The Fullness of Time

           “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

            In the context of the book of Galatians, Paul has been contrasting the Law and faith.  According to the apostle, the Law wasn’t intended by God to be an “end all.”  No, he claims the Law was a guardian charged with leading those under it to Christ (Galatians 3:24).  It was common in Paul’s day for a young child to be put under the charge of a guardian until he matured to the point when he was ready to receive his inheritance -- i.e. the “fullness of time” (Galatians 4:1-2).  The birth of Christ signified that those under the guardianship of the Law had come of age.  It was time for the heir to come into full possession of his inheritance (Galatians 4:3-5).

            Indeed, the Christ child was born in “the fullness of time” with regards to the plans and purposes of God.  But that didn’t mean that the Christmas story was a Hollywood production, full of glitz and glamour.  Rumors swirled as a young betrothed Jewish teenager was found to be with child. Claims of angelic visitations likely did little to calm the gossip.  The Son of God ends up being born in an animal enclosure rather than the corridors of power and influence.  Lowly shepherds are his first visitors rather than heads of state.  In fact, it's the ruling class that seeks to have the child put to death later in the story.

            What’s one lesson we can learn from the birth of Jesus?  That something can be squarely in the middle of God’s plans and purposes (“the fullness of time”) and yet be attended with pain and difficulty.  So our struggles don’t necessarily mean that we are outside of God’s will for our lives as well.  Try to remember that when tough times come.

God loves you!

Mike

Crumbling Under Pressure

“Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”  Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”  Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times” (John 13:36-38).

The Lord had just dropped a bomb in the midst of the final Passover meal he was sharing with the chosen Twelve.  Not only was there a betrayer in their midst but He would also be leaving them soon.  A range of emotions gripped the small band of disciples.  Shock, grief, suspicion.  With regards to the betrayer, Peter speaks up and seeks an answer to the question that had to be in the minds of his cohorts -- who is the traitor?  With regards to the leaving of the Master, once again, Peter has questions.  Perhaps the fisherman sensed that the exit of the Lord was somehow tied to a lack of allegiance on his part or of the group as a whole.  Certainly they had disappointed the Teacher at various times during His work with them. Was that it?  Whatever was going on, Peter felt the need to boldly affirm his loyalty to the Lord.  “I want to follow you now.  I’m even willing to die for You.”  Jesus ends the exchange with a chilling prophetic word: before the night was over, the bold disciple would crumble under the pressure of his own strong words.  And it happened just as Jesus said it would.

It’s so easy to point a judgmental finger at Peter’s failure to live up to his bold proclamation.  But when I’m tempted to do so, I only have to remember my own failures at faithfulness and then I stop.  How often have I made bold declarations of loyalty to my Savior and then crumbled under the pressure?  Far too often to ever be critical of another disciple who does the same.

God loves you!

Mike

The Big Picture

        “Standard Oil was once one of the biggest companies in the world, led by the famous John D Rockefeller. On one occasion a company executive made a bad decision. It cost the firm $2 million. This was the late 1800’s and $2 million was a huge sum. 

        “Edward Bedford, a partner in the company had an appointment to see Rockefeller. When he entered Rockefeller’s office he saw his boss bent over a piece of paper, busily scribbling notes. When Rockefeller finally looked up he said to Bedford,  “I suppose you’ve heard about our loss? I’ve been thinking it over,” Rockefeller said, “and before I ask the man in to discuss the matter, I’ve been making some notes.”

        “Bedford looked across the table and saw the page Rockefeller had been scribbling on. Across the top of the page was the heading, “Points in favour of Mr __________.” Below the heading was a long list of the man’s good qualities, including notes of three occasions where he had made decisions that had earned the company many times more than his error had lost.

        “Bedford later said, “I never forgot that lesson. In later years, whenever I was tempted to rip into anyone, I forced myself first to sit down and thoughtfully compile as long a list of good points as I possibly could. Invariably, by the time I finished my inventory, I would see the matter in its true perspective and keep my temper under control. There is no telling how many times this habit has prevented me from committing one of the costliest mistakes any executive can make — losing his temper.”*

        It’s always helpful to remember that we will be judged in the same way we judge others (Matthew 7:1-2).  If we desire to be evaluated fairly, we need to be willing to do the same for others (Luke 6:31).  When we’re tempted to judge someone harshly, it’s always good to pause long enough to take a deep breath and consider the big picture.

God loves you!

Mike

*https://storiesforpreaching.com.au/sermonillustrations/the-good-points/

The Power Of Forgiveness

“When Shannon Ethridge was just sixteen years old, an act of forgiveness and love changed her life forever.  Driving to her high school one morning, Shannon struck and ran over Marjorie Jarstfar, who was riding her bicycle along a country road. Marjorie died, and Shannon was found completely at fault by the authorities. Consumed by intense guilt, she contemplated suicide several times, but she never took her life, because of the healing response of one man: Gary Jarstfar.

“Gary, Marjorie’s husband, forgave the sixteen-year-old and asked the attorney to drop all charges against her. This saved her from an almost certain guilty verdict. Instead, he simply asked Shannon to continue in the godly footsteps that his wife had taken. “You can’t let this ruin your life,” Gary told her more than twenty years ago. “God wants to strengthen you. In fact, I am passing Marjorie’s legacy on to you.”

