Wine or Why Not?

The question has been asked, how can drinking be a sin when Jesus turned water into wine?

Yes, Jesus turned water into wine. What do you suppose the alcohol content was of that wine? Wine can have a very low proof, you know. The governor of the feast remarked that it was good wine, and, if he was anything like most of the people I know that consume alcohol, that means it had a high alcoholic content. He may have honestly simply meant that it tasted good, though. Of course, this is God manifest in the flesh we are talking about. He could very easily have made wine that tasted strong, but really wasn’t. Keep in mind also, a couple of cultural things: One, most of their water was just plain dirty. Granted, most of the population of Israel had probably developed immunity to whatever bacteria were prevalent in the river Jordan, but, still. Some have suggested that wine really meant grape juice. I don’t think so, because grape juice needs to be refrigerated. Even modern day grape juice, with all the preservatives they add to it, still needs to be kept cold to keep from spoiling. Of course, the citizens of Ancient Israel would not have understood the idea of lukewarm grape juice attracting insects, which would then leave bacteria in the juice, which, in turn, would make people sick. They also would not have understood that allowing the grape juice to ferment would create an alcohol content that would kill the germs. They would have understood, though, that drinking grape juice often made people sick, while drinking wine almost never did.

The Bible also says that wine is a mocker (Proverbs 20:1): Let’s face it, whether you subscribe to the theory that alcohol causes you to do strange things, or whether it just lowers one’s inhibitions so that people can do what they really wanted to do all along anyway, or maybe just causes enough cranial impairment that things that would normally be obvious bad ideas suddenly seem like flashes of brilliance; let’s face it, people act different when they are drunk. I don’t know anybody that acts better when they are drunk, either. Part of the problem is that almost anybody can take a drink, and the most serious effect that it has is that drink will convince him or her that a second drink will not seriously impair them, either. Of course, two drinks can easily convince one that a third drink is a good idea…

On the other hand, Paul told Timothy to take a little wine, for his stomach's sake (1 Timothy 5:23). In the days before Tums, Rolaids, and Pepto-Bismol, wine was one of a very few things known to settle a stomach. I personally don’t recommend the “medicinal use” of alcohol, because I know that it is more often misused or abused than actually used for medicinal purposes. Besides, in modern days, there really isn’t much excuse. There are a number of things that are considerably more effective.

I think that the best response really comes from Romans 14:21: “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” For me to tip back a little wine might not (probably would not) send me to Hell, but if you see me imbibing and you are not a Christian, or you are young in the faith--and you have no way of knowing how much I have consumed--my few sips of wine could result in you (or someone like you) to sin grievously. Even if you understand and appreciate that I have had very little, there are many people that believe that if a little is good, then more is better. I will not be a party to that. I am a long-time teetotaler.

The Hand of God

Some time ago I posted about the mysteries in Scripture—things that are written about but never completely explained. I can only assume that those things are not really important. One of the things I mentioned was, “What did Jesus write on the ground?” In the story of the adulterous woman, the Pharisees brought a woman, “taken in the very act,” to Jesus, to ask His judgment. He stooped down and wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not. What did He write? The Scriptures do not record that. I offered several theories before, but over the weekend I heard something that I think is a piece of the puzzle and had never even occurred to me before. In Exodus, when God gave Moses the Law, God didn’t just tell Moses what to write, God wrote the Law by His own hand. Granted, Moses broke those tablets, and so, the second time, Moses wrote the Law out by his hand, but, originally, the Law was written out by God’s hand.

Now we know that the coming of Christ meant a New Covenant with man. Not so much a rewriting of the Law, but a fulfillment of the Law. Many things changed as a result of the Christ’s sacrifice. Dietary restrictions, proscribed punishments for sins committed, etc.

