Injustice and How to React

I hate injustice. If I am guilty of it, I can beat myself up pretty badly. If I witness it, I feel like putting up the dukes. If I am victimized by it, I rage inside.

So, as I read today about Jesus' suffering of injustice during His trial, I was struck by His reaction to it. Silence. As a lamb led to slaughter. Ellen White writes really well of His dignity, His regal demeanor, His compassion for His abusers. His reaction to the abuse meted on Him--greater than any abuse any other individual has ever endured--is a such a rebuke.

But don't downplay His reaction to the abuse meted out on others. He busted out a whip once and laid the smack down on some unscrupulous guys in the temple once. He sent demons packing all over the place. He embarrassed Pharisees and religious types when they tried to trap Him, argue with Him, or when they used other people as pawns in their hateful agenda.

It seems that He acted when others faced injustice and oppression. But He took it when He was challenged to compromised. You see, He had to face this as a human being. If He were to ever expect you and I to stand up for our faith, He had to set the example.

That's tough. I can't say that I'd show the same qualities if it were me. This is one of those ways in which Jesus is going to have to do some work on me! I get offended too easily. I am too sensitive. I want to go and hide or run into a fight when someone's unfairly treating me.

I think the difference is ego, quite frankly. If I take myself too seriously, I am more likely to fight back. If it's about me, I focus on my hurt feelings. But if it's really about Jesus, I keep my eyes focused on Him, stick with principal, and don't worry about what happens to me.

Ego is not worth compromising Jesus over. Here is a man who came to be my neighbor. His ego meant nothing to Him, considering how much He gave up to move into the human neighborhood. My ego has to become less. Until then, He'll never become more.

How can you take yourself less seriously, so that when you are challenged to compromise faith or face pain or loss, you'll stand with Jesus?

What strengthens your faith the most, so that you know that standing for Jesus is an honor worth any abuse?

Thinking Too Highly of Self

We like to think that we are important, powerful, and wise. It's interesting to see so many of the arguments on Facebook these days. A body cannot post something about a cute kitten anymore without someone else flaming them with a diatribe about it being fake or pointless. We call those people "trolls." Either they really think they are that smart and entitled to share their smartness with you, or they're just jerks.

I saw a saying once: "All I want is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance." Isn't that the truth? None of us want to believe that we're worthless, stupid, unimportant, and unwanted. If we aren't made to feel important by others, we often do things to make ourselves feel more important. Left unchecked, this can get dangerous. We get puffed up, big-headed, and to others, insufferable.

It's the guy in your church who's always telling everyone what the church should be doing, or what it should not be doing, and why the leaders are terrible and should be ousted. It's they person who seems to have ordained herself as the spiritual policewoman of the church, and she has a litany of quotations and texts to back up her ideas (the ultimate expert in what is called isogeses: I have an idea or belief, and I go to the Bible to back it up, rather than allowing the Bible to teach me what I should believe and do, which is called exegesis).

Such people can be pretty annoying. But as I read this story in John 13 about how Jesus handled Judas (and the supplementary materials from The Desire of Ages, Chapter 75), I see this perfect man who handles a truly obnoxious situation in a way that I would struggle with mightily. Jesus does not out Judas directly. He does not put up a fight against him. Rather, He allows Judas to betray Him for the price of a slave. Jesus doesn't argue. He takes it! And even when Judas makes a plea for Jesus to be saved, Jesus says, "It's for this reason I came!"

Even Jesus' betrayer was, without even knowing it, accomplishing God's will.

There are always going to be annoying, obnoxious, know-it-alls in your life that have a high opinion of themselves. To look at Jesus is to see a man who suffered such people, called them out if necessary, and simply proved Himself to be Who He was without trying to argue them down.

People will eventually show themselves for who they are. There is no point in behaving any differently than Jesus did. Show kindness and love. Correct only as the Holy Spirit leads, and with great humility. Keep your eyes on Jesus and do what He's called you to do to make disciples. The rest is His to handle.

