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Get up – Get Walking… with Jesus
English: The healing of the paralytic : wall painting in the baptistry of the domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do You Want? Then Rise Up
John 17:20-26
† Jesus! Son and Savior! †
My Dear Friends, as Jesus comes to you in your brokenness, and with grace and mercy calls for you to get up and walk… may you trust in His healing, and run to His rest and peace!
Poolside – what else do we need?
Rest – Deep, reviving rest…
For some, it may seem like a dream lifestyle, and once adjusted to it, it might be a little want to change from it.
Imagine, you get to lie out by the pool every day, take in all the sun, have people bring you food, have people attend to your needs…well all but one. Some of us might like that as well – for there was no one that would toss you into the pool!
Sounds like the dream California life, and like I said, once used to it, could you give it up easily?
There was once a man who gave it up, in the course of a few moments,
All it took was one question, and one word of encouragement.
It was then, that this man who had spent 38 years, laying out by the pool, learned finally what it meant… to rest.
It is time to get up – and walk and find some real rest….
The Scene –
I want you to put yourself in the man’s place, to imagine the sights, the sounds, the smells, the voice.
The poolside was crowded that day, as it was so many. It would be as crowded as a Palm Springs, Miami or Vegas hotel swimming pool on Spring break, with every spot taken, and people just sitting and laying out, enjoying their week of rest, having people to care for them. Having the staff of the pool caring for their every need.
This pool where the man lay was as crowded, but not with people looking for rest, but desiring to be given an active life, to have a miracle happen that would change everything, that would make them whole. They filled every spot – these blind, weak people, these people who had to have people care for them, because they couldn’t care for themselves. .
I imagine after the first few healings, their attention would be focused on the water with everything they were. Ready like sprinters in the blocks, knowing that the answer to their life would be met with the stirring of the water… but after a few weeks? After a few months?
What about 38 years later..
Was he still as ready? Was he as desiring to get into the water?
Or was He comfortable, and had he made this place a “home”.
It may not be a poolside spot in the sun that has been made our home, our comfort zone. However, each of us can easily tire of this life, and become accustom to a sin, Or maybe we’ve given up on praying for a life that is going to pieces, or we find that we can’t stop that which causes our anxiety. Whatever it is, we can feel blind, weak, paralyzed.
There is a point where the emotional overload, whether pain or guilt or shame or anxiety just pounds us down – and we find ourselves giving up on the possibility of being healed, we think overcoming, or seeing things change… no that’s for others….. We just lie there spiritually depressed and defeated. Not bothering even to ask anyone for help – not even realizing that we can pray for that which we need.
Do you want… then get up…
The authority in that command.
Into this pit of despair, walks a man that draws everyone’s attention. They had heard many things about him, rumors of the healings that run through the families of those who had hoped for healings, and would take any opportunity, consider any remedy, try any curative.
He’s here, everyone is whispering to their neighbors, He’s here….as a thousand desperate eyes, desperate for themselves, desperate for those they love, focus in on this man, followed by a few guys, some of them probably arguing among themselves.
He sets his eyes on one man, the one who has been there so long… and he walks up…and asks….”Do you want to be made whole, do you want to be revived and cleansed?” For those words – get is the word – genesis, and the word for well is the word we get hygienic from. Do you want to become, to be born again…clean, whole, perfect?
There is a part of me, the part of me that is a pastor that loves that the excuse is not considered – that Jesus simply says, “Get up – take away that old mat, and walk. I love the authority, His response, the simple way in which Jesus deals with this man. I wish I had the confidence to do this more, and the wisdom to know when!
It scares me a little as well, as one who wants to walk with Jesus. Does He want me to do likewise? Is Jesus not going to hear my excuses? Will He compel me to get up? Are these words just not to that man, on that mat, besides that pool? Or are they to you and I? Is it time to get up – to abandon the things that hold us back, and walk with Christ?
