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(John 2:11)
I would be lying if I told you that I like the whole Bible. I don't. I wish God had left some parts out. It would have made my life much easier, at least in some areas. Take the part about loving your enemies, for example. Did He have to make it even worse by telling us to pray for them to be blessed? And the part about Jesus being the only way to the Father and eternal life. Hey, what about all my friends who don't believe this? Can't I just agree with them that whatever they believe is OK as long as they don't hurt anyone? I don't want people to think I'm some kind of politically incorrect fanatic. They already think I'm weird enough.
Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. We can't just take the parts we like and throw out the rest. Neither can we toss out the miracles just because they're beyond our (present) understanding. What would we be left with? That's why when you read this weekly message you will see a very literal interpretation of miracles in Scripture. If it says Jesus walked on the water, He did. Really. Without any hidden wires. If it says He healed the sick and cast out demons, that's exactly what He did. If it says He rose from the dead, He did, not figuratively, not symbolically, but literally. I believe strongly in the miraculous power of Christ. That prompts me to say impetuous things like: if you're in a church that doesn't believe in the miraculous life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ your Sunday morning might be better spent waterskiing. Please don't be offended. This is not intended as condemnation, just friendly advice. The same I would give a man beating a dead horse: You're wasting your time. Start walking.
So what in the world does this have to do with this week's verse from John's Gospel? Well, this verse sums up Jesus' very first miracle. It started His ministry of the miraculous, revealed Him for who He is, and even made His not too swift disciples realize this wasn't just your average carpenter. And some of us have a problem with it because: JESUS MADE WINE. So we treat it as symbolic or water it down. Case in point:
A few weeks ago I attended a wedding. The minister, resplendent in his priestly robe, opened the Word and read John 2:1-11, the account of the wedding in Cana. I was delighted with his message until he began to explain that Jesus didn't really turn the water into wine because that much wine (120 gallons) would have laid out the whole town for a week. So it was just an allegory! Never happened. He then launched into a New Age sermon about Mary representing the Feminine side of us all and the Wine being something inside us we bring forth as needed, blah, blah, blah. I couldn't help but wonder how he would explain things like feeding the five thousand or raising Lazarus from the dead if he has such a huge problem with this, the most minor of Jesus' miracles. I shudder to think what he would have to say about the Resurrection. So much for robes.
That is the symbolic approach to explaining this wonderful, world-changing event. To my mind, though, even worse is the watered-down version, employed by sincere, Bible believing Christians concerned about alcohol abuse. In this one, which I've heard too many times, Jesus didn't make real wine. He made basically Grape Flavored Kool-Aid. This of course flies totally in the face of the text itself (John 2:10) and also everything we know about the Mideast and Jewish weddings, past or present. Not only does this trivialize and demean the power of Jesus, it misses the whole point: Jesus created something instantly that would normally take a long time (foreshadowing what He would do in us, if you must have symbolism). That's the miracle. And you don't have to drink alcohol to appreciate it.
We must be careful about turning this, the first of Jesus' miracles, into a cheap magic trick, whatever our reasons and intentions. When we do that, we cast doubt on everything else He did. Maybe Lazarus was only in a coma or just real sleepy. Maybe Jesus just opened blind spiritual eyes. And how could the Lord encourage 5,000 people to overeat? Twice? Maybe that's just an allegory, too.
No, I believe Jesus really turned the water (all 120 gallons of it) into wine. Good wine. Award-winning wine. Wine the likes of which has never been tasted since. I bet it packed a wallup, too (He is God). Of course, compared to what He later poured at Pentecost, I suppose you could say it was just Kool-Aid.
Unfortunately, too many of us enjoy a good whine.
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(Genesis 4:4b-5a)
I have to thank my friend Sally for this week's message (and too many wonderful dinners, as she's the best cook on this island). A few days ago she sent me an email asking why God didn't accept Cain's offering of fruit but did accept Abel's offering of an animal. Further, she asked why, if God is accepting of all of us, and Cain apparently didn't do anything wrong, did God reject his gift? Whew! Good questions! What follows is an edited version of my response.