Ramped Up

"Don't get mad. Get even!"

Popular words for the one who cannot really take a hit. Really, a lot of people aren't satisfied with getting even. They really want to get a "leg-up" on someone else and make sure they're in the dominant position when it's all over with.

The cycle continues. Enemies ramp each other up.

I've been reading Bill O'Reilly's book, Killing Kennedy. I just finished his take on the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, thirteen days of intense worrying by many in the United States (including Kennedy himself) that a nuclear holocaust was imminent. Today, most of us probably have no concept of how close how close we came to not having a United States by Christmas of that year. Or a USSR. Within minutes, millions of people in this country (and in another thousands of miles away) could have been killed if either Kennedy or Kruschev had given the go-ahead.

What strikes me about this is the rhetoric that was going back and forth. It was forceful and scary. And behind all of it was an unstated thing, it seems--neither wanted to look like the fool in the eyes of their respective nations or in the eyes of the rest of the world. Neither wanted the other to have the upper hand. "Don't get mad... get better!" may have wiped out whole nations.

The ways of Jesus just don't go with the ways of this world. Before the Sanhedrin, as they spat at him, beat him, and falsely accused him, hardly a word passed his lips, save that which acknowledged him as the Son of God, the Christ.

He didn't get mad! That's the thing that amazes me. The most abused man in history did not get mad. He did not retaliate or even hint at retaliation. He could have initiated something much more powerful than a nuke. But he just stood there and took it, the "Lamb led to slaughter" that Isaiah had written about centuries before.

If ever there was One who will not ramp up the rhetoric, incite a mob himself, or strike back at persecutors, it is Jesus. I have to wonder what the world would be like if we truly did the same. That's tough! This nation, "under God," has retaliated swiftly and decisively against those who have done us harm. I get it. "What are we supposed to do, just roll over and expose our belly? Should not those who do unjust things get what's coming? What of the abusers? The child-molestors? The terrorists? Rapists?"

Scripture doesn't tell us that those who do others harm should just be allowed to continue doing harm. Consequences for actions are inevitable. That's not what I'm talking about. The vulnerable deserve to be protected.

But what if we, on individual levels, chose to react differently to those who persecute us? Wrongly accuse us? What if we stopped trying to "get even" or "get ahead"? What if our response to wrong was kindness and prayer, as opposed to lashing back out?

Not that I'm any good at it myself. I have plenty of Walter Mitty conversations where I'm lashing out (in my head) at someone I'm not happy with. I cannot tell anyone to change how they react without asking God to change how I react. This isn't just some global, peacenik rant. It's personal. It's individual. Unless we choose to react differently on an individual level, nothing on a grander scale will ever change.

Lord, help me to respond to attackers, abusers, and those bent on injustice with Your love, Your calmness, and Your dignity. I cannot do it without You.

Jesus. ALL.

Crisis

We have all faced crisis. You can minimize it if you'd like, but it causes stress and anxiety on some level with just about anyone. There are some people who face a huge crisis and seem to be able to shrug off the stress. Visiting cancer patients in the hospital last fall, there was a woman who was there almost the entire time I rounded (4 months or so), but she always seemed to be pretty much at ease with things.

At the same time, there are those who blow their stacks at the smallest things. And, no, they aren't all 13 year-old drama magnets (the other one is 15... just kidding). They seem to learn how to handle life's issues by watching the latest Fox sitcom.

In thinking about the crises I've faced in my life, I cannot really pin down how I react. There have been times I have "turtled"... pulled the covers over my head and hoped it would just go away. There have been times when I've dug in and stood my ground. There have been a few notable times when I got hot and lost my temper. I'm not sure which (the first or the last reaction) I'm less proud of, actually. Escapism and avoidance of a problem (one of my weaknesses) is often doing to yourself what you would otherwise do to someone else.

