I love a parade!

The truth is hate speech for those who hate the truth.

One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture has always been 2 Corinthians 2:14, "But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere."  But today in my daily devotions I was struck by the context of it.  Paul was describing a situation where things were not working out according to his plan.  He admitted in the preceding verse that he had no peace of mind about where he was, even though it had seemed that God had opened a door for him.  Yet even in his disappointment, Paul praised God for the way in which he had been used by God there.

Let me delve a little bit deeper into the history, so that you can see the context that I saw when I read this passage earlier today.  Paul had written his first letter to the Corinthian church, which dealt with some pretty serious issues.  His criticism of what went on in their congregation was pretty harsh:

• There was division in the church (1 Corinthians 3:3, "You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are  you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?"); 
• There was sexual immorality in the church (1 Corinthians 5:1, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife!"); 
• Church members were suing one another in courts of law (1 Corinthians 6:7, "The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you have been completely defeated already.");
• Church members were wrestling with decisions about marriage, when one was a believer and the other wasn't--some said they should separate, so that the believer had nothing to do with the unbeliever, and some said they should stay together (1 Corinthians 7:12-13, "If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she should not divorce him.");
• And the church members were struggling with the concept of grace (1 Corinthians 8:9, "Be careful, therefore, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.")

As a result of this harsh criticism in the first letter, Paul takes great pains in the second letter to make amends.    "For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you." (2 Corinthians 2:4)  And apparently the man who had been confronted by the church for sexual immorality had repented, and asked for forgiveness, because Paul encouraged them to accept him back.  "The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him.  Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow." (2 Corinthians 2:6-7)  Paul exhorted them to reaffirm their love for this brother, even though he had sinned.  In that way, they were to be like Christ--the man would not lose his salvation for this grievous sin, and since he had confessed and repented, they should not excommunicate him from the Church.

Paul had not made it back to Corinth, but he was anxious to get news from them, to see how they were doing.  He started looking for Titus.  Titus was a man Paul trusted: Paul had sent his first letter to the Corinthian Church with Titus (you will recall that there was no Postal Service in ancient Greece).  Later, Paul had sent Titus to Corinth so that the Church there could gather contributions for the Christians in Jerusalem.  "Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them and went on to Macedonia." (2 Corinthians 2:12-13).  Perhaps if Titus was not in Troas, Paul could find him elsewhere in Macedonia, maybe in the city of Philippi.

Okay.  Enough of the background.  Let's get to the meat of it.  Paul was a missionary.  His job was to go from place to place and preach the gospel.  Even though Paul may have had an ulterior motive, or a secondary reason for going the places he went, his primary objective there was to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.  Because Paul was engaged in preaching the gospel, and focused on doing that everywhere he went, God blessed his efforts.  "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph."  Even though Paul didn't get to find Titus and hear news from the Church in Corinth, God gave him success in his primary mission, which was to preach the gospel.  Isn't that what he wanted the Church in Corinth to be busy doing as well?  Yes, they'd had problems.  But even in the midst of their various crises, God was making the Church grow.  More and more people were coming to know the Savior there.  His message was that God's grace is adequate for every situation.

Paul used an image common in Roman cities.  A victorious Roman general would lead his soldiers and their captives in a festive procession, while the people watched and applauded, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of fresh flower garlands the women would put around the soldiers' necks, and of the sweet spices that they would burn in the streets.  Just as the smell of victory was sweet, Paul said that the "fragrance of the knowledge of Him" was being spread everywhere by the Christians who shared their faith.  The smell was permeating the culture because of their faithfulness to God.  "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." (2 Corinthians 2:15)

The captives in this parade would not have appreciated the smell in the same way as the victorious soldiers would.  That fragrance might have been a stench in the nostrils of those being taken away into captivity.
"To the one, we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life." (2 Corinthians 2:16)  In our fellowship of the forgiven, we cannot help but say good things about what Christ has done and is doing in our lives.  In the same way, those who do not accept the message of the Gospel of Christ may make disparaging remarks about Christians, both in public and in private.  We should not listen to their voices, because they are vanquished by sin, not victorious by the grace of God afforded to them through Jesus Christ.  In other words, they are the losers; we are the winners.  

Do not listen to their criticism, my friends.  It will only bring you down.  It will succeed in making you take your eyes off Christ.  Like Peter walking on the water, when our eyes are on Christ, we can do miracles; but when we take our eyes off Him and look at the wind and the waves, we sink into despair.  2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  We are in the world to be salt and light; we are not of the world, bowing to their logic and reasoning.  We cannot let the world set up the argument of salvation on their terms--it's as if we speak a different language than they do when we know Christ.  If they do not understand, it is their loss.

And speaking of pretension, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:17, "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God."  The world responds to authenticity.  Hypocrisy is one of the most damning criticisms made by the world against Christians.  When they see a televangelist say that private jets are wonderful, and everyone should get one, they are rightfully put off by that message.  But if we who are not in full-time Christian ministry will engage our culture, and speak of what we know, the world will sit up and listen.

