The Habit of Eating

Luke 7:34 says, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’”

If an unbeliever invites you over to dinner at his/her home, do you accept?  If you do accept, does your presence at their table mean that you agree with all of their values?  Well, if you were a good, righteous Jew in the New Testament, you absolutely did not.  Jews did not associate with anyone of a different religion or different social class.  For example, a Jew would not eat with Gentiles or Samaritans.  That’s why, in John 4, when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, it was so radical for Jesus to ask her for a drink.  Jews did not ask a Samaritan for anything.

But Jesus turned the rules upside down.  Jesus ate and drank with sinners, drunkards, fraudulent tax-collectors, and prostitutes.  In Luke 19, Jesus attended a dinner at the home of a fraudulent tax-collector named Zacchaeus.  There is no evidence that Jesus criticized or condemned the tax-collector's business practices.  After the dinner, Zacchaeus felt convicted and announced that he would pay back everyone he cheated and pay them back many times over.  He also said that he was going to follow Jesus.  

Michael Frost tells the story of a Baptist pastor who told him that his neighbor claimed to make the best margaritas in the whole state, & regularly hosted margarita & poker nights in his garage.  All the men in the neighborhood attended, except for this Baptist who never accepted an invitation to join them, believing that to be a strong witness to his faith. Michael asked him how many times his neighbor had asked him any questions about his faith in Christ.  He said, Never.  Michael asked how often he’d ever shared anything of his faith his margarita-making neighbor.  Again, the Baptist said, Never.  You see, it’s not questionable when a Baptist refuses to attend a margarita & poker night.  It’s expected.

Michael challenged this Baptist pastor to accept the next invitation he received, & he did.

His neighbor almost fell over in shock.  The Baptist joined the gathering in the garage, & true to his conviction, he just drank soda pop.  No one minded.  He ended up having more conversations about faith than he’d had in ages.  A Baptist pastor at a margarita night is a surprise, & it led to questions about faith. 😊

Now, I’m not recommending that you need to go a margarita night.  But I do believe that the Lord would have us eat with unbelievers.  Don’t feel a need to judge the lifestyles or habits of others.  See it as an opportunity to just share a little love & grace as you build relationships. 

Follow Jesus’ example of sharing a meal first & see what it leads to.

God seeks to be reunited with his children.

A couple years ago, I read a book (The Radio Signal) by a German-American - Friedhelm Radandt.  Friedhelm Radandt was a child in Germany during Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s.  His father refused to enroll him and his older brother in the Nazi school for teenage boys, and because of that, his father lost his job, & their family had to move.  Friedhelm also had 2 older sisters.

In the early part of WW 2, Friedhelm's older brother enlisted in the Nazi program for teenage officers, against his parents' wishes.  Shortly after that, he disappeared on the motorcycle the Nazis provided for teenage officers.  Friedhelm was about 7-8 years old when he too became separated from his family because an approaching army, but was reunited a day or two later.  His sister was a children's nanny for another family when they had to flee a quickly approaching army.  His siblings were separated from his parents because of the war, as many families were separated in Europe during WW 2.

At the end of the war, Friedhelm and his parents were living just West of Germany.  Like many fathers who had been separated from his children, his father wanted to see his young adult children back in his home again.  So he began writing letters to any government official in any place that any of his children might be.  He wrote letter after letter after letter after letter.  When a returning letter informed him of where one of his children were, he traveled to that place to rescue his child and bring him home again.  After months and months of this, Friedhelm's 2 sisters were reunited with his family.

Then they learned that Friedhelm's brother was being held in prison along with other German soldiers just East of Germany, in an area occupied by the Soviet army.  His father traveled across the area held by Allied forces, to just across a river from the prison.  The river along the prison was the line between the Allied forces and the area held by the Soviet army.  Friedhelm's father sent a secret message to his son who snuck out of the prison during the night & managed to escape across the river without being seen, to be reunited with his father, & together they traveled back to join the rest of their family.

The point is that Friedhelm's father went through many steps, some of which were costly & risky, to be reunited with all his children after the war.  In a similar way, God went through many steps to be reunited with his children.  Sending his Son to be born in humble circumstances was the costliest & riskiest thing that God did, to rescue his children & be reunited with them.

