Timing is Everything ...

 

What does paradise look like to you?  I imagine it might look like some perfectly white-sanded beach with a gentle breeze blowing by; nestled in some secluded place in the Caribbean.  Still others might enjoy the night sky of a well-lit city from a very high luxury suite of some 5-star hotel, with room service, and an oversized jacuzzi to enjoy the view from.  Nature bugs might enjoy an undisturbed forest of the California mountains, or the perfect desert rock formations of Utah, or the gentle mist of the Smokey mountains.  However you picture paradise to you, I imagine having someone you love there to share it with, might be the key ingredient paradise would not be complete without.  Now let’s talk about timing.  If I told you I was going to send you and your significant other to such a place for a week or two, I should imagine you would consider that very exciting news.  I know I would if someone promised it happened to me.  But there are some elements of timing that come up almost immediately.  First is excitement at the news.  I don’t have to be there yet to be excited about going.  I can be happy well in advance just from knowing someone has graciously offered to send me and my wife on such an excursion.  Just the gift part of this news is something to be excited about on its own.  Knowing it is to happen soon, another reason to be happy.

Next, I would begin to plan, and imagine, what it will be like.  I would start thinking about all the things I would want to see on my upcoming trip.  Even if all I plan to do is vege-out and spend my time eating, sleeping, and sitting in a pool somewhere, my imagination can run wild with what peace or joy this might offer me and my wife with me.  After the initial news, and the modest planning, comes the execution.  Certainly, this is the stage where we believe we will have the most fun.  In my experience, my level of fun has always been in my ability to adapt to the reality of what is.  When my expectations have been too high, or too fixed, I sometimes find myself disappointed with reality.  Nevertheless, it is the reality of the execution of our trip that provides the photos, the memories, and the time we spend in the paradise we have imagined.  Most importantly for me at least, the time in paradise with the one I love. 

Now imagine what a gift like this would mean to you if it came at the lowest point in your life.  Imagine if you were offered this trip to whatever your version of paradise was to be, when everything else in your life had gone as bad as it possibly could.  Wouldn’t the promise of the change in your near future be even more meaningful, even more joyous.  When you are at your worst, good news is sometimes even more wonderful, than when you are at your best, or distracted by so many other good things in your life, that one more good thing, is hardly noticeable from the other noise.  Luke gives us a case study in such an event.  In his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why, Luke tells us of the best news we could ever receive in our lives, coming at the worst time, and therefore being even more meaningful because it does.  Our study focuses upon the malefactor (or criminal, his crimes never specifically identified in full) that is dying upon a cross next to Jesus.  Talk about timing.  If this criminal were to be sent to Calvary only one day earlier or later, he might have missed Jesus entirely.  But for the mercy of God the Father who would wish not even a single one of us perish, this criminal went to his execution on the same day as His salvation in Jesus Christ.

And the entire gospel, the entire Bible, the entire reason for the Bible; all of this wider story is found in the experience of this one criminal who unlike his partner in crime finds that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, and instead of making fun of Jesus, or demanding that Jesus find a way to free them all from death, this criminal looks to Jesus with a humble plea of mercy for what is to come.  All of them begin to realize death is to be certain.  Jesus will not be freeing them from death.  But there is something more at stake.  Luke picks up in chapter 23 beginning in verse 42 saying … “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”  Let us examine this simple plea.  It comes at the worst time in this man’s life, when he is set to die for his crimes.  He deserves his fate, he has earned it, by all the sin upon others he has committed in his life.  He was simply caught in his sin, and justifiably sentenced for it.  Just like us.  This is us as we sit today.  We are just like this poor criminal.  Whether we have been sentenced by society to pay for our deeds or not as yet; our sin still condemns us all for what we have done.  We deserve what should be coming to each of us.  This criminal deserves NO mercy, but DESPITE what the criminal deserves, he looks upon the Lamb of God dying next to him, and begs for mercy he knows he does not deserve.  That takes a good bit of humility and audacity at the same time.  He begs the King for his life, knowing he does not deserve the mercy.

And the modern Christian likes to apply much more in his simple request than was there.  We equate this to a “death bed” confession of repentance and ask for forgiveness for what this criminal has done.  But no such words appear from this man.  He does not say that “he repents”.  Perhaps he is not sorry.  Perhaps he stole bread to keep his wife and children alive, and therefore does not regret what he did, even though it was still wrong.  Or perhaps he killed someone who threatened the life of his child, and even though he killed, he was not sorry.  We have no idea of his circumstances.  We have no idea of his heart.  And that remains the case today.  You have no idea who I am, what I have been through, what I regret with every fiber of my being, even if I never say it.  You do not know how my heart has pleaded with God for mercy for sins you may never thought me capable of.  Nor do I know you.  Only God could know either of us.  And when the journey of salvation begins, I dare say we are not so sorry for what we have done wrong.  It takes time, and the Holy Spirit to convict us, of the error of our sins, and reveal to us the pain and death they bring, not only to us, but to those we claim to love the most.  So while most Christians believe there is an implicit declaration of repentance and request for forgiveness in the words of this criminal, there were none.  And it is up to Jesus to know his heart, for none of us are capable of knowing it.

Timing is also interesting here.  There is no presumption that anything is about to happen right then.  The request is made to “remember me” when you come into your kingdom.  The kingdom is to be the final one, a kingdom that will only occur at the end of all things.  The criminal knows he will have been dead a good long time before the final judgment of the world occurs, the final separation of sheep from goats, and the beginning of heaven and our return to it begins.  Further, the criminal knows he is but a goat.  It will take the mercy of the King to change this man from goat to sheep.  It will take the mercy of our God to see him for more than he is.  To see him changed.  To see him made new, transformed.  And to be frank, there is no time for transformation here at the end of his life.  There is only time for mercy, time to plea one final time for it.  He asks Jesus to remember him, and remember him fondly, through the lens of mercy.

