The End Times.2

"My people, my people, you who have killed the prophets, and spurned those sent to you, how often would I have gathered you, even as a hen shelters her chicks beneath her wings, and yet you would not! Behold, your house is left desolate; and you will not see me again until the time when all will say: 

'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

--Jesus

Chasing chickens is not for the faint of heart!  NFL defenses

image from anewscafe.com

used to prepare to face the elusive, Hall of Fame running back, Barry Sanders by letting chickens out onto the practice field!  Watching Barry dart around frustrated grown men as easily as these speedy birds was almost as entertaining as watching our grandkids try to gather chicks let loose in the yard!

There is a reason we associate extreme fearfulness with these fleet fowl: it is extremely hard to even get near them before they take flight! Comparing people to chickens, however, is a pretty accurate way of describing our extreme reluctance to draw near to our Maker who would be our Master.  Because our hearts are so far removed and our eyes so focused on our own security, little can we see the devotion in the face behind the hand extended to save us from our own folly.

But there is a price to pay for morbid devotion to our own self-preservation...

des·o·late

adjectiveˈdesəlit/
1.(of a place) deserted of people and in a state of bleak and dismal emptiness. e.g., "a desolate moor"

Desolation In the USA

"It is hard on God, when His children will not let him give; when they carry themselves so that he must withhold His hand, lest he harm them. To take no care that they acknowledge whence their help comes, would be to leave them worshippers of idols, trusters in that which is not.”

Lord Jesus, we do not understand thee, because we do not trust thy Father – whole-hearted to us, as never yet was mother to her first-born! Full of care, as if he had none, we think this and that escapes his notice, for this and that he does not think! While we who are evil would die to give our children bread to eat, we are not certain the only Good will give us anything of what we desire!

The things of thy world so crowd our hearts, that there is no room in them for the things of thy heart, which would raise ours above all fear, and make us merry children in our Father’s house!" 

(quote from The Cause of Spiritual Stupidity, George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons II)

Lord Jesus, keep gathering until we realize:

"Lo, here comes One who will increase our loves!"

An Invitation To Life.6

"This good news of the kingdom shall be preached in the entire world as a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come." 

--Jesus

Is the World becoming a better place to live?

According to Matt Ridley, in his book The Rational Optimist, there is incontrovertible evidence that it is.

He was taught to think the future was bleak. 

“The population explosion was unstoppable. Famine was inevitable. Pesticides were going to shorten our lives. The Ice Age was coming back. Acid rain was killing forests … All these things were going to go wrong.” 

Yet time and again, humanity survived doomsday. Not just survived, but flourished. Population increases, yet famine becomes rarer. More energy is used, yet the environment gets cleaner. Innovation and trade keep improving our lives.

“People are much more interested in hearing about something that’s gone wrong. It sounds wiser to talk about what might go wrong than to talk about what might go right.” 

Or what already went right. Over the past 40 years, murder dropped by 40 percent, rape by 80 percent, and, outside of war zones, Islamic terrorism claims fewer than 400 lives a year. The last decade saw the fewest lives claimed in war since record keeping began...the big picture is good news."

In the news business fear sells. To insiders it is affectionately called "pessimism porn" .  Unfortunately, I believe, it is much too prevalent in the Christian community as well. Books, like the Left Behind series, that paint a bleak picture of the end of the world are wildly popular in the church.  

But what if the "end" to which Jesus is referring is a series of endings: to slavery, to disease, to tyranny, to oppression leading to the ultimate end: the end of death.

Freedom unleashed by the Truth lived out by His Kingdom kind, unleashing human potential collaborating with the Spirit of Jesus. The Spirit that is always working to convict of sin, righteousness and judgment, a work that sets free and improves the human condition.

Case in point: Harriet Beecher Stowe's blockbuster book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, described with poignant precision the

wretchedness of slavery in America and the hypocrisy rampant in both the north & south, especially among the religious. A book, that many view, as the catalyst for the widening rift in American society that led to the Civil War.

