Category Archives: Uncategorized

‘Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant… And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. ‘ Luke 7:2-3,10

The centurion would have been a Roman officer, a commander over 100 other Roman soldiers.  They oppressed the Jewish people harshly, bankrupting them, murdering them, etc.  But Jesus showed compassion on this officer.

I am thinking that would have been like a Jewish person having mercy on the Nazi commander of his concentration camp. 

Then there were the Roman (think: Nazi-like) soldiers who beat those metal nails through his hands and feet.

How did Jesus respond to them?  He asked his Father to forgive them because they didn’t understand what they were doing.

I am trying to imagine how it would feel if the German SS came at my family and me with a bunch of big hammers and railroad spikes.  I pray to God I am never in that type of situation, but if I ever am, I doubt I would feel any compassion toward their commanding officer, nor would I ask God to forgive them.  That would be psycho.

My point is that the kind of love Jesus showed (shows) is not like mine.  At all.

It is not human.  I’m not being cliché to say it is other-worldly.  

Meanwhile I struggle with not getting upset when my kids leave the milk and cereal out again.

I don’t know where you are on your spiritual journey or if you even have one. I just want to say that if Jesus is anywhere on your radar screen, he wants to be for you something a lot bigger than a Really Nice Person. I want to invite you to dig a little deeper. He may be worth taking another look at.

I don’t want to be “the king of my castle” per se. I am not a Type A, I-have-to-be-in-front, kind of guy. I do want to dominate my home but not in the way one football team dominates another.

I want people to ask my kids or my wife, “What is the dominant spirit in your home?” And they would say things like, “Love. Unconditional love. Believe me, I know, because I have done some terrible things.  But I am always loved, no matter what happens.  That is one thing has never changed, even for five minutes.” 

Or, “Peace.” 

Or, “I think the one word that best describes how I feel in my parents’ house is wanted.  That’s how everyone seems to feel there, now that I think about it. Everybody has a place. There’s no us/them mentality. My parents brought in some people I might not have, and even the odd ones and the rejects felt very warmly welcomed there.” 

And they would say “My husband / dad really set that tone for our home. And of course, he gets all of it from Jesus. It’s not dad’s love that dominates. It’s God’s love.” And, “My dad also loves nature, and simplicity, and his plants, like the garden and the woods. He’s earthy, if you know what I mean. He would have probably been a hippie if he was born in the right decade, so he’s whatever the modern day version of that is. Except no LSD, and a high value for scripture and intellect. It’s a free spirited kind of home. But it’s not chaos, you know. I don’t know, it’s like orderly and structured in some ways, but it still feels wild and happy. Like an English garden. Sort of. I mean, he’s not feminine, so maybe he’s like, well, being around him you feel like you would if you went to a giant, old, English mansion (although he would live much more simply – it’s just an analogy) all austere and with ornate stonework and a ten foot tall fireplace and a hundred rooms, with everything in its place, and then you went out to the gardens. It would be like magnificent and majestic and serious but also playful and warm in a way that made you want to be there and stay there. You wouldn’t feel rigid and stiff like you couldn’t touch anything. You would somehow know that he wanted you to sprawl on the couch and smack your gum. If you walked in with muddy boots and tracked it around on the floor, you never know what he might do. He might ask you to clean it up in a nice way. He might get down on his hands and knees and clean it up himself without you knowing about it. Or he might just leave it for a few days. He always said he wanted to live in a house with dirt floors.”

To my friends who want to be famous, or ever dreamed it might be wonderful,

I did, too. When I was a youth I got honest with myself once and admitted, “You know, what I really wish? I wish I could have a ticker tape parade in honor of me.”

Then I grew up and saw that fame would be awful. People would bug you everywhere. The best life is in simplicity. Walking your dog. Playing with kids. Mowing your grass.

But I think that old craving probably meant something.

Fame wasn’t what I desired. What I wanted was to be made much of, in a healthy way. To know that I mattered. It’s a basic human need, I’d say. We all have our different ways of looking for it.

My faith teaches me to be humble, not to seek my own glory, though. So I did a double take when I read, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” ‭‭John‬ ‭12:43‬. Seriously? We can seek to be praised by people, or praised by God? I thought I was the one who’s supposed to praise him. Am I missing something??

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:” (‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:6‬). There it is again. It says if we humble ourselves, God will exalt us someday. It sounds kind of crazy, but it’s right there in the Bible.

So maybe I will just end with the question — that desire we all have to feel important or to feel loved, or whatever your version of the ticker tape parade is, maybe God put it in you to draw you to himself. Maybe he wants to give you even more praise and attention than you or a lover (which is a good thing) or a thousand people ever could. Could it be?

