The parable paradox: revealing yet withholding truth

I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things--things from of old. (Psalm 78.2)

Everyone knows that large portions of the Psalms were written by David, King of Israel.  We know that David played the harp, and many of the Psalms were meant to be set to music.  What you may not know, however, is that much of the book of Palms was written by a prophet.  His name was Asaph.

David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals....The sons of Asaph were under the supervision of Asaph, who prophesied under the king's supervision. (I Chronicles 25.1-2)

Not much is known about Asaph.  But his words, or the words attributed to him (perhaps by later writers), were used to preach repentance, recall God's saving acts, petition for God's help in times of trouble, and to warn of God's judgment.  This particular Psalm is a case in point.

Psalm 78 is a re-telling of the Exodus from Egypt and God's miraculous works through Moses during the 40 years in the wilderness.  But none of the story is in the form of a parable.  So why did Asaph introduce this bit of history in this way?  It was prophetic in nature.  Centuries later, Matthew would write in his Gospel:

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.  So was fulfilled what was written by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world".  (Matthew 13.34-35)

So why did Jesus use parables? Well, for one thing, it was a fulfillment of prophecy.  More than 450 prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the life of Jesus.  So many different authors, in different countries, using different languages, and at different times foretold of the One who was to come.  No one could have fulfilled every prophecy unless God had ordained it.

Another reason Jesus used parables was to teach.  Good teachers are good story-tellers.  They were easy to understand, because the people could grasp what he was saying.  By that I mean that He used familiar scenes that everyone in attendance could visualize.  Contemporaries of Jesus could all relate to the stories He told.

Paradoxically, the third reason He used parables was to mask His message.  The hidden meanings required further explanation, which He often gave to His disciples.  These hidden meanings challenged those who were sincerely interested to study the words and ask Him for clarification.  If you truly wanted to be His disciple, you had to work for it (much like today).  Conversely, the hidden meanings allowed Him to teach His true followers while concealing these truths from unbelievers.

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables so that "though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand." (Luke 8.10)

Just by listening to the parables, His enemies could not find any direct statements to use against Him when they tried to arrest Him for blasphemy.  In this way, He avoided arrest until the time was right.

My friends, let me encourage you to earnestly seek the Truth.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by me."  Read the prophecies foretelling of Jesus; immerse yourself in the words of Jesus; believe in the Name of Jesus, which is above every name in heaven and on Earth.

The battle is the Lord's

As a young man, Sam Houston had been wounded in the leg at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  Under the command of General Andrew Jackson, Houston and his regimen were trying to drive out the Red Stick branch of the Crow Indians, and thus open up large parts of Alabama for settlement.  During the battle, an arrow lodged in Sam Houston's upper thigh.  Though painful, he tried to pull it out so that he could continue fighting.  Unsuccessful, he solicited the assistance of a young lieutenant to pull out the arrow.  Houston pointed his sword at the lieutenant and threatened to kill him if he did not extract the arrow from his thigh.  This wound, as well as gunshot wounds to the arm and shoulder, would plague Houston for the rest of his life.

Much later, Houston was commander of the Texan forces in the Texas war of independence from Mexico.  A provisional government was established, and David Burnet was named President.  Burnet was no fan of Houston, and often berated him for not attacking when Houston thought it better to retreat.  Finally, on April 21, 1835, Houston led a charge against Mexican General Santa Ana, and the Texan force won the battle, although Houston was again wounded in battle--he was shot in the ankle.  Santa Ana fled, and was later captured.  Although the Texas troops wanted to take Santa Ana's life (shouting phrases like, "Remember the Alamo", where Santa Ana had mercilessly slaughtered all of Davy Crockett's squad), Houston spared Santa Ana's life and negotiated a treaty to end the war.

Many of the same thoughts must have crossed Jeremiah's mind during Israel's battle with Assyria.

