Standing at the Gate!

Surrender is a difficult thing, is it not? As a child, I remember many times singing the hymn written in 1886 by Judson W. Van DeVenter, "I Surrender All." Maybe its just a Pentecostal thing, but very few times do I remember singing that song that I did not feel the Spirit of God moving me, wooing me, speaking to me: "Surrender all, give Me everything." Surely, you remember the song:

1. All to Jesus I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

* Refrain:
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

2. All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

3. All to Jesus I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

4. All to Jesus I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

5. All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!!

I think of that song this morning because I stand at the precipice of something greater, something more wonderful, yet terrifying, than I have ever known. My wife, lover, and companion spoke that into my spirit last night, and I knew, as the old timers used to say, deep down in my "knower" [sic] that what she said was true. I am not one to run rabbit trails but I am learning that my greatest asset and the one who can move my spirit the most, by His power, is my beautiful wife. I could write a book on the intricacies and all the things that fascinate me and intrigue me about that woman; all I can say today, however, is that I am one blessed man!

The whole time we were talking and reflecting, my mind was wandering off to a scripture that I had read, even preached, numerous times over the years. Jeremiah 6:14:

They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace. (NKJV)

It is kind of odd because Jeremiah says the very same thing again, in the 8th chapter. This is obviously the time of the prophet's early ministry; a time when he is seeing things and hearing things that he doesn't fully understand. It's difficult to date. Men with more expertise than I have wrestled with the problem and the only consensus that seems to prevail is that Jeremiah began to speak sometime after the death of Josiah (639-608), a righteous man who fell in battle at Megiddo, and the eleven year reign of Jehoiachim (608-597). The important thing to note, however, is the state of the people. They had turned from righteousness to gross immorality and sin. God raises this prophet up to decry the injustices being perpetrated by the people upon a benevolent and compassionate God who simply did not deserve their disobedience or insolence. Sound familiar? It should; this is not the first time they had been there nor would it be the last, unfortunately.

While looking at these two parallel scriptures, I noticed something that had never really drawn my attention before. Chapters 7-11 are believed to be oracular fragments, inserted (perhaps late) to fully describe the state of the people, and presumably, to justify the utter destruction and calamity that would later befall them. Chapter seven caught my attention most. Listen for moment:

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.
4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD."
5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another,
6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,
7 then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.
8 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!"--only to go on doing all these abominations?
11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD.

Jer 7:1-11 (NRSV)

Sometimes, I feel sorry for Jeremiah. He's been known as the weeping prophet, the one without a single convert, the unpatriotic man. Here, he is being called upon to stand in the very gate of the Temple in an unprecedented way and decry the sins of the people. Try that next Sunday! See how well it goes over. One commentator says that a practical atheism had overtaken these people. While they went through ritual and believed in the God of their fathers in some form, they had become cold and indifferent. Consequently, everything they did was an abomination to God.

Let's listen to the prophet. What is he saying? "You're going through the motions, perhaps even doing the right things, but your heart's not in it." Sounds like a church I recall in Ephesus who had lost her first love. (Rev 3) Jeremiah is standing in the very doorway of the temple complex and he's essentially saying, "God is not here! Amend your ways, change, turn around, repent; and He will once again dwell in this place and in you."

This is a rhetorical question, but an important one. How many churches are going through the motions, pastors sitting at their desk on Saturday night constructing polished sermons, worship committees putting together liturgies for the next day, without God, any semblance of life, or the slightest bit of change in the lives of the people? I read earlier this morning of a Presbyterian minister and church who had chosen to study the Koran in 2010. Now, please don't misunderstand me here; I don't really care what you call yourself. But, if your faith, your religion is nothing more than a catalog of intellectual pursuits and ideals and mechanistic refrains to a set of platitudinal constructs, then maybe, you need to hear what Jeremiah is saying.

He's speaking to the congregation, but I feel that he is talking directly to me. The people obviously respond, "Look! See! We still have this temple - this monument resident within our midst! Surely, you are wrong, Jeremiah! This is His very dwelling place..." Obviously, they had forgotten the words of the Psalmist, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God." Psalms 20:7 (KJV) "I can still quote John 3:16; I remember way back when when God did 'this' or 'that'. I go to church. I attend Sunday School. I have this position or that. I sing on the worship team, for God's sake!"

The horrifying thing to me about this passage and their arrogant response is that they had no clue that God wasn't there and that impending doom and destruction (the likes of which this southern kingdom had never known) was knocking at their very door.

Jeremiah continues, in spite of their objections: "Amend your ways, stop doing what you're doing! The Temple isn't going to save you, but if you change (repent), God promises to dwell with you." Let's step out this for a moment and into the New Testament. There's a fledgling Christian faith, built upon the person of Jesus (once considered a rogue Jewish sect), that begins to assert its own identity. Obviously, Paul writes to the Corinthians prior to the destruction of the second Temple in 70 C. E., and most scholars date the writing sometime in the mid first century.

