Musing 03/15/10, Plus or Minus? by John.

Plus or Minus?

In prayer this morning, I thought of a young man. I met him years ago. He was just four. Now he's a fine young man, and I am so happy to have been his pastor for about ten years. He was fourteen when I moved to another city. He has Tourette's syndrome, and I had trouble being comfortable with his condition as he grew, but I loved him from the moment I saw him. The question in my mind is, is his condition a plus, or minus?

Most, if not all, of us want everyone to be "normal," and we really mean "like us." All of us think we are normal unless we have some marked difference from others, but not even twins are exactly alike. Twins are different even though they may be "identical." Is being different a good thing? It took me a long time to realize that it is. All sorts of scenarios show us our shortcomings. For instance, you can take a person who is really good with children, put them in a room alone with a teenaged person having a spell of anger, maybe someone with Downs syndrome, and they may just come out screaming that they don't have to, and they will not put up with that kind of behavior! Or they may be perfectly at ease.

Remember the ancient story where Achilles mother dipped him in the river Styx, and he instantly became almost impervious to injury? His mother failed to completely immerse him. She held the baby by one heel. Eventually, he was slain by an injury to that heel, and people have called such a condition by his name ever since. The story showed how that event changed him and his life.

All of us have at least one Achilles' heel somewhere in our personality. We think of it as our weakness.
We may strive to be perfect as Jesus told us to be. The word "perfect" by the way in Greek is, "telios," and although it is translated "perfect," it is perhaps more accurately translated "complete." It means nothing lacking, rather than sinless as so many interpret it today. For instance, we have a perfect Oldsmobile. It's old, and it shows signs of wear and tear. The headliner wants to drop down on our heads. It's pinned up here and there, but it's still perfect! It was designed to be comfortable, handsome, and to get us where we want to go without failure. Every part needed to do those things is still there, so it is perfect!

I believe God allows such great diversity in our humanity to let us know how much He loves us, and how much we need to love and accept others. My young friend may discover sometime in his life that his syndrome is in itself a great blessing. It may have already caused him to develop strengths and talents that would never have been developed without it. He may be a greater blessing to the human race because of it. We frequently say, "Only time will tell!" But the truth may not come out until we stand in the presence of God. We human beings are well known for not getting things right, right?

I remember reading that the famous pastor, Dr. John Broadus, and a friend were walking down the street one morning when they met a fellow obviously crippled in more ways than one. He shuffled along toward them, and as he neared, he said, "Good morning, John!" As they passed each other, he said, "Thank you, John." Dr. Broadus' friend was shocked that he even knew such a person! Dr. Broadus explained that the man was quite disabled, but that he had been able to say yes to Jesus several years before. Since then, he always spoke and said "thank you" because Dr. Broadus had taken the time to sit down with him and tell him about Jesus. I think that is what Jesus would have had him do, don't you?

I like to remember that God loves that man just like he loves this man, meaning me. He loves us because we are His creation for sure. There may be more to it than that, but pick out the lowliest person you can imagine, and God loves him just like He loves us. Pick out the highest in value, and God loves him just like He loves us! That is a hard concept for most of us to accept, I know, but that agrees with Jesus' command that we love our enemies as well as our friends.

In short, there is not one soul on earth who has not been loved by God, and there will not be one that is not loved by God. The unpardonable sin Jesus mentioned is to continually consider the obviously good works of the Holy Spirit evil. It is persistent rebellion against God. A person who does that is unpardonable because he will not come to Jesus for salvation.

The next time you see a paraplegic, or a person in prison, or with any other socially unacceptable problem, try to remember God loves them. Perhaps God had a specific work for the person who is crippled, or mentally deficient to perform. Instead of avoiding them, making jokes about them, or anything like that, pray for them! Pray that they will discover what God has planned for them. Pray
for yourself, too, and see if you can't be of some service to them. You may discover that you are the one who is blessed. That person may become your dearest friend. God may bless you by what you do for them. Bringing out generosity on our part may be the reason God allowed them to not just like us. Remember the man born blind in John 9? Who sinned, the disciples asked, this man or his parents? Jesus answered, "'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'" (John 9:3).

