#173

One Who Deserves More Than We Give

It’s a very old song (I Gave Me Life for Thee – Harvard and Bliss, 1858). Each of its four verses ends with a question, and the question is repeated. It’s like we really need to give this some serious time and consideration.

Verse one

“I gave, I gave my life for thee, what hast thou given for me?”

Verse Two

“I left, I left it all for thee, what hast thou left for me?”

Verse Three

“I’ve borne, I‘ve borne it all for thee, what hast thou born for me?”

Verse Four

“I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee, what hast thou brought for me?

I don’t think I need to rewrite these verses in modern English. I believe we get the point.

I played enough sports that I cannot even begin to count the times my coach said give it 110 %. I guess it is obvious to most of us that to exceed at anything we must push beyond the normal.

If you are that rich young ruler, don’t be satisfied with liquidating your holdings and giving to the poor. There was something else. Come follow Jesus (Matthew 19).

That woman caught in adultery was found without any accusers. But that wasn't the end. Stop sinning (John 8).

How much of us does Jesus deserve? Well, just how saved are you? Are you slightly saved? Are you saved just on Sunday? Are you saved as you dig in your pocket for the little bit you put into the plate. No such thing as being “sort of” saved.

                                            Hebrews 7:25

                    25 Therefore he is able to save completely  

                    those who come to God through him, because

                    he always lives to intercede for them.

We expect everything from Jesus while at the same time we expect Jesus to accept so little from us. We offer to him the leftovers, few leftovers at that, and expect Him to be so joyful that He jumps head over heels.

He Gave His Life, He Left Heaven, He Endured Agony, He Brought Blessings. What have we given, left, endured, or brought for Him?

#172

One Who Accepts Children

 (The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting) 

On Friday, December 14, 2012, 26 innocent people living their daily Newtown, CN routine had their lives taken away from them by an individual ( I cannot and will not say his name – he deserves no notoriety for this senseless act of violence) who infiltrated their normalcy and blew it all to pieces. All lives lost in this incident represent a tragedy, individually and collectively. The slice of this tragedy that I want to make some effort to digest has to do with the children – and I’ll have to admit that digestion gets interrupted frequently by sickness in the pit of my stomach.

One thing that helps is remembering the title of my blog, “Who is Jesus?” If at all possible I want to go back to Jesus in this tragedy. In doing so, I remember what Jesus said at a time when some children were sensing and feeling their own disenfranchisement.

Of all people His very own disciples we the ones sweeping the children under the rug. They were the ones that were hindering the children from what was very likely the children’s parents plan for them that day – go see that man Jesus. In essence Jesus barks at His disciples, “Get back there. Do not interrupt their plan.” He says (Matthew 19:14)…

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

"Do you not know, Peter, Andrew, James, John, etc, that only children come to me? The ones you are blocking are the very ones I want, and, by the way, take an example. This is the only way anyone will get to me – child likeness."

A chapter earlier these same disciples are arguing about who is greatest. Jesus again brings children to the forefront as He says (vs. 3)…

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Children and Heaven – now there is a connection. Jesus says it twice. His arms are wide open to children. The welcome mat is out for children. Don’t even ring the doorbell; the door is wide open!

There is unmistakable wailing on the part of parents who lost their children. You may be able to make sense of it, but I can’t. But what I do know is that these are the very ones that Jesus welcomes into heaven. Can’t you see it? The Son of God, while grieving and feeling for the parents, welcomes these 20 children into a place they will never have to leave. Can’t you just hear Him say, “Let these little children come to me. I've got you!"

#171

One Who Starts Where You Are

When I first started playing football, quite a while ago, the coach did not expect me to be an automatic superstar – which I never was. He did determine what I already knew and began to build on that. In other words he took me from where I was. This process is pretty common in every area of life. When it comes to a new job there is a learning curve. Brand new parents do not reach parenting expertise overnight. In each case one is taken from where they are and developed into what they need to be.

We need to remember this process in our attempts to bring our friends and neighbors into a relationship with God through Jesus. Of course Jesus is our prime example of using this process in dealing with people. “Come down out of that tree,” Zacchaeus, “I’m going home with you.” Jesus took him from where he was – a thief – to a recipient of salvation.

The woman caught in adultery was exactly that – an adulteress. “Go and sin no more.” She received mercy and it was exactly what she needed where she was.

How many of his disciples were hard working fishermen who became fishers of men? They couldn’t start out being fishers of men. They needed to grow.

If we are not careful we want to baptize super Christians without allowing time for growth and development. We think that they must be straightened out on everything, not limited to but including; eschatology, propitiation, however many acts of worship there are, what women can and cannot do, marriage-divorce-remarriage, communion at the beginning or end, etc.

I just remember the bottom line for the man born blind and healed by Jesus in John 9. “I was blind but now I see, (vs. 25).”  Isn’t that the bottom line for all of us? At one point we were totally blind, and now Jesus has made us see. Now that we can see, we can begin the process that Paul describes in Galatians 4:19.

               My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of
               childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

Spiritual formation is a process – a lifelong process. We have yet to become what we will be.