Woe to me because of my injury!  My wound is incurable!  Yet I said to myself, "This is my sickness and I must endure it." (Jeremiah 10.19)

Jeremiah's wound was not a battle scar.  He was bemoaning the fact that the nation of Israel had turned its back on God, and had worshiped idols.  The earlier part of chapter 10 poked fun at the idol worshipers, and then Jeremiah wrote eloquent poetry describing God as the Creator of the world.  This is the contrast between the deities that Israel chose between: a useless chunk of wood and metal, or the powerful God that created the heavens and the earth.

My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped.  My sons are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter. (Jeremiah 10.20)

Jeremiah foretold of the defeat of Israel by her enemies, when all the cities and villages would be leveled, and few people would be left to rebuild.  But the language he uses recalls the Tabernacle of the Lord, the pre-cursor to the Temple.  When God's people are over-run by God's enemies, God's House also falls.  God is looking for people to rebuild His House, but no one responds.

The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord; they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered. (Jeremiah 10.21)

Like David Burnet berating Sam Houston for retreating, the leaders of Israel were being fools.  Because they did not turn to God and ask for His direction, they were not successful.  Quite the opposite--the people whom they were trying to lead were dispersed, driven out of the towns and villages.  This is the penalty for not following the Lord.

Listen! The report is coming--a great commotion from the land of the north!  It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals. (Jeremiah 10.22)

Again, Jeremiah prophesies against the towns of Judah, predicting military marauders from Babylonia, the region to the north.  All because the people abandoned their God, and turned to idols.  You see, actions have consequences.  If you put your hand in the fire, you will get burned.  If you disobey God, He will punish you.  Thankfully, He is a merciful God.  Micah 7.9 says, "Because I have sinned against Him, I will bear the Lord's wrath, until He pleads my case and establishes my right.  He will bring me out into the light; I will see His righteousness."

A fictional account of Sam Houston's diary might go something like this, parallel to the cry of Jeremiah:

Hard to get out of bed this morning--old war wounds. My wound is incurable.  Yet I must get up and do my duty for my men. This is my sickness, and I must endure it.  Assessing the situation; must find the right time to attack--if we attack too soon, enemy's superior forces will prevail. My tent is destroyed...no one is now left to pitch my tent.  Received another message from the President.  The idiot wants me to take the battle to the enemy while they have the upper hand.  The shepherds are senseless, and do not inquire of the Lord.  I will retreat southward to San Jacinto, and attack them there. The report is coming--a great commotion from the land of the north.

We know how the Battle of San Jacinto turned out.  General Houston prevailed, and President Burnet was proved wrong.  Houston went on to become the first President of the Republic of Texas, then one of the first US Senators from Texas after Texas became a state, and then the Governor of Texas leading up to the Civil War (where he tried valiantly to prevent Texas from seceding from the Union and allying with the Confederacy--but that's another story).  Whatever battle you are involved in right now could be preparing you for great things.  Even as Israel repeated its disobedience to the point that Jeremiah wept for her, God was preparing things there so that in the fullness of time, Jesus could be born there to redeem us all.

You never know how your life is going to turn out until it is done.  Will you go your own way, and ignore the wisdom of the prophets?  Will you turn away from heroes of the faith?  Will you turn your back on God?  Or will you humble yourself and pray, and seek God's face, and turn from your wicked ways so that the God of heaven will hear your voice and heal your land?  This was what Jeremiah did.

I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not from man to direct his steps.  Correct me, Lord, but only with justice--not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.  Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name.  For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland. (Jeremiah 10.32-25)

Notice two things about Jeremiah's prayer.  First, he humbly came before God and faced up to Israel's sin.  He knew there would be consequences, but he only asked that the nation would be spared; he wanted Israel to man up and take what was coming to them, but asked God not to destroy them in His righteous anger.  Second, he asked for judgment on Israel's enemies.  Other nations should be held to the same standard to which Israel  was held.  Not because Israel was perfect--notice that he calls the nation "Jacob."  Remember that Jacob means "deceiver"--it was the name of Isaac's son before God promised a blessing on his descendants.  Whenever Israel had sinned, the Bible uses the previous namesake, not the namesake that God had Himself given to them.  God had changed his name from Jacob (deceiver) to Israel (God contended, or God wrestler).

