Jesus changed the fruitlessness of their lives with his presence. We see that in this story, and we see that as Jesus connects to our lives. He changes our lives, our everyday, regular lives, with his presence. Our response, of course, is simply faith. We simply must follow.

Power and Authority

Jesus appears teaching the word of God in power and authority, and he performs a great miracle – not healing the blind, stilling a storm, or raising the dead, just an everyday sort of provision with nets full of fish (cf. Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Luke, p. 102). We see that powerful connection between the teaching of Jesus and the miracles of Jesus in this moment. Even though we don’t really hear what Jesus preaches, Luke tells us several times of the powerful call of God’s word. And that power is connected to this miracle on the water of the overflowing nets.

So, Peter doesn’t challenge the word of Jesus, but he obeys. He follows on the water, and then follows on the road. Would we do the same?  In Peter’s response to Jesus, he witnesses this amazing miracle. All this happens – the power of God’s word and the miraculous catch – right in the middle of their regular lives.

Now we know that Peter obeyed that initial word from Jesus, but how does Peter respond after the miracle?

Responding to the Miraculous

When confronted with the presence and power of God in Jesus, he responds by falling before the Lord and confessing his unworthiness as a sinner.

It’s very much like Isaiah 6.1-13 as Isaiah sees the King of Heaven in the Temple: “Woe is me!I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” When confronted with the presence and power of the divine, Peter falls at the feet of Jesus.

Jesus responds to Peter, though, in a very interesting way: “Do not be afraid,” (which is typical when people are confronted with the divine presence); “from now on you will be catching people, (which is surprising in its connection to their normal, sort of everyday lives). Jesus calls, the people respond, and then Jesus moves, again.

They Left Everything

The story that is drawn for us includes the regular lives of these fisherman; it includes the presence and power of Jesus; and it includes the word of God in the call to follow and the teaching of Jesus. All those elements, when drawn together, bring us to the most important part: they brought their boats to the shore, left everything, and followed Jesus.

What’s most important is not the work the disciples do, as in fishing, but what we see in their lives, particularly their response to Jesus. What we discover about Peter is that this is his life lived in the presence of God; and he left everything and followed Jesus.

In the end, Peter’s response is one of faith, and it, with the other disciples, represents a real change – a total turning around – in their lives because of the presence and call of Jesus. They are no longer the same.

The Divine Interplay

Once upon a time, Jesus appeared. He still appears in the regularity of our lives, just day-to-day. Jesus moves in power, and, just like Peter and the disciples, we can have a response to him – one of faith. We can follow him. Like this story, there is the divine interplay between the word of God and miracle in our lives, and there really is only one response: faith – following him.

How is Jesus calling you? Remember the response of the disciples: they brought their boats to the shore, and they followed him.

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the texts for this post:  Luke 5.1-11, 27-32.

Photo Credit: Cinnamon Bay, St. John, USVI by QXZ.

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One day while Henry was living his regular life, a man named John appeared with a message tailor-made for Henry. Back in the day, John had known Henry’s grandfather, a Methodist preacher. Henry began to see and hear the world differently then. Nothing was the same after that, and Henry decided that God had called him to do the work of ministry.

So, he took his wife, his two kids, left his eight to five job that paid the bills and the small, but comfortable place to live, and he went to learn about working for God.

Regular Folks, Called by God

You know, my story is not so different from most folks who’ve been called by God into ministry. We live regular lives, with regular jobs and regular homes. Then, someone or something happens across our path, and we bring our boats of our regular lives to the shore so we can follow Jesus.

In these stories we read in the texts for today from Luke, we can see these men responding to the call of Jesus. What’s important in this narrative is the work and place of the disciples when Jesus arrives, the operation of the miracle, and the power of Jesus’ word. In the end, the disciples respond to God in Jesus by leaving everything (cf. Fred Craddock, Luke, pp. 69-70).

The way Luke tells the story, we find a context and a motivation for Peter and the others responding to Jesus. The context is their regular lives connecting with Jesus’ teaching; and the motivation is the power and presence of God in Jesus Christ (cf. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, pp. 89-90).