The Cain and Abel story, though only a few paragraphs long, is one that Bible scholars have studied and debated about for centuries. As in many other occasions in the Old Testament, the reaction of God seems harsh compared to our New Testament understanding of Him as a loving Father. It is said, "The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed", meaning you have to look at the Old through the light of the New to understand it. This revelation helps me deal with (most) situations in which God appears to be an uncompromising disciplinarian (the original Real Mean Dude).
There are a number of possible reasons why the Lord rejected Cain's offering. Genesis 4:3 states that Cain brought his offering in the fullness of time, which literally translates at the end of days. I think this means when he finally got around to it. At least I get the impression that there was no feeling of urgency on Cain's part. This might be a good spot for us to examine our own giving. When the Lord blesses us with increase, do we run to Him with with His share? Are we in a big hurry to thank Him or do we just get around to it?
Another explanation for God's refusal of Cain's gift is that it wasn't what God demanded for sacrifice. The blood offering was being established at this time and anything short of this wouldn't do. Abel brought this type of gift and so was accepted. While there is absolutely no question that we attain righteousness through the Blood (of Christ now), I believe there is still more to this. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. This was something precious to him. It shows that he was determined to give God the best that he had, right off the top. He didn't choose some old, blind sheep. He sacrificed what was literally the future of his flock. Our Father did the very same thing on Calvary thousands of years later.
As theologically sound as all these reasons are, however, there is something more, hidden in the subtext of this story: the hearts of these two brothers. This is what God looks at first (I Samuel 16:7). In Abel He saw the heart of a true worshipper. He saw honesty and a longing to please Him. In Cain He saw pride, jealousy and murder. Count on it, God saw Cain murdering Abel while he was laying his fruit of the ground on the altar. He's not bound by time like us. It wouldn't have made any difference if Cain had brought ten sheep. His heart was not right.
Jesus explains this in Matthew 5:23-24, Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. I think hatred and jealousy of Abel was in Cain's heart long before God rejected his offering. Even after God personally corrected him (Gen. 4:6-7) there was no sign of repentance in Cain. God would have forgiven him had he just asked. You can see God's love for Cain in that, although He punishes him, He still puts His protection on him (Gen. 4:15). But Cain's only thought was of luring Abel to an out of the way place so that he could kill him.
God wants our best, but even more, He wants our hearts. Jesus again confirmed this in Mark 12:41-44 when the poor widow put her pennies in the church treasury. As the two little coins rattled down into the gold and silver of the rich, the scribes snickered among themselves. What a pitifull offering compared to their's. She probably thought so, too, but it was all she had. Jesus, however, saw it very differently. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that He still carries those two little pennies in His pocket.
To please God you don't have to be Abel. Just Ready and Willing.
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(Proverbs 1:7)
Let's first of all deal with that word fear in our verse for today from Proverbs. It means awesome respect, not terror. God doesn't want us scared of Him. Really. Secondly, let's leave the fools who despise wisdom to their own devices for the time being and concentrate on the rest of the verse, since that part couldn't possibly apply to us anyway, right?
Did you notice that fear of the Lord is not knowledge? It's only the beginning of knowledge. If you just stop with just a good, healthy respect for the power of God, like too many people do, you haven't really gone beyond what is universally obvious. Primitive cultures worldwide have grasped this much but it hasn't dramatically affected their well-being. What we want is knowledge that changes things, solves problems, answers questions and allows us to live above circumstance. In other words, the knowledge of God, or better yet, God's knowledge.
It would be great if God would give us a formula for achieving this, wouldn't it? Well He did. Here it is: Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:3-5). Sounds a lot like Jesus' ask, seek, knock parable in Luke 11:9, doesn't it?
But is this knowledge of God or God's knowledge? Actually it's both. The more you cry out to Him for discernment and lift up your voice to God in prayer for understanding, the more you will know Him. The more you seek for hidden treasure in His Word, the clearer His character becomes and the more of His knowledge you will have. More importantly, you'll know what to do with it. You won't be as easily impressed with what the world calls knowledge, either.
