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PSALM 91
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 10, 2015 – Last week, I woke up singing the first line of Psalm 91 over and over again. I’d never learned it as a song, but it came to me as a song, anyway.
“He who dwells in the secret place of the most High
will abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
Here’s the whole psalm. It’s one of David’s.
As born-agains, we live in that secret place of the most High, under God’s shadow.
Psalm 91 is about us.
David wrote the psalm so that we’ll know how greatly God is protecting us, both spiritually and physically.
God’s not protecting us because he loves us, he’s protecting us because we love him.
Let me say that again: God is not protecting us because he loves us, he’s protecting us because we love him.
Our love enables God to protect us. Our love gives him permission to protect us.
God works through our love to protect us.
God loves everyone and to a certain extent also protects everyone. I know that’s true because even as an atheist, I was miraculously rescued too many times to count (although I didn’t know until after I was born again that it was God who’d done the rescuing).
This psalm isn’t about God’s everyday protection of everyone, both believers and unbelievers. This psalm is about God’s special protection that he can give to those who love him.
God doesn’t give us born-agains special protection because we’re special in any way; he gives us special protection because we allow him to, through our love for him.
Everyone can have access to God’s special protection. All they have to do is love God and follow Jesus.
But so few do.
In Matthew, Jesus talked about how God had wanted for so long for his people to hide under his “wings”, but they refused to.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
Psalm 91 also gives us the same image:
“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.”
Have you ever seen chicks running to hide under the mother hen’s wings? The chicks ‘disappear’; you can’t see them anymore. There’s no safer place for them than under their mother’s wings.
But we shouldn’t use God’s special protection as a reason to be foolhardy. Satan tempted Jesus in the desert by quoting from Psalm 91 and (as usual) misapplying it.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
The devil wanted to trick Jesus into being a ‘daredevil’ by jumping off the top of the temple and assuming that God would protect him. Jesus didn’t fall for it. He knew scripture.
Even better, he knew and loved God as his Dad.
God gives us special protection, but we’re not to abuse it. If we knowingly put ourselves into danger assuming that we can do anything we want because God will protect us, chances are pretty good he won’t protect us. If we assume that God will protect us no matter what we do, we’re taking a position of pride. You can’t be proud (rebellious) and humble (obedient) at the same time.
Loving God means giving yourself over to him wholly, constantly, and unquestioningly, like Jesus did. Then God can help you.
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him.”
Psalm 91
ARE YOU ON THE GOD DOLE?
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 10, 2015 – Hey, YOU! Yes, you.
Are you on the God dole?
Are you pulling your weight in the Kingdom?
Are you earning your keep? Just doing enough to slide by?
Or are you not doing any work at all for God?
Even as a 12-year-old, Jesus understood the concept of “working for God”. During his ministry years, he worked for God full-time. In fact, he was notorious for pulling double and even triple shifts. As his followers, we’re supposed to be like him. He’s not supposed to do all the work and we just tag along for the free ride – no. We’re supposed to be out there working as hard as he did.
If you’re in God’s Kingdom (which you are, if you’re born-again), then you have to work for God. No excuses and no exceptions. It’s the family business and we all have to pitch in.
Yet knowing this, and even knowing how hard Jesus worked during his ministry years, many born-agains are still sitting on their spiritual asses (and I don’t mean donkeys). Maybe they show up for a service once in a while, maybe they mumble a few “prayers” or read an occasional Bible verse, maybe they throw some money at a “Christian” charity, or maybe they just don’t do anything at all. Maybe they truly are good-for-nothing bums relying on spiritual hand-outs from God.
I’m not talking about being busy like Martha. That’s not the kind of work we need to do. Martha ran herself ragged doing chores that had nothing to do with the Kingdom. Jesus was very clear that Mary was accomplishing far more by sitting at his feet and learning from him than Martha was by worrying and fussing over her chores.
Here are a few jobs that are always available in the family business. See which ones suit you best:
- Go out into the world and preach the Good News.
- Heal the spiritually sick.
- Feed the spiritually poor.
- Cast out demons.
- Love your enemies.
- Visit people in hospital.
- Visit people in prison.
- Treat other people as you want to be treated.
- Choose to forgive.
You can sign up for some or all of these jobs, but you’ve got to do at least one. I suggest taking on as many as you think you can handle (with God’s help). It’s not enough just to ‘slide by’ in God’s Kingdom. You have to earn your keep.
