The Price of Devotion ...

The one thing all of us hold on to with everything we have is our life.  We do not look forward to death and try to postpone that eventuality as long as possible.  It is human nature.  It is the nature of life itself.  Life was meant to be lived.  It was meant to be eternal.  But the embrace of sin introduced pain, and eventually death.  Things God did not intend for us; knowledge we were never supposed to know.  Pain and death were supposed to be mysterious concepts we might discuss in perfection, having no idea what they meant, but trying to guess at them.  Instead, humanity has a first-hand knowledge of both pain and death.  And mortality itself drives us to postpone our eventualities as long as possible.  The irony in all of this, is that when pain or death overtake us, we have the nerve to call these tragedies “the will of God” (that would be the definition of fake news).  It is as if we stole those words of blaming God from the mouth of Satan himself.  It is not God to blame for any of this.  We shoulder that blame.  Nor is it His will that any should suffer or die, it is sin that introduces those eventualities; the diseases that come, the wars that are fought, the acts of violence and accident that take lives and limbs.  None of it, the will of God.  All of it, God must stomach like the rest of us, for sin cannot be driven away through edict, or free-will would be swept away with it.

But when we discuss life and death, we should examine the word “life” as much as we discuss death.  Is it “life” when pain still exists?  Or is that really just existence?  Think of the life of someone who has been abused so horrifically they have lost their mental faculties, and now repeat things without reason, act in ways that are self-destructive, and find themselves lost, homeless, and unable to understand what you are saying to them or trying to do for them.  Add the self poisoning of drugs and chemical destruction to the mix.  Can we still call living in this kind of depraved condition, a real life, or is this just some form of existence?  God does not will this.  God has something else in mind, so great, this poor and afflicted person could not comprehend it even for a moment.  We can hardly imagine it.  How could a mind so degraded begin to understand it?  We would look with extreme pity on such a soul.  We would ask ourselves how we could help, and come away only sharing simple human kindness, and praying for intervention against the sin and Satan of this world.

The poor and depraved, and mentally degraded person I describe, is not some random homeless on the street; it is you, and it is me.  We are homeless as this world the way it is, is NOT our home.  We wander through a wasteland cursed by our own sin.  We have no idea what our real home is going to look like, and why the greatest mansion on earth today is a poo-poo hill, next to what the smallest shack in heaven will look like.  But we don’t know that world, so we begin to value the poo we have, while angels hold their noses and wonder how this is possible.  And we have been abused by the nature of our sinful choices.  We develop habits, repeating things over and over that do not make any sense, and work to our own self harm.  Yet we seem powerless to stop this self-destructive behavior.  We go around muttering things like “we have to look out for number one”, and other slogans of self-empowerment, when the pursuit of happiness only leads us further into misery.  We are diseased.  We are afflicted with genetic degradation that makes us incapable of understanding what perfection and eternity really look like.  It is the core of who we are, our characters, that are so engrained in these diseases, that there is only one cure for them – to die – and to be reborn, or re-created by Jesus Christ.

But as our mortality drives us to postpone physical death; our engrained characters are none too happy to die either.  We may understand that what Jesus will re-create in us might be great; but we are comfortable with who we are now, and unsure, or unwilling to let that go.  So what is the true price of devotion to Christ?  Is it willingness to let who we are go, and to be reborn?  Perhaps this is what it means to die to self.  Peter thought he was ready for it.  He wasn’t.  Matthew tells the story of their shame in chapter 26 of his gospel picking up in verse 31 saying … “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”  Yikes.  Each and every one of the disciples, the followers of Christ, the devoted ones – were to be “offended” by Jesus Christ that night.  Shocked by His actions (or rather inaction) in the face of death.  Unable to understand that death must come, in order for rebirth to occur.  Or perhaps like us, unwilling to let our understanding go, in favor of accepting an understanding only He can give us.

But Jesus was not done with His prophesying.  Jesus continues in verse 32 saying … “But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.”  Death was coming.  There was no way to avoid it.  Because of sin, death became an eventuality, even for Jesus – especially for Jesus – in order that life might come for us.  A return to the meaning of life as God intended it.  Not just existence, but life.  A removal of the fog of our diseased thinking, and an instillation of the clarity of His thinking in its place.  Prior to transformation this is very hard to understand.  But our God does give each of us a glimpse through the fog, enough that we are free enough, to make this choice without the burden of our sin weighing down the outcome.  We are given the freedom of mind to choose His love, or to reject it.  But make no mistake, without the intervention of our God to bring us up to parity to choose; sin would rob us of our free-will and make deranged slaves of us all.  It is the outcome many choose in spite of a moment’s clarity to choose Jesus.  The price of our devotion to Christ may lead to our death.  But the price of rejecting His love only buries us in an existence of pain, while doing nothing to avoid the death that will one day take us all.

And as for the death of “who” we are.  This is a death we should long for.  It is the trading of deranged existence for the restoration of what a real life means.  Your diseased mind cannot comprehend it while it remains diseased.  You need the power of His transformation of who you are, to free your thinking, so that you can begin to see the difference between existence and life, between fake happiness, and deep personal joy, that none can take away.  It is as Jesus foretold, He would die, but would NOT stay in the grave.  He would “go before” them into Galilee, only a first of many encounters we would all have with a risen Lord.  It is important to understand Jesus as our creator, because as our creator, He is able to recreate a real life in us.  Once we allow Him to make that change, the path to real understanding begins.  It may not be instantaneous, but it is certain.  It begins with letting go.  Letting go of the “life” we think we have built.  And accepting that His offer gives us “life” we could not have even imagined before.  It is trading the fake wealth of this world, for the poo it really was, and finding the real treasure of this world, in the hearts of others.

