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I’M HAVING MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE CHECKED FOR FRAUD!…James 4: 13-15

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That’s right. I’m having my birth certificate checked for fraud!  Something is seriously amiss.  Possible malfeasance!  I have a certified copy of my New Jersey birth certificate.  Along with the original hospital certificate that actually has my footprint on it.  It’s that date of my birth that’s way off…by 10 or hopefully, 20 years.  Who would do such a thing to one so small and helpless?  What kind of demented mind would strap one so young to an early old age scenario?

The word of my spurious birth year has gotten out, and all my classmates think that our 50th class reunion is coming up this year.  Isn’t that something?  All those ‘kids’ who thought they were so smart, deluded into wanting to get together for our 50th when that can’t be right?  Class of ’65.  Born 1947.

Oh no!  No, it’s true.  All of it.  Never was good at math.  They’re right!  50 years later with some of my classmates, the ‘kids’, sadly already past tense, pushing up daisies.  I know how old they all will look– except for me, of course!  How fragile and silly they’ll be– except for me, of course.  How heavy and out-of-shape, except….I better stop right there before I get into real trouble with our invitation to the big reunion gala being revoked!  We’re going anyway.  The dinner money has been paid.  My bio has been sent in for our 50th class reunion yearbook.  Air fares paid for.   Car rental reserved.   Lovely condo in the city where I was born,  with its view overlooking downtown Manhattan, rented and paid for.  Ready or not…

James, the brother of our Lord, says much the same but with more maturity–”Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’–yet  you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that'”(James 4: 13-15).   Told you!  Basically, be humble as we plan.  Be tentative always allowing for the Lord to change our plans.  Life is short.

I don’t hear voices or see ‘signs’ as others seem to.  I make plans knowing that His plans will rule out.  Proverbs 16: 9–‘In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps’.  Also Proverbs 19: 21–‘Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.’  Make your plans.  After all, life is but a mist, a puff of smoke driven away by the swirling winds of time.  He’ll take care of us.  He’ll give us ‘the desires of our heart'(Psalm 37:4).  Fulfilling those He Himself has put within our hearts.  Won’t that be wonderful?  Go for it!  Amen!

Prayer:  Lord, help to us to make the most of what we’ve been given by you.  In His name.  Amen.

13 IS A GOOD NUMBER FOR MHS!… Psalm 107:43

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Many people don’t like the number 13.  Think it’s unlucky!  My mother always warned us never to open an umbrella in the house.  Why would we do that?  Except that the upstairs shower did leak through the kitchen ceiling!  Superstition is plain stupid…if you believe in it.  I like the number 13!  I was reading in Newsweek Magazine that Millburn High School, where I graduated from,  is the 13th highest rated high school in the United States that year!  100% graduation rate with 99.5% college bound.

I’m always grateful for the education I received in my hometown.   College prep classes, the norm.  Talk of college and university, common chat from earliest grades onward.  Didn’t matter if you were the son or daughter of a New York City corporate CEO or the son of a housepainter.  That one would be me!   I got the same education that the CEO progeny received.  All that was needed was to apply myself.  That was equality in my hometown.

Now I know that there’s something much better than a top-notch education.  You guessed it.  It’s knowing the Lord.  Regardless of your background, the Lord is there for each one.  We support a girl named Irene in one of the poorest countries in the world today, Burkina Faso.  The population of her country is 13 million people.  Half of able-bodied adults are unemployed, while those who have a job only make about $44 per month.  Our monthly support, a drop in our bucket, allows her to learn about Jesus and the Bible, get an education, be properly fed, and have fun playing with other children in a safe Christian child-development center.  She now knows Jesus.  A little girl in a poor country, the daughter of poor parents struggling to make ends meet like none of us reading this today know anything about.

