Killer Instinct ...

American idealism despite its best intentions, still allows for winners and losers.  Generally, for someone to win, someone else, perhaps lots of others, have to lose.  We don’t like thinking about it.  We don’t like recognizing it.  But capitalism is rife with it, and our society seems to be built on it.  In order for democracy to emerge, the former king had to lose.  In order for slavery to stop, half of our country had to be defeated.  In order for you to get that promotion, someone else had to be passed over, perhaps many others.  We like to recognize that good can come from winning.  But we are equally uncomfortable accepting that when others win and we do not, we have “lost”.  We find dozens of other words for our loss, and we work overtime exhausting the dictionary to find an articulation that in no way associates us with losing.  But in games with only a single winner, or very few winners, the rest of the participants are in fact losing, even if they refute the term losers.

So what does it take to succeed?  If you measure success in wealth, all of your role models would tell you the same thing.  It takes a killer instinct.  One does not become a billionaire by being generous.  Time enough for generosity “after” you have made your fortune, not during its acquisition.  Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have time to be magnanimous now.  But while they built their fortune, they did whatever they had to do, to kill the competition and insure they were on the winning side of any equation.  When you listen to then candidate Donald Trump describe the kinds of people he wanted negotiating our deals with foreign countries, the one characteristic he seemed to admire or respect the most was “being a real killer”.  Obviously these people he admires were not actual murderers, but the parallel of “killing” the competition does not leave room for much thought about equity, parity, or win-win scenarios.  These men in their roles as negotiators were charged with winning every penny they could, and leaving the other guy with nothing, or as close to it as they could get.  Real killers, with killer instinct.

Perhaps an unfair comparison emerges with ravening wolves.  A ravening wolf conjures up imagery of a fierce creature with amazing strength, cunning, and hunger that cannot be satiated.  The goal of this creature is to win, and to feast on your carcass, leaving you dead, and eaten, consumed, with only scraps left.  You would think these kinds of folks would be products of our American Idealism.  You would assume that in the commercial world, this kind of vicious personality must thrive, and be rewarded for its tenacity.  But away from commerce, away from the rice bowl of how we survive and how much wealth we accumulate; the very need to be a ravening wolf would dissipate and become neutral.  But then, that would depend on how much control you seek.  The winner in commerce always believes they win because they control the outcome, they control the circumstances, limit the options, steer the direction of the deal, then pounce and close it to their desired goals.  The control is the addiction, that underlies these personality types.  They thrive on it, like a junkie looking for their next fix.  And so the desire to control, spills over into other aspects of our lives.

The “control obsessed” are not looking for partners in marriage, they are looking for servants.  They will take, and think only to give when it suits them, or contributes to the outcome of the bigger, wider deal.  The control obsessed are not just content to have political opinions, they must insure everyone in their inner circle will be swayed to vote as they vote, and believe as they believe.  The unfair comparison to the wolf as a creature who ravens becomes not just an image in commerce, but an image across the life span of those who obsess about being right, and dictating the outcomes of anything they touch.  And then they go to church.  Religion, or to be more precise, the interpretation of doctrine, becomes only the next vehicle upon which control must be established and ruled over with an iron fist.  Once a nugget of truth is uncovered, those with a mind for control, use it as a divining rod, as a wall to segregate believers into one of two camps … theirs and the wrong side.  There are no other options, no compromises allowed, no gray areas.  They are right, backed by God; the other side is wrong, and powered by Satan.  All those who share their beliefs will ultimately be saved; all others condemned to the fires of hell.  A ravening wolf, in a flock of sheep.

Jesus knew these people, and personality types.  He was dealing with them in His day.  They pretty much populated the Sanhedrin entirely.  There were a few exceptions, but a far few minority.  Those charged with the instruction of the people wanted control more than they wanted a one-on-one personal relationship with the author of the religion they taught.  They were willing to kill the author of their religion rather than cede control to Him.  And we look at them and think the problems died with the order of the Pharisees and Sadducees and no one like that could populate our churches today.  Yet if one were to examine the history of any particular church in any particular denomination over a 50 year period; one would likely find a number of times over the years when the membership “split” over a particular issue that came up.  Lurking behind the issue was a person with a strong personality type, a desire for control, and a willingness to split the body of Christ rather than cede control over it.

Jesus knew these people would not just appear as errant members with loud persona’s.  They would appear in important positions within the church, having inserted themselves there over time.  Ever looking to expand their influence and control, over a body that needs not either.  Matthew continues recording the words of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount in chapter seven of his gospel, picking up in verse 15 saying … “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”  Jesus here uncovers the masterworks of Satan’s deceptions.  The ravening wolf is not so bold as to show his or her true nature in a flock of those striving for sheep-hood.  The wolf must blend in, in order to be effective.  The wolf must appear like any other sheep, but only as one who has “strong” convictions.  In addition, Jesus warns us that key roles within a church are not immune to this phenomenon.  False prophets.  Prophecy is not just some random role, it carries an important one within the body.  Later Jesus will add dimension to this role saying that some healed, cast out demons, and did great works in the name of Jesus.  Yet Jesus does not know them.  The works of miracles remain, performed by the wolves who cover up like sheep.  They are false prophets, not because what they prophesy is necessarily wrong, or that they are unable to truly heal, or cast out demons.  The criterion for false is something else.