Paul defines a new paradigm:

16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? [you is plural; i.e. church] 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Cor 3:16-17 (NRSV; "you" is plural; i.e. church)

Paul introduces this concept while dealing with dissension - sin (a word we've almost completely written out of faith altogether). Those of us without Jewish origins or roots can not fully appreciate the magnitude of what Paul says here. While most within the Corinthian church were not necessarily Jewish, they no doubt understood what Jewish faith was all about. Jesus was a Jew. Paul was Jew. Almost all of the men that the Corinthians's were arguing over regarding whose baptism was more relevant, were Jews.

These gentiles knew enough to know that, for a Jew, the Temple was a complex of buildings in Jerusalem where ritual and worship took place. While it stood, it was the central focus of Jewish worship and spiritual identity. Here, Paul turns the tables on them and says, "You're the temple, individually, and collectively." Another Jew, Peter, who often had difficulty embracing his non-Jewish position within the church, writes:

5 And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ

1 Peter 2:5 (NLT)

There is some very intriguing information contradicting the fact that Peter wrote this, which is interesting but not consequential, to me at least. However, if Peter wrote this, then he also probably did so, prior to the destruction of the actual second Temple (perhaps in mid 60 C.E.?). And I can assure that this was sovereign divine revelation to Peter; it was no doubt a much bigger deal to Peter than to Paul. But even Peter has made this transition and He tells them that they are lively stones (KJV) being built together as a spiritual house (a perpetual habitation) for the Lord of Glory! (my paraphrase)

Now, let's once again, briefly, turn our attention back to the Jerusalem of the 6th century B.C.E and Jeremiah as he speaks to the people. "Let me dwell with you in this place..." I find this interesting. You would have thought that God would have constructed it the other way around, right? I mean, His Temple, His earth, His people... but no, He tells them that if you change, amend your ways, I will dwell with you.

Hasn't the Father coming down in the cool of the day to walk with Adam always been man's honor? Jesus accomplished the impossible on the cross. He bridged a gap we simply could not so that He could once again dwell with us. I think I understand now more fully what Moses meant when he heard God say that He was going to send the angel of the Lord before the people, but because of their impudence and rebellion, He would simply track them from afar. Moses cried, "If You don't go with us, then don't move us. How are we to be recognized as anything distinct, (different) than any other peoples on the earth if You are not with us?" (Ex 33, my paraphrase)

Oh my! Here's the rub. I don't care whether you're a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, etc. It really does not concern me, at the moment, which path you walk. Sure, I could tell you what I think, but it's not my purpose here. But, I can say with utter certainty that what this world is lacking (and you can interject peace and unilateral prosperity, acceptance of others, and all the propaganda you can devise) is the presence of a God that is bigger than hunger, calamity, tragedy, and pain. The very same thing in our text, is happening in Jerusalem; the more Jeremiah preaches their impending doom, the louder the false prophets get. "All you need is peace. Learn to live together in harmony. Heal the planet, hug a Muslim, bridge the gaps between you and others. Peace, safety, all of it can be ours through our human genius and ingenuity!"

I don't know about you, but I can see the futility in that with little effort. Sure, I'd love to see it happen, but it never will - unless the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea! It's the presence, the God among us, that spans the chasm of man's darkness and calls him forth into marvelous light! These sooth Sayers, these wicked lying clueless prophets were simply putting a band-aid on a rupture. Jeremiah tells them, "You've healed their wounds slightly; you make them feel better about themselves with the multitude of worthless platitudes and cliche's and songs about world peace--the end of war and famine and sending a few dollars here or there to feed the starving children. The calamity of calamities is about to befall you, and you're trusting in the wrong thing. "

A catalog of wrongs follow, and this list is repeated and revised and added too throughout the writings of Jeremiah. The laments of Jeremiah, the weeping of this Prophet much later shows us that these people never really listened; and it got so much worse. I can make excuses all day about why I don't do "this", why I can't forgive, why my attitude stinks, etc. but, in the end, it really is about surrender. In essence, that is all God was asking of these people. "If you truly change and if you turn around and stop oppressing the strangers and orphans among you, those who don't belong; if you will stop devouring one another, shedding innocent blood, and most importantly, choose your side. Stop following after other gods... if you're going serve me, serve me! Stop making excuses of why its okay for you do "this" instead of what I've asked of you. Stop! Listen! If you will, I promise, I will dwell with you right here! Right in your home, while you're sitting around the dinner table with your family. I will be a very present help in time of need. I will always be with you, even till the end of the aeon." How beautiful! God says that He will dwell in our place; right where we are!

