Sunday message

This week, the readings that the Lord picked out for us had two common themes:  What God demands of man, and the consequences of not respecting those demands.  The consequences are much easier to explai n, and don't show a lot of variation:

Matthew 21:44- broken and crushed to powder;
Joshua 24:20- do you harm and consume you;
Jeremiah 38:18 and 23- burn you down;
Isaiah 46:1-2 go into captivity;
Zephaniah 1:2-3 utterly comsume  all things... "the stumbling blocks along with the wicked".

So the point is, God isn't messing around when He says He wants something from us.  And it actually all comes down to one word, which we will get to at the end, but you won't truly get it unless we explore the facets of it first.

Monday turned out to be the lone New Testament reading, and it was a story carried in all three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).  It begins with the priests questioning Jesus about His authority, and ends with the parable of the evil vinedressers.  Each Gospel has the priests come demanding Jesus tell them where He draws His authority from.  Jesus tells them:

“I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ²⁵ John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

Which of course put them in a dilemma.  They knew the people believed John was a prophet, and if they admitted it (even to themselves) they would be admitting their hypocrisy, because they never received it themselves.  So they said, "We don't know," and Jesus responded, "Then I'm not telling."

Two of the gospels then go straight to the parable (while the other throws another short parable in-between) in which the owner of the land makes a great vineyard, hires vinedressers to tend it, and goes off to a far land.  At harvest time, he sends servants to collect the fruit of his land; but the vinedressers abuse, refuse, and even kill these servants.  Finally the owner sends his own son, whom they also kill.  This is the story of the leadership of God's faithful passing from the Jews to the gentiles, with God as the owner, the Jews as the vinedressers, the prophets as the servants, and Jesus as the Son.

Finally, Jesus throws in Psalm 118's warning about the Cornerstone:

²² The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
²³ the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.

finishing with the warning noted earlier, that he who stumbles on it will be broken, and he who it falls upon will be crushed.  Now I want to note three related things God is asking here, and three reactions to it.

First, in the first part, God is demanding us to RESPECT the authority of Christ.  In the parable, by describing Christ as the Son, He is demanding we respect the DIVINITY of Christ.  And a certain line in the psalm- "the Lord has done this,"  which my Bible also translates as "this is from the Lord"- tells us that Jesus' authority is GOD'S WILL.  And their reactions?  In Matthew, at least some of the priests, even though they knew it was talking about them, recognized that they had done wrong to God all these years- though they didn't repent, and in fact became more set against Him as a result.  In Mark, they said nothing- just let it basically go in one ear and out the other.  And in Luke, when Jesus got to the end of the parable and suggested the owner would come and destroy the evil vinedressers, they shouted, "Certainly not!"  In other words, they rejected the authority all together.

That this subject of Authority was underlined three times tells us how important this is- to God and to us.  But it is not yet the main theme we seek.

Tuesday my reading was the 24th chapter of Joshua- famous for his declaration, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  He spent much of the chapter re-telling all the things that God had done to the Egyptians for them- and if you think that got done a lot, consider how easily they kept forgetting.  The people told Joshua they would serve Him as well, but Joshua replied:

“...You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, after he has been good to you.”

But they said, "No, really," and Joshua told them, "okay, you said it... now, you have to do it."  Joshua knew well it was easy to make promises at great occasions surrounded by like minded people.  Going home afterwards and "clearing out the idols" is tougher.  But it is the second of God's demands.

Wednesday I hit the key to it all... but I'm going to save that.  God put it in the middle because it is the CENTRAL demand... I bumped it to the back to make it easier for your humble author to stress it.

Thursday found us in Isaiah 46, which began with an elegant description of the power of foreign gods- "Bel bows down, Nebo stoops..."  The prophet speaking for God tells of the creation of idols out of wood and gold and silver, how they have to be pinned down to stand up, and how the cattle pulling their carts find them a burden.  Then God goes on to describe His own glory, His pre-eminence, and after describing the plight of those who cry to the idols and are not answered, reminds them of "former times" when their belief led God to do great things for them.  "Remember, and take courage", He tells us, and come to Him first in all things.

Friday brought us to the first two chapters of the minor prophet Zephaniah.  The first chapter is a portrait of all God will do to a sinful and unrepentant world.  I really love the verse I pulled out above where "the stumbling blocks will be destroyed along with the wicked."  The entire network of evil doers and their evil society will be rooted out.  But my point comes at the beginning of chapter two:

Gather together, gather yourselves together,
you shameful nation,
² before the decree takes effect
and that day passes like windblown chaff,
before the Lord’s fierce anger
comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s wrath
comes upon you.
³ Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the Lord’s anger.

To escape the fate of an evil world, God calls us to Seek Righteousness. That is what will save us from the way things will end. Jesus says, "But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."(Matt. 6:33)

Which brings us to the summing up on Saturday, courtesy Exodus 15.  This is mainly taken up in Moses' re-telling, in psalm form, of the escape from Egypt (see, I told you this gets repeated a lot!)  But at the very end, they have their first battle with thirst, and God gives them water. Afterwards, Moses goes over God's covenant with them once again:

He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” (Ex.15:26)

So let's break that down.  "Listen carefully (or in my Bible, "dilligently heed") to the Lord your God" is equivalent to the "accepting His authority" from Monday.  "Do what is right in His eyes" is the same as Friday's "seek righteousness".  "Pay attention to His commands (or commandments in my Bible)" equals the "giving Him pre-eminence" of Thursday.  And "keep all His decrees (or statutes) is analogous to Tuesday's "be obedient".  And the promise is that God won't give you "any of the disease I brought upon Egypt"- another words, the plagues used to break the pride of Pharoah- and the unrepentant.

But what was that central thing, that one demand that is really a part of all the others?  We find that in Wednesday's reading in Jeremiah 38.  Here we are at the bitter end of the original Jewish kingdom.  The Babylonian army has been starving Jerusalem for some time, and Egypt does not appear to be coming to the rescue.  King Zedekiah fears the Babylonians that will kill him if the city falls, fears the princes of Judah that will kill and overthrow him if he surrenders the city, fears everybody but God, who has sent Jeremiah to tell him to surrender, for it is God's will that Israel be exiled to Babylon.  Finally, Zed sends for Jeremiah and says, "Don't B.S. me, give it to me straight," to which Jeremiah says, "Why? You aren't going to listen anyway," and Zed replies, "No, really" (Where have we heard THAT before?)

