The Apostles of Christ ...

One could say the “Apostles of Christ” begin in the aftermath of Jesus Christ.  The writers of the Old Testament all had a direct connection with Jesus Christ through the means of prophecy and vision.  But they all lacked the history of His life.  They knew Him but only through the means that a prophet can know God, through inspiration.  And finding other people/prophets with similar experiences was going to be rare.  The Apostles of Christ had this same means of inspiration, but it was buffeted by the deeds, and witnesses, and stories of Jesus that were common in the first century after the ascension of Jesus Christ.  Imagine being a writer, and on your journey of mission, encountering another person who had a direct exposure to Jesus.  You would not be alone in talking about Him, you would be in a crowd of witnesses.  Everyone from young children who may have sat on His lap, to those whose bodies were fully restored because they did nothing but touch the hem of His garments as He walked by.  The Apostles would apt’ly be called prophets, but they lived in an age, where exposure to Jesus was not just a rare thing, it was a more common thing.

In our first volume of “A Second Look”, we studied the authors who had direct personal experience with Jesus Christ.  Those authors included Jude and James (likely His brothers as well as disciples).  They also included John (the beloved), Peter (the little rock), and Matthew (the former tax collector).  Between these men the story of the gospel was told very well.  However, while the story of our salvation is a great start, the story of our evangelism would seem to follow next.  It is the chronicles of that evangelistic message of the early Christian church, where the letters of the Apostles seem to add great context to our doctrines and understanding of God.  We will begin our study of this next phase of the work, with the author Luke (the physician).  Luke wrote another version of the gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and with ample second-hand testimony by others who witnessed it.  Luke then went on to write the next chapter “The Acts of the Apostles” meant to show how the work would spread across the region.  During his travels with fellow apostle Paul (formerly Saul the Pharisee); it is believed Luke likely wrote the book or letter to the Hebrews. 

Understand that there is absolute unity among the disciples and apostles in pointing the new believer to Jesus Christ.  But beyond that, philosophy, perspective, education, and personal histories are all different.  Different parts of the body of the church, that present different attributes, each important, and each part of the Mosaic that makes up the body of Christ (His church).  There were no entirely separate denominations in these early days.  But there was a rift coming, between what the church would become in Rome, and what the church remained in the rest of the world.  Luke and Paul traveled together through much of these early evangelistic missions.  But that does not make them identical twins in what either wrote.  How could it?  Paul was a former Pharisee.  Luke was a current physician.  Both educated, but Luke was a gentile.  Both were converts, but both came from a completely different upbringing.  Just like all the others.  Jesus did not pick 12 men, then later 70 more disciples, as well as the women He invited to carry the gospel, because they were all cookie cutter images of each other.  He picked them for their diversity.  And He intended for them to cover each other’s weaknesses, and nuture each other’s strengths.  One body made of different parts.

In the end, most all of the passionate followers of Jesus, did not die deaths from old age, in comfort.  They died martyr’s deaths before their time, because of the fury of Satan against Jesus and His church.  Jewish persecution mounted the first attacks.  Which was followed by Roman persecution in the later years.  The early Christian faith was not born in a time with no opposition, but perhaps in a time when opposition was at its greatest.  Yet the ones who seem to have known Him best died these deaths and did not keep silent.  For a knowledge of Jesus does not inspire silence in us, but demonstrations of love in us, even to those who would name themselves our mortal enemies.  If today, we call ourselves Christian, yet pray for the death of our enemies, perhaps it reveals just how little we truly know Jesus Christ.  Perhaps instead we should take a second look at what has been written and see if we can find insight, that Jesus will lead us to find.  For now, let us put away our preconceptions, and read as if it were the first time, what has been preserved through miracle for us to freely read.

 

One Last Meal ...

What if your next meal was to be your last.  If you knew this to be true, would you make it something spectacular?  All your favorite proteins.  All your favorite breads and veggies.  And hey, go crazy on the butter and seasonings because, well you know, it won’t be your cholesterol that finally gets you.  Most of us cannot get our heads around this idea.  If for some reason we knew our “last” meal was coming, food would likely be the last thing on our minds.  It is a rare soul who gets ravenous at the idea of not eating ever again.  Most of us would want our closest family as close as they could be.  The precious moments we spend with them would likely far outweigh even the most inventive cuisine and menu.  But hey, I did not propose you eat alone.  Bring as many as you can.  Make it a feast.  Include those long-lost relatives you have been reluctant to make time for.  Invite your boss who does not care much for you at work.  Not to impress him/her, but to bury the hatchet and show love even to the hard to love.  You might delegate the work of picking that final meal, but even then, I cannot imagine most of us ordering fast food.

Jesus did.  If there had been a chain of McDonald’s in ancient Israel the fastest food you could make would be the foods they made on Passover night.  It was literal fast food.  It was made quickly because they did not have a lot of time that night in Egypt so long ago.  They needed to eat and be ready to run at a moment’s notice.  And hey, for the folks who were too ashamed to post the lamb’s blood on the door frames – whatever meal they did eat, was the firstborn’s last one, Israelite or no.  The institution, the feast, the remembrance of the Passover came from that night in Egypt nearly ~1200 years before the time of Christ.  It was preserved through the writings of Moses and handed down father to son throughout the life of the Israelite people until the days of Jesus, even to our own.  Jesus knew the timing the events that were to befall Him.  His death would come at the culmination of all the Jewish high holidays (such as the year of Jubilee that only happened once every 50 years where all slaves were freed, all land returned, and all debt was forgiven).  His death would come at Passover, so the Passover dinner was to be His last.  Take out.  Fast food, ordered 1200 years before it would be delivered to Him.  Not much of a celebration in terms of fine dining.  Fine dining, even then, takes time to prepare (perhaps more so back then).  So this last meal was to be simple, and easily prepared.

