Tag Archives: Spirituality

Cracked Logic

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Few times do crackpots become more visible than presidential election year in America. Jonathan Maxwell ran some years back as the candidate for the Vegetarian Party. Vermin Brewer is a candidate again, always campaigning with a large rubber boot on his head (haven’t gotten that metaphor yet). And a guy named Tim wears his Santa Claus hat while promising to cut taxes – because that’s what his spirit guides have empowered him to do! Oh yeah, it does get a bit crazy.

The clearly crazed aren’t the ones who scare me, though. It’s the undercover insanity that causes the real problems. Candidates promise to deliver the very gifts that we value in the US – freedom, provision, relationship, happiness, security – while ignoring the very God who gives these things. That should be the wake up call.

A prophet from the Old Testament named Jeremiah gave a wake up call to his nation:

“For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!

His nation had chosen to install in the place of the God who really provides, a system of wells and holding tanks that would provide water in times of drought, war, and want. The problem? Nearly invisible cracks would leak out the life-giving water into the surrounding dirt. The illusion this gave? You can have all the good stuff God promised (safety, quenched thirst, water for crops, etc.), but without the need to follow after God! Just trust in my system!

I’m not on a rampage against irrigation systems or crusading against preparing for future problems. But, laying systems of safety and provision apart from acknowledging God as the one who provides and is our safety? That’s cracked logic.

Oh, the dangers of building security apart from reliance on the God who secures. Jeremiah called it two evils. Departing from God, and trying to replace God with a system. Can we see the cracks in this logic? Do you see the dirty ground water rising around the cisterns?

Filled up and spilling over,

Rick (John 7:38)

Changed by Simple Choices

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I talked to a couple a few weeks ago, and they found our church because of a traffic snag. It was one of those events – car show, fun run, softball tourney, etc. – that sent cars all over the beach roads to get north or south. We do church right in the middle of the action, so they turned left to go right, and there we were. They worship with us now.

What matters most often is the result of simple choices. I’m not just talking about personal randomness like what dropped into these guys’ lives. The simple choices of how to spend a few minutes, or who to call just to say I’m thinking about you, or whether to turn left or right at the juncture of a dilemma, can literally transform your life.

I saw this today in Jesus’ life once again. And if anyone didn’t do randomness, He didn’t! But it sure seemed like it sometimes in Scripture; that is, until we got the rest of the story. (Ask the lonely guy at the Pool of Siloam how, out of all the sick, he was healed, if randomness figured into the plan. Or the lady with the issues who touched Jesus’ robe in the midst of her own traffic jam, if she was healed randomly. It may look random, but Jesus chooses very personally who to touch. But, I’m off topic…sorry.)

Mark writes his account of what we’ve come to call The Transfiguration (Mark 9). If you’ve read it before, and I asked you “why did he go up the mountain?” what would be your likely answer? To meet with Mose and company? To be Transfigured? To give a glimpse of His glory to the three disciples with Him?

From Mark’s pen, it was the result of a simple choice. The intro goes like this: “Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone.”

He wanted to rest, pray, get away from the noisy crowds, and have some alone time with His best friends and His Father. He knew that, being quiet for a time settles things deep down inside. It can clear the fog and cause the main things to rise to the top of the list, above the “not-so-main-things.” And it did just that – the Transfiguration account is all about the Father’s plan coming about through Jesus! It’s about the Father’s voice and the Father’s glory being seen in His Son! (Not to mention the very important cameos from Moses and Elijah to affirm the the mission!)

Simple choices just don’t get enough credit, but choosing wisely instead of poorly, or thoughtfully over impulsively, can cause us to land right into those important crossroads in our lives. There is a “default” perspective at times in the thought processes of follower’s of Christ. It starts with something like, “It must be God since I want to do it” and ends with “OK, it will somehow work out in the end” when the results skew a different direction. It’s almost a baptized fatalism that can rule our choices.

