Category Archives: Personal views & lessons

Did Jesus ever have seconds?

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Did Jesus ever have seconds? Did he taste something really good and decide to have a little more? Would that have been sin on the part of the Savior? I was thinking about that tonight as I had a glass of wine and a little snack of nuts. Did Jesus ever do that? Would that have been a sin for the Son of God?

Personally, I  think the answer to that is no, it would not have been a sin. And yes, at least perhaps He had seconds sometimes. The Bible says “he gives us richly all things to enjoy.” (I Timothy 6:17) In moderation, the pleasures of this life are a gift of God if we partake of them in Him and keep our eyes on Him, giving Him thanks in all things.

As you may know, this has been a raging religious controversy for around 2000 years. And to this day there are multitudes of Christians who will vehemently disagree with what I’ve written here. “Of course Jesus didn’t have seconds!!”, they will say.

But I just don’t think the Son of Man was some gaunt, austere, esthetic religionist. If He was, then why did His accusers call Him “a gluttonous man and a wine bibber”? (Luke 7:34) I think the Lord was the most real, authentic, alive human being that ever walked the earth. “Yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

But what may surprise some people is what God considers “without sin”, when it is done with faith in Him. “Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows.” (Romans 14:22)

Of course, in the big picture, the main thing isn’t whether you have seconds or you don’t but whether you’re fully set on a life of faith, obedience and service to Him. The Lord said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God… and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

“Even seconds, Lord? If I’m serving you, seeking first Your kingdom and following You, then will You allow me to have seconds on peanuts or almonds, Lord?”

What do you think the Lord would say to that? Well, it depends a lot on what kind of religious teachings you’ve been brought up with. For most people, their religious teachings will virtually never challenge them or lead them to go fully into Christian discipleship. Going to church on Sunday and supporting the correct political party is about the outer limits of Christianity for so many millions, sadly.

But for those who are seeking first His kingdom, laying down their lives for the brethren, feeding God’s sheep and following the Lord as much as they can, do you really think it would be a sin to have seconds?

And, you know? A lot of people will instinctively say yes to that question. Perhaps because their whole perspective on Christianity is based around what they are not supposed to do, rather than what they are supposed to do.

But, admittedly, with the overwhelming weakness of human nature, the deal is that so many of us can’t really handle the freedom of the Lord. “Seconds? We can have seconds?” And more than a few will therefore then have seconds, thirds and fourths.

The Lord can give us spiritual brakes so that we have the power to “keep under our body and bring it unto subjection”. (I Corinthians 9:27) But many Christians have not come to that place. So the most basic freedoms in the Lord that He wants to give us and can give us are just beyond our maturity. Therefore we have to be hedged in on every side since we have not accessed the powers of the Lord in the Spirit to know how to partake of the blessings of this life, without being overwhelmed by them.

Am I saying that you should have seconds because perhaps the Lord did? I don’t know. In one place the Lord said, “According to your faith be it unto you.” Matthew 9:29. “Have you faith? It is good neither to eat bread or drink [or have seconds] whereby your brother is offended. And he that eateth [seconds] is damned if he eat, if he eat ether not of faith. For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Romans 14:21-23)

Personally I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ had the faith to eat seconds. But sadly I’m not so sure that the majority of Christians today have the same faith, because of the weakness of their faith and the teachings they have received.

Lord help us all to grow in Him, not just so we can have faith for seconds but that we can come to the full stature of Christian discipleship and maturity where the question of having seconds on peanuts is totally minor in our eyes, since we are filled with the vision of reaching the world for Him, taking up our cross daily to follow Him in this life and loving Him with all our hearts.

 

 

Fog

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Winston Churchill, writing about 1940 said, “Although it was a fine September, I was frightened of the fog.” Why? Because he knew that the fog was the best cover the enemy could have for a German invasion of Britain at that time. And that’s in many ways where we are now: in a fog.

Admittedly, some think they are seeing utterly clearly and can emphatically tell you who the good guys are and who are the bad. But sometimes, the wrong people have the right message and the right people have the wrong message. It’s rather like great confusion.

Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen some clouds going one direction but others going another at the same time? In one place in the Bible it says, “The winds were contrary.” (Acts 27:4) A bit like it is now, it seems to me. And it’s the easiest time for the enemy to invade the land or our own hearts: when we are in a fog and can’t really see as clearly many things that seemed clear not so long ago.

It’s like that to some degree for me now and perhaps for many people. A dear friend said something to me a few days ago that was profound, although he didn’t probably intend it that way. He simply said that he was looking at individual issues rather than choosing one side or the other in the big picture.

I think that might hold a lot of wisdom for the Christian people of faith right now. For me it’s been a help. If I look at individual issues affecting the world right now, I can feel a leading of the Lord on them, if I just look at them one at a time. But forming some composite big picture, some “unified field” as they say in the realm of physics, I’m not really able to do that right now.

