FLYING BY THE SPLIT SEAT OF YOUR PANTS: ON TESTS AND TRIALS
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 20, 2024 – In the work I used to do, I would help my clients prepare for their medical board certification exam, which they took at the end of their clinical residency. These exams were exhaustive and multi-day ordeals, but the examinees had years to prepare. By the time the examinations actually took place, the examinees had done so many mock written tests, interviews, and oral exams, they could have done the board examination in their sleep and still passed it with flying colours.
How different our tests are for us, as born-again believers! We take “exams”, too, but we don’t get years to prepare, let alone have the advantage of mock tests to pore over and practice. We learn as we go and we’re tested as we go, almost always with no heads-up whatsoever that a test is incoming. Even Jesus didn’t get a heads-up. For instance, he didn’t know his ministry was starting until his mother very publicly pushed him out of the nest at the wedding at Cana, and he didn’t know his ministry was ending until Moses and Elijah touched down at the “transfiguration” to give him his final orders. The non-Jew who came to Jesus asking him to cast out a demon from her daughter was also a test, as was the woman caught in adultery who should, by law, have been stoned, as was the “trick question” of whether Jews should pay the tribute tax to Caesar. Nearly everything in Jesus’ ministry was a spur-of-the-moment, sink-or-swim, baptism-by-fire kind of a test, and it’s the same for us.
For me, the most fascinating aspects of spiritual tests are first and foremost that you don’t know you’re in one until you’re in one, and secondly that they come out of nowhere and when you least expect them, and thirdly that they also usually come at the worst possible moment. In fact, the unexpectedness and I-don’t-need-this-nowness is part of the test. It’s all well and good to test someone on something they know they’re going to be tested on, giving them the time and resources to scrub their faces and put on their Sunday best, but it’s quite another thing to spring a test out of the blue. It’s the out-of-the-blue tests where you get the real results, and it’s the real results that God wants.
So let’s say, for example, that you had “one of those days” when things weren’t going so well. You’re finally on your way home, driving along the highway just minding your own business, when suddenly someone cuts you off, nearly causing you to rear-end them. Did you: a) curse and honk your horn at their recklessness, maybe even speeding up a bit to show your anger; b) take a deep breath, let it ride, and keep on rolling; or c) say a prayer for the driver and pull back, keeping a good distance between you and him. The correct response for born-again believers is obviously “c”, but how many of you seemingly instinctively did “a” before correcting yourself and reluctantly doing “c”? Or how many of you unapologetically did “a” and stubbornly refused to change that choice, thinking it was justified? Or how many of you never made it past “b”, thinking that was sufficient?
The beauty of the tests and trials we undergo as born-again believers is that the results show our true colors. Unlike the medical examinees taking the board certification examination, who can ace their tests solely by memorizing the material and then promptly forgetting it afterwards, we have to fly by the seat of our pants, and if the seat of our pants is split and dirty and our butt is hanging out, we have no way to hide it. But this, I would argue, is good. We don’t endure our tests for bragging rights; we endure them so that we and God (and anyone else God permits to know the results) will see precisely where we stand spiritually. The test results cannot be feigned or faked: They is what they is.
Equally beautiful is that if we fail a test, God will grant us a redo while there’s still time. I’ve had quite a few redos over the years since my rebirth; I wrote about one here. The redos will also come out of the blue, but boy oh boy, you’ll know it’s a redo by the impossibility of the so-called coincidences leading up to the test. For me, because I’m such a loud-mouth know-it-all (say it ain’t so! lol), most of the redos involve being kind to someone I was previously rude to or simply biting my tongue and choosing to say nothing when what I want to say is unprintable even by New Sodom standards. In both of these scenarios, I’m also tested on whether I follow up with a prayer or continue to silently stew. God measures not only what we say and do at the time of our test, but also – and more importantly – the contents and state of our hearts and minds after the test. How many of us say: “I believe!” but then do and say things later as if we don’t believe? That’s not a trick question, and the answer is “way too many”.
We cannot avoid our tests and we cannot even prepare for them, not the way medical graduates prepare for theirs by memorization and mock tests. All we can do is listen to what Jesus is saying to us and then apply it in our everyday lives. In this way, we build our house on the firm foundation of a rock, minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day, so that when tests come and we’re beaten and battered, our house still stands because it’s on a firm foundation. Not so if we build our house on sand, which is what happens if we hear what Jesus is saying but don’t apply it every day. In that case, when we’re beaten and battered, our house will fall (no other outcome is possible), never to rise again.