Part of the tradition of that meal was to eat bitter herbs.  Yeah, nobodies favorite there.  But it was done to remind them of the bitterness of slavery from which the Israelites were freed (by Jesus by the way).  Perhaps it would not hurt our modern day Christians to remember Passover and join our Jewish friends in its keeping.  The bitter herbs we eat would symbolize the exact same thing as they did in Passover – Jesus freeing us from the slavery of our sins.  Pharaoh has nothing on the addiction of sin, and Jesus remains the only power able to beat sin in you.  A few bitter herbs to remind us of that is not a bad thing.  The unleavened bread, or the bread of haste, has meaning in our world as well.  Our Lord is coming back, sooner than we may care to admit, and needing a bread made in haste could remind us of the haste in which He returns.  I know people have been saying that forever.  And for all those souls who have tasted their last meal, that saying remains true (just not how they expected it).  For us, the pattern may be a little different, but the bread of haste is not bad symbolism when you look forward as well.  In any case none of this would be the traditional choice of someone who knows it would be their last meal, at least no one I can think of today.  But it was His pick.

Matthew tells the story in his gospel to his contemporaries in chapter 26 picking up in verse 17 saying … “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?”  Already one feast was dovetailing on the next, and since Passover is most important (and perfectly symbolic), the disciples are more concerned about preparing for that one for Jesus.  None of them have let the thought sink into their heads, that this will be His last meal.  They cannot bear the thought of Him being the condemned.  He is perfectly innocent.  And as it should be; the perfect lamb without blemish.  Jesus responds in verse 18 saying … “And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. [verse 19] And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover.”  The first McDonald’s in history perhaps.  But even then, preparations had to be made.

Matthew will not record the entire foot-washing incident.  Perhaps it still stung too badly in his conscience.  Perhaps he just did not think that was the main point we should be focusing on.  Matthew spends his time outing the betrayer.  Is it so with you and me?  Are you and I so obsessed with pointing out the sinners in our church fellowship, we have forgot we owe that same sinner a debt of loving service, done in humility.  It is quite hard to criticize a sinner, and forcefully recommend their disfellowship, while girding a towel around your waist and gently placing their feet in a warm bowl for washing.  Just as Jesus did ~2000 years ago.  The King of Kings thought it not beneath Him to do the lowest work of a servant for each of the disciples at that gathering.  Including Judas, including Matthew, including Peter, even though Peter was not too fond of accepting this humiliation (he got over it).  Perhaps we like Matthew are so focused on identifying the traitors to Jesus, we lose all sight of the service we owe those very same traitors.  Sin is not driven away through accusation.  It is lured away only by the transforming love of Jesus, our loving those same sinners was meant to reflect His love, and give them a reason to seek change in the first place.

We underestimate the power of our love.  Most often because we ration it out so sparingly.  But Jesus was a fountain of love with no end in sight.  What we give away in tiny tiny increments, flowed out of Jesus with the force of Niagara Falls.  Exactly whose servants are we?  Matthew continues the story picking up in verse 20 saying … “Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. [verse 21] And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.”  Matthew pounds on the traitorous theme.  Perhaps he still worries it might have as easily been him.  The truth is that every disciple at that table will betray their relationships with Jesus as the night continues.  Most will run, hide, and stay as far back as their hearing will allow as the horrid events unfold.  No hero’s in this room.  No one ready to even be honest about who Jesus is to them.  When they see Jesus is headed for death, they ALL will doubt if He truly is the Messiah.  So I ask, are any of us free from this traitorous blame?

Jesus has declared one of them will betray Him.  Whatever Jesus says always comes true.  So it is certain.  The weight of it begins to sink in.  Matthew continues in verse 22 saying … “And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?”  Think of this for a moment.  We are talking about a betrayal that has not happened yet.  And each one of them is forced to ask, Lord is it me?  Am I your betrayer?  This should give you an insight into sin that no other scripture has the weight of.  This is an act only one disciple has contemplated and acted upon so far.  Yet ALL of them are unsure if it is them Jesus is talking about.  They are all capable of it.  They are all horrified by the idea, but no sin is beyond them, and they all see that.  If Jesus prophesies it must be true.  They cannot imagine each other as being the one – so that only leaves – me.  Lord is it me?  A heinous sin still in their future, one none of them wants to commit, but all are scared they might.  Lord is it me?

We read these texts as story.  But is the ultimate betrayal of our Lord in your future, and are you humble enough to go to Jesus and ask – Lord is it me?  If you refuse to admit it could be you, it is likely already you.  No one wants to be Judas.  But Judas was Judas.  He was as righteous and as failing as Peter, but most of us would want to be Peter, none want to be Judas.  The difference was not the sin, but where we look to see sin taken from us.  Judas stopped looking at Jesus for the removal of sin.  Peter though completely broken by pride and unforgiveable action still looked to Jesus no matter what.  The weight of the sin was the same.  But where we go to see it removed was wholly different.  Matthew continues in verse 23 with the answer of Jesus saying … “And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. [verse 24] The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.”

The heart of Matthew is so far from food or feasting he could have been eating dirt right about then, and not even known it.  It was comforting to have those he loved around him.  These other disciples were his family by choice and brotherhood.  Having them there helped.  But the answer of Christ shook Matthew to the core of who he was.  He that dips his hand with Me in the bowl.  They were ALL dipping their hands in that same bowl of olive oil to season or spread across the unleavened bread.  Olive oil was a precious tasty nectar full of health properties and delicious as a spread.  They all had dipped.  They all had used it on their bread.  Matthew no different than the rest.  But Jesus did not stop there, He continues saying it would have been better for the betrayer NOT to have been born.  Was Jesus talking directly to Matthew? 

Was He talking to me?  I have betrayed Him too.  I have cast aside His victories, choosing to mire in my sin, like a pig does in his own filth.  In my sin I betray Him.  Would it be better for me not to have been born?  That is a pretty dark and heavy thought.  It is meant to be so.  We need to understand where the weight of sin leads, and there is but one destination – this one.  There are no “petty” sins.  There are no light sins, there is only the addictive nature of sin that leads here and no where else.  To the joining of the conspiracy to kill the son of God and take His place running the universe.  It will be the final rallying call of Satan in the final assault against heaven destined to fail, yet all will join it without reservation.  The saved hear another call.  For the saved have been freed from their sins, like the Israelites were made free from Pharaoh so long ago.

