Crane Kick

Mondays...

Jesus' classified ad

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest that he send out workers into his harvest.” (Luke 10)

If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s hard to know when you’ve arrived.  One of the drawbacks of being a finite being bound by time is not knowing the difference between the Mission and the Training.  We dwellers of the valley, on our first trip from birth to death, can only see the hill in front of us.  Jesus, walking with us, having had an angel’s eye view of the whole landscape or rather having designed and built the entire landscape, tries to tell us here what’s on the other side of the hill…

A mountain.

Listen, he is not saying this before choosing the twelve…he’s chosen the twelve.  He’s not saying this before sending out the twelve, he’s sent the twelve and they’ve returned already.  This precedes the sending of the seventy-two (were the twelve counted among them?).  If he wants these disciples to go out into the fields of the world and pray that God sends workers for the harvest, then this isn’t the harvest!  This is the training!

Realizing that we can go back to Luke 9 and see it for what it is: preparation, sorting, training.  Beginning with the sending of the twelve with nothing but the shirts on their backs and the sandals on their feet.  Coming back elated from what must have felt like the mission, the twelve empty-handed, hungry disciples are told to feed five thousand men, their wives, children, uncounted women and servants.  One of the only miracles recorded in all four gospels.  In John 6 we see how Jesus uses even this miracle to winnow down his disciples and to purify the motives of the remaining.  “66 For this reason many of his disciples drew back and were not walking with him any longer.” 

But he’s not finished.  He bolsters three with the Transfiguration.  He decries their lack of faith with the demon possessed boy.  He tries to warn them this is not the mountain, by telling them about his trial and execution to come.  He rebukes Peter for thinking about this in worldly terms.  He rebukes them for denominationalism.  He rebukes them for seeking their own glory.  He rebukes them for racism.  Far from letting them become hands of vengeance against Samaritans who reject Jesus, he tells them by another Samaritan well, “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already. 36 The one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, in order that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37 For in this instance the saying is true, ‘It is one who sows and another who reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have worked, and you have entered into their work.” (John 4) 

In all these stories he is laying out the guidelines, the job description, the classified ad he is running for the job of “worker.” 

         Wanted: lamb-like child to send among wolves.  Must be wily as serpent, innocent as dove.  Must seek to serve all and be willing to love boss more than family, security, home and life.  May include some martyring.  Will train and supply all tools and meals*. 

         *Meals may include but are not limited to: “food is that I do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work.”

And we the applicants come and ask, “What shall we do that we can accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one whom that one sent.” (John 6)  “13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, for I am. 14 If then I—your Lord and Teacher—wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that just as I have done for you, you also do. 16 Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand these things, you are blessed if you do them.”  34 “A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another—just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” (John 13) 

If you believe in the one God sent, rejoice, “rejoice that your names are inscribed in heaven.” (Luke 10)  You are called, you are chosen!  He will never lose you or reject you!  So, “go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9)  And if you fail, if no one listens, if no one cares, if it feels like you’re wasting your time or worse, if you succeed, if all listen, if many come, if all is going well remember this:

This could just be the training hill.

No Sleep Till...

“10 On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. 11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.” (Luke 9)

I get the impression Jesus was a “I’ll-sleep-when-I’m-dead” kinda guy.  When the time came to begin his ministry it was like he knew a clock was ticking and he had but three short years to do all he meant to do besides all of the unscheduled stuff he would want to do along the way.  He taught and healed until late into the evening often and we’re told he spent a lot of nights and early mornings praying.  He had a goal it would seem: he wanted to come to the end of his life with nothing left to give having given it all away.  To die flush, so to speak. 

It also appears this wasn’t just an ingrained habit with him.  It wasn’t just something he picked up from Joseph in the workshop.  A family trait.  Good breeding.  It was a credo.  A conscious belief in how it should be done which he tried to pass on to his followers.  Take this passage in Luke for instance. 

The disciples, the twelve, were sent out in two man teams to preach, heal and drive out demons from all the nearby towns.  They went on a mission trip.  Exciting!  Exhilarating!  Exhausting!  These are not professional missionaries and from what I’ve read and learned of professional missionaries, the most common killer among them is burnout.  The mission field is taxing!  The point of the spear feels very alone.  They were walking with fear and anxiety in every step and Jesus made sure they would by telling them to take nothing for the journey, in some versions, not even a staff!  They didn’t know where they’d eat.  If they would eat.  Where they would sleep.  If they’d be arrested.  Beaten.  Killed!  You know the feeling you get in your stomach right before you try and tell some stranger about Jesus?  Yeah, extend that over all day, every day for who knows how long and throw in a very real chance they will kill you.  We’re not told how long their mission was but when they came back, you can guess they wanted to regale, rejoice and REST! 