Oh, so your Temple is ruined. Shame and guilt and condemnation has overtaken you and even your ritual doesn't mean near what it used too. He is standing at the door today - the door to my heart and to yours, and He cries through this beloved prophet, "Amend, change, stop, turn around! I treasure you and I will dwell in you again, just like I did before."

Lastly, this morning, one of the names of God came rushing to my mind at the same time as this scripture that I have shared with you: Jehovah Rafa. It literally means, the God who stitches back together. So you're torn, your garments have been weathered and battered, beaten and ripped from the events of life and your own choices. You are bleeding and bruised. Your bones are broken and you're hurting and you don't know where God is because it feels as if He is a million miles away.

The prophet stands at the gate this morning, today, and he says, "Change. Just stop. I will dwell with you; you will be the most blessed and hold within your being and spirit the greatest treasure the world has ever known. I will be their God and they shall be my people. I will dwell within them, walk in them, tabernacle within them; within you." Don't we create most our own messes? Surrender! Give it all; hold nothing back. Calamity, plight, pain and destruction does not, and hear me this day, have to be your latter end. The God who made you can stitch it all back together, heal you, and make you anew. His mercies are from everlasting to everlasting, and they're renewed every morning!

Mercy said NO!

Ever had an ah-ha moment? One of those times when you hear something you've heard for years but never really understood, but for some reason you suddenly realize, I get that now! Gayle Erwin was at our church yesterday; a dear old man of God who is full of God's grace and love, as well as a gifted writer and speaker.

It was the Sunday before Memorial day, obviously, so my spiritual sensibilities had already been assaulted by a nationalistic video played prior to Gayle coming on stage. I told my wife how amazing it is that every time I go to that church (Calvary Chapel of the Triad), it's as if God just somehow someway puts a muzzle on me and makes me sit there and listen. Now, that might be funny to you, but I aint [sic] digging it sometime!

Erwin is big these days in explaining the nature of God; a task I am glad he feels up too.... It's like explaining the nature of the wind or trying to answer the question of how big is our Universe? What is the true nature of a black hole? You get me; I love the man but I found that statement almost arrogant. Explain the nature of God???? Yeah! Okay! So I sit back and I had this arrogant "show me" kind of attitude. I know, honesty sucks! Ha!

Then he does it. He says (and I paraphrase), if you can understand the name of God you can then understand his nature. Well, that sounded okay to me, theoretically. But, really, think about it for a moment. Names are not for us, are they? I know who I am. Descartes said: "I think, therefore I am." Not, I am named, therefore I am...." Okay, I like splitting hairs. It's my Blog! LOL But, really, my name means more to someone else than to me, right? So, in scripture, when God uses names such as Jehovah or Elohim or Jesus, those names are for our benefit to give glimpses into who he is. Metaphors employed, such as shepherd, father, bridegroom, brother, et al., are also used to show us portraits of facets of who God is and His place among us as a people. It's not necessarily to box God in; surely He's not a shepherd in a classical sense or a father, etc., but those metaphoric roles give us something that we as human constructs can relate too.

So, back to the whole name thing and Erwin's, know God's name/understand his nature comment. Erwin began to relay the story of Moses, who while up on the mountain Sinai (or Tent of Meeting, its not clear to me), asked the Lord to show him His glory. Now, this is in Exodus 33; there is another rendition of this in the very next chapter. One chapter he proclaims His name, the next He just shows up kind of impromptu and does essentially the same thing, with more elaborate detail. It was this latter that Erwin refers too:

5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and called out his own name, "the LORD," as Moses stood there in his presence. 6 He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. 7 I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion[....]

Ex 34:5-7a (NLT, emphasis added)

Notice the ellipses in brackets on the end there? I put them there because Erwin didn't finish the verse.

Even so I do not leave sin unpunished, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations."

Ex 34:7b (NLT)

Before I go further this morning, let me go back to the other rendition or initial introduction to this whole event, depending on how you choose to look at it:

18 Then Moses had one more request. "Please let me see your glorious presence," he said.

19 The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, `the LORD,' to you. I will show kindness to anyone I choose, and I will show mercy to anyone I choose.

Ex 33:18-19 (NLT)

I am sitting there in that church and immediately my mind goes, NO HE DIDN'T!!!! He also said that God uses jerks, by the way, so keep reading.... LOL I have always, always, ALWAYS hated that verse! Horror! "No he didn't just claim to hate a bible verse, did he?!?" YES, I did! I have never understood it; it has always sounded self serving and exclusionary to me. Even six years in Evangelical ministry could never make me pick that thing up as a text. First of all, who doesn't want their most notable national patriarch to be the only one who knows God and talks to Him face to face? Secondly, compassion on whom he chooses to show it?!? Holding children and grandchildren AND great-great-great-grandchildren complicit and accountable for/in my sin? I am sorry, but over the years that's a part of God's name (and if so, his nature) that I have just not been able to accept.

