I’d Rather Not Know

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Robert Franklin

big mouthIn our lives there are always things we would just rather not know.  Information like, “How many germs are in my mouth…or in the mouth of the one I just ‘french kissed’ ?”(Ewww!) or “What really happens to food after I chew and swallow?”  (Gross!)

Our lives are much simpler because we choose take responsibility for only the information we pass through a mental filter.  Unfortunately we also filter what God has told us is important to know.  Things like, “Pray for those who persecute you. Don’t curse them. Pray God will bless them” and “Don’t use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful so your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.”

One of the most unfortunate filters we apply to our lives with Christ is the choice to ignore our responsibility to be stewards.  To followers of Jesus is entrusted the truth of the good news and the responsibility of loving each other in the same manner in which we are loved.

…A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them…When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. (Luke 12.42, 48b, NLT)

This week we will continue to look at the Biblical principles behind the book Crazy Love. The call of Christ is the call to live like him:  A life poured out for the sake of others, a life that values eternity so much that the sacrifices of today pale in comparison to the joys of the promises yet unfullfilled . This is the life to which we are called.

Or would you rather not know?

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Sneaky Jesus

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Robert Franklin

burgularWednesday night I finished sharing my heart with the Providence Baptist Church in Trimble County, KY. The congregation had patiently and persistently put up with me since Sunday morning as I was their “guest preacher” at their annual revival. It was an honor to be invited to come and they overflowed with graces to me.

I fear that I scandalized them a little more than I intended…I taught them about sneaky Jesus. Americans (in fact most Westerners) believe that Jesus’ return will be in secret and semi-inexplicable. I believe this is yet another point of our continuing disagreement with Jesus.

We are under recent delusion that we will not have to suffer tribulation as followers of Jesus, or at least the tribulation we do suffer will be of the more generic uncomfortable kind. Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.” (Matthew 24:9, NASB95). We believe the disciples to whom Jesus was referring (the “you”) surely must mean some other disciples other than us. Perhaps the “other sheep”?

We claim as truth the self-deception of salvation through simple declaration without perseverance. I know the idea of the necessity of continuing to follow Jesus offends many American Christians. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13, NASB95)

Endures what? Jesus already said, “life-threatening tribulation.” So confident was the Savior in the power of his hold on the hearts of men and women, he called his proclamation of the troubles soon to come as good news. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14, NASB95) It is a lazy and self-serving interpretation to redefine the gospel in this context to be a costless “salvation” and not the promise of deliverance through tribulation that Jesus is currently telling his disciples to expect.
Finally we accept the ridiculous notion that somehow Jesus is going to “sneak” back to earth and take up his people without anyone knowing it. How can one arrive at this conclusion when Jesus says, “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:27, NASB95) and, “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30, NASB95)? I live in an area of the country where lightning storms are part of the normal weather cycle. I can call my friends who live miles away and talk about a celestial electrical discharge that both of us witnessed. Jesus said his return will be easily observable, so much so that all the tribes of the earth will “mourn” and “see.”

Consider this, when a sports team wins a championship do they return in the dead of night, as quietly as possible? Absolutely not! Even if their arrival is after the passing of day’s light the city burns their “torches” and people line the streets and welcome their victorious team. Fans and followers honk horns, scream and shout, wave flags and jump up and down. How can it be that the One who conquered death and hell, the One who won the souls of billions of humans by the shedding of his own blood, the One who is promised to be the judge of the whole world is supposed to come back in any other manner than that which is promised, “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matthew 24:31, NASB95) ?

I don’t know about you, but I want nothing to do with a sneaky Jesus…I am looking and listening for the return in mighty power of the champion of my heart, even if it costs me everything while I wait. I want no disagreement with him.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

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The Nun God

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Robert Franklin

nuns singingI had the opportunity to listen to a radio show that featured former nun, Karen Armstrong, as she promoted her new book, A Case For God.  According to the interview, Ms. Armstrong has been able to transcend the insufficient ideas and ideals of the major world religions and to formulate a hybrid/synergistic understanding of God.  Ms. Armstrong is definitely for God, but not the “primitive” God worshipped by modern religious adherents.

