Coiled and Ready

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Mt 24:44 AV)

I think it is interesting the Savior suggests the closer we get to His return, the less the saints will be looking for it rather than the opposite.  That describes our current generation.  They believe the LORD still has millennia to go before His returns in all His glory.  But rather than take issue with those who think Jesus is still a thousand years away from returning, I would rather think about the first five words.  Being ready is the point here.  Whether Christ returns tonight or 1,000 years from now, the fact that we do not know when is the principle upon which we base our preparedness.  Not knowing is the reason we should be ready.  Not knowing is the catalyst for being prepared every moment of the day and night that we might stand before the LORD Jesus Christ.

I think it is interesting Jesus told His disciples to be ready two thousand years ago.  We also know He states no one knows the day and hour of His return.  No man, angels, and not even Himself.  Only the Father in heaven knows when He will send His son.  This also means Jesus exists in the ready position.  He sits ready at any moment to return and claim His kingdom.  He was and is at the ready.  Our Savior sits at the right hand of the Father.  He sits knowing that at any time the Father may reach over and touch His Son’s forearm and say, “It is time”.   He sits waiting to call His white steed to the foot of His throne.  He is waiting for the declaration to proceed that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ.  The trumpeters have wet their lips.  The trumpets are slightly elevated.  The Archangel has polished his horn, cleaned his mouthpiece, oiled his plungers, and is holding his horn at the ready position.  All heaven is like a coiled spring waiting for the word from the Father.  They have been that way for two thousand years.  They are ready and primed.  They know their assignments.  They know the steps they will take.  And, the Son of God is prepared.

We constantly mention the eventuality of death to those who do not know Christ and the uncertainty of that day and hour as a reason to repent of sin, trusting in Jesus Christ for one’s salvation.  We mention verses that deal with the brevity of life.  We warn those who are without Christ they cannot avoid death.  It will happen.  Eternity is a heartbeat away.  We do so with passion and urgency.  We know what they do not care to think about.  So, that being said, why don’t believers prepare themselves in like manner?  Death is certain.  So is the return of Christ.  We often think that death can come at any moment.  But we do not entertain the certainty of Christ’s return in like manner.  Tonight might be the last night in which I take a breath. It might come from a heart attack.  Or, it might come because a trumpet blows and my name is called.  This is what Jesus is trying to tell His disciples.  Look for the coming of the Son of God and live as though He could return at any moment.  Carry the joy of the LORD on your face and in your soul because the redeemer of Your soul is right around the corner. 

He Loves The Unlovely

“Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Mt 21:31 AV)

What a great hope for those of us who are the scum of society!  GLORY!  The rich young ruler tried to justify himself and claim a right to heaven based on his success in life.  According to the Jewish mind, those endowed with earthly blessings by default must be right with God.  The more fortunate one was, the more right with God he must be.  We all have a little bit of that in us.  When misfortune falls on others and it does not on us, then we begin to think all is right with us while God must be dealing with the ones who do not enjoy equal blessings.  How naïve!  The wicked are blessed because they choose to apply certain biblical principles or they simply profit off other’s misfortunes.  This does not imply they are right with God.  All the while, there may be very godly people who are suffering at the hands of the wicked who are far more right with God than the rich and powerful ever will be.  The battle of the castes is not what we wish to think about today.  Rather, we can thank God that despite who and what we were before Christ came, He saved us to the uttermost.

Before I took the church of which I currently pastor, I was appalled at the responses of those who read of the church’s need.  We are located in a blue-collar suburb of Milwaukee.  We are not rural.  We are very urban.  We are less than five miles from the Brewer’s stadium.  To those not familiar with urban centers, we were labeled as inner-city.  Many remarks concerning the pastoral search were negative.  Without knowing anything about the church or the specifics of the location, those who called themselves men of God claimed the church would be filled with drug addicts, prostitutes, or the homeless.  Several remarks made it seem as though ministering in such an environment would be impossible.  First, no matter the situation, each human soul is precious to the LORD.  He died for the homeless, drug addict, and prostitute just as much as the country dweller with a nice home, two trucks in the drive, and money in the bank.  But more importantly, regardless of how large or small your church is, everyone needs ministry.  We have our share of difficult cases.  Our doors seem to revolve more than others.  But that only means we are far more successful in personal work than the most comfortable and perfect rural church that survives on familial attrition and actual evangelism.

