What do they want…

And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. (Matthew 20:29-34 ESV)

Here is Jesus walking out of Jericho and there are 2 blind men on the side of the road, shouting, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And the crowd tried to silence them,but they were determined to get what they wanted. They were determined to be seen by Jesus and to get their hearts desire.

And Jesus walks up to them, and knows they are blind, and asks “What do you want me to do for you?” Now wouldn’t you think Jesus would know they would want to see? They are blind, what else could they want, right?

But you see that is the point. We see them as blind men and think they need to have their sight, but maybe, just maybe there is something more they need. Something that is more important than being able to see. Can you imagine it? If I was blind, I’m sure I would want my sight, but what if I was starving and blind which would be the greater need? Sure if I could see I might be able to find food, or work, and feed myself. But in that moment when I have the chance to get food or sight which would I ask for. The point is that Jesus does not pretend to know what they want. As if He had to, He is God after all and knows our deepest darkest secrets… He still asks them what they want.

How many times do we see someone in need and by seeing them we know what will fix their problem? We have never spoken with them, we do not know their name let along their situation  but we have judged them by what we see and we know what will fix them. Maybe we should take a hint from Jesus and get to know them, and ask them what they want. Not pretend we have all the answers. Not pretend to know what is best for someone else. I honestly have enough problems trying to figure out what is best for me so why do I want to say what is best for some one else.

So next time you see someone you think is in need, ask them what they want. It doesn’t mean you can get it for them or do it for them. It may not be the best thing for them, but rather than assuming you know, get to know them, and help them to see that God wants to know them, and help them through whatever it is they might be facing.

So what do they want?

What is possible…

Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. (Acts 9:32-35 ESV)

What is possible for the disciples of Jesus to do?

Remember that Jesus told the disciples they would do greater feats than Jesus did, if they only believed…

So what is possible?

In out text for today Peter heals a man who has been paralyzed for 8 years. He tells him to get up and he does and walks away. And everyone who saw him turned to the Lord, or gave their life to Christ or started following the Lord. So what can a disciples do? Help others to see the awesome power that the Lord has and help them align their lives with God.

You see that is the real miracle in the story. That the whole towns turned their lives over to God. Not that the paralyzed man walked. It is the grace that everyone saw in the power of the man walking that is the real miracle. Now don’t get me wrong, the paralyzed man walking is a big deal. But in comparison to all of those people realizing the power of God and choosing to accept the grace that is given!

Anything is possible for those who believe and no walk is too dark, because in faith Jesus walks with us every where we go. So know that nothing is impossible for God who will give you the strength to do what has to be done.

 

While I’m Waiting

I have been waiting on something to happen for quite a while now. And it seems like I have done everything right and just still nothing happens. We get close to being able to move on, but something happens and we start over again.

In times like these it would be real easy to give in and say it is over, enough is enough. Find another way and move on. Cut your losses and be done with it.

But is that what has to happen? The answer to that question is no! That is the easy ways out and that is what the world would want us to do. The powers of evil alive in this world work to get us to think only about our selves and how we need to make it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I wonder if I have let my family down. I wonder what I have gotten them into. They are looking up to me as a provider and supporter of them, and I am not providing. I’m watching my wife go work, and make money so we can survive as we burn through savings. It is hard. I want to be the hero for my children and I wonder if I am letting them down. I wonder what they will remember about the past 8 months while daddy looked for a job.

And it would be real easy to just curl up in a fetal position and cry and say whoa is me…

But hat is not who I am. That is not who God created me to be. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has a place for us. We just have to wait on His timing. Philippians 4:11-13 says:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

No Matter where we find ourselves, God will give us the strength through Jesus Christ to make it through. I can do ALL things. I can praise Him, I can serve Him and I can wait for Him even when it feels like the mountains around me are closing in on me and the valley is getting deeper and darker, I do not have to fear, because He is with me and will be my strength through the storm.

Just as Jeremiah 29:11 says:  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. We all have been given a hope…

I thought of this song today, While I’m Waiting by John Waller. It is a wonderful song from the movie Fireproof. I find comfort in the words, and I pray that it will brighten your day. And always remember there is strength through God in Jesus Christ for us to do all things. So look to the Lord and He will be your help and your shade, and He will protect you!

Chosen…

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:1-10 ESV)

Have you ever felt abandoned?

Like you were left out in the cold?

Recently I was given some news which was so far from what the majority of the people around me thought would be given I was shocked and wondering how we could ever move forward. My family was hanging in the air waiting on news of a possible calling for me. It was going to happen, we all thought. It was what would be. We were making plans to move and telling our friends that we would be moving soon…

Then the phone rang, and I remember the words…

“I had to call but it is not good news…”

Really God! We have given everything and this is what happens?!?!?!

But now wait a minute…

You see God is in control and what we think we need or what we want may not be what God needs for us to do, or what He wants to give us. As Peter tells us, we once were nobody, but God came in and accepted us and made us His people. We need to not be upset when things don’t go our way, because maybe the way we want them to go is not the way that God has for them to go. Maybe we are stumbling over our own thoughts, our own ways. Maybe we are so hung up on trying to do it right that we don;t see the grace for our faith. We can not see the love of God for our wanting to please Him by doing everything “right”.

