Taking Your Meds

 

Thursday, April 14, 2022

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself.  On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.  Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood.  Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”  For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.  1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Medication time is somewhat tedious if you're the giver, and the patient has four legs. 

But our dog, Wellie, who is in a long term relationship with chicken (in any shape, size, original, or extra-crispy), gives me no problem with pills.  I could wrap a lethal tarantula the size of Cleveland in an ounce of chicken skin and he would swallow it like a vacuum inhales a feather.  Problem solved!

Overweight Shih-Tzus aside, few people enjoy taking their meds.  I could be biased…, but nonetheless, I’m one who utterly despises any medication, even though taking the stuff helps keep me breathing.  Of late, when my doctor asks me how I’m doing, I growl, FINE!  It seems to be effective in avoiding more trips to the pharmacy!

The apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthian believers sounds somewhat like a doctor prescribing:  Do this…it’s an announcement of the cross, a reminder of the resurrection, and strength for when Jesus comes back.  And, truth be told, this was a vitally-required spiritual medication for the Corinth church.  They were in dire need of healing for their selfish, hedonistic ways.  They had little appreciation for the worship moment of The Supper, which, in their case, had turned into a dinner-on-the-grounds pig-out.  

There are some who, for whatever reason, view The Supper that way…a routine to be followed…ho-hum, pass the bread and Welch’s, please.  It goes down like the regimented swallowing of a pill, absentmindedly giving little or no thought to the holiness of the moment.  Somehow the magnitude of what’s going on at the table is lost, and (sadly enough) so is its’ grace-filled benefit.  It leaves no lasting aroma like the gift of Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, or savoring of the taste of what Isaac Watts called sorrow and love flow[ing] mingled down[1].

For You Today

Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, is a particularly poignant time for celebrating the coming cross, and eating the Holy Meal, remembering that passion of our Lord’s sacrifice.  Our eternal souls should not need the meal wrapped in chicken to go down gladly.  So, let’s go there allowing the Proverb writer the last word on taking our meds…

A cheerful heart is good medicine....  Proverbs 17:22a

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1][1] From Isaac Watts’ 1707 hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (United Methodist Hymnal #298)

Forfeiting an Inheritance

 

Monday, May 3, 2021

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.       
Galatians 5:19-26

There is an extreme contrast between the kind of life lived which justifies or disqualifies one from an inheritance.  Extenuating circumstances aside, the choice to whom the estate will pass lies with the wishes of the one making a will.  Without a will, the heirs enter a contest to divide the proceeds. 

In the case of a kingdom an heir is validated by blood.  In the case of God’s Kingdom inheritance, the will was put in place at Calvary 2,000 years ago, but it was in the heart of Father God even before creation.  So, concerning the Kingdom of God, the cross was the seal of promise affixed to the will of God, laying down the terms of inheritance for the children of God.

In writing to explain (or remind) the believers in Galatia, Paul has two shopping lists.  The first is living life as a hedonist, simply doing what you want without honoring God.  The second list is what God will produce in your life when you commit that life to His will, an honorable DNA of character and goodness.

The dividing line between the two choices for living is the qualification point (or disqualification), as an heir, rightfully participating in God’s blessing.

The analogy of earthly and heavenly kingdoms breaks-down (as do all analogies) when held too literally.  There are marked differences between God’s Kingdom and, say, the British Empire’s monarchy.  A similarity for inheriting in either depends on blood, and being born.  For the Royals of the House of Windsor, you’re in (or out) only so far as your ancestral blood line.  That is dependent solely on the random passing along of DNA.  For the inheritors of God’s Kingdom, it is also dependent on blood, that blood which pooled at the foot of a cross on a hill in Jerusalem’s garbage dump, with the execution of the Son of God.  This blood is not passed along genetically through a placenta, it is a choice to receive by applying to the King in a prayer of surrender.  That prayer is a surrender to the will of God, which ratifies the forgiveness of God, making that one who prays a child of God, and therefore, an inheritor of the Kingdom of God.

