"Because I Love, You Shall Live Also" John 14:19

“Because I Live, You Shall Live Also” John 14:19

We celebrate Easter because Jesus rose from the dead and because He conquered death. But Jesus didn’t just conquer death for Himself, He conquered death for us. He did it for you and me! He tells us, “Because I live you will live also.” We receive new life that lasts forever from Him. What a gift!



Our new eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it begins when we first believe. Christ gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to every person who believes in Him. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit seals us into eternal life and is our guarantee and our ‘down payment’ on this new life. “Now it is God who makes us to stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, sets His seal of ownership on us, and puts His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)



So you see, through Jesus so much has already been done for us. Scripture says that this eternal life is given as a free gift to each person who believes in Christ. But we do have choices to make in what we do with our gift. We can either learn to live in this amazing new life, or we can continue in our old life habits of sin. The Lord will call us to change through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, but He will never force us to change. Since we have free will, it’s our choice.



When we believe in Christ and receive new life, we are instructed to “put to death” our old sinful ways. “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, …not on earthly things…Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:1a,2,5) “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed…” (Colossians 2:8-10)



A friend of mine, who is a Christian, had a problem with these scriptures telling her to “put off” anger and un-loving feelings. She wanted to obey the Lord but her feelings of anger kept hanging around. As a child she had enjoyed a close loving relationship with her mother. But since she had become an adult, her mother had continually criticized her and put her down. Her mother did not seem to like the person that she had become as an adult. She twisted and turned in the wind trying to please her mother and regain her mother’s love, but her mother continued lashing out at her with unkind remarks and encouraging her grown son to do the same.



“How can I “put off” my feelings of anger toward my mother?” she asked the Lord. “Help me feel the way You want me to feel Lord. Give me the ability to love my mother and not always be so frustrated and angry with her.” She prayed. And then the Lord who promises always to be near and help us in our troubles spoke to my friend in that still small voice.

She tells us that first the Lord asked her to give her relationship with her mother to Him and to stop worrying about it. So she stopped and with tears let go of her troubled relationship with her mother and gave it to God. Then the Lord seemed to show her that her mother was not capable of being the loving mother that she wanted: that her mother had problems of her own that kept her from having a close relationship with her. God spoke to her heart and assured her that He would be a “Mother” to her and give her what her mother was unable to give. And then the Lord impressed on her heart that she should love her mother for the good things in the relationship that she still enjoyed and not take the many criticisms to heart.



My friend insists that her prayers were answered and that she was able to “put off” her anger toward her mother even though the criticisms continued. “God gave me the strength and power to not be angry,” she reported joyfully. “I quit counting on my mother to be what I had wanted her to be to me. I gave that up to the Lord. And God gave me the strength to love her and not let her criticisms upset me. God gave me that freedom. I could have never done that in my own strength,” she reported with a smile.



After we have been commanded to “put to death” the sinful desires in our lives and “take off” our old selves, then we are instructed to “clothe ourselves” with or “put on” our new selves. Here is what God asks us to “clothe ourselves” with or “put on”. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all of these virtues put on love…Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… and be thankful and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly …” (Colossians 3:12-14b,15-16a)



Jesus has given us eternal life and He leaves instructions along with His gift. We are instructed to take off pride and put on humility, take off anger and malice and put on love and forgiveness, take off greed and selfishness and put on compassion and generosity. That’s a lot of “taking off” and “putting on” He is asking of us. But the good news is that we don’t have to do all of that by ourselves. God through the Holy Spirit will give us the power to “put on” the new life and “take off” the old one. (John 14:26, John 1:12, John 16:13 and 1 Cor. 2:10) All we have to do is be willing to follow!

Findinf God Is Like Falling In Love, Lessons from Song of Solomon

Finding God Is Like Falling In Love

Lessons from the Song of Solomon

We were having lunch with a Religious Studies professor from a local Christian college and for twenty minutes the professor had been discussing the importance of keeping our Christian doctrines pure. We Christians are proud of our moral code and of our belief system, he declared. We find God through the traditions and doctrines of the church that have been carefully passed down from generation to generation, he insisted. We must guard against any departures from the correct interpretations and we must continue to honor our rich heritage.



My eyes glazed over. The good professor lectured on but I couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying. Of course we shouldn’t allow heresies to creep into our faith. But it seemed to me that he was describing our living faith as a dry academic dogma! I sensed that he was comparing finding God to finding the correct answer to a problem? And all the time I felt like finding God was more like falling in love!



And I’m not the only one to wonder if perhaps the believer’s mysterious relationship with God is more like falling in love! Scripture tells us that believers are the bride and the body of Christ. (2 Corinthians 1-2) (1 Corinthians 10:16) And we read in the Bible about God’s great love for us and about the Holy Spirit wooing and drawing us to Him. (John 3:8and 16 and Acts 5:14) That sounds a bit like romance now doesn’t it? And when we turn to the Song of Solomon the whole book from beginning to end is about two lovers in love. Jewish scholars have long believed the Song of Solomon to be an allegory expressing the love relationship between God and His chosen people. And for centuries the Christian Church saw the book as reflecting the love between Christ and the Church.



The Song of Solomon begins with: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – for your love is better than wine. Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, Your name is an ointment poured forth: …”(Song of Solomon 1:2-3) And the rest of the book continues with the bride praising and romancing her bridegroom and the bridegroom praising and romancing his bride. The young couple is so deeply in love.



The bride proclaims: “…I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting table and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with cakes or raisins; Refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love.” And “I am my beloved’s and his desire is toward me.” (Song of Solomon 2:3b-5 and Song of Solomon 7:10))



And the bridegroom answers: “You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.” And “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse: You have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace. How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse. How much better than wine is your love…. “ A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed….” (Song of Solomon 4:7, 9,10,12)



Since the bride is represented here in this love song as her bridegroom’s garden she exclaims: “”Awake. O north wind, and come, O south! Blow upon my garden that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.” (Song of Solomon 4: 16) If the bride here is an allegory for the Church or the believer, could this verse represent the believer praying that the Holy Spirit (represented in Scripture as wind) blow into her life or give her power to bear the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, etc? Isn’t it true that the Holy Spirit lives in the believer and continually enables the believer to bear fruit? Fruit that will please our Lord.



The bridegroom answers: “I have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey: I have drunk my wine with my milk.” And: “O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah. Lovely as Jerusalem. Awesome as an army with banners! Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me.” (Song of Solomon 5:1a and 6:4-5a)



If the bridegroom here is an allegory for Christ and the bride represents the Church, or if it is God and His people, then these verses are telling us that somehow we matter deeply to our Lord, that He is in love with us and we are attractive to Him. I don’t know about you, but I can’t even begin to take it all in.



If nothing else, the Song of Solomon teaches us that we don’t have all the answers when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. In the third chapter of Song of Solomon the bride is walking the streets at night looking for her bridegroom. She has lost him and is asking the watchmen of the city to help her find him. Like this anxious bride searching for her bridegroom, we too are not in control of our relationship with God! Sometimes He is elusive and seems to hide and there is no three step program to hurry Him back. Our spiritual life is a mystery. There is no easy formula to follow in being a Christian other than believing and obeying and listening for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. We can’t put God in a box.



But God holds us and keeps us through the Holy Spirit in this sacred relationship, mysterious as it may be. When we have once found the Lord there is no where else to go. His love is the best and somehow we know it. The Song of Solomon tells of a night when the bride was looking for her bridegroom and the daughters of Jerusalem asked her why he was so special to her. “My beloved is handsome and ruddy, Chief among ten thousand,” she replies. (Song of Solomon 5:10) And soon after that she found her bridegroom and she exclaimed: “Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go…” (Song of Solomon 4:3)



The bride tells it like it is. There is no other. Her bridegroom is the best. She held him and would not let him go. And that is the way it is when we have a relationship with the Lord. There is an ecstasy in the relationship that is beyond compare. Finding God is like falling in love.