Jesus talked a lot about rewards. What he really meant was your spiritual paycheck. We all get paid for working in God’s Kingdom. As born-agains, we get an advance on our pay (joy, peace, hanging out with God and Jesus, etc.) that’s enough to keep us going while we’re still here on Earth, but the big pay-out comes when we get to Heaven.
God doesn’t expect us to work for free. He wants us to keep our reward in front of us. He wants us to use it as a motivation, just like we use money as a motivation for doing our earthly jobs. Would you do your earthly job without the motivation of money? Likely not. Then don’t pretend you’d work for God for free. I certainly wouldn’t work for free. Neither would Jesus. I love God and all, and I certainly want to do my part for the family business, but it’s Heaven that’s motivating me.
Paul said that Heaven is worth any and all suffering that the world can throw at us. He lived it and he meant it. I, too, have seen enough of Heaven to know that Paul was right. Most born-agains have seen at least glimpses of it. If you haven’t yet, ask God to show you what he’s got waiting for you. He’s always happy to do so.
As born-agains, what we do to earn our ‘daily bread’ should have the lowest priority in our lives. We should do our earthly job well, but it shouldn’t take precedence over the work we do for the kingdom. Jesus was a carpenter, but when he started his ministry work, he stopped being a carpenter. There’s no mention of him from that point onwards doing any other kind of work than God’s work. We all need to get to that point in our lives. We all need a “Matthew moment” when we just walk away from our earthly job and never look back.
If you can’t imagine doing that, then you’re storing up your treasures on Earth, not Heaven. Jesus said to store your treasures in Heaven. Nothing and no-one, not family, not friends, not possessions, not reputation, not obligations, not creature comforts – nothing should be more important to you than working for God.
Paul made tents during the first years of his ministry work. He was adamant that people earn their keep by their own labor. Paul didn’t say to stop doing earthly work altogether but to do whatever you had to do so you wouldn’t be a burden to others. But he isn’t known to us today as “Paul the Tentmaker”; he’s known as the Apostle Paul. He devoted just enough time and energy making tents to put a roof over his head and food in his mouth; otherwise, ALL the rest of his time and energy went to doing God’s work. Eventually, Paul stopped making tents altogether and lived on donations from those who voluntarily chose to support his ministry work.
We’re all eventually supposed to get to that point.
First, you need to get to where you can imagine walking away from it all and working full-time for the Kingdom, and then, when the time’s right, you need to do it.
But before that can happen, you’ve got to get off and stay off God dole.
GOD SAID: WRITE ABOUT THE BIBLE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 7, 2015 – This is all I know: Before I was born again, I hated that book. I wanted nothing to do with it and I didn’t want it around me. The few times I tried reading it (for a class assignment), I could not. The words ran together and seemed to be written in a foreign language. I did not speak God.
After I was born again, the first thing I reached for was a Bible, like a newborn reaching for a teat. I read all four gospels in one sitting. It was the first time I’d heard the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank God he spoke English.
While I was reading through the gospels, God showed me what had happened to me. I read: “And seven devils were driven out of Mary Magdalene”, and God said: “That’s what happened to you, only there were a lot more than seven.” Then I understood: I was a Jesus freak. That’s the only way I could frame it: “Jesus freak”. As a former atheist, I had no other reference point. Over time, I learned to call myself a “follower of Jesus” and “born again”. But for the first while, I was just a Jesus freak.
Since the day of my rebirth, I have not let go of that book. It’s always within arm’s reach or in viewing range. I have a Bible by my bed and one by my computer, and another halfway between my bed and my computer. There are two more in my closet, carefully wrapped in clean white plastic bags. I read them so much, the pages fell out. I taped them back in, but then the covers fell off. Sometimes you just have to let go, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out. So I keep them swaddled in plastic, next to my swaddled dolls.
I read the Bible every day. Sometimes, I read whole books within the Bible, and sometimes I read only a few lines. I let God guide me as to what I should read. And then every once in a while I’ll read the whole Bible again, from cover to cover.
No matter how many times I read it, I never tire of it. Just like the first day, it feeds me. It’s always fresh. It’s always new. I always see something I hadn’t seen before. How is that possible? How can you read the same words every day, and yet every day see something new?
If God said: “You can have only one earthly possession”, I would have a Bible. There’s something about that book. It’s just a book, but it can’t be just a book. If it were just a book, I could have read it as easily as all the other books I read when I was an atheist. But I couldn’t read that book. I didn’t want it anywhere near me. The words all swam together. If it were just a book, those things would not have happened.
This is all I know: “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” I’m a Jesus freak. You can tape pages back into a book, but you can’t stop the cover from falling off. You can learn something new from the Bible no matter how many times you read it. And the Bible is not just a book.