But her greatest impact was in describing the quiet effects of true Christianity working in the hearts of men - black & white alike.  "Uncle Tom" was not a picture of a compromising black man insulting the condition of his race, but a type of the Ultimate Man who lays down his life for his friends.  

• A true man who won't be broken to accept the dictates of evil.  
• A gentle man who refuses to be reduced to the beastly impulses of those who temporarily control the reins of power.  
• A great man who sacrificially serves the most pitiable around him raising their hopes and calming their fears. 
• A powerful man who quietly subjects himself to the insatiable rage of violent evil.  
• A dying man who's unshakable faith in the freedom of heaven inspires courage and conviction leading to the freedom of his fellows.

The "Utopianists" of all ages hope in a better world, just like true believers.  But for those, like Ridley, Ray Kurzweil, Eric Schmidt, Bill Gates, and many others, hoping in a humanistic, technology driven "New World Order", their faith in the DNA of evolutionary processes will always shape (and justify) the outcome: the stronger will always out "fit" -- and control -- the weaker.

The DNA of the Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus.  He is the Good News that must be preached to the entire world.  For it is his influence - righteousness, peace and joy in the Spirit- continually working through His followers, that makes the world a better place to live by making each individual a better person to be. 

His Kingdom come. 
His Will be done. 
On Earth. 
As it is in Heaven.  
Amen.

An Invitation To Life.5

"For God so loved the world, that he offered his only Son a living sacrifice, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but be redeemed and have everlasting life." 

 --Jesus

Caring little who was listening, the elderly man runs through his inventory of body part replacements.  With a chortle he concludes, "$288,000 to keep me going!"

image borrowed from security faqs.com

We all are perishable.  Our body parts wear out.  Our eyes & mind grow dim.  Our soul feels feeble.

Technology can replace bodily tissue but can it replenish vigor? Does Medicare cover the eternal effervescence of Faith, Hope and Love?  What pharmacist can fill the prescription for more life? Is not More Life! the heart cry of humanity and the antidote for all its ills?

We all are creatures possessed by death.  It is death that we want relief from: 

• the death of homelessness and hunger and cold; 
• the death of failure, disappointment, and distraction; 
• the death of passion; 
• the death of madness—
• a being we cannot manage
• a world we cannot rule
• needs we cannot meet
• words we cannot retract 
• actions we cannot undo
• the death of crime and fear of discovery

"God is life, and the will-source of life. In the outflowing of that life, I know him; and when I am told that he is love, I see that if he were not love he would not, could not create. I know nothing deeper in him than love, nor believe there is in him anything deeper than love— nay, that there can be anything deeper than love. The being of God is love, therefore creation. 

I imagine that from all eternity he has been creating. As he saw it was not good for man to be alone, so has he never been alone himself;—from all eternity the Father has had the Son, and the never-begun existence of that Son I imagine an easy outgoing of the Father's nature; while to make other beings—beings like us, I imagine the labor of a God, an eternal labor.

I imagine that God has never been contented to be alone even with the Son of his love, the prime and perfect idea of humanity, but that he has from the first willed and labored to give existence to other creatures who should be blessed with his blessedness—creatures whom he is now and always has been developing into likeness with that Son—a likeness for long to be distant and small, but a likeness to be for ever growing: perhaps never one of them yet, though unspeakably blessed, has had even an approximate idea of the blessedness in store for him.

...Sore [labor and] suffering such as we cannot imagine, and could only be God's, in the bringing out, call it birth or development, of the God-life in the individual soul—a suffering still renewed, a labor thwarted ever by that soul itself, compelling him to take, still at the cost of suffering...the best possible means left him by the resistance of his creature. 

Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because he would give the best, and man will not take it. 

What Jesus did, was what the Father is always doing; the suffering he endured was that of the Father from the foundation of the world, reaching its climax in the person of his Son. God provides the sacrifice; the sacrifice is himself. He is always, and has ever been, sacrificing himself to and for his creatures. It lies in the very essence of his creation of them.

Jesus did nothing but what the Father did and does. 

