Laughing at Jerusalem

"Judge not, and you will not be judged

condemn not, and you will not be condemned forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37

When I was in the deepest throes of chronic-pain-induced depression, I would get pictures in my mind like day dreams. I'd see Jesus standing in a white robe, talking and laughing, and when He'd see me, He'd stop laughing. He would get this disgusted look on His face and turn His back on me. An awful lie.

The symptoms of my disease, the disease itself and the shame it brings, are all results of sin. Some results of sin we can control, and some we cannot. When we see someone living out the result of sin in a way we think they ought to be able to control, what is our reaction? One of disgust? Or  one of love?

Bullying isn't a sin unique to children. It's laughing at people with tattoos or piercings, spitting on an openly homosexual person, figuratively or literally, or spitting on those who stand against homosexuality. It's talking badly about someone who spends their surplus income on luxuries for themselves, scoffing at Muslims and Christians, rolling our eyes at unwed mothers and at housewives. It's being repulsed by the overweight, the alcoholic, the homeless, and it's being repulsed by those who do the repulsing. 

The tragedy is that so many of us are led to believe the knee-jerk disgust we feel for each other is appropriate and even condoned by God.

As I'm invited to laugh at the mistaken and the God-given inclination to judge the sin turns into the sinful inclination usurp God's place and judge the sinner, I have to ask: Did Jesus laugh at Jerusalem? Or did He weep for it? (Luke 19:41-44) The world hates us, that's true, and we hate it right back. But when we hate the people in it―the people Jesus died for―when we judge them as either saved or damned by what they wear, or judge them as nonredeemable because of what they confess today, when we believe that "they" are the sinful ones so much more deserving of eternity in hell than we are, we hate Jesus. We hate His love and the fact that He died for the WORLD and EVERYONE in it, and we become the mistaken.

Love for another is not condoning their sin (or our own), and love for God is not disrespecting the people He loves, and it certainly is not inviting others to disrespect them along with us. LOVE is desperately wanting to change their minds, for Christ's sake and for theirs.

Nothing anybody can do, wear, feel, or even believe can make Jesus hate them. Jesus will always want every single person the Father created to believe and act rightly until their dying day when time for their salvation has run out. He gave His life for that. For them. He understands the fate of those who reject Him with the sin of unbelief (whether in the form of outright rejection, naive ignorance, or plain old-fashioned self-righteousness) better than anyone, and He cries for them.

Jesus doesn't hate. Jesus is patient and kind. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. He doesn't condone sin or sinful actions, He doesn't laugh, He isn't disgusted, He doesn't mutter insults behind anyone's back, and He doesn't turn His back on anyone. He weeps: with us in our pain and for us and our errors. And He gives Himself for OUR salvation. What are we willing to give to keep every possible person from rejecting that salvation? Are we really going to reject them right back with giggles, whispers of disgust, and feelings of our own superiority?

If so, whose salvation is less secure?

Suggested verse to repeat when that knee-jerk sin pops up is from Ephesians 4:5

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"Speak the truth -------> 5 count inhale

in love." -------> 5 count exhale

I'm Okay, You're... well, I'm Okay

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20a

Talking to people about Jesus takes courage. A lot of courage, even in a free country like ours. Okay, especially in a free country like ours, because who are we to tell people what to believe? I mean, really. What right do we have?

Belief has come to be a very personal thing. We're afraid to believe others' behavior or beliefs are wrong lest we be seen as intolerant and judgmental (but go right ahead tell me I'm wrong for believing you're wrong...) So... 2 + 2 can = 5 if that's what makes you feel good, just don't blame me when you fail your math test.

No, that's not right. If true is true for you but not for me, then truth loses all meaning. Just ask yourself if the claim, "There is no truth," is true. No one gets upset when you tell them 2 + 2 is 4 and not 5, but try telling them Jesus is the Lord, and all of sudden everyone feels like you just called their mother fat. It's as though saying, "I believe in Jesus," is the same as saying, "Pineapple on pizza is gross." No, it's not like saying that. It's like saying 2 + 2 = 4.

Pineapple on pizza is a personal preference, but either Jesus is Lord of all or not at all. His existence---or lack thereof---is objective. If all paths lead to the same place, we forget that Jesus said, "I am the truth, the way, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me," and we leave a lot of "no ones" out in the cold for the sake of sparing their feelings. Sure, Jesus can be my Lord and not yours at the same time. Just don't blame me when He comes back and... oh, wait. You should blame me. Jesus will. (Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2)

In a world where Science with a capital “S” has the final say, we forget about the basic rational requirement for a creator, an "unmoved mover" if you will, and we start to believe that we can live without Him. And anyone who says otherwise is selling us as humans short and how dare you do that, you silly little idiot.

*sigh* There really is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9b). The Word of God was never what one would call "popular." From the time Jesus told His disciples they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, it hasn't been well received, and today is no exception (see "Hard Sayings"). Never let anyone make you feel stupid for believing the Word of God, AND never ever, no not ever, try to make anyone feel stupid for not believing it. It is, after all, hard to believe. Hard, but not impossible.

