TIME TO BE AN UNBELIEVER!… Matthew 21: 21-28

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An unbeliever?  Shouldn’t I be encouraging belief and trust in the Lord?  Of course.  But I’m quoting Jesus.  Name dropper!–“then if anyone says to you, ‘look, here is the Christ!’  or  ‘there he is!’ do not believe it”(verse 23) and “so, if they say to you, ‘look, he is in the wilderness’, do not go out.  If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms’, do not believe it”(verse 26). You didn’t believe me!   Charlatans and conartists will try to trick you as if we’re gullible.   In fact, don’t believe them at all.  Be an unbeliever.  Hang tough with what you believe in.   The Bible must be our hitching post.  Without a doubt.  Everyone else pays cash, no out-of-town checks accepted!

I remember with  sadness years ago seeing all those billboard signs advertising a certain date on them,  guaranteeing that a specific day would be the last one,  then Jesus would return.  Guaranteed.  Indisputable.  Baloney!   I couldn’t believe it.  Time to be an unbeliever!  We were staying in Ocean City, New Jersey at the time.  People were giving out fliers on the boardwalk warning of that date.  The sad part for me was that their leader  was a Bible teacher I would listen to on the radio every night when I was a new believer.  He would teach the Bible, answer questions that listeners would call in.  I loved the program.  I learned so much.

But now–what was this?   Guaranteeing the exact day of the 2nd coming,  absolutely for sure?  I know the Bible enough now to shake my head at such arrogance.  Jesus said that only the Father knows when.  That’s enough for me.  No one will know for sure… until it happens.  No one.  I’ll be an unbeliever to all who say that they now know.   Also, to all who think that the Bible is old wives’ tales.  Or those who mocked  the Bible when that day came… and then went by rather uneventfully.  And to all who think the human mind alone can comprehend and solve the complexities of this life.  I don’t believe them either.

I don’t even believe in the power of prayer.  Like it’s some impersonal force or a bunch of positive vibes.  No, I believe in the One who has the power to answer our prayers.  Trust in the Lord.  Believe in Him.  Lean on God’s Word,  the Bible.  You can trust every word of it from Genesis to Revelation.  Believe in Jesus and you won’t fall for any claptrap, even from a retired devotional book writer!  I too must pay cash!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for the anchor of our soul that your Son Jesus truly is.  Amen.

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF A LITTLE 4 YEAR-OLD… John 3: 16

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Our 4 year old granddaughter loves our seashell collection.   She tells us multiple times how much she loves them.  You guessed it.  We’re giving her our precious seashell collection!  But we tell her that she’ll get them a little at a time, everytime she visits us.  Aren’t we sneaky?  Dangling a shell in front of her eyes to keep her coming back!  Are we not enough of a draw?

I was telling her that it’s fun to share.  Immediately she told me what she had learned at  pre-school– ‘sharing is caring’.   I like that.  I found our children’s Bible that we’ve read to our grandchildren.  Wanted to share with her the Easter story.  The ultimate story of sharing because Someone is caring.  Not just someone.  God– sharing His only Son.  Giving Him for us who deserve nothing but the back of His hand.  Wanting to give us His salvation.  Wanting to because He loves us so very much.

What a strange story.  Strange in that none of us would ever give any of our children to die for someone who could care less, who would spit in our face given the opportunity.  Would you?   I wouldn’t.  But He did.  As the verse says, ‘For God so loved the world…’  Loved.  Not just liked or tolerated.  That would be me on a good day.  No,  He loves us– all who are in this world.  All who receive Him into their hearts.  Is that you?  It was me when I was sixteen hearing this message for the first time–that God loved me and cared about every itsy-bitsy part of my life.  I couldn’t believe it.

But I did believe it– that it is true.  As best I could,  with the little mustard of faith that I could muster up and offer Him, I accepted His love in Jesus.  But it’s not about my faith as much as His sharing because He’s so caring.  It’s about Him.  He accepts the little I give Him, and He makes that something really big.  Thank you,  Lord!  My little light gets infused with His to make all the sunshine I’ll ever need for all my days here on earth… and beyond.  For you also.  Plenty of light to go around.

He gave His only Son.  Think about that.  Praise Him for caring and sharing.  May this Easter, as sweet as the candies can be, be ever sweeter with our loud praises to the One who gave His life for us!  Happy Easter!  He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!  ‘Sharing is Caring’… indeed!