Example: We see people every day on TV with seemingly vast amounts of knowledge, degrees behind their names and that overused label "Expert" preceding them. You can listen to them expound on the perfect marriage relationship, then find out they are working on their third or fourth marriage themselves. You can (1) buy their newest book and make them even richer, (2) dust off your Bible and see what God thinks you should do, (3) talk to godly counsellors who operate in God's knowledge and are going to advise you from a Scriptural perspective, (4) find someone who's been happily married for fifty years and ask them how they did it.
If you picked anything between 2 and 4 you are operating in the knowledge of God and there's still some hope for you. If you picked number one you probably know who was on Jenny Jones yesterday and it's down the tubes here come the torpedos.
It's painfully obvious that we all need knowledge. But as important as knowledge is, as useful as it can be, there's still something even better: to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). This means to personally experience Christ's love and partake of all God's blessings, resources and wisdom. All. This opportunity wasn't available to Solomon when he was writing the Proverbs. That may be why he sometimes had a hard time taking his own advice. His father David only dreamed about it. He never experienced it. But it's available to us for the asking. We can know Christ's love. We can know all God's fullness. We can even have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16)! Then we can be the Experts.
It's not what you know, it's Who you know.
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(Psalm 103:1)
In the last message we studied verses 2 through 5 of this familiar psalm, where some of the benefits (forgiveness, healing, redemption, mercy, abundance and vitality) God has provided for us are described. If you are at all like me when reading this psalm, you tend to hurry through verse one to get to this list of good stuff. But it occurred to me this morning that without verse one, the rest might as well not even be there.
What it all comes down to is that little word bless. If you check your Strong's Concordance you will find that this is the Hebrew word barak. It will also tell you that when directed toward God it implies an act of praise and when directed toward man, a benefit. While I understand what the scholar means, I'm not sure that distinction is correct.
Throughout the Bible, blessings were bestowed on people for one reason: to help them. Whether God did the blessing or an earthly father blessed his son, the intent was clear: to improve their situation, to give them a better future and to prosper their life. That is really what bless means: to empower to prosper, and people believed it. They expected something to happen because of being blessed. It wasn't a nicety. It was real, valuable and life-changing. You can see this principle in action from Genesis to Revelation.
That's why whenever I see the word bless I automatically translate it empower to prosper. But what about our blessing God? Does this definition still make sense?
In this psalm, David is most definitely praising God (which, by the way, will also bring God's power into our lives), but he's doing much more than that. He's commanding his very soul to bless God. What does this mean? How can his soul (mind, will, and emotions) bless God if blessing God simply means praising Him? Can you praise God with your mind? Does your will offer up thanksgiving? Do your emotions worship Him? No. But your mind can empower God to prosper in your life when it's fixed on His Word. Your will can empower Him to prosper when it's subject to His will. Your emotions can even empower God to prosper when they are under the control of His Spirit.
We do have a direct bearing on just how much God can do for us. Yes, He's sovereign and all-powerful, but He choose's to work in our lives by invitation only. This is obvious in the famous list of benefits in verses 2 through 5. None of these things just happen to you. Take forgiveness, for example. It's there for everyone. Christ's death and resurrection made sure of that. But you only empower God to forgive you when you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. He can't do it any other way. It would violate His Word. The same goes for healing and all the other benefits. You empower God to employ these blessings on your behalf by faith. You can't buy them. David called not just on his mind, will and emotions to surrender to this fact but on every fiber of his being, everything in him. Everything he had would praise God and empower Him to prosper in his life.
When you think about it, God really doesn't need our blessings. He's doing just great. We need to bless God. He set it up that way. That's how He works. By blessing Him we're blessed. By empowering Him, we're empowered. No, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense by earthly standards, but then neither does sacrificing Jesus for someone like me. Or you.
If you're waiting for Him to sneeze, forget it.
