The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah had a very unpopular ministry in a very difficult time. Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah in the days leading up to and during the exile into Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.
There were times in his life when Jeremiah felt like packing it all in and giving up his ministry. After all, no one was listening, and not only were they not listening, they were punishing – punishing Jeremiah for the things God was telling Jeremiah to tell the people. And so, Jeremiah resolved to keep quiet, but alas, he could not…Jer 20:7 O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, "Violence and plunder!" Because the word of the Lord was made to me A reproach and a derision daily. 9 Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.
The reason Jeremiah could not hold back the Word of God? It was because it burned in his heart like fire. He could not hold it back.
Cut to 600 years later. Two men walking along the road which travels from Jerusalem to Emmaus. The men are disconsolate. Downcast. Discouraged. They may be escaping Jerusalem in fear of persecution, or in fear of their lives. At the very least, they have left their greatest of all hopes behind – their hope in the Messiah – and are headed sadly back to their ‘normal’ lives. All the faith they had placed in Jesus had not panned out. Jesus was dead.
Suddenly the two men are joined by a fellow traveler, whom they fail to recognize. He asks questions about their sorrow, and what has caused it? The men respond as Jeremiah had responded 600 years before. They had been induced and persuaded by the Lord to believe, and now they were in a position to be mocked for that belief. But then, the stranger declared, Luke 24:25 Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
He ventured into Emmaus with the pair, joining them for supper, and blessing and breaking the bread with them. And then they recognized Him! Luke 24:2 And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"
The Word of God has always been capable of fanning the smallest embers of faith and trust into a raging fire in the heart.
- Pastor Bill
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Cross Wise
Luke 23:26 Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. 27 And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.
I received one of those ‘forwarded’ emails this week. (You know the kind: email that has already been sent to hundreds of people - and now is being sent to hundreds more.)
This email was very interesting in what it presented. There was an illustration of a person carrying a large cross, and they were complaining to God about the size and weight of their cross. Each time they complained God complied, and made the cross a little smaller and a little lighter. At the end of their life, this person approached the great divide between God and man, and discovered the tiny cross they now possessed was not long enough to bridge the divide. Only those with large crosses were able to cross over into the presence of God. While this illustration is merely allegorical, it does serve to illustrate what we may understand about the crosses we are to bear in our lives.
Earlier, in another ministry setting, Jesus had declared: Luke 9:23 …"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.
Now here, in this setting on the streets of Jerusalem, Simon, a Cyrenian, is confronted with something altogether different. How about carrying someone else’s cross? As little as we like bearing our own – what about somebody else’s as well? You could say Simon had no choice. You could say he was compelled by a Roman soldier to do so. You could also say God arranged all these circumstances to demonstrate to us what an act of worship looks like from His perspective.
Simon has come to Jerusalem to worship God at Passover, and he finds himself engulfed in this tremendous distraction…his attempt to ‘worship’ diverted by forced compliance to carry someone else’s cross. (Only to find out this is the cross of Christ, and it is indeed the very implement of the redemption of all mankind.) Amazing! Historic! Awesome!
Who knows what you will be called to do while you are on your way to worship?
- Pastor Bill
I received one of those ‘forwarded’ emails this week. (You know the kind: email that has already been sent to hundreds of people - and now is being sent to hundreds more.)
This email was very interesting in what it presented. There was an illustration of a person carrying a large cross, and they were complaining to God about the size and weight of their cross. Each time they complained God complied, and made the cross a little smaller and a little lighter. At the end of their life, this person approached the great divide between God and man, and discovered the tiny cross they now possessed was not long enough to bridge the divide. Only those with large crosses were able to cross over into the presence of God. While this illustration is merely allegorical, it does serve to illustrate what we may understand about the crosses we are to bear in our lives.
Earlier, in another ministry setting, Jesus had declared: Luke 9:23 …"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.
Now here, in this setting on the streets of Jerusalem, Simon, a Cyrenian, is confronted with something altogether different. How about carrying someone else’s cross? As little as we like bearing our own – what about somebody else’s as well? You could say Simon had no choice. You could say he was compelled by a Roman soldier to do so. You could also say God arranged all these circumstances to demonstrate to us what an act of worship looks like from His perspective.
Simon has come to Jerusalem to worship God at Passover, and he finds himself engulfed in this tremendous distraction…his attempt to ‘worship’ diverted by forced compliance to carry someone else’s cross. (Only to find out this is the cross of Christ, and it is indeed the very implement of the redemption of all mankind.) Amazing! Historic! Awesome!