See, God wants to do whatever it takes to make His people His own.  If it means fighting with Jacob, or sacrificing His only begotten Son.  Knowing this, why would we not be like Jeremiah, and humble ourselves before almighty God and beg his mercy?

Laughing at your gods

In the 1989 baseball movie Major League, there is a character named Pedro Cerrano, a Cuban ball-player who practices a strange religion that is a mixture of Santeria, Voodoo, and Catholicism.  The movie pokes fun at religion by having the Cerrano character light candles and offer a cigarette to his idol Jobu.  At one point, Carrano's batting average is so low that he considers sacrificing a live chicken to Jobu.  The team captain intervenes, and produces a bucket from KFC to appease Cerrano and, presumably, Jobu.  Hilarious.

In the tenth chapter of Jeremiah, verses 1-5, the prophet pokes fun at some of the major religions of his day.  He outlines the manufacturing process of the idols some people worshipped:

• A woodsman cuts down the tree
• A craftsman carves out the shape of the idol
• A goldsmith overlays it with gold
• A weaver dresses it in colorful cloths
• The user buys it (or trades for it), and if it wobbles, he will nail it to the shelf so it doesn't fall over

And this is what you worship?  An icon that can't even stand up by itself?  A similar scenario is described in Isaiah 44.16--a man cuts down a tree and "Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.  He also warms himself and says, 'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.'  From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.  He prays to it and says, 'Save me; you are my god'."  How ludicrous!

And this is the god that you rely on for your sustenance?  What power do you think it has over your life?  "Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk.  Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good." (Jeremiah 10.5.)  If your god can't speak, why do you seek counsel from it? If your god can't walk, why would you seek guidance and direction from it?  DUH!

And yet, see how our own society today does the very same thing. 

 This is what the Lord says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them." (Jeremiah 10.2)

How many of you follow your horoscope?  Do you think the stars hold more power over you than God does?  You say, "Oh, I just read it for fun."  But if some Zodiac book says that your sign doesn't get along with a Taurus, do you avoid dating anyone born in May?  You are actually following the created, rather than the Creator.  Don't you see how silly that is? 

The stars can't "talk" to you.  You have to consult a newspaper, written by someone you don't know.  Tell me, what is the difference between a modern American following the horoscope and a backwards African tribe following the words of a witch doctor?  It reminds me of the story of a young man coming home with a fresh, shiny tattoo of a Chinese character.  His father looked at it, and asked what it meant.  The boy answered, "It means Happiness and Strength."  The father nodded, knowingly, then asked, "Do you speak Chinese? Do you read Chinese?  Then how do you know it doesn't say, 'with two you get egg roll'?"

Just like the young man had to rely on the tattoo artist for a valid interpretation of the Chinese character, horoscope readers must rely on "experts" to read the stars for them and give an expert "reading."  And you trust your life to these people?

Now you may say, "Blynn, I don't put any stock into that Zodiac stuff.  If I work hard and pay my taxes, eventually I will be able to retire and draw Social Security.  Isn't that the American Dream?"  Well, the Bible says nations will fall and governments will be overthrown, but the Word of the Lord will last forever.  We, as a Nation, have been taught to put too much trust in our government.  What started as a "safety net" for impoverished elderly folks has become an entitlement for all.  Now, instead of believing that my health care is my and my family's responsibility, there are those in government who are preaching that health care is a right.  Some are predicting that this mind-set will bankrupt this country.  Who will pay for your health care if the government goes belly-up?  What will happen if China or some other emerging power from the East rises up and overthrows us, either militarily or economically?  What if we allow a domestic version of the Muslim Brotherhood to take over Congress?