But Peter saw none of this.  He had yet to be transformed.  He had yet to allow it.  So he answered in verse 33 saying … “Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.”  Peter said in effect, even if all these other bums are offended, I won’t be, cause I am special.  Here is where pride took over reason.  Pride a symptom of original sin and capable of making us blind to what is truly important.  Only moments before in the last supper Jesus told them one of them was going to betray Him, and ALL of them, including Peter, was forced to ask, “is it me”.  Now having seemed to escape that prophecy we run head long into opposing the words of Christ, for nothing more than our ego.  While at the same time, essentially saying, I am greater than these other guys, even if “they” fall, I WILL NOT.  And how many times have you gotten up from your sin, begging the Lord for forgiveness you do not deserve, and then make the empty promise that “YOU” will not sin anymore.  A promise history will demonstrate YOU have broken, every single time.

It is not His forgiveness that is broken, it is your ability to keep any promise you make.  Stop it.  Quit making the presumption of arrogance that you are able to choose to sin no more.  Instead, in humility accept that only Jesus can take the desire of sin from you in the first place.  It is the victory of Jesus in you, that can remove your sin, NOT what you do or don’t do.  It is what Jesus does.  You need only to get out of the way, and let yourself slip away, let Him decide “who” you are to be.  Let your sinful desires die in the hands of Christ, and let your new desires be reborn or re-created.  Peter has decided here, in error, that Peter will decide what Peter will do in the future.  And Peter will not be offended no matter what the Savior of the world has just said.  Imagine the arrogance of such a statement, in defiance of what Jesus has said.  Instead of this proclamation of false victory Peter was sure to experience.  He might of said, “Lord forgive me”, and take this thing from me.  But alas, reason is blinded by the disease of pride.

Jesus responds in verse 34 saying … “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”  Peter thought his devotion to Christ was beyond question.  It was not.  While Peter clung to the ideas of “who” he was, he allowed sin a foothold in him, that led to this unfortunate series of events.  The real price of absolute devotion to Christ, is to put our lives in His hands, no matter what happens to our lives.  But by far, NOT just our physical lives – rather more importantly, the lives we think we have built – the core of who we are – our characters.  Letting our character die in the hands of Christ, letting all sin go, not just some of it, or part of it, but all of it – even if that means I will not recognize who I am anymore.  That is rather the point.  The point is to not recognize who you are anymore, because the new version of you that Jesus creates will be so enormously better.  And the current you cannot understand that, until it is willing to let go, to die, and to be reborn for real.

But Trump and Peter have more in common than we might have first thought.  Matthew continues with Peter’s response in verse 35 saying … “Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.”  Peter doubled down.  If Trump could only read these passages, how much better might his presidency be.  But alas Peter doubled down, because his pride was now in question, and pride blinds us to reason.  Instead of being humbled by this further pronouncement of Jesus, Peter decides to argue with it again, and this time to raise the stakes.  Peter is now pledging his physical life, long before he has allowed Jesus to remake him fully.  How can you promise to sacrifice your physical life, if you have been unwilling to sacrifice even the life of your character which does not require you to physically die to do it?  You make promises against human nature, despite being aligned with human nature.  Only the transformed heart understands the true nature of “life” and could ever be comfortable with sacrificing it here, to preserve it in the world to come.  The death of “what” we are, is not what our Lord asks, He asks for the death of “who” we are.

And as I imagine what must happen in Trump’s cabinet when he makes a decision, the others follow suit, also proclaiming that they support this very same idea.  The other disciples also pledge upon pain of death, that they too, will not be offended.  None of them broken as yet, but all of them heading towards that end.  For their own pride’s have arisen in them to blind them to humility, and to walk a different road.  What might it have been like if instead of this outrageous mumbling against the Word of the Lord, they might have dropped to the feet of Jesus and begged forgiveness for this thing, begging to have it taken from them as ONLY Jesus could do.  To be wiling to have no pride, to be willing to embrace humility in front of those you love, and those you don’t.  That is the mark of a transformed heart, and the evidence of what true devotion might look like.  But Matthew condemns himself in his own writings, that he too, was unwilling to submit, but rather when it counted the most, stood against our Lord and His counsel.

So many of us modern Christians claim devotion to Christ.  But that devotion is built upon our own ideas of what devotion means.  We are like our disciple forefather before their transformations.  We are devoted when it is convenient.  When we sacrifice for the cause, we see it as sacrifice, not as opportunity to serve.  When asked if we would give our lives for Christ, we say with pride “yes”.  But the life we mean is our physical life, as the life of our character has yet to be put upon His altar.  We have not allowed Jesus to change who we are yet; and despite this, we pledge to give Him what we are.  Some of us have mild experiences with Jesus, perhaps the removal of one sin, or impact in one problem area.  Yet despite the example of how it works, we keep plugging along fighting our sins ourselves, declaring our promises not to do it again.  And finding ourselves on our knees after we fail just one more time.  And then again.  And again.  Until our sins are beyond counting.

It is our promises that need to die.  It is our certainty we should let go.  Instead, we should turn to Jesus and in humility, ask Him to take this thing from us.  And watch what He does, when you get out of the way.  Jesus did not come, so that your personal knowledge of sin, pain, and death, would remain eventualities for you.  He came to change your paradigm.  He came to disrupt who you are.  He came to take from you, the disease that keeps you mired in pathetic existence; and instead offer you life, and life more abundantly.  The price of devotion is no “price” at all, when transformation is what you experience.  You may not see it clearly yet, but you can, you will, you need only go to Jesus in humility and ask, Lord forgive me, take this thing from me, and then sit back, let go, and watch what happens.  Become witness in your own testimony to what Jesus does for you.  Afterwards you will understand, what for now, your mind may not comprehend.  But it can begin here, begin now, and you can finally see what life looks like.

 

Crisis of Conscience ...

