The Exodus of the Israelites was a pretty amazing feat. First, God had to convince Moses that he was God's spokesman, uniquely suited to the task of delivering His people. Moses was an Israelite by birth, a man educated by the royalty of Egypt, and a man who knew the land, because he had fled Egypt after murdering the Egyptian taskmaster.
Next, God had to convince Pharoah, the oppressor, to release the nation of Israel, who had over time become the slaves of the Egyptian nation. God actually hardened Pharoah's heart, so that the superiority of Israel's God over the gods of the Egyptians could be shown and documented for posterity. Smarter men than me would have to show the correlation of all ten plagues to gods of Egypt, but I do know that the plague on livestock attacked the sacred cows of the Egyptians. (Remember later when Aaron made a golden calf? This was something he had learned in Egypt, as the Egyptians had a god in the shape of a bull.) The plague of darkness was an attack on Ra, the Egyptian sun god. The plague of the death of the firstborn attacked the practice of human sacrifice. So by the time the Israelites were ready to leave, the people of Egypt were glad to see them go--so glad, in fact, that they gave them gifts of gold to take with them.
Finally, God had to convince the Israelites that leaving Egypt was the best thing to do. The first time that Moses stood before Israel and told them that God wanted them to leave, they all gave a collective shrug. Ex 6:9 says "Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage." The bondage that they had grown accustomed to actually became worse after Moses started negotiating with Pharoah. Some blamed Moses for the extra work--making the same quota of bricks, but without the Egyptians supplying the straw, as they had done before. But God knew that things had to get worse before His people would move.
So why would God's people refuse to leave without God's prompting? Why do we fear following God when He asks us to change. I think there are three reasons:
First, there is the Confidence of the Oppressors. Pharoah led an army of trained fighters, armed with chariots and swords. The Israelites had nothing, not even sticks or stones. How often to we feel helpless in the face of adversity? If we listen to our fear, God will never be able to deliver us. But wouldn't He who would deliver us also provide us with a way of escape? This is what He did for Israel against Pharoah, and it is what He can do for us.
Second, there is the Complacency of the Oppressed. Somehow, in the space of two generations, Israel had gone from honored guest of Pharoah to a slave nation. I am sure this happened a little at a time, not all at once. Otherwise the people would have revolted. It is like the example of boiling a frog: if you put a live frog in a pot of boiling water, he will immediately jump out; but if you put him in lukewarm water, and gradually increase the temperature, the frog will cook without knowing he is dinner. Remember later in the story of Moses, when food or water was scarce, the people muttered against Moses and Aaron, saying "didn't we have leeks and onions to eat, and plenty, in Egypt? Why, then, did we leave there?" But God wanted to give them something better than job security in a foreign land. He wanted to give them their own homeland, their own land of promise. I think He wants to do the same for us.
Finally, there is the Coordination of the Observable. By the time Moses came along, no man alive could see any way possible for him to lead his people out. Not Moses, not Aaron, not the priests--nobody. How often do we get discouraged because we can't see any possible way to affect a change? Thank God nothing is impossible for Him. In the movie Apollo 13, the character played by Tom Hanks was encouraging a fellow astronaught, who had become despondent. "What if we have an engine failure? What if we don't make it home?" Tom Hanks took the other actor by the collar and shook him. He said, "Like a thousand things have to happen, in order, for us not to make it home. What you're talking about is number 857." That was a situation in which everyone had a vision, and they had planned out the details to the nth degree. In Exodus, only God had the vision, and only He knew His plan. God made it worse before it got better--He hardened Pharoah's heart, he gave the slave nation of Israel more work with less resources, and Moses himself doubted God, even after meeting with Him repeatedly face to face.
God knows how to work things out for the good of those who love Him. Somebody once said "without a vision, the people perish." But the story of Moses is that God can work His will in our lives even when we don't see His vision.
God, please help me seek Your face. And when I can't see Your face, let me catch Your vision. And when I can't even envision Your plan, please let me trust Your heart.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
A mystery, revealed
With my white, middle class upbringing, a lot of my worldview is rooted in the Protestant work ethic. If you work hard, you will be rewarded. If you save and tithe and watch for sales, you can make your money go further. And if you really get lucky, and God blesses your hard work and determination, you may get rich.
That is the mindset I usually bring to Jesus' parable of the workers. Matthew 20 says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a day's wage and sent them into his vineyard. A coupe-three hours later, he went out again, and saw other men hanging out on the town square. He told them to go into his vineyard and he would pay them. The same thing happens six hours after the first men went to work, and again nine hours after. Finally, at the eleventh hour, just one hour before quitting time, the landowner finds some more unemployed guys, and asks them to also work in his vineyard.
The evening came, and the landowner sets up a booth to pay his laborers. The ones he hired last, who just worked one hour, get to the table first. He pays them a day's wage. The ones who worked 3 hours come next, and he pays them a day's wage. On and on until the guys who have been there all day long. Now, they have stood in line and have seen what the other guys got. They have had time to talk, and let their minds wander. So they get the idea that, because they have been working the longest, they would get the most pay. It's only fair, right? I mean, this is a really cool landowner--if he pays an entire day's wage to those guys who worked less than four hours, imagine what he'll give us, right? But when their time came, they received the same as all the rest--a day's wage. Now these guys get really steamed up about this. "These other men have only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day?" But the landowner answers, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a day's wage? Take your pay and go. I want to give the men who were hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
This passage has always come to mind when I see people slacking on the job, or hear them complain about their pay. Sometimes I even think about this parable when the subject of labor unions comes up. Again, my Protestant work ethic and middle class upbringing comes to bear. But I realized again today that Jesus was not talking about any of that. He wasn't talking about contracts, or laborers, or money or anything. The key to the passage is what Jesus said at the beginning: The Kingdom of Heaven is like this.
That means there is a spiritual dimension, one that a literal reading does not come close to interpreting. Look in Ephesians 3, starting in verse 4. "In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together with one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus."
If I was a Jew, I would have been taught from birth that my people are the chosen ones of God. I would believe with all my heart that God would work through my people to His glory, and that His power would be revealed through us. And in the end, God would reward His people, the Jews, and elevate them above all others. I would remember the hardships Jews endured, the persecutions and the plagues, and I would expect a great reward in Heaven.
Then Jesus came. He preached a different gospel, a gospel of inclusion. The Gentiles, who might have thought that if the Jews were God's chosen people, then we might be spiritual outcasts, would love this new gospel. The Jews, not so much. Paul says in Ephesians 3. 8-12 says, "Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
So God, like the landowner in Jesus' parable, could do anything He wanted with His heaven. But by His grace, he has made Heaven accessible to all people, not just the ones He chose at first. That says a lot about grace. That says a lot about God.
Paul ends the discussion of this mystery with a prayer. Beginning in verse 14, he says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Nobody says it like Paul. He prayed for you and for me. He prayed that we would come to know Christ, through faith. And once we accepted Christ in our hearts, he prayed we would realize that God, His Son and His Holy Spirit are bigger than we can know, but that we would be filled with this bigness, this godliness. And with this realization, we can ask Him for anything we can imagine, and more! Glory to God! Not that He is our "genie in a bottle", able to give us whatever we want. No! Rather that we are His, and through us He can accomplish things greater than we ourselves can even ask or think. The glory is His, not ours.
