Okay, so a rich young man runs up to Jesus in Mark 10:17-27, kneels before Him and asks, “Good Master, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ answer may seem puzzling. Instead of going into a theological dissertation, He turns and asks the man His own question. “Why callest thou me good?” The Amplified makes it even clearer: “Why do you call Me essentially and perfectly morally good?” Then Jesus adds, “There is no one good, expect God alone.”

In this statement Jesus is telling the man two things. First, that He is God, and only on that basis can He be called good. In other words, if we don’t believe Jesus is God, we have no business calling Him “good.” That pretty much settles the issue of people wanting to call Jesus a good man, a good teacher, a good prophet, yet denying His deity. It just won’t do. Unless Jesus is God, then He is not a good “anything”.  

Secondly, no one is good enough to inherit eternal life. The young man, by his own works, was incapable of securing it. Isaiah 64:6 reminds us that “we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags.” And if that’s not enough, Romans 3:23 says, “For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.” All means all. To drive this point home, Jesus, in Mark 10:19 starts talking to the young man about the commandments to which the man promptly replies, “Teacher, I have carefully guarded and observed all these and taken care not to violate them from my boyhood.” Really? Is that possible? Can anyone really keep all the commandments perfectly when you realize they encompass our thoughts, words and deeds? The answer is a resounding NO! The man was blind to his own failings. But God sees.

So what was Jesus’ reaction? This part is great. “Jesus, looking upon him, loved him.”  There’s more that follows, but I need to stop here a moment. Jesus looked right through this man and could see those areas where he didn’t measure up to God’s standards and . . . loved him. In the same way, Jesus can look right through us and love us anyway. Even so, Jesus needed to confront the man with truth. After He loves on him, He tells the young man, “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come take up the cross and follow me.”

Why did Jesus say that? Is it wrong to have riches? Must we be poor in order to be pleasing to God? No. Not at all. But because Jesus could see right through this man, He knew that the man’s riches had become god in his life, the thing he loved most and depended upon most. That’s why they had to go. God will always ask us to give up what comes between us and Him. Jesus also told the man he must take up the cross, the instrument of death, death to self, and follow Him. It’s interesting to note that Luke, in 18:18, calls this young man a “ruler.” That word in the Greek is archon and means “first, chief, first in rank or power.” It’s hard for someone who is first or chief in their lives to follow or submit to another.

This message still applies today. We will never earn eternal life on our own. Most of the time we can’t even see ourselves for the poor creatures we are. Thus, we need the One who is truly Good to do that. And we need to give up those things that come between us and God. We need to die to self. We can’t be chief in our lives. That’s God’s place. But God is more than able to help us do this. That’s why Jesus, right after the rich young ruler walks away, tells his disciples, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” But then, happily, He adds this: “with men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

But there’s another lesson we need to take away, one on a corporate level. In Revelation 3:17-18 Jesus rebukes the church of Laodicea; the church that was neither hot nor cold; the church that Jesus called “rich” and “blind” and admonished to buy from Him, “salve” to put on their “eyes” that they may “see.” So many of our churches are fast becoming like that Laodicean Church of Revelation. They feel they are “rich and have need of nothing” but God, who can see through the facade, calls them “wretched, poor and blind.” Is this why so many of our churches are becoming irrelevant?

Oh, Lord, may we purchase Your eye salve so that we may see our true condition!

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

 

Over two years ago I wrote this about sheep and Jesus’ role as our Shepherd:

“Sheep have to be among the silliest of God’s creatures.  They simply cannot survive by themselves.  If left on their own they would return to the same overgrazed and pollute pastures, unable to find new ones upon which to feed. They would become sickly without the saltlicks and other trace minerals the shepherd provides.  They would drink from polluted holes unless taken to a source of water that is pure. Or they would drown if not kept away from swift running streams. Their eyes have to be constantly cleaned and medicated to prevent blindness from infections caused by flies. And they need sheltering during harsh inclement weather for they don’t know enough to shelter themselves. And when a sheep becomes “cast” or ends up on its back unable to scramble back on its feet, it would die unless the shepherd picked it up. In addition, sheep are utterly unable to protect themselves from predators and must rely solely on their shepherd for protection.

“It’s no accident that the Bible compares us to sheep for we are just as foolish and incapable of caring for ourselves. And it’s for this very reason we need The Good Shepherd.  For it is the Shepherd that keeps us from pollution by providing His word for us to feed on.  He is the living water that keeps us refreshed.  He is the salve that keeps us from spiritual blindness.  He is our provider, our shelter, our protector.  His utter care and commitment is all encompassing.  He is tender and loving, ever mindful of our weaknesses but never repulsed by them. He picks us up when we fall, and carries us when we are weak. He has laid down his life for us, the sheep. He has held nothing back.”