So Jeremiah lays it out for Zed- he can do God's will, surrender the city, and the Babylonians will treat him as a prince in their own land.  Or, he can stand athwart God's will, fight to the bitter end, and the city will burn and everybody will pay.  But like I said, he feared everybody BUT God.  He warned Jeremiah not to say anything to anybody about it until he made up his mind, because he knew the princes would surely kill him if he entertained the idea of giving up.  As a result of his refusal to surrender, the city was destroyed, his sons were executed in front of him and his eyes put out  (so that their deaths would be the last thing he ever saw), and spent the rest of his life in chains in a Babylonian prison.

And so, our central demand of God- SURRENDER.  Surrender pride, the concept of being able to do it yourself.  The idea of having to be right, and the practice of your faith being a "Sunday thing".  Surrender the thought that there are more important things than God.  That is what a righteous God expects of you.  Strong's concordance sheds light on the consequence of refusal- the word translated "consume" in Joshua comes "from a primitive root, meaning 'to end.' "

Sunday Message

Since I have committed myself to everyday reading we have learned about God not being what we expect, and how it is we miss His touch in our lives.  We might subtitle this, "God's touch is not what we expect," because God's touch has a different goal in mind than the "magic genie" we often expect.

Monday's stop was in 2 Timothy 4.  This is a chapter where Paul is explaining to his protege that he expects the end to be coming soon.  He is imprisoned in Rome, and everyone has abandoned him because the political climate now runs against tolerance.  But Paul is not upset, because the goal for which he ran his race is before him; a crown of Righteousness, not only for himself, but for everyone who heard the words of the Gospel he preached.  The goal, then, is heaven; not just a smaller seat, but whatever glory we build through our works, with that glory built by leading others to that same goal.  The hardest lesson, perhaps, for the Christian to learn is that God's goal has nothing to do with what party is in power in Washington, or how many die of a particular disease, or whether we live in a mansion or a homeless shelter on earth.  It is always what lies beyond.

Tuesday I was led to I Kings 3.  This is the chapter where the newly coronated Solomon has his conversation with God about his need for a "hearing heart" to lead the people.  God then gives him wisdom beyond any man.  People unfamiliar with the story might think Solomon asked for wisdom, but that was not the case.  He clearly saw the goal that God had set before him (leading the people), and asked for what he felt he needed for the job- the ability to listen to God, that he might discern between good and evil.  Because he was focused on the goal, and came to God for what was needed rather than assuming he already knew what to do, God gave him much more than he asked for.

Wednesday's was similar- the story of the talents in Matthew 25.  Here, Jesus tells the story of a master who gave money (in the form of talents) to three servants while He was gone.  Two of them used the talents to the best of their ability.  When the Master returned, Each was blessed with even more than what they had worked for.  You see, they went out and used what the Master gave them, traded with it amongst the people.  One was given more than twice what the other was given and earned a like amount. But both were blessed the same, because the Master didn't expect the same of each of them- only that the effort was the same.  Just like not all of us are blessed to be preachers, or writers, some are only workers, housewives, "regular joes".  The Master expects that we use whatever we are given to its best, and will reward us accordingly.  The third servant not only didn't trade with it, he didn't even want to be seen with it.  Thus, he lost everything.

So, where the last two days show us a) if we ask with a God-focused heart, we are given, and b) if we work with our God-given gifts we are rewarded, the next two days speak more to the responsibilities that come with these things.  Thursday was a story told in three different Old Testament books- in 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 31-31, and in Isaiah 37-30- the story of King Hezekiah.  Hezekiah both had been given God's gifts in abundance, and was using them to God's glory by leading the people rightly and removing the idols that led them into sin.  But Hezekiah nonetheless found himself tested.  First he faced a problem he could deal with himself.  He had declared independance, and the Assyrian king had come to punish.  So, he took the resources available and solved the problem- he bought him off.  Then the problem grew worse- the same problem, only this time his own resources weren't going to be enough.  So he turned to God for his help, and God responded with a miraculous save- the king left without an attack and was subsequently dealt with in his own land.  The third time was more of an attack on his person rather than his responsibilites - he became deathly ill.  Again he turned to God in faith, and was saved.

The fourth time though, Isaiah says, he let God's invincibility go to HIS head.  Babylonian officials came to congratulate him on his miraculous recovery- but rather than giving the glory to God, he showed off his own glory- his storerooms of wealth.  He forgot it wasn't his wealth that turned away Assyria, or healed his body.  As a result, his own worth was tarnished by the knowledge that he was responsible for bringing the future attack of Babylon upon his people.  Lesson being that God will give to you- but He's also going to test your worthiness to hold what He has given.

And it's not only in how you react to adversity.  Friday, the reading was in James 2, where the Lord's brother chides the Jerusalem Church for giving people of "influence" precedence over the poor.  The rich were getting the best table, the most attention, to the detriment of the poor.  James explained to them that they were missing the point- they were acting out of judgement instead of mercy.  Mercy sets all men at the same level.  Lesson being that you will be tested not only on how you react to circumstance, but how you react to people.

Finally, we come to Saturday, which has been the "put it all together" day each of these three weeks.  And the reading was from Job 36. 
“Behold, God is exalted by His power;
Who teaches like Him?²³ Who has assigned Him His way,
Or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’? ²⁴ “Remember to magnify His work,
Of which men have sung.
²⁵ Everyone has seen it;
Man looks on it from afar.


As you can see, I highlighted two main points.  When we seek God's touch, we often don't understand- we don't direct Him.  He is the teacher, and He will direct us in the way He wills us to go.  And we forget that the goal is to "magnify His work".  Now, I realize in the context we are speaking of praise, but magnifying also means "to make bigger".  We make His work "bigger" by using our gifts to reach God's goals.  By making sure that we earn not only our own crowns, but lead others to earn theirs.  And that is the point of what this week's readings are getting at- first God's goal is THE goal; and second, our goal is to make greater His goal.

Sunday Message

Once upon a time I studied runic magic.  The runes are a way to study the world around you through both the trinities that God has built things around and the dualism in them.  One of the most powerful dualisms is that between the symbols Algiz (top) and Sowelo.  As I was taught, you learn a general meaning and then let it grow into your application; and at least for me, the symbol Algiz was man reaching for God, though he can never touch Him physically; Sowelo, the lightning bolt, is God touching man.  Turned on its side and doubled, the Nazis used it (the swastika) to symbolize man ruling over men as if he were god.

Reaching by man and touching by God is the subject of this week's study- how do we get touched by God, and what do we do to prevent it.  God allows Himself to be found by those who dilligently seek Him.  What blocks us on that search?

Day one:  Our own knowledge.  In Galatians 1, Paul is scolding them about "hearing a different Gospel than the one I preached".  He goes on to use himself as an example.  He was a zealous Jew, a pharisee "beyond many of my contemporaies in my own nation."  He knew the Law inside and out, and persecuted those who did not believe as he did.  But when Christ touched him, there was no knowledge or booklearning involved; he went into the desert and learned from Christ's revelation, apart from the Apostles or anyone else who had known Jesus.  It was when he ceased to believe he knew it all that Christ was able to use him.

Day two: Fear and guilt.  In Genesis 50, Jacob dies in Egypt, and even though some time has past, the sons of Jacob are worried at their future.  You see, they had betrayed their brother so many years ago by selling him into eventual slavery in Egypt, and they still lived with the guilt.  Moreover, Joseph had become powerful in Egypt, and they feared that their father's death removed the only thing keeping their brother from his revenge.  Joseph never saw it that way; he was bringing them into the blessings he had been given.  Their fear and guilt kept them from enjoying those blessings, and they even invented a story that Jacob himself had given word not to harm them.  But Joseph had only love in his heart, because everything that had happened to him was part of God's plan to bring them right where they were. It was only fear and guilt keeping God's blessings from them.

Day three: Failure to apply what you learn by asking questions.  God wants us to come into His word with questions.  I listened to a sermon Wednesday in which the pastor told a story to illustrate this point.  A young man named Glenn Chambers was killed in the crash of a plane headed to Quito, Ecuador.  He was going to fulfill his calling to work for the Christian radio station Voice Of The Andes, but the plane crashed on February 15th, 1947.  Before leaving the Miami airport that day, he had wanted to dash off a quick letter to his mother.  Having and finding no paper, he wrote it on a pice of advertisement in a newspaper he found lying on the floor.  The next day, his mother received both the news of her son's death and the note, which was written around the one bit of printing from the ad on the section he'd torn off.

One word: "Why".

To find her comfort, she would have to go to God with the "why" of what had happened.  And we as well, especially me, we're more likely to be hit with disaster and go to God with vitriol, anger, even hatred, and if we ask why, we're not really looking for an answer.  Or we go there, and don't understand that the answer is, "It is not for you to know yet."  What did Mrs. Chambers find when she asked?  From the story:

God is too kind to do anything cruel…Too wise to make a mistake…Too deep to explain Himself.

Mrs. Chambers stopped asking Why?…when she saw the Who behind he scene. All other sounds are muffled when we claim His absolute sovereignty. Even the deafening sound of a crashing DC-4.
Day four: We stop "being Algiz".  In Phillipians 3, Paul gives his famous discourse about not acting like we have already attained what God wished for us, but "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching foreward to those things that are ahead."  Sometimes we expect God to do the touching all on His own, with out our reaching.  But look at it this way.  Say you, in your struggles, are a drowning man in the water.  God is at the shore, and He tosses you a rope.  If you stop reaching once the rope is tossed, what happens?  You drown, because you didn't keep reaching foreward until you were pulled ashore. 

And how does one keep reaching?  Paul looks at it as running in a race.  Another way that I've always tried to keep in mind is in Psalm 107:23-32.  Our life's storms are like being trapped on a ship in a storm.  Step one, we call out for God's help (VV28-9).  But you know, anyone can call out when the storm is bad- what happens when the waves are stilled?  You are still at sea, and the storm can come back at any moment.  Look at what happens in verse 30:  "Then they are glad because (the storm) is quiet; so He guides them to their desired haven."   So you see, there are four elements here- call, response, thankgiving, deliverance.  It's not just what you do in the storm, but what you do after.  Heres another example, from Luke 17:
¹¹ Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^[a] met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴ When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵ One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.

Notice that some of them were healed, but only the one with praise and thanksgiving was MADE WELL.  The difference?  God, as they say, brings sunshine to the good and the evil, the loved and the unloved.  But the true healing- salvation- only comes with appreciating what was done with the rest of your life.

Day five:  Just like last week, day five is reserved for those under judgement.  In Ezekiel 4, we see how Ezekiel is told to make himself a human sign for falling Jerusalem.  He makes a clay model of the city, complete with the siegeworks that surrounded the city at that time due to the Babylonian army.  He then puts up an iron plate between himself and the "city", representing that the city will have no recourse to God to turn aside His wrath.  Finally, he is told to lie on his side facing the city, 390 days on one side to represent the years of sin that Israel will pay for, and 40 on the other to represent the years of Judah's sin alone.  And God finishes this instruction in verse 8 with:  "And surely I will constrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege."  Simply put, there are those who have consistantly refused the touch of God, who have refused to reach out to Him.  And they will be kept from doing so.

Day six:  The last reading this week came from the second chapter of Nehemiah.

1In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; 2so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

I was very much afraid, 3but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

4The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

 

Notice before Nehemiah explained what he wanted, he PRAYED.  That is how we reach, and if we want to be touched by God, that is where it starts.  Putting aside our pride and knowledge, setting aside our fear and guilt, opening ourselves to hear God's answer, and ready to reach for what He gives us.  Using prayer and praise and faith to remove the iron plate before us, that His touch can come through, and continuing to reach so He can pull us home.

The overarching message- week one

I mentioned earlier that my daily readings had taken on an overarching message.  The message is both simple and comple

GOD IS NOT WHAT YOU IMAGINE.

We started out, as you recall, with Monday's trip through Ezekiel 20, where we learned that, even for a Christian, continued sin leads to a separation from God.  This is a gap that we try to fill as best we can, but with our human perspective, we can only get so far.  That led us to the Tuesday reading in Acts 17, where we learn we cannot "art" our way or "imagine" our way to God.  So, in our study of why God is not what we imagine, we have the first two pillars- God is not what we imagine A) when we allow sin to put a distance between us, and B) when we try to fill that distance with our expectations.

Wednesday, I was taken to 2 Kings 5- the story of Naaman.  Basically, Naaman was a foreign dignitary who contracted leprosy, and was told that there was a prophet in Israel who could cure it.  He went to the king, who panicked- not being a man of faith himself, he thought Naaman was just setting up an excuse for Syria to attack Israel.  What followed is a microcosm of the beginning of a beliver's walk.  Elisha the Prophet commanded Naaman to come to him through his servant- just as God's people are commanded to bring those in need to the gospel.  When Naaman gets there, he is told his cure is a simple act of obedience- in this case, go in the Jordan and wash 7 times.  Now, Naaman has seen great rivers, and the Jordan ain't one of 'em, so he balks.  He expects this great miracle with fanfare and trumpets and a choir.  How many who look into Christ expect the same to be a part of their experience?  But sometimes, it just isn't.  The Jordan was the heart of Israel, and seven is the number of God- the whole idea was the simple concept of coming to God and doing an act of obedience.  Naaman's servant talked him into it ("If he had asked you to perform some great task, wouldn't you have done it?"), and sure enough, he was cured.

That brought us to two other expectations that Naaman (and we) have.  The first was, now, I'm expected to become this great evangelist, or I have to make this drastic change in how I live my secular life.  For Naaman, he promised to be faithful to the God of Israel- but if he changed where he worshipped, he'd be out of a job.  Would it be okay if he prayed in the temple of their god- but prayed to ours?  Elisha told him, "Go in peace."  In other words, you don't HAVE to go on a mission, or change to a job where nobody cusses and tells dirty jokes, or uproot your dealings with non-believers.  Like Paul told Onesimus, he didn't have to stop being Philemon's servant to be a Christian.  Be a Christian WHERE YOU ARE.  The second was when Elisha's idiot servant (after Elisha refused any payment) went and got reward from Naaman.  It didn't hurt Naaman any to give it; but the servant paid for his greed with Naaman's leprosy.  Lesson being, follow God, not the man.  The faithful who gave to Jim Bakker in faith didn't get hurt.  Bakker pays for his own sins.  And the overall message here, just as it was in Ezekiel- simple obedience is what God is after.

Thursday brought me to a passage so complex that it had to be read with a second one set 100 or so years later, with the key being one certain town.  Judges 20-21 tells the story of man's way to fix a problem.  Nutshelling it, a Levite blunders into a town of the Benjaminites that had a "Sodom" problem.  His concubine (who'd already ran off on him once) gets raped to death in his place, and he cuts her body up and sends it to the 12 tribes seeking vengeance.  After failing to convince Benjamin to clean up its own mess, they "consulted God"  (which actually amounted to throwing the priestly dice), and after two botched attempts, slaughtered the Benaminite tribe except for 600 men who fled.
Next, they start crying and blaming God for the fact that these six hundred are all that's left of the tribe, and they'll die out without wives (which they stupidly vowed not to supply them).  So they looked for a scapegoat, and that's where Jabesh-Gilead comes in, because they failed to show at the big meeting.  So they killed all of them, save for 400 virgins which they gave to the Benjaminites.  Of course, that left them 200 short, so they suggested they just steal wives from the neighboring town of Shiloh, and if anyone complains, just put it on our tabs.  Then they all went home, and the situation was summed up with the last verse of the book:  "In those days, there was no King in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes."  And what a job they did.

The parallel came in I Samuel 11, just after Saul was made King.  Once again we find a repopulated Jabesh-Gilead, and this time they are about to play the part of the concubine.  They get surrounded by the Ammonites, and the Ammonites say, "Sure, we'll let you surrender, as soon as we poke out all your right eyes and chop off your beards to humiliate you."  The townsmen said, "We'll get back to you," and sent for help.  Saul found out, and full of the Holy Spirit, summoned the tribes (by cutting up something actually usefull- a yoke of oxen) and with God guiding them, the following changes come to the story:

-EVERYONE shows up for the meeting, and God speaks to them through Saul and Samuel;
-they whup the Ammonites the first try, and no 600 escape;
-when the people sought a scapegoat (they wanted to follow up the victory by killing all those who didn't want Saul as king before), Saul ordered forgiveness instead;
-the problem was solved completely, and the people gathered afterwards to give the glory to God.

You could read the chapters yourself to get some of the other parallels, but here's the gist of what we're getting at:

Man's way was motivated by revenge and not righteousness (the Levite would likely never said a word about the sins of Benjamin if they hadn't killed his prostitute), where God's way was motivated by the Spirit and righteousness.

Man's way "consulted God", while God's way was God-led.

Man's way led to a patchwork of wrong solutions and incomplete answers, and in the end they walked away once they'd done enough damage, while God's way was one correct solution, correctly done, and the people praised Him when it was done.

Man's way was over an unworthy goal ( a concubine, who'd left him to go back to her father, which took him four months of sitting around before he was so motivated to get her; then he fed her to "the dogs", after which he wanted revenge), while God's way was worthy (to save people who'd appealed to Him for help).

Man's way sought a scapegoat, God's way forgave.

That brought me to Friday's reading, in Isaiah 63.  So far we've seen sin as a cause of misconceiving God, trying to fit God into our expectations as the means by which we misconceive God, and seeking glory over simplicity, wrong motives, and wrong "consulting with God" as ways we accomplish it.  But here, we come to another misconception- that God will, in the end, let everyone off the hook.  The passage is an apocolyptic prophecy, that starts with a speaker who does not know Jesus questioning His actions at the Final Judgement.

Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendor,
striding forward in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, proclaiming victory,
mighty to save.”

² Why are your garments red,
like those of one treading the winepress?

³ “I have trodden the winepress alone;
from the nations no one was with me.
I trampled them in my anger
and trod them down in my wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
and I stained all my clothing.
⁴ It was for me the day of vengeance;
the year for me to redeem had come.
⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help,
I was appalled that no one gave support;
so my own arm achieved salvation for me,
and my own wrath sustained me.
⁶ I trampled the nations in my anger;
in my wrath I made them drunk
and poured their blood on the ground.”

 

Those who are ignorant of God will have no escape.  In our day of tolerance and touchy-feely "faith", this is the part everyone wants to cast aside, under the excuse that "a god of love wouldn't do such a thing."  But that concept isn't one of understanding God as love; it's a concept of Satan telling us "there are no consequences for sin."  The chapter goes on with prayer of thankfulness and pleas for redemption from the remnant, but the point lies in this and in this verse later on:

 

Like a horse in open country,
they did not stumble;
¹⁴ like cattle that go down to the plain,
they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord.
This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name.

 

The Spirit of God leads those who believe; the rest face judgement.  Period.  And if you are busy like Naaman making excuses (I'll have to change jobs, I'll look silly, etc.), you could lead yourself into this greatest misconcepiton of all.

 

And Saturday?  The week ends with a single verse that makes the end pieces to each side.  I could have easily started this whole thing with the first part of Mark 4:11:

 

¹¹   (Jesus)told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you...

As Christians, the Secrets have been given to us.  And we can understand the parts we don't blind ourselves to with sin and false expectations.  But the rest of the verse (and the next) explain why there is still going to come the day of Isaiah 63:

...But to those on the outside all things come in parables ¹² so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’^[a]”

Did you get that- "all things come in parables"?  A parable is defined as:

1.

a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

2.

a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.

To those who do not believe, life is just a story that has an indirect meaning.  Our life on earth is a parable that illustrates heaven.  And if we don't set misconceptions aside and seek out God, we'll never get to the true meaning.
 

Sunday Message

In the last week or so I happened to mention the Woman at the Well story in John 4. And something inside it has opened a double edged lesson for me.

As you know, I have often jousted with atheists.  Unfortunately, it is hard to score points in matters of faith with those to whom faith is anathema.  For, according to Logic, "Why would a God who requires worship not reveal Himself?"  Sound logic, I guess, but the problem becomes that, while I will put myself in their shoes to understand their point, they will never afford me that same courtesy.  Or, in doing so, they just can't take it far enough to make sense to them.  But I was thinking in listening to a couple of preachers tonight (Yes, this one is written ahead.)

Say that you are God.  Your purpose in creating man is to make a people peculiar to You, that is tried in the fire, winnowed from the chaff, and completely loyal, which is what You as Creator deserve.

To do that, these people have to be presented with choices so they can choose You.  And the one attribute more than any others that is the opposite of the Love You wish to share with them is pride.  Pride tells them that they are more than You, that they don't need You, that the Universe doesn't need You.  So Pride has to be the main thing winnowed away.  But how to do that?

That is why You choose faith to be Your winnowing staff.  Not faith as in, "I have faith the sun will come up tomorrow," but spiritual Faith, described in Hebrews 11:1 as " Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  The belief in a reality beyond our own, and yet very much our own.

Here's where logic can help.  If you wanted to trip up those who believe that man is the pinnacle of evolution, of existance, how better to do so than with faith?  For it is a concept that they can never accept without tearing down the temple of their self-perception and thinking in an entirely new, non-logical way.  Or to put it another way- if God wanted to winnow out those who would never truly believe on Him, what better way than requiring faith?

But it goes deeper than that.  Now suppose your brand of logic brings you to the point where you believe that there is a God.  Whether as a "Hairy Thunderer" or a disembodied "force" or even a disinterested experimentor- or even Jesus Christ after some fashion-you accept that a divine being exists.  History shows us that the natural reaction at this point is to find a way to please that God.  Sacrifices, rituals, laws and regulations.  Somewhere, somehow, there is a way that you can make yourself acceptable to this God.  And this is pride as well- the "I can do it" complex that we all have.  But God wants to shave this away from His peculiar people, too.  What better way to do so than to require, as Luther termed it, "Justification by faith alone"?  Because the whole of the Old Testament is about showing man that, first, he cannot make himself acceptable, and then, that the Law cannot make him acceptable.  And the whole of the New Testament is the hope that comes from Christ having made us acceptable when we could not.

But it goes another step deeper, and this is where we have to refer, if but for a moment to the Woman's story.

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

So, what does "In spirit and in truth" mean?  Read the context.  True worship is not about the building you worship in, nor even the denomination you worship with.  Romans 10:9 lays the groundwork for heaven: "That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved."  That is the Spirit end of things, because it is the Spirit that leads you to this point.  But what then?  One of the pastors I listened to tonight was speaking on the story of the prophetess Deborah in Judges 4.  His point being that Deborah's job was to proclaim to the Israelite general Barak (which is going to seem highly ironic in a second) that God was going to put the enemy general Sisera the Canaanite into his hands- all Barak had to do was obey.  But Barak was afraid, didn't have enough faith of his own, and would only lead the troops against Sisera if Deborah came along.  Thus Deborah told him,

⁹ “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” ( I think I know another Barack who may someday learn that lesson.)

The point the pastor was making is that if God gives us a task, faith should compell us to act without requiring just the right conditions.  That many people who go all the way to Spirit then just sit there in their pew and let someone else take care of the Truth.  Doesn't mean they have to evangelize or teach or be a missionary, just do what you can in your everyday life, according to the gifts you were given, to act on the FAITH you supposedly have.  In other words, what better way to winnow out those who have faith from those who don't than requiring them to then act on that faith?

In summary of this last part, Spirit is the part of worship where we let the spirit guide us into faith; and truth is acting based on that faith in our lives.  Dear Lord, help me to worship in truth as well as spirit.

And summing up the rest, you can see that far from being "illogical", my dear Sarek, Faith is the most logical way for God to build the people he desires.  Because the people He wants must be able to let go of pride and humble themselves to Him.

Monday message.

Yesterday I heard a sermon on the Prodigal Son.  Now, the first thing we need to look at here that we might well not realize is the meaning of the word "prodigal".  I have been guilty of using it the wrong way myself, even after I knew the true meaning.  Many who don't look into things think it means one who has left and come back, but it doesn't go that far into the story.  It means wasteful.  As in the younger son went out and wasted everything.  But he wasn't the only one wasting.

The story began with Jesus defending His work with the tax collectors and other downtrodden, whom the pharisees, self-appointed judges of righteousness, wouldn't touch.  The Pharisees looked down on Jesus for His association with them, for wouldn't a prophet rather be with the "holy"?  So Jesus first told them two stories that pointed out that His job on earth was to seek out such as these, the lost children of Israel, that their repentance would be the thing that brought God joy.  But it wasn't getting through, because the Pharisees couldn't get past that "fact" that they were "better" than these.

So Jesus told a third story, and for most of us, this story starts with a son who left home, hit bottom, and ends with his father forgiving him.  But that's only half the story.

At the younger son's (the so-called prodigal) request, the inheritance was divided in thirds, because by Jewish law, the elder son got two-thirds.  I think we get the impression that the father tallied everything and "cashed out" the younger son, but actually he was given his share of everything- sheep, cattle, etc.  And after he sat there on the family plot for a while, he gathered all his possessions and left.So he didn't just go out on some bender, he truly was starting a new life, with no intent of going home.

But he mismanaged his assests, blew all that he had, and soon was at rock bottom, working for (of all detestable things to Jews) a hog rancher- and he wasn't making much more than room and board.  He got so hungry that he was slobbering over the food he gave the hogs.

This was, in Jesus' story, the tax collectors.  They had taken on a reprehensible job.  Not only were they scorned (with good reason) by their countrymen, but their means of existance required them to extort from their neighbors to earn a living.  Wonder why the Bible never talked about rich tax collectors?  Because the actual taxes went to Rome (or who passed for Rome in the area) and their living was based on whatever they collected OVER the fair taxes.  You had to sell a bit of your soul everytime you ate your crust of bread in such an arraingement, and they had to feel themselves the lowest of the low.

So finally the younger prodigal decided, "I need to go back to my father and beg forgiveness.  Being a servant for him is better than being a slave here."  IOW, he had to ADMIT he'd been wrong, and ask for forgiveness with full knowledge of the Asshat he had been.  He left in pride of place; now he would have to go back humbly, seeking no more than a servant's job- and realizing he didn't deserve THAT much.

But not only did his father forgive him, he'd been waiting for him to come home.  He had him cleaned and put his own robe on him; gave him the signet ring that indicated he had returned to the position he had rejected- that of "son"- and put sandals on his feet, which servants didn't get to wear.  IOW, he was "re-adopted" back into the family.  I don't think I have to spend a lot of time on the analogy that this is of our process of forgiveness.

But then go on, and read Luke 15:25-32.  Here we see our other prodigal- the elder son- getting upset over the "salvation" of the younger son.  He points out to dear ol' dad that he never left, he's been right here with him all these years, and he "never gave me a young goat to make merry with my friends".  And isn't it funny that this son, who was given 2/3 of everything, still wants dad to supply his goats? Oh, it's not that, you say, he just wanted to be TREATED the way the younger is getting treated.  Never stopping to think that by allowing him to stay and serve him, the father made it so he never had to go through what the younger son did.

This is where the elder son was prodigal as well.  He had all the advantages of being with this kind loving father- but was still stuck on possessions and position, and apparently never once appreciated his father, or learned the traits of love, patience, and above all forgiveness that his father possessed.  Or to put it another way, he WASTED the good things he had by not using them to become more like his father.

And these were the Pharisees- so blinded by pride of position that they failed to use the gifts of the knowledge of God that they had to benefit anyone but themselves.  In our minds, we usually think of the elder son as the good son, and the younger as the bad son.  But in reality, Jesus was painting a much different story.  The coda to this parable can be found in two spots-the first in Luke 18:10-14 when he tells the difference between the Pharisee's "devotion" and that of the tax collector ("Be merciful to me, o Lord, a sinner"); and the other in Matt. 23:15 where Jesus aptly describes the lessons they "learned" from their father ("woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of Hell as yourselves!").

Now it took me till last night to get to the application, because of trying to add things I thought important to a simple lesson.  A fellow blogger, Elise, has been posting about what I would call extreme forgiveness.  Another has been struggling with her faith as she watches her mother go through cancer treatments.  I wanted to find a way to salute Elise's forgiveness, as it is at a level I would think a lot closer to the prodigal's father than my own.  And to the other, I wanted to express how even the great gifts of God on earth are ephemeral; even those Jesus brought back from the dead, such as Lazarus, eventually died.  It is the gifts of forgiveness, such as the father gave the younger son, that in the end were more important to him than all the possessions he was given beforehand.

But application has to start with me, and with me that application is to appreciate the things God has given me.  I've been posting about the new job and the lack of doing things that has gone on with it (Hopefully it has been "humourous" and not "whiney").  But, it is a job I can do.  And it is a job that I have.  And it is a job I can come home from after 8 1/2 hours, instead of say being a solider in Afghanistan where there is no coming home to the barcolounger and a cold one at the end of a hard day.  And I come home to a home that has my two best friends, rather than a one room shack for one person, or a mat at the shelter, or just to an empty house.  Application means not whining to God about "the goat to share with my friends" that I don't have.

Most of all, application means learning from My Father the spirit of love, patience, and forgiveness that He has.  Being the younger son, the so-called Prodigal, was never the problem.  Being the elder son is.

Tuesday message (?) and fantasy football

Last night, instead of having one raccoon wake us up three times,  it was two raccoons doing it twice.  After a bathroom trip, I tried to get back to sleep at 9... and as usual paid for it with a very unenjoyable dream (Hint to those of you that believe dreams are warnings:  NEVER combine a bank and a laundromat.)  So by the time I did force myself up, I was achy, whiny, not really happy with things.

But I am also smart enough to know that my body's aches and pains (and my mind's unwillingness to work at a job) are nothing compared to what a LOT of others are going through.  Some of you reading are going through stuff; I have a friend right nopw who'll be coming back to Ft. Wayne soon for a while to help her dad through his second (or third, I lose track) health breakdown since the summer.  And, I found out Sunday that an aunt had passed away- albeit one I really didn't know (in fact, when my sister called me, I told her I thought she had already passed, and my sister said, "Don't feel bad! John {brother # 2} didn't remember who she even was!"). 

And so, as Scrappy and I took our walk, I prayed.  I prayed for these dear people- and you guys- and mused to God that He set things up so that "we have to live on earth so we don't forget to appreciate heaven".  And went back through many of the things about "being stuck here" that I've went through with you right here in the past.  I thought about the many comments I've had on Sunday's message, especially the one I read this morning from Skippy, and how my job here on earth has seemed to be messing up six days a week, learning a lesson about what I've done on Sunday morning, and sharing it with you (actually, it was more like, "why not just have me exist only on Sunday, and put me in a closet the rest of the week?" "because then you don't need the lesson", etc.).  And finally I came to a point and prayed, "I wish You would start me over from scratch, keep the good parts, and throw out all the rest."

And that still, small voice that Christians know and atheists fail to grasp said, "I already have."

Isn't it wonderful that God can answer 15 minutes of legitimate prayers and petitions mixed with a lot of lazy, self-serving whining in just three words?

_______________________________

Now, on to football.  Once again, Laurie rose to the (unasked but appreciated) task of keeping most of the scores.  The Beagles overcame having three out of four receivers on the bye week- mostly through the amazing night Aaron Rodgers had against Houston- to post a 39-26 win over the B2s.  The Beagles win their third straight and the B2s (who had two out of three RBs off) lost their third straight, despite that 15-point Rothlesberger to Wallace TD pass.

The KCAs break out of their mini-slump, breaking the Beagles' high point mark for the season with an 84-36 romp over the Elks.  I suppose we should thank Phillip Rivers- it was his Monday night miscues that netted Denver's D 25 points to push the score.  But Ray Rice and AJ Green had already chipped in 27 to make it a foregone conclusion.

The Angels win for the second time this year, parlaying 12 Josh Freeman points and a Monday night TD from Denarious Thomas into a 44-35 win over the Ducks.

The Aguas opened a can on the Clock BBQs, getting 12-spots from Dez Bryant and Arian Foster for a 53-33 victory.  Christian Ponder got 8 points in his first start for CBBQs.

In a game still in doubt going into last night, Phillip Rivers couldn't outscore Eric Decker (at least not for his OWN team), and Buzz hangs on to a 30-19 win over the formerly-streaking Greenwoods.

And finally, the still-streaking Porkchops win their third straight, 51-29 over the Rangers.  Shaun Greene amazingly led the 'Chops with his 3 TDs, and the once promising Rangers' season has turned into 3 losses in their last 4 games.




The season's second half starts with a repeat of week four, with the Beagles and Angels (that was the game the Beagles won 83-32), KCAs and Rangers (the last time the Rangers managed to win a game, 33-17), the Aguas and Greenwoods ( the Elves won the 47-46 shootout last time), the Clock BBQs and Ducks (CBBQ 48-42), Buzz and B2s (Buzz started the B2 losing streak 46-18), and the Porkchops and Elks ('Chops 41-39).  The Elks are due; they haven't won since they beat Buzz in the season opener (wow, a five-game losing streak!), but Porkchop has averaged 51 points the last three games, and the Elks are averaging 34 for the year (ironically enough, winning their one game with 34 points).

Sunday message

With a new job and a new schedule come adjustments, especially in sleep patterns.  Thus I woke up just for the tail end of David Jeremiah's sermon this morning (though I didn't stop there), but it was the most important part for me.  Dr. Jeremiah was talking on the subject "God is Love", and how He loves everyone- even those who haven't accepted His Son and found their salvation. He reminded us of Romans 6:23:  "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  You see, God loves us even though we haven't accepted this gift; the rub being we cannot enter heaven without it.  But because He loves us, He will wait a LONG time before giving up on us.   "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."  2 Peter 3:9.  And because of that, I had to review how I pray.

You see, I have never been slack myself about engaing with atheists.  But whether it is responding to the infinitely silly question from one blogger:  "Okay, Creationists, why didn't God give us the ability to travel in space?" (Yup, actual question asked); or  trying to get past the notion that a "real" God should think and reason as we do, it is hard to get an atheist to really listen.  Many consider that they "already know it all", claiming "I've been brought up in a church/I've read the Bible, along with the Quran, etc." and refusing to believe that there is more to it than that.  Because you cannot get them to understand that God wants more than that, He wants a personal relationship.  That's when they go into "Easter Bunny mode" generally.  And even if you are willing to play the "what if" game with their beliefs, they will not extend you the same courtesy; any reasoning you use, they will dismiss without even hearing, "but if God exists", and tell you they won't continue the conversation because you are deluded.

And yet I try, not trying to make a point, but because God cares about them- and so should I.  I don't know how many times I have said, "I do this because I care about you," only to be met with the attitude, "I don't need your caring because God doesn't exist.  If I gave them a gift they didn't need at a birthday party, a reasonable person would say, "That's okay, thanks for the thought." Because they would accept the caring that went into it, whether it was the right gift or not.  Care about an atheist this way, and because God is in the equation, you get, "You've done nothing for me."  But they are the free thinkers.

And I bring this up not to attack them, but to explain my state of mind during these set-tos.  I don't get pissed for myself (though I do get mad for God's sake at blasphemy), or get a case of hurt pride.  But I get frustrated, and depressed.  Because Satan has chosen to erect a wall of "I can't hear you" in these people, and they will not listen, even when you use the same rules of logic they profess to follow.  It hurts.  And I am confessing right here that, in times when you are constantly barraged with groups putting up anti-God billboards, when our President tells us Muslims kill Americans because Christians are evil, when it seems half our population lives to kill and rob and rape before they can be killed or robbed or be raped,   it just doesn't seem worth it to care about these people anymore.  And you begin to pray that God finally gives up on them and brings His judgement this day, this hour.  "Look at them, God, you can't save them if they won't hear.  Isn't it time to just bag it all?"

I'll admit to that prayer at least once a month.  But when I put together my golden, logical case for ending it all, what God hears is,  "God, you are being foolish.  You love these people but they will never love you.  Why waste your time?"  Which is me making three mistakes.

First, God is never foolish.  And He's certainly not foolish because He " is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness".  He waited 2,000 years on my undeserving ass.  Was that so foolish?
Second, I am judging others as irredeemable.  If God wants to send out both combines to get the masses and gleaners afterwards to get the bits and pieces, who am I to judge how He tills his farm?  It's not like I'm the choicest ear off the stalk.
Third, it's not a waste of time if one person gets to avoid eternal damnation.  Ask the person who doesn't avoid it.

Lately, I have prayed keeping in mind the story of the widow and the corrupt judge from Luke 18.  For those who don't remember, it goes like this:

"1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”

6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

 

 

Another way the bold verse is put is "Avenge me against my Adversary", and that is the prayer I have been praying for myself and others.  Because the Adversary is Satan, and this prayer, to me, is the same as the line from the Catholic Prayer to St. Michael, "...defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil."  When I pray for the judgement day, I have to make sure it is because I am asking God's will be done, and not because I have mistaken the people around me for the Adversary.  Better then to pray, "Avenge them, Lord, against THEIR adversary."  I don't have to heap hot coals on their heads.  I just desire for them to hear.

 

Digestion: Sunday + 1 Message

I actually have three different stories here that lead to my point, that point being to be effective Christians, we need to know the task assigned us.  Sound familiar?

I told you yesterday that I had heard two effective, moving sermons that I needed to "digest" before turning into messages.  About twenty minutes ago as I type, digestion on one of them occurred.

This was a sermon by David Jeremiah on the raising of Lazarus.  One (just one) of his main points comes with the fact that while Jesus Himself did the miraculous, He made the people gathered do the "mundane" tasks of rolling back the tomb and unwrapping Lazarus.  At first glance, this seems like the glorious TV surgeon who walks into the operating theatre, makes a few cuts and stitches, grabs a towel to clean his hands, and says, "Close up for me" as he leaves.  But it's not, not when you frame it in terms of the Christian's new life.  We are expected to "roll back the stone" by the preaching of the Gospel and witnessing; Jesus miraculously comes into their heart; and then it is our responsibility to "unwrap" the newbie by teaching him the Gospel.

Now one of the things I always mentally do during most any sermon is look for the "other-testamental analogue"; that is, if something happens in one Testament, it often has a similar occurance in the other.  Here, I saw that analogue as Saul's big sin in I Samuel 13.  Saul was the first King of Israel, and counted on guidance from the priest Samuel, the nation's spiritual leader.  Saul had gathered the army of Israel for war against those pesky Phillistines.  Samuel instructed Saul to wait seven days until he came to do the proper sacrifices.  But just as Jesus had tarried days before arriving at Bethany- with Lazarus dying as a result- Samuel tarried past the seven days.  The ever-fearful Israelites began to slowly go AWOL, and Saul  knew he had to do something before the army dispersed.

But he did the wrong thing- he took up the job of Samuel and did the sacrifices himself before the people all scattered.  Not surprising when you figure at his annointing he was found hiding in the baggage (I Sam 10:22).  He took on the task of God (or at least his chosen servant) instead of doing his own job- rallying the troops.  Even when his successor David was crushed by the kidnapping of his own families, he knew the job at hand was to rally the troops (I Sam 30), and he did so.  Saul, as temporal leader, should have spoken to his men, encouraging them through the waiting, that they didn't lose heart until Samuel got there.  Instead, he lost heart and panicked, and tried to do something that God reserved to Himself.  And thus, he lost everything.

Which brings me to my final story.  FoxNews reported yesterday that nearly 1,000 pastors, under the guidance of a group called Alliance Defending Freedom, are going to play a game of dare ya with the IRS.  Every election year, the IRS warns pastors that preaching politics from the pulpit is against the Establishment Clause in the Constitution, and could result in the loss of their church's tax-exempt status.  Generally, the IRS is all bluster and rarely does anything about violations.   This group is going to preach politics anyway in an effort to force the IRS to act, at which point they will take it into the courts and try to get the action overturned as a free-speech issue.

Many Christians will loudly say, "Of course it's a free speech issue! Why shouldn't pastors be able to guide their flock in any way their conscience leads them?"  And I agree- to a point.  And the point of Saul is that point.

A pastor's job when preaching is twofold: evangelize and edify.  Or, if you will, "roll away the rock" and "unwrap Lazarus".  The goverment's job is "lead the citizens" or, again if you will, "rally the troops".  If a note about politics is a tangetal issue in a message that brings the Gospel and enlightens the faithful toward the Word Of God, so be it.  But if a sermon is focused on candidate, issue, platform, or personality, it has no part in a church.  If a pastor feels the need to speak his mind on a political subject, there are rallies and speaking opportunities by the score.  Let him go there.  The church is for the preaching of the Gospel. Period.  And there will be repercussions for crossing that line- just as there was for Saul.

You ask why it is that there is such a severe battle going on about whether "a Christian shouldn't vote" one way or the other?  Why Christians cannot even agree on what SHOULD  be preached about politics?  Because pastors HAVE preached politics from the pulpit... while the army slowly drifts away.  A good exmple of this is the Catholic Church preaching for years in the battle against abortion and renmoving prayer from school- both solidly Democrat ideals- while their parishes have voted Democrat for every Presidential election except Reagan's two terms and Nixon's second. There are more than enough people discussing politics and what it means to the voter's moral stands.  Preacher, you want to keep your congregation, the Church in America, from drifting away? PREACH GOD.

I have never been afraid here to say when I think Christians are fighting the wrong battle.    And perhaps it is not the wrong battle.  But the pulpit is the wrong place.