God can discriminate, because He sees the heart. We can be discriminating, preferring right over wrong, preferring love over hate. If we know the heart of God, we will be discriminating like He is. But in our finite knowledge, we cannot damn someone to hell. We often want to, but we only see the outward stuff--the color of someone's skin, or the way they dress; what they say or the choices they make. God alone has the right to condemn someone, because He sees the heart. But He reserves the right to forgive. So you might see some people in heaven that you never saw in church. You might see some people there that would surprise you. But you have to remember His grace, and that those other people there might also be surprised that you made it to heaven, too.
That is the mindset I usually bring to Jesus' parable of the workers. Matthew 20 says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a day's wage and sent them into his vineyard. A coupe-three hours later, he went out again, and saw other men hanging out on the town square. He told them to go into his vineyard and he would pay them. The same thing happens six hours after the first men went to work, and again nine hours after. Finally, at the eleventh hour, just one hour before quitting time, the landowner finds some more unemployed guys, and asks them to also work in his vineyard.
The evening came, and the landowner sets up a booth to pay his laborers. The ones he hired last, who just worked one hour, get to the table first. He pays them a day's wage. The ones who worked 3 hours come next, and he pays them a day's wage. On and on until the guys who have been there all day long. Now, they have stood in line and have seen what the other guys got. They have had time to talk, and let their minds wander. So they get the idea that, because they have been working the longest, they would get the most pay. It's only fair, right? I mean, this is a really cool landowner--if he pays an entire day's wage to those guys who worked less than four hours, imagine what he'll give us, right? But when their time came, they received the same as all the rest--a day's wage. Now these guys get really steamed up about this. "These other men have only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day?" But the landowner answers, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a day's wage? Take your pay and go. I want to give the men who were hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
This passage has always come to mind when I see people slacking on the job, or hear them complain about their pay. Sometimes I even think about this parable when the subject of labor unions comes up. Again, my Protestant work ethic and middle class upbringing comes to bear. But I realized again today that Jesus was not talking about any of that. He wasn't talking about contracts, or laborers, or money or anything. The key to the passage is what Jesus said at the beginning: The Kingdom of Heaven is like this.
That means there is a spiritual dimension, one that a literal reading does not come close to interpreting. Look in Ephesians 3, starting in verse 4. "In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together with one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus."
If I was a Jew, I would have been taught from birth that my people are the chosen ones of God. I would believe with all my heart that God would work through my people to His glory, and that His power would be revealed through us. And in the end, God would reward His people, the Jews, and elevate them above all others. I would remember the hardships Jews endured, the persecutions and the plagues, and I would expect a great reward in Heaven.
Then Jesus came. He preached a different gospel, a gospel of inclusion. The Gentiles, who might have thought that if the Jews were God's chosen people, then we might be spiritual outcasts, would love this new gospel. The Jews, not so much. Paul says in Ephesians 3. 8-12 says, "Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
So God, like the landowner in Jesus' parable, could do anything He wanted with His heaven. But by His grace, he has made Heaven accessible to all people, not just the ones He chose at first. That says a lot about grace. That says a lot about God.
Paul ends the discussion of this mystery with a prayer. Beginning in verse 14, he says, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Nobody says it like Paul. He prayed for you and for me. He prayed that we would come to know Christ, through faith. And once we accepted Christ in our hearts, he prayed we would realize that God, His Son and His Holy Spirit are bigger than we can know, but that we would be filled with this bigness, this godliness. And with this realization, we can ask Him for anything we can imagine, and more! Glory to God! Not that He is our "genie in a bottle", able to give us whatever we want. No! Rather that we are His, and through us He can accomplish things greater than we ourselves can even ask or think. The glory is His, not ours.
God can discriminate, because He sees the heart. We can be discriminating, preferring right over wrong, preferring love over hate. If we know the heart of God, we will be discriminating like He is. But in our finite knowledge, we cannot damn someone to hell. We often want to, but we only see the outward stuff--the color of someone's skin, or the way they dress; what they say or the choices they make. God alone has the right to condemn someone, because He sees the heart. But He reserves the right to forgive. So you might see some people in heaven that you never saw in church. You might see some people there that would surprise you. But you have to remember His grace, and that those other people there might also be surprised that you made it to heaven, too.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Interceding for us
Today I read something in the Bible that I don't remember ever seeing before. In Exodus chapter 4, God was meeting with Moses, giving him a job to do. He showed Himself powerful enough to rescue his people, the children of Israel, from bondage. He gave Moses the resources to take the message to Israel's captors. He even said Moses would not be alone--God would be there with him, and so would his brother Aaron. But Moses' final word on the subject was this: "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." (verse 13.) "And the Lord's anger burned against Moses." (verse 14.)
All of that I have read before. And Moses took his family, and did as the Lord commanded. He left his father-in-law, took his wife and two sons, and went back to Egypt. But here is the passage that I had not noticed before. Verses 24 through 26 says: "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses, and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and laid it at Moses' feet. 'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,' she said. So the Lord left him alone."
What stands out about this verse? Well, first we can surmise that Moses had not followed the law of God, as he had not circumcised his son. That would have disappointed God. But this was not the first law of God that Moses had broken. In chapter 3, Moses killed an Egyptian. He committed murder. As a result of that sin, Moses left his people in Egypt, and went to Midian, and married a Midianite woman. God couldn't have been too happy about this, either. Once Israel had taken the land God had promised to them (later in the book of Exodus), Joshua spoke the word of the Lord to them, and one of the commands was to avoid marrying outside their race, outside their faith. But the thing that really ticked God off the most is the fact that Moses stood eye to eye with Him and said "no". Even though Moses repented later, and did what God had told him to do, God was still so displeased with him that He intended to kill him.
In steps Zipporah, Moses' wife. She was a Midianite, but she knew enough about Hebrew law to make up for her husband's disobedience. She circumcised her son, and thereby saved Moses' life. She interceded for him, and God answered her prayer. He had mercy on Moses because of Zipporah's act of faith. She called Moses her "bridegroom of blood," because of the tradition of circumcision that his religion had demanded.
This reminds me of another passage later on in Exodus chapter 32 where God got so mad at His people that He was ready to kill them all. He told Moses to step aside, that He was going to smite them all and make another nation of Moses' children. But Moses interceded for the people, and God relented. Apparently, Moses remembered a time when God was so mad at him that He was ready to kill Moses. And he must have remembered his wife, Zipporah, who performed an act of holiness to make things right between Moses and his God. It really makes a difference in your life when you have experienced God's grace.
God's word has other examples of intercession for His people, culminating in the death of Jesus, God's Son, to absolve the sins of the world. He became the Blood Covenant for us, and He is the Bridegroom for the Church, His bride (we are looking forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb). So, just as Zipporah called Moses her Bridegroom of Blood, Jesus became one for us.
Even later in the New Testament, John talks about Christ Himself interceding for us when we sin (see I John 2). See, just because Jesus died and was raised to life again, doesn't mean that God will never be angry with us. I am sure He gets angry enough with me to kill me, to just wipe me off the face of the earth. But thank God someone intercedes for us, and that someone could be a friend or a relative, a pastor or a teacher, or Jesus Christ Himself.
That is one way we can do the work of the Lord: interceding for someone else. In other words, the work of God's Son is to intercede for us, to go before the Father and beg His mercy on us. If we also go to God for another person, we are doing the very same thing that the Son of God sets about to do. So we are doing the work of God when we pray for one another. Sometimes our prayers are spoken words, like Moses defending his fellow Israelites. Other times our intercession could be an action, like Zipporah stepping up and obeying God when her husband had failed to do so.