There are those who truly believe in diversity as the end-all and be-all philosophy of the ages.  Those who bow at the altar of diversity preach that no single religion or government or race is any better than any other.  If everyone accepted everyone else as they are, it is said, then we can all get along and achieve world peace.  But while the politically correct are burying their heads in the sand, our enemies are plotting evil against us.  While the New Age followers are busy denigrating Christians for their "narrow-minded beliefs", the Muslim nations are engaged in Jihad, until every "infidel" is converted or slaughtered.

Do you really believe that Diversity will save the human race from itself?  Not to mention the legions of demons engaged in spiritual warfare against us.  Again, if we put our trust in anything other than Almighty God, then we are doomed.

Then the end will come, when He (Jesus) hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power.  (I Corinthians 15.24)

Those who give power to the stars will stumble; those who give over all authority to governments will grieve; those who hand over dominion to the PC police will perish.  Only those who place their faith in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, will survive.

The time is not right

Years ago a Hessian general surveyed his starving, shivering, demoralized troops.  He called them all together, and said, "Gentlemen, I have good news, and I have bad news.  The good news is that today, we get to change our underwear."  The mercenary soldiers all cheered.  Then one of them asked, "What's the bad news?"  The general replied: "Hans, you change with Fritz; Wilhelm, you change with Heinrich..."

In the 7th chapter of the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus could have used some good news.  He knew that the Jewish leaders were intent on arresting Him, and putting Him to death.  He was laying low, staying in Galilee so that the leaders in Judea wouldn't seize Him.  But the time was coming for the Feast of Tabernacles, when traditionally all observant Jews traveled to Jerusalem.

His family, who lived near Galilee, encouraged Him to go.  His half-brothers (sons of His mother Mary and their human father Joseph) encouraged Him to go and show Himself.

But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus' brothers said to Him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles You do.  No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.  Since You are doing these things, show yourself to the world."  For even His own brothers did not believe in Him. (John 7.2-5)

 So the good news was that Jesus was surrounded by family.  The bad news was that His family was ready to throw Him under the bus.  It is not clear whether they feared that the Jews would come to Galilee to arrest Him, or if they were jealously taunting Him.  They may have been saying, "Okay, Mr. Big Shot.  You're going around doing all these miracles and signs out here in this Podunk little town;  if You're trying to rule the world, then go to the Capitol--that's where all the action is!"

Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come.  For you, any time is right.  The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.  You go to the Feast.  I am not yet going up to the Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come." (John 7.6-8)

The Bible talks a lot about "the fullness of time".  I Timothy 2.5-6 says, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time."  Galatians 4.4 says "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons."

But I digress.  Jesus did go to the Feast of Tabernacles, but only after His family had left.  He kept a low profile in Jerusalem, but halfway through the Feast, He did start teaching publicly.  Those who knew about the Jews' plot to kill Him said, "Why aren't the authorities arresting this man? Have they gone mad, and become His followers, too? Surely not!"  Those who were not in the know heard Jesus talk about His keeping the Law, but the Jews never were able to keep the Law--so why were they trying to kill Him?  The "out" crowd asked Him, "Are you insane? Who is trying to kill you?"  Jesus continued to teach, and the Jews continued to plot.

At this, they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His time had not yet come.  (John 7.30)

Jesus had His own agenda, and He wasn't done.  There were still people who needed to hear the Good News, and He wasn't going to let them shorten His ministry until all had heard and believed.  For the same reason, He has not returned to earth the second time to gather His own up to Heaven--because there are still some who need to hear the Gospel of Christ, and believe.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. (John 7.37-38)

This is very similar to the message He gave the Woman at the Well in Samaria (see John 4).  But in that context, He was using imagery of what she saw physically in order to open her eyes spiritually.  At the Feast, He used these words because the crowds in Jerusalem were familiar with them.  Isaiah 55.1 says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost."  Even the poorest among them could eat and be filled; they could drink and never thirst again, because God had come to them and shared His riches with them.  Isaiah 58.11 says, "The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring, whose waters never fail."  Jesus was telling the crowd, some of whom had been present when he fed the 5000, that He was the fulfillment of prophecy.

