Through the eye of a needle

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 19:24

Centuries ago in the Middle and Far East, it was common for a city to build a wall around the outer perimeter for the safety of the people.  During the day, multiple gates would be opened so that the people could come and go, and visitors and merchants could travel and bring their wares from city to city.  As soon as it was dusk, or at the first sign of a foreign army, these gates would all be closed, and anyone left outside was left to their own defenses.  The gates were huge, large enough for the bustle of everyday to come and go. 

Legend has it that set inside one of these gates was a smaller gate.  This gate was the only way in after dark.  If a merchant happened to arrive at the city after the gates were closed, but didn’t want to stay outside and risk being robbed, he would appeal to the keeper of this gate.  Once the gate keeper determined he wasn’t a threat to the city, he would open this small gate.  The merchant would then completely unload his camel.  He would then force the camel down on its knees.  It would have to bow its head and crawl through the small door in the gate.  This gate was referred to as the eye of the needle. There is no archeological evidence of this, but it is one explanation of what Jesus might have been saying in this verse. It’s an amazing word picture. 

Jesus has nothing against wealth.  Money is earthly, temporal, and Jesus seems much more concerned about the eternal.  He has every resource of heaven and earth at his disposal.  Money is an earthly tool that we use to help accomplish the work of heaven on earth.  But Jesus knows the kind of people we are, and He knows the hold wealth can have on us.  He knows how consumed we become with the manufacture and maintenance of wealth. 

If we focus on this picture, we miss the important part of this verse:

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible!” Matthew 19:26

It is not easy for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not easy for any man, or woman, to enter the Kingdom. In fact, in our own strength, it is impossible for any of us to enter the Kingdom of God. Only Jesus can secure our salvation.  Any of us who desire to be saved must shed all of the trappings of wealth, and all of the attitudes and desires that accompany the pursuit of wealth. We must rebuke the attitude that anything we possess can get us into heaven. Instead, we must then humble ourselves, get down on our knees and bow our head before God. We must remember to live in submission and gratitude to the only one who can save us.

By the standards of most of the rest of the world, most of us living in the United States are wealthy.  Are we willing to give up the pursuit of wealth to pursue instead the things of God? Are we willing to quit living in dependence on our bank accounts and credit cards and instead focus on loving God? The best we have is worthless until it turned over to God’s use. For all of us, our very best is paltry and insufficient in the sight of God, our self-made righteousness is as filthy rags.

Dear Jesus, You have blessed us beyond measure.  We give You our wealth, our attitudes, our selfishness, and ask You to bring us into Your kingdom.  Give us desires that are in line with Yours. Remind us to live in gratitude.  

Are you hungry?

As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2

A deer has been out in the desert, searching for food. He is thirsty, so thirsty he is panting. His every thought is focused on getting what he needs, life sustaining water. He searches for it, knowing his survival depends on it. This same deer, eating of the green grass by streams of clean and clear water, is content, filled and nourished.

The Psalmist says that he is like this deer. He is dry, parched, and his thirsts for God to his very core. He knows that he needs God. His soul is thirsty, and his focus is expressed in the question, “When can I go and meet with God?”

Earlier the Psalmist had said,

Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing. Psalm 34:7-9

God is food for his soul. He knows that just as we need to eat on a regular basis, so we need to take in God, to learn about him, to meditate on him, to commune with him. We need to talk to him, to take him in so that he becomes a part of who we are and how we grow and mature. We need to know him so well that we understand his nature, how he works and who he is. That is the only way to hear his voice, and to understand what he wants from a relationship with us.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

Eating and drinking are fundamental to being human. We cannot live without taking in nourishment. We also take in food for pleasure, delighting in what God created for our nurture, and in our ability to be creative with how we partake of nourishment. The same can be said about spiritual food. Our spirit will be malnourished without our partaking in God and his nature, in his Word, and in becoming more like him. We can be creative in how we do that, finding ways to drink deeply of him that fit our personalities, our learning styles, and that give us pleasure.

Are you starving your spiritual body? When was the last time you tasted of the Lord? Are you feeling weak and parched? God is here, desiring to feed you. Partake! Taste and see…

The Story Continues...

The excitement is all over. The ears have been eaten off the bunny. The jellybeans are all gone. Dinner has been cooked, the dishes are done, the eggs hidden and found (at least most of them!), and now its back to the reality of the workweek.

