On the Fourth of July is the Peachtree Road Race. It’s a 10k run through Atlanta, Georgia. There are 60,000 runners allowed to register. One person I know ran last year’s road race with a friend who had a bad knee. Evan said, “I’ve kept pace twice now with people I know held be back, but it was still fun to run.” This year he says he wants to run alone, which really means he’ll set his own pace.
It seems to me that there are several ways a person can be held back in a race. Evan paced himself alongside a person incapable of a faster run simply to keep an injured runner company, to be supportive of him. Neither of them will receive a medal at the end of the road race. They’ll finish, though. Even will run enduring the slower pace of his injured friend, and cross the finish line with the personal satisfaction of completing the run and doing so alongside his friend.
A few years ago, Evan ran another race up in Tennessee. It was a grueling obstacle course that required great endurance. He ran with another friend who, while in good physical condition, was much slower. They ran the race together, alternating walking and running, helping each other over the hurdles and obstacles. Fifty feet before the finish line, the last obstacle required that they crawl through mud covered with two feet of muddy water. As they emerged from that mud bath,
Occasionally, looking into the eyes of my daughter’s dog, I will joke with my daughter about what that dog is thinking. Do animals think? I’ve heard that thinking is what differentiates animals from humans. At one time didn’t people think it was communication—talking—that separated us from animals? Huh. My daughter’s cat talks. Well, okay, not in English. Cat talk, I guess. She has a particular way of saying, “Eeyowaaaah” when it’s around the time of day she is feed. When she decides she wants attention, she says, “Eeh,” while rubbing against my leg. And the other day, at the laundry room door, she said, “Eeyo.” It wasn’t feeding time. She wasn’t near by to want her head scratched. What does “Eeyo” mean.
It seems to me that I long too much to be back in rural America. My dislike for cities is apparent when I reread things I’ve posted, or thought about things I say when talking to people. Just this morning, a fellow and I spoke about the way things were “Back in the Day.” He was raised in McDonough, Georgia. While now fully connected to Atlanta, he recalls when it was a small town, where everyone knew one another.
“Things were different back then—simpler,” he said.
“Not necessarily easy, but indeed simpler. And more cordial,” I said.
He mused about walking down the street and everyone he’d pass would nod their head or raise their hand just enough—the Southern Salute.
While working for the U. S. Forest Service as a “Radio Tech,” I had the pleasure of assisting in the installation of a forest-wide electronic public exchange (PBX), a telephone switch. In preparing for that experience, I attended a two-week course for certification on the Mitel 2000 PBX. It was a good course, well-taught, and I came back armed and ready not only for the installation and set up, but also for continued maintenance and upgrades. A major theme of the course was the Mitel Manual. Actually, it was not just one, but a series of manuals on the switch. Throughout the course, the instructors continually referred to one or more of the manuals stressing the critical nature of not just knowing the switch itself, but knowing the manuals. The key to expedient maintenance and repair was in knowing where to look for the answer. We were given our own copies of the manuals, and by the end of the two weeks, they were well worn.
After graduating college with a degree in Journalism, we all went our ways out into the world. A friend went to a small newspaper in a very small town in Oregon. She knew she’d be better welcomed if she bought a car there, rather than flaunting California license plates, or tags as we say in Georgia. I heard from her some months later. Indeed, she was well welcomed in that town. People would stop and talk to her on the street, in stores, any where she went. Once. After the first encounter, the person would snub her upon second meeting. She said the first “welcoming” was more of an interview. And she didn’t pass the test. Eventually she moved home to her own small California town.
Molly Simpson, in her post Emotional Abuse and the Church, speaks about the way some folks feel abused in their own churches. She offers great insight to folks in dealing with such abuse, while sparing criticism of the churches themselves.
