aSacredRebel

a person by their cover

“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” (Luke 7:31-35 ESV)

We all do it, we judge a person for who they are before we hear one word come out of their mouth. We can tell by their appearance, style, body language, tattoos or no tattoos, piercings or no piercings what kind of person they are. You know this drives me crazy! But I am really bad at it myself… We all do it, so just admit it, you judge people by their appearance before you get to know them.

We all say that we played happy music and some one did not dance to it. And we were sad and they were happy. We can not understand how they can react to something differently than we do. Even though we know that we are all made unique by God. We are each created to be unique and set apart from everyone else. We are not robots, and we do not all act and respond the same, so why do we expect everyone else to live up to out expectations?

Did you see the earrings on him? How does he get away with that?

What about the tattoos on her, she looks like trailer park trash. Why doesn’t she clean up her act and wear some decent clothes that cover those things?

Have you ever heard these?

Said these?

Thought these?

Who are we to judge, because obviously those that judged in the gospel today got it wrong, John ate no bread and drank no wine, and he had a demon, and Jesus was a drunkard and a glutton and was also not in the right, so where is the right? Well it is the middle of the road, but someone would have had an issue with that. They should not drink or eat at all, but that doesn’t work either…

We are not to judge others by their appearance, because God doesn’t do that either. He judges by the heart, and we can not possibly know another’s heart, and worrying about our own is enough.

So try to stop judging people by their covers…

Boldness

When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: “”Go to this people, and say, You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:23-31 ESV)

What does it mean to be bold? What is boldness?

For Paul it is standing up for what he understood to be the calling from God and what God’s word said, which was in direct conflict with the religious authority of the day.

Today we have congregations and denominations moving towards the full inclusion of a group thought to be outside of the grace of God. “Sinful homosexuals”* are being allowed into leadership in some congregations and denominations. This is a move that the religious authorities of our day do not like. These authorities could be denominational authorities or congregational authorities, or the leadership group that is not actually in leadership, but controls things from behind the scenes.

“It was good enough for 2000 years so why does it have to change?” I believe this is a question Paul heard. Why do things have to change because we have always done it this way and understood God’s word this way so we have to be right and why would it change now. Well maybe we have had it wrong all this time and just now we are seeing what it really means. And to admit this, means we have to admit we were wrong and how many of us are willing to do that?

You see Paul knew, as the man in front of the tanks knew, that something was foul in the air and that things were not quite right. So we have to boldly confess our faith and our understanding. Knowing that we might have to admit that we were wrong, but God was always right and we just did not see it.

So be bold and be strong and know that the Lord thy God is always with you.

*I put “sinful homosexuals” in quotes because I do not believe that homosexuality is a sin. We are all called and created by God and He loves us just as we are. We do not have to be perfect to come to Him, if we did none of us would make it.

righteous

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:1-9 ESV)

Have you ever had someone tell you you don’t belong somewhere because you look like you do not fit in?

I remember when I was new to the faith and was attending a worship service at a local congregation and decided on that morning that I wanted to make a public profession of my faith through my baptism. Now this was not a Lutheran congregation and I was not Lutheran at that time. But I was baptized. And the next Sunday when I showed up to worship in jeans and a shirt, rather than a nice suit and tie, some of them were telling me It did not take, and I needed to change in order to belong. When the funny thing was I did change on the inside, I had changed. Jesus was dwelling in me and I changed, but to that body of worshipers I did not fit the bill, I did not get rid of my earring, I did not cut my hair, and I did not dress the way a true believer would…

Funny, it says that Jesus will not judge us by what He sees or hears, He will judge us in righteousness. And if that is the case, none of us can stand. All of us are unrighteous, and can not stand for the judgment. Only by Jesus can we stand through this, and all of us are equal in Jesus whether we have long hair or no hair, earrings or gauges or nothing, tattoos or no skin markings, we all stand before Jesus as sinners. And He will judge us not by what He sees or hears from others about us, but by our hearts and righteousness! He will judge us based on Him.

So do not make someone fell like they do not belong because you don’t think their dress is appropriate, or their appearance is appropriate, do not judge them at all. Love them like Jesus loved you, He accepted you as you were. And He brought the change, just like me, I knew I had changed at my baptism, even though my appearance did not. Jesus does things we can not understand imagine or see. Just love the other like Jesus loved you!

Rejoice always…

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7 NRSV)

This is a really tall order today. 2 days after so many young innocent lives were lost how can we rejoice?

In the face of so many going to a place tomorrow that is suppose to be safe, and worry for their safety, how can we rejoice?

These are questions we are all struggling with through this season of waiting for the return of our King, for the birth of our savior and a celebration of a holiday that seems to be so far from the original we have lost ourselves in the commercialization of society. How do we rejoice in a dark time when lives were lost long before their time and society seems to be so far away from God?

That is the very reasons we should rejoice! God is with us everywhere we go! The reason my wife and I tell our children on Sunday morning we are going to worship, not to church, because we can not go to church. We are the church and every where we go, God goes with us. That doesn’t mean that He isn’t already there, but we also bring Him with us every where we go, and that my friends is reason to rejoice!

