Tag Archives: tears

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – ARE YOU CRAZY?

Bible Study, ,

ARE YOU CRAZY?

“Then He spoke: ‘You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. God’s kingdom is there for the finding.

“You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.

“You’re blessed when the tears flow freely, Joy comes with the morning.

“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – skip like a lamb, if you like – for even though they don’t like it, I do…and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like that.'” Luke 6:20-23.

What is He talking about? He almost sounds like some sort of killjoy; only happy when everything goes wrong; glad to be miserable!

This would sound crazy if it came from anyone’s lips but Jesus’. What is He getting at? You cannot go very far into the gospels before you realise that Jesus lived in the environment of God’s kingdom. Don’t get me wrong — He was a very down-to-earth person, in touch with reality, especially the need of the people around Him, aware of their suffering and full of compassion for them.

But He also knew that there was no permanent solution for them in the present world system. He could heal them now but they would be sick again. He could raise the dead but they were destined to die again. As long as the world system they were in prevailed, there would always be sorrow, sickness and suffering, because it is an imperfect fallen world and will remain that way until God intervenes.

The good news is that the present world system, with all its sin and imperfection, is temporary. He had come from the Father to get rid of the obstacle to restoration and reconciliation, the huge debt of man’s sin. God had set the course for restoring everything that was broken, distorted and out of joint and it culminated in Him. What God started in Genesis 1 and 2, He would complete according to Revelation 21 and 22.

Through Jesus, God provided the forgiveness that restored the broken relationship between Him and His estranged sons and daughters, but there was also the matter of choice. Would they want to come back to the Father’s house? How did the lost son in the far country come to his senses? He looked at his circumstances, starving and looking after pigs, and realised that he had been much better off at home.

Jesus said that it is very difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Is it because they have money? No. It’s because they use their money to satisfy their own need. Money is a good servant but a bad master. Wealth is good if it is used to serve others but bad if it feeds greed and selfishness.

Therefore, according to Jesus, loss and hunger and persecution are not blessings in themselves but they are if they create an awareness that life is much more than what we eat, what we drink and what we wear. Life is transient, like mist that is here in the morning but gone by midday. It is foolishness to place our faith in and live for what is passing away.

God allows these kinds of circumstances into our lives to draw our attention to a kingdom that is permanent and eternal; a way of life that echoes the eternal character and values of the Father. Greed and selfishness belong to this transient, imperfect world and will eventually go out with the trash. We might be ridiculed and side-lined if we side with Jesus now. His way may seem puny to those who believe in control and force and power, but in the end, He won then and He will win again.

If you open up to Him, He will change your heart and set you on a course of generosity and unselfish service that will bring you joy and the realisation of who you really are, a son or daughter of God, created in His image to be like Him.

The Martha and Mary Way

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THE MARTHA AND MARY WAY

“After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside, ‘The Teacher is here,’ she said, ‘and is asking for you.’

“When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him…

“…When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ He asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept.” John 11:28-30; 32-35 NIV.

Martha…Mary…two sisters, but two completely different personalities. Martha was the practical one. She loved and served and worshipped with her mind and with her hands. Her joy was to prepare the tastiest meal she could for her Lord and His disciples. She wanted Mary to be like her. She had to learn that she could not force Mary into her mould. Her way of worshipping Jesus was acceptable for her but nor for Mary.

Jesus met her where she was, questioning, reasoning, trying to understand. He spoke to her; He reassured her; He gave her one of the most profound promises in all of Scripture to cling to…’I AM the resurrection and the life.’ Her mind wrestled with His words. In a short while she would understand; her doubts and questions would be laid to rest and she would worship Him again, with greater confidence and freedom because He would show her, once again who He really was. Her worship was expressed in thoughts of her mind and the loving service of her hands.

Mary was the quiet one, content to sit at His feet and listen, to drink in His presence, if not the meaning of every word. Mary worshipped with her heart; she expressed her worship with her emotions. She would not speak — she would weep.  She would wash His feet with her tears and anoint Him with her costliest treasure. She would be there, taking the lowliest place just to be near Him.

