Feasting on God

Matthew 26:26-28 NIV

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."  Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Why Have the Lord’s Supper?

Perhaps you have wondered why we have the Lord’s Supper.  Of course Jesus commanded us to hold the Lord’s Supper and so we do it but that does not explain why He wants us participating in it.  Christian and quasi Christian groups have a variety of explanations for its regular practice.  Some believe that we literally eat the physical body of Christ when we take the bread.  Others say it is just a symbolic ritual that helps us reflect on Christ and what He did for us.  Many think that you gain salvation by eating the bread and drinking the grape juice.  So is it just a religious ritual without any real benefit to us other than getting us to think about God or does its practice have eternal consequences for those who do or don’t participate?

Let us for a moment reflect on the actual words Jesus used when He told His disciples to eat the bread he offered them and drink from the cup.  "Take and eat; this is my body."  Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Consider the two parts to this: 1. Take and eat.  This is my body.  2. Drink from it all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  In the supper, it is the body of Christ and the blood of Christ that is at the center of it.  What are we told to take into ourselves?  It is the body of Christ and the blood of Christ.

Lest we get confused in this, we are not physically eating Jesus’ flesh or swallowing His blood.  That would be a grotesque violation of God’s law as even after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the Church is commanded not to drink blood.  Eating human flesh is just as revolting.  Yet consider what the body and blood are.  The body is the substance of Christ; what makes Him who He is.  It is Jesus Himself…His personality, His character, His way of life.  If you want to know how that looks, what His personality and lifestyle is, go no further than the Sermon on the Mount.  There you find how He thinks, the way He does things, His habits and approach to every relationship and task He undertakes. 

The blood is the life of Jesus.  When God commanded His people not to drink the blood of any creature, He insisted, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off."  (Leviticus 17:14 NIV)  It is the blood that keeps you alive, what makes you alive.  Without the blood, there is no sustaining force to empower you.  The blood is how you are able to live and thrive.

So what does Christ give us with His body and blood?  We have Him: His personality, His character and the force of His life.  Consider this statement of the Bible.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20 NIV)  What an amazing assertion!  Christ can actually live in us.  Not figuratively or symbolically but in reality He becomes a part of you when in faith you accept His entrance into your life.  Jesus made the promise that, "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 NIV)  We have here the spectacular declaration by Jesus that as close as the Father and the Son are, so are the Father, Son and any of us who love Christ and obey Him.  This is a real union within the Christian; all God possesses in His nature, His holiness, goodness, faithfulness and love becomes the believer’s.  Remember what Jesus taught in John 15?  He is the vine and we are His branches.  His life flows through ours and empowers us in every way.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5 NIV)

Jesus made the promise that His people would do the same kinds of things He did.  I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. (John 14:12 NIV)  He was not pushing for imitation.  He was describing how we would look if we are connected to Him as branches are attached to a vine.  He is comingled with us so that it results in the impossible circumstance of in any way being able to separate where we end and He begins.  We become one.  Consider this declaration in the Bible.  But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17 NIV)  Could this be any clearer?  Much like how bread and grape juice become inseparable from the body once it is digested, so too, when we unite ourselves with the Lord, we become one new being that cannot split into two.  One in spirit is much more than just some sort of fraternal partnership, it is the actual joining of Christ and you into a new creation.

Consider carefully this insistence in the Bible of just how profound is your union with Christ.  It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1: 30 NIV)  Let us look closely at this statement for a moment.  It is because of God’s decision that we are put into Christ and made a part of Him.  Because of that, each Christian has His wisdom and not only that, His righteousness and His holiness and His deliverance or redemption.  The union of you and Jesus Christ is complete.  It results in all His perfection becoming yours.  And how can this be?  It is by faith in Christ, that simple acceptance that He truly did die for your sins and raise you up into a new life with Him joined to you.  When you eat the bread and drink the grape juice, you do so with the same faith that saves you from your sins.  You eat it and it becomes a part of you just like the love and holiness and goodness and rightness of Jesus is a part of you.  We do take God into us when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  Not in reality but in actuality.  The bread does not become His earthy flesh and the juice does not become His gooey blood but better than that, He actually becomes a part of us because by faith we take the bread and the grape juice and make it ours in a union between us and Christ that truly make us one.

Heart of Gold

1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Have You Been Searching For A Heart Of Gold?

As I was finishing my classes for my doctoral degree, I was scrambling to try and come up with an adequate topic for my dissertation.  There were countless possibilities but if I were to spend two years of my life dedicated to the project, I wanted it to be something that mattered; something that I could look back upon and feel like the work had an impact upon my field.  I knew that was a lofty aspiration, one I could probably never attain but nonetheless, it seemed worth pursuing.  While in a meeting with other staff members at work, I brought up my struggle to come up with a meaningful topic.  Several were suggested and then a friend of mine said I should do a study looking at the effect having a foster child had on the families where they were placed.  It sounded like such a great project and the research felt important to me.  What a benefit it would be to foster families if they had some idea what it would mean to them taking a foster child into their homes.  And yet I did not feel up to the challenge.  I did not have any experience with such types of research and did not know anyone at the seminary who had been involved in this kind of study and none of my doctoral advisors seemed qualified to help me with the statistical aspects of the research.  As I was about to cast the idea aside as impossible for me to pursue, one of my co-workers, who had spent several years doing research at a university, offered to help me.  She said she would meet with me and give me advice on my work.  Elaine kept her promise and the hours she spent advising me and helping me with my statistical analyses were invaluable to me and the success of my dissertation.  I have framed in my office the card she gave me congratulating me on earning my doctorate.  She was a perfect friend; one whose kindness I will never forget.

