Month: April 2022

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Who rudely interrupts a funeral and tells a widow to stop crying?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.” Luke‬ ‭7:13-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​How rude for Jesus to tell this grieving widow – WIDOW, “don’t cry.” Does Jesus not have an awareness of what she has lost, what she has been through. And who is he to tell her what she can or can’t do with her feelings. Jesus must have been displaying some kind of patriarchal control over this woman and she shouldn’t put up with it. Did he not have any respect for her journey, or her present situation? I’m surprised that one of the women, if not the widow herself, didn’t stop the well-intentioned Rabbi and say, “excuse me, you don’t know me or my boy. Who are you to tell me not to cry?”

Oh, that’s not how you read the story? This is where we find ourselves today with an over-inflated sense of self and a misperception of gender identity and interactions.

Luke writes that Jesus was in fact OVERFULL with compassion. The scene, the circumstances and the grief of this woman and friends surrounding her were loaded with deep emotion. If Jesus did not know what was going to happen next or did not have the power to change the direction of the procession coming out to bury this young man – it might have seemed very rude to tell a grieving widow, “don’t cry.”

Also, my curious brain wants to know, did Jesus have full access to his real nature, being fully God to the point that he knew the beginning and the end of every person in the funeral procession? Or did he self-limit that knowledge and in his fully human capacity depend completely on the voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to the dead and tell it to get up?

Jesus really took a risk as well. Luke says he touched the “soros”, the open coffin! There are rules about touching dead things or even being around them. What exactly are the rules for having contact with the resurrected dead?

When I was a new believer I worked for a flower shop and delivered flowers all over town. One my duties was to deliver flowers to funerals. I was told it was my responsibility to pin a boutonniere on the deceased while he lay in the coffin. As a teenager, I didn’t want to see or be around a dead body. It seemed super creepy. The funeral was held in our local senior citizen community called “Leisure World.” Yeah I thought it was a strange euphemism for old people housing as well. When I arrived early at the church to deliver the flowers and fulfill my delivery boy duties, I had this overwhelming sense of spiritual curiosity. I kept thinking, “What would happen if I walked up to the casket and commanded the man to get up?” I was new to Christianity and hadn’t been told I couldn’t or wasn’t supposed to think like that or certainly DO something crazy like that either. Granted, I was NOT moved by compassion. I was moved by a new believer’s curiosity. I have talked with a few Pastors who have had similar experiences asking, “what if” or “should I?”

Do you wonder about such things? When you see grief, or suffering. When you see torment and oppression. Do you feel something rise up within you and to want to say, “get up, be healed or get out to a demon?” Okay, maybe not. Maybe it’s just me. Ok, one more question. Do you ever wonder what the world would be like if believers DID the things Jesus did? Raising the dead, healing the sick, kicking demons back to hell?

I’ve buried children in little caskets. I’ve walked the childrens’ hospitals hallways. I’ve driven down Main St in Santa Ana and seen demonic possession. I wonder, if not out of compassion, but even out of frustration, if I’ll ACT on those thoughts and DO what Jesus did – raise, heal, deliver.

You know what, it’s not that I don’t believe it could be possible. It’s that I believe I’ll look so foolish if it fails, feeling like I FAILED.

Where did Jesus get the cojones to do such things? Yeah, it’s so sunday-school just to say, “God.” Because, God wants us to live in this world and BE like Jesus to the grieving, sick, even possessed! But I don’t. We don’t. What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with us?

PRAYER:

Dad,
How do I get my life, my behaviors, my actions to truly reflect what I believe? I see the pain in my city, in my neighbors, but I just don’t think I’m enough. I’ve got my own sins, my own struggles and I hate looking stupid as well. Clearly, I’m missing something. Can you help me figure this out?

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What is it about the Seven churches in Revelation?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive: “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan.” Revelation‬ ‭2:8-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​I don’t spend a lot of time in the book of Revelation. A book of endings. John, the revelator, is writing what he sees and it is filled with mystery, and God summarizing the finality of the story that began in Genesis and now has its apocalyptic conclusions here. John also gives us the letters to the churches, kind of an update on how they are doing and how the gospel either continues to thrive through the people or how it suffers because of sin, error or distractions. John says these letters are from Christ himself who brings praise, correction or judgment to the church’s behavior. There are seven churches listed. Each one, similar has an understanding from God about the struggles they face and most have a complaint or an admonition as well.

