7 posts tagged “see”
Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?
John the Baptist asked this question of his cousin Jesus. It was an important question to John, because he was at the moment a prisoner of King Herod. He was waiting to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and his liberty.
Go back and report to John what you see and hear: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.
Jesus preached the same message as John, but with an important twist. Oh yes, Jesus called for repentance, just like John, but He also preached that salvation was possible for all, even sinners, tax collectors, and their loathsome Roman overlords.
Jesus surely cared about his cousin John and wanted to free him from King Herod's prison, but He did not intervene to do that. Oh sure, He could have, but Jesus did not work that way. His kingdom was not of this world. His kingdom would come by invitation and response, not by His own divine power and might.
Take for example Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler. Remember how He said the man lacked one thing? He told the man, Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me. Sadly, the man, who was actually a pretty good guy otherwise, could not do that. So the man walked away, unable to part with his riches and to enjoy being the 13th disciple of Jesus.
Did Jesus then run after the man and let him keep his materialistic god? No, he did not. He just let him go. He simply let him make his own decision. He respected his free will. Jesus did not really care about the man's money, but he did care about the man. He knew that the man's riches had a hold on him and he offered him a once in a life time opportunity to have true liberty!
I like the term being a non-anxious presence. To me it means what Jesus did here, addressing an issue but also showing he cared about the man. He cared enough to offer him a place in His own troupe of disciples. How sad that this man missed his opportunity for real liberation.
There are many who are weak and poor and need rescuing, but this man was not one of them. He was bound in a prison of his own making. He was possessed by his possessions.
How about you, my friend? Are you generously opening your hand to the poor at this Advent Christmas season and throughout the year? Are you still thinking that you can take it with you? Or, are you dedicating all that you are and all that you have to the Master who still invites you to follow Him today?
Jesus is waiting for you to make your choice.
Do it today.
I will lift my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.
-Psalm 123:1 (NIV)
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There's a short poem I remember:
Two men looked out through prison bars.
One saw mud, the other saw stars.
My grandmother had a plaque in her home:
Keep Looking Up
That's still good advice.
Lift up your eyes to God.
See the swirling stars in the heavens.
Keep looking up.
Life is often about making choices.
We can look down at the mud.
Or we can lift up our eyes toward God
and see the swirling stars He has made.
I took a course in Life Planning.
One day we asked: What is an pessimist and an optimist?
I remember the optimist's definition of a pessimist:
A pessimist is a person with potential!
Look at your life today.
Look at the lives of others.
Look at our world.
Lift up your eyes
and see potential.
Ask God to show you what can happen
if you keep looking up today.
In 1983 Jaroslav J. Vajda wrote this beautiful line,
which we sometimes sing in our churches:
God of the sparrow
God of the whale
God of the swirling stars
How does the creature say Awe?
How does the creature say Praise?
Friend, ask yourself:
What will my day look like
if I keep looking up today?
Lift up your eyes to God in heaven!
See the swirling stars He made.
Keep looking up.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven,
with a loud command,
with the voice of the archangel
and with the trumpet call of God,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
-1 Thessalonians 4:16 NIV
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I am fascinated with verse 16, chapter 4 of Paul's first letter to the church in Thessalonica.
Thessalonica was a city of 200,000 inhabitants, the capital of ancient Macedonia, now known as Greece.
Paul wrote to the church there and, among many other things, spoke about the second coming of Christ.
When Christ comes down from heaven, three things will happen before we see Him.
- First, we will hear a loud command. I believe the command will be to look up!
- Then we will hear the voice of the archangel, Michael. He is the great warrior angel of God, leader of all the good angels. I believe he will announce that Christ is about to appear!
- Third and last, we will hear the trumpet call of God.
The trumpet call of God. It's "of God." It's from heaven. Will God the Father blow the trumpet? I don't know, but it's implied by the words "of God," I think.
In ancient Israel, they had trumpets. Perhaps the most well known instrument of God's people then was the ram's horn, also called a shofar. It was the ram's horn, hollowed out, with an opening at the narrow end. When air is blown into the ram's horn, it sounds.
There were also trumpets made from metal, looking very much like trumpet horns we see today.
It seems altogether fitting that Christ's second coming should come with a succession of events.
The loud command, first.
The voice of the archangel Michael, second.
And then, just before Christ descends to be seen, the great trumpet call of God.
Will it be one great blast of the trumpet call or several in quick succession?
I happen to think it may be three great blasts that will be sounded.
I don't think an angel will blow the trumpet.
I don't think Michael the archangel will do it, either.
I think it will be God himself.
The trumpet call of God.
Are you ready to hear it?
It sounds to signal the imminent return of Christ from the heavens.
"From whence He shall come" we say in The Apostles' Creed.
Christ has died. Christ is risen.
Christ shall come again!
I am looking forward to that Day.
I will not be surprised by it, but delighted.
Until then, I live in expectant hope for His return to claim us as His own, forever.
I live in thanksgiving for the salvation He imparts to all who believe in Him and seek to follow in His steps.
I live in joy that He is my Savior and Lord.
I walk today, tomorrow, and until He comes, in His peace, a peace that passes understanding.
Glory be to God!
Philippians 2:1-11 NIV:
Verse 5: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.
Attitude is everything sometimes.
A few years ago two laity and I went from our church to a pre-conference briefing early on a Saturday morning. It was held in the rural western region of our conference, far away from the Conference Center in affluent Columbia, Maryland.