Crimes are a criminal's own responsibility, but our responsibility is to touch their lives with the Gospel. It may change them into servants of God, and if it happens only one time, think what a great service you've done for the Kingdom of God and the whole human race!

Musing 03/13/10, Mt.3;13-15, Another "Why?" question by John

Another "Why" question.

Matthew 3:13-15: "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' Jesus replied, 'Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.' Then John consented."

Every Christian knows about the baptism of Jesus and about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus. The Spirit appeared to observers, or possibly just to Him as a dove. That doesn't mean the Holy Spirit is a dove, right? God's Spirit is not finite, and is not tiny like a dove either. It doesn't mean that the Spirit always comes like He did then, or that His coming happens only after someone is baptized in water. That's reading more into the Scripture than is there. The coming of the Holy Spirit on anyone results in that person being immersed in the Spirit. That's baptism of the Spirit. Baptism with water is a witness to everyone that you have put your trust in Jesus and that you are going to become like Him.

The question in my mind, and that I am exploring may not be answerable by us now. Why did the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus at all? Did He have a need for the Holy Spirit? Was the Holy Spirit already present in Him, or with Him? Did He set aside His godliness to such an extent that the Spirit had to come to complete Him? These are puzzling ideas, aren't they? I don't presently have an answer, and in this world I may never. It might be best to simply say our Father wanted it to happen just that way. That is truth, of course. The next thought is, does God want us to know why it happened, and about that we can't be sure either, can we? Jesus told us that the times and the seasons are in God's hands. That's something we can spend a lot of time on, and people have, but in the end we don't really know exactly what, and exactly when things are going to happen.

Perhaps if we examine the Scriptures.... Ah, yes, there are answers there, but what we have may not satisfy us. We always want to know more, and we want more of every good thing, don't we? So much of what we read, we really don't understand. At least, that's true for me. I've studied the Scripture carefully since I met Jesus before I was 18 so that's about 64 years of experience in searching out God's truths, but I do not claim to know all, or even many, of the answers to spiritual questions. I'm just a witness to the power of Jesus to turn a life completely around so that it will bear fruit. I'm still a student at the feet of the Master Teacher, and I am in love with Him. Nothing good that I have done is a result of myself. It is all the work of the Lord. I won't try to judge my work. If I did, I'm afraid I wouldn't get a passing mark. I am so thankful to God for the grace He constantly bestows on me, and every person who commits his life to Jesus. I'm not alone in my struggle. New children come into God's family daily, and we all struggle with our past, our present and our future lives. Just when we think we have finally arrived, like Paul, we have to say, "I do not count myself to have arrived." We know the tempting delicacies of this created world are all around us clamoring for our attention and participation. Sometimes we fall for some of those things God has told us to leave alone. The young ruler who came to Jesus aware that he was really missing something went away disappointed because the riches in his hands were more important to him than becoming God's child. I trust God. He has promised to never leave nor forsake us. He saves us from sin and eternal death, and He saves us from our own destructive selves.

The biggest "why" questions I think are, why do we want more than God gives? And why don't we have enough faith to wait until He does give? And why don't we know Him better? In the presence of questions like these, why do we quibble about baptism with water? Why don't we just do it? The Bible certainly tells us we should. Now here's possibly the biggest one. Why don't all of us who trust the Lord love each other enough to get along together like the brothers and sisters we are?

We human beings may have no answer for a
"why?" that you have, but I can give you the information you need to handle all your questions. It's the central message of the whole Bible. Our Heavenly Father sent Jesus Himself to be the final answer to all questions. Even without answers, the mercy, grace and love that He provides when He comes into our lives is sufficient. Our patience as Christians will carry us through until we are with Him, and He provides the answers.