And maybe as a Christian disciple, I don’t need to. Maybe I don’t need to identify with the various yardsticks that are so prevalent and demanding right now. No, I don’t at all swear allegiance to one political party or the other, “left” or “right”. I just feel vehemently that my loyalty and allegiance should continue to be to the Son of God Who will ultimately return to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, as He clearly said He would.

Should I move away from that? Should any of us come off the wall of Christian discipleship to become embroiled with “the course of this world” and “the affairs of this life”?  (Ephesians 2:2, II Tim. 2:4) No matter how loud the clamor is between one worldly faction and the other right now?

I just can’t, or at least shouldn’t. But there is a strong pull and I do have long-time Christian disciple friends who’ve now engaged themselves almost totally within those controversies and have, in so doing, moved away from their original calling to an allegiance with Christ and His service within this present evil world.

But the enemy can attack most easily when there is a fog. That may be why Paul said, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” (I Corinthians 14:33) If I let present contrary winds and an inability to as easily discern things as it seemed possible in the past, then I can allow that wedge to be a device of the enemy to move in heavily, as he always attempts to do, and to overwhelm me with uncertainty, perplexity and confusion. Before you know it, as Churchill feared the Germans would do in 1940, the enemy is landing troops upon your land and is advancing in a blitzkrieg war while you pause in perplexity, with your guard dropped.

The-fight-of-faithThe solution? Remain vigilant. “Strengthen the things that remain.”  (Revelation 3:2) “Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

Having perfect understanding and being able to see clearly the horizon in every direction is not guaranteed for Christian discipleship. Sometimes we simply don’t have that. We have to “walk by faith and not by sight.” (I Corinthians 5:8) But the enemy is always there to cast fiery darts into our hearts and minds, sowing fear, uncertainty, questions and doing all he can to reverse the polarity so that he can launch an attack on God’s homeland, which is our souls, especially when the overall outlook seems foggy.

I’ll have to admit, it has bothered me that I have not been able to feel I see things as clearly as I did until very recently. But on the other hand, I have more than enough of the Lord’s grace to handle all that is before me on the short term. So while the fog clears, I’m going to concentrate on the short term goals and vision which is still just fine. And perhaps before long, other things will become clearer. Still, I am going to remain vigilant against the attacks of the enemy who has already tried to attack me in this present somewhat foggy time.

The enemy is always threatening, broadcasting his woes and contrary confusion, all the much more when it is foggy. But the Lord’s directional systems still work just as well in fog as they do in clear skies.  Meanwhile, when it comes to the enemy of our souls, “We are not ignorant of his devices.” (II Corinthians 2:11)

Insufficient in prayer

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I was thinking tonight about how God has been really good to me. So much so that I can’t really express it or find the words. Sometimes you can’t equal with your words of thankfulness the measure of the abundant grace that the Lord has bestowed upon you. Words fail you. But the funny thing is for me, in earlier years, before I came to the Lord and salvation, I went through a time of horror and depravity. And back then words failed me to describe my experiences as they do again now, but at the opposite end of the scale

When I was university I was swept up in a near death experience that took place in the realm of darkness, the spiritual world but without Christ and God. Afterwards it was close to impossible to find words to describe that experience and those things. At the time I didn’t really have any idea what was happening to me or why.

I just knew something was exceedingly wrong and that it was my fault. I knew that word back then, “fault”, but I didn’t really know or accept the word “sin”. Then gradually, as I came through and out of it all, I found the vocabulary in the Bible that described the experiences and grapplings I’d had in the realm of darkness.

By the love of God I had been “delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Still, I could hardly talk about what I’d gone through. Now, decades later, I again have faced an inadequacy to put into words what is in my heart, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. He has blessed me, “above all I could ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20) so that my feeble attempts to thank Him and to appreciate His abundant blessings seem utterly inadequate to do the subject justice.

So I just have to trust the Lord. The Lord knows what He has done. The Lord knows how He has worked in my life. Hopefully He is pleased that I at least realize and know it somewhat and understand it to some degree. How can we be equal to the magnitude of God? We can’t. It reminds me of what I wrote a few years ago about “Thimbles”. I was struck with my inadequacy to respond to the vastness of God, like having a thimble on the beach to measure the ocean before me.

But I try to praise and thank the Lord for what He has done in my life. So many things have happened that I just know are the Lord, His plan and pre-vision and pro-vision. The Lord can make something out of nothing and actually that’s the way He usually works. He has to make you utterly nothing and so that you know it. And then He can begin to put you back together “a better vessel” (Jeremiah 18:1-4).