The modern Christian likes to believe there was faith here.  But they hate to separate the concepts of faith and doctrine or beliefs.  This criminal had time to believe in Jesus as having the power to save his soul.  He did not have time to believe in every doctrine of any particular denomination.  The views of this criminal on tithing or the Sabbath are wholly unknown.  Perhaps even non-existent.  We have no idea what his background might have been relative to baptism.  Maybe he was graced by John the Baptist earlier with a Baptism for the remission of sins.  Or maybe even better baptized by Jesus into a faith into Himself as the Messiah.  Both Jesus and John baptized in the river Jordan in recent years.  But perhaps this criminal had never even heard of the concept of baptism and had no idea what it meant or how to do it.  His plea for mercy was not based on the fulfillment of doctrine.  It was based in a raw faith in Jesus.  He had no time to learn about anything.  He was in the middle of dying for his sins.  So are we.  And we so often forget that all of our doctrines are supposed to be tools to help us find more insight into the Jesus we believe in, instead of lists of do’s and don’ts meant to grant us entry into heaven or keep us out of it.  We are all just sinners, dying in our sins, asking for mercy from the King, knowing we do not deserve it.

Don’t get me wrong, the whole point of transformation is to rid us of our sins; and it is the goal of our salvation.  A goal we can only achieve through submission of our will to Jesus Christ, who gladly offers to do this work inside of us, changing us from the inside out.  But wherever we find ourselves on the road of transformation, we are always in need of mercy from the King, and we still know we deserve none of it.  Yet we ask anyways.  And He is always faithful to provide it.  But I suppose the biggest point I would like to make in the case study doctor Luke offers us regarding this man, is that while clearly not deserving mercy of any kind, he yet asks for it, and finds it.  Luke continues in verse 43 saying … “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”  And here is where timing becomes everything.  Was the criminal still alive to hear this answer?  We know he was.  Did he drop dead that very instant?  No, it would be later when the Romans would break the legs of the criminals after the death of Jesus from a broken heart, when this criminal would finally meet his earthly end.  But when was his salvation offered?  And when was it confirmed?  When Jesus spoke those words.  Even while still on the cross, even while still unworthy, even before he met his end, he was SAVED.

The criminal was destined for paradise.  Can you imagine this news came at his lowest hour, and under the worst conditions possible in his life, when fear might otherwise have wrung it from his heart.  But instead paradise was coming.  Jesus told it to him.  Jesus told it today.  He did not have to wait until some condition had been met.  He was in no position to meet any action to perform.  And Jesus did not require an oath of belief, or long list of repentance for each sin he may have committed.  Jesus offered him blanket forgiveness for his life not only up to that moment, but for the moments that would continue to the end of this man’s life.  A different kind of pardon than we imagine.  It is not our sin that keeps out of heaven, it is our sin that keeps us away from Jesus who alone can save us, and make us ready for heaven.  We are pardoned, for we are guilty and all deserving of death, none us worthy of anything else.  Our judgment has already occurred.  And we were found guilty, worthy of death.  But Jesus died in our stead.  So transformation is not about making us worthy for heaven, it is about making us worthy to live from now to forever, helping us understand what it truly means to live.  Our salvation was written upon that cross by Jesus, Savior of the world.  We need only ask for His gift, which He gladly gives, no matter what we understand about doctrines.

Transformation is His further gift to us, to free us from our sins beyond our salvation, to help us learn what it means to truly live, and live in harmony with heaven.  Transformation is not about our salvation from sin, but our freedom from sin, our freedom from wanting sin ever again, about living without the stain of sin upon us, upon our hearts and minds, but instead gone forever more.  It is only then that we can truly understand life at all.  We do not have to be perfect to be saved.  But having been saved, it is perfection we are also offered.  We may be saved in our sins, but we are never intended to remain in our sins, suffering the pain and death they bring.  And this gospel news comes today.  The moment we ask.  The moment we seek mercy from the King we find it.  And the journey of our transformation begins.  Only a faith in Jesus can begin that  So many Christians get caught up in the idea that the moment this criminal dies he is immediately transported to heaven to be with Jesus, all because Jesus uses the word today.  But that timing is simply off.  Jesus did not go to heaven that day.  We know he rested in the grave until the upcoming Sunday morning.  And even then He tarries to greet Mary Magdeline and share the gospel with her “before” He goes to heaven to see if His sacrifice has been enough to save us.  So for 3 days Jesus does not even go to heaven.

Obviously the “today” part of what Jesus said was not a literal we are going to be there today.  But instead it was a declaration of when this criminal was to be saved.  He was saved today.  His sins were forgiven today.  His journey of transformation begins today.  And even if he has no time on the journey of transformation at all, his salvation is still assured.  And even if this criminal will rest in the grave for 2000+ years waiting for the resurrection of the righteous, or whether raised with Jesus on that Sunday, as a first-fruits offering to present to God the Father, when the criminal is called back to life, he will be called back to salvation, and transformed in the twinkling of an eye from criminal to saint.  We can have absolute faith in the salvation of our Lord for each of us.  And transformation then is not our punishment, but our relief from the sins that would otherwise plague us in the life we have left to live.  And the best news of all, is that paradise is our destiny, it is coming to each of us, who have had the good sense to beg mercy from the King, even if we know we do not deserve it.

This is the summation of the entire Bible, of the entire gospel.  We need only believe in Jesus, to be saved and better than that, to be transformed by His power, into the creatures He intended us to be.  We yield our will, our desires to Him, and He transforms our inherent wickedness into righteousness, changing what we want, what we do, and how we love, into a mirror reflection of His image.  And Jesus Himself says it begins today, it is assured today, it is here for you today.  Just ask.  And today it comes.  Timing is everything.  I am excited about the paradise that is coming for me, but more concerned that I do anything and everything I can to help my wife be there at my side, and she does this for me.  And we do this for our children, and our parents, and our families, and friends, and even our enemies.  The joy of paradise was not meant only for me, but can only be enjoyed fully with those we love at our sides.  Not only our spouses but every other precious soul we come to love through the power of Jesus.  Paradise is coming, I dare say a paradise greater than any you have capacity to imagine.  For those who love a well-lit city, you have no idea how great a city is coming.  For those nature bugs, you have yet to see the gardens God hangs in this world made new.  And for those with imaginations too great to be bound to one world, there are no limits to the worlds of creation that span the universe you have yet to discover.