It is not God's will that any should perish.  And even if we do not feel called to be full time evangelists for Him, we can make a difference in our circle of influence.  Christians talk a lot about "giving a testimony."  That is a legal term borrowed from the courts.  A "witness" is called to give his or her "testimony" about what he or she has seen or heard.  So when Christians talk about "witnessing" to their friends, it only means that we share with them what we know to be true based on our own experiences.  If a friend asks us how to become a Christian, we do not need to lie or make up stories; we only need to tell them what we know, about our own experience of grace and forgiveness at the hand of God through Jesus Christ, His Son.  The Holy Spirit, who led that person to ask you about it, will use whatever you say for their good and His glory.

You might be called to be a missionary, and that's great.  But for most of us, we don't quit our jobs and go off to far-away lands to preach before large crowds.  But we can permeate our culture; we can share the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Him wherever we go.  And because of that, God will be praised, even if our own lives are not going the way we might want them to.

How many ways to heaven are there?

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead.  But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. --1 Corinthians 15:12-19

We have raised an American generation that worships at the altar of Tolerance. We have taught our children to respect other cultures, even their religions.  We have asked them to turn a blind eye to pagan rituals, Muslim jihad, and militant atheism.  As a result, we do not speak out against astrology, fortune telling, or mysticism; we make excuses for middle-eastern immigrants bent on the destruction of the Christian way of life; and we have allowed our government to become antagonistic toward Christianity, outlawing public prayer and display of Bible verses on public (and even private companies engaged in public commerce) property.

The over-riding theology of today is this: All roads lead home.

Those who did not grow up in the church ask our children, "How can you be sure you are right?"  Those who have grown up in the church, but who are not rooted in Christian scripture, accept the arguments that:

• The world came into existence through a "big bang", and all life on Earth has evolved to its current form, thus nullifying the concept of Creation by a Powerful God;
• Human beings are basically "good", thus contradicting the concept of Original Sin and its aftermath;
• Humans can do enough good in life, or make up for their mistakes, so that eternal punishment isn't necessary or worthy of thought, thus making Christ's sacrificial death unnecessary, nullifying God's great act of Grace;
• Jesus was a good man, and perhaps a great teacher, on par with other great religious leaders like Mohammed, Ghandi, or Joseph Smith, thus making Jesus a liar when He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Me."
• Everybody on Earth, no matter what they believe or don't believe, will end up in Heaven, because a loving God would not condemn three-fourths of all humans to an actual Hell, thus making God a liar when He promised a final Judgment Day, a "separation of the sheep and the goats," as Jesus said.

To be fair, this is not a new concept.  When my late father started guest preaching in 1970 as he was training to become a full time pastor, I remember him summarizing the then-current theological culture in this way: "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.  That is a lie from Satan himself."

This morning I heard a powerful sermon on Luke 22:44.  Jesus was in fear of His life--perhaps the first time in His entire existence that He felt fear.  He begged the Father three times to spare His life, to find another way of redemption so that Jesus would not have to suffer.  Knowing beforehand the circumstances--the arrest, the mock trial, the people slapping Him, beating Him, and mashing a crown of thorns into His head, before being forced to carry His own cross up a hill so that He could have His hands and feet nailed to that cross and left to die--knowing all this, He literally sweat blood thinking about it, begging His Father to let Him avoid it.  Luke, a physician, described the medical condition called Hematidrosis, which can be caused by extreme stress. Jesus took that fear to his Father, and the Father said no.  Even after Jesus had prayed about it three times. 

The preacher went on to say this: If Jesus is not the only way for us to have fellowship with the Father, then we should have no respect for God.  If the whole Crucifixion story was for show, and it was not absolutely necessary for Jesus to die to take away my sins, then that was an awful lot of drama for nothing.  Any parent who would allow that much drama to go on in their child's life without any meaning is a parent that does not deserve respect at all.

When we ponder that, we really have to reassess what we think about God.  If we trust God to be all-powerful, and all-knowing, then we must conclude that the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus was the only way to set things right between God and man.  There was no other way.  On the other hand, if we truly believe that all roads lead to heaven, then we do not believe in God at all.  Jesus was just a man, and the stories of the miracles He performed are the stuff of myth and legend.  And, as Paul said in the quote above, "we, above all men, are to be pitied."  Jesus died for a cause without eternal implications, like someone who would die for global warming, or to stop the death penalty.  The Apostles, who all died as martyrs, each gave his life for a lie.

My friends, I believe that Jesus is the only salvation we have.  I believe that if you reject Him in this life, He will reject you in the next.  And I believe that time is running out.  In the 13th chapter of Luke, Jesus told this parable:

A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, "For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?"  The man replied, "Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine!  If not, then cut it down."  (Luke 13:6-9)

The one who cares for a vineyard is called a husbandman.  The Church is called "the bride of Christ".  Heaven is often referred to as the Marriage Supper of The Lamb.  So the Husband of the Church, the Son of God, is interceding with the Father for your soul.  He is digging up weeds, putting out fertilizer, and providing water.  If you do not respond and bear fruit, you will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  I urge you, Friend, to respond to Him; give Him your life, and let Him produce fruit in you.  Without Him, you are fruitless, and God may remove you from this earth to make room for others who might be more receptive to Him.