Jesus continues in verse 16 saying … “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? [verse 17] Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. [verse 18] A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. [verse 19] Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. [verse 20] Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”  Jesus puts a criterion for our determining who are wolves and who are sheep by their fruits.  Not by their results, but by their fruits.  A ravening wolf can still prophecy in the name of Jesus, heal, and cast out demons in the name of Jesus; those are all results.  Fruit is different.  The splitting of the body, the idea that control must be maintained, standards upheld, and people excluded is the fruit, is the legacy, of a cunning wolf.  Wolves are not truly interested in loving others, more than they love themselves.  Wolves love only themselves, others they put up with.

The ministry of the wolf is about expanding the church, in that it is about expanding the control and influence they have over the church.  Disguised just like every other sheep, their priorities do not center on bringing genuine acts of kindness, care, and love into the lives of those who so desperately need it.  Wolves make their love and affection come with price tag.  You must believe as they do.  You must submit to their authority.  Then and only then will acts of kindness be bestowed.  Conditional love.  Conditional admittance to the body of Christ.  Conditional standards for continued admittance.  All of which based in an authoritative model where the influence of the wolf truly drives the decisions being made.  The wolf will happily split the church rather than submit, or compromise, or surrender.  Surrender itself is a curse word in the mind of wolf.  They do not like that word used in any context.  It is foreign to them.  And so surrender to Christ is also completely foreign to them.  Control, personal accountability, are the terms they understand and they prefer in the context of religion.

The fruit we produce, the legacy we leave behind tells a story about our lives, even in the church.  When we love our brother so little we would rather exclude his company, than tolerate views different than our own; we have lost sight of the author of our religion, who alone can change the heart of anyone in error, whether that be our brother, or frankly, whether it be we ourselves who are in need of the change.  Tools and thoughts of exclusion are tools and thoughts of the wolf, not the Shepherd.  The Shepherd gathers sheep no matter what each sheep may be thinking that is still incorrect.  The Shepherd works to teach the sheep what is right, sheep do not do that for each other.  Sheep are not qualified to know who is right or wrong, only the Shepherd knows, and only the wolf would make it an issue to separate part of the flock from each other.  The wolf wins in division, and loses control when unity abounds.  So the wolf is constantly seeking division, looking for any occasion to initiate it.  A prophet, who heals, who casts out demons is capable of doing this, all to be recognized for the credit they deserve, and the control they would implement.

Jesus continues in verse 21 saying … “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”  Knowing who Jesus is, is not the same as experiencing what Jesus can do for you.  Jesus while on earth, only ever did the will of His Father.  Though divine, He did not trust to His own wisdom.  Instead He surrendered His will to the will of the Father every single day, every single minute.  His example remains for us today.  Doing the will of the Father in heaven, participating in the mission, is about bringing reconciliation through simple humble love that cares more for others; and is absent of self, and self-interests.  We reconcile people to God by demonstrating the love of God to them here and now.  Not just the pretty people.  Not just the clean people who already think like we do.  But the dirty ones, the filthy ones, the ones steeped in the poo we would hope to never smell again.  The ones who hate us now, and don’t want to understand us, have no intentions of ever submitting to us, or thinking like we do.  It is not our job to change their hearts or minds, only to love them in spite any way they treat us.

Reflecting the love of the Father has no room for thoughts of winning and losing.  The Father always wins.  Love is not measured in units of wins and losses, love is a continuum whose upper limit can never be reached.  No matter how much you love today, you will find that connected to the Father, to the source of love, you will be able to love even more tomorrow.  That is the fruit you should seek.  That is the trail of seeds and fruit skins that should mark the trail of your life and its fruits.  A trail of acts of love, of unity, of forgiveness, of tolerance, of patience.  Those fruit come from a tree who not only knows of Jesus, but has experienced the transformation of Jesus personally.  A transformation where Jesus takes whatever tree you are now, and turns you into a good one, that leaves a trail of love in its wake.  Surrender marks the beginning, surrender marks the end of it.  Control, exclusion, segregation, arbitrary standards, have no room or place in a tree that Jesus makes.