Shall we not learn to live now, like we would live then, in perfect harmony with our God, and in perfect love of others?  This is the gift He offers, starting now, starting today, no need to wait.  Timing is everything, so when will your timing begin? …

 

Seriously Offended ... by Love

For those of us who too often place “self” at the center of our Christianity; the idea of giving it up in favor of simple, humble love … is offensive.  Now I can probably guess what you are thinking; that “I” don’t ever put “self” at the center of “my” Christianity.  No, this couldn’t apply to me.  But consider … How often might you do a “good work” because you know you “should” do a good work.  Or how often might you do a good work because your church asks you to do one.  You do these because scripture seems to demand that you do them.  You do them because scripture talks about those who do not do them as being left out of heaven itself.  And if you miss doing one of them, you suffer guilt for having passed it by, or perhaps fear that passing it by might wind up leaving you too out of heaven itself when the time comes.  Judgment looms in your mind and eats at your conscience.  For those of us who do good works because we should do them, not because we know no other way, (like having been transformed by the power of His love into the new creations that are driven to do good with no thought of it), there is a difference in motive behind our good works.  Judgment drives us into meager good works because we fear what the lack of them might do to us at the end of all things.  But Judgment is not love.

Now consider the message of our gospel.  How do we proclaim that we are saved from sin?  I believe all of us would say that Jesus died for us, and rose again for us.  Jesus then forgives us of all of our sins.  And so because of that we are all saved.  But where in this message is the idea that you might stop committing sins from which you need forgiveness.  Here is where the highway of churches under the Christian banner all diverge on the same route.  Most all of them claim the same message where it comes to getting rid of sin.  They hold you responsible for it.  In effect, the Nancy Reagan doctrine of “just say no”.  But as you have probably already experienced personally “just say no” to sin, does not work.  You are not strong enough to eradicate sin from your life.  So then most churches travel down the road of this message to a horrible conclusion.  Stating that you simply do not have to get rid of it.  God loves you even with your sin, so “just don’t worry about it”.  But that is like telling a cancer patient the same thing.  Cancer hurts, it eats you up inside.  If you have cancer, you want a cure, you want an end to the pain.  You don’t want to just sit around ignoring that you have it, while pain eats you up, getting worse and worse until you die.  No, Jesus did not come live for us, die for us, rise for us, forgive us – just to leave us living in the cancerous pain of our sins.  There is something more, something better.  But most Christian churches are not preaching a message that leads to the cure for our sins, at least to a cure that works.

The Nancy Reagan doctrine does not work at curing our sins.  Why?  Because it leaves “you” responsible for breaking the chains of “your” sins.  A lot of Christians become aware of this after all too many failures.  They fear Judgement too.  So they turn their gaze elsewhere, namely to other sinners.  They spend their Christian lives then judging and condemning others in order to avoid having to look in the mirror at the failures of their own lives.  They hope to make themselves feel better about their own Christianity given how they compare with other far more terrible sinners.  Again Judgment looms and fear with it.  Another method of tempering the Nancy Reagan doctrine of “just say no”.  Is to form a “partnership” with God.  What an insidious idea.  This idea proffers that you will do “your best”, and only after that will God pick up the slack and do the rest.  You first.  God second.  Emphasis on “you”.  But you already know your part sucks.  You fail miserably, so what slack is there for God to pick up.  Logically, all of it.  Having you as a partner in your own salvation from sins, leaves sins fully entrenched in your life.  But worse than that.  It leaves you still thinking that “you” have any part to play at all.

Whether you believe “you” are fully responsible for ending your sins, or are only in a partnership to end them, YOU are still in the center role for ending the sin in your life.  Either by what you do – enter good works here.  Or by what you demand of yourself.  In either case, Judgment looms, and fear looms with it as history records your failures one after the other until the counting is beyond measure.  This is not how the cancer of sin is cured.  This is not how the pain is lifted.  This is not how life is restored.  But almost every Christian church has some close variation of this message, and spreads it every day under the banner of the gospel.  And thus “self” is maintained at the center of our Christianity, eventually pushing Jesus out completely, or off to the side in failed partnerships that end the same way.

So what does work?  What is the message of salvation from sins that does work?  It is simple, humble love.  Not the love you create, but His love that transforms you once you are willing to let “self” go entirely from the Christianity you espouse.  You don’t “do” anything.  You cannot be a partner of any kind.  You must submit yourself to Jesus entirely.  Give over your thoughts, your desires, the core of who you are to Jesus and allow Jesus to change you entirely.  That prospect is scary.  Becoming someone else may not have been on your agenda up to now.  If I let “self” go, who will I be?  Will anyone still recognize me, will even I recognize me?  Probably not in all candor.  But that will be a wonderful improvement.  What Jesus does with your submission is life altering.  Your life.  And what Jesus introduces is life like you have never known it.  A life steadily losing the pain of the cancer of sin.  A life heading away from the direction of death.  A life filled with simple, humble love – for others.  It looks totally different.  And the journey is not without pain, but it is with steadily less pain, until pain is gone altogether in the here and now.  How long that journey takes is a function of how far you are willing to submit and be changed.

And here is where the rubber meets the road.  Most Christians want control over their own salvation.  They are more comfortable being responsible for the removal of their sins even though they fail at it, than having to give up control over to a Jesus they have only read about, but do not know personally.  Most Christians would rather keep to a spiritual routine, than risk a life where there is no routine at all, and no control of any kind.  Most Christians would prefer to fear the Judgment, than to fear being led to a destination everyday that they could not have predicted.  A destination that involves serving others in simple, humble love.  That kind of idea of simple, humble love is quite frankly … offensive.  And so it goes in modern Christianity.  The devil maintains a winning strategy started in the church nearly from its foundation.  We did not invent this phenomenon.  We merely continue it. 

Luke wrote about questioning this very idea so so long ago.  I am sure his friend Theophilus needed to hear just this same message before it could be entrenched by the church in his day.  The question was raised by John the Baptist himself as Luke records in the seventh chapter of his gospel.  He picks up the story in verse 18 saying … “And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things. [verse 19] And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? [verse 20] When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?”  John the Baptist was a Nazarite.  His life was full of rules and regulations.  His hair was uncut.  His diet was entirely kosher (and unusual).  His clothes were raw and hand sown.  He was poor in the measures of wealth of this world.  The practices of the traditions of his religion were something he had kept to his entire life.  It is what would frustrate him when he looked at what the Pharisees did by contrast.  They talked about what was required of their faith, but practiced almost none of it.  John was strong willed.  In all of this behavior, John thought his own salvation assured.  To top it all off, John was an evangelist preaching a never ending sermon of repentance to any who would listen.  He offered and performed the rite of baptism for any who were willing to repent.  The poor complied.  The rich, very few.  The Pharisees, almost none.  Yet Jesus did, when He had no reason to, other than a witness to us.