This is the only recorded time that Jesus wrote anything, in His entire ministry. He didn’t write down the names of His disciples, He didn’t write down instructions, He didn’t write down His sermon notes. If it were not for this one incident, I’m sure that there would be people that would accuse Him of being illiterate. The Scripture clearly says, though, that He wrote on the ground. He didn’t draw on the ground, or doodle on the ground. He wrote on the ground. The significance of this is that, just as the hand of God wrote out the Law, the hand of God (Jesus being Emmanuel, or God with us) wrote out a new Law, part of the New Covenant. The Pharisees couldn’t understand this (possibly never even stopped to read what Jesus wrote), and were not willing to accept His authority to write new Laws even if they did, but, in retrospect, we can see that Jesus did have the power and authority to do exactly that. So what did He write? I still don’t know, but I am now fairly certain that it had to do with the fact that this woman was brought before Him to face judgment according to the Law, and He was the One who wrote the Law. I feel confident that He didn’t repeal the law against adultery, but He may have mandated a lesser sentence, particularly for one with a penitent heart, and a stiffer sentence for those that would use an adulterous woman in a show of hypocrisy…

The Stones Lyrics

Christmas Time

It’s that time of the year again. Christmas: the celebration of the birth of Christ. Of course, there are several other holidays that come about this time of year, so a lot of retailers instruct their clerks and cashiers to say, “Happy Holidays,” rather than “Merry Christmas,” in an attempt to avoid offending any non-Christian customers. Of course, some Christians then get offended.

Really, we shouldn’t get offended. This hardly qualifies as persecution, after all. This is a retailer trying not to lose customers. One thing that I have found, is that when a retail clerk says, “Happy Holidays” to me, and I respond, “Merry Christmas,” they almost always return my sentiment. And if somebody wants to wish me a Happy Kwanzaa, what of it? If I know that you celebrate Kwanzaa, I have no heartache wishing you a Happy Kwanzaa…

Sometimes we hear about some store or another that won’t allow bell-ringers outside their store. Again, this is an attempt not to offend. Personally, I think it’s a little silly: If you can’t walk past a bell-ringer without either dropping in a few coins or feeling guilty the rest of the day, then maybe you need some help—assertiveness training or something. Bottom line, if you don’t want to give any cash to the Salvation Army, that’s your business. I would hope that, if you call yourself a Christian, that you support some form of charity, but if the Salvation Army is not what you choose to support, that’s your business.

To be honest, Christmas is kind of a funny holiday anyway. We celebrate Jesus birthday, and we give each other presents. A lot of people celebrate Christmas without ever really considering whose birthday it is. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t have a problem with gift giving at Christmas, I think Jesus wants us to be generous towards each other, but let’s not forget the Who in the equation.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about the “War on Christmas,” but, to be honest, most of the evidence of such a war seems fairly thin. People being hesitant about saying Merry Christmas, or not wanting bell-ringers at their door, isn’t exactly earth shaking. It does, however, give those of us who are people of Faith, an opportunity to shine, just by saying, “Merry Christmas,” and meaning it.

Testing God

In James 4:2-3 we are told that we have not because we ask not, and when we do, we ask amiss. In James chapter 1, James tells us that when we ask, we need to ask in faith believing. I think a lot of us have trouble with the part about asking in faith believing. For most of us, it isn’t even a question of can God do it, it’s more, will God do this for me? Each of us knows, at least on some level, that we don’t really deserve God’s grace. We are reminded frequently about how many times we have failed God; why would He even listen to someone like me?

King David once referred to himself as a worm. It’s easy for us to feel unworthy of God’s love, and yet, God says, “Come, let us reason together…” (Isaiah 1:18) Of course, John 3:16 tells us that God loved us enough to sacrifice His only begotten Son for us. We all know that verse, and, yet, we always seem to think that He did that for everybody else. He didn’t. He did it for everybody. You have as much right to claim that promise as anybody else. Remember the man who asked Jesus to heal his son: Jesus asked him if he believed, and his answer was, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

Somebody told me yesterday that asking God for something was like testing God, and you shouldn’t do that. Let me refer you back to James again, where he said, you have not because you ask not. Don’t misunderstand me: God is not a Genie in a bottle that you can go to when you need something, or just want something. There has to be some relationship there first. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a strong, long lasting relationship, at least, not to ask God to teach you how to be closer to Him. You can ask that one even if you barely have an inkling of who God is.