Judas now feels like the whole room is looking at him.  He had his hand in the bowl at the same time as Christ when He made that saying.  He feels pressured.  Matthew continues in verse 25 saying … “Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.”  Matthew has unveiled Judas.  But his account omits the words of Jesus to Judas to go and do what he must do quickly.  Perhaps Matthew still cannot get his head around the idea that the best of the disciples admired by all, might be the very one who will betray Jesus.  And for Jesus to wish him speed, Matthew just cannot understand.  But with all this focus on betrayal, the focus turns back to the meal.  Passover will remain important, but will be altered for us to look forward, not backward anymore.

Matthew continues in verse 26 saying … “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. [verse 27] And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; [verse 28] For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”  For the remission of sins.  This meal is about the removal of the addiction of sin and our slavery to it.  It is only the life of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus, that empowers Jesus to re-create in you what needs to be re-created.  A new creature.  A new person.  A person devoid of sin.  A person who no longer craves sin, or wanders into it mysteriously.  A person who loves others so passionately they become in harmony with God, with His Laws, and with His heart.  This is the very core, the very power of the Gospel.  The power of Jesus does not end at forgiveness, it only begins there.  The power of Jesus carries through to ending sin completely, in you.

But so that we would have an idea of how special we are to God.  Jesus creates a new tradition even for Himself.  Matthew continues in verse 29 saying … “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.  [verse 30] And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”  Jesus will deny himself the taste of our grape juice, even the perfected version of it heaven alone can offer, until He drinks it again with us.  You can bet He has likely worked up quite a taste for that now.  And given the symbolism of drinking that drink when we are ALL back together at home in His kingdom – that is going to be some world class grape juice not a one of us can avoid loving.  I am not much of a grape juice fan here.  I have it on occasion, mostly prefer Kadem sparkling version.  But up there, you can just leave me a few pitchers of that stuff, I want a belly full.  They sang a hymn.  And they moved on.  The last meal was now a matter of history …

 

Daddy Issues ...

A lot of unkind jokes use the phrase “daddy issues” to make a punchline out of lifelong insecurities.  Most conventional thinking attributes the ideas of daddy issues to young women inexplicably attracted to older men.  But that is far from where it truly ends.  Nearly every child of divorce has some inkling of what daddy issues entails.  And divorced or not, every child of workaholic type “A” personality go-getter dads knows what it is like to live in that shadow and possibility never live up to it.  Who you are cannot be explained in full without knowing where you come from; not just who composed your family members, but what life was like with them as well.  All of us no matter the age we recognize it, look for a degree of affirmation from our fathers.  We want that “stamp of approval”, perhaps “parental pride”, to lean on, and know it is there, and it is as solid as concrete.  Given the state of our society, I would say those of us getting this affirmation, and knowing we have it, is a good deal less than the majority of our populous.

But it gets worse ☹.  You have probably heard the expression (derived from scripture), that “we are made in the image of God”.  This tells us we tie the roots of our existence in similarity to the God who created us.  Some people say “we have a God shaped hole in each of us”.  This is meant to convey that we each seek a love that only God can provide.  No other substitute for it, no matter what level of self-gratification we try to mask that need with.  If you mirrored our local family needs of at least at some point looking for the affirmation of our earth-bound fathers – then it stands to reason we will look even harder for the affirmation of our Heavenly Father.  But there’s the rub.  Local dad can tell me he loves me, or if he is proud of me (if he ever chooses to).  But Heavenly Dad seems to have a harder time getting that message across.  We have a distance thing to deal with.  And if not the physical distance, we also have a distance between us in how we love.  He loves me absolutely.  But instead of loving others that way, I tend to heap all the love I get, right back on me (ahh the invention of selfishness).  So how could our Father God, ever be proud of me, when it is clear, my life could hardly ever be a source of pride in a heavenly kingdom (where selfishness is something long since extinct in the average heavenly heart, let alone in a God, who was willing to die for me, to show me how far His love would take Him).

I am a disobedient child at best.  Belligerent, noisy, insisting I know what I am doing, when history is clear I do not.  Any Father of a two-year-old can tell you when they are screaming and covered in poo, it is hard to pick that precise moment to state your pride in them.  I should imagine this is a dilemma God faces nearly every time He looks at me.  On the other side of that coin, any Father of a two-year-old can also tell you that sometimes even despite our bad behavior we can still look pretty cute to Dad.  Perhaps it is because we belong to Dad.  Perhaps because we are His.  Perhaps it is His love that is able to see through our shenanigans and see us for who we could be, rather than perhaps who we are.  And every dad wants to clean up our dirty; nurse the boo-boo’s; and point us in a direction where what will bring us happiness is right in front of us (instead on unnoticed by us).  The daddy issues we may find ourselves having with God, don’t come because of His lack of love, they come from us failing to realize “this” is not what was meant for any of us.  There is something so much better.  And we need to trust Dad, that He is trying to set our course on a path to that (no matter how it looks in the here and now).

Matthew in his gospel to his Hebrew contemporaries, in chapter 25, continues discussing what the second coming will be like from a readiness point of view.  The conditions we face here and how we might steer clear of paths leading in the wrong direction.  Jesus gives us a parable (a story that is), to show themes His audience would understand better.  This one picks up in verse 1 saying … “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. [verse 2] And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.”  So call me cynical but in today’s modern age the first thing that jumps out at me is the ratio of brides to husband, ten to one, if I read this right.  My cynical mind jumps right to the unkind phrase “daddy issues”.  Why else would any bride be willing to share their husband with another bride, let alone with nine others?  But then I remember, this is a story to make a point, not a word for word endorsement of multiple-partner-marriages.

