An Atheist's Anthem ...

 “If I only saw a sign, I would believe.”  This is a familiar chorus I have heard from nearly every non-believer I have encountered.  Sadly, it is also a familiar refrain I have heard from many Christians.  We look for the impossible to validate a faith that does not make any sense.  We ask to see the impossible for ourselves, unwilling to take the words or testimony of others on this account.  It needs to be personal.  It needs to be tangible.  Or else, how could I believe?  And in this we destroy our journey-of-faith and wish for certainty in its place.  But be honest, how could you ever be certain, of the impossible?  Even if you witness a single incident of it, will one witness be enough to believe in all the others, and for the rest of your life?  So if you must witness more than one incident, how many will be enough?  All of them?  Would it really take time travel to finally make us believe that what is recorded in scripture was real?  If you are looking here, you are cheating yourself.  There is another venue, and something a lot more personal for each of us.

To begin, certainty is not the goal.  If I asked you to trust me, how would you go about it?  You might evaluate our interactions, our history together.  You might conclude that if my behavior was always in line with your expectations, that you could extend trust to me, and then see what happens.  But therein lies the catch.  No matter how I have behaved with you in the past, no matter how consistent our history may be, each time you extend trust to me, you take a risk.  If past is prologue, then you may believe the risk to be low.  But that “belief” is still a “belief” you hold about my trustworthiness, based on a myriad of factors, but none the less a “belief” that I will not let you down.  This is how trust works. 

You may trust your mom for example, because your mom has demonstrated that she loves you.  Even if she screws up, she still loves you, though her mistake proves her human.  You may even elect to extend trust to her again after a huge mistake, because there has been only one (or few you know about), and generally she does not make them.  But even with mom (mistakes or no), every time you extend trust, you hold a “belief” that it is worth it, to trust her.  Certainty is impossible.  Because you cannot absolutely predict what anyone else (including God) may do, or why they do it.  In the end, you have ideas about it, guesses about it, even educated guesses about it.  But behavior is a tricky thing to absolutely predict, and so people surprise us sometimes (for better or for worse).  To trust anyone, is to embrace “belief”, at the exclusion of absolute certainty.

But where God is concerned, it is more blame that goes around, than trust.  That has directly to do with our picture of “who or what” God is.  The media, our parents, our church, our friends, our professors, may have all played a role in forming an image in your mind about who God is.  Suffice it to say, it boils down to one of 2 main images.  Most folks think God is a version of Santa Clause.  We go to Him to ask for stuff.  We are happy when we get it.  Mad when we don’t.  But are generally quick to ruthlessly blame God for anything bad that happens, under the logic that Santa should have been watching and been able to prevent the bad stuff before it ever happened.  After all, He has done it for others, why not me?  Way too many Christians have this exact image of God, despite all the scriptures.  Most Atheists just don’t believe in any kind of Santa Clause, or any god, but if there were a God, He would be to blame for everything.

In the Santa Clause picture of God, no trust is required.  Neither is certainty.  If you get the stuff you asked for, hallelujah.  If not, it must not be in God’s time yet.  So Santa has a slot machine sort of response to what you ask for, the odds are low, but you never know.  How could faith ever grow in you, if this is the image of God you believe in, or have the most experience with?  And believe me, Satan is WAY too happy to keep this image of God in your mind.  Perhaps enough to grant you some of those wishes himself, in order for you to never shed this image of the God you pray to.  But our real God, needs us to trust Him.  That trust is a critical component of His ability to save us – from us.  Denying yourself to let some random God you don’t really know remake who you are, is just not likely.  Better to keep the Santa image, and just hope for the best.

So God’s problem is getting you to stop thinking of Him in terms of doling out rewards and punishments, and start thinking of Him for the Being He truly is.  The other image of God (a saving God).  God wants to save you, from you.  He loves you (being the primary and singular motive of His).  God sees sin as the punishment and the addictive disease.  And He has only one way to rid you of it.  But for that to work, you have to trust Him enough to let Him do it, in spite of how it looks.  Trust, in spite of common sense.  Trust, in spite of what everyone else tells you.  Trust, that He is able to do the impossible in you, where history demonstrates, you are clearly unable to do it.  So if that is His mission, and trust is what He needs from you.  Offering you certainty does nothing to accomplish it.  If you witness a 1,000 different acts of the impossible, all you will have learned is that it is possible for God to do the impossible.  You might have already imagined that.  But you will still have no reason to let Him reconstruct who you are.  A thousand elements of certainty do not build trust, they build resentment.  Back to the Santa Clause image – now that I have seen 1,000 impossible things – I intend to open complaints about why I did not benefit from any of them.  A thousand acts of love and impossibility for others, does me not one bit of good.  So now I am mad at Santa, because there was only coal in my stocking, while my neighbor got Barbie’s playhouse.

The first problem with asking for signs, is that it does not bring trust.  The second, is that it will only make you mad they were not for you, or selfish if they were (who does not want more miracles in their own lives).  And lastly they are usually requested as a condition of belief (instead of a result of it) doing nothing to foster trust, so there will never be enough of them, to really make a believer out of you.  You will either find a way to let your skepticism reduce the impossible, to a scientifically explainable trick (or perhaps a random set of circumstances that worked out just right despite the incredible odds, like say the hypothesis of evolution) - or you will find you have an insatiable appetite for more signs, at the cost of what you profess is a belief.  In any case, the mission God has to save you, from you, by remaking you fails because He grants your wishes for signs as a condition of belief.  A change in thinking, on the other hand, will pull back the veil that has blinded your eyes to the impossible.  What you witness after a change in how you perceive life, is going to be mind blowing.  Sounds crazy right now, but that’s the point.  It is crazy.  But it is also real.  And it will be a lot more personal to you than you could possibly imagine now.

Take as a case in point the story of two types of people in the gospel of Matthew the 27^th chapter.  Picking up in verse 38 it reads … “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.”  You could argue these men might have been believers in the Jewish faith (though obviously not perfect observers of the Law).  It is not known exactly what they believed at least from Matthew’s account.  However we know from other versions of the good news, that one repented before he died, the other did not.  Dieing in the company of known criminals tends to make one look like a criminal even if this is not true.  This death will do nothing to uplift the reputation of Christ.  But Jesus does not care about His reputation.  In His trial all manner of lies were told about Him, and His response was perfect silence.  No condemnation, no calling people out on their sins, only silence.  But Jesus was eager to speak to anyone who seeks salvation.  When the dying theif seeks Jesus, Jesus responds, no matter what kind of physical pain He was in.  When that same theif was hurling insults at Him, Jesus remained silent.

