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Yearly Archives: 2015
PREACHER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 14, 2015 – I came across a video of a street preacher plying his trade at a “gay pride” festival. While it was difficult to make out what the preacher was saying and whether he was actually preaching or just yelling responses to his tormentors, the words spewing from the mouths of the hecklers rang loud and clear.
I’m not going to repeat them here.
As I watched (sound turned way down) the relentless onslaught of hate emanating from the crowd, I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck the preacher was doing there. The phrase “don’t throw your pearls before swine” sprang to mind. I tried to recall an instance in the gospels where Jesus preached to a crowd of rowdy and possibly drunken and/or stoned sodomites, but I could think of none. The best I could come up with was Lot and the angels admonishing rowdy drunken residents of Sodom the night before God destroyed their city.
But in this example, as in all examples of preaching in the Bible, the Sodomites came willingly to Lot. Certainly, they didn’t come to be preached to, but they did come to him. He didn’t seek them out.
This may seem a minor distinction, but it is actually very important. Jesus roamed the countryside as an itinerant preacher, but he only preached to those who came to him wanting to learn about the kingdom, and only healed those who sought his help. He didn’t impose his preaching or healing on anyone who didn’t want them and he avoided places where he knew he wasn’t welcome. Even God doesn’t impose himself on anyone: He respects our free will and waits for us to give him a clear signal before he rushes in to help.
This approach – waiting for a clear signal – is crucial to successful preaching. Whether done two thousand years ago or today, preaching must be done to those who want to be preached to. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time. When Jesus told his followers to go out into the world and preach the Good News, he didn’t mean to stand on street corners and rail at all and sundry. He meant to feed those who were spiritually hungry, wherever you encounter them. People who are hungry for the Word will come to you on their own volition; God will send them. What kind of message can possibly be conveyed when a preacher’s every word is drowned out by a mob shouting expletives and curses? That is not preaching.
The Word is a precious cargo: We carry it with us wherever we go, and our job is to share it with whoever wants some. We let them know it’s available, they come to us of their own free will, and we give it to them freely. The heckled preacher at the “pride” festival would have done better just to leave a few flyers around rather than try to force-feed God to people who clearly had no hunger for him.
As for targeting sodomites, Jesus stated that there are far worse sinners in need of repentance, and that Sodom’s judgment will be far less than that of hypocrites. If it’s sinners that preachers genuinely want to reach, they’d be better off heading to the top floor corner offices of banks or multinational headquarters, or to seats of government, or to the inner reaches of the Vatican or any commercialized church today because THAT’S where the super-mega-sinners park their arses and plot their dark deeds day in and day out. In the grand scheme of things, as Jesus pointed out, the “sin of Sodom” is small peas compared to people who pretend to be something they’re not in order to rip people off.
Bottom line? Just because you think someone needs to hear the Word doesn’t mean that they want to hear it. There are more than enough people who want to hear the Word. Preach to them. In the meantime, pray for those who have shunned God. It may be that they, like me, will one day turn.
DEATH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 9, 2015 – To the world (non-believers), death is defeat. It means “game over”, battle lost, start crying. Non-believers use every means at their disposal to prolong their life, as their goal is to delay death and live as long as they can.
In contrast, to believers, death is when real life begins. It’s what we’re living for, so the less time we spend on Earth, the better.
The night before he died, Jesus told his disciples that if they loved him, they’d be happy for him because he was going home. His disciples were crying, but he told them they should instead be happy. He said that where he was going was infinitely better than where he was, and that if they really understood that, they’d be celebrating with him, not crying and trying to hold him back.
We’re trapped in our mortal bodies, and death is the only way out. It’s important that we see our body as something separate from who we really are. Paul called the body a vessel of the spirit, and so it is. We should look after our body (just as we would any vessel that we use daily), but we shouldn’t obsess over it. Our body is just a container. It’s what our body contains that we should be obsessing over.