When the twin towers fell, it seemed only fitting to demand, “This a tragedy of epic proportions!!  How could God let this great evil happen??” We blamed him when 3000-4000 of us died.  We were angry, appalled, outraged.

When he lets good things happen, like a vaccine, or we have no wars on our own soil for 1.5 centuries, do we as a nation give him any credit?

If we blame him for bad things but don’t thank him when 300,000,000 lives are spared, who has the greater right to be angry, appalled, outraged?

Opinion poll!

I was looking up a book to buy on Amazon.  A reviewer gave it a bad rating.  She seemed very offended that the book talked about “sin,” ranted, “#fundamentalist,” and so on.

Personal disclaimer:
One of my favorite speakers, Graham Cooke, likes to say, “God is SO not an evangelical because he is not obsessed by sin.  He is consumed with life.”  That’s like saying a good surgeon is obsessed with healing, not wounding, even though a wound may be necessary.  Or a good gardener is obsessed with harvesting fruit, not with pulling weeds (even though that may required).

What is your opinion of the idea that some things are sins?  I don’t mean, ‘are you offended by fundamentalists?’  (I often am.)  I just mean the sort of philosophical idea that something could be sinful.  Do you agree with that?

If you disagree, what about rape? Racism? homophobic hate crimes? Are those sins?

Christian,

Let your health problems increase your hunger for the next life when you will have a new body that always works right and never wears out.

Let your frustrations with the government make you long for Heaven, where the Governor – Jesus – rules everything the way it was always supposed to be.

Let your difficulties in relationships, finances, work/leisure, etc., increase your passion to see Father face to face.

Life is a vapor. Heaven is not very far in the future. It will be here before you know it.

Christian,

This is long but it’s pure gold.

“On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp; then according to the command of the Lord they set out. And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out. Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out. They kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by Moses.”
‭‭Numbers‬ ‭9:15-23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

When the Lord moved, they moved. When he stood still, they stood still. They followed his lead exactly. That is what Jesus did. That is what we must do do.

Christian,

We can think of our sufferings as deposits into a bank account that bears profits, not 2% per year, but 1000% per day.

2 Corinthians 4:17, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

Your affliction is preparing glory for you. That’s what the Bible says.

That does not diminish the anguish of today. But it does mean the pain is not meaningless. The end of it is coming. It has a purpose. And you will be MASSIVELY overcompensated for all you have suffered.

I urge us to live in light of the coming judgment , NOT IN TERROR, but soberly and methodically.

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭20:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Amazingly, it is not necessary to be afraid of this day.

“By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

A nice clue is given to us about to how to plan ahead for the judgment.

“Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:12-14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

His commands are not always easy, but they are often pretty simple to understand.  “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭12:13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If we seek him first, if we do what he has called us to do, if we enjoy fun things as gifts from him, we probably don’t need to be scared of Judgment Day.

In his book “Don’t Waste Your Cancer,” John Piper says, “We waste our cancer if we seek comfort from our odds rather than from God.”

(It’s only 18 pages long. You can read it free at https://document.desiringgod.org/don-t-waste-your-cancer-en.pdf?ts=1439242114)

He wrote this before having surgery so he’s obviously not against medical treatment. I think he’s asking what is going on in the heart. Do we have comfort because of external circumstances or because Jesus holds onto us?

Medical treatment is a good thing. It is a gift from God, James 1:17. But which gives me the greater sense of security — the gift or the Giver?

I don’t have cancer but the question applies to pretty much everything.

Do I have peace because I am in a peaceful situation? Or because nothing can separate me from the love of God.

Is my soul at rest because I have a wife who loves me? Because my kids are healthy? Because I have a job? Because we have food on the table tonight? Or because the One who gives me all those things is my bedrock, and he promises to supply all my needs.

I suspect this is what Jesus was getting at when he calmed the storm, then said to the panicking disciples, “Where is your faith?”  Luke 8:25.  Is your faith in Me to provide for you, or something else?

If I am honest with myself, I trust God to meet some of my needs, and not others.

I have suffered my losses in life. I hate going through that kind of pain. I must say I discover in those seasons that he honestly, truly does supply my needs, and often much, much more. He was good for his word, just like he promised.

I know there are a thousand other ways I don’t trust him, though.

I want to rely on him and trust him more, instead of my circumstances. So sometimes I lean on ‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:17,‬ ‭ “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Faith comes through his Word, so I read it more than I used to. I do find this enlarges my faith.

Some days I pray like the disciples did, Lord, “Increase our faith.” Luke 17:5.  And he does increase it slowly.

That’s where I am in my journey right now, and I thought the question was worth sharing.

Which gives me the most peace— the gifts or The Giver?