Matthew continues in verse 39 saying … “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, [verse 40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Dying in the company of thieves, and up on a Roman cross, was decidedly NOT the sign the Jewish people were looking for where it comes to proving Jesus was God.  These were believers.  These were those who studied scriptures.  And yet their ideas about what God was supposed to do – that is, to throw off Roman oppression and setup a Kingdom that would last forever – overpowered all the other texts and prophecies that predicted exactly this part of the mission of God to save us.  “Believers” who desired something else of God, and refused to accept what God was actually doing to truly answer their prayers.  When Santa does not behave how we want Him to, what good is Santa right?  And so in this case, the very fact Jesus was actually fulfilling prophecy, was the very fact that disqualified Him as being the Messiah in their minds.  Sound familiar?

How often do we ask God for a thing, and threaten Him that if He does not do it, we will believe no longer?  Save me.  Save my child.  Save my spouse.  From the disease and death that stalk them.  If the results are not what we expect – we become angry and decide there cannot be a God – or else why did He not answer my prayer.  But perhaps He did, just not in the way you expected.  Perhaps from Gods point of view, saving you, your child, your spouse, for eternity is most important to all of you.  Should earthly life end today, and infinite life begin tomorrow, reunited, with infinite love in all of your hearts – is this not the preferred outcome all of you would want, even if it comes at the price of shortening how long you live in this world today?  Let’s say instead of focusing on the eternal, that God allowed you the answer to your prayers, and saved that life in the here and now.  As time passes, you, or your child, or your spouse, begin to change (not for the better).  Perhaps over time, one of you decides there is no God at all, and if there is, He is not worth following.  Sin is more “fun”, instead of the disease it truly is.  If that is how you meet your end in this world, and the eternal world is sacrificed in the process.  Did God really do what was in your best interest all those years ago when He saved you only to meet this new end?  And God knows what you will choose long before it happens.  Santa might let this play out.  But God would rather it didn’t.  God would prefer to cherish you while your free will choice reciprocates that love, rather than let you exist long enough to discard it under the weight of sin’s embrace.

So because God does not do what we want or expect, does not make Him any less trustworthy.  Keep in mind Jesus was doing what ALL of us need for salvation.  Not trying to prove Himself to nay-sayers at the time and place of His death.  Matthew continues in verse 41 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, [verse 42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.”  And there we have it, the Athiest’s Anthem coming right out of the mouths of the very top leadership of the church at that time.  What image of God do you suppose they had, the one of a saving God who would die in our place, and fulfill prophecy – or the one of Santa who doles out punishment and reward emphasis on punishment.  And had Jesus descended off that cross in front of their eyes, gliding right down in front of them fully healed, what do you suppose their response would have been?  They would have hated Him all the more, because now Roman oppression still abounded, and Jesus would be impossible to kill after all.  Think about it, they already had ALL the previous miracles Jesus did to consider in weighing whether or not He was the Messiah, and NONE of them changed their course of action or belief.  They chose to dismiss every previous sign and still pursue killing Him.

And should Jesus have chosen to assuage His own ego, by proving to these priests He truly did have this power, what kind of God does that truly make Him?  A God of ego?  Who would gladly sacrifice our eternal considerations for those of the moment?  How could we be saved then?  It is often our expectations of what God should do, that could never be met anyway.  Because we come from a place of ego and selfishness, where God comes from a totally opposite perspective.  Jesus believes it is better to die to save all of us, than to do anything shortsighted, and gain nothing.  Jesus never used any of His power to benefit Himself.  Instead He used it unceasingly on us, the objects of His love, restoring us, removing the pain of sin and death from us.  Our restoration tops the mind of a saving God.  Not just getting rid our physical diseases, but getting rid of the way more deadly sinful disease of bad motives driving bad choices we continue to embrace.  Curing us of our desire to sin, is way more important.  Saving us from an eternal perspective way more important than saving us in the moment.

The ridicule continues as Matthew writes picking up in verse 43 saying … “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. [verse 44] The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”  Matthew hears the mockery of the thieves, but misses the repentance of the one.  Here we have an example of Jesus suffering the same fate as we do from time to time.  Jesus trusted in His Father.  And yet, He was dying, very painfully in this world.  The Father had NO interest in seeing His Son be tortured and die.  But the Father had a GREAT interest in seeing all of humanity be saved and reconciled unto Himself.  The death of His Son was that price.  In order that the need for Justice be satisfied.  So Jesus dies, in extreme pain we inflicted.  And the Father must sit there in silence and watch.  The eternal salvation outweighing the salvation of the moment.  This is how great our God desires to save us in the eternal realm, not just the here and now.  It is a different way of thinking.

So the repentant thief represents one kind of person, the mocking priests another.  For those mocking priests, no sign would ever be enough.  And frankly the next section of texts are going to have some doozies.  For the repentant thief however, for those of us who seek salvation from Jesus, what will happen in us is a change.  You will note that repentant theif was NOT saved from the cross.  He died in this world, but with certainty about his own place in the next one.  And change began to occur even in the worst dying circumstances any of us can imagine.  We too will become different than we are today.  Not because we work for it.  But because we begin to choose to trust Him, and allow Him to remake us however He sees fit.  Then change is surely on its way in us.  We read scripture differently.  We begin to see love as the primary motivation, instead of some wild afterthought.  We begin to reason differently.  And over time, the blinders of bad choices, the blinders of doubt, fall away – and what is revealed is a regular diatribe of the impossible happening all the time.  For example, the changing of hearts.  Not just of others, but of my own.  Learning how to love differently, and more deeply, than you had ever imagined.  No seminar could ever get this done.  But allowing Jesus full access sure does.  Without Jesus, things tend to degenerate.  But with Jesus, things tend to improve, especially in areas where it matters the most.

That sign, that impossibility, is very personal, very tangible, and you will live with its benefit every day of your life.  Does it cure your cancer?  No.  It could.  But it does not have to.  It fixes something more important.  The quality of your days expands exponentially, whether you are beset by physical pain and disease, or whether you are healed from them.  Keep in mind, disease does not exist in heaven.  So whether here or there, you are destined to see disease, pain and death no more.  And what happens to the desire to see a sign now?  You lose the selfishness part of that.  Instead of asking for goodies for yourself, you have no thought of yourself.  But you are swamped with thoughts of others.  You want to BE a sign for someone else, help them, meet their need if you can, no matter how you are feeling at the time.  And where you are powerless to meet their need, you do ask God for the impossible.  Not as a condition of belief, but because you are SURE He can, and will do what is right for that person’s eternal interest.  Where it comes to the removal of sin, 100% guarantee He wants that.  Where it comes to all the other worldly stuff, His gifts must fall in line with our salvation.  Knowing He longs to give them, and knowing He must hold them back, if they would add to our downfall.