Seriously, though, look through the Gospels: How many people got healed without asking Jesus? I can’t think of one. There were even two blind men that cried out to Jesus when everybody else told them to leave Jesus alone. Don’t you know that He’s busy? Don’t you know that He has more important things to do than to worry about your eyes? You’ve been blind a long time, you’re used to it now; leave Him alone. These blind men were smart enough to know that if they wanted to be healed, they were never going to get a better chance. Sometimes we think our own problems are too trivial for God, and so we don’t ask. Sometimes we let other people tell us that our problems are too trivial for God. You can’t bother God with that! Don’t you understand who God is? I understand that God is someone who cares about each individual person that He created. He wants the best for each one of us. The reason we don’t have the best is because too many of us try to do things our own way, instead of praying through what we want with God, and finding out what He wants us to have.

When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father would “take this cup from me,” in other words, find some other way to impart salvation other than through the crucifixion, but He also said, “nevertheless, Thy will be done.” We, too, must be prepared to accept that God may not want us to have what we want to have. What seems the best in our eyes may not really be the best at all. God understands that. I mentioned earlier that David called himself a worm, but when Nathan confronted David about the matter of Bathsheba, God spoke through Nathan and reminded David of all the things that He had given him, and told him that He would have given him more if those things had been enough. Think about that for a minute: David wasn’t in trouble so much for wanting, but for not asking. What do we settle for, when God has so much more for us?

Dealing with Losses

I mentioned last week that my cat died. I was talking to a relative about that this past week, and we got reminiscing about his son, who died before the age of thirty. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t know that today was world AIDS day. I think we were just talking about losses that we had felt. This was someone that I had known practically my whole life.

When I found out that he had AIDS, I was somewhat conflicted. I was a new Christian, and of course I had heard generalities about how homosexuality is an abomination, and about how AIDS is God’s punishment for sin. Still, this is a relative; someone close to me. I didn’t know how to react; I had no idea how I was supposed to react. You may have heard the expression, “Love the sinner, but hate the sin.” I wasn’t sure how contagious AIDS really was; I don’t think anyone truly did at the time, but I felt an assurance from God that I could spend time with this person much as I had before, and I wouldn’t get sick. I tried to share the love of God with him, and talk to him about forgiveness, but he heard too much about how his disease was retribution for his sins.

To be honest, I think the idea that God created AIDS specifically to deal with evil doers is absurd. If God wanted to kill off sinners, He spoke the world into existence; He could just as easily speak those people out of existence. Granted, He has used disease to get people’s attention before, but did you ever notice that the ten plagues in Egypt only affected the Egyptians, not the Israelites? If God was going to use a disease to wipe out one or two groups of sinners, He could create a virus that would be extremely selective.

I’m afraid that when it comes to cases like this, too many of us are afraid of what might happen if they associate with “those people.” Jesus took a lot of heat from the Pharisees for the type of people He hung out with, but He understood that God so loved the world, in other words, God loves everybody. God doesn’t love one group of people because they are obedient, and then hate some other group of people because they have committed some unpardonable sin. We all sin. Sometimes the worst sin is thinking that you are better than somebody else simply because you’ve managed to avoid the sin that ensnared them.

Sometimes we have to undo the damage done by those that have come before us. The Bible says that the Word of God is a two-edged sword; it’s capable of doing a lot of damage, but it can also be used, in the hands of one who is skilled in its use, as a scalpel. The really unfortunate thing is when a situation arises when it should be used delicately, and the person using it starts swinging it like a machete. That’s hard to clean up.

I guess the bottom line is, AIDS victims are exactly that: victims. We have no business judging how they got the disease (if they contracted through sinful actions, that it between them and God). We can minister to them, as long as we take reasonable precautions for not spreading the disease. To be honest, it sort of seems like AIDS today is a lot like leprosy in Biblical times. Nobody wanted to associate with lepers then, because they weren’t ‘clean,’ but Jesus healed a lot of them. God loved them then, and He loves people with socially awkward diseases now.

The Spirit of Adoption

When I was a kid, my sister would sometimes tell me that I was adopted. In retrospect, I think that she was really just expressing that she didn’t want to believe that she and I were blood relatives. After awhile, she may have said it simply because she had learned that the idea horrified me. My parents assured me time and again that I was not adopted.