May you build your house on a rock with your every waking breath, no excuses.
Amen.
THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, IN PLAIN WORDS
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 17, 2024 – The parable of the pearl of great price tends to be overlooked in the rush to comb through Revelation looking for parallels to what’s happening in the world today. In fact, most of the Gospel tends to be overlooked in favour of Revelation. Certainly, Revelation is important, but so is “every word that comes from the mouth of God”, as Jesus famously schooled Satan. I’m not saying you’re Satan; I’m just saying.
If we took Jesus at his word (which we should do) and spent less time on Revelation and more time on the rest of the Gospel (which we should also do), we’d realize how pivotal the parables are, in particular the parable of the pearl of great price. As a refresher, I’ve copied it below:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Scripture foretells of one to come who will “open [his] mouth in parables [and] utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world”. This “one” we now know as Jesus, our Lord and Messiah, and also our big brother and best friend. Any one of those roles sets him apart as someone we should heed when he speaks, in parables or otherwise.
But do we heed him?
The pearl parable isn’t shrouded in mystery. We know it’s talking about God’s Kingdom because it says so right from the get-go, and we know the kingdom of heaven is alikened to the pearl of great price, again because it says so. What else does the parable say? That we should sell everything we have and invest all the proceeds – not some of them, ALL of them – in the kingdom of heaven. This parable doesn’t require us to go into a private huddle with Jesus to learn what it means, like the disciples did when Jesus taught them the parable of the sower. No, the parable of the pearl of great price is as open and straightforward as it gets.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) allegedly said about scripture: “It ain’t the part of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” Well, Sammy, most of us (if we’re honest with ourselves) are right there with you. The parts of the Bible that we do understand are the parts that God has brought to our attention and opened our hearts and minds to, which means we’re not only meant to “get” them, we’re meant to heed them.
From that perspective, let’s look again at the parable of the pearl of great price, and let’s make it personal:
Have you found the kingdom of heaven? Yes or no?
And if “yes”, have you set its value as being higher than anything else in your life? Yes or no?
And if “yes”, have you thrown caution to the wind and all your eggs into one basket and sold everything you have to “buy” the kingdom? This again requires only a simple yes or no answer. You either did or you didn’t; you either gave everything to God and Jesus, or you didn’t.
FYI – “I’m thinking about doing it” is a “no”.
FFYI – “I’m thinking really really hard about doing it and will likely probably maybe do it soon” is also a “no”.
Did you know that no “no’s” will get into Heaven? There are several parables in the Gospel about people who say “no” to God and Jesus only to find themselves shut out of Paradise forever. All their assumptions and good intentions came to nothing.
Here is my prayer for you today: If you haven’t yet said “yes” to all the above, I pray that you’ll follow through and heed the words of the pearl parable here and now. There is nothing more important or more valuable on Earth than the kingdom of heaven, and eternity is a long time to regret not having done what you knew you should have done when it was brought to your attention in plain words.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,
and everything you need will be given to you.
LAMENTATIONS: WHY YOU NEED TO READ IT
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 15, 2024 – Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations was written during the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C. It could just as aptly have been written for the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D. or the fall of Christendom and destruction of the worldly church, which is happening now, albeit in slow motion. I assume the date that will eventually be hung on the fall of the worldly church will be the date when Vatican City is annihilated.
I will not be lamenting that annihilation, but I will also not be rejoicing. We are not to rejoice over God’s vengeance but to quietly stand back and let it happen.
If you haven’t read Lamentations for a while, I urge you to read it again. Moses in Deuteronomy 28 warned the children of Israel of the curses that will befall them if they purposely turn their back on God, and Lamentations describes the fulfillment of those curses in gory detail. (For a description of the destruction of the second temple, read Josephus.) In a nutshell – God himself fights against his own people. You do not want to be at the receiving end of God’s perfect weaponry. You do not want God as your perfect enemy. There is nothing and no-one worse than that.
But Lamentations is not all doom and gloom. Like Deuteronomy 28, there is a glimmer of hope in remembering the blessings that are poured out on the obedient and on the sincerely repentant. There is hope in repentance if the repentant humbly accept their punishment as justified and follow up their repentance with sincere and enduring obedience, but only if they don’t leave it too late. We see in the utter annihilation of the two temples that “too late” is not an empty warning but rather a promise that is delivered to the many. The vast and overwhelming majority of what were once God’s people have perished, are perishing, and will perish as eternal enemies of God. In the end, they will be no more, just as the first and second temples are no more.