The church of Smyrna only has encouragement and a warning of severe suffering ahead. They were already suffering and poor, John notes, but more will be coming. Their enemies are strong and powerful, but God is with them. I find it interesting that these are individual churches in real cities at the time of John’s writing. These are not seven denominations because they all believe in the same thing. At this time there is no mention of differences in doctrine, polity or practics, they are all ONE church under Jesus. I think each church was too busy struggling for their life, or their sin to be splitting hairs over styles of worship (hymns, choruses, sitting or hands raised), sermons (exegetical, verse by verse, practical, or series), or even church management (elder led, pastor led, congregational, or committee). They were just living or not living the gospel and doing the best they could.

Did you know that some New Testament cities still have a “church” in them? Granted, most are just buildings and do not have a gospel witness through a group of people. Some of the buildings are now tourist attractions only. Some of the cities mentioned have no churches, building or otherwise in them. Take Ephesus for example, they have a lot of monuments and ancient ruins, but no thriving gospel witness in town at all.

The gospel itself is still going out to ALL the world and there are some places that it has not been able to go, thus no church presence has been formed. Much of the emphasis of missions continues to take the message of faith, of grace to these areas where the name of Jesus has not been heard. In the nineties, the church focused on the “10/40” window, highlighting the geographic equator lines where it has been difficult to share the message of Christ. The 10/40 window also refers to the “poorest of the poor” in our world. In the past ten years, there have been so many internal, political struggles within those areas, namely wars and genocides, that refugees have fled their own countries and migrated all over the world. These have been extraordinary opportunities for the them to hear the gospel message. Even in the darkest of political climates and radical religious oppression, God has been speaking to thousands through dreams. Through these powerful dreams, God has put a yearning, a curiosity in the hearts of men and women to find this Jesus that appears to them while they are sleeping. In these last days, we may have difficulty getting the gospel into a nation, but God is supernaturally bringing them out. Some of them may even be your neighbors! You might find yourself being a missionary on your own block!

PRAYER:

Dad,
I am so grateful you found me! I am so grateful for THE Church. I am so grateful for my local church as well. The body of Christ coming together to worship, pray and hear your Word. It is both encouraging and challenging these days because of another round of “falling way.” However, your Church will go on and your gospel will go out because you love us and have made a way for anyone who believes!

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Wisdom’s own Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns. She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, and set the table. She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come. She calls out from the heights overlooking the city. “Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says, “Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live; learn to use good judgment.” Proverbs‬ ‭9:1-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​What an amazing way to look at God’s wisdom, actually preparing for and inviting people to a beautiful setting and a meal. There are so many pictures that come to mind as I read this.

First the enormous space that wisdom has anticipated for the event, it had seven columns. It’s not just a great feast it’s a large setting, a banquet hall ready for guests to be honored and treated like royalty. Do you see this? The SIMPLE are given a chance to feel like kings and rulers. Fools are invited to this feast! This is the Hebrew word, pethiy, fool, silly (i.e. Seducible). These are the ones who are easily enticed, misled. It’s the second most used word (15 times) for “fool” in Proverbs.

The other picture I see reflected in these verses is Jesus talking about a banquet feast that no one showed up to! Luke tells us in chapter 14 that Jesus told this story of the man who wanted to throw a huge party and invites had all gone out. However, when regrets started coming back, it made the man angry. He got excuses from the rich and/or well off – a man who just bought property, who was so wealthy he didn’t even need to see it first! Another who picked up some oxen and didn’t know if they were any good. And finally, a married guy, who forgot to tell his bride he’d been invited to a posh event, sorry no plus one. All of these smell of entitlement! So the man got really angry and instructed his servants to go out and invite the disenfranchised. They were not fools, but would likely not have opportunities to attend an event like this. This old proverb is different because the entire extravaganza was planned and prepared for those fools on the fringe.

And, here’s the kicker. Wisdom reveals her motive right there in the last stanza. “Ok,” you might think, “there’s the hook, the switch, the real truth.” But look at WHY wisdom would go to such extremes to host this party specifically for those who are specifically and regularly targeted for being taken advantage of. The catch, wisdom wants them to LEAVE their normal patterns of gullibility and find out how to LIVE! And to LEARN to use good judgment. This was a fancy, free dinner and seminar on how to better themselves and to quit being duped all the time!

Genius! Come for the elegance and free drinks and stay for a life seminar. If you could only see how much God wants to GIVE you a solid life, a good life, a smart and morally sound life, you would see how much He cares for you. Jesus retold a form of this parable with the edgy, entitled angle to basically say the same thing. This grand banquet, this free seminar is open to any who would take God up on his offer. In a very odd coincidence, it feels like Wisdom has its own Chocolate Factory and has invited the Charlie’s of the world to experience it!