Jesus concludes this section with a hard truth.  He states plainly that our actions in His name are not enough.  Our motives matter.  Our surrender matters.  Our trail of love matters, perhaps that love being the only thing that counts.  Picking up in verse 22 Jesus says … “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? [verse 23] And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  Reconciliation over segregation.  Love over prophecy.  Humility over casting out devils.  A heart that breaks from the weight of God’s love, over a fine series of wonderful works done for the credit, or the sense of duty that comes from the acceptance of doctrine, but not the author of doctrine.  The wolf has the arrogance to call for Jesus as Lord and believes he deserves a place in the Kingdom of God.  But he is mistaken.  The sheep knows full well they deserve no such honor.  To be given it, is to be given yet another gift of God that demonstrates just how great the love of God truly is.  Eternity given to us, is His mercy on display.  We can never earn it.  We can never even possibly hope to control it. 

So perhaps the call of Christ is to those wolves, and emerging wolves, that still attempt to sit in the congregation of sheep.  Perhaps the warning of Christ is to you and me, that it is not too late as yet.  There is still time to let go, to surrender, and to experience the peace only surrender can bring.  To abandon the work of iniquity even if done under the banner of Christianity.  To find the author of doctrine, rather than the form and fashion of doctrine.  The call of reconciliation echoes on even today, even for the “control obsessed”, even for the wolves.  It is still not too late.

And the Sermon was nearing an End …

 

Wide Butts and Skinny Seats ...

If you were fortunate enough not to be dragged off of a United flight kicking, screaming, and bleeding; perhaps you noticed that over time all the airlines have been steadily decreasing the size of the seats and the leg room from one row to another.  It has gotten so bad recently, that nearly everyone is uncomfortable.  If the person in front of you reclines, you get their head in your lap and your knees buckled to the sides, or thrust into their back.  Given this condition, airlines have opted to offer a new product, the idea of “premium coach”, where they upgrade the seat, and offer slightly more width and legroom once again for an increase in price.  For folks with a smaller frame, the inconvenience of flight is a temporary one they will endure to get from point A to point B.  But for the remainder of the American public, who start out larger, or wind up that way, the inconvenience of flight is nearing pure health risk.  Clots forming in legs due to the uncomfortable positions flight causes; combine this with unhealthy eating, and an increasing size, and it adds up to potential loss of life.  Once the court systems realize this, I suspect airlines will go back to larger seats, more leg room, and higher prices.  For now, First Class, is the only escape.

And when you consider First Class, you find there are only a limited number of seats, not everyone fits.  Not everyone will be allowed in there.  It costs more, so financial wealth is used as in invisible barrier.  And general compliance with airline rules to avoid situations of getting forcibly removed from an airline keeps the majority of patrons from rioting and demanding better accommodations.  Think of it, a smaller number of seats available, using wealth as a general barrier to admittance, and willing compliance from the inconvenienced add up to uncomfortable flights for the masses, and reasonable accommodations for those with deep purses and wallets.  Is there a gospel equivalent?

Matthew records what Jesus was teaching in His Sermon on the Mount in chapter seven of his gospel, picking up in verse 13 Jesus says … “ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”  Jesus appears to equate the path to perfection, the path to heaven, as a nearly exact opposite of airline travel.  But isn’t that a scary thought?  The parallels may still be the same, it is easier to be financially wealthy on the wide path (money is still an invisible barrier), general compliance or acquiescence of masses still applies, and the mistaken idea that there is not enough room on the smaller one still exists.  From the perspective of our God, the path or gate on the path, that leads to Christ is a small one, a skinny one, and so few will find and pursue it.  On the other hand, the path, or the gate on the path, that leads to destruction is a big old comfortable, wide easy to pass through gate.  Many will pass through that, because it is easy.

Jesus continues in verse 14 saying … “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”  Jesus describes a model that in airline terms would have the first class passengers, scrambling to get into coach; instead of the entire plane load of passengers having envy and hoping for a spot in the wider first class venue.  From a gospel point of view, the skinny path is the one you want to be on.  The big old highway, is the one you want to avoid.  Jesus takes this analogy just a bit further adding a twist, Jesus says that the path is so skinny “few will find it”.  At least in an airline we know where things are, it is easy to see.  From the gospel analogy, not so.  The easy path is the wide path, and the one folks seem to trip over themselves jumping onto.  The path you want is so skinny, that few even find the thing, let alone decide this is where they want to travel.

Now within this analogy, Jesus never discusses how hard it is to travel the skinny path.  It is skinny only because few find it, and few travel it.  But the life of the ones who do, are not said to be difficult, or tortured, or persecuted.  We conjure all that stuff up in our heads, because we believe it just must be difficult to find Jesus or perfection.   After all we have tried it ourselves, and it has never been easy to achieve any form of perfection, even in a limited venue like a hobby, or interest we have.  Attempting to play the piano perfectly for example, just seems impossible even for the best musicians in the world.  So we come to accept that it is the imperfections, the nuances of where we apply emotion, and where we restrain it, that make us unique, and interesting, and worth listening to.  Technical perfection, does not even equate, to musical perfection.

