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UNTETHERING
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 5, 2021 – Jesus had two distinct lives when he lived on Earth in a human body.
His first life centered on Nazareth, his blood relatives, and his work as a carpenter.
His second life centered on God, his followers, and preaching and teaching the gospel.
There was a clear separation between his first life and second life. It wasn’t the same life divided into “before and after” getting the call. No. It was two distinctly separate lives lived by the same person in the same body.
All who are called to follow Jesus and to preach and teach the gospel experience a similar progression from one life to the next. This is demonstrated in Peter, Andrew, James and John leaving their fishing business (and in Peter’s case, his wife and family) to follow Jesus. Matthew also dramatically quit his job to follow Jesus, as did Paul and many others.
Some of us try to sit on the fence between these two lives. We work day jobs and preach by night, dividing our energy between the world and God. This works for a while, the same way training wheels work for a while to get a wobbly young cyclist used to the “feel” of a two-wheeled bike. But if you leave the training wheels on too long, the child gets used to the feel of a three- or four-wheeler rather than a two-wheeler, and either fights against the removal of the training wheels or suffers a major crash when the wheels do eventually come off.
For Jesus, the switch from life as a carpenter to life as a preacher involved a great untethering. He had to completely untether himself from the commitments and bonds of his first life. This he did by walking away from them and staying gone. He didn’t go back and he didn’t look back. He simply lived as if his former life no longer existed.
Untethered, Jesus was then able to devote his entire life to God and to his ministry work. He was tied to no one location, no daily responsibilities, and no particular person. He didn’t command his followers to follow him; he invited them, and they were free to leave whenever they wanted. They, too, in following Jesus, progressed to their second lives, untied to any location, responsibilities, or persons. Untethered like Jesus, they could then wholly focus on God.
Untethering is a process. For some, it happens overnight, whereas for others it takes years. Remember that even Jesus – who was born with God’s Spirit — had to wait for the signal before untethering himself from Nazareth. Untethering is not a directive that comes from us but from God. The child doesn’t decide when it’s time for the training wheels to come off; the parents decide. We don’t decide when it’s time to untether from our first life; God decides.
But when God gives you that signal, let go.
Like Jesus and Peter and Paul, let it ALL go.
And never go back.
THIS LITTLE LIGHT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 1, 2021 – A gentle reminder not to be swayed by the false prophets of doom as we enter another year.
As always, Jesus says it best: “Take heed that no man deceive you, for many will come in my name… and deceive many.”
Why is it that so many who claim to love God focus only on the NEGATIVE? Why are all the so-called revelations by so-called Christian prophets almost always only about gloom and doom?
Part of the reason is that they’re not real prophets (that is, they’re not speaking God’s Truth), but the other part – and I believe the main one – is that they’re pandering to people’s desires. People WANT to hear about gloom and doom, they WANT to hear that we’re entering the Tribulation and that the “Antichrist” is waiting in the wings, and so these “prophets” give them what they want.
In an earlier blog, I called this attraction to doom an addiction to spiritual porn.
Yes, the Old Testament prophets spent a lot of time railing at the Hebrews and warning them what would come if they didn’t change their ways, but the ultimate message of each of those prophets was the good news of God’s mercy to those who willingly choose the good. The New Testament is all about the Good News (“gospel” literally means “good news”), as it is the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promise of spiritual salvation. Even the book of Revelation, for all its dire warnings, ends with the victory of God’s people and their great reward of Heaven.
God does not want us to live in fear or spend our time digging through YouTube for bad news. He wants us to live in the joy and grace of his Holy Spirit, and to teach and preach his Good News. It doesn’t matter how bad things get around us, we can still live our lives in joy, looking for and highlighting the good rather than dwelling on the bad. Jesus was expert at that: Even as an outcast from society and with a bounty on his head, he healed the sick, cast out demons, calmed the storm, fed the famished, taught the illiterate, forgave sinners, blessed his enemies, and just generally lived his life as a bright light rather than a shadow, choosing to focus on the positive rather than the negative.
We all have that choice, to be either a bright light or a shadow. We can seek out gloom and doom and in the process become what we seek, or we can plainly see what is in front of us but choose to see the good in it rather than the bad, and in the process let God’s love and light shine through.