Just Doing Their Jobs

So, once upon a time, the disciples were fishing – just doing their regular thing of working. They, and the focus is really on Peter, are finishing a long night of catch-less fishing. They are tired and discouraged, but nevertheless working. It’s just an everyday sort of normal routine. Sure, they’d like to catch some fish, but they’ve known other catch-less nights and the discouraging day that follows.

What makes this day different, what interrupts their normal routine is the appearance of Jesus. Knowing what Jesus could do, the crowd was pressing in on Jesus as he began to teach. So, he requests a boat for some teaching. That fruitless vessel from last night, in a turn of biblical irony, will become a fruitful vessel because of Jesus.

Worth Remembering

Now remember, the people were pressing to hear the word of God. At this point in Luke, we need to remember a few things: Jesus has preached at his hometown synagogue, he has healed a man with an unclean spirit, he has healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and he has taught in other synagogues.

It is worth remembering, too, that Jesus was born of the Spirit, and he was filled with the Spirit. We have five references to this activity of the Spirit in Luke, so we must recognize the power of the Holy Spirit as we hear Jesus teach (Luke 1.35, 3.21-2, 4.1, 4.14, 4.18-19).

Even though we don’t know what Jesus said, he preaches the word of God powerfully, and then he challenges Simon to “put out into deep water” in order to fish again. Simon reminds Jesus of the catch-less night, but, nevertheless, at the word of Jesus, returns to open water.

Join me tomorrow for part 2 as we finish “Bringing Our Boats to the Shore.”

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the texts for this post:  Luke 5.1-11, 27-32.

Photo Credit: Old Telephone by macinate (Creative Commons).

• They Caught Nothing (bedouinfire.com)
• I Am Telling You, Jesus Sent Us Out With Power (pastorpaulvbsblog.blogspot.com)

“Immediately,” one of Mark’s favorite words, “there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit” (Mark 5.2b).

Jesus and the disciples meet a man so distressed and possessed, they don’t even have a word for it. His madness is exponential. They don’t have a word; they have a number for this kind of unhinged. Legion. Who knows how many men are in a legion? That’s the point, it’s a lot.

Notice the Details

Notice the details Mark gives us: “tombs”, “unclean spirit”, “no one could bind him”, “he wrenched chains apart, “he broke the shackles in pieces”, “no one had the strength to subdue him”; “Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.” This “man” had a serious problem that no doctor and no medicine could cure. That is, until Jesus stepped from the boat.

“And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him” (Mark 5.6).

“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High?” It almost sounds like that question at the end of Mark 4 after the storm is calmed, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”

We Know the Answer

Of course, we know the answer. Jesus is the One who can still the sea, and he is the One who can heal this man.

Now, one of the interesting parts of this story is where Jesus sends the pigs. This is not really a story fit for animal lovers. Yet, for a people who thought pigs were unclean, it is an inconsequential detail. “Oh, a bunch of pigs died jumping off a cliff into the sea. Hmm.”

For the pig herders, though, it’s serious business. These pigs are their livelihoods. They told everyone they could find. They came to discover what had happened.

Who Is This?

When they arrived, they saw formerly-demon-possessed man “clothed and in his right mind.” And, I like this part: “And they were afraid.” Afraid. Are we surprised? The disciples were afraid in Mark 4.41, “And they were filled with great fear, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?’” That question, “Who is this?” is just floating through this story.

Here’s the worst part: “And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”

Here’s the best part: Jesus “said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’  And he went away and began to proclaim….”

The power of God is unmistakable in this story. In fact, the power of God is unmistakable in the wind and sea being calmed. “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” That’s the question we need to ask. “Who then is this?”

He Knows Our Details

Perhaps we don’t have problems so large they are virtually inexpressible, but we do have things that only Jesus, the storm-stiller and demon-killer, can fix. He knows the details of our lives, all the things that need the help only he can offer.

What are those “virtually inexpressible things”? I’m sure we are well-acquainted with unclean, hurtful things that haunt us. Don’t think for a minute that the town-folk did not know that madman running around the countryside. He had a name, a real name that told who he was, before he was Legion.  He had a family before the demons. He had home before the tombs. We know. Oh yes, we know what haunts us.

