Triple Dog Dare!
Father, what an awesome weekend! A wonderful time of learning and inspiration with friends at a conference on Saturday. Then today, we were blessed with Your presence in our times of worship. May I clearly hear Your voice as we come together tonight. Amen.
Luke 6:6-11 (<<click to read the passage)
This may shock some, but I have never watched the 1983 classic movie A Christmas Story. I’m familiar with a lot of things associated with it, such as the desire for a Red Ryder air rifle, the infamous leg lamp, and Ralphie’s pink bunny suit. But, surprisingly enough, one scene that I remember popped into my head as I read today’s passage. First, the scene.
Ralphie and crew are on the school playground in the dead of winter. Two of the boys, Flick and Schwartz argue over what would happen should someone stick their tongue to the frozen flagpole. Flick says it won’t stick and Schwartz says it will. Then comes their bantering back and forth, as boys will do, of one daring the other. It starts off with a double dog dare, then would normally progress to a triple dare, but instead, Schwartz jumps right to the “coup de grace of all dares” – the triple dog dare! Flick, being the boy he is, has to comply and, of course, gets his tongue firmly frozen to the pole!
Back to our passage, verses 6-7 read,
On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. (NLT)
And there we have the triple dog dare! If Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, He would be in their clutches and boy would He pay!
But Jesus was one step ahead of them, knowing their thoughts and quickly turned the tables on them. He had the man step forward then asked,
“Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” v.9
Now, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees were the ones in trouble! I love how the New Living Translation puts the next sentence.
He [Jesus] looked around at them one by one… (emphasis mine)
Talk about squirming! There was nowhere to run – they were stuck! Jesus went on to heal the man right before their very eyes! And boy, they were ticked! But…there wasn’t a single thing they could do about it!
We may think we are smart, but we cannot play games with God. He knows our every thought. He knows our motives. Many in this world today thumb their nose at God, in essence, sayings, “I’ll just do what I want and what are You going to do about it, huh?”
God grants us our free will but, believe you me, there will come a time when we will stand before Him and we will answer to Him and Him alone. We will have to answer for our actions. We will be responsible for the choices we have made. And payment will be due.
Will we be able to lay claim to the payment Jesus made for us in the giving of His life for us? Or will the penalty of eternal death in being separated from God be handed down to us because of our refusal to accept His payment on our behalf?
For each of us, the choice is ours.
Feb 2nd, 2020, Sun, 8:10 pm
The Law Is the Law – No More, No Less
Heavenly Father, thank You for helping me work through some things on my mind today. It was a burden that I did not need to carry. I am grateful for all You do for me.
Luke 6:1-5 (<<click to read the passage)
Sometimes the law of the land can be a tricky thing. Being on the road quite a bit now with driving a bus I see lots of “trickery” when it comes to the law. Rolling stops occur way too often. Another one I have seen several times is when one person legally stops at a stop sign the person behind them will roll right through the stop as if their stop behind the car in front of them was good enough. It’s not!
A law, at least here in Ohio, that many ignore is school zone speed limit signs. Several years ago, we were under the impression that the only time you had to go 20 mph in between the signs what held the flashing yellow warning lights was when they were flashing…wrong! My wife was heading back to school one day and a State Highway Patrol officer pulled her over for doing 35 in a school zone. Her argument was that the lights weren’t flashing. We even went to court to argue her point. After more expense for court fees, we were very clearly informed by the judge that it makes no difference if the lights are on or not. A marked school zone is 20 mph.
During my training to drive a school bus, it was stressed that when you are driving a bus the best procedure is to drive 20 mph in every school where students are present! We have 3 marked school zones around our schools and people blow through them all the time – except of course when a sheriff’s deputy is sitting in the middle of one!
In today’s passage, the Pharisees were actually breaking God’s law by adding too to that law. Yes, God says we are to rest of the Sabbath day and keep it holy, but they accused Jesus and His disciples of breaking the Law just by rubbing a few heads of grain in their hands for a bite to eat.
One big issue in this addition was that in doing so they actually were undoing another portion of God’s Law. God in His Law took into consideration the poor and needy. My Life Application Study Bible correctly states that “…farmers were to leave the edges of their fields unplowed so travelers and the poor could eat from this bounty.” Deuteronomy 23:25 goes on to say, “And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand…” You weren’t to run in with equipment to rob the farmer of his yield but taking a few kernels didn’t hurt anything!
When we start interpreting the law, getting it to say what we want it to say, we get ourselves into trouble!
Again, the Bible – God’s Word – clearly says in Deuteronomy 4:2(NLT), “Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you.”
Dear Jesus, help us to abide by the laws before us. The law of the land and more importantly Your Law. May we adhere to it as You have proclaimed it with no additions or subtractions. Amen.
Jan 30th, 2020, Thurs, 4:49 pm
New on Old – Extend Some Grace!
Father, thus far this week has been full but most definitely a blessing. Work and then a meeting at church Monday evening, then on Tuesday, work with a trip out of town in the middle of routes followed by a time of fellowship and interaction with fellow pastors. And today, work and then errands to pick up some necessities. Tiring but all good. Thank You, Father, for the plentiful gifts of Your hand.
Luke 5:33-39 (<<click to read the passage)
Patching holes in clothes and darning holes in socks, at least in our culture, is pretty much a thing of the past. Holey jeans are a popular fashion statement for both guys and gals – I see them being worn regularly on my bus. And who keeps old socks? We just by new ones and throw away the old!
Some do like creating new looks by patching old things and end up with interesting looking creations. But most just don’t want to bother with it.
But what about people? When people come to Jesus for salvation, 2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP) tells us,
Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].