Jesus died for the down-and-out.  These people are unique.  They come oftentimes with a chip on their shoulder.  There is a certain pride they have.  It is almost as if they thumb their nose at acceptable society and dare them to deal with their situation.  However, it doesn’t take long before the LORD humbles them and they see those who are socially acceptable love them despite their situation and their attitude.  To reach those who society has cast off takes time and patience.  It takes love which the vast majority are not able to provide.  It takes valuing the human soul no matter what the condition.  It requires taking an interest in them when the rest of the world pays no mind.  We have one such guy who lives a block away from the church.  I see him often.  Usually, he is walking home from a bar.  We talk quite a bit.  I am praying for him because he desperately needs the Savior.  Most would ignore him.  And shame on them.  It is these types of people whom Christ died for and are far more likely to take up the offer of grace than someone sitting in a million-dollar home with a six-figure income and no troubles to speak of.  GLORY TO GOD!

Day For The Tempter

"Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (Mt 18:7 AV)

What is interesting about this verse is how much we limit the offense to persecution.  But the context is temptations.  Following this verse is Jesus’ instruction to ride oneself of that which would cause an offense.  In particular, He mentions the eye and the hand.  Persecution may come and go, but temptation to fall is always near.  We have times of respite from the enemies of the gospel.  It is not always evident those who fight God also fight us.  It is not constant.  It comes in ebbs and flows.  But the flesh and world are always there.  They are there to tempt us.  They are there to offer an offense.  The judgment above is leveled against those who would cause the believer to fall.  Those who deliberately bring to the saint those things which he should not enjoy or situations which cause him to react in an unchristian manner will be judged for their interference.  For us, we must be aware of that which offends and guard against the inevitable.

There are way too many temptations out there.  You can’t go anywhere or watch anything without the world trying to trip you up.  If you have a smartphone, the ads that come across borders on wicked.  There isn’t anywhere you can turn without having to keep your guard up.  Even if you got rid of all electronic forms of input, just going down the road from point A to point B, the saint has to shield the eyes.  We have to go to bed at night seeking God’s forgiveness for living that day.  But there is comfort.  The comfort is those that are instruments of temptation will be dealt with when Jesus returns.  There is no escape.  The LORD will end all of it.  This is the promise above.

Jesus takes very seriously the temptations His brethren are forced to deal with.  He has compassion because He lived as we live.  He had to live among wickedness just like we do.  He had to guard against ungodliness.  He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.  He knows exactly how we feel.  He knows exactly how frustrated we can get.  He knows how navigating and given day is something more than a mere challenge.  He also knows exactly how it feels to have Satan harass you to your limit.  He had to battle the Devil at the weakest point of His life.  Satan will serve an eternity in torment.  So, too, will all of mankind who have turned their back on God and make it a sport to tempt the people of God.  Justice is coming.  This is our motive.  This is from where we can gather comfort.  We will have to deal with the circumstances of our choices.  But woe to the one or ones who brought us to those choices.

Pour It On

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1Ti 6:12 AV)

This may sound a bit weird, but the LORD woke me up in the middle of the night with these five words.  It was loud!  Not an audible voice, mind you.  But His Spirit witnessed with my spirit these five words.  I have been obsessing over them ever since.  I meditated upon them first thing in the morning.  I needed to know what that phrase meant and how it looked practically.  Then I began to read some commentaries on this verse.  Apparently, this is a reference to the Olympic games held in Greece.  At the end of a race, a crown was placed.  It was either hung or on a pedestal.  The winner of the race would be determined by the one who gained the crown.  The race would start and then at some time, the victor’s crown was placed at the finish line.  This meant every lap the runners ran, they could gaze at the prize that was set before them.  The only difference is the Grecian games had adversaries who could claim the same crown whereas the race we run is a one-man race.  The point is, that we should run our race with all the ability we have, finishing well and reaching out to eternal life. 

As I have written before, I ran track for a couple of years during my middle school career.  I attended a small Catholic school so we were limited by the number of students from which to draw and compile a team.  I ran sprint.  I was not a marathoner.  Anything over one hundred meters and I would poop out.  I was the fastest sprinter in the school.  Really fast.  However, our coach thought everyone should be a marathoner.  So, our practices consisted of five-mile runs followed by practicing specific events.  We ran five miles about three times a week.  For a sprinter, that was not good.  One skill I lost was the ability to take off and fly.  We were taught to run every lap, pacing ourselves, so that we might make the whole race.  Then, with one lap remaining, increase the pace until the last hundred meters.  Then we were supposed to pour it on and sprint to the end.  This I could not do.  Once I was in a rhythm, I couldn’t break my stride and increase my speed.  I couldn’t press forward with increased intensity.  I couldn’t finish well.

