Month: February 2016

Romans 11 is one of the most poignant chapters in all Scripture.  In it Paul pines for his people.  He cannot imagine God’s family being whole without Israel.  Jesus wept for His people.  On the cross Jesus begs God to forgive them.  God cannot let them go and He arranged for the leadership to hear the logic of the cross from Peter and John.  In Acts 4 Peter and John are arrested and hauled in before the Sanhedrin.  God keeps trying.  Paul, himself yanked from tradition, wrote, ‘“And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”
 
It seems inconceivable to us that they can be saved.  To them it is inconceivable that we gentiles can be saved.  It is human nature.  It is our selfishness that makes us jealous and wanting to be so very special in God’s eyes that only we can be saved.  So Paul wrote to us, “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.”
 
How do we explain this extravagant mercy?  We can’t.  Paul knew this would confuse us and perhaps even make us a bit resentful so he wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”
 
How do we justify this in light of our insistence that others become like us in order to be saved?  We can’t.  But God can!!

If you have not looked at your 401K this week, don’t.  I would like to propose that the problem is our GPSs.  Because of our GPSs we now arrive at our destinations without wandering about like we used to do.  We did all that wandering because we did not want to ask for directions from another guy.  We are using so much less gasoline there is now an oil glut in the world and the floor dropped out on the price of oil.  Because of the price of oil, investors on Wall Street think the global economy has slowed down because industry is not using as much energy.  This is a good time to invest for when investors catch on the glut is because of our GPSs stocks will rebound.
 
I love my GPS and the best sound in the world is that ever so pleasant unflappable feminine voice that says, “You have arrived at your destination.”   And I arrived using so much less gasoline!
 
I am looking forward to hearing “You have arrived at your destination” from the angel who has been with me from my beginning. In Revelation 21 we read, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’”  That’s the destination we long for.  That is where the sweetest words of all time will be uttered, “You have arrived at your destination.”

I overheard an argument this week where one of the parties said to the other, “Live with it.”  Having heard that expression many times I Googled it and got 591,000,000 hits.  Obviously the expression is used a lot.  There are a lot of books entitled “Live with ….”   Often something negative is going on and people are told to “Live with it.”  I personally don’t recall ever having said it to anyone so I decided to try it on you.  Here goes.
 
1. God loves you very much so “Live with it.”
2. Jesus died for you so “Live with it.”
3. Upon your request God will forgive all your sins and treat you as if you had never sinned so “Live with it.”
4. You can be a temple of the living God by inviting the Holy Spirit to abide in your mind so “Live with it.”
5. You can live a stress reduced life by not worrying about your future so “Live with it.”
6. Your self-esteem can be elevated by understanding you are a prince or princess of the universe so “Live with it.”
7. Make Jesus the Lord of your life and “live with it.”
 
Hey, that felt really good.  I think I am going to start a new habit in life by telling people to “Live with it.” Actually, when one pauses for a moment to contemplate the alternative it is the best counsel we can give people.  The alternative is a real downer.  The alternative is one has to bear the cost for their sins and with Jesus we don’t have to.  So bear with me here while I say it one more time.  “Live with it.”  Forever!!

Have you ever wondered about that pyramid and eye on the back of a dollar bill?  It harkens to secret societies, orders and clubs where grownups enjoy playing childish games that make us feel like we belong to something unique and special.  Secret handshakes and code words feed a human hunger to feel good about oneself because we know something others don’t know, even if it is stuff we made up.  It is the child taunting with “I know a secret.”
 
These groups have been around for thousands of years.  Paul was aware of them and had little use for them.  In Colossians 2 he wrote, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” 
 
If you are wanting to know the secrets of the universe and have the mysteries of life opened to you, Paul wrote, “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” 
 
There are no deep dark secrets of the universe that God does not want us to know.  He longs for us to be like Him and as we grow closer He opens to us the treasures of wisdom found in Christ.  He knows that the more we know the more we will be like Him because the more we know the more we will understand the logic underlying the cross and the sacrifice. The more we do that the more we will detest the evil that brought so much heartache to His very good universe.

