Rabbit Trail eighty-something

Warbunny! Witness!

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!

The Plot for Global Domination

“9 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.” (Luke 9)

You know the problem with most conspiracy theories?  They assume a level of long-view, patriotic, sacrificial altruism which does not normally exist in humans.  Man is a damselfly upon the earth, here today and tomorrow thrown into the fire.  Men who want power, do not want it someday for their theoretical great, great grandchildren…they want it today!  For themselves.  At most we can read of kings and emperors who, when eventually coming to grips with their own mortality, want to secure kingdoms for their immediate children and talk of eternal legacies though even this is usually a selfish attempt to be remembered and revered.  But shadowy individuals, perfectly content to remain anonymous throughout centuries so they can carefully, painstakingly orchestrate events to bring about an outcome favorable to people who’s ancestors haven’t even been born yet?  It defies not only logic and empirical observation but biology as well.

Only the immortal can hatch eternal plots.  And even they are not looking far into the future because they are outside Time.  It is an immediate plot to them.  We see God choose one man and over five hundred years build his family into a nation.  We see Him take His nation and inject His Holy Law into them and place them in a land.  We see Him wait two thousand years as they rise and fall and rise and fall again and again like toddlers learning to walk.  When the time is right, we see Him send His only beloved Son to them as one of them.  A baby in a backwater town of a backwater country in an armpit of an empire which only represents a third of the world.  We read here in Luke of this Son, lovingly, patiently investing in twelve ordinary men; giving them the keys of the Eternal Kingdom!  The Son then performs the One Act which no one else could do to save us all from sin and death.  And then he jets. Those twelve men spread the good news of the Son to a small segment of the world’s population.  One by one they die.  The news continues to spread through those who believe it.  Like a campfire jumping its ring of rocks, little delicate sparks carried by the wind they know not where to ignite the dry hearts in which they come to rest.  The fire spreads, sometimes dying out in one place and raging in another, always on the move, always spreading.  Until two thousand years later, despite the devil’s hooves frantic stamping, no patch of Earth exists where there cannot be found evidence of its passing. 

It is a plot for global domination which even if man could devise, he would never actually implement for he stood nothing to gain in his own lifetime.  But Jesus is eternal.  The eternal can afford patience.  He can sit in his hard earned throne at the right hand of God and gather his martyred lambs to himself in ones and twos.  He can give his fire time to do its work so all will have the chance to hear and receive the Truth.  He can allow the devil’s own schemes to run in apparent unchecked savagery for a few short millennia for he knows the End is coming soon and what is ten thousand years to an Eternity in Paradise?  He knows he will not lose even one lamb given to Him by the Father, even if they haven’t been born yet. 

So today, we may feel insignificant.  We may feel helpless.  The situation, the world may look hopeless.  It may appear as if God has lost, is sleeping or does not care.  But remember your God!  Remember who He is! 

“8 “Remember this and stand firm,


    recall it to mind, you transgressors,

9      remember the former things of old;


for I am God, and there is no other;


    I am God, and there is none like me,

10 declaring the end from the beginning


    and from ancient times things not yet done,


saying, My counsel shall stand,


    and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

11 calling a bird of prey from the east,


    the man of my counsel from a far country.


I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;


    I have purposed, and I will do it.

12 “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,


    you who are far from righteousness:

13 I bring near my righteousness;

it is not far off,


    and my salvation will not delay;


I will put salvation in Zion,


    for Israel my glory.” (Is 46)

You serve this God!  You carry the Fire!  You have the keys to the Kingdom!  You who have heard and believed and love the Good News!  Go, proclaim, spread the fire and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against you!

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!

Signs and Wonders

“As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”” (Luke 8)

I’ve visited and attended a lot of churches in my time.  I’ve been on many a prayer list.  Online networks are awash with folk asking for prayer.  By informal survey, I could sum up probably ninety percent of those requests in one word: Healing.