Have you ever been guilty of something, and just knew you had done it?  I have two cats and two dogs.  When I walk in the room and find something out of place (cat/dog mischief on display), if I change my tone, and ask “who did this?” – the guilty animal goes running.  The innocent cat or cats hardly take notice of me at all.  The innocent dog or dogs bring me treats (their idea of toys) to see if it will make me happier.  But I can always tell the guilty critter based on how they react, they tend to run, and of course the guilty culprit changes with nearly every incident.  So how about you; no excuses, no blaming others, or circumstances, heredity, or environment – no, what happens when the blame centers squarely on you and you alone. 

In those situations what happens next may say more about you, than what led you to them.  People tend to react in one of two ways, they seek to make it right, or they seek to cover it up.  The story Matthew penned so long ago is not for those who seek to make it right.  Most of us try this in one form or another, sometimes taking great pains to avoid admitting we were wrong, while trying to fix a seriously impaired conscience.  For the rest of us, who look first to see if anyone was watching, and how credible they might be, before even considering whether to make it right.  This story was meant for us.  And like many things that fall into this category, “time”, can begin to alter your perception even about what is right and wrong.  Things done in repetition for example (no matter whether they were questionable at the start or not), over time become “normal”.  Once they are normal to you, the idea that they might also still be “wrong” becomes less and less a consideration.  And before you know it, repeated behavior, that is normal, cannot be wrong … by definition … whether it was or not. 

There is also the influence of others.  When you do something wrong alone, or by yourself, you may be more aware of it.  But if you are in a group at the time, and literally everybody else with you is also doing it, and from your perception, everyone, everywhere is doing it.  Then perhaps that behavior is also not wrong, it is just normal, whether originally thought wrong or not.  Finally, there is the influence of leadership on the topic.  When leaders you trust, or admire, weigh in their opinions on what is right or wrong (particularly in the grey areas), those opinions carry weight into the decision making process you hold.  If it is church leadership; you know, the folks who are “supposed” to be getting the right/wrong thing correctly all the time, it may carry even more weight in what you decide.  Put all these influences together, and you get a perfect storm, not to cause a crisis of conscience, but to eliminate conscience altogether.  Enter Matthew and divinely inspired recollections.

It picks up in chapter twenty-one of his gospel in verse 12 saying … “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,”  And right off the bat, we get it wrong.  Artists and the church, for many years paint this scenario with the idea that Jesus was furious, entering that Temple with fire in his eyes, a fierce tone of voice, a whip in one hand, and a carpenter’s fist in the other.  The terror of Him moving through the scene, and the anger He brings with Him, causing the exodus of the merchants who had taken up residence in the Temple.  But this is not how it works.  Frankly, it is not ever how it works.  It does not have to.  Let’s re-examine with a second look, and factor in human nature into the equation.

When mom catches you doing something wrong, it is hard to argue with her, while being caught red-handed.  Now instead of mom, imagine a face-to-face with God, while He catches you doing something wrong.  Forget that the Temple leadership approved of these practices (and the fact, they got a kick back on the horrible profits generated there).  Forget the fact that it was not one merchant, but many engaged in this.  Forget the fact that they had been doing it for years, literally for years.  The practice itself was wrong.  They were taking advantage of penitent people who came to the Temple to sacrifice for their sins.  Honest worshippers were subjected to unscrupulous business men, bent on making a profit off of them, in what should have been a ceremony dedicated to God throughout.  And the church was in on it.  And the people who were doing it, even if they had forgotten it was wrong, were now being reminded.  Not by anger, but by the piercing eyes of Jesus, that seemed to reach right down into the core of who they had become, and shake them from the inside out, acting and speaking about stopping this practice.

Matthew continues in verse 13 saying … “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  Several things to note here, the first is that the main purpose of the Temple, was really “not” for sacrifice.  Jesus says it is for “prayer”.  But instead of reaching out to God, they, like we, go to church for a quicker solution – one that is not so personal.  The worshippers go looking to perform a ritual that will make them right in the eyes of God.  Both then and now.  Instead of just talking with the God of love they purport to serve.  We miss the purpose of the house.  A building setup to avoid the other distractions of the world, in order to focus our minds for prayer.  In our age, we drag in every other worldly element of production value, and produce a show, where prayer is led by someone else (usually making it, its own mini-sermon), and singing and preaching the main ingredients of the show.  Back then, it was a ritual of blood, from which the merchants and church looked to profit immensely, and prayer itself – well there was little time for that between the sales back then or the well-produced show today.

And as to making the house of God a den of thieves.  Think that practice went away with those merchants?  Today, we give our tithes and offerings, and where do they go?  That is to say, how much of them come back to us in the form of services we benefit from, and how much of them actually make use in reaching the un-reached?  Easy way to measure it; how many baptisms did your church do this month, or last?  Not transfers from other churches mind you, but baptisms of new converts.  Not the kids of existing members (though all are important), I am talking about how we use our funds to actually spread the gospel to those who have not heard it, or think God is too angry to ever accept them.  Did it take that level of giving to affect that reach?  Conversely, how much of our money was spent on making the building better, maintaining it, supplying it, keeping the air on, the leaders paid, etc.  And in many denominations, all that is in excess of the need is given to the pastor, until pastors themselves are very rich men.  While churches grow, they tend to do so based on a popularity contest among their peers.  We reach each other.  And our co-workers, and the poor, and those we are reluctant to include, remain outside of our doors, where we prefer them.  And who is robbed in all of this?

And if Jesus looked you square in the eyes, could you tell Him, this is OK, because everyone else is in on it.  Or the church leadership sanctioned it.  Or you have been doing it so long, you forgot it was not OK.  I dare say if perfect love looked you square in the face, you would know - what you do that is anything less than ideal, is wrong.  And your first instinct would be to turn away from that blinding love and flee from it.  These men did just that.  They were not ready or inclined to hear The Truth.  They preferred the greed they indulged, and the easiest thing to do was to run.  Don’t resist, just run.  They did not even attempt to take the money off the floor.  They left it.  Now imagine what a crisis of conscience must have been introduced to these men, that they discarded everything to get away from it.  Merchants whose sole purpose at this venue was to make money, left the money, the animals, everything, and just ran.  There was no whip needed for them.  Perhaps Jesus used the sound of the whip to insure the animals moved along as well.  But His eyes would have been enough.  There was no anger needed.  All there was, was a mirror of perfect love, revealing to them, how far they had fallen from it.  That mirror was terrifying to them, as it might also be to us, those that like to call ourselves “saints”.