Loving Father, show me a way to stand in for another, to make that person right with You. I know that each person's salvation is a personal thing, something that must be between each person and You. But if I can step up for someone and change their circumstances by doing the right thing, perhaps Your anger against them will be appeased, and You will show mercy on them. Perhaps You will allow them to live, giving them another chance to make You their personal Savior; or maybe You will take away their suffering for a moment, so that they can see clearly and know that You are God. Thank You for showing mercy to me when I do not deserve Your grace. Please make me worthy of You.
Amen.
All of that I have read before. And Moses took his family, and did as the Lord commanded. He left his father-in-law, took his wife and two sons, and went back to Egypt. But here is the passage that I had not noticed before. Verses 24 through 26 says: "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses, and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and laid it at Moses' feet. 'Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,' she said. So the Lord left him alone."
What stands out about this verse? Well, first we can surmise that Moses had not followed the law of God, as he had not circumcised his son. That would have disappointed God. But this was not the first law of God that Moses had broken. In chapter 3, Moses killed an Egyptian. He committed murder. As a result of that sin, Moses left his people in Egypt, and went to Midian, and married a Midianite woman. God couldn't have been too happy about this, either. Once Israel had taken the land God had promised to them (later in the book of Exodus), Joshua spoke the word of the Lord to them, and one of the commands was to avoid marrying outside their race, outside their faith. But the thing that really ticked God off the most is the fact that Moses stood eye to eye with Him and said "no". Even though Moses repented later, and did what God had told him to do, God was still so displeased with him that He intended to kill him.
In steps Zipporah, Moses' wife. She was a Midianite, but she knew enough about Hebrew law to make up for her husband's disobedience. She circumcised her son, and thereby saved Moses' life. She interceded for him, and God answered her prayer. He had mercy on Moses because of Zipporah's act of faith. She called Moses her "bridegroom of blood," because of the tradition of circumcision that his religion had demanded.
This reminds me of another passage later on in Exodus chapter 32 where God got so mad at His people that He was ready to kill them all. He told Moses to step aside, that He was going to smite them all and make another nation of Moses' children. But Moses interceded for the people, and God relented. Apparently, Moses remembered a time when God was so mad at him that He was ready to kill Moses. And he must have remembered his wife, Zipporah, who performed an act of holiness to make things right between Moses and his God. It really makes a difference in your life when you have experienced God's grace.
God's word has other examples of intercession for His people, culminating in the death of Jesus, God's Son, to absolve the sins of the world. He became the Blood Covenant for us, and He is the Bridegroom for the Church, His bride (we are looking forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb). So, just as Zipporah called Moses her Bridegroom of Blood, Jesus became one for us.
Even later in the New Testament, John talks about Christ Himself interceding for us when we sin (see I John 2). See, just because Jesus died and was raised to life again, doesn't mean that God will never be angry with us. I am sure He gets angry enough with me to kill me, to just wipe me off the face of the earth. But thank God someone intercedes for us, and that someone could be a friend or a relative, a pastor or a teacher, or Jesus Christ Himself.
That is one way we can do the work of the Lord: interceding for someone else. In other words, the work of God's Son is to intercede for us, to go before the Father and beg His mercy on us. If we also go to God for another person, we are doing the very same thing that the Son of God sets about to do. So we are doing the work of God when we pray for one another. Sometimes our prayers are spoken words, like Moses defending his fellow Israelites. Other times our intercession could be an action, like Zipporah stepping up and obeying God when her husband had failed to do so.
Loving Father, show me a way to stand in for another, to make that person right with You. I know that each person's salvation is a personal thing, something that must be between each person and You. But if I can step up for someone and change their circumstances by doing the right thing, perhaps Your anger against them will be appeased, and You will show mercy on them. Perhaps You will allow them to live, giving them another chance to make You their personal Savior; or maybe You will take away their suffering for a moment, so that they can see clearly and know that You are God. Thank You for showing mercy to me when I do not deserve Your grace. Please make me worthy of You.
Amen.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Wrestling with God
I found myself in a men's Bible study on Wednesday night. It was not my choice, my wife made me go. Okay, true confessions, or full disclosure, or whatever--it is the first time I have been in any church service for weeks.
Anyway, the pastor is introducing a new focus, a specific study that is supposed to last for 13 weeks, not counting the introduction. But his introduction is more of an admonition to faithfulness than an actual preview of our forthcoming study. And in his prepared remarks, he recited several verses from many different books of the Bible. Some were encouraging us to serve, others admonishing us to serve together, to lift one another up, yada, yada, yada. All stuff we have all heard before, especially if we have grown up in church.
But then something profound happened. God reaches down and grabs me by the scruff of the neck, and lifts me out of the room and into His presence. See, I'm bored with the lesson, but I'm trying to remain engaged. I am looking up all of the Bible references he is citing, even those he quotes in passing on his way to another reference. And when he stops and camps on one particular verse for more than 90 seconds, I start reading the verse before and the verse after. I look at the study helps at the bottom of the page. I am gleaning insights that my pastor never even thought about as he was preparing his lesson for that evening.
He cited Hebrews 10:25. I looked it up and followed as he read his notes. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some of us are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Nice verse. What do the study notes have to offer?
"The Greek word translated 'give up' speaks of desertion and abandonment (see Mt 27.46; 2Co 4.9; 2Ti 4:10, 16)." Cool--a word study. I looked up Matthew 27.46: "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'--which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Okay, but the word study I was following was "abandon", not "forsaken." "Forsaken" is a good word, a biblical word, but not one we usually use in our daily living. "Honey, the car ran out of gas. I had to forsake it on the freeway." You never hear of people taking their unwanted pets out in the woods and forsaking them. Or of teenage mothers forsaking their children to a hospital or fire station. So I re-read the verse, using the words deserted and abandoned. "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
Wait, wait, hold up. Weren't we talking about church attendance? Wasn't that what Hebrews 10:25 is usually understood to be talking about? So if I abandon the church by giving up meeting together with them, am I doing the same thing as God did when He allowed His Son to die? Well, not exactly, because God's purpose was pure--He had to sacrifice His son to save a dying world. My motivation for missing church is laziness, or being busy about other things, or having different priorities. But the outcome is the same. Without God, Jesus bore the full weight of humanity, and the result was His death. If we all abandon the church, which is the Body of Christ, will it not wither and die as well?
Let's move on. 2Corinthians 4:8-9 speaks of God's power made manifest in our weakness. "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." Major Truth No. 1: God never leaves us, never deserts us, never abandons us, even when we are going through really tough times. Whether those tough times are financial, medical, or really physical (persecution), God is there. He can help get us through. Major Truth No. 2: the Church, as the body of baptized believers that it is, will also go through some tough times; but God will not abandon her, and neither should we. We can complain that the pews are too hard, or the sermons are too long, or that they sing the same songs every Sunday. We can convince ourselves that the church has too much debt to handle, or that the deacons are too worldly, or that this or that is wrong, and we can talk ourselves out of going. But the Bible says God will never leave His Church, just like He will never leave us. So why are we always finding fault, as if we need an excuse not to go?
In 2Timothy 4:9-10, Paul talks about his fellow traveller Demas abandoning Paul in prison and going on to Thessalonica on his own, "because he loved this world." And verse 16 says "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them." Is there some man or woman of God, a servant of Christ, who needed your help and did not get it? Abandoning the Body of Christ (the Church) is just like deserting Christ Himself. And He will not do that to us. Ever.