SAY A LITTLE PRAYER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 6, 2015 – Prayer is the most powerful force in the universe. Through prayer, we open a direct line of communication with God who not only created the universe but is also able to completely destroy it, if he so chooses. This is the level of power we’re talking about. Paul says to “pray without ceasing”, which is what we do when we’re consciously in the presence of God. No words are needed. God is in the house, and we’ve got his full attention.
When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he first warned them against reciting “vain repetitions” like the “heathen” do, but instead gave them examples of how to open a conversation with God. He said: Ask him to get you something good to eat today. He said: Tell him you’re looking forward to his kingdom coming to Earth. He said: Tell him that you want your will to align with his, so that your will and his will are one. He said: Call him “Dad”. Then, somewhere along the line, maybe in translation or maybe on purpose, these very different ideas for conversation-openers with God got all merged together into one long vain repetition and became the very thing that Jesus warned us about.
The “Our Father” (or “The Lord’s Prayer”) was never meant to be a “prayer”. At the very most, it could serve as the words for a song, but it shouldn’t be used for praying. Prayer is simply having a conversation with God: your spirit with his spirit. If you’re born-again, God’s your Dad. Imagine what your earthly Dad would think if you called out to him, he came running, and then you stood in front of him looking skywards or with your eyes closed, your hands folded in front of you or extended, palms upward, and you babbled on and on and on about something that didn’t have anything to do with your current problems or interests and wasn’t even reflective of what was going on in your mind at the time? And even when your father tried to interject to find out what it was that you wanted, you just kept babbling on and on as if you didn’t hear him? Imagine if you did that every single time you called to your father and he came running. What do you think he’d think about you? What would you think if your child did the same to you? At some point, I think you’d either stop listening to your child or you’d call for psychiatric intervention. Children of sane minds do not talk to their father like that.
And yet, this is exactly what God, our heavenly Father, hears from most of us when we ‘pray’. It’s sad, really, because God is our Dad. Jesus told us that. Our Dad created prayer as a means for us to talk to him and hear from him. We can talk to him just like we can talk to our earthly Dad. He loves it so much when we talk to him! There’s never a time when he’s not available or when it’s not convenient for him. He never says: Go away, I’m busy. He never says: Call me later. He never says: Hold the line; I’ve got another prayer coming in. He’s always ready and waiting and he’s always all ours. The line is always open. It’s not even necessary to say anything to him. You can just share that wonderful comfortable silence of being together alone with someone you love.
For the three and a half years that I was a Catholic, I took Paul’s words to “pray without ceasing” to mean that I should recite the “Hail Mary” all day long. And so I did. I “prayed” the rosary three times a day, morning, noon and night, which amounted to something like 150+ repetitions, book-ended by a dozen or so “Our Father’s” and two rounds of mass. I also, every day, prayed about an hour’s worth of vain repetitions to angels and to assorted Saints This-and-That, which was in complete violation of God’s commandment and edicts. I wouldn’t have done any of it had I known what I was doing was wrong, but I didn’t know. As a Catholic, I was not encouraged to read the Bible to get informed. Had I read the Bible, I would have known about vain repetitions and about not praying to angels and dead people. But Catholics are warned not to study the Bible on their own because (or so they’re told) they lack the ability to understand it without the help of a priest or other official minister of God.
As a Catholic, I was told God was my Heavenly Father, but I wasn’t told that I could get to know him one on one, like Jesus knew him. For Catholics, God is always addressed as thee and thou and thine; God is always out there somewhere – up in the sky or in a box at the side of the altar. He’s never right here, right now, with us, and he’s certainly never right here, right now, inside us. Not for Catholics. Only the pope and priests and some special dead people have a ‘direct connection’ with God. The rest of us rabble have to settle for repeating vain repetitions in the hopes that if we accumulate enough frequent prayer points, we might win a trip to Heaven with a stopover in purgatory.
Sadly, the idea of prayer is even used as a form of punishment in the Catholic organization. After we confess our sins to a priest (not having a direct line of communication with God, we have no other option but to tell our sins to a priest), we’re invariably told that our sins are forgiven as long as we go and “say” ten Hail Mary’s and a few Our Father’s. That’s all it takes. Mumble a few words, and you’re good to go. You don’t even have to mean them.
This is what prayer has become in the largest so-called Christian organization in the world: The most powerful force in the universe has been reduced to a hurried recitation of some old-fashioned words that don’t even really make any sense anymore. How Satan is laughing at us, if he still can! He knows (though most of us appear not to) how powerful prayer is, and how ready and willing God is to intervene at even the slightest change in our thought direction. Remember what Jesus said when he was arrested? He said all he had to do was ask God and he would immediately send 12 legions of angels to rescue him.