Life, instead of existence, is a very tangible, and personal thing.  No one else can define it for you.  No one else can deny the impossible you are witness to in your heart and life.  For you know what is true for you.  You see what God does in your life.  What you suffer from in the eyes of others matters not.  Whether you are burdened with wealth, sickness, persecution – those do not represent the favor or curse of God.  They represent the danger of evil in this world, and are used by Satan to try to get people to believe in a Santa Clause image of God doling out rewards and punishments.  But for the one who truly believes, and chooses to truly trust, the curtain is pulled back – and the impossible is revealed every day no matter what our circumstances or positions may be.  Certainty has never been the goal.  Trust in spite of not knowing has always been it.  That kind of trust prevents the next Satan in the world to come.  And creates a new creature of you in the world we live in today.

 

What We Never Watch ...

I hate it when networks cancel a perfectly good TV show.  No, I am not talking about Modern Family, which turns out to be one of my favs.  But some group of writers come up with a really good idea.  They pitch it with success.  They hire an ensemble cast of actors to give the script life.  And great TV is born.  However, just because a show is great, does not mean everyone watches it.  People are busy.  Sometimes there is an even better alternative on another network.  Sometimes the DVR just never seems to get watched.  And for reasons completely mysterious to a fan like me, the great TV, becomes extinct TV.  And I am left buying whatever seasons they make and adding them into my Vudu account.  I’m also left wishing some other network would buy the show, and restart it, picking up right where the story last ended.  But most often, those idealized episodes never come to be, and they remain something I will never watch.

Something else I never seem to watch, is a fig tree.  I would bet most of us are not fig tree farmers, and even the ones who like fig newtons get them at the supermarket.  So why would any of us take the time to watch a fig tree?  Matthew provides a metaphorical answer in his gospel in chapter 24 picking up with the words of Jesus about what we watch, what we pay attention to, and why it matters.  Jesus begins to transition His conversation with His disciples from the signs they will witness before His coming – to the conditions they will see.  It begins in verse 32 saying … “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: [verse 33] So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”  Turns out fig trees have a “tell”.  That is when leaves start coming out, summer is near.  A metaphor for us, in that when we see the signs Jesus previously outlines in this chapter, we would know the Temple destruction is near, as well as looking across time, His second coming would be near as well.  Right at the door.

Despite the text, I still have never paid attention to a fig tree.  But it does make me wonder, do I pay any more attention to the signs that have already come to pass, or the ones currently taking place.  Or am I just as blind to them, as I am to TV shows that never seem to materialize?  But Jesus is steadfast as He continues in verse 34 saying … “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [verse 35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. [verse 36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”  The certainty of what Jesus prophecies is sure.  The Temple was destroyed exactly as He described within the lifespan of the generation He was talking to.  No Christian died in that tragedy because they all read the signs and fled as Christ had instructed.  History bears that out.  But as certain as the signs are of the second coming, no one will know what day that will occur on except the Father in Heaven.  Angels don’t know it.  Only the Father.  Despite how many Christian sects, or movements, have thought they knew better.  They don’t.

There is another kind of TV show that I have enjoyed over the years.  Family style dramas.  Shows like “This is Us”, “Desperate Housewives”, “The OC”, etc.  They depict Hollywood versions of what real life looks like.  We get engrossed in the characters and start wondering what they will do next, or how they will react to the next thing life throws at them.  But Hollywood understands well, these characters need to include some pretty folks for us to look at.  The shows seem to do better if there is some passion and intimacy thrown in.  But fidelity?  It would appear by dissecting a litany of network TV family drama’s that fidelity is not as good for ratings as variety in the bedroom.  Recent TV is starting to buck this trend, but it is not gone altogether.  Of course, the latest trend today is to “normalize” what used to be “unusual” behavior at least in the Christian community.  Divorce has long since been transformed from the shame of broken relationships to a simple alterative choice if things get bad, or the wind blows.  Gay relationships look just like traditional ones (fidelity, divorce, adoption, all the same).  When transgender issues come to the forefront, you can bet they will introduce characters in “lifestyle” TV that deal with these issues until fluid sexuality is accepted as commonplace.  It’s not about judging these things it is just about how quickly we normalize them into our societal view as we watch them over and over on TV.

It is the ability of great TV to normalize for us, what we do not even realize is being normalized.  Constant exposure to ideas, embedded in characters, shows us a portrait of the struggles people have until we identify with them.  But when how we live is something we think so normal, we just stop paying attention to it.  It becomes something we just do not watch.  But this condition we find ourselves in was exactly what Jesus predicted we would face before His coming.  He continues in verse 37 saying … “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [verse 38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, [verse 39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”  In a word unexpected.  Because what we think of as normal life, will be the conditions that prevail all the way up until when Jesus does return.  It is what we never watch.  Or perhaps more accurately, what we never see coming.

And what do you think Jesus will find when He does return, if our version of normal life is what He predicted?  I would imagine there will be thousands of Christian churches, because there are nearly that many denominations (or variants of denominations) that exist today.  That would be normal.  I would imagine there a great many people who claim the name of Christ, but look just like their worldly counterparts.  They live the same, sin the same, love the same.  That would be normal.  It is what exists today.  But even in normality, there are a few odd balls.  Noah and his family were odd balls back in their day.  Noah actually listened to God who spoke to him.  In our world today, there are a few Christians who are not as interested in that moniker as they are in watching Jesus transform who they are into something else.  There are a few odd ball Christians who have discovered love is what it is all about.  Not some mamby-pamby love people use as an excuse to do anything they want – but real transformative love that seems to burn the sin right out of you while you were not paying attention to it.  Mysterious love that makes the life of another person worth more to you, than your own.

That kind of transformation over time makes you different.  It gives you a different set of priorities.  It may not change your career, or the fact that you still function in the same society everyone else does.  But it makes you a different person on the inside, which begins to infect what you do, how you love, and how you make the world around you a better place.  Not to earn points, not to earn anything, but because it is just who you become.  To a casual observer you look just like everyone else.  But to those you encounter, you look totally different.  Because what emanates from within you is totally different.  It is the love of Jesus flowing through you like Niagara Falls.  And to the world, you would be considered an odd ball, because that kind of love is just not normal.  Judgment, condemnation, and hate speech, the world is used to.  But that kind of redemptive love is a new thing, a rare thing, and remains bottled up in a bunch of odd balls across all walks of life you would never expect.  That is, you would never see coming.