A few days ago, I caught the tail-end of a film discussion. A woman was describing how the director had been forced by popular consent to change the film’s ending from the main character dying to the main character “riding off into the sunset”. She referred to the “riding off into the sunset” ending as a happy ending. Listening to the woman, I recalled how I viewed death when I was an atheist. I saw it as inescapable and inevitable, but I didn’t want to think about and I certainly didn’t want to talk about it. If someone got sick and died – well, that person “lost the battle”. Death was ugly and sad; the thought of it was like a funeral dirge overlaying the Happy Birthday song of life.
The dead relatives and friends I went to see at funeral homes looked odd to me. It was them, and it wasn’t them. I couldn’t quite place what made them look different (skin tone? prone position? set of the mouth?). The “life”, as they say, was gone out of them, but what was that life? As an atheist, I had no answer for that.
Now, as a believer, I have an answer. I know what the “life” is that leaves the body at death. And I see death as something to look forward to as long as I stay in God’s grace.
I’m not afraid of death and it doesn’t make me sad to think or talk about it. On the contrary, I’m looking forward to death the way an expectant mother looks forward to giving birth for the first time – slightly nervous about the pain that might accompany the event, but joyously excited about what comes afterwards.
What I dislike about death now is how it is misrepresented in mainstream so-called Christian religion. I hate the lies that are spouted at funerals (which I no longer attend). I hate the presumption that all Christians go to Heaven. It’s a flat-out lie. Jesus dealt with the same presumption with the Jews of his day, and he also hated that lie. The Jews hated him for telling them that their presumption was a lie. Instead of listening and accepting truth, they hated him. This same skewed mindset about death and Heaven pervades mainstream Christianity today.
Death is a happy ending for those who die in God’s grace. It’s their reward or “payment for services rendered”. We need to revise our view of death to see it not as a failure or ‘sad ending’, but as Jesus saw it. Heaven is everything we’ve ever wanted. It’s a place of no tears, no pain, no unhappiness, no dissatisfaction, no ugliness, no homelessness, no rot, no decay, no hunger and no sickness. If we make it to Heaven, we’ll be ‘perfected’ in every way. This is not something to cry over or be afraid of. We’d be crazy to cry over that. Our earthly bodies are but a pale shadow of what our glorious Heavenly bodies will be. It’s like our souls are now wrapped in a filthy rag (our Earthly bodies), but some day, if we stay close to God, our soul be wrapped in the finest of materials (our Heavenly bodies).
Despite how much we have to look forward to in Heaven, we are never to hasten our own death. Suicide (even doctor-assisted) is self-murder, and murder is contrary to the commandments. Those who knowingly and willingly violate the commandments and remain unrepentant will not be rewarded by a place in Heaven. God has written his laws in our hearts, so there is no excuse for doing what we know in our heart-of-hearts is wrong.
The best course is to live out your life to its natural conclusion and go willingly when your time has come. I have no doubt whatsoever that people know when their time has come. God tells them, one way or another, and then gives them time to repent. He also gives them strength to endure, if they align their wills with his. Even those who don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear will know when their time has come. God loves us all equally and doesn’t want any of us to go to Hell. But to Hell we’ll go, if, even on our death bed, we choose man’s laws over God’s.
Jesus infuriated the Jews of his day when he told them outright that they would likely go to Hell and that the people they looked down on (tax collectors, prostitutes, beggars, etc.) would likely go to Heaven. The religious Jews saw their Jewishness as a ticket to Heaven, but nothing could be further from the truth. The religious ‘Christians’ of today have the same arrogance and false expectations. And if you point that out to them, you’ll get the same response as Jesus got.
Sometimes, as Jesus showed us, it’s better to say nothing.
The world sees death as a medical failure and something to fear. Don’t be fooled by that lie. But also don’t be fooled by the lie that Heaven is a sure bet for believers. Rather, see death as Jesus saw it – a great reward and homecoming for those who freely do God’s will. There is no happier ending than what awaits those very, very, very few who die in God’s grace and in God’s time.
Aim for Heaven. Don’t proudly expect it – aim for it.
DAY JOB
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 7, 2015 – For born-agains, the goal is to leave the world’s ways behind but still live in the world. This can only be done with God’s help, and God isn’t going to help you until you’re ready.