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, we praise you, our living Lord!  Alive forevermore!  And living for us!  We thank you and praise you and love you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? … Matthew 21: 28-46

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Our Lord Jesus is in the final week of His life.  The time between Palm Sunday and Easter.  Matthew recalls that Jesus tells a few parables during that week.  Here’s two of them.  Jesus puts it right to His listeners, including a group of chief priests and Pharisees.  He’s taking every opportunity to reach out to people.  He never gives up.  Always trying to reach everyone all the time.  Do you realize that?  When I first heard someone make that statement, I really had to think about it for awhile.  But he’s right.

The story of the two sons shows that God gives second chances in this life.  Jesus tells about a father who asks both his sons to work in his vineyard.  The first says ‘no way’,  but then thinks better of it and goes to work.  The second son says ‘yes’, only to placate his father, and winds up not lifting even one finger.   Who obeyed?   The first son, of course.  This is a parable about God’s second chances.  The ‘yes’ of today and not the ‘no’ of yesterday.  When we fail Him,  get up    Let Him give you His hand to help,  and get going for Him NOW.

For the person who glibbly shakes his head ‘yes’ without any intention of following through, the outcome will not be very good.  The religious folks thought that saying ‘yes’ was enough.  But it wasn’t.  The proof would be in the pudding.  Jesus tells the story of tenant farmers who rent land from their Master,  owing him a portion of the crop as payment for working his land.  The tenant farmers decide to revolt.  When the Master sends his officials to collect the rent,  they beat them, even kill some.  The tenants want to keep all the crops.  But they really have none.  Only renters, after all.  That’s the deal.  But they want it all.  The Master figures that his son will be able to talk some sense into these senseless rebels.

No, they kill him as they had the others.  How foolish–for he is the Master and he exacts justice in the end.   Those ‘wretches (will come)to a wretched end’ (Matthew 21: 41).   This story is clear.  God keeps sending His messengers to ‘knock on the door’ of everyone’s heart.  In all kinds of ways.  God looks for the open door.  Welcome Him in.    Welcome…welcome…welcome!  So sad that so few make such an offer.  Embrace His loving arms.  He died on that cross for you and for me.  How could I ever turn my back on Him?

Prayer:  Thank you, Jesus, for going to the Cross for us.  To forgive all our sins.  In your name.  Amen.

THE TUSSLE OVER THE TASSEL!… Matthew 23: 1-12

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It was Tuesday of Holy Week, the days between Palm Sunday and Easter, and Jesus is in the Temple precincts speaking.  These will be some of His last earthly words.  Poignant and pointed.  Previously,  we referred to the tassels Israelites wear on their garments.  Four tassels, with a blue cord woven-in, were worn on the 4 corners of a man’s garment.  Reminders to remember… and to obey the Lord( Numbers 15).

In Matthew, we witness Jesus warning against pride and arrogance that can rear their ugly heads.  He mentions pious folks who brag, comparing how long their tassels are, grabbing the best seats in the house, longing to be looked over and not overlooked.  Called highfalutin’ names with noses high in the air.

In 2010 Sue and I took a wonderful Holy Land tour with friends from the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center.  One of the archeological sites we visited was from the time of the Prophet Abraham, near the modern city of Beersheba in southern Israel.  In this 4000 year old site there was an area of raised earth with seats formed out of the clay walls where people could sit.  This was where the judges would gather, hearing cases brought before them.  Some of our group were asked to sit up there.  They really couldn’t wait to step up ‘high and mighty’!  I was the one on trial for some trumped up charge, of course! There they were, big-shots one-and-all, seated many feet above poor railroaded me.  Cross-examining poorer me.  Passing poorest judgement on wrecked me!  All for fun… but a point was made.

They were above me.  It was intimidating.  I felt totally at their mercy,  of which I received none as it turned out!  The Lord warns us about getting too much into ourselves, too much above it all.  Jesus must having been thinking about how much He gave up coming to this earth.  He showed the way.

We easily get lost in ourselves.  Jesus wants us to shy away from inflated titles, excessive pandering for applause.  Tussling over the tassel!   So, move aside… and take a towel.  A somewhat non-descript one.   Wrap it around your waist.  Wash and then dry each other’s feet.  Maybe not literally.  Deferring to others as Jesus did in leaving the glory of heaven to come to earth… to die for us,  forgiving us of all our sins.  If He coveted His rightful place in glory, we’d be condemned to you-know-where.  ‘The greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted'(Matthew 23: 11-12).  Let’s not have a tussle over the tassel!  Pray for ways this week to lift someone else up.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Is it?