We come to accept the idea that perfection is not possible because we have never been able to achieve it in ourselves.  Therefore, if perfection is not possible, then God must not require it.  God is forgiving after all.  He forgives whatever we do.  So perhaps where it comes to salvation, God simply “winks” at our sins and intends to save us no matter what we do, or how often we do it.  The wide path emerges within the Christian faith, of nearly every denomination.  History proves out that perfection in humans just does not appear, so history and science seem to support our ideology.  The Bible bears out that even some of the worst sinners are on the to-be-saved list.  David, who carries the distinction, of being a man after God’s own heart, committed some of the worst sins there are.  Perhaps even the scriptures support the notion, that perfection is simply not a requirement God carries, as He knows none of us are capable of it.  And to an extent there is logic in this kind of thinking.  But it is wide path thinking.  It is “easy” to adopt and follow, but it is “harder” to live than one might expect at first glance.

The problem with our wide path thinking is that it leads to destruction, not the destination we had in mind.  The problem with our wide path thinking, is that the premise is upside down.  To accept imperfection in a spiritual context, is to accept some sin we commit, and are powerless to stop.  That sin however, is not really a source of joy, and fulfillment.  That sin, no matter what it is, provides a momentary distraction from the decades of pain and self-destruction that come with it.  We have blindly accepted the devil’s marketing campaign that sin is good, and being good is boring.  Wrong.  Sin is pain.  Sin is not fun, or cool, or exciting.  Sin is pain, pain that leads to death.  It always has been.  Sin sits on one side of the cause and effect equation, pain and death sit on the other.  They are inextricably linked.  Sin leads us to hurt those we love, those who love us, and our God.  The waves of pain we start with even a single sin, expand out across the water, until nearly everyone is encompassed by them is some form or fashion.  It is sin, that our Lord is trying to provide us a way of escape from.

Our God does not offer us forgiveness from sin, so we have a get out of jail card to keep sinning.  He offers us forgiveness in the same hand He offers us reformation, and re-creation.  His goal is not to see us keep sinning, because He wants us to get away from the pain and death it causes.  Our God is trying to get us off the path to destruction, not pour gasoline in the engine to make us go faster on it.  There is a different road.  There is a more narrow road, because it is less popular, and fewer believe it exists.  Fewer travel it, because they place the real ideas of perfection within themselves, instead of trusting to Jesus to see it happen within them.   Jesus can work out perfection in you, you can’t.  You need to be saved from you.  That is not work you can do.  That is work you must watch happen, because you let Jesus do it.  Narrow path thinking.  Less popular thinking.  Less traveled, because few are willing to believe it.

The road to perfection is not a difficult one of struggle, failure, and disappointment.  It is one of joy, of relief, and heads to a destination where everything is perfect.  There will be no sinners in heaven.  Think about that for a moment.  God does not wink at sin.  He cannot.  He knows the pain and death sin brings.  God wants it exterminated for all time going forward.  And God is not looking to exterminate you to achieve that goal, only the sin within you.  That is work only Jesus knows how to do, but is only able to do it, if you surrender and let Him do it.  If there is a fight to be had, it will be the fight to forsake our former ideas about perfection, and allow Jesus to work His work within us, unimpeded by our attempts to save ourselves.  The narrow road is not really hard, it is only less traveled.  Think about that for a moment.  It was never supposed to be our responsibility to save and perfect ourselves, only to truly turn over our salvation to Christ, and let Him save us from us.

If the narrow path is not hard; if it is easy; if it leads to our salvation, and our perfection, why not jump on that one right away?  The love of our Lord was not meant as an excuse to sin, it was meant as an escape from our sin.  Jesus did not come to earth to leave you in the conditions of pain and death He found you in.  He came to take you out of your conditions, to re-create you from the inside out, to remove from you the diseases that cause you pain.  The entirety of the New Testament show Jesus doing exactly this.  Not just the physical healings which were miraculous in themselves.  But the much deeper miracles of changing who people were, of putting them on the path to perfection, and bringing them along on that path away from the former things, and on path to the better things.  The distance you move on this path is not the important thing.  The fact that you are on the path is the important thing.  Going through the gate of Jesus Christ, getting Him to be responsible for making you perfect, as you learn to perfectly surrender to Him.  This is what salvation and the love of God is all about.

This can only occur, between you and Jesus.  The relationships around you, between those you love and God, are not the same as the relationship you hold between you and God.  You do not get credit for having a parent who really seems to understand the narrow path.  Nor do you get credit for having a spouse, or a child, who has it down.  Where you are with Jesus.  What you understand about Jesus.  How much you trust Jesus to do this, to see your salvation happen, to be the author of your perfection.  This is all that matters.  It is a one-on-one between you and Jesus Christ.  Nothing in between, nothing in the middle.  There is no intercessor between you and Jesus Christ.  Not your minister, or your family, you stand one-on-one with Jesus with nobody else in the way.  He bids you to enter through His gate, and let Him take from you the pain and death sin causes.  He bids you to taste and see how good He is, how easy the narrow road can be with Him in charge, carrying you across the finish line.   He bids you to let go your burdens, and enter the Kingdom of God that has already come.  To play with Daddy, until Daddy bids you entrance to our final home in a place where only perfection exists.