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(Psalm 103:2)
If you were considering going to work for a particular company, the first thing you would ask, after, "What does it pay?" would be "What are the benefits?" A good company would provide health insurance, retirement, profit sharing and paid vacations. A really good company, say a Fortune 500 business, would offer (at least) all these plus some less tangible ones, like prestige, upward mobility and advancement, superior networking and a more secure future.
Now what are the odds that you would work for this company year after year and completely forget that these benefits were yours? Would you forget to take a vacation? Would you forget that you have health insurance? Would you retire and forget that you have maybe millions in your retirement account?
Probably not. Yet we have virtually the same benefits (and many more) as God's children and we constantly forget about them. If this were not the case, why would He make a point of telling us not to forget them? Let's look at a few of these benefits as we continue with verses 3 through 5 of Psalm 103.
Who forgives all your iniquities. This is the ultimate paid vacation. Jesus charged it to His account. You are free from worry, fear, self-condemnation and judgment. You can lounge on the beach all day but if you don't have this peace of mind all the Mai Tais in Hawaii aren't going to help. You'll still be miserable. You have to remember that all your sins are forgiven.
Who heals all your diseases. There's that word all again. It actually means all. If you find better health insurance than this, buy it. Of course like any policy it won't do you any good if you forget you have it. Visualize this benefit as a card you carry on you at all times and present it as necessary. It's accepted anywhere.
Who redeems your life from destruction. Who needs bodyguards? The Hebrew word for destruction here implies a trap, as well as plain old death. The word redeems expresses the practice of a stronger person (usually a close relative) buying back something a person has lost through weakness, violent theft or poverty. Our security is paid for. We can't be destroyed. Kiss your fear of the future, death, destruction or failure goodbye.
Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Even the best companies in the world rarely do this.
Who satisfies your mouth with good things. The Hebrew word for satisfy here means to fill to satisfaction. This goes way beyond food. Notice also that the word is used in the present tense here, not future. God wants His kids to do better than just alright and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Who else can promise you this? God doesn't just want us forgiven, healed, blessed and prosperous. He wants us to stay young and vigorous (so we can enjoy being forgiven, healed, blessed and prosperous). He doesn't give us a gold watch and put us in a Winnebago when we reach that magic number. He wants us active, vital and useful. So you choose which kind of bird you will be: a young eagle or an old coot.
Of course this is just a partial list of benefits. Read your Contract for more details. Remember that you are part of a prestigious growing concern that encourages the upwardly mobile. There is no glass ceiling. There is always room for advancement. We have superior networking and the fastest communications system in the world. Our assets are incalculable. Our profit sharing plan is unequalled, our health care miraculous and our retirement plan nothing short of Paradise. And if all that's not enough, your Father is the President and C.E.O. Welcome aboard, Junior.
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(Romans 8:14)
I would have to put the 8th chapter of Romans right up there with my all-time favorite passages of Scripture. The chapter begins with an explanation of what it means to walk in the Spirit, free from sin and condemnation, and crescendos with the revelation that this same Spirit witnesses to the fact that we are God's children and joint heirs with His Firstborn Son. We also read that as many as are led by the Spirit, these are sons of God. Considering the text around this verse, it's correct to assume that it implies obeying God's standards of conduct, resisting our fleshly impulses, etc., etc. But it means much more than just not doing what you're not supposed to do.
To be led by the Spirit also means being aware of what He is trying to do at any given moment and being sensitive to what He is saying. It also means being humble enough to do it. This is the toughest part quite often, the doing. Strange, isn't it, that we tend to think of following our flesh as lust or greed or some other worldly impulse, but don't include denying the Holy Spirit's will to rule us (in favor of our own) on the same list?
This unfortunate practice has become very obvious in overly-structured church settings, where everything is timed and planned and no ad libbing by the Holy Spirit is allowed. The minister has a prepared speech, maybe written months before. The choir has a particular set of tunes to perform. And everyone has to be finished at eleven before the restaurants get too crowded. The problem with all this is that God has not synchronized His watch with ours. He may want to do something entirely different than what we have planned. This is where the the humility part comes in: dumping our agenda in favor of the Holy Spirit's. When we do this, wonderful things are going to happen. Let me give you a spectacular example.