You may find yourself speechless, trying to find words to thank the Lord with when it all comes so short of describing the magnity of what He’s done in your life. Maybe that’s not where you are at right now. Maybe you are really going through trails and testings and “contradictions of sinners against yourself” (Hebrews 12:3), like what happened to Jesus. But as each of us keep holding on, the Lord can bring us into a fair haven. (Psalm 107:30)  A verse that often speaks to me is how He can “restore the years that the cankerworm has eaten.” (Joel 2:25) Seemingly years of wasted and fruitless existence when you longed to have a purpose and a meaningful life. But He can restore.

We don’t have to be eloquent when it comes to our prayers. Just honest, sincere and real. Our words are us and we are just little people trying to speak to the King of kings and Lord of lords. So we should just speak from our heart, even if it all seems to be so insufficient to express how we feel or how God has dealt with us. “Pour out your heart before Him”, as King David said. (Psalm 62:8)

“We are not sufficient for these things,” (II Corinthians 2:16). Paul knew it was all far beyond him what the Lord was doing in his life and in the lives of others. But he just kept the faith and kept following, even if it got to where it was beyond what he could ask or understand or comprehend.

Should we change?

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Should we change? Big question. It depends. Does God change? He actually answered that. “I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) But when we search the Scriptures, we see examples where the Lord’s way of dealing with His people changed over the centuries. “The word of God was precious in those days, there was no open vision.” (I Samuel 3:1) But then in later centuries there came a time and age of prophets raised up by the Lord who received visions.

Jesus seemed to advocate change. His original message from the beginning was a commandment to change. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) Repent, change, have a transformation or even more, be transformed by the power of God.

I guess it depends on what you are changing. There’s a time to not change. John the Beloved disciple said, “Let that therefore abide in your which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” (I John 2:24)

But, equally and on the other side, Jesus seemed to strongly advocate change.  When His disciples asked Him why the disciples of John fasted but they didn’t, He said, “No man having drunk old wine straightway desires the new for he says the old is better.” (Luke 5:39) His teaching was “new wine” but some people, very religious, were stuck back with the old wine and just couldn’t get on board with the new.

So it seems like we are supposed to do both: at times hold on to the old and at other times break away and follow the new. Solomon wrote, “Destroy not the ancient landmark which your fathers have set up.” (Proverbs 22:28) Seems like we are supposed to hold on to the original foundations we receive from our beginnings.

But other times we are supposed to forget the past and press on to that which is before. (Philippians 3:14) So the only way this will make sense is through the mind of Christ in which these things don’t contradict themselves at all. Let go of the ways the Lord is no longer leading in. And hold on and seek the new ways God has for us now in these times. That’s been the primary procedure and secret of truly following God and abiding in Him for 4000 years or more.

And, without complicating things, we could look briefly at another kind of change. Definitely the wrong one. Paul spoke of this when he said of his formerly loyal helper and companion, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” (II Timothy 4:10) Yes, some sadly (many even in these present times) make a change for the worse. They put their hand to the plow and look back. In Demas’s case they go back, they forsake their calling for “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4).

We have to follow God. What is He leading, saying and doing now? It actually won’t contradict what He has said before but at the same time He is fully able to lead us in some shocking and unusually ways which have often confounded His dearest followers. The Bible is full of times where God’s greats were stunned by His radical ways and often they were barely able to keep up with the Almighty.

We think of God as “the Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:9) which is true. But at the same time He is the most present and future entity we could ever encounter. Only God is way out there in front and knows what’s going to happen and is able to lead us and guide us and show us what to do.

Sometimes we need to hold on and sometimes we need to let go. If you put both of those in their right context, both are right. Let go of your old ways of doing things, your old procedures that worked years ago and hold on to what the Lord has for now, what works for today, what He is seeing the need for today. And you’ll find that probably He has actually done it before at some time, only now evidently He is going to pull it out of His bag of tricks again as it’s what’s best for theses time.

Only in the mind and wisdom of God can these two things be compatible and true at the same time. We need to change and not change. We need to be God’s new bottles, desiring the new wine of His radical ways and means to meet the challenges of right now and the future to come.

But also, equally and at the same time, we need to continue to be so rooted and grounded in the eternal truths of God that we in no way abandon the eternal foundation of faith and truth that has been the pillar and groundwork of all we’ve ever believed in.

Contradiction? Impossible to reconcile the two? Not in the Lord at all. But only with the mind of Christ which He gives us. Change and remain the same. Forge forward as we are led by the Spirit of God into greater victories of souls won and the sheep of God established in the faith. But at the same time, remain unmoved, rooted and established in the faith. Only in the heavenly minded can these things make sense and be the beacon for us that the Lord wants them to be.