And the Sermon was not over yet …

 

Action Jackson ...

Years ago, there was a toy marketed to kids who could care less about Ken dolls; they craved something more manly, something more adventurous.  The Action Jackson doll (and let’s face it the difference between Jackson and Ken was only in the clothing and packaging), was something more “modern”, more “cool”.  The 70’s style clothing from jumpsuits, to tennis shoes, was designed to reflect the idea that this figurine was ready for action.  He knew karate.  He had a few accessories to prove it.  This figure was the one ready to go out and save the world, get the girl, and return home without breaking a sweat.  So little boys were supposed to be attracted to these ideas and buy them off the shelves until they were empty.  The idea spawned a movie with Billy Dee Williams to portray this kind of hero.  And another movie or remake is now in the offing based on the same fictional character and fictional ideas.  But as movies go, the gentle mind of a child is embellished with far more adult ideas and action sequences.  But the one idea that was to distinguish Jackson from Ken was buried in his name “Action”.

Jesus did not have this reference when He was giving the Sermon on the Mount found in chapter seven of Matthew’s Gospel to the Jews.  But I imagine He did not think He needed it.  Open scriptures, even in the days of Christ, and the Bible was full of heroes that “acted” for God.  Noah built an ark, big enough to save the world, and still sad that it was so small.  Abraham sought God, not the gods of his family, but the real God he believed had to exist somewhere.  Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery and to the gates of the Promised Land.  The list goes on all the way to Jesus.  All of these Biblical heroes had something in common with Action Jackson, in that none of them were at home with Barbee pondering the meaning of life.  All of them were out in the world, taking action on the beliefs they held, and finding that God was right there ready to meet them, and take them to the next step in their respective journey’s.  The difference between Jackson and Ken; Ken stays home with Barbie, Jackson is out looking for something to do.  The difference between any Biblical hero, and the best friend they might have had who we know nothing about is the same difference.  One takes action for God, the other sits home with Barbie content to move no farther.

When Jesus spoke on this day, He was looking for more than had ever been.  He was not trying to reach just one soul, or just one person.  He was trying to reach every soul, and every person.  You included, me included, the best friends we may know, everyone from Jackson to Ken to Barbie.  No matter how they have been marketed, or how your friends think of you, Jesus was not just speaking to others, Jesus was speaking to you, and to them.  What was needed in the church of Jesus Christ, was a congregation of believers who acted on their faith; not content to sit at home and wait for something to fall into their laps.  This was a big change.  Up till now, a Biblical hero was distinguished by the fact that they were so rare.  Jesus was looking to change that entirely.  Jesus wants a sea of heroes, not a spattering.  Jesus was and is looking to recruit you into His idea of a Biblical hero, even if your story never gets formally recorded.

But how does anyone accomplish that?  Even for God that seems like a huge task.  And as we examine our churches, and the people that take up space in our pews, we begin to realize that few are heroes.  As we examine the image in our mirrors, and the indentation in our sofa cushions, we come to realize that we too are more like Ken and Barbie, than like Action Jackson where it comes to matters of faith.  This sad fact however, is not because this is the condition Jesus wants to find us in.  It is because we enjoy routine supported by a fundamental lack of faith that anything we believe in is real.  We recite the words and the stories, but we do not apply them to our own lives.  We honor Moses and David, but not for a minute consider that the story of Moses might not hold a candle to our own, if we “moved” out in faith.  We simply naturally assume that Moses will always be the hero, and we will not.  Ouch.  Content to assume a position we were not designed to take.  It is as if Satan has destroyed the purpose of Action Jackson and turned us all into Ken; who only goes to see movies to see what another hero might look like.

Jesus had other ideas and still does.  He picks up in verse 7 saying … “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”  Jesus says to “ask”.  Don’t sit there mumbling under your breath, or spewing half believing words you expect no answer to.  He simply says to ask.  Asking requires something on your part, it requires that you initiate the conversation.  He does NOT say you are supposed to fulfill the request, it is not your job to “do”.  But it is at least your job to ask for it.  And the Bible is not mamby-pamby about what will happen when you ask.  He says ask and it will be given to you.  This is mind blowing.  Our first thoughts however, are usually, what do “I” want?  We begin by making a list of all the things we want for ourselves that we believe would make us happy.  Money usually always winds up at the top of that list.  Somewhere near power and control over others and situations, somewhere near a desire to have all others love us, particularly the pretty ones.  And this is where we de-rail ask and it shall be given … to Sofie’s choice.  We ask God for things that would endanger our souls and then expect Him to deliver, or call Him a false god.