And then it also occurs to me, perhaps the Bridegroom, was the one NOT given a choice in the matter.  What? You ask.  Think about it.  Traditionally the bride(s) represent a church of some kind.  In this case we presume a Christian church.  And perhaps at the end of all things (i.e. in our modern age), there is more than “one” Christian Church who qualifies as being a bride of Christ.  Imagine that my Baptist friends, it could be that you will be sharing your virginal bride status, with our Catholic friends, and Mormon friends, and Adventist friends, and so on, and so on.  I know a good number of Christian denominations (my own no exception), that believe “they” are the only “virgin” – all the rest are sluts at best.  All of us Christians are quick to adopt the idea that our particular church is the virgin talked about in scripture, and any other church can get thrown into the “whore” category, also discussed elsewhere (and out of context).  But if Jesus was coming back to reclaim all the believers who follow Him, then perhaps He has an appointment with ten virgins instead of one, because our foolishness and pride over doctrines have left Him no choice but to find ten of us walled off from each other, each thinking we are “all that”.  When in truth, we each have only a portion of “the Truth”, too stubborn to accept that others might have other parts of “the Truth”.

Consider too, Jesus does not say the Bridegroom was coming to marry 2 virgins, 3 concubines, 2 divorcee’s, and 3 good old-fashioned prostitutes.  Instead all ten are virgins.  Which given our doctrinal differences (that cannot possibly “all” be right), it might be that the only thing that makes one a virgin is in how they truly “follow” Jesus Christ.  Not, if they have scriptural understanding perfect, or every prophecy coded down to a gnat’s behind.  But even in virginity, there is a distinction between the wise and the foolish.  Jesus tells us what that is continuing in verse 3 as he goes on stating … “They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: [verse 4] But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”  Daddy issues again perhaps?  This time however, it is more about how we listen to Dad, than whether His instructions are clear.  Think about it, virginity is not in question.  The fact that you are bride destined to marry our Lord is not in question.  This is about whether you carry the oil you need for a moment, or whether you plan ahead for any contingencies.  It is a subtle difference.

Everybody has oil on day one.  If we were to interpret that the “oil” was a reference to the Holy Spirit, then you could assume every believer has a notion of the role of the Holy Spirit and is at least initially happy to invite Him into our lives.  But when you invite God in, He comes.  And when you invite God in, He starts changing things.  Before you even realize it, sin is on its way out, and joy is backfilling the void.  Most of us would say bring it on.  But for each of us who has some sin we are not quite ready to give up, we may not want “that much” Holy Spirit in our lives and hearts.  What if the Holy Spirit begins taking the cherished sin out?  He might knock that sin right out of our hearts before we are ready to lose it.  For us foolish virgins, we want a “controlled” measure of the Holy Spirit in our lives, not a full measure of it.  We are still too foolish as to try to give up “all” our sins, we just want most of them gone, and keep only a small few we are so desperately fond of.  And so we create daddy issues when that was never the plan.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”  Yeah that is one of the more painful scriptures in the Bible, and such a clear commentary on how we various Christian churches keep dropping the ball.  It’s not so much that we “ALL” slept (the foolish and the wise).  It is that we ALL were more comfortable falling asleep from a delay in His return, than in pointing others to the light and love of Jesus Christ.  That is supposed to be the number one mission of any Christian church.  And yet, nope, each of us virgins, (insert a collective reference to yours and my church here), were all too happy to sleep on the accomplishments of our founders, than to get out there and help with the redemptive work.  That just hurts.  And it is not like we can blame this on a miscommunication from some random prophet in scripture, this is Matthew recording the very words of Jesus Christ Himself, that other gospels would seem to coordinate.  So even when our virginity is in tact (we truly follow Jesus), even when we are wise and invite a full measure of the Holy Spirit’s oil into our lives and hearts, we are still taking all that testimony and witness and sleeping on it, rather than sharing it.

The sadness continues as Jesus states in verse 6 saying … “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.”  At midnight, that is to say, when we are deep in sleep, and completely unaware something is coming.  Or as Jesus stated earlier, in an hour when we think not.  A cry is made.  Well guess what, the cry is NOT coming from one of the virgins.  They are ALL asleep.  The cry would most likely come from an external, heavenly, or heavenly inspired source.  Perhaps there is a group of Christians who are as we speak, learning to submit to Jesus, and experiencing a level of transformation from His love, that put them outside completely of all the known churches.  Or perhaps there are so few of them, it takes an angel to get things kicked off.  Either way, every church finally wakes up, and is told to begin to go out to meet the bridegroom.  Time to kindle up that oil.

Jesus continues in verse 7 saying … “Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. [verse 8] And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. [verse 9] But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.”  The foolish virgins, by wanting to cling to a few precious sins, have let their lights go out.  But they have some idea of what needs to be done.  They go to those who embraced the Holy Spirit fully, and ask them to give them some of that attractive sin killing oil.  But the time for acquiring oil requires an education the wise do not have time to give.  The foolish must go back to basics, and figure out how to get a full measure of the Holy Spirit so they too can get out there to meet the Bridegroom.  When Daddy teaches you how to trust Him, it is not a one-day process.  It takes time.  It takes a full submission.  You must learn how to recover from bumps in the road, we bring about by trashing the victories He gives, with our stubborn failures.  It takes the humility to come again to Dad, ask forgiveness, and start the process again.  And as we go through this process, we learn what it really means to trust Dad.  The daddy issues start to dissipate.

Jesus continues in verse 10 saying … “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. [verse 11] Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. [verse 12] But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. [verse 13] Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”  When Jesus comes, they that are ready will go with Him.  Those who are not ready, those who still cling to sin, any sin, do not understand the degerative disease they have chosen to hang on to.  It is like wanting to keep just a little bit of terminal cancer.  It is like being a cocaine addict and only keep a closet full of it (even though the rest of the house is clean).  When we cling to sin, it is a disease that overwhelms us.  It changes us.  It makes us self-centered.  And our self-centered-ness grows until that is all we really are, no matter what banner we claim as our belief system.

It will not be the moniker “Catholic” or “Baptist” that saves you in the end.  It will be whether you allowed Jesus and the Holy Spirit to wipe the sin out of you, in heart, mind, and body.  It will be whether you submitted to Jesus, and learned how to love like He loves.  When that happens you develop a passion for other people.  When you delay it, you embrace apathy for others, and love for yourself.  It leads to those horrible words coming from the foolish virgins who ask to be let it, and finding the Bridegroom saying “I know you not”.  In another parable, those words were uttered by Jesus associated with Christians who carried the name, but never did anything for the poor or needy, because they frankly did not care about the poor, imprisoned, or needy.  They were too busy in church to make time for people in need.  They were too busy performing miracles in the name of Jesus, too busy planning worship services, and offering sermons.  They did much in the name of Jesus (just not anything from a genuine love of others, only a need to be seen as great themselves).  And so Jesus says to them, I know you not.  A lack of embrace of full transformation leads to behavior that results in the ultimate of daddy issues.  It leads to losing Dad forever.

