Growing Young Again ...

 

For us, time only moves one direction, forward.  Once the past is past, it cannot be undone or altered.  This is how we know life to be, usually to our great regret.  And as time moves on, we age, always growing only older.  2yr-olds turn into 4yr-olds, 20 becomes 30, 50 becomes 60, and before you know it, you are facing your own mortality up close and personal.  Mind you the distance between 2-years-old and 60 is what we describe as a lifetime.  But in truth, it is not.  All of our years here are but a drop in the bucket, perhaps not even as much as a drop more like a molecule, and perhaps instead of a bucket, an entire ocean.  There comes a life to those who believe that becomes nearly impossible to measure in years, for too many years pass by.  The idea of eternity is hard for the human mind to grasp.  We are too bound in the present, where our life expectancy is set before we are born, where reaching the age of 90 in relatively good health is considered an achievement.  To reach a 100 is so rare it is worthy of press attention, beyond that is hardly something people will even believe.  And in the context of eternity, 100 years old is barely a half a second, or a single blink of an eye.  When time has no end, time becomes less meaningful.  But perhaps the most striking element of eternity for believers is how it begins, not with the dissolution of time itself, but with a change in direction of how we grow.

No, this is not the story of Benjamin Button.  In fact this is not fantasy of any kind.  It is truism.  It is realism.  It descends from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself.  And as a believer you will come to know the truth of it in your own life.  To actually grow backwards.  Let me give you a small taste.  When you were a toddler, chances are you trusted your parents to completely take care of everything you needed.  As a toddler you had NO idea how they did that.  For that matter, as a toddler you never even gave those thoughts a moment of time in your toddler brain.  They just were.  Or rather, life just was.  It did not need definition.  And your thoughts might then have been pre-occupied only with the basics – am I hungry, or tired, or in need of affection, or play.  And no matter which of these needs or any other your mind might stumble across, your parents were the ones to meet that need.  Sometimes they were good enough to anticipate them.  To feed you before you even knew you were hungry.  To hold you because they needed it, even if you were already comfortable that you were loved.  Parents did for you, because you were loved by them.

Now extend the example to how God interacts with you today.  If you let Him, God will be that parent for you in every single aspect of your life.  When you are hungry, God knows it.  And He promises to meet the needs of today as they arise.  He does not promise to stock your pantry forevermore, but does promise to provide the bread you need as you need it each day.  Sometimes it is hard to wrap your adult brain around even one simple gesture of trust.  But if you can allow it.  You will witness the actions of a loving parent where your life is concerned.  And engaging in this kind of trust–fulfillment–trust cycle only builds trust in you in who God is, and how God is, with you personally.  You begin to see His parental instincts are worlds ahead of your own, or of your own parents.  And the worry of this life abates, and you are made free to think on other things.  The stress of survival begins to recede, and what emerges is the freedom to play more, enjoy more, and spend more time with Dad.  You find Dad was just longing to do that with you all along, and He will make the time, to do it.  In fact, He has already set aside one day in seven, just to mark out some special play time with you.

Having the freedom NOT to worry, is an anti-adult thing.  It is a child-like thing.  And it is only the beginning of your journey.  Luke wrote about it in the 18^th chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  He picks up with the incident that outlines the roadmap to this in verse 15 saying … “And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.”  This is typical adult behavior.  The Jewish people believed strongly in blessings.  And to be blessed you needed to make physical contact with the person blessing you.  It took the laying on of hands to be precise.  No remote blessings.  No dialing it in.  The person doing the blessing would typically put his hands on your head, and then the prayers and blessings would begin to flow.  Extra special blessings might involve pouring olive oil on your head while the blessing was uttered.  But these parents just wanted a quick blessing from the Rabbi, or rather the Prophet, or rather the possible Messiah, or perhaps the miracle worker they had all witnessed him perform.  It was a good idea.

But the disciples had begun to think of themselves as more serious people, as a quasi-guardian of access to Jesus.  Imagine that, the first most prominent followers of Jesus, soon took their own access to Jesus as a sign they should limit the access of others, instead of trying to bring others to Christ.  Sound familiar?  Does that plague continue to persist today?  Where someone close to Jesus begins to move away from welcoming all to the foot of the cross, to trying to pre-sort the ones that are able to come at all.  And think about it, we adults are serious people.  We already know stuff.  We are capable of hearing, learning, and decided what stuff means.  We have no time for crying babies, or cute toddlers.  They can’t figure all this adult stuff out.  They are incapable.  So why should we waste our time with them.  Only the serious need apply.  Only the capable need even try.  Little ones are neither of those.  Little ones are obsessed with only one thing – they like to play.  There is NO time for playing in church.  There is NO time to try to distract Jesus with cute stuff.  Keep the cute stuff at home, appreciate it there, and don’t bother Jesus in church with any of these antics.  We have no time for that.

But Jesus had other ideas as Luke continues in verse 16 saying … “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. [verse 17] Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”  Hold up, wait a minute, Jesus is flipping time and growth on their heads.  Instead of serious, Jesus plans to make time for the little children.  Jesus is going to make time for cute, for play, for love, for affection.  Yes we all know Jesus is busy, there is an entire world to save, there are so many to heal, to feed, to preach to.  But put ALL of that on pause for a moment.  Something more important has come up.  A little child wants access to Jesus.  And Jesus is going to stop it all, make time, and fulfill that need.  Serious is out the window.  Reverent has been tossed out of the play-yard.  Jesus will enter instead.  But Jesus takes it a whole world farther than anyone – parent, or disciple – could have ever anticipated.  Jesus declares that the entire Kingdom of God (not just a part of it, but the whole of it) is made up of little babies and toddlers like these kids.  What does that mean?  Adult minds are scrambling now to figure that out.  Adult minds are racing to figure out a new doctrine that runs counter to every bit of wisdom they have been taught, and still they have no clue what it means.