As we drove to the briefing, I suggested that we adopt a different attitude as we sat through the reports that were to be presented all morning. Usually such meetings consist of two groups of people: the presenters, who never know how they will be received, and those who come to be briefed, never knowing what we will hear and see.
"Let's all sit up front and smile at the presenters, as if we are really glad to see them here. And, after each presenter is introduced and again when they're done, let's clap to show our appreciation," I told our little threesome.
So we did. Sat up front. Smiled at the presenters. And when they were introduced and when they were finished, we applauded.
When we changed our attitude about giving up our Saturday morning to drive to a briefing to hear reports, we changed the meeting itself.
When we smiled, we saw the presenters brighten and smile back at us.
When we applauded at their introduction and their conclusion, we found that everyone behind us also did so.
We left the meeting convinced that attitude is everything.
Or at least that having a positive attitude can result in positive things happening.
I don't know if Jesus would have done what we did. I don't know if He would have been smiling at every report and applauding at any of them.
But I do know that Jesus had a great attitude.
Change your attitude. Change your life. Change your world.
We should have the same attitude that Jesus Christ has.
Do you believe this?
I do.
From Exodus 16:2-15 NIV:
Verse 3: The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
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"If only ..."
How many times have you said that about something? How many times have you heard others say it, too?
In verse 3, above, we see the Israelites were grumbling to Moses and Aaron as they camped in the Desert of Sin.
We always remember well what we had in the past. When we suddenly have less, we grumble about it, like the Israelites did.
It comes to mind that people grumble a lot about gas prices. We'd like to blame foreign leaders, or the oil companies, or the Congress, or even the President for our troubles.
I remember in college in the late 1960s when I paid thirty cents per gallon for leaded regular gas for my car. I could get three gallons and change for less than a dollar. Sometimes all I had was a dollar.
A couple of days ago I filled up the tank in my nine year old car. Gas was $3.49 per gallon at a Shell station in nearby Hampstead, Maryland. I was glad to get it at that price, having seen it much higher at other stations lately.
The Israelites were not grumbling about having money or the price of anything. They left Egypt laden with silver and gold, but had little food and water. They fled Pharoah's chariots and army in haste.
I can understand their grumbling about their lack of food and water. They wanted to blame it all on their leaders, Moses and Aaron. But these brothers were only following God's orders to lead them out of Egypt and head for the Promised Land.
So the people were projecting their anger on their leaders, but it really was meant for God. And do you know what happened next?
Before Moses and Aaron could even turn to God and ask for help, God promised to help the people with meat and bread.
God told Moses:
"I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
If only, the people said. Little did they know, right then, that God was listening and God wanted to help them. Indeed, God had a promise to make and a plan to fulfill.
The next time you hear yourself or someone else say "If only ...", then remember that God hears you and others when we grumble.
God not only hears us, but God deeply cares for his own and already has a promise and plan to help us.
Do you think you can trust God to provide for your needs, even as God did it for the Israelites?
I'm willing to trust God like that. I think they still call that "Faith."
Will you, too?
Matthew 18:27-30 NIV:
The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me!" he demanded.
His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back."
But he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
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Jesus continues his Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in these verses.
Imagine being there, for the first time, when Jesus told this story.
First, you hear of a king who wanted to settle his accounts with his servants. The king, of course, is God. The servants, that's you and me, in debt to God because of our sins, which are so great that we can never repay them, not in a million years of trying.
Then the king unexpectedly takes pity on the servant, cancels his enormous debt, and sets him free. Nice ending to story, right? Yes, and the hearers think, "How happy he must have felt and grateful to the king."
But then Jesus gives us Chapter 2, found in today's verses, as he continues the tale, with a twist. Now the servant who has been forgiven his debt comes upon a fellow servant who owes him small change. He takes hold of the man by the throat and demands immediate repayment. The man falls to his knees, begs for time, promises to pay, but the servant will have none of it and has him thrown into prison!
What are the hearers thinking now? Probably, "That's shocking! What an awful thing this servant has done to his fellow servant. He didn't learn a thing from the king."
That's exactly what Jesus wants them to think.
Jesus is painting a picture with words of what our God is like, loving and forgiving, and what we are like, unloving and unforgiving toward each other. He lets us connect the dots.
Of course, you see, Jesus is comparing and contrasting God's ways with ours.
If anyone owes you anything today, could you forgive it?
Think about this matter, will you?
Tomorrow I'll be back to discuss the conclusion of Jesus' parable.
Oh, yes. There's more to the story. There always is.
I used to I wonder about "repine" as I sang it in the hymn, "He Leadeth Me."
Joseph H. Gilmore wrote in the third stanza:
Lord, I would place my hand in thine, nor every murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see, since 'tis my God that leadeth me.
It's a meditation on Psalm 23, the Shepherd's Psalm.
repine \rih-PINE\, intransitive verb:
1. To feel or express discontent.
2. To long for something.
Until I read its definition, I didn't really know what repine meant. Now I think I do.
Nor ever murmur nor repine.
It's a contrast between two opposites. I may murmur and repine, or I may put my hand in God's and be led by the Good Shepherd. I know I do a lot of both.
So today I choose to put my hand in the Lord's, faster and firmer, and to murmur and repine, lower and less.
Now I know that contentment is not so much something to be harvested, but it is something which often blooms in its own time, when I just plant my hand deep down in God's big, warm hand.
And that's quite enough for me, here and now.
