Listen For The Whisper: Surrounded by Burning Bushes

The Editing process is nearing completion.  The long hiatus (that was supposed to be a short hiatus) will hopefully be worth the wait.  52 of the ones I liked the best - that didn't step on a lot of copyright toes - compiled into a single devotional book.

I'll likely be posting a GoFundMe or some sort of crowd-funding link before too long for pre-orders and to help me get the project off the ground.

If you've followed this blog for this long, thank you for your support.  Hopefully you'll have a book that you can purchase and hold in your hands before too much longer.

Listen For The Whisper - The Book

The Listen for the Whisper blog will be on a brief hiatus as preparations are made to publish a selection of these in book form.  Feel free to enjoy past devotionals!  As always, please read, enjoy, and share!  Thanks! Dwayne  (and if you're looking for one that isn't currently listed, but you KNOW you've read it before...it's going in the book.)

I've Got The Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy

OK, everybody!  It’s sing-along time!  It’s an old one from WAY back.  Some of you faithful readers might not have sung this one in 40 years or more.  But close your eyes, imagine yourself sitting in a circle with the rest of your 10-year-old friends singing in Sunday morning Bible class and give it a shot.  And it’s ok if you don’t hit all the right notes.  I know it’s likely been a while, and moreover the Bible just says to make a joyful noise.  Nobody’s judging so belt it on out like you mean it!

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart

Where?!
Down in my heart!
Where?!
Down in my heart!
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart,
Where?!
Down in my heart to staaaaay.
And I'm so happy!  So very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart (down in my heart)
And I'm so happy!  So very happy.  I've got the love of Jesus in my heart.

Didn’t that feel good?  I’ve got the love of Jesus down in my heart, so I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy!  Philippians 4:4 at its finest!  Can I get an Amen?!  Sure can…for now.

See, this is a fresh devotional with a little more elaboration than I gave to the family at our recent church by the ocean.  I convicted myself.  Never fun.  But we sing about the joy, joy, joy, joy, but then we take a wrong turn somewhere and that joy vanishes.  Poof!  Like Barbara Eden skedaddling to avoid getting caught, our joy vanishes in a flash.  When I say “we take a wrong turn” I mean that literally.  On our way to Gulf Shores, the tunnel in Mobile was backed up something fierce.  I made a last minute decision to take the “hazardous material” route to see if I could save us a little time.  The trouble came when the route wasn’t really marked all that well with what to do with that exit after you took it.  The end result was roughly 5 minutes (maybe it was a whole 10 minutes tops) of circling around downtown Mobile trying to find this alternate route.  My joy was gone just like that.  I was on my way to a family vacation – the best time to EVER have only joy in my heart without the distractions or frustrations of work and all that whatnot.  Not me.  My truck’s GPS is barking about legal u-turns, and I’m literally back-talking the truck.  It’s not going to shut up no matter hateful I tell it to.  No exaggeration, I was looking to the map in my dashboard, “would you shut UP?!”  Of course, it’s not going to.  It wasn’t doing anything wrong.

I was.

I was the one growling like a hungry grizzly bear.  I was the one mad at…at what?  At the roads for not being marked?  At my wife for looking on her phone to say “It looks like we need to go back this way?”  At the truck’s gps for having the audacity to put me along the path I told it to keep me on?  At me for getting turned around so easily.  Maybe if I hadn’t popped my top, I wouldn’t have gotten turned around so easily.  “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart! Where?!”  Shut up, you stupid truck, can’t you see I’m turned around down here?!?!  My joy, joy, joy, joy was gone.  Just like that.  The love of Jesus in my heart, apparently simply couldn’t compete with the frustrations of a wrong turn.

Meanwhile, there’s Paul.  Good old Paul.  Around the same time frame that he was writing Philippians 4:4, (Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice) he was writing his second letter to the Corinthians.  Now, granted he didn’t specifically say in the 2 Corinthians context that he was finding joy in this list (although he does in Colossians 1:24), but within a few years of when he was making this list to defend his apostleship (2 Corinthians), he was sitting in a jail, yet again, telling us to rejoice in the Lord always.  SO, let’s take a quick look at Paul’s list of things he’s endured and yet still is able to rejoice in the Lord, shall we?  Then we’ll see how his list stacks up against my list.

Picking up in verse 23 of 2 Corinthians 11 in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

Wow.  I don’t think I need to, but since I said I would, let’s compare those lists, shall we?  So I’ll go first.  My list of frustrations includes stuff like this:  Can’t find my boots in the morning before work, crazy drivers on the road, people that waste my time at work, getting myself lost in an unfamiliar town while I’m on vacation, and maybe some mosquitoes thrown on the list for good measure to make it longer.  Does your list look a little like mine?  I mean, to be honest, I do tend to give the big things to God and trust Him to handle them.  Major illnesses and friends and family with major issues, I tend to lift them up in prayer and trust God.  But then the train gets derailed with bad drivers and mosquitoes.  Really?  Yeah, really.  Paul’s listed the infamous 39 lashes that he’s gotten five separate times, followed by being beaten with rods three times and being stoned.  Oh, and shipwrecked.  Not just turned around in Mobile, Alabama…but shipwrecked floating a full day and night out there lost.  Starving, freezing, and not only that…he feels daily pressure over his concern for the churches.  My last concern for a church was either over a) what mine was or wasn’t doing compared to what I thought it should or shouldn’t be doing or b) the general public perception of “the church” based on behavior of growing number of people who call themselves Christians but no more act like it than Sodom or Gomorrah while condemning the country of being like Sodom and Gomorrah.