The point Paul is making to Timothy is to finish well.  Keep your eyes on the prize of eternal life and let that be your motive for finishing with all you have.  The older I get, the more I seem to understand this.  The older I get, the more I realize my time is limited and opportunity wanes.  I only have so many years left.  My strength is diminishing with each passing year.  Health issues seem to take more and more of my time and emotional energy.  The things that I could do, I cannot seem to do.  None of this excuses me from running my race and ending well.  The wise old preacher ran his race and ended well.  He ended up under house arrest and started a church while doing so.  His life ended with a martyr’s crown and not a retiree’s couch.  He may not have had as large and fast a stride, but he had one.  He saw the finish line and he turned on what gas he had left.  That is what we are to do.  Our light should not flicker to a dim spot, but rather, burn brightly until the soul is extinguished.  This is the end of all saints.  How will we finish?  Will we pour it on with whatever we have left?  Or, we will simply ride off into the sunset so no one notices we are missing?

Thankful For The Crumbs

“But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (Mt 15:26-27 AV)

I am sure glad for the crumbs God threw my way!  The one speaking is a Gentile woman who is begging Jesus for a miracle.  Jesus responded that He was the Jewish Messiah and was sent to the Jewish people.  The implication was, at that moment, Jesus prioritized His ministry to His brethren according to the flesh.  This Gentile woman did not take the LORD’s words as offensive.  He knew exactly what He was implying.  He was not sent to the Gentiles for little more than a miracle.  If He was to be accepted by the Gentiles, He must be accepted as their LORD and Savior.  To this end, since the Gentiles would never accept Him as their Messiah, the promises of the kingdom do not go to the Gentiles.  This woman would not take ‘no’ for an answer.  She rightly argued the grace of God has come upon all men and if she would receive but a very small portion, she would be eternally grateful.  To this, He complied.  He threw her a crumb of which she was immensely thankful.  One wonders if we are equally grateful for the crumbs God gives us, or are we dissatisfied unless God gives us the whole loaf of bread?

Growing up in such a large family, one learns to be grateful for the little one has.  The other day I was cutting up a cantaloupe and it brought back memories.  Cantaloupe was one of my Mom’s favorite breakfast foods.  For the most part, we had cereal Monday through Saturday.  On Sundays, my Mom made eggs to order.  When she had cantaloupe, she usually enjoyed that for herself.  Then one day, she let me have a piece.  I was hooked!  As far as I was concerned, I would eat it every day.  Have you ever seen a cantaloupe split twelve ways?  Not exactly large portions.  One was all we got.  My Mom realized how expensive cantaloupe could be for a family of thirteen, and seeing as how it was her favorite, she seldom bought the fruit as a regular staple.  We enjoyed this fruit about once every six to eight weeks.  And as I stated, the slices were very small.  Today, I buy one for myself and it lasts about a week.  I get this about every other week.  Hence my story.  I was cutting up the melon and I remembered how special it once was.  What was once infrequent and metered was not as common as I wanted it.  The crumb has lost its value.

When it comes to God’s blessings, we need to be grateful for both the big and the small.  The small crumbs God allows to fall from His table are no any less valuable.  Whether it is an entire meal or the crust from the bread, we deserve none of it.  We deserve an eternity of God’s wrath.  We do not deserve to live.  Yet Jesus bled and died so that we might have eternal life.  Our lives radically changed.  In large ways as well as small.  If we are not grateful for the small things, God may cease to bring the large things.  The crumbs are sufficient for our needs.  We can praise the LORD that He did not deem us as unworthy of His grace.  Praise the LORD for the crumbs that fall from His table.

Judgment is For More than Justice

“A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.” (Mt 12:20 AV)

 We tend to think of judgment solely as reciprocatory and a means to justice.  A criminal is tried and sentenced.  Once the sentence is served, he or she has “paid their debt to society.”  We look at justice as a loan.  Someone took out a loan against his or her fellow citizens and as long as they pay it back, all is well.  There is certainly a case to be made for thinking that way.  Someone who violates the law is certainly in debt to his or her fellow human beings for the incursion he or she made into an orderly society.  What we don’t consider is another aspect of judgment.  There is a more important application of judgment and justice.  It is not enough that society is paid back for the violation a criminal inflicted.  Society has the right to exist free from crime.  This is the hope.  That is the aspiration.  We want to live in victory against all evil.  Judgment is the only way to accomplish this.  Judgment isn’t for the sole sake of evening the score.  Judgment exists that mankind might be free from it ever happening again.