But when God tells you it’s time, it’s time. You’ll know it, because God always makes himself as plain as day. He doesn’t give you hazy ‘signs’ or indirect signals; he tells you outright, like Jesus told Matthew.
When it was time for Jesus to go out in the world and preach the Good News, he gave up being a carpenter. Until his ‘time’, Jesus remained a carpenter. He didn’t preach during the day and do carpentry work at night to pay the bills; he remained a carpenter until God let him know it was time.
This is Jesus we’re talking about – Jesus, who had the fullness of God’s spirit in him and never sinned. Even Jesus knew to keep his mouth shut until God had clearly called him. When he was 12, he so badly wanted to do his “father’s business” that he ran away from home and hung out at the synagogue in Jerusalem, preaching to the Jewish elders. But it wasn’t his time, so his parents came and took him home again. He remained in Nazareth, lips firmly sealed, until he was in his 30s.
God’s timing is perfect. When he tells you you’re ready, you’re ready. Don’t jump the gun, or you’ll do more harm than good.
Until that time, keep doing your day job, but do it as if unto God. That means, do your job as if you’re working for God, as if your day job is actually kingdom work. Do it to the best of your ability and treat everyone – EVERYONE – equally, kindly, honestly, and with respect.
Once you learn how to do that (and God will test you – trust me, God will test you, and test you again and again and again), then it will be your time to go out into the world and preach the Good News.
Then you’ll be ready to do some real work for the kingdom.
Until then, keep your head down, your mouth shut, and your spiritual eyes and ears wide open, patiently learning from God’s spirit, like Jesus did.
DISCRIMINATION
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 5, 2015 – We’ve been hearing a lot of news stories lately about “Christian bakeries” and “Christian pizzerias” and “Christian florists” who are being sued for not wanting to cater certain weddings. People have rallied behind the “Christians” to prevent them from losing their businesses, but is this really what God wants?
The terms “Christian” and “business” do not belong together.
Jesus didn’t tell us to go out in the world and start a business, call it “Christian”, and refuse to serve people whose behavior offends us in some way. He said to go out in the world and preach the Good News. Calling your business “Christian” and then adopting a holier-than-thou attitude about some potential customers is just plain wrong. In a word, it’s anti-Christ.
If you have a business, you serve whoever comes to you. If you find you can no longer do that, you get out of the business. You don’t use your belief system as an excuse to discriminate against people – because that’s what it is: DISCRIMINATION.
Shame on those Christians who refuse to serve people because they’re not Christian!
Shame on them.
That kind of discrimination is no better than corralling black people to the back of the bus. That was wrong, and so is refusing to cater a ‘wedding’ for people whose values you don’t share. I can only wonder how many ‘weddings’ of divorced people these same so-called Christian businesses have catered without a murmur.
It’s not the atheists that are the problem, it’s the religious hypocrites.
If you’re working in the world, you serve all people – without discrimination – just like God does.
If you can’t do that, stop working in the world. But don’t hide behind a “Christian” label and attribute your small-mindedness to God or Jesus, because it has nothing to do with them.
TWO
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 5, 2015 – Paul preached to believers knowing that most of them would not make it to Heaven. That’s why he was so hard-hitting; he wanted to press home how perfect and priceless the reward of Heaven was, and how difficult it was to get there. His job was to motivate and energize the few lovers of truth who heard his words; and if, in the process, he alienated most of those he encountered, that was justifiable collateral damage. He wasn’t running a daycare or feel-good religious retreat. His mission, like that of all believers before and since him, was to get the information out about salvation so that people could make up their own minds about whether to say “yay” or “nay” to God.
That’s all it’s ever been about, folks – making an informed choice for or against God, and sustaining that choice to the end.
If getting to Heaven meant a hard life on Earth filled with persecution, poverty, pain, homelessness, suffering, tests and trials, so be it. Paul was clear that whatever the cost, it was worth it. When I read about Paul’s journeys and “adventures” (i.e., shipwrecks, imprisonments, death sentences, etc.) and how against all odds he just kept going with a smile on his face and a song in his heart, I can only shake my head in awe. Now THERE was a man who put his money where his mouth was. I can’t even fast for 24 hours without grumbling along with my stomach and sneaking a Snickers (praying that God’s looking the other way).