I’ve never met anyone who likes being sick.  Even hypochondriacs only do it for the attention.  Our bodies live in houses and our souls live in bodies.  If we don’t like living in decrepit, broken houses infested with bugs, we don’t like something being wrong or unwelcome invaders in our bodies even more.  It hits a little too close to home, if you take my meaning.  We want health.  We dream of perfect bodies.  We long for immortality.  Disease and Death strike us as wrong as robbers breaking into our homes.

And it was no different in Jesus’ day.  The crowds thronging him were not always there to hear a good if confusing and slightly disturbing sermon.  If they were anything like us, which since they were people, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume they were, they probably preferred their physical needs met before their spiritual ones, hands down.

And Jesus obliged many of them.  My question is this: Why?

No one Jesus healed or raised from the dead is still with us so it stands to reason they all got sick again and died.  So the point was obviously not a permanent fix for our flesh.  Christ didn’t turn us into superhumans.  Likewise we can safely assume it was not a visible sign of one’s admittance into the kingdom.  We who have come later still get sick and die and accounts like the ten lepers in Luke 17 and the parable of the sower show how unbound our hearts are to our benefactor much less simple gratitude. 

Thirdly, this account of the woman with the discharge of blood (what a horrible moniker to go through history with!) completely eliminates the possibility of Jesus healing simply because he wanted to, because of his pity and sympathy.  He didn’t even know whom he had healed here.  The power of the Spirit does this without Jesus’ consent or compliance.  He’s just walkin’ ovah heah, a touch of a hem and Pow!  Power’s a’flowin’ like lightning.  Immediately, it says, immediately she knew she was healed.  Wow!  How cool is that? 

And yet, she’s dead.  Somewhere down the line, she caught something else, her body wore out or she met with an unfortunate accident and she died.  So what was it all for?  A little momentary comfort?  Is that all Jesus offers?  Is that all our salvation is good for?  A little momentary comfort?  Are we, like the atheists say, just clinging to some spiritual sweetener to ease the bitter pill of living?  Especially when all living means eventual death?  Do we come to Jesus just for temporary relief of minor aches and suffering?

Perish the thought.

“43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit.” (Luke 6)

“48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” (John 4)

“It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” (Heb 2)

God is testifying through the signs and wonders to whom Jesus is so we may see and believe!  What tree he is.  And what tree is he?

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’” (Rev 2)

We’ve spoken of this before but it’s worth repeating…Jesus is the Tree of Life, the Bread of Life, the Water of Life!  All who come to him in faith and humility shall have life abundant, life eternal.  He sits enthroned on the right hand of God in the sanctuary of the new Jerusalem and “through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev 22)  He is not just meant to be taken once, he is our SOURCE!  He is the Vine, we are the branches, we wither and die without a constant replenishing of Him.  Just as we wither and die if we do not eat, do not drink.  We must remain attached to Him! 

So what does this say about healing?  In Genesis 3 God says to God, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”  Is it possible Adam and Eve had been in the garden all this time and never bothered to eat the fruit which would let them live forever?  Just slipped their minds did it?  Was on their “to do” list for tomorrow maybe?  Not likely.  As the Tree of Life in Revelations shows, this is not a once and done thing, this is a constant replenishment.  There is a new fruit every month.  God has never intended us to be independent of Him.  Just as a husband is never meant to be independent of his wife.  Just as a child isn’t meant to be independent of their parents.  Just as God isn’t even independent of Himself.  Jesus and the Father are in constant communion through the Spirit, perfect love, perfect submission.  Adam and Eve were always meant to eat of the Tree of Life.  This is how they lived forever.  This is what healed their bodies.  This is what the Angel with the flaming sword divided them from after the Fall.

Jesus, the Vine, the Bread, the Water of Life, came to earth then and just touching him in faith and humility was enough to taste the fruit of the Tree again!  There is much more to say, just as Jesus had much more to show us but we aren’t ready to receive it yet.  We are so broken, so lost, so wounded, so starving, so dehydrated and we don’t even have the barest clue as to our need.  We’ve barely scratched the surface in the parable in the suffering and death of our bodies.  Everything we need is Him and He is too much to comprehend at a glance, it will take eternity to learn to love Him but for today, it is enough to crawl on the earth and touch the hem of his garment and let the healing start.

