Accepting the Opportunity

As Jesus is preparing to enter Jerusalem (the Triumphal entry) He stops to weep over the city and her people. Once the greatest city in the world and home to the greatest temple to the world has ever known, Jesus sees the future destruction of the Temple and the City. His statement ends with this line, "you did not accept your opportunity for salvation."

What a sad byline for so many. They did not accept their opportunity for salvation.

There are several times when you have one of those, "once-in-a-lifetime" scenarios. Where you have to act or lose the opportunity. Perhaps it's a job. A spouse. A sweet deal on a car. A rare find in someones garage. Something that you'd give almost anything to get. A deal like that only comes around... you know.

There are a couple stories Jesus tells about a guy who found a very expensive/rare pearl and another guy who found a treasure buried in a field. The end of each of those once-in-a-lifetime stories is that each guy sold everything they had to gain the thing they wanted. Salvation is supposed to be like that. In truth, God should only have to offer salvation once. You either take it or leave it right then. But He doesn't do that.

Every day you take another breath of air and begin your day is a gift. One more opportunity to accept the invitation to believe. But at some point, you will take your last breath and then your opportunities for salvation will be over. The tricky part is, we don't know when that moment will be. You have to be ready, before that time comes.

I'll be doing a funeral service for a guy this week who probably had lots of opportunities to accept the invitation to believe throughout his life but it wasn't until 13 days before he died that he finally accepted that invitation. God in His great grace and mercy extended that invitation one more time, through a friend, knowing that it would be the last opportunity he would have.

No matter what your life has been like up to this point, God desperately wants you to accept His invitation to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. You don't have to understand it all, just believe that He was, is and will always be your savior. That's the start of a changed life.

The saddest thing in the world is that someone would say of one of your friends, "they did not accept the opportunity for salvation" before it was too late.

Are we hindering people from coming to Jesus?

Just wondering today how we as The Church (and as Real Life Church) are hindering people from getting to Jesus. In Luke 18:15-17 the Disciples intercept some parents who are bringing their children to see Jesus, to be touched and blessed by Him. But the disciples don't think Jesus can be bothered with this so they try to turn them away. And I suppose it almost worked! But Jesus stops them and calls the children to Himself.

I think there may be times when I, the church and The Church, act more like the disciples in this case and less like Jesus. We may not ever think of asking someone NOT to come to church. But surely there are times when we simply don't invite. Or maybe just aren't inviting. We may say the church is open to anyone but then arrange it so only a few would "feel" welcomed. What does the front of the church say to an unchurched person? Welcome? or Stay Out?

I often make jokes about churches who hang up banners that say Welcome on them. Isn't the church supposed to be welcoming, without having to hang up a sign that says it for us? I think that at times, in our desire to counteract our culture, we end up driving people away instead of calling them to come closer and investigate. Church is supposed to be attractional... that means that people should see us and the building or place we worship and say to themselves, "I'd like to check that out."

What are you doing, saying, acting, that (maybe unintentionally) reflects more the disciples attitude then Jesus'? How we present the Gospel is as important as the Message! I can tell someone about Jesus and hope and changed life, but if I tell them about it like I was talking about my house burning down around me... who's gonna care? Who's gonna want to come and see for themselves?

We need to make sure that our lives, buildings, language is less like the disciples in this case and more like Jesus - who said, "let the (spiritual) children come to me and do not hinder them. For the Kingdom of God belongs to them."

Did you catch that? The Kingdom of God belongs to the people we might just as soon turn away. God, help me to enable people to come to Jesus, not hinder them.

More faith is More Obedience.

Luke 17 is about faith. Have you ever thought about the faith of the mustard seed? It seems to me (this morning anyway) that the issue is not the size of your faith but the extent of your obedience. Jesus answers the request of the disciples that He, "increase" their faith with the mustard seed story and immediately begins talking about a servant and his master. The servant does what the master wants. The servant waits on the master, not the master the servant. The master is in control. If the master says, "do this" you had better do it. It's the master's responsibility to give the direction, it's the servants role to follow it.

Then in verses 11-19 Luke tells the story of the 10 lepers who came to Jesus for healing. Jesus told them to, "'go show yourselves to the priests' and as they went they were cleansed." As they went... or, as they obeyed. Then one, noticing that he had been healed returned to thank Jesus (the master). Jesus told him, "your faith has healed you."

It was in the obedience that the healing took place. Had the 10 not headed straight for the priest they would not have received the healing because they would not have been obedient!