I have to say that Paul’s list looks a little more impressive of things he has to endure…still he has the joy, joy, joy, joy down his heart.  He’s been beaten, stoned, and lashed, but he has the love of Jesus down in his heart.  So Paul rejoices in the Lord always.  He channels Job, “Though he slay me, I will still trust in the Lord.”

Listen for the Whisper that takes a hard right-hand turn like a last-minute detour in Mobile and sounds like the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.  I like to think of myself of the seed that fell on the good soil.  That gospel message has fallen in the good soil of my heart, taken root and is producing fruit.  Then I take a wrong turn in Mobile, Alabama.  Joy?  What Joy?  Nobody here in this truck but anger and frustration and short tempers.  Which rubs off on those immediately around me.  Yup, really shining my little light, ain’t I?  Then I get back on the road and headed the right way and think to myself, “maybe I’m a little closer to that rocky soil without much root…one simple wrong turn and apparently the love of Jesus crumpled up and tossed in the floorboard.”  That love of Jesus is supposed to be a source of joy that no dementor can take away (yeah, I just dropped a Harry Potter reference).  I think my garden needs a little more work.  There’s some good soil there, but still a few big rocks that need to be dug up and thrown out.  Maybe people might want a little more of what I claim to have if I lived it a little better.  How can I profess to the world about the joy I have in the Grace of my God and the love of my Savior Jesus Christ if a little thing like a wrong turn can steal that joy?  Is my source of joy better than there’s (whatever theirs happens to be) if that’s all it takes? 

We’re supposed to be little moons reflecting the light of the Son, and we read about Jesus flipping out over something insignificant and trivial like a wrong turn.  Jesus didn’t flip out when Judas betrayed Him.  Jesus didn’t flip out when the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him!”  Jesus didn’t flip out when they raised Him up on that cross.  He turned His eyes to Heaven.  Maybe if we were better at reflecting the “Sonlight”, that would be our reaction as well.  Instead of flipping out over a pair of buried boots, or slow driver in front of us, or an impatient driver behind us, we might turn our eyes to Heaven and realize that we’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in our hearts.  That joy that comes from the love of Jesus…that’s a joy that you have to actively choose to give up.  I’ve used the phrase “steal my joy” a few times, but losing that joy is a choice.  Nobody – and I’ll reiterate that for good measure – NOBODY can take the joy that comes from the love of Jesus Christ from you.  Not the devil.  Not bad drivers.  Not a truck’s GPS.  Not one single person regardless of what they’ve done to you.  Not a single person on this planet can TAKE that joy from you.  You have to choose to give up that joy.  Andrea’s been trying to tell me for a while now.  When I get frustrated with people and she tells me, “Don’t let them take your joy.”  But they can’t take my joy.  I have to choose to give it up.  I have to make a decision, even on a subconscious level, to give up that joy and accept anger and frustration.  I realized that on a stretch of road in Alabama this past week.  I’d rather choose joy.  And not just any joy…not joy from a slow day at work, or joy from a child’s report card with all As, or joy from a week-long vacation followed by a fun concert and meeting up with old friends.  Those joys are all temporary.  I’m choosing the joy that comes from the love of Jesus down in my heart.  So now that I’ve said all of that, let’s see if we get those rocks out of our garden and get some of that love planted in good soil, and give that song another shot.  As the old band director say, “One more time…With Feeling!”  And this time, let’s really mean it.

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart

Where?!
Down in my heart!
Where?!
Down in my heart!
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart,
Where?!
Down in my heart to staaaaay.
And I'm so happy!  So very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart (down in my heart)
And I'm so happy!  So very happy.  I've got the love of Jesus in my heart.

Why would we ever choose to give that up?

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Nobody Knows It But Me

I love the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.  It’s a real toss-up as to whether Calvin and Hobbes or The Far Side occupies my all-time favorite slot.  It’s the one with the little kid and the tiger if you don’t know it by name.  There’s a particular strip where he’s walking around the house like he’s king of the world.  He’s on top of the world, and nothing’s bringing him down.  He walks by his mom, then his dad, and they’ve both just simply stared at him, confused by his chest-puffed strutting.  The last panel has Calvin wondering aloud what the point of wearing your lucky rocketship underpants is if nobody notices.  Likely because nobody can see them, Calvin.