Friends, He has told us this… and it is time to get up – to leave that old life behind, and walk with Him.
Note what awaits us when we Get up?
The Sabbath!
As the end of the gospel reading – the last sentence, the last thought seemed like a comment made in oversight – sort of a “o yeah – it was Saturday….” A nice passing comment – I thought at first. It caught my attention, and I thought about it a little more.
The symbolism is phenomenal. The very thing this man was to do, on his first day of wholeness, it to keep Holy the Sabbath. To spend the time with God, in prayer, in reading the word, in the community of the people of God, gathered in His name. Not out of duty, but in prayer and praise, in rejoicing with them in their healing, in God answering their prayers as well.
There, walking with Jesus, we gain what most people look for, when they plan a vacation poolside. We find our burdens lifted off our shoulders, our sins erased, our hearts and souls healing, for He is here, just as He was for that man who laid around for 38 years. Telling us to get up – and to walk up here… and find rest in Him.
This man who had for so long laid by the pool at Bethsaida – translated as the House of cHesed, the House of God’s loving mercy. That man found the strength he needed – not just the strength of body, but the strength of the soul. He didn’t find it himself – he was right – he needed someone’s assistance, and that someone was the Lord, the God who heals, the God who makes whole,
The God who says to you – even as He prepares to feed you with Christ’s body and blood, “get up – get rid of the stuff and walk…. and come – rest with me.”
As you do – may His peace flood over you – and may you realize it guards you – heart and soul for you dwell in Christ. AMEN!
Why our Idolatry is Worthless
Devotional/Discussion thought of the day:
(From Today’s Adult Bible Study – Special thanks to J!)
•3 “Worship no god but me. 4 “Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. 5 Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the LORD your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. 6 But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey (keep/treasure) my laws. Exodus 20:3-6 (TEV)
Presently in our Sunday morning adult Bible study we are looking at the way we worship. The theme is The Dance of the Liturgy, Learning to Partner in Life with God. We are now in the third class – and we were talking about the Choreography of our lives – and focusing on Eph 5:21-24 and Ex. 20. The basic questions were, “Who leads”, “Why do we try to lead”, and “the Steps of our Life – the Decalogue/Ten Commandments. It may be the best study I have ever written and is quite fun. I have the blessing of growing up with parents who were master Ballroom Dance instructors, so I have a few stories…that illustrate things well.
As we got to the first commandment, after talking about the necessity of trusting our Partner as He leads us through life, one of the newer ladies to our congregation spoke up and said something that too me a couple of minutes to process.
“Pastor, the reason we shouldn’t worship and idols is because they cannot lead us through life.”
What a brilliant observation – these idols – whether they are celebrities, or statues, whether they are numbers ( like back accounts) or liquids (alcohol ) or anything else – will fail us. An idol is this – it is what you turn to, when life is stressful, what you trust to get you through the hard times what you credit for the blessings. Often, the idol is ourselves – we think we are God. It doesn’t matter who we create as our “gods”, our “idols” they will fail for the reason mentioned – they can’t lead us, they can’t create out of our missteps something beautiful, and graceful and loving.
They cannot do what Paul instructs men to do, following the example of Christ,
25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. 26 He did this to dedicate the church to God by his word, after making it clean by washing it in water, 27 in order to present the church to himself in all its beauty—pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other imperfection. Ephesians 5:25-27 (TEV)
That’s something an idol can’t do – it can’t lead you on the dance floor, or through the dance of life, or even through the dance of the liturgy……
Only God can…. so relax, know the hands that hold you, realized that He created the dance, and He will assure its completion and its beauty….