Proponents of the Truth

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If there is anything a Christian should be known for, it should be for their truth. We should be known for our love, certainly. But if we’re weak in truth, it discredits the Lord and all He stood for. Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice”. (John 18:37) He even said, “I am… the truth…” (John 14:6)

So truth, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) and just loving truth the way we love God and Jesus should be at the core of every true Christian.

And the same way we are to “hate evil” (Psalm 97:10), we should have a disdain and abhorrence for falsehood and even half truths. But if ever there was a time when the shadows of darkness and, frankly, the lies of the devil are running rampant and making inroads into the minds and hearts of the believers, it seems to be now.

There’s an amazing thing that’s to be found in the Book of Revelation about the conditions of the time right before the Lord’s return. It’s somewhat mysterious but I think it speaks plainly about the level of falsehood that saturates our lives today.

Revelation 12 verses 15 & 16 say this  “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.”

Waters in Scripture often represent words. Jesus said of His disciples, “Out of their bellies shall flow rivers of living water”, speaking of the Holy Spirit that they would receive. But conversely, the devil also has his “waters”, Satan’s lies and propaganda which evidently will really be poured out in the final days. [And are being poured out already right now!]

And it says that “the earth”, the ungodly of this world, will swallow those waters that the serpent cast out of his mouth. But, significantly, it doesn’t say the woman, the bride of Christ will swallow them.

If ever there was a time when Christians should be diligently focused on finding the truth, holding the truth, speaking the truth and shunning falsehood, it should be in these times. It’s such a poor testimony of the Lord when Christians are easily deceived into some worldly cause or movement that is in fact a pitifully poor substitute for the genuine and truthful cause of Christ and the truth of His Word.

Some people think about purity and they immediately think of something moral or immoral, as they understand it. But simply extolling and embracing truth, while feeling a repulsion to lies and even half truths, can be an even greater need and testimony. It grieves me when I see so many believers get sucked into the affairs of this life and secular political parties, even long time friends I’ve known from the mission field who now view politics as their service to God.

Jesus even in His lifetime talked about those who will “…think they do God service”. But what will they be actually doing? Jesus said in John 16:2, “The time will come that whosoever kills you will think they are doing God service.” As many of you know, there are oodles of Christians who’ve gotten so involved with the affairs of this life that they are convinced that they need to take up physical arms and to be willing to kill others in their service for the Lord!

Isn’t that pitiful?! What a travesty of true Christian discipleship! I wrote something 7 years ago called “A Strong Man, Armed” about when there may be some margin of place where, to physically defend your family, bearing arms may be justified.

But then so many here in the States at least, nominal Christians and sometimes genuinely sincere Christians, are convince that a huge stock of guns is the only alternative for the people of faith. It’s really sad how many believers of our times have veered from the example of the Early Church as well as the pattern and explanation we have in the prophetic Word about the church of the endtime, before the coming of the Lord.

I’m convinced that, just as the Early Church was, the final church of the Endtime before the coming of the Lord will be dependent utterly on Him, His Word and His miraculous intervention and direction. This all just shows us how very far astray much of  Christianity in our times has gone and how much we actually need the cleansing purifying of persecution which, among other things, will sweep away all those who “walk in the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners.” (Psalm 1:1) Lord help us!

And He will. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. The Lord  is going to purify His church, purge out the abundant dross, worldly influences and political entanglements that are so utterly prevalent. He has to. Otherwise the believers of the final Endtime will in no way be prepared in any way for the onslaught that will come against them.

But it starts with truth. The deceptions that have captured so many believers of these times must be destroyed, like the idols the prophets of old had to smash and defy. It’s still the same today. Amen, Lord, do it.

PS   And this morning, as I somewhat hesitated to post this article, I heard verses quoted in a devotional which I know I’ve never noticed before.  “For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, even as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (III John verses 3 & 4)

Once more, into the breach

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One more time and you feel like it will kill you. You feel you have given your all. But the job is not done. You don’t know if you can take any more. This is what soldiers experience. Or some of those in sports. And even some Christians.

It is said of Jesus, “He poured out His soul unto death.” (Isaiah 53:12) “He went a little further and fell on His face.” (Matthew 26:39) For Jesus, He went all the way, “even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8)

It’s a funny place to be in your life. You believe in what you are doing. But you’ve come to the place where it really costs you something. If you keep going further, there looks to be real loss; personal loss will be the price. Maybe there is physical pain but maybe it’s just emotional and spiritual pain, hopes, plans and possibilities. The results of decisions that you know are going to further the kingdom of God, but really cost you personally.

This is what the quote from Shakespeare is about, “once more, into the breach”. I’ve never read Shakespeare extensively but I do know that his writings are considered to be some of the greatest heights ever reached in the English language. Here’s what he wrote about “into the breach”

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger.”

