Month: February 2010

Reflections 5: The Only True Choice Given by God

As I reflect upon my life as a parent, a believer, a teacher, and husband, now ex, I have come to understand one thing which I must admit brought tears to my face when it struck me. The realization that our God is so perfect, he hears us so clearly, that he affects every single person, on every continent, of every race on this planet. Most profoundly God has given all of us one true choice. Every choice we have ever made in our entire life boils down to this one truth, to this one choice. We as one people under the sovereignty God are commanded to make this one choice, to live our lives by this one choice. Our lives here on earth are not ones which we are to be filled up with things, possessions, and carnal desires. But rather a spiritual one, based on morality, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness, and love. We are to fill our lives full of the bounty which only comes from one source, we are made to accept it from that one source, that being God.  So in the light of these truths, our one simple choice becomes completely obvious, as plain as the nose on your face.

Each one of these strong statements will either make us ask more questions, to open doors we would have left closed, or we will ignore them out of ignorance and fear. Each of these statements is hard to completely understand, the simplicity of it, his eternal wisdom so absolute, so magnificent we shutter in his presence. The simple truth of God can be found within every word ever written that he has ever uttered in our entire history. Every story ever told shouts his one truth. His everlasting love is intertwined with in it.

The first two choices we are given, which if you are to live within God’s eternal joy and happiness, and see this as the only choice then your life will be blessed, filled with understanding and wisdom that only comes from a belief in God. This choice exemplifies Jesus who said, “Even if your faith is no bigger than a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘MOVE!’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Q78, Lost Gospel, p.113) This belief comes from the knowledge and understanding that there is nothing God cannot deliver. In simple English this is called absolute faith. When you demonstrate a heart filled with the fullness and trust in God, utilizing the most powerful ability he gave to us, that being absolute faith then your anxiety disappears, your worries dissipate as God works miracles within your life. This requires the ability to hear God, to listen faithfully, to accept what he says even when it seems humanly impossible, to simply envision his words spoken to you as his will, and absolute truth and to thank him for it when the glimpse of the future he has promised is revealed.

The second choice leads to a deeper darker path, one filled with sin, and the tolerance of sin within our own lives. We begin to teach that religion is not so important and we start to argue amongst ourselves, ignoring the bigger picture, ignoring the world filled with so much need which surrounds us. In a nut shell we become greedy, selfish, self serving, manipulative, and deceitful, willful, and practice the art of lying. This exemplifies a life unfulfilled, lonely, unhappy, and in pain. We create our own hell as we sink further and further within this quagmire of a life lead without faith, without purpose. This life ignores what Jesus said, “Don’t be blinded by the pursuit of food, clothing and possessions. Stop worrying about these things. Only those who lack spirit and soul pursue them. You have a Father who knows what you need. Set your heart on God and these other things will be given to you.” (Q53, Lost Gospel, p.87) Ironically somehow that message is lost on them. It falls off them as water from a ducks feathers. They quack about things in their life which have gone terribly wrong, ignoring the tug of God, who is like a good shepherd calling their name from within the darkness of the night.  They hear him, but fail to listen faithfully to him, showing their lack of faith that God can fix their problems because they are worthy of his love. The great lie of their life is that they feel that they are not worthy, they convince themselves they are beyond his forgiveness, mercy and love.

This line between these two existences is extremely thin, so much so it is impossible to walk its entire distance. For Jesus said, “Anyone who is not with me is against me. Whoever does not help me gather scatter.”(Q38, Lost Gospel, p.72)

The test or choice is ours to make because of free will. In truth there is only one choice, one path, one God. The line in the sand is absolute, Gods will is absolute. To choose faith is akin to choosing freedom, to pick faith in yourself absent of God is akin to choosing imprisonment.

“When Jesus was alone with his disciples, he turned to them and said, ‘Fortunate are the eyes that see what you are seeing. Many prophets and kings wished to see what you now see and never saw it, longed to hear what you now hear and never heard it.” (Q33, Lost Gospel, p.67)

Amen

If you have been moved by this blog, I humbly invite you to leave a comment, and may all your days be filled with peace, love, and God’s eternal joy.

Reflections 4: The True Requirement of Discipleship

Time combined with age is an extremely powerful combination that will bring life lessons so endearing they become permanent fixtures within our hearts and minds for as long as we live. For some of us these life lessons are marred with pain and anguish, of a life lead absent of God. Some of us were blessed beyond all belief and lead lives filled with wealth in every area; leaving the illusion that nothing is out of their reach, oddly the one thing they need they never receive. Some life lessons leave us filled with mixed emotions that push false impressions of what is real. These people find a fault in their heart so deep that they begin to believe in the dangerous lie that they can never be healed, that their fault can never be filled completely. Some of us for the same reasons conduct our lives as if we know everything all the time. The fear of the unknown drives an insatiable hunger which is fueled by the feelings that they are in some way en-antiquate, which builds up their insecurities preventing them from ever really knowing the one person they should have befriended, Our Lord and Savior. Some life lessons fill us with Gods Holy Wisdom, allowing them to overlook the sins of others and instead of retreating, reach out their hands in forgiveness again and again. The difference within these people from all those mentioned before is simple, they understood and was willing to comply with the true requirement of discipleship.

