Margaret Wayman, a good friend from our church family, sends birthday greetings to me with the verse that we sing in church for people’s birthdays: ‘ Happy Birthday to you, to your Savior be true, everyday read your Bible, Happy Birthday to you!’ Thanks, Margaret…and today I was reading my Bible (as I was sung to!) and turning to Luke 10:25-27. A top-notch religious leader comes to Jesus to test Him, trick Him, put Him off balance, whatever…with a loaded question: ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus, without any hesitation, tells this pious fellow to ‘Love the Lord’ with all you are and have, and ‘to love your neighbor as yourself’. Jesus didn’t make up His answer; it’s right out of the Old Testament. Nothing new really, but so little acted upon. That’s what our good friends from Australia, Jack and Maggie Littler, e-mailed me about yesterday(maybe today for them…I’m tempted to yell ‘ Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’ to them but they said they don’t know what it means and they’re originally from England anyway so I’ll keep my yell to myself!!) that what this sorry world needs lots of is L…O…V…E. I agree but much more importantly, Jesus would say ‘amen’. Just read Luke again for what He said. Jesus says it all, He covers everything. First, love the Lord. Without this starting point everything else goes askew at best. Loving God means so much…telling Him just that over and over and meaning it, obeying Him when we’d rather go our own way, following Him which means letting Him take the lead. And much more… that you can think of. Right? What about loving our neighbors? I know I could do a lot more here and it wouldn’t take too much imagination either. And I bet (and I’m not a betting man) that I’m not alone.The third leg of this chair: loving self? Maybe this is where our societies excel…loving ourselves. Focusing inward, navel-gazing as we used to say, the unholy trinity of me, I and myself. Self-obsessed. ‘It’s all about me’ bumper stickers, ad-nauseam. We have twisted what the Apostle John wrote in his first letter: ‘God is love’ (1 John 4: 8)–and now it’s ‘love is God’. So, first things first, the Lord as our primary priority. Numero Uno. Our greatest love, our goal about all else. The One above anything else. Then, when we love Him, we can’t help but care about those around us…even around the world. No barriers with loving neighbors. And of course this will be the very best way of taking care of and loving ourselves. It truly is better to give than receive. Wonder who said that? The same One who told us all about L…O…V…E. Thanks, Margaret, for the good reminder: ‘every day read your Bible’. And, Jack and Maggie, that love is so needed by us and the whole world. I’m thankful for good friends and the Great Friend to all of us who trust in Him, the Love of our lives now and forever! Jesus–‘to your Savior be true’!
SOMETIMES HE CARRIES US AND SOMETIMES… Read Joshua 5:10-12
For 40 long years God has provided a miracle food for His hungry people. Manna from heaven…and the people griped about the same menu day after day, week after week, month after month, yes, year after year. Manna… forever. Well, as it turns out, not really. For as long as needed, though. But they were hungry people, they needed His help every day. Like you and me. We pray and beg and then before we know it, even right after God answers our prayers, we gripe and complain, worry and bicker. Bad timing, indeed! Bad form,also. Read this Joshua passage in the Old Testament– for it is amazing. Just a few verses, but packed with meaning. God provided that food for forty years and now after Passover is celebrated, after they remember how God miraculously delivered them from slavery to freedom, now they can eat all the fresh produce of the promised land. The variety of fruits and vegetables and cheese and meat…now, this IS the promised land, after all! As I read this I thought that there are some times when God seems to be carrying me, when I can’t get one foot in front of the other. Like when our babies and grandkids needed spoon-feeding and all our help, so I need the Lord. Leaning on His shoulders, immobilized by fear or whatever has flattened me. Am I the only one? Just me, just me, O Lord…! And then there are the times when He says to go out and work hard, cultivate the fields of my life, struggle through it, deal with it, hang in there, grow up and harvest all He has for me. Manna one day…the ‘produce of Canaan’ the next! All from His hands, all tender and loving, and sometimes tough loving as well. Are you with me? More importantly, He’s with us. Always…in all ways.