And the only way to answer that question, “Who then is this?”, is to let him break our chains. We do have things that only Jesus, the storm-stiller and demon-killer, can fix. “Who then is this?”

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post: Mark 5.1-20.

Photo Credit: Don’t Chain Me Down by …-Wink-… (Creative Commons).

Instead of just one changed gene in a DNA strand, Church looks to fashion ways to change multiple genes. For a man fascinated with machines and computers much of his life, he tries to fuse this mechanical and electrical work to the organic processes of life.

One end of this technology is tailored medical treatments to fit a person’s particular genetic traits. It’s more than eye color or height, he’s looking use his sequencing work handle complex things like disease histories and personalities. An individual’s sicknesses can be “cured,” and even future medical problems possibly predicted.

Absolutely Amazing

Amazing. As I read this article from Discover Magazine, March 2010 (“The Picasso of DNA”), I thought, “Amazing.”

The more I read, though, the more troubled I became. He and his team are manipulating the very constructs of life. The article almost read like, “Oh, yeah, I fixed the plumbing the other day,” rather than reading like “This is beyond unbelievable, this is the stuff of unimagined futures.”

At the very end of the article, the reviewer dared to ask if Church thought his work might be sacrilegious. Church’s statement was startlingly simple: “I wouldn’t say sacrilegious,” Church responds [to the question]. “Humans have been manipulating humans in many ways for many years.” Whoops.

I think what’s really amazing to me is that guys like this rroutinely stare into the ultimate Creative Force, namely God, every day, but they somehow manage not to see God. They stare into the eyeball of God but can’t really see him. They enjoy this wonderful gift of discovering and learning, but labor under this curse of blindness.

We Don’t Need God Anymore

I remember reading a story once about some scientists who decide they don’t really need God any more because they have advanced so far; they can even “create” a human being. They inform God of their work, and God offers them a challenge: God will create a human and they will create a human.

The primary scientist accepts, and he moves to get ready. “Just let me get a little of this dirt,” he says to God.

God replies, “No, no, get your own dirt.”

Truth is, we don’t have anything that wasn’t given to us. Nothing. We don’t have to be world-class scientists to miss this truth. We can be just everyday people, trying to move through this life. All we have to say is things like, “I did this,” “I worked for this,” “I made this,” or “Mine.”

May We Truly See God

We sometimes have a hard time looking into the eyes of God with all the amazing people and things in our lives and really seeing God; we struggle in really seeing the One who created all this, from the jeans on our bodies and to the genes in our cells.

May we see God in every stitch of every piece of fabric in our lives because God surely sees us.

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post: Psalm 139.

Photo Credit: Eye Shot 2 by drummp2 (Creative Commons).

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“Not knowing the word austere, he thought that the text spoke of an oyster man. He spoke about the work of those who retrieve oysters from the seabed. The diver plunges down from the surface, cut off from his natural environment, into bone-chilling water. He gropes in the dark, cutting his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. Now he has the oyster, and kicks back up to the surface, up to the warmth and light and air, clutching in his torn and bleeding hands the object of his search. So, Christ descended from the glory of heaven into the squalor of Earth, into sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with him to the glory of heaven, his torn and bleeding hands a sign of the value he has placed on the object of his quest.

“Twelve people were converted that evening. Afterward, someone complained to the classically trained, Oxford don John Wesley about the inappropriateness of allowing preachers who were too ignorant to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on, to preach. Wesley simply said, ‘Never mind, the Lord got a dozen oysters tonight’” (“Animating Illustrations,” HomileticsOnline.com).

They Were Just Fisherman

You know they were fisherman. Most all the disciples. They left their nets to follow this guy named Jesus. It was an amazing trip. Preaching, teaching, healing – the very power of God right there. What amazing and wonderful things they got to see and hear.

They even got to do some of that power-of-God-filled work. They did some preaching, teaching, and healing (cf. Mark 6.6b-13).  People got healed, lives were changed – they did this work because Jesus sent them.

Then came all that business in Jerusalem. Jesus suffered, was crucified, and he died. What was even more difficult and amazing than that was that he rose from the grave. Death could not hold him. He really was who he said he was as the Son of God. They weren’t quite sure how to handle that.