Every night before I go to sleep, I pray for unbelievers. Some of them I know personally and am in contact with nearly every day; some of them I know personally but haven’t spoken to for years; and some of them I know only by name and face. I pray for these people because they need prayers as much as anyone else, and God has put it in my heart to pray for them. As an unbeliever and atheist, I was prayed for for 36 years before I turned and saw the light. I don’t think anyone is beyond God’s mercy (other than those who have consciously and with full intent made a deal with the devil, but I’m not talking about those poor souls here), and I believe there is still time for people to turn. Not much time, mind you, but still enough time. Paul tells us that God is painstakingly patient with us because he wants as many as possible to come to his light.
The start of a new year is a good opportunity for us to realign ourselves to God’s will. If you’ve developed a tendency over the past year to seek out shadows rather than light – the bad news rather than the Good – maybe now you could make the effort to once again highlight the positive, whether in people or in situations. That doesn’t mean being blind to what’s going on around you (Jesus was always hyper-aware and one step ahead of everyone else in that regard), but making a conscious choice to see beyond “what man sees” to what God sees.
God doesn’t look at us and see only the negative; he sees our nearly limitless potential to do good, no matter how deep we are in our sins. I wasn’t born again because I fasted and prayed and purified myself; I was born again because I was in the deepest depths of despair I’d ever been in and cried out for help. Even in the blackness of my spiritual filth, God saw a faint glimmer of light, a tiny flicker that he knew he could work with, and that was enough for him.
As born-again believers, we must see as God sees and do what God does. Jesus says to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We must see in the darkest of nights the promise of dawn. We must hear in the curses of people who hate us the sound of wayward passion that can be set straight and one day sing God’s praises. Paul said that if there be any good in anyone, to dwell on that. This is not an easy task, as it is far easier to give way to spiritual gravity and fall for the negative, the siren call of gloom and doom.
But let this be a challenge to you for the coming year: that no matter what happens – no matter how bad things get – you choose to see the good, you choose to be the light, even if you’re the only one shining.
DISCERNING THE JUDASES FROM THE PAULS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 11, 2020 – Remember that Judas Iscariot was one of the 12.
He was part of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples.
That meant he preached and taught the Word. He followed in Jesus’ entourage wherever Jesus went. He was present at many of the miracles. He lived as a follower of Jesus throughout the entire duration of Jesus’ ministry. All of the disciples and other followers accepted him as a fellow believer. No-one doubted his faith. He was among the chorus of voices that claimed they would rather die than betray Jesus.
Remember also that when Jesus said that someone among them would betray him, all of the disciples (except for Judas) were confused as to who that could be. They each, one by one, even considered themselves as possible betrayers (“Is it I?”) rather than point the finger at Judas. He really had them all fooled.
All of them, that is, except for Jesus.
The same spirit that worked through Judas Iscariot is still active among us today, still in the inner and outer sanctums of Christianity, and still deceiving people into believing that everyone who claims to be a Christian is actually a Christian. We need to use discernment if we are to tell the Judases from the real disciples. We need to use the same Spirit that Jesus used.
I have written in earlier blogs about the Judases I have met over the past 21 years as a born-again believer. Most of these were priests, preachers and ministers. They were no shrinking violets; they didn’t sit in pews and let other people carry the burden of ministry. No, they were active and popular and hard-working and engaging. People liked them and responded positively to them, just as, I’m sure, people (including the disciples) liked and responded positively to Judas Iscariot during most of Jesus’ ministry. If they hadn’t liked Judas, surely that would have been a red flag to Jesus’ other disciples that something was “off” about Judas, but no red flags appeared.
The other side of this coin is Paul’s conversion to Christianity. When he first came out as a follower of Jesus, very few of Jesus’ followers believed him. Most of them doubted his conversion and nearly all of them were afraid of him, as he was on record swearing that he would incarcerate and kill any followers of The Way. In fact, it was Paul himself who many of Jesus’ followers were fleeing from.
Paul had a major uphill battle to convince Jesus’ followers that his conversion was genuine and that he was now one of them.
I mention these two sides of the same coin – falsely believing that Judas Iscariot was a genuine follower of Jesus and refusing to believe that Paul was a genuine follower – because we live in an age of profound deception. Every one of us is either being tempted (tested) or will be tempted (tested) into believing lies and delusions, and the lies and delusions will only be discernible as such through the lens of God’s Spirit. We cannot rely on our own intellect or reasoning powers to tell who/what is really from God and who/what is not. We need God’s help with that.