Romans 12 is a treasure house of practical suggestions for Christian living.  In this amazing chapter Paul, the theologian, becomes Paul, the psychologist.   Randomly I put my finger on the page and found, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (NIV)  If one were looking for a topic for a presentation there are at least five in these two verses.  I was curious how they were paraphrased by Eugene Petersen in The Message and found the following, “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.”
 
That first idea about loving from your center and not faking is often a serious challenge because everyone we meet is not lovable.  Fortunately Paul doesn’t tell us to like everyone.  Liking and loving are very different.  Liking is enjoying another’s company.  Loving is wanting the best for them.  We can always want the best for someone even though they are obnoxious and unpleasant. 
 
It is the last idea that fascinates me.  “Practice playing second fiddle.”  How often do we not mind another excelling just as long as we excel just a little bit more than they do?  How often do we wait for someone to take a breath so we can jump in with a bigger “fish” story?  Paul hits me in the solar plexus with this one.  I love telling stories and I am my favorite topic.  However, I must add here that in II Corinthians 11 Paul doesn’t seem to mind regaling us with a litany of his adventures.  Only Jesus was and is perfect.

John 14:1-3 was probably the second memory verse I ever learned.  As a child I always thought of it in a literal sense.   Jesus was a contractor and the angels were the carpenters and plumbers.  They were busy constructing fabulous mansions for us.  Each home was uniquely constructed to the particular desires of the future inhabitants.  This was not a cookie-cutter subdivision.  So you can imagine my delight when one day I learned to think of mansions as a metaphor.  All kinds of doors opened up. 
 
Mansions were houses filled with different families.  There was a Lutheran family, a Baptist family, a Catholic family and an Adventist family.  There were mansions for those saved by Jesus, who had never heard of Jesus.  They were saved by Him and His sacrifice for them.  They just didn’t know it until He got the opportunity to tell them face to face.
 
Just yesterday I was thinking of I Corinthians 6:19, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?”  I suddenly realized the most fabulous mansion of all is where God dwells.  If He is dwelling in you, you are a fabulous mansion.  I looked around the room I was in and saw a hundred mansions walking about interacting with each other.  “In my Father’s house are many mansions” took on a whole new excitement.
 
Now I have to admit many of these mansions are in various stages of disrepair.  Just like my current house they are aging and need attention.  I need a new roof on my current house just as once I needed a new hip and knee in me.   Surely the promise “Behold I make all things new” applies to us.  Each of us will be the best looking mansion on the block.

When I was very small I dug a large hole in our backyard.  It was large to me.  Most likely it was very small.  When my Dad asked why, I explained that I was digging my way to China because there were hungry children there and I wanted to drop food to them.  Being very kind to me and being the school teacher that he was, he took me inside where we had a globe.  (I still have it.)  He very carefully showed me that my hole would not come out in China but instead in the southern Indian Ocean.  I immediately realized I must stop digging or all the water in the Indian Ocean would fall into my hole and flood Pennsylvania. 
 
Often I hear people speak with great authority about the nature of God.  I have even been told where heaven is. I hear how old the earth is and what happened to the dinosaurs.  I hear explanations for human behavior and am amazed at the certainty of the speaker.  And yet often I cannot explain my own behavior.  Perhaps it makes people feel secure and good about themselves if they can claim to be an authority in some area. 
 
I am suspicious that most of us are like a little boy digging a hole in the backyard.  We think we have it all worked out and we could not be more wrong.  But, lest I leave you with the impression that I am totally ignorant I would like to claim a sure knowledge of something shared with me by Paul.  I want to join Paul in saying, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”  II Timothy 1:12.    That is security.