Related articles
- The Dance of the Liturgy, Learning to Partner with God (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Hungry for more than Discipleless Christianity (justifiedandsinner.com)
Hungry for more than Discipleless Christianity
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Nave of Salisbury Cathedral, with Sibirica Minor II in foreground – geograph.org.uk – 188287 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
23 Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise. 24 Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. 25 Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer. 26 For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us. 27 Instead, all that is left is to wait in fear for the coming Judgment and the fierce fire which will destroy those who oppose God! 28 Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses. 29 What, then, of those who despise the Son of God? who treat as a cheap thing the blood of God’s covenant which purified them from sin? who insult the Spirit of grace? Just think how much worse is the punishment they will deserve! Hebrews 10:23-29 (TEV)
57 As they went on their way, a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.” 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But that man said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.” 60 Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” 61 Someone else said, “I will follow you, sir; but first let me go and say good-bye to my family.” 62 Jesus said to him, “Anyone who starts to plow and then keeps looking back is of no use for the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62 (TEV)
28 “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. 30 For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (TEV)
Yesterday in Bible Study we came across the first passage above. It is a bit scary, given the predisposition of people to sin, and even to argue that sins isn’t sin, or more commonly that my sins aren’t as foul, disgusting and pathetic as the sins of those people “out there”! Indeed we love to look outside ourselves, outside our churches, outside our country even, and point out their sins, their idolatry, their evil.
Or better yet, let’s ignore the issue of sin altogether in the church, and focus instead on issues like music, or what is a proper liturgy, or what is the nature and relationship of sanctification to justification. Let’s focus on church growth, or maintaining pure doctrine; even if that means the church must diminish because of how we work to purify it. There are more than enough things to worry about, there are more than enough cute sayings we can make meme’s out of, or tweet till we turn blue. We want to be Christians, whether Lutheran or Catholic or Methodist or Baptist or Non-Denom, without being disciples – and that is why our churches are so weak.
Instead we can be His friends, we can let Him mentor us, correct us, challenge our idols, especially the idol of our reason, our logic, our ideas of what is right and wrong, what is righteous, or what is sin. We can go – okay Lord, I don’t get this, but I trust YOU!
Will we let the refiner’s fire work in our lives, will we let his abrasive fuller’s soap burn our filthy rags and transform them into glorious white robes?
Will we let Him heal us of our sin?
Will we be reconciled, redeemed, revived, renewed, recreated?
Or do we want a nice academic, thoughtful (but controlled) form of Christianity that asks nothing of us, that allows us to create a facade of righteous, with all the right actions, all the right words, all the proper things… but without a true and honest relationship with the one who hung on a tree to make that relationship possible?
I’ve said it before – following Jesus is more like Ballroom dancing that mountain climbing – will we move with Him, will we allow Him to guide us, to teach us., to bless us with His word, His sacrament, His Death and Resurrection? This isn’t about some form of false piety, it’s about walking with God, and letting Him be our loving, merciful, faithful Shepherd and the Firstborn and Friend.
A last thought – the blessing from the Book of Hebrews:
20 Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— 21 may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen! Hebrews 13:20-21 (NLT)
Vengeance is Mine! says God, but my will is…. (more we don’t want to hear…but need to!)
English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional/Discussion thought of the day….
WARNING – If you don’t like yesterday’s post…read on.. and be challenged some more.
One of the challenges for people who claim to be Christian, is to encounter the entire counsel of God in scripture…and not just isolate passages. Here are some incredibly timely…
18 Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody. 19 Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God’s anger do it. For the scripture says, “I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.” Romans 12:18-19 (TEV)
2 Whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered; and anyone who does so will bring judgment on himself. 3 For rulers are not to be feared by those who do good, but by those who do evil. Would you like to be unafraid of those in authority? Then do what is good, and they will praise you, 4 because they are God’s servants working for your own good. But if you do evil, then be afraid of them, because their power to punish is real. They are God’s servants and carry out God’s punishment on those who do evil. Romans 13:2-4 (TEV)
In light of the recent attacks on Boston, we really, really like these verses. We want vengeance, and as long as it meats our standard, we are more than willing to let God use whoever He wants, the FBI, local police, my prefereance – the USMC – whoever.