Jesus continues describing what He finds upon His return in verse 40 saying … “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [verse 41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [verse 42] Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”  Not everyone who carries the banner Christian, has discovered Jesus yet.  This is the sad fact the Lord describes upon His return.  One is ready.  One is not.  Whether you live and work in a rural area, or in the city.  One is ready.  One is not.  This is not about the manner of the Lord’s return.  Jesus has just described the manner of His return only a few verses ago as being something “everyone” will see (at once).  It will be as lightning that shines from east unto west.  That is the “how”.  This is the conditions Jesus will find upon His return, when our version of “normal” Christian pervades across the Christian church.  And only a few odd balls remain across all walks of life.  Odd balls running over with the love of Jesus.

We are told right here specifically to “watch”.  But for most of us “normal” Christians it is as if Jesus asked us to watch a network that is just not on TV.  We are more like the disciples who were asked to watch and pray with Him in Gethsemane, and instead we find ourselves asleep comfortably in the normality of our lives, and the normality of our Christian experience.  But “normal” is not ever what was called for.  And what we watch, even great TV, was not the thing we were supposed to keep our eyes on.  What we do watch is changing us.  But sadly, even great TV is probably not changing us for the better.  And it is totally devoid of transforming who we are for the better.  It is more adept at normalizing.  That it excels at.  Meanwhile Jesus is asking us to wake up and keep our eyes planted on Him.  And as we watch Jesus, read scripture through the lens of Jesus, submit our very thinking over to Jesus – we do change.  And that change is for the better.  It makes odd balls out of us all.  Odd balls that just can’t seem to stop loving others.  In that alone are we odd.  Everything may look the same, but how we love makes us different people.

We were told to watch.  Are you watching Jesus yet?  Or as it turns out, is Jesus the channel you just never get around to watching at all …

 

The End is Near [part 2]; the irony of persecution ...

To earn hate, you must love.  Ever tried putting a square peg in a round hole?  There is an old children’s toy with multiple shaped holes, that fit matching pegs.  The goal is simple; match the physical piece in the hole on the board designed to fit only that piece.  Toddlers begin playing with this toy and as their brains grasp the concept, they begin trying different pieces in a hole, until they find a match.  Really smart toddlers can visualize which piece might fit in which hole.  And aggressive toddlers look for a hammer designed to solve every quandary by pounding it in.  The world at its core is not too much different than the simple board.  When you are a part of the world, in harmony with the world, the world understands you, and you understand it.  Everyone is just looking out for number one all the time.  But when you encounter Jesus.  Not the stories about Him, or even the scriptures about Him, but Jesus Himself, up close and personal in “your” life – “you” begin to change.  Over time, your shape (who you are, how you think, and how you love) is radically different than anything the world has to offer.  And so the world hates you for it.  While you were one of them, you were just fine with them, and they with you.  But become something else, something they do not understand, and you will earn their hate.

And as it happens the world is full of aggressive toddlers all dragging around sledge hammers they fully intend to use on you to pound you back into the world-shaped-holes that is the point of the game.  But there is another class of player you may not see coming.  As it happens, many churches, and many more church members claim to be Jesus shaped.  They know that, cause they did it themselves.  Honed off a rough edge here and there and now see themselves as the authentic Jesus shaped pieces.  But even a simple view of what the church looks like, and what the world looks like, is often so close you just cannot tell them apart.  And predictably the world has no problem with churches that are shaped just like they are.  And no old-timers (like me), I am not talking about electric instruments in worship music, and using drama on the pulpit.  This is not about style.  This is about substance.  Our hearts look alike.  A worldly husband loves his wife (for a while at least).  So does the church goer.  But they both call it quits at just about the same rate.  The worldly person takes a drink on rare social occasions (to fit in).  So do most church goers.  The “sins” of both are pretty much equal, and equally frequent.  The church-goer claims the promise of forgiveness (the only difference) – but it does not keep them from repeating the same mistakes over and over again.  Aggressive toddlers pass right by this church crowd, because they have no idea they are a church crowd.  They both live the same.

An encounter with Jesus changes all that.  The mind begins to change.  How you think begins to change.  And it is Jesus that re-creates you, not “you” doing anything to accomplish the change.  All you do is submit to Jesus.  The church crowd does not it do it that way, and so they look a lot like the world.  The church crowd does it for themselves.  And so they fail over and over again.  Giving up to Jesus does not makes sense to them.  Anyone who would do that must be evil in some way.  And that aggressive toddler who drags around the sledge hammer, turns out to be the member of your church sitting right beside you in the pew.  When you love, more than you judge, you start not fitting in at church either.  The transformation Jesus effects in you, saving you, from you – is just too much to take for most church goers entirely.  And for those of you who think I am exaggerating, or just church bashing, hang on to your hats, this is going to be a bumpy ride.  When the end is near, all of this was foretold, by Jesus.

Matthew continues his overview of the signs the disciples had asked for in chapter 24 of his gospel to his Hebrew contemporaries.  Picking up in verse 9 it continues saying … “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.”  This imagery is quite a bit more savage than an aggressive toddler dragging around a sledge hammer.  It is more like living in one of Saddam’s torture prisons, or finding your way into a horrific train to Auschwitz under Hitler.  We are to be hated.  But not just generic hate.  Hated because of Jesus’ name sake.  Tortured and killed over it.  If you don’t live under a threat of torture or death, you may think that is due to God’s blessing.  Perhaps it is.  But if no one seems to hate you, you have to ask yourself, are you really any different than anyone around you.  And if you are all the same, it might be why no one has the time to even think about you, let alone hate you.  After all, how much difference are you really making, the way you live today?  This is not about being different for different’s sake either.  It is about being different because the core of who you are has been remolded and remade by Jesus.  To the point where you live differently, and you think differently, and you love differently.  To earn hate, you have to love like Jesus does.  That is what would make you different enough not to be understood, or accepted, just like He faced.

Jesus continues in verse 10 saying … “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”  And so it begins.  The transition from the world to the church, and yet the same hate finds it way of expression even within church walls, and church hearts.  The world does not need to betray or hate its own, it is already living in a way to please self, at the expense of others if needs be.  But the church is supposed to be loving.  When supposed to be, is not reality, offended begins the road to betrayal ending in full blown hatred.  This is us folks.  Don’t look at your neighbor to find the culprit here, look in the mirror.  We judge, often extensively, before we even begin to speak or socialize.  The least little defect or sin discovered in our neighbor is cause to hold ourselves in higher esteem, and shun them for the sinners they are.  This thinking understands judgment, and the hypocrisy of righteous living, but not the transformative love that would make supposed-to-be line up with reality.  Love is stronger than judgment.  For it is love alone that can conquer evil in the first place, and the last place, in us.