Years ago Neil Young wrote a song titled “Heart of Gold”.  In it he sung about his inability to find someone with a heart of gold despite his ongoing search that had lasted a lifetime.  It is not easy finding people like that; the truth is some never do. Many haven’t developed friendships that make them better people, never have had a real friend to count on when they are having a rough go of it.  There are those, even with countless acquaintances and work associates, who can’t think of anyone to look to for support.  The Apostle Paul near the end of his life made the heart-rending comment that when he faced a traumatic ordeal, he was all alone.  At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. (2 Timothy 4:16 NIV)

Not everyone in the Bible though struggled to find a friend when one was needed.  David, when he was running for his life from the king of Israel had a friend who was passionately loyal to him.  Hiding in the desert with a cabal of warriors, David was exhausted psychologically, spiritually and maybe even physically.  His good friend though, who happened to be the son of the man trying to hunt down David and have him killed, suddenly appeared and lifted David’s spirits.  And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.  "Don't be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this." (1 Samuel 23:16-17 NIV)

One book of the Bible is named after a great friend.  Ruth, who herself was a widow and struggling with her own loss, refused to let her mother-in-law be alone in her time of sorrow.  Having lost her two sons and her husband, Naomi quite understandably fell into a depression.  Feeling abandoned by God, Naomi just wanted to return to her hometown of Bethlehem and mourn there.  Yet one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, wouldn’t let go of her.  She insisted that they stay together and was willing to leave her own village and family members and friends to remain close to Naomi.  Her pledge is one of the loveliest declarations of friendship found in literature.  "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17 NIV)

A friend of mine reminded me of a poignant scene in the movie, The Passion of the Christ.  As Jesus was carrying the Cross through Jerusalem, bloodied and bruised, He stumbled and fell to the ground.  Mary, His mother was standing nearby and saw Him collapse.  Just as this happened, her thoughts flashed back to a moment when as a child, Jesus fell and scraped His knee.  Mary rushed to Him and picked young Jesus up and comforted Him in her arms.  In a flash, Mary flung herself down before Jesus in the road, gazed into His weary eyes, and tenderly mouthed to Him, “I’m here!”

The Bible uses a vivid term to express a simple way we can make the world a better place to live.  It is the Greek word “parakaleo” and it is rendered “encourage” in many English translations of the New Testament.  It literally means, “to call alongside”.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is the “Parakletos”, the noun form of the word “parakoleo”.  It means “the encourager”, “the one who picks you up and helps you keep going”.  Jesus, by describing the Holy Spirit this way says that God in you is a strengthener, a motivator, a friend who stands by you.  God’s people are commanded to be encouragers, uplifters, faithful friends who are loyal.  How can we be that sort of people though all the time?  Won’t we get drained if we keep pouring ourselves into others?  Not if we allow the Encourager God to replenish our internal supply of courage, mental toughness and joy!  As we move toward the end of time and it gets tougher and tougher for people to avoid depression, not be pulled to commit suicide, stay out of alcoholism and drug abuse, not melt under the heat of anxiety and worry, the Bible tells us that Christian people must be there for others.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV)  The Lord insists this must be a priority of ours every single day!  “But encourage one another daily…” (Hebrews 3: 13 NIV)

Who will you reassure today?  Who is on your list to comfort, to encourage?  No one wears a sign that reads, “I am depressed”.  “I am ready to quit.”  “I feel hopeless.”  “My life doesn’t matter.” There aren’t red lights on the foreheads of your family members or co-workers that flash when they are discouraged and broken.  You just have to assume that the Holy Spirit, who encourages you and wants you to encourage others, will put it in your mind those who need you to say something loving, something supportive, something uplifting.  Perhaps you will be the voice God uses to give courage to someone, to motivate someone, to breathe life into someone.  With Christ living in you and through you, I wonder who it might be that will remember you always as the one who was there when life got rough and it seemed hopeless, who became the voice of God for them.  Who might one day look at you as the inspiration that led to a new direction in life?  Who will point to you as the reason they found new life and hope when they were lost and without the love of Christ to give them strength?  Who needs you to say, “I’m here”?

Spirituality—an Infused Presence

Genesis 2:7 NIV

…the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

What Is In You?