That’s a lot of angel power, 12 legions. He probably could have made do with just one angel, if all he wanted to do was get rescued. Twelve legions (approximately 58,000 angels) would have destroyed all of Israel and then some.
This is the kind of power I’m talking about when I say that prayer is the most potent force in the universe. God is not only willing but more than able to move Heaven and Earth for us; all we need to do is ask.
But sometimes we don’t even need to do that. The most powerful prayer I ever prayed was exactly two words long, and one of those words didn’t even make it past my lips. And here’s the kicker – I didn’t know I was praying. I was an atheist. Atheists don’t pray. The words came from a place so deep down inside me that I can only identify it, in hindsight, as my spirit. They were the last gasps of a soul so weighed down by sin that it could no longer properly form words. But God heard. However unintelligible those words were, God heard. He’d been waiting a long time to hear from me. Even before the second word had finished forming in me, he’d swooped down and caught me up in his arms. Had he not, I know now I would have fallen. Forever.
This is prayer. It’s not repetitious mumbling and fumbling with bead counters – no. Prayer is your spirit connecting with God’s spirit, even if you don’t know you’re doing it. Jesus says that God knows what we need even before we ask him. But he still needs to hear us ask; he still needs our permission.
Through prayer, we control the most powerful force in the universe. And not only is this force powerful, it’s completely devoted to us.
So the next time someone tells you to bow your head and pray, tell them you don’t pray in public; you pray in private, like Jesus told you to. Tell them you don’t repeat vain repetitions because God doesn’t hear them. And tell them what they’re doing isn’t praying and that it’s a waste of time.
And then go somewhere alone and pray that they, too, come to know God as their Dad.
TGIS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 6, 2015 – I was “baptized” a Roman Catholic when I was three weeks old, but I was raised an atheist. I mention this because, when I was born again at age 36, I had no idea whatsoever what it meant to be a Christian. I wasn’t, as they say, “raised in the faith”. Everything I’ve learned about being a follower of Jesus has come from the Bible, my conversations with God and Jesus, and my own experience as a born-again.
This is why I’m always a wee bit surprised when I come across doctrinal arguments that have already been dealt with and resolved by Jesus in the gospels. If Jesus has already resolved these issues, why are people who call themselves Christians still arguing about them?
One favorite issue that rigid legalists like to bring up again and again is the concept of “keeping the Sabbath”. They argue over which day is the ‘real’ sabbath day. They argue about what is and is not permitted to be done on that sabbath day. And then they warn that if you don’t strictly adhere to their interpretation of “keeping the sabbath”, you’re going straight to hell, do not pass ‘Go’, do not collect 200 dollars.
What did Jesus have to say about the sabbath?
He said: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”
He said this in response to some rigid legalists (in this case, Pharisees) who were peeved that he and his disciples had picked and eaten a few ears of corn while walking through a cornfield. Jesus used as a justification how David and his men had eaten food offerings from an altar when they were hungry and had no other food source. In eating the food that was meant only for priests, David was breaking a rule. Jesus’ point here was that expediency and urgency of human need are greater even than altar rules. Jesus and his disciples were hungry; the corn was there; they ate it. End of story. Just like David and his men were hungry; the food was there; they ate it. God had put the food there not to tempt them but to satisfy their need.
Jesus reiterated his stand on how human need trumps the rigid rules around “keeping the Sabbath” when later the same day he healed a man in the local synagogue (I’m using Mark’s gospel here, the end of Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 3). The same Pharisees were there to witness this “Sabbath violation” and it set them off on the warpath to “destroy” Jesus. Even after Jesus had explained to them in simple terms that it was better to do good than evil on the sabbath and better to save a life than take it, they still didn’t get it. All they could see was their beloved rule and that Jesus had broken it.
Jesus was totally exasperated with their “hardness of heart” and their inability to grasp even the simplest concepts of who God is and how we are to serve him. This kind of rigid legalistic interpretation of “keeping the Sabbath” persists to this day, despite Jesus having dealt with it once and for all. And not surprising, the same type of people who gave Jesus grief all those years ago are still giving Christians grief about the sabbath today.
