Saturday, March 28, 2015
The Best of Days
It
was the worst of days, it was the best of days... the day Jesus Christ died. Many scholars believe His death coincided
with the Jewish Passover. At Passover, among other traditions, a lamb
was slain to commemorate the night the Jews were delivered from Egyptian
bondage. The Bible refers to Christ as
"The lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." The day Christ died politicians thought they
were winning a victory and Satan thought he was destroying a movement, but God
was using them both to change the world forever.
The
day Jesus was crucified was "the worst of days" from a human
standpoint. A mob of people had been
whipped into a frenzy by the politicians and press of the day, and they were
cursing a man who done nothing but bless them.
They were mocking their King. His
closest friends were devastated and afraid.
Nobody at the crucifixion was saying, "Wow, what a watershed moment!
Isn't Jesus doing a spectacular job!"
On that fateful day a nation sealed its
own judgment and world leaders who had been enemies made an unholy alliance and
became friends, only to collaborate on the worst deed ever done by mankind. It
was a day of injustice, violence and lies.
But all of these reasons for sadness were in the temporal realm; most
people missed what was really taking place.
It
was the best of days for much more substantial reasons. Jesus was being beaten so we could be
healed. He was being mocked to fulfill
the Scriptures. God was manifest in flesh and was paying for our sins with His own
blood. He hung naked before unthinking critics so He could forgive them and the
world. The barbaric behavior of crazed crowds, self-righteous religious leaders
and flip-flopping politicians became a backdrop for what would become the most
famous story of all time. This was the
day when Jesus was most graphically demonstrating His love for mankind. He was conquering death, hell and the grave. He
was preparing to forgive your sins and to give you everlasting life, should you
accept His great gift.
I
am so glad Jesus had perspective while traveling through the valley of the
shadow of death. If He had not been able to see the bigger picture -- the
spiritual world which most people never see -- He may have stopped short of His mission. Jesus modeled the life of a successful
believer; He showed us how to change our world by letting love and faith
empower us to see the good things that are happening on the worst of days.
You
and I may experience days with similar extremes. Others may not recognize the
good. We may be in pain. But if God is
orchestrating our lives, we need not fear.
"God has a plan." and "It's in God's hands." are not
trite sayings. Jesus' life proves this
more vividly than most, because his coming, living and dying were all
predicted. The very people who wished to
destroy Jesus, simply played their role in fulfilling God's divine plan. The ultimate life is the life lived in
accordance with God's plan. True people
of faith are those who embrace both good days and bad days, because they are
confident in the One who is orchestrating it all. Every day God orchestrates is
the best of days.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Eating Rocks
He grew up normal. His favorite foods were pizza, hamburgers and
chili. Then one day his four-year-old
friend changed his life forever. It was
nearly supper time and they had been playing hard. Their stomachs were growling
and churning, begging to be satisfied. Dinner seemed far away and his friend
asked an intriguing question: "Have
you ever eaten rocks?"
Partly out of curiosity and partly because of
silliness, he scooped up a handful of smooth pea-sized playground rocks,
marched to the drinking fountain, and began tossing the rocks in his mouth and
washing them down with long swigs of water .
The effect was immediate
and satisfying. No more churning and growling. This new diet settled heavily in his stomach,
reassuring it that all was well. In one
stroke of genius, he had discovered a food source that was free, required no
baking or condiments, eliminated the need for chewing, and it seemed to satisfy
those pesky feelings of hunger so much more effectively than the dreaded
vegetables his mother was forever plotting to force into his life. He determined then and there that he had discovered
something his old-fogie parents were too bigoted and closed-minded to embrace,
and that from that day forward he would feast in the playground and slip his
mother's concoctions to the dog.
If that story were true,
you can imagine the painful, or possibly lethal, ramifications. In the physical world such foolishness is
easily spotted and the effects force the necessary corrections. However, emotional and spiritual hunger are
much trickier. People can make very bad
choices when trying to find affection or meaning in life. And there are so many
hucksters looking to swindle the unsuspecting.
For example, a person
who hungers for affection might latch onto someone who gives them a little
attention, but whose selfish motives eventually bring them more harm than good.
Instead of finding a healthy relationship or true love, they settle for
codependency, a shallow physical relationship, or worse. They eat rocks. The ramifications are painful and
destructive.
Just as a four-year-old
may not understand a parent's lecture about eating rocks, our society seems
intolerant of those who warn against unhealthy choices made by people seeking
to satisfy spiritual and emotional hunger.
But, in hopes that one or two people may benefit, let me be plain about
some of those unhealthy options.
- Hunger for love satisfied by sex outside of marriage - rocks.
- Hunger for peace satisfied by drugs or alcohol - rocks.
- Hunger for spirituality satisfied by anything other than a relationship with Jesus - rocks.
- Hunger for approval satisfied by pleasing people - rocks.
God created physical
hunger -- it insures our survival. Life
will teach us the best items for satisfying that hunger. God also created us to hunger for love and
purpose. That hunger is most perfectly
satisfied by a healthy relationship with God and others. He gave us prayer and church to satisfy our hunger for
fellowship. He promised to fill people
with His Spirit so they would have inner strength to deal with life. He told us that if we would lose our lives in
Him we would discover abundant life.
Everything else is rocks.
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