Remembering

A few days ago while attending a meeting out of town I experienced something rather heartbreaking. I had gone to visit a friend staying in our hotel and upon returning to my room encountered a husband and wife in the hallway.  The man looked rather confused so I asked, “can I help you?” The wife in a desperate tone replied, “He doesn’t know who I am and where we are. He wants to leave.” His loving companion of many years was trying to get him to understand who she was but with little success. As I watched his actions and heard him talk it was apparent that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s. I tried to help by asking questions like, “Do you know where your wife and family are? Why don’t you go into this ladies room and rest until help arrives?”  But, the confusion only continued. Finally, as a last resort medics were called in to assist. Just as they arrived it appeared as if his ability to remember returned.  He moved toward his wife, hugged her and said, “I’m sorry, I love you.”  Although she said very little you could see the feeling of desperation leave her. As I stood and watched in the silence of the moment it was if she was saying, “He’s back! I have my husband back!”  I realized this episode is one experienced by thousands as they see their loved ones make the journey into a strange land of the unknown only to return occasionally to the place of sensibility. While this is such a sad sight in the natural, it is even greater for those who experience it spiritually. Jesus looked into the eyes of the church in Ephesus and said, “Remember from where you have fallen.”  Those spoken to had lost their spiritual equilibrium. They were standing in the hallways of time unable to remember who they were and why they existed. They had momentarily lost sight of the groom who had given the ultimate sacrifice for their hand in marriage.  It’s so easy to become preoccupied with business or with the needs and pressures of life to the point that we lose all sensibility. It’s not one of those things where we wake up one morning and say, “You know I think I’ll forget God today.”  No, we don’t intend to but just like the husband mentioned earlier we feel ourselves disoriented unable to put things together. The spiritual disease of memory loss creeps upon us. While we can do certain mental exercises to help in the natural, the same holds true in the spiritual. Praying, reading, meditating and renewed focus assures us that we will have no problem remembering the one who loves us and gave himself for us.  

Just Enough to Get By

"I would like to buy three dollars’ worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough of Him to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack, please. I would like to buy three dollars’ worth of God, please." Wilbur Reese penned these words several years ago to capture the true sentiment of many people. Some think that God is a good thing to include in their life as long as He really doesn't get in the way or require too many changes.  As long as the cost isn't too great, God is given a place but not the place in their life. They want forgiveness--not conversion. However, when you look at the story of Zacchaeus it is evident that he doesn’t fit into this category. He wanted and experienced real conversion. When the invitation came for him to open his house to Jesus, he responded with a bold “yes.” He welcomed the Messiah into his home as well as into his heart holding nothing back. How do we know this encounter resulted in conversion? Luke gives us a glimpse as he unfolds the story. The man short in stature before meeting Christ had a large passion for power, position, and wealth. However, listen to his post-encounter response: “Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." And then we read the words of Jesus, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." What strikes me as being unusual here is the fact that this newly forgiven sinner was never asked to do the things he agreed to do. He was never asked to give to the poor or to restore that which was stolen. So what is the point to be made?  Simply stated, when people move beyond forgiveness to conversion they make decisions based on responsibility rather than necessity. We do things because we want to not because we have to. Such actions attest to the fact that converted people are not satisfied with having their soulish slate wiped clean. They are not to be categorized as those who seek only do what is required. Their desire is to move beyond the thrill to the real; to move beyond the needful to the natural. This means as new creatures they are consumed with walking out their faith. In essence they are never satisfied with doing just enough to get by.

The Revelation

In Matthew 16, we read about one of the greatest revelations of all time.  Jesus is asking the disciples who people are saying He is. After several answers are given, rambunctious Peter who was good at sticking his foot in his mouth blurted out, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God.” Rather than being rebuked, Jesus commends the less than perfect disciple and responds by saying, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  This entire conversation took place at the site of Pan--the premier god of that day. This god represented universalism—involving sexual orgies, the worship of nature, and what we would call today the worship of humanism.  No doubt Jesus had this idol worship in mind in his statement and assured his listeners that as bad as it was it would not overcome the church. We have a hard time identifying with this picture, but if you go to a place like India you understand.  They have more than 330 million gods which includes almost everything.  In the city of Tirupati, they have a temple which is considered the most sacred worship center in all of the country.  More than thirty thousand people visit it daily giving in excess of more than 500 thousand dollars in contributions every day.  People bring their gold and other precious possessions and throw them upon the altar.  The rich, the poor, the elite and the common all come to worship.  Each year the country celebrates a festival where they bring their gods on trucks and throw them into the river.  After they cast them in, the professional divers dive into the water break the plaster off, harvest the metal and take it to the market in order to sell it.  You ask “How can people be so deceived?”  You might say “America could never be so naive.” Yet we are in a society submerged in the worship of self, pleasure, and wealth. So much so it is creating tidal waves of opposition against the worship of the one and only true God. Bibles, prayer, crosses, and other religious rituals and items are being banned from the public arena. However, what the believer must keep in mind is the fact that we have a revelation; this satanic push will not prevail against His church. Regardless of how negative it gets, the Church will triumph and will stand victoriously.  