Like Watching Grass Grow

“15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8)

When Rabbit ran out to get snacks and cream soda before the game, he paused the DVR so he wouldn’t miss the first pitch.  When Tortoise ran out to get snacks and sarsaparilla, he packed an overnight bag.  Some things move fast.  Some things…not so much.  God worked on Moses and Joshua eighty years before their hearts and the timing was right for their calling.  Samuel and Jeremiah were just kids when God came a knockin’.  Jesus spent three years training the disciples, no more than that and quite possibly less with Paul and the Holy Spirit came upon John the Baptist in the womb!  All this is to say, God’s timing is not ours.

Much of this is perception.  To an assembly line worker with little reason to hope for and less ambition to ever being much more than an assembly line worker, one day is nothing.  It’s just one more day.  To a mayfly, it’s a lifetime and life is frighteningly short.  Same twenty-four hour period, the emphasis comes from us.  Make that same assembly line worker a mother with her in-laws coming to visit for the first time tomorrow and she suddenly sympathizes with the mayfly.

Some of us have distinct, marvelous, miraculous conversions.  We can name the date.  Friends (and former friends) can say, “Yeah, they used to fill in the blank but then they found Jesus.”  Praise God, He filled in the blank with His Body and Blood!  The change felt like it happened in an instant.  God’s Spirit crashed on us like a wave!  We emerged from the water something totally new.  Now we are in the glorious Anno Domini Nostri Iesu! 

Others of us, myself included, it’s a bit murkier.  Raised in the church, I have always believed and felt myself to be a child of God.  There was no date I can point to as Before Christ.  It’s been more of a climb on a wooded mountain with stunning overlooks to show me how far God has brought me.  A fitful, uneven learning process in God’s school of Grace for a woeful student.  Some of our journeys will look like Rabbit’s with Mayfly’s sense of the shortness of time.  Some of us will plod along like Tortoise, barely sensing the distance traveled or the time passing.  We will blink and open our eyes in eternity.  Albeit we will go through times of both.

And Jesus knows this.  Heck, this is the first time I’ve read the Parable of the Sower and noticed the word “patience” at the end.  Which leads me to wonder, whose patience are we talking about here?  The soil’s or the Sower’s?

So to fruit and farmers.  Mark doesn’t include the word “patience.”  Instead, he follows the Parable of the Sower with a parable Luke does not.  “26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4)  This is not a picture of instant gratification.  Whoever the Farmer is here, Jesus or us, and I could make arguments for either so God being God, it’s probably both, he does not expect fruit the same day he drops the seed.  He knows there is much work to be done.  Much which must go right, sunlight and rain, and much which must not happen at all, pests and blight, before he will be tasting the fruit of his labor.

Now here’s the hitch in this holy harangue; “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, *PATIENCE*, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control”.  (Gal 5)  There are not many fruits of the Spirit.  This is not gifts where you get joy and I get self-con.. (yeah, I can’t even pretend I get self-control for the sake of illustration) and I get gentleness.  The fruit of the Spirit is not myriad.  It is one.  It is a multi-vitamin.  All of these attributes are in the one fruit God is growing in the floodplain of our souls.  Now, did one stand out to you?  Maybe as you read the list, one quality leapt off the page at you?  Perhaps the fourth one?

Patience, which we need to grow the fruit, is in the fruit we are trying to grow!  Ain’t that a kick in the caboose?  We have to grow the fruit we need to have in order to grow the fruit!  Chickens and Eggs! 

