Feast...or Spiritual Famine

In reading the Book of John this morning, I had a spiritual image of Jesus dealing with the Rabbis and Jewish leaders as they watched and waited for His every word or action to criticize, condemn and accuse. In attendance with those self-appointed judges, were locals and those in town for the Feast of Booths.

I got frustrated just reading how Jesus was under a magnifying glass of scrutiny, if you will, and was challenged at every sentence. It felt like trying to explain gravity or Newton’s Law to pre-school kids. They just didn’t have a clue because their minds were closed to everything but that which they believed they had total command.

Some of those following Him as Disciples even threw their hands up and walked away when the concept of Jesus being ‘the living bread’ needed to be eaten for eternal life blew their minds. This had me asking myself, would people be any different today? Sadly, I do not think so.

At a time when the Church Body is more concerned over denominational trivialities than they are reaching people for Jesus, I doubt the majority of Church leaders would come across from a more receptive stance than the Rabbi’s of Jesus’ day. Jesus was considered a radical by those practicing the long standing traditions and conventions of faith. Good heavens, Jesus walked, ate and hung out with undesirables, causing those that believed they were the all knowing ones, the educated and defenders of all things of Jewish law to look upon Him as a heretic; this non-conforming man with the audacity to heal on the Sabbath, to eat with tax collectors, to mingle with the diseased.

He specifically rebuked them in John 7:24 when He said, “Do not judge according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment.” The problem was they thought they were the epitome of righteous judgment; the truth is more that they were consumed with being judgmental about anything with which they were not familiar.

Jesus is using language from Moses' teaching regarding the responsibility of the judges and officers of the people (Deut 16:18). Jesus’ opponents are not acting in accordance with this injunction. The right judgment of which Moses speaks includes such things as refraining from showing partiality and taking bribes. Jesus' opponents are not blinded by bribes (Deut 16:19) but are blinded by receiving glory from one another (Jn 5:44). They are observing the letter of the law, but do not understand what the law is really about, neither in its witness to Jesus nor in its goal of expressing God's own love and mercy in the life of God's people. Making a right judgment (dikaia krisis) is dependent on seeking God's will and not one's own (5:30). They lack this disposition; they are too shallow. They have no depth in themselves and thus cannot recognize God at work among them. God Himself is the one who is dikaios ("right," "righteous"; cf. Jn 17:25; 1 Jn 2:29; 3:7; Rev 16:5), so their lack of right judgment is yet another indication of their alienation from God.

This call to right judgment is a challenge to each of us, for we are all guilty at times of judging by appearances. The only way to avoid such shallowness is to be united with God and to share in His truth about Jesus and about our own lives. This requires that we will God's will (7:17), which means God's will as God knows it, not as our prejudices and sins tailor it. To will God's will is to have a purity of heart and clarity of vision that come through our ‘death to self’. Until we have found our own heart (which lies deeper than our emotions and imagination) and made contact with God there, we will be in danger of judging by appearances instead of with right judgment.

Four Faces of Jealousy

Last night I got a call from a step-brother with whom I recently reconnected. When I was in high school, and before he became a step-sibling, I used to babysit this kid and his three younger brothers. He is now a balding man in his 40's but in many ways still the kid I once knew. Our paths crossed again at the funeral services for his father. He jumped back into the "little brother role" eagerly, needing the emotional support in his time of grieving.

After the pleasantries were exchanged he asked if I was going to fuss at him; odd question, I thought. He stated "You always fussed at us when we needed it." I asked if he needed it. He said he did. "Okay…what do you need to be fussed at for?", I asked. He said he struggled with jealousy. That's a biggie!

Lives are destroyed by jealousy and I've always considered it a destructive, negative , waste of emotion and energy. Yet, we have Scripture saying God is a jealous God. This took me straight to my Hebrew-Greek Study Bible where I found there are four separate Hebrew words for jealousy.

Qana – is a root verb meaning 'to make jealous' (in a bad sense) strong emotion for possession of object or position of others (envy); fear of losing possessions or position

Qanna – adjective, is the word always used to describe God's intolerance for worship of other gods and His anger in judgment toward idol worshippers.

Qinah – noun, means zeal, jealousy, to be jealous or zealous with passion and emotion that is greater than a person's wrath and anger, can be good or bad; but such passion can be rottenness to the bone (their words, not mine); used to describe a spirit of jealousy, which comes on a man toward his wife; or is used most often to describe God's zeal, which will accomplish His purposes and be the instrument of His wrath in judgment.

