Leaving the 99

My kids have a book about the parable of the lost sheep called "The Lost and Found Lamb."

It's a lift-the-flaps book, and they love lift-the flaps books because such books take longer to read and delay bedtime more.

Also, this book has a nice message about how Jesus seeks the lost, in keeping with the original parable, found in Matthew 18:12-14.

 (Image from http://www.amazon.com)

¹² “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³ And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! ¹⁴ In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish."

Still, I've always had a little trouble with this parable, because of the 99 sheep that get left behind in it. Who's watching over them?

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this, as I recently read the following devotional essay:

"I don’t know about you, but when I think about the practical aspects of the parable of the lost sheep, I don’t understand it. Why would the shepherd leave 99 sheep unprotected just to look for one that was lost? Wouldn’t some of those 99 sheep wander off or even be attacked and killed by wild animals? Going after one sheep is simply not a practical solution to the problem. It seems to be a bad business decision. But ultimately, I don’t think this parable is intended as a practical solution to an everyday problem. I see it more as a description of the radical love that abounds in the kingdom of heaven. God loves us with such reckless abandon that God will ignore practicality in order to find us and bring us home. That’s astounding love."

(From "The Upper Room" devotional dated 22Jan 2013 by Doug Rolls.)

I like the way this author puts things. A parable is a parable and not meant to be taken literally. The story is simply a demonstration of how much God loves and cares for us, and how far He will go to bring us home. And the answer is: As far as He can! And there is no end to Him.

Besides, being infinite and omnipresent and all of that, He never leaves the 99 at all.

Astounding indeed!

We're All Saved by Grace

I just read a blog post called "Top 10 People Christians are Better Than."

Spoiler alert: The list was (1) Nobody (2) Nobody (3) Nobody (4) Nobody (5) Nobody (6) Nobody (7) Nobody (8) Nobody (9) Nobody (10) Nobody

Pretty clever, right?

In it the author (see his cool picture on the left) points out that, basically, no one is "better" than anyone else. As Paul tells us in Romans, all are saved by grace, and not entitled to boast.

Still though, we tend to do a lot of boasting, don't we? Christians like to feel superior to non-Christians.

This is because... surprise!... Christians are human beings. Sometimes human beings are jerks. (What? You disagree? Have you been out on the road recently? Or on the internet even? We're JERKS!)

And the fact that we remain our own jerk-like selves all our lives, to one degree or another, may be God's own way of keeping us humble.

One of the comments I saw on facebook about this was from a friend who said she'd always had trouble with idea that your good deeds don't count with God unless you're a Christian.

Well, here's a shocker, my friend: Your good deeds don't "count" either way!

There's no giant scoreboard in heaven where God tallies up the points we've earned in life.

The Bible says our righteousness, our "good works," are filthy rags. The truth is, we can't earn God's approval.

God gives grace freely, or not at all. He chooses whom He chooses.

This is a difficult concept. I myself try very hard to be a "nice person," and find it very frustrating to be forever falling short, struggling with my own Inner Jerk. It is hard for me to accept that I, with my good deeds, am no better than that crazy homeless man who refused to wear his new boots in the New York snow. (Read that news story here if you want.)

So why should I do good works at all?

That's a good question. And I'll be the first to admit that I don't know the answer.

I guess I know why I shouldn't do good deeds. Not to earn points with God, not to get into heaven, not to impress people or to feel like I'm better than others.

Then what motivates me to do good?

All I can say is, Because God is good. It should be His goodness that I reflect.

Set a Guard Over My Lips

Last weekend I went to a ladies' tea at a local church with the theme "Silver Boxes."

The idea was based on a poem by Michael Bright, which includes this stanza:

"Lord, help my words be silver boxes,
Neatly wrapped up with a bow;
That I give to all so freely,
As through each day I gladly go."

(image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net)

They gave us each a lovely little silver box with the following verse in it:

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29 TNIV

Of course all the ladies at the tea, dressed in their best clothes and happily munching little hors d'oeuvres and salads, agreed that this was very true. We should always speak with kindness to others. Yes indeed.