God stands ready to forgive.  His rejecting the plea of His Son was the ultimate act of grace for you and me. He is a God of love, a God of grace, a God of mercy.  No matter what we have done, it will not separate us from His love.  But if we reject the sacrificial death of His Son for our sins, as the one and only salvation for us, then we will spend eternity separated from Him.  God will use all means possible to woo us into His presence.  But the choice is ultimately ours.  Choose Him!

All means all

And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

Had communion at church this morning.  It was a very worshipful time.  The Worship Leader told this story:

Last weekend was Mother's day, and I had the pleasure of taking my wife (the mother of my two children), my mother, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, and my kids out to a nice restaurant.  It was a very nice restaurant.  Now, being a preparing type of person, I looked up the restaurant on-line before making plans to go.  I was able to see this very nice restaurant beforehand, and view their menu.  The prices were very nice, as well.

Because I had looked at the prices beforehand, I was able to tell them to get anything they wanted.  I wasn't worried--I didn't think, "Oh, I hope they don't order THAT."  I had come prepared.  And believe me, the ladies did just that--they ordered EVERYTHING they wanted.  I didn't wince, or grimace; I just smiled, because I was prepared to pay the bill.

That's the way Jesus was at the Last Supper.  He sat His disciples down, and He let them know that He was sufficient for ALL their needs.  He extends the same grace to us today.  Do you need some more encouragement?  He is sufficient.  Do you need an extra helping of grace? Christ is sufficient.  There is no need that we have that He cannot fulfill.  For as often as we need Him, he is always there for us, prepared to meet our needs.

This story reminded me of a passage in Luke 12 that I had read this week.  I honestly had never seen it before.  Luke 12:35-38 says this:

Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.  It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.

Jesus put those words into action just before the Last Supper.  John 13:1-5 says, "It was just before the Passover Feast.  Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father.  Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God, and was returning to God.  So He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist.  After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him."

This is a powerful story of Servant-Leadership, and is used as an example for the disciples (and us) to serve one another in love.  But according to Luke 12:37, Jesus wants to serve us all in that same way--He will leave the table (even where He is the guest of honor), roll up his sleeves and put on an apron, meet us where we are, and attend to our needs.

The Worship Leader at church this morning told another story about God's grace, and His ability to meet all of our needs.  When God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery and bondage, Moses was hesitant.

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His Name?'  Then what shall I tell them?"  God said to Moses: "I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " --Exodus 3:13-14

God's answer was not limited.  If He had said, "I am Jehovah-Jireh", the Lord Our Provider, then the people would have sought Him for provision.  If He had said, "I am Jehovah-Rapha", the Lord Your Healer, then the people would have sought Him for health and well-being.  If He had said, "I am Jehovah-Sabaoth", the Lord Our Protector, then the people would have sought Him for protection from their enemies.  But God didn't say any of those things, because He is all of those things.  God said "I AM", and that identity allows, and even invites, us to seek Him for all our needs, in every situation.

What are you in need of today?  Do you need forgiveness and salvation, to restore fellowship with Him? He is able to meet that need for you.  Do you need love and acceptance? He is willing to meet that need in your life.  Do you need peace or joy, patience or kindness, faithfulness or self-control? These are the gifts of the Spirit, which are given to all freely, without cost, because Jesus Himself bore on Himself the cost of our Redemption.  All we need to do is to pray, believing.

"Is any among you in trouble?  He should pray.  Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.  Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.  If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  --James 5:13-16

Just before the worship leader asked us to drink the cup in this morning's Communion service, he asked us to hold our cups over our heads.  He said that simple act symbolized our entire congregation, and each individual, being under the Blood of Jesus.  The Blood that washes us white as snow.  The Blood that covers us so that, when we stand before God at the Final Judgment, He will not see our sin.  The Blood without which there is no forgiveness of sin.  As the Senior Pastor said later in the service, what we call our needs (food, shelter, clothing, health, happiness) are important, but Jesus, and his blood sacrifice, are essential.  He knows what we need before we ask; He knows our needs better than we do ourselves; and He is sufficient to meet all our needs.

The Lord God is my Shepherd,
And I shall want no more.
Green pastures and still waters,
They will my soul restore. 

If I walk through Death’s shadow
No evil will I fear
For Thou, O Lord, are with me,
Thy rod and staff are near. 

A table’s set before me,
Before my jealous foes.
With oil my head’s anointed;
My cup now overflows. 

Follow me with Thy goodness
And mercy all my days,
And I shall live forever
Within Thy house of praise.

A Mother's Day card

In the spring of 1964, Sonny and Joy were just about done with the cold Colorado winters.  They both longed for the warmth, both of sunshine and from family, in the Hill Country of Texas.  They decided to sell their house and move.  Sonny left for Austin early, so he could find a job and a place for his young family to live.  Joy stayed in Denver, packing up boxes and overseeing the moving company to make sure they didn't scratch the furniture while they loaded it onto the truck.