Living this kind of life, made John a lover of the rules.  And looking at the deeds of Jesus, John could not fully wrap his mind around them.  It was not the healings Jesus did.  It was the lack of attention Jesus seemed to pay to the rules that governed his own life.  Instead of Jesus emulating the life of John the Baptist, Jesus seemed to do as He pleased where the “rules” were concerned.  Jesus put love ahead of behavior, embedded in behavior, and Jesus served others more than He would ever allow others to serve Him.  Jesus refused to be the King that He was.  That was a weird kind of love that permeated everything, and was all too humble for a true Messiah to carry.  It led John to question, was Jesus merely a holy prophet, or could He truly be the Son of God, and still behave the way He did with so little of their traditions, and so much of this weird kind of simple, humble love for others.  So John sent two of his disciples to ask, perhaps for their own benefit as much as for his own questions about how we are saved from sin itself.

Luke continues in verse 21 saying … “And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. [verse 22] Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. [verse 23] And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”  And there it is, the proclamation we almost forget in favor of the miracles Jesus enumerates just before it.  To the disciples of John, they witness for themselves what Jesus does.  The blind are given sight.  Recreated eyes from our Creator perfect as if born this way, or restored to the perfection robbed of them.  The lame walk.  New legs, or restored legs as the needs presented.  Our Creator is capable of creating or re-creating legs to facilitate walking as walking had never been.  What the sword cuts off, the Savior of life re-creates.  Lepers are cleansed; the incurable cancer of its day, cured beyond all measure.  The AIDS of its day brought low and stamped out by the Creator of all time.

The dead are raised to life.  Could there be any other metaphor for what Jesus does for each of us.  Not just at the end of all time, but now while we live and are dead in our sins.  Only Jesus can make life where there is none.  There was no “faith” in the part of the dead that was able to bring them back to life.  There was only life in the Creator that He freely gave to them that caused the dust we return to, to give back its prize to the Creator of all life itself.  Stick that in your hat evolution.  Our Creator restores life that was lost and brings it back once again.  Just as He does with our sins.  Not because of what we do, or even what we believe, but because of what He alone is capable of doing.  When we give ourselves to Jesus, we trade our death for His life, not just in the Judgment, but in our everyday life and battle with the cancer of our sins.  It is no more our battle to fight, but His to win for us, as we let Him win it for us.  We just need to get out of His way.  Submit everything to Him and watch life spring from death.

But more important than all of these miracles was the miracle of having the gospel preached to the poor.  Think about that.  The church was so pleased with itself, so happy with being holy, or at least acting holy, that there was no message of salvation offered to the poor anymore.  Sound familiar?  When all I want is to be seen as holy, I cannot associate myself with the poor, for danger of their sins rubbing off on my spotless reputation.  I hold my own supposed spiritual honor above the needs of the poor.  I consider the needs of my own life, of my family’s lives, above the needs of the poor in spirit, and high in sins.  Those people offend me.  Those rich in sins do not deserve my time in sharing the gospel because I believe they will reject it anyway and only ridicule me for saying anything about it.  True if what I preach are the doctrines only of Nancy Reagan.  But False, if my life reflects a transformation that only His simple, humble love could bring.  If I live His transformation in me, I will not see the poor as rich in sin, but precious in the eyes of my Lord, and therefore precious in my own.  I will not focus on their sin, but on their potential if they too could connect with Jesus the cure for any sin, especially my own.  Not just forgiveness mind you, but the cure for sin itself.  The poor need less of my imperfect sermons, and more of my tangible examples of His love passed through me.  In meeting their needs and truly loving them, I preach His gospel without ever uttering a word.

And now we circle back to the proclamation of Jesus that is too often lost in the miracles cited above.  Blessed is he, who is not offended in Me.  When we look at Jesus as John must have, and see that our God does not do what we think He should be doing, are we willing to submit or to be offended by it?  When we see the behavior of Jesus on Sabbath days, or in His diet, are we willing to submit, or be offended.  When He serves instead of allowing Himself to be served, or become an earthly King.  Do we submit, or take offense?  And at the core of our salvation, when Jesus asks us to take self out of the way, instead submitting everything we are to Him, in order to be recreated.  Do we submit, or does our pride take offense to be asked to give it all up?  It was love for others that drives Jesus to keep the company of Mary Magdalene a prostitute who was possessed by demons on more than one occasion.  Christ be praised Mary became a former prostitute.  And she earned a special place in His church when she was the first to be commissioned to take the gospel to the disciples who would mostly reject what she said for unbelief.  Jesus made a prostitute into an evangelist in a time when women were worth nothing.

And I wonder, would I welcome a former prostitute into my own church.  Let alone a current one.  And how, if I keep them at arm’s length will they ever hear the gospel message of Jesus Christ, that can turn somebody in that profession into an effective evangelist if they only come to know Him.  It was not only Mary that Jesus made an evangelist.  It was also the woman at the well in Samaria.  She too spread his gospel to the entire region.  She too had a few too many husbands and was living in sin with the man of her choice at that time.  She too was broken by sin, but transformed by an encounter with Jesus.  She too was poor.  If not for Jesus, would she have ever heard the gospel or met its maker.  The transformed heart welcomes the broken into fellowship inside the church and out.  The transformed heart shows simple, humble love to those who need it most, and judgment to none.  Re-created hearts do not fear the Judgment any longer, for they are in harmony with the heart of God Himself.  When we are in harmony with the law, we do not fear the law, for we keep it all the time, not only in deed, but in motive and intent.