MORE FROM THE LAST POSTING Read Deuteronomy 29:29
Last time I was talking about how God had turned some rather nasty lemons into some rather delicious lemonade in my life. He does that. After all, He is the Resurrected, Risen Lord of All. So, doing a few things for me, opening some doors, closing some windows is right up His alley. God is right there for us. Not off on an extended vacation, not having wound up this ‘clock of the universe’ and let it wind down on its own. No, He’s Immanuel, God with us. And in the literal Hebrew, it reads, ‘with us, God!’ A lot of things are with us in this life–illness, disappointment, job loss,marriages failed or failing, kids who could care less about us or God or anyone other than themselves, financially foolish investments,churches turning in on themselves, bad breaks, good intentions run amok. You name it… you can think of a lot more than I can at the moment. So, hang close to Immanuel, with us…God! Keep repeating to yourself silently today…He’s with me, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so’. Hey, that’s where we find out about Jesus! Not by hearsay or rumor or certainly from the news media of today, but from His trustworthy Word, the Bible you read and memorize and meditate upon. Deuteronomy 29:29 says it all–‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.’ Isn’t that a neat verse? I love it. Much of our life we’ll never, ever figure out. Questions will remain unanswered. How God will answer many of our prayers is still a mystery to me and to you. Lord, How? When? In what way? This verse from the Torah says that there are secret things belonging just to God. He’s not going to tell us everything. He’s not a crystal ball or a horoscope regardless of how much we just have to to know. What we do have, what He’s given us is His Word. And He’s God of His Word. That’s His gift…everything we need to know in life is right there between those precious pages. When I had my lemons I had no idea how or even if lemonade was on God’s menu for me. But what I did know(not as much then as now however…God has been growing me!)is I could trust Him..’for the Bible tells me so’. He would surprise me. It wasn’t about me after all but about Him. His will…His Word…being His child holding onto His hand letting Him lead. Maybe someone today needs to reach out and hold on…to Him who is with us… and to His Word, the Bible. Anyone?
SOME REALLY GOOD LEMONADE! Read Acts 8
Ever wonder why tough times come your way? That’s really a silly question…who hasn’t and is still breathing. Why me? Why this? When will it end and how? What’s going to happen next, Lord? If you’re there right now , remember you are at the point of a new beginning, a new opportunity from the Lord. Reading Acts 8, we discover that a ferocious persecution has broken in Jerusalem against Christians making it impossible for most believers to stay safely within the walls of that ‘holy city’. It was so dangerous that the Bible says they ‘scattered’ …to save their lives. Moaning and groaning and complaining and and whining about all their problems and the lack of appreciation of those religious folks who should know better; and those big, bad Roman soldiers with their mighty weapons! Not quite: ‘Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went'(Acts 8:4). Wherever the dangerous rip-tide of persecution took them, the Word of Jesus went with them. Boldly they spread the Good News of Jesus everywhere they went. I’m sure they didn’t like being persecuted. None of us likes going through turbulent times. But what they had, and what we have, is the assurance of God’s presence with us, His hand of mercy going before, above, underneath and ahead of our every step. Think about that for a moment today. Just pause and remember Immanuel, ‘God with us’. He is…even and especially when the dark clouds roll in blocking out the sun and light of our life.Let me be personal for a moment. I remember that time when I was so hurt by my old denomination. It was like they were telling me to get out of Jerusalem or else; and while you’re at it don’t preach anymore, anywhere. Period. Attending a local pastor’s Bible study, I shared my dilemma with my fellow pastors. One of them, one of the oldest (probably younger than me now!), maybe he’d been to Bible school for a year and that’s all, a 2nd career minister after being a car mechanic most of his adult life, with a very small church. When I told them how I felt and wondered what to do, he asked me point-blank : ‘did God call you to preach?’ I answered an unequivocal ‘yes, He did.’ My friend then said, ‘Why do you listen to those people? If God calls you to preach, you preach.!’ That might not sound like much to you, but those words from God’s mouth through my friend’s lips changed my whole life. I went home after Bible study, wrote a short letter of resignation to my old denomination, and started preaching again, then for 5 years hosted weekly personal testimony/evangelism TV show, then was called to be pastor of a local church , where I just finished 14 years as pastor, their longest serving minister in their over 100 years of ministry. And now I am their Pastor Emeritus. Wow! Could I ever have imagined what God would do through that terrible time in my life. Did I love going through it all and can’t wait for the next time?! No, of course not. But I do love the One who turned my lemons into the best tasting lemonade I’ve ever enjoyed! How about you? Going through whatever? You won’t go alone and the outcome is going to be better than even you or I could ever imagine. Trust me. No, trust Him!