I was all flustered, but it was as if all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Chris, (and I love it when I hear Him speak my name), you do not have to look at it that way." But, I don't like and I, I, I.... every objection fell before His feet. "Chris, you're looking at it all wrong." Okay, now that was offensive! LOL Arrogance, oh God! He's proving to be the most patient and merciful friend I've ever had. And while the portrait of God smiting anyone is hard for me, if I was Him, I'd smite my own self sometimes. But He is loving and long-suffering... ever looked at that word, long-suffering? It means exactly what it says. Suffering is not abstract and it lasts a LONG time! It reminds me of Jesus in Matthew 17 (healing of the lunatic son) when He said, how long must I suffer with you idiots (my paraphrase!) ?

God continued to speak to me as Erwin continued: "I can show mercy and I can withhold it; but, Chris, everything you know about me tells you that I take no delight in the death of the wicked." My wife and I were talking just last night and I remembered that scripture in Hosea 11 where God speaks of Ephraim:

1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son, and I called my son out of Egypt. 2 But the more I called to him, the more he rebelled, offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols. 3 It was I who taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn't know or even care that it was I who took care of him. 4 I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.

Hosea 11:1-4 (NLT)

It was as if God was saying to me, "I am sorry, Chris, that I couldn't work it out in a way more palatable to your 21st century sensibilities. The world I created was perfect and the man I made was perfect but when it went wrong, the world went bad too. And, it is harsh and ugly and cold and dark and people die and children go to sleep at night hungry and war threatens civilization at every turn and...nothing in this world is the way its suppose to be, and I don't like it anymore than you do. But, I did something about it."

You can't see me this morning, but tears stain my face as I write this. David writes in Psalms 85:10:

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (KJV)

Over the years, I am certain I have read that verse a hundred times. So much as been written about it, its language and beauty are unparalleled in Hebrew scripture. Mercy and truth both seek different ends. Mercy cries for relief and help and hope, while truth speaks of just desserts and getting what one deserves. They pass each other, one going to entreat for the sins of man, another bound to bring justice to the earth. In a moment - in an instant, the conflict was over. Gazing upon one another in the person of Jesus, the left hand of exclusion met the right hand of acceptance. One kissed another and the conflict was ended, forever.

In the New Testament, Paul puts it this way:

...Jesus Christ, the Son of God, never wavers between yes and no. He is the one whom Timothy, Silas, and I preached to you, and he is the divine Yes—God's affirmation. 20 For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in him. That is why we say "Amen" when we give glory to God through Christ.

2 Cor 1:17-20 (NLT, emphasis added)

Why couldn't I see that before? Years of questioning, wondering if I had chosen the right God. Nights of fear and bitterness over why God seemingly loved some and hated me. Oh my, that is the issue. "You've accepted him or her and you did this or that for this person and look at my plight, God! Look at me! Why can't I see your glory, why can't I be your friend..... why do I hurt and why, with nine children and a lovely wife and everything I could ever want or need, why am I so alone???"

It's the dichotomy of, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me" and "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." The very same Jesus who says "Yes!" is the very same Jesus who also felt the exclusionary "No!" He came to his own and his own didn't receive him; that's classic rejection. How often did he retreat to the mountains in Paneas to pray because he was grieved in spirit, hurt, if you will. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:

[I]t was necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.

Heb 2:17 (NLT)

And then again:

14 That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.

Heb 4:14-16 (NLT)

God, I hurt! "I know." Jesus, I've been abused and used and people have seen me as nothing but a means to an end! "I know, I've been there, son." My family has despised me and my father and mother rejected me, abandoned, leaving me alone... 'I know that too!" I don't know how to do all the things your asking me, God... "It's okay.", comes the reply.

"Mercy and truth were headed along the same road one day, both deposed on your behalf: one to argue for and another against you. Not man, not humanity, not the world, but Me! I fought for you that day; I wrestled truth and mercy together until they kissed in abandoned embrace. So, now, I've felt your pain, heard your cries and desperation, been right there sitting in the very seat you occupy this morning. But, I have also seen your healing, your restoration, your future, your end."

Last evening, my wife and I were reading various scriptures and talking and she spoke one to me that I have always liked but had mixed emotions about:

11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Jer 29:11 (NLT)

What a beautiful verse and I accept it. But it's the preceding verse that's always troubled me. Jeremiah is writing to the captives in Babylon who are wanting and expecting God's deliverance to come any moment. The prophet tells them otherwise, and if you study it out, he paid a heavy price for it, being considered false and unpatriotic:

10 "The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years.

Jer 29:10a (NLT)

That is not what they wanted to hear: truth, judgment. But, this whole passage personifies the meeting of mercy and truth along the way in such profound and beautiful ways. I apologize for breaking it up the way I have, but let's put it all together:

10 "The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. 14 I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land."