Qanah – verb, meaning to provoke to jealousy to purchase, possess, recover or redeem property

I found it interesting that Qinah, the only one described as 'can be good or bad' and the only one to say it is stronger than man's anger, describes both the negative spirit of jealousy in man AND the zealous wrath of God to accomplish his purposes.   

If I had to sum up what I took from this, it would be that human jealousy is about wanting to possess objects (relationships) or position (envy). God's jealously is entirely different. We cannot compare the two, as in justifying man's jealousy by saying even God was jealous. It is not the same at all, thus the 'good or bad' definition.

Lesson Under the Early Morning Stars

My morning was fraught with mishap. Before Honey left for work, we loaded the car with things we had gathered to donate; he will drop them off today. Honey had propped the outside door on the back porch open for easy access. To my dismay, I discovered I never closed it when I came in. The older dogs run straight outside when released from their kennels, I was lagging behind taking care of things with the puppy. Once outside with her, horror filled my heart because the dogs were not in their potty yard but roaming free in our unfenced back area. Not good!

I called them and two of the three ran back inside. Pan Dulce, normally an obedient dog, just watched me from a distance, ignoring my call….then the next, and the next, and the next. Not to be outwitted by a 3 ½ pound canine, I sat on the ground holding a treat in my hand to wait him out. As I sat on the chilly, damp, hard ground full of who knows what kind of creepy crawlers…and let's not forget the sticker burrs…I called lovingly to Pan Dulce. He is the consummate lap dog and typically cannot resist an offered lap. Not his morning! "Plan A" did not pan (pardon the pun) out.

Needing another plan of action, I got up and tried to walk toward him. This would have worked…if he had stood still!!! But, NOOOO, he would stay just out of reach and dash off if I ventured nearer. I called him in that loving 'mama' tone, I changed to the authoritative "Alpha pack leader" tone, I did not whine nor yell, though my frustration level was rising quickly! "Plan B" also failed.

 I went inside to get some of his food, knowing he would want that. He did want it, he would come in close enough to take a good whiff but young Pan is quicker than his mama…especially when she sits on the ground…and he'd take off when I lounged at him.

Then came the tap, the Holy Tap on my shoulder, the morning nudge from God to remind me to pay attention…looking up at the dark sky full of stars, I waited….here's what I heard Him say in my spirit: "This is how My children are with Me. They run away when excited about something out in the world. They will look to Me from a distance but not heed My call. When My hand is extended they come running in anticipation but stop short of commitment. What would you show them to make them want Me and come to Me?" Hmmm. Deep stuff, that question. What would I show them?

People would rather see a sermon than hear one and all I could show them was God's love for me. "Thank you, Lord!" I took Nikos out of the fence and sat down to love all over him. He 'kissed' me and I hugged him. Just love all around. It was only a matter of seconds before Pan Dulce was in  my lap wanting to be loved, too! Whoo hoo! Thank you, Jesus! That would have made a good ending to the story… if it had been the end.

As I tried to get up with a dog under each arm, I stumbled and fell back down on the rock in the French Drain hidden under the grass. My knee took the worse of the blow and pain shot up my body. It was the kind of pain that makes you queasy and sweaty. I couldn't put the dogs down, so I struggled again and again to get on my feet. Once safely behind the fence, I limped inside after hugging the two bundles of love in my arms. I checked out my knee in the light. It is swollen and bruised. The words from the Christian song, "By His Wounds" rushed to my mind, it's from Isaiah 53:5. This is the verse repeated in the song and chorus:

He was pierced for our transgressions
And crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed

We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved
We are saved

Isn't wonderful how God uses everyday life to show us something! I love the life lessons He shares with me. I know God may have used this incident to help me retrieve my dog and remind me to show the love of Christ to win others to Him. But, I also know He may have orchestrated this incident because someone reading this needed to hear it. Regardless, a side lesson is that God is in everything, absolutely everything, we just have to watch and listen for Him.

Postcard from Heaven

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you, you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

Yesterday, I received an email from a woman dear to me and this Scripture verse was the foundation of the message. It resonated in my heart and I kept going back to it. I wrote it as the screen saver on my work computer. I wrote it on one of my spiral index card notepads and I wrote it on paper in front of me. This happened over the course of the day. I could not get it out of my head.