Did you stop for a minute? Did you think about the joy that is yours because of Easter?

A professor of mine asked the question, “What would be different if Jesus had not risen from the dead?” The answer is that nothing would be different. We would still be lost in sin. We would still be trying to work our way into God’s favor. We would still be trying to figure out what exactly God wants from us, and how on earth we could ever do what he wants. We would still be striving vainly. And we would still be condemned.

The real question is, “What is different because Jesus rose from the dead?” And the answer there is, “EVERYTHING!” Because Jesus rose from the dead, I am not a slave to sin. Because Jesus rose from the dead, I have hope, and the assurance that he has secured my salvation. I have a relationship with a real, living person. I can know God, and know exactly what he wants from me. He wants everything, and through his power I can give it to him.

Praise be to the God and

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In his great mercy he has given us new birth

into a living hope

through the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead. I Peter 1:3

Because Jesus rose from the dead, we have a living hope, not a dead dread of what’s to come. Because Jesus rose from the dead, I am saved. I am.

But what does my life reflect? Do I live like the tomb is empty, or do I live as if its still Saturday, and Jesus and all my dreams are dead?

After the resurrection, there is a new excitement among the disciples. Jesus appears to them, eats with them, lets them stick their fingers into his hands and side, walks with them, cooks them breakfast. There is a new intimacy as a result of the resurrection that lasts even after he is gone from their sight. The Holy Spirit comes, and they are FILLED with him. Peter can’t keep it in; he goes out into the middle of the 5,000 plus people and proclaims Jesus risen from the dead.

My life doesn’t always reflect this excitement. Sometimes I am grumpy. Sometimes I seem to dread the day ahead. Instead of seeing my life filled with possibility, instead of living in expectation of what God can do next, I keep my head down and just sludge through the day.

How different would my life be if I lived into the reality of the resurrection? How attractive to others would it be if I lived the joy that only comes from my risen Savior? Peter couldn’t not share. I am so content to live as if my faith were a private thing. While Jesus would have died just for me, he died for everyone. Why aren’t I sharing that more freely?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:16-17

Go! Live in joy and hope! Always be prepared to share the hope that lives in you, because of the certainty of the resurrection. Let the way you live reflect your newness of life!

A Very Good Friday

            It had been a strange and solemn evening.  Jesus and His disciples had gathered in an upstairs room to celebrate Passover, a feast filled with symbolism and meaning.  Jesus knows that His time left with these twelve men is short, and He focuses His teaching on them alone.  After supper, Jesus plays the part of a servant, washing each of their feet.  He returns to the table and reveals that one of them will betray Him, and then sends Judas away to do what he will.  He teaches them about the Holy Spirit, and about abiding.  He reminds them that the greatest gift and act of obedience they can share in is to love each other.  He tells them He is going away and that they will mourn.  He prays for them, and for us (John 17:20).  In the midst of this, His farewell teaching, He tells them to take courage, because He has overcome the world.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

            Strange words, these, coming from a man who has just sent Judas away to betray Him.  Strange words from a man who is about to die. 

            When we think of overcoming, we think of strength, of commanding power.  We think of might.  We don’t think of blood.  We don’t think of dying.  We don’t think like God does.

            In God’s definition of overcoming, the distinction between overcoming and being overcome seems to blur.  Power is displayed in suffering.  Death is conquered by the One who embraced it, absorbed it, yielded to it, and then rose beyond it.  In Revelation the only one found worthy to open the Book was the Lamb, humblest of animals, looking as if it had been slain (Rev. 5:6).

            Jesus overcame the world.  He took on the form of man, setting aside His power and majesty.  He lived as one of us, was tempted as one of us, and became sin for us.  He rose and conquered death, so that we too could overcome.

            Too often we choose the wrong weapons with which to overcome our world.  We fight with willpower, with words or anger, or strength of sheer determination.  God says not my might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.  He tells us to overcome with love and by the life we live.  To be overcomers, we must do things His way, with His weapons, even when it seems foolish and weak to us and to those around us.  To be overcomers we must learn to value the things He values, and to think in a way that is contrary to our nature.

To be overcomers, we must take on the mind of Christ.