Paul took his cue from Jesus and the prophets. They likewise kept going against all odds, and they likewise pressed their followers hard to set their sights above (not below), to think as God thinks (not as man thinks), and to endure to the end. They were not hosting a popularity contest, and good thing, too, considering how unpopular most of them were and how unwelcome their message. They expected most people to walk away, but they persevered in their mission solely for the few who would not.
Nothing has changed in that regard. Jesus said: Wherever two are gathered in my name, there am I among them. He didn’t say you needed a quorum of 12 or 70 – just two. I think, in part, he said this because he knew that getting even two true believers in the same room at the same time would be a monumental task in itself, seeing that true believers are so few and far between. A megachurch filled with true believers every Sunday? Not bloody likely.
Over a million Hebrews were ‘sprung’ from Egypt during the Exodus. That was a supernatural event, orchestrated by God. Of those million+ souls who left Egypt that miraculous day, only two eventually made it to the Promised Land.
Two out of a million+.
That fact should give you pause.
God’s very specific about it in the scriptures, though I’m not surprised that no sermons are preached on it in the satanic churches that pass for “Christianity” these days. Wouldn’t want the congregation to start asking questions about whether or not they were actually going to make it to the Promised Land. After all, if you listen to mainstream Christianity, you’ll think that everyone gets to go to Heaven, as long as they have some kind of vaguely defined ‘belief’ in Jesus.
God wants us to know how hard it is to get into Heaven. As much as he wants us to know how much he loves us, he also wants us to know how very very very profoundly difficult – almost impossible – it is to get into Heaven. It’s hard to get into heaven because heaven is so amazing and wonderful, and because sin has no place there. Heaven is the greatest of rewards and the only one worth striving for. All of the Earth’s combined wealth and beauty is not even fit to form the dirt on the ground in Heaven, that’s how amazing and wonderful Heaven is. Many have been told that Heaven is their birthright, but Heaven is not anyone’s birthright: it’s a reward for services rendered by doing God’s will. If you’re not rendering those services by doing God’s will, then you won’t be rewarded. It’s that simple.
Just two of the original million+ Hebrews who left Egypt made it to the Promised Land. In case you missed it, that’s a metaphor, a guide, and a warning for us born-agains. The Hebrews were sprung from a geo-political prison; born-agains are sprung from demonic prisons, but both Hebrews and born-agains have God’s miraculous intervention to thank for their freedom. Born-agains are meant to see the Hebrews’ 2:1,000,000+ ratio and then understand that God means business when it comes to getting into the Promised Land. You can argue against this all you want and twist scripture to say otherwise, but the truth is: getting into Heaven is impossible without God’s help, and God only helps those who sincerely do his will.
If you’re reading this, it’s not too late to fully align your will with God’s and live your life accordingly. However, it will be too late some day. Now’s the time for you to do this. If doing God’s will isn’t the number one priority in your life, make it the number one priority now and keep it number one for the rest of your days. Live your life as Jesus lived his. It’s not brain surgery; just follow the commandments, treat ALL PEOPLE as you would want to be treated (no matter how nasty they are to you), and spread the Good Word. God will show you how and support you – mind, body and soul – every step of the way.
God’s entire purpose for creating the universe and putting us on Earth is to persuade us to come home to Heaven. That’s his plan. He doesn’t want to keep us out of Heaven, but he needs us to be sincere in our commitment to following Jesus and choosing his way. Lip servers and lukewarm fence-sitting Christians don’t get into heaven. People with unrepentant sin on their souls don’t get into heaven, and neither do those who actively, consciously and persistently choose what they know is not God’s will.
Be wary of those who’ve relabeled sin as “love”. This is the latest trick of the devil, and a temptation and test for true believers.