PRAYER:

Dad,
Why is it so hard for folks to see how much, how hard you work to love us and give us a life filled with adventure and fulfillment. Why have we pitched salvation and redemption as a jail cell filled with rules and a boring funless life? We’ve really been duped! I think the church has been complicit in pitching holiness and righteousness and as joy and freedom killers. We’ve got it all wrong, all backwards! The real lie is this idea that our free choice to do what ever we want leads to happiness. And having our every wicked desire fulfilled leads to freedom. We have played the Pethiy fool, the simple seducible for believing that! We have all been DUPED! Help us see TRUTH, live truth!

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¡Bienvenido a la revolución!

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” Luke‬ ‭6:27-28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Society has rules that we live by. It’s not just our geographic context or culture, it’s our overarching and unifying way of life. You do me wrong, I retaliate. You make a joke about one of my family members and I slap your face! It’s a code. It’s genetic. All this talk about love, kindness and non-violence – ah that’s so vogue.

Bullies are out, those are “red choices” my granddaughter’s preschool teachers would say. Forgiveness and using your words (and someone to understand the bully) is the hot-topic morality today.

You know who started the revolution? Yeah, Jesus. He’s the same guy that folks want left out of government, education and civil conversation because it’s deemed divisively religious. And everyone knows religion is judgey. Funny that Jesus was the epitome of revolutionary and rather anti-religion.

He actually said, you’ve heard… “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” but I say… Almost every day on the news we hear about an escalated incident that goes way beyond black eyes and missing teeth! It’s Annie get your gun and blam blam blam, someone is dead. It’s so massively ironic that the guy who made “don’t judge” a thing which is now considered to be the lightening rod of any non-civil conversation. Jesus is the one who said “DON’T.” So sure folks can hide behind “choices” or “I identify as” or even have the law give them a special and protected class meant to protect people from bullies. Jesus said things that were anti-human nature – forgive, give, love, BLESS (which isn’t the word, makarios: to make happy but rather eulogeó: to speak well of, praise)! What if the “protected class by law” becomes our cultural bullies? What if folks quit being advocates and look more like activists who behave violently? I think we should quit giving credit to our more modern, historical peacemakers and remember where they got their campaign slogans from – Jesus, the founder and president of the LOVE movement.

PRAYER:

Dad,
I just get so worked up over the enemy of our soul, Satan, supplanting and subtly stealing YOUR words and twisting them to be used against you – and for sure, against us. Satan is a thief, even stealing words and symbols like love, promise and rainbows to be bumper-stickered to promote lies and deeply, morally bankrupt codes of conduct. These bait and switch techniques are so damnable! By the time folks find truth or realize they’ve been duped there has been so much damaged done to their souls, their relationships not to mention the platforms they used to mislead thousands of others. It’s just awful, it makes me sick to see it happen. And even still, I know that you will be waiting like a good father who runs to the prodigal because they’ve come home! I just ask that you stop them from spreading the pig-slop as truth! It’s not a lifestyle, it’s a blatant liestyle.

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Making melodies in our heart

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Let all Israel repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Let all who fear the Lord repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Psalms‬ ‭118:1-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This Psalm or song opens with a grand proclamation and David gives instructions to the worship leaders, mostly the priests, of this public time of sing praise to God. There are some very famous praise-phrases in this Psalm. “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” “You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you!” And, “The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not let me die.” Just kidding! That one never made into our hymnals, Maranatha albums or the Passion Tour.

I am so glad David and others recorded these words, but do you ever wonder what happened to the music? We’ve got the lyrics, but no notes, notations or keys. I heard recently from some of my super-senior friends that they miss the actual melody, rhythm or timing of the old hymns – not just the words. In all the flurry of the great “worship wars” of the 90’s and Y2K, worship bands were capturing hymnal words and even Biblical phrases right out of the Psalms, but our oldest friends still missed the beat of the music itself, the meters. I don’t think anyone knows exactly what the OT songs sounded like, but there was an interesting article I found on the web detailing worship and singing in the old and new testament – http://www.summit1.org/gun10/gun01.htm.

I hope God gives you a melody today! “In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven’s harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love.”

PRAYER

Dad,
I love the Psalms and the beautiful words expressing praise to you! They are reminders for me to lift up a song and let it lift up my heart as well.