But if we are to trust God with wreaking vengeance on these horrific sins, then we have to trust Him…(gulp) to do it in a way consistent with His character, with His will….
and that may mean… He will not get vengeance in a way that we will appreciate. Matter of fact, we may hate the idea.
A couple of other passages:
8 But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord’s sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. 9 The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins. 2 Peter 3:8-9 (TEV)
21 It was to this that God called you, for Christ himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, and no one ever heard a lie come from his lips. 23 When he was insulted, he did not answer back with an insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge. 24 Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed. 25 You were like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back to follow the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls. 1 Peter 2:21-25 (TEV) (see Isaiah 52-53 and Romans 3-5 for more on this)
9 Do not pay back evil with evil or cursing with cursing; instead, pay back with a blessing, because a blessing is what God promised to give you when he called you. 1 Peter 3:9 (TEV)
I could go on and on – God did get the fullest of vengeance on these sins, and many, many more. And we have to trust Him at His word – every sin has been paid for, every bit of evil perpetrated by man. And justice has been done, as Peter noted above.
And proved that God the father is not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance, to transformation, to know His love, His mercy and forgiveness.
That is, I guess – where our trust in Him has to be challenged. Could God forgive these people? Could God forgive the horrors that have been done to mankind?
I think that is why the old general prayer in the Lutheran Hymnal had us give voice to these words, “May it please Thee also to turn the hearts of our enemies and adversaries that they may cease their enmity (with God) and be inclined to walk with us in meekness and peace” ( The Lutheran Hymnal p.23) I am deeply indebted to the pastor who introduced this hymnal to me, as well as the Theology of the Cross. The Theology that so tells us of the depth of God’s love and providence in our lives – that suffering becomes something where I depend on Him more, trust in Him more… and know even more that He is with me.
How many of us are ready to pray such a prayer? Whether it be about those who have traumatized Boston, or the neighbor…or maybe our boss?
Are we willing to trust God that far? Are we willing to be that bold in our faith – that we can God to God and say – Vengeance or Mercy- it is Your call God. Doing so, pouring our our pain, our anxiety at the altar.
Do we trust Him that much?
For if we can trust Him that much, how assured are we that He has done the same for us. For every one of our sins, for every one of our failures.
I for one, am not strong enough – even the strength to write this – requires that I depend on Him for it – that He will create in me the strength necessary.
And for this day… so far.. He seems to be providing that strength I need to trust Him. Even thought I don’t want it, even though I do not like to depend on Him for it, and would rather play God….
But it is there… and in Him, I can find peace.
Related articles
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- Need Hope? No Answers? Come Experience Jesus, Have Hope! (evangelical catholic VI) (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Where you there when the… on Good Friday? On Easter Sunday? As much as He is here now! (justifiedandsinner.com)
- The Great Apocalypse in upon us! (justifiedandsinner.com)
- vengeance is mine, says the Lord (sharingloveandtruth.org)
Conversion and “Repentance” Evangelical Catholic VI? or VII?
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
18 When they heard this, they stopped their criticism and praised God, saying, “Then God has given to the Gentiles also the opportunity to repent and live!” Acts 11:18 (TEV)
1 So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (TEV)
8 But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. 9 Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits 10 and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. Colossians 3:8-10 (TEV)
Conversion— metanoia, in the New Testament Greek— is a lifelong matter for evangelical Catholics. Whether one is baptized as an infant or an adult, and no matter how old one is upon first meeting the Lord Jesus in a personal way, the Christian life as proposed by Evangelical Catholicism is one of constant conversion. That process continues until the moment of death, which the Christian should approach as the moment in which the gift of life is offered to the Creator: with gratitude for that gift having been redeemed by the Son, and with confidence that death is, in the power of the Spirit, the moment of transition and purification into a fuller encounter with the Holy Trinity. Living toward death in that way requires a lifetime of preparation, a lifetime of deepening one’s friendship with the Lord Jesus, the conqueror of death. (1)
These are words we are used to dealing with in the church, conversion and repentance.