Jesus clearly showed us God’s way. Our job is to choose it, live it, and show it to others, just like Jesus did. Then maybe – MAYBE – we’ll get to go home.
BORN AGAIN
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 25, 2015 – What does it mean to be ‘born again’?
Ask that question to anyone who claims to be a Christian, and you’ll get some interesting answers. But more than anything you’ll get blank looks and averted eyes.
And silence.
By very definition, a Christian MUST be born again. A Christian who is not born again is, by definition, not Christian.
To resolve this dilemma of their flock generally not being born again (which, were it not resolved, would mean forfeiting a tidy sum of money), mainstream “Christian” organizations have devised their own answers and mechanisms around what it means to be born again. In other words, they’ve redefined it.
Roman Catholicism claims that you’re born again at baptism, an event which usually occurs when you’re three weeks old. Evangelicalism claims that you can become born again at a mass altar-call, when you’re ‘slain by the holy spirit’ after voluntarily coming forward to receive said spirit. Other denominations claim that you just have to ‘pray’ the ‘sinner’s prayer’ and then, like magic, you’re born again (even if you don’t really feel born again).
Given the lack of authenticity of these ‘rebirths’, it’s no wonder that mainstream Christianity is in the state it’s in. Mainstream Christianity comes across as fake because it is fake.
To be spiritually reborn means to have God’s spirit come and live with you, not just sometimes (as with the Old Testament prophets) but all the time (as with Jesus). God’s spirit replaces the worldly (demonic) spirits in you. Those spirits are driven out and God’s spirit comes in. No other spirit can share a place in your soul with God’s spirit.
You either have God’s spirit, or you don’t.
You’re either born again, or you’re not.
There’s no middle ground here. There’s no “I think I am” or “We say you are, so you are.”
If you’re born again, you know it. There’s no faking it. There’s no thinking “maybe I am, maybe I’m not”.
Your life changes dramatically for the better.
When you’re born again, you increasingly see as God sees, and you experience ongoing joy that grows and grows and grows and grows the closer your will aligns with God’s. You align your will with God’s by choosing what you know is God’s will (i.e., doing the right thing). You do the aligning, not God. God’s job is to guide you into doing the right thing, not force you into doing it.
You can also choose not to align your will with God’s, but this would not be wise. Do this enough, and you’ll lose grace. Jesus tells us about a room that is swept clean of demons, only later to be filled with more and worse spirits. This can happen to any born-again. Be warned. Being born again is spiritual rebirth, spiritual rebirth is grace, and grace can be lost.
Be warned.
_______________________
Being born-again is an exorcism and the true starting point of your journey to heaven. But because those who are born again are yet in the world, they are still ‘burning off’ what doesn’t belong in heaven and can’t be taken there. Being born again doesn’t mean you’re automatically perfect like God or that you’ll never again sin; it means you’re striving for perfection and that you’re less likely to sin than someone who is not born again.
As long as you have free will, you can sin. Being born again doesn’t take away your free will. You’ll have free will as long as you’re in a mortal body, so as long as you’re in your mortal body, you’ll have the capacity to sin.
This doesn’t make you a ‘sinner’. It makes you a saint with the capacity to sin. Big difference there. Jesus had the capacity to sin, but nobody in his or her right mind would call Jesus a sinner. When you’re born again, you become like Jesus. Anyone who calls born-agains ‘sinners’ does not know what he/she is talking about and is actually blaspheming the holy ghost (which is not, according to Jesus, a recommended course of action).
Born-agains are saints, not sinners.
When you’re born again, your values reflect God’s values. This doesn’t happen by learning; it happens automatically with no effort on your part. For me (being born again from atheism), my values changed instantaneously, 180 degrees, 100%. No-one preached to me; my values simply changed.
I used to think as the Western world thinks and value what the Western world values (pro-homosexual rights, pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, etc.) because I had the world’s spirits (demons) in me. Suddenly, after God exorcised me and his spirit entered me, I rejected everything I used to hold as self-evident or “enlightened” or “modern”. These changes came as part of the package deal of being born again. They took no effort on my part and have remained ‘who I am’ since the day I was reborn.