We're separated from God by our sin which is like cancer; it's awful, painful & destructive.  Prior to Christ, in the latter part of the Old Testament, it became clear that the old Jewish system of sacrifices, was not enough to restore God's people to Him.  That system had become abused by selfish people who took advantage of the poor & gave special privileges to the wealthy.

In the journey of life, sometimes one reaches the point where one wishes to be reunited with lost family members.  Would you like to be reunited with your spiritual family?  Would you like to develop a relationship with your heavenly Father?

If you've come to the point in your life where you can see your need for help to overcome your problems & sins, you can be reunited with your heavenly Parent through the help of Jesus.  Admit your sins and weaknesses, to be reunited with God, and trust in his Spirit to help you.  If you want to learn more, read the Gospel of John in the New Testament in the Bible.

Thoughts on the Savior's Death

Today is the day called Good Friday, the day when Jesus died.  Jesus will be dead within hours.  It seems heartbreaking, at least for those of us who loved Him.  We can blame the Jews of Jesus' day or the Roman soldiers, but actually, it was our sins.

For those who loved Jesus, there was nothing good about the day Jesus died a slow, agonizing death like a convicted criminal.  They felt confused, lost, severe loss & grief, afraid, but nothing positive or even close to "good."  For them, & I hope for some of us who seek to follow Him, that day was and is Black Friday or Death Friday.

In the words of the Lord's Supper, also called communion, we believe Jesus was the Bread of Life, broken for you and me.  The blood of Jesus was shed for us.  We believe the cup of communion represents the water of life welling up into eternal life.

Jesus is dead.  The only "good" thing is the new life that we can receive because of His death.  But if we skip the agony, grief, and darkness of these days when Jesus' body was dead, I don't believe that we fully appreciate that new life on Easter.  In a similar way, denying the grief of losing a loved one is not healthy.

Isaiah 53: 3-7 says: He was looked down on and passed over,

    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

    that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,

    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

    Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.

    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,

                on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured,

    but he didn’t say a word.

Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered

    and like a sheep being sheared,

    he took it all in silence.  (The Message)

May Jesus' suffering motivate us to look at our own sins, our sins that caused His death.  I feel deep regret for my own sins, and my Savior's death makes me long to turn from my sins.  Our Savior's death can lead us to change our ways, to live as the Master desires us to live.

When we truly feel some of His pain & suffering, the sunrise on Easter morning will mean new hope and new strength, and a new stage in our walk with the Master.  I look forward to the Spirit's work in my life and yours.   Peace & grace to you.

Why Do We Suffer?

This winter has been for some, a struggle to survive.  During Lent, we Christ-followers turn toward Jerusalem & the Cross, as we remember Jesus' sacrificial suffering, for us.  Remembering the Savior's sufferings, can be a time to reflect on our own suffering.  Why do we suffer?

Billy Graham deals with why God's children suffer in his book, Hope for the Troubled Heart.  One reason we all suffer is because we sin or disobey God.  Graham writes:  "If a Christian loses his temper, tells a lie, or commits a sin of any kind, he will suffer God's judgment... just as a child needs correcting, so God's children need correcting."

Sometimes, like a loving Parent, God needs to discipline us, his children.  Graham tells about his father punishing him as a child, but he knew that his father loved him.  Jesus says, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline."  (Revelation 3:19)  A wise person considers whether his problem is deserved as God's discipline. 

Graham asks: "Can we profit from pain?"
        Remember Job?  If ever a man had trials, it was this fellow.  But this is what he         
        concluded: When God has tested me, I will come forth as gold  (Job 23:10)  This is    
        reacting positively to testing, building on it, rather than criticizing it for interfering   
        with life's normal patterns.
  
       Trials often come {because God} seeks to make us into the sort of person He   
       planned  for us to be when He first thought of us.  Like a sculptor,  He begins with a   
       lump of marble.  But He has in mind a picture of what He intends to create.  He 
       breaks, cracks, chisels, and polishes until one day there emerges His vision, like   
       Michelangelo's David.  At the moment, His sculpture of us is incomplete.  God has   
       not yet finished with us.  (page 91)

Sometimes we bring a problem on ourselves.  Ever know a man who has an affair, and then his marriage fell apart?  She smoked for years, and now she has breathing problems.  A parent allowed a child to what whatever he pleased for years, and now wonders why he cannot be managed. 