There’s a story that is said to have taken place back during the “Jesus” movement of the early 1970s. There were a lot of young folks coming to home churches where they didn’t sit in pews and wear Sunday-go-to-meeting cloths. One day a fellow accustom to such home church groups saw people heading into Sunday service at a large, traditional church. He thought about going, made up his mind to do so, and headed up the steps. The congregation was seated, and it was a full house. With no seats left, he sauntered up the aisle in his flip-flop sandals clapping. When he got to the front, he simply sat cross-legged on the floor. So. You can imagine the reaction of the congregation. They were simple aghast. Soon an usher, dressed in a three-piece suit and well-polished shoes, came up the aisle toward the disheveled young man. The faces of the congregation said it all. “That’s right. Toss that fellow oughta here!” To the amazement of the congregation, the usher came up to the young man, sat down next to him, and crossed his legs, too.
Molly points out, “referring to Galatians 5:14, “The whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Every time someone approaches us, we have the opportunity to love them as Christ did.” That’s what the usher did. That’s not what the people of that small town did when they “welcomed” my friend and reporter. That was a false love. For love, as Molly also points out, calls for us to carry the burdens of our brothers and sisters.
It’s been over thirty years ago that, while attending a two-week course in Irvine, California, I was privileged to attend services Calvary Chapel Irvine. Pastor Chuck Smith founded Calvary and served there as head pastor. Pastor Smith had the ability to draw an audience into a sermon taking them to places they’d never have imagined. I recall part of one of his sermons in which he spoke about Heaven. He illustrated Heaven as if it were Earth, divided up giving each person a share of land, which he calculated to be three acres. He said things like there won’t be plumbing in the house, because things will be perfect. What I have remembered about Pastor Smith’s sermon is that even if Heaven looked anything like Earth, it is very different. Perfect, for one thing. The physical presence of our Lord Y’shuaJesus is the most significant difference. And after our physical deaths, we who are saved though faith in Y’shuaJesus will experience Heaven as life in the presence of G-d.
There’s another kind of life after death. And we who are marked, having our names engraved in the Book of Life, are experiencing it right now. This life began when we responded to the call of the LORD. For our response was one of dying to our flesh and receiving a new life of the Spirit.
. . .now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7:6.
From the time the Law was given to us on Mount Sinai, until the Cross, we were bound by the written Law. We were not certain of our afterlife. We were certain only of the overwhelming guilt that didn’t seem to come clean even with the sacrifices. We thought if G-d told us what we were to do, we could do it. Like children, we said, in effect, “I’ll be good, Father.” But we couldn’t. We needed something more. It took the Blood of Y’shuaJesus to wipe away the guilt and shame, to pay the price we simply couldn’t pay. We have now the Spirit, and the Law is written upon our hearts. We are saved. We are Genuine. We are Authentic.
Sure, we’ve from time to time fallen back into the flesh, into some sin or other. But we don’t stay in it. We see it for what it is, and move away from it. Things aren’t rigid anymore. There’s flexibility. We don’t have to fit into a mould, fit into a small rigid box. We are free to walk in the way the Spirit guides us. Free from condemnation.
This way of walking didn’t come easy for me. Call it legalism. It doesn’t have to be enforced by a church; it can be self-imposed. I must do this, or that, or . . . But I don’t have to be that way. That’s the freedom we have in Messiah. The freedom we have in the Spirit. It means we can serve G-d in a way that’s uniquely tailored to our personalities, our gifts, our talents.
There are time, however, in which we are called to stretch ourselves out of the comfortable, into other paths. We are promised, however, the Lord’s Lamp to guide our feet, His Light to guide our paths.
These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work. 1 Chron 4:23.
C.H. Spurgeon in Morning and Evening (June 03) uses this scripture to speak about service to Christ that is less than glamorous. He mentions that some are called to live in the country and not the city, as they might prefer.
I am reminded of the fellow in SLO with whom I once discussed St. Francis of Assisi. He said he was so very suited to be in a monastery but a friend said he could, and should, “make the world his monastery.” His life could be spent not doing what is comfortable for him, but what is not within his comfort zone.