But still some refused to believe.

Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn't you bring Him in?"  "No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared.  "You mean that he has decieved you also?" the Pharisees retorted.  "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?  No!  But this mob that knows nothing of the law--there is a curse on them." (John 7.45-49)

In other words, follow us, and not Him.

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, "Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?"  They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too?  Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee." (John 7.50-52)

They were wrong, of course.  The official Upholders of Truth and Traditions were not any smarter than the crowds they looked down on.  Nicodemus knew it, too, but he chose not to fight that battle here.  The time wasn't right--he could have been killed, too.

Even today, Jesus comes to us where we are.  He tugs at our heartstrings, and beckons us Home.  But voices from religion and politics and political correctness try to drown Him out.  It has been this way for centuries, and will continue to be.  Our job is to believe, and to share our knowledge with others.  Don't be discouraged, Brethren.  The time is not right, but in the fullness of time He will come to rule over the earth, and to take us with Him to heaven.

Jesus offers His body as a metaphor, and as a means to an end

In 2008 a young Obama supporter named Peggy Joseph was caught up in the moment at a political rally.  She gushed, "I never thought this day would ever happen.  I won't have to work at putting gas in my car; I won't have to work on paying my mortgage.  If I help them, they help me." (YouTube-Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas and Mortgage).  This quote is replayed frequently on conservative talk radio, and has earned President Obama the nickname "The Messiah".

Of course, we all know that no man alive could give us everything we need, without our having to work for it.  But in the sixth chapter of the book of John, we see that people had the same attitude in Jesus' day as this young woman had in 2008.  A great crowd of people had started following Jesus "because they saw the miraculous signs He had performed." (John 6.2)  Jesus started teaching them, but the hour became late.  He knew they were hungry for bread as well as spiritual food.  So he asked his disciples to survey the available rations.  All they came up with was five pieces of bread and two small fish.  Jesus blessed it and used it to feed more than 5000 people.

After seeing this, the crowd wanted to follow Him even more.  They would never go hungry again!  This man could magically meet all their physical needs, and all they had to do was listen to his words. Like young Peggy Joseph, they thought "If we help Him, He'll help us."  But Jesus knew their thoughts.  "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself." (John 6.15)  He didn't want to be their physical leader; He wanted to be their spiritual savior.  He tried to hide from the crowd, because He was the Messiah, but the crowd wanted Manna.

Jesus withdrew from the crowd to pray.  He sent His disciples on to Capernaum, across the Sea of Galilee.  A huge storm blew up overnight, big enough to frighten even these seasoned fishermen.  But Jesus approached them, walking on the water.  This miracle was witnessed by the disciples only, but the next day the crowd put two and two together.  They had been watching the disciples: they knew the disciples were headed to Capernaum, and that Jesus had not gone with them.  But when they searched and could not find Jesus, they all got into boats and crossed the lake, assuming that where the disciples were, Jesus would be there, too.  Maybe they thought He had spirited Himself across the lake somehow.  They caught up with Him in Capernaum.

When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"  Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.  Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. (John 6.25-27)

 Just like He had done with Nicodemus in chapter 3, and just like He had done with the Woman At The Well in chapter 4, here Jesus was trying to take the people out of the physical realm into the spiritual realm.  But he was using physical metaphors, in this case bread.

So they asked Him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." (John 6.30)

The crowd quickly turned from the physical to the spiritual, but like Nicodemus and the WATW, their spiritual vision was based on their traditions.  Jesus was trying to get them to let go of their spiritual traditions and see the truth.