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Wrong war, wrong enemy

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Do not be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for I have given you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.” Joshua‬ ‭10:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​These war stories, although gory and brutal, are not the focus of the grand story God is telling in the Old Testament, but they are critical. Here’s a few things I noticed.

One: there really IS a war going on, not “wars” but a war of good verses evil. A war of Satan using men like pawns, promising them great riches and power. And all these up and coming men of worldly positions had to do was be ruthless, hungry and destroy everything that got in their way. They existed then, they still exist today. There still is A war, and men and women want to play the same game and cause as much death and amass as much control over humans as possible. These stories are not stories of patriarchal power by the way, they are about rebellion, of which men and women both clamor for.

Two: It is difficult to wade through these ancient stories where we have no comprehension or understanding of the culture at that time. We have no real sense of the brute force and unmerciful actions of these kings nor their kingdoms. And each one of these cities mentioned have their own intricate culture, a bloodthirsty DNA so to speak. The leaders created and maintained these deep cultures that ran through several generations of children, who’s little boys and girls would naturally turn into mean, nasty men and women. A couple of highlights to note: King Adoni-zedek made the first move and sent word out to all the other Amorite kings. Hoham of Hebron, Piram of Jarmuth, Japhia of Lachish, and Debir of Eglon. “Come and help me destroy Gibeon,” he urged them.

Three: God spoke to Joshua promising a win. Joshua asked God for an extraordinary miracle – more daylight to get the job done! “On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.” The five kings fled their cities and met up to hide in the caves, “During the battle the five kings escaped and hid in a cave at Makkedah.” Joshua had men block the cave entrance until he had complete control over the cities. Then he returned and brought the five kings out for a public trial and punishment. “So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. When they brought them out, Joshua told the commanders of his army, “Come and put your feet on the kings’ necks.” And they did as they were told.” Joshua promised that this is what God would allow them to do to all their enemies.

Four: Right here there is a picture, an object lesson that is repeated throughout both Old and New Testament. “THE” enemy of God and all creation, THE rebellious one, THE liar and deceiver will find his neck under the foot of one meek, humble, innocent person far into the future – when that enemy convinced humans to crucify the messiah thinking it would crush God’s plan to finally end the war and rebellion over the entire Earth. (Gen 3:15, Ps 47:3, 1 Cor. 15:25, Eph. 1:22). Then Joshua had them spiked and displayed for all to see and later buried in the cave they had hidden in.

Five: There will be a final day of justice and there will be an end to brutality. When we see our society struggle with inequalities and misappropriated power, we want to blame men, or political systems, or even an entire race. Look deeper, follow the promises and lies behind those powers – you’ll find a puppet-master of sorts, pulling the strings of hatred, chaos and mayhem. Just make sure you know the real enemy and the very real war.

PRAYER

Dad,
One of the things I can’t stand the most, speaking as an enneagram nine, is the misplaced blame of judgment on the wrong people for the wrong problem. People are people. We are weak and imperfect. We makes mistakes and listen to lies and worse, believe liars. Help us get the story straight. Help us understand the real war and the real enemy here. It’s not each other at all. I can’t wait for your justice to be finally and forever delivered.

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Will the real communion please stand up.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:23-26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It is very significant that the Apostle Paul picked up this Maundy Thursday practice and now sacrament that would live on in every church and every believer. This event was huge in Judaism, because Jesus was celebrating a Super Passover, a Year of Jubilee Passover with all the elements except for the main course, the lamb. But in fact the lamb wasn’t missing at all, it was there at that Passover. However, it wasn’t sacrificed and eaten completely that night, it would be sacrificed about 24 hrs later and very much consumed within three days. The Passover lamb was Jesus and that night was the final Passover necessary for the whole world. That night, the remembrance of the very old story Moses recorded about the death angel passing over when he saw the blood applied on the doorposts of the people who believed and obeyed. But also God commanding that the Jewish people celebrate that memory up until this very night when Christ himself completed the object lesson! For the Jewish person, this was a final celebration in its original form. However for the gentile it would be a brand new practice going forward.

This final Passover was the handoff, the bridge between the Jews and Gentiles who ALL celebrate a different kind of Passover, a communion.

