Faith like mad

“23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9)

Do you know why Christianity is a lot more popular in third world nations and among oppressed and suffering people?  Neither do I.  I have a guess though.  It goes something like this.

If your life is horrific, if you are helpless, hopeless, bereaved and bereft, Jesus is beautifully attractive.  The promise of eternal life beyond this one to someone whose temporal life promises to be brutish, short and end nastily, enables them to endure to persevere.  To the homeless, the promise of rooms prepared for them warms them in cold nights.  To the hungry, the promise of a meal with their Savior and fruits that bloom every season enrich the dreams of their energy deprived bodies.  To the prisoners and the slaves, he promises freedom.  To the sick and broken, health.  To the lonely, a friend closer than a brother, a lover of their very soul.  To the guilty, the vile, the ashamed, the violated, Christ offers not retribution but redemption! And while it is hard to understand why the terrible things have to happen to you now, beyond even the promise that all the suffering will be worth it, Christ gives you a family, a people who, right here, right now, can bond in fellowship and shared belief, they can support each other and band together for strength, warmth and community!  No wonder they cling to Christ!  They’re already laying down their lives, they have no choice in that, Christ makes it an honor, a glory and a passage to something infinitely better!

Seeing this, it is no wonder Jesus is losing his popularity among Westerners.  It is one thing to for those with nothing to lose to believe, it is quite a bit different for those with everything to lose.  “23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”” (Mark 10)  Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t think of yourself as rich.  I won’t bore you with the statistics again but trust me, compared to the rest of the world, if you have a house to live in, a car to drive, a cellphone and three meals a day, you are.  If you don’t believe me, look up the price of rice, the standard food for most of the world, and how much of the world cannot afford it.  On second thought, don’t, it’ll make you cry.  But for those of us who work a job, receive a paycheck, drive home, nuke dinner and spend most of the rest of the night flipping channels and dreaming of the one or two weeks of vacation we’ll take this year, laying down our lives, giving up all we own sounds kinda scary and mean.  We don’t mind helping people.  Americans are the most generous givers in the world.  We share our excess with others all the time.  Jesus however doesn’t sound like he’s asking for our surplus.  He sounds like he’s asking for everything!

Now before you go and label me anti-wealth, lemme just say, I’m not.  Neither is God.  Abe, Isaac, Jake, all wealthy and richly rewarded by God.  David and Solomon had wealth out the wa-zoo.  God doesn’t have a beef against rich people…just rich people who think their money is theirs.  I’m told that the word most often translated in the Bible as “wicked,” refers to selfish greed.  God may never ask you to lay down your whole life, but He wants to know if He does ask you to, would you?  Everything we have is a gift, right down to the skin tent in which you currently reside.  Do we love the gift more than the giver?  It’s a real easy trap to get into but to get out of you have to chew off your own leg!

I don’t come to this point flippantly.  I don’t come here without scars.  I’m not preaching at you.  I’m pleading with you.  If God asked for everything…  If God asked for that one thing…  You know the thing.  If God asked for your comfort, your home, your savings, your children, would you give them?  Would you give them cheerfully?  If following God would cost you your livelihood, your spouse, your health, your freedom, could you?  Could your faith survive that strain?  Would His promises be enough? 

Faith is a gift of grace too.  Pray for more so that it would be.  Pray you never have to find out.  Or…

If you dare, if you dare ask to serve deeper, to know Him deeper, to really understand the joy of grace, the freedom no one can chain, the food no drought can touch, the home no fire can burn, the riches no thief can steal, the family, friend, lover no death can kill, from which no sin can separate you, then pray like mad.  Pray like a madman.  You’re gonna need it!  But He’s promised it will all be worth it!

Where is your Faith?

“7 After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.” (Luke 7)

“40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.” (Luke 8)

Bookends.  Two men.  Two sick children: one foster, one genetic.  Both men place all their hopes, all their chips, all their faith in one vessel, one man.  One has great faith, the other but a little.  Jesus meets them both, right where they are.  Sages say, having faith isn’t the issue, everyone does.  It is in what..or whom.. you place your faith which makes all the difference.  In the desert of life, better a quart in a canteen than a sea in a sieve.  Luke ends chapter six with a whelming flood proving and testing foundations and finding either a rock of truth or shifting sand castles of delusion.  Chapters seven and eight are about the difference.