As I mentioned, everything I know about being a follower of Jesus, I learned from the Bible or directly from God and Jesus. Regarding the sabbath, I usually take one day off a week, and it’s usually Sunday, but not always. If I end up having to work on Sunday, I take the next day off that I can. I know that if I don’t get my ‘day of rest’, I’ll be a nightmare to be around, just like I’ll be a nightmare to be around if I don’t get my 8 hours’ sleep. I’ve tried splitting my sabbath day into two by taking two half-days off, but that doesn’t work as well. I don’t get the same level of rejuvenation as I do when I take a whole day to ‘do nothing’.
Because I’m a follower of Jesus, I prefer to spend my entire day off just hanging with God and Jesus and the holy rellies (you know, that cloud of witnesses Paul was talking about). If I had my druthers, I’d spend every day doing nothing but just hanging with God and Jesus and the holy rellies, but that’s not advisable, since we do still have work that needs to be done. God loves it when we just spend time with him for no other reason than that we love him, but we can’t do that 24/7. We still have work to do during our time here, just like Jesus had work to do during his time here.
I’m not telling you what to do or not to do on your sabbath. That’s up to you to decide. As for me, I look to Jesus and my own conscience as to how I spend my weekly day off. Jesus states quite clearly that the sabbath is meant for our benefit and that it’s not so set in stone that it can’t be altered if the situation calls for it. I’ve worked through days that I should have taken off, and I’ve suffered for it by getting tired and cranky. I look forward to my ‘day of rest’ once a week, but if an emergency comes up that can’t be put off (and I get clearance from God to deal with it), I deal with the emergency. I don’t think twice about it, and neither does God.
For any of you legalists out there reading this and tearing your robes – lighten up. Get to know God and Jesus better. Read the gospels. Jesus said that “the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath”. Anyone who’s a born-again follower of Jesus is a “Son of man”, meaning a prophet (meaning, a revealer of God’s truth). If Jesus could dictate what could and could not be done on the sabbath, so can we. Jesus didn’t arbitrarily and just for the sake of it do whatever he wanted to do on the sabbath – no. But if circumstances were such that he had to do something that could not be delayed, he did it, and so should we.
And yes, I do know the commandment about keeping the sabbath day holy. Nothing I’ve said here violates that, any more than anything Jesus said or did violated the holiness of the sabbath day. As a born-again, you should live EVERY day in holiness, not just one day in seven. Jesus certainly did. Living in holiness just means keeping your will aligned with God’s so that you make the right (God-inspired) choices. This isn’t possible without consciously being in God’s presence, through his spirit. So, in a sense, born-agains, who by definition always have God’s spirit with them and should always be conscious of his presence, “keep the Sabbath day” all week long, and every day is a holy day.
Even so, I’m still looking forward to my day off!
STOP, AND CHOOSE TO FORGIVE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 5, 2015 – Every day, I ask God what I should write about. Today he said: “Forgiveness.”
Then he said to tell everyone to stop what they’re doing.
Just STOP.
He said this is the most important thing you’ll do today.
Stop whatever else you’re doing and pay attention.
Forgiveness is not a touchy-feely warm ‘n’ fuzzy group hug kind of emotion.
Forgiveness is a choice.
And chances are that you won’t want to make that choice.
But if you don’t, you won’t get to heaven.
These are the facts. God isn’t going to change the facts just because you don’t feel like forgiving everyone.
Yes, EVERYONE.
No-one gets into heaven with any unforgiveness on their soul. If you’re harboring resentment or grudges, that’s unforgiveness. If you’re blaming someone for something they did last week or 60 years ago, that’s unforgiveness. Having unforgiveness on your soul is the same as having unrepentant murder.
The end of your world will come in your lifetime. That’s a guarantee. It may come in 20 years or it may come in 20 seconds.
But when it does come, you won’t get into heaven with unforgiveness on your soul.
Once your time is up, it’s too late to make the choice to forgive. God, in his mercy, may give you one final chance, but don’t count on it. It all depends on how many times you’ve been told to forgive, and how many times you’ve rejected the advice.
God is patient, but he’s no sucker.
So whatever it is you’ve been holding onto, let it go. Just say: “I CHOOSE TO FORGIVE.”
Just like that.
Say: “I CHOOSE TO FORGIVE.”
And then make good on your choice by choosing not to think or talk about the grievance anymore. And if it pops into your head for whatever reason, say again: I CHOOSE TO FORGIVE. Every time it pops up, say again: I CHOOSE TO FORGIVE.
Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling.
Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling.
Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling.
If you don’t choose to forgive, God will not forgive you.
If God doesn’t forgive you, that means no soul healing and no ‘heaven on Earth’ as a born-again.
And if you refuse to forgive even up to the moment of your death, your unforgiveness means you go to hell.
Forever.
There is no other option.