Prayer:  Lord, we get on our knees today to thank you for coming to earth to save us.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

THE HASSLE WITH THE TASSEL… Numbers 15: 37-41

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A few years back, we rented a condo in Brooklyn from which to tour the Big Apple.  We love the City!  The condo was amazing for the low price.  I got a bargain and a lot more than I ever bargained for!  Needless to say, we were out-and-about every day touring and enjoying the City, dreading coming back to that dive.  While riding the elevated portion of the subway to Coney Island, we could see lots of Jewish men wearing strange clothing with stranger additions to them.  Tassels on their shawls.  Tassels with a lovely blue colored-stripe through them.  Garments,  tossed in the city air,  as these men walked briskly along.  Seemed like a hassle to us to have to wear such a garment.  But not to them.

It’s found right in the pages of our Bibles…about those tassels.  They’re trying to be faithful to what God said in His Book.  What does it say?  That they are to wear tassels on the four corners of their clothing as a reminder of the commands of the Lord.

Why the hassle with the tassel?  Must we ask?   It’s so easy to forget our Lord.  We have such short memories.  We wander off on our own.  I need to be reminded.  Something to keep Him right in front of my eyes.   You too?  Of course you do.

Whatever you can do to remember God and His Word, do it.  Even if it’s a hassle.   For God is all there really is to hold onto in this life.  Everything else will pass away.  The Bible is a book like no other.   That’s where that blue thread comes in.  To remind us that God is Holy, and wholly to be obeyed.  The blue dye came from the gland of the Murex snail found in muddy, shallow waters of the Mediterranean Sea in Northern Israel.  They say 12,000 snails’ glands produce 1.4 grams of dye.  I had to look it up– 1 ounce equals about 28 grams!  That’s a lot of snails for little dye.  Very rare.  Very pricey. More expensive than gold or silver.

That little thread in the tassels will cost us.  It’s a sacrifice to follow the Lord.  But wear the tassels, be bold and testify to the Holy God we worship and follow.  After all, those 10 commandments are for His glory and our good.  If all His commands were followed all the time, it would be heaven on earth.  On St Patrick’s Day we’re not ashamed to’ wear the green’, Irish or not.  Every day, for Jesus,  wear your figurative tassels with the blue thread of our Holy God.  Share your good news with someone else who needs the Lord. No  matter the cost.

Prayer:  Lord, we worship You alone, our Holy God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

HIDE AND SEEK…Proverbs 25: 2-3, and Matthew 11: 25-28

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I used to love playing the kid’s game of ‘hide and seek’.  Run around the old neighborhood trying to find the right place to hide where hopefully the person who was ‘it’ could not find you.  When I read Proverbs 25: 2-3,  I was puzzled.  What does it mean that God is glorified when He conceals things?  God hides things from us?   It is ‘the glory of God to conceal things,  but the glory of kings to search them out.’  God hides…we search them out.

What gives?   There is something about searching,  finding out for ourselves.  When I was a financial planner,  I had some clients who enjoyed considerable inheritances.  Some were young people with money dumped into their laps.  I can’t think of any that weren’t worse off after they got all that money.  They found themselves aimless.

Is that what’s meant in this verse about God hiding some things and our needing to search them out?   We appreciate more what we have to work hard for.  A ‘free ride’ is often not that at all.  Proverbs 25 says to get with it!   In college, my parents helped me with expenses–tuition and room/board.  When I entered graduate school at Princeton, my parents announced that I was on my own.  No more money!  Oh, the pain and suffering!  I was being weaned off of their largesse.  It hurt.  I was confused…and possibly a bit greedy as well.   Maybe?  Probably!

I learned that it’s good to study and work hard.  After all,  I was now paying for it!  I did quite well at Princeton.  I paid back my student loan over a 10 year period, never missing one payment.  Like burning a mortgage when that last coupon was clipped, the final payment made!   My parents were right.  I needed to search it out, paying for it myself.

God holds back so we can get busy for Him.  Searching and seeking… all He has for us.  Will mean so much more.  Not served on a platter… but after climbing mountain clefts, stretching weary muscles and scraping knees.  Even in the troubles that don’t seem to go away, seek Him.  Seek…He will be found.  Crack open the pages of your Bible… and find out for yourself.  It’s well worth the effort!  Good reading… good digging!