Jesus gets even more direct with the church in verse 11 saying … “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”  The world is not endangered by false prophets per se, they are only looking to make a buck off of them.  But the church depends on prophets to light the way forward.  When a false prophet arises, the message behind them is inherently selfish, and therefore pleasing to many – thus adopted by many.  A message of loving others unconditionally and passionately looks “hard” to the untransformed heart.  In fact, it looks impossible.  And it is.  At least for a human to do it.  But for Jesus, that is just a no-brainer He does every second of every day for each and all of us.  The “ease” false prophets preach is appealing to hearts lined up with the world.  We all look for ease and comfort.  It is natural.  But for the transformed heart, there is no time for, or interest in ease, there is interest in seeing you next to me in kingdom of heaven.  If that causes me a little discomfort it is worth it.  In fact, if that takes everything I have, it is still worth it.  And so, only post transformation, does the new way of loving begin to impact a new way of thinking, that finds the message of the false prophet dangerous to souls.

Then Jesus boils down to the heart of the matter continuing in verse 12 saying … “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”  Ouch!!!  When sin abounds, love waxes cold.  When I try to fix myself, by deciding to be a good person, and then doing my best at it.  Iniquity continues to abound in me, and my love, my real love for others, waxes cold.  This result of failed self-salvation leaves me looking just like my worldly counterparts.  For all my religious “trying” I am no better than them.  This is because we love the same, think the same, and want the same things (most of it bad for us and others).  It is only my submission to Jesus that sparks a fire in me.  And the converse rule is also true.  When passionate love for others burns hotly through you from Jesus, sin is chased away.  Not just from your feet and hands, but from your hearts and desires and motives.  Change the core of who you are through submission to Jesus, and find love abounding and sin on the retreat because of it.  But that is not most of us.  At least not most of us today.  Too many (perhaps me included too often) are content to keep control of our own salvations, and thus watch our love wax cold in real time in our mirrors.  Just as foretold by the Savior we so desperately need.

But not all hope is lost as Jesus continues in verse 13 saying … “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”  Jesus did not fail, no matter how often you do.  And Jesus will not fail you, no matter how many times you might keep messing His victory up with your stupid.  Jesus truly is and forever will be the author and finisher of your salvation, your faith, and your re-creation.  For those who can humble themselves, relinquish the illusion of control, and turn over their own salvation to Jesus who does not fail, He will not fail.  The Kingdom of Heaven can begin immediately in the here and now for you, and grow every day until the end of all things.  That is way nearer than you might of thought.  This is not about the afterlife, this is about the now.  To be saved, is more than to be saved from fire, or death.  It is about being saved from the type of person you are now – barely distinguishable from the world.  It is about taking that personage of you dipped in sin, and re-creating it, infusing the passionate love of Jesus in your heart for others.  So much so, that you think differently, love differently, and start to have different priorities.  That is the gospel message.  Not the stories and parables – the real-life witness of Jesus in your heart every day.  Changing you from who you were, to who you will become.  “That” is the gospel.  To find living differently here and now and forever.

The stores in scripture were all written to introduce you to Jesus, who could then make them real, make them come alive in you.  Without the coming alive part in you, the rest is just words.  There is no gospel without your life as a witness of it.  Without “your” testimony of what Jesus has done in you, for you, perhaps in spite of you – the Bible is only a book other people may understand.  The power of the gospel is the power to actually change lives, yours, mine, anyone who hears it.  But better than to hear it, for anyone to see it come alive in you because of how much you truly love others (like only Jesus could).  That is the power of a gospel that must be preached.  Jesus concludes this section in verse 14 saying … “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

The world does not need your “church” or your denomination or even your doctrines.  It needs your love burning so brightly it forces them to turn their eyes to the same Jesus who turned your life around.  The world is in need of example, not speeches about possibilities of what could happen with Jesus, but realities lived every day because of Jesus.  That hate must face our love.  The hate will see that no physical pain, not even death, can cause a transformed heart to relent – because one taste of Jesus is worth everything else you ever had or will have.  There is a reason we will all cast our crowns at His feet and proclaim Him alone worthy.  It is because we are not worthy, nor will we ever be worthy.  But He loves us anyway.  And He will save us anyway.  Each of us from the person we messed up, to the person that only He can envision for us to become.  Once embarked on that journey; all persecution because of it is only ironic.  Because no amount of persecution would ever change in us what only Jesus could create in the first place.

It is this gospel that must be preached in all the world.  Not the concept of Jesus, but the reality of Jesus.  Not the judgment of the followers of Jesus always judging others and the world, but instead the passionate love of the followers of Jesus so steeped in love they begin to look like Him.  What that kind of love can do in the world is something we have yet to see - it could actually save it.  If those who dare to call themselves by His name would submit, and embrace that love, the world will turn over again.  The square peg round hole thing could hardly begin to describe what a difference that will be and perhaps is already becoming.

And Jesus was not done yet on looking forward …

 

The End is Near [part 1]; where not to look ...

The man on the street corner, who is wearing a sandwich board sign, that says nothing more than – “the end is near”, is looking for something from you.  He wants to wake you up.  He wants you to consider your life and self-examine it.  Are you ready for the end of all things as we know them?  Are you ready to meet your maker?  Or not.  Presumably the man with such a sign on his person, has ideas about how you could become ready, and what you need to “do”.  The overpass sign alongside of the busy freeway or roadway has an advertisement about a “prophecy crusade”.  The graphics on this sign look menacing.  The message seems to imply the end is near.  And the poster’s of this sign want something from you.  They want to wake you up.  They want you to consider your life and weigh what you do, against a clock soon running out of time, and ask yourself if you are ready to meet your maker?  Or not.  But the prophecy crusade would purport to tell you what has not happened yet, what is coming, and at least some notion of when it will be coming.

What is common between the two approaches is also common across a plethora of “hell-fire and brimstone” churches.  The idea that “fear” motivates.  You can catch up with love later, for now we are content to let fear get you where you should be, to hear a message (chalked full of fear), that is designed to keep you in church, and “get you straight”.  Being “ready” for Christ to come has devolved from submission to a transforming love that would have Jesus re-create who you are in the here and now – into a series of actions you must take, and activities you must continue to do, in order to keep yourself ready at all times for an end that has been “near” for more than 2,000+ years.  And fear does work, for about a minute.  It may poke the guilty into taking the next step.  But fear also wears off.  It does not work forever.  We become immune to fear of a punishment that has not arrived any faster than the final reward has.  And so those who saw only the fear in our approach, backslide away from that fear, choosing rather to live guilt-free, than guilt-filled, by a system that offers nothing more than a perpetual game of fail and forgive – while change eludes us all.