If God is God, then He created the world in 6 days. The whole world. But what about the dinosaurs, you ask? 40 billion years sure sounds a whole lot more reasonable for the age of the world than 6,000. Or does it...? And why does it, exactly? And then humans would have to have been created separately from apes which is just right out of realm of reasonableness even though it would explain why apes and humans exist separately from apes today. [...]

Let's move passed the scientific quandaries for a moment and leap into the philosophical and moral nonsense that seems to abound in the book we so foolishly believe as though it, too, had a doctorate from M.I.T.

Adam and Eve ate the one thing they were told not to eat—okay, I believe that—but because of that one little offense, God condemned the whole world so that now everyone gets sick and dies? That is not at all fair! I didn't eat the friggin' apple, so why is my colon in tatters? Sure, I eat metaphoric apples every day in my thoughts, words, and deeds, but I'm only sinful because those jerks ate it first.

But then I inevitably turn on the evening news, and well... the sin that permeates all of creation is a glaringly obvious and fiercely objective part of our reality.

How can anyone reasonably and rationally deny it?? Not even animals treat each other the way we do. People murder each other in cold blood all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME. It's not even news. It's just par for the course. Wars between nations rage on fueled by greed and hatred and certainly NOT reason. Wives lose their husbands; husbands lose their wives, some die and some just plain leave. Children lose their mothers, mothers lose their children, fathers are becoming more and more rare, and some children are killed outright before they even get the chance to breathe air outside their mother’s womb with the consent of a law so cleverly dubbed as "freedom."

We get sick. We get old. Our bodies neither look right nor work right. And no matter what we've done, no matter how great we were pr how fantastically hard we tried to be a good person, we die. And for some reason, we HATE death—natural and reasonable as it is to the scientific mind—we try everything to avoid it.

Maybe Adam and Eve's transgression wasn't so little. Maybe that act of defiance was born from a desire to be their own God. Maybe sometimes I want that, too, and maybe that's what God condemned.

But no one wants to hear it. No one wants to listen to the truth about the wages of sin, about death, about themselves, their tainted hearts, and heaven and hell, about people who killed their own Savior out of hate, about a Savior who let Himself be killed out of love, about weakness and need, about how they shouldn't feel sorry for me and my illness because my suffering makes sense.

People are offended to hear that they might be wrong, that they might be making a mistake, that they might not be able to save themselves, and so we just keep our heads down and our mouths shut and mumble our prayers in the privacy of our bedrooms and maybe attend church once in a while because that's what people do or maybe not, all the while saying, "I'm okay, you're okay," but thinking "I'm okay, you're... well, I'm okay."

And we pass by drowning victim after drowning victim, hoarding our life preservers for fear they might be thrown back in our faces.

NO! You are NOT okay! You are in serious trouble! And if I let you go on thinking you're okay, so am I!!! PLEASE LISTEN TO ME! It's okay to say it! We HAVE TO say it! If they loved us, if they really thought they were right and we were wasting our time believing in God, they'd be saying it to us.

It's not about rights. It's about lives. We can never assume that we have all the answers because we know that we are not God, but we also know that we have the only answer that matters: Jesus. Take a risk. Save a life: body and soul. Each one is absolutely worth it, and so is His. 

How do I know? I was drowning once, and someone threw me a life preserver. With this illness of mine... I shudder to think where I would be today had he not thought I was worth the risk of rejection. Christ is the ONLY thing I can cling to.

Still too scary a risk? Jesus died for that. But please, try. You're not alone. His command from Matthew 28:20 continues: "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

Scientific Belief

Let's talk about blind faith for a minute. We sure do give scientists a whole bunch of credence. I'm even taking their word for it that the phenomena outlined in the video below truly happen. I've seen maybe one or two of them with my own eyes. I guess I don't have to see it to believe it. Neither does anyone else. They say there are no theories that explain these phenomena. I'd venture there's at least one. (Isaiah 40:12-26)

10 Unexplained Scientific Phenomena

There are people whose calling in life is to figure out how we, the world, and the universe all works--people a whole lot smarter than me. That kind of knowledge certainly improves our lives. Having my disease more or less under control is testament to that, as is the near-eradication of small pox, the ability to live comfortably through a 110-degree day, and the fact that so many people can instantly read what I write.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I think God likes that. Discoveries and understanding are gifts. I think He's impressed when we get it right and amused when we don't, except when our theories disregard that First Commandment of His about worshiping false gods. He's probably not all that impressed when we question Him far more vehemently than we question the scientists whose claims demand every bit as much faith as the Bible's.

"...making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day is from Isaiah 40:12a
PRC buddies, remember to breathe!
"He has measured the waters -------> 5 count inhale
in the hollow if His hand." -------> 5 count exhale