Hebrews 13:5 says "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake (abandon) you'." This is a direct quotation from Deuteronomy 31:6. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake (abandon) you." Verse 8 says the same thing: "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake (abandon) you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." And Joshua 1:5 says "No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave (desert) you nor forsake (abandon) you."
Those are comforting thoughts, because God never lies; He never goes back on His word. We may feel deserted, but God desires fellowship with us. We may have issues of abandonment, but God's love is abundant and free. Thank God He does not retaliate against us for the stupid stuff we do, like forgetting to go to church for a while. He is not like us, and sometimes I think we forget that.
The title of this posting is a reference to Genesis 32:22-30. Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let Him go until He blessed Jacob. May all of our encounters with God be that focused and determined; may we all be as tenacious as he was. But along with the blessing, God also gave him a disability. A little something to remember Him by. From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp. And verse 31 says "Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon." So not only did Jacob remember his encounter with God, but all of his descendants did as well.
God probably did the same thing to Paul. On the road to Damascus, a great light blinded him, and God spoke to him out of the light. Paul was led to Damascus, and a man named Ananias touched his eyes, and allowed him to see again. But there is indication in some of Paul's letters that he had some persistent "thorn in the flesh" that God would not remove. This was to remind him of his face to face meeting with God. Other passages indicate that Paul may have had trouble seeing. So maybe he was healed of the full blindness, but God left a little astigmatism or near-sightedness as a reminder of His power.
But I digress. This is a whole different study that I wanted to share today. The point is that on Wednesday night, God confronted me in my weakness; He showed me evidence of His power; and He encouraged me to support my local church, even when I don't feel like it.
Anyway, the pastor is introducing a new focus, a specific study that is supposed to last for 13 weeks, not counting the introduction. But his introduction is more of an admonition to faithfulness than an actual preview of our forthcoming study. And in his prepared remarks, he recited several verses from many different books of the Bible. Some were encouraging us to serve, others admonishing us to serve together, to lift one another up, yada, yada, yada. All stuff we have all heard before, especially if we have grown up in church.
But then something profound happened. God reaches down and grabs me by the scruff of the neck, and lifts me out of the room and into His presence. See, I'm bored with the lesson, but I'm trying to remain engaged. I am looking up all of the Bible references he is citing, even those he quotes in passing on his way to another reference. And when he stops and camps on one particular verse for more than 90 seconds, I start reading the verse before and the verse after. I look at the study helps at the bottom of the page. I am gleaning insights that my pastor never even thought about as he was preparing his lesson for that evening.
He cited Hebrews 10:25. I looked it up and followed as he read his notes. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some of us are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Nice verse. What do the study notes have to offer?
"The Greek word translated 'give up' speaks of desertion and abandonment (see Mt 27.46; 2Co 4.9; 2Ti 4:10, 16)." Cool--a word study. I looked up Matthew 27.46: "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?'--which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Okay, but the word study I was following was "abandon", not "forsaken." "Forsaken" is a good word, a biblical word, but not one we usually use in our daily living. "Honey, the car ran out of gas. I had to forsake it on the freeway." You never hear of people taking their unwanted pets out in the woods and forsaking them. Or of teenage mothers forsaking their children to a hospital or fire station. So I re-read the verse, using the words deserted and abandoned. "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
Wait, wait, hold up. Weren't we talking about church attendance? Wasn't that what Hebrews 10:25 is usually understood to be talking about? So if I abandon the church by giving up meeting together with them, am I doing the same thing as God did when He allowed His Son to die? Well, not exactly, because God's purpose was pure--He had to sacrifice His son to save a dying world. My motivation for missing church is laziness, or being busy about other things, or having different priorities. But the outcome is the same. Without God, Jesus bore the full weight of humanity, and the result was His death. If we all abandon the church, which is the Body of Christ, will it not wither and die as well?
Let's move on. 2Corinthians 4:8-9 speaks of God's power made manifest in our weakness. "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." Major Truth No. 1: God never leaves us, never deserts us, never abandons us, even when we are going through really tough times. Whether those tough times are financial, medical, or really physical (persecution), God is there. He can help get us through. Major Truth No. 2: the Church, as the body of baptized believers that it is, will also go through some tough times; but God will not abandon her, and neither should we. We can complain that the pews are too hard, or the sermons are too long, or that they sing the same songs every Sunday. We can convince ourselves that the church has too much debt to handle, or that the deacons are too worldly, or that this or that is wrong, and we can talk ourselves out of going. But the Bible says God will never leave His Church, just like He will never leave us. So why are we always finding fault, as if we need an excuse not to go?
In 2Timothy 4:9-10, Paul talks about his fellow traveller Demas abandoning Paul in prison and going on to Thessalonica on his own, "because he loved this world." And verse 16 says "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them." Is there some man or woman of God, a servant of Christ, who needed your help and did not get it? Abandoning the Body of Christ (the Church) is just like deserting Christ Himself. And He will not do that to us. Ever.
Hebrews 13:5 says "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake (abandon) you'." This is a direct quotation from Deuteronomy 31:6. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake (abandon) you." Verse 8 says the same thing: "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake (abandon) you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." And Joshua 1:5 says "No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave (desert) you nor forsake (abandon) you."
Those are comforting thoughts, because God never lies; He never goes back on His word. We may feel deserted, but God desires fellowship with us. We may have issues of abandonment, but God's love is abundant and free. Thank God He does not retaliate against us for the stupid stuff we do, like forgetting to go to church for a while. He is not like us, and sometimes I think we forget that.
The title of this posting is a reference to Genesis 32:22-30. Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let Him go until He blessed Jacob. May all of our encounters with God be that focused and determined; may we all be as tenacious as he was. But along with the blessing, God also gave him a disability. A little something to remember Him by. From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp. And verse 31 says "Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon." So not only did Jacob remember his encounter with God, but all of his descendants did as well.
God probably did the same thing to Paul. On the road to Damascus, a great light blinded him, and God spoke to him out of the light. Paul was led to Damascus, and a man named Ananias touched his eyes, and allowed him to see again. But there is indication in some of Paul's letters that he had some persistent "thorn in the flesh" that God would not remove. This was to remind him of his face to face meeting with God. Other passages indicate that Paul may have had trouble seeing. So maybe he was healed of the full blindness, but God left a little astigmatism or near-sightedness as a reminder of His power.
But I digress. This is a whole different study that I wanted to share today. The point is that on Wednesday night, God confronted me in my weakness; He showed me evidence of His power; and He encouraged me to support my local church, even when I don't feel like it.
Friday, December 31, 2010
If New Years Resolutions work, then what's a conscience for?
This is the time of year when many Americans get bored with the holidays and try to list ways they wish their lives were better. They call the lists "Resolutions", but once resolved, they are never very resolute.
The practice probably began when some poor sap was hung over from the New Years Eve party the night before, and he swore he would never take another drink. I'll bet that promise lasted until the next Saturday night.
What's really ironic about it is that New Years is not one of the three major days for church attendance--Easter, Mother's Day, and Christmas. One would think that if people wanted to improve their lives en masse, they would choose a day when their consciences were pricked by a professional. It just proves my theory that no one ever listens to the preacher in church, anyway. They all go to be seen, and to gossip about people who are there--what they were wearing, who they were with, etc.