So what does it mean to truly be ready?  What does it mean to truly live prepared?  To answer that question, start by throwing out the future tense of your expectations.  Ready is not the goal, harmony is.  Ready implies you are looking forward to an event.  To be ready implies that at some future point, how you live will be judged as worthy or not by what occurs at that event.  Harmony with God, and His love, implies you are already living like you intend to, whether in a future state of heavenly bliss, or while still on this earth no matter what conditions surround and impact you.  The future event does not come as a judgment but as an extension of how you live.  To live in harmony with God, requires us to look back to Jesus, in order to see Him create that state-of-being within us, and keep it there.  It is a continual submission to Jesus, because we know we cannot get there at all through our own miserable strength.  Only Jesus can re-make us, changing what we want, how we love, and therefore how we live.

For believers who seek the end of all things as the only relief from sin they will ever have – they miss the point of the gospel entirely.  Jesus did not come to our world to live and die and live again, only to leave you in the pain of your sin until you die.  He came to show us, it is possible to live differently here.  Not through your own strength, but through continually submitting your will to your Father in Heaven, just as He lived.  The gospel is not about good news, or scary news for that matter, at the end of all things.  The gospel is good news for us, in the here and now.  It is not about being pronounced forgiven and free to screw up again.  It is about being truly forgiven, and a method for never tasting the pain of screwing up again, because you want different things, and love with a passion of Jesus buried deep in your newly re-created heart.  Once transformation is a real part of who you are; what happens in our world that points to His coming is seen in a different light.

To take the gospel on now and find the rewards of living free from the self-inflicted pain of sin in the here and now; the signs of His coming, and the nearness of the end represent a different challenge.  It is not about what happens to me then; it is about what I can still do, to try to help others live in a different way, as quickly as possible.  To see them submit and end their pain ASAP; not to see them only embrace forgiveness, and then keep on causing themselves pain that Jesus is so willing to take from them in their thoughts, motives, and then actions right away.  Living differently is the reward of the gospel.  Not just living differently in the future, living differently in the here and now.  Being judged is a not a future event for believers, it is in the past.  Once the believer embraces Jesus and begins to submit their lives to Him, embracing that transformation that only His love can bring – judgment of that believer is completely in their rear-view mirror.  The future is not about judgment then, but only about a welcome home to a heavenly Dad all too anxious to reunite with His formerly lost children forever.  Forgiveness fixes judgment.  Transformation fixes sin.

So when we change our perspective on the signs of His coming, it is not fear we examine those signs from, it is about time management and the accomplishment of the mission of redemption.  Not our own, Jesus has already done that.  But to those we love, and those we can still reach with a message of pure passionate love grounded in the view of Jesus Christ.  We look then for signs, only as reminders, of the mission our very personal testimony of transformation will tell to the world, especially the world right around us.  In this light, fear will leave the building.  Only love will remain.  Only love was truly ever there in the first place.  Instead of trying to find exact future dates when the end will finally arrive; we can live free from fear, and steeped in love right here and now, ever letting go of the pain of sin, as we submit our will to Jesus and He continues to re-create who we are.  Jesus saving us from us, all along the road, not just at the end of it.

It is then with excitement and wonder that we look at what happens around us, prodding us to stay committed to the mission of the redemption of others.  The disciples were beginning to understand this.  They understood that Jesus would be coming back, returning in triumph once and for all, even before they understood He would have to die before that could occur.  There was no fear in them to ask how soon Jesus would be coming back.  There was eager anticipation.  Bring it on.  They already knew Jesus, they were spending every day with Him, every minute.  They had relationships with Jesus where they knew Jesus as friend and savior and Master of all scripture or religion.  Jesus was not some foreign guy no one has ever seen or met.  He was personal to them.  Someone they wanted to spend time with.  So knowing when He would return, was not about predicting dates and times, it was about signposts to remind them of the happiness of His ultimate return.

With that in mind, Matthew records in his gospel in the 24^th chapter, picking up in verse one, the beginning of the explanations of how to read the road-signs that were to present themselves starting all the way back then, in the days of the disciples, that would continue even in our days, the last days if we are lucky enough to see them so.  Verse 1 says … “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. [verse 2] And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  Looking forward begins with keeping your eyes in the right place.

The disciples gave Jesus a tour of the Temple, to be more precise of the glory of the Temple.  Israelites were significantly proud of “their” Temple.  They had built it centuries ago.  The original building Solomon built with the supplies David (his father) had gathered, had been torn down with most of the gold finding its way to the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar who treasured it and respected it.  After 70 years in captivity, the Israelites finally were permitted to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple to the best of their abilities then.  It was far less than Solomon had been able to do.  But it was still a magnificent site, and caused much pride in the Jewish heart.  But buildings of precious woods, finely carved stone & marble, and gold plating were NOT where the eye of the believer was to stay focused.  It is NOT our church buildings which are to represent the body of Christ, it is our hearts with His love in them, that will do that.  We are not to keep our eyes downward on what we can see, but upward to Jesus to find love which is unseen, yet very visible to those around us.

This was so important.  Jesus first warns His disciples, that their magnificent Temple will be torn down, all the way to the stone floors.  Do not take pride in your structures.  Do not look to your buildings.  But instead look to the refinement of the heart that comes from belief that leads to submission of all pride, and eventually its absence.  When the Romans invaded during the time of the disciples, one of the soldiers (against orders) threw a torch into the Temple, lighting it on fire, and melting the gold coverings and plating’s such that they dripped down all the way in between the stone flooring.  The Romans were under orders to return this gold to Caesar, so they pulled up every stone and scraped the gold from each one all the way to the floorboards.  What Jesus prophesied came true word for word.  But the lesson was not about the accuracy of His foretelling’s.  It was about where we place our vision, and what we invest our hope in to be saved.  The past and its structures were no longer to govern us going forward.  Only Jesus would remain our future hope.

The disciples were floored.  They had never even considered such a horrible prophecy.  So they came to Him to ask in verse 3 saying … “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?  [verse 4] And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.”  The disciples want to know when the Temple will be destroyed.  For the disciples so proud of their Temple, its destruction was bad enough to signal the end of the world.  But those two things would not be the same.  What warnings will happen before that occurs, and what things will precede the second coming of Jesus.  The response of Jesus is equally important.  Just as Jesus has directed us not to look to our buildings or Temples as the focal point of our vision.  So we should not look to men either.  Billy Graham, the Pope, Joel Osteen, your pastor, your parents, anyone that perhaps you admire.  No man is to be the center of your hope and faith as you look forward.  For men will deceive, even if not by intent.  But Jesus alone is true.  Vest your vision and your focus in Jesus alone.