HE IS NOT HERE; HE HAS RISEN, JUST AS HE SAID! Read Matthew 28:1-7
Happy Easter to each of you! We said that to our checker at the grocery store here at Seabrook Island, South Carolina, and she wished us a happy visit from the Easter bunny. We thanked her and with a nice smile on my face, I pointed my finger upward and mentioned the One who is Risen from the dead! And she smiled back agreeing and affirming that that’s her hope for Easter Sunday, hope in the Risen Jesus Christ! So, leaving the poor old Easter bunny aside, not eating any more chocolate than I have to, not cracking too many festively colored eggs, not combing the stores tomorrow for half-price baskets and Peeps and all that other stuff that make the holiday fun but hidden as to the real meaning. If the ungodly in our society can’t kill the holiday (‘holy day’), at least they’ll make it fun! Not to be a party-pooper, all these things are good times especially when shared with children. Just don’t stop there. Get back to the basics–of what it’s all about. Jesus has been crucified, he died and was buried. But now…and this is huge…now He is ALIVE!, He can be seen, He can even walk through locked doors. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Victory in Jesus! Look back at Matthew 28:6 and did you notice what the angel told the two women at Jesus’ tomb–“He is not here; He has risen, just as He said’. ‘Just as He said’–did you hear those Easter words? In other words, Jesus means what He says. He’s a man of His word. What He says you can count on. Take Him at His word. What was the angel referring to that Jesus had said? One place in particular is Matthew 16: 21–‘From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’ Just as He said…now here’s a challenge to you and me–to put His Word into our hearts, to hear His Word as we encounter all the ups-and-downs of life, for Jesus to help us just when we think that death has won out. NO, He is risen,Just as He said! And where can we hear His word? To put securely into our minds and hearts for when we need them most? You know where…it’s still the greatest story ever told! The Bible…God’s Word…For all it’s Worth…in our hearts and minds. And it’s the Living Word of not just anybody but of God Himself! Happy Easter…Just as He said!
WHOSE FRIEND ANYWAY? Read John 15:9-17
‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’…and what a great, old hymn. I love to sing it and whistle it too–much to my poor wife’s consternation! Reading this section of John 15, you can hear the love and the joy and the friendship in the marrow of Jesus’ words to His followers, to those in His day, and also to us today. ‘You are my friends…’ (verse 14) and ‘…I have called you friends…'(verse 15)–read those verses and put your name in the place of the personal pronoun. You…by name…are God’s friend, the personal friend of Jesus, the Risen Lord! Can you let that sink in a bit this Easter weekend? Meditate upon it. Say the words slowly. Feel their meaning. Stop…and ponder. As I was reflecting of these verses, and especially on the thought of Jesus being my friend, another thought entered my mind. Jesus said that ‘you are my friends’…not, I am your friend. Now, certainly He is our friend, the best one of all, ever. Of course He is. But, I was thinking about another way of looking at that–how am I a friend of Jesus? Oh, I love the idea that He loves me, that He’s my friend but what about how I can love Him… how I can be a friend of His? What pleases Him? Frankly, I’d rather have it the other way around, on the receiving end of all those goodies from God!! But that kind of friendship is way too one-sided, and we all know what that feels like to be with a so-called friend who can only talk about themselves, who shows no interest in us, who monopolizes conversations and can turn any comment to their own advantage in one-upmanship and self-centeredness waiting for you to take a breath so they can jump right in to tell their better story! You know what I mean. You have someone clearly in mind, and hopefully that’s not you or me–especially me! But, am I that way with God? And how about you? Always asking and begging in prayer, always talking about ourselves, not sharing Him with others, not speaking up about an issue when we know how God feels about it, not praising or thanking or just sitting quietly with His Bible in our laps listening to Him speak to us. That’s what a real friend would do…all those things and many more that you can think of as well. Be a friend to Jesus…be a friend today. “What a Friend Jesus Has in (your name)”!