In light of this how can any of us survive without our Good Shepherd? And those of us who are not Jewish would be in serious trouble if what Jesus said in Matthew 15:24 was the end of it. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But it wasn’t the end of it. For in John 10:15-16 Jesus says He had “other sheep beside these (the Jews) that are not of this fold. I must bring and impel those (the Gentiles) also; and they will listen to My voice and heed My call, and so there will be (they will become) one flock under one Shepherd.”  Here Jesus is foretelling that the New Covenant would extend to Jew and Gentile alike.

How gracious of God to go outside His covenant people, the Jews, and extend His hand of grace to us Gentiles, to us who previously had no claim on Him. The truth is that God desires that none should perish and has extended to “whosoever will” the invitation to enter His sheepfold. But it’s up to us. We must decide whether or not to enter or remain outside, outside His grace, outside His forgiveness and redemption, outside eternity in heaven. He will never violate our free will and force us into the fold. But Jesus stands ever patient, ever kind, ever hopeful that we will heed His call.

It’s amazing that many church goers have never heeded it. They come to church because that’s what their parents did or because it seems like the “right thing” to do. Our pews are full of them. But unless one enters the sheepfold through Jesus alone—not good works, not through tradition—only Jesus, they will not be under the protection of the Shepherd or part of the flock, but will be outside the fold susceptible to all the dangers that are only increasing.

May all those who know about the Shepherd come to know Him. He has been waiting for you all your life.

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

Jesus teaches an important three-part lesson in Matthew 18:15-17 (Amplified), one that everyone, including the Church, would do well to learn. “If your brother wrongs you, go and show him his fault, between you and him privately. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.” Really good advice. But what happens all too often is this: someone offends us then we go behind their back and tell everyone what happened and how upset we are. It’s called gossiping and accomplishes nothing but to create more strife and discourse. It never actually settles a matter.

Misunderstandings like this happen all the time, including among Christians who should know better. Instead of trying to resolve the problem, the offended party too often tries to prove he is right and the other party wrong, garner sympathy, and make the offender look as bad as possible. That’s called a dysfunctional relationship!

We need to confront wrongs and do it Jesus’ way. First we are to go to our offending brother or sister privately, without anyone else around, and speak the truth in love. We are to tell that person how and why they offended us, then give him/her an opportunity to make it right. Then Jesus says, “But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two others, so that every word may be confirmed and upheld by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” Not it gets harder and wisdom needs to prevail. If the situation indeed rises to this level as in domestic violence or sexual abuse, the “witnesses” you bring must be reputable, like a pastor or church elder or someone well respected and impartial. They are to “bear witness” to the conversation and confirm what was actually said to avoid further misunderstanding or confusion. That’s important in order to prevent a “he said, she said” kind of scenario where the truth can be muddled on both sides.

But what happens if that still doesn’t resolve the conflict? Jesus covers that, too, in part three. “If he pays no attention to them, refusing to listen and obey, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a pagan and tax collector.” The situation must be really grave to warrant rising to this level because Jesus is saying that if step one and two fail, it will be necessary to tell the church body, and if the offender still won’t listen, stop associating with him.

This is serious stuff and the last two steps are not meant for minor infractions and probably few, if any, of us will ever need to follow them. But the very first step I do see as needful, that of confronting, privately those who offend us rather than making it a forum for discord or allowing the wrong to fester like a sore that will only become larger over time. I think Jesus’ first step can be successfully used not only with our friends and church family, but between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters. In short, anyone who has a gripe with someone would do well to confront that person with love and truth. Doing it will go a long way in resolving issues and creating happy, peaceful relationships. Not doing it will keep the problem festering and over time make it worse.

Until next time,

Sylvia

When the seventy disciples returned after being sent out to heal the sick and preach that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Luke 10: 9-20) they were full of joy because demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name. As usual, Jesus’ response was not what one would expect. He didn’t say, “Good going guys! I knew you could do it.” Rather, he said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” That must have sobered them a bit. Jesus was basically saying I know all about Satan’s limited power, about his fall. I was there when it happened. Then He adds, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Snakes can be poisonous and their bit deadly, and scorpions can pierce and sting. This so describes Satan’s work, always trying to steal, kill and destroy or at the very least, sting and wound. But Jesus gave His disciples power over Satan and his minions, and we still have this same power today. But it’s interesting to note that “power” is mentioned twice in verse 19 and are two very different words. The first “power,” the power to tread on serpents and scorpions, is exousia and means the freedom, the privilege, the legal right to do this. Jesus was giving us the legal right to thwart Satan. The second word “power,” the power of the enemy, is dunamis and means force, miraculous power and indicates a power Satan has but we do not. And though we have the legal right to stop Satan in his tracks, we need dunamis in order to do it. And the only way we can get it is through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. It is only God’s power in us that can overcome Satan’s power. We must never forget that.

