Stir the Pot
Father, as I come before You this evening, I think of a favorite hymn that has come to mind so many times over the years.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
Luke 4:20-30 (<<click to read the passage)
Have you ever heard the idiom “to stir the pot”? I read a little Q&A thing online that asked what it meant and part of the original question was, “…does it mean to be in some way deliberately provocative or irritating?” I really liked the answer that was given.
Deliberately provocative, yes, but not necessarily maliciously. Picture a pot of soup. A lot of ingredients have settled to the bottom, out of sight, until stirred. Metaphorically, a lot of issues/resentments/obligations can drop out of sight when nobody mentions them. One can “stir the pot” to bring issues to the surface, sometimes with malice, but sometimes merely to create awareness and effect change.
I think that Jesus, here in these verses, is “stirring the pot”. After he read the passage from Isaiah from the scroll, can’t you see all the men gathered there shaking their heads and smiling benignly at the young man who grew up amongst them? I can’t imagine Jesus not being well-liked. I’m sure He was respected as any other hard-working craftsman in the community would have been
Now they may not have totally understood what He meant when He told them, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
But they weren’t berating or criticizing Him. Overall, they were just amazed that the gracious words came from the lips of a simple carpenter.
Then Jesus stirred the pot!
All of the sudden things that may have been thought but not spoken were brought to light! Jesus very clearly shared two Old Testament examples where miracles had been performed on Gentiles – those outside the Jewish faith – because the faith of the Jews was so lacking!
And in all those years since Elijah and Elisha had lived and prophesized, things – actually people – hadn’t changed one bit. And truly, are things any different today? If a local guy or gal began truly living the lives that Jesus calls us to, how would their local churches respond? What if those individuals had been a tad rebellious earlier in life? What if they had sown their share of wild oats, as it were? What would their church’s responses be? Would they be able to see past their past? Or would they, at the very least, hold back and at the worst, reject and ridicule who they had become?
Lord Jesus, may our hearts be open to what You want to do in our – and with – our lives. May we diligently seek to live out Your calling in our lives, regardless of how others may interpret our actions. Fill us with You – Your love, Your wisdom, Your strength, and Your compassion. Amen.
Dec 16th, 2019, Mon, 8:16 pm
Phenomenal Odds!
I thank You, Father, for the opportunity to speak in public settings beyond worship. Weddings, funerals, every occasion gives You the opportunity to use me to touch lives that may never darken the door of a church. May I be faithful and obedient in my charge. Amen.
Luke 4:16-22 (<<click to read the passage)
Recently I read a BBC article on the phenomenal odds against winning the lottery. There was a fair amount of information put out there but here is the paragraph I wanted to share.
“If you were told that you have a one in fourteen million chance of getting cancer in the next seven days people will say ‘oh well it is obviously not going to happen to me it is so infinitesimal’ but the fact that there is a one in fourteen million chance of winning the lottery people think ‘yes, it’s got to be someone why can’t it be me'”
No matter how great the odds, people believe it can happen to them!
Reading through today’s passage from Luke’s Gospel made me think of phenomenal odds. Advent and Lent always have that effect on me because each of them deals with incidences where Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies as He fleshed out (literally!) the role of the Messiah.
I read another article that stated that the Old Testament – its writing being completed 400+ years before Jesus’ birth – contains over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled through His life, death, and resurrection.
Mathematically speaking, the odds of anyone fulfilling this amount of prophecy are staggering. Mathematicians put it this way:
1 person fulfilling 8 prophecies: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (that is 100 quadrillion!)
1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 chance in 10 to the 157th power (10157)
1 person fulfilling 300+ prophecies: Only Jesus!
It is just about impossible to even wrap your head around those kinds of numbers!
But in today’s passage as Jesus stood up to read the Scriptures in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth, He providentially (not a coincidence but God’s hand at work!) was handed a scroll from the writings of the prophet Isaiah. He then proceeded to read what we would now recognize as Isaiah 61:1-2.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
And without further ado, He proclaimed to them,
“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
And that is just one of over 300 prophecies that He would fulfill – amazing! Really it is just AWESOME! (and any of my faithful readers know, I do not use that word for anything but God Himself!!!)
Lord Jesus, this world is just crazy – the hatred, the strife, the violence it is overwhelming but You have overcome the world!
I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (AMP)
Dec 15th, 2019, Sun, 7:09 pm
Silent Night
Father, I pray for focus over the next couple of weeks. There is a lot going on and I don’t want to give anything my second best. May I do it all for You. Amen.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
Some of my Facebook friends will have already seen the picture that goes with today’s blog post but the more I thought about it, it lends itself to a story.
First of all, this is a picture of my front yard taken from our little porch. Light fluffy snow had started to fall mid-afternoon before I headed down to load up my high school and middle school students. It wasn’t a crazy, slippery snow (though I was cautious!) but it was just a beautiful softly falling snow.
We had watched the 6:00 pm weather and the larger metropolis south of us had barely a trace. So, I took a picture to show that we had a fair more accumulation – enough to cover the ground. and with a nearly full moon shining through the tree, it made a beautiful photograph.
I recently read an ad on accuweather.com about snow. And I learned a couple of things. Have you ever noticed that after a substantial snow has left the landscape shrouded in white that the great outdoors often becomes noticeably quieter?