A few weeks ago at our church, the service was proceeding in a relatively normal fashion (at least for us). It seemed to be a typical good Sunday, lots of singing, happy people and likely a good message from our Pastor. Suddenly, however, he brought the service to a screeching halt and called one of our members to the front. He said that the Holy Spirit just told him to pray for her right now and that we as a congregation were going to stand for her healing. She was helped by her husband and others to the front of the church. She appeared to be in excruciating pain. Things got downright solemn. Pastor told us very sternly (not his normal style) that her illness was not to be discussed. He wasn't going to tell us what was wrong with her. We were not going to accept the doctor's report. The Holy Spirit was healing her. We were instructed not to discuss this among ourselves but to stay in faith. Our friend was helped back to her seat.
Well, Pastor tried to get back on schedule but apparently the Holy Spirit wasn't done yet. The joy broke out throughout the church and it got as happy as it had been solemn. The first-time visitors probably wondered what kind of cult they had stumbled across. As he stood on the platform, trying to preach a message that I'm sure he was excited about, it became obvious that this just wasn't going to happen, even though it was part of a tape series he was doing. I could tell that at first he was a little put out, but it didn't last. He laughed. I could almost hear him saying, "Go ahead Jesus. It's Your church, not mine." Then the Spirit went through that place like a brush fire. It's this humility, based in faith, that releases the Power of God to work. It really hit me at this point that we were extremely blessed to have a Pastor who was actually led by the Spirit, and knew when He was speaking. One who would get up in front of everyone, friends and strangers alike and command that his sister in Christ be healed, never worrying, "Uh-oh, what if this doesn't work? I'll look like a fool! People will think I'm a fake! I'll lose my church!"
But it did work. Last Sunday, the woman who had been the focus of this seemingly disorderly service, was asked by Pastor if she had any little thing she might want to share with us. Almost unable to stand still in her excitement, she explained what we had not all known: that the doctors had found an orange sized tumor on the back of her brain. It was inoperable and she had been given a couple weeks to say goodbye to her husband and children. She refused to accept this, even though the diagnosis was medically accurate. After Pastor and the elders had laid hands on her that Sunday and claimed her healing she went home and for the next few weeks stood in faith and fought the enemy with the Word of God. Every time she began to succumb to pain or doubt, she spoke her positive confession of total healing. She would live and not die. Jesus had healed her. Then just a few days ago she went back to the doctor and guess what? No tumor. It was totally gone.
Although we were all thrilled to hear this good report, nobody was particularly surprised by it. These things happen, if you get out of the way. Of course it did mess up Pastor's tape series, but I know at least one person who can live with that.
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(II Timothy 2:15)
It's not difficult to get your hands on a Bible. You can buy one almost anywhere. There are organizations that even give them away. They're in hotel nightstands. They're on the Internet and available in audio versions. There is probably one or more in your own house.
Of course it wasn't always this way and in some countries it's still rare (and even dangerous) to own a personal Bible. This hit me today as I was reading Chapter 8 of Nehemiah. In this chapter, the wall around Jerusalem has been rebuilt and Nehemiah assembles all the people into the town square. They make a tall wooden pulpit for Ezra and he reads to the multitude for hours on end from the Book of the Law. Moving through the crowd are teachers and priests, helping to explain the more difficult passages. The people are totally blown away. Since they didn't each have their own Book to read, many of them are hearing the Word for the first time and are realizing how sinful their lives have been. Others are weeping for joy at hearing God's promises. But Nehemiah calms them down, tells them not to feel bad, but to go have a good time, eat some fat, drink some wine, and celebrate, for the joy of the Lord is their strength. At this point a pretty good party breaks out.