Looking back, it occurs to me that it shouldn’t really have mattered. I had a loving family, whether that was because they were my blood relatives, or because they had chosen to take me in, it was clear that they loved me. One of my teachers in high school had an adopted daughter. She knew she was, and she had learned to adjust to it. Every so often, somebody would make the mistake of trying to tease her about being adopted. She had a standard response: “Yes, I am adopted. My parents chose me; your parents had to take what they could get.”

That’s actually a powerful statement. The first time I heard that, I actually wished that I had been adopted, even though I probably wouldn’t have ever picked up that little bit of philosophy along the way if I had been. Someone who is adopted may never understand the particulars of their biological family: why they were put up for adoption, what the situation was that their birth parents felt that they didn’t want to raise that child, or whether it was done in the belief that somebody else would be better capable of bringing the child up; there a number of possibilities that the adoptee can never fully appreciate, even if they get a chance to sit down and talk it out with all parties concerned. Yet, no matter what reason the biological parents had for not raising the child, there was a loving family willing to take in a child that was not related by blood and love that person as their own.

Unfortunately, there are some children that never do get adopted. I have a nephew like that; my sister became a foster parent for a while, and, even though the teen-ager that was placed in her home rotated through several foster families before he outgrew the system, he still calls my sister “mom,” and made a point of introducing his fiancé to her before he got married. Whether they live out their childhood in an orphanage, or in a series of foster homes; these people still have worth. Just because the family that they should have had never found them, it doesn’t mean that they are any les valuable than the rest of us. Things happen; there will always be those that seem to get the short end of the stick at every turn.

Even though I was raised by the family I was born into, I know what it is to be adopted into a loving family. In Romans 8:14-17 the Bible tells us that we are the sons (and daughters) of God, and that we have not received the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption. The Spirit itself bears witness that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs. Galatians 4:4-7 is similar, but explains that God sent His Son to redeem us, so that we could be adopted into God’s family.

This adoption is available to all. Whether it is to those of us that grew up with our natural families, or those that have been adopted before, or even those that have never really had a family, God created all of us, and He would love to welcome you into His family.

Losing a Friend

My cat died this morning.

That may not sound like a big deal to some of you, and I can understand that, but it is to me.

Several years ago, I bought a house. The house that I bought had been used as rental property for a number of years before I moved in. Not too long after moving in, I noticed scurrying sounds in the attic at night. At first, I thought that a bird had gotten into the attic somehow, and I went up and searched for it, even though I wasn’t entirely sure how I would get it out if I found it. I never found any bird, though. Over time, the scurrying noises got louder, and more frequent. One day, I turned on the microwave, only to have several mice come scurrying out of it. Then I began to understand the scurrying sounds I had been hearing at night. I went out and bought several traps. Of course, I did the research. I found out that mice aren’t really big fans of cheese, they’d really rather eat peanut butter. So, I loaded up the traps with peanut butter, and set them out. The traps worked very well, at first. I was emptying traps on a daily basis. After a while, though, the traps seemed to become less effective. For a while I only had to empty traps three times a week, and then it got to the point that I wasn’t emptying traps at all. Unfortunately, I was still hearing the noises, so I knew that we still had mice. Cash was not in abundance at the time, so I didn’t want to call an exterminator, so I prayed about it.

One night, I and my two sons came home from an evening out, and I paid no attention to the stray cat camped out on our porch. I went into the kitchen to get a glass of milk before going to bed, and my younger son came in, grabbed a hotdog out of the fridge, and started feeding it to this cat.

“What are you doing?” I yelled at him. I know better than to feed a stray animal; once you feed them, they are very difficult to get rid of, but my son was young enough to not understand that.

My son looked at me as though my understanding was deficient, and said, simply, “He’s hungry.”

About this time, it occurred to me that this cat might be an answer to prayer, but I had to object to the hotdog.

“Well, you don’t give a cat a hotdog.”

“Well, we don’t have any cat food.”

“No, but we do have tuna.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”

I let the cat finish the hotdog, but he still looked hungry. It occurred to me that a hungry cat might make for a better mouser, but I opened a can of tuna anyway.

After eating the hotdog, he polished off the entire can of tuna. My son was right; this cat was hungry.

Within three weeks, we no longer had mice.

