Closed door revolution

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors to the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:19-31 NRSV)

Did they get it?

The 10 disciples were in a room with the doors locked. They were afraid they were going to get the same sentence as their master, death…

And why shouldn’t they worry? I mean all Jesus did was love the unloved. All Jesus did was show the last, lost, least, little the time of day and help them see they are actually there and deserved attention.

But do we get it either? I mean they have a reason because they were part of a revolution…

But did they get it? The doors were locked. Jesus came in and gave them peace. But since Thomas wasn’t there they obviously all did not get it. You see a whole week later, Jesus returns to the same upper room, doors still closed and there they all are. And again Jesus gets through the closed doors and gives them peace.

I don’t think we should give ourselves a hard time for being slow, when the disciples didn’t get it quickly. But something did happen. The doors were locked the first week, then the next week they were closed, but it didn’t say they were locked. They were still working it through but they made it from locked to closed…

So we are also like the disciples. Slow but moving where we need to be. And also like the disciples we are part of a revelation. Jesus sent the disciples as He was sent, just as we are sent.

So go and be a part of the revolution of love, knowing that Jesus goes with you.

seeing isn’t believing…

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Luke 24:36-40, ESV)

Why is it when a person or angel appears to someone in the Bible the first thing they say is “Peace be with you”?

Just think about it for a moment. You are one of the 12 disciples (yes there were 12 disciples, only 11 are pictured above because one did something unmentionable, but that is a post for another day…(suffice it to say I do not believe Judas is as bad as we, or the Bible, make him out to be)) and the person you followed for 3 years, and just watched get arrested and put on trail, and murdered is now standing on front of you talking to you… What would you reaction be? I would scream like a little girl (no offense to little girls) and run as fast as I could. It would scare me until I would probably have to go and change my robes…

He gives them peace so they do not freak out. But He still knew they thought He was a ghost. So he told them to see His hands and His feet and the holes there, and to touch him, and see. But did any of them actually touch Him? If you read the next few verses in Luke, they do not.

And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

He eats some fish to prove that He is not a ghost. He told them to touch Him, and even after they have heard His teaching for 3 years and then seen the fruits of His teaching come back to life and stand before them they still do not hear Him or listen to Him…

Even Thomas in our readings tomorrow will get a bad rap for doubting. And Jesus told him to touch Him, but he didn’t either. (And Thomas is here in the Luke account of the story…)

So do we believe when we have not touched and seen? When the disciples could touch and see and didn’t and had a hard time believing Him when they were with Him.

This is where faith comes in, and Christ’s peace fills us and leads us to believe what He has told us is true, even when we can’t “see”.

Because “seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing!” (Santa Clause 3)

Praise the Lord

Praise the Lord ! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord ! Praise the Lord! (Psalms 150:1-6 ESV)

Do you feel like praising the Lord all of the time?

Does everything always go the way you want them to? (If so that is a different topic but I would say that means you are not actually following God…)

I have been without a call for almost 14 months and my families financial situation has gone from bad to worse. I have had to get a day job as a pre-k teaching assistant. I love working with the kids. It is kind of an extension of my call. The thing I have not lost through all of this is my lovely wife who has supported me and my family, my wonderful girls who are a blessing from God, or my faith in my savior who I know is always by me and with me.

So I can  say, I have not always wanted or felt like my situation had me in a mood to praise, but I have always praised my God with every breath of my life. Because without Him I truly am nothing and lost forever. But with God I can withstand anything this world will throw at me!

So in everything you do praise the Lord!

Signs and wonders…

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. (Acts 5:12-16, ESV)

No one else but the apostles dared to join the gathering in Solomon’s Portico… Because they held them in high esteem…

Is this the reason people are shying away from our gatherings now? Because they are holding believers in such high esteem? Is that what we think? Is that what we want?

The believers in Acts did signs and wonders like Jesus told them they would. Jesus told us that we would do greater miracles than He did if we remained in His word, and followed Him. Are we still doing signs and wonders? Or have we stopped following Him or abiding in His word?

Many would say we have gone astray from what God told us to do because we are abandoning tradition and doing things against His word. But did not Jesus come to show us that living in fellowship with God was not following the rules, but living love out loud?

So what signs and wonders are you doing to help people see God?

Dance before the Lord…

And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household. And it was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. (2 Samuel 6:5-15, ESV)

Here in this passage a man is truck down dead by God for his reaching out his hand to touch the Ark of the Covenant because the oxen stumbled and he obviously did not want the Ark to fall to the ground, but… Uzzah should still not have touched the Ark of the Covenant…

But even more in this passage we have David who has to deal with the death of one of his men, and come to an understanding why the Ark has come to him. And when he figures this our he dances in the streets…

Our text says he was wearing a linen ephod. There are mixed reviews on what this was or meant. Some say that David was exposing himself in ways he should not have. Others say as in 1 Chronicles 15:27 that David was wearing a robe as all of those carrying the Ark and he was also wearing a ephod… So was he indecent and dancing in the streets naked?

I like the picture above’s depiction of the event… David was so moved with joy that he was moved to dance in the streets in his underwear… Have you ever been so moved with joy that you would dance in the street in your underwear?

God has done great things for you and David realized that. What is keeping us from expressing that joy the way  David did?

Hope!

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:7-12, ESV)

Satan the dragon will be defeated and thrown out of Heaven by Whom?

Not by Jesus or the Father, but by Michael the Arch Angel. God sens a messenger to dispatch Satan…

Yes evil is all around us and has it’s day with us… I believe on some part this is because we give into it…

But the hope is that God does not have to lift a finger in the end and sends a messenger to handle His lite work thanks to what Jesus did on the cross…

So hope in the angels to finish off the evil one, and live in the mercy and grace that Jesus gave you at the cross.