Yet to adapt a line from the classic movie of movies, the Princess Bride, I think we don’t know what these words mean!
Weigel nails it – when he ties the word metanoia which is often translated “repentance” to the word conversion. For indeed repentance and conversion should communicate the same thing – and they often don’t.
I’ve often heard people talk about repentance as our turning our direction, doing a spiritual 180 from heading towards death, to changing to heading towards heaven. Or some will argue that it means to be contrite and sorrowful for sin. While contrition is part of it, there is more involved. For the Greek word breaks apart into “change” and “mind” – calling us to do what Paul will challenge the Philippians to do – to Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, ( Philippians 2:5 (BBE) Conversion is, having the mind of Christ, one that is not set on things of this world, but rather, things which are heavenly (1 You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. 2 Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. Colossians 3:1-2 (TEV)
Like so much else of scripture, this is easier to say, than it is to do, hence the need for daily repentance, daily conversion. It is why Luther would remind us to start and end each day thinking of our baptism, about what God did there. For we all to soon forget, and live far too often trying to avoid or deal with the consequences of guilt and shame. But our struggle isn’t that within ourselves, for we can’t fix our brokenness. We can’t erase our sin. It is finding the humility to look to God, to receive the gift of conversion, of cleansing, of receiving the blessing of renewal, as God provides for us in word and sacrament, as He calls us from the death of sin, to live – and live as Weigel puts it – towards the return of Christ – either when He returns at the end in all of His glory, or when He calls us home.
For there we find another promise fulfilled, “6 And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 (TEV)
You see, that is the concept of conversion – it is not us striving with all our might to change ourselves, and more than a baby can change it’s dirty diaper. It is instead – taking a breath – remembering who our Lord and Savior is, turning to Him and finding revealed to us that He has done this thing, He has changed us, and is changing us.
May we become more and more aware of the mercy shown to us, as the Holy Spirit molds us, renews us, and restores us to the image in which we are created.
Godspeed my friends!
(1) Weigel, George (2013-02-05). Evangelical Catholicism (pp. 67-68). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.
The Dance of the Liturgy, Learning to Partner with God
Devotional Thought of the Day,
11 You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance; you have taken away my sorrow and surrounded me with joy. 12 So I will not be silent; I will sing praise to you. LORD, you are my God; I will give you thanks forever! Psalm 30:11-12 (TEV)
I’ve been working on a new series for Sunday School – which is shaping up pretty nicely.
It is a refresher of sorts, a way to help people remember why we do what we do in worship – which is in many ways – a rehearsal for life now, and life everlasting. For those who prefer church terms – it is a on-going catachesis – a way to present the core of our faith in such a way that people see it with fresh eyes. You see, while our liturgy is worship – it is also where we learn what it means to partner with God, to follow His lead, to celebrate and move. If we learn the lessons from it – if they become as integral to our life as the steps of a dance are to an accomplished dancer, we find it flowing into our lives – and the dance continues, no longer practice – but lives in us as we leave our sanctuaries. The steps, the rhythm, the music, all becomes part of us. Even more – that we are partners with God – becomes more natural, more real, the discipline, the beauty, it is our life.
The first basic key for us – is that everything is focused on our Partner…. as we let Him guide us through this dance of life.
Come, its time to pray, our Partner awaits…
Worship for Barren and Empty Souls
Flatiron from Brown’s Peak Saddle – Four Peaks Wilderness (Photo credit: Al_HikesAZ)
Discussion thought of the Day:
“The wilderness is still the place of worship. (as it was for Israel) But for you and me ist is a matter of dunes and dry ground. In fact, it may be deceptively gree. Our Hunger and thirst are more spiritual realities than physical ones. The desolation we often experience involves our yearning for a more palpable feeling of the Presence of God. We need spiritual bread every it as much as they needed the manna in the wilderness. Our deep need for Living Water is as intense as any thirst their parch throats ever knew.