As it turns out, there’s a scientific reason behind the calming silence, with the characteristics of snow playing a big role in how sound can travel.
When light, fluffy snow accumulates on the ground, it acts as a sound absorber, dampening sound waves much like commercial sound absorbing products.
A professor of engineering who studies acoustics stated that snow is… porous, and typically porous materials such as fibers and foams…absorb sound pretty well.
So my brain got to buzzing and when I put together the nighttime snow picture, the quietness brought on by snow, and the season in which we find ourselves – Christmas! – my brain immediately flipped to, what else but, Silent Night!
Now don’t take this too literally. I know that Jesus more than likely wasn’t born on December 25th. I know that it’s not unusual for it to snow in Israel but that snow and Christmas aren’t connected like they are in the part of the world where I live.
But just go with the simple connection of how it came into my mind and read a couple of simple but profound verses of this beloved hymn.
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
He Went as Usual
Father, it is much later than I like but I just couldn’t stop what I was doing. You and I were working on this coming Sunday’s sermon and You were speaking and guiding me so clearly that I just couldn’t stop! May it be a blessing to those that hear. May our time be a blessing, as well. Amen.
Luke 4:14-16 (<<click to read the passage)
Frequently, I see and hear excuses for why people don’t attend church. Let me share one from a slightly different angle.
12 Reasons Why I, as a Pastor, Have Decided to Quit Attending Sporting Events
1. The coach never came to visit me.
2. Every time I went, they asked for money.
3. The people sitting in my row didn’t seem very friendly.
4. The seats were very hard.
5. The referees made a decision I didn’t agree with.
6. I was sitting with hypocrites – they only came to see what others were wearing!
7. Some games went into overtime and I was late getting home.
8. The band played some songs I had never heard before.
9. The games are scheduled on my only day to sleep in and run errands.
10. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11. Since I read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches, anyway.
12. I don’t want to take my children because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.
Now this list is shared with a little tongue in cheek on my part but as I read through today’s passage something important was pointed out. At the beginning of verse 16, it says of Jesus,
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath…
First of all, my Life Application Bible states, “During the exile when the Jews no longer had their Temple, synagogues were established as places of worship on the Sabbath and as schools for young boys during the week. [They] continued to exist even after the Temple was rebuilt.”
So, verse 16 states that Jesus “went as usual”.
Just for review, who is Jesus? He is fully God and fully man. Do you think that God needed to go to worship? And if you really give it some thought, wouldn’t His local synagogue had been a little sub-par, especially when compared to the majesty of heaven? But He went “as usual”.
Hebrews 10:25 encourages us by saying
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. NLT
Sunday is coming – and if Sunday doesn’t work others meet on Saturday night. Find yourself a place to set down the burdens you carry every day. Jesus will welcome you with open arms! Don’t miss out!
Dec 11th, 2019, Wed, 8:41 pm
Firm but Flexible
Father, thank You for giving me the opportunity to interact with others that You love. Sometimes it’s a joy. Sometimes it’s a challenge. But whatever the case every interaction is a chance to grow and love.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
The day before Thanksgiving we had some very heavy winds. For the most part, our area did not suffer any ill effects, though others lost power. We had a few branches come down but our biggest casualties of the wind were a couple of dead ash trees falling.
The trees that fell hadn’t been dead for more than a couple of years (victims of the emerald ash borer beetle) but when trees die, the sap stops flowing and they begin to dry out. The flexibility that life gave them ebbs away with time they become rigid.
Strong vibrant trees with solid penetrating root systems can withstand some pretty harsh gusts, for as the winds blow, they can bend, they can move – having some give and take when buffeted.
As we walk this journey of life one thing that is important for us to be, is flexible, as well. As a follower of Christ, I believe that our relationship with Him helps us with that.
A couple of things… First, we are not perfect – I know I am not! (Don’t even get me started about irresponsible drivers!) Jesus calls us to love as He does, but that doesn’t come easy.
Secondly, since creation we have struggled to keep ourselves set apart for God – that is, being holy. It is our goal but unfortunately, a side effect of that is that we start to become legalistic.
From dictionary.com:
legalism (noun)
1 – strict adherence, or the principle of strict adherence, to law or prescription, especially to the letter rather than the spirit.
2 – Theology.
a. the doctrine that salvation is gained through good works.
b. the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws.
Becoming legalistic ends up making us inflexible spiritually speaking. It can even lead to spiritual death. The idea that salvation is gained through good works is dead wrong! We can do absolutely nothing to earn our salvation for it is found only in Christ.
This was part of the problem with the spiritual leadership in Jesus’ day. They followed the Law to the letter! They abided by the entirety of the Law, as well as everything they added to it! They were letter followers, not spirit followers – in more ways than one!
We’re not perfect and even when we try to do what is right in following God, we can end up way off in left field. When it all comes right down to it, Jesus alone is the example by which we must live. He understands our imperfections. He, the Author of the Law, never went down that road of legalism. Each situation He encountered, He responded to in the uniqueness in which He found it. He was flexible.
Lord Jesus, You know that we struggle to live as You would have us live. We are weak. We are easily distracted. May we diligently seek Your heart and in so doing, may we, through the love you generously pour on us all, may we be firm but flexible as the many storms of life come whipping by. Amen.
Dec 10th, 2019, Tues, 12:29 pm