We've recently been studying the passage from the Bible out of Matthew Chapter 8:1-4where the leper approaches Jesus in the midst of crowd, falls down to his knees and says, "Lord if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean."
Now, the similarities between this leper and us today are striking and numerous, but the one that jumped out to me the most, the one that I've seen countless times in the last 14 or so years of pastoring is how the leper experienced banishment from the community. Having leprosy in Biblical times was more than a physical punishment, it also came with a tremendous amount of social punishment. You were literally kicked out of town. You were sent packing to anywhere but around people. You see, leprosy was contagious and the last thing anyone wanted was to be around a leper. Eventually, entire communities of lepers were formed on the outskirts of the community. It's this fact that made the leper of Matthew chapter 8 so bold, not only in his request, but also the manner in which he did it. Of course there are still communities of well meaning believers that banish good people at the first sign of sin in their lives, but the vast majority of churches have learned to embrace people and meet them where they are at in their spiritual journey. After all, none of us have arrived, none of us have achieved the perfection that we project when we walk through the doors of the church. We're all messy people. Why is it then that so many feel banished from the local community of believers? Why are so many people fearful of walking through the doors of the church? As stated above, there are unfortunately many communities of believers who still treat the struggling Christian as they would one with leprosy. They're fearful that their sin will become, "contagious". They're fearful that the one who struggles will somehow "taint" their holy sanctum. While this does exist, I wonder how many struggling Christians banish themselves from the community of believers? I mean, isn't it easier to not subject yourself to conviction? Isn't it easier to not sit in a sanctuary or auditorium week after week and feel uncomfortable because what's being talked about isn't how you're living your life? What's happening with struggling Christians and churches across the community is no different than what's happening in our country and world at large: a lack of personal responsibility. No one wants to take responsibility for their own actions and choices and so it becomes easier to just blame other people. We say things like: -Everyone looks at me when I walk through the doors. -I feel uncomfortable when I am at church. -I feel like I'm being attacked. -I feel like everyone is judging me. I am certainly not naive enough to think that this type of poor behavior doesn't exist in many churches, but can it really exist in every church, in every case, with all people. We've become good at hearing about a few actual cases and projecting them on to our situations. Now before you get really upset and fire off a comment to this post with your "actual real-life" example, remember, this may not be for you. But it is for someone. Today, as I was driving to an early morning meeting, I made the unfortunate mistake of pulling in behind a bus on a residential street. Now if you've ever made this mistake you know my pain. You can't pass it. You can't cut across a side street to get ahead of it, you'll never make it. You're just stuck. As that bus plods along stopping at every corner to retrieve its precious cargo, you are held captive.
Since I was afforded a lengthy opportunity to mindlessly drive down this ever lengthening street, I began to think about that bus. As frustrating as it was for me to plod along, the bus driver likely had a completely different perspective. The bus and more specifically the bus driver was perfectly accomplishing his mission. That bus driver had been tasked with retrieving every middle school student on each of those corners and safely delivering them to the local school. He was accomplishing his mission, albeit slowly, with perfect excellence. In that moment I was reminded that at those time in my life when I become frustrated with my progress, it's not about the speed. It's about the quality of my work. As slowly as the bus was moving, he was doing exactly what he should have been doing. Sometimes we become too consumed with progress and forget about the quality of our testimony. It's not about quantity, it's about quality. It's about a life welled lived. It's not about our speed or our flashiness. No one cares about how many babies a hospital delivers, they only care about how many of those babies come out of the hospital and head home with mom and dad. How's your speed? How's your progress? How's your quality? March Madness is here in full force. If you're a bracket junkie or know a bracket junkie then you know that today has wrecked just about everyone's ideas of how they thought things were going to go. Dayton over Ohio State? Harvard over Cincinnati? Thousands of people all across the nation are in disbelief and scrambling to figure out how to make something out of a broken bracket.
Busted brackets remind me of our broken plans for life. How many times have you and I mapped out every step of our lives in an effort accurately forecast our own futures?
Suddenly we find ourselves scrambling around trying to make sense out of a busted bracket. What would happen if we allowed God in at the beginning of the bracket process? Proverbs 3:5-6 says.."Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." What if we let God fill out our brackets? "Take off the bib." I ran across this quote while reading the book entitled, "Move" by Hawkins and Parkinson. The premise of the book centers around the lack of spiritual growth that occurs within the church. What's interesting is that this lack of spiritual growth doesn't find its' epicenter in the new believer or even those who attend and are just exploring Christ. The crux of the stagnated and stalled spiritual growth is provided by those tenured saints who populate the pews faithfully and make up the core of the church committees. That's right, a tremendous lack of spiritual growth is occurring in those that attend church regularly and have even made church a priority in their lives.