It gets worse.  Jesus ups the ante.  Jesus further declares that all us adults are never getting in to the Kingdom until we learn to receive that gift and embrace it like one of these non-serious, heavy playing, heavy loving little toddlers does.  Not just bad enough that people in the Kingdom are like these kids, people cannot even get inside until they become like one of these kids.  Adult minds just begin to collapse at that declaration.  And shouldn’t they?  Give this thought a minute to sink in, in your own mind.  Jesus is asking for more than just baby-talk you might do with your spouse behind closed doors, or with your small children on the floor while you are playing with them.  He is not asking you to act young.  He is asking you to be young, to grow backwards, to lose adulthood in favor of the trust and love of a young toddler who never even thinks about “adult” things.  Toddlers have no time for that.  It would seem what there is time for is completely upside down when seen through the eyes of Jesus.

At this point, the self-appointed-guardians of access to Jesus, have backed up and gone nuts.  They have opened the floodgates of little ones jumping right into the welcoming arms of Jesus.  They don’t know why.  They heard Jesus describe the Kingdom as made up of these.  But the idea that they have to become like these to ever get in – is beyond them.  That is impossible.  That defies physics, and history, and everything we know about life.  It is upside down world.  So how could we possibly make that happen?  It would seem we are all doomed.  It would get worse, before it would get better.  To drive home the point about how this could ever happen, the story continues picking back up in verse 18 saying … “And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? [verse 19] And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. [verse 20] Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.”

Now this was someone the disciples could equate to, perhaps to aspire to.  A rich young ruler, an adult, who was obviously blessed by God, as witnessed by his wealth.  He comes to Jesus asking how he might be saved.  This answer should obviously clean up that whole be a kid thing.  First Jesus redirects the false flattery back to God who alone deserves it.  Then the first words of Jesus are not about being a kid, they are about keeping the law of Moses.  Finally!  These are words the entire Jewish nation will understand.  Keeping the law is engrained in the DNA.  You keep it, or you are lost.  Period.  No other requirements.  Being a kid, is for kids, this Law stuff is for serious people, for adults who are able to understand it.  The story continues in verse 21 saying … “And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. [verse 22] Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.”  You see, the serious adult has kept the law from when he was a child up.  Maybe that is what Jesus meant about being a kid, that even non-serious kids better keep the law or else.  But that was not to be.

The answer of Jesus was now even more disturbing and for many reasons.  He tells the rich young ruler, to go and sell everything he owns, for “treasure in heaven”.  Then He follows by inviting him to become the thirteenth male disciple.  Hey wait a minute, I thought only 12 were allowed.  They needed to be paired up for ministry, and 12 was like the number 12 of the tribes of Israel.  Isn’t there some numerical significance to that number, why are we about to open it up to 13 instead?  That makes no sense.  But Jesus is right there about to increase their number, so much for pairing up in evangelism.  Maybe Jesus will invite another one to make it 14.  But putting aside the whole number fiasco.  Jesus asks the rich young ruler to do something ONLY a trusting child could ever do.  To give it all away, and trust, and follow – and not know a single thing more than that.  No road map.  No plan.  No agenda.  Just throw all the cares of money to the wind to care for the poor (and in so doing perhaps help the poor to heaven, thereby increasing the only real treasure in heaven there would ever be), and go and be made free in the doing.

So the whole kid thing has not gone out the window with answer of Jesus.  It is worse.  Jesus is pointing out that keeping the Law given to Moses is only a start.  What is really important is giving your entire trust to Him, losing everything you own, and becoming a toddler disciple with no clue what will happen next.  Your need to know is shot.  You are not going to be told.  When it is time you will know, not before.  And keeping the Law, or having wealth, does not shield you from the need to trust, and to give it all away.  The story picks back up in verse 23 saying … “And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. [verse 24] And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! [verse 25] For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Oh no.  Jesus has just doomed all of their aspirations.  In addition, He just made it impossible for an entire class of people to ever see the inside of the Kingdom of God.  Good thing Nicodemus and Joseph were not here to hear this, it might have depressed them to death.  And every other member of the Sanhedrin.  All of them doomed.  If Peter ever became a successful fisherman, he too might be doomed.  Good thing he was only ever so-so at it.

But this response of Jesus to once again defy physics, and reverse everything we know about religion and life was perplexing more than just the disciples this time.  Luke picks back up in verse 26 saying … “And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? [verse 27] And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”  And there it is, the methodology of our salvation spelled out in terms both adult mind and child mind can easily understand.  We don’t do it.  We cannot do it.  We cannot reverse time or physics.  We are not supposed to.  We are supposed to trust that even though we are unable to save ourselves, that Jesus and God are able, and will do that very thing.  What is in fact, impossible for us, is possible for God.  Where our spiritual maturity has thus far been measured in how serious we adult-minds have become – is now to be turned on its head and go backwards – more trust, more play, more love – less stress, less worry, less trying to figure everything out.  We are to lose our need to know, and to just be.  Be free.  Play with Dad.  Enjoy His hugs.  Share His blessings.  Push His love to us outwards, and sideways, to everyone with no limitations – just like a group of toddlers will do. 

We don’t grow backwards into toddlers of His kingdom because we “act” like them, but because we become them.  We cannot act our way into heaven.  We cannot perform the duties required to get into heaven.  We must instead become different people, much younger people, with absolute trust, and a freedom we have yet to experience.  To leave everything up to God, is invigorating, renewing, and freeing beyond all measure.  We stop needing to know “how” God does it, we just need to know He does.  And life and history teach that too.  Our minds then, need not be so serious, but instead be trusting and loving.  Keeping His law then will come not because we will it, or think we do, but because He creates obedience in us, as a natural state of who we become.  And as pointed out here, that is only the beginning.  We will grow into a state of wild abandon with Jesus.  Willing to give up every single thing we own.  Trusting in Dad to meet every need, and watching Dad do exactly that and more.  We can grow backwards, and grow younger, not because it is possible for us, but because it is possible for God, and God does it for us, in us, and through us.  Sit back my toddler friends, time to let Dad take over, and enjoy the ride.