Good deeds are no longer forced in our will as an inconvenience.  They are done in countless thousands of things we no longer even think about doing, not considering them deeds at all, just expressions of simple, humble love of Him reflected through us.  If this idea offends you, perhaps it is time to seek true transformation in submission to Jesus Christ.  If this idea encourages you, perhaps your journey has already begun.  I long for the time, when I am able to welcome the current or former prostitute into my church as the sister of Christ she longs to be, and not the partner in sin I might have otherwise made of her.  I long for the time when I am able to welcome her into my home without a single evil intent, and only the pure love of Jesus in my heart.  My journey progresses.  And I only hope its progress is not so slow, I am unable to serve a community in need before my time to share has expired.

 

When Judges Die ...

Torrential rains, and Cat 5 hurricanes, cause unprecedented damage in our world today.  To those in harm’s way it hardly matters whether the cause is man-made or random nature’s fury – it only matters that the fury is bearing down on you.  For any who have experienced a tornado it is terrifying.  A Cat 5 hurricane is like enduring a 5-hour tornado, with a bunch of flooding thrown in for good measure.  That kind of fury does not care who you are.  It does not care what you do for a living.  A supreme court judge is no different than an appellate court judge is no different than a county court judge is no different than an amateur judge on the sofa.  The nation notices when a supreme court judge dies.  So far, I don’t believe we have lost one to a hurricane.  The odds of losing an appellate court judge to a tragedy of nature go up simply because there are more of them.  But losing an amateur judge, the kind that sit on the sofa and render out verdicts all day long on one matter or another; well it is certain we have lost those types to storms.  Those kind of judges are you, and me.  And the judging we do is not a service to our nation or communities.  It is usually only an unsolicited (and unwanted) pronouncement of our opinions over the lives of each other.  Nothing gained by those pronouncements, but surely much is lost by them.

And in this matter, we are all equally guilty.  For all of us have sat in judgement of others over one thing or another.  We have assessed the motives of others as well as their actions.  We have condemned those we thought guilty of their various crimes, or neglect and omissions, or general misdemeanors.  When the TV relays the stories of politicians, we judge what they do and say as being part of criminal activity when those words or actions do not fit what we believe to be right (or in our best interest).  When the news keeps tabs on high profile court cases we are quick to offer our judicial assessments of what verdict “should” happen, no matter what actually does happen.  And we are also quick to dismiss the results of actual justice in our country if that justice does not concur with what we believe to be true.  Many of us believe Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman, and OJ Simpson – to be guilty – no matter what the court systems were able to prove.  Our racial biases may influence our positions on those three; White, Hispanic, or Black we believe to be guilty.  But it is hard to find someone in the US, who is willing to accept a “not guilty” verdict for all three of them.  But our entire American justice system is built on doing just that.  And our entire Christian religion requires much more of us than mere acceptance of a not-guilty verdict.

Our judgment is often quick, and in error.  Michael Brown of Ferguson Missouri became the poster child for the Black Lives Matter movement.  His death was a tragedy.  It was a failure of our society on many levels.  And when black men die at the hands of the police, it is understandable how trends can be drawn, and patterns adopted – even if statistics do not bear that out.  But no matter how you feel about the Black Lives Matter movement, or about racial bias in police departments at large, Michael Brown was the single most person responsible for the tragedy of that day.  The investigations conducted by the US Justice Department Civil Rights division, the FBI, as well state and local police departments all came to that same conclusion.  Not all of those agencies had the same goals or agenda during their investigations.  The nation was clambering for action to be taken against the policemen involved.  The press reported this incident on the hour.  And Mike’s name is still listed with reverence when discussing victims used to inspire the Black Lives Matter movement.  But the case on this, the specific case on this incident, found only that the tragedy that ensued happened because of the actions Mike took during the incident.  There were no charges brought against the policemen, because none of the agencies who investigated it found wrong doing on the part of the policemen involved.  And our nation, meaning most of us, have yet to accept that finding of our justice system.  Does that mean every case is wrong, No.  But does that mean, every case is guilty, No, it can’t mean that either.  There will never be a 100% clear cut answer.  There will only ever be tragedies, and failures of our society, failures of our people, that lead to sadness that lingers on well after the incident is over.  And what we judge to be true influences our hearts more than anything else.

And so we are asked not to judge at all.  Not at all.  And for many of us this seems impossible.  Judging is a core part of who we are, or rather, who we have chosen to become.  And this is not a new phenomenon.  It transcends humanity across time.  Theophilus and Luke faced this problem in their day.  Jesus faced it in His.  It is what killed Him.  It is what would kill so many of the followers of Jesus.  As it still does today.  Not the judgment of others rendered upon Christians (that is only a minority given the population of Christians across the planet even though it continues to take place).  It is the judgment we render on each other, that continues to destroy Christian hearts, and adds only to the tragedies of this world.  Nothing gained by our judgment of each other, but surely much is lost by the practice we are forbidden to engage in, yet somehow refuse to give up.  Luke zeroes in on this issue in the Christian church as he continues in the sixth chapter of his gospel, picking up in the greatest sermon ever preached.  Told by Jesus Himself to His followers, as relevant then, as it is today.

Luke picks up in verse 37 saying … “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:”  In this single verse Jesus contrasts what we do, myself included, with what He wants.  We are not to judge each other.  Not in matters of motives.  Not in matters of action.  Not even in matters of sin or not sin.  Jesus did not put constraints around this idea.  He did not say – well don’t judge in matters of the world, but you are free to judge in matters of the church.  No.  He said not to judge each other – ever.  The only qualified judge is our God.  We are crappy at it.  We cause more harm than good.  It is no accident that Jesus followed the words for us not to judge, with not to condemn.  Have you noticed our judgements nearly always lead to a condemnation of someone over something.  We always find ourselves with a guilty verdict for somebody.  And we condemn them almost immediately.  We judge.  Then we condemn.  We do this to sinners most of all.  And it is sinners who LEAST need our judgement and our condemnation.  This idea of judging and condemning sinners as a tool of evangelism comes straight from the mind of Satan, not the lips of Christ.  It has the opposite effect of leading people to Jesus, instead it drives them away.  It teaches them they will never be good enough.