So, my prayer today is this; Father, help me to obey. No matter what. Help me to recognize that You are the Master and I am Your servant. Help me to do everything You say. Then my faith will be proved by my obedience and it will not be in myself - for what servant can bring about anything apart from his master - but a tiny speck of faith reflected in obedience will result in great reward. And I will simply be doing what I have been told. Obeying orders.

Focus Blinds you to Everything Else.

There is a lot of conversation about focus out there today in the church world. I was talking with my friend Terry Deaver from FBC August this morning and we talked about focus. This church focuses on this, that church focuses on that. What's the right focus? Where do we need to focus?

Then I came into the office and read in Luke 14 where Jesus is talking to the religious elite. Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath after asking this question, "is it permitted in the law to heal on the Sabbath?" They didn't answer Him so He healed a guy (He knew they didn't believe it was right for Him to heal on the Sabbath anyway). Then Jesus said, "which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath? If your son or a cow falls into a pit, don't you rush to get him out?"

Here's the thing about focus. When I wear my glasses I can see everything I turn my head to look at. But everything outside the lens is blurry. Focus determines what you're Blind to as much as it determines what you're focused on. Everything outside the scope of your focus exists, but you can't "see it" so it doesn't affect you, it doesn't get in. Which means, we have to be very careful about what we focus on!

Jesus was focused on people. Meeting needs. Compassion. Mercy. Grace. Forgiveness. Instruction. Relationship. The religious leaders where focused on themselves, so it was okay for them to work on the Sabbath, to save a son or cow (interesting pairing there I know!) because it affected them. But they were blind to the needs of others.

What are we, as a church, missing because of our focus? What are we blind to? What is going UNDONE because of what is getting done?

Post Script: I was gonna end there but just had this thought. When I wear my glasses I have to turn my head to change my focus. If I just move my eyes there is a point where things are blurry. When I wear my contacts no matter where my eyes go everything is in focus. We need to be spiritual contact wearers so that we can focus on whatever the need is, not just whatever we happen to be looking at. Pet projects, etc. Perhaps that is why it is good to have people in different areas of ministry. My friend Terry can focus on preaching and leading, while his worship guy focuses on worship, and the children's guy has his own focus. When they all come together they "see" most everything. Individually they may miss a lot. There needs to be a team approach to ministry. Anyone want to join the team?

In the Storm with Dad.

Here in Kansas we have these minor distractions to our day known as tornadoes. I've seen a few funnels form and driven through the aftermath of the storm. But I've never been in a tornado. We have, however, been sent to the storm cellar on more than one occasion. A couple times last season we were woken up in the middle of the night by the storm sirens. No time to think then or wonder if it's real or not, it's time to wake the kids up and hit the cellar. There have been a couple times when the younger kids would be really scared about what might happen and I've told them, "Daddy's not scared, so you don't need to be."

In Luke 8 Jesus' disciples are once again in a boat heading across the sea of Galilee. But this time they get caught in a storm. The waves are crashing over the boat, the wind is tossing the boat this way and that, up and down. The disciples have done everything they can to secure the boat... remember these were seasoned fishermen. Peter and Andrew, James and John, this was their business. No doubt they'd seen their share of storms on this sea. But tonight they are frightened. Tonight they decide this might be their last night.

And while they are all scared, Jesus is asleep in the stern (that's the back right?) on the seat the pilot would sit on. That's right. The seasoned fishermen are freaking out and Jesus is asleep. Sawing logs. The counting of sheep must have worked. He's out.

Have you ever been on a small boat in a storm? Have you ever tried to sleep on the water? It's not as easy as you think. Sea sickness doesn't go away just because you lay down and close your eyes (trust me on this!). And in a boat like they would have been on there was no where you could escape the water. So Jesus is asleep... in a storm... soaking wet.

Strange. Strange that Jesus can sleep through the storm and the bath. And strange that the disciples freak out. I have a couple of thoughts here. I think Jesus could sleep because He knew no matter what was happening around Him He was going to be okay. His time hadn't come. So He could be at peace to sleep so soundly that the water didn't bother Him because He knew He was in God's capable hands. And I wonder if the disciples were so concerned that they might die because at this point they still thought that just because Jesus was with them nothing bad could ever happen. When the storm came it surprised them! This shouldn't be happening! We're with Jesus!