What we've known all along but are perhaps are just now re-discovering, is that just because someone attends church and even serves in the church doesn't mean they are growing spiritually. You see too often we associate the wrong things with spiritual growth.
Jesus makes clear that growing up in Him is more than a weekly commitment. In Luke 9:23 He says that it requires a daily sacrifice. Why are we still wearing a bib? I admit it: I'm a people watcher. I love just watching people travel to and fro from stores, walking at the malls, or just walking down the street. Today, during my lunch hour, I dropped through the drive thru and parked in the parking lot of the local grocery store to enjoy my lunch and participate in a little people watching.
While wrapping up my chicken sandwich and preparing to tackle my chili with hot sauce, I noticed these huge piles of snow that were deposited all across the parking lot. With all of the snow that we've had in the area, snow plows have no where to go with the snow other than to mound it up in huge piles all across the parking lots. It's like someone deposited little white mountains all over the city. What's interesting to me about these piles of snow is that they seem to last forever. Even with the slow onset of warmer weather, these piles of snow seem to be unaffected. They take absolutely forever to melt largely because they keep themselves cold. There is so much snow piled on top of other snow that the inner core of that pile remains below freezing long after the surrounding temperature has risen. Those piles of snow reminded me of the risk that you and I run. We have a way of surrounding ourselves with people that keep us "below freezing" for as long as possible. If we tend to be pessimistic, we surround ourselves with others who are also pessimistic. If we tend to be a gossip, we surround ourselves with other gossips. If we are negative and whiny people, then that's who we gravitate towards. The Bible gives us some pretty clear instruction on this idea in Proverbs 13:20 and 1 Corinthians 15:33. What if, in an effort to really honor God with our lives we "unpiled" ourselves from those that were keeping us wrapped up in sin. If we find ourselves in a pile of negativity, gossip or whatever, let's choose to spread ourselves out and let the Son melt us down. With the recent debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye many have been giving more thought to all things "Creation" oriented. Questions such as, "How do science and the Bible mesh?", "Shouldn't we be thankful to God for science?" and my personal favorite, "Can't we love and appreciate both God and science?"
Social media has been littered with comments, personal analysis and private theologies now made public for the world to see. Allow me to couch this entire concept and each of the above questions in a phrase that all Christ followers would do well to remember: God Created Everything! Check out what Colossians 1:16 says. That's all things. Everything. All of it. You, me, them, us, that, this, things above, things below, things seen, things unseen, everything that is and ever will be or ever has been was and is and will be created by God. Period! And that includes science. Yes, God made science. If you look up the definition of the word science you get this. 1. a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws. 2. systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. 3. any of the branches of natural or physical science. 4. systematized knowledge in general. 5. knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study. According to this definition "Science" is just our human interpretation of what God created. Science isn't adding to God's creation. You see we've confused "science" for something that it isn't. Cancer research & treatment Heart valve replacement Men on the moon Cell phone technology Brain surgery The research of those human genomes to help isolate cancer cells are genomes that God created. The replacement of a heart valve is done by the hands of a doctor that God knit together in the womb. The understanding of how to allow a cell phone signal to communicate with a satellite in space and then transfer halfway around the world in a split second while making a phone call is done with the brain power that God gave us as humans. These are all things that we say, "Science" is responsible for. Friends, science is nothing more than our human attempt to fully understand the complex world and bodies that God gave us at Creation. As a result of our misconceptions about what science really is, we say things like, "Can't science and God both exist" or "I am thankful for science because without it...". When we say these types of things, what we're really saying is that somehow, science is outside of God. Are we really suggesting that we as the created have outsmarted the Creator? So here's the good news about this whole idea of slow leaks: Jesus has more than just a little experience in dealing with slow leaks in the lives of His followers. In fact it was one of Jesus’ closest followers that became the epitome of what a slow leak looked like in the life a follower of Jesus Christ. Check out this passage...