That is not what our Heavenly Dad wants.  The mission of Jesus was not to see us lose to sin, it was to see us let Him take the sin out of us.  We were not meant to live in pain, and suffer death.  We were meant to live in bliss, and know the true joy of loving others never even thinking of yourself.  The command to “Watch” by Jesus is not a veiled threat to those who understand transformation.  It means the clock is ticking, and we only have so much more time of participating in His redemptive mission to point others to the light and love of Jesus Christ.  Once Jesus returns, the clock is done.  No more time to help others.  Only time to return with Him.  Whoever we missed, whoever we did not love enough, is now a lost opportunity.  A fate no child wants to see.  And an issue for our heavenly Dad He just cannot bare to think about.  It is why He delays, desperately hoping each of us will come to Him.  The delay was not a punishment to those waiting His return, it was a desperate plea to those who could care less.  That kind of love that just does not want to give up, on even one poo-stained child, is where the heart of our Daddy is.

And the affirmation we seek from our Father, will one day come in person from Him, and forever more in person from Him.  And then, the idea of daddy issues will be gone forever.

And Jesus was not yet done trying to prepare us for His second coming …

 

A Crazy Big Wedding ...

A romance is a small and very intimate thing (or at least that is what women are constantly attempting to explain to their daft-thinking men 😊).  Moments spent alone.  Moments that wind up burning into our memories.  A level of intimacy that leads one to think; gee, I would like to do that over and over and over again.  If you gave men a big red button that if pushed would bring happiness, we would stand there for a 100-years pushing that thing over and over and over again.  But it is that mutual recognition that my life was just not complete until I met … [fill in the blank here].  That recognition inspires us to get married and put a lock on the big red happiness button forever.  And so it begins.  What was once a small intimate romance built for two, must now become a “wedding” that is the LAST thing from small and intimate.  The families must be notified (and included).  Unable to choose our blood-relatives there are sure to be hurt feelings (that could spit in our food) if we omit someone from the long list of guests if not participants in our “wedding”.

And where it comes to weddings, everyone (short the groom, who is still scratching his head) has ideas.  It is the bride’s day, so in theory, she should get to decide everything.  But those pesky relatives are sure to insert their “brilliant suggestions” at every turn.  It then requires the diplomatic skills of Henry Kissinger, to navigate potential conflicts, hurt feelings, family traditions, and of course what the bride wants.  No man is equipped for this level of diplomacy so most grooms simply surrender within the first day or two.  Good to have hubby out of the way, but that still requires fiancée to have the patience of a saint, and the ability to compromise for the sake of family unity … all of which drives a significant cottage industry in Vegas for weddings when both bride and groom just cannot take it anymore (or anticipate that early).  The simple truth is, where romance is by definition an intimate thing between two people; Weddings are a public event designed to include everyone in the celebration of a union intended to last forever.  While they are linked, they are rarely described the same way.

Enter God.  Silly us.  We thought a romance was only between two.  It is.  But God wants one too.  He wants His romance with just you.  He loves (for purposes of this example), just you.  He is “in love” with you.  It all started when you were an imagining in His head, so He made you.  He made you with certain skills, abilities, and interests … and then he brought you into existence and set you free to use what He gave you and grow into an even more unique person.  He watches you grow, like an excited parent, always pinning your refrigerator drawings up for all the universe to see.  He cries when you do.  He weeps when you get hurt, and weeps harder when you do the hurting to someone else.  He gets so happy He could dance when you look back home, and seek to build a relationship with Him, attempting to get to know Him, like He already knows you.  So the intimacy of our Creator God, is a level of romance, that would top any known to man.  His love for you was there first, and He hopes it will lure you to His side.  He hopes you will see His big red button of happiness, and decide you want to push it (even if only once in a while), just something to get your end of the romance going.

Silly us.  And we thought all we were ever going to have with our God was a romance built for two.  And no, I am not referring to how God would love to be at the center of your earthly marriage to do things you cannot even imagine getting done.  (Like changing hearts, habits, and minds).  No, I am talking about what God wants to culminate His romance with you.  He wants a wedding.  He wants a crazy big wedding.  He wants something that is a public event that expresses to the entire universe, that you and God, have decided to make a permanent relationship forever and ever.  It is going to be a party.  And yes, while you will not be the “only” bride in this equation, all of mankind in total, will make up the “bride” He has been romancing for so long, it seems like forever already.  He wants cake.  He wants grape juice.  He wants fruit with names we have yet to pronounce.  He plans to pick steak off the steak-growing-tree (why not, He is God after all), and cook it on a grill with mesquite charcoal that would make a Texan green with envy.  (and you “have” to try God’s spicy BBQ sauce, it is the stuff of legend).  He wants witnesses.  He wants a massive affair.  Everyone is invited.

Now enter Matthew recording a parable just like this imaginative story that Jesus first told so long ago.  He starts out his twenty-second chapter in verse one, with the third parable Jesus has been telling church leadership to get them to come back to the source of their religion (instead of replacing Jesus, with doctrine, that the Pharisees preferred and sometimes so do we).  The romance between Jesus and the church leadership is hot on the Jesus side; and ice cold on the leadership side.  It has been a one-way thing for a long time.  Jesus wants to change that (with them, and with you).  So he tries again in story form.  Beginning in verse 1 it says … “And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, [verse 2] The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,”

First let’s get the players and the context.  Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is a like a marriage that God has prepared for His only son.  God the Father is the King, who prepares this public event (of reconciliation for us) for His Son Jesus, who has long awaited this event.  The excitement is so thick you could cut it with a knife.  It continues in verse 3 saying … “And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.”  His church is His bride.  God sends His angels, and His servants (prophets, preachers, lay workers, anyone willing to work in His vineyard); the job of these servants was to tell the bride; it is time.  It is time for the bride to come to the wedding.  And “WE” would NOT come!!  Let that sink in for a minute.  The servants when to those who were supposed to be preparing, to those who were supposed to be in a romance with Jesus, but when the time finally comes, WE refuse to come.  This cannot be.  This is unfathomable.  But it is what happens.