God’s big on equality when it comes to belonging to His family.  As a matter of fact, it’s harder for the rich man…well, you know the story(Matthew 19: 16-24).  Let me recommend that instead of tooting your horn about your old high school(!), how about getting wisdom from the Lord.  That’s what I read about in Psalm 107: 43–‘Who is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.’  His door, wide open to all.  His wisdom, far greater than any education found here on earth.

No matter if you’re old or young, rich or poor, black or white, or whatever beautiful color God has made you,  His truth is there for the taking…from His Word, the Bible.  And, for believers in Jesus, the graduation rate to heaven is 100%!  Can’t get any better than that!

Prayer:  Lord, we pray that people fallen on hard times would come to know your wonderful love and help.   In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

ONLY A SHADOW AFTER ALL… Psalm 23

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One of the saddest jobs a pastor performs is a funeral.  I officiated at hundreds of them.  Some of the saddest were for children and young people.  Can still remember the funeral for a one-year old girl.  The  mother was screaming at the top of her lungs in grief with a heart broken into millions of pieces.  I stood by the little white coffin of this child, who looked so peaceful.

Words of comfort were hard to come by.  When I went over to say good-bye myself, after all the visitors and families had passed by,  what I saw shocked me.   Her beautiful face was covered with the tears of those who had such a hard time saying good-bye to a tiny infant girl who had filled them with such hopes and love.  Tore terribly at my own heart.  I still remember it years later.

Death is hard to take.  So final.  Irreversible.  Yet the Bible casts a different light.  In Psalm 23 we read –‘yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death'(verse 4).  Somewhere I read that there is such a place in the Holy Land.  It’s a narrow ravine where sheep have to pass through single-file as large rocks create a tiny opening to go through.  Sheep don’t like this.  They are herd animals.  Going together is more to their liking.  Alone they get spooked.  We saw this in England with the sheep in the fields at the manor house we had rented.  Together!   Back at that ‘valley of the shadow’, the shepherd has to prod and poke to get them through that narrow passage.

He knows where the good grazing land is.  He knows what’s best for them.  The shepherd knows!  Jesus, our Good Shepherd,  knows where the best place is for us…in heaven with Him.  But each of us, at whatever age, must go through that narrow ravine, one-by-one, single-file.  He’ll be there to guide us through.  He promised He would.  Some of us need to be poked and prodded.  It can be frightening.  But when we get to that good-grazing land on the other side, we’ll know that death was nothing more than a shadow.

Shadows have no substance at all on their own.  Shadows can never hurt us.  They can scare us.  Let a big semi-trailer truck roar by you on the highway, and its shadow alone makes the adrenalin run fast-and-furious for both driver and passengers.  When it passes, we know it was only a shadow.  We’re okay.  Death is but a shadow.  The reality for those in Jesus?  All we could ever say about heaven would be but an understatement!

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for being our Good Shepherd.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

LET’S GET REAL FOR A CHANGE… Psalm 119: 1-8

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I’m upset about something today.  I’ve noticed that the more I’m around Christians,  the less I see of Jesus in them… and me.  The outside looks fine, but don’t dig below the surface.   What lurks?   Pettiness.  Gossip.  Selfishness.  Greed.  Would hardly know we’re committed followers of Jesus by looking in the mirror.

I’m starting to read the longest psalm of all.  A most amazing one, indeed.  An acrostic psalm with each subsequent 8 verse divisions using the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which has a total of 22 letters.  Each of those 8 verses in a section begins with that same Hebrew letter.  In English it would be those first 8 verses all beginning with the letter ‘a’.  The next section of 8 would all begin with the letter ‘b’.  And so on until the last section with each letter beginning with ‘z’.  Covers everything from ‘A to Z’!

As I read the first 8 verses of Psalm 119, I immediately felt the  ‘conviction of the Holy Spirit’.  Yes, this can still happen when we stop talking at God and start listening to Him!  Shove moth balls in our mouths, opening up our ears to the Master.  I can rarely get past a couple of praises to the Lord without asking Him for something, even when I determine to spend my entire prayer time in praise.  I fail miserably.   Not a pretty sight.