Dem bones, Dem bones, Dem Dry Bones: Can These Bones Live?

Dem Bones, Dem bones, Dem Dry Bones:

Can These Bones Live?

An old Negro Spiritual, “Dem Bones” picks up on a really wild story in the Bible about a valley full of dry human bones scattered everywhere. The prophet Ezekiel is writing the story and he tells us that God carries him off and puts him down in the middle of a valley of bones. And as he is standing there looking over the piles of scattered bones, God asks him if he thinks the old bones could come to life! Ezekiel doesn’t know, he doesn’t have a clue. So God tells him to prophesy over the dry bones. Ezekiel prophesies and amazingly the bones rattle and rustle around and come back together into skeletons. Then flesh and muscles grows over the skeletons and dead people appear lying all around the valley where all the dry bones had been.



Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy again and ask breath to breathe into the dead people so that they might live. So Ezekiel obeys and prophesies again as God commanded him and the dead bodies come to life and stand up and become a large army of people. I told you it was a really wild story.



The story is from Ezekiel 37 and reads: “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Oh Sovereign Lord, You alone know.’



Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath to enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin: I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’



So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.



Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath: prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them: they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.



Then He said to me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone: we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Oh My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people will know that I am the Lord,…” (Ezekiel 37:1-13a)



The ten “lost” tribes of Israel were carried off into captivity by the Assyrians 2,700 years ago. Over the centuries they intermarried and lost their Jewish identity and were scattered throughout the world. Only the two tribes of Judah remained. No person in their right mind could believe that after nearly three millenniums those lost tribes from antiquity could be found and be put back together again! But in this story where old scattered bones are brought back together and breathed upon so that they become living people, God is proclaiming that He can and will do just that. With God nothing is impossible.



After Ezekiel finishes his story about the bones coming to life God gives him another picture lesson that says the same thing. – that none of the tribes of Israel will be lost forever. God has Ezekiel take two sticks and write the names of the two tribes of Judah on one stick and the names of the ten lost tribes of Israel on the other. Then God instructs Ezekiel to join the two sticks and hold them together in one hand as one and prophesy over them that they will all be one nation together again in their own land and they will give up their sins and serve God. (Ezekiel 37:15-27) Of course this perfect vision may not happen until Jesus comes again. But according to Gods’ Word it will happen!



The miracle of the bones coming to life is a promise made by God just for Israel isn’t it? Don’t some of the rest of us need a miracle from God too? We have children who have gone wrong or health issues that drag us down. Money problems that never stop or betrayals that we never expected. We’ve waited a long time for answers and finally all our dreams have dried up and scattered and all our hope is dead. We have our own personal valley of dry bones!



But God has made us some promises too! He has promised to breathe new life into the dry bones and valleys of our lives. Let’s listen to just a few of His many promises to us. “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18) “And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22) “Whatever you ask in My Name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) “Exceeding great and precious promises have been given to us that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4) and “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witness…” (Acts 1:8)



God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy over the dry bones first before He brought them back to life. And God tells us to pray in faith over our problems and then He will answer. Isn’t it amazing that we are privileged to be co-workers with God. Our prayers and our faith are important to God. He has chosen to use them in His work.



Scripture says that whatever we ask in prayer believing we will receive. That’s a pretty heavy promise. But sometimes we keep praying and believing and praying and believing and nothing seems to happen. Years pass by and still the answer doesn’t come. The dry bones in our valleys are still scattered and dead.



Let’s keep praying and believing. Let’s remember that the dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley aren’t living yet, even though Ezekiel saw the miracle ahead of time. That promise to Israel may not be fulfilled until the end of the age. That may be a long time to wait. And some of our prayers may not be answered until after we die. We may have a long time to wait too. But our prayers will be answered. God will breathe new life into our dry bones. We need to keep the faith.

The Year of Jubilee

The Year of Jubilee

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, He also gave him commands as to how the Israelites were to manage their farms and vineyards, their businesses and their real estate. If God gave these commands to us today we would have to forget everything we know about business, farming and real estate and start all over again! What God commanded His people to do is mind blowing!



First of all God promised to generously and continually give material blessings to His people if they would try to obey His commands. All He asked them in return was to trust Him with all of their needs and to follow His example and give generously to the needy in their midst. God’s generosity to His people would set them free to pass on that generosity to everybody around them and especially to those in need.



First of all God commanded His people to rest from all of their work every seventh day. Not only were the Israelites to rest, but their workers and their animals were to have the day off too. Notice how God cared about how they treated the animals too! One of the Ten Commandments reads: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. …” (Exodus 20:8)

In that agrarian society 3,500 years ago, most of the Israelites were farmers. God instructed the Israelites to work on their farms and vineyards for six years and then to take a years’ vacation the seventh year and let the land rest. This is what the Lord ordered. “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather your crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” (Leviticus 25:2b-5)

I can just imagine that if God instructed all of our farmers to stop farming one whole year out of every seven we would have a fit. “Surely we won’t have enough to eat,” we would insist. And I think the Israelites wondered if they would have enough to eat if they took the year off work. But God wanted His people to let go and trust Him to provide for their needs. Here is what God told Moses to tell the people: “You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops? I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.” (Leviticus 15: 20-22)

God added: “But during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.” (Exodus 23:11b) God would bless His people so abundantly that they could feed the poor among them and the wild animals. Also God’s people were instructed during harvest time to leave a portion of their crops for the poor and the hungry to take. They were to look after each other, give to anyone who asked for help. They were to have time to rest and recharge, listen to God and enjoy life. No tight penny pinching folks in God’s group!

And if these amazing commands weren’t enough, God commanded His people to proclaim the Year of Jubilee every fifty years. Every fifty years trumpets would sound and liberty would be proclaimed throughout the land. All debt would be canceled and all the slaves would be freed! All land that had been sold would be given back to the original owner. If the Jewish nation obeyed God and observed the Year of Jubilee, the poor would be given a fresh start and those who had been forced to sell their land or their homes would get them back. The rich wouldn’t become richer on the backs of the poor in God’s economy.

And real estate was conducted differently than it is today. God instructed them: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine.” (Leviticus 25:23) God’s people were given the use of the land. They were managers of the land but not owners. God was the sole owner and landlord of all the land.

If a Jewish person fell into hard times and had to sell his land, the price would be calculated on how many seasons were left for growing crops until the Year of Jubilee. No real estate sale was ever permanent since Jubilee cancelled all sales. The land would be worth much more if thirty years remained before Jubilee than if just ten years were left. The land was valued by how many years were left to plant and harvest crops before the land would be returned to the original owner!

God continued to remind His people to take care of the poor and sick and disadvantaged in their midst. He warns them that He will not bless them it they forget the poor. “Cursed be he who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.” (Deuteronomy 27:19) And God forbids His people from charging interest when they loan money to one another. “Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, …You must not lend money at interest or sell him food at a profit for I am the Lord your God,…” Leviticus 25:36-37)

Life for us today in this global economy is vastly different from what it was for the ancient Israelites of Moses’ day. For one thing ancient Israel was supposed to be a theocracy. All of the Israelites were supposed to worship the one true God, whereas in our democratic society we have freedom of religion and all religions are represented. We are an individualistic society whereas ancient Israel was very communal. God’s instructions for those ancient people would not speak to how we do business today. But what lessons can we take from those ancient commands? And how does God want us to do our business today?

For one thing God wanted justice and equity for ancient Israel and He wants that for us today too. God wanted a kinder and gentler society then and He wants that for us today. We live in a competitive and individualistic culture today where there are winners and losers. Even our games are highly competitive. God never encouraged His people to be competitive or to try to get ahead of the pack. Instead God taught His children to work for the common good, and to take care of one another.

We live in a materialistic culture today where the gross national product is valued above everything else. We will sell our souls for the bottom line. The productivity of the average worker has been pushed to the breaking point so that maximum profits can be earned. Frantic workers are often stressed to the breaking point trying to reach their quotas. Employees work harder and longer with less time off. Cut throat tactics are regularly used in the workplace and loyalty is a thing of the past. Jobs are sent overseas and faithful long term workers are fired and replaced with cheaper labor in order to save a few bucks. And some even dare to call these maneuvers Christian!