What makes you unique?  For me it is my last name.  In high school kids made fun of it.  Often when asked my last name, I have to spell it because receptionists reflexively start writing it as Walker rather than Walkup.  Just recently I was substitute teaching at a high school and kids in two different classes made fun of it.  My son did an internet search of our last name and it turns out a descendant of ours with our last name was a member of Scottish royalty and named his castle after our name.  My wife’s first name, Mary Jo is unique in Northern California.  Combine it with Walkup and it seems inconceivable that anyone else has the same name.  Well it turns out there is another Mary Jo Walkup in the Bay Area and when we first moved here, we started getting her mail and the library confused the two of them.  Yet you cannot hide behind someone else.  You are different from every other person that has ever existed and nothing you do can keep this from being true.  You may have plastic surgery to make you look like Barbie or feign a British accent so that you sound more charming but in the end you are who you are and no one else and that cannot be changed.  You are made by God with a unique soul that no one else can ever possess.

When God put together his first human being, it was such an ignoble work.  He scraped together some dirt and formed him out of the common stuff of the earth.  It was like a child scooping up clumps of mud and patting the mess together into a shape of his own imagining.  No fanfare or shouts of acclimation greeted the new creation.  But the Lord wasn’t finished yet.  At the end of it, He did something that is difficult to assess.  The Lord breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life and from that point forward he and each one who came from his line became a “living soul”.

The Hebrew term translated “being” in the NIV and “soul: in the KJV is “nephesh”.  It describes you as you, distinctly different from every other person that has ever been or will be.  Without the breath of God, Adam was just a body, an organic collection of matter.  Once though God breathed into him, Adam came alive; became “him”.  A parallel term found in the Greek Bible is “psuche”, from which is derived the English word “psyche”.    The idea of both words in their Biblical context is that they describe you as the combination of body and spirit.  Take out the spirit and the psuche or nephesh ends.  You have a body stranded without life.  James the brother of Jesus references this body without spirit condition and uses it to compare it to faith without works.  As the body without the God,spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26 NIV)  The Apostle Paul hints at the time when a separation will take place between him and his body.  Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  We live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NIV)

The book of Proverbs speaks of the souls (nephesh) of animals and says that the righteous man cares for the animal soul.  A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal… (Proverbs 12:10 NIV)  It is literally, “A righteous one knowing the soul of his animals.  The word translated animals is a term used for any creature other than humans and comes from a root that means “tongue tied” or without language.  It is all those beasts that God did not breathe into and make living souls.  The Bible differentiates between the spirit the animals possess and the sort of spirit people have.  Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?" (Ecclesiastes 3:21 NIV)  The question raised has to do with the ultimate destination of the human spirit vs. the animal spirit but the point is that they are different; animal spirit and human spirit.  What separates one from the other?  All we have and it is an important difference is that the Bible says that God breathed into the first human being and by doing so gave people something He did not give animals…something called a “living soul”.

What are we to make of this breath God put into Adam?  The only other time we see in the Bible God pushing out His breath into someone, it is when Christ during His resurrection breathed upon the disciples the Holy Spirit.  And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22 NIV)  There are three considerations here.  The first is that this is something from God that the animals don’t possess.  Second it is spirit; something beyond physical.  Third it is of God, it comes out of Him.  In our modern age we think of anything “spiritual” as not really real.  Like a metaphor, something spiritual stands for a way of seeing, a way of viewing an aspect of life.  If it is spiritual, then that is code for this is deeply personal, it flows out of me and how I live my life.  Yet the Bible insists that the things of the Spirit are super real, are eternal real rather than temporary real.  God and Spirit are not just real, they are the basis behind all reality.  They make reality actual, not just digital imagery or something coming out of a machine.  The fact that God’s breath is in you and sustains you is why you are not just a thought; you are by God’s action, “really real”.

What is exceptional about God breathing into the first human being and the result of the breath being passed along across every generation and through every person that has been conceived is that something of God is in each of us.  The Biblical term for this is that we are made in “God’s image”.  What a marvelous miracle that is!  All of us have “Godness”; it is in a sense, in our DNA.  No matter how bad we might be, how corrupted by Satan and debased by our behaviors, God is still a part of who we are, the life behind our being.  When Jacob, after a twenty year absence finally met up with his brother Esau and found him full of forgiveness and no longer holding against Jacob his grudge, Jacob said of him, “For to see your face is like seeing the face of God”. (Genesis 33:10 NIV) Perhaps there is more truth to that statement than Jacob knew at the time.

What is possible for someone who has God a part of him or her?  Love and forgive with supernatural strength come to mind.  Author Philip Yancey in his book Rumors of Another World  reminds you and me of the great power those who have Christ in them possess.  When the transition of power took place in South Africa as the apartheid government based on racial injustice was replaced by a demographic coalition of blacks and whites led by the recently released Nelson Mandela, there were many atrocities of the past racist leaders that needed to be addressed.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, led by Bishop Desmond Tutu brought white policeman and army officers in to face their accusers over crimes they had committed while in power.  The rules were these: if when voluntarily facing his accusers, the officer confessed his crime and fully acknowledged his guilt, he could not be tried and punished for the crime.  One police officer told of a time when he and his fellow policeman shot an eighteen year old and burned his body to ashes to destroy the evidence.  Later the same officer returned to that house and seized the boy’s father.  While his wife was forced to watch, the police tied her husband to a wood pile, poured gasoline all over his body and set him on fire.