 

Confidence unto Death ...

 

I must admit this whole thing with Trump contracting Covid-19 has hit me harder than I expected.  I am no fan of Trump.  I wanted to be.  There was a time I started out that way.  I hoped his brash style, and willingness to be completely devoid of any political skills would carry him into the White House where he would demand “both” political parties to come to the table and compromise, make deals, and get things done.  I had never seen a candidate for President actually answer a question before, without thinking about it, without planning what the right thing to say was, but instead just say what he thought.  Unheard of, unprecedented, it gave me high hopes.  I had hoped that through his wealth he would be obligated to none, and able to do the people’s business, for the benefit of all the people, pulling back both Republican and Democratic extremism into a centrist agenda that would leave our nation the greatest it had ever been.  But that was not to be.  Instead he pursued a strategy as far right as anyone in history.  He catered to his base and centrism was dead upon arrival.  Mea culpa.  But having the President of our country contract a potentially fatal disease is quite another matter.  That just makes me sad.  Does not matter that it is Trump in whom I am so disappointed, only that yet another victim has been struck with a pestilence of these end times.

We are more than 7 million American souls who have thus far been struck with Covid-19.  More than 200,000 Americans dead.  This disease is real, here, in our home.  And the scariest stories I have heard are the ones describing a new term “long haulers” that experience horrific symptoms for long periods of time well after the virus is supposed to have left their systems.  Talk about pre-existing conditions.  The irony of course, is that President Trump exhibited so much confidence where it came to public displays of how to deal with life during the pandemic.  While science, and doctors who specialize in this field, settled on advice of wearing masks to cut down risks, Trump kept right on doing what he thought was appropriate.  Rallies unabated.  The death of Herman Cain after Oklahoma did not give a moment’s pause.  But as it turns out confidence is irrelevant where it comes to battling pandemics.  Practicality matters, confidence does not.  And so many look at this event and think to themselves, he deserved it, for making bad decisions.  Well no one deserves it.  And anyone is at risk from it.  Covid is something that happens to you, often in spite of what you do.  And so the tragedy lingers on.

But for me the analogy of battling a pandemic with an air of self-confidence the world is not meant to shake, is the same tragedy that infects the modern churches of the Christian faith today.  “We” are so certain about what we believe, and equally confident that others are both wrong, and lost because of it.  Certainty in Jesus is admirable, we should all aspire to that.  But that is about “Who” we believe in.  Our confidence extends far past the who, into the what, and the how.  So many Christian denominations have Trumpian confidence about what doctrines they hold to.  They wind up creating walls of division between one Christian faith and another.  These doctrinal walls that divide us become matters of right and wrong, of saved vs lost, and we hold his confidence that we are always on the right side of all of these issues.  As if Jesus loves those less who believe in Him, but carry the wrong interpretations of scripture, and are too proud to let them go.  We begin to assess the love of Jesus as being partial to those who have the other things right as well.  We start to change the basis of salvation from a belief in Jesus, to a belief in Jesus followed by a series of beliefs only our church espouses.  And every church I know is guilty of this, my own perhaps most especially.  We have become Trump battling the pandemic with self-confidence, but for us it is our church battling the pandemic of sin with the self-confidence of certainty in our own wisdom,

Feeling good about your beliefs is not something new.  That plague has been with humanity for a very long time, and appears to be both hereditary and extraordinarily contagious.  Consider for a moment the parable Luke recorded on this topic in chapter eighteen of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  Luke records Jesus speaking picking up in verse 9 saying … “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:”  Or if you will allow, Jesus speaks this particular parable to every modern Church of the Christian faith today in the decade of the 2020’s.  For who of us does not already trust in ourselves, that we are righteous.  And because we are righteous, we must by definition hate all those who are not like us.  Come to hate those who do not share our faith, or our actions.  We despise sinners of all shapes and varieties.  But most of all we come to despise those who believe in other faiths that claim Jesus, because they refuse to relent what they believe where it differs from our own beliefs.  We do not just divide the body of Christ, we obliterate it into tiny tiny pieces, such that the smallest toe nail is no longer connected to the toe it came from.  And we despise the nail for going its own way, and not coming back to the fold it is from.  And now who is even able to see Jesus in His followers for so many harbor the confidence of Trump, with the extremism of certainty in their own beliefs at the expense of all others.

Jesus addressed this crowd back then, and now as it continues in verse 10 saying … “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. [verse 11] The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. [verse 12] I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”  Confidence you see, does not just exist between one faith and another, it can exist between one believer and another within the confines of the same church.  In this parable the faith is a constant, the church is a constant.  But the idea that one could have less “need” of God compared to another still existed.  A plague that has in no way diminished over time or become less potent.  The Pharisee was a church leader.  And the Pharisee deemed himself righteous because of what he did and did not do.  The Pharisee examined his own behavior and determined he was NOT an extortioner.  Interesting he picks this first.  Further the Pharisee’s self-assessment was that he was NOT unjust.  Nor was he an adulterer.  And lastly the Pharisee was not a betrayer of his nation, by submitting himself to Rome and collecting taxes for those who believed only in the pagan gods like the publican does who caught his eye.

