^{They Cast Lots}

^{Luke 23.34} But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.

Many have heard of Jesus’ words on the cross - “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  But this morning I found it odd to see the sentence that followed in the same verse. 

The Bible was not originally written with chapters and verses; those were added to the writings later to help with reading and studying it.  Luke 23 is filled with lots of information.  As I read it, I felt as though the writer didn't want to miss any of the important details.  So, what compelled those who determined chapters and verses to have these two diametrically different scenes in the same verse?  Could it be that the truth portrayed is greater than at first glance? 

Here is God in the flesh, the Man who came to offer us hope and salvation, asking His Father to forgive the people who were responsible for hanging Him on the cross.  Yet at the moment when great compassion is being expressed, a depth of love unfathomable to us being poured out, there were men close by caught up in what they could get for themselves in the purely physical realm.  They were doing their job; this probably wasn't

 the first person’s clothes they had cast lots for.  But in the midst of pursuing the every day, just trying to take advantage of every break, they missed the reality of the situation before them.  Jesus was being broken for them, even when they could not have cared less.  Broken in His purity to bring cleansing to their filth.

I am so guilty of this, walking through so many days unaware, unthankful, for the gifts I was given at the cost of His life.  Lord God, help me to see this life with eyes wide open, able to see my brokenness and need, but not missing the provision of all I need to live an abundant life, full of peace and joy.  This world I see with my physical eyes is not all there is; help me live a complete life in You. 

The 10%

This morning my Good Morning Girls Bible study centered on Luke 17, verses 11 to 19.  For many this is a familiar passage, and so it is for me…

¹¹ Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. ¹² Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. ¹³ And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
¹⁴ So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, ¹⁶ and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷ So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? ¹⁸ Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Before I read this, I wondered how this part of scripture would fit with the study’s theme, “Loving Like Jesus.”  But, it was about Jesus, so I began reading.  Even now as I am writing this, my heart is convicted and tears form.  Here were ten men, outcasts because of a disease they had no control over.  They all “lifted up their voices” to Jesus.  They were all sent to the priests and were all healed on their way to see them.  And yet, only one returned to give Jesus thanks, to publicly give glory to God for the wonderful gift he had been given.

Jesus even asked about the other nine.  Where were they?  Did they not want to take time to say “Thank You,” to honor the Source of their healing? 

(Interestingly, the text mentions ten lepers.  Only one returns.  That’s ten percent of the group who came back to give honor to God.  The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, recognizes that most of the time 20% of the people do 80% of the work, give 80% of the effort required.  When I learned about this in college, my thoughts immediately went to my experiences in church.  How sad.  I hope your thoughts went to something much more uplifting.)

Anyway, only one of the men who had been gloriously healed by Jesus even took the time, the effort, to give thanks.  This wasn't the same as being healed of a broken ankle or a painfully twisted spine.  These men had been outcasts, not allowed into the flow of everyday life because they were contagious!  They were in permanent quarantine, only able to stay on the far fringes of society.  Once they had gone to the priests and had been proclaimed cleansed, they would be able to rejoin their fellow men.  They would no longer be outcasts!!  In one glorious, yet unassuming act, Jesus had cleansed them and changed their lives forever!

This lone man, who Jesus made very clear was a foreigner, not even a Jew, returned to give glory to God.  This implies that at least some of those other nine men who were healed were Jews.  They should have known better; praise was a huge part of the Jewish culture.  But in the end Jesus pronounced that this worshipful man should go home, that his faith had made him well. 

This man no longer had leprosy, so what had his faith made him well from?  As I read this final passage, I realized that maybe this man had had a deeper heart healing because he had chosen to honor Jesus with a thankful heart.  This man chose to make giving glory to God his priority!  Not showing off his new skin, not running home to a sweet family reunion, not doing anything else.  And he received a second healing, one more profound!