Listen, God's got you in His hand. Find some peace in that. Relax IN the storm because whether God sees you through it or not you are still His. He's in control. And don't fool yourself into thinking no storm can come against you since you are with Jesus. It's not about avoiding the storms of this life, it's about growing through them. Coming to the point you realize, live or die, God's got this.

Once Jesus woke up, at the insistence of the disciples who were now certain of their death, He simply spoke and everything calmed down. The disciples were amazed that even the wind and waves obeyed Him, but hey, He's God in the flesh! When you're walking with Jesus, or boating with Him, you're gonna be okay - even in the midst of the storm. Look at Dad, if Dad ain't scared, you don't need to be either.

Jesus changes the rules...

The Jewish people were (and still are) governed by rules, don't touch, don't taste, don't look. And everything made you unclean. If you were unclean you couldn't enter the city, the Temple to worship or have contact with others who were clean or you would pass on your uncleanness to them. If you touched something unclean, you BECAME unclean and if you touched anyone else they caught the unclean bug too! So Jewish people were very careful about what they touched, where they walked, what they saw.

That was the order of things, it was like nature. This is the way things work. Storms come and go, the living die, disease, famine, poverty, disabilities, these things were all just a part of the natural order of things. That is, until Jesus came. Jesus worked contrary to nature. He changed the rules. Jesus calmed the storm. Healed the sick. Fed the hungry. Cured disease. Pulled coins from the mouth of fish and restored the disabled. It is clear that the "law" of nature obeyed Jesus, not the other way around, as with you and I.

So when Jesus is heading into town one day and meets a widowed mother who is leading the funeral procession of her only son to the tombs He has compassion. Instead of the customary, "don't worry because it won't you do you any good any how" He defied the law and customs and the fear of being unclean and walked right up to the open stretcher the body of the dead man laid on and touched it. Then He said, "get up." And the dead man did just that.

Jesus isn't afraid of being unclean because He makes all things new. Death isn't scary to Him, death is scared OF Him. Instead of becoming unclean Himself, Jesus made the unclean clean - He was like the spiritual Mr. Clean! There was no mess, no disaster, nothing that scared Jesus. So He walked right up to that death stretcher that represented the victory death had over the boy and He released him. Then Jesus called to the young man to operate in his new reality - life. "Get up!" You are no longer held by the things that kept you down! You are free to experience life like you never have before!

See, sin, uncertainly, fear, jealously, unforgiveness, anger, materialism, these things wrap around us like spiritual chains that hold us down and keep us from experiencing life. But Jesus has the power to release you from those chains and speak directly into your life and He says, GET UP! Live! Go back to your family and experience what Real Life is like!

What is keeping you down? Spiritually dead? It doesn't frighten Jesus. He's in the business of cleaning up messes! You can never be too dead for Jesus to work something incredible in your life. Just listen for His voice. Is He calling you? Respond to Him, he's already released you from the chains that hold you down and back through His death on the cross - get up and begin to operate in your new life!

Did Jesus Make the Wrong Choices?

Have you ever noticed that when things are going well in some one's life we assume that God must be happy with them? If someone has a good job, nice home, lots of stuff, we think that they must be "living right" and that they just make God happy. Lots of religious television personalities will have you believe this. I actually heard a "wise" guy on TV encourage people to put their "seed" on a credit card if they couldn't afford to send cash to his ministry so that they wouldn't miss out on God's blessing in their lives - God save him, but shut his mouth right now.

We assume that if someone is successful they have God's favor and those who are not must be doing something wrong. If you would just do what God wants you to... Follow Him. Honor Him. Worship Him, then you can have the life you've always dreamed of because God is always looking for people to bless! When we seek God and do what He wants then life will be good.

Except if you believe that, you have to say that Jesus was not following God, that He somehow made the wrong decision. In Luke 6 Jesus picks out the 12 Apostles from among His disciples (followers). The text says that He, "prayed to God all night" and when He was done he chose the 12 guys - after getting God's approval. their names were, Peter & Andrew, James & John, Phillip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (the lesser), Simon (the zealot), Judas the son of James and Judas Iscariot. All 12 hand picked by Jesus after praying ALL night to His Father, God about who should be chosen.

Take a quick look at Jesus choosing ability. Peter denied Jesus publicly at His greatest hour of need. James and John tried to manipulate Him and use Him for their own glory and purpose. Thomas refused to believe Him and Judas betrayed Him. Oh, and they all abandoned Him.