It’s the old story of whether there would be enough evidence to convict us, if we were arrested for being a Christian.  For many of us the case would be dismissed outright for lack of evidence.

Want to get real for Jesus?  Read those 1st 8 verses of Psalm 119.  I can’t get past verse 2.  It rivets my heart.  ‘Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.’   Blessings come when we actually follow God’s Word.  Presumes that we’re spending time in the Bible,  where we find out about the Lord.

It’s not how much biblical content we know , but how genuinely we follow Him.  Trust me, we know the difference.  Not rocket science to experience a painful conscience.  For verse 2 concludes by saying ‘who seek Him with their whole heart…’  This completes the picture.  Getting real with God is knowing His Word and following through.   Pleasing Him with our lives.  Praising Him.  To know the Bible and act as if I’m paying attention to Him.  No, not an act.  Let’s get real for a change…for Him!  Want to join me?

Prayer:  Dear Lord,  I want to know you and your Word better and better every day of my life.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

WHAT A MOTLEY CREW!… Revelation 7

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How many of you love the Book of Revelation?  Can be studied from many different angles.  Filled with controversies galore!  I remember as a student at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, my pastor had a very definite opinion on every tiny detail in this book.  He had it all figured out, possibly the only one in all of church history!  When he discovered that I had deviated from some ‘itsy-bitsy’ interpretation, he wrote to the president of the school, reporting me as an up-and-coming, dangerous heretic!  Bless his heart, Dr. William Culbertson, distinguished president, never said ‘boo’ to me about this issue or anything else!   My home pastor-friend never spoke to me again.

I can surely say(and don’t call me Shirley!) that people get a bit hot-under-the-collar about the book of Revelation.  I’m looking today at Revelation 7.  Here’s the first of two references to the 144,ooo.  Let the debate begin!  No, let it end!  I’m not going to be drawn into all the theories about who are these 144,000.  You decide for yourself.  No help here.  Well, maybe a little!

This number is a multiple of important round numbers in the Bible.  12 times 12 times 1000=144,000!  12 tribes of Israel(Old Testament saints).  12 Apostles of Jesus(New Testament saints).  1000(all the rest of us) as in millenium.  An all-inclusive gathering of God’s people.

Quite the motley crew!  Africans, Arab believers(though so few), Hispanics, Northern Europeans(though so few), Australians, Asians…and you and me!  See that list of tribes in Revelation 7?  Tribes of Israel?  Sort of.  Not the list of Jacob’s sons, for Dan is left out completely and Manasseh included(he was Joseph’s son).  Nor the list of those who inherited Canaan’s land, again Dan is left out.   Levi is included but they were to be landless priests.  Joseph is listed instead of his son Ephraim.  Reuben, the first-born, is ousted by Judah for first place.  Then the sons of  Jacob’s concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, are listed before the sons of his wives, Rachel and Leah.

What’s going on here?  Well, why was Dan excluded?  Don’t know for sure, but Dan was where Jeroboam set up a golden calf for idolatrous worship( 1 Kings 12: 29).  Could be why he’s not listed.   Whatever the reason, one’s genealogical heritage is no guarantee of heaven.  Those of the two concubines are no longer considered 2nd class citizens from the ‘other side of the tracks’.  No more Greek, no more Jew.  No male, no female.  Slave nor free.  Old barriers have collapsed.  Walls come ‘a tumbling down!

When we welcome Jesus into our lives, we become one in Him.  May not look or act alike, but the blood of Jesus covers all…equally!  Forget the theories and hobby-horses in Revelation.  Enjoy the delicate variety of God’s people!  The marvelous Church of Jesus Christ!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for the varied folk in heaven.  So many, all born-again through your Son on the cross. In His name.  Amen.