None of us faced a bigger crisis than Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Sorry, I don't care how big your issue is, the fate of the universe does not hinge on it as it did with Jesus.

In Luke 22:42, Jesus prayed "... not my will, but yours be done." So, facing the biggest crisis ever, what was the Son of God doing here? Turtling avoidance? I don't think so. If he was a turtle, why come to earth in the first place?

Was he being weak in confessing his desire not to do this? I've heard that before and frankly cannot fathom why the thought even occurs to someone. With the weight of all sin pressing upon him, under direct attack from the essence of evil, it is understandable and (I feel) a sign of strength even to express yourself like this. Considering how terrible he felt, to even be willing to continue is far more than heroic.

I do not see a man bitterly resigned to fate. His prayer while with the disciples before he arrived here (found in John) should make that plain.

Here was a man trusting in his Father's love to pull him through. Here was a man who could not see the outcome of all of this but trusted that Father would come through on THE plan of plans.

I want to pray like that. When I pray, "Your will be done," I don't think my motives are that pure. Sometimes I have prayed such prayers and add that phrase to the end of the statement as a means to excuse my own selfish requests. Extreme example: "Help me to win the lottery, but if not, Your will be done (of course)." I actually think such a phrase so badly used should show us how far off the mark we are and how much we need His mercy. It should expose my motives, especially if you think about what the Father actually wills: salvation... renewal... restoration... transformation...

What does it actually mean when we tell someone, "See you this weekend, Lord willing!" As if He doesn't will that we see each other? I suppose that if my seeing you is going to detract from His desire for our lives (salvation, renewal, restoration, transformation, etc.), then I can accept that. But, again, I find myself uncomfortable with the phrase as something just added on to the end of a conversation.

Look... what do I know, really? I don't know my own heart well enough, much less another's when we pray, "Your will be done." But I do know a little about Jesus. I know He loves me. I know He died for me, going through with the drinking of the cup that I deserved to gulp from. I know He wants me with Him forever. I know He wants me to be a changed man. I know He's doing more than His part for this to happen.

I know that much about His will. So I can say with confidence now (after taking you through the thought process to get here)... "Your will be done. Not mine."

Recognizing Father

Tomorrow brings another big day in our lives. I, my wife, and my mother all will be officially one year older. I'll be 39, one year shy of 4-0. I'm not sure why exactly, but that seems to be a defining year for most people. It's kind of that magic number that you get to in life that says, "You can no longer call yourself a young anything. The word 'middle-aged' is now what you're supposed to call yourself."

I have to say, however, that while there are signs there of getting older, for the most part I still feel like my regular self, for better and worse. One of those things that seems to evolve is how I recognize God in my life. One thing I liked when I was younger was how I could seem to get excited about recognizing God in the moment. If I heard a really good speaker, or a great concert, or participated in serving people, I could get that really awesome feeling in the moment. These days, it's not always as instantly apparent. I know He's there and doing things in my life, but I often don't recognize it until it's already happened.

I think for many it's easier to recognize the movement of God in the moment. I was a youth pastor for a long time, something I still miss doing. I think that part of the reason I loved doing that was the ability to see them recognize God in the moment. They weren't jaded by age, experience, skepticism, or whatever. They just seemed to get it!

One young person on a mission trip was in tears after we served several people in a remote village who had need of basic life necessities... clothing and medicine. In the moment, I was concerned about having enough and keeping the traffic flowing through the room so we could serve more people. This young person was getting it in the moment, while it took me a few hours to really see it for what it was (in hindsight)... God at work in powerful ways!

Even as I write this, I have to remember something of critical importance... God is always at work in powerful ways. Just because my senses are often too dull to notice it doesn't mean He isn't there and working supernatural stuff. Just the fact that I can stand here a forgiven man means something is happening and has happened.

In John 14:8-14, Jesus and Philip have an interesting conversation. Philip says to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father..." Jesus: "Don't you know me, Philip,...? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father..."