And Jesus is not indifferent.  He wants those things too.  Remember, he loves these knuckleheads.  “30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” (Mark 6)

They get into “the” boat.  This is Mark who I’m told got his story from Peter.  “The” boat is probably Pete’s boat.  This may be confirmed by their destination as told by Luke, Bethsaida.  Pete’s hometown (John 1).  So they get into a boat and Pete sets sail for home.  Where else would you want to go to rest?  When was the last time he had seen his family?  Home and hearth and Mama’s fresh baked bread.  MMMMMmmmmfff, I can almost smell it! 

Alas, it was not to be.  “33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6)  Please, please mark, this is not planned!  Jesus didn’t see this coming!  He was sincerely trying to get some rest and alone time for his followers and himself.  He could smell that bread too!  He had a tummy!  But Jesus, when forced to choose between loving his closest companions by giving them rest and loving a crowd by giving them healing and the Word, chooses the latter.  Jesus goes with the greater need! 

Jesus.  Is always.  On.  Mission.

And if the Chief Shepherd is at work, then you can bet your bottom denarius the undershepherds are busy too.  Not just from incidental contact but willfully.  “12 Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” 13 But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9)  The twelve, the dirty dozen, have just come off a mission trip, where they were specifically told to take no provision for the journey, they returned and had no time to eat because of the crowd, they got into a boat, tummies grumbling and plopped out here…to another crowd!  They got nothing!  Jesus, look.  We get the whole, rely on God thing!  Kay?  We saw how people took us in while on the little mission trip.  Kay?  We get it!  But look around!  People, people everywhere but not a crumb to eat!  Kay?  These people can’t feed themselves!  How are we supposed to feed them?

I don’t know if Jesus smiled wryly or was slightly disappointed, but I can picture him either way saying, “What say you?  Where do you think the food on your journeys came from?  Did it come from men or from your Father who sees you and knows what you need?”  Then as if to prove the point, Jesus blesses five loaves and two fish and feeds five thousand men, untold numbers of women and wives, countless children and possible slaves.

Jesus lives at a breakneck pace.  Jesus gives as if there will always be more.  Jesus loves with reckless abandon.  Because Jesus knows whom His Father is!  You cannot exhaust the inexhaustible!  God is infinite!  In-fin-ite!  Without end!  You are finite!  You need rest.  You need to eat.

But Jesus, which is getting to be my favorite phrase, says, “32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” (Luke 12) 

Work now, give now, stay on mission!  We’ll sleep when we’re resurrected!

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)

Run Otter. Ruuuuuunn!

“33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;


    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Rom 8)

Close your eyes.  Wait.  No, open them again.  That only works when you can hear me speaking.  Pretend your eyes are closed.  Take a deep breath.  Innnnnn.  Hold it. 

Now sloooooooly let it out.

Focus on Justification.  Do you see it in this verse from Romans?  See how it’s complete?  You believe Jesus died for you.  You believe He rose from the dead and sits on God’s right hand.  It is finished.  Your sins are forgiven.  You will someday sit with Him.  He has promised.  You are His and He will not lose you for anything.  Right here, right now, you stand before the Holy God, Justified through Christ Jesus. 

Let’s do another breath.  Aaaaaaah.  Justification feels goooood!

Okay, pretend to open your eyes.

“3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.” (1Thes 4)

Roll up your sleeves.  Dust off your Bible.  Find a soft spot for your knees.  This is Sanctification.  This is work.

Both Justification and Sanctification are accomplished by God’s grace through Jesus.  The power for both come from the Cross.  One however is done.  Your status as a son or daughter of God, a co-heir with Christ, a royal prince of the kingdom, is secured.  You are justified.  Like a trophy on a shelf, JUSTIFIED!  No one can take it from you.  Look at it every morning, noon and night and receive joy and strength for today’s race!