By contrast, the Pharisee did what scripture demanded.  He fasted twice a week.  I imagine he was not over-weight with this practice.  And he gave tithes of everything he possessed.  Monetarily, unlike the publicans who were ever known for their greedy cheating ways, the Pharisee gave 10 percent of every single thing he owned, as scripture demands.  Except of course his heart, there was no ten percent offering made there, or any other percentage.  But to the Pharisee, there was no need of that.  He was righteous because of what he did, of how he lived, his heart was his own.  Sympathy never entered his thinking.  Imagine if he instead would have seen his publican brother enter the Temple, and had run to his side to encourage him, welcome him, open his heart and his home to him.  Perhaps his prayer would have been totally different.  Perhaps it might have been something like … “I thank you Lord for my publican brother who I love so much.  Thank you for bringing him here today to commune with you at your side, and for giving me the opportunity to share that communion with him, and perhaps have the two of us go out into the community to find those in need, who we can continue to lift your name up to, meet their needs, and find joy in the serving.”  Imagine the chance for sharing that was lost in this encounter as Jesus described it.  Imagine the opportunity in this world, at that moment, that was lost to love someone who so clearly needed it.  Publicans were shunned by society, by the average believers, let alone by church leadership.  What if this Pharisee had been willing to stand alone to show a love all of us should aspire to.  Could his prayer not have changed to follow suit?  But that is not what happened as Jesus explains it.

Jesus continues with the prayer of the publican picking back up in verse 13 saying … “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”  You see the publican too measured his own life by how he lived, by what he did.  He was convicted of his own sin.  He knew he cheated.  He knew his thoughts ran into impurity and whether he failed in body, he failed in his mind ahead of it.  He knew he had robbed his fellow citizens because he could, and because he wanted to.  He should not be in Temple.  He was not worthy.  But then, none of us are worthy.  All of us have sinned and come short.  At least the publican knew he sinned.  His guilt and his shame keeps him looking down at the earth, rather than up to heaven.  He smites his own chest in great pain as his heart aches within him over who he has become.  He does not know the way out.  He is trapped in his evil with no hope of escape.  He is hooked.  He is addicted.  But despite his chains he cries out for mercy from a loving God.  He asks for forgiveness He does not deserve.  He has no confidence at all in righteousness, but offers only abject humility for what he knows he does not deserve.  He has no idea what Trumpism might be, whereas the Pharisee has adopted it fully without ever knowing its name.

Jesus continues in verse 14 saying … “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”  And here Jesus is speaking, but NOT to Trump.  Jesus is speaking to every church leader, and church member across the whole of North America.  It is you who exalt yourselves with confidence unto death.  It is you who fail to see how love should motivate both your prayers and your actions.  Tear down those dividing walls of certainty and embrace the sharing of love with anyone in need.  Stop exalting yourselves and start searching for your own humility, in order that you might serve, and desire to serve.  But Jesus is also speaking to another audience.  An audience made up of drug addicts, and hookers.  An audience who has broken the covenants of marriage and ruined the lives of many.  An audience that knows they are unworthy, because they know they are cheaters hopelessly addicted to who they have become.  Yet still smiting their breast and searching for a freedom only God can bring.  Freedom is coming.  God can right in you what you have wronged.  God can take that humble ask and make it something better.  Not because we will ever deserve it, but because He loves us just that much.

Trump did not get Covid because he deserved it.  Covid happens to both the righteous and the unrighteous, it is a pestilence that does not discriminate.  It is our confidence that leads us unto death.  It can be our humility that can lead us back to His throne, and a sense of our unworthiness.  Break down dividing walls and embrace a common love for Jesus, allowing Jesus to lead in all things.  If there must be confidence let it be in Jesus Christ alone.  Let it be in transformative love that saves.  All else is noise, and distraction.  You do not sin because the devil made you do it.  You sin because you have allowed sin to grow within you until it is well past your control.  You inherited your weakness from generations that lived before.  And the motives that now define who you are, are beyond your confidence to shake.  It is time to find freedom.  Freedom that only Jesus brings.  And Jesus longs to bring it.

 

Pain in the Butt Persistence ...

 

Have you ever encountered that toddler child who has already mastered the art of getting what he/she wants from mom and dad?  Nearly all the time “winning” that encounter consists of nothing more than outlasting the other guy.  The toddler asks, and asks, and gives hugs, bribes, promises, then goes back to asking, and asking until the parent is so worn down, they would give up anything just for moment’s peace.  It is not that the parent thinks any differently about the topic.  Their answer may always be a firm no, especially if life worked like it does in a court of law – “asked and answered your Honor”.  But that is not how the mind of toddler’s function.  When they see a thing; if mom or dad denies them, they just start a relentless campaign of “bugging” them until mom or dad caves in and gives it to them, just to shut them up.  Effective.  Now in fairness, a toddler carries the “cute factor” which makes it much harder to resist.  An ugly persistent adult in the workplace, might quickly find themselves on the unemployment line for similar nagging behavior.  But an adorable toddler, can last for days, never yielding an inch of cute, nor a moment’s peace until what they want, is theirs.

So have you ever thought about this where it comes to prayer?  Is it possible we wear God down by asking Him the same thing over and over and over again, until He grants our request; perhaps even if that is not what He would have preferred to do?  Now let’s face it, there are certain parallels in this.  God sees us all as adorable toddlers, no matter how old we are.  We don’t ever lose the “cute” factor as He looks at us.  But we sure take on similar behavior where it comes to getting something we want from God.  We beg over and over again, we throw Him kisses and hugs, we make promises and vows we intend to keep, well at least until it becomes “too hard” to keep them.  And then we go back to asking and asking again.  While it is impossible for us to outlast God in any one of these encounters, we might actually need to be taught a lesson about what it means to get what we ask for, even when God was longing for us to accept His “no” and trust Him over it.  And another similarity, toddlers don’t always ask for the right things.  They very often ask for outlandish things, and things that are decidedly dangerous for them to have.  Yielding to one of those requests could seriously put us in harm’s way.  But we go right on asking, not recognizing we are asking for the wrong things, at the wrong times, and may well be jeopardizing our very souls in the doing.

Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of success, in a persistence that borders on pain-in-the-butt levels.  Whether here with our fellow mankind, or upwards with our God who hears everything.  Jesus offered us a parable to get us thinking about this.  Luke recorded it in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why in the eighteenth chapter right at the top in verse 1 it reads … “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”  Even if we do it wrong, better for us to keep on praying.  Even if we do not immediately get what we want, keep on asking.  The answer from God may never change, but the connection with God is critical to teach us trust, and faith, and look to see our prayers in the context of a reality that cannot be shaken by the words of others who do not believe.  When we faint away, when we give up, our prayer life recedes into a dark corner, and we begin to lose all hope that any prayer might be answered, or that God cares about us at all.  He does care.  And even if He is forced to withhold from us that which we toddlers keep asking for, the connection of the prayers themselves matters to Him and to us.