“To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”  Rev. 2:7b

Our Passover

Today is the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Millions of Jews and Messianic Christians worldwide will prepare their homes and will gather for this eight-day celebration. The Passover is a celebration of remembrance for the events of the first chapters of Exodus.

The people of Israel, the sons of Jacob and their families, had settled in Egypt to escape the famine that had nearly killed them. Joseph had ensured that they had land to graze their sheep on, and that they were cared for and largely left alone. Years had passed. Joseph had died, and a new Pharaoh had come to power, a Pharaoh who didn’t know anything about Joseph. He looked at his people and he looked at the Israelites, and he became afraid. God had blessed the Israelites, and they were now a great nation in and of themselves, to some estimates of over two million people. Pharaoh began a governmental program to ensure his power over Israel. He made them slaves. The oppression of Israel was so intense that she began to call out to God.

God raised up Moses as their reluctant deliverer. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh himself but also probably knew his heritage, as his nurse was his own Israeli mother. He had the best of everything, including education and healthcare, and then spent forty years in the desert learning humility and hard work. God gave him a clear calling through the burning bush, and empowered him for the work he called him to. Moses went before Pharaoh and demanded that Pharaoh let God’s people go.

Pharaoh was not so inclined. His “NO!” was firm. Moses and Pharaoh engage in a tug-of-war that left the Egyptians smarting. God sent a series of plagues that assaulted and defeated a number of the Egyptian gods. Flies covered the land. All the water turned to blood. Frogs filled their kitchens and beds. They were covered with boils. The land was covered with a darkness that could be felt. Some of the plagues affected both the Israelites and Egyptians alike, but the most oppressive were for Egypt alone. The last of the plagues was the death of every first born, both animal and human. It would be a clear sign to Pharaoh that God was sovereign. It spoke a few things to the Israelites as well.

God told his people to take a perfect, defect-free lamb, one per household. They were to slaughter the lambs together at twilight and take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses. They were then to roast the lamb and eat it, along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They were to eat the whole thing, and any that was left was to be burned in the fire. They were to eat it in their traveling clothes, sandals on and staff in hand, ready to depart. On that night God would pass through Egypt and strike down every first born as an act of judgment. The blood would be a sign, and where the blood was, God would pass over that house. No harm would touch them.

And that’s exactly what happened. The people ate in obedience, with the blood on their door. God traveled through the land of Egypt, taking every first born as his own. There was loud wailing in Egypt, and Pharaoh let the people of God go.

The feast of Passover has been celebrated ever since as a remembrance of God’s deliverance of his people from slavery and oppression.

Passover has great symbolic significance for the Christian. We were in slavery to sin. We were oppressed and unable to free ourselves. The Lamb was slain, the blood shed to cover us, the wrath of God now passes over us, and we are free, delivered!

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. I Cor. 5:7-8

Just as the Israelites were to eat the lamb in their traveling clothes, so we are to be prepared to leave. Jesus will return and take us home. Just as the Israelites ate the unleavened bread, so we are to be rid our lives of the leaven of sin. Just as only God could deliver the Israelites, so only God can deliver us. We must place our faith in him and live for him.

This is the beginning of Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. My prayer is that I will remember this week, and always, of the sacrifice of our Lamb.

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth ad wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever! Revelation 5:12-13

Palm Sunday

The electricity in the air was palpable. Jesus had sent his disciples to a farmer to borrow a donkey and her foal. He then climbed up on the donkey and rode it into the city of Jerusalem. The people reacted with excitement! This was a clear political statement, as the King was the one who would ride a donkey, coming in as a conqueror in peace. The people cut palm branches, another symbol of the zealot party, signifying their choice of him to be their king.

“Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest!”

Luke 19:39

The emotionally charged scene made the Pharisees nervous. Rome wouldn’t like this at all.

“Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!” Luke 19:39-40

This was a small preview of what will happen when Jesus returns to claim the throne. For now, it was a strange precursor to the events that would happen in over the next week. At this point, the people were excited to be a follower of Jesus. They thought that he would be an earthly ruler, taking the throne as their king and throwing out their Roman oppressors. He would bring peace and prosperity, returning Israel to her former glory.

They were wrong.

