Sounds Like Too Many Churches Today

“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living."

Amos 5: 21-24 (NLT)

Our Lord in Parables

How do I receive Jesus?

by Don Johnson

How do I receive Jesus? Sometimes, I receive Jesus like a woman! What? Sputter, gasp! Jesus is obviously a man in the gospel accounts. How could I be so blatantly wrong? I can sometimes receive Jesus as a woman because Jesus himself teaches me this. Consider the following verses from Luke's gospel.

TNIV Luke 15:8-10 [Jesus speaking:] "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

This is the middle parable of three parables by Jesus describing what the Kingdom of God is like. The first is often called the parable of the lost sheep. This one, the parable of the lost coin and the last, is sometimes called the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son. These parables are connected not only by all being about the Kingdom of God and not only by being stated adjacent in Luke's gospel, but also by a descending order going from 1 lost sheep of 100, to 1 lost coin of 10, to 1 lost son of 2.

One of the many insights of these parables is that Jesus is referring to God (and therefore also to himself) successively as a good shepherd, as a diligent women, and as a loving father. We are very familiar with the first and last images, but perhaps not so familiar with the middle one of a diligent woman. Notice that Jesus did not need to use the example of the diligent woman, he could have just as easily used an example of a diligent man, but he deliberately chose to map himself to a faithful women rejoicing when she finds a lost coin. Will you join me in claiming for yourself ALL the ways to receive Jesus that are found in the Bible?

I thank Kenneth Bailey for teaching me the insights in this meditation.

What Do Women Want?

“‘What,’ men have asked distractedly from the beginning of time, ‘what on earth do women want?’ I do not know that women, as women, want anything in particular, but as human beings they want, my good men, exactly what you want yourselves: interesting occupation, reasonable freedom for their pleasures, and a sufficient emotional outlet. What form the occupation, the pleasures and the emotion may take, depends entirely upon the individual.”

Sayers, Dorothy, Are Women Human? Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1971, p. 44

You Shall not Tempt the Lord your God

“I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to my enemy but have set me in a safe place” (Psalm 31:7-8, NLT).

When I answered the telephone, I found myself listening to a weeping woman. Between sobs she explained that every three weeks or so her abusive husband strangles her into unconsciousness. Though a professing Christian, he suffocates her with pillows, locks her in closets, and leaves her in terror for her life. She has turned for help to several pastors who call the couple into their office for joint counseling. I explained that couples’ counseling is inadvisable in situations of abuse, and she acknowledged that things were always worse at home after a counseling session.

She has come to realize the danger of her situation and was prepared to leave until a Christian friend told her that she must not break the covenant that she made at the marriage altar and must believe that God would work a miracle of transformation in her husband. I pointed out that her husband was the one who had broken the covenant promise to love and cherish her. A covenant is a solemn agreement between two parties, both of whom must abide by their promises. If one party refuses to honor the agreement, the covenant becomes null and void.

But this victim, who desired above all things to do God’s will, had been told that she must give the Lord enough time to change her abuser, even if that meant remaining in a life-threatening situation. I asked if she remembered the temptation of Jesus when Satan took him to the top of the pinnacle in the temple. Cleverly selecting a Bible verse, the devil urged Christ to throw himself down so that angels would bear him up and keep him from danger. But Jesus staunchly refused to risk his life in the expectation that God would perform a supernatural act. He responded “It is written ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’.” It was not a question of who could quote the best Bible verse but who could honor God and respect the laws of the natural universe.

Jesus refused to defy the force of gravity and put God on the spot for a dramatic intervention. We should not expect God to provide protection when we have taken unreasonable risks that could have been avoided. Certainly the advice provided by well-meaning Christians did not consider this victim’s safety a paramount issue. More than that, it did not consider the welfare of the abusive husband. His dangerous conduct may well have been intended to intimidate his spouse rather than to cause her actual harm, but how very easily his conduct might have escalated one step further into a terrible crime! The conduct is already very wicked and totally inconsistent with God’s purposes for a Christian family.

Separation would provide an environment that would be safer for both victim and perpetrator. A time apart would enable each partner to address some of the other issues that must be faced. The Bible tells us to flee temptation rather than continuing to dwell where we are most likely to fall into sin. We pray “deliver us from evil” but we also need to remove ourselves from situations or circumstances that can lead us into grievous sin and harm.

Indeed, David praised God for having restrained him from acting on his murderous intentions (1 Sam. 25:26, 32-34, 39) and prayed “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins” (Ps. 19:13; see also 51; 119:29; 120:2; 139:12-14; 141:3-4). Four times the Lord exhorted his followers to pray that they would not fall into temptation, (Matt. 2:41; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:40, 46), and he himself prayed that his own would be kept from evil (John 17:15).

God is able to keep us from falling (2 Thess. 3:3; Jude 24), but let us not tempt the Lord our God, nor place others where temptation may assail them. Rather let us look for his place of safety and peace.

Catherine Kroeger

HT: http://blog.cbeinternational.org/

This week’s column is written by Catherine Clark Kroeger (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) who is adjunct associate professor of classical and ministry studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is an author, president emerita of Christians for Biblical Equality, and president of Peace and Safety in the Christian Home (PASCH).

Whom Does Satan Fear?

“The best way to keep the enemy out is
to keep Christ in. The sheep need not be
terrified by the wolf; they have but to
stay close to the shepherd. It is not the
praying sheep Satan fears but the
presence of the shepherd.”

(A.W. Tozer, Born after Midnight)

The Spinternet?

Very thought provoking message about the internet and liberty

If This Does Not Scare You, Nothing Will

Note:The questioner is a democrat. Rep Alan Grayson. Watch the whole thing. No one is tracking the trillions already spent.



Grayson questions the Fed: The Fed's balance sheet has expanded by $1.2 trillion since September 1. Where did the money go? Kohn wouldn't say.



Grayson questions the CEO of Citigroup about his 'insurance' policy from our government for 7 billion that covers Citigroup for 200 billion.




My personal favorite: Let's just change the math to make it fit. Ever notice in the answers how many words are used to say nothing