So what does all this have to do with II Timothy 2:15? Just this, and it's one of those good news/bad news things: we have the truth at our fingertips but it's up to us to know and understand it. We don't have the excuse that the returning exiles of Nehemiah's day had. And while we still have teachers (and of course the Holy Spirit) to help us understand the Word, ultimately it is up to us to find out what it says and apply it to our lives. This is only accomplished by studying it diligently. And no pastor, teacher or evangelist can do that for you, anymore than I can go out and jog for you every morning.
For instance, how do you know that this little story I just told you out of Nehemiah is true? Maybe I made it up. Or maybe I changed it just a bit to fit my message (I certainly paraphrased it like crazy). Does it really say that the joy of the Lord is our strength? You need to know, otherwise anyone can tell you anything and you won't know the difference. You need to "hold the Book", so to speak, on anyone teaching you. Like we discussed last week, there are a lot of people putting various spins on the Word of God. If you don't know what's in that dusty old Book of Grandma's, you could even believe that there's a space ship waiting behind a comet to take you to another world.
What's more likely than this, however, is that you'll just miss out on a lot of good stuff. Like healing. Or peace. Or prosperity and success. Maybe you won't realize that God wants you to have a good marriage with healthy, happy and obedient kids. Maybe you'll never find out that God gives us wisdom, talks to us through dreams and sometimes even the people around us. All these great things (and a whole bunch more) are in there. But don't take my word for it. Or anyone else's.
Imagine how incredibly embarrassing it would be to find yourself in Heaven and have Jesus say to you (in front of James), "You know something? You're early. You weren't supposed to be here for twenty more years. I had all sorts of plans for you. Why didn't you call for the elders of the church to anoint you with oil and receive your healing?" To which you reply, "Whoa. I didn't know I could do that!" James is going to wonder why you didn't read his five little pages of Scripture (that he got stoned to death for writing). And blaming your pastor for not telling you about healing isn't going to fly. Neither is the Gosh, I've Just Been So Busy Excuse. You're still going to feel like a goof, but you'll probably have a lot of company.
See, I know, for example, that rightly dividing the word of truth does not mean cutting it in half. It literally means cutting straight and is analogous to a workman building a road or a farmer plowing a furrow, straight to the truth. I didn't arrive at this understanding by some mystical insight but by simply studying this great Bible I have. Now if someone says to me, "Well, son, we got to divide that Word up right, you know, put some over here and some over yonder. This half is for now, that's for later. That way we don't have to be ashamed of our work, which the Good Book says is a present to God. Now grab one of these here snakes", I will know better.
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(I John 4:1)
Harmony. Unity. These are wonderful goals for the Body of Christ. All Christians should come together under the banner of our Lord and work as one to accomplish the task we were given: to save the lost. But just as in John's day we must be wary. We need to know who we're dealing with and what they really believe.
While this verse from I John is usually quoted in relation to prophesy, it can also be applied to groups and individuals who claim to be Christian. The test itself is quite simple: By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God (I John 4:2-3). Who is Jesus Christ to them? Is He the Son of God? More importantly for this test, is He their Lord and Savior? Remember that even the demons know who He is (Matthew 8:29), and we don't want even a little bit of unity with those guys.
John continues with yet another way of checking the validity of whether a particular person, group or teaching is of God: We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (I John 4:6). The spirit of error will always deny the truth of the Gospel. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8). Makes it rather impossible for there to be another Gospel of Jesus Christ (even if it came from an angel), doesn't it? God's prophets and God's teaching must line up with God's Word. We cannot add things we'd like to believe in or take away those that don't fit our lifestyle or concept of how things should be. John makes this terribly clear in what is almost the last words of the Bible (Rev. 22:18-19). If you think God doesn't take perverting His Word seriously, read those verses.
This test is crucial these days. Churches and organizations exist everywhere that have the words Jesus, Christ, or Christian in their name. Here in Hawaii we have such a one that exists for the sole purpose of legalizing marijuana. It's their sacrament. And there's others just as flaky thoughout the country. The scary thing is that many of them aren't that obvious if you don't know what to look for. They sound like Christians. They sure look like Christians. They call themselves Christians. How do you know? By who Jesus is to them and where they stand on God's Word. Give them the test. Hopefully they will pass.