As so we look to the One whose coming incranated for us the Manna, the Living Waterand the presence of God. Jesus has entered into the wilderness of our wilderness and found us…. ” (1)
In a few hours I will be mentioning this passage in class. This morning – as most morning goes – the revelation that Michael Card mentions above was why we gathered for church. And even there, as I preached about the bondage caused by sin, and talked about our helplessness and need for Christ, I could “see” those who were burdened for others or by their own problems. We are, in many ways – so similar to Israel wandering in the desert – awaiting a promised land.
I wonder how many of us realize the fertile ground that exists in the desert – just a little water – and it blossoms with plants and flowers, incredible beauty – in the midst of what was thought to be barren. It just takes the touch of heaven to bring it forth.
So to in our lives….I’ve seen it too many many times to count. There is great beauty in the wilderness – there is a dance that comes from mourning, there is always life and reconciliation where we thought there was only darkness and despair. The key… simply is worship – worshipping the One who invades our wilderness, who brings light into the darkness. Who comes with compassion and comfort.
And in that darkness, in that solitude – as we find Christ finding us… we find life – and a life that praises – that glories – that begins to recognize the healing brought to us. …
And oh – how we need it. O how I need it – even though I know it is there…
If I can help you find it – this hope, this incredible mercy, this love and the presence of God, I would love to….
For as I see you find it – I am reminded it is there for me as well.
Lord Have mercy on us, and help us realize Jesus, that you have!
(1) Michael Card, The Sacred Sorrow – page 24
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Sleepless Nights, Murphy’s Law and My Fatalism
Devotional Discussion of the Day,
It seems to be a common thing I am noticing on FaceBook, and on Words with Friends. Many, many people up later at night, (at least 12 in the last couple of nights) looking for some interaction with others.
Of course, for me to notice this… yeah – pretty much I can be up that late as well.
Usually it is because I am trying to discern Mr. Murphy’s strategy to wreck my life. How Mr. Murphy tries to twist me, those around me, and the situations I encounter – to assure that it will screw up royally, and my life won’t come up smelling like roses, but instead the stuff that makes roses grow beautifully. How much of my life is determined to counter these things – how many ways will I either try to deny, argue, bargain, coerce life into being easy, or enjoyable or happy. But in order to comprehend doing that, I have to plan for every variable, ever twist, every turn, every option, and my mind goes into high speed, and does not rest.
My usual tactic is to play a game on my phone – one which causes me to function at such a high level of thought – that I emotionally fall asleep and crash. Or I put on my CPAP mask – and responding in a Pavlovian sense – my body overrides my mind and it shuts down. Sleep occurs – but the dreams don’t provide enough rest.
So where is our hope? Where is our rest – where is the ability to stop doing what so many of us do, tossing and turning as our mind tries to play God.
Yeah – I said it – we try to play god. Instead of creating gods in our own image, as the ancients have done for millenia, we just determine that we have to make all the decisions, we have to have all the answers, we have to be prepared for everything. And when we can’t – we either become fatalism ( “Life a “b@*#&” and then you die” was the phrase in the 80’s. “Life is pain your Highness” is how a very favorite movie stated it ). I am a master of that – resigning myself to the ineventual mess ups that occur. Or we rev – and rev and reve – trying to figure out how to beat this fatalistic ending we “know” is coming.
And we forget the option that is the simplest, and the most effective. Read these words and realize what they mean:
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NLT
3 Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. 4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires. 5 Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. 6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. 7 Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.Psalm 37:3-7 (NLT)
Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. Psalm 55:22 (NLT)
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!
Realize that God desires, wants you to depend on Him, it is the very relationship He created you to enjoy.