We had some discussion about what to call this cat. I started calling him Lucky, because he was predominantly black. My son wanted to call him Butler, because he was a tuxedo cat (if you aren’t familiar with the term, Sylvester on Loony Tunes is a tuxedo cat. Basically, a black cat with a white bib, giving the appearance that he’s wearing a tuxedo). My older son didn’t really care what we called the cat, but eventually he decided that the cat was lucky that we let him stay with us, so Lucky became his name. Two or three times, during the first few weeks with Lucky he brought me the back end of a mouse. I always thought that a cat was supposed to bring the whole mouse to acknowledge the leader of the pack, as it were. I don’t know. It seemed to me that he was bringing me the part of the mouse that he didn’t want anyway. I don’t think that would have gotten him very far in a pack of cats. Somebody told me later that if a cat brings you a gift like that, you should pretend to eat it, and never, ever let the cat see you throw away that gift; it makes the cat feel unappreciated. I made a point of thanking Lucky before throwing the mouse remains in the trash, but I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to let him see me dispose of his treasure. Perhaps that’s why he stopped doing it.

My sons have grown up, moved out, gotten married; I have two grandkids now.

Lucky has always been a very docile cat; well, almost always. There was a dog that lived two doors down for a while that used to harass Lucky on a regular basis. That’s what dogs do. If this dog did it when I was around, I would chase her out of my yard. One day I was coming home from work, and, I don’t know what happened, but I’m driving up the street, and I see my cat chasing this dog down the street.

Even more recently, the neighbor’s preschooler was in the yard, and Lucky came up for dinner. This preschooler grabbed Lucky’s tail before I could stop him. I thought this kid was going to get hurt. Lucky didn’t even yelp. He just looked at me as if to say, “Please rescue me.” I tried to explain to this preschooler that it isn’t a good idea to pull an animal’s tail. I don’t think I got through to him, though. I took Lucky in the house, and Lucky avoided that particular kid for a long time thereafter.

Lately, Lucky has been slowing down. I chalked it up to age. I don’t know for sure how old he was, but he was not a kitten when we got him, and that was over twelve years ago. I think he’s around eighteen, which is 126 in cat years. Over the weekend, I found him napping on the bath mat, which is fine; I understand that it’s warmer than the cold tile floor. While I was watching him, though, he stood up, wet the mat, and then lay back down in it. That’s when I knew that he needed to go to the vet.

I took him to the vet yesterday. The vet quickly ruled out diabetes and hyperthyroidism, and started worrying about kidney failure. I thought he wouldn’t have been able to wet the mat if his kidneys weren’t working, but I guess there are varying degrees of kidney failure. In any case, he was dehydrated and anemic. She put him on an IV to try to deal with the dehydration, unfortunately, that exacerbated the anemia, which we weren’t aware of until lab results came back anyway. It’s the iron in the red blood cells that carries oxygen to the cells; anemia makes the heart and lungs work harder to deliver the oxygen to the cells. With the dehydration, though, the effect of the anemia wasn’t as severe, because a larger percentage of the blood is red blood cells (only because a smaller percentage of the blood is water than should be). Rehydrating poor Lucky, though, dissipated the red blood cells, forcing his heart to work harder. This morning his tired body just gave out.

In any case, this was a cat that was an answer to prayer, and that taught me a little something about making sure that one’s offering is something valuable to the one making the offering. Sometimes it’s more important that the offering be valuable to the giver than to be valuable to the recipient.

Sinner's Prayer

John 9:31 says that God doesn’t hear sinners. Isaiah 59:2 says that our sins have hidden God’s face from us, that He will not hear. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. We can conclude from this that we are all sinners, and, as such, God cannot respond to us. God doesn’t hear the prayer of a sinner.

That sounds pretty bleak, doesn’t it? If God won’t listen to us because we are sinners, then how can we even get forgiveness? Yet we know that God is a merciful and forgiving God, so, somewhere in there, something has gotten convoluted. Let’s look at some other scriptures.