When we confuse Justification for Sanctification, we get legalism.  Our standing with God rises and falls with our performance.  We experience God’s pleasure only based upon our own opinion of how yesterday went.  Instead of falling on God’s grace and mercy when we sin, we fall into despair and despondency.  “Will I ever get it right, Lord?”  There is remorse in bucket loads but not repentance.  Conversely, when we think we’ve been getting it right, we are insufferable:  judgmental, arrogant, without compassion on those struggling with sin.  This is Matthew 7: 21-23.  Instead of experiencing God’s grace through prayer, scripture, repentance and good works, we try to earn grace through these things.  We try to buy joy and peace thereby in reality, robbing ourselves of the fruit of the Spirit.  Legalism is a two inch worm stretching out thinking all it has to do to enter God’s kingdom is be a three inch worm.  God’s cocking his head and saying, “Um, no, you have to be an otter.”  Can you make yourself an otter?  I didn’t think so.  So relax, little worm, believe in Jesus, trust Him.  He’s made you an otter.

Sanctification is the race we run today.  The big one’s done.  Our team, through our champion, has already won.  We’re on the podium with Him.  This race will just determine where we stand upon it.  How big a crown we’ll wear there.  How much glory we bring to our Lord when we throw that crown at his feet and we, who the world sees standing upon that podium, honored, glorified, sanctified by the undisputed, all-powerful, all-glorious King of all Universes, step down and fall on our faces before Him.  We don’t run this race for our glory.  We run this race to have something more to offer to Him when we get there! 

This is the Parable of the Talents in Matthew twenty-five.  This is why God is so displeased with the last servant who went and buried his.  This selfish servant said, “Good enough is good enough.  I’ll be happy just being justified.  Sanctification is too much work.  I’m in, that’s all that matters.”  This servant is all about this servant.  He does not love his Lord.  Jesus’ sacrifice is about him.  It does not move him toward Jesus.  Toward love.  The Master remarks there isn’t even a trace of baseline gratitude and obviously therefore no justification either and kicks this jerk to the curb.

When we confuse Sanctification for Justification, we get synchrotism.  Our standing with God cannot change no matter what we do now.  It’s all grace, baby.  Freedom.  So we live however we please.  We’re otters living in the mud instead of in the Living Water.  Instead of bringing glory to our Father, we bring shame.  We abuse our freedom to bring pleasure to ourselves.  We live for ourselves.  We justify ourselves and our own actions.  “Hey, this is how God made me.  Take it or leave it.”  There is no repentance, because very little we do is “wrong.”  How could it be?  I’m a justified child of God.  Obedience and submission are not paths to love; they are dirty words.  Spirituality is supreme.  If it feels good, do it.  Synchrotism is an arranged marriage where the bride-to-be has decided her beau is lucky to be getting “all dis!”  She then takes “all dis!” and sells it on the street corner to buy herself a new Lexus.

We cannot confuse the two; legalism is not love for“21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Gal 3)  Nor is self-justification,  “26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Heb 10)  Both trample on the Son of God.  Both treat, as Hebrews says, “as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and [insult] the Spirit of grace”!  That’s not love!  We’ve been called to something so much better, invited by Love, justified by love, into Love so “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer (justifier) and perfecter (sanctifier) of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb 12)

Run Otter!  Ruuuuuuun!

Work it, Baby!

“34 I will bless the Lord at all times;


    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;


    let the humble hear and be glad.

3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,


    and let us exalt his name together!

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me


    and delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant,


    and their faces shall never be ashamed.” (Ps 34)

It is my fear one could read the last few posts and think I preach a gospel of works.  All my emphasis on action and what we do could be misconstrued.  If Jesus’ had and has his words twisted and confused so easily by so many, I certainly will not be immune.  But let the fault not be one of not having worked hard enough to clear up this issue of works.  Come, there is work to do.

“6 Go to the ant, O sluggard;


    consider her ways, and be wise.

7 Without having any chief,


    officer, or ruler,

8 she prepares her bread in summer


    and gathers her food in harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?


    When will you arise from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    

a little folding of the hands to rest,

11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,


    and want like an armed man.” (Prov 6)

From the time God put Adam in the Garden he gave him something to do.  Something Adam must obey.  It is fairly obvious God is a God of action and those who follow him must likewise be on the move.  Rest is a gift given in cycles of seven.  Six parts work, one part rest.  Peace is found in our labor.  How can that be?  God is in our labor…

“12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,


    for you have indeed done for us all our works.” (Is 26)

If there is one thing God has labored in me and through me to help us see it is this: God is love and love is perfect submission and communion to the other.  The expression, “I don’t know where I stop and you begin,” comes close.  The fact is: there is no stop!  We’re moving towards Him, He’s moving towards us, we are in Him, He is in us!  He is drawing us into His Oneness!  This is what all our action, all our labor, all our works are towards!