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."  Then Jesus declared, "I am the Bread of Life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

Jesus was teaching them an object lesson, and they were beginning to see His point.  But others still had doubt.  Some Jews came forward and wondered aloud how He could claim to be the one who came down from heaven if they knew his mama and daddy.  They had watched Him grow up.  They had seen Him as a child, and now they saw Him as any other man.  Come down from heaven? What was He talking about?  Jesus put a stop to their grumbling.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.  It is written in the Prophets, "They will all be taught by God."  Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.  No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only He has seen the Father.  I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6.44-51)

This is where people started really questioning His teaching.  The literalists among them asked if He was calling them to be cannibals.  Eat His flesh? Is He nuts?  Jesus answered them in more graphic terms, knowing that if they were so caught up in the actual meaning of words, they would never see the meaning of the metaphor.  I know people like this today.  I work with a woman who is very literal.  If I tell her the old joke, "A horse goes into a bar, and the bartender says, 'Why the long face?'", she doesn't laugh--she says, "Why would a horse go into a bar? And why would a bartender try to engage it in conversation?"  So in this story, Jesus reiterates the metaphor for two reasons:  He wanted to underscore the meaning for those who believed, and He wanted to weed out those who wouldn't or couldn't believe in Him.

Jesus said to them, " I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." (John 6.53-58)

I can imagine Jesus pointing to Himself for emphasis.  He was trying to get them to understand that He had been sent from God every bit as much as the manna had been sent by God.  He wanted them to grasp the truth, and ingest it, and make it a part of themselves.  He wanted them to rely on Him for their very sustenance.  He wanted them to enjoy Himself as one savors a good meal; he wanted people to fellowship around Him like they would at a banquet.

But many of the disciples, the ones He had fed with the loaves and fishes, couldn't grasp the truth.  Either they were so literal that they did not see His point, or they got His point and did not want to commit to Him.  Maybe they chose to hold on to their traditions, to their religions, to the present paradigm.  Maybe they thought he was stark raving mad, telling them that he had seen God, and that God had sent Him.  It would be like us hearing a person who claims to have been abducted by aliens.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.  "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.  Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6.66-69)

Peter believed.  He had eaten of the Bread of Life.  Some may say he "drank the Kool-Aid".  He was committed to Christ, and to no other.  I, too, want to share in that communion.  I want to partake of the Body and Blood, to rely on Him for sustenance, for fellowship, and for joy.  I want to be so reliant upon Him that without Him, I would die.

Beautiful people do beautiful things

A story is told about a young bachelor who had a parrot.  When the young man got married, the parrot got very jealous.  Every time the young bride would come into the room where the parrot was, the parrot would say, "Man, you are  ugly!" This upset the woman to no end.  She complained to her husband, and he told the parrot to stop.  But still it went on; the woman came into the room again, and again the bird ridiculed her: "Man, you're so ugly!"  The woman burst into tears, and ran to her husband.  The man was furious.  He stomped into the room and picked up the parrot.  "If you don't stop insulting my wife, I will wring your neck and feed  you to the cat!  Do you understand me? Now stop it."  The next time the woman came into the room, the parrot looked at her smugly, and said, "You know."

The story is amusing because we all know that even though the parrot didn't say the words, the woman heard the message loud and clear: I'm unattractive; I'm fat; I'm too far away from the ideal body shape or skin tone or hair color.  Nobody will love me like this.  Even though the woman was newly married, she probably put more stock in what the bird said that what her husband actually saw.

Isn't that just like us? We tend to listen to messages that reinforce our negative self-image.  And we get caught up in secondary things, things that don't really matter.  You may think, "I have the ugliest feet God ever made."  But Isaiah 52.7 says "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news on the mountain."  See, the important thing is what you do with them, not what they look like.  Proverbs 31.30-31 says, "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

Looks are deceptive; you can't tell a beautiful person by what she looks like.  You tell a beautiful person by what she does.  Ephesians 2.10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do."  God created you to do beautiful things.  Your inner beauty is in the heart, not the face; it is in the soul, not the body.

A little constructive criticism is good, if it motivates you to improve.  I am tired of my clothes feeling tight, so I have vowed to lose some weight.  That's okay.  But a lot of destructive self criticism serves no good purpose.  If I say to myself, "I'm fat and lazy" without doing anything about it, then it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  And it starts me thinking about me, instead of about God and His plan for me. 