Luke continues in verse 2 saying … “Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: [verse 3] And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.”  To begin we are not describing God here.  This particular judge was effectively an atheist who did not regard God in any way.  Moreover, this judge was not exactly any kind of humanist, nor sensitive to the needs of others.  That would leave him a self-centered man only interested in making himself happy, however that needed to be.  Now in contrast to the judge (who most of the time are reasonably wealthy and happy) is the widow.  A widow by definition has experienced a primary loss, the loss of her husband, of her security, of her income stream.  That kind of loss is enough to make someone miserable.  And as we know, misery loves company.  Not long before it finds it.  Turns out the widow has a nemesis, an adversary she does not like.  Maybe this nemesis gossips about her.  Maybe she taunts her at the water well, or makes fun of her in the marketplace, or ridicules her at temple.  And what is more it is likely this adversarial relationship is a 2-way street.  Hard to have an enemy when you refuse to be an enemy.  So the widow plots the downfall of her nemesis, taking her grievances to this judge, to get the judge to avenge her cause.  “This” is not a good request, it is NOT a good prayer.

But how often do we pray the same exact thing?  And every time I hear someone offer a prayer for the destruction of others, I always hear a reference to the prayers of David.  But David was contending with the needs of the nation, in conflict with those who would eliminate the worship of his one True God.  Had David’s life been sacrificed Israel may have completely forsaken God at the end of Saul’s reign.  Our troubles with our earthly enemies rarely if ever have anything to do with forwarding of the gospel.  They are instead purely selfish in nature, where we ask for God to pick one of His children (us) over another (our enemy), even while both of us are in desperate need of His salvation, His transforming love in our lives.  If we were to embrace that transformative love, we might have long since lost the concept of enemy in our vocabulary.  But sometimes we like this widow, let perceived wrong-doing, or real wrong-doing against us make others our enemies we wish vengeance against.

Jesus continues in verse 4 saying … “And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; [verse 5] Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. [verse 6] And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.”  So the judge was not inclined to do what the widow asked.  Maybe because he just didn’t care.  Maybe because he was not inclined to punish the enemy of some widow who did not have a good enough case.  But this widow was not letting it go.  She kept coming back, day after day after day.  She was relentless, always in his face.  And frankly, this judge did not have time for this.  It was eating into his day.  He did not want to be bothered.  He just wanted it to go away.  He just wanted a moment’s peace.  Sound like the parent / toddler situation to you?  I don’t know about you, but I have seen this parable play out in every grocery cereal aisle I have ever been in.  Toddler wants Captain Crunch, or Lucky Charms (still my personal favorites); mom wants Total, or Raison Bran (not sure how those brands are still in existence) – but with some relentless begging, most of the time sugar gets put into the grocery cart.  Mom just needs peace after all, and values it more than vitamins on occasion.  This parable Jesus tells however is made up, an illustration of the same principle carried out in a much more serious way, even with imperfect protagonists.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? [verse 8] I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”  Here is where the parable or analogy gets real and gets very intense.  Persecution and murder are no laughing matter, as one child of God inflicts it upon another allowing evil to reign in the heart, the pain of the victim reaches up to God in heaven.  Those prayers of deliverance come with the intensity of life and death, for they suffer a very real life and death matter.  And not all those prayers of deliverance can be answered.  The heart of God must break as He watches one precious child suffer or die at the hands of another, in a desperate attempt to break the evil in the other, and bring salvation to all.  It is what the faithful would wish, if they could see the tapestry God weaves for the salvation of us all.  But that is decidedly NOT clear when you are under the curse or evil of persecution and facing your own mortality because of it.  And here Jesus says that God hears those prayers.  And while God has born our grief and suffered long with us, in order to save us, His patience has an end.  There will come a time when God says to mankind – “enough”.  Let he who is evil, be evil still (chilling words of revelation to our hearts); and let he who is holy be holy still (mysterious words few can comprehend).  But when those words are uttered, patience will be at an end.  What follows them is destruction brought about by the hand of God Himself.  A very targeted destruction against only the wicked.

Jesus says of this end, it will come speedily.  Perhaps as was just discussed earlier in the analogies of Noah and Lot, speedily because we are all too busy living our lives, getting through our days, and completely unaware that time is upon us.  Then Jesus ponders an even more chilling question of His own.  When He does come back … will he find faith on the earth?  Those are very sad words my friend.  In the time of Noah only 8 souls were saved the destruction that wiped the earth clean of evil.  A proof that evil’s time would not last forever, and its destruction universal.  In the case of Lot, only 4 souls were saved, and even one of those lost later by turning back to see an entire evil city be wiped from existence for the evil that consumed the hearts of all those who lived there.  A second proof offered before the final destruction of all of evil.  But SO few saved, willing to seek the grace of God, or move with faith to follow what God had asked.  The rest, evil to the core, and completely unconcerned with matters of faith – more concerned with matters that please self to the core.  And Jesus ponders out loud, will ANY faith be left upon planet earth when He does return?  That would argue that just like in the time of Noah, or Lot, few, very few souls, look past the lives they live to the prayers they offer and the faith they build.