There is an old Preacher's story about a duck church. All the ducks waddled in every Sunday, and listened to the sermon, and then they all waddled home. Once, they had a duck church revival. They invited a duck Evangelist to speak, and he was very charismatic. "You don't have to waddle, my friends," he bellowed at them. "God gave us all wings. I'm here to tell you that you can fly!" All the ducks in the congregation stretched out their wings. Some started to flap and even got off the ground. There were hundreds of duck conversions that day, and scores of duck baptisms. And then, after the service, all the ducks left the church building and they all waddled home.
I guess my point is that real growth happens randomly. It happens when a major crisis occurs, and you cry out to God. It happens when God reaches down and grabs you by the neck and shakes you to your very core. Then, and only then, will you resolve to change the way you behave forever.
So go ahead and play the silly game, if you must. Resolve that you will put "stand on the rings of Saturn" on your Bucket List. Promise that you will move to India and take up where Mother Theresa left off. Swear that you will find a cure for cancer and the common cold in your spare time.
But when 2011 comes, and it looks a lot like 2010, don't be surprised that you do what you've always done.
One thing I would encourage everyone to do this year, however: listen to that still, small voice. Know that God does really love you. And when He finally gets through to you, and shakes you to your very core, then you will know that you are being changed for the better. You are becoming conformed to His image. And you don't have to worry about breaking any false resolutions you might have made.
Have a happy, healthy, prosperous and Godly New Year.
The practice probably began when some poor sap was hung over from the New Years Eve party the night before, and he swore he would never take another drink. I'll bet that promise lasted until the next Saturday night.
What's really ironic about it is that New Years is not one of the three major days for church attendance--Easter, Mother's Day, and Christmas. One would think that if people wanted to improve their lives en masse, they would choose a day when their consciences were pricked by a professional. It just proves my theory that no one ever listens to the preacher in church, anyway. They all go to be seen, and to gossip about people who are there--what they were wearing, who they were with, etc.
There is an old Preacher's story about a duck church. All the ducks waddled in every Sunday, and listened to the sermon, and then they all waddled home. Once, they had a duck church revival. They invited a duck Evangelist to speak, and he was very charismatic. "You don't have to waddle, my friends," he bellowed at them. "God gave us all wings. I'm here to tell you that you can fly!" All the ducks in the congregation stretched out their wings. Some started to flap and even got off the ground. There were hundreds of duck conversions that day, and scores of duck baptisms. And then, after the service, all the ducks left the church building and they all waddled home.
I guess my point is that real growth happens randomly. It happens when a major crisis occurs, and you cry out to God. It happens when God reaches down and grabs you by the neck and shakes you to your very core. Then, and only then, will you resolve to change the way you behave forever.
So go ahead and play the silly game, if you must. Resolve that you will put "stand on the rings of Saturn" on your Bucket List. Promise that you will move to India and take up where Mother Theresa left off. Swear that you will find a cure for cancer and the common cold in your spare time.
But when 2011 comes, and it looks a lot like 2010, don't be surprised that you do what you've always done.
One thing I would encourage everyone to do this year, however: listen to that still, small voice. Know that God does really love you. And when He finally gets through to you, and shakes you to your very core, then you will know that you are being changed for the better. You are becoming conformed to His image. And you don't have to worry about breaking any false resolutions you might have made.
Have a happy, healthy, prosperous and Godly New Year.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The relentless pursuit of redemption
As Christmas bears down upon us, many are reminded of Scripture, of Bible stories they learned as children. So in honor of the season, I would like to compare and contrast two separate Bible stories. One is in the Old Testament,the other in the New Testament. In one, a redeemer is made; in the other, a Redeemer is born. One tells how a need was created, and a redeemer was sought out to help meet that need. The other tells how a solution was created, and how we should apply that solution to our every need.
Both stories originate in Bethlehem of Judea. Both involve escapes to other lands. And both a return home,and isn't that what we all want for the holidays?
The first story begins with an old woman who calls herself Mara, or bitterness, because she had lost her husband and two sons. The family had fled from Bethlehem because of a severe drought or famine, and they had moved to Moab. There her sons had found wives among the Moabite women, but soon all three husbands had died. So "Mara", or Naomi as she was known, packed up her belongings and prepared to move back home. Her daughters-in-law were living with her, and they, too, packed up to leave. Naomi urged them to stay in Moab, to go home to their fathers and perhaps seek out other husbands. One of the young women, Orpah, followed that advice. The other young woman, Ruth, stayed committed to her mother-in-law, vowing to remain with her until death. "Wherever you go, I will go," she said. "Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die; and nothing but death itself will ever separate us."
Back in Bethlehem, Ruth and Naomi set up a household, and Ruth goes out to look for work. She finds a field where workers are harvesting barley, and she follows behind them, picking up whatever stalks they leave behind. Jewish tradition encourages land-owners to cut corners and leave some stalks behind when harvesting, so that orphans and widows can follow behind and get what they need. Ruth didn't stay at home and wait for government checks to start coming. She went out and looked for whatever job she could find, no matter how menial. And she worked hard. When Boaz, the landowner, came to check on the workers in the field, he saw her working behind them. He asked who she was, and they told him that she had been working the whole day, as hard as they had worked. Boaz told the men to leave a little extra for her, because she was working so hard. At lunch, Boaz gave Ruth some roasted grain. She ate a little, and saved a little to take home. After lunch, Ruth continued gleaning in the field until dark, and then she spent some time at the threshing floor, threshing her barley.
When Ruth came home, she showed Naomi what she had gleaned and threshed, and what she had saved from her lunch. Naomi was impressed, and told her to watch Boaz closely, because he was a kinsman. Jewish tradition was that if a man died without children, the nearest male relative would marry the widow and try to have children with her, so that the dead man's lineage would continue. So not only would the widow be cared for, but the family would continue on. God's grace is so evident in his provision!
When it was time for threshing, Naomi knew that it would take several days to complete. She also knew that the men would stay near the threshing floor day and night until the job was done--they probably spent the night there to make sure no one stole the grain. Anyway, Naomi advised Ruth to go to the threshing floor after the men had finished working, and after they had finished eating and drinking. She told Ruth to go lie down next to Boaz, and ask to be covered with his cloak. This was not a sexual solicitation. Rather, it was a discreet way for a woman to ask if the kinsman would "cover" her--that is, take her in and see to her needs. If he agreed, they would marry; if not, the man would not be embarrassed and the woman would not be shamed. So Ruth goes and uncovers Boaz's feet, and lies down on the threshing floor. Boaz wakes up, and asks her what she wants. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer", she says. In other words, will you cover me, and take me in? Boaz agrees in principle, but says there is another who is a closer kin than he.
After Ruth takes the initiative, Boaz goes into the town square where the elders all gather. He confronts the other kinsman, and offers him the property of the dead men. The other kinsman shrugs, and says he can redeem the property. Boaz says oh, by the way, the dead man left a wife, and by taking his property you have to take his wife, too. The other guy thinks about it and says no, he will decline this offer. He might have wanted his own family to inherit his goods, and by marrying the widow, the inheritance would go to the dead man's family instead. Anyway, Boaz does what he needs to do in order to ensure that all things are done legally and in order, so that no one can question his motives. Then he claims Ruth as his wife.
Now remember, Ruth has already pledged her allegiance to Naomi. So we know that the old woman will be cared for. And now Ruth, a young Moabite widow without any name or standing among the people of Bethlehem, has a protector, a comforter, a husband who will give her a name and an inheritance. Boaz and Ruth have a son, who turns out to be the grandfather of King David, the greatest king of Israel.