From Shakespeare’s play “Henry the Fifth”

Maybe you’ve come to a place in your life where your hopes, dreams and possibilities have come together in a unique and golden opportunity that’s before you and you recognize it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But you also see clearly that there is a price to pay. To reach your goal is going to take everything, all that you have and no one will know about it but you and God.

I’ve never been in a physical war. Never had bullets whizzing by me, never had artillery shells exploding around me. But I think this must be how it is for people in that situation, where their life is on the line from minute to minute.

I like sports for this reason. People in sports have to give their total all if they are going to succeed. Half hearted people are not successful in sports. Actually it is the same in Christianity but it doesn’t show up as easily. Christians are actually supposed to be maintaining many of the attributes of soldiers. “A good soldier of Jesus Christ” (II Timothy 2:3) And also the discipline and commitment of athletes. “Lay aside ever weight and the sins that so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus…”   (Hebrews 12:1 & 2)

Many people cry at the end of a movie. But have you ever cried at the opening scenes of a movie? That happened to me one time. I was just going through a very rough marriage and family breakup and I went to watch “Chariots of Fire”. The opening scene was of these athletes running on a beach and the music was so moving. So the movie had been on a minute or two and I started crying. God was speaking to me that I just had to be like those athletes and to keep going and moving on.

Sometimes, that’s how we can make it, with a broken heart. We don’t have the strength in ourselves. We can’t run the race. We can’t measure up to the task before us. We are weak, very much, in ourselves. But then we have to give ourselves over to the Lord. He has to be the one that goes further within us in our lives. It’s only our faith in Him in us that gives us the power and faith to go as far as He calls us to go.

This is the better life He has called us to. A life of purpose, of impact and effect on the world we live, a life that is lived from the heart that He has entered and changed. But sometimes, no one really knows but God. No one sees what you are paying for decisions you are making. Soldiers dying in the battle, athletes giving their utmost and then more. And yes, Christians, like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane when “He went a little further and fell on his face.” (Matthew 26:39)

It can be so difficult. But then it also is an incredible blessing of the Lord, to be in a place where you clearly have to decide if you will go that far, if you will die that much, if you will suffer that distance. Paul in the Bible evidently experienced this. In one place he said “I die daily”. (I Corinthians 15:31)

I truly believe that at some point in the future, Christians around the world will be in “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation”. (Daniel 12:1) Jesus clearly said a time like that would come. For so many, times come that test us very much, where decisions test how far we will go, often the way it is for soldiers in battle or athletes in competition. But then as the Bible says about these warriors and competitors of this world, “They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, be we an incorruptible.” (I Corinthians 9:25)

Often it can be like Shakespeare said in “Henry the Fifth”, like soldiers in the midst of mortal combat, “once more, into the breach”. May the Lord in us help us to go further than we ever could in our own strength and faith. May we press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Budding… in September

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My trees were dead and are alive again! Some trees (and lives) look truly dead, like what’s been happening here this summer in Texas. The scorching sun and heat have devastated some of the trees and many have totally dried up and turned brown.

Day by day as the drought got worse here, it grieved me to see how so many of the trees in the back lot were wilting and turning brown. At length I hauled out the garden hose to do emergency watering of many of them that make up the far back of the property. But more and more, a lot of them lost all their leaves and looked fully dead. (Like some peoples’ lives, maybe?)

Then, after a grueling July and August with temperatures daily around 105 (38 Centigrade), we ended up getting several days of strong, steady rains. So, so needed. Like the verse, “You, Lord, did send a plentiful rain whereby you did confirm Your inheritance when it was weary.” (Psalm 68:9)

But was it too late to help the trees? Like so many people’s lives, it really does look like it’s too late. Not only is there no fruit in their lives, even their leaves have withered and gone. No joy, no faith, no shine or sign of life is left, even though they’re still alive in the physical.

This morning, a few days after the rains, I was having my morning walk in the back and I could hardly believe my eyes. Many of the “dead” trees were budding! In the second half of September! I was so happy to see that. Like long lost friends you thought were gone forever, they came back. But how? Above ground, all signs of life had been scorched and dried up by the relentless sun and heat.

But underneath, below the surface, the roots had stayed alive. Is this possibly symbolic of anything? Do you think this is possible in the very many lives we all know who seem to have dried up and died even many years ago? Could some of those people still have roots of faith alive below the surface? Could some of those people “bud in September”?

It took an act of God. My feeble efforts to do watering during the worst of the drought may have helped a little. But it took the clouds and storms from heaven to drench the earth and provide the roots the missing elements of water, like faith. Over the next days the few remaining trees that still had some leaves began to perk up. But this morning, like a second spring, about 70% of the trees I’d counted as dead have been showing little green leaves everywhere among the branches.