I recently got new tires for my truck, and I can tell they handle differently.  They’re new and shiny with deep tread again.  I don’t worry about hydroplaning like I used to with my old tires, because instead of a half inch of tread, my tread’s like 14 inches deep!  (or so it seems)  But nobody on the road notices my new confidence.  Nobody looks at my new tires as I drive down the interstate and says, “Look at the confidence he has!  He must have new tires!”  Nobody at work notices them in the parking lot.  I’ve never walked out from Kroger and seen people gathered around my new tires pointing and standing in awe at the shiny new tires.  I didn’t get them to impress anybody, I got them because I needed them.  But regardless of how much surer I am driving with my new tires, or you do with your new tires, don’t expect everybody to just notice it.  New tires is one of those things that if you want some to notice, you have to point it out.  It’s just like your lucky rocketship underpants that give you a feeling of being 10 feet tall.  Unless you actually say to someone, “I feel 10 feet tall today because I’m wearing my lucky rocketship underpants,” they’ll never know a thing about them.

That sounds a lot like Christianity.  In our desire to blend into society, or more to the point, not stick out in society or be labeled as Bible thumpers or Jesus freaks, we like to say things like “just live it.”  We justify our silence by saying things like, “I’ll share Jesus by letting people see how I’m different.”  Sometimes our Christianity is like the new tires, some people will just not notice unless you tell them explicitly about it.  You have to point out the new tires, or the lucky rocketship underpants, or your Christianity.  Maybe other people can see that you’re different.  Maybe they can see your joy.  They can probably see your willingness to help others.  But from watching you serve as Jesus served and being joyful in your Salvation, do they see “repentance”?  Do they see “accepting Jesus”?  Maybe you’re wearing a shirt with a scripture on it, but what if you’re simply wearing a Captain America t-shirt?  Do they get Jesus from the Captain America t-shirt?  No, they don’t. 

Sometimes you just have to open your mouth and tell them.  We try to shirk the responsibility of actually talking about Jesus by saying that we’re living it.  Sometimes, Marcel Marceau, instead of miming it out and playing “Jesus charades,” you need to be shouting it out like the town crier.  It’s like when you’re at the zoo.  Everyone is trying to find a particular animal hidden in the trees.  At the Memphis Zoo, it’s almost always the Red Panda.  But pick your own zoo, and your own “hard to find animal” exhibit.  You’ve spotted the elusive little critter hiding in the branches, and others walk up to the exhibit.  Most see you looking up and in a certain direction, and they look that way, too.  They look and they search, and they look back at you to see where you’re looking again.  But sometimes they simply don’t actually see it until you open your mouth and say to them, “it’s right there, just up from the funny-colored branch.”  Then they look again and see what you’ve been seeing all along.

It’s like keeping your eyes on the cross.  “I’m walking through life…got my eyes on the cross…following the narrow road…walking with Jesus…not getting distracted by the devil…I’m keeping my focus on the cross” Which is all wonderful, of course.  God bless you for it!  But unless people know what you’re looking at, then they’re still searching for a red panda hiding in the trees.  They see you have your eyes focused on something.  They can see you’re walking a determined, focused life.  They can tell you have a purpose in life.  But what purpose?  What focus?  “I can see this guy looking at something…he’s living differently than other people I know…but what is he looking at…he keeps his focus on something up there…but I’m just not seeing it…there has to be something there…too many leaves in the trees to be able to see the red panda…let me look at him again…yeah, he’s looking at something so let me see if I can see it…nope, I have no idea what he’s looking at.”

Sometimes you have to just open your mouth and say, “I’m following Jesus.  I’m keeping my eyes on the cross and living the new life that I’ve been called to live.  I’ve repented of my sinful past, and now I try to live for Him.  Sometimes I’ll trip, but I’ll always keep my eyes and my hope on the cross.”  And after you’ve told them where the red panda is, they can see exactly what you’re looking at.

Listen for the Whisper that sounds like the Kevin Sharp song, “Nobody Knows It But Me.”  Whether it’s your lucky rocketship underpants, or new tires, or a red panda hiding high in the branches…or Jesus Christ, sometimes if you want people to know, you’re just going to have to tell them.  We’re quick to tell perfect strangers in a checkout line how much we hate a store.  We’re quick to tell fans of an opposing team how much we can’t stand their team, or how happy we are that they’re team lost, or worse how happy we are that they’re miserable.  We’re quick to lay on the horn and yell insults at a stranger on the road.  So why are we so slow to share our most important message?  When it comes to anger and hate and discontent, we’re loud and proud and vocal.  Yet for some reason, when it comes to the most important words anyone can ever hear, we say things like “I’ll just live it.”  Don’t just live it, point it out.  If your chest is puffed out while you’re strutting around on top of the world, and nothing’s going to bring you down, then tell people why that is!  If you truly are happier insulting others and being rude to someone you’ve never met than sharing the Gospel with those people, I’d suggest a little time for self-reflection.  Take some time for self-reflection and realize that it’s not yourself you need to be reflecting.  In the old kid’s song “If you’re happy, and you know it” the first thing you do is clap your hands, then you stomp your feet…and at the end, you say “Amen”…because in the end, that’s the only real way to explain the source of your joy.  So if you’re clapping your hands, and you’re stomping your feet – take a minute to say the words “Amen”.  Say the words “Jesus loves you” to someone.  When you’re stuck in line, don’t just let people wonder why you’re smiling while everyone else is griping.  Tell them that you’re happy because your soul is safe with Jesus.  The frustration of standing in a long, slow line is insignificant compared to the joy you find in Jesus.  It better be, anyway.  And if that’s the honest truth and how you’re really feeling inside, why is it so hard to say?