If you’ll understand who I am and where I am and help me see Jesus, I will become what I am supposed to be. If you make me begin by trying to be what I am supposed to eventually become, I will fall all over myself.

Start with people where they are.

#170

In his 2010 book, “Jesus, Unleashed,” Joel Killon quotes from social science professor and catholic priest, Andrew Greeley.

    “Much of the history of Christianity has been devoted to
     domesticating Jesus, to reducing that elusive, enigmatic,
     paradoxical person to dimensions we can comprehend,
     understand and convert to our own purposes.”

To put it other words, and in the form of a question, “Have we tended to dumb down Jesus?” We all believe and try to show the relevance of Jesus and His teachings to today’s world. In so doing, have we gone too far? Have we made Him so much “one of us” that we have lost the significance of who He truly is?

The Jews of His day were looking for someone totally different to what they were experiencing. Jesus came into this world as a radical – a spiritual radical. That would make Him hard to explain in human terms. Words would fail us.

Jesus comes into this world, healing, facing down the religious leaders, touching the wounded and afflicted, accepting the outcasts, giving His life, leaving the tomb, sitting at God’s right hand, and somehow we think we can explain all of that inhuman activity in human terms.

There is something more than special about being supernatural - Certain aspects of Jesus remaining an enigma make Him just that much more out of this world. We have tended to say that Jesus was all human and all God. That’s hard, if not impossible, to explain, and that is the way it should be.

I have reached the conclusion that I don’t need to try to explain everything about Jesus. I can’t do it. I want to believe it, enjoy it, bask in it, and tell it to others.

Do we really want a “domesticated Jesus,’ or do we want a glorious supernatural mysterious Savior?

Who is Jesus? #169

Someone Who Has Faith in Me

We can’t escape the teaching from Scripture that indicates how important our faith in God and Jesus is. “Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). So, let’s grow our faith.

But it appears to me that something else we have going for us is Jesus’ faith in us. He left the establishment and teaching of the early church in the hands of his apostles who had bungled things a time or two while following Jesus in His ministry (that gives me some hope as a fellow bungler).

Jesus tells Peter to feed the sheep (John 21). He has confidence that Peter will do just that – and he does.

Jesus has faith that He will have future believers who did not have personal contact with Him during His ministry, but believe anyway (John 20:29). I’m one of those, and you are too if you have accepted Him.

Jesus has faith in me that I will obey Him more and more each day out of love rather than duty.

Jesus has faith in me that I will share His Gospel story with others.

Jesus has faith in me that I will consider everyone better than myself.

Jesus has faith in me that I will, as a preacher, be faithful to the Word of God no matter what.

Jesus has faith in me that I will encourage the one-anotherness (made up that word) of  His Kingdom.

Jesus has faith in me that I will be guided by the Spirit that has been given to me.

Jesus has faith in me that I will let His light shine.

Jesus has faith in me that I will be the husband/father/grand father that He has made me to be.

Yes, as a follower of Jesus, I have faith in Him, and He has faith in me. He hasn't disappointed me, and I hope I haven't given Him too much opportunity to question His faith in me. I know there have been those times.

Who is Jesus? #168

One Who Counted No One Out

It appears to me that all too often we judge whether someone is or is not receptive to the Gospel before we decide to share it with them. Perhaps we think it will be a waste of time to share because they are not “ready.”  However, maybe this is an area where we really need to remember what Jesus said, “Thou shalt not judge.” Maybe, just maybe, this is the most dangerous judgment we can make. Have we somehow decided that we are the authority as to who can or cannot receive the saving message of Jesus Christ?

Can we not all recall the non-Jewish people that Jesus interacted with? It seems that only his Jewish associates had a problem with this. There was that Greek woman (Mark 7) who wanted Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. The interaction between her and Jesus seems at first to be rather hurtful, but Jesus had this discourse with her to teach His disciples that salvation is available to everyone.

Jesus apparently spent quite some time talking to a sinful Samaritan woman (John 4) about living water and her life with her significant other/s and, once again, His disciples take exception to Him even giving her the time or day. If He had responded to her like they wanted, not only would she not have had the good news, but neither would those other Samaritans who came to believe.

Jesus had time for children. It appears that His disciples felt Jesus would be too busy or too important to interact with kids. Jesus would deal with royalty as well as the poorest of the poor. He invited Himself to the home of a tax collector.

As far as I can tell no one was “off the map” as far as Jesus was concerned for receiving Him. Even those religious leaders of His day would have found salvation if they had been willing to do but one thing - repent.

I wonder who we have written off. Oh, they are too busy, too ignorant, too educated, too poor, too rich, too close, too distant, too skeptical, too high maintenance, etc.

Jesus, rather than counting Saul out, confronted him face to face with who He was. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:5).”   I wonder if introducing people to Christ rather than church doctrine or dogma would prove that more people are “ready” than we think they are.

We tend to count out, entertainment celebrities, politicians, prostitutes, etc. Would Jesus? Don’t they deserve a chance to hear? We know that is what they need.

I am glad someone counted me “ready” to hear the story of Jesus.