Everything Was Different

They hadn’t seen him in a while, a few days, not since he breathed the Holy Spirit on them, not since he told them there was so much to do. They hadn’t seen him in while.

Sure it mattered, what Jesus said and did, it mattered. That he was risen mattered. But they didn’t really know what to do. They didn’t know where to go. Their world had been so drastically changed they just didn’t know what to do. Everything was different. Their lives, their ideas about life, about death, about God. Everything was different.

So, they went fishing. Not all the disciples, just the ones who used to do it for a living. It was comforting, settling. The Sea of Galilee, the shifting of the waves under the boat, the smell of the sea. The nets in their hands, the sail and the rigging. No, they hadn’t forgotten how to do the work of fishing. And it was reassuring and heartening to be in the familiar again.

It didn’t work, though. It didn’t work. It ended up frustrating and tiring because they didn’t catch any fish. Fisherman, fishing all night long, throwing the nets, hauling the nets – fisherman, fishing all night long. They didn’t catch a thing. For all their knowledge and experience, they caught nothing. All night, and they caught nothing.

It wasn’t so comforting any more. Oh sure, they’d had days when they hadn’t caught much in the past. But nothing? It had been a long time since they’d worked all night and caught absolutely nothing.

Who is This Guy?

“Fellows, have you caught any fish?” someone cried out from the shore.

“No,” they replied.  “Who is this guy on the beach?” they wondered.  “Why is he interested in our fishing?”

“Then he said, ‘Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!’ So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.”

Then someone’s brain suddenly began to work. Then someone recognized him. “Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It’s the Lord!’’

Moving Forward

What’s so hard about this story is it’s familiarity. We’ve spent time with Jesus, we know him, we’ve seen him do amazing things, but it doesn’t always give us what we need to move forward.

It’s familiar because when we don’t know where to go or what to do, we return to what we know, what’s comforting or settling.  Even after an experience with Jesus that is just, well, beyond us and our capacity, we’ll return to what we know just because it’s familiar.

The reason that’s hard is because once you’ve met Jesus, once the risen Lord has stepped into your life, once the Holy Spirit moves in your heart – you just can’t go back. Everything really does change.

The familiar doesn’t really work any more. It’s lacking. They caught nothing. They caught nothing, that is, until they had a word from Jesus. At the word from Jesus they filled boat with fish. So many fish, and the net didn’t tear.

They had a barbecue on the beach: grilled fish and bread cooked on a rock. The best grill chef in the world dropped by for one last meal before he left for home.

“It is the Lord,” they finally realized.

Perhaps they realized in those moments on the beach that this life of fishing they’d known for years was over. Over. Done. Finished.

They Were No More Fishermen

Jesus had altered their reality with his coming. They caught nothing, and it helped them realized that they couldn’t go back after having known Jesus; after seeing the risen Savior all was changed. They had to move forward with God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

They had to realize it for themselves. They had to have that sacred moment on the beach – a night of despair – but joy came in the morning.

They caught nothing, but it was the best fishing they’d ever done. They caught nothing, but they also caught everything. This Jesus had a plan for their lives, a plan that fit into the workings of the kingdom of God – and they were no more fishermen.

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post: John 21.1-14.

Photo Credit: Fisherman’s Beach by dans le grand bleu (Creative Commons).

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I knew I was wanted and needed, but I just didn’t feel completely involved. I remember one year when we built four stalls on a barn for a mare that was about to foal in the super cold winter of 1982-3. It was unbelievably cold, windy, and snowing, but my dad called, “Hey son, come go with me.” So, I went.

One day, Abram heard a call from God in his life. What kind of call was it?

Life-Change Coming!

When God called, Abram lived as a part of a large, well-established family. He lived in his father Nahor’s house. He was up in years, and his wife was up in years. They had no reason to move anywhere, as comfortable and grounded as they were. Then, God called.

How much information did Abram receive from God at this point? Not much at all. God doesn’t tell him where to go, much less how to get there.

God simply says, “Go to a land I will show you; I will make of you a great nation; I will make you a blessing; I will make your name great; in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We find promises and blessings, but there’s not much information here.