After hearing the police officer describe his crimes, the widow, who was also the mother, was given the opportunity to speak.  “What do you want from Mr. van de Broek?” the judge asked her.  She replied that she wanted him to go to the place where they burned her husband’s body, gather the dust and make it possible for her to give her husband a decent burial.  The police officer hung his head in shame and agreed to do so.  But then the widow added, “Mr. van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him.  And I would like Mr. van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too.  I would like to embrace him so he can know my forgiveness is real.”  As she left the witness stand to go to the police officer, the widow had to stop because overwhelmed, the officer had fainted. (p. 223-224)

What can you do with God a part of you, what is possible with Him living through you?  Adam had a chance to find out just what sort of goodness could flow from him into the world all about him.  Now that we live in the age of sin and death, it is certainly more difficult to believe that we possess the love and kindness of God but we do.  The promise is still valid today.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13 NIV)  Today you can love like God.  Today you can forgive like Jesus.  Today you can be kind like Jesus.  Today you can get rid of your temper, be done with your addictions, leave behind your lusts and be patient in any and every circumstance just like Jesus.  With Christ a part of us, it is possible!

Living by Faith

James 2:14 NIV

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

How Does Your Faith Look?

One year when our oldest son was just eight, we went camping up in Sequoia National Park.  At the south end of the park the middle fork of the Kaweah River squirms along and near the Buckeye Flats Campground it gathers into a large pool and then works its way down out of the hills.  Our family spent a day swimming there and found two aspects to this pool exiting and fun.  One was the way the river spilled over a giant granite boulder as it poured down into the pool below.  The water had created a smooth groove in the rock that resulted in a sort of water slide that made for an exhilarating ride.  It only took a couple seconds from the top of the rock down into the icy water below but it was hilarious fun.  At the foot of the boulder the water was probably six feet deep so as you dropped into it after your slippery ride down the rock you landed with a great splash into the snow fed water.  Holding in my lap our second son who was only six, we went down together and as we each bobbed up to the surface we both burst out into laughter.  Our oldest son went down the slide too and we all found it a thrilling adventure.  As we sat in the sun together at the edge of the pool getting warm, we watched as a boy a little older than our son along with his dad climbed up a steep path that went up a cliff on the other side of the pool.  They made it to a rock outcropping that was about thirty feet above the pool of water and jumped from it and splashed into the river.  Our jaws dropped at the unexpected sight of them plunging down into the water but they came up safely and made their way back up to the outcropping and dived into the pool again.  Our oldest son was intrigued by this and after the father and boy assured us of how safe the jump was, he decided after I gave my approval to make the same dive.  He asked me to go with him and jump from the cliff but I shook my head “no”.  I had plenty of faith in my son to make the jump but I wasn’t so sure of myself doing it.  Faith is funny that way.  We all pick and choose what sort of faith we will have and when we will practice it.

If you were asked about the kind of faith you have, how would you answer? How does your faith look?  What sorts of actions define your faith?  Is your faith noticeable to others or is it quieter, almost silent?  Do you think there is a universal quality to faith or is it more individual…something each of us decides is faith?  How would it go if you were forced to prove your faith through eyewitnesses?  Who would testify to your faith and what would your witnesses say about it?  We often hear of authors and speakers building a case for faith, for having faith but rarely do we come across those who give evidence for that they themselves have faith.  Faith for most is too personal to talk about, let alone put on display.  And yet doesn’t the Bible tell us to exhibit our faith, show that we have it?

Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount seems to command us to make our faith public.  "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Mathew 5:14-16 NIV)  Although “faith” is not the word Jesus uses here, it certainly is the fundamental point being made.  Don’t just keep your faith to yourself, let your actions proclaim the sort of faith you have.  The expectation of Jesus is that what you believe about God will show up in what you do.  The book of James insists that faith is an activity and not just a way of thinking about things.  What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17 NIV)

Miracles in the Bible almost always were connected to a requirement for action.  Something had to be done by those who were the recipients of God’s supernatural help.  Naaman, the Aramean general was told to dip in the Jordan seven times before the Lord would heal him of his leprosy.  The Israelites, as they began their conquest of the Promised Land had to step into the Jordan River before the Lord would make it part and they could go through it on dry ground.  Before that, in order to leave Egypt, the entire Hebrew nation had to step between the great walls of water piled up on each side of them and trust God not to drown them in the Red Sea.  The crippled man who sat beside the pool of Bethesda day after day for nearly three decades hoping God might heal him unexpectedly was healed but not in the way he could have expected.  Jesus came upon him and told the man to pick up his mat and walk before He would do anything for him.  When he did, the crippled man was healed.  The woman who suffered from bleeding first reached out and touched Jesus’ clothing; then she was healed.  Lazarus’s sisters had to order the stone in front of the tomb to be moved away before Lazarus stepped out alive.  The people of Israel were given by God specific instructions about marching around Jericho before He would make the walls miraculously collapse.