The story continues in verse 4 saying … “Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.”  God decides to sweeten the deal.  He knows perhaps some brides get cold feet.  So he tries again, and this time reminds us, of the feast that will be coming.  Sacrifices have already been made.  Meat is ready to eat.  It has already been on the altar and is ready for eating now.  Perhaps the bride didn’t hear the first message, and anyone who loves a fiancée would not just throw in the towel because they have one bad day prior to the wedding.  Someone who loves like God loves, would try again, and intensify the beauty of the invitation, to cut through our blindness, get our attention, and remind us, “this” is what we have all been waiting for. 

Our response continues in verse 5 saying … “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: [verse 6] And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.”  Aaarg!  WE made “light of it”.  Who cares.  It is only salvation, why bother with perfection anyway, how good could it really be?  So instead of embracing it, they leave to pursue their own interests, one to a farm to work on creating his own perfection.  Another went to his business commerce to see if he could purchase his own perfection.  Those without jobs, or means, don’t want to hear that the gift of perfection or salvation is really ready for us – so they did what everyone always does – they beat the servants who brought this message.  And when they just would not shut-up (amazed we would so carelessly throw away a thing of such value) – WE killed the messengers.  The church did this.  The old one did it.  The new one did it.  And the one we are in, … is still doing it.  We spit on a gift we should have treasured, then we treat it far worse.

The story continues in verse 7 saying … “But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”  And a holocaust ensues targeting millions who claim the lineage or membership in the first church carried out by racist hate.  And an entire age is characterized as “dark” when the second church moves from Apostolic to death on horseback, killing all who would reform it, or bring light into it.  And today, we sit on the precipice of global environmental destruction as we still claim to be a bride, but have no idea who our groom truly is, or what it means to love anyone other than ourselves.  It is a dark picture that is painted when man rejects God thinking there are no final consequences to that choice.  Satan’s greatest lie is that we would not suffer for our sins, that we have “all the time in the world” to commit them, until all of the sudden, we don’t.  Evil will one day meet its end.  The only question, will you be consumed by evil when time is run out, or been made free from it so long ago.

But the story is not about rejection, it is about a crazy big wedding, and the wedding must go on.  So on to plan B.  It continues in verse 8 saying … “Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. [verse 9] Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.”  It is so easy to think of this as only applying to the Jewish faith.  They rejected Christ, therefore the church of God was taken from them and given to others.  That’s easy.  But that is not the whole story.  The first Christian church devolved from purity to death, and it was taken from them and spread throughout Protestantism.  And here near the end of times, it may move again from organized denominations to individual believers in Jesus, who are taken out of where they reside today, to follow an end-times calling.  Our organized structures seem to resemble walking a path that does not end well.  They could change.  But it would take change.  And no matter what the church leadership thought, the invitation went out, either with their help, or without it.

The story continues in verse 10 saying … “So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.”  Several things to take note of here.  The invitation is universal.  The attendees were a mix of “good” and “bad”.  Some people destined for the crazy big wedding with God are not perfected yet; they are still on the journey.  And what does every bride need most of all?  A wedding gown.  Usually white.  Usually provided to her by someone else (most often her father).  And what does Jesus offer each of those who choose to become part of His Kingdom, and trust Him to save them … a white robe of righteousness.  That white robe is a gift.  You cannot make it.  You cannot buy it.  You have to humble yourself and realize you need it, to take it when it is offered.  If you keep trying to make one yourself, you are destined for failure.  You don’t beat sin, because you want to, or you choose to, or you kept fighting it.  You don’t beat sin.  Jesus does.  Jesus recreates inside of you, something else to want, something else to do, another way to think, another way to love.  He gives you your white robe of perfection, you don’t do anything, but take it (and maybe say thank you).

The story continues in verse 11 saying … “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: [verse 12] And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.”  So if you are the only one in a room full of people wearing white robes as bright as the sun; and you are not, you will stick out like a sore thumb.  But there is always one person in church, who is sure, that going to church will save them.  Or another who believes if you pray 4 hours a day, that should do it.  Or another who believes if you memorize the entire Bible, you get a pass to get in.  But they are wrong.  There is no list of things you can do, that will earn you a white robe.  It remains a simple gift, for those humble enough to realize they cannot do it themselves.  Jesus makes you into who He wanted you to be, instead of the mess you made or make.  It is that re-creation, that restores you into harmony with the law.  Without it, going through motions, and abiding by the letter of what is written, is just not enough.  For it never touches your heart.

When confronted with the simple question, why didn’t you take the free white robe?  The man is speechless.  There is no answer to that very basic question.  It is the mystery of iniquity, why would we choose it, over God.  The story concludes in verse 13 saying … “Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [verse 14] For many are called, but few are chosen.”  The man with the beige wedding gown finds himself thrown out, away from the presence of Jesus, into the utter darkness that exists when you choose not to keep your eyes upon Jesus.  Weeping and gnashing of teeth is to be expected.  When romance ends from rejection you decided, and then you realize what a mistake you have made, it is often too late to do anything but nurse your self-broken heart.  In love there is light.  Without love, or bathed only in self-love, there is only darkness and failure.

But so as not to bury the lead, consider the 14^th verse … “for many are called; but few are chosen.”  This is not a disclaimer about the love of God being limited.  Keep in mind, His invitation went out first to His church, the people who claimed to know Him, and were supposed to be waiting for Him to come and set them free.  But in this story, they rejected Him.  A pattern we see across time.  The invitation then went out to the entire world (no shortage of love there); and both bad and good were invited to the wedding event.  It was understood that some were not at the end of their journey to perfection, they were still on it.  But again, the invitation was universal.  Many were called.  You could say all of us were called.  The question is what we do with our own unique invitation.  For our invitation comes amidst the romance our God continues to want to have with each of us.  He longs for our hearts, and just a little of our time and attention.  He puts aside one day every week for a special romance time, where we could come, hang out with our Dad, and play.  He is always there with us.