 

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

 

 

Beatles 16, And In The End

In the Beatles Devotional Number 8 “Come Together”, I talked about the Abbey Road Medley (and in about a hundred devotionals since then, right?).  That particular medley ends the Abbey Road album with a song named “The End”.  It’s not, technically, the last song on the Abbey Road album.  There’s a lost bonus track “Her Majesty” that’s stuck at the end, but for all intents and purposes, “The End” is the end of the album.  It’s mostly guitar and drum solos that sounds like a mini jam session as the Beatles say their last goodbyes making music as a group.  It’s sort of fitting, really.  Their last recorded song is essentially a bunch of solos.  Maybe it was an unintentional illustration of exactly why they were breaking up.   After all the drum breaks and guitar solos, at the end of “The End” Paul McCartney sings the line “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

 

That’s a pretty appropriate ending if you ask me.  I saw the statistic once that the Beatles used the word “Love” 613 times in the totality of their songs.  It’s not the most-used word.  I found a website that had it all broken down.  “Love” is number eight on the list of word frequency in Beatles songs.  The others on the list were some of the usual English Language suspects: “The”, “And”, “To”, and “A” all occupying slots ahead of “Love”.  Interestingly enough, the number one word appearing in Beatles’ songs?  Not the pronouns me or I or my (even with George Harrison trying to skew the list with “I Me Mine”), but the most-used word is “You”.  “Love” is number 8, and “You” is number 1.  At the beginning of “The End” they harmonize and repeat the phrase “Love You” no less than 24 times.  If you’re wondering what the number 2 word on their frequency list is, it’s the word “I”.  They say “you” more than they say “I”.

 

Someone once asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was.  He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.”  Without being prompted for a follow-up, Jesus continued saying, “the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”  The plain and simple truth that Jesus said summed up the Law and the Prophets was “Love God and Love others”.  Love you, Love you, Love you, Love you.  Love was sung 613 times, and you was sung 2,262 times.  That’s a lot of Loves for a lot of Yous. 

 

Paul (the apostle) said in Romans 13:10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.”  Ozzy Osbourne said, “maybe it’s not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate.”  Paul (the Beatle) said, “Knowing that love is to share, Each one believing that love never dies.”  Jesus, the Messiah and King of Kings said in John 13, “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Which immediately reminds me of Led Zeppelin who sang, “Gotta Whole Lotta Love.” 

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”  1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep my commands.”  SO it sounds like there’s a direct correlation between those who love others, those who love God and those who keep Jesus’ commandments.  So maybe when it’s all said and done, if you really have accepted Jesus as Lord of your life, the love you take from Jesus should be equal to the love you make for others.  Like a perfectly balanced equation or a stable inflow/outflow water system.  The love that comes in should equal the love that goes out.  I know that a lot of Christians say a lot of disparaging things about the Beatles, and some of it may be very justified.  But it can’t be denied that the central message they tried to promote was a message of love.  The 613 mentions wasn’t just an accident.  The NASB version of the New Testament references love 215 times, just as a point of reference.  Is the Beatles message of love better or more powerful that the New Testament’s message?  Absolutely not!  Not in any song nor in any reality did any Beatle ever offer to die in your place.  Jesus not only offered it, He did it.  An unblemished sacrifice offered as payment for your sins.  In return He’s asked you to follow Him and to love God the Father with every aspect of your life.  Then He’s asked you to love others if you’ve loved Him.  So listen to some Beatles records – there’s only one bad word in all of their songs – so unless you have the “hidden meaning cheat sheet” handy, the random references there are will go largely unnoticed – not just by kids, but even adults.  But what you’ll hear is the word “love” used 613 times.  I realize in the essence of full disclosure that most of those references are a superficial “She Loves You, Yeah Yeah Yeah” type of reference, but loving others is the second greatest Commandment.  Hearing The Beatles singing about love as much as they sang about love can’t be all bad.

So Listen for the Whisper that sounds a little like the Beatles song “The End” and sounds a little like John (the apostle) in John 13:1.  “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”  Jesus loved the world so much that He was willing to take on the world’s sin and die on a cross.  And He loved to “the end.”  “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”  And in the end, Jesus made his love to be perfect love.  Laying down His life for those He loved, and He didn’t just love those that liked Him or accepted Him.  He died for his mother.  He died for his disciples.  He died for the thief that defended His honor.  He died for the thief that mocked Him.  He died for Pilate and Herod and Judas and Peter and Luke and Matthew and King David and King Saul and King Nebuchadnezzar and Abel and Cain and Adam and Eve and Abraham and Abraham Lincoln.  He died for me.  He died for you.  He died for John, Paul, George and Ringo.  John (the Beatle) sang in triple-tracked vocals, “Love is old, love is new.  Love is all, love is you.”  With Perfect Love Jesus died for everyone that was ever born or ever would be born.  It’s like any other gift though, you can either accept it, or you can ask for the receipt and try to exchange it for something else.  But you won’t find a better gift.  The gift is perfect, like the love of His sacrifice was made perfect.  All Jesus asks in return is a simple acceptance of His gift and then to love God and love others as He loves you (noting the present tense, not past tense – but that’s another devotional). 