Jesus began this segment by stating that persistence can accomplish so much more in our own hearts than giving up will ever do.  He told a parable of a desperate widow asking a crooked judge for something that should not even been asked, but finding relief because of her persistence.  To extend, we are not so much looking to change the heart of God by our requests, as we are looking to change our own hearts in the process.  For we are both widow, AND judge.  We ask the wrong things, and care so little about it.  But by persistently coming before the throne of grace, and looking upwards to our loving God in heaven, we begin to see Him more clearly.  By focusing our vision upon God – we begin to change.  We begin to care more, even about our perceived enemies.  We begin to ask less for their destruction, even though they persecute us, and more for their salvation.  As we begin to pray those prayers we are changed even further.  Our hearts become broken upon the anvil of God’s love and our faith is increased tenfold.  Our prayer life becomes one centered on the needs of others.  For our own needs we come to learn have already been addressed by God before we ask.  So we begin to focus on the needs of others, looking to free God to answer our prayers in the lives of others who may not otherwise ever ask.

Free will is a delicate line.  God cannot cross it without permission to do so.  A soul who rejects God pushes God away, and greatly constricts what God is able to do for them.  But when you or I pray for salvation to come to the erring rejecting soul – God is allowed to answer our prayers on their behalf, and try again.  God does not give up on the lost.  But our prayers for the lost, change us, and empower Him, perhaps to reach out to the lost using even us (His broken tools).  Will you find the faith to even care about the lost who surround you every day?  Jesus wonders aloud if anyone will.  Too many of us are consumed by only one priority – us.  We care about ourselves, about our own condition.  But we leave the lost up to God, and find no more care in our hearts about them than we do a piece of garbage that blows across our lawn.  When Jesus returns will He find an entire earth of people so apathetic to the needs and hearts of others?  It is possible.  But it need not be.

The secret, or rather the key, is to continue praying – and not faint or fade away.  Let us make our prayer lives as active as our need to breathe.  Let us remain the cute toddlers constantly bugging our parent God, but begin to see our requests for ourselves, changing, becoming requests for the lost our hearts break to see.  For we have no enemies, we see only those in more desperate need of the love of Jesus.  Let us pray to be the conduits of God’s love, and not the obstacles of it.  Let us trust that our own needs have already been addressed (the Captain Crunch or Lucky Charms are already in the cart, and the cart is already overflowing).  Given this, we are free to pray to fill the carts and hearts of others with the blessings God has already seen to it, we receive. 

In my experience, the prayer “give us this day our daily bread”.  Is answered by God offering me not just bread.  But bread of many varieties, fresh, and delicious.  More than that, sandwiches, and pizza’s, and panini’s that are served with pasta’s and steaks, and vegetables, and fruits.  We ask God for daily bread.  And I find He answers with meals far beyond the asking.  This is how God takes care of me.  Not just in food.  I ask to be loved, and love is poured out upon me from sources I never dreamed would, with intensity I never imagined.  My wife becomes more precious to me than life itself.  So now perhaps I can come to trust that my needs have already been addressed by my God.  And I am free to pray for her, and for the world around me.  And beyond my prayers, I can become a broken tool willing to be used by God in the salvation of others, with a new found passion to see the lost come to Jesus and find what I have found in Him.  This is a process I can testify works, because it continues to work in me.  If nothing else I wish to be the Noah and his family at the end of all things, and I wish you and your family are as much Noah as we hope to be.

 

Where Eagles Gather ...

 

A true surprise is not something you could have planned for.  It is something you were not looking for, at least not at the moment it is revealed.  It is misaligned expectations.  You thought you were going to do one thing, and your friends or family surprise you with another.  Sometimes surprises are most enjoyable.  When they are not, we use other words to describe them.  Perhaps a birthday comes and you planned to just spend it in quiet reflection; no parties, no cake, not even presents.  But your co-workers have other ideas.  And so you are surprised, not just by what occurs, but by the fact your co-workers care that much about you, to invest their time and money to demonstrate it.  On the other hand, if your original plans for your birthday were met by an equally unexpected car accident, and you were instantly killed.  That too would have been a surprise, but we don’t use that word, instead we use words like tragedy.  Those who survive you say things like “what a shame”, or “what a loss”.  Everyone knows death will eventually come, but to have it so blatantly interrupt our lives when we least expect it, is not something any of us believe could happen right now.  And so we are almost always unprepared, not ready.  So perhaps for any given event we did not expect, whether we see it as a surprise, or a tragedy depends upon our perspective,

Take the second coming of Jesus for example, if it happened right now, would you see it as a surprise or as a tragedy?  Your life here, in this world, would be over.  If you were saved, your life in the next one would immediately begin.  And for most of us, we don’t actually need to live all the way up until that event occurs.  As we die, it is as if we fall asleep, losing all sense of time, while from our perspective – I was just here, and now the fast forward button is pressed – and there comes Jesus.  So one minute alive in this world, the next minute there is our Savior.  And given how often death is something that greets us unexpectedly, this is not something you could truly plan for.  But neither is life.  As you sit reading this BLOG, you would be literally amazed to look out your window and see Jesus coming back right this minute.  But that is possible.  All the prophecies you think are yet to be fulfilled may have already been so, just differently than you first understood.  The time you think you have from the conditions of the world, and the actual event of Jesus coming could never really be known, or definitively marked on a calendar.  So whether alive (or unexpectedly dead), Jesus could come right at this very moment.  Would you see that with the welcome eyes of a surprise, or with the dread eyes of a tragedy, a shame you did not have more time to prepare, to get right with God, before it does.

Jesus knew when He left his companions the first time, that they would miss having Him with them.  Who wouldn’t?  To have the literal source of love, and life, right within your reach had to be life altering.  It was.  And for the many generations who have had faith in Jesus without ever knowing Him personally in this world, the hope of His coming back to us, to be with us for all eternity has always been the ultimate goal we wait and wish to see.  So all of us wonder, thinking about the big question … when?  When will Jesus return and bring an end to the pains and disappointments of this life, and perhaps bring about the perfection of who we are, for as we sit today that destination is as yet unreached.  Jesus knew this question would overwhelm our minds from time-to-time, so He decided to address it.  In the gospel letter of Luke to his friend about what we believe and why Jesus takes on the subject directly.  Jesus could not tell us when, for only the Father knows that.  But He could tell us what it will be like, so He does.

