This Generation

First of all, allow me to say that "I'm home!" I think you probably already knew that, but perhaps you didn't. Either way, feel free to call me or email me so we can chat face-to-face. That's what the church is all about! This morning I was reading either Luke 11 or Matthew 12 (I don't remember which), where Jesus says that "the men of Ninevah will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here." (NIV) I then went out on a run. As I ran I started thinking about a cartoon that I found on Facebook. It shows a Sunday School teacher at the whiteboard. On the board is what looks like a long family tree. At the far end, one of the dozens of lines is circled. The teacher says, "This is where we came along and finally got it right." One of the students says, "Isn't Jesus lucky!?" As I ran, this idea of denominational division began to clash in my mind with Jesus' rebuke to "this generation." When He said that, he was speaking to a mixed crowd. Some were Sadducees, convinced that they were obeying God's law. Others were Pharisees, who looked down on the Sadducees because of their incomplete interpretation of the law. Surely they, the Pharisees, would stand proudly at the judgment day as God rebuked the Saducees for their lack of faith. Then there were the zealots who believed that God wanted to use them to free His holy people from the sinful Romans. In addition, there was every brand of average Joe who was trying hard to please God as he saw fit. Little did they know that, on that day, they were to witness a preview of the Day of Judgment. Jesus didn't waste time with their quarrels and disputes and heated debates about the finer points of Jewish theology. Instead He said, probably with anguish in His voice, "You are all so busy with your religion that you are missing God!" God doesn't want us to prove that we are right so that He can stand us up at the judgment day and say, "Look at my faithful servants who figured out My Words." No! He holds us responsible for our generation. We ARE the church. All of us. Together. With all of our differences of interpretation and practice.* To each of us and all of us He has given the exact same challenge. He expects us to follow it as individuals and He expects us to encourage, support, and exhort one another to embrace that challenge, including those in other denominations. True religion is very simple. Love God with everything you are and everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. Those two things will keep us busy enough for our entire life. May we, as the entire body of Christ, repent and pursue God before we miss Him entirely! *obviously I'm not including Jehovah's Witnesses or other groups who deny the deity of Jesus or other basic elements of the Christian creed.

Faith and Hope

Recently I have been reading through a men's devotional book. This morning was about how struggles and hard times can shake our faith in God, but if we continue to seek Him and to reflect on His past faithfulness they can be an opportunity for our faith to grow deeper and stronger. It caused me to spend some time writing in my gratitude journal, something I've neglected to do for far too long. My hope is that my records of God's faithfulness will help me to stand strong when I find it hard to trust Him. Then I got on with my day and, as too often happens, largely forgot about my morning reflections. As I was hanging out the laundry, however, my apartment mate gave me an illustration for my reflections. He said, "I just realized that our grape vine lives on faith. Look, it's already producing leaves and we haven't had any rain yet." It's true. We haven't had any rain in this country since October. All of the leaves from last rain season have long since shrivelled up, fallen off, and turned into dusty little bits swirling around in the hot breeze on our patio. Our poor grapevine hasn't seen a drop of rain in 8 months, and yet this week it is putting out big, green leaves. As I thought about it I realized that the mango trees have started producing loads of juicy mangoes as well, and they must be using up their last precious stores of water to do so. All of the plants in this country have started to bloom and blossom and produce fruit- and all of them are doing so because they "trust" that God will send rain soon. It is programmed into their DNA to prepare for the rain before it actually falls. God hasn't programmed us to trust Him; it requires a daily decision of faith. Sometimes that choice is hard, but if we want to grow and flourish we would be wise to look to the trees which have been doing so for hundreds of years by living in faith.

whack-a-mole

I got two moles whacked off today, but I'm the one with the spinning head! The dermatologist didn't give me quite enough anesthetic for the first one so he really loaded me up before he removed the second one. I told him that I didn't mind a little bit of pain but I guess I must have been flinching and making him nervous or something. Anyway, I had a good bit of numbness by the time he was done, and now I'm still feeling a bit dizzy an hour and a half later. This must be what it's like to be drunk. Way over-rated, in my opinion! I'm not so much looking forward to the stuff wearing off, though. I didn't write down which pain killer he recommended and now I've forgotten it, so I'm planning to do without. It's weird, I had two moles removed a couple years ago and I remember it being a total non-event. I don't think it even hurt, at least not more than a scraped elbow. This time he must have gone a lot deeper because he said he put sutures in and I need to go back in 11 days so he can remove them. This was like a proper surgery! And he used a laser, which makes it cool. At any rate, I thank God for a good dermatologist here who could take care of these things.