In Luke 11:11-13, Jesus talks to a group of fathers, and asks them if their children asked for food, would they give those children stones, serpents, or scorpions? He goes on to make the comparison that God knows how to give good gifts to His children. Obviously, Jesus wouldn’t have made the comparison between children asking their natural fathers for things, and the fathers taking care of their children, and God giving gifts to His children, if God wasn’t listening to us.

John 3:16 says that God so loved the world… Every one of us. Even the sinners. Jesus didn’t come to earth to be sacrificed for our sins so that God would ignore us. Jesus would have never been born if God wanted to ignore us.

In James, we are told that we have not because we ask not. What kind of sense would that make if God wasn’t listening anyway? James goes on to say that when we do ask, we ask amiss, that we ask for things just for the sake of satisfying our own lust. Now that sounds like the prayer of a sinner.

Remember Janis Joplin? A lot of you are probably not old enough to actually remember her, but you have probably heard of her, and maybe even heard some of her music. She sang a song many moons ago called, “Oh, Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz?” In this song, she talked about a number of things that she would like to have (and probably could have bought for herself with the money she earned as a rock star), but that she allegedly wanted God to get for her. Of course, the song was satirical, but it seems to me that is the ultimate sinner’s prayer.

In any case, you have probably heard of the Sinner’s Prayer. The idea of the sinner’s prayer is to express repentance, and ask God’s Spirit to come into your life, to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I’m not a big fan of rote prayers, myself, and I’m not sure who it was that decided that we needed one for a person just coming to know Christ. I should explain: I believe that God is a one size-fits-all-God, but, with that one exception, one-size-fits-all just doesn’t. There are a lot of one-size-fits-all solutions that work for most people in most situations, but any two people coming to know Christ are in two different situations. Yes, the basics are going to be the same: Express repentence (hopefully the individual already has actually repented), ask for forgiveness, and direction and help to do what God would have you to do. Some people, though, are going to need other things besides. To be honest, I think that each individual needs to decide for themselves what they want to pray for, with the understanding that the basic needs have to be in there, but then let them pray from the heart, and not recite some prayer that was written by somebody else.

In Earth

In Mathew 6:10, when Jesus was teaching what has become known as the Lord’s Prayer (sometimes referred to as the ‘Our Father’), Jesus uses the phrase, ”Thy will be done, in earth, as it is Heaven.” As a child, I always found that phraseology odd. Of course, George Carlin pointed out once that we sometimes use the words “on” and “in” interchangeably, even when we really shouldn’t. His example was: “Are you ready to ride on the plane?” “No, I’m going to ride in the plane. Let Evil Knievel ride on the plane.”

Still, more recently it was pointed out to me that we are, essentially, earth. In Genesis we are told that God created Adam from the dust of the earth, and then created Eve from Adam’s rib (the world’s first clone?). Presumably, all of us are descended from them. I say presumably because the Bible never specifically says that Adam and Eve were the only people that God created, it just never specifically says that He created others—but, if He did, I would think that He would have formed them from the dust of the earth, also.

Now, in Corinthians, we are told that we hold this treasure in earthen vessels. This also confused me when I was younger. One person tried to put my mind at ease by saying that it was simply trying to make the point that the ‘treasure’ is worth so much more than its container, and said that it was like trying to carry gold dust in a paper bag. I can relate to that, because I knew a guy several years ago who was sort of an undercover security guard. His job was to carry large sums of money from point A to point B, but his employers figured that an armored car was not only expensive, but draws attention to the fact that large sums of money were being transported. So, what they had him do was wear jeans and a T-shirt, and carry money in brown paper bags. He had to make several trips each day (carrying several thousand dollars each trip), but, the entire time he worked that job, no-one ever caught on to what he was doing. I think that the analogy runs deeper than that, though; it’s referring to the fact that our flesh is essentially an earthen vessel, which, in this life, is used to contain our souls. The treasure spoken of earlier is a reference to the Spirit of God. It stands to reason, since our flesh and blood bodies, which were formed from the earth, cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; only our spirits can.

Of course, Isaiah 64:8 also talks about the fact that we are clay, and that God is the potter. He fashions us as He wishes—at least, as much as we will let Him. He hasn’t taken away our free will, but He will help me bend my will to His, if I ask Him to, and if I will let Him do it.