Finally, she put two year old Rusty in the back seat of their 1961 Corvair, and started the long trip home.  She thought fondly of their time in Denver:  Sonny had moved up here first, and had called her to come up and marry him four years earlier.  Rusty had been born here.  But there were too many times they'd had to hook up a 100 watt light bulb to an extension cord and leave it lit under the hood of the car near the carburetor, so that the fuel line wouldn't freeze.  And there were more times than she could count when the young couple had been so homesick that they would get in the car after work on Friday night and drive 18 hours to central Texas, just to sleep a few hours at her mom's or his sister's house, then drive the 18 hours back late Sunday night.

That Memorial Day weekend, she would follow the moving van on the long trek southeast.  She wondered how long the truck would go before stopping for fuel.  She wondered whether she should pass the truck and get to Austin faster.  How fun it would be to walk into the U-Totem convenience store where Sonny worked, and surprise him.  No, she couldn't do that--all of their furniture and clothes were in that truck.  All she could do was sit there and fight the tedious fight, watch the monotony of the broken yellow stripe that coursed down the two-lane state highway.

Suddenly, she awoke with a start.  She had dozed off.  The truck had slowed in front of her, and she was going way too fast!  Glancing over her shoulder at her son sleeping in the back seat, she bit her lower lip and slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel too sharply.  Then the world began spinning.

The truck driver noticed the wreck in his side mirror.  The car rolled--three, four, five times before he could pull the rig over and get out.  Assessing the situation, he saw pieces of the car strewn all along the highway.  The engine was several yards away from the mangled body of the car.  The young woman was struggling with her seat belt, beating her shoulder against the car door.  By the time she got out, she was sobbing, crying, screaming, "My baby! My baby."  The driver held her back, knowing that no toddler could have survived a crash like this.  He looked again and saw the small, oil-covered body lying motionless six feet from the engine.

A fire truck showed up, then an ambulance.  In hushed tones, the drivers had a discussion about which small town to take them to: Dumas, which was a little closer, or Dalhart, which was bigger.  They finally decided on Dumas.  Joy, who had a splint on her broken left arm, began to ask why they were going to Dumas.  She had just driven through there, and there was nothing in that tiny little town.  They couldn't go back--they needed to go forward, further on toward Austin, where her husband was.  The paramedic soothed her, told her they would call her husband as soon as they got there.

Sonny got the call, and immediately called his mother-in-law.  The two of them chartered a flight from Johnson City to an airstrip near Dumas.  When he arrived at the hospital, he found a brand new children's wing that had just opened about two weeks before.  But the news was grim: Mr. Stewart, your wife is going to be okay, but there's no hope for your son.  He checked on his wife, then ran to the children's ward to find his son.  He sank to his knees and prayed.

Many people started praying for that young family.  A church in Denver.  A congregation in Blanco, Texas.  Family members on both sides.  Prayers held that family together during the nine days that Rusty was in a coma.  Prayers were lifted up during the months of therapy that followed--physical therapy, speech therapy, re-learning what most three-year-olds already knew.  Joy's broken arm mended, and her lacerated lip healed.  But what really took root during that time was a deep, abiding faith.  She would become a pastor's wife--something she had never thought she would ever want.  She didn't know how to be a hostess, but she ended up hosting countless parties at the church and parsonage. She didn't know how to pray, but the prayers of so many friends and strangers during that trying time encouraged her to become a powerful prayer warrior to this day.

That young mother became the fulfillment of Romans 12:9-13:

Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

This message is all about that woman, because she is my mother.  I am the one who was sleeping in the back seat of the car that day 49 years ago, but she is the one who struggled to get to me.  My father, who passed away last year, got there as soon as he could.  But it was my mom who stroked my head and sang softly over me in the hospital bed.  And it was her mom who suggested that they put liquid Jell-O in a baby bottle to feed me while I was in the coma, because she heard me moaning and "just figured he must have been hungry."

It was my mom that learned to tie her shoes one-handed while her arm was in the cast.  It was my mom that was so patient with me as I was growing up.  It was my mom that I learned to take my problems to--while Dad would try to "fix it", Mom would listen and understand.  It is my mom who lifts me up to the Father daily, and prays me through every valley with hope, every mountain with humility, and every plateau with encouragement.  It is my mom who smiles so much, people call her "Susie Sunshine."

Happy Mother's Day.

Find your faith and your friends to face the impossible

Everything is possible for him who believes. --Mark 9:23

Have you ever been in an impossible situation?  There are times when mentally we cannot comprehend a solution to a problem; emotionally we cannot see any way out; physically there is no possible way for something to happen.  Sure, we have read about miracles in the Bible, but those are just stories, right?  We may have heard about miracles happening to some missionary overseas, but those things just don't happen in my neighborhood, and especially not to me.