Forgiveness leads to heaven; unforgiveness leads to hell.
This is a spiritual fact of life.
If you’re living or working in an abusive situation, leave immediately and choose to forgive.
Do not go back. Do not press charges or file a report. If you’ve already pressed charges or filed a report, drop them.
Do not go back into the abusive situation, but choose to forgive.
Jesus says we are to forgive our abusers not seven times by seventy times seven.
He means there are no limits to how many times we forgive: we forgive as many times as we’re hurt.
Jesus says that if we don’t forgive those who hurt us, God will not forgive us. If God doesn’t forgive us, we won’t get into heaven.
If God doesn’t forgive us, we won’t get into heaven.
Let that sink in: If God doesn’t forgive you, you won’t get into heaven.
That’s another spiritual fact of life.
So how do you get God to forgive you?
By choosing to forgive others.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
There are ZERO exceptions.
Just like there are no asterisks on the Ten Commandments, stating in fine print below that it’s OK to murder in self-defense or in the line of duty, there are no asterisks and fine print below Jesus’ directive to forgive.
What you choose to do with this information is up to you, but God and Jesus are begging you to choose NOW to forgive everyone for everything.
CHOOSE TO FORGIVE.
It may be the best and last thing you ever do.
HAMMER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 4, 2015 – I always find it interesting and also very educational that Jesus only railed against a chosen few. He didn’t yell at the heathens for being, well, heathen; he didn’t yell at the “lost sheep” for being lost or the “sick” for being sick: he yelled at the Pharisees and the Sadducees and other legalists for being hard-headed and hard-hearted.
In Jesus’ eyes, these people should have “known better”, as my grandmother would say. They had the knowledge, but they didn’t use God’s help to translate it into wisdom.
Something was blocking them.
When Jesus burst on the scene, he seemed to have come from nowhere. Those who loved truth immediately recognized him as the Messiah and dropped everything to follow him. He drew huge crowds. He preached and healed. He was The One.
Then he came to the attention of the religious authorities. These were the wealthy Jews who held political as well as religious control over what they called the “rabble”. Initially, the Pharisees and Sadducees were curious about Jesus and wanted to meet him; then they met him and became Jesus’ worst enemies.
What did they have against Jesus?
He knew who and what they were. He could see past their religious façade and wasn’t afraid to tell them so. He didn’t respect their authority because he knew it didn’t come from God. He knew they were hypocrites and he had no qualms about calling them hypocrites to their face and to the world.
We all, as born-agains, have encountered these kinds of self-important legalists. They seem to know a lot about God, but they’re blind, to varying degrees, and the cause is always the same: Arrogance. To me, they have a curious kind of relationship with God – dutiful and ritualistic, but very arm’s length and lacking in warmth and intimacy. They remind me of the petulant older brother in the Prodigal Son parable.
Jesus railed at these hypocrites because he knew the only way he could reach them was to smash through their arrogance. They were so used to demanding and receiving “respect” that it threw them for a loop when someone refused to bow down to them. Jesus railed at them because ultimately he wanted to help them. But first he had to break them.
Some (a very few) were broken, but most persisted in their hardness. They refused to see Jesus as the Messiah because he had no formal education and came from a working-class family and a poor part of the country. His followers were likewise uneducated and from modest backgrounds. This did not fit the preconceived mold of who or how the Messiah should be. Like Satan, the legalists refused to bow down to someone so lowly.
They saw Jesus through the eyes of the world, not the eyes of God. Their arrogance blinded them and also prejudiced them against Jesus. They couldn’t get past his provincial accent and his lack of formal training. He wasn’t in their club. He wasn’t one of them. If he wasn’t one of them, how could he possibly be The One?
Legalists are good at quoting chapter and verse, but so are demons. Following Jesus means more than just memorizing scripture and spewing it on cue. Arrogance is the worst form of blindness because it renders you nearly immune to help, and we’re all here to get help. If we didn’t need help, we wouldn’t still be here.
I can’t imagine knowing God and at the same time rejecting Jesus. But Satan can imagine it, and so can the religious legalists who’ve hounded and harassed and tortured and killed true believers ever since Adam’s son Cain slew Abel. We all, as born-agains, have encountered these kinds of ice-cold believers, and they might even be the death of us, as they were with Jesus. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hit them and hit them hard with spiritual hammers, while there’s still time. It may be that one of them might yet crack.
ON SHUTTING UP IN THE CHURCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 3, 2015 – Physically, I’m a woman. I don’t think about that fact much; I just kind of take it for granted. God made me female, and that’s the way I am.