So, if you believe that God blesses those who seek Him so that their lives get better, what are you gonna do with Jesus? Peter? Paul?

If you study the men and women of the Bible who were close to God and followed Jesus wholeheartedly you will find pain, poverty, betrayal, one catastrophe after another (take a look at Paul's life). And yet no one would ever argue that these people were not doing exactly what God wanted them to do.

Doing the will of God WILL NOT always make your life being better, nicer, easier, happier. Did Peter have Nike(TM) sandals? Did Paul wear a designer cloak? Did their lives get better as they followed Jesus or harder?

The fact is you can do exactly what God wants you to do and not have two cents to rub together. But let me ask you this... does it matter? If you're doing what God wants, does it matter that you are well paid or not? Would you keep doing what God wants if you never get a cent for it? Do you follow the Savior and purchaser of your soul because He's going to bless you for it? Or because He paid your price, He saved your life? Father, never let us confuse our standing in life with Your blessing.

Here's the point: Blessings in this life do not prove God is happy with you. God's favor with your life will be determined when you leave this stuff that moth and rust destroy and enter Real Life in eternity. Then we will see who is first on God's list and who is last.

BTW: Jesus did not make the wrong choice. He did exactly what God wanted Him to do and the result was painful. Just like Paul. Just like Peter. Just like so many others who did what God called them to, regardless of the outcome in this world. It's called spiritual maturity.

Satan ain't no dummy...

Just because Satan still doesn't fully understand that he's already lost (beat down by Jesus on the cross and dealt the final blow when Jesus said "BOO" and then rose from the dead) doesn't mean that he's dumb. He's fighting a loosing battle but he's gonna inflict as many casualties as he can before he's done.

In fact, Satan is a crafty son-of-a-gun! He's very smart when it comes to you and I, the human condition he understands very well. That is why he chose the last day of Jesus' 40 day fast as the time to tempt Him. Satan knew that Jesus, in His human condition, would be the most vulnerable. Think about it, when you are hungry, do you sleep well? Do you process information well? Jesus is hungry and probably tired and simply put, physically drained.

Yesterday I went to the Y for my workout and felt terrible! I do the 5k on the treadmill and just about didn't make it through. Why? Well, I figured I only took in maybe 750 calories yesterday before the workout (in which I burned over 550) and I just didn't have enough fuel. I made it the whole 3.5miles, but only barely. Maybe you have the same hunger symptom my wife does... she starts to shake when she hasn't eaten for awhile - blood sugar thing I suppose (yes she's been tested for diabetes and doesn't have it). When were hungry our bodies don't work right, our brains don't work right (haven't you seen the commercials?), nothing works right.

So, physically speaking it was the perfect time for Satan to try and tempt Jesus! But what Satan didn't realize is that Jesus wasn't just fasting to keep His figure, He was fasting to get close to God, His Father. So while it was a good time physically, it was the wrong time spiritually, and Jesus puts the smack down on Satan, 1...2...3.

But look what it says in verse 13 of Luke 4, "[Satan] left Him until the next opportunity came."

Satan may not fully understand the spiritual side of things but he is persistent. He failed that time but that didn't mean he would just give up. Never think that just because you've beaten Satan's temptations, once or twice or 50 or 100 times that you won't ever give in... he will keep after you, testing you to find your weakest time. Trying here and there to figure out just how you work, when you are most vulnerable so he can spring his trap.

So when you pass the temptation don't get too smug, he will most definitely try again.

I don't want to just go back...

It was late in the evening... and since it makes for a romantic story I'll go with it, since I am a romantic myself.

Some dirty, stinky shepherds are huddled around a fire swapping stories and boasting about their skills with a sling. When suddenly (that means without warning so I wont be redundant and say "and without warning") there is a dude floating in the sky who is gleaming with the radiance of God's glory! Wow! Have you ever been in the middle of nowhere at night? I mean, no cities around. No street lights. Dark. Imagine the strain on your eyes when you are met with the radiance of God's glory on a black Bethlehem hillside night! Their fire must have seemed like a Bic lighter on a hot Kansas day!

And then the angel speaks, tells them the wonderful news of the birth of the Messiah and is joined by, "the armies of heaven"! Thousands...millions of angels all singing praises to God! I can't imagine the glory and fear and awe that surely accompanied this great sight!

And once the angels leave the shepherds figure they will go and see if what they just heard about is really true. Sure enough, they find Jesus just like the angels had said. The shepherds then go and, "tell everyone" what they had seen and heard and what the angels said about Jesus, that He was the Messiah.