OK, then Jesus promises the disciples the Holy Spirit Who was to come in Jesus' Name. He even tells them they're better off if He leaves so that this would be possible. As it turns out, the Holy Spirit in them was the evidence of God living in them, being more intimate with them than at any time since the Garden.

That's amazing stuff! Consider it... if you have ever noticed the presence of God in you, working with you, doing things through you, serving people, performing a miracle, giving you an "aha!" moment as you read Scripture, whatever... that's the Holy Spirit living in and through you. When you see another person doing something that glorifies God, you have seen the Father! That's the gift of Jesus. That is experiencing God in ways that go even beyond getting a visual.

It seems to me we esteem this too lightly. At any moment, if I believe I am in His presence, it is an opportunity to glorify and experience Him. It doesn't matter if I'm alone or in the company of friends or with strangers. He is there. I have to believe I "have seen the Father," that I know what He is like. And if this is true, every moment can be filled with awe and wonder and amazement and worship.

If you're someone who just serves people and loves others, someone who breathes God's love without having to say anything, someone who can be filled with His joy in suffering or triumph... thank you! You have shown me the Father! I hope I am showing Him to you!

Unnoticable

Confession time... I have very little patience for braggarts and blowhards. It takes me about 30 seconds before I'm looking for a way out of the meeting or the conversation. Yeah, I know that people need to be heard, that some feel the need to cover for their inadequacies with their verbiage and that I could be a better listener and cut through the words to the real story being told. But I'm lousy at that.

There's a principle of service found in the Bible, John 13:1-17 to be exact. It states that to be great, be a servant. To be like Christ, embrace being degraded (in human estimation) for the benefit of others. For this reason I admire those who are generous without being noticed, who serve without being asked. I love it when I realize well after the fact that someone served and no one knew about it.

It should be happening in the everyday stuff as well. Thinking over the first paragraph of this little essay, how is this principle applied in just the way we speak with people? The opposite of the principle of service is self-seeking, the desire to be served. That means I put myself in a position so that you will see me as better than you, higher than you, more worthy of adulation and service than you. The sneakiest part of this, in my view at least, is when I speak to you as one deserving of your admiration. When I get full of myself and my vision and my position and my importance and... you get the picture.

I tire of leaders who won't let someone else get a word in edgewise, as if they have to hear themselves talk to convince themselves they are visionary or right (they say they're trying to convince you, but I think they're really trying to convince themselves). Bombastic talk is cheap. I think to be a servant, to have a servant's heart and be a servant leader, means that I am humble enough to listen first. I should allow for the opinions of others (and harbor a healthy amount of self-distrust). I will take the towel to serve, not only physically but intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. I think the whole person is a servant if the whole person is not to be servant-compromised.

So, in short, to be a servant-leader, maybe a good place to start is to be silent. Listen, and subdue the urge to correct or add to someone's thoughts your own visionary brilliance. Chances are, you're not that brilliant anyway (no offense--neither am I). Frankly, I'd rather be known as a person who validates another because I could keep my mouth shut and listen than to be the on who keeps trying to build myself up on my own words. I would also solicit prayers for this... as one who struggles to listen well at times, I don't want to air my thoughts on servant-listening unless I improve on it myself!

What It's About, and What It's Not About

Have you ever played that game that a lot of groups play when they are together to get to know each other better: "What three things would you take with you if you were alone on an island?" I always have a hard time with that one. As a Christian, people often say the good old fallback: a Bible. Yeah, that would be good! As a worldly person with worldly needs, you might say "Toilet paper!" That's good for a few laughs. Survivalists would want something to catch fish with, or an unlimited supply of MREs, or a huge box of flares.

I ran across an interesting question today. What would you take if you could take two things with you to heaven?