Prayer:  Lord, we need You so much.  Thank you that life is worth the living because you live.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

BURYING YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND…Leviticus 19: 31

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We live in a world that has almost no awareness of the Bible.  Really pathetic.  Read almost any author up until the mid-20th century, from Shakespeare to Milton,  Dostoyevski to Tolstoy,  Eliot to Dickens, and their works are laced with biblical references.  The light of God’s Word shines so dim in our modern world.

So, where do people turn for guidance?  Horoscopes and pseudo-scientists, economists and politicians.  As if they know everything.  Did you know this?  The Lord God speaks more in the Book of Leviticus than in any other book of the Bible.  Leviticus?  Yes.  And He says plainly in chapter 19: 31 to stay far away from ‘mediums and spiritists and necromancers’.  The word for ‘mediums’ in Hebrew language refers to someone who digs a hole in the ground that unleashes infernal deities and spirits of the deceased to enter the upper world, communicating with the living.  Wow, how informative can you get?!

Look at 1 Samuel 28:7 where King Saul foolishly consults a ‘medium’ for direction.  The Witch of Endor.  An owner of a hole in the ground.  That’s the best he can do?  A hole with his head in the sand?  Where the dead are buried?  The haunt of demons, disembodied spirits and Satan himself?  This is serious business.  Where do we look for guidance in life?

Don’t get me wrong.  We dare not put our heads in the sand, cutting ourselves off from the outside world as if there’s nothing there for us to benefit from.  There is.  But, our skepticism must be on high alert.  Drop your horoscope reading–stop now, right this moment.  Never again go near a ouija board.  Never again darken the door of a fortune-teller.  Take economists and politicians lightly, sifting them like grains of sand.

Hang around the Bible neighborhood.  Your neighbors will be the very best.  Streets are safe and well-lit all hours of the night.  Truth hangs out on every corner.  The food is abundant and already paid for.  Leviticus 19:31 says that if you consult mediums, who are just dirt-diggers mucking around in the mud on a rainy day, ‘you will be defiled by them.’  Be careful, the Lord says, you could get sucked into what turns out to be quicksand.  People without the Lord wind up digging a big hole, looking into its depths only to fall in and disappear where they least want to be… forever.  Stay away.  The signs have been posted.  Pay attention.  Spread the Word!

Prayer:  Lord, we turn to you for guidance and help.  We ask for your strength to stay far away from what we know is not for us as believers.  In Jesus’  name.  Amen.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT QUIET… Ecclesiastes 4

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Check out Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 6.  Talks about quiet and tranquility.  The older we get, my wife and I appreciate quiet more and more.  Agreed?  Noise annoys us.

Where we used to live,  we heard loud train whistles at night.  After awhile, not that noticeable.  We got used to it.  The neighbor’s dog outside our bedroom window, barking at strange hours,  was never a welcome sound.  Diesel trucks chugging up our neighborhood, spewing black smoke into the air amid the rattling din of the engine was certainly unwelcome.

Solomon refers to ‘better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind'(ESV).  Of course, there’s nothing wrong with ambition.  Burning the midnight oil to get ahead in life.  Working hard, saving for the future.  Read Proverbs for such confirmations.  Laziness is never applauded in the Bible.

Something else is going on in Ecclesiastes 4:6.   We move inward to find the nugget of truth from the Lord.  To the place of peace and quiet.  We worry too much when it’s peace that’s supposed to reign in our hearts.  Let me confess that I’m in need of this peace as much as anyone else.

Too many of us live as if we were agnostics.  As if God didn’t even exist.  Like He could care less.  But He does care.  He does love us. We know that.  But sometimes it feels quite the contrary.  With every trouble we face, we do so not alone, but with Him by our side. Every trial and trouble…shared.    Why then does it take so long for me to recognize and believe that?  Why?  A lack of faith?  A forgetfulness?  Overloaded and maxed out?

Don’t you think that Solomon may actually be saying that less could be better for us?  Better one hand with quiet in it than two full hands overflowing with worry?  That too much whatever crowds out faith?  Think about it.  Can there be things, and even good things in our lives, that need one arm with the other one held freely,  lifted up high to praise the Lord?  With two hands loaded-down,  we can’t praise Him or open a door in kindness for someone else or even help us up off the ground.   We’re too weighed down.  Lighten up.  Let things go.  One quiet hand…now lifted high in praise!   That’s better!