Sure, we tell our kids to "Fully Rely On God (F.R.O.G.)" and give them t-shirts and bible covers with pictures of frogs on them to help them remember.  But most of the time we are like the church in Jerusalem described in Acts chapter 12.  The Apostle Peter had been arrested and put into prison by Herod Agripa I, king of Judea.  "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." (Acts 12:5)  Peter was miraculously freed from prison in the middle of the night.  He went to the house of Mary, John-Mark's mother, where many of the people were praying.  He knocked on the door, and a servant girl named Rhoda answered.  She was so astonished that she shut the door in Peter's face and ran back to tell the others in the house.  They all scoffed at her!  " 'You're out of your mind,' they told her.  When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, 'It must be his angel.' " (Acts 12:15)  These were some weak-faithed Christians: they had been praying for Peter, and when Peter came to the house, they didn't believe it was him; in fact, they rationalized their unbelief, thinking that the servant girl Rhoda must be crazy, or that she had seen an angel.  "But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished." (Acts 12:16)

These were people who had seen first-hand the power of the Roman government, the ruthlessness of King Herod, and the impenetrable walls of the prison where Peter had been chained between two Roman soldiers.  They had seen several of the Apostles killed, martyred at the hands of the Roman government.  So their faith in Rome and the evil that they saw every day was real; their faith in God was theoretical.  How much like them are we today? We read the Bible and think in terms of hypothetical situations.  We ask, "What if that happened today? Could it really happen the same way?"  Undoubtedly, that was what many in the early church thought of when they read the Old Testament accounts of the Prophets.  Many in the church might have been Gentiles, who grew up hearing of the Greek or Roman gods.  But since this was the church in Jerusalem, I daresay most of the members had grown up hearing of the one true God, with stories of Noah, Moses, and Daniel.

We all know Daniel--if we grew up in the church, we all learned stories of this bold man of faith who prayed to God even when it was against the law to pray.  As a result, he was thrown into the lion's den.  Yet the lions did not devour him, as the Babylonians had intended.  Daniel spent the night with the lions, and in the morning, when King Darius came to check on him, Daniel preached this gospel to him: "My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.  They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in His sight.  Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (Daniel 6:22)

Like the Jewish Christians in the early church, we have also heard of Daniel's friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and  Azariah.  We might know them better by their Persian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  These men of faith refused to bow before a statue in the image of King Nebuchadnezzar.  As a result, these men were arrested and thrown into the fiery furnace.  The heat from this furnace was so great that the Babylonian soldiers--the ones that were ordered to put Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the fiery furnace--these soldiers were themselves overcome by the heat from the furnace and they died.  But when King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he was amazed at what he saw.  "He said, 'Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a Son of God." (Daniel 3:25).

The early church had heard of these great heroes of the faith.  But like us, they had not personalized the story.  They did not realize or comprehend that the same God who had rescued Daniel could rescue Peter, as well.  They did not understand or put into practice the fact that the same God who rescued Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from the flames could also rescue themselves from the Roman persecution.

So this we know as background.  What do we know about these four Old Testament heroes?  They lived in Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.  When Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar's army, the city fell.  Those Jews still living in Jerusalem were taken into exile, meaning that they were captured and re-located to Babylonia.  Many were sold as slaves.  But a select few were taken into service in the king's palace.  These were "young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace.  He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians." (Daniel 1:4).  Once trained, these exiles, which included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, became known as "the wise men of Babylon."  They joined the wise men from Babylon, as well as exiles from other conquered lands.  This was one of the ways that Nebuchadnezzar could control the enslaved exiles--by elevating some nobility from each conquered country to a position in Babylonian nobility, thus assimilating them into Babylonian culture.

But these four young men from Jerusalem did not fully assimilate.  They held to their faith in the God of their fathers.  They continued to pray to God, and not bow down to idols.  They even kept to the strict Jewish dietary laws.  They were offered meat and wine from the king's table; but since it was not Kosher, they instead became vegetarians, and only drank water.  It is fascinating how they went their own way, but were still accepted into the noble class and were counted among the wise men.

Now comes the impossible part.  King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream.  It troubled him, because he knew that it was significant, but he did not know what it meant.  He called in some of his wise men, and asked them to interpret the dream for him.  Not only that, but he asked them to first tell him what the dream was, and then tell him what it meant.  The wise men asked him, begged him to tell them the dream, so that they could interpret it for him.  But he refused.  I have heard some preachers interpret this to mean that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten what the dream was.  Scripture does not say this, however.  It could be that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to test his wise men to see how wise and how spiritual they really were.  Did they have access to the gods?  Was their wisdom limited to facts, or did it extend to faith?

The wise men answered that what the king had asked was impossible.  They could no more read the king's mind than they could read the hand-writing on the wall (also found in the book of Daniel, in chapter five--this is where we get the expression, "The writing on the wall", as in, "He didn't see the writing on the wall", meaning he could not foresee what was going to happen to him.)  Nebuchadnezzar would not be swayed.  He threatened to kill not only those few wise men in his courts on that day, but all of the wise men.  The stakes were that high.  And the wise men failed.  So the king decided to exterminate them all, and start over. He issued a decree that all the wise men should be gathered up and executed.  This included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

When the arresting officers came to arrest Daniel, Daniel tactfully asked why the king's decree was so harsh. When he learned the impossible situation, Daniel went before the king and asked for some time to discern what the king had asked for.  He then did three very important things, things that the early Christians in Jerusalem should have done, and things that we should do today.

He acted in faith
Daniel knew that the God he served was mighty to save, and that nothing was impossible with God.  Centuries before Jesus spoke those words to the disciples in Matthew 19, when they saw the rich young ruler rebuffed by Christ and asked, "Lord, who then can be saved?", Daniel knew the truth in the statement, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26).