The lifelong Christian in me says, "Well... nothing really." A Bible? Well, if that's the Word of God, and I'm going to heaven to actually be with God, that's not exactly a necessity is it? Before I go off on people (my family, of course), they are not things. Ultimately, there's nothing really worth taking, nothing that would be of any real use in heaven anyway that I have now.

So... nothing! There are not two things I have that are even worth having there.

The point of that question to me is to put into stark reality how out-of-whack my priorities are here. Why do I need things? If I don't care to take any thing with me, why do I spend a whit of my time worrying about any thing I own or don't own?

Seriously, as the sermon went that I heard once, "It all goes back in the box!" On earth, even I will go there eventually, provided Jesus doesn't come first.

There's another thought. What are His priorities?

As I read through Matthew 24 and Mark 13, everything boils down to that priority: people. Satan cannot deceive stuff. He can deceive people. And the whole gist of that story is how people will treat each other, how people will be deceived, but most importantly how people will be saved from deception.

Jesus' priority comes into clear focus in Matthew 24:14 -- "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." You don't preach to stuff. You preach to people. Why hasn't He come yet? Because there are people who haven't yet heard the gospel of the kingdom.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

I've always struggled a bit with the thought that some have, that we can speed up the Lord's coming. There's a couple ways to look at this. If He hasn't come yet, it's because the house is not ready yet. You get this idea from the Jewish concept of weddings, where after a groom's proposal has been accepted, he goes to his home and builds a room onto the family house for he and his bride to live in. When it's finished, he goes and gets his bride.

But there's a switch that happens in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. The bride isn't fully ready either! Somehow the bride of Christ hasn't reached her full potential yet, and there are more people to add to her before she's ready! The whole world has to have the opportunity to be a part of her. Could it be that the groom (Christ) will not finish the new place in heaven for his bride until the bride is ready to be brought home? Until the groom knows just how to build the new home for his bride, inclusive of all who will accept His proposal?

Apparently, there are still people who haven't heard! Apparently, even as we say "Come, Lord Jesus," He's saying, "But what about the people in __________. Don't they deserve the same chance you received to say 'yes' to Me?"

What a compassionate God we serve! Now, if I believe in that compassion, do I believe just as much in continuing to beautify the bride as He does and add to her?

It isn't about if I know what to say. It's about going to that person who needs to hear and trusting the God who gives the right words in due season. It isn't about whether I have a "gift of evangelism" that is verified by a questionnaire. It's about whether I'm willing to allow Holy Spirit to pour that gift into me in the same due season.

It's never about stuff, my fear, or giftedness. It's about people and God's power.

Denial

I panic when big things hit. However, what I think is a big thing differs from what someone else thinks is big. My background, personality, profession, character, relationships... all feed into what I see as a big thing. What is big to me isn’t what is big to a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

In John12:20-36, there were Greeks present that came to worship at the Passover. If they were doing so, so they were believers, converts to Judaism. There was a courtyard at the temple for the Gentiles. I’m thinking that Jesus and the disciples must have been there that day. These Greeks approached Phillip about seeing Jesus, so there was clearly a desire to meet Him.

There was a crowd there (verse 29), so some may think that they could not have physically gotten to Him.  But Philip was a disciple, so he would have been close to Jesus, and they spoke with Philip. I think the Greeks must have been fairly close as well. But they felt that they had to ask permission to see Him.

Jesus was a Jew whose work was done almost entirely in Judea with the Jews. If He was considered a rabbi, the Greeks may not have felt that they were supposed to approach Him. Maybe they had been kept from meeting other rabbis. Regardless, they themselves felt the need to request it through a disciple. Maybe this was common practice among other rabbis and their disciples.