But do we make light of it?  Do we tend to our farms, and our commerce, trusting to our wealth to save us, or at least make our lives better?  Do we look away from Jesus into the utter darkness that exists everywhere Jesus is not?  Do we get so tired of hearing His servants invite us to perfection that we begin to ignore them, beat them, or kill them altogether?  Do we repeat the sins of the church leaders who walked before us, refusing new light, and the love of Jesus that might make white robes of righteousness to surround us, robes we could never make on our own.  All these warning are given so we avoid these mistakes not repeat them.  The goal of this story was to insure we are at the wedding, dressed in the robes He provides, enjoying the feast and the spectacle.

And it feels like this is the piece we are the quickest to forget.  A wedding is AWESOME!!  We are enjoying the culmination of our relationship with Jesus – entry into forever.  No more pain.  No more death.  Not just physical pain, or emotional pain, but every kind of pain you have ever had the misfortune of coming to know.  NONE of it, was supposed to be something you got to know, none of it.  Sin was the ugly cause behind every effect; and sin will be forever removed.  Not just from what you do, but from what you think, what you want, and even how you reason.  That sacrifice is already made.  And you don’t need to do it.  It wasn’t about you.  It was done for you.  Instead of you.  All that is left now for you, is a life without pain.  Loving like Jesus loves, sets you free inside yourself.  It keeps you from causing pain to yourself, and to those you love.  It alters your thinking, even how you read scripture.  And it is free.  The message remains “the time is now”; are you ready to join the wedding?  Could there really be any other choice that seems valid to you over that?

Three stories were told to our church leadership forefathers.  How they responded would unfold next …

 

Darkness Has a Plan for You ...

We talk extensively about what plans Jesus has in mind for you.  They begin with your liberation.  Your freedom from slavery to self-love, and the sin you embrace.  The plans of Jesus for you, start by breaking your chains to pain and death, and in their place granting you a new life, a real life, something way more than mere existence.  In short, what Jesus has in mind for you (and only you), is unique to you, and offers a purpose without end, an infinite place in His Kingdom that will never expire – and they begin in the here and now, as soon as you allow them to begin.  But unfortunately, these are not the only plans that exist where you are concerned.  Your life is a not a simple choice of what you want, and what Jesus wants.  That is not the two-way choice you face.  If it is not the light you choose to embrace - that will form a shield around you; the darkness is all that is left to you.  The darkness tells you, that “you” are strong and in charge of your fate.  Submission is an act of weakness, you need not submit to Jesus (though the reality is that through submission, you replace your weakness, with His strength).

The goal of the darkness is to first deceive you into believing that there is no darkness at all.  Once you accept this premise, darkness will have full sway over you, and you without the slightest recognition, that events, circumstances, and results are not “just” because of what you choose, and why you choose them; but because you are under attack by a darkness so black its malevolence cannot be fully measured.  Yet so many, even within the church, come to believe the darkness is not real, something of bed time stories, and tools to control the masses through fear.  But fear, is not a tool to escape sin, it is a reason for sin, and a symptom of sin.  Jesus does not want your fear, He wants your trust, and ultimately He hopes you will make a choice to love Him.  The devil is slick in projecting the negative aspects of who he is on to God, accusing God of the things he (the devil) is most guilty of himself.  Obfuscate, hide the idea of darkness at all, and convince you that your life is a matter of luck, and God’s punishment, that darkness plays no role in it at all.

But what happens when you begin to deviate from “normal” behavior.  What happens when you entertain thoughts of the abnormal, of the unacceptable to social norms, and find them attractive, appealing, and ultimately ideas you wish to follow and embrace?  What is perverse, becomes a part of who you are, and who you have chosen to become.  And perversity need not have only to do with sexual expression, it can exist in a number of plains.  The kleptomaniac steals, like you and I take a breath.  We look at these people and refer to their condition as a sickness, as a form of mental disorder.  But that is not how they see themselves.  What is aberrant and perverse to us, is fully normal to them; even if normal is different, just a different idea of normality.  The drug addict, and addicts of every variety, understand logically the danger of their behavior but choose it anyway to get the fix.  The child who entertains the ideas of torturing small animals, and works his way up to humans, becoming a serial killer and a sociopath – chooses not to see himself as a “problem” but as a “solution” to our society.  The perverse expanding its reach across our populous more insidious than any virus, and more effective in its spread.  Until every man looks in the mirror and determines that they are good person, despite whatever differences there might be in how they behave.

But facts remain.  The timeline for darkness is finite.  It will one day come to an end.  John wrote in revelation about the very end of evil, when Satan himself will finally be consumed in the lake of fire.  And once that is done, death itself will be consumed.  The ultimate death of evil.  The ultimate death of death.  No eternal minions to propagate the existence of evil, or torture, or dying.  Instead the absolute end of it, in thought, in motive, in deed, and in instruments of its expression.  This means Satan is on a clock.  Where once he existed from his creation, in a life not intended for an ending, now he is destined to one day be finally consumed in fire, never to exist again.  That clock ticks loudly in his ears.  Every day is a day closer to his final end.  He cannot avoid it (though he will try).  He cannot overcome it.  He is bound to his fate.  So as evil does, it looks for a way, to plot revenge.  Forgiveness does not exist in the mind of evil, any more than mercy does.  And to strike with revenge, he must strike at what God loves the most, namely at you.

So darkness formulates plans for your life, just as firmly as what Jesus does.  The darkness can hurt God, by hurting you.  They can make the pain of God greater, by having you blame God for the pain that comes your way (when in secret it was never Him).  They can make the pain of God better, when they get you to hurt yourself.  They can make this pain better when they can deceive you into believing that a “new normal” is just as good as any old normal, even if that includes being a serial killer, or an addict, or someone who thinks forced sex is better than consensual sex especially as it relates to children.  In morphing what you do, the evil spreads, and impacts itself on other children of God further increasing the pain.  And do you then have value in the dark kingdom … no.  You are nothing to them, merely a tool to spread pain, and a victim to have pain inflicted on.   Lest you believe any differently, or think it could never happen to you, or think you are too innocent (or your baby) is too innocent, to ever be caught up in this – lets take a look at a story Matthew recorded in his gospel in chapter seventeen.