At the same time, remember that Jesus entrusted Judas with preaching and teaching the Word, just as God entrusted the teaching of scripture to the same hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees who had Jesus executed. We are not to reject God’s teachings because of the people who teach them; scripture shows us that even unschooled children and donkeys can be used by God to reveal his Truth. In other words, we are not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
At the same time, when it comes to choosing what is personally right or wrong for ourselves, we must 100% rely on God’s Spirit for guidance. There is no way, without God’s Spirit, that you will be able to outwit the spirit that inhabited Judas Iscariot.
Finally, remember that God’s Way is not considered “wise” in the eyes of the worldly. To those who hate or disbelieve in God, the Spirit-guided choices made by born-again followers of Jesus look very foolish indeed. You will be attacked and even harshly penalized for not following “the science”, but your job is to ignore the attacks and pray for your attackers. Even that response will be considered further evidence of your stupidity, but let the unbelievers believe what they want. The only opinion of you that really matters is God’s.
STEPPING OUT IN FAITH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 4, 2020 – Noah could have said “no” to God and not built the ark.
Abraham could have said “no” to God and stayed in Haran.
Lot could have “no” to God and perished in Sodom.
Moses could have said “no” to God and remained in exile.
David could have said “no” to God and continued tending his sheep.
Jesus could have said “no” to God and stayed in Nazareth.
Matthew could have said “no” to God and continued as a tax collector.
Paul could have said “no” to God and remained a Pharisee.
All of these men could have continued living as they were before God called them. They were righteous men; no reason to believe they wouldn’t have continued being righteous, even if they’d turned God down. But we wouldn’t have heard about them, and the great feats God accomplished through them would have been accomplished through someone else.
Or not.
Think of all the men and women who were called by God and said “no”. Think of all the amazing feats that God could have accomplished on Earth if those people had instead said “yes”! I have no idea how many people have turned God down over the years, but I’m guessing the number if quite high. I’m guessing it might even be in the millions.
The reason I’m guessing it might be in the millions is because of the way most Christians react to the thought of really stepping out in faith. By “really stepping out in faith” I mean consciously choosing whatever it takes (such as being poor, homeless, despised, outcast, without possessions, without friends, without family, without a spouse, and without children) to do God’s will by preaching and teaching the Word night and day, like Jesus did, until your dying breath, like Jesus did.
Poverty, homelessness, and living and dying as an outlaw are all horrible thoughts to most Christians and they don’t want to dwell on these uncomfortable thoughts for too long. Yet this is how God calls ALL of us to live, if we are genuinely following Jesus. Jesus lived homeless and despised and under constant threat of arrest, and so did his disciples. So why do you, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus, have a place full of possessions, live with a spouse and/or children, take pride in keeping the worldly peace, enjoy three square meals a day, and sleep comfortably in your warm and cushy bed at night?
How many people do you think God has called who have said “no” to him?
Are you one of them?
Do you try to justify your decision to say “no” by saying that God calls everyone in different ways?
Do you know what the devil does?
He tempts people. He’s a tempter. He tempts and he lies. One of his chief temptations is to prevent people from saying “yes” to God when God calls them. The devil showers them with money and possessions and a spouse and children and all the CARES OF THIS WORLD that he can pile onto them so that when God calls them, they have a million and one excuses why they can’t heed the call, just like the people who were called to the king’s wedding feast had a million and one excuses: “Oh, sorry God, I just got married, and, well, you know…. Oh, sorry God, I just bought a house and I’m starting a new job next week. Maybe catch up with me again when my kids graduate?… Oh, sorry God, I love you and all that, but I love my family, too, and I owe them my loyalty and protection, so I’m going to have to say no. But thanks anyway for thinking of me!”
How many people do you think have said “no” to God when he called?
Are you one of them?
Do you know the eternal ramifications of saying “no” to God so that you can enjoy the comforts of this world? Jesus tells us what they are: He says that you have your reward already. The life you’re living now is all you get. This is it. Not a whit more. No Heaven. And by your choice.
But the good news is that it’s not too late to change your mind, like the prodigal son changed his mind. You can still say “yes” to God. You can still walk away from everything that is holding you back – ALL THE CARES OF THIS WORLD – and really step out in faith. That’s all God’s looking for – people to take that first step when he calls, and then he takes it from there. Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses, David, Jesus, Matthew, Paul and thousands of others really stepped out in faith. Will God be adding your name to that list, or will you just continue to roll over in your comfy bed and put a sly smile on the devil’s face?
The choice is yours.
The right one is clear.
But the offer is time-limited and may be withdrawn at any moment, without notice
The choice is yours.
The right one is clear.
Make it now, before it’s too late.