Clearly Philip wasn’t comfortable enough to answer the request himself. I can imagine the conversation with Andrew: “These Greek Gentiles want to see Jesus. Is this OK?” Then they went to Jesus together. Were they afraid of being rebuffed by Jesus? Or was it just that Jesus had entered the city triumphantly? He entered as a king. In their minds, He was now to be the conquering King of the Jews. If this was His position, the disciples may have thought of themselves as His “lieutenants.” The Greeks would have witnessed the entry of Jesus, so they probably thought of Jesus as being pretty important. Jesus had ministered to non-Jews and Pagans before, so I wonder if in Jesus they saw someone different than they saw in other Jewish kings, like this one could actually be for all nations. He was to be a blessing to all nations, if He was the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham millennia earlier.

Bottom line: Jesus was lifted up already. He was already drawing all people to Himself.

It was Passover, when the atoning lamb was to be sacrificed. Jesus had already been identified by John as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The time of the sacrifice prophesied in Daniel had come as well (Daniel 9:20-27). He was to be a “light to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 49:6), and here were Gentiles coming to Him. It all added up. The time had come for the most important event in human history.

Jesus compares Himself to a kernel of wheat. He was to be the one to die, the light to be cut off in the middle of the week. A live kernel plants no wheat, while a dead one falls to the ground and sprouts. It is the way of seeds.

When Jesus was cut down, then sprouted up (at the resurrection), the Message of salvation in Him was complete. But it took His death to accomplish it. And the Message that resided with the Jews exploded to all parts of the Gentile world, fulfilling the covenant with Abraham to be a blessing to all nations.

Jesus was to die. The Gentiles wanted to see Him. It was a living, teachable moment for everyone there of what would be the result of His ministry.

In verses 25-26 Jesus teaches that His followers are not to be to attached to life on earth. What the world teaches us to desire is at odds with Kingdom values. It is at odds with what Jesus teaches disciples to value. His value is servant-hood. His value is self-sacrifice, even unto death. If we embrace His value, there He is with us, and the Father—God of the Universe—will personally honor us!

Jesus was about to suffer and die for all humanity. This troubled Him. I don’t fully subscribe to the concept of suffering and death not being what troubled Him. I was always taught that it was the bearing of sin and the potential abandonment of the Father that troubled Him. I believe this bothered Him the most, but to come from such a position of heavenly authority to earth to take on fallen human flesh and suffer and die like the lowest dregs of humanity would not seem to be natural to Him. I think the whole idea troubled Him.

The crowd would have a hard time accepting it as well. They just heard a voice saying that He would be glorified. Their understanding of the Christ was that He would be a forever Messiah. Their readings of the prophets would lead them to believe this to be true, and it didn’t mesh with the idea of a dying Messiah. Such a truth would appear to them as failure.

I think that Jesus’ mindset vs. the crowd’s is very relevant in my world today. Jesus way to being exalted was to die. Our way is to step up and gain power. His way was of ultimate humiliation: throne of heaven to death on a Roman crucifix of shame and pain. Our way is to gain competitive edge, to go the opposite way of Jesus.

It is counterintuitive for me to embrace Jesus’ value here. I am in denial. I deny the power sin has. I deny that I cannot escape its grip over me. I deny the need for help and to have conversation with other caring people about my struggles. I deny the feelings of distance and depression I have at times with others—sometimes even with the church (even with God’s people, not simply the organization). I deny that I desperately need an infusion of passion in my life, that I need to pray today because I’ve forgotten to do it or I’ve put it off.

I deny a lot because I’m like any other human being. I want to save face. I don’t want people to see what’s really going on.

Jesus calls me to die to all of that. Die to my feelings and fears. Die to myself and face reality: Jesus embraced humiliation and death... He calls me to do the same, and in doing so find that life springs up in me like the wheat springing up from a dead seed.

Do you feel like you’re walking in the dark? In the shadow-lands? Or in the light? Why? How can you walk toward light today?

Pushing Buttons

Ignoring me when I speak. Interrupting. Talking over me when I have something to say that needs to be said. Saying, "OK, daddy," and then doing what they want to do.

My kids know how to push my buttons. I'm glad that Jesus' buttons were much more important, or else He'd spend a lot of time in frustration over the likes of me!