The only way to find relief from sin is to come to Jesus.  But you cannot be forced there, or frightened there.  You must see His love, and feel that lure in your own heart as a response.  You cannot do that when you are constantly bombarded with pronouncements of guilt by those who claim to follow Jesus.  That condemnation does not drive you to the Cross.  It drives you away from the Cross.  Better the judge be dead, than be the cause of keeping people from the only relief from sin they will ever know.  That means, the judge in us, needs to die and be silent forevermore.  Instead of judgment and verdicts of condemnation – Christians are to offer forgiveness.  That means, Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman, OJ Simpson, Michael Brown and Darren Wilson – should all be welcome in your church, your home, and your heart.  It does not matter what you think they did, or did not do.  It does not matter what you feel about any one of them.  Your ideas, your feelings, your judgment, your beliefs about them is entirely irrelevant.  Your forgiveness of them, as ideally they too should forgive you, is all that matters.  Your love of them is all that matters.  For your love of them, may be the only thing, that takes tragedy and pulls down the sadness.

Jesus continues in verse 38 saying … “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”  Jesus reminds us of the cumulative effect of giving on our hearts.  When through our submission to Christ of our ideas, our will, our desires we are freed from the burden of judgement we have so long held on to – we are free to love, to give to others instead.  Forgiveness of others breaks the chain of hate that lies deep within us.  It is our own hearts we destroy because we refuse to forgive.  When we can love and give to others, we heal the damage we have so long done to our own hearts.  And what comes to our bosom is not the gifts of others in return for our own, it is the healing of our hearts that nothing else could have done for us.  This is not the idea of you giving to others, ONLY so they can give back to you in return and in greater measure.  This is the idea that the act of you giving to others, to those you might have previously thought did not deserve it, puts you in harmony with how God thinks, and how God loves.  That harmony with the ways of God, will heal more of your heart and soul than anything else could have done.  And more than you could have imagined.

Jesus continues in verse 39 saying … “And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? [verse 40] The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.”  We are not capable of judging because we do not see clearly into the hearts of men.  Only our God can do that.  But our God is busy forgiving, and redeeming, and giving to us.  If this is how our God spends His time, are we to do any different.  We can join with our God in forgiving, especially those who do not want our forgiveness, or deserve it.  We can join with our God in giving and loving, especially those who do not love us, or ever give back to us.  We are too blind to judge.  But perhaps not too blind to follow the ways of our God in forgiveness, and giving.  If we are to be perfect, we must be like He who is perfect.  We do not see well enough to judge, but we may see well enough to meet a need instead.

Jesus brings home the point again picking up in verse 41 saying … “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [verse 42] Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.”  Too often we condemn our brother for some minor offense, while being guilty ourselves of a major one.  We like to think we know how to weigh sin, and determine which ones are the more grievous ones to commit.  Murder is worse than theft is worse than lying.  But pride began it all.  And lying made it grow.  Murder sprang from these earlier and more insidious sins.  Being gay was not the first sin.  And how we deal with our sins is not something I can cure you from.  My own log in my eye will always be too great to remove the splinter from your eye.  There is no weight of sin one versus the other.  And I am no sin removal doctor.  To tell the truth, I am not even a good judge of what you do, to know if it is sin at all.  I must trust in Jesus to address what is erring in you, as He does what is erring in me.  And I must trust in His love to be great enough to save us both.

This is not about behavior.  Behavior is merely a symptom.  This is about the core of who you are.  You do not judge others because it is something you do in your spare time.  You judge, nearly constantly.  You condemn, nearly constantly.  Because it is who you are.  That is what needs to change.  That is why the judge in you must die.  It must be taken from you before you will be freed from it.  It cannot just take a nap and leave you safe from it.  It needs to go entirely.  You must be made free from it, by the only God who is able to free you from it.  Jesus is the only one who can kill the judge in you, and re-create what He intended you to be.  He looks to transform you from dying bramble bush that you are, into part of the vine in His vineyard.  To make you something that produces a different fruit than condemnation, a fruit of love instead.

Jesus continues in verse 43 saying … “For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. [verse 44] For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. [verse 45] A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”  What you say.  What you think reveals who you are.  What you feel about the criminals you believe guilty is NOT OK.  Those feelings are an extension of the judgment in your heart you still cling to.  To love them, to truly love them, you must think differently, so you can love differently.  To love like God loves.  To be the fruit bearing kind, out of the goodness of who you become.  Jesus tells us here, that it takes this kind of core transformation to produce something else out of you.  A real change in who you are.  Anything less, leaves a harvest unfit for you or anyone else.

Jesus continues in verse 46 saying … “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”  Yikes!  Let those words sink in for a minute.  That is Jesus talking to me, to you.  Why call Jesus Lord, why pray, why claim to be His follower – if we refuse to do what He says.  Christians who judge, are not Christians.  They are Christians in name only, but they do not know the Lord they claim to serve.  We are not to judge even in matters of the church, maybe particularly in matters of the church.  If we are to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps we could start by listening and then doing what He asks us to do.  For those of us who need a transformation to get here.  Let us submit ourselves to Jesus and find that transformation.  Jesus did not come to leave us where we are, He came to lift us from it.  But to be lifted, we must seek to be lifted, and be willing to be lifted.  We must submit to find ourselves in harmony with God’s ways.  Lose the judge in us.  Find the Jesus living in us.

Jesus concludes this sermon, perhaps the greatest sermon ever to the Christian church picking back up in verse 47 saying … ” Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: [verse 48] He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. [verse 49] But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”  There is a Cat 5 hurricane headed your way.  It is one of Satan’s making.  You will feel its fury no matter whether you are founded on the Rock or not.  This is not a product of global warming, it is a product of Satan’s intensity.  The fall of the home and of the heart, not grounded in Jesus will be great.  It is Jesus who says this very thing.

So I ask, who are you?  Are you the judge, jury, and executioner of your own heart?  Do you ignore the words of Jesus and continue to judge all matters of sin and righteousness though you are too blind to see either.  Or has your heart been made free of this burden, by letting Jesus free you from your own ideas, and feelings, and desires – in favor of His own.  The fury of Satan’s floods and winds are destined to rage in your life.  It is coming.  A many hour tornado with rains and floods that will flatten the home of hypocrisy without so much as a second glance backwards.  There is but one defense.  It is not the cries of agony while the storm rages on.  It is the transformation of your heart that precedes the storm.  It is your persistence in not just reading the words of Jesus, but the transformation of who you are, that would find you doing these words because they are a part of you.  Will this storm find you loving others, unshackled from the burden of judgement of your own heart.  Not weighed down with the anchor of condemnation, but instead lifted by the buoy of love that will not be denied.  If we are all to face the storm, why not head into it with the life raft of becoming the words of Jesus in action.  Let the judge die.  See the saint resurrected in you.  And survive the gale in the transformation of Jesus Christ in your life, not just reading, but doing because you are in harmony with who God is.