Have we ever considered for a moment, that in this case the context was still Biblical?  Ask for gifts of the Spirit, for the salvation of ourselves and our families, for protection from the world.  Ask a host of spiritual benefits for the lives of others and not ourselves, and we then offer God a petition He longs to grant.  But this is usually a change in our thinking, a change we are in so desperate need of.  But the admonition does not end in asking.  Jesus says to us to take the next step, He says to us to seek.  When facing questions we are unsure what to do, how many times do we open scripture without a clue where to look, but in spite of it, we seek anyway?  Seek and you will find.  Look for God and you will find Him.  He is not purposely hiding from you, he is more often blocked from your vision because you do not want Him seeing what you do.  You put God away more often, than you seek His face.  Seek and you will find.  So we have asking, and we have seeking or looking, but this is not all.

Finally, there is “knocking”.  Knocking expresses intent in its action.  Knocking says I am here, I am ready, I want in.  Knocking says I may not be sure what is on the other side of this door, but I am too curious to leave it there and just walk away, I want to get in there and experience it for myself.  Would that Jesus had a church full of believers who wanted in to His Kingdom which has already come.  What might we find inside the playground of spiritual toddlers that exist in the pure trust and security in our Daddy’s love?  What freedom might we find?  What relief from care and burdens might we experience?  But rather than be free like little children, we instead cling to our burdens, and never even attempt to shed them by knocking on the door of that Kingdom where admission is free, and our Daddy longs to greet us on the other side of that door.  We never knock.  So we never enter in.  All of this our own doing.

Jesus continues in verse 8 saying … “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”  Get this through your head Ken doll’s, Jesus is not monkeying around.  He is not offering a half-hearted response like, ‘well, if it is God’s will, and if you have prayed hard enough, or begged long enough, or if there is someone’s life at stake, then maybe God will be there’.  Jesus states unequivocally that God will be there and your action will be met by reaction.  We will receive.  We will find.  We will watch that door open up so we can go in.  Action finds reaction.  Lethargy finds nothing.  Contentment finds nothing.  Lethargy and contentment with our spiritual conditions lead us to look nowhere and find nothing because we do not seek it.  Understanding your need.  Understanding your need is great may be the first step in getting you up off your butt to finally actually do something.  Even if it is only to ask for greater energy and faith in God, it will be granted.  Even if it is only to seek the meaning of this text, you will find it.  Even if it is only to dust off the door-handles of your weekly Sabbath School class and enter in to study and learn from the perspectives of others on truth, that door will be opened to you.  There is no timidity in the voice of Jesus.  There is authority in it.  He speaks knowing it is He you will find.  He speaks knowing He will not fail you.

Jesus continues in verse 9 saying … “Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? [verse 10] Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?”  Hello, parents in the crowd, are you listening?  This analogy is meant to cut through our negative or timid perceptions about our God and realize He is better than any parent we could have ever had.  Love motivates how our parents do their best with us.  They may not always give us a pony.  But they do give us gifts motivated by love.  They feed us with the best they have to offer.  They may not be able to afford Ruth’s Chris at every meal, but then if they could, the health detriments might outweigh the incredible taste anyway.  But parents look to keep feeding their children at every meal.  Sometimes when they are poor, they feed their children and go without themselves.  Parent are willing to sacrifice for their children.  Our God was willing to give up His only Son for the rest of His children, for us.  So our God knows a thing or two, about how to give good gifts.  He may not provide the winning numbers to power-ball, but He can put the meal on the table for today, and more importantly He can offer us true transformation that leads us to the road to perfection, if we but wanted it, if we but asked for it.

Jesus continues in verse 11 saying … “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”  Oh believers let us shed our Ken persona’s and adopt more of an Action Jackson state of mind.  Let us shed the ideas that our God is lazy, and nearly deaf, or completely uninterested in our lives.  Our God is passionate about each of us.  Our God is keenly aware of our lives and totally empathetic to what we feel, whether supreme joy (which He loves to create), or the depths of sadness (for which He is there shedding as many tears as we do).  It is not lack of interest that keeps us separated, it is lack of action.  We sit, complaining, but never seeking.  We sit, telling others of our woe, but never asking God to see it lifted and then knowing and trusted it will be removed entirely.  We don’t bother knocking anymore, because we don’t believe there are any doors to knock upon.  Clinging to our burdens so long, we forgot His Kingdom has already come, and the door stands right in front of us all day every day.  Get off the sofa.  Hit your knees or hit the streets and you will find God reflected in love to others.

Jesus then concludes this snippet of His sermon with the most profound of summations in verse 12 saying … “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”  People have called this the golden rule.  But that is a huge misnomer.  There is no gold mentioned here anywhere.  This would be better titled, the summation of the Law, and the Prophets is found in simply loving others.  What we would wish for, we might fulfill in the life of another.  In our marriages and in our romantic relationships, stop defining them by what you want, and instead by what you have to offer, and the passion that exists behind that offer.  What makes you happy in watching the reaction of your partner?  Is there any greater fulfillment in all of life, than seeing that happiness in their eyes, and knowing it is you who brought it to them?  Indeed there is not.  Defining your value this way is defining your value in the light of heaven.