But here’s the kicker. Even though this is all wonderful and makes us “more than conquerors” and able to overcome adversity, that’s not the thing that should make us want to throw a party because Jesus said, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Written where? In the Lamb’s Book of Life, of course. “And there shall in no wise enter into it (the new heaven and earth) anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27)

That is our real joy. The fact that we will be with our beautiful Lord and Savior for all eternity, living a life we can’t even imagine now. Oh, that all those we know and love will have their names written in the Lamb’s book, too!

Until next time,

Sylvia

Last week I talked about how the pattern of salvation was set in the story of the 100 sheep, the one that was lost and the 99 left; how Jesus, Creator of those sheep, left His glory for the purpose of restoring the lost, which came at great cost to Himself (Matthew 18:12-14).

This week, looking at John 10:1-15 we see the theme of the Shepherd (Jesus) and the sheep (lost mankind) continues. In it Jesus makes several profound and radical statements. He tells us that only the Shepherd can enter the door of the sheepfold, that he “who does not enter by the door . . . but climbs up some other way is a thief and robber.” And the Shepherd knows his sheep, he calls them by name and leads them, and they recognize his voice and follow him. Then Jesus tells us that He Himself is not only the Door to the sheepfold (through His death and resurrection) but the Good Shepherd of the sheep. And that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for his sheep. It’s both clear and beautiful.

But who is the thief, the robber? The one who tries to sneak into the sheepfold? Who comes “to steal, and kill and destroy?” It is, of course, Satan. First He tries to keep the sheep from coming into the fold. When that fails, he will try to invade the fold, to separate it, disrupt it, and create havoc. How many split churches can attest to that? And Satan will do both things through lies and deception. He will first tell us we are gods, that we don’t need a Savior, that we can just “do our own thing,” be the “captain of our ship.” He will dangle all the allurements the world has to offer: money, fame, pleasure. And yes, the Bible tells us there is pleasure in sin for a season. But when that pleasure fades, when that money no longer satisfies and leaves us empty, when we realize that fame is short lived and empty, too, perhaps then we are finally ready to allow the Good Shepherd to do what He longs to do: save us from ourselves and our sins, then lead us onto a better path. But even those in His sheepfold must constantly listen for His voice because if they don’t they could fall prey to the counterfeit shepherd who is ever trying to destroy them.

I once did a blog on how silly and foolish sheep were. They would wander away from the flock and die, or drown in a fast moving stream if it were not for the shepherd. They are also disease prone, easy prey for wild beasts, and utterly unable to protect themselves. I think that’s a pretty good description of what we’re like. And maybe remembering that will make us tender hearted toward those who are still lost. After all, they’re only sheep, too, just ones without a shepherd.

But here’s the best part, while Satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy,” Jesus said He came so that His sheep “may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance, to the full” (John 10:10 Amplified). Pray that all those you know and love will come to know the Good Shepherd and enter into this abundant life.

Until next time,

Sylvia

This is so beautiful! In Matthew 18:12-14 Jesus again reveals His heart. He talks about a man having one hundred sheep and when one goes astray, he leaves the ninety-nine in order to find the one. And when he finds it he “rejoices more over it than the ninety-nine that did not get lost.” That word “lost” in Greek means more than misplaced or unable to find something. It is apollumi and means to destroy, perish, die. Since all of us were lost, dead in sin and perishing due to Adam’s sin and then our own, we all needed to be “found.” So Jesus is talking about us! We are that stray sheep. And each one of us is important to Him.

As I’ve said many times, numbers in the Bible have meaning. The number “one” is the number for God. “Here, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) He is the Creator. The 100 sheep are His creation. He made them and He owns them. Thus only God Himself can restore His creation to Himself. When Adam sinned and strayed from God it left the number 99 and foretold the method of God’s restoration. Nine is the number of judgment and finality. “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which means, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me . . . And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed out His life.” (Mark 15:34;37 Amplified). It was finished. With His death, the Good Shepherd provided the means of rescuing the sheep.