Take your choices before the Father, and make your choices based on His wisdom and His mission in your life. And, of course, it’s always a good choice to get away with your Father for some alone time with Him! Doing this as a simple daily choice will lead to your own personal transformation, and who knows? You likely will find yourself standing right in front of a far greater adventure than you could have chosen on your own!

On the Journey – Rick

Who’s at the top?

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Here’s a puzzler: why did demons know who Jesus was while religious leaders did not? And why were they so eager to declare Who He was? In Mark 1, the account says: “So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak.”

Had they met Him, had a run in with Him, been briefed on Him? Or did they already acknowledge Him as Lord of All? Was Jesus the adversary they had been warned about, or was He the King of Kings they had bowed down before? Since higher powers exist – angels, demons, cherubim, etc. – they know Who’s at the top.

One church at the beginning got the message from the Apostle. He said that “at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord” — not just here on earth, but above the earth and under the earth. They, by virtue of position, had to announce who he was. Because they had already acknowledged who was at the top. And… that would be Jesus! Let that make a difference in how you pray.

Recognizing The One Who Rules it All.

Not business, but personal

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I’ve heard the “it’s full of contradictions” comment on occasion when dialoging about the Bible. Here’s one that turns up occasionally. Why do Matthew have two ladies at the tomb after the resurrection and John only has Mary Magdalene?

A couple of simple insights clear this one up. The Jewish culture called for two or more witnesses to validate a truth. Mary, Salome, and probably a few other women were there. OK, so the truth is validates (of course, they are women, so some of the most strict would discount the testimony anyway – it was Jesus, and Christianity that return the worth to women’s importance.)

And, for John, the story is about the personal touch. He writes as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” Relationship is the thread of insight throughout his story from chapter one — remember that Jesus (the Word) was with God in the beginning (emphasis “with”) and came to earth to dwell among people (emphasis “among”) — to chapter 25 when Jesus recast the call to “follow” and do life with and in Him. Mary Magdalene, for John, got the nod in his account because Jesus had done so much in her life, to forgive and restore.

So, when we are about the business of sharing the Great News, it’s not business, it’s personal.

The Greatest Act of Worship

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Have you even wondered how the beauty of goodness and the ugly of evil can exist in such close proximity? Just inside the entrance to the Sistine Chapel, covering the wall is Michaelangelo’s “Judgement Day” fresco. He depicts heaven, Jesus enthroned, worship and redemption graphically juxtaposed with hell’s fires, anguish, hopelessness and evil. The light of heaven is above; the darkness of hell is below. And pulling toward the dark those who long for good are the demons of hell. He had insight!

I see this juxtaposition of goodness and evil every day around me (and unfortunately, the battle of this inside me, too.) In Matthew 26 you can read about the greatest act of evil happening right alongside the greatest act of worship.

The Pharisees plot Jesus’ death. They do so in a politically correct way, of course, by trying to avoid Passover — a sort of Jesus-gate collusion.

While they look for a breakthrough to this “Nazarene problem, Jesus experiences the greatest act of worship possible. He is with his disciples dining at the house of a man he likely healed of leprosy, and “the woman” brings the alabaster jar in and breaks and pours out this expensive gift in adoration onto his feet.

The writer of this account uses two key “transition words” that indicate these two events were happening side-by-side – different locations, down the street from each other, but at the same time. How revealing!

When I break open and pour out what I am before the Lord, the fragrance is sweet – not because of the good I have done or am, but because of the good He has poured in. And when this happens, the aroma can overwhelm the place I’m in and draw others to the Source of this perfume. No matter the evil “down the street” or the pull the enemy has to tempt us toward the darkness, the fragrance of God’s grace and the goodness through a life poured out for Him is greater!

As you and I seek the Father, live by the Spirit, and pursue the Son’s command to follow Him and build disciples of all nations, keep pouring out the good He has poured into you.

Broken and splashed – Rick