The segment however begins and ends with two men who have chosen Jesus.  Both men are able.  Both men are powerful.  Both men have respect and honor of their own.  Both men have come to the end of their illusions of control.  Both men approach Jesus in humility.  Jairus feels comfortable enough to come himself, though on his knees.  The Centurion, sensing his unworthiness, sends emissaries, Jewish elders to plead on his behalf.  Could Jairus have been among them?  To both, Jesus immediately drops what he is doing and moves toward them.  First lesson, place faith in correct place.  Second, Jesus moves toward faith!

Again, in both events a second wave of messengers come forth to meet Jesus.  The Centurion, upon learning of Jesus’ approach, sends servants to stop him.  Is he afraid to meet Jesus?  Does he just not wish to bother an obviously important man?  Is his sense of guilt too great, he is a soldier of occupation in a bloody age.  To be sure, he has most likely done terrible things, ordered terrible things.  Power he understands…and fears.  Perhaps his obvious good deeds, building the synagogue and loving his servants, are attempts at amends?  Has he come to the point in his life and realized his great need for a savior?  All we know is his faith recognizes Jesus’ power and respects it, his faith recognizes Jesus’ goodness and mercy and earnestly desires it.  Jesus respects the man’s faith, marvels at it even and fulfills his prayer from a distance.  The servant-son is healed.  This personal God does not meet him personally.  He rewards this man’s deep faith by allowing it to continue…in its current state!  No greater knowledge of Jesus is required than confirmation his faith was justly placed.  A priceless picture of faith in our own age!

Jairus’ people meet them on the road to his home as well.  They ask Jesus to stop too but not out of unworthiness but from a lack of necessity.  The girl is dead, they say, why bother the Teacher (…Teacher?) anymore?  They do not understand Jesus’ power.  Therefore, they cannot know who he is.  Their faith was only large enough for a healing.  It didn’t allow for raising of the dead.  Elijah could do it.  Elisha could too but this carpenter from Nazareth?  Doubtful.  He’s no Elijah.

Darn tootin’ he ain’t.  The amazing thing is, Jesus takes that weak seed and cracks it wide open.  He doesn’t shake his head at the missed opportunity and walk away when they bid him cease.  He offers Jairus a chance to go deeper.  To KNOW the man he’s appealed to.  To reward his faith with deeper faith! 

Both men’s faith was tested in the same way.  Having great faith does not save you from trouble.  Nor does God go easier on weak faith.  Both were in danger of losing someone they loved dearly.  The flood will rise.  “12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1Pete 4)   Is your faith strong?  Then the trial will only affirm your faith is well placed!  Is your faith weak?  Then the suffering will only reveal more of Christ to you!  Rejoice!  It matters little how much faith you have, only who it is in!  This is the source of Christian lunacy!  Do we want to see Jesus?  Do we want greater faith?  Then we almost need pray for suffering to come!  Storms to arise so beyond our control we cry out!  “My God, my God!  Why have you forsaken me?”  The darker the storm, the more sure we must be of who he is.  And the greatest storm is death!  How great will Jesus’ glory be among the nations when those fools who lived for him and died anyway or even because of him, with nothing in their lives to show for it, are raised up on the Last Day!  We can even succumb to the storm; go down with the ship because our God is GREATER!  Do not fear!  Do not hesitate to fall at his feet!  It is the safest place to be!

Two Worlds, One God

“22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.”

“26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.”

(Luke 8)

One of the things I love about the Word is, no matter how many times I read a passage, there’s still more there to see, more to learn, more gold to mine from it.  Luke 8 is turning out to be a rich strike.  Here we have two incidents: the calming of the storm and the healing of the Gerasene or Gadarene demoniac.  Two examples of Christ’s power and authority.  One over the elements, over the world without, over the conditions, circumstances, trials and storms surrounding us.  One over the world within, the devils, temptations, sins and trials and storms that rage across the surface of our souls.

First the world without.  Disease, economy, joblessness, relationships, families, live long enough, pay attention and you will get pummeled in all these areas.  How are we going to pay for this?  Why must I be alone?  Why must they leave?  How are we going to make it through this?  Lord, why cancer?  Why cancer again?  Why hospice?  Lord, we’re drowning in debt?  Lord, we’re losing her!  We’re losing him!  He’s totally turned his back on us and You and we don’t know what to do!  And these are just the fears and worries of a first world nation.  Talk to our Christian brothers and sisters in China, Nigeria, Russia and the middle East and the fear of persecution, prison and death make the cry,“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” a bit more authentic.  It is very easy to believe that Jesus is asleep at the wheel, doesn’t care or worse, is just a good teacher.  A prophet, maybe, but the all-powerful Son of God?  C’mon.   