Let Him take over being God…. He’s got the wisdom, the experience, the power – and most of all – the love for you which uniquely qualifies Him for the job.
Where you there when the… on Good Friday? On Easter Sunday? As much as He is here now!
12 For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death. Colossians 2:12 (TEV)
4 By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life. 5 For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was. Romans 6:4-5 (TEV)
Among the spiritual songs that are prevalent during Easter week, there is one that can be sung with such power, that it sends shivers downs people’s back, and can make the manliest man week in the knees. The spiritual “where you there when they” is a simple spiritual – but oh the emotional power of that song, as we hear the verses describing the crucifixion and burial of Christ. The woe’s hit us in the gut as we realize the death of Christ, and that we were as much the cause of it – as the Jewish Priests and Pilate and every sinner who Christ came to rescue was.
And we were there…
The above two passages – among several – talk of this very thing. That we were there, that in our baptism we died with Christ, so that we could be raised with Christ.
Which is the last verse of the song – “where you there when He rose up from the grave!”
And the answer for that is…. yes as well.
We have a new life, a new mind, a new heart – and a relationship that is heavenly – for it is with God. We do walk with God, He is our Comforter, our Paraclete our Shepherd. Everything changes with Christ – it is not just a bunch of knowledge to one up someone in a discussion. It’s not about changing people’s behaviors and stopping them from doing things that are distasteful,. Surely those things will change – as the Holy Spirit confronts and guides. But they aren’t the reason for the cross and the grave and the empty tomb. That is not the reason for the glorious exertion of the power of God.
The reason for the cross, the grace, the resurrection… is so that we are God’s children.
The Great Apocalypse in upon us!
Devotional/Discussion thought of this day:
50 Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last. 51 Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart, 52 the graves broke open, and many of God’s people who had died were raised to life. Matthew 27:50-52 (TEV)
In the midst of the most horrifyingly beautiful scene in all of scripture, as Jesus dies, crucified as he takes upon Himself all of the sin, all of the injustice, all that is wrong in you and I, and all of humanity, Matthew gives us one odd detail.
A curtain is torn in two, ripped apart in the temple.
And to those gathered in this Holy Place, what is behind the curtain is revealed. It is unveiled. It is an apocalypse – the unveiling, the revealing.
We fear that word for some reason, but what it means is simply that – the revealing, in this case, what is behind the curtain. And the answer was nothing. There was no ark of the covenant, no mercy seat, just an empty room, where blood people counted on to cover their sins, was poured down the drain. Their sacrifices were revealed to be vain, and for those who trusted in their offerings, in the work of the priests who knew the truth, all of the empty liturgy that they took such pride in, and in the temple built to Herod’s glory, they realized their faith was misplaced.
But their cries for mercy, their prayers were answered, none the less.
For there was something else revealed – a few miles away, on another mountain, not just a apocalypse, but the Apocalypse, the power that caused the earth to shake, the rocks split apart – and God’s people who had died to rise.
God was revealed in all of His glory, the depth of His love for us unveiled, the greatest apocalypse man had ever known, even though they didn’t recognize it.
For it was God there, on the cross, Jesus the one annointed, chosen, humbled, crucified, for the joy that awaited Him, the love so manifested so overwhelming. He would die, for us, so that we would never be bound by sin, so that we would become the children of God, the prodigals returned home. For that apocalypse, that revealing of the love of God, was described in another place,
12 Because we have this hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who had to put a veil over his face so that the people of Israel would not see the brightness fade and disappear. 14 Their minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ. 15 Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds. 16 But it can be removed, as the scripture says about Moses: “His veil was removed when he turned to the Lord.” 17 Now, “the Lord” in this passage is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. 18 All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (TEV)
The veil that was torn in two, the veiled that was removed unveiling Christ, unveiling His Love, Unveiling His Grace…
He Has Risen, and we with Him…
Let’s Boldly go – as our Savior has gone!