Stand Firm

This week I heard a radio interview with Roy Masters, a former hypnotist and current radio host and author.  His current book, "The Hypnotic States of Americans", apparently talks about how leaders and politicians can create social mores, and how those social mores affect the way a society behaves and believes.   The radio host was Sean Hannity, so he tried to keep the topic on politics and especially on the President and the Democratic Party, but Mr. Masters said some interesting things from his own perspective.

You can see a demonstration (of hypnosis) before a group of 500 people of me showing exactly in minutes how you can convert a perfectly normal person into a person that will defend everything that's wrong and everything I've said to that person he will do--he will change his shoes around--and no matter how much I tell him, "Well, I made you do it.  Remember I told you to do it before you came up?" He says "Yes". And I ask him, "Well, why did you do it?" "It's because, well, they felt uncomfortable."

See what power the spoken word has in people's lives?  What he was describing can be equally true about a carnival side show, or a political movement, or even a spiritual cult.  If a strong personality, like Oprah Winfrey or Barack Obama, make a public statement, many in society will take that statement as fact, even if it goes against everything those people were taught.  Even if the public pronouncement goes against common sense.

Masters touched on this in his radio interview:

God gives you common sense. But common sense is wordless.  The trouble is you are born into a "word world", where Authority speaks to you as little children, and makes you doubt what you know is right in your heart.

This is why it is important to guard your hearts, to meditate on Scripture, and to question what you hear people say, and measure it against what the Bible says.  Again, from Masters' radio interview:

Once a person gets reversed, once a person doubts--this is Original Sin stuff--once a person doubts what he knows is right by the power of the spoken word, he believes the lie instead of the truth and he tends to build an identity from that lie. And the more he lives in the environment where lies are truth and truth are lies, and is rewarded for it (like in government), to that degree, his life is built upon it, and he has power to hurt other people, and he becomes so intractable that when you talk to that person who is lost in his head with reason, he will defend that reason.  Everybody who ever makes an excuse is really proof that some other force is acting through you, but you believe those truths to be your own ideas.

 Now, I have never heard of Roy Masters before, and I am not plugging his book or even his radio program--apparently he is some kind of spiritualist, and much of his writings and musings on his own radio show are about his own spiritual journey, from growing up in Nazi Germany to whatever New Age beliefs he now holds.  But the portion of the radio interview that I quoted above gave me pause.

Exodus 24.9-11 says, "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of Sapphire, clear as the sky itself.  But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank."  Yet 40 days later, the people under these leaders staged a counter-revolution.  "When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, 'Come, make us gods who will go before us.  As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.'(Exodus 32.1)"  And Aaron made them a golden calf image to worship.

This same Aaron was among those who got to witness God in His heaven.  The description given is much like the vision of John in the book of Revelation--God walked with them on pavement appearing to be like precious jewels, God fellowshiped with them directly, eating and drinking with them.  Yet in six short weeks, Aaron was convinced by others in the camp, who had not seen God, to give them an idol to worship. And to add insult to injury, the worship of that idol devolved into a sexual orgy.

In the first chapter of Romans, Paul said this:

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised.  Amen. (Romans 1.20-25)

According to Masters, a former hypnotist and current author and lecturer, it is relatively easy to manipulate people.  People want peace in their hearts and minds, so they will go along to get along, and will follow whatever teaching is put before them by outgoing, charismatic personalities.  Not heeding the Word of God, they listen to the words of celebrities and follow after them.

That is why it is vitally important, Brothers and Sisters, to constantly be in the Word of God.  "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thessalonians 2.16).  "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word.  I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands.  I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You." (Psalm 119.9-11).

The words of God must be written on our hearts, or we, too, will be swept away by every wind of teaching.  And we must share the Good News of Christ to all, so that others may know and believe.  There are competing messages everywhere around us, and we have a lot of noise to overcome.  God has the power to shout louder than all the other voices being broadcast out there, but He chooses to use a still, small voice.  That voice could be mine. It could be yours.  But it underscores the fact that people are won over to God's message one person at a time.