Luke 22:31-32 says... So here’s Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers. Even from the twelve that Jesus did life with, Jesus seemed to have three, Peter, James and John that He interacted with at a different level. Now to be fair, I don’t think you could have been a disciple and not had an amazing connection with Jesus but Peter’s connection must have been so much more amazing. But in these verses above, it sounds like Jesus is alluding to some sort of defect with Peter, it’s as if Jesus was already aware of a leak in Peter’s life. This must have made zero sense to Peter. I mean after all, Peter absolutely loved Jesus. Think for a minute about Peter’s calling as a follower of Jesus. He’s been fishing all night long, they’re wrapping up for the day, they’re washing the nets out, they’re exhausted and all they’re thinking about is going home. And here comes this stranger who gets into his boat and says, “Why don’t you drop those nets one more time?” Are you kidding me? Who is this guy? But for whatever reason, Peter obliges Jesus.
For whatever reason, Peter agrees and drops the nets one more time and hauls up a net busting catch of fish. So many in fact that the other boats have to come over and help haul in the load. Can you imagine leaving everything you know, everything you’ve come to depend on for your livelihood, can you imagine walking away from all of that to follow a guy that seemed, at least at this point to deliver on what He promised but in fairness, made some pretty outrageous claims? It’s important as we think about these slow leaks in our lives to understand just how radical Peter’s decision to follow Jesus really was. He wasn’t a casual on-looker to the ministry of Jesus.
But for some reason, all of that passion and commitment and excitement slowly leaked from Peter's life and ended with Jesus saying, “Peter, before the rooster crows you will have denied three times that you even know me.” Can you imagine Peter’s shock at Jesus’ statement? I wonder if there wasn’t a little indignation or resentment or frustration on Peter’s part after Jesus makes this comment. I mean, Peter might have been thinking, “I left everything for you”, “I walked away from my own business to follow you around the countryside and do anything and everything you’ve asked me to do”. And now you’re telling me that I’m going to deny that I even know you.” Peter was convinced that he could hang in there no matter what happened. Peter was confident...in himself. God maps out pretty clearly that we have absolutely nothing to boast about except for the fact that we know Him. Peter boasted that he would stay true to Jesus and even die for Him. But his boast came from personal pride and confidence, not spiritual power and boldness. Listen to the words from Jeremiah 9:24... I wonder how often we live in the confidence of our ability to stay true to the things of God? We see stories of people falling into moral failure or people who experience major spiritual blow outs in their lives and we think:
In our effort to stay true to the calling that God has placed on our lives we place the weight of our relationship with God on our shoulders alone. Hear this and believe it: “Our shoulders simply aren’t strong enough.” Peter has this idea that he was somehow above the possibility of spiritual blowout in his life, and by focusing all of his energy on avoiding the blowout, he missed the leak. God calls us to stay humble. He calls us to put all of our trust in Him and realize that without Him, we’re leaky people. Several years ago my entire family took a weekend to visit to Michigan to visit family. Picture a caravan of vehicles each representing different families, my parents and each of my two brother's families, four cars in all. We had a great weekend of seeing family and sight-seeing but on the way home, a mini disaster struck. Just as we were merging onto I-75 for the straight shot back home, the front driver’s side tire of the van we were driving blew.
If you've ever had this type of experience, you know that moment of terror that strikes you. I didn’t know if a bomb had gone off or if my engine had just blown up, I didn’t know what happened. Almost immediately the car lunges to the side, and I realize, we blew a tire. A blown tire at 60 or 65 mph has the potential to turn bad in a quick way. Blown tires can quickly lead to some serious situations. But I got to thinking, even in the midst of the bad, there's a glaring positive with a blown tire and that is, you always know when a tire’s blown. There’s never any question. You’re never driving down the road, hear an explosion, as the car lunges off to one side, followed by the unmistakeable, "thump, thump, thump, thump" and wonder, "I wonder what that was?" You never mistake a blown tire for being out of windshield wiper fluid. You never mistake a blown tire for a busted tail light. You always know when you’ve blown a tire. I mean think about a blown tire as compared to a slow leaky tire. Just recently Sarah and I had a slow leak in one of our car tires. This thing absolutely sucked the life right out of me. There would be days, even weeks where this thing would be totally fine. I’d pump it up and nothing, no problems at all. It would only leak, and this is not an exageration, on the days that I was in a hurry or it was super cold out. That’s it, it would be totally fine otherwise. If you think about it, slow leaks are always harder to catch. They're harder to catch, they're more difficult to perceive because they happen so slowly. As I think about the ups and downs of my spiritual life, I realize it’s a lot like my driving record. I kind of feel like I’ve never totaled my