I saw this on Facebook, and thought I would share it:

For those claiming school tragedies are a result of God be taken out of schools:
* When a teacher’s actions were in the loving interest of protecting their students…God was there.
* When a teacher consoled her students, frightened at what was to come…God was there.
* When an administrator tried earnestly to disarm an individual intent on hurting her students…God was there.
* When a student held on to one of their classmates, comforting one another…God was there.
* When law enforcement went in to secure the building and were faced with the emotional process of what they witnessed…God was there.
* When clergy from all faiths descended on the area to console and comfort families in their time of need…God was there.
* When families embraced one another, trying to comprehend why…God was there.
* When a child, a teacher, a parent, a sibling, a relative, a law enforcement agent, a clergy person, an individual throughout the world offered up a prayer…God was there. I resist to believe that God has ever been taken out of schools. God is invited in to any place when one carries Him in their heart, in their thoughts, and through their actions. God is not a class, a printed sign, nor a time allotted for prayer. God is where you personally allow Him to be. Don’t place blame on an institution for removing God, blame yourself for thinking that was a limitation. God was there on Friday as he has been everyday. He was hurting the most throughout the ordeal.

So thank God for always being with you and rejoice always that He goes everywhere you go!

Sieve

The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth—except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. For lo, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’ (Amos 9:8-10 NRSV)

Have you ever been shaken?

Has your world been turned over and over and upside down and you don’t know which way is up?

God tells us He will destroy the sinful world, and if you think you do not belong to the sinful world be prepared for some shaking. We are all sinners and when we think we are in the right and others are doomed to be cast away, that is when the sieve will get us.

You see it is not by our own power that we are able to stay in the sieve, it is by God’s… So when we rely on our own understanding and our own thoughts as to who is in and who is out we will find ourselves out because we are judging and taking the place of God.

So just wait and be shaken with the rest of us and do not judge just love as God loves you.

New iPhone…

Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?” The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?” “And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. (Amos 8:4-12 ESV)

People who are rich at the expense of others are not going to get off easy in the coming kingdom… But Amos is speaking to more than those of us who do not have the new iPhone…

God will not forget your deeds. He will remember everything you did. To the least, last, lost ,little… He will remember it all and will recount it to you at your final judgment and hold you accountable for your actions.

Do not get ahead because you have held someone else back. Do not make someone else look bad because you wan to get ahead. Anytime you hold something against a brother/sister they did not do, the Lord will remember that and will hold you accountable for it.

So do not worry about keeping up with the Jones, but worry about helping others get ahead of you, and to get what God has given us, which is nothing any of us deserve, but is a feast of rich foods that we should not even be able to smell, let alone partake of.

Go and do for your neighbor, not worrying about what you will get. Trusting in the Lord.

Water

You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord , for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord , call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. “Sing praises to the Lord , for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 12:1-6 ESV)

Salvations well is a never ending supply of refreshing water that will always feed your soul.

We can give thanks to God for the wonderful salvation He has given to us. Not because of what we have done, or who we are, but inspire of what we have done and who we are. God is our salvation and He is our strength. So do not be afraid, and draw water from the well and let it refresh your soul

Jesus saves…

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, ‘THAT’S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.’

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.
They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments..
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs .
They did some genealogy reports .
They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

Jesus just sighed….

Finally, the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: ‘It’s gone! It’s all GONE! ‘I lost everything when the power went out!’

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. ‘Wait!’ he screamed. That’s not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don’t have any?’

God just shrugged and said:

JESUS SAVES …

strengthen

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. (Isaiah 35:3-7 ESV)

Have you ever been sop anxious in a situation you just wanted to run away?

You hear the sound track of Brave Sir Robin of Camelot, “Brave Sir Robin ran away…” You feel so compelled by your anxiousness to get away from the situation. It seems there is no way out of the trouble, and you try to think your way through it, but it jut seems fruitless…

And in that moment the above picture is right, you have a choice. You can forget everything and run, or you can face everything and rise. You see God is not leaving you alone in this mess, He is here with you and will see you through. So no matter what dark place you are walking into, there is no reason to fear what will happen, because He is with you and He will give you the strength to see you through.

Joy

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad. Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb! Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126 ESV)

How many times have you wondered how will I go on? You have come to a space where you thought things could not get any worse and they do. It is like the bottom drops out of your boat, or you realize you replaced the door on your submarine with a screen door…

Everything that can go wrong and about 20 other things just went so wrong that you have no idea how you will ever recover. You are ready to curl up in the fetal position and cry your self to sleep.

But God tells us here that those who continue in His service, even in the darkest valleys, will sow in tears, but will reap in joy! We might go out weeping, but the harvest will be as such that we can not help but be joy filled!

Notice the psalmist does not say that God will take all our troubles away but we will be filled with laughter and joy in doing the work that He needs us to go and do. We might still be in a terrible place, but He is with us and because He is with us and we are following Him we are joy filled!

So follow God where He calls you to, not wanting Him to take away your pain, but help sow seeds that helps others see the joy that God can bring them and live in the joy He will give to you.