 

To end this Beatles devotional series with one last “Not the apostle, the Beatle” type twist, I’ll say that this series ends much the way John (the apostle) ends his Gospel.  In John 21:25, John closes his account with “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”  While that’s very likely not exaggeration for John, it is for me.  Although, that I would like to point out that even though I’ve been able to draw a great many Christian lessons through the course of this series, I’ve not even scratched the surface of what I’ve debated doing.  I finally just stopped.  They had to end at some point, but the crux of the matter is that God is all around you if you just take the time to see Him…or Listen.  There’s no greater joy that walking through your day, minding your own business, and hearing God’s Whisper cutting through the noise.  God is constantly trying to reach us, and like a burning bush or a whisper in the night (“Samuel, Samuel”), He will use a wide range of vehicles to deliver that message.  God gave Balaam’s donkey a voice to deliver the news of the presence of The Angel of the LORD in Numbers 22.  So really who’s to say or vehemently deny that, with 613 love references, God used some not-so-subliminal reminders in the Beatles albums as to what our job is as Christians.  Look at the people around you – all of them – and say “Love you.”  As Christians, our mantra should never be “judge you” or “ridicule you” or “exclude you” or “look down on you.”  It’s quite simply “love you.”

 

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Beatles 14, All Good Children Go To Heaven

In the “We Can Work It Out” Beatles devotional (#7 if you’re counting), I went into detail about the Abbey Road Medley flowing one into the next as a comparison with Faith and Works flowing seamlessly together.  There’s a little harmonized, sing-song verse at the end of the first track of the medley “You Never Give Me Your Money” that sounds a little bit nursery rhyme and a little bit pseudo-theology.  Ironically enough, it’s repeated nine times before it fades into the chirping crickets that transition into “Here Comes the Sun King”, but the line is, “One Two Three Four Five Six Seven, All good children go to Heaven.”  With the counting to seven, one would think they’d sing it seven times.  But they’re the Beatles, and I’m me…so I won’t argue.  It is a sweet sentiment, though.  We’re all God’s children.  God loves His children.  From our earliest childhoods, we even sing “Jesus loves the little children – all the children of the world!”  It’s a beautiful sentiment indeed.  If God loves us all so much, surely He wouldn’t send us to Hell.  “All good children go to Heaven.”

It ranks right up there with “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…” as bad worldly theological ideas go.  I’ll say on the front end that Grace is so much bigger than any of us realize.  It’s as big as God the Father Himself, and just as equally misunderstood by our limited human minds.  So I’m not about to even try to discuss the salvation of actual children.  I’m not discussing “age of accountability”.  I’m not discussing or debating original sin and all being born sinners and the wages of sin being death, either.  God will be the judge of the guilty and the saved, and God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.  Whatever their age.  Regardless of how we feel about it.  Ask Jonah about Nineveh the next time you wonder if God cares what you think about whom He’ll save.  However, as a general point of the devotional (yeah, this is a big disclaimer) I’m simply using the “all good children go to Heaven” as a spring board and catchy title to address the “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because he never went to church” safety net that we try to use.

The Beatles sang, “all you need is love…love is all you need!”  All you need is love??  It’s true that it’s not even debatable that there are LOTS of verses and passages about the importance of love and loving your neighbor, but is love ALL you really need?  Not according to John 14:6.  Jesus told us explicitly, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  We say, “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…”  According to Jesus, no one comes to the Father except through Him.  Will there be room for Grace?  Possibly.  Maybe even likely.  Again that’s not my call, and it’s not the plan of Salvation I would recommend.

It’s not my job to judge the innocent and the guilty.  The Bible is irrefutably clear on who will be the One to separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats.  It ain’t me!  The job that I’ve been given is to share the Gospel with everyone I meet.  My job is go into the fields and grow wheat!  My job is go into the fields and pull some magic trick of turning goats into sheep!  So let me pose this question:  Who gets judged harsher, those who never hear the gospel, or those who have and accepted it but never shared it because it made them uncomfortable?  The world says, “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…”  I ask, “Surely God wouldn’t send a good Christian like (insert great guy Christian here) to Hell just because he was embarrassed to share the Gospel.” 

Those are the questions where Grace gets really big, but we still start sweating just a little bit.  Luke 9:26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”  Mark 8:38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”  No qualifiers on those, were there?  Nothing there about “non-believers” or “non-Christians” or anything else.  Both verses there simply say “For whoever”.  Yeah, that’s when our concept of Grace gets really big.  When we’re the ones standing behind the defendant’s table, Grace gets really big really quickly.  It’s sad how it gets really big for us when we need it to, but not so much for others. 