I CAN STILL FEEL THAT HORRIBLE THIRST!…Revelation 7: 16

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A few years back I experienced a thirst like I had never had before.  We were on a  104-day cruise.  Having successfully escaped pirates off the coast of Somalia, we were now travelling through the Suez Canal in Egypt.  A lovely, leisurely sail up the Red Sea into the Canal.  We were to travel by bus to the Valley of the Kings, of King Tut fame.  Once the ship had docked, we boarded our buses, each one led  by a truck, escorting us and carrying armed guard.  We could see their rifles.  Felt safe.  We needed safety for this was the week before the Egyptian election that ultimately led to riots, death and chaos.  But we were safe with those armed escorts… who all gunned their motors and peeled off to go home within a couple of feet of the barbed-wire gates of the port!  Never to be seen again!  Like us… maybe?  Here today…gone today!  On our own.

The heat in the Valley of the Kings was 120 degrees.  Blistering and blazing heat.  When we got off the bus to get on tiny trams, I thought the only smart ones were the ones buried in those much cooler tombs!  Felt claustrophobic in that inferno.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was thirst that hit me.  A parched cardboard feeling in my mouth and throat.  I could hardly swallow.  So dry.  Had to endure it.  The water we brought from the ship was now itself almost hot.  Didn’t satisfy at all.  Not in the least.  Drank and drank and drank some more, but felt as if nothing had gone down our throats.  Strange… but that’s how it felt.

Revelation 7 pictures God’s people.  All have endured terrible trials and tribulations.  Pictured wearing white robes that become ultra-white by washing them in the ‘blood of the Lamb'(Revelation 7: 15).  Sounds like a mixed metaphor to me–made white by washing in blood?  We become clean, not by our own efforts.  The blood of Jesus, shed on the cross–it’s that which covers our sins and cleanses our lives.  Only He can do that.

Guess what will not be in heaven?  Yes, no hunger.  AND no thirst!  Hallelujah!  The scorching sun will be shaded by God Himself.  As a matter of fact, it says elsewhere in Revelation that with God present, no sun will be needed ( Revelation 22: 5).  His light will be everywhere.  Not merely for an hour on Sunday morning, but forever.  When we get there, we’ll wonder why we wanted to hang around this crazy world.  Why did we have that surgery?  Why take all those pills?  I could have gotten there sooner if I hadn’t given up smoking 30 years ago!  Only kidding!

In the meantime, we have lots to do for the Lord!  Let’s get busy.  Agreed?

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for the water of life you give us freely in Jesus.  In His name.   Amen.

CAN YOU GUESS WHO GETS THE LAST LAUGH?…. 2 Chronicles 30

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Yes, of course!  God always gets the last laugh.  But remember, His laughter is never sadistic, relishing and enjoying the unrepentant getting their due.  However,, for those who willingly turn-their-backs on the Lord,  want nothing to do with Him, there is a last ‘laugh’ that only the Lord will have.  As it says in Psalm 2: 4–‘He who sits in the heavens laughs;  the Lord holds them in derision…’  And in Psalm 37: 12, 13–‘The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.’

This ‘laugh’ is for those who refuse anything of the Lord.   If there’s a smidgen of an urge to seek Him, a nudge toward Him, they’ll find Him merciful and forgiving.  As Peter writes–‘He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance'(2 Peter 3:9).  He wants all to be with Him.

But the unrepentant unbeliever will not have the last laugh.  In 2 Chronicles 30 we have the godly King Hezekiah reestablishing worship in Israel.  The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread will be the centerpiece of godly worship.  The King sends out couriers inviting both north and south to a great celebration at the Jerusalem Temple.  Passover will unite a divided people.

His offer to the remnant in the north is based on what he knows of God’s character–‘For if you return to the Lord…(you)will find compassion…for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him'(2 Chronicles 30:9).  Hezekiah’s God(and ours) has open hands, with a great-big heart of forgiveness and love.  The people’s reaction to this invitation?   2 Chronicles 30:10–‘So the couriers went from city to city… but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.’