Luke 2 also begins with Mary, a young woman who is blessed by God. An angel tells her so. But she faces some obstacles. What would her fiance think when he finds out she is pregnant? What would her family think? And to top it all off, she has to go with Joseph to Bethlehem because of some dumb government census, and that trip has to take place right around her due date. Stupid taxes.
But it gets weirder. When she and Joseph get to Bethlehem, where they have to register for the census and pay the tax, apparently every other person in Judea has to go do the same thing at the same time. There is nowhere for them to go--no hotel, no family to stay with, nothing. An innkeeper takes pity on her obvious pregnant predicament and offers to let them find shelter with his animals. Then she goes into labor. When the baby is born, there is no bassinet or cute little crib for the baby to sleep in. The softest surface in the stable is the manger, where sheep come to eat hay. Although it is night, there is an eerie light in the heavens. And shepherds show up with stories of how they saw angels celebrating like it was a king's birthday or something. They kneel before the baby and don't just coo and rock him--they worship him.
On the eighth day they circumcised Jesus--hopefully they weren't still living in a stable by that time! And after 40 days they went the five or six miles to Jerusalem to have Jesus dedicated to the Lord. Jewish tradition was that the firstborn of both man and beast would be dedicated to God. When they were there, they were met by two prophets, a man and a woman. The man, Simeon, met them on the temple steps and thanked God for allowing him to see the Salvation of Israel. The woman, Anna, commended the child to all the temple visitors as the Redemption of Jerusalem.
Well, apparently Joseph had had enough of travelling, and he found a house and a job in Bethlehem. Because two years later, wise men from the east arrived with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. Gold was a gift for a king, incense was a sacrifice to a god, and myrrh was a preparation for death. An angel warned Joseph to get out of town, because jealous king Herod was going to come to Bethlehem and kill all the children two years old and younger. So they fled to Egypt, probably glad that they had the gold to pay for their trip. After Herod had died, they moved back home. Jesus became the Redeemer of all Creation by his sacrificial death, a death that was foretold to Mary by the prophetess Anna, who had said "And a sword will pierce your heart, also."
People who believe in Jesus now have a standing in Heaven. Where they were once lost, cast out, and fatherless, the Redeemer has given them hope, healing and a future. But as we see in the Ruth narrative, we don't just get it by being. We don't even get into Heaven by believing. "The demons themselves believe, and tremble," the Bible says.
Just like Ruth had to go to the threshing floor and ask to be covered by Boaz's cloak, we have to go to God and ask for His salvation. But unlike Boaz, who had work to do to complete the redemption process, God has already worked out the details. Jesus has already died for us, and we do not have to wait and wonder whether He will come for us.
Christmas will come and go. We will enjoy family, presents, and good will. And after the holidays we will pack up the ornaments and lights, and put them back into storage until next year. Yet Jesus is always with us. If you have asked Him, He lives in your heart. We don't have to put Jesus away with the manger and the star.
If you have not asked Jesus into your heart, do it today. Make this Christmas a true time of celebration, a time of rebirth and redemption. Make this the merriest Christmas ever.
Both stories originate in Bethlehem of Judea. Both involve escapes to other lands. And both a return home,and isn't that what we all want for the holidays?
The first story begins with an old woman who calls herself Mara, or bitterness, because she had lost her husband and two sons. The family had fled from Bethlehem because of a severe drought or famine, and they had moved to Moab. There her sons had found wives among the Moabite women, but soon all three husbands had died. So "Mara", or Naomi as she was known, packed up her belongings and prepared to move back home. Her daughters-in-law were living with her, and they, too, packed up to leave. Naomi urged them to stay in Moab, to go home to their fathers and perhaps seek out other husbands. One of the young women, Orpah, followed that advice. The other young woman, Ruth, stayed committed to her mother-in-law, vowing to remain with her until death. "Wherever you go, I will go," she said. "Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die; and nothing but death itself will ever separate us."
Back in Bethlehem, Ruth and Naomi set up a household, and Ruth goes out to look for work. She finds a field where workers are harvesting barley, and she follows behind them, picking up whatever stalks they leave behind. Jewish tradition encourages land-owners to cut corners and leave some stalks behind when harvesting, so that orphans and widows can follow behind and get what they need. Ruth didn't stay at home and wait for government checks to start coming. She went out and looked for whatever job she could find, no matter how menial. And she worked hard. When Boaz, the landowner, came to check on the workers in the field, he saw her working behind them. He asked who she was, and they told him that she had been working the whole day, as hard as they had worked. Boaz told the men to leave a little extra for her, because she was working so hard. At lunch, Boaz gave Ruth some roasted grain. She ate a little, and saved a little to take home. After lunch, Ruth continued gleaning in the field until dark, and then she spent some time at the threshing floor, threshing her barley.
When Ruth came home, she showed Naomi what she had gleaned and threshed, and what she had saved from her lunch. Naomi was impressed, and told her to watch Boaz closely, because he was a kinsman. Jewish tradition was that if a man died without children, the nearest male relative would marry the widow and try to have children with her, so that the dead man's lineage would continue. So not only would the widow be cared for, but the family would continue on. God's grace is so evident in his provision!
When it was time for threshing, Naomi knew that it would take several days to complete. She also knew that the men would stay near the threshing floor day and night until the job was done--they probably spent the night there to make sure no one stole the grain. Anyway, Naomi advised Ruth to go to the threshing floor after the men had finished working, and after they had finished eating and drinking. She told Ruth to go lie down next to Boaz, and ask to be covered with his cloak. This was not a sexual solicitation. Rather, it was a discreet way for a woman to ask if the kinsman would "cover" her--that is, take her in and see to her needs. If he agreed, they would marry; if not, the man would not be embarrassed and the woman would not be shamed. So Ruth goes and uncovers Boaz's feet, and lies down on the threshing floor. Boaz wakes up, and asks her what she wants. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer", she says. In other words, will you cover me, and take me in? Boaz agrees in principle, but says there is another who is a closer kin than he.
After Ruth takes the initiative, Boaz goes into the town square where the elders all gather. He confronts the other kinsman, and offers him the property of the dead men. The other kinsman shrugs, and says he can redeem the property. Boaz says oh, by the way, the dead man left a wife, and by taking his property you have to take his wife, too. The other guy thinks about it and says no, he will decline this offer. He might have wanted his own family to inherit his goods, and by marrying the widow, the inheritance would go to the dead man's family instead. Anyway, Boaz does what he needs to do in order to ensure that all things are done legally and in order, so that no one can question his motives. Then he claims Ruth as his wife.
Now remember, Ruth has already pledged her allegiance to Naomi. So we know that the old woman will be cared for. And now Ruth, a young Moabite widow without any name or standing among the people of Bethlehem, has a protector, a comforter, a husband who will give her a name and an inheritance. Boaz and Ruth have a son, who turns out to be the grandfather of King David, the greatest king of Israel.
Luke 2 also begins with Mary, a young woman who is blessed by God. An angel tells her so. But she faces some obstacles. What would her fiance think when he finds out she is pregnant? What would her family think? And to top it all off, she has to go with Joseph to Bethlehem because of some dumb government census, and that trip has to take place right around her due date. Stupid taxes.
But it gets weirder. When she and Joseph get to Bethlehem, where they have to register for the census and pay the tax, apparently every other person in Judea has to go do the same thing at the same time. There is nowhere for them to go--no hotel, no family to stay with, nothing. An innkeeper takes pity on her obvious pregnant predicament and offers to let them find shelter with his animals. Then she goes into labor. When the baby is born, there is no bassinet or cute little crib for the baby to sleep in. The softest surface in the stable is the manger, where sheep come to eat hay. Although it is night, there is an eerie light in the heavens. And shepherds show up with stories of how they saw angels celebrating like it was a king's birthday or something. They kneel before the baby and don't just coo and rock him--they worship him.