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that they should put on the whole armor of God, what was the first metaphor he used? "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist." (Ephesians 6:14a).  What did he mean? To prepare for spiritual battle, the first thing to do is to securely fasten your faith.  Affirm what you know to be true: Our God is mighty to save; He is righteous and true; He is merciful to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.  Daniel recognized that he had been called by God according to His purpose, and that He was able to deliver him.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."  Daniel's faith was being severely tested--if he did not find the secret to the king's dream, and the interpretation of it, he and his friends would be killed.  How many of us could face down the impossible in the face of death?  Yet we place our faith in God for salvation of our souls from hell, a fate worse than death. The surety of our faith is Christ Jesus, who died in our place.  The certainty of salvation is founded in the sacrificial blood of Christ.  Most of us do not realize this now, but one day we will know the power of God for salvation, and what forgiveness of sins really means.

He asked his friends to intercede for him
"Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of Heaven concerning the mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." (Daniel 2:17-18)  I wish that I had these three men of faith in my accountability group!  Remember, these friends of Daniel would later walk through fire and not be burned.  But before that could happen, they needed to be prayed up in order to escape death by the sword.

We were never meant to fight our battles alone.  Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more, as you see the Day approaching."  Jesus said, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven.  For where two or three come together in my name, there am I  with them." (Matthew 18:19-20).  There is a story of a church that met together in west Texas to pray for rain.  But only one little girl brought an umbrella with her.  Like the church in Jerusalem who was surprised that Peter came knocking on their door, we often go through the motions when we pray.  But God has promised to act on our behalf if we truly believe.  If we have the faith to go to the Father with a request, we should also be bold enough to ask our Christian friends to intercede with us.

Remember what Jesus told Peter when he had affirmed the deity of Jesus? "I tell you that you are Peter (the Rock), and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it."  The church is a powerful resource for prayer and supplication.  In Ephesians 6, Paul exhorted the church to "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18)  Intercessory prayer, that is prayer on behalf of others, is one type of prayer that Paul was talking about.  And Daniel asked that his friends would intercede for him.

He prayed believing
"During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision." (Daniel 2:19)  I don't believe this was a dream that Daniel had while he was sleeping.  He was praying for his very life, knowing that if he did not receive the answer from God, he would be killed in the morning.  I believe his vision came to him while he was actively praying to God.  I don't know how long it took, but I believe Daniel persevered until the answer came.

The night before Jesus' crucifixion, He asked his closest friends to intercede for Him.  Peter, James and John were led into the Garden, away from the others.  Jesus asked them to watch and pray.  They fell asleep.  Jesus came and found them sleeping, and asked, "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40)  Then He gave them this word of encouragement: "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Matthew 26:41)  Jesus knows us; He was there when we were created.  Prayer, like any physical exercise, needs to be practiced to build up strength and endurance. Often we feel like we have been praying for hours when we have only been praying a few minutes.  But men of faith are known to often pray for hours on end.

The story is told of George Mueller, a great man of faith.  He ran an orphanage in Germany.  One morning, the housemother told him, "The children are ready and dressed for school.  But there is no food for them to eat." George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. "Mr. Mueller," he said, "last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in."  Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children.

Once the vision revealed to Daniel what king Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed, and what it meant, Daniel praised God, and said:

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His.  He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.  He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.  I thank and praise You, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, You have made known to me what we asked of You, You have made known to us the dream of the king. --Daniel 2:20-23

In this prayer of praise, we see Daniel's faith--he reaffirmed what he knew about God (wisdom and power are His...He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things.")  We see his including his friends in intercession, acknowledging that he was not alone ("what WE asked of You, You have made known to US the dream of the king.")  And we see that he prayed until he received the answer ("You have made known to me what we ASKED of You.")

The next time you are faced with an impossible situation, act in faith, ask your friends to join in, and y'all pray, believing.  When the circle is complete--that is, when the acting in faith meets the praying and believing--you can move mountains.

Everyone needs compassion 
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness 
The kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

(Chorus:)
Savior
He can move the mountains 
My God is mighty to save 
He is mighty to save
Forever 
Author of Salvation 
He rose & conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears & failures
Fill my life again

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender (I surrender)

(Chorus:) (2x)
Savior
He can move the mountains 
My God is mighty to save 
He is mighty to save
Forever 
Author of Salvation 
He rose & conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

(Bridge:) (2x)
Shine Your light &
Let the whole world see
We're singing
For the glory 
Of the risen King
Jesus

(Chorus)
You're the Savior
You can move the mountains 
Lord You are mighty to save 
You are mighty to save
Forever 
Author of Salvation 
You rose & conquered the grave
Yes You conquered the grave

Lessons the disciples missed

Do you think Jesus ever rolled His eyes at the disciples?  Do you think He ever let go of an exasperated sigh?  I know He was equal to and full of the Holy Spirit, and that the Fruit of the Spirit includes patience, but...He was also fully human, and shared in all of our emotions, didn't He?

The 9th chapter of Luke is a case in point.  In the first five verses, He commissioned the Twelve to go out in His name.