When we see that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. it is then that we see that we are to be a light to the world and it is not about our needs or our own desires. It is about the community and the world that God sends us to. We need to be ready to go and do and not worry about ourselves. God has chosen us as His own people for His possessing.

So when your world is collapsing around you cling to Him and know that He has chosen you and has a plan for you and your life.

Written on our hearts…

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV)

 

Have the words of God’s law written on your heart? Did it hurt?

People ask me when they see my tattoos if they are real? And I say yes they are real. Then they ask, “Did they hurt?” Uhm, a little needle went in and out of my flesh really fast over and over again. YES it hurt. And yes I would do it again. (Or should that be will do it again…)

Sometimes things hurt. Even figurative things… The cartoon has Jerry asking if God writing His law on our heart is going to be figurative. I thought it appropriate that God replies to Jerry, “Jerry you are cramping my style.” But I always wonder as I read this, if this has happened why are we still teaching each other about God, why don’t we just get it? If God’s law is written on my heart, why do I always seem to get it wrong or muck it up?

See and there in lies the problem. THis equation above is all about me. And none of this is about me. It is about God. God said He would write His law upon our hearts and no more would we have to say know the Lord. He finished this section with “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” You see it is not about us but God. It is not about us getting it right, it is about God forgiving our wrongs and remembering them no more.

We get so hung up on our doing the right thing, following the code, that we can not see the grace for the law. We can not see the gift for the set of rules we have to follow that we can not even get right what the rules actually are. We are hung up on us, and me, that we can not let God be God and give us the grace He wants to give us.

So believe that His law is written on your heart, but believe even more that the grace He has given you covers your iniquity, and He has forgiven them and remembers them no more!

Sight

And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.” (Mark 8:22-26 ESV)

Have you ever had your pupils dilated? You know where they put the drops in and look into your eyes at an examination to get a good look at the back of your eye. Then you can’t see clearly for a while. I image this is what this man saw. When he saw people that looked like trees, he couldn’t see clearly.

How many of us walk around every day and can not see clearly? Now I don’t mean real eye sight, but the mirror that Paul refers to, now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face, and clearly. Sin has blinded us to the world around us and makes us to focus on ourselves. That is truly the most vile of sins, the ones that make us think more highly of ourselves, and to ignore the needs of those around us. To say we love everyone and allow injustice to take over people’s lives.

How many of us need Jesus to touch us again so we can clearly see? Ask Jesus to help you let go of your looking inward and caring only for yourself, and to clearly see the world around you. Ask Jesus to give you His eyes, so you can see everything as He does…

Jesus the guarantor

Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7:11-22 ESV)

The law will not get you into heaven.

Interesting though when I say Law, what do you think?

On Facebook today Nadia Bolz-Weber pastor of House for All Sinner and Saints posted this:

OK Lutheran-y peeps. As Sunday is Reformation Sunday, I’m thinking of how I might explain what we call “the Law” to my overwhelmingly NOT-Lutheran congregation. The term “the Law” is insider language. How do you help people know what it means? This is especially important. Ready? Go!

You can click on the text to hopefully go to her page on Facebook and find the discussion if you want it is good stuff. But the Law is an insider term. We use it to refer to the 10 Commandments, or the whole of the Levitcal Law or the Hebrew Scriptures, meaning the Pentateuch (another insider term…). You see even we can not agree or know what the Law is. It means many things.

Now if you were not raised in the church the Law might be the civil order code that we have to follow, like motor laws for the road. It could mean those who make sure the rest of us follow the rules, i.e. the cops.

But even in these cases, those things, the rules, those who help us keep them, can not save us. They can not make sure we do what we are suppose to as if following some set of rules could get us to heaven.

Jesus is the guarantor of a covenant that is not bound by our keeping the rules or acting a certain way. We are created by God to be who we are and uniquely a part of the whole of creation. SO allow the grace that Jesus will give you to be all that you need. Do not try to tell others that they have to follow rules in order to be right with God, but help them to know they are loved by God just as they are.

And Always remember that Grace is not just a girl you met in Kindergarten. It is the most wonderful gift you have ever been given!

Looking for a blessing…

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when God  returned Zion’s exiles. We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations— “God  was wonderful to them!” God  was wonderful to us; we are one happy people. And now, God , do it again— bring rains to our drought-stricken lives So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest, So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing. (Psalm 126 MSG)

Isn’t it funny how when ever our lives are in shambles we search for that thing that will make it all better. How if we are not really practicing our faith we become very active and praying every day that God will come to our rescue like He has every time before. Like God is some cosmic vending machine we only visit when we need something.

People marvel at the way I have held kept my cool and calm over the past 8 months as I have searched for a call. How I have been so relaxed about not obtaining a call quicker. I always commented that God has a plan for us and will take care of us. It was not just something I said but something I 100% believe. Now don’t get me wrong there were times I questioned and yelled ans got very upset with God. But you know what? God is big enough to take it and understand where I am coming from.

I say all of that to say it is OK if you don’t have it all together and your faith is not all that. If you need God to fix you that is fine He can do that and will if you will let Him. I also say that to say that if it were not for my faith and the blessings God has given me in my wife and family I’m not sure I would have made it this far. So don’t think you need something more than God has already given you. The thing you think will make your life great maybe something you already have!