On the eighth day they circumcised Jesus--hopefully they weren't still living in a stable by that time! And after 40 days they went the five or six miles to Jerusalem to have Jesus dedicated to the Lord. Jewish tradition was that the firstborn of both man and beast would be dedicated to God. When they were there, they were met by two prophets, a man and a woman. The man, Simeon, met them on the temple steps and thanked God for allowing him to see the Salvation of Israel. The woman, Anna, commended the child to all the temple visitors as the Redemption of Jerusalem.
Well, apparently Joseph had had enough of travelling, and he found a house and a job in Bethlehem. Because two years later, wise men from the east arrived with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. Gold was a gift for a king, incense was a sacrifice to a god, and myrrh was a preparation for death. An angel warned Joseph to get out of town, because jealous king Herod was going to come to Bethlehem and kill all the children two years old and younger. So they fled to Egypt, probably glad that they had the gold to pay for their trip. After Herod had died, they moved back home. Jesus became the Redeemer of all Creation by his sacrificial death, a death that was foretold to Mary by the prophetess Anna, who had said "And a sword will pierce your heart, also."
People who believe in Jesus now have a standing in Heaven. Where they were once lost, cast out, and fatherless, the Redeemer has given them hope, healing and a future. But as we see in the Ruth narrative, we don't just get it by being. We don't even get into Heaven by believing. "The demons themselves believe, and tremble," the Bible says.
Just like Ruth had to go to the threshing floor and ask to be covered by Boaz's cloak, we have to go to God and ask for His salvation. But unlike Boaz, who had work to do to complete the redemption process, God has already worked out the details. Jesus has already died for us, and we do not have to wait and wonder whether He will come for us.
Christmas will come and go. We will enjoy family, presents, and good will. And after the holidays we will pack up the ornaments and lights, and put them back into storage until next year. Yet Jesus is always with us. If you have asked Him, He lives in your heart. We don't have to put Jesus away with the manger and the star.
If you have not asked Jesus into your heart, do it today. Make this Christmas a true time of celebration, a time of rebirth and redemption. Make this the merriest Christmas ever.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Throwing tax money down a rabbit hole
Today's headlines included stories that the President has compromised with Republicans to support a bill that maintains the tax rates at current levels, extends long-term unemployment benefits another 13 months, and gives working people a "tax holiday" on 2% of their payroll (Social Security) taxes. Democrats are furious. For some reason, they were looking forward to increasing tax rates for the wealthy back to Clinton-era percentages. Remember Clinton, the president who passed a tax increase retroactively to nine months before?
I really don't understand the class warfare. If you read my prior post, you understand my confusion. Why does America routinely punish the successful? Why is it such a sin that those making a lot of money would pay the same tax rates as those earning a lesser amount? The only complaints I have heard from actual taxpayers is that the rich are always able to find tax loopholes or tax shelters. But the fact remains that if I earn $10K a year, 20% would be $2000; but if Mr. Bigbux earns a million a year, 20% would be $200K. So any way you look at it, he is paying more taxes than me, even if he does find a tax deduction that I didn't find. There is no good reason that he should pay a higher tax rate than anyone else.
This week in my devotional Bible reading, I read about Joseph as Pharoah's right-hand man. You remember in Genesis, Joseph was the second-youngest of the twelve brothers, and his father's favorite. He wore the coat of many colors (inspiring a Broadway musical starring Donny Osmond--but I digress.) Joseph was sold into slavery, bought by Potiphar, falsely accused by Mrs. Potiphar, and thrown into prison. There he became a trusty in the prison, and interpreted dreams, correctly predicting that the cup-bearer would be freed and the baker would be executed. Then Pharoah had a dream, and Joseph was called to interpret it. He foresaw 7 years of plentiful harvests, followed by 7 years of famine. He suggested hoarding up the surplus grain during the first seven years so that there would be enough to survive on during the famine.
What does this have to do with tax policy? I'm getting to the point, I promise. After five years of famine, the people of Egypt came to the government and complained that they didn't have any money left to buy food. They said here, take our houses and lands in exchange for food. With that they survived the sixth year. But after that, they came back to the government with the same complaints, and said that they had nothing left to give but themselves. So they offered themselves to the Governor of Egypt as slaves in exchange for food. Remember that the Governor of Egypt at the time was Joseph. Joseph gave them the food, but he set up a universal taxation throughout the land. All Egyptians were to give 20% of their incomes to the government. And when the rains returned and harvests came, the Egyptian government became more wealthy than any other land.
Today, we Americans have come to the government, hat in hand. We have asked for relief from the Great Recession, and the government has responded by expanding the welfare state. For the next 13 months, the unemployed will get paid for looking for work in their chosen field. I guarantee you that if long-term unemployment ended today, tomorrow the folks would start looking for any available job, instead of holding out for the job they were laid-off from two years ago.
This morning I heard several media-types bemoan the fact that extending the current tax rates to the wealthy (AKA not ending the Bush-era tax cuts) would "cost" the government over $700B. I would like to disagree. The wealthy may hoard their money, or they may invest it in businesses that employ people, so that tax rolls would expand and the government receipts would multiply. But you see, it wouldn't be the rich who were paying the taxes directly, it would be the working folks--and that is what has Democrats in a snit.
Instead of taking the Old Testament method of taxing everyone 20% (look it up--even after Israel became a nation, their base-rate of taxation was the tithe, and along with other fees and required payments, the total collected was about 20%), we have become a nation of feudal serfs. If you don't remember the Middle Ages, I would remind you that the king of each city-state would have knights that paid him about 40% of their earnings. And the knights' earnings came from a protectorate set up to defend the land surrounding the knights' homes. In exchange for this small measure of protection, the serfs would work 4 days out of the week tending to the knight's estate, leaving only 3 days to work their own land.
The problem with this feudal system of economics was that if a king made a treaty with a rival king, he would give away a knight or two, and the serfs who served him. So the serfs were not actually sure who they worked for ultimately; they just knew that in peace-time their crops would not be burned, their villages would not be pillaged, and their families would not be harmed. And they hoped and prayed for peace.
We are in that same situation now, people. We have not heeded the words of Ben Franklin, who said "Those who give up freedom for security often get neither." We have sat back and allowed Big Government to take more and more responsibility for our lives, and as a result demand more and more of our persons and our property. And what do they have to show for it?
This morning I heard on NPR a story of how our tax dollars are going to produce a cop-show television series in Afghanistan. For those of you who don't believe that television influences a society, here are the details. The US Embassy in Kabul is sending money to an Afghan production company, Tolo Television. They have produced a TV series called "Eagle Four", about four Afghan cops who chase bad guys, including terrorists and suicide bombers. Two of the four stars are women; we are trying to open up gender equality in a centuries-old male dominated society. The cops dash after bad guys, like someone who puts on a suicide vest and pinpoints a location on a map. So we are trying to indoctrinate the Afghan people that terrorists are bad, that police are good, and that Law & Order reigns supreme. In fact, it sounds very much like the plot of a Law & Order episode. The reporter for NPR has filed a Freedom Of Information Act request to find out exactly how much money we are spending on this venture, but so far there has been no response. But we know a typical episode of Law&Order costs a few million dollars to produce. You do the math.