Did you think about the fact that Paul was the only one who restated the story and commented on some of the abuses of the Corinth church concerning communion? I am so thankful he did! Did you know that the abuse of what was considered a “Love Feast,” continued to cause churches problems for several hundred years! Did you know that one of the early Bishop’s tried to shut it all down and basically NOT ALLOW communion to be served to fake believers and it could only be administered through an approved Bishop? This was all before the highly structured Eucharist system in the Catholic church. Paul just said “stop the abuses.” However, the church clamped down the “celebration” part so severely and reduced it to a authoritative top-down experience that we never recovered the joy of remembering or the hope of Christ’s coming. Now, the church still thinks that communion can only be served a certain way and that it must be done by professional clergy in a very controlled, almost mechanical way. This very holy object lesson or ceremony needs the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit to bring us back to reality. The body of Christ gathers, we commune, we celebrate and remember the sacrifice Jesus made and CHEER his second coming.

PRAYER:

Dad,
I have always enjoyed communion! I have always thought and felt deeply about that night so long ago. I have always loved the rich, deep historical and theological significance of the Passover. However, I’ve always wanted to be much more celebratory about the whole thing. I’m thankful Paul wrote about it, even if it was a correction to the church. I would also love to bring back a sense of a love feast, gathering in joy and telling the stories of your great grace.

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Who is searching for who?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, “God is great!” But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O Lord, do not delay.” Psalms‬ ‭70:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​I often wonder who is looking for God, personally seeking him out. I imagine that most are looking for some answers, rest, peace, especially hope. Even in those suffering moments that folks would look outside themselves and be open to the fact that God is watching over them and in that they’ll find a promise. They will find God when they look for him.

Well before I came to Christ at fifteen, I had a sense that someone was watching out for me, watching over me. It wasn’t in a creepy stalking way, but a gentle parental oversight. Even at a young age I had some really frightening moments and felt something trying to help me, I just didn’t understand him or know how to talk to him or ask for help. I know people think that comes natural to a child, but it didn’t with me. I was never really taught about God or even a general sense that he’s out there. And for sure that sense of God was never modeled in our home. That’s kinda of odd when I think about it because it was my adopted mother who dressed me up and sent me off to a church just down the street when I was probably seven or eight years old. I heard some amazing Bible stories, but never made an association that the Jesus in the Bible could also be in my home. It’s hard to understand because by the time I was a teenager, my older sister and my mom were taking me to church every week! I was attending a church and still could not make sense of this general or for sure this personal God idea. I just thought church people were just that, churchy people. I just went along with my Mom because one, I had too and two, it made her happy.

But at a moment before my life could have turned badly, God found me. I saw a genuineness in the youth my age and it made me curious and I wanted what they had, not really knowing exactly what it was. By the Holy Spirit, God touched a nerve, a soft spot, a loss or ache I had but didn’t know how really deep my pain went. So at fifteen I had a moment to reflect on my life, what had happened to me as well as who I was becoming. I was lost and without anyone to help guide me. When the voice offered me hope I immediately knew who it was. Strange huh? I had never interacted with him before, but then this clear voice was coming through, “if you give me your life, I will be your Dad.” I felt very unworthy, very exposed at that moment. I replied back, “I am nobody and I don’t have anything to offer you.” I felt worthless because of my family history and the really horrible things I had done in the few short teenage years of my life. The voice just spoke the offer again, “give me your life and I will be your Dad.” I broke and said “yes.” I cried a pile of snot and tears and watched a mini-series in my mind of just how awful I had been. I felt a real sense of guilt for my decisions, my behaviors and said I was sorry for all the things I had done. I had been searching for God, but I was not really aware of it. He came and found me just in time and offered me a deal that I couldn’t pass up. After two dads that had failed me and a really crummy dad that would soon come into my mother’s life, I was looking forward to God fathering me. And he has. He kept his promise and I still call him Dad.

PRAYER:

Dad,
Where would I be without you? What would I be if you had not rescued me? I am forever grateful that you had mercy on me and offered me a life, not just a great life here, but an absolutely amazing life with you forever! Thank you.

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That hour.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to your name.” Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.” When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him. Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” John‬ ‭12:27-32‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Up until last year I had no real sense of the timing of all that surrounds Holy Week. As a church we decided to focus on “The Way of the Cross” or the stations of the cross. I did a sermon series called, “Talk about it” because I had a feeling that although the majority of the world knew much more about Holy Week and Jesus journey from the Garden of Gethsemane to Golgotha because of Catholicism, that many protestants and pentecostals knew virtually nothing. I confess, that was me. I had no idea of the intensity of the last twelve hours of Jesus life before the cross, from 3 am to 3 pm.