Picking up in verse 22 it reads … “And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. [verse 23] And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.”  Oh how His disciples would miss Him after He was gone.  They knew Him personally.  They heard His love every day.  They witnessed it.  Nothing could stand against it, save for those hearts that would refuse to yield to it.  Though the disciples were still imperfect, even imperfect creation could know the yearning to be back at the side of God.  Their longing to be once again with Jesus Himself might make them vulnerable to grasping any hope of seeing one of those days.  Jesus knew that was not going to happen and that they would be lied to.  Wicked men, self-deceived to think they themselves might be the embodiment of the long awaited Messiah, might try to deceive others into believing it too.  The hope of finding Jesus based on the misguided words of others might have otherwise had the disciples following every goose chase that ever emerged.  But here is Jesus saying don’t go, don’t bother, those men will not ever be correct. 

In our day we have what we call “cult” figures emerge.  People who carry a ton of personal charisma, blended with some unique understanding of scriptures, who tend to think of themselves as the right-hand of God Himself.  Our modern figures may not claim to be Jesus anymore (that seldom works), but they may claim to be His prophet, or His mouthpiece, or some other highly elevated position, that in reality they have no right to claim.  If they were truly to be this great in the sight of heaven, they would dedicate themselves to being the chief servant of all, denying all credit, and serving and loving others.  Instead most of them desire to be loved, to be served, to be elevated in the minds of other men and women.  But the warning from Jesus stands.  Don’t go, don’t bother.  It is only a scam.  It is only a deception, for the return of Jesus will come in another way.

Jesus continues in verse 24 saying … “For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. [verse 25] But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.”  So don’t get too happy during a thunderstorm.  This is not the story of the mythical Thor who long dead Vikings hoped to see riding the lightning to their villages.  It is a mere comparison.  Lightning covered the entire horizon.  Everyone could see it.  And Jesus was trying to tell us all that His return would be likewise.  Every eye would see it.  It would not be concealed.  It would not be hidden in some dark room at the far corner of the world for only the few to behold.  It would be in the sky itself.  It would be enormous.  It would light up our world with the ferocity of lightning, and extend beyond the horizons to encompass the planet.  Everyone will witness it.  Let that sink in.  Everyone alive at the time of His returning will be unable to ignore it.  When it happens every eye will be inexplicably drawn to it.  And the event will not be a silent one either.  As lightning is often accompanied by thunder that shakes the rafters.  The return of Jesus will come with a trumpet blast so powerful it will wake dead.  You don’t need CNN or FOX to cover this event to get the word out.  The earth itself will be in a state of turmoil forcing the attention of everyone to look up as it unfurls.  But none of this was to happen immediately.  Jesus was to offer His love and be rejected by many, most of all by the church leadership of His own generation.  The clock was still to tick to offer man a chance at redemption, all men, not just those within ear shot right then.

Jesus continues in verse 26 saying … “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. [verse 27] They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.”  Yikes. This is the most unfortunate of comparisons.  The days of Noah involved more than a few conditions.  First, Noah was keenly aware the world was coming to a universal end.  While Noah prepared for it, as per the instructions of our Lord, he preached to the entire world who made pilgrimage to see Noah’s folly one of the larger distractions from their day-to-day lives.  Outside of laughing at Noah, life for them was just normal life.  They ate what pleased them.  They drank the best of wines, beers, spirits, and juice.  They got married.  Since morality was not high on their list of things to integrate into their lives, they married “wives / plural” as Jesus points out.  No idea if that meant more than one over time with the phrase “given in marriage”, or meant simply adding to the harem.  Given in marriage may also have referred to a concept of trading your daughters for wealth – effective early human trafficking.  But even though they had heard the ominous words of Noah’s daily warnings about what was coming.  They paid no real attention to them, choosing rather to “live it up”.  Until Noah went into the ark with his family.  And the rains began to pour down.

This is the other less fortunate aspect of the return of our Lord.  Not everyone will be saved.  There are those who have like their predecessors, simply ignored every entreaty of His love, and just gone about their day-to-day lives.  They take one day at a time, unaware the clock is still ticking, and as it reaches zero at the end of all things, their lives are destined to be ended on that day, at least for a while.  The death we all know is coming, comes for every lost soul.  So while they may witness His return, they will not survive the day.  The fast-forward of death that comes for them is only a speedy entry to the onset of hell itself.  That aspect of “not everyone lives” is what some call the Judgment.  But here is Jesus saying, it happened before, when men went about their daily lives.  Notice too Jesus does not call out this generation for their sins, other than perhaps the perverting of the family unit He had designed.  He calls attention to our lust.  But nothing else.  And yet the evil of the generation of Noah was so bad, so intense, and much broader than mere lust, it had caused God to repent of even creating our species.  The reason for the flood.  And while He was imperfect, the offer and acceptance of Grace by Noah and his immediate family.  But literally no one else took God up on Noah’s offer to be saved.  The Ark was big enough.  And if so many people chose to enter it that it overflowed, perhaps the flood would have been stayed all together.  But no one accepted.  And everyone died.  Is that the state of our world today?

Is it even the state of our Christian churches today?  Do we stand on ceremony and tradition, but not on Jesus?  Do we simply go about our lives thinking we believe the right way, but finding our lust leads us from one crime to another?  Do we so casually give our hearts to one after another after another, forsaking the covenant of marriage we make before God, because we believe our love has moved on to someone else?  Life happens.  But life is happening, just as it did in the days of Noah before us.  And the clock continues to tick down, on a generation that pays it no mind at all.  Jesus continues His comparisons in verse 28 saying … “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; [verse 29] But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. [verse 30] Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”  Think on this comparison.  Sodom was destroyed for rape, for murder, for homosexuality, for a total abandonment of any constraints.  They did not see it coming.  They were just living lives of plenty they enjoyed.  While their lust was unabated, it provided them a constant distraction from anything remotely related to God.  And the day Lot left the city, it fell to fire from heaven, and killed every resident, none escaped.