One of the few times Jesus celebrated someone’s faith was when a Roman centurion told Jesus He did not need to go all the way to his house to heal his servant.  His trust in God generated an action, sending a servant to Christ and telling Him that his servant did not need Jesus’ touch, just the promise of the Lord to save him was enough.  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." (Luke 7:9 NIV)  It took steely resolve for the centurion to believe that Jesus did not have to go all the way to his house to miraculously heal his servant.  Jesus called that “great faith”; not the message pleading for Him to help but the action of not needing Him to actually touch the servant who was dying.

I saw that a priest of one of the churches bombed by Muslim assassins in Sri Lanka called for the people of his congregation to pray for and forgive those who planned and organized the atrocity.  That is how faith looks.  It has a face; the face of someone who does what Jesus says to do even though it is painfully hard.  A friend asks for prayer that he would get a job.  When he gets that job and begins to take ten percent of his income and return it to the Lord, that is faith.  When a mom who has cancer is healed, what she does with her Sundays will tell us about her faith.  A man I met recently saw firsthand the love and kindness of a family that his mother worked for as a nanny.  These Christian people talked about the Gospel and practiced Christianity at home.  The boy himself became a Christian because of what he saw in this family.  That is faith.  A couple who heard about the terrible condition of orphans in Haiti became convinced the Lord wanted them to adopt one of the children there and although they already had two kids, they took what extra money they had and spent countless hours going back and forth to Haiti until they finally were able to bring one of the boys in an orphanage home to be their own.  That is faith.

We do not hope in a Savior who does nothing.  He took His life in His hands and offered it up on a Cross to die for our salvation.  He believed in the will of the Father and because of that faith He did whatever the Father told Him to do.  If you have faith in Christ, you will show you have faith in Christ by obeying Him.  What will you do today that shows your faith in Jesus?  Will you pray more for others than you have been doing?  Will you help someone who doesn’t deserve your help?  Will you bite your tongue and keep your criticism to yourself?  Will you go visit someone in the hospital and pray over that person?  Will you be more generous in your offerings, pass out Gospel tracts to your neighbors, make plans to go on a mission trip, say something encouraging to someone who has treated you badly?  What will you do today to show your faith in Christ as Savior and Lord?

In Just A Few Hours

Luke 24:1 NIV

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

What Could Happen In A Few Hours?

When our son was four years old, I decided as the good father that I was, that it was time to take the training wheels off his bike.  This is of course a rite of passage for most of the world’s population, as important as promoting into middle school and going out on the first date.  Now I am certain that if Mary Jo was home at the time, I might not have gotten past getting the first training wheel off our son’s bike but she wasn’t and so like all good fathers who love their children I took charge of helping our son spread his wings and fly, We went out to the back of a nearby middle school where there was an acre of asphalt and basketball courts.  I got our boy up on his little bike, steadied him as he established his balance with his feet on the pedals and hands on the handlebars, said a brief prayer and then pushed him off into the adult world.  I cheered him on as he wobbled away from me, furiously trying to maintain his equilibrium, veering left, then to the right, but steadily moving forward.  There were perhaps sixteen large metal poles holding the basketball rims and backboards in place spread out over at least an acre of land.  Not one of them was shrouded in mist; none of them were hidden behind sheets, painted with special colors that camouflaged them.  Each was like the Eiffel tower standing boldly by itself, far from its matching partner, a giant mountain of metal and immovability and yet as my little boy pushed off with the enthusiasm of Christopher Columbus looking for the passageway to the Orient, he somehow not only did not avoid the basketball pole, like a bee drawn to a flower, he pedaled straight at one.  Silently he crashed into the basketball pole and there he lay crumpled on the ground.  Like a good dad, I ran to him, checked for any major structural damage to his body and comforted my son in the same way any true father would.  “Son”, I said.  “You did great!  Do you want to try again?”  He got up, dusted himself off, climbed on his bike and with a push from me, off he went again.

Now here is where I was dumfounded and could not grasp what I saw.  Why did my son, with perfectly good eyesight not notice the giant metal poles out in the middle of the wide open spaces?  How did he miss the danger before him and why didn’t he do anything to avoid running into one of them?  Yet I must admit this to you.  I also have run into my fair share of basketball poles and did nothing to avoid them.  I have failed and because of pride or an unwillingness to look at the facts have ruined parts of my life.  I have made bad decisions, thought I knew what I was doing and was wrong.  I have hurt others by what I have said, made others suffer for my mistakes and plenty of times blamed someone else for my failures.  Are you immune to failure or have you had your fair share of losses?  Have you sinned?  Do you know when you are wrong or are you like me, you tend to cover up your mistakes or ignore them?  How bad is bad when it comes to you, how seriously should you take your sins, your moral mistakes, your rebellious acts against God?  What should you make of your failures, your shortcomings, the difficulties you cause others and yourself?  Let us look at Easter and how what Jesus did two thousand years ago impacts your life.

When it comes to what we have done wrong, our own sin, we have a giant blind spot.  We make too little of it and do not realize just how destructive our sins are, the potency of their evil. The Bible has this to say about your mistakes and moral failures.   Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16-17 NIV) We see our violations of God’s law as silly little misdemeanors that were not intended to harm anyone.  Everything from a little lie we tell to a short adventure into porn, we laugh away as no big deal.  And yet God clearly does not see what we call shortcomings as insignificant at all.  What it took for Him to eradicate sin from His people is a clear indication of just how really horrific our sinning is and the devastating effect it has on the universe.