life. I’m certainly not perfect but just like I’ve been a pretty good driver, I’ve been a pretty good, “spiritual driver”. I mean I’ve certainly hit my fair share of “mailboxes”. I’ve had more than a few “fender benders” spiritually speaking, but I can honestly say, “I think I’ve done okay.” I’ve managed through the grace and forgiveness of God to at least keep the car of my life on the road. I often wonder if at times I’m too focused on avoiding the major accidents, I wonder if I’m too focused on avoiding the major blow outs that I miss all of the slow leaks. Slow leaks are always harder to catch and I sometimes think that I’m missing some. Think about your own life... Maybe it’s the occasional secret sin that’s developed into more of a lifestyle. Maybe it's the increasing lack of patience with your spouse or kids. Maybe it's the compromising stances that you've taken at work or at school. These aren’t blowouts, this is just the reality of our busy lives. These aren’t blowouts, this is just you and I trying to pay the bills or get a passing grade in that class. These aren’t blowouts, this is just you and I trying to make it through a day without strangling one of our kids or screaming at our spouse. These aren’t blowouts, these are slow leaks. And slow leaks are always harder to catch. My chair broke today. I was in my office, sitting in my chair talking with a few folks and "snap". The arm of the chair snapped right off. This of course sent me nearly on to the floor, as the arms of the chair also keep the back of the chair in place. Thanks to my cat like reflexes I managed to save myself before disaster struck.
We had a good laugh for a few minutes about the possibilities of what could have occurred had things taken a different course. But after the laughter subsided and my guests made their exodus, I was left with a broken chair. I made my rounds to the other areas of the building where I might harvest a replacement but wasn't satisfied with any of the options. When I returned to my office I stared at my chair for a few moments and reflected on what I would have done if my dad were still alive. A simple phone call would have solved my problem. No sooner would I have called then he would have been in my office, drill in hand, trick up his sleeve, with a couple of screws in his pocket. He always had what I needed. He always knew what needed to be done and more importantly, how to do it. He was seemingly unintimidated regardless of what lie before him. Nothing was too much, nothing was too difficult, nothing was out of his league. He would simply look at a problem, and fix it. What I, along with my family lost on January 6th was really, peace of mind. As a father to three sons, he provided a calming presence, an assurance that if the road got rough and the next move was unclear, dad would show the way and lighten the load. He could always fix our chairs. As I reflected on this truth about my dad, I was reminded of another truth, the Holy Spirit will never leave me. When Jesus ascended into Heaven He promised another that would come in His place to remind us, comfort us, convict us, guide us, encourage us and always be there to fix our chairs. As I stared at my broken chair I was reminded that my dad is in me. He helped create me. He taught me, he modeled for me, he guided me, he gave me the confidence to know that I was more than able to fix that broken chair. Not because of anything that I've become on my own but because of his influence in my life. With my new resolve I picked my chair up, took it downstairs and screwed it back together. As I sat back down in my newly repaired chair, I was thankful not only for a father that influenced me in such a powerful way but also for the power and influence of the Holy Spirit who will never pass away. I will never in all of my life be without the peace of mind that can only come from the Spirit's power in my life. A peace that passes all understanding. Statistics say that the average super market carries around 42,000 items that are for sale.
Crest offers 51 variations of its toothpaste in the choice of size, shape and flavor. There are thousands of different careers that you could choose to pursue. There are billions of people that you could have chosen to marry. There are hundreds of cars that you could choose to buy. There are millions of places you could live. There are hundreds of different colors for your hair. There is an endless choice of foods we can eat. The bottom line is that there a lot of choices out there for just about everything and anything you want to do. So the question becomes, how in the world do we figure out what to do? in a sea of options, how do you discern the right options? Check out the words found in Proverbs 2:1-12... Well that sounds like a pretty square deal doesn’t it? Check out what that verse says… We will have understanding We will have wisdom We will gain knowledge We will have good sense We will have a shield We will be protected We will understand what is right, just and fair We will know how to find the right course of action every time We will have right planning We will be saved from evil people The passage is very clear that we can have all of that if we just… Tune our ears to wisdom Concentrate on understanding Cry out for insight Notice what the verse says, it says we are to search for those things as if we were looking for lost money or a hidden treasure. This doesn't come easy. It takes work and patience to really tune our ears to wisdom. It takes focus to concentrate on understanding. It takes humility to cry out for wisdom. Do you search for God’s wisdom like you would search after a hidden treasure? |
Archives
April 2022
|