I've come to recognize when God is trying to tell me something, so I made my spiritual ears and heart available to Him. I asked Him to help me understand what He wanted me to get from this.

I had a revelation one day as I was writing. The book I am writing is a Christian fiction novel. My heart is to share Jesus with others. It struck me that my calling to serve the Lord in the mission field had evolved into serving as a missionary in print. That moment of revelation turned into comprehension, which led to acceptance that fueled motivation. It was a momentous spiritual awakening. A point in time and an event I will not forget.

I am working diligently to finish the book and, admittedly, am intimidated by the publishing aspect. I have little knowledge about it. I've researched and read advice from published authors. Still, the more I learn about the process, the more I know there is yet to learn. No snapping of my fingers and presto ** a published book**. Darn the luck.

Then, at a time when I struggled to make sense of the unknown, I received the email with those words: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you, you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

Isn't that just like God to reach out to us in our time of need in a way can we relate. I believe God used my dear Lady to send a message to me, to place it in front of my eyes until my head and heart realized it was Him sending me comfort and encouragement. This, Friends, is yet another reason we need fill our lives with God's people; He uses them to minister to us even when they do not know. We are His hands and feet to use at His Will. I am thankful for the reminder from God and thankful I have godly people in my life that serve as His messengers. What a blessing!

Intent vs. Interpretation

This morning I was reading in Luke, the parable about the 'Unrighteous Stewart'. The use of wealth is the major topic of Luke 16. Its point is clear enough--be generous and responsible with your resources. Wealth can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether used as a means to exercise power, a tool of self-indulgence, or a resource to serve others. However, to possess money is also to hold a sacred stewardship. I was reading from the Greek-Hebrew Study Bible. I also studied commentaries that differ in interpretation based on the standard translations, not the literal Greek.

Luke 16:1-13 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' 'The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship people will receive me into their homes.' "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' "And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you? "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and mammon."

Two important words: The word dieblethe in verse 1 is translated as 'reported', should actually be translated 'falsely accused', derived from diabolos, devil. The devil's accusations are always false. The unjust person in this parable is not the steward, but the rich employer who fired him on hearsay or false accusation. The next word is metastatho, was a word used by the Greeks to denote 'ones removal from this world to the next'. The basic lesson in this parable was that the steward was required to collect the bad debts due his master his removal. He engaged in the forgiveness of partial debts due his lord; so must Believers act from the moment he is saved. In view of our metasasis, our 'removal from this earth', Believers must engage in forgiveness of debts (sins). This forgiveness of sins is the most important thing that any believer can do during his life of faith before departing this earth (death). Note: After being falsely accused, the steward still offered forgiveness of debts.

The steward collected part of the debts due his master, thus pleasing the master, who otherwise would have received nothing. It pleased the debtors who were unable to pay in full, and they became his friends. When the steward later found himself in need after losing his job, they gave him hospitality. In this same way, the Lord says to us in v. 9 that the friends, the people we win to Christ by using the mammon of the unrighteousness (money) to make the Gospel available, will be our welcome committee in heaven. The true riches are not money, but the forgiveness and eternal life with those we brought to Christ.

One thing we need to know for clarity in the translation of v.8. The word "master" is actually kurios, Lord, indicating that it is not the servant's master commending him. The literal translation is "And the Lord (Jesus) commended the economist (steward) of unrighteousness (or injustice)," Unfortunately, the "economist of unrighteousness (money)" has been translated as the "unrighteous steward". The Lord would never commend an unjust steward. The word adikia, 'unrighteousness' in many instances in the NT stands for money, because money was/is used for unrighteous purposes much of the time. (Consider Judas) The word translated "shrewd" and "more shrewd" in v.8 is phronimos which means "prudent" and "he who knows how to regulate his affairs with people."

In standard interpretation, the steward was seen as a thieving weasel looking out for himself. Knowing the use of original words in Greek, we see a man using generosity and forgiveness, though he received neither. The Lord, for this, commended him.

Woman at the Well - Part 2

When we were here last, Jesus was sitting at Jacob's well in Samaria, with a Samaritan woman full of regret and laden with chains of failed relationships and shame. She made the daily trek to the well in the heat of the day to avoid the stares and wagging tongues of the town's women that shun her.

Jesus spoke freely to her, which confused her. She questioned why a Jewish man was speaking to her, asking her to give him water when it was obvious he had nothing with which to draw the water from the deep well.

