Thoughts from Pastor Paul

I am increasingly convinced that most of us do not really want God’s favor unless we specifically ask for it.  In other words, we want God only when we want God or need God.  We would like God to be at our beck and call.  We surely do not want to be at God’s beck and call.
The Virgin Mary is greatly troubled when an angel tells her that she is “highly favored” (Luke 1:28).  This is before she hears the message of the virgin birth!  She is “troubled” by being highly favored, by the fact that “God is with” her.  Most of us are.  We want to favor God when and if we so choose.  We will (or will not) be with God on our timetable.  But God favoring us before and irregardless of our choice in the matter seems inappropriately pushy of God.  Doesn’t he know that we have lives of our own?
The truth of scripture is that God is pushy, jealous even!  Are you ready to submit to his jealous push?

Questions!  How powerful they can be!  Young children learn by asking their parents endless, insistent questions.  Why, how, when and what, are the endless words of the young child.
Jesus asked a lot of questions.  In fact, a great Bible reading exercise is to pick one of the Gospel’s and skim through it reading all of Jesus’ questions. 
Among the questions that Jesus asks are:
Are you still sleeping and resting?  Could you not watch with me for one hour?   
And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?
Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?
Was no one found to return and give praise to God…?
What good is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?
Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I say?
If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
Why then didn’t you put my talents on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected them with interest?
Why do you worry about what you will eat and what you will wear?
So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?
What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?
Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
Gordon MacDonald points out that Jesus wasn’t asking these questions “seeking information; he was performing surgery on the soul.”  Surgery on the soul … I like that phrase.  So, let me ask my own question:  “Are you ready for a little surgery on the soul?”

As the weather gets colder I build an increasing number of fires in our fireplace.  If my wood is dry and I have some small, thin pieces of wood for kindling, building a fire is easy.  Once the fire is going and a large base of hot coals has been established, it is easy to keep it going. 

But, occasionally I allow the coals to cool due to my lack of attention or lengthy absence from the fire place.  Once the coals have cooled, it is not so easy to get the fire started again.  New wood placed on cool coals may smoke and even sputter a bit, but it does not usually burst into flames.  That is where the fanning (or blowing in my case) comes into play.  Fanning the cool coals, adding the extra oxygen that the coals need, quickly transforms the cool coals into a flaming fire. 

Cool souls also need to be fanned into flame.  All of us who are in Christ Jesus have spiritual gifts waiting to be used.  But to look at some of us you would never know it.  Too many of us gifted souls have allowed our God-given gifts to cool.  The Apostle Paul says, it is high time that we “fan into flame the gift(s)” that we have (2 Tim. 1:6).  So, when is the last time that you have seen the roaring flames of white hot fire in your soul?  It is time to fan into flame the cool coals of your faith! 

Peter, like many of us, looks at Jesus and says, “You talking to me?”  Actually Peter asks, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone.” (Luke 12:41) 

So often we think that Jesus is talking to someone else when he says something hard.  Most of us would like to think that just because we believe in Jesus we are all set.  There’s nothing more to do or to be.  “Just believe in Jesus and all will be fine,” we tell ourselves and others.  But Jesus wants more.  He wants faithful servants who are ready, willing and waiting for whatever he demands. 

Much later in his ministry, on the night that he is betrayed, Jesus asks Peter (and the other disciples) to watch and pray, but they fall asleep.  Jesus’ question to Peter and the others is simply, “Why are you sleeping?” That is a haunting question.  “Why are you sleeping?” 

Yes, Jesus is talking to you. 

As far as I can tell, the phrase “It’s all good” has been around for over a decade.  It was first used in music, but is now used everywhere.  Hollywood stars use it to deflect questions about their divorce by saying, “It’s all good!”
Teenagers use it when they don’t really want to talk about something with their parents, as in:   Father: “How’s Algebra going?” Daughter:  “It’s all good.” 
And hip middle class folks use it to change the subject when they have nothing more to say on a topic as in, Question: “How about the Lions.”  Answer:  “It’s all good … How about those Tigers!”
The truth is that when one says “It’s all good” it is usually a sign that something really isn’t all that good at all.  So much in this life that we would like to think is good turns out to be empty or fraudulent.  Things and people let us down, or we let ourselves down, and so we shrug our shoulders saying, “It’s all good” but it isn’t.
Jesus says, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.”  A verse later Jesus repeats himself saying, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.” (Luke 12:37-38) 
 Will it be good for you? 
 

The Apsotle Paul uses an amazing pronoun in Romans 8:4.  The pronoun is “us.”  I was surprised by this pronoun because I had mentally replaced it with a noun.  Let me briefly tell you the story.
As I was going over the opening verses of Romans 8 in my head this morning, I mentally replaced Paul’s pronoun in verse 4 with an entirely different noun.  To my ears the noun sounded correct.  In fact, it sounded better than Paul’s pronoun.  But I knew that I hadn’t got the verse quite right in my head so I looked at my Bible.  I was amazed and surprised to see the pronoun “us” starring back at me. I had remembered the verse exactly as Paul wrote it, except for replacing “us” with “Christ.” 
The text says that God has sent his Son to be a sin offering “And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us…”  I know that God meets the requirements of the law in Christ; after all, Christ fulfilled the law!  But “in us”?, that just doesn’t sound right.  Do you feel like the full righteous requirements are met in you?  I don’t. That is why I was surprised.
When I shared my surprise with my colleague, Brian Ochsner, he said, “That’s grace.”  That’s grace.
Did you know, and do you remember, that if you are in Christ then the full righteousness of the law is met in you.   That’s grace.