But look what happens next... they prove the angels announcement. They tell anyone who would get close enough to them to listen. They go back to work.

Huh. Interesting. Here's my thought. Would I go back to work the day after millions of angels announced the birth of the Messiah to me? Would that announcement and my discovery of the baby change my life? Or would I just go back to work.

The birth of Jesus changed history. The shepherds SAW the promised Messiah - they met him face to face. They got all excited and told some people and then, back to the old grind-stone.

When I have a "come to Jesus moment" I want my life to be different. But the tug of the familiar, the consistency of the grind. The comfort of the continual. The promise of a pay-check are hard things to just walk away from. So, many of us meet Jesus and then go back to work. Unchanged. Unmoved. Unaffected by the presence of the Savior.

God, help me to be changed. Help me to overcome the rut, the comfortable, the confined and live for You. Abandoned to Your Will. Appropriated to Your Spirit. Accustomed to Your Call. Changed.

Just wondering out loud... don't stone me.

Reading today in Mark 16 about the women's encounter with the angel in the empty tomb and I was struck by some (perhaps over-reaching) comparisons.

During Jesus life and ministry He spent a lot of His time teaching in the synagogues and the temple (when he was in Jerusalem). But He also spent a great deal of time teaching in the open air, on the hillside, across the pond (sea of Galilee) and walking along the road. Surely someone has done a study of the times when Jesus was teaching where so we can compare, you can comment and let me know where to find it.

Then Jesus spends some time on the cross during which He pays the price for all sin. Then His body spends some time in the tomb of Joseph until Sunday morning. But when the women come to anoint His body they meet instead an angel. This angel says, "He is not here!" He's risen just as He said He would (duh)! And when the women left they saw Him on the path, He walked on the road, He cooked on the shore, He appeared in the upper room behind a locked door.

Here's where I have the potential to get in trouble. How many people are going to the wrong place to find Jesus? I would venture that some are entering our churches every week expecting to find Jesus and instead all they get is some smelly remnants of where He used to be (the spice soaked linen that laid on the slab signifying where Jesus HAD been).

And when they are walking on the road, or chillin' at the lake or having a party in their house, where they don't expect to find Him... there He is!

The empty cross we honor because on that stick of wood our Savior was nailed and bled for our sin. But Jesus isn't there any longer. The empty tomb we honor because it proves what we already believed, death could not hold Him! But Jesus isn't there any longer.

Where is Jesus? Well, He certainly is in some churches, right where He's always been. But I think where He wants to be is on the road engaged in casual conversation that leads to the spiritual. He wants to be on the path in the garden where He is least expected. He wants to be the life of the party when you're relaxing with your friends. He wants to be on the shore, sharing a meal.

We often don't find Jesus where we expect and do find Him where we don't expect. But here's the kicker, Jesus is found whenever His people, who are called by His Name act like it. So, maybe we ought to stop acting like Him only on Sunday when were in "the tomb" (lovingly) and start acting like Him every day, in the world we live. So that He is found where ever we go by everyone we meet.

What's your "One Thing"?

Do you remember that movie City Slickers? (I know, I'm on a movie roll right now!) I loved that movie! My family watched it a lot. Do you recall that famous line from Curly about the meaning of life?

Curly: do you know what the secret of life is?
Curly: This [holds up index finger]
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing, just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean (expletive) nothin'.
Mitch: But what is the "One Thing"?
Curly: That's what you have to figure out.

What's the one thing?

There was a guy who came running up to Jesus, fell on his knees and asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life" (Mark 10:17-23)

Sounds good, right? Genuine and honorable question. He obviously wanted to know. Look at him! He comes running up, assumes a position of humility and asks a great question, The question!

Jesus response is that he should obey the commands of God (10 commands). To which this guy says he has, since he was a child. So, he's not only inquisitive and wants to make sure he's doing the right thing, he is already DOING the right things. He must just want to make sure he's got all his spiritual bases covered.

Jesus surely is impressed with this young man and his devotion to God's Word and his desire to do whatever it takes to spend eternity with his Heavenly Father. So Jesus, wanting to make sure the guy is really ready for heaven, tells him to do just one more thing... Sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, then you will be welcomed into heaven.