Who knows what you will be called to do while you are on your way to worship?
- Pastor Bill
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Bag Men
Luke 22:63 Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. 64 And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, "Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?" 65 And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.
Deut 18:15 "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.
It is hard to imagine any Jewish person thinking or acting in a way which they know to be directly contrary to Moses. Yet here we see the Temple guard acting in exactly that way, with the explicit permission and direction of the leadership of the church.
It is a horrible thing to see when church leadership goes bad. Unfortunately, it is the leaders of the church who are least-well depicted in the Gospels. (They are even depicted as relatively worse than the Roman governors, who were despised by the Jews.)
The question is, how could this happen?
Moses had predicted ‘The True Prophet’ would come. Church leadership knew it. The Jewish people knew it. What are we to expect when ‘The True Prophet’ comes? Joy! Worship! Yet, subservience!
Instead we see them place a bag over Jesus’ head and beat the tar out of Him - as the elders of the church look on approvingly. All the while taunting Him that if He really is ‘The True Prophet’ He should be able to say who it is who is hitting Him. Of all the hurtful things Jesus endured before and during His crucifixion, this may have been among the worst. Imagine God, having a purple robe placed upon His shoulders and a crown of thorns placed roughly on His head - thorns deeply implanted - and then taunted about His office as ‘The True Prophet.’
This suggests they knew exactly what they were doing. This was no accident.
Who would do such a thing? Are these inherently evil men? Are these thugs representative of some mob of local gangsters? No, they are the representatives of the church. They are, in fact, the ‘guardians’ of the church. (Indeed, The Church Guard.)
What does it say about the church when there is no longer a fear of God present within the church? I take this as a stark warning of how men seeking power eventually find themselves directly contending with God. And they willingly lead others into that same contention.
- Pastor Bill
Deut 18:15 "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.
It is hard to imagine any Jewish person thinking or acting in a way which they know to be directly contrary to Moses. Yet here we see the Temple guard acting in exactly that way, with the explicit permission and direction of the leadership of the church.
It is a horrible thing to see when church leadership goes bad. Unfortunately, it is the leaders of the church who are least-well depicted in the Gospels. (They are even depicted as relatively worse than the Roman governors, who were despised by the Jews.)
The question is, how could this happen?
Moses had predicted ‘The True Prophet’ would come. Church leadership knew it. The Jewish people knew it. What are we to expect when ‘The True Prophet’ comes? Joy! Worship! Yet, subservience!
Instead we see them place a bag over Jesus’ head and beat the tar out of Him - as the elders of the church look on approvingly. All the while taunting Him that if He really is ‘The True Prophet’ He should be able to say who it is who is hitting Him. Of all the hurtful things Jesus endured before and during His crucifixion, this may have been among the worst. Imagine God, having a purple robe placed upon His shoulders and a crown of thorns placed roughly on His head - thorns deeply implanted - and then taunted about His office as ‘The True Prophet.’
This suggests they knew exactly what they were doing. This was no accident.
Who would do such a thing? Are these inherently evil men? Are these thugs representative of some mob of local gangsters? No, they are the representatives of the church. They are, in fact, the ‘guardians’ of the church. (Indeed, The Church Guard.)
What does it say about the church when there is no longer a fear of God present within the church? I take this as a stark warning of how men seeking power eventually find themselves directly contending with God. And they willingly lead others into that same contention.
- Pastor Bill
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Mother Mary
Luke 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." 34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
It is hard to imagine the responsibility being placed upon this young teen-aged woman we know as Mary. She has found favor with God, and the ‘favor’ she has found is reflected in the personal ministry of the angel Gabriel. Reassurance. Concern. Provision.
I think back to the day Tina and I found out “we” were pregnant with James. There are a flood of emotions and challenges that overcome you in that moment – coupled with unbridled joy in new life.
But Mary’s situation was very different in a number of ways. In the first place, she was not yet married. Her pregnancy would be a shaming embarrassment in a time when unmarried pregnancy could be punished with death by stoning. At the very least, she would be shunned and made to be a social outcast. In the second place, since she has never ‘known’ a man, she has a great concern over how these things could happen to begin with? How can a woman be impregnated by the Holy Spirit? But yet – how can a woman be found in conversation with the angel Gabriel? All of this is stunning and alarming
These times in the life of Mary – and for the rest of her days for that matter – would be entirely supernatural times. Mary was about to head down a path in which she would be charged with the most important responsibility I could ever imagine. Mary is the one chosen to nurture and raise God’s Only Begotten Son.