But again, there’s the point of Grace.  My point isn’t about whether God will send good people to Hell.  And yes, I’m fully aware that I keep making points that aren’t really my point.  I’ll apologize now and let you know that’s it’s just one of the hazards of reading a devotional written by someone with focus problems.  The true point is pretty obvious, though.

If you call yourself a Christian, then you have work to do, so why haven’t we started it?  Is it because we’re lazy?  Is it because we’re scared?  Is it because it makes us uncomfortable to say “Jesus” in front of people?  Do I keep using the pronouns “we” and “us” because it keeps me from pointing this bullet at myself…because I’m the world’s worst at shirking the duty that I’ve been charged to do?  Could I have looked at myself in a mirror and asked myself those exact same questions?  No, I couldn’t.  Because I’m ashamed and embarrassed of the answer that I’d be forced to give when I’m honest with myself.  So I don’t ask myself that question.  I don’t ask myself that question, and then I use pronouns like “us” and “we” so that I’m not alone behind that defendant’s table.  When Jesus Christ sits in the judge’s seat, and the Holy Spirit stands behind the prosecution table, it gets really unnerving to stand there alone at the defendant’s table.  So if there are more of us standing behind the defendant’s table (there’s that “us” creeping in again), then surely God couldn’t throw us ALL into Hell for being ashamed to say “Jesus” in front of people, right?

Luckily, we’re not alone behind the defendant’s table.  Not even if it’s not all us.  If it’s just me, I’m still not alone.  Jesus Christ testifies on my behalf.  Wait, wasn’t Jesus the judge?  Yeah…have some Trinity and wrap your head around it for a little bit.  Jesus Christ died for my sins…and gave me Grace.  It puts Him in charge of the sentencing and the parole, if you will.  So should we purposely not share the Gospel because of God’s Grace?  Well not to sound like Paul writing to the Romans when they asked if they should keep sinning so Grace may abound – BUT, “by no means!”  Jesus being my defender and my judge doesn’t exclude me from my responsibilities of sharing the Gospel any more than it does my need to repent from my sinful ways and live a new life.

Listen for the Whisper that sounds like the old church hymn “We’ll work ‘til Jesus comes…” – that same one I reference WAY back in the “We Were Soldiers” devotional series (although it wasn’t the Whisper we were listening for then).  This whole “Christianity Thing” isn’t something where we Hear the Gospel, Believe it to be the truth, Repent of our sins, Confess Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior, and then we’re Baptized and now “it is finished.”  Baptism isn’t the end.  It’s barely the beginning.  Every single day we have work to do.  We have work to do on ourselves, and we have work to do in the world.  And there I go with “we” again…I’ve used “we” so many times, I’m starting to sound French.  But when it comes judgment time, there’ll be nobody there but me.  Each of us stands alone before Christ to give an account for our actions.  So instead of using “we” so frequently, maybe I should just own it.  Because on Christ’s Day of Judgment, when He judges the world, it’s just going to be me.  And every day, I have work to do.  I have work to do on myself, and I have work to do in the world.  Am I denying myself daily?  Am I growing my Fruits of the Spirit?  Am I going into the world preaching the Gospel and making new disciples?  Am I?

There are no tears in Heaven, but how much regret will there be in the Courtroom.  I don’t mean just regret from the unsaved people wishing that they had believed when they had time.  I mean regret from me.  I’m not going to use a single “us” or “we” at all in this.  Because this is personal.  This is something that I have to place on my own shoulders alone.  “Surely God wouldn’t send a good person like (insert great guy non-Christian here) to Hell just because…”  Because what?  Because it was someone that I knew, and didn’t share the Gospel with them?  If I did, and they rejected Christ, then maybe I’m sad because they wasted their opportunity.  What if they never had the opportunity?  What if I was the only Christian they knew…I was the only person in a position to tell them and didn’t?  Talk about regret!! 

Can I handle being seated in that courtroom awaiting my own trial and seeing “that guy” getting found guilty?  “You are guilty of sin without accepting the gift of Grace to pardon those sins!”  Can I handle watching someone being sentenced to eternity in Hell because it made me uncomfortable to talk to them about Jesus?  They had one chance.  I was it.  I was uncomfortable, so they go to Hell.  No “us”.  No “we”.  Just me.  My only excuse, the sum of my defense is the word “uncomfortable”?  Does Jesus look at me from the judge’s chair – straight at me – with a sad look on His face?  Does He look down at the scars in His hands that He took for me, and then hold them up, like “I did this for you, and you were uncomfortable simply talking about me.”  For me, Jesus was willing to endure unthinkable suffering and pain, and then death.  And, oh the horror, it makes ME uncomfortable to simply TELL that to someone else. 