Lamentations is a sobering read, as is Deuteronomy 28. I read them both frequently as reminders not to veer to the left or to the right, but to walk straight on. I do not want God as my enemy; I want to keep him as my Heavenly Father forever. The kings and princes and prophets portrayed in Lamentations thought that God would defend them against their enemies because after all they were God’s people, weren’t they, and he’d fought for them before, so why wouldn’t he do it again? In thinking this way, they added the sin of presumption to all the other sins they’d piled higher than the idols of Egypt. They thought that “once God’s people, always God’s people”, but they were wrong.
It is not “once God’s people, always God’s people”, any more than it’s “once saved, always saved”. As Paul warns us, we’re to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, not with boasting and presumption. We’re to fear the Lord, not our enemies, lest we make an enemy of the Lord, because for us born-again believers, there’s no coming back from that.
A WITCH IN THE FAMILY
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 14, 2024 – It has come to my attention that I have a practicing witch in my family. This should be a shocking confession for a born-again believer, but there it is. No use beating around the burning bush. Jesus had Judas Iscariot; I have a witch. At least one that I know of. There are likely more. As they say about cockroaches, “never one witch”.
Jesus said that our worst enemies will be those under our own roof, and he wasn’t wrong about that. Jesus wasn’t wrong about anything, but he particularly wasn’t wrong about our worst enemies and where we’ll find them. Good attracts evil like a wool jacket attracts lint or a magnet attracts metal shavings. Evil is drawn to truth, which is why the demon-infested followed Jesus around ranting that he was the Son of God or the possessed girl trailed around behind the disciples. Those poor miserable souls couldn’t help themselves. They were like “The end is nigh!” placard wavers, only with a better script.
Attracting the demonic is a hazard of our trade as ministers of God’s Word. I guess you could even say it’s a good sign if you attract them: it means you’re a target because you present an obstacle to the devil for no other reason than that he can’t have you anymore. And not being able to have you galls him and goads him into giving it one last try, for old-time’s sake. He’s sure the devilish charm that worked before will eventually work again. You’re sure it won’t.
Having a witch in the family is apparently a thing nowadays. It’s a thing to have a family witch. It used to be a thing to have a doctor in the family or a university professor or a lawyer. Now people casually drop into their conversation that they have a witch. Even I did it, here on this blog, though for a different reason. I’m not bragging that I have a witch; I’m just saying.
I read on reddit a few days ago that covens are doing meet-and-greets in Tim Horton’s cafes. There’s nothing more quintessentially Canadian than Timmies, so I guess it was only a matter of time before the witches staked their claim to it. They already have most of the churches and second-hand bookstores and schools and libraries in Canada. Branching out to coffee shops would, I guess, be the next logical step in their takeover of our once-Christian nation. They’re not the only anti-Christ faction rushing in to fill the vacuum left by believers who’ve gone on to their eternal reward, but they’re certainly one of the more… colourful. To be honest, most of them are just play-acting at being witches, but some are real. Some are sincere. You can see it in their dead eyes.
I asked God what I should do about the witch in my family, and he said you’re already doing it. He said my Spirit is with you wherever you go, and that’s spiritual warfare enough. Nothing else is required. No garlic. No holy water. No amulets or lucky rabbit feet. No mumbled recitations. Witches are their own worst enemies, and even knowing that the spells they cast will come back on them in spades, they still do it. They still cast the spells on the unsuspecting unprotected, not seeming to realize that they, too, are the unprotected, that they, too, are vulnerable. Anyone who hasn’t thrown their lot in with God is vulnerable.
We can pray for these people if God gives us guidance to. We can pray for them but otherwise we should just let them be. I wanted to go to Tim Horton’s and sit in on their meet-and-greet, to see how silly it was, but God said to leave them alone. They’re yet another example of the blind leading the blind. You pity those people; you don’t poke sticks at them in their self-imposed prison cell. You’re kind to them, the way that Jesus was always kind to Judas Iscariot.
Maybe that they have to eat Timmies’ baked-from-frozen day-old doughnuts is punishment enough.
SHOULD WE SUBMIT TO GOVERNING AUTHORITIES?