If Jesus suffered for men, it was because his Father suffers for men; only he came close to men through his body and their senses, that he might bring their spirits close to his Father and their Father, so giving them life, and losing what could be lost of his own. 

He is God our Savior: it is because God is our Savior that Jesus is our Savior. The God and Father of Jesus Christ could never possibly be satisfied with less than giving himself to his own! 

The unbeliever may easily imagine a better God than the common theology of the country offers him; but not the lovingest heart that ever beat can even reflect the length and breadth and depth and height of that love of God which shows itself in his Son—one, and of one mind, with himself. "
(adapted from Life, George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons II, emphasis added)

Follower of Jesus, know Whom you believe!

An Invitation To Life.4

"Herein lies the way to eternal life: 

know the only true God and Jesus Christ, 

the one sent to you by God. 

Take my words to heart." 

--Jesus

Ayden (7 year old grandson): "I keep asking my dad to show me how to use a pocketknife."

Me (grandpa): "Maybe he doesn't think you're quite ready."

Ayden: "But he promised he'd show me this spring."

Me: "Maybe he knows you need to be a little more patient."

Ayden: (stomping foot)"I am patient!"

Me: "Maybe. But being patient doesn't mean quarreling in your head about whether you think your dad is wrong about the word 'patient'.  Its being patient in your heart."

Ayden: "What does that mean?"

Me: "It means you trust your dad to love and care for you.  When your heart knows that, you'll always trust him to do what's best for you. Then waiting isn't such a hard thing, because you love your dad more than the thing you wanted your dad to do for you."

------------------------------------------------------

The Knowing Of the Father

What if-

• eternal life isn't just Pearly Gates and Golden Streets?
• Real Bliss is Knowing God the Father, just like Jesus the Son does?
• the only way to get that kind of knowledge is to be like Jesus: a perfect child to His Father?
• the only way to be like Jesus is to do like Jesus?
• in the doing comes the learning, the perfecting, the uniting of our hearts together as we see His gentle hand helping, teaching, directing us to a better way?
• our actions demonstrate that we think like Him, see like Him, move like Him, love like Him?
• we could prove to the world the Truth of Him because:
• we love one another (believers and unbelievers alike)
• are just & fair in all our dealings
• our goods the best, their weight the surest, prices most reasonable, word most certain
• we love not riches nor envy those who have them
• selfishness does not rule in our homes or our hearts
• we know that if we can't trust Him in this world neither will we in the next
• we are good, happy, unselfish, sharing, free of care, ready to die, but so willing to live, hopeful, helpful, careless to possess, careful to avoid being possessed by worthless things.

What if the whole secret of progress in knowing and loving the Father is in the doing of the thing we know?

What if that IS Eternal Life?

adapted from Self-Denial, by George MacDonald

An Invitation To Life.3

"Whoever hears my word and believes in the One who has sent me will find eternal life and not be condemned.  Instead, they will pass from death unto life. Do not be amazed at this; for the time is coming when even the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear his voice shall live. In their graves, the dead will recognize his voice and be raised up; those that have done good will be raised to new life, and those who have lived wrongfully will be raised to condemnation."

-- Jesus

Days after the most recent Easter celebration I was involved in a conversation on Facebook with a friend that went like this:

David: "Charlie, have you ever done a sermon or teaching on Matthew 27: 52-53 or do you know were I can find some information or commentary about those two verses?"

Me: "I can't recall if I have...but not surprising, I'm at the age where I forget that I don't remember stuff! Are you preparing a study to share with others, David, or just for your own study?"

David: "My life group class is going to do a study on what Mathew is talking about in those passages. We all hear about Jesus dying on the cross for us but I have not heard anybody talk about those two passages. Just asking and seeing if you might know of any place to look for more information about them."

Me: "What are your thoughts?"

David: "I take it literally that those other people who were resurrected when Jesus died, were brought back to testify about Jesus Christ, that He is going to come back from the dead also."

Me: "So is the question in the group about whether to take this report literally?"

David: "yes and no; and what is the purpose of Mathew reporting about this occurrence and to see why very few people will talk about this occurrence."