Here, however, are a few examples of failing answers to John's test. See if you've ever heard any of these before:
Jesus was a good teacher. Jesus was a good man. Jesus was a prophet. Jesus was a son of God. Jesus was Satan's brother. There are many paths to God. We're all brothers. Jesus was showing us how to be loving individuals. We are all gods. Jesus is just one of many ascended masters. Jesus and Buddha taught basically the same message. It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe something. Jesus was from another planet. Jesus was black. Jesus was Aryan. Jesus is the White Man's God. Everyone goes to Heaven. I know because an angel told me so. The Bible is not in step with the times. You can't take the Bible literally. Jesus didn't really rise from the dead. There is no such place as Hell. Heaven is here on earth. We have gone beyond the Bible. You can be free from your past life. If you don't join our church, you can't go to Heaven. We are God's chosen. Jesus is coming back Thursday at 3:19 pm. There is no Holy Spirit. The Trinity is Satan's idea. I am the Christ.
If you've heard that last one hopefully you didn't say,"How nice to meet You!", but went as fast as you could go in the other direction (it's harder for lightning to hit a moving target). And if you haven't heard this yet, you will. It's going to be up to you to know what's real from what isn't. So when someone comes knocking on your door early Saturday morning to inform you of your imminent peril or just to kindly invite you to their church, ask them one question: who is Jesus?
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(II Corinthians 5:7)
Very rarely do I relate personal experience in this space, but last week I had such an interesting and uplifting incident occur I would be remiss not to mention it.
A few weeks ago, a large cyst developed on the back of my hand, right where the hand attaches to the wrist. It was not painful, nor did I assume it to be life-threatening in any way, yet it really bothered me that it was there. Every time I would look at my hand, there was this big lump about the diameter of a nickel, looking back at me. Believing that this was not a blessing from God, and therefore something I didn't need to keep, my wife and I prayed and laid hands on it, claiming healing in Jesus' name.
I would love to be able to tell you that immediately the cyst vanished. It did not. In fact it may have actually grown a little bit bigger over the next few days. But we knew we had done what we are supposed to do as believers. We know what the Word says about healing and we just considered it a done deal.
As the next couple of weeks went by I had an excellent opportunity to find out if I really believed I had been healed or not. Nothing had changed. But I resolved that every time I looked at that stupid lump I would just go ahead and thank God for removing it. After all, we're supposed to walk by faith, not by sight, right? But every time that lump looked up at me and said, "Hey! I'm still here! Ha ha ha ha ha!", it took some determination to trust God and not my eyes.
Time went by and ol' Lumpy was still there. Saturday the 28th of June arrived and I came downstairs to write what would be last week's message. Very rarely do I have a clue as to what I'm going to write about and this morning was no different. After prayer, I was led to James 2, the section on faith and works. God showed me that the real work we do that proves that our faith is alive is not manifested in what we call "good deeds", but in believing Him and acting upon our faith (go back and read this if you haven't already). I closed the message with faith is only faith when it's an action, looked at the lump, and realizing I was going to be late in meeting my wife in town, hurriedly showered, dressed and left.
I rushed to our place of rendezvous. My lovely wife (by whom I know I have obtained favor with God), was not there yet. This didn't really surprise me as she has the ability to see time as sort of a general, subjective thing. Taking this in stride (for the second time in my life), I sat down on the deck and looked out at our beautiful ocean and the unusually large waves. "Look at your hand", a little voice said. The lump that was there not half an hour before was completely gone. There was no sign that it had ever been there. And as I write this one week later it's still gone.
Did this happen because I'm so wonderful? Because I lead such a perfect life? No. It happened because I decided to believe God and not my senses, to trust His Word and not my eyes. "But this was just a little harmless cyst. It wasn't a big deal," some might say. I know. And God even cared about that. Cool, huh?
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HAVE FAITH IN GOD!
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