We understand this truth, but how does it apply to the believer?  We have to remember that Jesus is coming back.  When He does, He is not coming simply to right every wrong.  The LORD is not setting up His kingdom with the same set of rules or the same conditions in which mankind has operated for the last six thousand years.  When Jesus comes back, Satan will be locked up for the duration of His reign on earth.  The kingdom will begin with only believers.  This necessitates a battle and subsequent destruction of all His human enemies.  This is not a battle He initiates, by the way.  Lest you think Jesus is some evil tyrant who does not give anyone an option.  For six thousand years, God has offered His grace.  He sent His Son, born of a virgin, to die on a cruel and inhumane cross so that His wrath would be satisfied.  This wrath is the wrath we all deserve.  Justice was meted on Calvary’s cross upon a willing victim who never sinned once in His life.  He endured untold tortures at the hands of His enemies, condoned and determined by His own Father, that we might enjoy forgiveness of sin.  Justice was served that day.  This justice is only available to those willing to admit they need it and are humble enough to accept it.

What the cross could not accomplish is freedom from evil for all of mankind.  Because mankind has a choice, there will always be evil.  There is no victory from evil until the Son of God comes in all His glory to mete out justice and bring liberty to the captives of wickedness.  This will happen.  For those who recoil at the thought of a loving Savior exacting judgment upon evil men because it is against His nature, let me ask you a question.  Who should God love more?  Those who inflict evil; or those who are victimized by evil?  If God had to choose, which one would it be?  It is a sad state of our nation when we feel compassion for the evil and condemn their victims.  This is happening more and more.  Just look at Israel.  They were attacked.  Their civilians were rapped, kidnapped, and slaughtered.  Babies were murdered in horrendous ways.  There is one story of a baby being microwaved while still alive.  Yet, thousands will defend the warped use of military force and condemn the victims.  This evil will stop.  It will all stop when Jesus comes and judgment is not limited to justice but is exercised for victory!

Unclaimed Freight

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Mt 7:7-8 AV)

 So much goes unclaimed because we do not ask.  We understand there are qualifiers to the promise above. We know if we regard iniquity in our hearts, the LORD will not hear us.  We know if we ask for something that is contrary to the perfect will of God, then He will not entertain that request.  If we seek God’s intervention with something that is not according to His plan as it is at that moment, then we will not receive that for which we petition Him.  Having stated the exceptions to the rule, the promise still stands.  If we ask, we shall receive.  If it is according to His perfect will for us, then if we ask, it shall come to pass.  Even if the odds were not almost perfect, we should still ask.  We lack what we need or desire because we cannot accept by faith the grace of God as manifested through answered prayer.  If we would simply believe in the God who created and saved us, seeking His hand in the affairs of this life, perhaps we would see more of God’s work and love.

As I sit and write, I cannot help but think we don’t pray enough. We really don’t.  We have made such a task or event out of it that we do not instinctively converse with our God.  We scurry about like mice in a barn, going to and fro without so much of a thought of an omnipresent God who does not need to be scheduled into our busy lives.  We know God is there.  We know this as true.  In a practical way, we neglect this truth.  God is always there.  He always has an ear for our voice.  He is waiting for us to stop long enough to have a conversation.  Most of what we acquire we perceive it to have come by way of our own efforts.  We work hard and earn what we need.  Little does it dawn on us that what we need comes by way of God’s grace.  That being said, if what we have seems to come by our own efforts, how much more could there be if we asked the LORD?

Jesus speaks these words for this purpose.  He wants us to realize the power of God and the divine willingness to bless all who love Him and come to Him.  The point Jesus is trying to make is that much of what our lives could be filled with lays dormant because we have failed to ask.  The LORD desires His best for us, but He is not going to spoil us and give us what we desire without us asking for it.  The promise above is an incredible one.  We get fixated on the times we prayed and the LORD did not answer as we had hoped.  But that is not fair.  God may not have answered as we hoped, but He did answer.  Putting that on God is not right. He loves us far more than we could ever imagine.  The promise above is meant as a promise that builds faith.  Once we take Jesus at His word and pray as we should, we will see exactly what He is talking about.  God will answer if we ask.  The asking is all up to us.