I have walked, okay, limped, in a broken body for almost 20 years.  In the early days of seeking healing from the Lord, I knew that I would use every platform I had to give glory to God.  I would be a bold witness for Him.  But instead of getting healed, my body became more broken.  As I took pain medication, my mind lost the clarity it had once had.  When I felt the Lord’s okay to have my right hip replaced, almost immediately the left hip began to complain.  And so it has gone. 

Some would say, and actually have said, that this is my punishment for having unforgiveness in my heart, for not having enough faith.  I have gone to the altar in brokenness many times, crying out to God to show me the error of my ways so I could live rightly before Him.  But God had made it very clear to me before I had gone to a doctor and knew what was wrong that He cared.  He spoke to my heart that He was my Healer, and He would heal me, but not before I had “suffering such as I have never known.”

I choose to not think about the things I can’t do, but to embrace what I can - lesson not easily learned by my “Type A” personality.  I want to be thankful for the life I have.  I want for nothing.  I have all material needs – and even many wants – met.  I have a wonderful, supportive husband and family, and friends from all over.  I am blessed!  No doubt about it! 

I want to be like that man healed of leprosy.  He had a grateful heart that recognized that God Himself had done the healing.  There is much healing that He could do in my body – I tell people I just have a body in rebellion – and one day, when the greatest glory will be given to Him, I will dance like King David did in joy and adoration of the One who made me and chose to heal me. 

As I have waited for that bodily healing, God has been faithful in so many other ways.  It is because of Him that I have hope and believe this earthly body is not all there is.  I have learned time and time again how much love the Lord has for people, including me.  He taught me that in my weakness He would be strong in me.  He has taught me how to slow down, how to not expect to earn my worth through what I do.  He took a wounded heart and bound it up, redressing it every time I tore the bandages off, until it finally healed. 

Jesus has been faithful to me, and I want to tell Him “thank you” publicly!!  I want to be like that leper who recognized his Healer and came back to praise Him.  I am even more determined that people will know the source of my peace, my hope. 

I will not be counted among those who choose to take from God – the very air we breathe is His provision – and do not stop to turn to the Provider with a humble heart.  I will speak of His goodness, His love, His majesty in a more purposeful way because of the example of a healed leper.  Will you join me?  It will take all of us to pick up the slack and, hopefully, we’ll make the Pareto Principle a foreign one among God’s people.

History Repeats Itself

I guess some things never change.  I don’t know how many times I have read 1 Kings, but when I read it today, my heart lurched in sad recognition.  I became tearful.  My reading of the wonderful book by Mesu Andrews, Love’s Sacred Song, has made me more aware of this time in history.  Several days of self-induced stress :{ may have even been a factor.  So this morning for the first time I saw how Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, judged his new kingdom harshly, setting up a division between brothers that was the precursor  to the destruction of the Temple and the scattering of the Jewish people across the world.

As I read 1 Kings 12, I thought of the Israelites when they were held captive in Egypt and forced into doing harder and harder labor for the Pharaoh.  Moses was sent by the Lord to ask that his people be freed; the story is a familiar one.  When Moses first came to ask for the people’s freedom to worship away from the cities, Pharaoh became incensed and ordered that the Israelites no longer be given straw for the bricks they had to make; they had to find it themselves.  Not only that – they had the same daily quota of bricks.  The very people God had sent Moses to free became even more heavily burdened.  It certainly didn’t feel like they were being set free!

Fast-forwarding to 1 Kings, the slaves of Egypt had become a mighty nation, blessed by God, esteemed by the world.  King David – the man God called His friend – had ruled well, and when he died the Lord placed the kingdom under the rule of his son, Solomon.  I could say so much about how wonderful, then pitiful, Solomon’s reign was, but my heart engaged so dramatically on the beginning of the reign of his son.  By this time many of the people had followed King Solomon’s example, worshiping the detestable gods of the foreign wives Solomon had married, along with the true God.  Their divided hearts would lead to a divided kingdom.

