More workers

Matthew 9:38 "So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields." This is an extraordinary thing to say at the end of this chapter. In these few verses of chapter nine Jesus has healed a paralyzed man, called out another disciple for him to mentor, brought his experience, strength and hope to bear on a group of unreached folks, called some religious folks to become unreached so he could reach them, shared his faith with some seekers, healed a girl everyone thought was dead, healed some blind guys, healed a demon possessed man, and traveled on healing "every kind of disease and illness". And though all this seems like an immense outpouring of power from him, he realizes it is a drop in the bucket of the human need just in his sphere of influence. Then he prays for more workers to respond to the harvest that is right there (more workers to bring genuine good news matched with genuine good deeds). And is he asking the Father to send more messiahs? No. He is referring to folks just like those of us who are spending our lives following him. He means people like you and me who are dedicated to him and his cause. The extraordinary thing (the mind blowing thing) is that when he asks for these miracle workers to join him in the healing, casting out demons, discipling and taking on the religious order outreach, he means me and you-precisely you-and precisely me. How in the world am I going to do that? How can you? ONLY if we join him in what he is doing; moving at his leading; working where and how he guides us to do it. That is the method-taking and keeping him and his ways in the center of our lives. That he expects us to be able to do the things he did continues to be amazing and extraordinary. That such things happen when we join him in this work is just, by God, the truth.

Go on with your bad self

1 Samuel 8:7 "Do everything they say to you, the Lord replied, for it is me they are rejecting, not you." God is the wise parent who will allow us to disobey. The wisdom in it is to teach us the value of staying on the love path with God. If we hear clearly but choose to go another way, the Lord will let us. That is exactly what was done with these Israelites who wanted a king-like everybody else. The Lord will not force his way on us. He is always the standing at the door of our lives knocking God. But he will let us face the consequences of our decisions. Even so, at every step along that way the Lord is still counseling us, still leading us, still loving us, trying to get us back on the love path again. That is just what he did with Israel after this bad decision. He worked within that bad decision to try and get them back into his will and his way again. That is a great comfort-the idea that the Lord will not even let my stubborn disobedience and rejection of his guidance-which truly is a rejection of him-stop him from loving and leading me. Oh, what an amazing God we know and serve (mostly).

Giving-and it's not November

2 Corinthians 8:10-13 OK, this is the kind of message we usually hear in November as we are trying to get our hearts and minds and souls ready to respond as individuals toward support of the rescue mission of Jesus through Heartsong. And Paul is writing to the tribe at Corinth about a specific giving for a specific purpose. But in what he says there are lessons for all of life. When we talk about giving at Heartsong it's always in terms of time, energy, creativity and resources. He talks about giving eagerly and porportionally, not as to make life hard for you in doing it, but with a eye (and heart) for making life easier for others. These are great lessons about the attitude to take in giving. It's never to be given out of shame or guilt or duty even. The gift the Lord wants for the support of his rescue mission is one given with gratitude, freely and with an attitude of joy. Those who have much can give much; those who have little can give little. But if all invest what of their time, energy, creativity and resources joyfully, and in faith, the Lord will take whatever is given and turn it into life for those who most need it. And that life may be in terms of time, energy, creativity and resources too-according to their need. But it will always bring the kind of life that we hope to God lasts forever, and by God does.

Ruthless

Ruth (the whole thing). What an amazing oasis of gospel-of Jesus hearted love-smack dab in the middle of the Old Testament. Don't know about you, but I sure needed it. After all of the bloody mayhem of the conquest (?) of the Promiseland, my spirit was really wanting to bail on the Old Testament. Talk about a bloody religion! Yes, I sensed a whole lot of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit up until the conquest, but all the blood and guts of that and blaming God for it almost caused me to lose heart with it. I'm still not sure what all that has to teach us except how much God must love us to put up with our foolishness, how far off track we can go and still be religious, how profoundly and clearly it speaks to the need of a flesh and blood Savior. Come to think of it that is a whale of a lot to learn. But thank the dear Lord for Ruth. It's a simple story, but one infused with deep love-with all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and in the surprise at the end (she was David's great grandmother) makes a turn toward Bethlehem (in more ways than one). It is enough-brief as it it-to keep me plodding through the old stuff looking for flashes of, drinks of, resonance with the Spirit that is surely there, though sometimes deeply and sometimes only shallowly obscured by human ignorance and sin. Without Ruth the Old Testament would be far more ruthless. ;>)

Plain As Daylight

2 Corinthians 3:6 "This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit" Could it be any plainer than that? This is setting in concrete the metaphor of Jesus about new wine needing to be put into new wineskins. With his coming everything changed, and it all had to do with him personally (Spirit) and what he taught (two commandments-new covenant). That is why the words spoken in the prayer of consecration at the Lord's Supper include the idea of the new covenant (the new agreement between you and God). What an huge insult (and tragic mistake) it is to try and force the Spirit of Jesus into the old covenant-the way of rules and regulations. The bible is clear, the witness of Jesus, and here (and many other places) of Paul that the old covenant didn't work. It was grand in the mind of God, but something got lost in the process of transfer into the mind of human beings. Original sin crept in, the desire to be God took over and what was meant to be glorious (a true expression of the gospel) became, in Paul's words, death. Jesus came to give us life and that abundantly. How dare anyone try to force the freedom he came to bring us into just more of the same old death! Forgive me, I get passionate about this. But then so did our Lord. If we don't get that it's not about religion; it's about THE relationship, then we don't really get Jesus at all. Plain as Daylight.