Tell God you’re ready to really step out in faith.
Tell God you want your name on that list with Noah and Moses and Jesus and Paul.
Tell him; mean it; and when the call comes: Go.
GOD’S JUSTICE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, August 24, 2020 – God’s justice is perfect. Everything about God is perfect. There is no imperfection in anything he is or does, so his justice must also be perfect.
God’s justice permeates Earth and everything and everyone on it. You cannot escape God’s justice; it is built into you and everyone around you. You may say that you don’t believe in God or don’t agree with his justice, but God’s justice will still prevail over your beliefs and opinions. It is inescapable and perfect.
I mention this because there is currently a pandemic of people in every nation complaining that the state of the world is unjust, and that the way to make the world just is to defund the police, tax the rich, replace politicians, topple statues, redistribute money and property, shorten the work week, and so on and so on. The gist is that the way things are is wrong and so it must be changed, and violently if necessary.
But this “the world is unjust” viewpoint clashes with the perfection of God’s justice. Those who are unhappy with the way things are are looking for scapegoats (history, politicians, police officers, pancake syrup, etc.), insisting that if these scapegoats were removed, erased or canceled, justice would reign and peace would finally be established (“no justice, no peace”). (more…)
SSSHHHHHHH!!!…
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, August 24, 2020 – The Bible is full of secrets. Some of the secrets are meant to be told and some are meant to remain hidden until another time. Scripture tells us that Jesus often kept things to himself, knowing peoples’ hearts and so knowing that some of his followers weren’t ready to hear God’s secrets. In John’s gospel, Jesus states openly that he has much to tell his followers, but they aren’t ready to hear it yet. He promises them that when the time is right and they’re ready, God’s Holy Spirit will tell them. (more…)
IF YOU’RE GENUINELY FOLLOWING JESUS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, August 24, 2020 – If you’re genuinely following Jesus, very few people want to hear what you say.
The first thing that all of Jesus’ disciples did was leave their jobs, their wives, their children, their homes, and their stuff. None of Jesus’ followers had property or spouses or children. THERE WERE NO CHILDREN LIVING AMONG THE FOLLOWERS. There were children who came to listen to Jesus as he taught (and he welcomed them with open arms and blessed them), but there were no children living among the followers, just as there were no people living with spouses. Jesus’ followers lived childless, celibate and without stuff, as Jesus did.
If you’re genuinely following Jesus, very few people want to hear what you say. (more…)
MARK 11:12-26: THE ONE WHERE JESUS GETS HANGRY
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 16, 2020 – There’s a curious but pivotal scripture that “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” Christians tend to skip because it doesn’t fit their image of Jesus. You know the one I mean – where a hungry Jesus curses a fig tree to death and then goes on a hangry rampage in the temple, overturning tables and whipping the moneychangers for violating God’s law.
Ya gotta admit – when Jesus does hangry, he does it memorably. Most of us when we’re hangry just snap at people and then head to the corner store for a candy bar or a bag of Doritos, but Jesus let it all out. And when he did, he did it with such impact and such righteousness that we’re still talking about it today. (more…)
THE GREAT TYLENOL BOTTLE IN THE SKY
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 30, 2020 – In his letters, Paul was very clear about one thing: No earthly suffering is too much if it leads to Heaven as the reward.
Heaven is our reward if God judges that we’ve earned it. Most Christians have lost sight of that. Instead of longing for Heaven, they do everything in their power to postpone death. They run to the doctor, they demand a cure, they beg for prayers so they won’t die. Why is that? (more…)
SCRIPTURE AND GOD
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 30, 2020 – When Jesus was 12, he gave his parents the slip and snuck off to the temple in Jerusalem to talk scripture. The learned elders were amazed at his knowledge and perceived he was clearly a prodigy destined for great things. But his parents experienced this event somewhat differently. For three days and nights, they frantically searched for their son. When they eventually found him, instead of apologizing, Jesus simply stated that he needed to be about his Father’s business. His parents, however, discerned otherwise, and back under their wing Jesus went. We hear nothing further about him until his “coming out” miracle at the wedding at Cana 18 years later (prompted, tellingly, by his mother, who signaled to Jesus that yes, it is finally time to be about your Father’s business).
Like the precocious 12-year-old Jesus who reveled in his knowledge of scripture, fully-grown men and women today engage in the same type of display. But instead of using temples, they vie to one-up each other on blogs, online forums or YouTube videos. And in so doing, they completely miss the point of knowing scripture. (more…)
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 