Laughed out of town.  Much of Western society today laughs in the face of God, expecting that there’s no one home in the heavens.  ‘You’re such fools to believe in God’, they say.  So ‘anti-science’… ‘bigoted and hateful’.  They laugh and scorn.  Should we wither in our witness for Jesus?   2 Chronicles 30: 11–‘However some…humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.’  Some… will respond, not with scoffing ridicule, but with a change of heart.

I don’t like being laughed at.  Made to feel foolish.  But I want to obey the Lord.  Since not knowing Jesus is a dead-end street, I better find ways to share Him with others.  I think this applies to you, too!  I’m still packing Gospel tracts in my back pocket.  If only they would ALL bear good fruit.  But that’s up to someone else.  I’m doing what I can… and that’s up to me.  And the Lord will take care of the rest.  Of that,  I am sure!

Prayer: For boldness to share the Lord Jesus, we pray.  For His sake, amen.

 

THE END IN SIGHT!… Psalm 102: 23-28

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I can clearly see the finish line.  It’s right over there, beyond the sunset.   But how long it will take to get there is a mystery.  Obstacles and joys on the way?  Time will tell.  Only the Lord knows for sure, and He’s very quiet about those kinds of details.

What finish line, you’re wondering?  Well, THE finish line…as when I’m finished!  Not with this devotional, but with life itself!  A lot of things remind me that the upward half of my life crawled by as if on all fours, but this downward half is picking up lots of steam as I approach the finish line.  You know what I mean?

Some hints about this can be felt with upcoming high school, college and graduate school reunions, as in the big 50th for each.  Can you believe it?  I can’t!  During the next 8 years, 50th class reunions will be held for all three.  I thought those were only for old people.  They are, you say.  And why are you pointing the finger at me!?  What events will be scheduled?  Wheelchair races?  Who came the farthest with the most prescription med’s in hand?  Who has the most facial wrinkles per square inch?  With my attitude, maybe I shouldn’t attend!  But we will.  Lord willing, wouldn’t miss them for the world.  I guess!

Psalm 102– “‘O my God’, I say, ‘take me not away in the midst of my days– you whose years endure throughout all generations!'”  My days…His years and His generations.  Isn’t that great?  Psalm 102 goes on to talk about creation folding itself up, heading ‘out of Dodge’.  Like a worn-out garment.  A robe changed later in the day.  Such will be this good earth some day.

‘The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you'(Psalm 102: 28).  We, who know the Lord, will be safe and secure, protected and at peace, enjoying His loving care forever.  Forever.  That’s a big word for a long time.  Forever and ever!  Even longer, if that were possible.

Our moment…His forever.  His forever…now ours!  As if He places His arms around us, moving us closer to Him where no one and nothing can ever harm us again.

Time may be getting short for me.  But His time with us will be never ending.  I think I’ll lean real hard on Him.  Want to join me?  There’s plenty of room!  And lots of time!

Prayer:  Father, our time may be going by quickly; but you, our God, will keep us close.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

ALL THAT SMOKE… Revelation 8: 1-5

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We enjoyed worship services during our two months in England.  One of the most memorable was at Tewkesbury Abbey.  Full name was the Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin.  A former Benedictine Abbey, with one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in the whole country.

Theoc, a missionary from Northumbria, first brought the Gospel to this part of England, the Midlands.  This was in the 7th century AD where he established a tiny place of worship in a gravel pit at the confluence of the Severn and Avon Rivers.  The first monastery was built in 715AD with the Abbey begun in 1102AD.  Still standing.  Still inspiring awe and wonder to our Lord Jesus Christ.

This day we witnessed a high Anglican service involving lots of pomp and circumstance.  The mixed choir of boys and girls along with adults.  Organist at the console of the 17th century Milton organ( John Milton who wrote ‘Paradise Lost’).