Then there’s the world within.  We are born depraved.  We are raised up by people who at best, war with their own selfish, ingrown, depraved natures to provide for us but our best attempts at love are only transactional manipulations to get love.  Which only provides the illusion of love.  Not true love.  Not true communion.  We are driven by our desires.  We are driven by our lusts.  We are driven by our fears.  Driven by our needs to solitary places.  Where eventually we succumb.  Entropy is a spiritual law too.  Disillusionment becomes cynicism, cynicism becomes bitterness, bitterness despair.  Spoiled becomes egocentric, egocentric becomes narcissistic, narcissistic delusional.  Insecure becomes anxious, anxious becomes full of fear, fear is a tyrant.  We are witnessing the effects of this across our culture, across our world.  When we deny God’s authority, we are free to fill the vacuum.  When we elevate ourselves to godhood, nothing we do is wrong.  Our whims, our desires, our lusts, our depravity, our demons rule.

But Jesus.

Jesus can sleep in a storm because he knows who his Father is.  He knows who rules the deep.  Who rules the winds.  He knows his mission, his purpose and whom he serves.  He knows nothing can stand in the way of Him.  He even knows should the waves overcome the boat, should they sink, should they die, His Father is able to overcome death!  Overcome physics!  Who knows?  If the disciples had instead of waking Jesus in a tizzy, had knelt and prayed, the storm would not have ceased?  If the boat though it sunk, they would have rested upon the waves as if they were solid?  If the water would not have parted and they walked to the Gadarenes?  If they would not have been lifted in the Spirit to dry land?  If they would not have died and found themselves alive anyhow on shore?  The question Jesus asks upon rebuking the wind and sea is telling, “Where is your faith?”  Is it in oars and sails, sweat and blood, in flesh?  Is it in the world you can see?  Or is it somewhere the winds and waves cannot touch?

And how often must the naked man have cut himself among the bones of the dead and cried out for deliverance, even death?  How deep was his despair?  How hopeless was his situation?  All internal though it was?  Was he a Jew?  Did he know God?  How often do we who know Christ as Savior wonder when we will be free of our sin?  How many times must we fall prey to the same temptation?  Will God ever give us victory over this?  How can I be a child of God and still struggle with This??  If Jesus came to us in our low moments and asked us our name, asked who we are, would we answer, “unworthy,” “ashamed,” “fallen,” “wretched,” “adulterer, murderer, pervert, child of wrath, drunkard, sluggard, Legion!”? 

But Jesus.

Casually, dismissively, with nary a wave of his hand, heals us, cleanses us, forgives us, restores us!  Look at the cross!  This is our God!  This is what He has done!  The man we worship, this Jesus, is the same today as he was then! 

It is paramount, imperative, absolutely essential then we understand a few things more!  These revelations of who Jesus is come in storms!  They come in despair!  God is not afraid of what horrifies us, nor is He afraid to use it for His purposes.  Storms don’t mean judgment for the believer!  They might mean discipline but the message is always the same, “Where is your faith?”  Do you live for this life or the next?  Do you think you have to be pure to be loved or do you believe you were made pure because you were loved?!

Second, God is not obligated to calm our storms, to drive out every demon from our lives.  He showed His power then so we could have faith in Him now!  Only He knows the end from the beginning.  The thief on the cross wasn’t magically teleported down from it when he believed in Jesus.  He died with his legs splintered from a hammer and his lungs filling with water.  As far as we know, all the disciples were martyred and it’s a pretty safe bet, most of them sinned right up until the axe fell.  God is concerned with our comfort and He understands our fear but He has a far different view of it than we.  And He will gladly sacrifice our temporary, hundred years of earthly happiness and contentment for an eternity of mind-blowingly-boffo-boggling bliss with Him!  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!  And praise Him who alone what Blessing is doth know!

Who's in the boat?

“22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (Luke 8)

Whew!  Tense!  Glad we’re not in that boat!  Or are we?  In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m mildly obsessed with the question, “What are we to do?”  Jesus has done all required for us to be saved.  We have his righteousness.  Nothing we did to save ourselves mattered.  Only by falling on His mercy can we enter into the Kingdom of God.  It is finished.  Done.  Put that baby to bed cuz it’s passed out on the couch… or the back of the boat.  So maybe it isn’t so much, “What are we to do?” but “What are we to do NOW?”