And this is how we know, that anger was the farthest thing from the mind, hands, and tone of Jesus.  Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”  Those in need, did not flee, they pressed closer.  Those in need found the grace of God, not from an angry use of a whip, but the tender touching of the hands of Jesus in the parts of them that lived in pain.  And that touch healed them, it did not add further bruising.  But even further proof lies in the nest text as Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,”  Not just those in need stayed in the temple, but so did the children.

Now imagine for a minute, that an angry man with a whip in hand, comes running into your sanctuary one day during services and begins flipping over tables, cracking the whip, screaming at the merchants/leaders, and has the fire of God in His eyes.  Your kids would be the first ones out the windows and doors.  They would be three blocks away before they had the good sense to look for mom and dad.  Mom would likely be right on their heels.  Dad might stay to fight, or he might be running right along with his family to keep them all safe in that city.  But kids, do NOT sit and stay, in scenarios of extreme anger.  However kids DO stay when they see a loving God looking right at them, bidding them come, and be blessed.  Those kids were likely fully unaware of the rest of it.  Tables being turned over so they could be removed only makes more room for them.  Animals being set free is AWESOME, so they will not need to be slain for the removal of sin, they are free to run and be free.  Bad men leaving, good men staying – that is a recipe kids can get behind.  And how do the kids respond?  They begin singing the same songs that were sung to Jesus on His triumphal return to Jerusalem in the first place.  They liked these songs.  They remembered the lyrics and the tune.  And the kids began singing at the top of their lungs.  This was time for praise service, a praise service LED by the kids, orchestrated by the kids, and performed by the kids.  They had the Temple nearly entirely to themselves, WITHOUT fear.

So of course church leadership hated it.  Rug rats do not get to run the show.  And they were singing that kingship song to and about Jesus once again.  The Pharisees could not get it out of their mind, like a tune that just plays in your head over and over and over again, until it is near to making you insane.  They were sore displeased.  They had lost their kickback scheme, and now were forced to see those impaired, restored to fullness, in the miracle that is Jesus Christ.  And to top it all off, the kids were singing so loudly it was echoing down the Jerusalem streets for how happy they were.  Totally without fear, of Jesus, or of them.  They tried to put a stop to it, but Jesus was not having that.  Jesus loves the worship of little children, as He wants so badly for you and I, to become those little toddlers and in so doing, become His church finally and after all.  Jesus responds to the sore displeasure saying in verse 16 … “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” 

Get that people.  It is not your well-orchestrated, well-produced, worship productions that Jesus enjoys.  It is the entirely random, entirely disjointed, entirely awesome praise that comes out of the mouth of “babes” and “sucklings”.  Those are young kids folks, those are too young to be teenagers, even too young to be first graders.  These are the toddler crowd.  These are the diaper preachers.  This is what “perfected” praise looks like, it looks like TOTAL trust in Abba Father, in Daddy, in Jesus.  They sang until their little lungs wore out.  They cuddled with Jesus, hugging Him, sitting on His lap, or holding His hands, or arms, listening to His every word, curling up under His seat to fall asleep while He spoke to the “adults”.  When they were ready to go home again, Jesus took His cue to leave.  Church was over, because the two-year-olds said it was over, not before, and not while “they” still wanted to be close to Him. 

That is how church works, or how real church works.  Money was never even an issue.  Kids did not think about it, neither did Jesus.  Proximity to God is what church is all about.  Those little ones got it up close and personal.  We get it through prayer.  Neither of us were/are perfect.  Perfection is something that can only come through trust in submission to Jesus, it is something He does for us, sometimes in spite of us, as we connect to Him and allow Him to do this work in us.  Children know who is in charge.  They also know they may be less than perfect, but they are drawn to His love, more than they fear their own imperfections or past behavior.  Children let go much faster, trust much quicker, and find themselves loving, nearly all the time.  It can be that way for us.  Jesus came to save.  To save you and I.  Can we not just let Him do it, in us, for us, forever?  To be in a child-like state of trust, free to love others, brings a level of contentment that this world has no alternative for.

Matthew concludes in verse 17 saying … “And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.”  Jesus went out, likely to spend some more time with Lazarus and his sisters.  But not before the kids had their fill of Him.  And how He SO longs to meet your needs the same way.  That is what reconciliation is all about.  It is bringing you close to Him again.  It is having you able to cuddle with Him again, hold His hand, or touch His arm.  There is no fear in that.  Neither is their guilt.  Forgiveness is the beginning of the love He holds for you, so that both fear, and guilt can be pushed away.  And re-creation is what He has in mind for you, in order to change how you think, and love, to bring you into the toddler set once again.  To bring you into total trust in Him, for everything you need, including your salvation, and your ability to be in harmony with the law.  You cannot do that for yourself.  That takes Dad to do.  You gotta let Him, or you will not see it done.  There is no anger from Jesus for you, or a whip in His hand for you.  There is the love of a Father in His eyes for you.  Come and get it.  Come get all you want.  And Church won’t be over, until you say it is over.

Marriage and Original Intent ...