So it always surprises me when someone uses the fact that I’m a woman as grounds for telling me that I can’t do something or that I should just shut up. I’m not very good at shutting up, never have been – not as an atheist, and certainly not as a born-again follower of Jesus.
I mention this because I came across a website today that seemed to have good “God intel”. I was just about to email the site’s creator to tell him how much I enjoyed his site when God suggested I take a look at one of the blogs first. It was about “Women in the church” and how they are just to shut up. More to the point, and based on the blog-writer’s rather narrow interpretation of scripture, women shouldn’t teach, women shouldn’t preach, and women sure as heck shouldn’t hold ministerial positions of authority over men.
Needless to say, after reading that blog, I moved my half-written email to the “draft” file and had a little chat with God. I even tried the blog-writer’s advice of “shutting up” on for size, but it didn’t fit me very well. I kept thinking: Why would God give me the gift of grace if he doesn’t want me to use it? Jesus tells us that we are not to put our light under a bushel but on a candle stick, so that all will see it. He also tells us not to bury God’s gifts but to invest them so that they’ll grow. In other words, Jesus wasn’t telling me or anyone else to shut up about God but rather to do the opposite.
The Old Testament was all about genetic exclusivity. If you weren’t one of the twelve tribes of Israel, you weren’t in “the chosen” club. Certainly, you could petition to get in, but it was a lengthy and complicated procedure. Few “gentiles” bothered to do it, unless they truly felt called.
Jesus overthrew all that. Just as God promised through his Old Testament prophets, the kingdom has been taken away from “the chosen” and given to those who are considered more worthy (meaning, the followers of Jesus). Salvation is no longer based on membership in the Olde Jewish Boys’ Club but on the belief in Jesus as the Messiah and on a genuine willingness to live by faith by follow the promptings of God’s spirit. Jesus’ followers come from every nationality and culture and are of both sexes. In fact, Jesus even overrode gender by stating that his followers should strive to become spiritually like eunuchs (Matthew 19:12), who are neither male nor female, just like the angels are neither male nor female.
When God looks at me, he doesn’t see me solely as a female. He sees my will and my soul first, and my sex is secondary. What I’m saying is – my femaleness is just not an issue with him. If it’s not an issue with God, then it shouldn’t be an issue with anyone who says he’s a follower of Jesus. God made me a woman but he also made me a born-again believer, which de facto makes me a spiritual eunuch. I am a woman to those who are outside the kingdom, but to those inside the kingdom, I am simply brethren. As brethren, we all equally have the right and duty to preach the Word of God, whether our voice is high or low.
So no, I’m not going to shut up in the church or elsewhere. God doesn’t want me to, Jesus doesn’t want me to, and neither do I. If you can’t get past my sex, the problem is yours, not mine. Physically I’m a woman, but spiritually I’m genderless, just like Jesus. Maybe you should try looking at me through your spiritual eyes, not your physical ones.
I’M A SAINT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 2, 2015 – If you’re genuinely born again, you’re a saint, not a sinner.
Yet how many times have you heard the phrase “We’re all sinners” in relation to Christians?
If you’ve heard it even once, that’s already one time too many.
Catholicism states that you can’t be a saint unless you’re dead and a pope decrees you’re a saint.
Then Catholics are told to pray to you and you get a day named after you and maybe even some made-in-China trinkets molded in your image.
That’s right – in total violation of what God says in the Old Testament about praying to dead people or making graven images, Catholicism orders you to do both, if you’re a ‘good Catholic’.
A sinner is someone who is unholy. Born-agains certainly have the potential to be unholy (we’ll have that potential, through our free will, until the day we die), but by definition we can’t be sinners because then God’s holy spirit wouldn’t be with us. And if God’s holy spirit isn’t with us, then we’re not, by definition, born again.
God’s holy spirit cannot be in the same place as an unholy spirit. The two are mutually exclusive. Where evil dwells, God’s spirit will not dwell. You can’t have demons and God’s spirit in you at the same time.
You cannot be holy and unholy.
So you see the difficulty with born-again Christians being told they’re sinners.
We’re born sinners, but we’re born again saints.
The next time a preacher calls you a sinner even knowing you’re a born-again Christian, tell that preacher he’s dead wrong. You’re a saint. And if the preacher or the pope has a problem with you calling yourself a saint, tell them to take it up with God.
Freedom
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 1, 2015 – Jesus is the greatest of all freedom fighters. He told us that knowing the truth will make us free, and so it does. God is truth, so knowing God as our Dad brings us into God’s kingdom on Earth and makes us free from the attacks of our spiritual enemies. This is the true freedom that God promised Israel through the Old Testament prophets. This is true safety and security, not the fake one promoted by the Homeland Security organizations of the world. As long as we keep wanting and choosing what God wants for us (knowing that God wants only the best), then we are secure in our safety and freedom.