         Check it.  From the moment we rise we are doing.  We will be doing something always.  Life is movement.  Life is change.  Life is action.  The work of salvation, the job of redemption, the paying of the debt, It is Finished!  Yes!  Praise God!  Hallelujah!  Glory Be!  Everything necessary has been accomplished.  By Christ’s blood, Christ’s sacrifice, Christ’s work, we are saved!  We receive (passive action) this.  We believe (action) this.  We have faith (action with helper) in this.  We share (action) in his glory!  We ARE (state of being, reception of title, state of grace, first non-action) sons and daughters of God!

Alarm clock goes off, new day begins, son and daughter of God rise… What? Do? We? Do? 

See.  Not so easy, is it?  Imagine how the first Jewish converts felt.  Yesterday they had the Law.  Yesterday they knew exactly what was expected of them every minute of every day.  And when they failed, they knew exactly how many sheep, goats, cattle and birds were required to pay the debt.  Today, they wake up free…yippee!  Frolic like ya got no sense!  We’re free!  We’re free!  We’re.. free… to.. do what?  If they sin now, if they fail.. can they fail?  How can we fail if we don’t know what we’re to do?  How can we fail free grace?  How can we fail love?  Should we keep going to work?  Should we keep living with someone who is not free?  No wonder they sold everything and moved into communes together.  No wonder they thought Jesus was coming to get them any day.  Living here in this mess as free people doesn’t make much sense!  Why does God free us, save us, clean us, heal us and then… not take us home?

Because we still have something to do!  God created the earth and everything in it but he did not finish it…on purpose!  He invites us into His work to work alongside Him.  God comes and initiates His kingdom and he does not finish it on purpose!  He invites us to work towards its completion alongside him!  By His love, He makes us His people, then He invites us into love by submitting our wills to His and obeying His commands.  Love God with all your heart, mind and strength.  Love each other as He has loved us.  And how did He love us?  By total submission to the Father and becoming totally servile to us!  “14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2)  Saint Jimmy is calling us out!   Works do not save, works are evidence we HAVE been saved!  Evidence the Spirit is in us!  Evidence we are seeking God’s face, radiating and reflecting His Light!  We seek someone to love because we love God who loves us and as Jesus told us, “‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matt 25)  In Luke 7 Jesus said the sinful woman loved much because she was forgiven much… or wait, did he say, she loves much so she is forgiven much?  It can be translated either way.  Is this on purpose?  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  God is frequently not one or the other; He’s simultaneously both as you would assume an omnipresent, omnipotent God would be.  If Jesus is sitting on the right hand of God in Heaven and the Spirit is in us and they are in perfect communion then we are already being drawn into this.  We won’t be able to stop it!  Why would we want to?

So the alarm clock goes off and son and daughter of God’s feet hit our fuzzy, bunny slippers.  We cock our heads and listen.  We place our hands on our chests.  Spirit?  Jesus?  You in there?   O, he’s in there, you may not feel Him flowing through you, Obi Wan, but He’s there.  Acknowledge it!  Own it!  I’m told feeling follows action.  So say to Him, ““Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” (1Sam 14)

“33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”” (Mark 3)

Ten....

A clear cut case of Justifiable Homicide.

Seven...

i had a nightmare that i'd died and gone to hell.

Then i realized that i wasn't even asleep,

i was just plumbing.

Six...

"And of course, what my husband loves to do is: not work."

Thank you for your support.

Here's the deal... i need to get 24 panels together to send off to the syndicate or they'll break my legs, torch the knuckles on my hands, fill my shoes with quicrete and drop me in the Schuykill. After that, they get mean. The problem is: i don't find negative consequences to be all that motivational. Chalk it up to a high threshold and a sad childhood. So...!

What i need from y'all is adherence to a deadline. Twenty-four panels in twenty-four days, with Sunday's off... i want to be sending this packet out on Valentine's day. If y'all don't see a new strip or two every day, i want you to raise such a ruckus that the ol' rabbit hole shakes! Don't do it for me! Do it for the Bunnies! Will someone please think of the Bunnies!?

At least, that's how it should be.

Gotta sharpen my machete

Here we are almost a week later and no further trails... this one must have had the gift of prophecy.

Boy, does she know me or what?