Prayer:  Lord, help us to lighten the load of our lives.  We need your help for some peace and quiet today.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

TIME FOR THIS, TIME FOR THAT… Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13

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Everyone says that when you retire, you wonder how you had time for work.  When I retired as a financial planner,  my wife and I did more travelling.  Fun to do.   We loved serving the small church we were pastoring.  Not being on any career ladder was so liberating.  Giving of ourselves,  not looking over the shoulder.

Ecclesiastes 3 has that marvelous section on timing.  A time for this, a time for that.   It doesn’t say when to set your watch, but alludes to times and seasons in our lives.  Times when we need to get away from commitments to others.  Do what’s in front of us, no planning beyond next Thursday.  Times to get close to Him.  Quiet times.

And there are times when schedules happen to be haywire and in-flux.  No way to control what’s going on.  The time to ‘let go and let God’, whatever that means in the nitty-gritty of our lives.  When we were moving after 21 years in our house, life was in turmoil.  Couldn’t think straight.  Too many boxes and too many decisions.

It’s time to move.  Then time to unpack, get settled finding a new church family while still seeing our current one when we can.  Time for this and time for that.  A season of change.  Maybe you’re facing times of change?  A new season in your life.  Welcome or un…

What Solomon advises is for us to enjoy. Enjoy?  Who has time?  Here’s what I’m trying to do–ignore many of the worries that nag at me. Push them to my emotional open window and then shove them out!

Time to enjoy.   Ignore the fears as best we can.   When they come in the door, push them out… and trust the Lord.  Work hard, yes.  Lots to do that must be done. But block the naysaying… and let the Holy Spirit remind us of God’s never-failing love.  There’s only so much time in each day.  Only so much room in our hearts and minds.  If faith crowds out fear, then there will be very little time and space for worry.  True?

Enjoy!  Fill your hearts and minds with trust in Jesus.  Let the rest go…and have a real good time in the Lord!  Enjoy!

Prayer:  Lord, it’s time to trust You.  To throw myself at Your feet in worship.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

BROKEN DISHES!…Leviticus 16: 6-10

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I’m reading the book of Leviticus in my devotions.  In the past I would speed read my way through all those regulations about clean and unclean animals, ritual washings and whatever.  Not any more.  Did you know that more direct words of the Lord are recorded in Leviticus than any other book of the Bible?   I didn’t know that.  Now I do.

Let’s focus on a couple of verses in chapter 16.  The section about the scapegoat.  You remember–two goats were involved.  I’ll portray one of them, the old goat!!   One goat was sacrificed, signifying God’s covering of our sins through shed blood.  The other goat would be released and sent into the wilderness( Hebrew ‘Azazel’), signifying that our sins have been released.  Free of them,  and free to flee their dire consequences.  This is the scapegoat.

That’s what I’ve always heard, and always taught.  However, both my Bible translation(ESV) and a new commentary indicate that a slightly different meaning may be in the offing.  It has to do with that Hebrew word ‘Azazel'(verses 8 and 10).  Most Bible scholars would honestly say that there is no definitive translation of that word into English.  Traditionally, it’s meant ‘scapegoat’.  This goat symbolically carries the sins of God’s people away from them into the wilderness.  Some feel that the word ‘Azazel’  has more to do with a location where garbage would be deposited or possibly even the owner of the dump.  In other words, the first goat would sacrifice its blood to cover sins.  But the second would take them to where they originally came from, the pit of hell,  to Satan himself.

‘Azazel’ –dumping them off like a garbage truck would do at a smelly, rotten garbage pit.  Sin would return to its roost.  Like a boomerang,  sin comes back to its dank and decaying haunt.  Interesting.   God forgives our sins and marks them ‘return to sender’.  A few years back we ordered a nice set of dinnerware from a large internet retailer.  They arrived by delivery truck, where the driver opened our back screen door and tossed the box in onto the floor of our utility room.  I heard this from a couple of rooms away.   Lifted that box of dishes only to hear shards and pieces hitting each other.  Broken dishes!  Large platters in pieces!  Calling to the driver,  I handed him back the box,  and told him that I heard what he had done.  He was one  ‘unhappy camper’.  Like I was accusing him of mishandling that box.  Well, he did!  So, back it went.  Broken dishes… returned to sender.

God forgives our sins…and sends them back to where they came from.  In the words of His Son from the cross…’It is finished’.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, for your forgiveness we are so grateful.  You cover us and cast our sins aside.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.