The Self-Help book section at Barnes and Noble is impressive.  There is everything there to help us transform ourselves from wimps to giants.  No matter what deficiency we think we have, there is a book to help us conquer.  We can develop seven healthy habits or work through twelve steps.  We can forget the negative thoughts and realize the power of positive thinking.  It is all there. 
 
I even saw one entitled “Live to Be a Hundred.”  Honestly I thought that was pretty puny.  Only a hundred?   I realize there is something called the Hayflick Limit which tells us cell replication is limited to 40 to 60 times and then senescence occurs bringing mitosis to a grinding halt.  This puts a cap on human life somewhere in the area of 135 if everything else functioned optimally.   But, in spite of this, 135 is pretty paltry when we consider what Jesus offers.  Barnes and Noble should have a section called, “How to Live Forever.”   It should be an array of various translations of the Bible, the best, the most incredible, the most promising, the most fabulous book ever written. 
 
Just think of the wonder of Jesus’ promises.  In John 3:16 He said, “Whosoever . . . (That’s you and me.  We are the whosever.) believes in Him shall have everlasting life.”  In John 5 Jesus said, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”  Recently I heard a preacher declare that we all had to face judgment someday.  Apparently he failed to read John 5. 
 
I realize in a way this isn’t self-help.  It is Jesus help.  But we do have to accept the gift.  That is the ultimate self-help.

Psychologists call it groupthink.  It’s a simple term aptly describing a situation when a population continues to cyclically feed on an idea reinforced by only listening to each other.  North Korea is a prime example of an entire nation closing avenues of communication that might expose them to ideas contrary to the ones they want to maintain.  Members of political parties do the same thing by only listening to or reading editorials that bolster the ideas they already hold.
 
Churches and Bible study groups are also guilty.  Bible verses are sought as proof texts to maintain isms and tenets.  I have seen situations where access to pulpits was restricted to those belonging to a particular denomination.  The justification being, “What could that unbeliever have to share with us?  We have the truth.”  Many years ago I heard (with my own ears) one of my church leaders denounce us for having books that were not published by our church’s publishing house.
 
This was the rational used by the population of Nazareth when they sought to throw Jesus off a cliff.  “How dare he tell us things like this?”   In so thinking the religious leadership ultimately demanded that the Romans crucify Jesus.  Groups often become paranoid thinking the world is out to get them because they dare to think differently from the masses, thus turning themselves into God’s elect at the expense of all others.
 
To be open to the power of the Holy Spirit requires an open mind and the sharing of ideas.  Unless we are open, the only way the Holy Spirit can get through to us with a new idea is to knock us off our horses.  Well, He does have a history of doing that.  Just ask Paul.

My dog has absolutely no sense of savoring her food.  I open a can, put it in her bowl, toss the can, and when I look back her bowl is empty.  And of course she wants more. This is ridiculous.  It’s good looking food.  Chunky and laden with smooth gravy.  It looks so good I want to get a spoon.  If only she would learn to savor it, it would last so much longer and be so much more gratifying.  I want to say she just doesn’t know how to savor but when you rub her tummy she is the poster girl of savoring.  Tummy rubbing could go on all day.
 
Life is best when it is savored.  When my son went to first grade, he came home after the first day and announced that tomorrow he would be in second grade.  The next day he came home and announced that tomorrow he would be in third grade. That is when his mother and I stepped in with a big “NO.”   Life was not meant to be rushed along.  The world does not need twelve year old doctors.  Twelve year olds need to learn to savor the joys of enriched learning. 
 
Many of my friends speak of wanting Jesus to come so this period of life would be over.  While I am not a masochist thinking we should enjoy pain, it would be grand if we could approach each day with a wonder for the experiences and lessons to be learned.  Maybe it is only on the latter side of this life that we realize that each day is a gift.  Do young people cry when listening to “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof?  Or is that reserved for parents and grandparents? 
 
“This is the day the Lord has given.  Rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24