For every truth, Satan looks to invent and present his counterfeit.  Satan tries to distract the minds of the weak with copies of truth, but void of truth, for they are void of Jesus.  The first very specific warning of Jesus comes in verse 5 saying … “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”  Yikes.  We immediately associate this foretelling with folks like David Koresh who the media reports compared himself with the son of David in his cult-like following in Waco a few years ago.  But the Dahlia Lama also claims to resurrect and return to his followers in every subsequent generation.  For Christians, finding a “criminal” like Koresh to cast blame on is easy, and perhaps comforting.  But what about when we represent the name of Christ to others, stating we are Christians, yet spewing the speech of judgment, condemnation, and frankly disdain that looks a lot like hate.  Do we also deceive many, that what we teach is of Christ, when it clearly is not.  In that view, the David Koresh types are few and far between.  The average believer steeped in the speech of hate is a dime a dozen.

Then comes the politics of power.  Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [verse 7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [verse 8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.”  When we hear of wars and rumors of wars Jesus tells us specifically “do not be afraid”.  For wars and rumors of wars will happen and the end is not yet.  It is not the politics of power that will initiate the second coming of Christ.  It is not in the power of man to make God hurry up by starting wars.  Rather as kingdom rises against kingdom, and nation against nation – they are only the beginning of sorrows.  Satan will not go down without causing as much damage to God through his errant children as he is able.  Wars are an effective way of killing millions in a short period of time.  So they remain sorrows, but only the beginning of sorrows.

Once again Jesus directs our focus away from the world, and whatever may be going on in the world, as we look forward.  It is decidedly not the world that will save us, in fact it will only be the source of our sorrows.  So just in the first part of this examination Jesus has asked us not to focus on our church structures, to leave our pride in them behind.  For structures will one day share the same fate.  We do not find Jesus in a building, we find Him in our hearts.  Jesus asks us to avoid looking to men, for men deceive.  Sometimes this is by intent, sometimes by accident.  But men are not to be our role models, men are corrupted by the disease of sin, even the best of men.  Look up to Jesus, for Jesus alone is worthy, perfect, and able to save.  Finally, Jesus asks us to look away from this world, from wars, even from the natural disasters.  As these are NOT signs, but simply sorrows Satan will inflict along the road to the end.  But the end is not yet.  It is not the physical church, the pastors or leaders even, and especially not the world who can save us; only Jesus can do that.

To live in harmony requires we focus our vision in the right place.  It does me no good to pledge my life to a building, or its art.  It does me no good to pledge my life to a pastor or pope or prophet.  It does me no good to pledge my life to natural events, or man made wars, as the guideposts constantly looking down instead of up.  To find Jesus.  To submit myself to Jesus alone.  This will be the basis of my hope, and the method of my transformation.  Focus, even of where not to look is important.  But there was more Jesus had to say on this matter …

 

To Know the Will of God ...

What are we supposed to do?  Very often we reach decision points in our lives where the path forward seems very uncertain.  Do I go left or right?  Do I vote my heart or my head?  Do we proceed with this mission work even though we do not have the funds?  The answers to our quandaries are also not readily available in scripture.  We try to apply Biblical principles to our decisions, when so often in our modern world we lack a one-for-one scriptural answer.  We pray about our questions and ask to know what the will of God is for what we face.  Prayer is the most awesome tool in our arsenal.  But for most of us, prayer is a one-way street.  That is, we, do all the talking, God seems silent to us.  The prayers give us a sense of hope that our question will be answered somehow.  But this leaves us searching for an answer in the clues of the divine, not hearing an audible response from God directly on how to proceed.

So what to do?  Our God is the same God, from eternities ago, till infinities ahead.  He is a constant.  He is unchanging.  For how could love ever change and still call itself love?  The expression of His love may seem to grow in our eyes.  Our perspective on His love grows.  But His love was always there, it is us that is growing, not Him.  But for humanity, as times change, so do priorities, and methods.  Jesus did not speak to us directly, or prophetically, about our taste in our music.  He gave no dissertations about the use of an internet ministry, or an addiction to it.  He did not directly say whether we should engage full steam ahead in a TV ministry whether by broadcast, or satellite, or podcast.  Jesus never directly spoke about the “issues” the modern church faces in ministry to the world.  Jesus gave no direction about when a fetus becomes a baby.  There are scattered scriptures that touch on this, but no direct sermon from Jesus Himself while He was here.  Nor did Jesus speak directly about homosexuality whether in or out of the church.  These issues that so perplex the mind of the modern Christian seemed to occupy no time at all in His.

So when we face dilemmas in ministry we look to the remainder of the Bible to find direction on what to do.  We apply Biblical principles and come up with Biblical doctrines based upon our interpretation of how to proceed, and what is acceptable or not.  But then, like in our personal lives, our questions seem to take up all the talking in the room.  Listening to God, hearing Him directly, is a long-lost art.  Those who claim to have heard His voice directly, are immediately ridiculed by those who claim His name, because often the messages they report appear self-serving, and reflect a lack of love that Jesus gave no example of here on earth.  Most of those who claim to know the will of God, have a message of condemnation for the remainder of us.  Is this the God we serve?  Has love that was meant to provide an escape from our sins, and our desire to sin, now become a judgment of hatred from God Himself for our sins?  Seems unlikely.  So what is the will of God.  What are we supposed to do?

Things changed after the cross.  Not the questions in our lives of how to move forward.  But the priorities and the methods of His church.  Peter recalls to John Mark in his gospel in chapter sixteen picking up in verse 15 saying … “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  These were the words of Jesus Christ Himself, after the cross, after the resurrection.  He commands His church to “Go”.  But in our age we are content to stay put.  We prefer routine over adventure.  We prefer safety over the risk of movement into the unfamiliar.  We seek the rut of our lives, the routine of it.  Disruption of our routine becomes a fearful thing.  And Satan uses our fear to move, our fear to go, to keep the ministry locked up in the minds and hearts of those who already know it, at least in theory.  It is as the church was when only three women knew the gospel and would not speak it for fear.

If we are to make contact, we must be in proximity with others.  The gospel is not an ethereal concept.  It is a story of love, love that transforms, love that builds passion in the listener for those who have not heard it yet.  If we only crowd the pews we have ever crowded, we restrict the gospel to within the walls of the church, and demonstrate no passion for anyone other than ourselves.  The disciples already loved each other.  They had no need to fellowship together every week, once a week, and demonstrate what all of them already knew.  They had need to separate and spread the message of love to anyone and everyone who had not heard it yet.  Jesus does not even use the word men or women defining His target audience, He uses the word “creature”.  There is no-one beyond the love of Jesus.  He intends for ALL to hear, even the birds, dogs, cats, and nearby bugs if needs be, when spreading the good news of the gospel.  No matter what we think about the person we are destined to spread love to, we are to go to them, and share it.