A few minutes later I saw one of the women at my table fighting back tears over something another woman had said to her.

What a shame, I thought, shaking my head. That lady should have remembered about the Bible verse in the silver box in front of her and known not to speak so harshly.

Then the speaker came up and told us about how she had learned to use words of forgiveness and love after her ex-husband had left her for an old girlfriend.

Her story broke my heart, especially when she said he'd told her after over twenty years of marriage, "I never loved you like I love her." Those were words that had to have cut deeply.

Again I thought of how powerful words can be, and the fact that we should use them carefully.

As the speaker finished her talk, I found myself still thinking about her ex-husband, forgiven by his saint of a wife and traipsing off happily into the sunset with his old girlfriend. "That dog," I muttered angrily to my friend. "I hope he feels guilty. I hope the old girlfriend turns out to be an awful harpy and he regrets leaving his wife. I hope he's sorry now that he's made his bed and has to lie in it." My friend nodded in agreement.

Then I looked down and caught sight of my own silver box, sitting placidly in front of me. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth," it reminded me. Oh yeah, I thought. Why can't I remember to do that? It seemed none of us could go five minutes without saying something we regret.

I thought of James 3:7-10:

^"7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. ¹⁰ And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! "

This is the truth, folks. We all sin with the things we say. And we keep doing it!

Forgive us, Lord.

My prayer is that the Lord will help me remember to think before I speak.

Let us all pray with King David in Psalm 141:3:

"Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips."

(image from http://www.quoteswave.com)

Praying Persistently

Do you ever feel like you're nagging God?

I mean, we're commanded to pray without ceasing, but sometimes I think I'm just begging without stopping, you know?

There are times when I feel like I've asked the Lord for something, and He just isn't responding. So what do I do?

Matthew 7:7-8

⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.

Keep on seeking, and you will find.

Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds.

And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Okay. So instead of giving up, I should keep on praying. But this can be difficult.

Luke 18:1-8

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show

that they should always pray and never give up.

² “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said,

“who neither feared God nor cared about people.

 ³ A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying,

‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’

⁴ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself,

‘I don’t fear God or care about people,

⁵ but this woman is driving me crazy.

 I’m going to see that she gets justice,

because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge.

⁷ Even he rendered a just decision in the end.

So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people

who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

⁸ I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!

But when the Son of Man returns,

how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

It seems the message is pretty clear: DO NOT give up. KEEP ON praying.

So I'm not nagging God. If He hasn't answered the way I want him to, then there are several possible reasons:

1. He wants me to wait. (Psalm 27:13-14)

¹³ Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness

while I am here in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

 

2. He has another idea in mind. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

⁸ “My thoughts are nothing like your

thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
⁹ For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 

3. His answer is no.

I don't like that last one at ALL. I'm not even looking for a Scripture reference to support it either.

But I can't deny that it's a possiblity.

So I wondered, in that situation, should I still keep praying? Would that be "nagging" God?

Well, according to Jesus, I should ALWAYS keep praying. No matter what.

One more Scripture promise:

Psalm 37:4

Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Hmmm.... Now this can mean, "The Lord will give you what you want."

But it can also mean, "The Lord will change your heart, so that you want what He wants."

So either way, keep praying. Even if it's hard.

And I'll do my best to follow my own advice.

("Nagging" cartoon from http://www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com)

("Denied " image from http://htmlgiant.com)

A Cartoon

http://www.journella.com

Ha Ha HA!

Moth-proof/ Rust-proof?

Have you ever had a posession you were particularly proud of? I remember the first new car my husband and I ever bought.

This photo is in our album, captioned: "A NEW CAR!!" That's me posing next to the car with the Vanna White hand gesture.

I was 23 years old and had never had a new car. I was excited.

But if I think about it, where is that car now? We got rid of it. I guess it's possible it's still on the road somewhere, but I doubt a 1995 Chevy Cavalier is worth much of anything these days. Probably it's in a junkyard somewhere.

Also I loved our first house.