As they read their scriptures, they focused on the view of the Messiah that prophesied strength and an earthly, physical success. They overlooked the prophets who told of the suffering servant, who talked about weakness and pain.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3

We are not so different from those people who only wanted a strong and triumphant Messiah. We read our Bibles, and we like the parts that talk about God’s love for us, that promise us peace and strength. We are not as fond of the parts that require obedience, that tell us to take up our crosses and follow Jesus. We’re okay with following him, until we remember that following him leads us to sacrifice ourselves.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

There is a cost to following Jesus. There is also great reward. Most of those who followed Jesus on the donkey into Jerusalem, waving their palm branches and declaring him king, had no idea that in just a few days they would call out for his death. As we proclaim him our King, we need to be aware of what that means. We need to remember that the cross is just ahead.

But so is the empty tomb.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39

There is a cost to following Jesus. But the payoff is worth it. We are secure in his love. He is a King worthy of our praise.

The toothpaste sneeze

Have you ever sneezed while brushing your teeth?

Stop for a minute. Close your eyes. Let this picture play across your mind.

It’s like snow globe exploded.

Go ahead and laugh. It’s OK. I have allergies, and mornings are a virtual snot-fest. It’s gross, but it’s my reality. Until the allergy medicine kicks in, there is no telling when I am going to sneeze. This morning, it was while I was brushing my teeth. At least now the bathroom is clean.

Living with a sin nature feels a lot like living with allergies. I would never choose to sneeze while brushing my teeth, and yet there was the toothpaste sprayed all over the mirror. When I am thinking rationally, I don’t choose to sin. And yet, all too often the results of sin are sprayed across my life.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Romans 7:15

Like Paul, sometimes I just don’t understand what I do, or what I think, or what comes out of my mouth. Like Paul, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Fortunately, Paul doesn’t leave us scratching our heads, without any help in sight. He reminds us whose we are.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

He also gives us the key to living a life that is free from slavery to sin and instead lives in love with our Abba, Father, our loving and perfect Daddy.

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Romans 8:14-16

God does not abandon us to our sinfulness. He gives us his Holy Spirit to guide us, to help us make choices that align us with him, and to whisper in our ear the reminder of how precious we are to him. We are not left adrift, helpless to spew sin and its effects all over our lives like so much toothpaste propelled by a sneeze.

Go ahead and laugh at the image of my bathroom mirror. I did. God loves us and calls us his children. He loves us even when we sin. He helps us not to. Lean deep into his love, remember his delight in you, and go forward in freedom!

What are you teaching?

            Our society values a good education.  We send our children to school when they are little more than babies and expect them to stay there well past adolescence.  We know the importance of math and science for technology, and how important it is that they read well.  Somehow, however, teaching God’s word and the things of God has been relegated to one hour on Sunday morning and perhaps an hour on Wednesday evening. 

            This is not enough.  A new study reported that most (over 80%!) people who accept Christ as Savior do so before the age of twelve.  We know that most of our attitudes and values are in place before we start school.  Yet for many children, two hours (or less) a week is all the spiritual training they get.  Un-churched children get none.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  Deuteronomy 6:5-7

            We are told to teach the children diligently.  We are told to talk of God when we sit in our house.  Time to turn off the T.V.  We are to teach of God when we walk by the way.  Hang up the cell phone.  We are to talk about God and our love for Him when we lay down and when we get up.  Sounds like more than two hours a week to me.  The command was given to the whole nation of Israel, not just parents (vs. 4).  Everyone was to be involved in teaching the children, whether they had children of their own or not. 

If you are a parent, a grandparent, if you have nieces and nephews or if there are children in any aspect of your life, get involved.  Volunteer for Kid’s Creek, teach Sunday School, help at your midweek youth program, mentor a young person, or invite a backyard Bible school to be taught in your home. Invite Child Evangelism Fellowship to conduct a five-day club for the kids in your neighborhood this summer (http://www.cefonline.com/index.php?Itemid=100050&id=14&option=com_content&view=category). Start a Bible study. Volunteer at the local coffee house.  Get involved.

My children often remind me that I should be nice to them because they will be the ones choosing my nursing home.  Good training is important!  Our children are our future.  Our involvement can have eternal significance.

Dear Jesus, help me to remember the importance of the children in my life.  Regardless of how tired I am, or how many hours I’ve worked, regardless of how important the project I’m working on is, help me to be available.  Help me to invest in things of eternal significance.