Matthew picks up in verse 14 saying … “And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, [verse 15] Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.”  First note, that the victim is not the man himself, a father, and someone who believes in the power of Jesus Christ.  The victim is the son, a child, presumably an innocent child.  But his state or age in life, did not prevent his possession, by a demon of the darkness.  And what does this demon force the victim to do, to fall into fires to burn, or into waters to drown.  The darkness plagues this boy, to send pain to his father, his parents, his family.  The darkness tortures this boy to rebuke the church (whether old or new).  And the boy, or what happens to the boy is of no consequence.

Matthew continues in verse 16 saying … “And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.”  Yikes!  This father, brought the boy to the disciples of Jesus.  You know, the ones with the keys to the kingdom, who are able to bind things on earth (figuratively) and have them reflected or heard in heaven.  James the future leader of the church in Jerusalem, Peter the future evangelist to the world, and John the chief prophet of the Christian faith, as well as all the others and none could cure him.  Now everyone of us, looks at Judas and says in our hearts – figures.  But then Judas had the same gifts of demon repulsion as did any other disciple, and was no less a leader in the church, and in the faith as Peter, or as you, or as me.  So the failure of Judas was no more or less the same failure as Peter.  It was not about what Judas would ultimately do, that causes him to fail.  For Judas could have been forgiven of that future sin, just as Peter was forgiven for ones he would commit in the heat of those events.  The problem of this father, and his boy, were in the here and now, and in the here and now – not one of the disciples could overcome the darkness nestled in this boy.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. [verse 18] And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.”  First note, that the child is healed immediately.  There is no delay on the part of Jesus.  The misery the darkness brings to this child’s life is over for now.  But the words of Jesus look none too happy.  “O faithless” generation.  Is Jesus speaking to the dad, seems very unlikely as the dad believes, and tried the disciples of Jesus, before coming to Him personally.  And the boy may or may not even be present, and is infected with a demon, so unlikely Jesus is challenging his faith.  There will be no blaming of the victim here.

But the church?  Is Jesus challenging his own disciples?  Is He challenging the Pharisees and Sanhedrin?  Or is He challenging you and I?  Perhaps all of the above.  But it is not just our faithlessness that warrants the attention of Jesus, it is also our perversion.  Have we adopted the aberrant as normal, perhaps just a different kind of normal, but one far outside of harmony with the laws and character of a God of love?  Do we see ourselves in the mirror, and see nothing wrong.  Have we perverted the Word itself.  Have we used the Word to justify our traditions, our ideas, and our notions of separation with the brotherhood of Christ – each group claiming purity, while ostracizing any other “less informed” groups of believers.  Our perversion need not just be in our sexual expression, it can also be founded in how we read the Word, and what we do with what we find, using it as a weapon against other sinners, instead of a hospital field manual of how to love others back to the feet of Jesus, ever pointing them there for the relief they so desperately need. 

How long shall I be with you?  And more poignantly; how long shall I suffer you?  These questions of Christ imply a seeming limit to His patience.  But I believe it is more a statement of His absolute frustration with us.  He offers total healing.  He offers a path to perfection, and a life beyond our wildest dreams.  And we sit around delaying that choice, avoiding it, postponing it.  As if the pain and death we now embrace is somehow better than what He offers.  Our blindness, our stupidity, so amplified against what the alternative is.  This is the plans of darkness for you, unfolding in your real life.  To keep you from submission to Jesus.  Making up all kinds of excuses why you should ever avoid that choice.  Not yet, you need to make more money first.  Not yet, you need to have unbridled sex with as many as you can first.  Not yet … the list goes on and on … each choice a hidden pathway to pain and death and misery along the way.  The words of Jesus reflect a coming finality to making that choice for something better.  There is a clock, and it is ticking – whether for Satan, or for you with him.  This is not about fear, it is about a choice for something so much better, that could be made now, right now.

Matthew concludes this snippet picking up in verse 19 saying … “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? [verse 20] And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. [verse 21] Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”  We have our answer.  Jesus tells the disciples, that it is “their” unbelief that caused their failure.  That was not a slight against Judas alone.  It was an assessment across all of them, even the ones who will one day take a more leadership role in the faith.  And perhaps a continued assessment of you and I.  Faith as small as a grain of mustard seed is a tiny thing, and yet none of us seem to wield it.

We accept the cancer we encounter as “a fact of life”, never once considering it might be a direct result of the darkness.  We accept the need and the poor, as just another “fact of life”, again ignoring the influence and direct plans of the darkness on the lives of those impacted.  And none of us wield our grain of mustard seed to provide the fix – not a relief to suffering, only an accompaniment through it – instead of a true miraculous fix.  We just let the pain linger.  Afraid to test our mountain to be moved.  Afraid to be shown publicly, we lack the faith to even make it rumble a little.  And the plans of darkness triumph at the expense of the weak wielding of our mustard seeds of faith.  What is more, Jesus offers that this particular demon requires prayer and fasting to get it to leave.  As we try to pray with our tiny faith, perhaps our faith would be better augmented if we were willing to fast quietly, pray incessantly, and then look again to see if our mountains have been moved, and the demons of darkness vanquished against the bright light of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Your life will come down to only two paths.  It will not be a choice between good and evil.  That is too easy.  It will be a choice between submission to Jesus, and a liberation and freedom that leads to real life as it was meant to be enjoyed.  Or it will be consumed with the plans of darkness who care no more for you than does a tyrant stepping on an ant as he moves from one place to the other.  There is no middle ground.  There is no happy median.  There is life abundantly.  Or there is misery even more abundantly.  Everything else is deception.  Everything else is fear.  There really is only one way out, and His name is Jesus Christ.  And Jesus had more yet to say …