In the garden Jesus asked God if there was a way around this “cup,” this “hour.” I had always understood Jesus’ arrest, illegal mock trials, torture, humiliation and eventually the absolute most inhumane way to die the reason Jesus was troubled about this last hour the cup of suffering. Jesus would experience all of that being completely innocent, doing nothing wrong. He would in fact experience the worst injustice of any human that ever lived! But none of that eleven hours was what Jesus was trying to avoid. He was fully aware of what that kind of suffering would be like.

If you’ve seen Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, you know that it was a miracle that Jesus physical body could even make it to the cross. He had been without sleep, food or water. He had been beaten so badly that his blood loss was significant. But still, none of that was the reason Christ asked to avoid THE HOUR. It’s an hour that only the Son of Man, Son of God COULD experience and feel the absolute terror of those moments. None of us, as humans, will experience that hour until after death and judgment.

The reason Jesus wanted any other way for salvation, for a fulfilled contract to be paid, for justice to be satisfied and for ultimate glory to be brought to God was a complete and total separation from God, because God cannot look upon sin. The moment that Jesus cried out “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (My God my God why have you forsaken me?) it was because Jesus BECAME, he bore, he embodied OUR sin! And the feeling he felt had never been experienced before – a complete and ultimate separation from God. God not only turned away, he withdrew his presence that Jesus had intimately been acquainted with since conception in Mary’s womb. And in the moments of that last hour he experienced an eternity of darkness. And, in those three days of being dead, he made a trip to Hades, freeing prisoners from the place of waiting. Christ was still at work even after death!

PRAYER

Dad,
After all these years of walking with you and I am still experiencing new and deeper understanding of who you are and what you have done for US! I find myself more amazed, more grateful and more excited to see how it all ends. It makes me long for the finish line, not to escape this world’s mess, or the struggles and sin in this life, but just to finally make complete sense of ALL OF IT. We still do see with dark panes of glass and try to figure out what reality looks like through dirty glasses. Soon we will see clearly and we’ll also see you face to face! I look forward to that.

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It can be a wonderful life.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me. I have riches and honor, as well as enduring wealth and justice. My gifts are better than gold, even the purest gold, my wages better than sterling silver! I walk in righteousness, in paths of justice. Those who love me inherit wealth. I will fill their treasuries.” Proverbs‬ ‭8:17-21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Wisdom is so generous! But she must be sought after and respected. It is interesting that when people think of riches or wealth, be it bitcoin or gold and silver, no one really associates it with wisdom. Wealth is more often associated with greed, manipulation and slick, smooth fast talkers bilking folks out of their hard earned money.

Wisdom says, get me and wealth will follow but it will not only come by hard work but also earned by how you treat others.

I know some wealthy people and they did not gain by i’ll-means and they are super generous. Their wealth had all the markings of hard work, smart decisions, right decisions, justice and yes – wisdom. It would be foolish to think for some moment that I should strip away their wealth and give it to someone who has not worked, not earned, not made good decisions and certainly not learned or even attempted to get close to wisdom!

This is not equality, this is moronic shortcuts to some humanistic principle of “rights.” I’ll tell about rights, wisdom says “come one come all and search for me, learn my ways, listen to me and I will lead you.” Wisdom gives the right to a great life by invitation NOT by some kind of socialistic lottery system. Why won’t some just come and learn? I have no idea! But wisdom (which by the way IS Jesus himself) doesn’t come free. It comes at a great cost to the giver (God) and the receiver (learner).

There are wealthy that are wicked for sure. And they did not gain their money or power through paths of righteousness or wisdom. Their path was stealing, manipulating, tricking and hooking the poor and the fool to gain their trust. Their path looks like casinos, lotteries and unaccountable welfare systems that rob humans of dignity and traps them into cycles of debt and dependency. Our only hope is through wisdom! And, wisdom is the first thing God gives a new believer who will continue to commit and walk with him in this journey through life. Get Jesus, get wisdom.

PRAYER:

Dad,
You are generous beyond measure in grace and wisdom. Knowledge itself starts with fearing your. And a all-in pursuit of you is a life long curiosity and education in wisdom. Thank you for the disciple and the patience to walk these paths of righteousness and justice to find wisdom and love her ways. Now looking back, wealth or the reality of having enough was absolutely a concern and often an outright fear. And, I can’t ignore the financial responsibilities that you have allowed wisdom to so carefully teach me. But I have learned that money is not the only riches that come from a godly life, a life engaging with wisdom. I also have friends, wonderful eternal friends that remind me of how truly wealthy I am. It becomes a wonderful life for sure!