I spent a little time in Matthew 24 today, and reading The Desire of Ages, "Woes on the Pharisees." It seems to me that Jesus had some buttons that people could push as well. They often come out as "woes." Here's a list of them, as I can see them.

1. Pretense (v. 5-12). Everything done so people can see you're doing it. Being honored by people because of a title. Makes me wonder about people taking on titles in the church today... pastor, elder, deacon... How about brother and sister? Is it possible that this should be enough and that we shouldn't even accept being called those other things?
2. Exclusiveness (v. 13-14). Some get in, some do not. I wonder who they were trying to exclude, and for what reason? Gentiles? Jews who had fallen in ways they found unacceptable? People who fell too many times in their eyes? And they were hypocrites because they wouldn't enter the Kingdom through Christ, the only gate there is!
3. Expectations (v. 15). I'm not sure exactly what Jesus had in mind here, but a modern picture might show people who are worse off in the church than they were outside. Maybe it's the "[with an eager face] I was living a great life in the world! (Change face to somber and morose] Then I met Jesus" kind of testimony. Unrealistic behavioral expectations, joy-sucking religion... that sounds more like hell than heaven to me.
4. Hair Splitting (v. 16-22). Ever been around the guy that parses everything you say? The person who never forgets something you said months or years ago that you've long left behind? Pharisees were doing this with oaths for sure. I think it applies to more than just oaths, for when it's too our social advantage or standing (sometimes in the church even), we'll nitpick at words. Or when we want to color a conversation in a light that makes us look better, we'll alter the conversation a bit.
5. Violating God's Reputation (v. 23-24). There was blatant injustice, lack of mercy and faithfulness going on in this environment. Of all the things listed in this chapter, I'm not sure this wasn't the big one that would have sent Jesus over the edge. These people were supposed to represent to the world who God is. How did God describe Himself in Exodus 34:6-7? “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation." In other words, just about the opposite of what Jesus says the Pharisees were doing. Nit-picking over people and rules, rather than being open to the obvious issues of justice and mercy and faithfulness. Interesting that God describes Himself as such in the midst of giving Moses brand new tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments on them. It's like He was associating who He was... merciful, gracious, longsuffering, good, true, merciful, forgiving, just, righteous... with what the Law was supposed to be!
6. Pretense again (v. 25-26). Clean on the outside. Maggoty on the inside. The "I show up at church looking great!" but at home you're a beating-your-wife type of person. Kind of goes back to #1--pretense.
7. Pretense, yet again (v. 27-28).
8. Hypocrisy (v. 20-32). Well, I'm running out of words to summarize this stuff, obviously! But clearly these people didn't have a clue that they were doing the very things they said they would be innocent of. "Oh, I'd never do something like that!" I wonder if we should just stop saying that kind of stuff entirely!

Usually, there are 7 woes counted in this chapter. I included the 8th as I felt verse 5-12 spoke to one pretty strongly. Not the point. Jesus clearly has buttons that can be pushed! They have to do with character and how God's character is represented. Pretense and hypocrisy clearly upset Him. Misrepresenting God's character clearly earned His ire.

And here I sit, guilty of both. I can be as bad as anyone about nitpicking and trying to follow the rules, even while I'm not anywhere near where I should be on the inside. I am guilty of beating myself up mercilessly over a sin, of looking at the behavior itself without looking at the character behind the behavior. What I need is a character overhaul!

This chapter shows me what transformation is all about and why I need it every day! I am, on my own, a "teacher of the law and a Pharisee and a hypocrite." I may do the right thing as you see it. I might come to church and paste on the "look" I'm supposed to have. But on the inside, it's not always right.

I find myself praying more frequently a daily prayer for transformation, and I have to say that it's pretty liberating! The thing I feel sorry for the most with those that have the "woes" of Matthew 24? They're the ones in prison! They're the most miserable! They're to be pitied! But when I surrender that "Teacher/Pharisee/Hypocrite" person over to Jesus, the pressure is gone!

