual love starts with Christ and at some point ends with Him. too.  The imitation of Christ will eventually be worked out as an overlooked offence or a swallowed criticism that could be justified if it were not for the criticisms Christ has held back from you.  Love never fails...(1 Corinthians 13:8)

Thomas Kinkade My Eulogy

Thomas Kinkade

My Eulogy

For thousands of years certain people have been bigger than life.  Perhaps unfairly, they are beloved more than they deserved and critiqued more harshly than was warranted.  The Christian community has been as guilty of this as any collection of people and this has been particularly true of our own.  And yet a strange twist on this has taken place recently that has troubled me.  Thomas Kinkade makes this point clear almost perfectly.

Beloved by many in the Christian community for his bold proclamation of his faith through his paintings, Kinkade was derided by critics in the art community for his style and technique.  His passing brought out the best and the worst in his life and made his legacy an object of public scrutiny.  Yet was it deserved?   Should this be the way we react to those who “make a name for themselves”?

Recently a number of public figures have made strong statements of their faith in Christ and their popularity among Christians has provoked a backlash that has stunned many of us.  Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow, George W. Bush and Thomas Kinkade among others have become heroes of sorts because their success has catapulted them into the public arena where their proclaimed love of Christ has reached a broad audience.  Because that clear public loyalty to Jesus has infuriated many, they have become polarizing figures beyond the scope of their professional success.

The success certainly has fueled their exposure in the press but it has also guaranteed them undo scrutiny.  The technique, talent, skill and worth of these popular Christian artists, athletes and leaders have all been excoriated by those who just don’t like them.  Of course  they all have flaws and certainly they don’t always get it right in their private lives but must they receive such caustic contempt?

Thomas Kinkade’s brother has been quoted as saying that the extreme criticism Kinkade received in the art community hurt him badly and that does not seem implausible.  It is painful to be derided publicly or even privately by one’s peers.  Was it warranted though?  Did Kinkade have to be Dali or Picasso to deserve the popularity of his works?  Did he have to hate the Gospel or be a serial adulterer to gain favor in the art world?  Regardless of one’s take on his creativity or skill set, Thomas Kinkade did something with his art that I will forever be thankful. He made the love of Jesus Christ a topic of discussion among those who considered his works.  That can of course be said of Jeremy Lin, George W. Bush and Tim Tebow.  Each in his own way made his professional status a forum for proclaiming devotion to Jesus.

When you reach the status of viral popularity, you become a target for those who think little of your abilities and less of your acclaim.  That must be accepted but it does not need to characterize the response of the Christian community.  Cannibalism is common within every grouping.  Democrats are guilty of it as well as Republicans. Evolutionists and Creationists have engaged in it.  So too have liberals, communists and conservatives.  If one of us steps out of line, we are just as prone to turn on our own as we are to attack those outside our group.  Which brings me to my own, the Christian world. 

The Christian community must make it anathema to practice cannibalism at any level.  When finally someone of us reaches the privileged place of a Thomas Kinkade, we must do our best to protect him or her.  I am embarrassed to admit my failure to pray even once for Kinkade, to send him a single note encouraging his faith, to attend to the spiritual battle surrounding his work.  We must do our best to ignore the foibles and style points these public figures generate and simply give our best to fight spiritually for their lives. They need our help and Satan will do his best to attack the chinks in their armor.  One prayer can save Kinkade from a bar fight, rescue Tebow from sexual immorality, protect Bush from ignoring crucial advice.  We don’t need our public spokesmen but they need us.  They need our joy in their testimonies, our support for their efforts to honor Christ and our prayers for their protection and help.  The gospel does not depend on these public figures but because they are ours, they depend on us.  The body of Christ must be the safest and most supportive home another believer has and we cannot shatter this by ignoring, critiquing or disabling the ministry of others trying to be brave Christians in a disparaging and slashing unbelieving world.

I salute the Christ who called out Thomas Kinkade for more than just a shallow, muted faith.  I applaud the Father who enabled Thomas Kinkade to have a forum for honoring Jesus with his work.  I bless the Holy Spirit who gave voice to Thomas Kinkade’s longing to make of God’s grace an object of praise and wonder.  May the memory of Thomas Kinkade and the lingering evidence of his witness in his art bring us a renewed commitment to stand together in the faith and be a living laboratory of true spiritual union and love.

One Shouldn't Equal Ten

Last night Rachel told me I was the best dad! I asked her if she meant that I was the best dad she had and she responded, "No dad, you know what I mean!" I couldn't argue with that...not that I think I am as she put it, "the best dad in the world". Why is it that criticism sticks so harshly in us like a twisting Ninja star and the compliments we get are so liquid and slippery? It is such a bane, this hurt we carry when one critic disdains our best efforts and ten give us the thumbs up and we barely notice them. I will pursue this one step further. If we are all so painfully aware how awful it feels to be turned away and so greedy for even the smallest of compliments, why are we so frugal with our praise and so quick to critique? Have we only got a limited supply of kind and generous words...like Essau begging for just a morsel of blessing from his dad Isaac, we are all starved for a bit of thoughtful praise. I don't get it. Why do I so closely monitor my compliments? What evil gets in me that makes me think I have not enough kind things to say to people to last this little lifetime? Will I run out if I say something generous? I don't know if it has been proven but I bet my friends who say nice and kind things to me have better and more joyful lives than those who don't. And so too for me. I bet those who outdo me on this praise thing live better than I do. Thanks Rachel for letting me have a glimpse at how good life can be when I think the waitress is the best waitress in the world and my friend is the best friend in the world and my doctor the best doctor in the world and the missionary speaker the best missionary speaker in the world and that even if you are my only daughter, you are the best daughter in the world. We may run out of oil...I just hope we don't run out of praise.

By the way...Nicole D. your courage is astonishingly lovely...and Greg you are equally amazing as you keep going when the world is spinning wildly about you!!!