It cannot be argued that Ms. Armstrong has spent considerable effort studying human concepts of God  and that her conclusions represent some of the best of modern scholarship. I am amazed that her careful study has not resulted in any novel conclusions. She makes the same basic assertions about God humans have been making throughout recorded history: God is a human formulation, an attempt to access the transcendent.

For the most part I believe she is correct.  The gods of humans tend to look like us.  The god of Israel, however, is said to create us to look like him.  This god is not supra-human, he is perfected truth; this god is both accessible and incomprehensible; finite enough to become flesh, infinite enough to simply speak all our “discoveries” into existence.

This is the god who can send his beloved covenant people into war-induced exile, who could watch women and children die horrific deaths, who caused famine so severe his people starved. This is the very same God to whom Isaiah calls the inhabitants of Jerusalem to shout praises of joy.

“Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.”” (Isaiah 12:6, NLT)

The gods of our imaginations make sense to us.  The god of Israel can judge from the holiness of his heavens and yet live in the midst of a people who have rejected him. The god of Israel confounds the wisest mind and is sensible to the simplest mind. He is truly the Nun God. 

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Disagreeing with Jesus

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Robert Franklin

disagreementWe have a long and infamous record of facing God-in-the-flesh and telling him that he is either mistaken or wrong. The hubris of the human soul surely causes the heavenly audience to gasp is horror on a regular basis. For my part I can only shake my head in shame as I remember the numerous times I have unjustly challenged people much wiser than I and I tremble at the thought that I have been so bold as to consider myself “counsel” to God.

The gospels bluntly witness to this hellish phenomenon. Take a look at Luke’s list of all the people who decided the position they held was right and righteous even if it opposed Jesus.

2.48-Jesus’ Parents: Jesus treated them wrongly by worrying them.

4.20-Jesus’ Hometown: Jesus was just “Joseph’s son” and not the fulfillment of scripture.

4.28-Jesus’ Hometown: Jesus did not speak from God, but was a blasphemer worthy of death.

5.21-Pharisees: Jesus cannot forgive sin.

5.30-Pharisees and Scribes: Jesus can’t keep company with tax collectors and other social outcasts.

6.1-Pharisees: Jesus and his disciples have no right to labor (even for basic food) on the Sabbath.

6.11-Scribes and Pharisees: Jesus was not allowed to heal on the Sabbath

6.30-Pharisees and Lawyers: Jesus testimony about the “Baptism of John” was incorrect, John’s baptism was not of worth

7.39-Simon the Pharisee: Jesus is not a prophet because he allowed himself to be touched by a sinful woman.

7.49- Dinner guests: Jesus has no right to forgive sins.

8.37 -Garasenes: Jesus had no right to deprive them of their pigs.

8.53- Mourners of Jairus’ daughter: Jesus has no power over death

9.13- Disciples: Jesus cannot work though ordinary people to feed thousands of people.

10.29 -A Lawyer: Jesus’ definition of who is a “neighbor” was incorrect.

10.40- Martha: Disagreed with Jesus allowing Mary’s to sit and learning at his feet.

11.15-Members of a crowd: Jesus casts ort demons by Satan’s power not God’s.

11.27 A woman: Disagreed with Jesus regarding the veneration of Mary.

11.45- Lawyers/Pharisees: Disagreed with Jesus regarding the condition of their souls.

13.1- Unnamed: Disagreed about the righteousness of desecrated Galileans.

15.2- Pharisees and Scribes: Disagreed with Jesus hanging out with, and loving, sinners.

16.14- Money-loving Pharisees: Disagreed regarding serving money and God simultaneously.