A day will come when all the other voices will be silenced, and God's big booming Voice will be heard by all; that will be the day of Judgment.   Until then, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Search my heart, O God

Jesus saves.  Those of us who trust in Him are saved from the power and penalty of sin.  Yet all of us, while claiming to be Christians to the core, slip into sin from time to time.  We continue in our bad habits, and as long as we say they are bad, and act remorseful about them from time to time, our consciences allow us to continue in them.  We love mercy.  "Better to ask forgiveness than permission."

We are taught that grace is sufficient for us.  It is by God's grace that we are not swallowed up into the depths of the earth.  It is by His bountiful grace that we are offered Heaven and avoid Hell.  Paul speaks of grace in his letter to the Romans.  But he knew that grace would be abused.  Romans 6.1-2 says, "What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"

Sin may be dead to us, but we love to resuscitate it.  In the book of Revelation, John writes this to the church in Thyatira:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.  I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.  Nevertheless, I have this against you:  You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.  By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.  I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.  So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.  I will strike her children dead.  Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (Revelation 2.18-23)

Now, I am not going to get in to whether this is literal or figurative.  There may have been a strong-willed woman in the church, but I am not saying that women should not take leadership roles in the church.  The point is that she was leading them into sin.  Whether she was actually seducing them into her own bed, or if she was teaching that sexual immorality was okay, God was telling the church that in this way they were acting like the pagan temples, and she was acting like a temple prostitute.  God's grace allowed Him to give her time to repent.  But when she refused, there were dire consequences.  Again, I am not saying this verse was a foreshadowing of sexually transmitted diseases or even AIDS; but it does appear that she was bed-ridden, gravely ill because of her actions.  And it was God who sent the sickness.

A similar message was given to the prophet Jeremiah.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand at the gate of the Lord's House and there proclaim this message: "Hear the word of the Lord, all you people who come through these gates to worship the Lord.  This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, 'This is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord!'  If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers, forever and ever.  But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.  Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears My Name, and say 'we are safe'--safe to do all these detestable things?  Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers to you?  But I have been watching! declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 7.1-11)

 Can you imagine a prophet of God standing in the door of the church, saying "don't come in if you steal office supplies, or cheat on your taxes, or get angry enough to wring somebody's neck; stay away if you are prejudiced against others, or if you refuse to help widows and orphans.  Should you come into God's house if you have a porn stash at home and lie about it?  Should you leave here and sacrifice to idols (i.e. kill your marriage by spending all your time and effort at your job? or kill your testimony trying to be popular? or kill your paycheck buying booze or by gambling?)  Don't pat yourself on the back for being in church--it means nothing unless you give God your heart."  Jesus quoted Jeremiah 7.11 when he drove out the vendors and overturned the tables of the money-changers in the Temple.

Many of us are not really Christians--we are "churchians"  We go to church to be seen.  Our best effort at witnessing to others is to invite them to our church, instead of asking them to invite Jesus into their hearts.

If you trust in the church to save you, you will perish.  If you strive to be like others, even godly people, you might end up being like them, but you won't be like God.  God wants you to be like Him, not like his servants.

David had it right when he wrote this prayer in Psalm 39: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting life."  Look back at Revelation 2.23. "Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds."  See, it's not all about me.  I mean, it is: Jesus did die for me, and if I was the only one who needed to be saved, He still would have come and died so I could find peace for my soul.  And David did say "test me and know my anxious thoughts".  We need to give all our fears and anxieties to Him.  And if there is anything in me that might stand in the way of somebody else coming to know Him, I need to get rid of it.  And that's how the passage in Psalm 39 ties in with the passage in Revelation 2--the end result is not my glorification.  The end result is that others may know.  God doesn't want me, or you, or any of the six billion people alive today to die without Him.  But to make that happen, he needs to use me, and a bunch of other people like me that He calls the Church.

So all will know.