For me, it’s helpful to know that the Lord won’t let us bite off more than we can chew. I’m a county boy at heart. I long for the wide-open range, the mountains, a long stretch of barren beach. A small town is okay, too. As I’ve said before, I’ve little use for cities. But, then here I am, a stone’s throw from Atlanta, Georgia. And I’ve accepted that it is this way for the moment. Praise the Lord, for when I am up to my neck in too much city, the Lord allows me to find times of refreshing, both physical and emotional/mental, with Him.
Beginning with a discussion of what many see as dangerous times ahead for Christians after the
U. S. Presidential Elections this fall, I talked about the Festival in celebration of the giving of the Ten Commandments, took a look at the Salvation of Y’shuaJesus and Street Evangelism and receiving Messiah. It seemed a bit disjointed, but I shared concerns over the rising conflict and lack of peace that is occurring in America and has been ongoing in many parts of the world.
Rounding it out is the way we respond to situations that affect us. For instance, in some of the videos on YouTube, Street Evangelists evoked responses from an audience that became bitter, angry, and often threatening. I’ve heard that people are tired of the Gospel being used to beat them on the head. This reminds me of a farmer and his grandson. The boy was trying to get a mule to move. He was pulling hard on a lead and yelling at the mule, and getting no response at all. Finally, the old man intervened. “Gentle, Grandson,” the old man said, “on must gentle and speak softly to this fellow.” The boy looked a the old man, and the old man nodded. “Let me show you.” So Grandpa picked up a stick and hit the mule hard on top of his head, then leaned down, stroked his ears, and spoke softly. He then gently grasped the rope and walked with the mule following. “Grandpa,” the boy said, “why did you hit him when you said to be gentle and speak softly?” The old man sighed deeply. “Grandson, we need to get his attention first.”
Messiah Y’shuaJesus never beat anyone on the head, though many may have felt as though he did. What he did was elicit responses from people, some who bowed down, others who picked up rocks. Luke reports how the disciples responded Sunday morning after Friday afternoon’s crucifixion of the Lord.
[Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women] went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Luke 24:1-9
The absence of the body of Y’shuaJesus at first “perplexed” the women. When they saw two men in dazzling apparel, they were frightened, and then bowed their faces to the ground. It only took a Word from the two angels to remind the women of what Y’shuaJesus has said. The women returned to where the disciples of Messiah gathered and received mixed responses. Some of the disciples said the women’s story was an “old wive’s tale.” Peter, though, headed out to check out the situation for himself. What Peter saw made him return home, marveling about it all. Two of the disciples left Jerusalem walking west down an old Roman road west to their village, which we now call Emmaus. They ran into a fellow who “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Himself being the Lord Y’shuaJesus whom the disciples didn’t recognize until, in their home, the Lord broke bread. Then the disciples realized to Whom they’d been talking, just as the Lord left. “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures.’ ” [Luke 24:13-25]
The Lord appeared to the Apostles, who at first were startled then frightened. While still disbelieving, Lord Y’shuaJesus showed his wounds, asked for food, and when they came to there senses,
He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Luke 24:46-49
In the Gospel of John, we learn that Thomas was not with the other Apostles at that encounter. When told of it, Thomas responded, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” [John 20:25] When the Lord did appear to Thomas, He said, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” To which Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God!” [John 20:28]
Look, you can see by these few examples the variety of ways in which people respond to the call of the Lord. There are so many other examples. The Lord knows what is needed for each to come to repentance and find his or her salvation in the Lord Y’shuaJesus. Apostle Paul described out place in the process of another’s salvation this way:
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Corinth 3:5-9.