During King Solomon’s reign the people had worked hard to build the Temple and all his palaces.  They also had to rebuild the cities that had been damaged or destroyed during the many battles led by his father, King David.  By the time Solomon was crowned king, peace had begun in the land, just as God had told his father it would.  In contrast to David’s bloody reign, God had spoken that Solomon’s reign would be peaceful, the time to build the Temple.  Before Solomon’s reign ended at his death, so much had been accomplished.  The people had worked hard and prospered.

At the inauguration of Solomon’s successor, Rehoboam, the people asked for some relief from the burden of hard labor.  They didn’t demand or declare they would no longer work for him, they just asked for a lighter load.  The king asked for three days to think about it.  Rehoboam arrogantly took the counsel of his friends rather than the experienced leaders who had advised his father.  He proclaimed that he would make them work even harder – the same response Pharaoh gave when Moses asked him to let the people go to worship!  The king of Israel was declaring greater bondage over his people.  The lesson from Exodus was lost on him.  Thus began the dissolution of the nation of Israel.

How do we set the hearts or lives of people in bondage today?  Do we judge unjustly; do we look down upon those who don’t know all the church lingo yet?  Do we speak harsh, destructive words rather than speaking words of life?  History does seem to repeat itself, the lessons of the past lost to arrogance or ignorance.  May we learn from the lessons of Exodus and I Kings 12!  When we choose to serve others as Jesus did, no matter what our position in life, we represent the heart of Jehovah God, our Maker.  He created us and knows how we can best live together.

Here is the sad telling of history repeating itself…

1 Kings 12 ^1-2 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem where all Israel had gathered to inaugurate him as king. Jeroboam had been in Egypt, where he had taken asylum from King Solomon; when he got the report of Solomon’s death he had come back.

^3-4 Rehoboam assembled Jeroboam and all the people. They said to Rehoboam, “Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you.”
⁵ “Give me three days to think it over, then come back,” Rehoboam said.
⁶ King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: “What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?”
⁷ They said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.”
^8-9 But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, “What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ‘Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?”
^10-11 The young turks he’d grown up with said, “These people who complain, ‘Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’”
^12-14 Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, “Give me three days to think it over, then come back.” The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set, “If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!”…
^16-17 When all Israel realized that the king hadn’t listened to a word they’d said, they stood up to him and said,

Get lost, David!
We’ve had it with you, son of Jesse!
Let’s get out of here, Israel, and fast!
From now on, David, mind your own business.

12.19 Israel has been in rebellion against the Davidic regime ever since.

Knowing Him

In Philippians 3.10 Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death..”  Several times I have been at a place where I knew that I knew that my relationship with Jesus was lacking.  I knew God and the Holy Spirit so much more than the Son.  There was a longing in my very being to understand, to know, Jesus in better ways than I did. 

This is not to say that I had skipped the Gospels or overlooked the prophetic words written about Jesus.  But I felt a deep, almost empty hole where I should have been filled with Him, that friendship that comes through time spent together really trying to know someone.  I knew of His miracles, His suffering, His resurrection, but I wanted MORE!  So when I found myself finished with reading through the Bible several months early, I decided to do make my own “red letter edition” of Jesus’ words.  I started in Matthew and worked my way through revelation.  I do my Bible reading online, so I was able to copy and paste passages that contained His words.  Then I would go back and change the font color to red on all the words Jesus actually spoke.

As I did this, I got to see Him interacting with people and His Father more intimately.  I also made notes about what I observed.  Some of my observations were…

·        Jesus knew how to have a good time and recognized that there was a time for fasting, too.

·        One of the things Jesus did while He was here was show the God-flavors and God-colors in our world.

·        Sometimes Jesus made remarks out loud that I don't understand why He did, like when he said in Luke 9.41,   “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?"  I guess He got frustrated just like me.

·        "I can’t do a solitary thing on my own: I listen, then I decide."  Jesus got to decide what to do with what the Father told him; so do I.

·        Jesus expressed how powerful our words are, "The simple moral fact is that words kill."  I love that!

·        Jesus liked the beach and mountains. :)

If you want to try this simple way to focus in on Jesus, you can go to www.biblegateway.com, pick the version of the Bible you want to read, then start your journey in the book of Matthew.  