So we may feel a tinge of jealousy when we read God’s ancient commands in Scripture calling His beloved children to celebrate the Year of Jubilee! Instead of pushing His people for more production, God instructed them to leave part of their harvest for the poor and the wild animals. Instead of teaching His children how to manipulate the stock market, God commanded them not to charge interest when they made loans and to cancel all debt every fifty years. Instead of working them harder, God told His children to take a year off, celebrate and trust Him to provide for their needs.

Maybe in our rush to get ahead, we have done it all backwards after all. We think we are better off financially but we may have paid a price spiritually. Perhaps we can stop and ask God to lead us back to a kinder and gentler way of living. And perhaps we can learn something after all from those lessons given so long ago concerning the Year of Jubilee.

Pride goes Before Destruction

Pride Goes Before Destruction

The Bible passage reads: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” (Proverbs 16:18-19)



It was pride that caused the downfall of our first parents. Adam and Eve fell into sin because they were proud enough to think that their own way (eating the forbidden fruit) was better than God’s way (obeying His command not to eat from that one tree). We all need to do the opposite and be humble enough to take our instructions from God and not proudly think that our own ways are better that His.



As Christians we call Jesus our Lord and that means that we try to follow Him. And it takes a certain amount of humility to follow and not lead. It takes humility to trust and obey. It takes humility to believe in Jesus. So we each need to develop a humble spirit (if we don’t have one already!) Scripture says: “…He will beautify the humble with salvation.” (Psalm149:4b)



The Bible tells us that some people don’t believe in Jesus because they don’t want to change their ways of living. Jesus is the Light of the world and some folks don’t want to come to the Light since they would need to give up their darkness. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict, that Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:17-19)



I think it takes a certain amount of humility to be willing to let Jesus take away our darkness and change us. And since He won’t force us to change-to repent, we need to keep working on staying open and humble so that He can do His work in us. Scripture says: “He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them His ways. (Psalm 25:9)



Jesus told one of His famous parables about the problems of pride and the importance of a humble spirit. Let’s listen. “And He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men - extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you the truth, this man went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18;9-14)



In Jesus’ story, the Pharisee had obeyed all of the commandments. He wasn’t an adulterer or an extortionist like other men. He reminded God that he was certainly better than the tax collector praying nearby! He fasted and gave tithes. His religion was based on the merit system and he was proud of his high score. Shouldn’t God be impressed?



But Jesus corrects the mistaken idea that all God wants from us are our good deeds. God cares more about the attitude of our hearts Jesus is saying. The Pharisee was proud of himself for being so good. But our righteousness is a gift from God. Scripture says: “But those who think themselves great shall be disappointed and humbled;…” (Matthew 23:12)



And our poor tax collector! He won’t even raise his eyes to heaven. Bowing low and beating his breasts he begs God to be merciful to him, a sinner. But Jesus tells us that his prayer was answered and his sins were forgiven by God. Scripture tells us that God hears our prayers when we are humble. “Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10)



There is a Quaker hymn that goes something like this: “Tis a gift to be humble, tis a gift to be free. Tis a gift to come down where one ought to be.” There is a joy and a freedom in being humble and it is a good gift. The Holy Spirit will give us this gift of humility if we will take it. And we need to take it because we won’t please God without it.















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Pictures of Jesus 700 Years before His Birth - Lessons from Isaiah

Pictures of Jesus 700 Years before His Birth - Lessons from Isaiah







Let’s pretend that a camera had been invented that could not only take pictures of a person’s face and body but could also capture shots ahead of time of how the person would live his life and what was inside his soul and spirit. I don’t think God used such a camera, but God did give Isaiah many detailed pictures of Jesus and what He would do during His lifetime. And amazingly, these pictures were taken about 700 years before they even occurred. They captured scenes showing what would happen to Jesus and even how these future events would affect us. Through his “prophecy” camera Isaiah received the photos and left them in an album for all of us to see. Let’s turn to Isaiah 42:13-15 and Isaiah 53:1-12 and view each shot.



The first picture that Isaiah captured was of Jesus being praised and lifted up. Also He was called “My Servant”. “See, My Servant will act wisely, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.” (Isaiah 52:13) We read in the New Testament, “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.” (Phil.2:9)



The second picture of Jesus was of a broken and beat-up man, astonishing those who saw Him. “Just as there were many who were appalled at Him, His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:14)



The third print is of Jesus cleansing many in the world of sin. The practice of sprinkling with blood or water to cleanse was performed by priests as part of the Old Testament law. “He will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. …” (Isaiah 52:15)



The fourth photo of Jesus is of an unimpressive, overlooked, ordinary looking person. Nothing special to draw us to Him. If He came today He wouldn’t drive the right car or have a degree from a better university. He wouldn’t even dress to make the right impression. “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by people, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” (Isaiah 53:1b-3)



In the fifth picture Jesus is on the cross dying for our sins. “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6) We read in the concordance that the Hebrew words for “infirmities” and “sorrows” in verse 4 here specifically means physical affliction. Isaiah 53:4 is quoted again in Matthew 8: 16-17. “When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to Him and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This is to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.’” (Matt. 8:17) Does this teach that bodily healing is included in the atoning work of Christ?



The sixth photo will break your heart when you look at it. Here Jesus is seen as a lamb being carried off to be killed. And He went to his death voluntarily. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people he was stricken.” (Isaiah 53:7-8)



The seventh picture in Isaiah shows Jesus dying with the criminals and being given a grave with the rich. This picture also shows that Jesus had not done anything wrong. “He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9) We know that Jesus died on the cross between two criminals and that Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, buried Jesus’ body in his own grave.



This photo shows that it was God’s will to allow Jesus to suffer and die. But I think we are in this picture too. Read along and see. “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see his offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53:10) The offspring mentioned here are Jesus’ spiritual descendants, according to many scholars. And of course Jesus would rise from the dead and live forever.



And the last picture in Isaiah’s photo gallery shows Jesus as our Savior, victorious, and joyful that His perfect sacrifice has saved so many of us. He is satisfied that His death gave us life and He is praying (making intercession) for us. “After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life, and be satisfied by His knowledge my righteous Servant will justify many. And He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:11)



Jesus understood His mission and work as the fulfillment of these prophecies (pictures) in Isaiah. Some Bible scholars have called Isaiah 53 the chapter that describes Jesus as the “Suffering Servant”. Jesus was willing to pay the price for us and be our “suffering Servant”. The last verses of Isaiah 53 say that Jesus was pleased that all of His suffering has brought us eternal life. Let’s live our lives in such a way that He will continue to be pleased. Let’s not let Him down.

A Rejected and Upset God - Lessons from Isaiah

A Rejected and Upset God - Lessons in Isaiah

A favorite Bible verse, John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world (we humans) that He gave His only Son,---” We really matter to God. The way we live our lives can be a great pleasure to Him or a great sorrow. God is emotionally involved with us just as we are emotionally involved with our children. In the book of Isaiah, God cries and complains and fumes and argues about His lost relationship with Israel.



I have known several unfortunate parents whose grown children have broken off all relationships with them. These parents love their children and had been good caring parents. These mothers and fathers now feel betrayed and can’t understand why their beloved children have cut them off. If you listen very long to these rejected souls you will hear expressions of loss and love and anger and desperation all mixed together. And that is what you hear when you listen to God as He cries and rails about His lost relationship with Israel and with all of humanity. How did it come to this? It’s all written down in the book of Isaiah as well as the other prophetic books.