Most assuredly our moral and spiritual conditions become new but for most of us the new that comes is in an “old” body with “old” habits. And it can be very difficult to rid ourselves of those things.
I know that some people miraculously find themselves free of old vices. But many had to pray and depend on the Lord to help them overcome those clinging old habits.
I think some people of the church expect people to be relatively “perfect” when they give their lives to Christ and disparagingly call them out on the habits of which they struggle to rid themselves. One area of struggle that some have to deal with is profanity. If you have always been around profanity and vulgar language has been a part of your vocabulary for as long as you can remember, it very possibly will be hard to quit. It may only come to an end with much prayer and determination and even then, smack your thumb with a hammer, and out it comes!
Someone addicted to pornography could have similar struggles. Our society is so replete with sexual imagery and innuendo, it would be a great challenge to keep our hearts and minds pure on any given day. Only by leaning on and depending upon Jesus can we ever have any hope it putting it behind us.
We must remember the Apostle Paul’s words to the Roman church,
As it is written and forever remains written,
“There is none righteous [none that meets God’s standard], not even one.
“There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God.
“All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good, no, not one.” Romans 3:10-12 (AMP)
Not a single one of us is perfect and God understands. He forgives our failings, over and over again. Grace and mercy are extended to us freely without question. Should we do any less for our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Jan 29th, 2020, Wed, 8:00 pm
What Do You See?
Father, I am glad that You are with me. I am sitting on my bus waiting…and it is just You and me. It is quiet. Bless our time together. Amen.
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So, looking at my picture what do you see? A road? Trees? Snow? A yellow road sign in the distance? Do you see the image of a warrior? I see him every day I drive my bus. Look a little closer. He reminds me of a Native American warrior, standing proud. He is facing the right. His profile is strong. There are two feathers hanging from the back of his head – only a chieftain, a warrior or a brave was allowed to wear feathers. It was an honor to do so and reflected a brave act on their behalf.
How many times is something right before our eyes and we can’t see it? Where I live there are a lot of hunters. A running joke is a guy who can spot a deer in the woods from a fair piece off with nothing but brown leaves on the ground and barren trees all around but can’t find a bottle of ketchup in plain sight on the inside of the refrigerator door!
How often does our loving Father set before us something that will enrich our lives but for whatever reason we can’t see the ketchup for the mayo! Our God is not a distant God. As one belief system would have us believe, He did not just create the world, as one would make a watch, and leave it to run on its own accord until one day it just stops running.’
No, our God – the God of all creation! – is very much a part of our world – His creation! And we are a very important part of that creation – His crowning achievement! He loves us and His greatest desire is for us to interact with Him in the most intimate of relationships. He understands us more than we understand ourselves and He wants us to know Him more and more, as well.
He is an active part of our lives…though often we do not see Him at work. He is right there in front of us! Directing, guiding, pointing out, trying to get our attention, pulling all the stops out in an attempt to open our eyes to what is before us.
Maybe it is someone who needs a listening ear or someone who desperately needs someone to lean upon or someone who just needs to be accepted no matter where life finds them.
Maybe it is something beautiful amidst the chaos and destruction that life often leaves in its wake -and He has placed it there to give us hope!
Maybe it is the simple fact that we are important to Him, no matter how much the world makes us feel small and insignificant – their vote doesn’t count!
God is at work all around us, we just need to look…and our eyes will be opened!
Jan 28th, 2020, Tues, 10:41 am
I Do It!
Father, I would ask that You would help me to grasp the value of every single day. They are so fleeting – January is almost over! May I fill each day with what is valuable for eternity and not just the here and now. Amen.
Luke 5:30-32 (<<click to read the passage)
I’ve talked about being judgmental before in my writing. And I have come to the conclusion that we too often claim foul when we strive to hold our fellow believers in check to what Jesus calls us to do. I strongly believe that Scripture is pretty clear that we are to be held accountable by one another.
In reading through today’s passage, I caught a line that I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten before. When Jesus says, “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous…” the word think is what catches my attention. As is made very clear in much of the New Testament, the only righteousness the Pharisees and teachers of the Law could truly lay claim to was self-righteousness. Jesus still does not call those of us who think we are righteous.
A lot of our struggle is that many have the mindset that they really don’t need anybody else. They can handle it. At least in American culture, it is what we are told from a very early age. How many times have I seen a toddler determined to push the cart in a store! They can barely reach the handle but over and over they proclaim, “I do it!”
It is a part of our psyche and it is so much a part of us that it overflows into every other part of our lives – including the spiritual.
“God, I got this!” Or in more familiar lingo, “I do it!”
We cannot be so determined to do it ourselves that we push the only Person who can help aside. Our pride is a great factor in us realizing that we can’t do it ourselves.
Enough with self-rationalization. “It wasn’t that big of a sin!” “It was just a little white lie!” “Yes, I saw that attractive person and thought about how exciting it would be to do this or that, but I didn’t do any of it!” “In my head, I’ve smacked them silly multiple times over, but I would never actually smack them!”
We have to acknowledge the guilt of our sins. Then we have to turn our backs on them – striving to never yield to them again! (That’s called repentance!)
And, it is utterly impossible for us to forgive our own sins – Jesus, and only Jesus, accomplished that formidable task for us!
Self-righteousness gets us nowhere but to a dead end…and an eternal dead end at that!
Without Jesus, we are sick and dying in our sins. Even if we think we are healthy, it is a lie we tell ourselves. Jesus’ answer to us,
“Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” vs.31-32 NLT
Lord, help us. Amen.
Jan 27th, 2020, Mon, 4:45 pm