Look closely at what Jesus had to suffer to get rid of your sin.  Can you see the flesh being ripped from Him as the whip tears at His back, across His chest, along His legs?  Do you hear the beating His face took as he was pummeled by the guards?  Have you noticed the blood dripping down His face from the crown of one inch thorns shredding His scalp and forehead?  Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. ohn 19:1-3 NIV) What about the force of the nails driven into His feet and wrists, the writhing pain He suffered as He hung on the Cross hour after hour, the ridicule He suffered as strangers laughed at His naked body hung up for all to see?  What did it cost God to take those insignificant, trivial, unnoticeable sins out of you and make you free of them?  Do those sins really seem like nothing?  Are they as unimportant as you have pretended for Christ Himself to be tortured like that, beaten like that, and ripped apart like that?  It took just a few hours for God to take our sins from us but the cost of that transaction was unbearable pain for God Himself.

I think there is one more aspect to Easter we would do well to consider.  Not only are your sins horrific and devastating for you and others, this matter of what you should think of your troubles and failures must be considered.  So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. (Matthew 28:8-9 NIV)  Ponder for a moment what sort of shock Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, Thomas and the others must have felt when they saw Jesus alive after they had watched Him shattered by pain and die.  Is there any sort of comparison we can make to it?  He was dead; everyone at the foot of the Cross, from the soldiers to the disciples to the women who watched Him be crucified, knew He was dead.  The body was a wreckage of death.  Can you picture how wide their eyes were, how violently their heart beat in their chests, how numb they were to all other sounds, all other movements, all other smells when they looked upon Jesus alive and knew beyond doubt He really was alive?  What thoughts of previous failure went through their heads, what disappointments and trials of life did they consider as they gazed upon His wondrous resurrected body?  Did any memory or plan stand in the way of just seeing Him, staring at Him, being mesmerized by Him?  Did they fuss about what they would have for dinner, complain about the back pain they suffered, get irritated by the long wait they endured as Jesus remained dead?  No sight could have been more spellbinding, no event more entrancing than just this one matter, Jesus standing before them raised from death and fully and magnificently alive before them.  Ponder this for a moment; that what we see with the disciples is just a hint at the emotions you will encounter when you too take your place among the saints who see Jesus standing before them the first time.  You too will soon enough, like the disciples be gripped by the most stupendous joy a person could ever possess and it is not that far off.

Have you ever noticed the connection the Scripture makes between the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus?  Over and over the Bible points out that it was on the third day after He died that Jesus was raised from the dead.  When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief. (Matthew 17:22-23 NIV)   .  God gave a number to it, a very specific number to connect the two parts of the salvation equation.  Crucifixion plus resurrection after three days equals salvation.  It is not four days and it isn’t two days either.  It is the third day that everything comes together for God’s people.  No crucifixion and there isn’t the removal of Sin from us.  Without resurrection there isn’t any life to our holiness.  They must be joined as one and they cannot be separated for your eternal life to begin—crucifixion and resurrection.  The two are joined into one outcome on a particular day and no other day, the third day.  The third day…it is where all our hope rests; where your hope rests.

Keep this in mind when you think about your life right now.  Our LORD does not initiate a crucifixion without a resurrection in mind.  Yes, you have troubles, you do have hardships.  You may wonder why He lets them happen.  Why this sadness, this frustration, this failure?  I cannot say why you have faced what you have and perhaps you cannot either.  I do not know how it will all work out for you, how this trial you face will go.  It is hard maybe for you to see how your dreams can still come to pass; how your suffering can be removed, but you must see this, look squarely at this.  You have not come to the end of the matter; it is only the first day, maybe the second but it is not yet day three.  For you it is Friday or maybe Saturday.  The dread of things is still upon the wind, the troubles you face are still in the air.  Death is before you, troubles and heartache and pain and discouragement have still remained and it seems late in the game, too late for anything much to change, for any good to come of this but it is the second day.  You have not yet reached the third day.  It is Saturday, perhaps even Saturday evening but remember, God does not initiate a crucifixion without a resurrection.  Sunday will come; it is nearly here in fact. Yes, you wonder like Job with all his troubles why it is so tough, so hard.  Like Jesus’ mother, His disciples, His friends, you don’t know why Friday has to be so bad and why there is so much pain and defeat on Friday. That is because you have first day thoughts, first day emotions, first day worries, first day fears; it is still the night for a universe awaiting the dawn.  Friday has come and Saturday stands for now, but there is one more day left and then everything will change for you. There is hope in Friday, hope in Saturday because...Sunday is on its way.  All death will come to life.  All troubles shall be cast aside with the dawn of the third day.  And you will see that day!

Time Out

Revelation 12:14 NIV

The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.

Have You Been Sent To Time Out?