All that is to say this: when life gets you down, when God feels distant, when sin feels overwhelming, when your spiritual journey is waiting at the station or worse, you just looked up and realized you are on the wrong train going the wrong direction and have been for the last forty years, when all this talk of faith showing itself in obedience brings you guilt, when you cannot bear to watch the news or sitcoms or reality shows or even turn on your teevee because of how far from God we’ve become as a nation or a world, when you don’t feel like praying and then feel guilty for not feeling like praying, when a conversation ends and you know, you KNOW you should have included Jesus in it but didn’t, when the money runs out, when you doubt your calling or even if you were called in the first place, when the devil on your shoulder doesn’t seem to have an angelic counterpart on the opposite shoulder, when you’ve given in, given out and given up, when all seems lost, when night just won’t end; remember this…

In Genesis 3 God told Adam,

“cursed is the ground because of you;


    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;


    and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face


    you shall eat bread,


till you return to the ground,

         for out of it you were taken;”

This means all those things are to be expected.  Life is hard now.  Growing fruit is hard now for us…

But it’s just as cursed for GOD!  Did God curse the ground as a punishment?  Or was He just telling Adam what Adam’s sin had done?  For them both!  For now, God, who planted good crop in Adam and Even, had tares among His wheat.  The love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control He was growing would come with much more work now, at much greater cost to Himself!  It would cost His own Son!  For Jesus would be planted in the ground.  At the cross he would lovingly, joyfully, peacefully, patiently, kindly, goodly, faithfully, gently and in full control of himself and all the vengeful hosts of Heaven who wanted to rip us limb from limb, fall to the ground and die, be planted in the earth and three days later be taken out of it!  And from this one seed, a tree is growing, a vine is growing and spreading out branches to cover the whole Earth!  Nothing can stop Him!  Nothing can impede Him!  What He has begun, He will complete.  You are His!  He will bring you to fruition!

Just be patient.

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)

How Do We Do?

“17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1Cor 1)

I fell asleep on my face in my prayers this morning.  It’s not the weird patterns of the carpet left on my forehead or the thought of someone finding me in this undignified state which bothers me.  It’s this: if this is how my day starts, how can I hope to accomplish the works of God?  Where does the believer, the saved, the saint get the energy to live a life set apart?  A holy life?  A life lived for God?

I make lots words.  I draw funny pictures.  They have a point and I spend a lot of time and effort on them and I want to see their impact.  I believe they are at least in part, my calling.  When I don’t see direct ripples from the pebbles I’m tossing I get discouraged.  When I’m reminded I’m not doing enough to pay the bills, I doubt my calling.  To make matters worse, the sinful side of me wants to be glorified for them.  Where does the power come from to keep going?  To trust?  To overcome myself?

I was deeply effected in church on Sunday.  The hymns, the music, the words, the power of fellowship with so many others… it was worship!  Moments like those, where God feels so close and life makes so much more sense, are precious and few.  Like time alone in nature.  Like time spent holding a sleeping baby.  Life has such a clear purpose and meaning then.  How does one keep going when so much of the rest of life is Scottish?  Cold, wet, gray and ruled by someone else.  Paul, who knew something of hardship and suffering, tells us…

The Cross. 

For all its doctrines, for all its teachings, for all the volumes of words in the myriads of books printed about it, ours is a simple faith:  “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5)  Get knocked on the noggin and forget everything else but keep this deeply tucked away and engraved in the center of your life and you will be just fine.

Pray it in the morning.  Repeat it at night.  Say it over every meal.  Whisper it before every fight.  Write it on every check, dollar and bill.  Cry it in the valley, sing it on the hill.  I love the way a cross marks a spot.  It draws the eye.  It centers.  It focuses.  It says, “Here!  Look here!”  The Cross sits in the center of History.  Hardly noticed by the residents of a single city at the time, it is now and forever the single most important event ever.  We must not grow weary of it.  We must not take it for granted.  We must remember!  It is the source of our strength, the source of our joy, the source of our faith!  It is by what we judge and why we don’t.  It’s how we forgive and why we’re forgiven.  Even the strength we use to remember it comes from it.  Wheels within wheels.  The Spirit testifies continually about the blood of Jesus, the grace of Jesus.  The Spirit is in us!  “7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2Tim 1)

So do whatever you must to keep this center!  “18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.” (Deut 11)

 “3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;


    bind them around your neck;

write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Prov 3)

“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb 5)

Amen.