Humble Pie

This morning the reading assignment for the online Bible study I am a part of was Matthew 18.1-6.  Our scripture to focus on was Matthew 18.3-4, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Two things struck me.

The first is that Jesus said that there were two parts to our entering the kingdom of heaven.  First we are to be converted, to go from one belief system to another.  Our minds must be changed.  There is a quote that is so true…

Our thoughts, what we believe, determine our destiny.  No wonder so much is written about the battle for our minds!

The second thing I consider with fresh eyes was becoming like a child.  I have often heard of this as referencing how we receive Christ, with child-like faith.  But I don’t think that is a true perception, or at least not all that Jesus is talking about.  We are to be converted, when our belief system changes, we are incredibly imperfect people.  (At least is was – and still am!)  It is the “become” that brings me hope.  I didn’t have to be humble as a child, didn’t have to have much childlikeness.  I am becoming as a child!  The more that I get to know Jesus, the more I allow his Spirit to work in me, the more I become like a child.  It is a process, a destination.  As I am changed by Truth, my thoughts, my words, my actions, my habits, my very character, become like a child!

The Matthew Henry commentary says, "Many love to hear and speak of privileges and glory, who are willing to pass by the thoughts of work and trouble. Our Lord set a little child before them, solemnly assuring them, that unless they were converted and made like little children, they could not enter his kingdom. Children, when very young, do not desire authority, do not regard outward distinctions, are free from malice, are teachable, and willingly dependent on their parents. It is true that they soon begin to show other dispositions, and other ideas are taught them at an early age; but these are marks of childhood, and render them proper emblems of the lowly minds of true Christians. Surely we need to be daily renewed in the spirit of our minds, that we may become simple and humble, as little children, and willing to be the least of all. Let us daily study this subject, and examine our own spirits".

Humble is often thought of as "not proud", but do we really consider what that looks like? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary humble is "akin to Greek chthōn earth, chamai on the ground". In other words we need to be down-to-earth, approachable. Jesus certainly was!  And that, my dear readers, is our destiny: to be, as Romans 8.29 puts it, “conformed to the image of his Son”.  To look like Jesus from the inside out!  That is my desire, my hoped destiny.  May my pride, my selfishness, my desires for my rights, all be replaced with godliness - with the character of Christ - that I may have the heart of a child that He desires!

One morning my husband, David, and I arrived at the community center we had started to find that the crew that was working on some electrical and phone issues was still in the building.  David went to check on them and see if he could help.  Two young men, exhausted, but still pressing on, were laboring away.  They had estimated the job would take about four hours; it was now eight hours into the battle, and they were still not close to finishing.

It had been slow at the physical therapy department where he worked part-time, so David decided to see if he could take the morning off and come back to help.  Time was closing in on 8 am, so he had to hurry to work.  He left with a quick “I love you” and a “muwah” (our kiss on the run). 

As he hurried down the hall, I called out, “Come back for more passion!”  This got his attention, and with a puzzled look, he turned around and asked, “What?”

“Come back for more passion,” I repeated.  “I want to make sure you get those extra five years.”  He smiled and left.

Now you may be wondering what I am talking about.  Several years ago I read some research that discovered that married men who get a passionate, lingering kiss before they head off to work actually add an average of five years to their lives.  I determined right then that, as far as I was able, I’d do my part to contribute to my husband’s long-term well-being!

Oh, he got that kiss when he came back.  (Who knows what benefits I’m getting, too?)  

Here's a link from the Happy Wives Club to an article that will also encourage you to kiss more.  Enjoy! 

How 15 Seconds a Day Can Change Your Marriage

This is me loving a special evening at a Christmas-themed murder mystery dinner.  I was chosen to play a 9 year-old genius. 

Appropriate - except for the genius part. :)

I have found that life is filled with lots of tears, they seem to come naturally. Laughter, though, isn't always as easy to find. 

So I am determined that if I have to

I will laugh through the tears.