Honoring your mother and father is not merely about obedience, it is about a level of respect and care that would return the love they have shown you, in an exponential way.  There will come a time when without your love and care, their degenerated capabilities will cause them to suffer.  But long before capacity is diminished there is time to love with a passion that knows it is loved in return.  There is time to enjoy the sharing of love, the dedication of time set aside from other priorities, to share and exist, and be known.  Relationships held in a new reverence where their value would be hard to overstate.  The Law, the Prophets, all designed to point your heart back to God, so that you can reflect His love to those all around you.  To those in need, but also to those who believe they have no need, for theirs is the greater danger, and all in equal need of God’s love reflected through you.

Love is not a passive, sit on the couch, kind of thing.  Love is an infectious, got a find a new way to express it, always searching, always discovering kind of thing.  Love and action find a symmetry, that cannot be found in the indentations of a sofa.  Seek for ways to express love to others, and you will surely find them.  Knock on the door of the hearts of others, yourself steeped in the love of God, and that infectious love will work its way into the hardest of hearts.  For it is changing hearts where the skill of God is unmatched.  It is in the transformation of hearts of minds and someday of bodies, where God will work His work of perfection within us.  It can start today.  Action Jackson is sure to find it.  Ken may or may not.  Who will your persona become?  No one can force you either way.  But there is so much more to a life of love, than perhaps today you are equipped to imagine, why not reach out, why not ask, why not seek a little, and just watch what happens in you.

And the sermon was far from over …

Lacking All Sense of Judgment ...

How does that guy end up with that girl?  Men think these questions to themselves, as from looking at the external beauty of the woman, and the relative comeliness of the man, the pairing just does not seem to make sense.  Could this beautiful woman truly not understand just how beautiful she really is?  Or could she truly not understand just how homely her partner is?  Does she just lack all sense of judgment or perhaps is her eyesight just that impaired?  Even the series of questions reveals a thinking about the judgment of men, that it is based in the appearance and little else.  Perhaps the judgment of the woman is based in something deeper, something more meaningful, something that will last.  But then …

Does this dress make me look fat?  I can’t wear that dress to the event because “she” is wearing one just like it.  The reasoning of women often seems grounded in insuring their own appearance remains at its peak condition, and cannot be confused with any other woman.  Having two women show up at the same event wearing the same dress is only acceptable if both are bride’s maids, and even then, both resent it.  Something about wearing the exact same dress is simply intolerable for women.  Yet as they examine the sea of men that accompany them to these events, they fail to realize that tuxedo’s, and even most formal suits, are so close in look and feel, that only designers can easily tell them apart.  Men are content to wear the same formalwear, without a second thought.  Women are content to allow them out of the house this way, in fact, most prefer it.  But two identical dresses require one women to go home and try again.  A self-imposed rule, but one as solid as any printed in a book of law.

Why a man questions the happiness of a couple where the woman is stunning and the man is at best “normal”; and why a woman constantly questions her own appearance; are questions of judgment Angels find great mystery in.  Would, that our lack of judgment only extended to our appearance.  But it does not.  Humans have a nasty way of taking what we have learned, and instead of building one brick of knowledge upon another, until we form a magnificent structure of understanding, we pick up our brick and run with it.  We ignore all other truth, even the question about how other truth might fit with our own to form greater truth.  Instead we grab the nugget of truth that makes up our brick … and we immediately proceed to slam someone else in the head with it.

We make our brick, the sole basis of our gospel.  We push aside any attempts at greater understanding, and we make our brick the determining criteria of whether others will find themselves in hell, or not.  Should they accept what we say, and how we see things, then they are fine for now.  Otherwise, hell and damnation are surely the punishment coming to anyone who would ignore the plain truth of our brick.  And since that is the eventual outcome they must face, slamming them in the head with our brick now, seems like the right thing to do.  And so, even in spiritual matters, we find ourselves lacking all sense of judgment.  We find our core doctrines as rigid as those of our Pharisee forefathers.  We find our propensity to curse any who refuse our beliefs, as natural and rigid as any zealot who ever walked the earth before us.  We may not kill others who disagree.  But we are comfortable condemning them in the afterlife to eternal death, believing they must convert or be eternally punished for their lack of insight.

But the truth of Jesus Christ is not found in the eye alone.  Nor is it found in the ear alone.  The eye and ear have radically different functions and perspectives and BOTH are correct.  The foot moves us to a better place.  The hand reaches out in comfort and affection.  The arms hold.  The brain discerns.  It takes every part of the body to even begin to understand the Truth of Jesus Christ.  Thinking the eye’s alone have it, makes the body deaf, and mute, and crippled.  Thinking the brain alone has it, makes the body cold, unfeeling, and unable to move at all.  But this kind of body analogy forces believers to begin to accept the reality that “their” brick is not the ONLY brick, that makes up a picture of truth.  It reveals that even in spiritual matters, we are ill equipped to judge.  And so Matthew continues recording the Sermon on the Mount in chapter seven of his gospel.