Listen as God cries out: “I have reared children and brought them up; but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know Me, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.” (Isaiah 1:2-4)



And again in the book of Isaiah a distraught God compares His wayward child, Israel, to a vineyard. “My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. …Now judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard; I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel and the people of Judah are the garden of His delight. And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed: for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” (Isaiah 5:1a-7)



Throughout the book of Isaiah God lists the sins that bother Him so much – and begs Israel and the other nations to turn from them. He judges the political and religious leaders with this complaint. “The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: ‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard: the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’” (Isaiah 3:14-15) All through Isaiah and throughout all of Scripture God holds up this standard for His people to live by. God’s people are to take care of the poor. The ancient Jewish people ignored this standard back then and many Christians are ignoring it today. We find God’s command to help the poor everywhere in Scripture. So how did they miss it? How can we miss it?



But there are many more complaints God makes against His children throughout the book of Isaiah. There was little justice in the corrupt judicial system of ancient Israel. Judges were taking bribes and violence was rampant throughout the land. Many of the Israelites had forgotten their covenant with God and were worshipping idols. God hated to see His people rejecting Him and worshipping idols. God took this personally and was jealous of their misplaced worship. He asks His people: “Aren’t you bowing down to a block of wood? Your idols don’t see or hear or think. Can’t you see that this image you carved yourself is a lie?” (This is a loose translation of Isaiah 44:19-20)



How many human parents are out there who have had their hearts broken because of their rebellious children? The child means everything to the parent. The parent lovingly raises the child with fond hopes and dreams that their child will grow up to become a good person as an adult? But then drugs or sexual perversion or greed comes along and carries the adult child away and the desperate parent is left with a broken heart and shattered dreams. They desperately want a relationship with their child but their child doesn’t want to be bothered. Where did they go wrong as parents, they ask themselves? These sad parents often go round and round blaming themselves for the messes their adult children are in, and wondering why their children have cut them off. But they almost never give up on their children.



When we read Isaiah we see God sadly circling round and round His lost children the way human parents often do! We read in Isaiah where Israel and the surrounding countries reject God and chose an evil lifestyle. The first forty chapters of Isaiah tell of the punishments God reluctantly sends on Israel and on the other nations. But all through these chapters a disillusioned God continues to cry out about how bad He feels and about how upset He is. He has planned only good things for His human children but they are more attracted to the immoral and the criminal. He desperately wants a relationship with His children but they don’t want to be bothered.



God remains a dutiful parent through it all. Along with the His cries of sorrow, He plans and plots to bring His children back. Earthly parents can’t always bring their children back from bad choices, but God can. He does it partly for His own peace of mind it seems. “I even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:25) “Oh Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:21b-22) The nation of Israel was carried away by the Assyrians seven hundred years before Christ because of their rebellious ways, but God never gave up on them. “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I have chosen you and have not rejected you. (Isaiah 41:8-9) They will be back.



And God hasn’t given up on us either. If we trust in Him He will be our righteousness. “But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles: they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) All through the book of Isaiah God keeps calling His children back to Him, showing them glimpses of heaven and promising to save them if they will believe Him. “Do not fear, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you, with the right hand of My righteousness.” (Isaiah 41:10)



Even though God has had to play the part of a rejected and brokenhearted parent in the past, in the end He will have faithful children. He has saved a remnant for Himself. “You heavens above, rain down righteousness: let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it: I, the Lord, have created it.” (Isaiah 45:8) He has done it all for us. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Seeing Into the Future - Lessons from Isaiah

Seeing Into the Future - Lessons from Isaiah

Scripture tells us that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (Revelation 1:8) God lives outside of time. A day is as a thousand years to Him. Since we humans live out our lives under the constraints of time, we often are confused when we read the prophetic books in the Bible. Isaiah along with other prophets would often tell their people that God was going to perform a certain action or judgment in the future. But sometimes the prophet wouldn’t tell exactly when the predicted event would happen. Would it happen tomorrow or in a thousand years or even at the end of the ages when Christ comes again?



God often starts by discussing a problem that is going on in the prophet’s day. But then almost in the same sentence a future generation is having the same problem and it is also being addressed hundreds of years in the future. And before we can wrap our minds around that, the same prophetic Scripture jumps again to the end of the age and give us a glimpse of the Day when finally every last one of our problems will be no more.



Isaiah is one of the major prophetic books in the Bible. The man Isaiah began his ministry about 740B.C. His name means “Yahweh Is Salvation” or “God is Salvation.” Isaiah was commissioned by God to be a prophet and he was given the gift of being able to hear God’s messages and pass them on to Israel and to us, through the book of Isaiah. Isaiah’s timeless message from God is for us today too.



Isaiah tells us how God called him to be a prophet. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings; with two wings they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.” (Isaiah 6:1-2) “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard the Voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go and tell this people:…’” (Isaiah 6:5-8)



Isaiah prophesied at a time when the nations of Israel and Judah had both given in to pagan worship. Even though some of the Jewish people still stayed with the outward forms of their faith, their hearts were far from God. The wealthy oppressed the poor and violence and injustice were rampant throughout the land. God sent Isaiah to tell the Jewish people how grieved He was that they had turned away from Him and to declare His judgment upon their sin. He also begged His people to come back to Him. But perhaps a larger purpose of the book of Isaiah was to give a promise of hope to the Jews that still remained faithful to God. (and to believers in every generation.) There would always be a few – a remnant –of people who hold onto their faith in God no matter what. And there was that remnant in Isaiah’s day. The book of Isaiah is full of promises of salvation and restoration and final victory for those who put their faith in God. Along with being a book of judgments for the disobedient, Isaiah is a book of promises and hope for the believer in God.



God showed Isaiah many judgments that would be meted out in the future. When a nation turned from God and did not take care of their poor, a judgment would inevitably follow. Scripture has so much to say about the importance of taking care of the poor and the disadvantaged. Isaiah foretold that Israel would be judged and taken away by Assyria and that Judah would be judged and led away into captivity by the Babylonians, and then later released. Isaiah goes on to prophesy the overthrow of Babylon by the Persians (Isaiah 13) and the demise later of the Assyrians. (Isaiah 13-14) The first thirty nine chapters of Isaiah are books describing judgments against nations and against sins. These judgments are interspersed with hope and promises for the remnant who keep their faith in God. And chapters forth to sixty-six are chapters of comfort and promise to the faithful.



Isaiah’s detailed prophesies concerning Israel and the surrounding nations all came true. The Babylonians indeed carried Judah away into captivity as Isaiah had prophesied and later they were returned as he had foretold. Israel was taken away by Assyria. The Babylonians and Assyrians were judged long after he was dead just as he had prophesied. Isaiah prophesied in detail about incidents that would occur hundreds and thousands of years in the future. Indeed he prophesied again and again about the end of the ages and we are still waiting for these prophesies to be fulfilled.



Seven hundred years before Christ, Isaiah foretold of His coming in detail. Chapters 42 through 53 in Isaiah describe Jesus Christ and His Servants ministry along with the salvation He brings. And scattered throughout the book of Isaiah the promise of salvation through Christ is held out again and again.



Here are just two of the many prophecies Isaiah made concerning the future birth of Jesus. “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and will call him Immanuel. (God with us) (Isaiah 7:14b) and “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)



When we read the book of Isaiah we get a different view of the world. We may be discouraged by our family or our money problems or our health and wonder if God cares about our plight. Evil seems to be winning out. But when we read Isaiah we read that God is just and good and there is no future in evil. Good will overcome evil in the end. We can look beyond the sad realities of our sinful world and wait and hope for the new world that God promises us. We can live in the light of the future when as Isaiah prophesied: “Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:5-9)

"How Long Must I Call For Help, But You Do Not Listen? Habakkuk 1:2

“How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen?” Habakkuk 1:2

The book of Habakkuk was written between 640-609B.C. shortly before the Babylonians invaded Judah and carried the Jewish people away into captivity. Habakkuk is one of the seventeen books of prophecy in the Old Testament. It’s a short book, as Habakkuk was a minor prophet. In the first two chapters, Habakkuk is arguing with God. He doesn’t understand how God can sit back and do nothing while his fellow countrymen are worshiping idols, killing one another and oppressing the poor.