Jer 29:10-14 (NLT, emphasis added)

So you ask, "what does all this have to do with me today?". Oh, I am so glad you asked that question! What is God saying here? "Chris, I know your hurt, you were sexually and physically abused. I know the very people who were entrusted to care for you were the very ones who devastated you the most. I've seen every tear, heard every cry, I've even wept for you myself. I've seen you in captivity to drugs and alcohol, I have watched you struggle as a father and a husband. Over the years, when you stumbled, I picked you up. When you couldn't help yourself, I did. You see, you haven't always been able to see past the unpleasantness of the moment, the pain. It can be blinding. You've been homesick and fatherless, and I've watched over you, holding your hand when you tried to walk, drawing you, sometimes when you least wanted it, with cords of my everlasting love.

But, listen Chris, never, not for an instance, have I ever forgotten who you are. Never, have I ever abandoned my plans and purposes for you. Your friends, your family, your colleagues forgot who you were and are, but not I. My plans and purposes for you were woven inextricably in my love for you on the Cross of Calvary and nothing, no one, can ever, will ever, take that away from you. You're coming home! And when you cry, I will hear; when you seek me, you will find me. And hear this, I have ended your captivity and restored your fortunes!"

I hear that this morning; ringing in my spirit so loudly that it's almost deafening. But, it's not just me, is it? You hear it too. God is speaking, not just to me, but to many of you with similar narratives and pain. "...God saves those who are crushed in spirit!" (Psalms 34:18, NASV 1977, emphasis added) Please, don't let the moment pass. Restoration is just a cry away!

I leave you this morning with a song sung by CeCe Winans:

Casualties and Restoration

Yesterday was a wonderful day; a reflective as well as an introspective day. As the day came to its conclusion, my wife and I were lying in bed and I was praying, my mind wandering off to a beautiful post she blogged just a few days ago. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so. You can find it here. In unparalleled prose (I know, I am partial), she metaphorically personifies the Ground Zero of September 11, 2001 with her own life, her relationship with God, and regrettably, our own marriage.

If you get the chance to read it, you'll notice towards the end where she sees herself with her Savior standing at ground zero. The harrowing task of moving debris has been taken care of and she is left surveying what I can only imagine to be an empty slate; a whitened canvas if you will. A second chance...

As we were praying together, my mind could not help but survey the destruction and enormous casualties of that fateful day. Wives being left without husbands; children, fatherless. For every miracle of divine providence that happened that day, there are equally harrowing tales of casualties whose very existence was pulverized into oblivion. I know, its really not a pretty picture... destruction is just that, regardless of its source.

My mind then took me to a place in the gospels where Jesus said a startling thing: "[a]nd whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matt 21:44 (KJV) Then, the very first thing that came to mind was that brokenness is not pretty! Oh, its a million times better than powder, but it's ugly and it hurts to look at and its embarrassing and all the emotions that floods your heart when you finally realize that your lying helpless on the rocks with no faculty to help yourself, and time stands still as you watch the world and dreams you've built fall down around you in reckless disregard to how you feel about it. There is simply nothing you can do.... Or, is there?

Jesus, standing on the Mt. of Olives one day towards the end of his earthly ministry, surveyed the city of Jerusalem, weeping for her:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

Matt 23:37-38 (KJV)

In another place, He speaks to the destruction of the Temple complex:

"Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down."

Mark 13:2 (NASB)

Portraits of destruction; not pleasant nor easily understood. But, what do all these portraits have in common? My wife's prose and her metaphoric use of Ground Zero? Jesus, using Himself as a stumbling block and saying if you stumble over me your okay (i.e., if you don't understand me right now, kewl! Just don't fall on the wrong side when the time comes, so to speak), but I give life and I can take it away. Judgment is a horrifying thing! Jesus, weeping over the city of Jerusalem, knowing that in just a few short years, the Romans under Titus in AD 70 would lay siege to the city during Passover, of all times. Over one million Jews were slaughtered, 95,000 taken captive. Every stone of the temple was overturned and the city was left in utter ruins.

So, what is the common thread? Hopelessness; casualty, devastation. When we do it our way, there's really is no other option, is there? In our own strength, given our own propensity for self-destruction, pride, and arrogance, its a wonder we ever made it out of the garden. Thankfully, however, there is so much more here than just what meets the eye...