“This my son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:24) If God can do this with trees, do you think He can do this with people? Can He send storms and rains that somehow soak the soil of our souls, bringing a renewing of faith and life below the surface and the visible, in the roots of our beings so that life can again appear where it looked as dead as a doornail for a long time?

“With God, nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37) It’s wonderful when the Lord somehow speaks to you through His creation or His deeds there. A few years ago, I had another lesson out in the back lot, in the depths of December. I wrote a blog article about that, “Green Leaves Hanging On”. It was the cold of winter but a few green leaves in the back were still holding on. That really spoke to my heart.

Paul said, “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” (Romans 1:20). We all need hope. We all need faith. Jesus said, “He that believes on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) But many people, just like our trees in the back, come into a time in their lives when they do thirst. They lose faith. Or they are talked out of it by friends. They “cast away their confidence” (Hebrews 10:35) and like the prodigal son, go off and away from the wellsprings of life to waste their lives. Until a mighty famine comes. Or a mighty drought.

Only the Lord can do it. Only the Lord can somehow allow the unseen roots to still be alive below the surface after all the life seems to have ebbed away in the part we can see. “You renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:30)

It was a beautiful and heartening experience this morning and an unexpected one. The symbolism of it all immediately struck me of the greater meaning of how the Lord can do the same thing in the lives of many we know who’ve withered, wilted and fallen away over the years for whatever reason. Would to God that He will send rains of refreshing and renewal to all those ones as well. Amen

Strengthen the things that remain

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General George Patton, the flamboyant but successful American general attended ceremonies in Berlin in 1945 of victorious forces who had defeated the Nazis. Generals from the West and Russian generals who led forces who had attacked from the east, met in Berlin to celebrate. But Patton at one point attempted to provoke a major incident with one of the Russian generals there.

Patton said plainly to all that Allied western forces should just keep rolling on from Germany and immediately drive straight at Moscow to defeat Russian Communism while they could. Patton saw Communism to be a great threat to the rest of the world. Of course he was overruled and considered almost crazy at the time. But, looking back, we can wonder.

It was clear to Patton that the threat from the Left was just as grim as the threat from the Right had been. And perhaps we’re facing a very similar moment in our times. Many are sickened and exasperated by the leadership of the USA since 2016. People of all stripes and persuasions have been aghast and heartsick because of the utter lack of empathy or competence the US president has shown, as well as his lack of response to the Covid 19 crisis. Many Americans across the political spectrum have come to feel that this man and his regime have to go.

But then what? The conservative, right wing in America has given us the president we’ve had for the last 4 years. But can we turn to the liberal party of the left? Pardon me but it’s like we have two choices. “Do you want the red devils or the blue devils?” Not dissimilar to what seemed to be the choice facing the world of the 1930’s and 1940’s.

The Democratic Party now is not the party of John Kennedy or Martin Luther King, any more than the Republicans are still the party of Ronald Reagan. Maybe you haven’t been looking but the Democrats, who may end up winning the election here in 4 months, are exceptionally divided between traditional Democratic views, which triumphed the cause of the common man and workers’ rights, and the so-called “Progressives” who, when you scrap the veneer, are actually neo-Marxists in every way.

So people of our times are really stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. Like Patton saw, there are serious and existential threats from both the Right and the Left, just as it was in earlier times between Nazism on the one hand and Communism on the left.

Solution? I’m not sure there is one. But some famous words of Jesus came to me this morning, “Strengthen the things that remain.” (Revelation 3:2) I have to be honest; I don’t know how much I hold to the idea of praying for God to save America. Maybe He will. It’s like the Australians are known to say, “She’ll come round, mate.” Meaning, “It’ll all work out somehow and stabilize.” Maybe it will; it has at other times when things have been rough.

But also in history there have been innumerable times when it didn’t come round. It finally collapsed and often, looking back, people could see that it was the hand of God, finally withdrawing His protection and allowing the sins of the people and nation to finally get the best of them. Their cup of iniquity was full and collapse came.

God even told the prophet Jeremiah, just before the collapse of his nation around 600 years before Jesus, “Pray not for this people for their good.” (Jeremiah 14:11) In God’s eyes, it had come time for His judgments on Israel and they were taken captive by Babylon shortly afterwards. That may be where the USA has come to now, in spite of the fact that there are still many sincere Christians here.

But it’s always good council to “strengthen the things that remain”. Even now, maybe it’s like the council another prophet of Israel gave a few years after the times of Jeremiah to the king of Babylon, where the Jews had been driven to. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, when God had told the king that judgment was coming on him, “O king break from your sins by righteousness and your injustice by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of your peaceful times.” (Daniel 4:27) The Democrats in America have traditionally been the party that has stood up for the poor and, my gosh, the poor and middle classes here sure need help now, “red and yellow, black and white.”