“So, Abram went, as the Lord had told him…,” v. 4a.

Just a call. No real directions. Yet, it represented a powerful change in Abram’s life because Abram went. He experienced a complete life change.

Demand of the Call

That’s the demand of the call, though. We’re all called, at one time or another. God calls us to come go with him, wherever he is, whatever he’s doing. God calls, and we should, just like Abram, go.

Even more, God calls us many times in our lives, not just once. “Come go with me,” God calls to us. God keeps calling, and it’s just a basic part of the relationship; many times, there’s not much more information that the invitation. Truth is, like Abram, we must work out a lot of the call as we talk to God, go with God, and grow with God.

We must keep on listening even after we’ve heard God call us. That’s the demand of the call – God calls, we go. God keeps calling, and we go. It’s an expectation from the relationship God has with us in Jesus Christ.

But, what’s interesting is what we find in the blessing. There is a blessing in the call. Genesis 12 talks clearly about the blessing. We might ask, “Did Abram ever receive all that God promised him?”  Well, yes and no.

What Was the Blessing?

He really didn’t realize a land given to him; he didn’t realize being the father of many nations; he didn’t really know the blessing to all the families of the earth.

On the other hand, he did have a son in his old age, something that is miraculous. He did see that son, Isaac, married. Abram did know the word of God in his life – a word that brings light and life, that calls things that are not as though they were (Romans 4.13-17). We hear about Abraham’s faith in Hebrews 11.12, “And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore” (cf. Hebrews 11.11-19). So, maybe without seeing all of the blessings, he knew them by faith.

What was the blessing, then?

There is a passage, Mark 3.14, where Jesus “made” the disciples, “to be with him.” The scene is Jesus calling the apostles. The verb in v. 14 really means “to make.” “And he appointed [or 'made'] twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons,” Mark 3.14-15.

Maybe when we read that passage, we recognize that the apostles are called to proclaim the message and to have authority to cast out demons. So, we see that Jesus “made the twelve” and called them apostles; he gave them some great things to do.

What was the first thing, though? Did you notice? Take a moment to reread it. Just four words: “To be with him.” Jesus made the apostles, “to be with him” before all the other things he called and empowered them to do.

That’s what the blessing of the call is for them. For us, too, that’s what the blessing of the call is. “To be with him.” Most of us, like Abram or the disciples, have to learn it the hard way – we trial and error our way through a relationship with God.

Sometimes We Trust, Sometimes We Don’t

Sometimes we trust, sometimes we don’t – just like Abram. He trusted God enough to leave his homeland, but he didn’t trust God enough to take care of Sarai when they entered Egypt – so he lied and called her his sister (Genesis 12.10-20). The silly thing about the story, of course, is Abram’s lack of trust. We see the silliness of it when we think about Sarai – in her old age – being someone about whom the Egyptian Pharoah might get hot and bothered. Nothing against older women, here, but the Pharoah can have any woman he wants. Why would he want Sarai?

Perhaps we begin to understand really trusting God, here. For just a few verses earlier, Abram followed God without much information – just a “leave your home country directive” – to be with me. That’s the blessing of the call. Mistakes in our life and all, we still find God giving the call.

Come Go With Me

That’s what being with my dad was about. “Come go with me.” I didn’t always get to do much work. The special chemistry, though, was just in being with him. For me, the crazy thing about it is that I knew that, somehow, but didn’t really realize it until I had my own son.

Honestly, I didn’t always like our “we projects” because it was usually a lot of dad and a little of me. Oh, I learned a few “things” along the way, and I really enjoyed doing “things.” But those weren’t important. What was important, what the blessing truly was, consisted in being with him. Come go with me.

The demand is to follow God, and it’s part of what we are expected to do in relationship with God – not once, but many times. The blessing is in being with him. That’s it. Being with God. Working alongside the Father as he tills the rows, plants the seeds, picks the weeds, fertilizes, kills bugs, and eventually harvests. We don’t always get to do a lot of the work; we don’t always enjoy what we’re doing perhaps; but, we must go and know that the real blessing is not in doing things, but in being with God.

Come go with me, God calls, to be with me.

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the texts for this post: Genesis 12.1-9 and Mark 3.13-19.