We spent a lot of time and money on that house: painting it and fixing things, et cetera. We put an addition on the back. My husband and my father-in-law installed wood flooring throughout the upstairs. I still have those floors in my head as a model of what flooring should look like.

But where is that house now?

Well, it's not in a junkyard. It's still there on that suburban lot. Someone lives in it, walking on my beautiful floors and opening and closing my special double-paned easy-clean windows in the sunroom addition. But it's not ours anymore.

There's nothing better to remind you of the temporal nature of possessions than to look back in your photo album and remember things that you once loved. Even clothing:

My prom dress in 1989. My mother and I made this dress. I was super-proud of it.

But I just saw a dress very similar to this at a costume party. A friend had bought it at the thrift store for 99 cents. That dress was lucky to still be around. Most likely, my dress has been in a landfill for a long time.

My point here is not to be maudlin and sentimental about my 80's prom dress and dyed-to-match shoes.

My point is, these things that I spent so much time and energy, pride and, yes, even love on, are gone. Even if they still exist in the world somewhere, they are no longer mine. These things were temporary.

So why did I think they were important? As Jesus tells us:

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal;

²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor rust destroys and

where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

 

So what should I be investing my time and energy in instead?

What has eternal value?

PEOPLE.

That's a short answer, but it's much easier said than done, of course.

Lord, help me to remember today what really matters in life.

(Partially inspired by the devotion "The Moth and Rust Reality" by Claire Cloninger
and the sermon of 16 September by Rev. Nobuko Miyake-Stoner at Harris UMC)

Martha and Mary, Jesus' friends in Bethany

"Christ in the House of Martha and Mary" by Vermeer

http://en.wikipedia.org

Has this subject been done to death?

In case it hasn't, here's the Scripture:

³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered

a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha
welcomed Him into her house.

³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also

sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.

⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving,

and she approached Him and said,

“Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Therefore tell her to help me.”

 ⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha,

you are worried and troubled about many things. 

 ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part,

which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

I think we've all heard the story of these sisters and we know which one is supposed to be the "good" sister. But honestly, something about this has always bothered me a bit.

Maybe it's the number of sermons I've heard on this subject from (male) preachers who still expect the ladies of the church to have the coffee and doughnuts ready in the fellowship hall after service.

I mean, it's all very well to sit at the Lord's feet and listen, but when Jesus and the disciples had gotten hungry, they probably would have been annoyed if Martha had said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Did y'all want food? I was too busy listening to the teaching."

Let's be realistic here. Martha had a job to do, and she was doing it. There were (at least) thirteen men in the house who needed supper and beds for the night. Not to mention breakfast the next day. No wonder she was distracted!

So I don't think Jesus was chastising her for being "too busy." In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say I don't think He was chastising her at all. He wanted His dinner, same as everyone else.

I think He was reminding her to adjust her attitude a little, and remember Whom she was serving.

Anytime people came to Jesus and asked Him to resolve some dispute between them and another person, or tried to get him to "take sides" on something, He refused to do so. He always brought it back to the person who asked the question, telling them to take a look at themselves first.

Luke 12:13-15

¹³ Then one from the crowd said to Him,

“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ But He said to him, “Man, who made

Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 

¹⁵ And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness,

for one’s life does not consist

in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

In this example, He could have asked the guy and the brother to come up and each give their side of the story. After all, there was a code in the Hebrew Law about inheritances. Jesus could have pointed out who was right and who was wrong and who owed money to whom.

But that was not what Jesus was about. He loved all of God's people and did not take the side of one over another.

So I think Jesus' reply to Martha's accusation of her sister was this: He simply wasn't taking sides, either Martha OR Mary's. He wanted to remind them that love for each other was the most important thing.

And, it may be pointed out, He knew that His time with this little family, and their time with each other, was limited. The next time He came to visit, their brother Lazarus would be dead, albeit temporarily. After that it wouldn't be too long before Jesus Himself would be condemned to die.

Jesus was reminding Martha that relationships were the most important thing, that being embittered with her sister would only hurt her, Martha, in the long run.

Not a bad lesson. And one you can still have a doughnut after hearing.