He fusses at God: “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds, therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4)



Habakkuk’s basic questions and concerns have been questions that have concerned believers down through the ages. Why does evil sometimes seem to go unpunished by a holy God? And why doesn’t God respond to our prayers when we think He should? In other words, why doesn’t God just show up the minute we expect and zap all of our enemies the way we tell Him to?



Then God answers Habakkuk: “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians,…” (Habakkuk 1:5-6a) God continues describing the strength and the wickedness of the Babylonians and showing Habakkuk that He will use them to carry the offending Jews off into captivity. The apostate nation of Judah is to be punished by an invasion of the godless Babylonians!



God’s answer completely throws Habakkuk off guard! It’s all too confusing and makes no sense! Habakkuk cannot see the justice in wicked Judah being punished by Babylon – a nation that is even more wicked! That doesn’t fit into his theology at all! He argues: “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Habakkuk 1:13b) Now instead of asking why God isn’t punishing Judah, Habakkuk is asking why God isn’t punishing Babylon? He chides God: “O, Rock, You have marked them (Babylon) for correction? You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,…Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:12b-13)



After Habakkuk has fussed and fumed at God, he stands like a sentinel to wait his answer from his God. “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He (God) will say to me,…” (Habakkuk 2:1a) And God indeed comes and gives Habakkuk His answer. God tells Habakkuk to write down His answer. He says, “For the revelation awaits an appointed time, it speaks of the end and will not prove false. though it lingers, wait for it: it will surely come and will not delay,” (Habakkuk 2:3)



Then God contrasts the arrogant Babylonians with the trusting people of God. The person who attempts to trust in his own strength (the Babylonian) is compared with the person who trusts in God. The one who trusts in himself will die whereas the one who trusts in God will have eternal life. God speaks: “See he (Babylon) is puffed up: his desires are not upright--(We all know what eventually happened to Babylon!) But the just will live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4) This truth is written throughout all of Scripture –the truth that our faith in God is everything—but here it is again in Habakkuk! “The just shall live by faith.”



God goes on to explain that crime doesn’t pay. Even if it appears for a time that evil people are getting away with murder, their lifestyle will catch up with them in the end. God spells out that there are punishments waiting for the greedy and the violent, the shameless and the idolaters. God has that programmed into the DNA of the universe, so Habakkuk shouldn’t worry. “Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain …you have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of your walls will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime! Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?” (Habakkuk 2: 9a, 10 -13)



God reminds Habakkuk that He does care and He is involved. In the appointed time, evil doers will be punished and justice will be restored. Finally in the end good will overcome evil and love will win out over hate. God gives Habakkuk a glimpse of the coming great victory at the close of the ages, the final glorious outcome! “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)



Habakkuk is a changed man! Hearing from God has made all the difference! Habakkuk has finally learned to trust God regardless of the circumstances. No more fussing and complaining for Habakkuk! Now he will rejoice in God even when everything is going wrong. He realizes that God’s ways are beyond his simple understanding. Habakkuk proclaims one of the strongest affirmations of faith in all of Scripture and sets it to music. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food. Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:17-18)



Habakkuk was concerned about the problems of his day and we have problems today too. Everywhere we look we can see division and prejudice in the political arena today. The greedy take advantage of the poor often while using God’s Name. We go to church and sometimes find political lessons of fear and hate being taught along with the Sacred lessons of Grace! I know a woman who has lost her health insurance and is sick with cancer and doesn’t know what to do. Another friend has lost his job and his house and doesn’t know how he will pay his bills. And a third acquaintance is devastated because her son has committed suicide.



Families are breaking apart and loyalty is in short supply. I do my very best and still rejection and failure have been my companions. Like Habakkuk, I get discouraged with my life and with the world around me and you may be discouraged too. But like Habakkuk I believe that if we ask God for help and listen for His voice, He will give us the strength and vision to keep going. God told Habakkuk to wait for His answer and He may be telling us the same thing.



We can build ourselves up by remembering that we will be part of the victory at the end of the age when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,…” (Habakkuk 2:14) Today we are to do what we can about the problems around us, and then trust the rest to God. He knows the way through the wilderness. All we have to do is follow.



The book of Habakkuk closes with these words: “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to go on to the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:19) Habakkuk trusts God and that trust causes his feet to be sturdy like the feet of a deer. He is now able to leave the dark valleys of doubt and fear and climb up the sheer precipices. He can go on to the heights!



Let’s follow Habakkuk’s example and learn to completely trust the Lord. Our faith will be strengthened as we read the Scripture and listen to God’s Word. “Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word” (Romans 10:17) Like Habakkuk we will be changed by listening to God’s Word. Let’s make the habit of obeying and trusting God an all important pursuit. Then we can leave those valleys of discouragement and like Habakkuk go on to the heights!

Job - A Man Who Trusts God No Matter What

Job – A Man Who Trusts God No Matter What Happens

The first few verses in the book of Job tell us something about the man, Job. “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.” (Job 1:1-3)



Scholars believe that Job lived sometime between 1,000-2,000 B.C. And Job was a Gentile, a non-Israelite sage, believed to be a descendant of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. The land of Uz where he lived was a territory east of the Jordan River, or where Syria is today. Job was a wealthy man living a semi-nomadic life.



The book of Job deals with the subject of the justice of God in light of human suffering- especially the suffering of the innocent. In other words, why do bad things happen to good people? Or, where is God when it hurts?



Since the ancient Israelites studied the Scriptures, they believed that God is Almighty and has the power to do anything He wants. They also professed that God is just, fair, good and righteous. Along with these basics they had learned from Scripture that no human is totally innocent. Job also knew these Biblical truths. Since these three beliefs were and are fundamental doctrine, it was and is an easy step to jump to the conclusion that a just and loving God who is all powerful would not allow an innocent person to suffer. Obviously if terrible suffering does come upon a person, it must mean that that person has done something sinful to deserve the punishment. It does seem a bit logical and don’t we humans sometimes try to use our simple logic to try to second guess God?



Job is on stage of life and in his life’s drama, tragedies and sorrows are reigning down on him. Things are out of control and he doesn’t know why. But in the first two chapters of Job, the reader is given a peek behind the stage curtain. We are allowed to look beyond the earthly scene into another dimension to see some of the pieces to the puzzle that poor Job was not allowed to see. Job 1:6 and 8 read: “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job?’ There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”



Satan, the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10) replied, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1: 9-11)

Satan laughs at God for delighting in Job’s faith and upright lifestyle. Job doesn’t love God because of who God is! Job obeys God because it pays! His godliness is self-serving! If God will take away the goodies, Job will curse Him to His face!



“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.” (Job 1:12)



One day shortly after this occurrence in the heavens a messenger comes to Job and tells him that all of his oxen and donkeys have been carried away by the Sabeans and all of his servants who were tending them have been put to the sword. While this man is still speaking another messenger comes and tells Job that fire fell from the sky and has burned up all of his sheep and his servants with them. Before he has finished speaking another messenger comes and tells Job that the Chaldeans have swept down on all his camels and carried them off and put all of his servants to the sword. And while this man is still speaking, another messenger comes and tells Job that while his seven sons and three daughters were having dinner together at the oldest brothers’ house; a fierce wind swept in across the desert. The wind strikes the house, causing it to collapse on top of his children, leaving them all dead .



Job gets up and tears his robe and shaves his head. He falls to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:20b) Job has lost all of his children and all of his wealth but he has not lost his faith in God.



The second chapter of Job records another scene in the heavens where we are given information that Job never got. “On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them…” (Job 2:1) “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.’” (Job 2:3) “Satan replied: ‘Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.’” (Job 2:4-5)



Satan continues his crafty efforts of accusing Job of serving God because God has given him good health. Take that away and his faith will crumble, Satan insists. If God will allow Satan to inflict Job with terrible pain and thus break the link between his faith and God’s blessings of health, then Job’s faith in God will finally come apart.