Photo Credit: Holding Hands by gem fountain (Creative Commons).

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During what we might call “Bathshebagate,” he had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and murdered the woman’s husband, Uriah (cf. 2 Samuel 11.1-27). Nathan the prophet pinned David to the mat over the transgressions, and David came clean, but not before he was told how costly the sin would be in his own life (2 Samuel 12.1-13).

The Problem with Sin

These particular sins are certainly “big ticket” items, but are they really any more “big ticket” than other sins?

The problem with sin is that, too often, we tend to define sin as what we do to others. Murder, for instance, is worse than slander. Killing a person, it would seem, is more sinful than killing a person’s reputation.

For the most part, that makes sense, but it ignores the real problem with sin. First, and foremost, sin begins with our relationship to God. “Sin” represents that broken relationship with and separation from God. It’s the black cloud of lost desperation from which we emerge when we first say yes to Jesus.

“Sins,” on the other hand, mean those things, like individual actions, which emanate from that brokenness and separation, the things we do to God and to each other. That is, we are afflicted by sin, and we inflict sin. It’s the black spot of sin’s lost desperation that remains in our hearts after we emerge from sin and from which Jesus and the Holy Spirit work to completely deliver us. And it takes time to cleanse and heal.

All in the Same Boat

So, when we think about “sin,” we’re all in the same boat, as Paul describes in Romans 3.22-4: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

It’s not that the “sins” don’t matter, it’s just that “sin” covers us all, and the only way out is through Jesus. The only way free from the lost desperation of sin, and the only way free from our sins, is through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. “Big ticket” may describe the quantity of the sin, and for David it was very serious, but the reality is the quality – that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When David repented of “Bathshebagate,” he sang of his brokenness, and appealed to God’s goodness: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight….”

We are all in need of God’s loving kindness, his unfailing love. That is where we really start understanding and handling “big ticket sin.”

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post: Psalm 51.

Photo Credit: Broken Down by Philip Faulconer.

Despite much strong arguing from the opposing attorney and angry public opinion against the soldiers, the arguments Adams made prevailed. Interestingly, this successful court battle not only won him the approval of the King of England, but catapulted him to great esteem among the Massachusetts folk as a man of deep integrity and conviction.

Truth is More Stubborn

It’s a great moment in the movie, but it made me really think about facts versus truth. It seems to me that what wins the day is not facts or human opinion, but the truth. Truth is more stubborn still because it can take a situation that on the facts looks irreconcilable, but the truth proves more powerful. Sick folks are healed, blind folks can see, and even the dead are raised after an experience with the Truth: Jesus.

The most stubborn truth is, of course, a guy named Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14.6). His life, his love, that’s the most stubborn truth, a truth that even death could not stop. Really. Do you think “facts” can overturn death?

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post: Acts 2.29-39.

Photo Credit: The Risen Lord Appears to His Mother by Lawrence OP.

Well, what if we were really in need, and one day God didn’t show up? “Sorry about your crops, Fred, I was in India fighting off a plague.” “Sorry about your horses, Lisa, that farm in Washington Parish needed my urgent attention.” “Sorry, guys, I was watching Monday Night Football; I’ll take care of your sick daughter tomorrow during my office hours.” “I didn’t get your message…I forgot to check my voicemail.”

What if that’s the way God acted in our lives? Thanks God he’s not like us! Praise God that he is faithful, steadfast, and always ready to help (just like he did with the Israelites, despite their many transgressions) – and that God doesn’t act like we do. Thank God that he is, as evidenced in the coming of Jesus Christ, totally and absolutely devoted to us as his children. And with Christ in us, we can evidence the same devotion to God.

Jesus Dropped by the House

Christ dropped into our lives, a powerful irruption in history by God, and he lived, suffered, died, and was resurrected for us. Is there any reason we can come up with that trumps this action of God in our lives? “You know, God, I’ve got something more important than Christ dying for me.”

Even though we don’t say that, and we wouldn’t dare – we still say that implicitly when we choose other things in our lives over the Lord. Because in the end, it comes down to the posture of our hearts.