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  He told them, "Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.  Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.  If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them." --Luke 9:1-5

Pay attention to the phrases that I have emphasized in the passage above, because the rest of Luke 9 contains contrasting images, where these same disciples seemed to forget the commission that Jesus gave them in verse 1.

God will provide
Starting in verse 10, the disciples came back and reported to Jesus what they had done.  Can you imagine the rejoicing? "Master, we had a revival in our town! There were people in church who hadn't been seen near church in decades.  Folks all over the region have confessed their sins, and they all want to follow You."  I bet each disciple had stories, each more amazing than the last.  And those new converts had told all their friends, so a huge crowd began to gather around them.  As the crowd gathered, Jesus began teaching them.

The disciples began to be concerned.  On the one hand, they were concerned with the welfare of the people who had gathered to listen to Jesus' teaching.  On the other hand, they had forgotten the lesson that Jesus had taught them when he sent them out with nothing.  Remember that Jesus had just told them not to worry about what they would take with them on their journey, or what they would eat, or what they would wear.  They were even told not to take any money with them.  The implied promise was that God would provide for their every need.  Maybe the disciples thought the lesson was that they should rely on the goodness of strangers.  Maybe that was why they had taken inventory, and had found the five small loaves and two fish.

Jesus offered a simple prayer of blessing, and broke off pieces until all 5000 plus people there had been fed. The crowd saw this as a miracle.  Why, even the leftovers pieces were far and away more than what they had started with.  But I think Jesus was using this as a message to His disciples.  Didn't I tell you not to take anything with you? Because I will provide.  Bread and fish? That's nothing compared to what I will do through you after I'm gone.  By my power, the twelve of you will change the world!  With your twelve voices, my Word will spread to the entire world.

We must abide
Skipping down to verse 37, the crowds are back the next day.  One man in the crowd gets Jesus' attention, and begs Him to cast a demon out of the man's son.  "A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him." (verse 39).  This was a pretty severe situation, one that needed divine intervention.  But then the man goes on: "I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not." (verse 40).

Wow.  Earlier, hadn't Jesus given them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure all diseases?  Why couldn't the disciples help this poor boy?  Luke doesn't mention it, but a parallel passage in Matthew chapter 17 gives the answer.  "Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, 'Why couldn't we drive it out?'  He replied, 'Because you have so little faith.' "  When Jesus told them they had power over all demons and diseases, they didn't believe it.  They placed limitations on God.  Before we start jeering at them, consider what we would have done in the same situation.  Wouldn't we be a little limiting ourselves?  If my own experience is that I know I can't be like Jesus in my own power, then what would my expectations be if Jesus told me to go and do the impossible? "I'm sure He will be pleased with my effort.  I am only human, after all.  I can only do what I can do."

This same story is told in greater detail in Mark chapter 9.  In that passage, when the disciples asked why they had failed, Jesus responded, "This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29).  So when Jesus asks us to do the impossible, we must pray with all of our hearts--being so caught up in our prayer that food is the last thing on our mind.  This was the lesson that He intended for His disciples to learn from this episode.  John 15:7 says, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you."  If we live so close to Him that His words are our words, and His will is our will, then when we pray anything in His name, it will happen.

Lay them aside
Jesus knew when He commissioned the disciples that not everyone would welcome them with open arms.  His instructions included what they should do where they were not welcomed.  He told them to leave that town, and to "shake the dust off their feet."  Symbolically, it was showing that the disciples would not have anything to do with those who rejected Christ.  It was not intended as a curse.  Jesus did not call us to a jihad, to wipe out unbelievers in a Crusade.  He just told them to leave, and to leave the consequences to God.  In the parallel passage in Matthew 10, Jesus told them what would happen to the people who die without accepting Him: "I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town." (Matthew 10:15).

Well, apparently the disciples heard the reference to Sodom and Gomorrah loud and clear, and completely missed the true message.  Luke 9:51-56 tells the story of Jesus steadfastly going to Jerusalem, where He knew He would be arrested and crucified.  He sent some disciples ahead into a Samaritan town, but when the Samaritans found out they were headed to Jerusalem, the townspeople refused to welcome them. James and John, whom Jesus had nicknamed "the Sons of Thunder" asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" (Luke 9:54).  Jesus stopped and rebuked them (verse 55), and they went to another town to make preparations for the Passover (verse 56).

Sometimes when we want to share the Gospel, that message is rejected.  You may want to share with your family and friends.  In every other area, that friend or family member may share your likes and dislikes, your hopes and dreams, your politics or philosophy of life.  But when you try to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, they may reject that message--they may even reject you.  The lesson that Jesus wanted to share with His disciples, and with you today, is that sometimes you just have to walk away.  If that person lives long enough, perhaps they will get another chance to hear about Jesus and accept Him as Savior and Lord.  But you don't know that; it is out of your control.  It is not up to us to judge them, to send them to hell.  God is calling them to Himself.  If they do not respond to His invitation to Heaven, then they are choosing to spend eternity separated from Him.  It is not His will that any should perish, so we should continue to pray for that person.  But we cannot make them believe.  And it is not our job to judge them.  We can only love them, like God loves us.