 

Badly Packaged Truth ...

In our world, marketing is an art.  Swaying your opinions is a science.  Advertisers look to combine the two and create something that grabs your attention, holds it even if briefly, and implants a message that you should like the product they sell.  If they cannot make you like it, perhaps they can make you curious about it.  If they cannot make you curious, perhaps they can have you associate feelings with it.  The packaging of a message has become the way we tend to judge the message itself.  Imagine trying to sell a pizza in a cardboard box with a car tire track/print clearly running diagonally across the top of the box.  Seeing a tire track across the box, would make you think this pizza was run over, and is probably crushed inside.  No one would want it.  Imagine attempting to sell soda inside a dented, scratched, and bruised up soda can.  You would naturally think this soda can will have way too much pressure in it, and when you open it, it will explode.  Even if you could secure the contents without incident, the packaging would make you think that the can had “been through the mill”.  It would do little to inspire confidence in the quality of the drink.

People get used to seeing packaging of a certain type for the products they buy.  When the packaging does not match the historical expectations of what it should look like, it draws attention, but most often negative attention.  It is like introducing a third wheel on a motorcycle.  At first no one sees the value in this, and then a niche market is carved out in biker clubs for the unusual, or as utility in a side cart.  Surely no one would introduce a fourth wheel, but then they do.  And voila, the All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) is born.  But wasn’t that a Jeep?  No, the ATV is a motorcycle on 4 wheels, exposing you, the rider, to all of nature’s elements including massive injury if it rolls, or throws you from its grasp at high speed.  And yet the ATV market continues to grow.  Just like the idea of putting a motorcycle on the water, and voila, the watercraft market is born and thrives as well.  It would seem there is no limit to how we could apply the principles of a basic motorcycle with a little imagination.

And while we are now open to seeing perhaps a new kind of airplane based on a motorcycle given its rapid recent evolution; we are not so open in church.  All too many Christians, expect to see their leaders in a certain kind of package; a three-piece suit to be exact, something with a tie, and shiny shoes.  A deacon, or deaconess can get away with small variances.  But elders hardly can.  And a pastor, is chained to this image of appropriate packaging as surely as they are, to carry a Bible with them at all times.  And using your phone is a cheat, you must have a printed red-letter edition King James Bible, if you are to claim the title of preacher or pastor in this day-and-age.  Packaging sold to us by tradition.  Packaging in sync with our ideas about doing our best for God, but out of sync with what Jesus wore.  Even in His day, Jesus did not wear fine clothing.  He only wore clean clothing, certainly a by-product of baptizing so many people in the Jordan river.

Jesus did not take much of an interest in fine clothing.  In fact, he must have shunned it, at least for Himself.  It would have been remarkably easy to ask for it, from His followers.  They would have either given to Him, or secured it through taking up an offering, like so many modern ministers do believing this is the only way to secure the Lords favor.  It’s not.  Only at His death, is Jesus finally given a royal robe to wear, for the purposes of mocking the King of the Jews.  This is the robe the soldiers eventually gamble for as it still has value, even when Jesus dies above them.  But somehow, modern Christians cling to the idea, that simple, and clean are not enough.  Practical … for hands-on ministry to the poor and to the diseased never even enter our minds.  By this logic we would all be better off wearing scrubs.  With disposable clothing we could embrace the poor, and hug the sick, throwing away our scrubs later and buying new ones if they could not be cleaned in the wash.

But then, scrubs are not the most flattering of garments.  And our ministries are not designed for physical contact with those in need.  Our ministries are designed only for the listening ear, and contributing wallet.  So we expect 3-piece suit packaging, complete with tie, and shiny shoes.  Should a minister take the pulpit dressed in cargo shorts and a short-sleeved shirt with tennis shoes, we would rise up of one accord and throw him out.  Or at minimum, remove ourselves from the blasphemy that is sure to occur in a place that would permit this.  But it is not only clothing that marks our acceptance of a messenger of His truth.  It is behavior.  We have standards after all.  Biblical standards (or at least our interpretation of what those might be).  And we rigidly enforce our standards on everyone … including … Jesus.

Matthew marks the beginning of this thinking (or at least one of the first times it was publicly exposed) in his gospel in the ninth chapter picking up in verse 9 saying … “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.”  As Jesus is leaving his home country or city, He sees Matthew engaged in the practice of collecting Roman taxes.  This is the MOST hated position in the entire nation.  The guy who cleans the poo out of the swine pen would be considered high-society, compared to a tax collector.  Tax collectors are thieves by profession.  Even if they do not steal more for themselves (which most do), they steal Israelite wealth and transfer it to Roman coffers by the nature of what they do. 

Asking Matthew to become a disciple, was literally like asking public enemy number one, to become one of your chief ambassadors.  No thinking modern minister would ask a deformed, lesbian, overweight, stuttering, loud-mouthed, aging minority woman, dressed in shorts and a tee shirt with bare-feet, full of skin disease, and right up to the last minute, a thief of everything you owned, person … to come and follow them, and secure a prime place in your ministry for Christ.  The packaging is ALL wrong.  Any one of those things could perhaps be OK, but the entire combination would make them public enemy number one in the Christian community.  To make them an Apostle of Jesus Christ, is simply unthinkable.  This was the emotional equivalent of selecting a Roman tax collector in the time of Christ.  Matthew would begin his discipleship with Christ as the MOST hated man of the 12, and of the nation at large.  And what does this hated man do … he invites Jesus and the others to come dine in his home.

Matthew continues in verse 10 saying … “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.”  The friends of the hated, are hated themselves.  Matthew opens up his home not only to Jesus, to but too everyone else that would be willing to dine there.  His friends are the dregs of society.  Prostitutes, beggars, whoremongers, other thieves, even a gentile or Roman or two.  The list of people willing to associate with the most hated, are by nature also hated themselves.  Though on the social scale, Matthew is clearly the worst, the lowest, and the most hated of any of these groups.  They all serve a purpose.  Matthew and tax collectors serve only Rome.  None the less, Jesus comes and dines with them all.