“Gary’s act of forgiveness showed Shannon the amazing restorative love of God. That act became the foundation of her work seeking to help people overcome guilt-ridden, wounded lives.  Sometimes our greatest misery can become the foundation of our greatest ministry.”*

            As I read this story, I think of the parallels in the life of Saul of Tarsus\Paul the apostle.  Saul the Pharisee committed terrible sins against God and His church.  The Almighty would have been fully justified in bringing swift justice upon him but He didn’t.  Grace and forgiveness were offered to the repentant rebel and the ministry of Paul the apostle was birthed.  The persecutor became the preacher.  The monster became the missionary.  The world was changed and it all began with forgiveness offered and accepted.

            This gives me pause to reflect.  Is there someone I need to forgive?  Is there forgiveness offered that I need to accept and build upon?  How might my world change if I had the courage to do both?  What about you?

 

God loves you!

Mike

*Tom Hughes, Down to Earth: How Jesus’ Stories Can Change Your Everyday Life, NavPress, 2019, p.25.

Ingratitude

 

“Back in 1988, a Polish railway worker named Jan Grzebski was hit by a train. He lived ... but only barely. For the next 19 years (until the year 2007), Grzebski was in a coma. He awoke in 2007 to a whole new world. Nineteen years earlier, Poland was a communist state. Grzebski noted that back then meat was rationed and there were huge lines at nearly every gas station. And, "there was only tea and vinegar in the shops." But 19 years later, he awoke to a free nation where he said there were "people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

“But something puzzled him. "What amazes me is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and yet they never stop moaning." These people had freedom, and food and wealth greater than Poland had had for decades ... and yet Grzebski woke from his coma to find that ALL they seemed to want to do was grumble! If you don’t get into the habit of thanking God for what you DO have, you’ll soon become ungrateful because of what you DON’T have” (Jeff Strite, sermoncentral.com).

While I would never wish a coma of nearly two decades on anyone, it certainly would provide a unique perspective, wouldn’t it?  The gradual but relentless progress of time can have a numbing effect on gratefulness.  Our focus on the everyday grind of life often causes us to miss the big picture.

If a 19 year stretch suddenly disappeared from our life experience, would we be more grateful for what remained?  Likely so.  My guess is that things would come into sharper focus.  Like Mr. Grzebski, we might become more cognizant of how ingratitude can seep into our lives when we lose sight of where we have been and how we arrived at where we are at currently.

“Ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge, which is only returning evil for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for good” (William George Jordan).

 

God loves you!

Mike

Cultivating A Proper Focus

          I learned many lessons as a young lad, growing up on a farm in the Midwest.  Many of those experiences have faded in memory as time passes, but I still remember one lesson vividly.  I was finally old enough to operate the machinery used to cultivate corn.  This involved navigating a large tractor and an attached cultivator between rows of young, delicate corn seedlings.  In those days, if I remember correctly, the rows of corn were 38 inches apart.  That may seem like plenty of room, but it suddenly narrowed appreciably when one was tasked with guiding several thousand pounds of tractor and cultivator between those delicate plants.  The blades of the cultivator were set to destroy weeds as close as possible to the corn itself.

          My grandfather gave me a crash course in the finer points of my mission and, just like that, I was on my own.  I hadn’t gone far until I made a rookie mistake.  I was so concerned about damaging the corn that I was spending most of my time looking back at the cultivator instead of looking ahead at where I should have been steering the tractor.  When I did that, the tractor would veer off course and I ended up doing the very thing I was trying to prevent -- destroying corn.  After letting me struggle a bit, Grandpa stopped me (probably to save the rest of his crop) and explained the importance of focusing on what was ahead, i.e. driving the tractor straight.  If you keep the tractor between the rows of corn, the cultivator has to follow the same path.  It would do its job if I focused on doing mine.

          God reminds us of the same lesson through the writer of Hebrews.  We are encouraged to focus on Jesus instead of all of the other things that seek to distract us (Hebrews 12:1-2).  If we are aiming our lives at him, so much else in life tends to fall in place.  God will do His job if we focus on doing our job (Matthew 6:33).

God loves you!

Mike

Look Out, Lazarus!

 

“The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.  But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus” (John 12:9–11).

Every time I read these verses, I’m struck by the response of the opponents of Jesus.  The Lord has just accomplished a great miracle by the power of God.  A dead man was raised to life!  Everyone was duly impressed -- except for the chief priests and Pharisees.  They gather together to discuss ways to deal with Jesus and decide that he must be killed.  For a time, the Savior and his followers step back from public ministry and retreat to the wilderness.  But with the approach of the Passover and the fulfillment of his earthly calling, Jesus and the disciples must return to the holy city.  Tensions are high.  Crowds and flocking to see the miracle worker as well as Lazarus, the one raised from the dead.  For that reason, the Jewish leaders now plot to kill, not only Jesus, but also Lazarus!  It’s not enough to just kill the miracle worker.  Now the results of his work must be destroyed.  Incredible!

I suppose the stubborn opposition of these men shouldn’t surprise me.  When one rejects the light and surrenders to darkness, this is the inevitable result.  Jesus confronted these men about this very thing earlier (John 8:43–45).  They are acting just like their father, the devil.  Sons and daughters of the devil will act like their father, opposing all that is good and right, even if it means killing someone who has been recently raised from the dead.  Like the thief Jesus talks about in his teaching about the good shepherd, those who give themselves over to evil will seek “...to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).  When eyes and ears are closed to the truth, this is to be expected.

 God loves you! Mike