What do you know about Ebola?  Chances are you know it is dangerous, contagious, and left untreated, highly lethal.  It is a virus.  You don’t see it coming.  You get exposed and before you know it, symptoms like the flu, and from there it gets worse fast.  What has this to do with marriage?  Nothing.  What does it have to do with sin, on the other hand, a great deal.  Sin and Ebola have a lot in common.  Where Ebola focuses on your internal organs; sin takes particular aim at your heart.  Where Ebola begins to block the normal functions of your organs turning them into soup; sin blocks your heart’s ability to love turning it into stone, well at least to love anyone other than yourself.  Sin, and it does not matter what type you consider, is extremely effective at turning loving hearts, into rock-hard useless hearts, that no longer care about others, nearly at all.  Sin is a disease.  It is difficult to treat, and is dangerous, mostly because we take our own medical advice, instead of the One Physician who is capable to fixing us.

But why talk about sin, when the topic of this study has to do with Marriage?  Because so much of our thinking about Marriage is steeped in sin, and we are unaware of it.  Our modern day versions of Marriage are nearly as far from the original intent as possible.  We treat Marriage like the legal contract it has become in our country; enforceable by the courts, with terms and conditions like a “pre-nuptial” becoming commonplace for anyone with means.  The very idea of a pre-nup is to protect yourself against the inevitability of “failing” at marriage.  But then, if Marriage has become nothing more than a particular version of a contract, requiring the “permission” of the state to be legal, then protections like a “pre-nup” would seem to make a lot of sense.  This is especially true when the failure rate persists at close to 50% in and out of the church.  But succumbing to this definition of marriage, is injecting so much sin into our thinking, we can hardly see past it.  How about instead of these modern ideas, we try a reset.

To truly understand Marriage, we need to go back to where it was invented.  At Creation, the animals were all created male and female, and the concept of families across every specie was born.  That is every specie but ours.  Adam was created alone.  It did not take him long, to realize he was alone.  Adam began to see and sense his need.  As perfect as the garden was, as perfect as he was, as indeed all of creation was, it was still missing something.  What it was missing could not even be replaced by God in the Trinity.  Companionship with Jesus was still not enough for Adam as a singular entity.  Perhaps because Adam was created in the image of God, he felt a sense of incompleteness that only another human could suffice.  Adam needed to be able to pour out his love on someone else.  Adam needed someone he could cherish above all other forms of creation.  Someone who could give his perfect heart, a target to serve, to love, to make happy, and as God made possible, to become One with.

God allowed Adam to see this need even before Eve was created.  Once he realized it, the need was met, not using some other foreign dust, but literally using some of Adam own’s flesh, his ribs and some tissue to be precise.  At the outset, the personage of Eve was already One with Adam in that she came directly from him, through the process of God’s creation.  The creation of both people, allowed both people to pour out their love on each other, without limits, without worry, with total trust and respect.  Two caring hearts totally invested in each other.  Then to top it off, future pro-creations would occur, ONLY, by two people becoming One flesh.  The act of reuniting bodies (and souls), so that two bodies became one, of unified purpose, would result in the process of procreation.  Neither could just will it to happen, or do something alone to see it done.  It took two.  It still does.  This ultimate act of intimacy between husband and wife, brought about family, even more targets to cherish, and pour out our love upon.

And here is something to consider.  Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed God, never broke trust with God, their Marriage would have lasted eternally – no expiration date, ever.  God did not create Marriage, to be some summer thing, that ends when the world fills up with babies.  The need for marriage had nothing to do with making a quotient of babies, it had to do with meeting the need of two people to become One in heart – pouring their love out on each other, first, foremost, and forever.  Babies, and the generations that would follow, would be icing on the cake, never replace the cake itself.  The intimacy God created, He had NO intention of ever undoing.  It is a need, hard woven, into the DNA of His creation.  A need that can only be met in one way.  To ignore that, is to ignore who we are, and who made us.

So as Marriage was created prior to sin, there is no reason to think, it will not survive sin, live past the destruction of sin, and be an institution that survives eternity.  The original intent of it, was something that was to live forever.  Perfect hearts, understand the need to pour out their love, not on themselves, like Lucifer did, but on each other like God does, and like Adam and Eve did.  It is only ever the Ebola of sin that can mess that up.  Sin brings pain, and eventually death.  Neither of those things were ever supposed to be here.  Life and happiness were supposed to be our daily routine, not pain and death.  There was never supposed to be such a thing as a “widow”.  You cannot by definition have a “widow” if neither spouse ever dies.  Original intent did not account for widows.  Sin gave us that term, and the sadness of its meaning.

Divorce.  That is, the elective choice to refuse to pour out your love any longer, for whatever the reason, between two people, was NEVER supposed to happen.  Why would it?  In perfection, with people who have perfect hearts, who have never tasted sin, Divorce would be crazy talk.  It is purely coo-coo-lu-lu.  Nonsense.  Do you seriously think Adam and Eve, if they never tasted sin, would spontaneous decide to stop loving?  Do you think they would have preferred loneliness to companionship, without the ebola-like virus of sin targeting their hearts?  Nope.  Once again, original intent did not account for divorce.  It took the embrace of sin, to create that term, and the sadness of its meaning.  And you can bet, once heaven is all that is left, and sin has gone the way of extinction.  Divorce will leave with it.  Leaving behind only married couples, and families, who pour out their love on each other without limits, with total trust, respect, and unrivaled care.  The interest of husband in wife, and of wife in husband, will be so great our feeble minds, can barely comprehend it.  But in perfection, we will understand it perfectly, and prefer nothing else.  Like Adam did, as soon as he saw his need, prior to even Eve’s existence.

So as Matthew begins to write of the topic of divorce, we must remember the context, in which we have this discussion.  We must remember what was originally intended, and how far we have come from that, and why.  And we must remember, where we are heading back to, and what future lives will be like, once the Ebola of sin is gone from us forever.  It is in that vein Matthew begins his counsel to the Hebrews in chapter nineteen of his gospel, picking up in verse one saying … “And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; [verse 2] And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.”  It begins with a change of venue from the events and teachings of chapter 18, moving to a new place, but picking right up with the healing and restoration ministry Jesus was so famous for.