When I first arrived at the college where I would earn my degree, I came by plane, was picked up at the local airport by a college representative and dropped off at the dormitory where my room was on the second floor.  Carrying my two suitcases up the stairs, I was all alone.  I did not meet anyone in the lobby.  No one was in the hallway on the first floor; no one was in the hallway on the second floor.  I came to my room, which was empty except for two beds, two dressers, a sink and a phone on the wall and I tossed my suitcase on the floor and began to unpack it.  My roommate would not be arriving for two days.  I pulled the blanket and sheets out from my suitcase, made the bed and lay down on top of the covers, wondering what it would be like to go to school here.  Outside my window, I heard laughter and male and female voices chattering.  It sounded like there was a party going on below my room and I wasn’t invited.  I cannot say what is more lonesome.  Being alone in a great circle of emptiness or being by yourself when you can hear the crowds having fun without you.    That night, without a single soul to keep me company, two thousand miles away from my family, my church and my friends, I felt like I had been sent to time out.

“Time out” as an expression has shifted in meaning over the years.  It used to mean “taking a break”.  In basketball or football it is the term used for regrouping and talking about what to do next as a team.  It also has been the idiom for going off and having fun; taking in a movie, hanging out with friends, going dancing, eating at a restaurant.  The field of psychology embraced the term as a descriptor for a mild punishment given to a youngster who is disruptive or disobedient.  If a parent sends a child to time out, it means the child is ordered to go sit alone for a certain period of time in a boring place and “learn a lesson” about how to act properly.  Not many kids like being sent to time out and rarely do we adults either.  “Jail time” is the grown-up version of it.  A boring, inconsequential job is too.  Many of us feel like from time to time we have been sent to time out and it generally isn’t something we like.

The Bible is filled with examples of its most famous people stuck in time out.  Imagine what it must have been like for Joseph, the son of Jacob to wind up in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and languish there for twelve years.   What about Sarah, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac who was left behind in camp at the foot of Mt. Moriah as her husband took her only child off to make a sacrifice to God somewhere out in the mountains.  She had to have noticed the taunt and grim expression on Abraham’s face as he shuffled away and wondered what was about to take place and why she couldn’t go with them.  Thomas, the apostle, suffered a sort of time out when for seven days he lived with the disappointment of being the only one of the Disciples not to see Jesus alive after He had been crucified. How about Moses and his forty years of time out after he had to flee Egypt and live in Midian?  Was it not a time out for Jacob, the father of the Jewish nation when he had to run away from his brother and live in near slavery, serving his uncle Laban as a shepherd?  How about the time out Mary, the mother of Jesus, experienced when she left her home in Nazareth to go stay with her cousin Elizabeth because she was pregnant and not married?  David wandered about in the desert wilderness of Israel almost ten years trying to avoid capture because the crazy king Saul wanted him dead.  Was that not a time out?

We almost always assume that when we are in time out, it is something terrible or at least frustrating.  Our time outs keep us from what we like doing, make us wait for something we want, take us away from exciting activities others get to enjoy.  When God engineers our time out, we don’t know what to make of it.  Is He cruel?  Am I out of favor with Him?  Have I lost my best and most productive years?  Am I wasting my life?  Sometimes and we must be open to seeing this is so, we are absolutely off base when it comes to understanding our circumstances. 

In 1889, a publication called The Literary Digest had this take on the automobile.  “The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course come into as common use as the bicycle.”  Dr. Alfred Vlepeau, speaking for the medical community in 1839 wrote, “The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera.  It is absurd to go on seeking it today.  Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.  To this compulsory combination we shall have to adjust ourselves.”  It was only seven years later that anesthesia was introduced into the medical world.  One more example to make this point!  The “Father of Radio”, Lee De Forest, in 1926 insisted, “While theoretically and technically television will be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.”

Even the brightest and most highly educated among us can be and have been thoroughly wrong.  You too are wrong if you think God is wasting your time because you are in time out.  God cemented Mary’s faith in Him and His plan for bringing the Savior into the world while He wasted her time at Elizabeth’s house.  David developed a theology of what a good and faithful king should be when God wasted his time in the desert.  Jacob learned how painful it is to be deceived and the value of integrity when God wasted his time at his uncle’s house.  Moses learned patience and confidence in God when God wasted his time in Midian.  Sarah learned hope and trust in God’s goodness when God wasted her time as she waited for her husband and son to return.  Joseph learned mercy and forgiveness when God wasted his time in the Egyptian prison.

We are mistaken if we think this promise of God’s is just about the future!  It is about now, today.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV) Our Lord knows what He is doing with you at this moment, with the time He is wasting now.  You may not have any idea what that plan is and He may not tell you but Christ has thought this through and He has every detail, every moment that seems so wasted plotted out so that you will be exactly the sort of person He wants you to be when He gets this done.  Why did Jesus waste so much time being an infant, and then a child, a teen and a young adult?  Why not just be settled on earth as a man fully grown, get those disciples and in only three years save the world?  It is because God had a plan and for Jesus to save the world, He had to be a human being in every way…and that meant wasting His time being born, growing up and dealing with all the frustrations and pleasures of being an actual human being.

God has your life thought through in His mind and He has you right where you need to be so everything He wants to make of you can and will be accomplished. The Mona Lisa took time.  The Sistine Chapel took time.  The Golden Gate Bridge took time.  And you also take time to finish or to put it more precisely, to perfect.