If we were to choose an example of motherhood, how could we choose one greater than God Himself has chosen? What do we see in the life of Mary that we might seek to emulate, since what is revealed by her life is well known as being pleasing to God?
I think we may bring it down to one point, above all others: she is willing to allow God’s will to be done through her.
- Pastor Bill
It is hard to imagine the responsibility being placed upon this young teen-aged woman we know as Mary. She has found favor with God, and the ‘favor’ she has found is reflected in the personal ministry of the angel Gabriel. Reassurance. Concern. Provision.
I think back to the day Tina and I found out “we” were pregnant with James. There are a flood of emotions and challenges that overcome you in that moment – coupled with unbridled joy in new life.
But Mary’s situation was very different in a number of ways. In the first place, she was not yet married. Her pregnancy would be a shaming embarrassment in a time when unmarried pregnancy could be punished with death by stoning. At the very least, she would be shunned and made to be a social outcast. In the second place, since she has never ‘known’ a man, she has a great concern over how these things could happen to begin with? How can a woman be impregnated by the Holy Spirit? But yet – how can a woman be found in conversation with the angel Gabriel? All of this is stunning and alarming
These times in the life of Mary – and for the rest of her days for that matter – would be entirely supernatural times. Mary was about to head down a path in which she would be charged with the most important responsibility I could ever imagine. Mary is the one chosen to nurture and raise God’s Only Begotten Son.
If we were to choose an example of motherhood, how could we choose one greater than God Himself has chosen? What do we see in the life of Mary that we might seek to emulate, since what is revealed by her life is well known as being pleasing to God?
I think we may bring it down to one point, above all others: she is willing to allow God’s will to be done through her.
- Pastor Bill
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Heads Up!
Luke 21:20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25 "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."
Whenever a ball or other object is in the air, and someone is in danger of being hit, you call out, “Heads up!” It’s the quickest thing to say which properly allows the person to comprehend both imminent danger and to look out for something at the same time. (All of that communicated in one simple phrase.)
Jesus, similarly, has a warning for the church as He speaks of the end-times events in Luke 21. “Look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near.”
What exactly does it mean for us to “look up?” Are we to be watching out for redemption to hit us over the head?
Not exactly. Jesus is telling us to live focused lives, especially in times like these…the end times. There is not much time left, and we need to be very careful and very aware of everything that is going on in the world, that we might likewise be prepared for what is going on in the spiritual realm.
I don’t know about you, but I have begun to “see these things happen.” What things? Oh, the upheaval in the world, the political instability and irritability, and the perplexity over how to solve the world’s problems – because in truth there are no solutions any more. The world seems to be spinning out of control, and it is only in knowing Jesus had predicted and prophesied exactly this do I find any comfort at all.
The world is being allowed to spin out of control that we, the Faithful, the True church, may see what time it is. And it is time to look up to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To see He is literally at the door. To see His time to return for His church is at hand. To see that time is short, and that our lives and the lives we intend to save must be impacted now. “Heads up!”
- Pastor Bill
Whenever a ball or other object is in the air, and someone is in danger of being hit, you call out, “Heads up!” It’s the quickest thing to say which properly allows the person to comprehend both imminent danger and to look out for something at the same time. (All of that communicated in one simple phrase.)
Jesus, similarly, has a warning for the church as He speaks of the end-times events in Luke 21. “Look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near.”
What exactly does it mean for us to “look up?” Are we to be watching out for redemption to hit us over the head?
Not exactly. Jesus is telling us to live focused lives, especially in times like these…the end times. There is not much time left, and we need to be very careful and very aware of everything that is going on in the world, that we might likewise be prepared for what is going on in the spiritual realm.
I don’t know about you, but I have begun to “see these things happen.” What things? Oh, the upheaval in the world, the political instability and irritability, and the perplexity over how to solve the world’s problems – because in truth there are no solutions any more. The world seems to be spinning out of control, and it is only in knowing Jesus had predicted and prophesied exactly this do I find any comfort at all.
The world is being allowed to spin out of control that we, the Faithful, the True church, may see what time it is. And it is time to look up to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To see He is literally at the door. To see His time to return for His church is at hand. To see that time is short, and that our lives and the lives we intend to save must be impacted now. “Heads up!”
- Pastor Bill
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