What's the one thing for you? The most important thing in your life? Jesus has a way of cutting through all the phony actions and speech and getting right to the heart of the issue. What is it that you can't live without? What is it that you wouldn't trade for Jesus? For this guy it was his stuff. His possessions. That was his "one thing." And because "stuff" was his one thing, Jesus couldn't be. Mark says he, "went away sad" because he had great wealth.

The secret of life is Jesus. Just that one thing. A relationship with The One and only Savior of mankind. There may be nine other things in your life that are important to you but if The One thing you can't live without isn't Jesus you're gonna have problems. Figure that out for yourself and you'll be just fine.

Length x width x height = no big deal

I like The Matrix movies. There, I said it. I confess. I love the whole plugged into the matrix or not plugged in. But I really love the mental acrobatics the characters have to work through. Learning that when they're jumping off a building, they're not really jumping off a building. Hopping off the curb is no different from stepping off the empire state!

But most of us don't see the world that way do we... Try this; take a 2x4 and lay it on the ground and see if you can walk across it. Easy, wasn't it. Now put that same 2x4, let's say, 20 feet in the air and try it again. What's the matter? Chicken? Same board. What's changed? Your focus has changed. When the board was on the ground you were able to focus on balancing because you weren't worried about falling off. When you're 20 feet up your focus is NOT on the board, it's on the ground and what will happen when you hit it!

But those same mental acrobatics are not something God struggles with. In Mark 9 Jesus steps into a situation where people are focused on the wrong thing. A father is bringing Jesus his son (we don't know his age but could assume he is in his middle to late teens) who is possessed by a demon. The demon attempts to kill the boy by sending him into convulsions near fire or water so that the boy is always in danger of dying while he's having one of these seizures. The father tells Jesus that some of His disciples had already tried to cast the demon out but they couldn't do it... the boys father is loosing hope. Jesus, His disciples, were probably the mans final hope. But it wasn't looking good. He'd hit another dead end. The doctors, spiritualists, fakers, they all failed and it looked like Jesus would too.

But once Jesus gets to the scene he asks this question, "how long has he been like this?" to which the father replies, "since he was a small boy." Now the crowd is really concerned! the disciples couldn't cast out the demon AND it has possessed the boy since he was a child! It's looking hopeless!

Here's what we need to understand about God. He is not limited. The man could have been possessed for 5 min or 50 years - it wouldn't matter for Jesus! Our God functions outside our finite reality! The size of the problem, debt, hole you've dug doesn't scare God. When you own it all, control it all, created it all, little things like how long or high or much or deep don't bother you. For Jesus, it's just as easy to say, "your sins are forgiven" as it is to say, "take up your mat and walk."

So the next time you start thinking that your situation is too big. Your problem too complex. Your relationship too broken. The hole you've dug, too deep. Remember this. God is God. There is none like Him. His power, infinite. His resources, boundless. His Grace, always sufficient. His mercy, never ending. His strength, limitless. His love... Higher. Deeper. Longer. Wider. You can never - no matter what, get in too deep, be too far gone, be too lost for God. Your "rock bottom" is God's starting line. Your ocean, God's puddle. Your mountain, God's stepping stone.

Going hungry in a bread store...

Do you know any plumbers? Electricians? Chefs? I've heard it said that a plumbers pipes are always clogged. The thinking is that people in these professions work all day on other people's problems they don't want to deal with the same stuff at home. So, who does an electrician call when he needs a new light? Who does the cooking in the home of a chef?

In Mark 8 there is the story of how Jesus fed the 4,000 men (+ women and children). Now, it's important to remember that Jesus has already fed the 5,000 so this is a slightly smaller miracle. Just as in the first case Jesus asks the disciples about feeding the people and immediately the disciples start thinking in human terms. It would take a year's wages to feed this many people, they said of feeding the 5,000. This time they say they can't supply this need because they are too far away from any town. There's no where to get enough food. The first time it was about money, this time the money may have been there (Judas kept the money and he was a penny pincher!) but they claim they can't feed them because of geography, we're just too far from any town. The disciples have the baker with them but are going hungry.

Once again Jesus takes what they have (a few loaves of bread and a couple fish) and performs a miracle of multiplication so that everyone eats and they have leftovers.
Why didn't they simply say, "well, Jesus, you fed the 5,000 with just a few loaves, we'll find what we can and You pray and we'll feed the people - just like before." Instead they immediately look to human means to meet the need.

It seems to me that if you're friends with the Life Giver, Bread Maker, Water Walker, Storm Calmer and Disease Healer why look anywhere else!

