Feast or Famine

In the parable of the Great Banquet, the Lord explains how it really is with God's Kingdom.  Someone said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."  Christ's response was chilling.  He told a story about a certain man who hosted a great feast.   However most of his invited guests did not bother coming.  Because there was still so much food and space, he ordered that his servant go out and invite anyone he saw to the banquet but just a few came.  Not wanting all his good food to go to waste, he told his servant to go far and wide and get all he could to come and feast with him.  Now here is the surprising point Jesus was making.   None of those who were invited but didn't bother coming will get a taste of His banquet.  As the story progresses, the recurring theme is that the vast majority of those invited to the great feast never bother coming and have ridiculous excuses for not making it.  Do we realize the implication?  Not many people will be taken into the Lord's great banquet because they don't want to come!  Is it possible that our view of success is much different than our Lord's view?   Do we expect that all sorts of people, multitudes and multitudes will fall in love with Jesus and make their home with Him and thus we will be successful in our Christian duty?  God's view is that the servant will give out the invitation to life with Christ and the servant will do it again and again, giving out countless invitations but all the while just a few will join in God's Kingdom and be a part of His family.   Our expectation is misplaced.  God never promises that the masses will be Christian, that there is to be an avalanche of enthusiasm for God's Kingdom.  He insists the opposite and makes it clear this is what He means.  Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many enter into its tumult.  But narrow is the way leading to life and very few take that route.  The Christian should be "scared to death" that those close to her will "burn their bridge" to God and be cast outside the Gates of God's New Jerusalem.   It ought to terrorize us that "good people" will weep great tears of horror when they find out what their rejection of Jesus Christ has done!  We mustn't be so foolish as five of the virgins in Jesus' parable who did not think it mattered what they did about the invitation to join Christ in His hall of mercy and grace.  The door, when slammed shut, will make a most dreadful sound for those outside.

"'Sir', the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'  Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.  I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"    Luke 14: 22-23 NIV

Walking in the Light

What does it mean that we are not our own, we were bought at a price except that we are not our own.  (1 Corinthians 6:19)  It is paganism at its core to struggle out of the grip of the Holy Spirit and venture off without a single thought what God who is truly God might want.  We are certainly free to say what we think and do as we wish but if we are in Christ we are not our own and that will become perfectly clear to us in the workings of God in our daily doings.  The things we ask of Him and the gifts we desire will lie neglected until we get this matter straight.  We are not our own.  To walk in the light requires we stay away from the dark places of independence and rely upon the Word to direct our steps.  Of course it isn't easy but it is the One Way that makes the love of Christ fill our hearts with lasting gladness.

You and Clyde

Evil is not the Bonnie and Clydes and Joseph Stalins of any age.  They are aberrations from the common stock.  Evil is the gaze shifted off of Christ and onto something else that seems just as noble and worthy.  It is the Christmas present that makes the want rise above the Will, the fresh start that really isn't a fresh start but just the same oblivious disregard for the Holy Spirit prompts, it is the safe way out when the open door of God stands before you.  Adam and Eve didn't move far from God, they just turned their head slightly and looked past Him to Satan.  Fix your eyes upon Christ and let the peripheries remain the peripheries.  You cannot go astray with your mind determined that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. 

The Road Not Taken...Yet

How often have I wished I didn’t have to talk with a sales rep?  Not yesterday.  Victoria and her assistant (I made up Victoria’s name) found me even though they tried to come in through the wrong door.  Victoria’s father is a Hindu priest and her mother converted to Hinduism from Christianity.  As the Lord opened the way for us to discuss religion, I fumbled about for a while trying to make it reasonable for a bright, charming, educated, lovely, young woman see that she should at least give Christianity a good look before she walked away from it.  Later I wondered how our conversation would have turned if I was her uncle or professor rather than a potential customer for her company.  Perhaps not any better or worse but I know how I would have proceeded.  I would have explained to her as our great friend C.S. Lewis has noted that there really are only two strands of religion in the world and every other one is merely a warping of one or the other.  Hinduism is the first strand but not in terms of time or priority, only as it comes around for discussion.  With Hinduism, there are many, many gods and goddesses all with their own distinct personalities and corruptions.  Some are wickedly good and others are deceptively bad.  They weave in and out of rightness and selfishness and moral depravity.  The universe is built upon the foundation of justice only and every bit of badness gets squeezed out of the soul until there is nothing left to it…even if it takes thousands of reincarnations to get it done.

Christianity is the second strand but not in terms of time or priority.  There is only one Christian God who is perfectly moral and full of kindness and love.  The universe is built upon the foundations of righteousness and mercy and badness is not whipped out of us by our own suffering; it is wooed out of us by the suffering of God who loves us.  We live not to die and live and die and live until we dissolve but we live to live and to know the God who loves us like a bride in a love marriage that always boils with rising heat and desire.  Suffering does come to us as a result of badness we do but it is God Himself who suffers the pain our badness set in motion.  Rather than paying us back for what we have done, God is paid back for what we have done.  Whipped and beaten and broken by the people He came to rescue from eternal death, He died with the sins of us all buried in His own body.  And then, only then Jesus Christ, God in flesh and blood rose from the dead, eternally our only way to eternal life.  It is with this God, this God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit that we find our way and make it home, always alive, always the one who is beloved and known and never oblivion.  

The truth is I might even now be botching it trying to get the truth squared away for my friend.  In the end, it really boils down to this one verse.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one of a kind Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  I hope Victoria finds it.  She at least got to the right door.