But notice this part. Jesus rejoices over being able to rescue us, actually rejoices over the fact that His death and payment can bring back the lost if they are willing to be found. Because of His great love, the emphasis of Jesus’ heart is on the joy of it all rather than on the sacrifice. But it is for us to understand this great sacrifice and to accept it. If we don’t, then there’s no way our Great Shepherd can restore us and make us part of His flock.

Who is like our God? Is there a more gentle, loving Savior anywhere? Has anyone done more for us than Jesus? He wants so badly to restore us to Himself. He has done everything possible to make that happen. He has given everything while our part is so small. We have only to accept it. In the face of all this, how can His love not draw us to Him?

Until next time,

Sylvia  

The Feast of Tabernacles has come early this year and once again I’m pausing my “following Jesus” series to post something I wrote last year about the Feast, though slightly revised, because it still applies. Here it is:

I love this feast. Every year our church celebrates it for eight days and nights. It’s one of seven feasts of the Lord and commemorates the time when the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years and literally tabernacled with God. But it’s so much more. It speaks prophetically of a time when Jesus will return and tabernacle with us here on earth, and set up His thousand year reign. Of course the Spirit of God already tabernacles with all true believers, but the Feast references the physical return of our Lord.

For the past few days as I praised and worshiped, as the dancers whirled around with their colored flags, as the breathtakingly beautiful banners were paraded through the sanctuary declaring Jesus as “Soon Coming King,” “Lord of Lords,” and “Lion of Judah” it was easy to envision the splendor, or at least a small part of the splendor and pageantry and glory that will accompany the event that all Christendom awaits. And when I glimpsed it, it created such a longing in my heart it actually hurt. Scripture tells us that all creation groans for His return (Romans 8:22-23). I think all our hearts groaned as we celebrated. I could see it on the faces around me. They groaned because there was such a sweet presence of the Lord in the sanctuary. And while it was wonderful, we knew it was but a foretaste of things to come, a foretaste when once again God will tabernacle with man, and we would have to wait. I was never good at waiting.

But the Feast is doing something else for me. It’s reminding me of the here and now, and how important it is to live life fully for the Lord. He is to be our number one priority followed closely by the people He has placed in our lives. He has a plan and purpose for each of us, and we have only one lifetime to get it right. We need to take this seriously because every day we don’t, is a day lost.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God . . . And he had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16).

Oh, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

This is a tough one. In Mark 10:1-9 some Pharisees ask Jesus, “is it lawful for a man to dismiss and repudiate and divorce his wife?” They asked this in order to test Him. The Amplified says to “find a weakness in Him.” They were always doing that. But Jesus doesn’t flinch. His answer: “What did Moses command you?” The Pharisees go on to admit that Moses did indeed allow a man to divorce his wife. Then Jesus zeros in on the matter. Yes, Moses did, Jesus concedes, “because of your hardness of heart, your condition of insensibility to the call of God.” But it wasn’t always so. “From the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave behind his father and his mother and the two shall become one flesh . . . What therefore God has united (joined together), let not man separate or divide.” It’s clear that God doesn’t like divorce.

But why doesn’t He? And why is marriage supposed to be forever? Because when you ripe something in two that is supposed to be one, there is damage, there is pain, there is destruction. And this destruction and pain spill over onto not only the former husband and wife, but their children, their families and even their friends as so often times these people are forced to choose sides. Nobody wins here.

Let me say right off that I don’t judge those who are divorced because “there but for the grace of God go I.” Marriage is tough. I wager that most people who have been married for any length of years have been tempted to “call it quits” at one time or another, or at least had it cross their mind, however briefly.  But I do say we need to discuss this topic openly and honestly because divorce in the Church is just as rampant as divorce in the secular world. And this should not be. If anything, the divorce rate in our churches should be much lower. After all, we have God’s Word and His Holy Spirit to guide us.  But how to prevent it? For one thing, we need to be honest with our children. Prepare them for the realities of marriage and discourage living together before marriage. (Aside from it being called “fornication” in the Bible and frowned upon by God, did you know that the divorce rate for couples that cohabitate before marriage is much higher than the average rate? It’s true!) But most of all we need to stress that God must be in the center of their lives and to allow Him to pick out that perfect spouse for us. That means waiting. And most of us don’t like waiting for anything. And when we don’t wait, when we forge ahead and pick our own spouse based on looks, personality, position in life, etc, we could not only be missing God’s best, but we could be entering a relationship bound for serious trouble.