“19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  ...” (Gal 2)  Something significant happened the day I believed.  The day I chose Jesus’ righteousness over mine, I died and was raised again as something wholly, holy different… on the inside.  This I think is one of the problems the world has with ‘born again’ Christians.  They don’t SEE a difference.  We don’t glow.  We don’t change color or shape or size.  We are sealed by God, “13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Eph 1) but it is a seal like those at the amusement park; no one can see it until it fluoresces under Holy light.  It is a guarantee of a future inheritance.  We are royalty!  We are rich!  We are immortal!  We are holy!  Trust me, you just can’t see it yet.

Unless we have deeds.

How would a royal, beloved prince of the only all-sovereign King of the Universes, secure in his throne, not because of anything he had done but strictly and only because of who his father is, surrounded by legions of loyal, all-powerful bodyguards act?  How would he treat the lowly?  How would he treat his brothers?  How would a woman, rich beyond her wildest dreams and perfectly secure in all her future incomes, with so much wealth coming in, she can’t even contemplate savings because no vault could hold it for even a minute, how would this woman in a waterfall of wealth, handle finances?  Treat the poor?  How would a man who could not die, feel about death?  What would he fear?  How would a woman, stolen as a child, beaten, abused, raped and used, bought and sold until she learned to beat, abuse, rape and use, buy and sell others, who then is rescued and washed, healed and loved, pampered and restored to utterly blinding, ravishing beauty and glory by a husband fairy-tale perfect, spend her time?  Her money?  Her love?  Her forgiveness?  How would a people with the greatest message in all of time and space spend their few, short years in time and space?

I’ll tell ya how: in a boat in a storm.  Look at this story from Luke 8.  Jesus has come and done all he thought he needed to do.  And it was a lot.  Read over the list of miracles, crowds, long nights spent in prayer and walking he has done.  He’s crashed.  He’s sleeping the sleep of the honest innocent in the back of the boat.  Arrayed in front of him are his handpicked, chosen men, fully invested, fully devoted followers… fighting for their lives!  At least half of them are fishermen from this very lake, probably as the balladeer sings, sons of sons of sons of sailors.  They know how to do what they are doing.  They’ve done this before.  Tonight however, their ticket is punched.  Their luck has run out, they’ve done all they can and it wasn’t enough.  They have been weighed, measured and found wanting.  And it irks them that the guy responsible for them being here is asleep for it.  So, darn tootin’ they wake him up! 

“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?””   Luke sugar-coats it, we can forgive him, he wasn’t there.  Matt and Mark, who I’m told, got the story direct from Peter, record Jesus’ words a bit differently, “40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”” (Matt 8, Mark 4)  It sounds harsh until you realize even Jonah, the hardhearted and wayward prophet of fish food fame, knew his God well enough to sleep during storms and was completely confident in His ability to still them as well. 

So what do we learn?  How does this answer my burning question?  “What are we to do now?”  The story tells us.

Secondly, we obey.  (Yeah, I know, stick with me.)  Jesus said, “Let’s go”.  They went.  Some storms come because, like Jonah, we don’t obey.  We who are his, need to read the Word, pray to the Word and listen to the Word and see where the Word is telling us to go.  Third, go.  Action.  Jesus wanted to go across a lake.  They did not sit on a beach and pray for a miracle.  They did not step onto the water and expect it not to give.  They went and got a boat and sailed and when the wind became too dangerous, they rowed.  They worked.  They did what they knew how to do.  Some of them, like Matt the accountant, had to learn new skills.  And that’s it.  Pretty simple, huh?

If we do the first thing first: have faith.  Faith, as I’ve tried to show ad nauseam, is knowing.  We need to be with Jesus.  We need to have Jesus in the boat when we go.   But most of all, we need to know. Who. Jesus. IS.  We don’t bring Jesus with us, we are with HIM.

On the surface, these men were faithful.  They were obedient.  They were following Jesus.  In their hearts however, they had no idea who Jesus is.  They were following what they saw.  Jesus leads them right into a storm.  Following Jesus doesn’t mean life will make sense, today.  In this story, as in Jonah’s, the boat and the sailors are saved.  In Acts 27, Paul’s boat is lost but everyone on board is spared.  Paul lives… to finish going to Rome where he is beheaded.  Following Jesus doesn’t ensure a happy ending…that the world can SEE!  Everyone Jesus healed, died.  Everyone Jesus raised from the dead, died again.  If we live for what we can see, we will die.  If we die, living for what we cannot see, what we know without seeing, we. Will. Live!  And maybe, just maybe, someone else will see THAT and believe!

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1Pet 1)