Suffering deepens our relationship with God.  Graham writes, "Nothing will drive us to our knees quicker than than trouble... God hears our prayers, but our prayers must be in accordance with His will." (page 92)  Our problems can cause us to ask if we're praying for the right things.  Our struggles force us to look deeper.

Take another look at these causes of suffering, and ask yourself: Why am I suffering?  Accept responsibility for what you've said or done.  Seek to learn from your suffering.  In this season of journeying toward Jesus' sufferings and death, let us remember His prayer on the night before He was crucified, "Not my will, but your will be done."  Our problems keep us humble and cause us to pray.  Struggles can lead us to us to a deeper relationship with the Savior.  Let God's Spirit lead you.

Celebrate the Holy Spirit!

Sunday, June 7 is the 50^th day after Easter, which is the day the Holy Spirit came on the followers of Jesus in Acts 2.  Some call it Pentecost Sunday.  The Greek word for pentecost means fifty.  Acts 2 tells us that Jesus’ disciples were gathered in the upper room when they were filled with the Holy Spirit; they heard a great wind and spoke in different languages as tongues of fire settled upon them.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, which is essential for salvation.  The Spirit counsels and comforts us (John 14:16, 26).  The Spirit guides us.  In John 6:63, Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life.”  The Spirit renews us.

In the languages of the original Bible, Hebrew and Greek, the word for “Spirit” is the same as the word for “breath.”  Genesis 2:7 speaks of creation as God breathing the breath of life into Adam and Eve’s nostrils.  Sometimes we say that the Spirit is like the wind.  We can’t see it, but we can see what it does.

The Apostles’ Creed says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  Do we truly believe that the Spirit is working in us and through us?

When we pray and read the Bible, do we expect the Spirit to speak God’s Word to us?  Do you let the Spirit guide you and lead your conversations with others?  Are your relationships marked by the love, joy, and peace of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)?  When we meet together in a small group, class, committee or in worship, do we really expect the Spirit to work in us or through us?

I encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open.  It’s too easy to miss what the Spirit is doing.  The Spirit is working in our midst, but if we’re not alert, we miss the special things that God’s Spirit is doing.  God’s Spirit is alive and moving and making old things new!  Let us give thanks to the Lord and praise Him for the work of His Spirit!

To God be the Glory!

This is the “Come holy Spirit” prayer from Cursillio:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful,

and kindle in us the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit, and we shall be created.

And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,

Did instruct the hearts of the faithful,

Grant that by the same Holy Spirit,

We may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations.

Through Christ our Lord, Amen.aler

Giving the Gift of Life

Sarah Farkas was a seminary student assigned to care for members of a nearby church.  While there, she met a man, Duke Guy, who was on dialysis and needed a kidney transplant.  But no matching kidney had been found.  Sarah was praying one night that a donor would be found, where when she heard God say to her, Why don’t you give him one of your kidneys?   She immediately began to tremble and weep but felt a sense of peace. 

Sarah spoke to several people who encouraged her to do it.  After 3 months of wrestling with God and agonizing, she went through a number of medical tests that determined she was a  perfect match for Duke.  On January 13, she and Duke were wheeled into side-by-side operating rooms, and Duke received one of her kidneys, which is now functioning in his body.  He is no longer living with the kidney disease that plagued his life for over 30 years.

Sarah says, In hindsight, it seems fitting that God asked a question.  After all, God gives us opportunities to answer and step out in obedience several times a day, but often we aren’t listening or even paying attention.  God does not ask everyone to donate a kidney, but He does ask that w e slow down, close our laptops, turn off our televisions, and silence our cell phones so that we can give our uninterrupted attention to Him and to the people He has chosen to place in our lives.

We are called to be the light of the world, and our light shines a little brighter when we take the time to listen, because when we listen, heaven and earth collide.  

We all have a terminal disease called sin.  Unless we receive a transplant from the Savior, our lives will wither and end.  Jesus offers us each a fresh start, a new life, a heart transplant that leads to eternal life. 

Why Did God Allow the Ice Storm?