But at the same time God loves and encourages free thought. In fact, he loves the notion of free thought so much that he embedded it in the concept of free will. We are free to think our way into choosing what God knows is best for us, and we are equally free to think our way into rejecting it.
We are as free to be illogical and wrong in our thought processes as we are free to be logical and correct.
Why would God do that? Why wouldn’t he just make us receptive only to correctness rather than allow us to doubt and make wrong choices based on those doubts?
God loves it when we use the gifts he’s given us, and the gifts he loves us most to use are free thought and free will. God doesn’t want automatons serving him; he doesn’t want forced obedience: he wants us to come to him because we want to come to him. He wants us to weigh the pros and cons (do a cost/benefit analysis, if you will) and then decide what we think is best. Of course, he’s always putting in his two cents’ worth; he never leaves us guessing as to which option is the right one. He wrote his laws on our hearts, and if we’re still not sure, he gave us scripture, his spirit, and Jesus.
I love Jesus! He’s such a cool guy. Nothing ever fazes him. That’s because, when he was in his Earthly body, he lived fully in God’s promise of freedom, protection and security. That doesn’t mean, however, that he automatically did God’s will in everything – no, not at all. He took advantage of his free thought and free will to try to negotiate better terms with God.
One of these famous “negotiations” played out in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before Jesus was crucified. God had earlier told Jesus what was going to happen to him, and certainly Jesus knew from scripture what was going to happen to him, but he didn’t like it. Not one bit. And why would he? He was a virile young man in the peak of health. He didn’t want to die, and certainly not the way that was laid out for him. If he had willingly embraced his humiliation and crucifixion and gone marching to his death with a smile on his face, he would have been insane, and Jesus most certainly was not insane. So, trying to wheedle maybe a few more days or weeks or even hours out of God, Jesus asks him if there’s some other way he can do what needs to be done. He asks him once, and God says “No.” He asks him again, and again God says “No.” He asks him a third time, and when God’s answer is still “No”, Jesus throws in the towel and says he’ll do it.
Does he do it with a smile on his face? Not at all. We know from scripture that he barely spoke a word from that moment onwards. With his God-given free thought, Jesus weighed the pros and cons of what was required of him to be the Messiah. He also used it to try to find some way around the worst of the requirements, but God wasn’t budging. Still, he let Jesus think it through. Still, he stood firm while Jesus tried to find a short-cut that would not involve crucifixion. When the combined witness of God, scripture and his own heart showed Jesus that the best way to do what had to be done was simply to do it, Jesus conceded. He wasn’t coerced; he wasn’t forced; he could have said “no” and gone down another path that might have ended with him marrying Mary Magdalene and bouncing 12 Junior Jesus’s on his knee, but he deduced, through logic and God’s witness, that choosing God’s way was the best way to achieve his goal of Messiahship, so he chose it. God then strengthened him, and less than 24 hours later, Jesus took his place forever at the right hand of God.
David had a similar clash of wills with God over David’s first-born with Bathsheba. Through the prophet Nathan, God informed David that the child would fall ill and die, but David reasoned that maybe God would change his mind if he fasted and prayed and mourned. So, he held vigil for seven days and nights, refusing to eat or drink or even talk to anyone. Despite David’s efforts, the child died, but instead of mourning his death, David got up, took a shower, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed over to Bathsheba’s private suite to “comfort” her in the Biblical way. His servants are taken aback by what they saw was his odd behavior at the death of his son, but he explained that while his child was still alive, there was a chance that God would change his mind and let the child live. The child’s death signaled that God would not change his mind, so David conceded. It was as simple as that. And at David’s concession, God strengthened him, and Solomon was conceived that very night.
God not only allows us but encourages us to use our free thought and free will. He invites us to align our wills with his not by coercion but by logical choice. God wants only the best for us, but sometimes no pain means no gain. God protects us spiritually, but spiritual protection doesn’t mean that we won’t have to suffer pain while still in our Earthly bodies. We need to make up our mind to accept that now, because, as with Jesus and David, some form of pain is almost definitely going to be in the cards if we intend to “endure to the end”. Still, maybe God will give us some wiggle room; who knows? It never hurts to ask. But if you do ask, and he doesn’t budge, you can be sure that what awaits you on the other side of that temporary pain is a whole lot of gain beyond your wildest dreams.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 