Ground Zero, today, is a memorial to human resiliency. In our greatest national tragedy, human kindness and love bridged the devastation and the narratives are beautiful, to say the least. Jerusalem, the city of God, having seen more judgment and destruction than any city on earth. Yet, she stands today as a mere deposit of God's eternal promises. Here is what D. A. Carson says of her:

The eschatological glory to be experienced by Zion is accompanied by a transformation of nature and by long and abundant life, heroic strength, economic prosperity, joy, and thankful praise (Isa. 11; 12:4-6; 61:3; 62:8-9; 65:20; Jer. 33:11; Zech. 2:4, 5). Although there is repeated assurance that the nations that have savaged Jerusalem will themselves be ravaged, in another emphasis the nations of the earth, after an unsuccessful campaign against Jerusalem (Isa. 29: 7-8; Mic. 4:11), join in a great pilgrimage to Zion, where they are taught by Yahweh to live according to his will (Isa. 2:2-4; Jer. 33:9; Mic. 4:1-3; Zech. 2:11). In all this Jerusalem retains a central place.

Another interesting and restorative note is that heaven on earth in the Revelations is called none other than the New Jerusalem!

12 I will make those who win the victory pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, that comes down out of heaven from my God. I will also write on them my new name.

Rev 3:12 (NCV)

The temple: a second one, destroyed yet again. But, in the New Testament, even here, there is hope:

4 Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him.

5 And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5 (NLT)

And, while I will only mention this briefly, but there is some speculation as to the construction of a third temple. The Muslims might have trouble with it, but there is a little phrase in prophecy called the abomination of desolation related to the anti-christ. Just let that sit there... please, don't write me about it cause I really don't know and don't care, to be honest. What I do care about is that when one surveys the expanse of human destruction, devastation, and casualty, one must also see hope, human resiliency, and restoration.

Coming back for a moment to my prayer time with my wife, I realized that she was not standing there alone. Sure, she knew that; Jesus was with her. Mystical helpers were cleaning the debris away... but, in a moment, I realized that I was standing there with her. The destruction is daunting, almost horrifying. But, in the end, we are standing together, anticipating what that familiar someone will do next.

Memorials are wonderful things. They give you a fixed point to look back to some event; some good, others bad. God is busy building a memorial of restoration in our lives, and for that, I am most grateful. I easily, we certainly, could have remained casualties that day, but for the grace of God....

Forgiveness! Now I know Jesus is Crazy!

You know, obviously, this isn't true, but to hear Jesus talk, you'd think that He had never been hurt and never really had no one in His life to forgive. Otherwise, how could He of said some of the crazy (and I use that with all the reverence I can muster this morning!) things He said about it? Its almost creepy to me. Personally, I get into the whole eye for an eye thing, when it suits me. City of refuge? Sure! But your gonna have to leave sometime and when you do buddy.....

Okay, I got that out of my system. Forgiveness is a funny thing; its a completely different animal in the New Testament scriptures. I can imagine the people sitting around as Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount and can see their reaction when He starts talking about forgiving men their trespasses so that God can and will forgive you.

Now, digress with me for just a moment. Imagine with me, momentarily, that we do not have a Jesus, no New Testament scriptures, and we all simply have people that we respect and listen too. Now, imagine a co-worker or better yet, a family member who is constantly pushing those buttons just as hard as they can. Your exasperated and you go to your sage, so to speak, and you ask him/her, "how long am I going to have to put up with this, oh Wise one.?"

Here is exactly where I would get into trouble. Because, I am sure I'd have that answer already down pat long before I asked it. "You've waited long enough. You may pop them in the nose next time they offend you." Oh yeah! Now, that is my kind of scripture! And to be honest, I went to bed last night thinking of some people I'd just simply like to smack a good one! Oh, don't get all sanctimonious on me. You know you've felt that way too. Heck, I have a few I'd dig up just for the pleasure.... okay, so that borders a bit on the insane side. But, you know what I am talking about.

Unfortunately, or, fortunately, depending on your spirit and how you look at it, we must come back to Jesus and the New Testament scriptures. As much as my flesh would like to set Him and His teachings aside at times, their nagging quality persist! You know God did that on purpose, right? But, seriously, it's in times like this that I have to learn to listen to what I do not want to hear. "Jesus, how often do I forgive my brother when he offends me? Seven times?" (Matt 18, my paraphrase) Oh, that's gracious. Come to my house and offend me once, I might not let you know about it. About the third or fourth time, I'm liable to grab you by the seat of your pants and throw you out. Well, more so these days because.... that's another post. But, yeah, seven? That's gracious in my opinion!

But, oh no, Jesus had a completely different definition, didn't He? I call it it the wipe your feet on me please mentality! LOL Okay, enough sarcasm, I am cracking my own self up this morning. Jesus tells Peter, seventy times seven, all for the same offense, and all on the same day: next day, new slate. OMG!!! No He didn't! Yes, He did! Man, sometimes Jesus really can get me talking to myself!

Do I really think that Jesus expected Peter to forgive 490 times a day for the same thing? No, I don't. What I do believe, however, is that Jesus was telling Peter to forgive--completely. Remember the love chapter? "Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged." 1 Cor 13:5 (NLT) What Jesus was telling him was that the number thing was the wrong mindset altogether. Imagine, if God kept records like that? Forgiveness, genuine forgiveness, operates on a higher plane, and that is why many of us never really get it.