“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.” (Job 2: 6-7) Job has now lost his children, his wealth, his comfort and his health. He stumbles around desperate and sick and in terrible pain and finally sits down in a heap of ashes. He finds a piece of broken pottery and while he is scraping his oozing sores with it, his wife comes to him and tells him to “Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9b)



Job is at his lowest point now. Three of his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar hear about his tragedies and troubles and decided to go together to comfort him. “When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. They began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was.” (Job 2:12-13) Can you imagine sitting for a whole week and not saying a word? Sometimes when we visit a sick or grieving friend, our presence there with them can mean more than our words.



Unfortunately after a week Jobs’ friends began to speak to him. They all sit around the suffering Job and try to answer the question of why he is suffering. Eliphaz starts out by stating that Job suffers because he has sinned. Bildad agrees with Eliphaz that Job’s troubles have come because he isn’t pure and upright. He says: “If you were pure and upright, surely He would awake for you.” (Job 8:6) Zophar agrees and accuses Job of talking and presuming too much. “Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves” he concludes. (Job 11:6)



All three men agree that Job must have done something really bad to deserve all of his suffering! They argue that God favors good people by giving them health and wealth. And they assure Job that God shows His disfavor on sinful people by allowing trouble and suffering. They don’t take into account that God’s blessings or punishments might extend past this present life. Job’s proud friends have God and His ways all neatly figured out.



Job lashes back at his friends, fussing at them for making him more miserable in his time of need instead of comforting him. He insists that he is a good man and he hasn’t done anything wrong. Even though he doesn’t know why he is suffering so, he still trusts God. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job professes. (Job 13:15) He will always trust God, no matter what happens! That’s just the way it is.



Job resents his friend’s judgments and he insists that both the godly and ungodly enjoy prosperity and both endure suffering. While he is still complaining bitterly about his sufferings, he curses the day that he was born! And by golly, he thinks that God owes him an explanation. Yes, that’s it, Job wants to question God! God needs to answer for His ways!



About this time a younger man named Elihu stops by and joins in on the conversation. Who does Job think he is to want to ask God for an explanation? A person has no right or authority to judge God or expect Him to explain His actions, Elihu believes. He wisely states that some things that God does can never be understood by us humans.



About this time God shows up! He shows up and speaks to Job out of a whirlwind! “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself as a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell Me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!” (Job 38:2-5b) God goes on listing some of the things He has created: birds, animals, stars, etc. Does Job understand the many details that go into these creations or how God provides for the needs of His created ones? If Job can never begin to understand how God works in the physical world, how can he judge God’s actions in the moral and spiritual world?



God doesn’t attempt to tell Job why he is suffering. It was not for Job to know the reason why. Some things have to be taken on faith. But now Job didn’t want an answer any longer. It no longer mattered. Job answered God: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. …I have heard of you , but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3 and 5)



God speaks to Job’s friends and tells them that they had been wrong in their judgments of how God works. God turns and asks Job to pray for forgiveness for his friends. Job obeys and sacrifices a burnt offering and prays for his friends and God forgives them. Then God gives Job back twice the wealth that he had had before. He is given fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand oxen and a thousand donkeys. And in the latter part of his life, Job has ten more children – seven sons and three daughters. The book of Job ends with Job living to a ripe old age and dying after a full life.



What can we learn from the book of Job? First we learn that Job’s faith was of supreme value to God. God greatly treasured him and spoke proudly about Jobs’ faith in the heavens. Jobs’ reactions during his suffering would settle the outcome of a struggle in the heavens between God and Satan! A divine purpose was in the balance! Can it be that perhaps there is a divine purpose in the balance when we suffer and go through trials? Could God also speak proudly about our faith in the heavens?



We learn from reading the book of Job that God doesn’t give Job an answer for why he suffered, and God may not give us an answer for why we suffer either. Can we trust God when we are put to the test and don’t know why? Can we keep trusting God when our prayers never seem to be answered the way we think they should? Job’s faith meant so much to God. His life gave God such joy?



Let’s follow Job’s example and trust God the way Job trusted Him. Let’s love God –just because God is who He is – and not for any other reason. Let’s give God a reason to treasure our faithfulness. Let’s be like Job and trust God no matter what.

How I Became a Christian

How I Became a Christian

My Grandmother was born in 1884 in a log cabin in Decatur, Illinois. Shortly after her birth her mother died of tuberculosis and her bereaved father took the children and moved to Texas to start over again. The year was 1887 and they settled in on a farm near Fort Worth, Texas with a Step-Mother soon joining the family. My Grandmother thrived in Texas and by the time she grew to be a young lady she found herself in love with the young man who lived on the farm next door.



When the young couple began planning their marriage, my Grandfather’s parents were disapproving. My Grandmother was a Yankee, a Northerner, wasn’t she? Hadn’t she come from Illinois? My Grandfathers’ parents were proud church going Southerners who were still angry that they had lost the Civil War along with losing all of their slaves. Couldn’t their son find a good Southern girl to marry?



But my Grandfather went ahead and married my Grandmother in 1904 without his parents’ blessings and the young couple bought a farm of their own. Their farm prospered and two children were born to the couple. But then quite suddenly my Grandfather contracted Meningitis and within a week he was dead. The year was 1911, a time when welfare didn’t exist and few opportunities were available for women to work outside the home. My Grandmother, now a young widow, worried that she might not be able to keep the farm going by herself and provide for her two little children. Fortunately my Grandfather had left her a life insurance policy and hopefully that would save the day.



After the funeral my Grandmother received a visit from a lawyer informing her that her in-laws were going to take the money from her husbands’ life insurance policy. My Grandfather had purchased the life insurance policy just before he married my Grandmother. At that time the lawyer had instructed him to temporarily write his parents’ names in as the beneficiary until his wife’s name could be added after his marriage. My Grandfather later added my Grandmothers’ name in place of his parents but he accidentally signed his name in the wrong space. The in laws were told they could take the funds because my Grandfather had signed in the wrong space.



The lawyer was a leader in his church and had a sterling Christian reputation in the farming community. He quoted Scripture as he explained to my Grandmother how her in laws could legally take what belonged to her. He assured my Grandmother that she would waste time going to court since the local judge was a member of her in law’s church. The judge would agree with the in laws that since my Grandmother was a Yankee (hadn’t been born in the South) she wouldn’t be entitled to her husbands’ insurance.



My Mother and her brother grew up on their farm watching my Grandmother struggle endlessly to put food on the table and keep the farm going. Down the road on the next farm their proud Grandparents went to church and quoted Scripture. My Mother can’t remember her Grandparents ever paying any attention to her. She remembers that they loved God and hated anyone who hadn’t been a part of the Southern Confederacy. And she also remembers that they always talked about “Jesus”. But in the same breath they criticized my Grandmother. After all she was a Yankee, wasn’t she? She came from Illinois, so she hadn’t deserved the money from the insurance policy her husband had left her!



My Mother grew up hating church. She and her brother went to church with my Grandmother during their childhood, but as soon as she became an adult, Mother quit attending church. She would use the excuse that Christians were hypocrites. But had she been turned off by her own Grandparents’ bad example of what a Christian should be? When she married my Dad in 1940, she insisted that they not go to church and my Dad agreed.



My childhood had a magical quality about it. I was an only child and was very close to my Mother. She allowed me to do almost anything I wanted to do. A few things were off limits however and church was one of those things, but I didn’t mind. My Dad worked six days a week as office manager of a local newspaper and my Mother drove me wherever I wanted to go and cleaned up after me. Life was stable and good and I didn’t know that anything was missing!



But then when I was almost eight years old, a friend from school named Kay asked me to go to church with her. I told her I didn’t want to go to church but she kept asking me again and again. Finally just to get her off my back I agreed to go just once. I didn’t want to make my Mother upset by going to church so I approached her cautiously. Mother agreed that I could go to church just once with Kay but she warned me not to believe what was being taught there. She told me that she didn’t want me to become a “goodie goodie”! I didn’t know what a “goodie goodie” was but I promised my Mother that I wouldn’t become one. And I agreed not to believe anything that was being preached.