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 12, 2024 – Jerusalem was a hot mess during the time of Jesus’ ministry. Under the grinding heel of the Roman occupiers, the majority of the locals had learned to adapt to their unhappy circumstances either by joining forces with the Romans, signing on with a rebel faction, or silently enduring the humiliation of paying obeisance (and taxes) to a pagan authority. Jesus chose to do none of those things but instead lived and moved as if he were neither the occupied nor the occupier.
We, as Jesus’ followers, are to do the same.
One of the most misapplied of all scriptures (and that’s saying something, given the seemingly endless parade of false prophets these days) – one of the most egregiously misapplied scriptures is the one about the need to obey governing authorities. Not only is this scripture liberally misapplied, but it’s also taken out of context, making it mean the opposite of what the authors intended.
We know that Jesus did not stay where his teachings were not welcome, and he instructed his followers to do the same. We also know that Jesus avoided places where there was a price on his head and that he submitted to the arresting authorities only when it was his time. There are only a few instances where Jesus advises us to heed governing directives, such as when he was asked to pay the customs tax, which he did by way of a miracle, or when he instructed people he’d healed to make the appropriate sacrifices stipulated by Mosaic law. As well, Jesus reminded his followers to obey the religious authorities that sit on the seat of Moses solely because they taught Mosaic law. At the same time, though, he cautioned his followers not to live as those teachers lived, as they were hypocrites.
As I mentioned at the outset, Jerusalem was a hotbed of intrigue, sedition, and rebellion during the time of Jesus’ ministry. This was nothing new, however, as it had been that way for hundreds of years already and continued to be that way right up to and beyond the destruction of the second temple. When Peter and Paul advised the faithful to submit to the governor and honor the king, they meant to steer clear of aligning themselves with any of the dozens of rebel factions operating throughout Judea at the time and whose mandate was the violent overthrow of the Roman occupiers. In cautioning believers to steer clear of aligning themselves with this or that political faction, Peter and Paul were reminding their flocks of their need to focus solely on spreading the Good News, not getting involved in political conspiracies. You can’t love your enemies and at the same time plot to kill them.
This context is conveniently overlooked by today’s religious powers-that-be, who themselves have aligned their churches with the worldly powers and so not surprisingly are misapplying and purposely misinterpreting Peter and Paul’s directives, to the benefit of their puppet masters. I’m not saying the local pastor down the street is purposely misleading church members (he or she may or may not be), I’m just saying that the heads of these church corporations work hand-in-glove with the political ptb and so are nearly always on the same page and taking their directives from whomever is directing the political ptb. This is no great mystery, as Jesus tells us outright that God has put the world under the authority of Satan, which means the worldly church is also under Satan’s authority.
Should we then submit to Satan? Of course not, but we should also not get in his way, as Satan takes his orders directly from God and can only do what he is enabled and permitted to do by God. Let Satan conduct his affairs, as enabled and permitted by God, and let us conduct our affairs in willing submission to God, as Jesus did. This is what Peter and Paul meant when they instructed us to obey the governor and honor the king. We are to live at arms-length from governing authorities, presenting no opposition to them but also not actively working with them or supporting them.
So, for instance, during the “pandemic”, I could not and would not wear a mask or be injected. For a time, I could circulate in society without these things, but when barrier after barrier to my free movement was erected via government mandates, it got to the point where I could no longer move freely and so I relocated to a rural area and let others bring whatever I needed to me, for a fee (which God provided in much the same way as he provided Jesus with the gold coin in the fish’s mouth). I didn’t actively oppose the mandates, but I also didn’t comply with them. Only when they were removed did I return to cities and towns.
We are to submit only to God, but we are also not to present, or align with, any kind of organized opposition to the powers-that-be, understanding that those powers are under the authority of Satan, who himself is under the authority and direction of God. So, if you work in active opposition to Satan (I don’t mean here turning down his temptations; I mean actively plotting against him), you’re actually working in active opposition to God, which is something you should never do as a born-again believer.
I’m quite happy to let the political realm move in whatever direction God enables and permits it to move. My job is to “watch”, that is, to be aware of what’s going on around me politically, culturally, etc., not actively engage in it. Rather, I’m to work around it all, finding workarounds, as God presents them to me.
In a nutshell: We’re to obey the local laws, customs, and directives unless they conflict with God’s, and if/when that occurs, we’re to find workarounds, and if/when those are no longer possible, we’re to leave. We’re not to protest or actively oppose the governing forces, we’re simply to leave, like Jesus did.