Me: "Here's a couple thoughts: I just read a quote from Dale Carnegie "people are not creatures of logic, people are creatures of emotion..." Think of the stirring events at the moment of his death --the earthquake, the tearing of the temple veil, dead people come alive walking out of graves-- like the fireworks that go off after a rousing team victory at a sports stadium...very moving and awe-inspiring. I think the Father put an exclamation point on the work of the cross that was undeniable by even the most indifferent of spectators, like the Roman Centurion, who said, "Surely this was the Son of God!"

Also, the resurrection of those saints surely is woven into the fabric of the faith of the church passed down through generations of believers!"

David: "I was also thinking that they were giving hope to those that were hiding and afraid of the Romans and the Jews that Jesus Christ is not dead but alive and still with us and to this day we still need that assurance."

Me: "Amen! What can better inspire courage and boldness than the knowledge and heart-felt wonder that what you believe is True?!"

David: "Still wondering why nobody will talk about those two passages."

Me: "Maybe God left it up to you, brother!!"

David: "maybe...I am praying for some answers."

Me: "I'm praying the answers you have will ring true in true hearts!"

David: "Amen"

An Invitation To Life.2

"A wealthy man planned a great banquet, and invited many guests. When the preparations were completed, he sent his servant to gather those who had been invited.

'Come,' he said, 'for all things are ready.'

But all those who had been invited began to make excuses.

The first replied: 'I have just purchased a piece of land, and I must go and look at it again. Please have me excused.'

The second said: 'I have just purchased a herd of cattle, and I must go and examine it. Please have me excused.'

A third answered: 'I have recently been married, and for this, I cannot attend.'

Finally, the servant returned and reported what had happened. Hearing the disappointing news, the master commanded:

'Go quickly into the streets of the city, and gather the poor, the lame, the ill and the blind.'

The servant hurried to do this, and soon returned, saying: 'Sir, I have done as you commanded, and still there is room at the table.'

'Go then,' the rich man replied, 'along the highways and among the fields, and urge those you meet to come in, that my table might be filled. For I say to you: none of those that were originally invited will taste of the banquet that I had prepared for them.'"

--Jesus

My Aunt just passed away. 

Hours before she did I received a distressful call from my cousin Connie.  A well meaning neighbor -- at least we can only hope she is well meaning -- suggested that, as my aunt lay taking her last breaths, Connie should consider that her mom's recent lack of church attendance should (I'm not making this up) cause grave concern about her eternal resting place....

I wept. And maybe tasted a bit of the disappointment Jesus felt when people get focused on the wrong things.  He came to proclaim the wonder-filled possibility of Oneness with the richness of His Father's splendor.  

But since most of us, and I say most of us in the sense of everyone who's never dwelt in the Eternal Glory of the Creator God, have never experienced anything quite like that in our mortal existence, we regard that news with an, um, earthy earthiness (not sure exactly what that means, but it kind of makes sense...)  Kind of like the guy who's just announced that you've won the Powerball Jackpot and you just sit there in a sort of stupor not sure how to comprehend.

But that never seems to stop some from ruining the party for others. Depending on your particular theological backdrop you could substitute any number of crucial litmus tests for passage into the Pearly Gates:
- "Did she say the penitent's prayer?"
- "Was she covered by the blood?"
- "Did she accept Jesus as her Lord AND Savior?"
- "Did she believe in the virgin birth?"
- "Did she believe in this version of the atonement?"

So my question to the self-appointed gatekeepers: If someone at some point in their life accepts His tender invitation to come to the banquet, who are you to add your own indulgences to admission?

Is it not hard enough, with all the distractions in life, to get

image from deesbbbanquet.blogspot.com

someone to commit their Will to joining God's Kingdom Party and experiencing the joy of His Perfecting Will?  They may not do it until they've been humbled by infirmity or discovered their true lost-ness wandering aimlessly through the highways and byways of life!