Matthew continues in verse 3 saying … “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?”  The Pharisees could not allow so many to be healed, without once again trying to challenge the authority of Jesus.  You will note the word “tempting” as they come to Jesus, with what they think is an impossible question.  This is intended as a trap, it is not good Biblical theological discussion.  For that they would have referred themselves back to original intent, and what it takes our hearts to be, to preserve marriage in a world of sin, pain, and death.  Nonetheless, Jesus has an answer picking up in verse 4 saying … “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,”  Jesus refers us all back to Creation.  He calls their attention (and ours) to the fact that He made us all (every specie) male and female.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?”  This is actually a reference all the way back to texts in Genesis that Moses wrote when considering the beginning of our specie.  Moses wrote the words many millenia after creation, but his perspective was right on, and here Jesus affirms the cause and effect, and reasoning of what happens now, when boy meets girl, and their love drives them to be together.  Even the draw of family must be secondary to the draw of the love between them.  This is what was intended, and what still happens at the outset.

Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”  What God has joined.  This is not just a momentary joining of genitals, it is a permanent joining of hearts, of minds, of souls.  Two becoming One, means that neither is complete without the other, we do not speak as one person anymore, but as two people joined as one.  We share the unity model that the Trinity provides us example of.  Distinct individual parts of a Godhead that choose to act as One, in One accord with each other.  This is the level of intimacy intended to exist in our marriage.  To inflict pain upon each other is to inflict pain upon ourselves.  Pain was never intended to exist.  It took the Ebola of sin, to give us that.  And it takes our continued stupidity of trying to fix that version of Ebola on our own, with no medical understanding of how this version works, instead of surrendering to the Master Physician, who alone can bring us peace, and restore our hearts to each other once again.  The third member of our marital unit was always going to be the Creator who gifted us with it.  Our own trinities would always have that foundation, but only if we choose it.

But the Pharisees just cannot leave well enough alone.  They have to push it.  So Matthew records the escalation in verse 7 saying … “They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?”  The cite the counsel of Moses, out of context by the way, and attempt to put Jesus at odds with Moses, even though Jesus has just affirmed one of Moses’ earlier scriptures in Genesis.  But Jesus has another answer for them, they are likely not going to like, and frankly none of us Ebola infected sinners are too fond of either.  Jesus responds in verse 8 saying … “He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.”  The dissolution of marriage stems only from one key reason, the hardness of our hearts.  We love ourselves, more than we love another, even the one we pledged ourselves to, and who at the outset of our relationship, could not imagine living without.

Once again Jesus reaffirms, even the idea of divorce, was not something that existed at creation, the idea was ludicrous prior to the introduction of the Ebola of sin.  We have gotten so used to the idea of divorce, and so comfortable with it, we forget that.  We forget, it was never intended, or needed, at creation.  If sin had never found its way into this world, divorce would have been a non-sense word, nobody could comprehend the meaning of.  As useless as poo, which is another concept we would have never experienced.  Then Jesus continues his response saying in verse 9 … “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”  This is the text that get us all twisted up, in our ideas of interpretation.

But there is a difference in perspective.  Jesus puts on a lens of original intent, and then looks at the behaviors our hard hearts are willing to embrace.  We are so casual with our eternal commitments.  We jump from one “intimate” relationship to another.  But heaven sees only the first commitment we ever made, not understanding how we would ever choose to let that one go.  If we bound ourselves to what we said, that is, to live by the vows of eternity – then anything else we do with others down the line, by definition can only be adultery (no matter what the state says is legal or not), and no matter how many papers we obtain from the church that have the word divorce printed on them.  When God says forever, He actually means forever.  He does not change His mind about loving us, just because the going gets tough.  He died to prove that point.  Even His own life was not more important to Him, than eternal companionship with you.

His disciples heard all of this, and decided better to just avoid marriage altogether.  Matthew continues in verse 10 saying … “His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.”  Imagine that.  Better loneliness, better to deny our nature, than to misuse the institutions of our creator, or find strength in the unity He advocated all the way back in the garden, when Jesus asked Eve and Adam to never leave each other’s side.  Jesus responds in verse 11 saying … “But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. [verse 12] For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”

Jesus then offers a very profound observation on the condition of man, still impacted by the Ebola of sin.  We must decide, how far are will willing to trust Jesus, with who we are.  Are we willing to trust Him so far, we are willing to turn over even our sexuality to Him?  Eunichs (men unable to have sex); some were born this way, others forced into this by the evil of men, still others who would prefer it, rather than lose the Kingdom of heaven.  Not everyone was intended to be one way, or another.  The message is personal.  And it is for each of us.  The only commonality between us, is the level to which we trust our God with who we are.  Are we willing to do what Adam would not?  Are we willing to turn over our spouse to God, and trust in His wisdom.  You can bet there is going to need to be a lot of heart healing in heaven because of the messes we have made with marriages here on earth.  “Till death do you part” is NOT how God sees it.  Keep in mind, death was never supposed to be part of the equation.  But the human condition of marrying again after the separation of death seems understandable.  Yet still on resurrection day, someone will be trusting God with their heart, enough to let go, and let God decide where to look again, and when, and to who.  Do you trust God that much?  Adam did not.

For those of my gay brothers and sisters, who are absolutely convinced God has made them this way.  I will not argue with you.  I will only ask you the same cutting question, I have to ask myself.  Am I willing to turn over even my sexuality, and the love of my life, to God?  And allow Him to do with me, and with her, as He pleases, even though that is not what I might want?  If so.  God may remake me, according to His will, which may have been different than what I thought I was to be.  God may remake my marriage, perhaps dissolve it, and move it to the proper objectives, thus healing many in the process when once we walk on golden streets.  He may however, also affirm who I am, and affirm my marriage intending it for eternal longevity.  It is not what He does that matters, it is whether or not, I am willing to let Him do it.  If I am willing, then I should have no fear, for even if I am wrong now, I will be healed, and find greater happiness in Him, than I could have on my own.  It is this level of trust in Jesus, that allows us to relearn how to love.  It makes me a completely different kind of husband.  And it resets my perceptions of marriage into something I will spend eternity trying to learn more about.  It makes me want to serve my wife, not just in the now, but with an eternal eye.

It is the Ebola of sin, that warps our thinking, dwarfs our potential, and causes us to accept modern ideas of marriage that depend on state concurrence, or support even the church’s earthly perspectives.  This instead of turning back to original intent.  And seeking Jesus to become the third part of the trinity of our relationships, to provide the foundations we need, and alter how we love.  It is Jesus that softens our hearts of stone, and turns the minds of husbands back to wives, and wives back to husbands, until the two of them appear as One, to any who pay attention.  It is Jesus alone who brings this level of unity.

And there was so much more that our Lord had to say …

The Wolves of Racism [part one] ...

Prejudice begins at home.  A young mind witnesses what its role-model is willing to embrace, and imperceptibly opens to the same ideas, both for good, and for evil.  And the influence of the home, is not engrained only in a moment, but over long periods of time, where infectious ideas work there way deeper and deeper into the psyche of developing minds until the acorn and the tree are hard to tell apart.  While this may be the main way it happens; it is not the only way.  What happens “to” us; can also have profound impacts “on” us, in terms of our prejudices.  We “pre-judge” the motives of others, and predict their actions based on our assumed judgment of their motives; perhaps in part, because we have seen these scenarios before.  This is not just a white / black thing; this is a rich / poor thing, a cop / criminal thing, even a doctor / patient thing.  Anywhere there are relationships between people, it is possible for us to pre-judge and predict outcomes based on the accumulated experiences of our past (or the short word for it, baggage).  We carry our emotional or mental baggage with us into new relationships, and sometimes poison them with things that never belonged there in the first place.  But hurt a person a few times in the same way, by the same type of experience, and baggage is nearly certain to develop out of fear if nothing else.

The problem with our prejudices, and even our baggage, is that if left unchecked, it becomes a hatred in us against things or people we believe will in some way cause damage to us.  We begin to categorize individuals into groups of like characteristics, no longer seeing the person, only seeing the “type” of personage they belong to.  Our judgments begin to extend not just to those we have great knowledge of personally, but to those we hardly know, then finally to those we do not know at all.  All of this because they belong to a group with a characteristic, we know to have hurt us in the past, and now we fear will hurt us in the future.  Over time, individuals lumped in to the groups we define as threats, can rarely if ever “work” their way out of these mental classifications, into a “normal” relationship with us.  They start at the deficit of their group, and must exert proof positive to exit it.  Keep in mind these negative connotations to groups can happen based merely on their occupations, or religions, having nothing to do with race. 

Take a look at your feelings about bankers for a moment; it is no longer just their cushy jobs of 9 to 5 that click in your mind.  After the big collapse, where many Americans lost everything they had, can you still “trust” these people with your money.  You may keep your money in a bank (because the mattress theory is nearly a certainty of greater loss), but do you feel good about it, or not.  Examine how you feel about Catholics for a moment.  The people now are great folks, but the church persecuted those who felt differently for nearly 1200 years.  For a long time in this country there was bigotry against Catholics or having Catholics ever sit in any governmental seats of power, because of what their church did, without apology, for centuries when they had influence in the past.  Take a look at cops.  Are they your public defenders or does that word conjure up fear of over-reaction where you might wind up dead in some mistaken exchange gone awry? 

Lastly, take a look at the “undocumented” in our country.  How they came here was a crime, no two ways about it.  That makes them criminals, at least originally.  But not all criminals are created equally.  Those who hid Jews in German controlled territories were once guilty of a “capital” offense, not just a passport infraction.  Today we would call those “criminals” of WW2 heroes for what they did.  Seeking hope, pursuing a dream, and doing something illegal to get it, either for you, or for your kids, hardly seems like the worst criminal activity one could embrace.  And does only that singular crime, truly label you a criminal forever?  But the fear does not end because the border was porous.  Now the fear extends to those who may lose jobs to those who will work for less (many abused in the process).  And the fear continues that “legal” tax payers will be paying for public services for those here illegally, in terms of education, medical help, and drivers licenses.  If your mind conjures up many negative things associated with the “undocumented”, ask yourself how deep your fear runs, or how dispassionate you truly are.

At the end of these things, the common denominator of our prejudice, our racism, even our baggage is fear of what damage may come to us.  That fear then drives us to hate.  And in that hatred, forgiveness is nearly completely lost sight of.  This is the polar opposite of how heaven works.  Take a case in point found in the gospel of Matthew to the Hebrews chapter eighteen.  Matthew records the words of Jesus as Jesus begins to address these topics from the view of heaven itself.  It picks up in verse 12 saying … “How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?”  To begin, nearly every Christian who reads this passage, in the back of their minds, believes “they” would have been part of the ninety-nine.  Oh sure at one point we were the lost sheep, but now … not us.  Though a closer examination of any one of our lives, might reveal we have still found a way to get outside the sheep fold, and right back into the danger we were saved from yesterday.

But a second look at that same story’s beginning, might offer a different point of view.  Looking at this story through the lens of heaven, earth itself may have been the “one” sheep who “went astray” while all the other created worlds and beings in the kingdom of God’s universe did not.  Satan tempted all of them, tried to get all of them to fall, but none did.  All chose to keep trust with God.  All that is, except our world.  From this point of view, each and every one of us is the sheep who “went astray”.  And while our current condition is lost.  We did not get there by accident.  There was some “going” involved in why we are now where we are.  We are, to be exact, “gone astray”.  It was our choice to go.  It was our feet that carried us away.  And as a result, we are now lost, with no idea how to get home.

Jesus continues in verse 13 saying … “And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.”  Pay close attention to the wording at the start of this verse.  Jesus begins with “and if so be that he find it”.  This represents risk.  There is a risk that the shepherd may not find the sheep.  After all, there are wolves in the world.  Wolves that consume a sheep before he even knows he has been hunted and eaten.  There is a risk that the sheep does not want to be found.  Our heavenly Shepherd recognizes the risk involved with the pursuit of the lost.  It is perhaps the overcoming of this risk, that is the reason why there is so much joy.  For the sheep must lose his fear of the Shepherd for this to work.  The sheep, namely us, must allow the Shepherd to do with us what He wills.  We may think we want nice long wool, a coat of wool we have spent what seems like a lifetime growing and nurturing.  Then along comes our Shepherd with a set of shears and trims us down to nearly naked.  That looks daunting at first, but feels absolutely liberating once we let Him do it to us.  And it is much better than allowing our fears, to become the wolves, that consume us, and keep us long, woolly, and lost.

Jesus continues in verse 14 saying … “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”  Jesus reminds us of many things in this story.  Even though it is we who have chosen to go astray, it is our Shepherd (Him), who chases after us to find us.  And this is not just the “Jesus Act”, this is the will of the Father who is in heaven.  We were created with freedom of choice, in order that we might love freely, and choose to love freely.  We chose badly, but were created even with God knowing we would make an initial bad choice.  That choice need not label us criminals forever, as our Shepherd would do what it takes to bring us home.  We could simply not accomplish that, sheep are great at getting lost, or going astray, worthless at finding home.  Jesus refers back to the 2-year-old He has put in front of Him to teach the disciples an object lesson about greatness, and heaven.  And He reminds them, that the Father is not willing to lose even one of these little ones.

We are that little one.  Our heavenly Father, and in His home, is no embrace of fear, or hatred – but instead a fervent embrace of forgiveness that will forget what we did to Him, and allow Him to love us in spite of what we did to Him.  We ask, He forgives.  No more holding it against us.  No more putting it in our faces.  Jesus continues this theme in verse 15 saying … “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”  Jesus here provides a way for us to address the injustices that happen in our world.  He begins with calling our attention to the fact that one who has done us harm, is no stranger in the Kingdom of heaven.  He is our brother.  He is family.  Before you pursue enumerating the long list of slights you believe have been done to you, consider “who” you are talking to, is family, your family.  You should be loving them that way, like Jesus loves you.  Once you love that way, then perhaps you will be ready to speak to your brother.  And your goal, is not the destruction of your brother, but the reclamation of your brother.  All you are looking for here, is for your brother to hear you.  The Holy Spirit will do whatever conviction of wrongdoing is needed, both on the side of your brother, or on yours. 

If you are not there to reclaim your brother, don’t go.  If your words of confrontation will not have the effect of reclaiming your brother, don’t say them.  You will ultimately hold yourself more accountable in this interchange than will the brother who may have offended you.  Jesus continues in verse 16 saying … “But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.”  The goal remains to have your brother “hear” you, nothing more.  The witnesses you bring, are only there to “establish” what is said – that is, they listen to you, and record what it is you said, and how you said it.  The goal remains to have your brother hear you.  If you are there to teach your brother a lesson, don’t go, don’t bring anybody.  Lessons in pain, are very rarely the lessons you or anyone else will learn from.  The idea that you still care about your brother, to try to reach him, and now you are bringing help to do so, is supposed to be the motive behind why you bring others to his doorstep once again.  You are doing the pursuing in this scenario, not like the wolf, but like the Shepherd.  To destroy the sheep and make him your prey, is clearly not the goal.

Jesus continues in verse 17 saying … “And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. [verse 18] Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  Here is where an even closer second look is warranted.  The next step in trying to reach a family member (your brother) who may have wronged you, is to take the matter to the church.  Why?  So you can light up torches, gather pitchforks, and go burn down his house?  No!!  So that as a matter of prayer, and awareness, the entire church can attempt to bring your brother before the Lord, to have the Lord find a way to reclaim him.  Keep in mind the earlier text right above us, it is the Father’s will that not one of these little ones should be lost.  Jesus came here to save that which was lost.  Those texts did not go away in this context.  They are amplified here.  What you bind or loose on earth or have it echoed in heaven, is not the giving up on your brother, it is the continuation of working for your brother.

What your brother may have done to wrong you, may give you the occasion to talk to him.  But the reclamation of him continually remains your goal.  Jesus says if he refuses to hear even the entire church, then to treat him like a heathen or a publican.  HOW DID JESUS TREAT THEM?  He dined in the home of publicans and sinners and drove church leadership crazy over it.  He turned none of them away.  Cast none of them out based on any kind of judgment, for while the second coming has not yet happened, there is still time enough for reclamation, and even more time to love.  For the need of our love is greatest now, while so much pain exists.  We are not to fear our brother, even if he has slid all the way down to equality with heathens and publicans.  We are to love our brother still.  That is not a statement about our brother, it is a definition of how we love, and a witness to why we love.  Then comes the home run.

Jesus continues in verse 19 saying … “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. [verse 20] For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  Church is now something totally different than it has been up to now.  Church happens when two of us agree on earth as touching any thing – say perhaps the reclamation of our stubborn brother who refuses to hear us on a matter we hoped would reclaim him.  There need not be a formal building we enter, even on the special day He set aside to hang out with us on.  We need not call ONLY that church.  Church is made up of us coming together, even in small flocks, flocks as small as two, to unite in the reclamation of our brother who we sincerely love.  We love our brother like Jesus does, and because Jesus does.  And while our efforts are far from what is needed, our Father God will do what we have asked of Him, for the salvation of another.  That my friends is a powerful prayer.  It superseded prayers for wealth, or power, or even health, or spiritual understanding.  Prayers for the salvation of another are the greatest of all prayers.  They are stronger still when asked not in isolation, but asked as the flock of Jesus, where at least a few sheep are present.

But the lesson was not over yet, there was still the pesky matter of what to do with wolves …