Jesus continues in verse 1 saying … “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”  When we judge others, we reveal something about ourselves.  It is automatic.  It is unavoidable.  No matter the subject, from bad fashion, to bad doctrine, what we use to judge others says MORE about us, than it will ever say about them.  And so, our Lord, the One we claim to follow, gives us a simple instruction that we should just not judge.  He continues in verse 2 saying … “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”  The brick of truth we use to slam others in the head, will eventually be the same brick that slams us.  As our insight into truth deepens we will come to realize the using truth to slam others is the wrong use of truth at all.  Truth without love, is “truth” outside of Jesus, and therefore less about truth and more about opinion.  Doctrines are meant to point people to Jesus, not divide people who claim His name from truly loving each other.

Jesus continues in verse 3 saying ... “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [verse 4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? [verse 5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”  This analogy is not just about fashion, or about whether a couple is evenly matched in beauty and physique.  It is about something deeper than this.  It is about doctrine.  The mote that is in our brother’s eye represents some misunderstanding our brother has in related to scripture, that we think we know better about.  The condition of our brother is not even made in dispute, Jesus does not even argue it.  But, the beam that is in our own eye, represents a FAR greater error by orders of magnitude than the little misunderstanding our brother has.  I dare say, it is the beam of doctrines, rigid and large and all-encompassing that have no sense of love within them.

While we take an unusual interest in the small error of our brother, we reveal our complete misunderstanding of love at all.  Love is not meant as an excuse to sin, it is meant as a motive to seek Jesus who can change our very desires to want sin no more.  Love does not destroy doctrine, it becomes the foundation for them.  For if doctrine cannot be forged in love, it is merely opinion, not truth.  Truth is unafraid of new thinking, of questions, of growing larger than it is today, because our understanding grows larger.  We begin to incorporate other perspectives of the body, the eyes, the ears, the fingers.  And instead of shrinking, our truth becomes greater and more beautiful.  The man sees himself through the lens of Christ and sees that love reflected and true, is a great attractive quality that any woman would cherish.  The woman sees herself through the lens of Christ, and realizes that perfection is not brought about by Maybelline, but by submission to Jesus who makes her of infinite value to His Kingdom and the heart of any man.  Families are formed, with Jesus as the foundation, and nothing Satan can throw can rip them apart.

We learn to obey the simple edict of our Lord, to judge not.  Then the strangest of things happens.  Jesus proceeds with a text that is nearly the exact opposite of the entire lesson He just lays out.  Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”  Yikes.  We just went through the entire idea of Judging Not, His exact words, but now dogs and pigs are introduced.  How can we know who a dog or pig is?  Isn’t the point of the gospel to be shared with those who do not know Jesus?  If we begin by thinking they are all dogs and pigs, who would ever get to hear the gospel.  It makes no sense, or does it?

Take a closer look at the preceding texts.  The beams and motes, are in your “brother’s” eye and your own.  It would seem as though these verses are specifically targeted at members, at believers in Jesus.  We should be avoiding the doctrinal brick in the head between those who claim the name of Jesus, of those who believe in Him.  The generic admonition not to judge, allows us to spread the gospel of love to everyone without judgment.  Where the dogs and pigs begin to emerge is where love of others is rejected in favor of love of self.  Those who would twist the gospel of love, into blanket excuse and permission to love themselves with abandon, without limits, and at the expense of others.  Those who claim forgiveness is their get out of jail free card, while having no intention of change, or desire to change.  Those who would twist the life and sacrifice of Jesus as a way to sin and claim forgiveness, never even attempting to see if the sin itself might be transformed away from them, removed from their desires, and replaced by something more holy.

The pigs who would turn and rend you, cut you with sharp teeth and no concern, can easily be those whose version of life and philosophy is self-centric and do not want it disturbed.  They can certainly be out of the church, but they can populate it as well.  Those who do not understand love, may not want you to upset their perception of love for others.  They may be greedily feasting on doctrines who do not require them to love, only to obey the lists of do’s and don’ts outlined in the traditional interpretations of men.  It is not up to us to pre-determine who the dogs and pigs are.  It is up to us to be careful when we encounter them.  And to take heed not to become them.  The latter the far more dangerous outcome of our embrace of the rigidity of doctrine than the former.  To keep our pearls, and keep what is holy, we must center our love in Jesus Christ, and insure it always turns outward, away from ourselves, to those in need.  When our love is rejected on occasion, we must be more careful in its expression, and pray more for change.

In this way, we adhere to the counsel of Jesus, avoiding judgment, and still passionately pointing the world to Jesus to find relief from sin, not a continued embrace of it.

And the sermon was far from over …