PROTECTION FROM THE LORD Read Job 16
I know it’s a lot to ask you to read today, but it’s worth it! Poor Job is just having the worst time in his entire life. We know that, don’t we? And even his friends turn out to be ‘miserable comforters are you all! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you…’ (Job 16:2-3). With all that’s happening to him, all the losses, all the pain, all the unanswered questions, yet at the end of chapter 16 he affirms his hope beyond hope that he has an advocate, an intercessor, someone to help him who is now helpless, one who pleads with God on his behalf. And we, who are believers, know who that is…Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord! Like St. Paul said, ‘…Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us'(Romans 8:34). Yes, our Advocate is speaking out for us, He’s on our side, He loves us and all in this world, especially those who trust in Him alone. There’s another precious word in this book of Job. Did you notice it…the very last word of verse 21? He calls us ‘friend’. What a wonderful word…Jesus is our friend. Someone who sticks with us even when every reason has been given to just leave us in the lurch, and tell us to take a hike. He won’t do that. When we turn our backs, He doesn’t. When God seems so far away, maybe it’s not Him whose walked away. Maybe we should turn around and see Him right there next to us. Those footprints in the sand carrying us like a shepherd with a lamb or more appropriately a child cradled in the arms of the loving parent. So, as Easter arrives once again, as we remember that Jesus suffered and died for us, that He endured terrible losses for us, that He’d do it all again just for you and me, remember the word used here…he’s our friend. And such a friend like no other…anywhere, ever. Just like Jesus Himself said in John 15:15–‘…I have called you friends…’Thank you, Friend, thank you…
JUST BEING WITH JESUS Read again Acts 4:12-13 and Deuteronomy 28:14
Just being with Jesus, just being next to Him, sitting at His feet like His friend Mary did(Luke 10:39), just listening to Him. Just that simple act of humility elevated the disciples and apostles from the ordinary to the extraordinary. And it was so noticeable, even and especially to their enemies. That’s what it says in Acts chapter 4–for what the religious leaders saw was not what kind of car they drove, or the size diamond on their fingers, or how much money they had to give if their names were recognized and attached to the gift, or anything else except their ‘courage’, the Bible says. These ordinary people became fearless after being with Jesus especially after His resurrection from the dead. They now knew personally that death was not the final word. Could kill the body but no the soul. Never. Jesus had told them, He demonstrated it and came to each with His hands wide open for inspection. Peter, who had denied Jesus 3 times, now was courageous and bold, and not ever to be denied his faith in the risen Christ. Peter speaks up and is noticeably different from the cowering, weak-kneed denier that he was at Jesus’ trials just days and weeks before. When we believe in Jesus and welcome Him into our hearts and lives, He gives us His Holy Spirit who begins a work of courageous change within each of us. All this just from being around Him, ‘these men had been with Jesus’. Let me challenge you ( and myself) to spend time with Him, in His Word, the Bible. Not like you have to, or out of compulsion or fear or to make browney points, but because you want to spend time with your Lord. For the past 25 years I’ve read the Bible through, from cover to cover, in each year. Not for sermon material (as I used to early in my ministry) or just to say I did it, but to spend time with my Lord. Listening to Him. I’ve been a Christian now for 50 years, having accepted Him when I was 16 listening to a Christian radio program. And I’ve read the Bible through 25 times. But that means many years and not so precious ignoring the Bible or just maybe a hit- and- miss reading, a couple Psalms if they were short ones like Psalm 117 (see, I still remember!), but avoiding the tough books like Revelation or the long lists of Chronicles. But a friend challenged me to read the Bible on a daily basis…so that by the end of the year I would read it in its entirety. Gradually it grew out of being just a habit into a big part of my daily life as a Christian…spending time with my Lord in His Word. And it has been such a blessing! Just like He promised. John 15:7–‘If you remain in Me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish…’ Hey, stay in His Word, the Word in Us, and He’ll give us new dreams, dreams that come true. May I be that friend to thank you for spending time with your Lord. And to spend more…and more…for He has so much to give each of us. ‘…ordinary men…they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
ORDINARY…EXTRAORDINARY! Read Acts 4:12-13