So, in Matthew 6:10, Jesus is actually telling us is that we should be praying to God that He would help us to perform His will in our own bodies, as we would do His will in Heaven after we leave our physical bodies behind. That can be a tough thing to do, because the flesh doesn’t want what the Spirit wants. That’s a struggle that we will fight every day that we draw breath.

A New Inheritance

I have posted about the Prodigal Son before, but I wanted to get into a little different aspect of that parable. At the beginning, it says that the younger son asked his father for his share of the inheritance, and then journeyed to a far country. I think that we should consider that as kind of a strange request. Generally, a person doesn’t inherit anything until at least one of their parents is dead; how does one even calculate what half of the estate would be if the father were dead? Anyway, the father managed to work out something, so that the younger son could get his inheritance, and walk away happy.

Now that younger son takes his inheritance, and travels far away, and he wastes what he has on riotous living. Soon he has nothing. Of course, he wouldn’t have anything to speak of really if he had stayed with his father, but all of his needs would have been met, and he would still have an inheritance coming at the end of his father’s life.

So, he comes to the realization that his father’s servants are living better than he is, and, although he realizes that he has no right to even ask to be treated as a son again, surely there is enough love left that his father will hire him to work for him. Of course, when he returns, the father immediately reinstates him as his son.

Now, one of the arguments that I have heard is that once one becomes a son (or a daughter), then one will always be family. That is true. Of course, just because one is a relative (by blood or by adoption) is doesn’t necessarily follow that one will collect an inheritance. If the prodigal son’s father had died while the prodigal was still in that far country, well, he had already received his inheritance, he wouldn’t have received anything more. Quite frankly, no one would have even known where to look for the younger son. The older son would have been the sole heir of the estate, even though he would not have been the only son.

In the parable, the inheritance represents what God has for us; it represents our salvation. The younger son received salvation, but then he went and just did what he wanted to with it, and gave no reverence to God for it. He wasted it; at some point he no longer had it. When he repented, and returned to his father, he gained salvation all over again. Keep in mind that, at that time, he hadn’t done anything to earn his salvation; he had only repented of the life he had been living.

The father rejoiced, because his son was home. The father said, “My son, was dead, and is alive again.” Is it not clear that if the son had died living his own way, that he was dead to God? It would have been worse for him than if he had never known the Father. I think that it is significant, too, that if you look at Luke 15 (the chapter where the parable of the Prodigal Son is), the other parables told at that sitting all have to do with lost items. The is the parable of the lost sheep (which in this case was found, but there is no guarantee that it would be), and a woman that had ten pieces of silver, but lost one, and rejoiced when she found it (don’t you wish that every time you lost money, you were able to find it again?). Jesus was teaching us about repentance, but also that, just because we have salvation now, it doesn’t mean that we can’t lose it. In these three parables, the lost were all found, because they were parables. Real life doesn’t always work out that nicely; just ask Esau.

Love Through the Eyes of a Child

This was E-mailed to me:

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?' See what you think:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

-Rebecca, age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

-Billy, age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

-Karl, age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

-Chrissy, age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

-Terri, age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

-Danny, age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

-Emily, age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

-Bobby, age 7

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

-Nikka, age 6

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

-Noelle, age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

-Tommy, age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

-Cindy, age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody you don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

-Clare, age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

-Elaine, age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

-Chris, age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'

-Mary Ann, age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

-Lauren, age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

-Karen, age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'

-Mark, age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'

-Jessica, age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Just a few comments about the above: I personally almost always have a hard time knowing what to say at funerals. To say, “I understand exactly how you feel,” is a cop-out, because I have no way of knowing how someone else feels. Even if I have had a similar loss (which I generally have not), it doesn’t necessarily follow that the loss hit them the same way it did me. I hope it is okay if I just help the family cry…

As far as Mommy seeing Daddy on the toilet and not thinking that it’s gross, part of me hopes that it’s just that Mommy has gotten good at hiding her feelings…

I don’t think I’ve ever seen stars come out of anybody; that sounds like somebody’s learning life lessons from cartoons…

I’m not convinced that getting hand-me-downs is really an expression of love, but if the person receiving the hand-me-downs thinks that is love, then I don’t want to disillusion them.