Matthew continues in verse 11 saying … “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?”  Enter organized religion into the story.  Enter centuries of tradition passed down within the church, even if they are wrong, or misguided … they remain traditions.  The behavior of Jesus was simply unacceptable.  His behavior rules Him out as being our Messiah.  How many things do you do in your church, or church service, because you have always done them that way?  How many rules and burdens have been placed upon you from the organized church, having nothing to do with the example of Jesus Christ, that you follow because someone said you should?  And when the pastor says you should, how many search the life of Christ, and through this lens, the scriptures for themselves to see if what even a pastor says is what really should happen?  We don’t.  We don’t take the time.  We just do what we are told, as sheep are known to do.

Matthew continues in verse 12 saying … “But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. [verse 13] But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Yikes!  Questioning the need for the sacrificial system itself in favor of mercy, was tantamount to blaspheming Moses and the history of that system that Jesus setup in the first place.  But then, Jesus setup that system because we care little for mercy, and so are in need of sacrifice to remind our hardened hearts what mercy should be.  To kill the innocent animals, was supposed to be hard for us to do.  It was supposed to be a reminder that the mercy we feel for the innocent would one day take the Saviors life for us all.  Because we prefer sin to mercy.  Because we prefer the love of self, to the love of others.  And in this preference, our mercy wanes.  And we are ALL unrighteous.  And we ALL have need of the mercy of our Lord to save us from ourselves.  Jesus reminds us that mercy underwrites our very salvation.

If the incident or the story ended here, we might feel good being able to criticize only the religious leadership of the establishment, about their narrow ideas of packaging, and their hypocrisy.  But even the fringe have ideas about packaging as well.  The fringe folks of our community look down on 3-piece suits as being haughty, as being condescending, as being un-enlightened with what is truly important.  The fringe folks have their own music, and methods, and ideas.  And as they rebel against the establishment, they become like the pilgrims of our ancestry who fled religious persecution, only to establish it themselves.  The fringe folks harden in their own ideas about what is important, and become inflexible to change, or adapt to something new.  And it is like looking at two sides of the same coin; both chained to the metal of insistence of being right that binds them. 

Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?”  John the Baptist was definitely NOT mainstream Israelite society.  He dressed weird.  He ate weird foods.  His hair was uncut.  He bellowed messages of repentance and baptized people under that banner in the river Jordan.  This was not the Rabbi you followed for a traditional experience.  This was the fringe.  The out there, the weirdo of the church.  He fit no mold.  Yet he and his followers maintained a few traditions like fasting.  And as they observed Jesus, they begin to see the unfairness of them fasting all the time, and the followers of Jesus never fasting at all.  It bothers them.  Even from a fringe perspective the packaging begins to look wrong.  Both the organized Pharisee and the fringe disciple of John are questioning the same thing … could the packaging of Christ that is different from both indicate He is not actually the Messiah?

Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. [verse 16] No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. [verse 17] Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”  Jesus tells both audiences the same message, what He brings is new, it is a new life.  The traditions that burden us were never supposed to be there as burdens.  They were meant to free us, or we should be rid of them.  Fasting is not meant as a burden, but as a tool, to clear the mind to see the will of God clearer … or not at all.  Association with the dregs of society is not a sin, it is meant to show them love from a God of love, not to become them and like them participating in the same sins they are held captive to.

It is the love of Jesus that can free us from who we are, whether traditional Christian or fringe Christian.  Our freedom is not found in how we package ourselves, but in how much we love others, and burn to make their lives better.  How much we burn to point others to Jesus as the way to escape the pain of their lives, is the basis of our freedom, nothing else.  His mercy defines our freedom, nothing else.  When we love, we remove the need for sacrifice.  When all our minds are consumed with love of others, there is no room for sin to enter in.  Better that kind of love, then a cycle of sin-and-forgive we are content with today.  Better to love others so much, we do not have time to sin, we do not have desire to sin, we only want to see people find the love of Jesus Christ.  It is not up to us to clean them, that is the work of Jesus.  It is not up to us to judge them for who they are today, but instead to point them to Jesus and have faith that He will clean them up over time.  Jesus is not just looking to meet someone, and then turn over their salvation to you.  He is looking to meet them, love them everyday, and see them freed from pain of sin.  That is what salvation is all about.

Does it bother you that Jesus does this in a homespun garment and simple sandals?  Does it bother you that Jesus gets dirty on dusty roads?  Does it bother you that Jesus picks up all kinds of germs as he embraces the lepers, the demon possessed, the crippled, the folks with diseases of the skin and bloody wounds?  It is not clean work healing the folks in need.  Love is not clean, it is messy.  Love that redeems is messy to.  It has to be, to get to the place where you are, and remove you from it.  The Truth has a name.  It comes to us from the inspiration of His Holy Spirit still today.  Even if it is not wrapped in the package we traditionally accept, we can still listen for His Truth even when the person who offers it, may not be perfect yet.  It was never the package that mattered.  It is not the 3-piece suit that lends credence to what is said.  Only the content of what is said, can be measured against the Truth of Jesus Christ.  A lot of lies are said in 3-piece suits, just as they are in cargo shorts and tee shirts.  But a lot of truths are offered in both as well.

Let us open our minds to His Spirit, focus on it, and discard the package for what it is … meaningless.  It was not the homespun robe and simple dusty sandals that gave Christ His passion for us, and they did nothing to deter it either.  All they were, was clothing, nothing more.  No significance.  What He said matters, not in what clothing He said it.  The same is true today of ALL of His messengers to us.  Truth still has a name.  And Truth can still come to us from the most unlikely sources, if we will but see it.  Leave the packaging up to the influence of His Spirit, and focus only on the Truth that is uttered.  If Jesus is in it, the package is meaningless.  But if Jesus is not in it, no matter how well it is packaged, it is still worth nothing.  Jesus reminds us, if we want to do our best for Him, we should show mercy, and love others.  The recipients of that mercy and love will be looking in to your eyes, not at their reflection in your shiny shoes, or at the wrinkles in your cargo shorts.  Your eyes will reveal your passion … or not.