The expectation is not for the hurting, dying, and erring ones to magically decide to come to church to hear the good news.  It is a command from Jesus that we “Go” to them.  That we take the love of Jesus directly to the person who needs it.  The gospel is a story of the love of God.  It is the story of Jesus Christ.  The life of Jesus Christ is unencumbered by the doctrines of the Pharisees, or the traditions of the Jewish faith in His day.  It is a more pure story, a living one.  It is the story of Jesus Christ, that causes us to re-look at scripture through His lens, not through the filters of our own preconceived ideas.  The story of Jesus Christ is not encumbered by the doctrinal beliefs of our day of our denominations.  Jesus was not a Catholic, or a Baptist, or a Mormon, or and Adventist.  Jesus is God.  Jesus was and is love incarnate.  Jesus carries no denominational affiliation.  He is Jew by birth, but God by religion. 

The story of Jesus, is the story of the gospel.  And what will happen when we Go?  John Mark continues in verse 16 saying … “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”  Those who hear must believe first.  God the author of our faith so longs to spark it in one who has never heard the gospel message, or seen love demonstrated by a follower of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit, so longs to bless the ministry of love to one hearing and in need.  To create belief when none existed before.  When we demonstrate a passion of love for the listener, really care about them as Jesus cares about them, we create a lure of love that our God uses to fan the flames of belief in a heart where none existed before.  But this effort by our God is so horribly dampened, when our message and our example is distant, cold, unfeeling or apathetic.  When we truly do not care for our listener, we represent our God of passion, as a God who could care less.  So far from His truth.  When we seek to meet our own needs before we dare to inspect the needs of another, it is we who need the message of truth.

But a real demonstration of love from a follower of Jesus to one in need, positions the Holy Spirit to fan flames of belief and reception.  When there is no hate in us, and no hate in our words, or our message, our God can work miracles as never before.  This is not a message of judgment and consequences for sin.  This is a message of love, reconciliation, and transformation that Jesus brings to any who believe.  Those flames of belief grow from a small fire to a forest fire in the heart of the new convert.  Until love for God is so strong, the new convert wishes for a public recognition of it through the tradition and ministry of baptism.  John the Baptist held his ministry in the Jordan river.  Jesus baptized there as well.  And now as we Go into the world, we must find places we can dip the new converts into the water submersing their old lives of sin, and bring them forth new creatures and new creations unto God.  The symbolism deepens faith in the one who is baptized and the ones who witness it.  It deepens belief.  It is why Jesus requests it of us.

For the curse of our lives is unbelief.  A refusal to believe will be our undoing.  A resistance against the Holy Spirit who aches to fan flames of belief within us.  Hearing the fantastic story of Jesus Christ calls for faith to believe; it calls for the suspension of human logic, and the embrace of divine logic.  Few accept these stories without a demonstration of what it has done in the life of one who does believe.  If the life of the disciple or follower of Jesus is not one bit better than the life of the unconverted, why should they believe.  Transformation is real.  Transformation brings with it witness.  Our own testimony is what God has done for us, not what we have done for ourselves.  Our own testimony is unique to us.  It is a statement of what the gospel has done for us in practical terms and why we love another so much.  It is what drives us to go, and what drives us to care.  That fire is something tangible that others can see.  It is a difference that is discernable.

The story of Jesus is the story of the Son of God coming to reconcile man to God because of love.  It precludes all other methods of finding God the Father.  There is no method of meditation or self-sacrifice or enlightenment that leads one back to God the Father.  Buddha will not get the job done.  None of the Hindu Gods will do it either.  Attempting to worship God the Father without recognizing His Son as our Jewish and Muslim brothers attempt to do, will inevitably result in failure.  The transformation of the heart to lose the desire to sin, can only happen if you believe Jesus can and will do it for you.  A lack of belief in Jesus cuts off the only source that can relieve you from your desire to sin at all.  Without the embrace of Jesus as the Son of God, there is no mechanism to do it that works.  Those who believe they can be “good people” without embracing any religion, will find their subjective goodness is just not enough.  The embrace of the gospel is about more than just forgiveness, it is about transformation into something else, something better.  And Jesus is the singular mechanism for seeing it done.

John Mark continues in verse 17 saying … “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; [verse 18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”  These signs, these miracles, these tools to aid in meeting the needs of others, and deepening belief in those who have never heard.  All these signs follow “them that believe”.  Think about that for a moment.  Jesus does not restrict this to pastors, preachers, bishops, members of one faith or another.  Jesus does not restrict this to men only, He includes women, the aged, the youth, every race, from every culture.  The only prerequisite is belief in the gospel story.  In the name of Jesus is the key that unlocks these signs.  Not in the name of a generic God.  Not in the name of God the Father even, but in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.  This is a reaffirming of belief once again.

What is done through these signs is casting out the bondage to sin in the form of possession.  This is a recognition that our enemy is real, unrelenting, and no less active in our day than he was then.  Speaking in new languages facilitates communication of the gospel message to those you would otherwise not understand.  Serpents and deadly drinks were common ways in which people were poisoned in those days.  Jesus here offers protection against the assassin’s chief weapon.  And finally, healing others, healing the non-believers in the name of Jesus.  As with the ministry of Jesus, no conversion was required first.  Meeting the needs was done first.  A demonstration of the love of Jesus Christ was done first.  Only then was the heart more open to belief in what seems like the impossible.  There was no time constraint put on these signs and tools.  There was no restriction of who could utilize them, only that we utilize them in His ministry.

John Mark records the post script to this commission in verse 19 saying … “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. [verse 20] And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”  Jesus ascends not long after this commission.  And this time, the church did as the Lord had instructed.  The gospel was spread in that day.  But what about in ours?  Are we asking the right questions?  Given that these instructions are no less relevant than in those days; are our questions we ask of God for His will reflective of this fact.  Do we go left or right?  Does this include the directive by Jesus to Go and to spread the gospel.  Would that fact influence which way we think follows the will of God?  When it comes to questions of ministry, are we designing methods and systems to follow up our electronic outreach with personal outreach behind it?  Are we still going, or now only sitting?

Have we constrained our message of outreach to the pure gospel of the story of Jesus, or have we indoctrinated it with the tenets of our own denomination?  If our testimony is not unique, but reflective of others, then what have we to say personally.  What Jesus did for my mom or dad, or wife, is a good story, but what has He done for me personally is more impactful.  The gospel is an infecting virus that creates a passion to love others.  If it is not creating that passion in me, I have likely lost sight of what the real gospel is.  And this commission was given to ALL who believe.  The signs and tools of the ministry were granted to ALL who believe.  No age limits.  No racial implications.  To both men and women.  Perhaps it is time for our church to refocus on the pure message of the gospel; to Go, to reach out, and find ones that still need a tangible demonstration of what the love of God can do for them through you.