Puppies lick peoples’ faces after having been left alone all day because they miss them (and, yes, that is because of love). Try not to leave the puppy alone all day any more than you absolutely have to, though, because they can learn not to love you….

To learn to love better, start with a friend that you hate… Not to nitpick, but I have a hard time with the idea of a friend that I hate… It’s a good point, though, if you can learn to love someone that you truly hate, then it should be easy to love the people that you really get along with. For most of us, that takes a lot of prayer. It is a commandment, though. I know from experience that people that rub me the wrong way become much less abrasive when I start praying for them (and a lot of times, that’s more because Jesus changes me than because Jesus changes them).

Finally, I definitely agree that you shouldn’t say, “I love you,” unless you mean it. I think, too, that if you mean it, you should say it a lot, because people do forget. Sometimes saying, “I love you,” is a reminder to the person saying it, as well. I know God likes to hear us say that we love Him. Matthew 18:3.

Asleep in the Ship

Something that has always bothered me about the story of Jonah: In Jonah 1:5, it says that Jonah fell asleep in the bottom of the ship. During a storm. The text indicates that God sent the storm specifically because of Jonah. So here he is, on a ship, running from God, and God sends a storm after him, and he falls asleep. The other men on the ship woke him up, and wanted him to pray to his God. It seems that he almost missed the point.

There is another story in the Gospels about a man sleeping in a ship during a storm: In Matthew 8 (and Mark 4), it says that Jesus and the disciples were crossing the sea in a ship, and a storm hit, but Jesus was asleep. The disciples woke him up, in much the same way that Jonah was awakened, and asked him, “Don’t you care that we’re all going to die?” (my paraphrase). Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith, and then he rebuked the wind and the waves, and the storm cleared up. Then the disciples marvelled, saying, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the waves obey Him?”

The thing that has always bothered me about the story in Matthew, if the disciples didn’t think Jesus could calm the storm, then why did they bother to wake Him up? Of course, maybe they felt like the men in the book of Jonah, they just wanted Jesus to pray to His God, that God would save them. Either way, it seems obvious that they clearly didn’t understand who He was, yet.

Of course, Jesus wasn’t worried. He knew that He was doing God’s will, and He knew that God wasn’t through with Him yet. He knew that His fleshly existence wasn’t going to end by drowning. Jonah had no such assurance, though. Jonah was completely aware that he wasn’t doing God’s will, and at least a part of him was hoping that God was through with him. Perhaps Jonah was just so accustomed to being in God’s will, and under God’s protection, that it didn’t even occur to him that he might die in the sea. Even that, though, seemed to bother him less than the idea that his misdeeds might cause others to die. He told the men of the ship to throw him overboard (apparently not quite brave enough to throw himself into the sea), and once they did that, the storm cleared up.

Jesus once said that He was going to give us the sign of the prophet Jonah. Of course, He went on to talk about Jonah being in the belly of the whale for 3 days and nights, and said that He would be in the heart of the earth for the same time period. Apparently, there was more to the sign than just that, though. Both Jesus and Jonah were able to calm storms, and were willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of other people.

I think that it is significant, though, that Jesus rebuked the disciples for fearing the storm. He called it a lack of faith. Previously, in Matthew 6:25-34, He talked about the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and tomorrow, they are cast into the fire, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. He told the disciples then that they shouldn’t be worried about temporal things, what they should eat, or what they should wear. Does this mean don’t buy groceries, or do laundry? Of course not. It does mean that we don’t need to worry about those things, because God knows what we need before we are even aware of it. I suspect that if we just stopped buying groceries, then God would just let us starve. It does mean that He’s going to make sure that we get what we need. Notice I said ‘need.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean that He will give you money to buy food; He may simply open the door to a soup kitchen or charitable food pantry. He might even want you to fast more often (of course, if you aren’t fasting now, than any fasting would be fasting more often). The important thing is not to worry about, just trust God to take care of it. Again, in Matthew 10, Jesus tells us that God is aware of it every time a sparrow falls to the ground, and that we should not be afraid, because we are of more value than many sparrows.

It doesn’t mean that life will always be easy, but it does mean that we have a promise that He will always hold us, at least as long as we continue to want to be held.