So it's confession time for me... I'm terrible at this! I tend to look for human means to meet spiritual needs; church growth, leadership, finances, resources, instead of immediately going to the Church Grower, Servant Leader, Land Owner, People Maker!

The moral is this, Jesus is all we need. He's the answer to every problem, the supply for every need.

Computer Art and Faith

Do you remember those computer generated posters or books that had that "hidden" 3d image? They were huge when I was growing up in the 80's and I remember that my sister got a poster one time. I tried and tried but never could see the hidden image. I later got a book of these pictures and as I recall, I gave it away or threw it away. I was convinced that it was a conspiracy. No one really knew what picture was supposed to be there they just waited for someone else to say, "it's a ship" and everyone after them would agree and claim they saw it. I never did.

In Mark 5 there is the story of a demon possessed strong man that Jesus heals. No one could control him and every time they tried to capture him with shackles and chains he broke free. He wandered through graveyards yelling and beating people up and cutting himself. Oh yea, and he didn't like to wear clothes! Surely it was a crazy sight seeing someone get beat up by a screaming naked man, bloody from all the cuts.

But when he meets Jesus everything changes. When the town's people come out to find out what all the commotion is about they see the man dressed (for the first time), sitting at the feet of Jesus calmly having a conversation. The text says he was, "in his right mind." You'd think that Jesus would be hoisted up on their shoulders and carried around to cheers! He just saved this town, no more screaming crazy man in the tombs. The women could move about with freedom without covering their eyes. Parents could let their children play without worry. Men could be men and not get beat up anymore. I mean, this was GREAT news!

So why did the people do the exact opposite? Instead of welcoming Jesus, giving Him the key to the city and creating a holiday in His honor, they ask Him to leave! Crazy! It seems they were more concerned with the loss of income and food. You see, Jesus allowed the evil spirits that inhabited this man (and there were many) to take possession of the minds/actions of a herd of pigs, about 2,000 of them and they promptly ran off a cliff and drowned in the lake! So when the people heard the story the thing that stood out was not the crazy man who had been set free (and likewise the whole town) but the loss of the pigs. The income they generated! The food they provided! Who was going to reimburse the farmer? What were they gonna eat? Who was gonna pay!

Just like those 3d art images that I could never see, I only see what's on the surface, the numbers, the offerings, the relationship problems, the hurt feelings, the programs, etc. And I don't see what is most important. Jesus is changing lives. It may only be one life at a time, but isn't that worth it?

God, help me to see what's truly important - I don't want to be side tracked by what's on the surface, I want to see what You see.

Light's other quality...

What do you know about light? Some guy named Edison discovered it, harnessed it and produced it. It works by creating an enclosed area for a positive and neutral current to connect and burn, it closes the electrical loop. It is a contained shock. A fire waiting to happen. But light does something else. The lighthouse warned of impending danger. The bug zapper drew the pests to their demise so we could enjoy the outdoors, which we lit up, a little longer. Somebody with a bubbly personality we say, "lights up" a room. Light is pretty useful.

Do you leave a light on when you leave the house? When I was a child and would go away to church camp each year my Mom would deep clean my room. She often moved the furnishings, bed, dresser, nightstand. Cleaned the carpets, put on fresh clean bedding, dusted and straightened. Then she would turn on the light on my nightstand. It was a small bulb, low watts, soft light. I remember how excited I always was when I came home and that light was on.

Before "light" when the sun went down people went to bed. Which means they had to work hard while the sun was up and sleep hard when the sun went down. But since the invention of the light bulb people have been able to stay up. Light creates a place to gather. To share ideas. To enjoy company, read a book. Light enables me to see what would otherwise be unseen and I think it welcomes others to see as well. A light in the window is an inviting scene.

In Mark 4:21-24 Jesus says that no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead they put it on a stand for all to see. Of course Jesus was talking about a candle light - but the reference works now too. The purpose of light is to see. Why turn on a light and then cover it up? Surely your mom had many talks with you (as mine did) about turning off a light when you leave a room. There's no point for the light to be on in an empty room.

In another place Jesus calls believers the "light of the world." Here's my question, shouldn't light gather? Illuminate? Create a place to gather? If we are to be the light of the world then we should be drawing others, like moth to flame (or bug zapper). Our light should be a place to gather, safe, warm, understanding.

Can you think of ways in which the church, you and I, can be a light that draws others? I'd love to hear your ideas!