A common misconception at this point is that you live a good life, like Paul’s second list (love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, etc…), in order to become eligible for inheritance status.  But that’s false thinking, because that is earning the status.  If that were the case we would have to completely ignore the concept of grace…which would invalidate the cross.  Grace is never earned.  Even the definition of grace dismisses that thinking, as grace is unmerited favor from God’s hand, while earning is merited due, a salary for your work. 

The order is out of order there…rather, we repent of our part in the first list (immorality, sexual sins, jealousy, selfishness, etc…), and receive a grace-filled pardon…then the life of the second list begins to take hold in our choices.  God gives this also as grace, a gift to overcome life on the sinful first-list level. 

We do not live a good life to escape the bad; we nail the bad life to the cross, and God gives us a grace-filled life to add to the goodness of His Kingdom.  We participate not only by inheriting the Kingdom, but building it as well[1].

For You Today

It’s easy to forfeit an inheritance in God’s Kingdom, just do what you feel like doing, and forget about God.  You’ll get there in a heartbeat.  It’s even easier to receive the inheritance – surrender to God’s love; He will build your life on His grace and goodness, and make you fit for the Kingdom’s crown!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] 2 Peter 1:4

Playing Church

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Monday, July 15, 2019

Announce this to the leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt:   “Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.”  “My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord.  “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.  Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord, “an enemy is coming!  He will surround them and shatter their defenses.  Then he will plunder all their fortresses.”  This is what the Lord says:  “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear.  So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.  “Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  “On the very day I punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel.  The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.  And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy—their winter mansions and their summer houses, too—all their palaces filled with ivory,” says the Lord.  Listen to me, you fat cows living in Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, and who are always calling to your husbands, “Bring us another drink!”  The Sovereign Lord has sworn this by his holiness:  “The time will come when you will be led away with hooks in your noses.  Every last one of you will be dragged away like a fish on a hook!  You will be led out through the ruins of the wall; you will be thrown from your fortresses,” says the Lord.  “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.  Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.  Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days.  Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving.  Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere!  This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,” says the Sovereign Lord.  Amos 3:9 – 4:5

When God extended the invitation to Egypt and Philistia, arch-enemies of Israel, to take a front row seat and watch the humiliation of defeat that God was engineering to straighten-out his rowdy children, it should have brought waves of fear in Jerusalem and Judea; if anyone knew what the powerful wrath of God looks like in action, it was the children of Abraham.  These former slaves, people who had nothing, were led out of Egypt by Moses and a miraculous GPS cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.  They watched as the Red Sea swallowed Pharaoh’s storm troopers who were in hot pursuit.  They saw 23,000 of their fellow Israelites swallowed by the earth’s crust and fire when Korah led a rebellion against Moses.  They watched thousands die at the bite of venomous snakes when they complained against God.  These people had seen God’s wrath.  But they had forgotten all that and forgotten how to do right.  Their sin was playing at church! They kept the rituals but forgot how to do right; they were going to re-learn!

I have never claimed to be a prophet.  However, there is this foreboding deep within my spirit about the state of the current culture in America which I cannot shake.  It has amazing parallels to Israel of old, those who were blessed by Heaven’s hand, and descended into Hell’s ways.  They saw ways to accumulate wealth by oppressing others; they refined and strengthened their hold on the weak in order to become stronger, lazier, and increasingly self-indulgent.  Justice was a laughable joke, and the powerful saw to it their power would require others to look to them as God. 

Now, the parallel I fear most in the comparison of America as the New Israel is we have the Old Israel’s same mindset…accumulation of power, wealth, and the ability to keep others under control.  It’s hedonism, multiplied by situational ethics, empowered by a calloused heart that looks out for #1.  With apologies (perhaps) to President Trump, it’s The Art of the Deal as king…get from others before they get from you.  America, as a nation, is not generous and gracious; we are despised in the world today for our arrogance and childish selfishness.  