This is not a battle for the head, but for the heart. Perhaps I can convince you of certain things by solid arguments and great evidence; but in the end, the real battle is an internal one. A battle between us and God. Christ, as Paul tells us, reconciles us to God – with whom we were once enemies: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (Romans 5.10).

The only way the heart changes is through the grace of God at work in our lives. I can’t change hearts, only God can. We can’t change our own hearts, only God can. And it is in times and places like this that we allow the Almighty to work on us through various means of grace such as prayer, Bible study, worship, or communion to change our hearts. So that we choose this day, without hesitation or reservation, to serve the Lord and him only – and not just today, today and everyday.

Looking in the Mirror

When we come to the Bible and we see those bad old Israelites, and we fail to recognize ourselves, it’s exactly what James tells about looking into a mirror, and upon walking away, we forget who we are. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, we allow the things of our lives to take us away from God – all the time we tell ourselves we’re living for the Lord, following God’s will, living, loving, and serving for the Lord.

But at some point, our choices let so many things mar who we are that when we step up to the mirror of the Bible we don’t know who we are anymore, even though we deceive ourselves that we know who we are. We look into the mirror of the Bible and see all the other fools involved with the Lord, and we scoff at their unbelievable behavior; all the while, we forget that we’re one of those fools too.

We may remind ourselves of that in the liturgy of communion: “And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of the faith…” (United Methodist Hymnal, p. 10).

In that we say, “Today, Lord, I choose to serve you, to live for you because of what you have done for me in Jesus Christ.” In that moment, we look in the mirror, we know who God is, we know who we are – and we choose to serve the Lord and only the Lord. Amen.

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post:  James 1.22-25.

Photo Credit: Torah 6 by rubberpaw.

We can see all the things, despite God’s goodness, they committed against the Lord in their whining and complaining. If we read the stories, it’s absolutely amazing. I suppose I could rename the blog entry: “What a Bunch of Idiots.” But that’s not really very caring, is it?

What a Bunch of Idiots

Maybe, when we read these stories of the Israelites, we probably think what fools they were. It’s easy to see how troubled and foolish they were – all the stuff that God did for them, and they couldn’t seem to get themselves straight.

Joshua reminds them of all the Lord has done for them (Joshua 24.1-13). He tells them that not only did they not earn it, but they didn’t deserve it: “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive yards that you did not plant” (Joshua 24.13).

Making Excuses

Then he talks to them about worshipping other gods. The reality is that they were nomads, not farmers, and they wanted to make sure they did the right things for farming, for that sedentary type life. They needed to learn practical, real, even common sense things. The problem was, though, they looked to other places than the Lord.

Ultimately, it’s about whether or not they trust the Lord in taking care of all their agricultural needs. They struggle with all the needs they think they have (like doing fertility sacrifices or using temple prostitutes), all the excuses they make. All that stuff they think they need to make life happen gets challenged and changed by their relationship with God.

That’s why we need to hear “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Choose today, without excuses, explanations, or blame. We either serve the Lord to the exclusion of all people and all things (even ourselves), or we don’t. Jesus said something similar in Mark 8.34-7:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Who Are You Going to Serve?

So, if we think there’s a middle ground, or that God understands, we may be in for a rude awakening; we must learn that there is no middle ground, we’re either with God or without God; and what God understands is that he does not have our total, unadulterated allegiance – no matter how good our explanations, reasons, or excuses. What we think we need for “real life,” we must find first and only from the Lord. We must choose this day, and every day whom we will serve.

What Joshua warned against is these kinds of excuses for “real life,” just like those wily Canaanite women who would seduce with their evil ways; we may think these are fairly innocuous, but what Joshua is telling us is that they take us from the Lord, they damage our relationship with God.

Our mistake is thinking the gods or idols are merely wood or stone; they could be football, land, boats, sports, softball, cars, the Sunday paper, our own will power, or whatever other excuse we might put forth. Now we’re might be thinking we don’t do that.  Right?  We would never do that, would we?

Come by later for part 2 of “Looking in the Mirror.”

Godspeed your journey as you take the fire with you.

Explore the text for this post:  James 1.22-25.

Photo Credit: Telescope Mirror Segments from Fotopedia by nasa1fan/MSFC.