There’s a scene from some movie that just popped itself into my mind. There’s an angry man spouting off about something, and another man says to him, “Ah, does someone need a hug?” Anger isn’t exactly an emotion; rather it attempts to cover an emotion. And a hug from “Mom” can go a long way to rid one of anger, expose the underlying emotion, and sooth it. Unless, that is, that a person has a problem with Mom. Dr. Sigmund Freud was hung up on “Mom” and sex, and peoples Oedipus-like desires to have sex with their moms and kill there fathers. He thought that while we were still babies our fantasies centered around having Mom all to our selves and not letting Dad near her. It didn’t work too well, and some people never got over it all. They grow up to find other ways to get even with their moms and dads.
So with 300 million people living in America and a social media that puts everyone in everyone else’s face all the time, feathers are going to be ruffled as we play out our Oedipus fantasies on each other. People have their underlying emotions stirred, that then surge, and the result is that angry words spew forth. People discover there are other people that feel the same way, and they gather together to protest someone they feel has offended them. Lately it’s been presidential candidates who’ve modeled the use of verbal assault weapons, and become the object of protests. Conflict. And the television/internet media gets to watch, film, and report all of it to an eager audience, perpetuating the cycle of conflict.
Why can’t people just get along? Why isn’t there peace on Earth?
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. [Jesus said]
— Matthew 10:34
Why? Why does it seem there needs to be conflict? In a writing class, I was once instructed on the use of conflict and resolution. In a story the author allows conflict to drive the story along. building a certain tension. At some point the author must allow the reader to feel resolution, too. There must be some form of resolution after conflict has built or the reader will feel let down.
Just as conflict drive an author’s story, so does it drive our lives. But conflict is only useful if we are able to find a resolution to the conflict. A solution. An answer. Conflict drives us to look for answers.
On the back of a Jeep was a bumper sticker that summed this issue up well. It read:
Yesterday I waded through lists Street Preaching videos uploaded to YouTube. Among them were videos by people who scolded or harassed Street Preachers, videos of Street Preachers being attacked, videos of Street Preachers being arrested, and quite a few by Street Preachers doing their thing. I even watched a few minutes of about twenty videos.
In addition to those videos, there were instructional videos on Street Preaching as well as a video of a conference on Street Preaching. The instructional videos mostly were just more videos of guys wearing flashy “Jesus” tee-shirts and yelling to crowds of angry people. A few were videos of talking heads discussing Street Preaching. The first part of the video taken at an Atlanta Street Preachers’ Conference was about a portable megaphone system for screaming at people, confronting them.
It became clear early on as I reviewed those available videos that this form of evangelistic effort was not my thing, not my style. I don’t feel called to stand in a city screaming into a microphone at people. What, to me, was disturbing, is that these Street Preachers seemed content more to threaten people with Hell, than invite people to Heaven. Perhaps that’s a calling for them. Perhaps that’s a way to offer the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Y’shuaJesus The Messiah, to a stiff-necked, nearly reprobate people. I don’t wish to seem judgmental. All who are called use their talents their own ways to fulfill the calling.
God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
—Romans 2:4
But there are some other effective ways for the rest of us to Street Preach. A woman once told me her story. “I was in terrible shape. I didn’t know what to do. I was using drugs, living with two men, and on the very edge. . . dying inside. I was in a laundromat when a woman approached me and said, ‘God Loves You!’ ” For her, that was enough to bring things into perspective. In the midst of sin, she heard the voice of the Living G-d speak through a woman the equivalent of “I LOVE YOU!” That was all she needed to start the process of receiving Messiah Y’shuaJesus into her heart and then allowing Him to extricate her from her sin.
Now don’t get me wrong here. While Y’shuaJesus extended His hand to a woman about to be stoned for adultery, He also was clear about sinning no more. He healed people out of love from them, and still does. But Y’shuaJesus loved the Father so much He drove sinners out of the Temple. He screamed at people, calling them vipers. We can’t cite just one incident in the life of Y’shuaJesus and see it as the only way He modeled Himself for us. We must take hold Y’shuaJesus in His entirety.
So I’m not particularly comfortable with the style of Street Preaching that screams to crouds at a “Gay Festival,” things like “God hates homosexuality. It is a sin. Repent or go to hell.” But the Street Preacher is right. And those who hear the words can’t come to the judgement seat of Christ saying “Hey, we didn’t know!”