Remember how Jesus said the reason people get divorced is because of the hardness of their heart? Well, here’s the final blow. We all have hard hearts. Hearts that are, by and large, centered on us. We are selfish and want our way, that’s why marriage is so hard. It requires compromise, the giving up of our selves for another. Beloved, only Jesus can plow the crusty patch that is our heart. Only He can change us, give us a heart of flesh and enable us to truly live the life He desires for us, and that includes our married life, too. Remember, it’s “not by might not by power but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

 

So right after Jesus heals the blind man in John 9:1-32 and the Pharisees get wind of it, you guessed it, they begin a campaign to prove it was all a hoax. First they try to prove the man was never blind. When that fails, they verbally attack Jesus. “He’s not from God,” they boldly claim as if they really know what they’re talking about, and saying it because Jesus performed this miracle on the Sabbath.

Then the former blind man rises up in Jesus’ defense, but surely in fear and trembling because he’s well aware that he’s coming against the “powerful” of his day—men who can make life difficult for him. “Since the beginning of time,” this man tells them, “it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this Man were not from God, He would not be able to do anything like this.”

At once the Pharisees attack the messenger. “You were wholly born in sin from head to foot; and do you presume to teach us?” (vs 34 Amplified) Then they throw him out of the synagogue. Since the synagogue was the center of Jewish life this was harsh punishment indeed. It meant that this former blind man could no longer fellowship with his people. He was now an outcast. But then, and here’s the good part, Jesus hears about it and goes to him and introduces Himself as the Son of Man who has come into the world to make the blind see, the One who desires to make everyone see with their spiritual eyes.

And this is still happening today. When Jesus comes along and cures our spiritual blindness we often become outcasts, too—misunderstood and rejected by our church, our family, our circle of friends. But as the days grow darker and less certain, we need to be willing to become outcasts for Jesus’ sake. That may mean leaving our church, a church that does not preach the word of God but the traditions of men, or a church that allows its pet theology to trump Scripture. It’s not an easy thing to become an outcast, to go against the “powerful.” But it’s an “either or” situation. Either we stand for God and His word, or we cave and compromise in order to keep from making waves, in order to get along, to blend in. But doesn’t this sound too uncomfortably like the Laodicean church? The one God said He was going to vomit out of His mouth?  As I see it, we are rapidly approaching a time when fence sitting is out and we’ll have to commit one way or the other.

Do I want to become an outcast? Not really. But it may become necessary if I want to be a true follower of Christ, and it may be so for you, too. After all, Jesus predicted it when he said in John 16:2-3 (Amplified) “They will put you out of, expel you from the synagogues; but an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think and claim that he has offered service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or Me.”

Something to think about. Something to prepare for.

Until next time,

Sylvia

When Jesus sees a man, in John 9:1-5, who has been blind from birth His disciples immediately ask Him, “who sinned, this man or his parents?” Jesus’ answer surely had to startle them. “Neither one . . . but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” What? Does that mean this man was deliberately made blind by God to make a point? Hardly.

Jesus was actually refuting a strongly held belief by many rabbis and apparently by His own disciples, that claimed terrible sicknesses came upon those whose parents had sinned or on infants who had somehow sinned in the womb. The reality is that we live in a fallen world. A world in which God’s perfection has been marred by Satan, and as a result sickness, disease, natural disasters, etc. occur all too frequently. Now here was a blind man, the very product of this fallen world, and the one Jesus chose to use in order to fulfill one of the signs revealing Him to be the Messiah. And when Jesus says “that the works of God should be made manifest in him (the blind man)” Jesus was employing a play on words. “Manifest” means to render, to make apparent. But it also means to lighten, to shine. Just two verses down Jesus declares He is the light of the world. He has come into the world to shine, to disrupt the works of the devil, to show God’s marvelous power and to fulfill prophesy.   

The rabbis knew that the Messiah would be revealed by three miracles: healing a leper, healing the deaf, healing the blind, and they had seen Jesus do all three. Even so, they chose not to believe or acknowledge Him. These three signs had great spiritual significance. Leprosy represented the gross stain of sin on our lives that only God could cleanse, while the deaf and blind revealed our sad inability, without God’s intervention, to hear or understand His word, and to see Jesus for who He really is.

Jesus is still healing the blind today. Every time someone comes into the saving knowledge of Christ, that person’s spiritual eyes first had to be opened, made able to see and understand spiritual things. Unfortunately, there are many like the rabbis in the above passages who, no matter what they see, no matter how convincing the evidence, refuse to believe.

For those we need to pray that their hearts be softened so that the Light of the World may shine in them.

Until next time,

Sylvia