But if he gets elected, Biden’s greatest threat won’t be the Republicans. It will be from the neo-Marxists of the left wing of his own party who could work as Lenin and the Bolsheviks did in Moscow after the fall of the Russian Czar. The more moderate Mensheviks were initially leading the changes in 1917, after the fall of the Romanov dynasty. But the moderates and democrats were swept aside by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. And from there, the horrors of the reality of atheist Communism gripped hundreds of millions people over the next 70 years.

As for me and those I fellowship with, we’re going to keep serving the Lord. If those in America still holding on to the principles that existed even 20 or 30 years ago would/could band together and “strengthen the things that remain”, maybe America could weather this storm upon it now. I’m pessimistic but then again, perhaps the Australians are right, “She’ll come round, mate.”  One way or the other, I’m going to be holding on to the Lord and His calling and His will in this time. But I am a little concerned that we may be in for a very rough ride and unprecedented times over the next few months. Lord help us all.

Shedding the blood of war in peace

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Some people crack up very easily. The slightest provocation, a hint of disagreement and they just freak out. For some, they take a dive into depression. Others burst forth with a stream of accusations against the person they felt offended by. Sometimes it even goes beyond words to physically violence and death, all because of some perceived slight, something taken the wrong way that was never meant or should have never been blown up to what it was.

Yes, certainly sometimes it was more than a perceived slight. It was long term oppression and injustice and people are outraged about that. I’ll get to that in a moment.

But, about people freaking out and cracking up very easily, you might be one who says, “Happens all the time”. Yes, it does. And the damage done to friendships, families, lives, children, marriages, societies and even nations is often close to irreparable. Some of this gets personal for me. I’ve had a good life in many ways. But also I have seen this kind of destructive behavior up close and have experienced the long term devastation that is not just hurtful but damages almost beyond redemption the souls, hearts and lives it touches.

Jesus said one time, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) In my life, I’ve seen a lot of “domestic warfare”, I guess it could be called. And from seeing this, I came to where I felt the most important thing in life was the wisdom of the heart rather than the intelligence of the mind. I’d seen a lot of smart people who ruined the lives of others without regrets because they were “so smart” but they didn’t care how much they hurt their loved ones, how much they brought disruption to their families.

I have always been in a family that believed in changing the world , that there are serious problems around us in our societies and in the world, injustices that need to be exposed and addressed, causes worth fighting for, staying stirred up about and sacrificing for.

But then, how do you do that? How do you actually address those things, whether in your personal family or in society at large? How vehement do you get? What “weapons” do you use? Are there any tactics that are not allowed? Is there any need for accuracy and truthfulness in what we say and do?  Or is it more important to just be as raw and visceral as you want to be and then let the chips fall where they may? What sacrifices are worth making in order to reach your goal?

There are so many factors in this, so many tangents that could be gone down and explored. But I’ll use an example from history where this subject and difficulty is highlighted. An ancient king, David, had a most trusted and loyal commander of his armed forces, his own cousin Joab. But ultimately, David said of Joab that he had “shed the blood of war in peace”. (I Kings 2:5) Joab murdered a rival military leader in Israel, Abner, who had been the leader of the forces of King Saul.

But it was uncalled for, unprovoked, unnecessary and unwise. The murder of Abner could have easily brought Israel into full civil war between those still loyal to Saul’s regime and the new one of King David. Joab shed the blood of war in peace. He murdered his rival and ultimately Joab was sentenced to death for his crime. He wasn’t in some battle against those bent on destroying his people; he just committed murder because of jealously and rivalry. He shed the blood of war in peace.

But many today do just what Joab did. They fly off the handle at the drop of the hat and feel utterly justified in doing it. Usually it doesn’t end up as a murder but then sometimes it does. But if they don’t commit murder, their words spoken in haste and without love or wisdom go out as firebrands and stick in the hearts of ones who are often friends or loved ones. David’s son, Solomon, said, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”. (Proverbs 18:21) Words are real things, they bless or they curse, they lift up or they drag down. Jesus even said that we will give an account one day of every word we have spoken.

Again, to remember the words of an ancient king and poet, “I am for peace. But when I speak, they are for war.” (Psalms 120:6) Today I see a lot of vehement people. I even agree with a lot of what they say and the way they see things. There are things that need to be changed, things that have been tolerated for far too long. A good measure of vehemence and righteous exasperation is needed in order to keep some of these subjects on the boil until changes have been made and corners turned.

But I do fear that behind the words and in the hearts of at least some of these folks there is more than just a call for change and justice. There is hatred and vengeance. And a determination to achieve domination over ones they perceive to be utterly evil. I often feel that nothing short of full capitulation and surrender in a most complete sense by their perceived enemies will satisfy a number of these who have grievances. And again you could say, “What’s new? It’s been going on for thousands of years.”

