So my awesome roommate Josh Poole and I are trying to get saved again. He came up with a brilliant idea to get us back on the path of righteousness. His idea was that every Sunday, instead of just walking away from church and saying, “That was really good”, we should come up with two things that we could take away from the service and apply to our lives the following week. Today marks the first Sunday of our attempt to be more like Jesus.
This morning the most incredible pastor on the face of the planet, Pastor Lloyd Zeigler, spoke on prayer. In his sermon he told the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. I never really put this story in the context of the events surrounding it. For those of you like me, allow me to go all historical on you…
It is the week of the Passover feast in Israel and every year at this time hundreds of thousands of Jews travel to the city of Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice at the Temple of God. Jesus and his band of merry disciples are also heading to Jerusalem. When they arrive Jesus heads to the temple and he sees what is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations has been turned into a money making business by the religious leaders who run the place. He gets really mad and turns over their tables and kicks them all out. They do not like this…at all. That afternoon Jesus heads out of town to find some lodging because A) There are a lot of really angry Pharisees looking for him and B) There are a whole lot of people in the city and not many open rooms. So Jesus and his boys head to the nearby city of Bethany. The next morning as they are heading back to Jerusalem, Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance. Being hungry Jesus goes to the fig tree to find some figs. (In the book of Mark it even goes so far as to say that it is not the season for figs to bloom.) When He could not find any figs on the tree He cursed it saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” The next day when Jesus and the disciples are again heading back to Jerusalem they walk by the same fig tree and it has withered all the way down to the roots.
Now even though this has nothing to do with what my incredible pastor spoke on, I began to think about this and here is what I am going to try to apply to my life this week.
Jesus knew that the fig tree should not have fruit on it at the time of the year when he walked up to it but He didn’t care. He was hungry. Also, even if the tree had produced fruit early it had probably all been taken by the thousands and thousands of people who passed by that tree before Him on their way to Jerusalem. Jesus still expected the tree to bear fruit.
I am a tree. I am, as a child of God, supposed to bear fruit to those who are hungry. To those who need joy, I should share my joy. To those who need hope, I am supposed to feed their hope. To those who are watching to see if I live what I say I believe, I have to give nourishment to their faith. The problem with this is that sometimes I feel like I have been picked dry. Most days I don’t even feel like I am in the season where I should have fruit at all. But God is looking for me to bear fruit whenever there is someone who is hungry. If I cannot bring the fruit of the Spirit when a soul is hungry then they may starve.
This week I will attempt to be a perpetual fruit bearing machine. When I have been plucked dry, I will dig my roots deep and find a way to pop out another fig. That is my challenge to myself. Pray for me. God loves to test our words. So here goes. Anybody hungry?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Other Side of the Door
It is hard to imagine a world without electricity. My very ability to share these worlds relies on electricity in multiple ways. Yet only 200 years ago everyone on Earth still lived this “backwards” way of living. Even today an estimated 1.6 billion people still live without electricity.
My perspective on electricity got changed when I read a book and electricity was compared God. I grew up in a Christian believing family and have been going to church for as long as I can remember. This is a gift from God, but at the same time it is hard for me to truly know what life is like for those who have never known what it is like to have a relationship with God. I have many friends who are not saved and I can relate to them, enjoy their company, share life with them, but I cannot fully put myself in their shoes. It’s like growing up in a house with electricity. I can understand what it is like to live without electricity, but until I live without it I can never know what that truly means. I can understand that you would have go out and chop down a tree with an ax and bring the wood back to cook with and stay warm, but until my life is reliant on me doing that everyday I will never know how that affects my mind, my emotions, and my view of the reality of life.
This deep disconnect with those who have not experienced an encounter with God has always posed a problem for me. I know that part of my job as a Christian is to share this great gift with those who do not have it. This process can be very awkward. For a long time I thought the only to do this was to go out and tell them. I was the electricity salesman. I would do my duty and knock on doors to share all the great benefits of electricity. I just never took the time to wonder what it was like from the other side of the door.
From the other side of the door I was the hundredth person to show up “selling” all the great things electricity had to offer.
Feeling lonely? Christ will bring you peace! Are you sick? Jesus is the great healer! Is life too hard for you? Jesus can make all your troubles go away! All this for the low low price of total submission, weekly attendance in your local church, and 10% of your income. It’s a steal!