When you’re born-again, your sins are wiped clean away. Your soul is a ‘clean slate’. Jesus died so that you can be born-again, so that God’s spirit can take its rightful place in your soul. You have been reunited with God. The kingdom has come. God’s spirit is with you night and day, helping you do the right thing (i.e., make the right choices) so that you can make it to heaven. Being born again doesn’t mean you’re automatically getting into heaven. Being born again is a prerequisite for getting to heaven, not a ticket there.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
There are lots of liars who call themselves Christians. Some of them lie on purpose (wolves in sheep’s clothing) and some of them lie because they’re genuinely clueless about the kingdom (blind leading the blind). Paul says to test the spirits; don’t believe everything you’re told; test what they say against scripture and against what God’s spirit teaches you, one on one.
Don’t be fooled.
You are to follow only Jesus, not people. You are to be dependent only on God, not people. You are to look only to God for help and healing and comfort, not people.
Be like Jesus. That’s what it means to be born again.
CHURCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 24, 2015 – Mainstream Christianity is made up of wolves in sheep’s clothing and the blind leading the blind. Jesus preached from the temples and synagogues; he didn’t join the congregations. We are to follow Jesus’ example in everything we do. If you’re in a mainstream commercialized ‘church’, get out. The only church you need to be a card-carrying member of is God’s church, of which you’re an automatic member when you’re born again.
All commercialized churches today are nothing but sanctimonious two-bit social clubs set up to fleece the flock. They’ll fleece you of your time, your money, your energy, and your spirit. They’ll load you down with guilt and feelings of obligation, fill your head with lies, and ultimately rob you of your rightful inheritance in God’s kingdom, if you let them.
In Revelation, we read about Jews who call themselves Jews but are instead the synagogue of Satan. The same can be said of mainstream Christian organizations today. Not one of them is of God.
Paul in his letters and John in Revelation talked about God’s church in various locations. None of those churches had any particular name; they were simply known by their location (i.e., the church in Ephesus or the church in Philadelphia). The fake Christian churches today all have ostentatious or downright demonic names (being named after “saints” instead of God, teaching people to pray to saints instead of God). Denominations are, every single one of them, of the devil. Not one of them is of God.
Let me repeat that and let it sink in – not one of the mainstream commercialized denominational so-called Christian churches is of God. Not one.
There is only one true church, and that’s the spiritual collect of all born-agains who are alive today on Earth. Admission to that church is granted by God alone. If some members of that church gather in a certain location, they would be referred to as “the church in Minnesota” or “the church in Niagara Falls”. But there is still only one true church. That church needs no special name or administrative body or infrastructure or incorporation papers. It doesn’t meet on a particular day or at a particular place or time. It doesn’t need a building. It doesn’t need an altar. It doesn’t need offerings.
It simply is.
God’s church cannot be destroyed because it was not built by man’s hands: it was built by God.
Wherever there is a truly born-again soul, there is God’s spirit, and there is his church.
BALLOON
PHOENIX, Arizona, June 12, 2015 – Sometimes the longest journeys are the ones you take in between thoughts. You find yourself in a different place even when you didn’t know you were going anywhere. All of a sudden – there you are, far from where you were even a second ago. And how you got there is not with a ticket to ride but a momentary lapse in will. You let God take the reigns – and – off you go!
I have been travelling for the past several weeks, by train, by bus, and by plane. I have spent hours poring over route options and price points. In so doing, I have gotten where I planned to go, sometimes with delays, sometimes with detours. I eventually arrive, tired, and sticky from the heat. Most of the time there is a bed waiting for me, but not always. Sometimes there is just a chair in a waiting room, and counting the hours until the train or plane or bus arrives to whisk me away to the next bed or waiting room chair.
But always, in my mind, I stayed more or less in the same place.
Until now.
God often springs the biggest news on us when we least expect it. We can pray as fervently as we want, but God holds onto our personal version of the transfiguration until he knows he has our full will, not just our attention. Many times, in prayer, God has our attention, but our will we’ve already pointed in the direction we want to go. We’re like a prayer train lumbering full speed down the track, when instead we should be like a balloon, drifting with the wind.