Kay was overjoyed that I could go to church with her and her parents drove by and picked me up. When we arrived at church a large smiling lady greeted me and welcomed me into her Sunday School class. Friendly faces were everywhere. We memorized Scripture, did handwork and sang in a youth choir. I had fun at church and my Mother was irritated when I asked if I could go back a second time. I promised again not to believe anything they taught and she relented and let me go back, but I knew I was disappointing her.



For almost two years Kay’s parents drove me to and from church and I continued promising my Mother that I would just have fun and not believe the message that was being taught there. I was a good daughter and I actually kept my promise and didn’t listen to the Bible stories. “We’re praying for you,” Kay told me worriedly. I laughed at her and told her it wouldn’t do any good.



Every week the pastor seemed to preach the same sermon. He would pound the pulpit and insist that each of us there needed to accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord. He made the same point over and over again. Jesus was the only Way. We needed to be “saved”. After his impassioned sermons, as the lights were lowered and the organ played softly; he would stand in front of the altar as everyone prayed; and he would plead and beg for those in the congregation who hadn’t accepted Jesus to walk down the aisle and “Make a decision for Christ”. I had been going to the church for two years before these emotional calls to accept Jesus began to bother me.



“Mother, the Pastor says that a person needs to believe in Jesus to have their sins taken away. Is that true?” I asked her one day. My Mother was quick to assure me that people didn’t need Jesus. She told me that good people went to heaven and all one needed to do to please God was to be good. They didn’t need Jesus. She added that “fanatics” believed in Jesus and that was one of the reasons she hadn’t wanted me to go to church in the first place. She didn’t want me to be one of those “fanatics”. I wasn’t sure what a “fanatic” was but I was sure it wasn’t good!



Several Sundays later I was listening to another one of the pastor’s impassioned sermons about the need to accept Jesus into our lives. As I was sitting there the thought flitted across my mind: “What if my Mother is wrong about Jesus?” She is always right about everything. I had always trusted Mother to tell me what to do. But could she be wrong about this? “If the pastor is right and Jesus is the Way, then I should accept Him, shouldn’t I?” It all seemed so confusing to my nine year old mind.



Right there in church I bowed my head and prayed, “God, I’m so confused. The pastor says I need to accept Jesus but my Mother says that that is wrong. Please show me whether Jesus is the Way or not.” Then in my nine year old mind I even figured out how God could show me if Jesus is the Way. “If you want me to accept Jesus, then on the way out the door after service, please have the pastor pull me aside and ask me to accept Jesus. And then if Jesus isn’t the Way please have the pastor say nothing.” I know now that a person isn’t supposed to test God in their prayers. But at nine years old I didn’t know that.



When the service was over I followed Kay and her family out of church. Maybe a hundred church people were crowded in the back foyer waiting to shake hands with the pastor, who was standing next to one of the stairways leading outside. A second stairway opposite the pastor led outside too and people who didn’t want to greet him were streaming out that exit. “Let’s go,” Kay whispered to me and I realized that my prayer had been silly. The pastor was way too busy with this huge line of adults after church to pull me aside and ask me a question. I followed Kay down the exit stairs opposite from the stairs the pastor was standing in.



I was nearly halfway down the opposite stairway and almost outside when I heard my name being called above the crowd. “Jane!” “Could someone get Jane.?” My heart stood still! “The pastor wants to talk to you child” someone said. I ran back up the stairs and stood in the long crowd of grownups waiting to greet the pastor. “Jane, I wish you would think about accepting Jesus as your Savior,” the pastor questioned me as I stood there among the after church crowd. “Have you thought about it, Dear?” “Not until now, but I know now that I need to,” I answered shakily.



And so I found myself trying to explain why I had to accept Jesus to my irritated Mother. I had no other choice I told her. I had asked God if Jesus was the Way and He had answered. Since Jesus was the Way then I obviously had to follow Him. The next Sunday I walked down the aisle at the end of the service. The organ was playing quietly and the lights were turned down low. People were praying and shouting “Amen” and “Praise the Lord”. I was baptized that evening and things in my life began to change. I had passed from death into life!



The Scriptures that I memorized began to mean something to me. And the hymns I sang had meaning too. The Bible stories began to come alive when I heard them and I wanted to learn more. When we moved to California three years later the Lord led me to another good church. And my faith kept growing.



I am glad that Kay loved Jesus so much that she wanted her friend (me) to know Him too. And I am thankful for the pastor who kept on sharing the gospel message and holding up Jesus as the only Way again and again. I’m grateful for Kay’s parents who drove me back and forth to church for years never complaining. And for the humble people at the church who put up with me and loved me into the kingdom when I had nothing to give them in return and my family didn’t attend or give an offering.



I am sorry that there were Christians like my Great Grandparents who professed Jesus proudly while criticizing and cheating others. When I hear of Christian organizations today that have cut retirement funds that their older long term employees had been promised, it reminds me of my cheating Great Grandparents. If Christians don’t act honestly with one another, or cut out the poor, how will people outside the faith be drawn to Christ?



There are so many people today who don’t know that Jesus is the Way. I hope these folks won’t be scared away from Christ by people who talk about Jesus in one breath and criticize in the next. I hope there will be Christians out there that will share the gospel with these folks and love them into the kingdom, like the people who were there for me so long ago.

Jesus Gives the Great Commission to His Disciples and to Us

Jesus Gives the Great Commission to His Disciples and to Us

Journeying Through John (chapters 20:19-21)

When Jesus was crucified most of His disciples ran away and hid together in a house behind locked doors. Scripture says that they were all afraid. (John 20:19) The frenzied crowd that murdered Jesus could turn on them too, couldn’t they?



The day Jesus rose from the grave, He found His nervous disciples on lock down. He showed up with them around their table and their fears instantly turned to ecstatic joy! He smiled and greeted them warmly. “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21) He showed them His pierced hands and side and then He breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus breathed life into His disciples and He breathes life into us too. His death and resurrection marked the transition from the Old Covenant of Law to the New Covenant of Grace. After His resurrection He would freely baptize all believers with His Holy Spirit and His power.



Thomas hadn’t been there with the others when Jesus had appeared to them. When the disciples told him that Jesus was alive and had been there, Thomas closed his heart and refused to believe them. “Unless I see in His hands, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe,” he fussed stubbornly! (John 20:25b)



Eight days later Thomas was with the others when Jesus came by to be with them again. Jesus turned to Thomas and said: “Put your fingers here into My nail prints, and look at My hands; and put your hand into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believe.” (John 20:27) Thomas knelt before Jesus and proclaimed, “My Lord and My God!” “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus told him. (John 20:28-29)



We must be the blessed ones who Jesus was speaking about - the ones who believe in Him even though we haven’t seen Him physically like Thomas! Jesus says that we are “blessed” when we believe without demanding physical proofs! Since we have the Holy Spirit we see with spiritual eyes. And that is really better.



But we are all so human and sometimes our faith wavers when we can’t touch and see with our physical senses. Let’s not be like doubting Thomas and refuse to believe without these props! Jesus asked Thomas not to be unbelieving but to believe. And He asks that of us too. He will give us the help we need to believe if we open our hearts and want it. Our faith is everything to our Lord.



Jesus spent forty days with His followers after His resurrection. (Acts 1:3) But the day finally came for Him to go back up into heaven. Jesus gathered His disciples together one last time and left them (and us) with a work to do. Just before He ascended to heaven He gave them a divine mission. (Mark 16:19) Jesus’ parting command to the disciples then and to all of His followers down through the ages has been called “The Great Commission”.