I was the used car salesman that would tell them whatever they wanted to hear so that they would buy the product. And I was not the only one trying to sell. Some people don’t buy because they are afraid of change. Some people don’t buy because they don’t believe the product will do what it says. Some people won’t buy because they are not willing to give up what it takes to get it. Some people won’t buy just because you smell.
Then I read two sentences that changed my life. They are found in Mathew chapter 13. Jesus tells this short story. “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” In these two sentences I found a new way to live and share the beauty of God’s love.
Right away I noticed that the merchant was never “sold” the pearl. There was no sales pitch, no bartering, no back and forth. He saw something with a value that was so obvious that none of that was needed. The only question that remained was “Are you willing to give up what it takes to obtain it?” And the only one who asked that question was the merchant to himself.
This is the ultimate challenge for me. All the luxuries I have by being plugged into the “electricity” of God, like peace, wisdom, strength, and joy, are easy for me to see, but am I inviting others into my life so that they see them as well? And am I living the life that they would want? I have been given the advantage of electricity, but how am I using it? I want to live my life in such a way that the closer people get, the more they see the value of it. That is not an easy undertaking. I need to use that electricity to do some home repair. And instead of going to their homes to tell them how much better it would be with electricity, I want to invite them to mine to share the life I live. I believe if I do it right they will clearly see the “value of the pearl.”
Many people without electricity have seen the lights through the windows and wondered. They have heard the laughter from inside the house. Don’t wait until they are all the way home. Stop them. Invite them in. Show them the other side of the door.
My perspective on electricity got changed when I read a book and electricity was compared God. I grew up in a Christian believing family and have been going to church for as long as I can remember. This is a gift from God, but at the same time it is hard for me to truly know what life is like for those who have never known what it is like to have a relationship with God. I have many friends who are not saved and I can relate to them, enjoy their company, share life with them, but I cannot fully put myself in their shoes. It’s like growing up in a house with electricity. I can understand what it is like to live without electricity, but until I live without it I can never know what that truly means. I can understand that you would have go out and chop down a tree with an ax and bring the wood back to cook with and stay warm, but until my life is reliant on me doing that everyday I will never know how that affects my mind, my emotions, and my view of the reality of life.
This deep disconnect with those who have not experienced an encounter with God has always posed a problem for me. I know that part of my job as a Christian is to share this great gift with those who do not have it. This process can be very awkward. For a long time I thought the only to do this was to go out and tell them. I was the electricity salesman. I would do my duty and knock on doors to share all the great benefits of electricity. I just never took the time to wonder what it was like from the other side of the door.
From the other side of the door I was the hundredth person to show up “selling” all the great things electricity had to offer.
Feeling lonely? Christ will bring you peace! Are you sick? Jesus is the great healer! Is life too hard for you? Jesus can make all your troubles go away! All this for the low low price of total submission, weekly attendance in your local church, and 10% of your income. It’s a steal!
I was the used car salesman that would tell them whatever they wanted to hear so that they would buy the product. And I was not the only one trying to sell. Some people don’t buy because they are afraid of change. Some people don’t buy because they don’t believe the product will do what it says. Some people won’t buy because they are not willing to give up what it takes to get it. Some people won’t buy just because you smell.
Then I read two sentences that changed my life. They are found in Mathew chapter 13. Jesus tells this short story. “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” In these two sentences I found a new way to live and share the beauty of God’s love.
Right away I noticed that the merchant was never “sold” the pearl. There was no sales pitch, no bartering, no back and forth. He saw something with a value that was so obvious that none of that was needed. The only question that remained was “Are you willing to give up what it takes to obtain it?” And the only one who asked that question was the merchant to himself.
This is the ultimate challenge for me. All the luxuries I have by being plugged into the “electricity” of God, like peace, wisdom, strength, and joy, are easy for me to see, but am I inviting others into my life so that they see them as well? And am I living the life that they would want? I have been given the advantage of electricity, but how am I using it? I want to live my life in such a way that the closer people get, the more they see the value of it. That is not an easy undertaking. I need to use that electricity to do some home repair. And instead of going to their homes to tell them how much better it would be with electricity, I want to invite them to mine to share the life I live. I believe if I do it right they will clearly see the “value of the pearl.”
Many people without electricity have seen the lights through the windows and wondered. They have heard the laughter from inside the house. Don’t wait until they are all the way home. Stop them. Invite them in. Show them the other side of the door.
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