And this is why we send our tax dollars to the US Embassy in Kabul?
To those democrats who cry against tax relief for the wealthy, I would say let's reign in this kind of ridiculous spending, and save our $700B that way, and not worry about soaking the rich.
I am afraid that if we continue on our present course, we will go from a feudal system of government to a share-cropper economy. Share croppers were freed slaves who wanted to farm. But they did not own the farm land, or the equipment necessary to farm it. So the Company Store would sell them seed and equipment to farm on land that they did not own. And no matter how much they grew, or how bountiful the harvest was, the Company Store would settle up accounts in such a way that the farmer always ended up owing something. The earnings never quite caught up to the debt. So while the share-croppers were technically free, in reality they were still enslaved by the land-owning Company Store.
If you are not following this, let me spell it out. The US Government is like the Company Store in the era of Reconstruction, right after the Civil War. They give out loans, they let us use their land, but in the end, there is never enough tax revenue to cover the government obligations. We, the Share-Cropper Nation, are going deeper and deeper in debt, and are thereby giving up our freedom, one annual deficit at a time.
While other countries are making sincere efforts to live within their means, the US media terms their efforts as "austerity measures." This makes it sound like they are giving up their fortunes, and deciding to live an "austere" life. If you don't know what that means, Google it. Up to now, "austerity" has been thought of as un-American. Maybe we should change our lifestyles, and find some austerity measures of our own.
I really don't understand the class warfare. If you read my prior post, you understand my confusion. Why does America routinely punish the successful? Why is it such a sin that those making a lot of money would pay the same tax rates as those earning a lesser amount? The only complaints I have heard from actual taxpayers is that the rich are always able to find tax loopholes or tax shelters. But the fact remains that if I earn $10K a year, 20% would be $2000; but if Mr. Bigbux earns a million a year, 20% would be $200K. So any way you look at it, he is paying more taxes than me, even if he does find a tax deduction that I didn't find. There is no good reason that he should pay a higher tax rate than anyone else.
This week in my devotional Bible reading, I read about Joseph as Pharoah's right-hand man. You remember in Genesis, Joseph was the second-youngest of the twelve brothers, and his father's favorite. He wore the coat of many colors (inspiring a Broadway musical starring Donny Osmond--but I digress.) Joseph was sold into slavery, bought by Potiphar, falsely accused by Mrs. Potiphar, and thrown into prison. There he became a trusty in the prison, and interpreted dreams, correctly predicting that the cup-bearer would be freed and the baker would be executed. Then Pharoah had a dream, and Joseph was called to interpret it. He foresaw 7 years of plentiful harvests, followed by 7 years of famine. He suggested hoarding up the surplus grain during the first seven years so that there would be enough to survive on during the famine.
What does this have to do with tax policy? I'm getting to the point, I promise. After five years of famine, the people of Egypt came to the government and complained that they didn't have any money left to buy food. They said here, take our houses and lands in exchange for food. With that they survived the sixth year. But after that, they came back to the government with the same complaints, and said that they had nothing left to give but themselves. So they offered themselves to the Governor of Egypt as slaves in exchange for food. Remember that the Governor of Egypt at the time was Joseph. Joseph gave them the food, but he set up a universal taxation throughout the land. All Egyptians were to give 20% of their incomes to the government. And when the rains returned and harvests came, the Egyptian government became more wealthy than any other land.
Today, we Americans have come to the government, hat in hand. We have asked for relief from the Great Recession, and the government has responded by expanding the welfare state. For the next 13 months, the unemployed will get paid for looking for work in their chosen field. I guarantee you that if long-term unemployment ended today, tomorrow the folks would start looking for any available job, instead of holding out for the job they were laid-off from two years ago.
This morning I heard several media-types bemoan the fact that extending the current tax rates to the wealthy (AKA not ending the Bush-era tax cuts) would "cost" the government over $700B. I would like to disagree. The wealthy may hoard their money, or they may invest it in businesses that employ people, so that tax rolls would expand and the government receipts would multiply. But you see, it wouldn't be the rich who were paying the taxes directly, it would be the working folks--and that is what has Democrats in a snit.
Instead of taking the Old Testament method of taxing everyone 20% (look it up--even after Israel became a nation, their base-rate of taxation was the tithe, and along with other fees and required payments, the total collected was about 20%), we have become a nation of feudal serfs. If you don't remember the Middle Ages, I would remind you that the king of each city-state would have knights that paid him about 40% of their earnings. And the knights' earnings came from a protectorate set up to defend the land surrounding the knights' homes. In exchange for this small measure of protection, the serfs would work 4 days out of the week tending to the knight's estate, leaving only 3 days to work their own land.
The problem with this feudal system of economics was that if a king made a treaty with a rival king, he would give away a knight or two, and the serfs who served him. So the serfs were not actually sure who they worked for ultimately; they just knew that in peace-time their crops would not be burned, their villages would not be pillaged, and their families would not be harmed. And they hoped and prayed for peace.
We are in that same situation now, people. We have not heeded the words of Ben Franklin, who said "Those who give up freedom for security often get neither." We have sat back and allowed Big Government to take more and more responsibility for our lives, and as a result demand more and more of our persons and our property. And what do they have to show for it?
This morning I heard on NPR a story of how our tax dollars are going to produce a cop-show television series in Afghanistan. For those of you who don't believe that television influences a society, here are the details. The US Embassy in Kabul is sending money to an Afghan production company, Tolo Television. They have produced a TV series called "Eagle Four", about four Afghan cops who chase bad guys, including terrorists and suicide bombers. Two of the four stars are women; we are trying to open up gender equality in a centuries-old male dominated society. The cops dash after bad guys, like someone who puts on a suicide vest and pinpoints a location on a map. So we are trying to indoctrinate the Afghan people that terrorists are bad, that police are good, and that Law & Order reigns supreme. In fact, it sounds very much like the plot of a Law & Order episode. The reporter for NPR has filed a Freedom Of Information Act request to find out exactly how much money we are spending on this venture, but so far there has been no response. But we know a typical episode of Law&Order costs a few million dollars to produce. You do the math.
And this is why we send our tax dollars to the US Embassy in Kabul?
To those democrats who cry against tax relief for the wealthy, I would say let's reign in this kind of ridiculous spending, and save our $700B that way, and not worry about soaking the rich.
I am afraid that if we continue on our present course, we will go from a feudal system of government to a share-cropper economy. Share croppers were freed slaves who wanted to farm. But they did not own the farm land, or the equipment necessary to farm it. So the Company Store would sell them seed and equipment to farm on land that they did not own. And no matter how much they grew, or how bountiful the harvest was, the Company Store would settle up accounts in such a way that the farmer always ended up owing something. The earnings never quite caught up to the debt. So while the share-croppers were technically free, in reality they were still enslaved by the land-owning Company Store.
If you are not following this, let me spell it out. The US Government is like the Company Store in the era of Reconstruction, right after the Civil War. They give out loans, they let us use their land, but in the end, there is never enough tax revenue to cover the government obligations. We, the Share-Cropper Nation, are going deeper and deeper in debt, and are thereby giving up our freedom, one annual deficit at a time.
While other countries are making sincere efforts to live within their means, the US media terms their efforts as "austerity measures." This makes it sound like they are giving up their fortunes, and deciding to live an "austere" life. If you don't know what that means, Google it. Up to now, "austerity" has been thought of as un-American. Maybe we should change our lifestyles, and find some austerity measures of our own.
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