Here’s one of my favorite Scriptures in the entire Bible. However, I say that lots and lots, so don’t tell me I said that before when next week I come up with another of my all-time Bible favorites and then another one the next day! Anyway, in Acts 4 Peter and John, two of the main apostles, are in big trouble. The religious leaders thought they had done away with this Jesus, and wanted no more talk of His resurrection from the dead or of Him or of anything about Him. Dead and buried, over and out. Just forget it. Shut your mouth, apostles. Or else– what happened to your leader, well, guess what? You’re next, unless you just keep quiet. Enough, already, of this Jesus. Well, that would make me take stock for sure. I could be next on the cross. And so could you. What should we do? Acts 4:12 says it all—if there’s only one way out and someone doesn’t want others to know about it for some selfish or perverse reason, and a fire breaks out, you just shout out where the exit is. Who cares what someone else thinks. Or your grandchild runs out into the street at a hospital ‘quiet zone’ and a truck is coming toward him, you do what comes natural—you cry out, run out, do anything to save that precious child and the ‘quiet zone’ will just have to deal with it. And that’s what the apostles did–they spoke out and up and could do nothing less. Jesus is the only way of salvation, every other path leads to nowhere and no good. ‘No one else…no other name given…’ How did they know this? No seminary grad’s among them. None of them had their Master of Divinity from Princeton, none graduated from a famous Bible school. Verse 13 says that the religious leaders could see the apostles’ boldness but that they were ‘unschooled, ordinary men’. Just common, run-of-the-mill people. No silver spoon in their mouths, no special perks of birth among any of them. Really, somewhat a motley crew–a tax-collector (loved then as much as now!), a terrorist (Zealot), fishermen, and a bunch of unknowns. Just your ordinary Joe. Like the guy next door. But that’s when the ordinary becomes extraordinary. When the precious arises above the common. For as the religious leaders also ‘ took note that these men had been with Jesus’. Sure, they were just people like you and me. But what set them apart was that they had been with Jesus, had known the Risen Lord, had accepted Him into their lives so that the ordinary now was extraordinary. I think without Jesus my life would be bleak at best. The abandonment of polio at age 2 would have been so traumatic that I would be an emotional cripple, and professionally money would have been the sole game. What a waste! How much more God had in store for me. And for you. He has a plan for our lives. Sometimes it’s hard to see. But that’s faith, folks. Time to step up and believe Him. He’ll take that ordinary and reshape it into something extraordinary…for Him, for others. That’s a life worth living! Agree?
MORE ABOUT THAT SCENT OF WATER Read John 4:1-26
We are experiencing not just that scent of water (from Job 14:9) but a down-pour with wind and possibly thunder and lightning later in the day. No, we’re not in the Pacific Northwest where rain and wind are quite normal for a good part of the year (and about May ‘good’ no longer seems to be an appropriate word to use!) but on Seabrook Island, South Carolina. This is beautiful low-country, lots of water everywhere. No drought this year. The wetlands are full. Abundance of water that was not the experience of where either Job or Jesus lived. There it was desert. Parched, hot much of the year, brown and thirsty with plants, trees and people appreciative of even a ‘scent of water’. When my wife and I were in Jordan 2 years ago, we traveled by foot from where the bus parked into the fabulous ancient city of Petra. It was 120 degrees that day. That’s right, you read it! We carried a lot of water with us, or so we thought. Petra is not just what you see in the pictures of what is called the ‘Treasury’ building. That structure is a couple miles in from the parking lot and at the beginning of miles and miles of ancient ruins that just are dazzling in beauty, and puzzlement at how anyone could ever do what they did with the tools available thousands of years ago now. Almost too amazing to put into words. The good thing was that we were there for about 5 hours giving us lots of time to roam about and explore on our own after we ditched our slow-poke travel guide! The bad thing was that there was lots of time to almost die of an unbelievable heat and thirst. Our ‘lot of water’ was grossly inadequate. Even as much as we drank it never quenched , and it was just horribly hot in the mouth as well. Finally, getting back to a local hotel for lunch I never drank so much ice-cold water in my life. Seemed like gallons and gallons. Couldn’t stop drinking that water, which tasted so good. And, then, when we got back to our stateroom on our cruise ship, we ordered ice that came in a 5 gallon tub! You can see why even a ‘scent of water’ would mean so much. And, for this woman at the well, to hear of ‘living water’ from the only One who could provide it…water for life and eternity. What a blessing. What a gift. What a Savior we have in Jesus Christ. This week, in preparation for Easter Sunday, let’s think of the refreshment God gives us so abundantly in His Only Son, Jesus the Christ, who suffered and died on the cross just for you and me and all who seek Him to know Him. He gives us much more than a scent…He gives and gives and gives until our garden is well-watered indeed!
Reflections out of time 