But our part is simply to invite and gather. Not determine their worthiness to come in...If we can't trust the Preparer of the Party to rejoice in our repentance, wrap us in His robes of righteousness and make us worthy then maybe we're at the wrong address. Serving the wrong Master!

The End Times.1

"Once, there was a landowner who planted a vineyard, and on the grounds he installed a winepress. Around the vineyard he built a tall fence, erecting even a tower. Then he rented his vineyard to vine keepers, and voyaged to a distant country. When the time of the harvest approached, the landowner sent his servants to the vine keepers to collect his profits. But the vine keepers ambushed his servants, beat one, killed another, and drove the third off with stones. 
Again, the landowner sent servants to collect his profits. This time he sent a larger group than the first, but they met with a similar fate. 
Finally the landowner sent his only son, reasoning, "At least they will respect my only son." 
When the vine keepers saw the son approaching, however, they plotted foolishly among themselves: 'Here before us is the heir to the vineyard. If we kill him, 

his inheritance will be ours.'

So plotting, they bound the son, dragged him outside the vineyard walls, and took his life. 
I ask you: when, finally, the landowner of the vineyard returns, what will be the fate of the wicked vine keepers?"

--Jesus

An uncle once violently declared to me that Jesus was a socialist!  At least violence is what I read into the protruding neck veins and bright red face stressing his passionate opinion.

I'm sure he's not alone in that opinion.  But whether this parable is an apologetic for capitalism or socialism, I'm not sure. If you, like me, prefer capitalism to socialism, you'll find plenty to support the idea that property owners can and do provide valuable products, services and jobs to others by investing in the improvement of their property.  Socialists counter that this story teaches that profit motive drives people to exploit and harm the people who work for them.

Both economic systems attempt to define the equitable distribution of property. Property disputes are as old as the garden of Eden.

The moral then:

• For the capitalist: don't hire thugs.  
• For the socialist: don't let your children grow up to be Wall Street executives!
• For Jesus: don't misinterpret my meaning!

To the King, Who's Kingdom is not of this World, the challenge of conveying His meaning through the shadowy figures of this world, continues, even today, to be daunting.  The "key", I am of the opinion, to unlocking the meaning of this story is the word inheritance. 

image from somestuffaboutmoney.com

Inheritance, in this world, is the legal-willful portioning of property.  Just the other day I met a business owner perplexed that his brother/estate executor won't share information with him about the family trust.  He's suspicious that his fifteen years of running the family business may be unceremoniously taken from him when mom passes.

Those suspicions, given the history of mankind, are certainly justified.  For the sharing of property, we know in our hearts, is the lessening of the whole.  We intrinsically feel the need for "fairness" in the distribution.

The Kingdom of God, however, is good news!  For its values and practices are in stark contrast to those of this world system.  Nothing illustrates that more than the idea of inheritance.  Drink in the words of Dante via MacDonald:


"To have a share in any earthly inheritance, is to diminish the share of the other inheritors. In the inheritance of the saints, that which each has, goes to increase the possession of the rest. Hear what Dante puts in the mouth of his guide, as they pass through Purgatory:

Because you point and fix your longing eyes

On things where sharing lessens every share,

The human bellows heave with envious sighs.

But if the loftiest love that dwelleth there

Up to the heaven of heavens your longing turn,

Then from your heart will pass this fearing care:

The oftener there the word our they discern,

The more of good doth everyone possess,

The more of love doth in that cloister burn.

Dante desires to know how it can be that a distributed good should make the receivers the richer the more of them there are; and Virgil answers-

Because thy mind doth stick

To earthly things, and on them only brood,

From the true light thou dost but darkness pick.

That same ineffable and infinite Good,

Which dwells up there, to Love doth run as fleet

As sunrays to bright things, for sisterhood.

It gives itself proportionate to the heat:

So that, wherever Love doth spread its reign,

The growing wealth of God makes that its seat.

And the more people that up thither strain,

The more there are to love, the more they love,

And like a mirror each doth give and gain."

The true share, in the heavenly kingdom throughout, is not what you have to keep, but what you have to give away." 
From The Inheritance by George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons III