repair the breach

On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;  in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this. The time is surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God. (Amos 9:11-15, NRSV)

God will raise up the fallen, and restore what has been destroyed to what it was before…

He will rebuild it as it was, so that His will will be done!

Things will not go as we think they should, the plower will over take the reaper and the one who picks will over take the one who plants…

Everything will happen in God’s time and He will restore us to what He created us for, so His will will be done.

Know there is nothing you can do that God can not repair…

 

proper place

proper placeYour mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water. Its strongest stem became a ruler’s scepter it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it stood out in its height with its mass of branches. But it was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground; the east wind dried it up; its fruit was stripped off, its strong stem was withered; the fire consumed it. Now it is transplanted into the wilderness, into a dry and thirsty land. And fire has gone out from its stem, has consumed its branches and fruit, so that there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for ruling. This is a lamentation, and it is used as a lamentation. (Ezekiel 19:10-14, NRSV)

I read this verse several times to say just what are you saying…

A branch will flourish if it is planted in the proper location. If a vine is planted in a vineyard and is connected to the branch it will flourish and grow and produce. It can become the strongest branch and be like the staff of a king!

But if it is dried up, or plucked from the branch or burned it will not produce fruit and will not be like the staff of a king.

When we are removed from the presence of out King, our Father, our Lord, we will be like a dried up plucked from the proper place, burned in a fire branch.

We will lament. We will not be worth anything if we are removed from the presence of God, but in that proper place… Oh the fruit we will bring…

Crazy…

Crazy Agape Love“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”  Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-46, NRSV)

I will admit it. I do not like this text…

However I read something this week that Martin Luther said. “Martin Luther once said that sometimes you have to squeeze a biblical passage until it leaks the gospel.”

This passage needs a good hard squeeze and some massaging to get the gospel out. This is one of those weeks I will have a hard time saying, “The gospel of our Lord.” Or “The good news of our Lord.” Just where is it.

I mean really, the tenants are just crazy! The kill the servants when they come for what rightfully belongs to the landowner. But think for a moment, if the landowner planted and dug the wine press, it take a while for the vineyard to produce, so maybe these tenants have been here for at least 5 years, because that is the amount of time from planting to pay out. So here comes the servants wanting the landowners portion, and these tenants are like, “what do you mean we have been busting our buts for 5 years and here you come to take it away from us?”

So the kill the first servants, and the seconds…

And then the son comes, and they think that maybe if we kill the heir, the landowner will die away and we can get the land…

Really?

Crazy!

But who is crazier, the tenants or the landowner?

I mean really if you were the landowner would you send more servants after the first ones are beat and killed? Most of us would call the police, or send in our armies…

But the landowner sends in 2 sets of servants to get what is His, and when they are killed, He sends His son. What did He really think was going to happen?

So then Jesus asks the leaders a question, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” The leaders responded, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

So since God is the landowner and the leaders the tenants, they just condemned themselves, because Jesus asked the question and they answered it…

But this all invites us to not answer “What would the landowner do?” but “What did the landowner do?”

And what did the landowner do? The landowner sent his son, Jesus. To help us see how we have hoarded God’s blessings to ourselves, and given out what He gave to us to give away. And when we did not like what the son had to say, we killed Him, and when we killed Him, the landowner raised Him up from the dead, and sent Him back to us one more time.Still telling us how crazy in love with us His Father is!

So live in the crazy love that God has for you, knowing that He will give it as many times as you need it, regardless of what you do to Him. He loves you that much!

 

Help me!

Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all day long. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. (Psalm 86:1-13, NRSV)

With all of my trust in you God, help me!

Hear me when I call and incline my heart to follow your ways.

Guide my steps and lead me down the path that you have set before me.

You are abounding in steadfast love and call us all to follow after you, hear me cry out to you and ask you to help me!

Guide my every step and help me to follow you so that my life may be a beacon to your love for me and for all!

You have delivered me and I trust you always will!

Mirror

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. (James 1:19-25, NRSV)

Have you ever done that?

Looked in the mirror and walked away or turned away and forgotten what you looked like?

I honestly never have…

But I can honestly say that I have heard the word of God and not done it…

And I think we could all say that if we were honest.

We are hearers of the word and doers of the word that are easy or convenient for us to do. When it comes to the hard stuff we shy away.

We say that is for some other part of the body and not me.

But we are called to be followers of Jesus and must hear the word and do it.

When it is convenient and when it isn’t!

We must show the world what it means to be loved by Jesus and to follow Him.

Complete Joy!

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (John 15:9-17, NRSV)

If you love me you will keep my commandments…

Interesting…

You see Jesus never said, “In order for you to earn my love you have to follow my commandments.”

He told us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and those are love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”

You see God chose you to be His hands and feet to go and share His love with all of the world. He gave us His commands so that we could love ona another!

And the reason we are to love, so that we may have His joy, and because of that our joy may be complete!

If we can follow His commands and love God and each other, then there will be complete joy!

And I do not know anybody who doesn’t want complete joy!

change

ChangeThis picture is a postcard I got a while ago while I was pastor at a previous congregation I served. It was an advertisement for a book from Spark House. I was not interested in the book, but I was interested enough in the saying to keep the card on my bulletin board.

Change is something we try to avoid, because change is hard even if it is good change. It is hard to do things different, to not do it the same old way.

But the problem with that sometimes leads us to hope things will be different even when we do the same things! Albert Einstein is attributed with saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” If we always do things the way we have, nothing will ever change, no matter how hard we wish it would!

I say all of this, because there are changes happening. Some of them you will notice, and others may go without even causing a ripple. Some of them will affect some of you greatly, and others of you may or may not even see a difference. But if it affects one of us, it affects us all!

And my hope is the changes will affect us all. I hope and pray that we will learn how to talk with each other about our faith. Thus helping us to better understand our faith and better be able to share it in the world around us. I hope and pray we will all be disciples of Jesus, helping each other grow in our faith and deeper in relationship with Jesus.

You see we are all learners and teachers. We are helpers and leaders. We are all a part of the body of Christ and we need each other!

So if something has changed and you need to talk about it, my door is open, please come and have a chat! All of us are in this together and we need everyone to be a part of God’s mission so that we can change the world!

Because the change God has for the world is better than any change it will get from the vending machine!

seek the Lord

SeektheLordSeek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 55:6-13, NRSV)

Forsake the things that do not lead you to the Lord!

If you leave behind the things that separate you from God, He will accept your repentance and be found to you in a way which you may not have known before!

He will pardon you sins and see not your iniquity.

But that is the thing, what separates you from God? You need to leave that behind and seek after Him, for His ways are not our ways, and what is right for us in our relationship with God may or may not be the right thing for someone else.

We need to identify what it is that keeps us from God and leave it behind, and allow God to take its place in our life, so we will know His ways, and the over abundance of blessings He has for us!

So seek the Lord and allow Him to show you His ways!

Refreshing

In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’ And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:18-26, NRSV)

Have you ever really needed a drink?

Needed water so bad, that when it crossed your lips it was the best tasting substance that had ever entered your mouth?

Luke is reminding the community here in Acts, when we turn around and seek the Lord, that He will be present in our lives and will bring about times of refreshing simply ny being in His presence!

Jesus’ presence is the drink of water when we are parched! It is the presence in our lives that makes our lives!

So turn around and see Him waiting to give you the refreshing life you have always wanted!

Return

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like that of Lebanon. They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom like the vine, their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; your faithfulness comes from me. (Hosea 14:1-8, NRSV)

Does it feel like everything is falling apart?

Is it feeling like the harder you try to go a step forward you fall three steps back?

Like you can’t make any progress, and no matter what you do it never seems to work?

Maybe you are like Israel in our reading…

You have stumbled in your iniquity…

Return to the Lord!

He is waiting right behind you for you to turn around and throw yourself into His arms, and take the salvation He is giving you!

Nothing but God can save you, and all you need to do is return to the Lord!

He is waiting to walk with you through the darkness, to pick up the pieces, and put the blessings He has for you where they need to be in your life!