Pressure is something I control. It's something I can do something about. Stress? Not the same. Think William Tell and his son. William Tell, bow and arrow in hand, felt pressure. His son? Total stress-ball!

When I give myself over to Jesus? They both disappear! He is now in control! And when He is in control, no weapon formed against me shall remain (Isaiah 54:17), so the stress can go away too!

So, if it helps, here's the prayer I pray frequently (really, not often enough!). I don't encourage you to just do it verbatim, unless you really want to. Often, the words change to reflect how I'm doing in the moment, but here's the gist of it...

Lord, take every part of who I am, inside and out, and put it on your shoulders. Take it to the cross. It has to die! By your wounds I am healed. By Your blood I am clean! You love me. You gave Yourself for me. To live today has to be You and You alone. I choose to live transformed.

Thoughts from a Complacent Christian

I think the thing that bugs me about modern Christianity is complacency, and I am more guilty than you of this, so please don’t think of this as into a personal rant against you/the hateful Christian right/the hippie Christian left/anything in between.

First, there are people all around us, every day, who are eternally dying but have no knowledge of it. The vast majority of American Christians (at least) seem to assume, by their own behavior and actions, that either these people are already saved or are not worth the risk of personal humiliation to make an effort for.

Second, there are people who are temporally suffering around us, every day, and they do know it. However, it seems like as though modern-day Christians don’t want to be troubled with the “less-desirables” that we (a) don’t connect with very well, (b) dwell in places that aren’t appropriate for a Christian to be seen in, (c) don’t want to enable to continue living like that, or (d) just make us feel to darned uncomfortable.

Third, there are people around us who are profoundly full of themselves and act as though they are already saved forever and are beyond the danger of ever being lost. Why? Because they check the boxes every day! I did not swear today (check). I did not look at porn on the internet (check). I smiled at someone at church, and I am a third-generation First-Seventh-day Romacostal-Captistyrian (check, check—and I did my Sabbath School Lesson every day this week, by the way!).

I look at the story of Jesus clearing the temple courts, and it’s a wonder that He isn’t doing that still today. These people were in the courts of the Gentiles selling sacrifices at exorbitant prices, obviously under the approval of the priests. All around them were supposed to be people from all nations seeking God, and right in front of such people were merchants ripping them off for the sake of the temple—the house of God. It was supposed to be “a house of prayer for all nations,” according to Isaiah. I can’t imagine all nations going there and leaving with a very good impression of the God they were trying to seek.

And along comes God-in-the-flesh, Jesus Christ, and He sees this. I wonder what He was up to that day? Often he had taught there, and He would do so again after kicking out the appointed temple jerks. The very God the nations were supposed to be there seeking actually showed up there with skin on! And the people who were supposed to be the most excited about it wound up killing Him.

It points out some inconvenient truths for me and my fellow complacent Christians. First, our heritage and credentials in the faith are nothing. They may only serve, actually, to cloud a true vision of Jesus. Second, the suffering of those around us who are seeking after God (even if they don’t know it’s what they are doing) cannot be ignored. There are places and organizations everywhere that any of us could get involved with (Metropolitan Ministries or Florida Hospital are a couple of examples in my area) that do great things to help people every day. Time to roll up our sleeves and get involved in helping the hurting. And, third, quit being afraid to share Jesus. Pray for boldness and a clear “nudge” to share Him with someone today. We don’t have to define who it is or what we will say. God will do that for us through His Spirit.

Our job is daily to live, not just exist, in Jesus. Our persons—collectively called the Church—are, since the first Pentecost after Jesus’ left earth, the Presence of God. Our bodies are His temple. I fear to have Jesus have to act in me the way He had to act in the earthly Temple.

(Thoughts based on Mark 11:15-18)