For many of us here in SE Oklahoma, we’ve spent much time digging out, surviving without electricity, and cleaning up after the ice storm on Dec. 5-6, the worst to hit this area in many years.  What does this mean, in terms of Christ’s coming to earth at Christmas?  Was this ice-meggedon a random freak of nature?  Is it possible that God was trying to get our attention in or after the ice storm?

God allows the earth to reflect sin’s consequences on creation, in much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts. According to Romans 8: 19-20, the fall of humankind into sin affected everything, including the world we inhabit.  The creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.”  Ultimately sin causes natural disasters just as it causes death, disease, and suffering.

We can understand why natural disasters occur in terms of weather-related factors, but we do not understand is why God ALLOWS them to occur. Why did God allow those we love, struggle after this ice storm. For one thing, such events shake our confidence in this life and force us to think about eternity. Churches attendance usually increases after disasters as people realize how tenuous their lives really are. What we do know is this: God is good!  Rev. Gary Sweatman of Sanger, TX, rallied his church to help motorists stranded on I-35 by the ice storm.  Natural disasters can cause people to reevaluate their priorities in life.  It can also be an opportunity for us to help our neighbors.  God can bring good out of disasters. 

In Haggai 1: 9-11, God Himself caused a terrible disaster because God wanted to get his people’s attention about the way they forgot Him and his business and focused exclusively on their own.  Is it possible that God caused this recent ice storm to get our attention?

Some say God is too loving, too kind, too compassionate, too gentle to ever cause a disaster.  This reminds me of an old story about a farmer who was out in his field working a stubborn mule.  The mule sat down in the mud and refused to budge.  The farmer pushed and pulled, threatened and coaxed, but couldn't move the mule.  A neighbor who was watching nearby came over to offer advice. "I've been watching you for a while," said the neighbor.  "And I think you may be going about this the wrong way."  In frustration the farmer quipped, "Well then, how would you get this stupid mule out of the mud?"  "Well," said the neighbor, "you need to use kindness, you need to be loving, gentle and show compassion to the dumb animal.  Let me show you how it's done."  So the farmer moved aside and the neighbor took a baseball bat and hit the mule square in the head. "What are you doing?" shouted the farmer. “You said to be kind, to be loving, to be gentle, to show compassion” . "I’m going to," said the neighbor. "But first I’ve got to get his attention."  Maybe God was trying to get our attention with this ice storm.

God wants to bless us with an abundant life.  But if we insist on ignoring God, rejecting HIS ways, and living OUR ways, then we separate ourselves from the very Source of all blessings.
 God loves us too much to leave us that way without using whatever means necessary to shift our attention from ourselves to Him.

I hope and pray that this ice storm in Advent will make us refocus our attention on God and how He wants us to live.  Let’s submit ourselves to God, confess our selfish sins, and pay attention to what God is doing in our lives.  God's going to do something grand on Christmas!

Heroism Amidst a Tragedy

On Dec. 14, Adam Lanza shot and killed 21 children and 5 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.  Words are inadequate to describe the horrible loss and grief.  It was a terrible tragedy.

There were two heroes in the midst of the tragedy.  A teacher, Victoria Soto, died after hiding her students in a closet.  Principal Dawn Hochsprung was killed after she’d lunged at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.  They both sacrificed their lives so that the children they loved and were responsible for, might live.  In doing so, they showed courage in risking their lives for others. 

Another tragedy is playing out in our lives.  God’s creation was made perfect and harmonious, but it has been ruined by humankind’s rebellious sin.  We have rebelled against God’s laws that were intended for our good.  We have cheated, coveted, lied, stolen, defrauded and lived selfishly.  Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   This is a terrible tragedy in God’s eyes.

God sent His Son Jesus to be born on Christmas, to reveal God’s grace and mercy, and to love sacrificially and give his life as a payment for our sins.  Like the teacher and principle who sacrificed their lives for others, Jesus is a hero because of his love and sacrifice for others.  The question for us on this Christmas, is how will we respond to what Jesus has done for us?  I hope you will join us in bowing our heads before the Christ Child in the manger scene, and thank God for giving up His Son Jesus to be our Hero and save us from our sins.  This will make your Christmas truly merry.