Well, I am for peace. I am for conflict resolution. I’m for standing up to injustice. I’m also for living peaceable with all men. Sadly, I don’t think we are going to have that level of wisdom, unity and civility in this world we have now. It will only happen at the return of “the Prince of Peace“. (Isaiah 9:6) Meanwhile, I am going to do what I can to live within the peace and wisdom of God as much as I can in my interactions with others. And I hope to persuade all I can to do the same.

Ageism

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In her 70’s, my mom said, “I’m old. But I’m not old-old.” But it’s sad and wrong to discriminate against anyone because of their age. And “ageism” is the relatively new word for this. Discrimination is a hurtful but very common thing, worldwide. You’ve heard of “racism”, I’ve written about that several times. And “sexism” is now a common word, usually meaning discrimination against women. But ageism is just as hurtful and also just not smart or even productive.

Both of my parents made it well into their 90’s. It runs in their families. My mom in particular never “lost it” mentally in any way and hardly lost it physically much at all until the last month of two of her life. In earlier generations it was not uncommon that by the time someone hit 60, they were really considered old and were sometimes at the edge of their families who treated them with detached aloofness at times. And often they died sad and alone. Progress has been made in these things and in more recent times there is more concern in many societies for “the elderly”.

But I have to admit I probably could be considered in that category at times, as are now many of my friends. How’s that working for me? Actually, it’s probably a surprise to younger readers but it’s really not too bad. If I go about things wisely, I’ve felt very little drop off in my physical abilities and vitality compared to twenty or more years ago. I’ve got a host of “irons in the fire” and “pots on the stove” that keep me busier than I almost can keep up with. I’m doing fine, as far as I’m concerned.

But it’s disheartening to run into manifestations of ageism. It seems  some folks think that people in their 60’s and 70’s are unquestionably “over the hill”. There’s that hint of condescension from some who try to be polite but you are left with the feeling that they secretly wish we’d just go away. Or at least we’d go someplace else where we are not seen or where we don’t interfere with the way things should be run and done in these times.

Sad stuff. Of course not everyone is like that. But ageism is just as real in our times and felt by folks just as much as is racism or sexism. It’s a waste of human resources as well as a lack of vision. What some short sighted people don’t get is the wealth of knowledge and experience that “older people” have gained. Certainly some folks who are into their 60’s are not able to do as much physically as they did before. But on the other hand many of them are really doing just fine and have a lot of gas in the tank and fire in the belly. The Bible says, “A grey head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” (Proverbs 16:31)

But it’s just the inborn sinful nature of mankind to discriminate, to “judge according to the flesh” (John 8:15) and “look on the outward appearance” (I Samuel 16:7), rather than the heart. Also, it must be said that some people “faint in their minds” (Hebrews 12:3), as they grow older. “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Proverb 28:18) and this can happen to people as they age. They give up spiritually and also give up mentally and physically.

However, not everyone does that. In the Bible, Caleb, at the age of 85 famously said, “I’ll take the mountain” (Joshua 14:10-12) and he led his tribe up the mountain in military conquest of the land promised to the Jews in the years after Moses.

It’s cruelty, discrimination and a lack of godly wisdom to let ageism affect your views, especially if you are a Christian who is dealing with and shepherding other Christians. If there is any place in this world where compassion and empathy should triumph, it is in Christian circles. So when there is discrimination and segregation according to age that goes on in Christian fellowships, it is particularly hurtful and unwise as well.

“But Mark, aren’t you creating division here? In saying these things you are dividing the body of Christ and encouraging division.”

I’ve thought about that. But if a person of color experiences racism, is it wrong of him to mention it? Or if a woman experiences sexism, should she remain silent? In the same way, I mean to cause no division by mentioning the fact that ageism exists. Rather, I hope that by talking about these things we can overcome them together and heal any divisions.

It takes a mature, seasoned person to not default to ageism when it comes to Christian shepherding. You just naturally want to hang out with your kind of folks. “Old people” can just seem like a drag if you”re not looking at things with the eyes of the Lord. But this is opposite of the ways of God’s Spirit. Paul said to Timothy, “Let no man despise your youth” (I Timothy 4:12). I think we can certainly say conversely to the ones who are 60 and older, “Let no man despise your age.”

*****

 One final thought: we’re all sinners; we’ve all been guilty of these things. Racism, sexism and ageism are part of the inborn sinful nature of mankind and all of us have been guilty of these things, and more, at one time or the other. So if you’ve been affected by ageism, it’s good to remember that. Jesus said, if someone sins against us, that we are to “go and tell him his fault” (Matthew 18:15) between he and you alone. Getting self righteous, bitter and unforgiving are some of the easy sins that those who’ve been sinned against can easily fall into. Lord help us all to forgive and strive for love and unity.