Do I think God holds it against us too harshly? Perhaps not. He looked down from the cross with compassion for a people ridiculing and hurting Him and He cried, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?" I recently heard someone say that on the cross Jesus was separate from His Father and the Spirit; the trinity if you will, whatever that means. But, no, that isn't what Paul said. "For God was [in] Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others..." 2 Cor 5:19 (NLT, emphasis added) I am not going to argue theology or semantics today, but if you rewrite the "in Christ" part of that verse to make it mean something that it's not, then we got a lot of rewriting to do altogether. No, the entire Godhead participated in that act of redemption for the sole purpose to free us from our wrong doings. And what are we to do with it? Pass it on....

Oh my, that cuts across the grain, doesn't it? How can I tell others a message that I am not willing to live out in my daily life? Oh, hey, by the way, I hate you for what you did to me, but Jesus loves you?!? In the distance, though, I hear some words uttered centuries ago by a Jewish revolutionary: "freely you have received, freely give." (Mat 10:8, NKJV) That is so hard. No one ever said following Jesus was going to be easy! Love the unlovable; embrace the social outcast, touch the untouchables. That part is easy. Its the family waiting outside the house where everyone there perceives you as a somebody, but they, their embarrassed and think your mad (Matt 12). Oh, my.... Its that neighbor who persist in leaving that one strip of grass that he knows is his but... love your neighbor as yourself...

So, your hurt; I am too. What about boundaries? I don't know. Perhaps, another day. Sometimes I wonder if we don't use those psychological constructs as crutches to keep us from doing as Jesus said. Please don't misunderstand me this morning. Every single time I utter the Lord's prayer, I pause and almost stop when it comes to the "[...] forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors." Matt 6:12 (NKJV) At the same moment as I forgive others, God is forgiving me. If I don't forgive others, He's not obligated to forgive me....

That's really some tough stuff, because some of us have huge burdens of pain and hurt. Abuse, and malicious intentions where people have harmed us with malice and forethought and they've just not cared. Some of us have cried more tears than we can count, stained pillows, being woke in the middle of the night with that gut wrenching feeling and question, why? Why God? In fact, some of us feel as if He did it to us, don't we? We were too young to even defend ourselves....

Years ago, in my youth, the Lord spoke a scripture into my spirit, that no matter how far I've ran or how bitter I have been, I have never forgotten it:

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: 9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

Psalms 146:5-9 (KJV)

Look at the language there. Jacob is just Jacob; the heel grabber and thief; no Israel/Prince, titles of honor for him that day. But, He's happy. Why? Because the Lord is his help, hope, and God. And, this isn't just any God. No! This is the very God that made the heavens, earth, sea, and everything within. In reality, David is speaking to the orphan, which, for various reasons, was tailored made for me when I was a child and He spoke these words to me. He keeps truth forever, meaning, you don't have to worry about His intent or whether he will keep his word! He will do what he says and while it might not happen today or tomorrow or even in your time frame, you can rest assured that it will!

He executes justice and judgment for all that are oppressed! Ah! Those are the words I heard! Vengeance belongs to Him, forgiveness is mine. Hmmm....... But, the promises don't stop there: He will feed us with bread we didn't earn, loose us from prisons of our own making, open our blind eyes to let us truly see our need for Him, and then, He will lift them that are bowed down! That "bow" is not reverence. No, its being weighted down with the cares and hurt and pain of years of oppression and abuse.

I have to leave this now, but I know that there are many people that I need to forgive. People I can't go too; it's simply too late to do so. I know that in myself, I will never be able to do so. Part of me don't want to let them off the hook. But, the scripture I just shared tells me that its not my responsibility to be concerned about whether or not they get what is coming to them. Who am I to judge another man's servant? I do what I can.... God, forgive me please, as I forgive those who have harmed me......

Baggage and Important Questions!

For various reasons, I hesitate to write this post today. But, I learned a valuable lesson last night. I know, epiphany, epiphany... when is this guy going to stop! Ha! Not so soon; hopefully, never! Having been in a bad place where God felt a million miles away, I welcome His intervention, no matter how it might come.

The family and I went to church last night; I know, I can't hardly believe it either. Before even going, I knew the pastor there was going to be teaching out of 1 Chronicles 2; a text that for the life of me, I could not understand why he would choose to do so. So, I have to admit a certain skepticism going in.