I heard a message on the radio this week about our adoption into God's family.  The speaker was an adopted father himself.  He said he would go beyond telling his adopted son that he loved him; he would always add the words, "forever and always."  His point was to let his son know that under no circumstances would he ever disown the child he chose--no matter what that child did or said.  This father would love the child even when he was unlovely.  How much more does our Father in heaven love us?  How much love did the Son of God show by laying down His life when we were at our most sinful?

Tend the garden you're in

When God created man and woman, the first task he gave them was to tend the beautiful garden he had created for them.  So gardening, or farming, is in fact the "oldest profession." (I don't know how that phrase got perverted--but I digress.)  Imagine God's delight in showing Adam how to turn up the rich soil, and to plant the tiny seeds, and to see to it they got just the right amount of sunlight and water to grow into beautiful plants.  The colorful and fragrant flowers.  The tall trees whose shade shielded them from the sun, and whose fruit was good for food, and whose leaves were good for healing.  Yes: sickness may have been a result of the fall, but Adam could have cut himself while tilling the ground, or he may have had sore muscles at the end of the day; God may have taken delight in showing Adam how to make a poultice from leaves and mud, or how certain leaves could be consumed for their anti-inflammatory properties.

Everything God wanted us to have was available.  Everything a man needs--food (for provision), shelter (for protection), and work (for productivity)--was right there. Everything a woman needs--God (for comfort), a family (for companionship), and a stable home life (for commitment).  Right there, in the garden He had placed them in.  His first command was to tend it.

Want to see how we are made in the image of God?  Isaiah 5:7 says, "The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of His delight."  Even after the Fall, His purpose is to tend to our needs.

Discontentment comes from not tending our garden.  Let me show you what I mean.  Each of us has been given a number of tasks to accomplish in life.  You may be married, and need to tend to your mate and cultivate that relationship.  You may have children, and need to raise them to be fruitful and productive.  You may be a missionary, in a sense, and be tasked with spreading the Gospel--"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." (1 Corinthians 3:6).  You may have a career, or at least a job that pays your bills.  If you treat each task as a garden to be tended, you will be much more content and satisfied.  You will be blessed beyond measure.

Unfortunately, sin creeps in and starts to corrupt and decay.  Neglect of your garden allows the fruit to rot on the vine.  Weeds creep in.  Suddenly, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and you begin to covet someone else's garden.  The words you speak begin to be caustic and cutting, poisoning the garden rather than fertilizing it.  This could happen in your job, making you miserable at work.  It could happen at home, making you want to be somewhere else.  You may wander into a watering hole, where you can complain loudly and obnoxiously to the bartender, or you may seek to trample in somebody else's garden.

My first marriage failed after four years.  I did not tend my garden at home, and it died of neglect.  Not only that, but I did not learn from my mistakes, because when I married my current wife, I continued my bad habits.  I did not heed the warning of Proverbs 5:15, "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well."  Eventually, she had enough and she threw me out.  I was banished from my own home, "set outside the camp" due to my uncleanness.  For the second time in my life, I had a failed marriage.  But by God's mercy, I grew.  By God's grace, we reconciled.  When we remarried each other, I was seeking help from a professional Christian counselor.  At one session, I remember the counselor telling me, "Blynn, your marriage is like a garden.  You need to spend a lot of time and effort tending it.  The word 'husband' is from the same root word as 'husbandman', or one who tends to a vine.  If you want to enjoy the sweet fruit of your relationship, you must build a wall around it, and protect it from intruders.  This could be your friends or your family--anyone who offers to help, but instead ends up criticizing your garden.  If you don't maintain that wall of protection, somebody can come and tromp through your garden, damaging the vines you so tenderly planted and so lovingly nurture."  I'll never forget that advice.  Song of Solomon 4:12 says, "You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain."

The point is this: God has assigned you a garden, maybe more than one.  It may be your job.  Do not have the attitude of, "My boss doesn't know what she is talking about".  There is an old truism, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." It is true of your employer.  If the only words you speak about your work situation are complaints, then that is all you see.  When you start looking for faults, you will find them.  Complaining won't make the situation any better; it's like pouring kerosene on the ground and then complaining that the grass died.

The same is true with your relationships.  Your children will not be encouraged if you always find fault with them.  Your marriage could be a deep well of cool and cleansing water if you don't constantly throw mud at it.  And complaining to a friend about your spouse's shortcomings invites that friend to come knock down your fence, your wall of protection and tromp all over your garden.  I speak to myself here, as well.

I have recently taken a new job.  I love it.  The people are nice, the facility is wonderful, and I feel valued.  My prayer is that when the "honeymoon period" is over, I will still find ways to love my job.  My wife frequently reminds me that I am not the center of anybody's universe.  "You need them; they do not need you," she says.  And it is true.  God puts us in situations for His glory.  How can He be glorified if I bring sin into the garden He has given me to tend?  Adam discovered the consequences of that--he was banished from Eden forever.

But by the grace of God, we will one day be witness to a New Heaven and a New Earth.  We will tend the New Garden with glorified bodies.  He will one day restore what was lost through sin. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4).  Even now, Lord Jesus, come quickly!