Tonight, in between thoughts and plans and schedules and bookings, I momentarily turned into that balloon. It wasn’t my intention to do so; I just let “me” lapse for an instant, but it was long enough for God to catch hold and release me in the direction I need to go.
Jesus died on the cross long before his body did. Part of him was already in heaven even while the nails were still being hammered into his wrists and ankles. Our will, when aligned with God’s, can travel spiritual light years in an instant. This is not our doing. The best way to get where you want to go is to stop planning the best way to get there.
ALL
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 24, 2015 – Jesus said that the greatest of all commandments is to love God, and to do so with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. By his life choices, Jesus showed us what this meant.
To love God means to let him guide you in everything you do. Not just in some things – in everything.
To love God means to wait for God to show you the way, not to make plans first and then ask God to bless them.
To love God means to put your trust wholly in him, and him alone.
To love God means not having a mortgage.
To love God means not having insurance.
To love God means not having a pension plan.
To love God means not having any savings beyond what you need for the very very very short term.
To love God means not owning any property beyond a few things for your daily needs.
To love God means not striving to make the world a better place but telling the world about a better place.
To love God means to preach the Word always and in all ways.
To love God means to leave your job IMMEDIATELY when Jesus says “Follow me.”
To love God means to leave your loved ones (and your loved things) to follow Jesus.
To love God means to hold no grudges against anyone for any reason.
To love God means not to sue in court.
To love God means to speak the truth at whatever the cost. God’s Word is the truth.
To love God means to let people dislike you just because you love God.
To love God means that whatever and whoever you were before you loved God, you’re not that person anymore. Your personality is the same, your looks may be the same, but your values have changed 100%, and your life should reflect that.
To love God means to love him 24/7, all year long, not just on Sundays and at Bible class.
To love God means you’d rather die than not love him.
To love God means you’d rather be killed than kill.
To love God means to choose the opposite of what the world tells you is right and honorable.
To love God means to let the world think you’re wrong and dishonorable just because you love God.
In exchange for your love, God loves through you. There is no greater good and no greater pleasure and no greater ambition and no greater reward than to love God and to let him love through you.
This is what Jesus meant when he said that to love God was the greatest of all commandments.
To love God means to give him your all.
GOSPELS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 22, 2015 – I spent the past couple of days reading through the four gospels again. Every once in a while, I do that: read them straight through. It’s easier to see the similarities and differences that way. Obviously, I don’t read the gospels just to see the similarities and differences, but there they are anyway. And things pop out at you that you hadn’t noticed before, like that one of the original 12 disciples was called “Lebbaeus” (how’d I miss that?) and that the sermon on the mount was preached just to the disciples, not to the multitudes. Jesus was actually trying to get away from the multitudes by going up the mountain, and the disciples went up the mountain after him. This is according to Matthew. And yet I’d always thought that the ‘sermon on the mount’ was preached to the multitudes. That’s usually how you see it in pictures – Jesus standing on the mountain, lording it over the adoring masses below. But that’s not how it was, according to Matthew. It was just Jesus sitting down and talking to the disciples. Funny how things get taken out of context, like a game of gossip; you say “tomato”, I say “cat food”.
Something else that jumped out at me is how Peter and Andrew and James and John IMMEDIATELY left their jobs to follow Jesus. Matthew, too, and a blind guy who’d been healed. “STRAIGHTWAY”, the King James Version puts it. There was no hesitation, no “let me think about it and get back to you”. They just dropped everything and followed Jesus. They weren’t fishermen and tax collectors by day, disciples by night. No. They were full-time disciples from the second they heard their names called. It was like someone had fired a starting pistol, and off they went. Jesus tells a parable about people who hear God’s call and don’t go, using every excuse in the book as to why they can’t. Don’t be those people. Things didn’t end well for them.