“If you love your father and mother, or your son and daughter, more than me, you cannot follow me. Unless you take up your cross and let go of all you possess, you cannot follow me.”(The Lost Gospel Q, Q69, p. 104).

Harsh words, radical words from a man who everyone flocked to for various reasons, most had no real clue why they followed him other than he would do miracles, pre-haps to quench their own desire to see before they could believing. Nevertheless, Jesus put forth a stern requirement that divided the people, shocked many, and made each and every one of them wonder to what he was saying. This requirement transcended all of his previous messages on love and forgiveness. It took the faithful to a whole new level of believing while at the same time drove out those who were not serious, and was along for the ride. Within his words he was reminding them that everything has a cost, and the cost for following him was extremely high. It was not a cost which would make him monetarily wealthy, but rather make that person wealthier than Kings, spiritually fulfilled.

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 26-27).

Jesus wanted his disciples to fear not for their own lives because in doing this would create a roadblock to accomplishing Gods mission. Do not love anyone more than your God, is completely in line with the teachings of Moses, and the commandment set forth by God:

1 “And God spoke all the words: 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:1-6).

Within the words of God the father, now repeated in Jesus the son, the true cost of discipleship was given so as to allow the people to choose for themselves. So that we can estimate the cost. “Jesus did not want a blind, naive commitment that expected only blessings. As a builder estimates costs or a king evaluates military strength, so people must consider what Jesus expects of his followers before they commit their lives to him” (Notes: 14-28). His requirement was one of total surrender, just as God had told the Jews fleeing Egypt.

Total surrender is the hardest part of this requirement. It initials that you give everything up, all your possessions, worries, doubts, heartaches, preconceived notions, family, friends, and even your own worth of your own life. Jesus was telling us all these things belong to God anyway; we cannot take any of this to heaven when we die. The only thing which really matters is God. Living a life filled with God, a life which exemplifies God. A life where God comes first is a life which is filled with Gods divine love, and mercy. It is a life which is set upon a trek that is not defined by material wealth or possessions. It is a life built upon morality, wisdom, compassion, and love. Jesus was handing to the people, and still offers this to us today, the strength to do anything, work miracles in other people’s lives, to build up those in need, and to utilizes the most powerful tool ever created, that of faith.

A blind man cannot see, but walks across the street based upon faith he will make it to the other side. A child loves her parents, but must have faith all her needs will be met. Birds in the air forage each day, and it is on faith they find what they need. God takes care of the wild animals, so how much more will he love and take care of each one of us if he looks at us as the salt of the earth?

34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out” (Luke, 14:34-35).

For the twelve disciples Jesus warned them that each one would suffer greatly in his name, Jesus forewarned that the true requirement is found within the belief that all things are possible even when they seem to be hopeless, even until death. We live our lives with God, then our lives have meaning, purpose, and our mission then lives far beyond our mortal existence. We follow Jesus faithfully, who leads us to God, we serve as disciples so that our impact is far more powerful and outreaching than what we can contemplate, affecting thousands of generations after we are gone. Within this single requirement, our singular purpose is ex-hauled before our Lord our God. We fulfill the very words of God that which was spoken centuries ago in the deserts of Mt. Sinai. Our God is a gracious God; our savior is a loving shepherd tenderly watching his flock. In reality Jesus was not asking of us or those people who heard him that day, to do anything which he first was not willing to do himself. His requirement is obedient sacrifice which is rewarded with loving grace.

Amen

If you have been moved by this blog, I humbly invite you to leave a comment, and may all your days be filled with peace, love, and God’s eternal joy.

Reflections 3: The True Motivation of Jesus

The driving force of the majority of the world today in many ways is rooted in a deep since of selfishness, greed, and  intolerance, which tends to shape our motives to a singular word, “I”. Hence, when we see something happing that we know is wrong, which has a hint of danger to it, we stop and then ask, “What do I get out of this?” or “What if I get pulled into this conflict?” We tend to think it’s for our own protection that we do nothing when we see homeless people, the mentally ill, and the hungry, when they hold out their hands asking for help. In some instances they don’t ask, oddly leaving us with an empty, hollow whole within us which is quickly dismissed as we go about our busy day.  I have even heard housewives talk about their feelings of disgust when, “that beggar held out his hand.” Or claim how scared they were, “I didn’t know if he was going to hurt me…he looked crazy.”  Then in the same breath confess their allegiance to the church. I have seen men at work crack jokes about a dirty man on the street corner panhandling and how those people need to be put away or just get a job, discounting them as lazy or worthless.  Then in the next breath thank God for a short day on Friday or that they got paid. How many times have we looked the other way?  How many times have we made jokes about another man’s lack of good fortune?