I need to realize the magnitude of what I just said.  I was uncomfortable talking about Jesus, so someone I know goes to Hell.  Not just the Sodom and Gomorrah sinners.  Not just the “sinners” that I’ve deemed not worthy in my self-righteous opinion.  My neighbors, my friends, my family members, my co-workers going to Hell because I was uncomfortable.  I don’t need the Holy Spirit behind the prosecution table trying to convict me.  I’ve convicted myself.  I have a job to do, and haven’t done it.  My sole excuse for not doing it is because of some social embarrassment or awkward feelings.  What if that “great guy” turns and looks at me…his eyes say, “you could have saved me from this.”  Can I handle that regret?  Can I handle Jesus looking at me with that disappointment on His face?  “I died for you, and you were ashamed to talk about me?”  Can I handle that regret? 

The Bible says that my judgment will come like a thief in the night.  How many times have I seen unexpected deaths?  Heart attacks, strokes, car crashes…all thieves in the night.  That thief in the night just robbed me of my next chance to tell that “great guy”…because it was either him (or me) that had that “thief in the night” moment.  Of all the regrets of things I wished I’d said to those I’ve lost, how far up the list of those things is “Jesus loved you enough to die for you?  Won’t you turn to Him?”  Grace is getting really big for me again.  Talk about faith and hope!  I hope that God takes away that regret…or gives me a chance to fix it before it becomes a regret.  Because I can’t handle that regret.  The question I have to ask the man that looks back at me from my mirror is, “does the fear of that regret make me more uncomfortable than the uncomfortable feeling of talking to someone about Jesus?”  How about you?

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Beatles 13, Hey Bulldog!

Several devotionals ago (Take Me To The Pet Shop) I discussed the misunderstood lyrics of the Beatles songs “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Dear Prudence” and spun a fancy little tale of deeper meanings – or not as the case may be.  The point was that we needed to know what we were reading and that we were seeking the truth.  This one is a little like that, but not really.

Let’s list four Beatles songs to start with:  “Martha, My Dear”, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Julia”, and “Savoy Truffle.”  That’s a pretty weird little collection I just put together.  Certainly never going to make the Greatest Hits, although I really like each and every one of them.  The reason I picked those songs is obvious, of course, but I’m not revealing the secret behind the magic just yet.  Let’s look at them one at a time, shall we? 

“Martha, My Dear” is a Paul McCartney song.  It contains some beautiful music, and more beautiful lyrics.  “Please Remember me Martha my love. Don't forget me Martha my dear” and “Martha my dear you have always been my inspiration Please be good to me Martha my love” to list just a few.  WOW!! Martha must be one lucky girl to have such a beautiful song written about her!!  Who is Martha?  Paul’s sheepdog.

“Got To Get You Into My Life” is another Paul McCartney creation.  It’s not a slow, melodic song like “Martha.”  It’s full of horns and a bold declaration of “Got to get you into my life!”  Among the other things Paul proudly sings are “Ooh, you were meant to be near me.  Ooh, and I want you to hear me.  Say we'll be together every day.” and “Then suddenly I see you.  Did I tell you I need you every single day?”  Those are some pretty strong words of devotion.  Is Paul singing to some girl?  No.  Is he singing to his sheepdog again?  Nope.  Paul’s declaring his love for a certain recreational drug that’s showing up on election ballots these days.  Seems to take a different meaning when you know that’s what he’s dedicating his devotion to.

But enough of Paul, let’s give John some love.  “Julia” is sometimes called John’s response to Paul’s “Blackbird.”  It’s a really, really good song.  John sings to Julia, “Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you, Julia” and “Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering,
In the sun…So I sing a song of love, Julia.”  Now there’s a love ballad!  Shakespeare couldn’t have written more poignant words of love in Romeo and Juliet.  Of course, by now you’re catching on so you know it’s not a girlfriend.  No, it’s not Paul’s dog…or John’s.  It’s not a drug reference, either.  It’s his mom!!  She was hit and killed in an accident when John was 17.  So he wrote this amazing song for his mom.  Momma’s Boy!  Hehe.

Finally, we get to “Savoy Truffle” written by George “My Favorite Beatle” Harrison.  No dogs or girls or moms or drugs in this one.  It sounds like an inventory of a kid’s trick-or-treat sack.  No exaggeration on that, either.  Literally, the first line is “Creme tangerine and montelimart, a ginger sling with a pineapple heart.”  You want to know why it sounds like a box of chocolates.  Because it is.  George was good friends with Eric Clapton (he played the solos on While My Guitar Gently Weeps) who apparently had quite the sweet tooth.  The song, according to George, was inspired by Eric’s inability to keep out of a box of Mackintosh's Good News chocolates.  So George poked a little fun at his friend by writing a song that was basically the contents page for the box.  Even the title “Savoy Truffle” is one of the chocolates in the box.

By now, as usual, you’re yelling at the devotional about getting to the point already.  SO here it is.  It helps to know the backstory.  Some of you reading this may have loved “Martha, My Dear” or “Julia” since the first time you heard it.  You loved it because it was an amazing love song, and summarized the way you felt about your significant other so perfectly.  It’s Paul’s dog.  It’s John’s mom.  Maybe the song you sang to your wife was some caterwauling, poor rendition of “Got To Get You Into My Life.”  Maybe you played it on the radio when you dropped down on one knee and proposed…because it’s the perfect song with the right emotion and desire that you feel for your would-be bride.  It’s not about a woman.  It’s about Paul’s fascination with wanting more experience with a habit.  “Savoy Truffle” doesn’t really have much meaning that can be taken for more than what it is, but now you know the story of how it came to be.  Now that you know how it came to be, it likely makes more sense when you hear it.  “Oh, ok…yeah…he’s jabbing fun at Eric Clapton with the candy references and little one-liners.”  Much like knowing the truth of what’s said, and really understanding the lyrics that I mentioned in the afore-mentioned “ Pet Shop” devotional, to truly understand something you read, it’s best to know to whom it was written.