It is easy to look elsewhere, to look at “those people” dividing ourselves on any lines that is convenient to our own hearts, and thinking others are this wicked today.  But were we to be true to ourselves, would we find the wickedness of Noah and Lot’s generation finding firm anchor in who we are?  Even within the church, a generation of people nearly indistinguishable from those who predate us by so many millennia.  And all of us just going through life, unaware of our proximity to His return, and frankly not caring anymore, too busy with the cares of just getting through this life.  We eat, we drink, we marry, we change our minds, and we repeat the cycle.  Feed the primaries, to the distraction of greater things.  Completely dive in to our jobs, as if our jobs could ever bring us peace, or build our families for the future carrying any one of them to the foot of the cross.  The danger compounds for even those who work in ministry.  They share Jesus outward with the world, but is His image lost inside the walls of their own homes, as example fades from the exhaustion of what we do every day.

Jesus then moves His eye to the soon coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the years of persecution that would follow.  This time of death is surely on its way and He does not wish to have any who might choose to believe be caught up in the coming tragedy by concerns of this life.  So He continues in verse 31 saying … “In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. [verse 32] Remember Lot's wife. [verse 33] Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”  When the signs of the Romans coming happens, get out.  Get out now.  Don’t try to save anything, just go, right there, right then.  When later persecution comes, follow the same ideas.  Run and spread the gospel wherever you wind up.  Remember Lot’s wife.  She died.  Everyone remembers she was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back.  But why did she look back?  Her family was with her.  Therefore her treasure was with her.  But was it?  Could she have lost her earthly possessions, her collection of things, that she so missed as to disobey and look back, even knowing what would come of it?  Or worse, could she have been secretly transgressing with another in the city of Sodom.  Sharing her heart where it was not supposed to go.  And now realizing the destruction that was raining down, must she look back even if it kills her, to see if her love interest might somehow have survived all this?  We do not know.  But we know she knew what was expected, what was told of them by God in her own home to her own ears.  And she chose to disobey for some other priority that was just more important to her.

Jesus says to “remember Lot’s wife”.  Are we her?  Even within the church of today, we know what we have been told, but do we do it.  Or do we disobey with hearts fixed on other priorities?  Even if the cost of that disobedience is to lose ourselves in it.  Jesus turns His eye into the hearts of all of us.  For we cannot discern, who is truly obedient, who is truly repentant, and who is not.  To us a group of people may look all the same from a spiritual perspective.  But to Jesus there is a difference in the heart that we cannot see, but that He alone can.  Jesus continues in verse 34 saying … “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. [verse 35] Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [verse 36] Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”  It is easier to work our way backwards in this passage.  To have two men working together even in the same field, and have one be saved, and the other not tells us that Jesus discerns hearts differently even when all the circumstances appear the same.  For two women at work grinding wheat, one saved, the other not, re-emphasizes the point.  It also tell us that women are not immune to the process of salvation, nor can they rely upon their husbands or anyone else to be saved.  Their own hearts must be right with God, for God will see into them fully and completely.

But two men in the same bed certainly has modern connotations to it.  Only one reason for that in our age, and it is generally not space constraints.  That looks like choice.  That looks like lifestyle.  Keep in mind we have just been discussing the times of Noah, and Lot, only a few verses before.  So it is entirely possible that Jesus was recognizing the inevitability of two men living in a way that scripture does not advocate as right.  Perhaps an open expression of a sinful life.  But don’t lose the main point.  One of them is spared, the other not.  Even for those of us steeped in sin, the heart of repentance is still different to God than the heart who feels it needs no repentance.  And this is not just directed at the homosexual community.  Again remember the passage of Noah, where multiple marriages were occurring, and where lust was unbound.  The straight community is not immune to errant sexual expression, or breaking the covenants that God has established.  There is as much addiction to wrong-doing in straight sex as there is anywhere else.  But even covered in sin, there is a difference between the heart affixed on Jesus, and the heart that has no time for Jesus or all that “silliness”.

But since Jesus has just talked about people being taken somewhere, the disciples want to know where they were taken.  They missed the concept of judgment of the heart in these words, they took them more literally.  So Jesus answers in verse 37 saying … “And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”  Does this sound even remotely like the Rapture so many churches hold as doctrine?  Where the body is; what body?  The body of those taken, of those left.  Or perhaps more likely, the body of His church.  Where the body of His church is, the eagles (or angels) will be gathered together.  Perhaps what Jesus is saying, is that the heart dictates our destiny.  If we are willing to open our hearts, no matter how deep we are in sin today, Jesus can save us, can restore us to His body, can surround us with angels or eagles as we have need.  This last passage or answer to the disciple’s question is not about when the second coming occurs, or how, or where we will go at any time.  It is about restoration based in hearts that may be indiscernible to others, but keenly visible to God.

This entire admonition is about - not being distracted with the cares of this life and missing the greatest event of all of history.  Jesus tells us His return will be an unexpected event for most of us.  Will you see it as a surprise you have long awaited, or as a tragedy of something you cannot believe is taking place now.  To be ready for it, we must find Grace as Noah did.  We must seek it.  We must be willing to accept it, no matter the condition of our lives right at this moment.  No man can substitute for Jesus, Jesus will be seen by everyone.  No one will be able to avoid it.  And not everyone lives.  If we judged the numbers based on the comparisons of Noah and Lot’s ages we would say very few lived, very few were willing to find His Grace.  Noah preached for 120 years to no avail.  Is that happening today?  Do we even within the church body look away from the eagles sent to us, and instead focus our eyes on the lusts of this life to our own great and eternal dismay?  God forbid.  Let us seek His grace, to lead us away from temptation of any kind, even if it is but misaligned priorities.  Let us seek to be where Eagles gather, to find safety under His angels, and service within His body.  Let His return become the most important surprise of our lives, being ready in His grace to meet that wonderous event.