Our own insecurities built up by many years of traditions and oral teaching which builds upon centuries of distrust, which in the end has severally tarnished the moral fibers of our society from within to the point we don’t help even if it is the right thing to do, even if it is a commandment from God the most powerful being in the universe. We don’t help our neighbors, friends, family, without first examining what is in it for me. I call this the self- first mentality, or sinister “I” generation, which is in every generation since before Jesus, infecting the human genome like a cancer.  We are all guilty; we all face these overpowering emotions, teachings, and ideologies which help to drive our own needs to survive through greed and selfishness every single day. We pass it off with such callus comments as, “Someone else will do it.” If this false statement is true and someone else will do it, why haven’t the homeless be given a home, the sick made better, the hungry be feed? Yes, there are non-profit humane and religious organizations which do what they can, but they are few. If everyone follows the examples of Jesus Christ our lord and savior then there would be no hungry child, sick mother, or homeless family.  So I humbly ask, “Who today will stand up and say I will help based upon faith alone?”

I humbly offer this example of Jesus’s character:

“24 Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. 25 Soon a women whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoencian by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her,27 ‘Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.’ 28 She replied and said to him, ‘Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.’ 29 Then he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.’ 30 When the women went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone”(Mark, Chapter 7:24-30).

This condition of faith is exactly what Jesus was addressing with this woman. In this scripture Jesus is faced with a request for help from a non-Jew, who has shown incredible faith to come to him, a Jewish man. In examining this we also find that she as a woman was not allowed to confront a stranger, particularly a male, but did so anyway. She broke with tradition, centuries of teaching and did so based on her belief, which translates into faith that Jesus could do something for her child. Another prospective found in the bible on this topic of this woman, is found in Matthew, it reads as follows:

“21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.’ 23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.’24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ 25The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. 26He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.’ 27 ’Yes, Lord,’ she said, ‘but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ 28Then Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour”(Matthew, Chapter 15:21-28).

In this portrayal of these events the disciples would have not helped her. Like any of us today, they did not want to get involved. Furthermore they asked for Jesus to send her away, citing that she was pestering them. I want to bring a light to this fact because it is very indicative to human behavior, and how Jesus dealt with it as a human being. In both stories Jesus is confronted with a request. This request comes from a woman, who is for all intense and purposes a non- Jew, or pagan. I also want to point out that this is not the first time a non-Jew, or a woman had asked Jesus for help; in fact he never turned them away when they came to him in this manner, faith first. Those who came to Jesus did so out of faith that he could do something for them. Thus,  out of this [faith-driven-perceptive] was Jesus motivated to grant them mercy.

The other important aspect to this character trait of Jesus is his ability to ignore requests from his disciples. He did not have to help this woman, he owed her nothing, but he helped her anyway. He was not afraid to break rules and challenge beliefs of his generation. He respected this woman for doing the same for the right reasons. Again she came to him out of faith. She came to him out of compassion for her daughter.

So Faith is the first example Jesus set in stone that day. The second was compassion. Jesus was moved by her answer to his responses which was a test. Jesus tested her, as he tests each and every one of us today, not unlike we test our own children. In both stories he seems reluctant to get involve to the point his disciples urges him to not get involved. Her answer proved to him that she was coming from the right place, from faith first, then from compassion. This motivated Jesus to feel compassion for her. It is from this combination does Jesus work his miracles. Remember always when looking at Jesus as a human being he chose to come and save us, then he was born into the world. He accomplished his mission from a place of absolute faith in God. It was from this place God poured out his companion onto his son.

To exhibit these two qualities each and every person alive must first ask the question, “Do I have faith?” We need to ask ourselves “Why we should have faith?” When we say, ‘Yes’,  that we do have faith, then we are really saying yes to God. Because whether we like it or not having faith is a pre-requisite to believing in God. The very existence of Jesus is our proof that God does exist, does care, does hear us, and is filled with compassion for us.

With compassion second Jesus poured out upon the women and her daughter his divine love.  It is at this point I would like to highlight for the record that Jesus did not need to go to the child, lay hands on her, or perform any special ceremony and by doing this he set his last example of the power of faith. He healed the girl from long distance, based upon the faith of her mother. He did this as a direct response of the illustration of faith, which filled his heart with compassion, and the outcome was a miracle preformed out of love. As I have stated in past blogs love does not originate within our imperfect bodies, but rather is a gift from God. The chain of responses from God, unbroken, is the most powerful thing in creation. Faith + Compassion = LOVE. I illustrate it in a formula because trillions of people just don’t get it. They need to see before they believe. Having blind faith is out of the question.

“Even if your faith is no bigger than a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Lost Gospel Q, Q78, P113).

So perhaps if we first exhibit faith that all things are possible in the name of the Lord, and step in to help those who need it most, without question, then perhaps our hearts will become less callus and be filled with compassion, and then God would respond by filling us with  his gift of  love. We see within Jesus’  words and actions his true motivation to work his miracles, and to sacrifices so much for us, before he gave his own life on the cross. Through our faith, is God motivated by compassion, in return releasing his love.

Amen

If you have been moved by this blog, I humbly invite you to leave a comment, and may all your days be filled with peace, love, and God’s eternal joy.