The Mission Mandate

One of the last things Jesus said to his disciples before departing earth is given to us in Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…” As you read this, a team of ministers including myself will be doing just that in the country of India. This is a nation entrenched in Hinduism and has a strong Muslim constituency. Yet, there are those who are hungry for a spiritual walk that goes beyond what they have been exposed to. It is my prayer that we will not leave them disappointed. Any attempt to change the culture and spiritual mores of a people group meets with resistance. However, we believe God will give us success.  In addition we realize victory does not come without partnership. We will be depending upon the Holy Spirit to give us the power to meet all challenges. Just as importantly, we will be leaning upon the prayers of those who will be interceding for us because we believe prayer works. To all the members of Grace Point, I would like to thank you for being mission minded and for sponsoring me in this endeavor. To those who have privately contributed to the cause, I pray that God will reward you with blessing beyond measure. To those who read this post, I ask you to join us by serving as an Aaron or Hur holding up our arms of ministry as we do battle. As a united force together we will fulfill the Mission Mandate! 

The Keys of the Kingdom

Have you ever found some old keys lying around your house and couldn’t remember what they were for?  Myles Monroe states, “Possessing a key you cannot identify or match to a particular lock is as bad as not having a key at all.” He continues, “What good are keys you can’t use?  They are as useless as locks you can’t open.” And when you think about it the problem gets even more complicated when you have keys but are trying to open the wrong lock. A few days ago I took a trip with some friends that required us to use a rental car.  Upon reaching our destination we decided to get lunch. We found a good Mexican restaurant went in and ordered.  I realized I had left something in the car so I went back out to retrieve it. I walked up to the vehicle pressed the unlock button and nothing happened. I pressed it again and got the same response. I said to myself, “This thing isn’t working, maybe the battery is dead.” I grabbed the door handle pushed the button again and suddenly realized the car I was trying to open was not ours. Someone had pulled beside us in a vehicle that was similar in model and was the identical same color. Of course I was embarrassed and prayed that the owner wasn’t watching. Jesus had this to say about “keys” in Matthew 16:19.  ^“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." However, the problem with many believers today is, we have a big bunch of “spiritual keys” but most don’t know how to use them.  We have the keys, but we don’t know which key unlocks which lock or we are trying to open the wrong lock.  God’s desire is that we understand the concept of the Kingdom and learn how to use the keys of that Kingdom.  There are so many issues pertaining to our families, our health, our finances and our freedom that need to be bound or loosed. We can only do so as we seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in helping us find the right “key.”  For it is the Father’s desire to give us the “keys” of the Kingdom. 

An Eye for an Eye

Late one summer evening in Broken Bow, Nebraska, a weary truck driver pulled his rig into an all-night truck stop. The waitress had just served him when three tough looking, leather jacketed motorcyclists, of the Hell’s Angels type, decided to give him a hard time. Not only did they verbally abuse him, one grabbed the hamburger off his plate, another took a handful of his French fries, and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it. How would you respond? Well, this trucker did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his check, walked to the front of the room, put the check and his money on the cash register, and went out the door. The waitress followed him to put the money in the register and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into the night. When she returned, one of the bikers said to her, "Well, he’s not much of a man, is he?" She replied, "I don’t know about that, but he sure ain’t much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles on his way out of the parking lot." This comes real close to the issue Jesus was addressing in Matthew chapter five. His listeners had been taught to take their truck and demolish the property of anyone who offended them.  However, they were charged to behave differently.  Instead of taking an “eye for an eye” and a “tooth for a tooth” they were told not to resist the evil done to them, but to turn the other cheek when being smitten. Further, they were to “Love their enemies and to bless those who curse them.”  These were and are tough orders to follow.  Everything about our humanity cries out for revenge. Yet, Jesus said we were to operate in love. These were not mere philosophical words spewing from the Master’s lips.  As those listening would find out later, they were principles He chose to live by. Only love could allow a man beaten beyond recognition to look upon his perpetrators and cry out, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” We should ask God for the same depth of love. With the strength of that virtue, we will find ourselves easily fulfilling our obligation by not taking “An eye for an eye.”

Down but Not Out

A tourist was visiting a famous landmark on the ocean and he’d walked out on a pier to see the ocean better. But as he looked over the edge of the pier he was disturbed by how deep the water seemed to be. As he was thinking about water’s depth, he noticed an old man fishing off the pier, and he went over to him and asked: "If I were to fall into this water, would I drown?" The old man smiled and said "Nah. Falling into the water isn't what drowns people. It's staying UNDER the water that drowns them.”  This appears to be the sentiment of Paul as he writes his letter to the Corinthian church. “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NLT). The apostle alerts his readers to the fact that they will find themselves at times being succumbed by deep waters but the answer to survival is the refusal to stay under. Knowing this, the question begging for an answer is “How do we resurface and stay on top?” Paul continues in his writing by stating, “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh… knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up…”  We survive by taking on the breath of the Spirit and allowing Him to be our spiritual Lifeguard. In every stage of Jesus’ ministry He yielded to the Spirit’s infusion of power. Because of this, no wave of opposition could hold Him; no current overtake Him; no depth destroy Him. He breathed deep into his lungs the life of the Spirit. Thus His struggle turned into strength because the force within was greater than that without. No wonder Jesus breathed upon the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He was preparing them as well as us for the deep waters. With Him we may go down but we are never out!