Until it’s our time.
A WORD ON MOTHER’S DAY
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, Mother’s Day, 2024 – Just a quick Mother’s Day reminder for those of you who have less than optimal childhood memories: The Commandment to honor your parents is non-negotiable. Even if your mother is no longer with us, you still need to be kind to her in your words and thoughts.
(Let this also be a reminder that God knows all your words and thoughts, and you’ll be judged on them.)
I am blessed to have a mother who is not only still among us but is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, and oh, what a singing voice! So my memories of her, thank God, are optimal. But I’ve heard and read horrendous comments over the years by people who call themselves Christians or even born-again, denigrating their mothers as “controlling” or “abusive” or “drug addicts” or “alcoholics” or “co-dependent”, etc. While it may be true that these mothers are exactly as described, the Commandment forbids us to speak harshly of our mother.
To honor one’s mother and father means to be kind to them in person and kind in our communications about them, which is not difficult to do if we focus only on the positive: Everyone has at least one good characteristic we can admire. Now that doesn’t mean we put ourselves in a position to be abused again; it just means we choose to forgive for no other reason than that God advises us to forgive, and to honor for no other reason than God commands it.
Again, regardless of how justified you may feel in being angry or resentful toward your mother, nothing overrides God’s commandments. If God says to honor your mother, you honor your mother.
That is non-negotiable.
And for all you mothers reading this – Happy Mother’s Day to you! Though your children may not know (or may have forgotten) how much of yourself you gave to them over the years expecting nothing in return, God knows, and you will be rewarded accordingly.
Enjoy your special day!
PRETTY IN PINK? WHEN AURORAS MEAN DANGER
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 12, 2024 – In one of the many science fiction “invasion” movies I have unfortunately subjected myself to over the years, a woman in a crowd stares up in awe at a massive spaceship hovering in the night sky over her head. The invading ship is covered in twinkling lights, and the mesmerized woman just manages a breathless “So pretty!” when the “pretty” ship fires down a laser beam, instantly incinerating her and all those around her.
I’m reminded of this and similar movie scenes when I read the breathless descriptions of the auroras that have been painting our skies over the past few nights. The shimmering and dancing otherworldly lights have been described as “amazing!”, “once-in-a-lifetime!”, “vibrant!”, “awe-inspiring!”, or just plain “WOW!”
But there’s one thing wrong with this picture – many of the auroras have been pink, and pink auroras are well known in the scientific community for being not only incredibly rare, but also a sign of extreme danger.
As breathtakingly beautiful as they may appear, auroras are first and foremost an indicator that the electromagnetic shield protecting Earth from harmful solar rays is under attack. A geomagnetic storm battle is being waged wherever you see auroras, with the colors indicating the danger level that we below the lights may be exposed to. Most auroras are red or green, indicating the battle is relatively moderate and being raged well above Earth and outside the danger zone. Red and green auroras also indicate that the shield has the invasion more or less under control. But when pink auroras appear, which prior to the past few evenings was only on very rare occasions, the battle is extreme and very close.
Not only that, but pink auroras indicate that a tear has occurred in the shield, allowing the solar wind to literally pour down on top of our heads.
A tear in Earth’s electromagnetic shield is not a good sign. In fact, a tear in the shield is a very very bad sign. As “pretty in pink” as they may appear, these auroras tell us that a major breach has occurred in Earth’s defenses, which means that all life in the vicinity of the breach is being exposed to harmful rays at dangerous levels. While pink auroras may not instantly incinerate us like a laser beam from an alien ship, their simultaneous occurrence globally is a massive heads-up that all is not well – and is in fact far from well – with our electromagnetic protection field.
Scrawled across exposed desert rocks and on cave walls high up in the mountains in the western United States are depictions of auroras that were carved in stone thousands of years ago. These petroglyphs stand as a testament to a catastrophic event that wiped out much of the world’s population, with the survivors retreating to higher ground and finding refuge deep in caves. There, they would have been shielded from the worst of the electromagnetic storms, which were alleged to have lasted for years or even decades. While there’s no indication from the petroglyphs that the auroras painting the skies in those days were the notorious pink ones, we can imagine they likely were, and that Earth’s magnetic shield had been violently torn like the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the profane part of the temple was torn at the moment of Jesus’ death, signifying the exit of God’s Holy Spirit from the place.