Another thing I’ll say about this form of Street Preaching is that at least those folks are actually doing something. How many people warm pews on Sunday, live their quiet lives the following week, and return to warm a pew the next Sunday? And there are many like me who say, “I’m not comfortable with that style of preaching, witnessing.” Time to raise our hands to G-d, and say, “What can I do?”
That brings to mind a song in which the refrain is something like, “We can at least pray!” That is truth. If there is nothing that we seem talented enough to do, or nothing that we truly feel comfortable doing to help save the lost, the eternally dying, then at least we can pray.
I read about a man in Wales, around the turn of the Century—19th to 20th Century. This man became the preacher of a small church. He wasn’t exactly the preacher-of-the-year sort, either. A bit weak and timid. But two older, stronger women began to pray for that young pastor. I don’t recall how long it took, but the great Welsh Revival was spawned through those two women and that pastor. That Revival spread throughout Wales, and proceeded by several years the Azuza Street Revival in the United States.
Lone Cross atop a mountain in east central California, hope of a sunny day breaking through. c Will Robinson. 1975.
There is a lot we need to understand about ourselves, and about G-d and His plan for all people, in order to become Genuine Christians. To this end, when reaching out to people with the Gospel, refer to four spiritual laws before offering to have folks pray the Sinner’s Prayer. I’ve included the text from a tract below that explains these laws and contains a version of the Sinner’s Prayer.
There are times in which G-d has sown the seeds of need within peoples hearts, and they simply need immediate peace though receiving the Lord Jesus. Hence, they’re often offered a hand and prayed with to receive Christ. I’ve included another version of the Sinner’s Pray toward the end of this column.
It seems to me G-d is not limited in the way in which He finds and saves the lost. Luke tells of a criminal, a sinner, dying on a cross next to our Lord Y’shuaJesus.
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Luke 23:39-43.
The Four Spiritual Laws and Sinner’s Prayer
Law 1
God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
God’s Love
“God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).
God’s Plan
[Christ speaking] “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”
[that it might be full and meaningful] (John 10:10).
Why is it that most people are not experiencing that abundant life?
Because…
Law 2
Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.
Man is Sinful
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Man was created to have fellowship with God; but, because of his own stubborn self-will, he chose to go his own independent way and fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is an evidence of what the Bible calls sin.
Man Is Separated
“The wages of sin is death” [spiritual separation from God] (Romans 6:23).
Separation
This diagram illustrates that God is holy and man is sinful. A great gulf separates the two. The arrows illustrate that man is continually trying to reach God and the abundant life through his own efforts, such as a good life, philosophy, or religion -but he inevitably fails.
The third law explains the only way to bridge this gulf…
Law 3
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.
He Died In Our Place
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
He Rose from the Dead
“Christ died for our sins… He was buried… He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures… He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).
He Is the Only Way to God
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me'” (John 14:6).
Bridge The Gulf
This diagram illustrates that God has bridged the gulf that separates us from Him by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.
It is not enough just to know these three laws…
Law 4
We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
We Must Receive Christ
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
We Receive Christ Through Faith
“By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as result of works that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
When We Receive Christ, We Experience a New Birth
(Read John 3:1-8.)
We Receive Christ Through Personal Invitation
[Christ speaking] “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).
Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. We receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.
The following explains how you can receive Christ:
You Can Receive Christ Right Now by Faith Through Prayer (Prayer is talking with God)
God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. The following is a suggested prayer:
Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.
Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, I invite you to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.
Father, in Jesus Name I ask you the best way I know how that you forgive my sins and take my life and direct it, lead it, and guide it, all the days of my life. I want to know You Lord Jesus in a more personal way and to have You help me to grow in Your Word. I believe that You died on the Cross for me and that You were raised from the dead. I confess You Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. Thank You Lord Jesus. Amen.
Jonah’s Song 