But it was the censer that caught my attention.  Incense was burning in a small metal container, swung on a chain, with smoke rising higher and higher with each swing of the censer-holder.  One of the four chains had a hasp that would open and close the vessel allowing incense to escape in a great puff of smoke.  All that smoke!

We could hardly see the altar.  After worship, we spoke with the censer-holder.   He mentioned that the next Sunday there would be three of them swinging censers and that no one would see anything at all!  He thought that would be thrilling.  We didn’t return!

The Book of Revelation is always quite the experience.  Seals opening…trumpets blaring…bowls pouring out wrath and judgement.   In their midst comes the opening 5 verses of chapter 8.  Jesus, the Lamb, opens that 7th seal.  Then silence in heaven for an hour and a half.  Utter silence.  Why?

Bible scholars differ like Heinz 57 varieties.  I’m going to hang my hat on one  interpretation.  This is what I think.  During this period of silence, angels carry censers like the one we saw at Tewkesbury Abbey.  Incense is rising to the throne of God.  That sweet smell is everywhere, clouds of smoke filling the air.  We learn that the incense is mixed with the prayers of God’s people.  Prayers rise to God’s attention.  He calls for silence.  Quiet.  He’s hearing our prayers.  Yours and mine.

They are so precious to Him that He broaches no interruption at all.  No disturbance.  Quiet.  He only wants to hear our prayers.  Could it be that our prayers are so  precious to Almighty God?

And could it be that prayer will be more evident in our lives knowing how much they mean to Him?  Could it be?

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for showing us once again how important we are to you.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

WHAT’S THE DELAY? …John 20: 19-29

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Why does everything have to be so immediate?  Packages ordered minutes ago, dropped  on our heads from an army of drones!  First thing I should order is a ‘hard hat’!  I want it NOW!  But when we get things, we want something different.  Things don’t satisfy.  We’re not content with what we have.

The Apostle Paul writes ‘…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content'(Philippians 4:11).  He’d be laughed-out-of-town today with that advice. Bad for the economy!

There’s something about waiting that is good for us.  Getting what we want, when we want it, spoils us; leading to a lack of appreciation.  We can become manipulative.  Using people for our own devices.  Bullying, conniving, pushing and prodding to get our own way as if that will bring us happiness.

You wonder how I know so much about this!?  God has had me wait a long time for some really important things in my life.  That’s been good.  I don’t like waiting.  But to ‘wait on the Lord’ is absolutely critical.  And I’ve had to wait a long time…not so much for God to do something, but for me to grow up in Him, to be obedient.

God would be delighted to give me instant answers to my prayers, but He knows how much I need to sit at His feet, trusting that His timing is always best.  Not sitting around folding my hands, doing nothing.  That’s not me.  But what God is looking for is an inner reliance, a nod in His direction before all else.

Are you wondering what John 20 has to do with any of this?  It’s after Jesus’ resurrection. He’s appeared many times to His disciples, giving Himself forty days to reassure them before He ascends to His Father in heaven.  Forty days.  Thomas is having a hard time believing what the other’s have told him–that Jesus is alive!  He lays down the gauntlet–either I see Him with my own two eyes or all bets are off.  Verse 26 is what I’m looking at here.  ‘Eight days later…’   Eight days of waiting.

Jesus could have instantly appeared to Thomas.  He could have been dropped down on Thomas’ head by some angel-drone!   No, eight days went by.  The Lord was doing something in Thomas’ heart.  I don’t know what that was.  However, I do know that years went by with me toying with the Lord, reading the Bible hit-and-miss,  allowing the world to raise tough questions without seeking God’s Word for guidance and answers.

Took years for God to whittle those things away.  For the Bible to come front-and-center.  For me to move to the side.  I’m wondering if someone today needs to do much the same?  Do it.  Get serious with God.   You’ll never regret it.  Takes time.   Our times…in His hand.  Could we be in better hands?

Prayer:  Thank you Lord, for giving us your time and love.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.