Like pink auroras, the exit of God’s Holy Spirit from a place is a rare and very very very bad sign. So tonight, and every night from this day forward, if you look up and see pink auroras, consider whether “Wow!” is really the right response, given what the colour signifies. It’s not a time to be awed and rapt in wonder, but a time to prepare spiritually for what lies ahead. For if the state of the natural world reflects the world’s spiritual state (which indeed it does), it ain’t pretty.
“FATHER, FORGIVE THEM”
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 11, 2024 – I’ve written here before about the Bible being messed with. By “messed with”, I mean that it’s been added to and taken away from, which has changed the content and therefore the meaning of certain parts. The Bible’s also been messed with through translation, which is a built-in hazard surely, but in certain instances it’s been purposely mis- (or better said, dis-) translated. All of which is why you need to read the Bible not with your own understanding, but with God’s.
Even better is to have God read the Bible to you.
One particularly concerning change that’s been made in newer translations is the replacement of “charity” with “love”. The two words are not the same – they aren’t spelled the same and they don’t have the same meaning. This is obvious to us. Not sure why it’s not obvious to the translators unless they’re driven by some agenda other than God’s.
Charity is a form of love that doesn’t require emotional engagement. Charity is based on obedience to God’s directives and indicates a seamless alignment of our will with God’s, an active willingness to do as God advises, which in most cases is either to give or to forgive, or both.
Love, on the other hand, is a deeply emotive feeling that yearns as much to receive love as to give it. Being emotion-based rather than obedience-based, love is an entirely different dynamic than charity, so the two terms should never be used interchangeably.
It’s not “faith, hope, and love”, it’s faith, hope, and charity, and of these, Paul reminds us, charity is the greatest.
In one of his letters, Peter talks about the primacy of charity:
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”
In the newest translations of the Bible, the word “charity” used here has been changed to “love”, which entirely alters the crucial teaching that Peter intended to convey. When you love someone, you don’t have to be prompted to be “fervent” towards that person or to consider his or her wellbeing ahead of your own. You just do those things as a matter of course, as an outpouring of your emotions, prompted by no other directive than your depth of feeling. Your kindness and caring are natural expressions of your love for that person.
But when you don’t feel that depth of emotion (or any emotion at all or only negative emotion) for someone to whom God has asked you to be kind, it takes charity for you to positively respond to God’s request. This is not an emotion-based response but rather a conscious decision to choose obedience to God, and through that obedience to offer something that you otherwise would not offer. You make that choice for no other reason than that God advises you to. That’s charity.
As you can see, there’s a vast gulf in meaning between love and charity, and the two terms cannot and should not be used interchangeably.
Peter was a huge fan of charity. So was Paul. This should not be surprising, as at its core Christianity is all about charity, though not in the sense that the word is used today, either in the new translations of the Bible or in everyday parlance. Charity today has been corroded and cheapened into mostly meaning giving money to a tax-dodging organization that collects financial or other donations for redistribution allegedly to “the poor”, but the lion’s share of these donations usually ends up staying within the organization. This is not the type of charity that Peter and Paul wrote about.
For me, the best example of Christian charity is Jesus’ last words on the cross. According to scripture, they weren’t his only last words, but they were by far his greatest. Jesus said of his executioners: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Instead of cursing his tormentors or lamenting the unjustness of his circumstances, Jesus looked past it all and positioned himself firmly in the realm of charity. He wasn’t responding emotively to the situation but making a conscious decision to choose righteousness rather than self-pity or revenge.
This is the kind of charity Peter and Paul wrote about. As well as being the highest level of charity that we can aspire to, Jesus’ final words on the cross were also his greatest teaching moment. Everything Jesus had said and done up to that point blossomed and bore fruit in those few words. For me, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” is both a summation of the New Testament and the most precious of our earthly inheritances: Jesus entrusted us with those words so that we would cherish them and apply them in the same way he did, so that when our time comes, we would leave those same words in the safekeeping of our brethren, like Jesus did, and like Stephen did, and like countless other martyrs have done down through the ages, blessing their murderers in their final breath rather than cursing them, and showing us how it’s done.
Love and charity are not the same thing and should never be used interchangeably. Love is an emotion, whereas charity is a choice. There is no greater achievement than the offering of charity in the face of hatred and violence. We not only need to know this but to internalize it so deeply that when our final test comes, we’ll be able to repeat Jesus’ last words unprompted and as if fully natural to us, and in so doing cover our own multitude of sins.