When He did not come — and their brother slipped away from them into a place where they could not reach him — they felt their grief in their own unique way. Their rebuke may have been the same but their words were the expression of who they really were inside.

Mary’s tears were her words. She poured out her disillusionment, her disappointment, her distress, her doubts and her brokenness in a torrent of salty anguish — and Jesus heard her heart. He understood and He wept with her; not tears of distress over the death of her brother, or tears of anger over what sin had done, but simply tears of understanding mingling with her tears — speaking to her, ‘Mary, I feel your pain,’ in wet wordlessness.

How precious is the reassurance that Jesus will meet us where we are! Some are Martha-people, expressing our worship in the activity of our minds and the work of our hands. We feel the closest to Him and understand His heart the best when we are doing something to give away His love to someone who has less, is less than we are. He is there when we wipe the tears of one who sorrows. He is there when we fill a growling belly or cover a shivering body with a blanket. We love and serve with His hands.

Some are Mary-people, content to sit at His feet, to love and be loved by being with Him, by revelling in His presence in the beauty of a sunset or the sound of rushing water. Like the lost sheep whom the shepherd carried home on his shoulder, we rest in the joy of being found, content to know that we are loved and cherished enough for the shepherd to give His life for us. We worship with our hearts, with our emotions and our tears.

No matter whether you are a Martha or a Mary, He knows who you are and where you are and meets you there. The question is: Are you ready to let Him meet you and listen to your heart?

Are You Crazy?

Bible Study, , , ,

ARE YOU CRAZY?

 Then He spoke: ‘You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. God’s kingdom is there for the finding.

“You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.

“You’re blessed when the tears flow freely, Joy comes with the morning.

“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens — skip like a lamb, if you like — for even though they don’t like it, I do…and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like that.'” Luke 6:20-23 (The Message).

What is He talking about? He almost sounds like some sort of killjoy; only happy when everything goes wrong; glad to be miserable!

This would sound crazy if it came from anyone’s lips but Jesus’. What is He getting at? You cannot go very far into the gospels before you realise that Jesus lived in the environment of God’s kingdom. Don’t get me wrong — He was a very down-to-earth person, in touch with reality, especially the need of the people around Him, aware of their suffering and full of compassion for them.

But He also knew that there was no permanent solution for them in the present world system. He could heal them now but they would be sick again. He could raise the dead but they were destined to die again. As long as the world system they were in prevailed, there would always be sorrow, sickness and suffering, because it is an imperfect fallen world and will remain that way unless God intervened.

The good news is that the present world system, with all its sin and imperfection, is temporary. He had come from the Father to get rid of the obstacle to restoration and reconciliation, the huge debt of man’s sin. God had set the course for restoring everything that was broken, distorted and out of joint and it culminated in Him. What God started in Genesis 1 and 2, He would complete according to Revelation 21 and 22.

Through Jesus, God provided the forgiveness that restored the broken relationship between Him and His estranged sons and daughters, but there was also the matter of choice. Would they want to come back to the Father’s house? How did the lost son in the far country come to his senses? He looked at his circumstances, starving and looking after pigs, and realised that he had been much better off at home.

Jesus said that it is very difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Is it because they have money? No. It’s because they use their money to satisfy their own need. Money is a good servant but a bad master. Wealth is good if it is used to serve others but bad if it feeds greed and selfishness.

Therefore, according to Jesus, loss and hunger and persecution are not blessings in themselves but they are if they create an awareness that life is much more than what we eat, what we drink and what we wear. Life is transient, like mist that is here in the morning but gone by midday. It is foolishness to place our faith in and live for what is passing away.

God allows these kinds of circumstances into our lives to draw our attention to a kingdom that is permanent and eternal; a way of life that echoes the eternal character and values of the Father. Greed and selfishness belong to this transient, imperfect world and will eventually go out with the trash. We might be ridiculed and side-lined if we side with Jesus now. His way may seem puny to those who believe in control and force and power, but in the end, He won then and He will win again.

If you open up to Him, He will change your heart and set you on a course of generosity and unselfish service that will bring you joy and the realisation of who you really are, a son or daughter of God, created in His image to be like Him.