18.9- Ones that trusted in themselves for righteousness and viewed others with contempt: Disagreed with Jesus statement that God loves the penitent heart.

18.15- Disciples: Disagreed as to the importance of children coming to Jesus.

 18.39- Crowds outside of Jericho: Disagreed with Jesus’ care for blind Bartimaeus.

19.6-Citizens of Jericho: Did not think Jesus should be visiting with a person like Zaccheus.

19.39- Pharisees: Did not believe Jesus was worthy of praises as he entered Jerusalem.

20.2- Scribes and Elders: Believed Jesus to lack the proper authority to teach the Scripture.

20.27 Sadducees: Disagreed with Jesus regarding the reality of the resurrection.

21.5 Temple admirers: Disagreed with Jesus regarding the permanency of the Temple.

22.24. Disciples: Disagreed regarding how to be truly great and what was the measure of greatness.

22.33- Peter: Disagreed with Jesus regarding his ability to be faithful.

22.50-Disciples: Disagreed with Jesus about whether or not to use force to protect him from arrest.
22.70-Council of Elders: Disagreed with Jesus’ assertion that he is God.

23.39-Thief: Disagreed that Jesus was the means to salvation.

One gospel record, thirty-five disagreements with Jesus, thirty-five assertions of the will of humans against the revelation of God’s perfect love and wisdom.

The most disturbing disagreement I find people currently hold today is regarding how to become a follower of Jesus. The range of opinion is far too diverse to record in one blog entry. Consider what Jesus said about being his follower:

“Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26, NLT)

Would you agree?

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Awesome…I Mean It!

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Robert Franklin

Awesome...I Mean ItIn the ’80’s “Awesome” became a byword.  Pretty much any thing that surprised us or we thought was a positive, even the genuinely insignificant was declared “Awesome!”  It is now two decades later and our sense of awe about anything is gone.  The last time we heard the term was during the bombing of Iraq.  That military campaign, reduced to the size of my television screen, did little to inspire awe in me, although I am sure it frightened the hearts out of those who endured it.

I experienced awe as I tried to take in the sight of the glacier covered mountains of Alaska, or the immensity of the Grand Canyon, of the enormity of the Sahara Desert.  I have stood on a rocky precipice perched high above the Pacific Ocean and watched storm-driven breakers crush the shore with a mighty ferocious roar.

I am a servant to the truly awesome.  Someone who far outweighs the most fantastic, humbling, overwhelming, frightening aspects of his creation.

Someone so powerful that his mere presence causes me to no longer fear my powerful enemies.

Someone so just that I never worry about being left without my promised eternal inheritance, even though I don’t deserve one.

Someone so holy that I dare not disregard his command.

This week we will be experiencing a sliver of what it means to worship a truly awesome God at Main Street.  I pray this upcoming Sunday will reintroduce and remind my local family to the extravagance of power and authority we are connected to in Christ Jesus. 
Someone who is truly awesome.

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International Songs of Joy

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Robert Franklin

kingdedede earthshakerLet the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.  (Psalm 67:4, ESV)

Sometimes we fall into the pit of believing that God favors our nation above others.  The Psalmist, an Israelite, begs a different position.  According to the songwriter, God’s character, God’s work is so pervasive that it touches the whole earth.  Long before the angel told Mary that Salvation had finally arrived, this song of joy proclaimed the expectation of salvation among all nations.  Surely if it is true that God rightly judges every culture, every language, every lifestyle and guides all the affairs of humans, he is worthy of every glad song. 

It is disheartening to open the ear to the songs of the day:  songs to sexual self-gratification, songs to anger and bitterness, songs to self-praise, songs to disconnected emotional ecstasy.  How deep is this well of self-delusion, this dark hole that facilitates our smug self-dependence?  Will we ever see day’s light again and humbly, gratefully fall face to the earth and bless God through earth shaking melodic thanksgivings? 

God’s patient care and gracious abundance demand nothing less. 

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