WTSIWTG
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 8, 2024 – Jesus says that you if you love your loved ones more than him, you’re not worthy of him.
Jesus says that if you don’t pick up your cross and bear it like a yoke every day, you’re not worthy of him.
We see through our own eyes and by our own understanding, but we need to see through God’s eyes and by his grace.
Heaven is a hella place to get into. I wouldn’t want to be there if I weren’t worthy of it. I wouldn’t want you to be there, either, if you weren’t worthy.
The world, for want of a better word, sucks. I wanted to be more positive here, but there’s no point in lying. There’s no point in using a sugar-coated donut word when a plain one will do. The world is the realm of death and dying, of built-in obsolescence, and it was made that way by God himself. God made it to be the realm of death and dying and built-in obsolescence. God made the world to suck so that we’d look for something better and hope for something more, not in the way the devil does, trying to make something of time and space that it can never be, but wishing and hoping for something, I don’t know, something we can only see in our mind’s eye and feel with our heart. The realm of dreams and visions, but dreams and visions from God, not from the other side.
I don’t want anything in Heaven to suck, and from I’ve seen so far, nothing does. It’s perfect, but not in a cloying way, not in a fake way, like impossibly white capped teeth. Heaven and all those in it are unaware of their perfection because they have nothing to compare it to – there are no imperfections in Heaven and no memory of the imperfect world, so what they see is what they get, and what they see is perfection and only perfection.
I have cried over people I know who are gone now and I do not think made it Home. I weep and pray over those who are still here but who want nothing to do with God, let alone Jesus. God tells me who to weep and pray over and who to let be and let go. I do as he says. There’s no winning that argument with God.
There are those who call themselves Christian and yet who question God’s decision about who gets into Heaven and who doesn’t. Well, that’s an argument as old as the fall of Lucifer himself and just as unwinnable. Who are we to question God’s judgement? Jesus argued with his enemies over this same point of doctrine. They thought being a child of Abraham was all it took to get into Paradise, but they were dead wrong. The more Jesus tried to warn them just how wrong they were, the more they hated him for it.
People today think you only have to “believe” – close your eyes and cross your fingers and click your heels together three times. They think believing is as easy as blowing out birthday candles. But believing is what Jesus said it is – picking up your yoke daily and labouring not in a course of your choosing but being driven by a hand you cannot see. That means choosing to love your enemies when every cell in your body wants to kill them in their sleep. That means choosing to do what Jesus taught us to do rather than what we want to do. Belief starts with a decision of the will, not a feeling. Belief starts with doing something you may not want to do but you choose to do for the sole reason that Jesus taught you to do it so you know it’s the right thing to do. And after you’ve sincerely made the decision and God knows you have, he fills you with belief, the way a child colors inside the lines.
I do not know if I’ll make it Home. I played the Wicked Witch of the West in my high school musical. Not Dorothy. Not Aunty Em. Not the Good Witch. Not even Toto, the dog. I was the witch who was condemned even before she’d stepped into the spotlight. In my stage make-up, I was as ugly on the outside as I was on the inside and I scared “Dorothy” so much that she refused to go on stage with me at one point. The children in the audience were screaming and howling and running out of the auditorium in tears. I didn’t see all this; I only found out about it afterwards when the adults were laughing at how scared their kids were of me. I had no recollection of it; it was to me as if it hadn’t happened.
You would not have wanted that Charlotte in Heaven.
The world is full of what I once was. There are billions of what I used to be running around out there. I don’t want any of what used to be inside of me and is now inside of them to get into Heaven. Jesus says that if we love brother or sister or mother or father or husband or wife more than him, we are not worthy of him. He said if we love our own lives here, we’ll lose the only life that’s worth living.
Those who make it to Heaven will have no recollection of the Hell they left behind, including anyone they knew who didn’t make it Home. They’ll only remember the good, but only God is good, so they’ll only remember God. I am grateful for that promise.
It’s God’s decision, who makes it Home. Being a Christian isn’t a ticket to paradise. Even being born-again isn’t a ticket.
Belief isn’t a mindset or a recitation or a forced opinion; it’s not something you put on like a costume or stage make-up: It’s a state of being that comes from God and God only. You don’t choose to believe; you choose to submit to God, who then fills you with his Spirit and you believe. Belief becomes your de facto state of being so that it’s not something you contrive but something you are.
Submission to God you can choose. But belief – genuine belief – comes only from God.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 