From the moment he opened his mouth I could feel the blood rising within. His opening statement was that the various listings of the 12 Tribes of Israel and their frequent omissions or inconsistencies was troubling to him and that he had never fully reconciled these differences. Immediately, every fiber of my intellectual being began to scream: source criticism, document hypothesis, redaction criticism, textual criticism, historical criticism! THINK!!!!! (okay, I am an arrogant human being, but please, give me a little latitude here and try and read further) There are answers, even if you don't like them! Of course, on the way home, discussing this with my lovely wife (who unfortunately has to listen to my rambling regardless, because she loves me... although I'm sure she'd disagree with the HAS too part... let's just say that she makes a wonderful effort! hehe ), I told her that I knew that if I had been the one up there struggling through some of those genealogies, I would have made a horrible mess of it. Talk about making people mad; I probably would of upset my own self! LOL

Oh, the conviction! Do I think critical analysis of scripture is a bad thing? Absolutely not! Will I ever reconcile the bible from a literary critical and/or historical standpoint? Probably never. But, as I sat there and listened, the more I listened, I began to see that the important thing, what mattered and in essence, those portions of his sermon that spoke to my spirit, not my intellect, were the narratives, the stories.

We are a narrative people, are we not? We have our stories to tell, some more interesting than others, but nonetheless, all our lives' are narratives. When we tell our stories, we don't always follow a linear progression; we get side tracked, run here or there and emphasize the things that are most important to us. How does this relate to the scriptures?

Scripture, for whatever else it may be, is a narrative. The Old Testament is a narrative of a people who felt different, called, constructed by a benevolent, yet jealous God, who selects them for grandiose purposes. In places it is brutally honest, in others, not so much. But for all the criticism, and I surely believe that a responsible approach to scripture demands that we ask the hard questions; but, those hard question do not and and never will overwhelm the reoccurring themes we see throughout its pages.

Woven throughout its very core is a message written in a bottle, if you will, to man. A dismal world brought back to life by a creative Spirit who hovered over it's expanse. A perfect man and woman, put in a perfect world only to mess it up. But then we see a perfect Savior taking animal skins to cover their nakedness and sending them out into a cruel world with an adamant promise of redemption. The intricacies of textual criticism may distract, but if you'll take a few steps back and try and see it as a whole, I think you'll see that scarlet thread, irreducible from the very fibers of the narrative itself.

To be honest, I don't care if the bible (OT in question here) was constructed from multiple sources over centuries, polished by this author or that one. JEDP (and a host of variations) certainly has its place in the classroom, and I would doubt the professionalism of any scholar dealing with biblical criticism who fails to take modern scholarship into account. But, and listen to me well cause this is a HUGE BUT, for me in the pew, it makes little difference. In study, I can as Gordon Atkinson says, "stand outside the myth," if you will, and take an objective look. But, when it comes to matters of faith, their just that, faith. And whose to say your faith in six literal days is less valid than mine?

I know I got side tracked there, but I thank God for the stories. Marcus Borg once said about the creation: "I don't believe for a moment that it happened that way, but I don't doubt for a moment that its true." Dichotomy? Sure. But, really, I've had my children tell me stories that I knew were not true, but the story, what it was that they were really trying say to me, was as true and genuine as the person standing before me. What he was saying was that his post critical, post modern, post-enlightenment mind would not allow him to accept creation in six literal days, but for him, he had no doubt that how ever God did it, He did.

How do we reconcile these differences? We don't. Not really. We set priorities and we decide what's more important. It really is that lucid, at least in my mind. Is it more important that I believe that six literal days were six LITERAL days, or is the point simpler than that? Perhaps, we may never agree on the intricacies of biblical criticism, but we can agree that God is real and that his intent and purpose in humanity is obvious and whether we never understand exactly how or when He will bring his plans for us and the world to light, we know with certainty that He will.

Jesus, one day, having withdrawn from the crowds, kn0wing His time was coming near and needing his friends, asked them a poignant question: "who do you say that I am?" You may not readily see the bridge that I'm trying to build this morning, but what I really learned last night is that there is only a few questions that are most important and that really matter. Who is Jesus? What does he mean to me? And, do I know Him in a personal way?

For all my learning and all my ignorance, those are becoming the most important questions to me. Who is Jesus? He is Yeshua, the Son of God; He is the Man and Mediator between me and God. He's my Friend, Brother, Companion, Lover, Apostle, Provision, Sufficiency... He truly is my all in all.

What does He mean to me? I was lost, but now I am found; I was blind, but now I see! He reached His hand into the expanse of my pain and somehow someway, as only He can, soothed the rawness of my soul. He healed me when I cried out; he called me from a tomb of addictions and pain and hurt and loss... He untied the grave clothes that I had allowed this world to place upon me, and He set me free!

Do I know Him in a personal way? I am learning to know Him more and more everyday. His voice is resonating within my soul. When I do something wrong, I feel His conviction. He wakes me up in the middle of the night for a walk, just to talk..... do I know Him? Oh, as much as one can know the wind... but, I am content to say as Peter: you are the Son of the Living God." Not the dead God of theology or my beloved biblical criticism. No! He is, You, are the Son of the Living God! What will you do with Him today?