Jesus was sending the disciples out to share the good news that He forgives sin and gives eternal life. But the Great Commission is also given to all believers in every generation. Here is His command to all of us: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creatures. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany them who believe in My name. They will drive out demons; they will speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:15-17)



Jesus is commanding His followers in every generation to tell every person in every nation that He died for them. He promises that His Spirit and power will go with us. (Matthew 24:14) His Word, the Bible, is like seed and has life giving power. It will grow into a harvest when it is planted in a human heart. Obeying Jesus’ commission to go and spread the good news brings the believer a great amount of joy and fulfillment.



Jesus not only promises in His commission that whoever believes the good news we are sharing will be saved, but He also warns that whoever does not believe our message will be condemned. Rejecting Jesus who is the Light does have consequences. We are sent to preach the warnings as well as the good news.



Some believers have taken Jesus’ words literally when the Great Commission states that we can pick up serpents and drink deadly poison and not be hurt. Perhaps these words may mean that we can look for Gods’ protection over our lives even through deadly dire circumstances. It was a figure of speech in Jesus’ day to refer to living through a situation as “drinking the cup”. Before He was crucified Jesus asked the Father to take the “cup” or drink from Him, if it was His will. (Luke 22:42) The “cup” in this passage represented the soon to be experience of His death. Life has its’ share of “deadly poisons” and when believers must live through (or drink) them our Lord will give us help and protection. We know that if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need fear no evil for God will be with us. (Psalm 23)



Jesus also says that His followers can pick up serpents and not be hurt. Possibly the serpent mentioned here represents sin. Jesus did often teach with parables. The snake that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden definitely personified evil in the form of Satan. When a believer sins or gets tied up with evil things, God will forgive him and deliver him if he asks. (1 John 1:9)



Jesus is asking us to do more than just go out and tell the good news. He also commands us to “make disciples of all nations, … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19a-20a) We need to teach new believers the importance of obeying the ten commandments. They need to be encouraged to fellowship with other believers. New converts need small groups for support, prayer and Bible study. We mustn’t forget to teach them Christ’s command to give to the poor and needy.



There is so much to do in moving ahead with this grand commission that Christ has given us. But I think the most important thing we need to remember is to do everything and go everywhere with love and forgiveness. We must put the anger and the critical spirit away. Christ is commanding us to go out and spread the good news of His love and forgiveness and surely we need to do that in the spirit of love and forgiveness. After all, “If I have the faith that can move mountains, but I don’t have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2b)

Jesus Rises From the Dead John 20:1-18

Jesus Rises from the Dead

Journeying through John (chap, 20: 1-18)

The Resurrection distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Jesus not only died for us but He conquered death by rising from the dead. We serve a risen Savior. And “because He lives, we shall live also.” (John 14:19) No other religion begins to compare!



There were Scriptures in the Old Testament that foretold that a rich person would have something to do with Jesus’ burial or death. (Isaiah 53:9) And that is what happened. “When evening came there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus… When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock, …” (Matthew 27:57,58a,59,60a)



Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea to provide for Jesus’ burial. “And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, came when He died bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.” (John 19:39) Nicodemus’ gift of one hundred pounds of spices for Jesus’ burial was a very large amount such as was used in royal burials. Jesus’ disciples all ran away (Mark 14:50) and left His burial to these rich men who were part of the Sanhedrin and had secretly been following Jesus. If we had been there when He died, would we have run away with His disciples?



There are two places in Jerusalem that Christians believe might have been where Jesus was crucified and buried. An ancient church, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in old Jerusalem stands over the spot that was believed to be the hill of Calvary where Jesus was crucified. In about 325 A.D. the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built where ancient wisdom and tradition designated was the place where Jesus had been crucified and buried. Thousands of Christians visit this place each year remembering their Saviors’ death.



Visitors can walk uphill through the old city from the ancient excavated ruins of the Praetorium where Pilate judged Jesus, to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be where He died. The old narrow cobblestone lane called the “Via Dolorosa” winds uphill from Pilate’s Praetorium through the walled city of Jerusalem and on to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Many Christian pilgrims travel to the old walled city of Jerusalem and walk along this narrow lane, just several layers above the old lane that Jesus may have been forced to walk carrying His cross so long ago on His way to die. The words “Via Dolorosa” mean the “way of sorrows”, and each year thousands of believers from around the world come and walk this lane of sorrows trying to follow in His footsteps and remember His sorrow.



The second place in Jerusalem where some believe may be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial is a spot just outside the old city walls. This site is in an ancient garden that is next to a hill where the rock formations look somewhat like a skull (Golgotha- the place of the skull). There is an ancient tomb dug into the hill near the skull like rock formation. Since Jesus died shortly before the Sabbath, Jewish law prescribed that His body be buried quickly before sundown. So His grave would have had to be nearby. Scripture describes this place almost perfectly. “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. And there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.” (John 19:41-42)



Before daybreak in the morning after the Sabbath, a group of women made their way to Jesus’ tomb bringing spices. When they arrived they found the large heavy stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. Jesus’ grave clothes were inside the tomb but His body wasn’t there. Two angels stood inside the tomb and spoke to the women. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but He is risen…” (Luke 24:5b-6a)



The angels reminded the women that Jesus had already told them that He would rise again on the third day! Had they all just forgotten? Had they not believed Him or taken Him seriously when He had assured them that He would conquer death? The angels spoke: “Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’”. (Luke 24:6b-7) Do we make the same mistake they made? When things go wrong do we forget the promises the Lord gives us and despair as they did?



Mary Magdalene stood outside by the tomb weeping. She didn’t understand what the angels were telling her. She didn’t understand that Jesus could come back from the dead, even though He had told her that He would. But then she turned and saw Jesus standing there beside her. For a moment she thought He was the gardener, but when He spoke her name, “Mary” she recognized Him. In her shocked amazement and joy she grabbed Him and clung to Him whispering, “Rabboni” (which means Teacher).



When Jesus rose from the dead with power, the very first person He showed Himself to was a woman! (Mary Magdalene) Jesus asked Mary Magdalene to go tell His disciples and Peter that He had risen and she quickly obeyed. But even though she came running to their door trembling with the exciting news, the disciples didn’t really believe her! (Mark 16:11) Women were second class citizens in that patriarchal society and what they had to say was not taken seriously. They were thought to be liars. If Jesus had wanted the word of His resurrection to get out quicker with more media coverage, why did He give a lowly woman the job of spreading that news? After conquering death, Jesus could have first appeared to a wealthy important man to make a better impression. But as usual, our Lord broke the rules.



Even though the disciples forgot that Jesus had promised that in three days He would rise, the chief priests and the Pharisees didn’t forget! The Pharisees asked Pilate to make the tomb secure by posting guards. (Matthew 27:62-66) Surely the armed guards with their swords and spears could keep Jesus from rising!



A violent earthquake erupted in Jerusalem early Sunday morning. An angel came down from heaven to the tomb and rolled back the stone and sat on it. “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:3-4) Later when the guards recovered a bit, they ran away and went and found the chief priests. They poured out their story of how the earth had shaken and how Jesus had risen with power and how an angel whose appearance was like lightning had rolled away the stone. Scripture tells us that even when the evidence was right in front of them the religious leaders still refused to believe. They gave the guards a large sum of money to bribe them to keep quiet and to not tell anyone that they had witnessed Jesus rising from the dead.



The men and women who were there- back when Jesus was crucified buried and resurrected- all played their parts. One man carried His cross. Peter denied Him three times. Many stood by and mourned and wept. Some ran away. The high priests schemed and lied to get Him arrested. Pilate let Him die. The crowds shouted “Crucify Him”. The soldiers mocked and beat Him. When He rose from the dead the women rejoiced. The guards shook and became like dead men. The disciples were slow to believe that He was alive. The high priests paid for a cover up. Jesus’ death and resurrection affected both His followers and His enemies. Each had the choice to be for Him or against Him. No one could be neutral.



After all these years, Jesus’ death and resurrection is still center stage and we each still have a part to play in it. We can take up our cross and follow Him. Or we can deny Him and work against His kingdom. His death and resurrection affects every person in every generation. Everyone is either for Him or against Him. (Matthew 12:30) No one can be neutral.







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