Jesus spoke to her of 'living water' that quenches thirst eternally, rather than satisfying the physical thirst that returns. She asked that he share this living water with her. He told her to get her husband and come back. She replied she didn't have a husband. Here, note the things Jesus did not say: He states her past and present marital status but makes no mention of her sin. He gives no call to repent. He presents no structured plan for salvation. He offers no prayer. In the quiet of the well, away from the noise of the city, He shows her a reflection of herself in the measured cup of living water.

Now, since she thought him to be a prophet, she brought up how the Jews and Samaritans believed in different, though specific, places to worship. Jesus said, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know (pagan gods); we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

This divine appointment in the desert led to a profound discussion on Scripture regarding worship – God is spirit and worship is not the body coming to a church, a place, but the soul coming to the spirit of God.  She stated she knew the Messiah is coming and knew He would explain it all to them. Jesus replied, "I who speak to you am He." Can you imagine the thoughts reeling through her head? What an experience this had been! The Jew man speaking to her, sharing about 'living water of eternal life', telling her of her past without the condemnation with which she was so accustomed, and now he has said he was the Messiah she had heard about all her life. Can you picture the look on her face as the revelation sinks in? How her heart must have trembled in awe as she receives all she has heard!

Her response, she ran to tell any and everyone what she has seen and heard. She ran to share this with all the people that used and/or shunned her over the years. How remarkable is that? She was, in fact, a Samaritan disciple as she ran to tell all of the eternal life Jesus shared at the well. A woman of the world used by Christ to sow seeds in a city full of people most Jews would not give the time of day. The gift received, was a gift that keeps on giving when shared. The encounter with Messiah freed her from the chains of sin and remorse and opened her eyes to the knowledge of God's spirit; true believers come into His presence for worship.

Yet another great desert experience! Interesting how God uses those times of desert living to reach out to His people. Makes facing our own desert experiences something to watch for and see what God is trying to teach us, one divine appointment at a time, doesn't it?

Across the Sands of Time and Division

In the Book of John, the Scriptures regarding the Samaritan woman reveals much about the character of Christ as much in what it doesn't say as it does. What it doesn't say about the woman reveals a great deal, as well. Once again, knowing a little about the culture and place in time of it occurrence makes a difference.

The Samaritan woman was making a trip to the well alone in the heat of the day. Typically, the town's women would have made the daily water run early in the morning when it was cooler and spent this errand time visiting with one another and catching up on town news and gossip. Yet, here is this woman coming alone, after all the others had made their way back home. Can you picture her walking in the dusty heat carrying a large water pot on her head? Can you feel the sweat running down her sides as she makes her way to the well? Scripture says 'it was about the sixth hour' when Jesus arrived at the well, that would make it noon, the sun high over head beating down on both our Lord and this lonely Samaritan woman; the empty water pot rather symbolic of her empty life.

Once at the well, the nameless woman (could have been any of us) was surprised when Jesus spoke to her. At that time in history, it was not culturally accepted for a man to address a woman in public that was not his wife or family, and most especially not practice for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan at all.

The hatred between Jews and Samaritan dates back to 722BC; when the Jews were captured and taken to Babylon, the conquering king sent colonist in to repopulate the area. The colonist worshiped pagan gods and the remaining Jews intermarried and practiced a faith of worshiping the God of Israel along side the pagan gods of the new comers. Once the captured Jews were released from Babylon and returned home, they felt bitterness and despised those Jewish cousins that had built a temple on the holy Mount Grizim for their pagan worship. Jews in the days Jesus and the Disciples ministered would not even walk through Samaria, choosing a much longer route to avoid it.

 There are countless modern parallels to the Jewish-Samaritan differences and hatred wherever racial and ethnic barriers divide people. Perhaps that’s why the Gospels and Acts provide so many instances of Samaritans coming into contact with the message of Jesus. It is not the person from the radically different culture on the other side of the world that is hardest to love but our neighbor with skin color, language, rituals, values, ancestry, history, and customs different from one’s own.

Here we have Jesus walking through the hated land of Samaria and talking to a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, Father of Israel. He has cut through the lines of discrimination, hate, and cultural boundaries to keep a divine appointment with a pagan sinner. The radical love of Christ crosses all boundaries, real or imagined, to do the work of His Father.

Next time we will continue to look into this story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Food for thought: Is there any one, any groups, any culture with whom you have no dealings?