Authority—Before the Fall

Genesis 1:27 NIV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

What Is Your Place In This World?

If you were asked the question, “What is your place in this world”, how would you respond?  Most of us would probably consider our careers.  Have I done well?  Am I successful?  Is my job a good fit for me?  Am I leaving my mark?  Has my life mattered?  Many would think also of their families and how they have impacted those close to them.  Am I respected?  Do others love me?  Does it matter to anyone if I have lived or not?   I have worked with plenty of people who hated their jobs.  They concentrate more on their cell phones than they do on their work.  I was recently in a class room and I looked about and saw all the other children’s workers checking their phones rather than interacting with the kids.  How many of us wonder if what we do counts for anything and have quit trying to do our best because it does not seem to matter if we work hard or not.

Life was much different before Sin entered the universe.  One area of great change was the way the first people fit into the world they were given.  Authority shifted dramatically in the post sin world.  Let us look at how it was at first and we could gain valuable insight into the way it once more may be.  When the Lord declared His mission statement for the people He created, it was to be in effect ruler over the earth.  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26 NIV)  The Hebrew word for “image” here means something made to look like something else.  “Likeness” translates another Hebrew word that means, “of a similar appearance, something that something else.

God made people like He did so that they would be a good fit for taking charge over the earth.  It is like hiring someone who has all the qualities needed to be a successful sales rep.  Only God did the work of creating the ideal ruler of His new world.  Some have contended that the Lord made the earth so that people would have a great place to live.  It actually is more accurate to say that God made people in a perfect way to take authority over the world He created.  The first command we have recorded in Scripture is the Lord’s order to Adam and Eve to populate the earth and rule over the creatures of the world.  God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."  (Genesis 1:28 NIV)

The Hebrew term translated “subdue” is similar in idea to the command to rule.  It means to take charge, be the one that makes the rules.  Consider carefully what a unique situation this was, one completely foreign to any of us.  It was a sinless world ruled by a sinless people.  The creatures had nothing to fear of their sovereign kings and queens.  Adam and Eve had no reason to hurt any of them.  The two were vegetarians and did not need nor want to kill the animals for food.  They also were naked and were not looking for clothing either.  Not even the sheep had to concern themselves with being “fleeced”.  There would be no fishing and hunters would not be hiding up in tree stands.  Adam and Eve were to be the perfect caretakers of a world they ruled.

A lovely picture of just how profound the relationship was between Adam and the creatures of the earth is the brief comment made in Genesis 2 about how the Lord made it clear that His first human was taking charge.  God gave Adam the opportunity to pick out names for each of the terrestrial creatures.  Few have noted the beauty of the moment.  Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. (Genesis 2:19-20 NIV)  Consider the serenity as individually the birds and creatures of the land peacefully paraded past Adam and the Lord, giving Adam time to carefully consider what to name each one.  Like a father or a mother who thoughtfully comes up with a name for a newborn, Adam was a loving parent to the creatures of the world.  With great affection in his heart for each one, Adam picked out what seemed to be the perfect name for the gentle and trusting beasts God brought him.

Genesis 2:15 is often listed as the mandate for work found in Scripture but it is much more than that.  It is the holy calling of the people of the world to care for God’s creation and cherish it as a gift of immeasurable worth.  In a land unscarred by Sin, it must have been a place of exquisite beauty.  More than work to Adam and Eve, caring for the world before them was a joyful daily existence, much like the park ranger assigned to Yosemite when it first opened or the curator of the Louvre who is appointed to keeping pristine the magnificent works of art found there.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15 NIV)  What “working it” entailed in a perfect world cannot be said for certain but we must believe it was a joyous responsibility.  The Hebrew term translated “work it” is built on the root of the word for servant.  Adam and Eve were to be servant kings of the land where they lived, caring for it and adding value to it.  “Take care of it” is the translation of the Hebrew verb “shamar” which means to keep, preserve, watch and protect.

The perfect analogy for the work of Adam and Eve in the land God gave them is the description of the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23.  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4 NIV)  As protector and guardian of the sheep, the shepherd, at least the good one, is always looking for ways to make life better for the sheep.  The shepherd lightens the load for the sheep, does everything possible to enable the sheep to prosper and have good lives.  The good shepherd does not see the sheep as dumb beasts but as jewels in her crown.  Work in a perfect world such as the one the Lord gave Adam and Eve was a joy and a cherished responsibility.

Jesus gave the calling of work its highest affirmation when He spoke of Himself as a mere shepherd.  The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."   Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them…"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.  (John 10:2-6, 11-14 NIV)

Work is not a chore for such a person as this.  It is an act of love and selflessness.  Some people work to earn a paycheck and make names for themselves.  Others, like Adam as he went about the tasks God gave him, made his world a better place. Jesus did the same.  If you live as a future resident of God’s perfect world, you have a choice each day.  Will you build up others and improve their lot in life or will you take advantage of others and use them to get your way?  Wherever you go, and whatever you do, you have the opportunity to make the world a better place because you were a part of it.