I love Jesus (not in a mushy way [he’s my brother, after all]), and I especially love how he kept it real. Here were all these puffed up, snobby, holier-than-thou Jewish powers-that-be, sashaying around in their little daycare groups, snubbing Jesus (the actual Messiah they’ve been waiting and praying for since Abraham’s day) just because he’s an average-looking guy from a modest background. They’re so wrapped up in their own importance, they can’t accept that this average-looking guy from a modest background is not only their king, but the king of kings, and the lord of all creation. He just doesn’t fit the image they had of who and what the Messiah should be. So they hound him, and then reject him, and then kill him, thinking he’s of no consequence. They were so ridiculously and profoundly blind and deaf from their pride, you almost (almost) feel sorry for them. The same proud types lord it over us today, demanding we bow down to them from cradle to grave.
Never bow down to anyone except God and Jesus.
Another thing I noticed when I was reading through the gospels the other day was how Jesus seemed to be creating a new role for women in his kingdom. Out with the Martha types, and in with the Mary Magdalenes. He didn’t see women as simply supporting players in the kingdom, but as equals, and he was constantly correcting the males who were trying to keep them down. He did this as a way to teach men that it was time to give up their traditional spiritual “man-spreading” and make room for women spiritually. It was the women, after all, who were the first to know of Jesus’ resurrection and to believe it, whereas the men scoffed at them and said they were ‘telling tales’. Mary Magdalene in particular held a special position in Jesus’ hierarchy of followers. No, they weren’t married, and no, they weren’t lovers, but I’m pretty sure that Mary was closer to Jesus than any of the other disciples. She listened to him, she loved him, and she understood him better (I’m betting) than even John. All of her actions directly ministered to Jesus, which in turn helped him do his job better. Martha, on the other hand, represented the old order, where women bustled around the household and were ‘careful in many things’ but not in the things that really mattered (learning about the kingdom and living in it). Most men don’t like it when I talk like this, and you’d be surprised at how many women don’t like it, either. I’m not talking about women supplanting men in God’s kingdom; I’m talking about women having equal authority with men in God’s kingdom. That’s what Jesus was showing us in his constant and consistent defense of Mary Magdalene and other women like her. It’s up to you whether or not you want to see that.
The last thing I’ll mention is about the crucifixion scenes. I hate that part of the gospels, where the power of darkness briefly triumphs, but we have to pay attention to it (even with half-shielded eyes) because we’re all going to have to go through it someday. Jesus was teaching us how to do it, ministering to us right up to his last agonized breath. He showed us by quoting from the Bible, by forgiving his tormentors, and by praying to God. This is how we’ll get through what’s coming for us. Jesus said those who endure to the end will be saved. The key here is “endure”, and the way to do it is through God, by choosing God’s way and God’s words. Jesus wasn’t relying on his own strength; he was relying 100% on God’s strength, and God didn’t let him down. Jesus always relied 100% on God. That’s what made him so powerful and his teaching so authoritative: It was God’s power and God’s teachings.
>>>POSTSCRIPT<<<
If we look hard, we can see ourselves in the gospels. On the day I was converted and read the New Testament for the first time, God told me that what had happened to me was like when Mary Magdalene had seven devils driven out of her (only God mentioned by-the-by that I had a lot more than seven, and then we laughed). I think each one of us can find our own conversion story somewhere in the Bible. In John (17:20-22), Jesus asks his Dad to help us. He mentions us specifically as the ones who’ll believe in him through the work of the disciples:
Neither pray I for these [the disciples] alone,
but for them [that’s us!]
also which shall believe on me
through their word;
that they [that’s us again!] all may be one;
as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee,
that they [he’s talking about us here again too!]
also may be one in us:
that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pretty cool that we get a mention in the gospels. Jesus knew we’d be reading about him some day, and he wanted to include us in his story. It was his shout-out to us down the ages, letting us know we’re part of the family and that he loves us and he’s thinking about us. Of course, we know and love him now like a big brother, and we don’t need a book to tell us that he loves us, but still… it’s nice to see us get a mention there in print as part of the family tree. We get a few other mentions, too, in both the Old and New Testaments.
We’re in there, we’re out here, and we’re living the promise, just like Jesus prayed we would.
Amen.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 