We dole out a bit of our resources here and there to the poverty-stricken third-world countries, but it is little more than dangling the carrot in front of the enslaved mule to keep him walking to the beat of our drum.  

For You Today

While it is true there are many thousands, perhaps millions of Americans who much more truly reflect the Jesus-following life, generous, gracious, and God-honoring, what we see coming out of Washington is a 21^st century God-invitation for wrathful judgment.  May He have mercy in His wrath; we stand in need of it!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

The Cost of Arrogance

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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime!  No one can tell it anything; it refuses all correction.  It does not trust in the Lord or draw near to its God.  Its leaders are like roaring lions hunting for their victims.  Its judges are like ravenous wolves at evening time, who by dawn have left no trace of their prey.  Its prophets are arrogant liars seeking their own gain.  Its priests defile the Temple by disobeying God’s instructions.  But the Lord is still there in the city, and he does no wrong.  Day by day he hands down justice, and he does not fail.  But the wicked know no shame.  “I have wiped out many nations, devastating their fortress walls and towers.  Their streets are now deserted; their cities lie in silent ruin.  There are no survivors—none at all.  I thought, ‘Surely they will have reverence for me now!
Surely they will listen to my warnings.  Then I won’t need to strike again, destroying their homes.’  But no, they get up early to continue their evil deeds.  Therefore, be patient,” says the Lord.  “Soon I will stand and accuse these evil nations.  For I have decided to gather the kingdoms of the earth and pour out my fiercest anger and fury on them.  All the earth will be devoured by the fire of my jealousy.  “Then I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the Lord together.  My scattered people who live beyond the rivers of Ethiopia will come to present their offerings.  On that day you will no longer need to be ashamed, for you will no longer be rebels against me.  I will remove all proud and arrogant people from among you.  There will be no more haughtiness on my holy mountain.  Those who are left will be the lowly and humble, for it is they who trust in the name of the Lord.  The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will never tell lies or deceive one another.  They will eat and sleep in safety, and no one will make them afraid.”  Zephaniah 3:1-13^(NLT)

Hans Christian Anderson wrote a tongue-in-cheek fairy tale about an emperor who was so vain and arrogant he was convinced by a shrewd tailor that because of the new invisible suit of clothes made for him he was the finest dressed ruler in the entire world.  Parading around in his skivvies, the emperor was the laughingstock of the parade!

Many have compared America as a chosen the purpose of being to God’s representative to the world, and a great force for good…just like ancient Israel.  Now, I would not, as the old expression has it, throw out that baby with the bath water.  However, if my friends are right about America’s self-view of invincible exceptionalism, and if our leaders are fully-clothed, in their right minds, I would simply submit that the comparison between the United States and God’s chosen Israel must be accepted in its’ entirety!  Another old saying holds that you must take the bad along with the good!

In Zephaniah’s prophecy, Israel is lambasted and warned that their arrogant ways, ignoring God, justice and mercy, are stripping the nation of any chance of being God’s witness of love.  Instead they are full of themselves and ripe for judgment. 

Where did this arrogance come from?  It was largely the leaders who began to believe their own press reports about Israel’s special history, power and protection by God.  With impunity and unmitigated gall they began to congratulate themselves on their place in history and how they held all the cards.  They forgot the One who was really in charge. 

Those who want to compare America as the New Israel need to see the pitiful similarity between ancient Israel’s leaders and America’s political power brokers, who act with either ignorance of, or indifference towards God. 

Of course this is not much different than the voters who put them in power.  We have gone way past even the pretense of being a Christian nation, past modern and post-modern, all the way to godless hedonism.

May God have mercy on us; we are going to need it!

For You Today

As bleak as the political scene and horizon may look for America, there is always hope for a nation, an individual, or a neighbor who will return to God. 

May it be so with me, and with you, as we commit ourselves to proclaiming His kingdom today; let the revival begin!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com