For example, take Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The four Gospels in the New Testament that tell the story of Jesus Christ and His ministry on Earth.  Why do three of them overlap, and why is John different?  Why does Matthew begin with that snooze-fest of begetting?  Why does Mark read with the pace of a Saturday morning cartoon?  Why does Luke sound like an attorney trying to win a court case?  The answer is the same as the Beatles songs…It’s completely due to whom they were written. 

Matthew starts with all that begetting because Matthew is writing his gospel to the Jews.  The Jews were looking for a King from the line of David.  The Jews wanted their Messiah.  Matthew starts with the heritage of Jesus Christ to show that He was who He said He was.  Matthew uses a lot of Old Testament prophecy to connect the dots from David to the prophets to Jesus.  We start with Matthew 1:1 and read “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:” and immediately hit cruise control.  Our eyes scan the page, blurring through names we can’t pronounce, wondering what begat even means, and pop out of the wormhole in verse 17 reading about 14 generations and 14 more generations and thinking “What was the point of that?!”  To the Jewish reader, that IS the whole point.  The pedigree of Jesus Christ.  That blistering bombardment of begats that begins the book is meant to clearly reveal to the Jewish reader that Jesus IS the heir to David’s throne and IS the Messiah, the Son of God.  The entirety of the book is devoted to proving how Jesus fulfills the many Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament.

Mark could be a comic book adaptation of the life of Jesus Christ.  It jumps from action scene to action scene like the first five minutes of a television show recapping what happened last week!  Mark starts with an introductory title like the beginning of a police drama:  “The wilderness, near the Jordan River” and we fade into John the Baptist.  He’s wearing crazy clothes, and he’s baptizing people right and left.  Almost immediately we see Jesus walk up, and John’s baptizing Jesus.  John’s arrested to get him out of the plot for now, and the story shifts to Jesus.  When we get to Jesus, it’s miracle after miracle.  We ain’t got time for all that boring begetting business!  We want the action scenes!  The first time Cameron saw Jurassic Park, we were most of the way through the setup of the story when he turned to me and said, “This is boring.  When are the dinosaurs going to flip out and start eating people?”  That’s the Gospel of Mark!!  It was written to the people of Rome!  America and Rome are right there together!  We want action, excitement, and adventure!  They fed Christians to lions, but luckily in America we have CGI.  The Romans didn’t care about genealogy.  They wanted action!  They wanted a God that was powerful and mighty and larger than life!  Mark’s gospel delivers just that.  He skips the focus on prophecy and lineage and jumps straight to the healing.  We’re just over halfway through the first chapter before Jesus has healed Peter’s Mother-In-Law.  Mark stands up on the soapbox and says, “Do you want to know what Jesus did?  I’ll tell you what Jesus did!” Mark uses the word “immediately” 34 times.  In the shortest of the Gospels, Mark describes 27 miracles.  It’s an action-packed Gospel written to a people with a short attention span.  It’s fast-paced, it’s to the point, and it paints Jesus in all His glory in 30 minutes including commercials!  Why?  Because it’s written for Romans.

Next we come to Luke, the doctor.  Logical Luke writing a courtroom drama with all the arguments logically flowing from one to the next.  Luke was a Greek Christian and wrote his book to whom?  A gentile world outside the umbrella of Abraham’s Promise.  Luke builds, block by block, the theology of Jesus Christ.  Luke carefully details Jesus’ humanity and His divinity.  Luke is not writing to a Jewish audience who knows full well the Promise given to Abraham but to to one who needs to be shown the truth of the Messiah.  Luke is not writing to a powerful Roman culture that needs shock and awe to get their attentions.  Luke essentially is writing to everyone else.  When you’re writing to everyone, you need to go slow and not miss any points.  You start on the ground floor, and state your case one floor at a time.  When you reach the top floor, you reveal the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.  Luke is simply telling the world that God is God, and that Jesus is His Son.  Luke explains that we all have sinned, but that God loves us all.  Luke shows that through God’s love, Jesus was sacrificed and has overcome death.  Luke tells the world about Jesus with a patience and deliberateness that shows that he wants to make sure that, in the end, nobody is confused about who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done.

Lastly, there’s John.  John’s like the old Sesame Street game “One of these things is not like the others.  One of these things just doesn't belong…Three of these things belong together.  Three of these things are kind of the same.”  There’s the three synoptic gospels – with Matthew, Mark and Luke being card-carrying members.  Lastly, there’s John.  As I’ve said before, John, like the cheese, stands alone.  So the question is simple:  Why does John, like the cheese, stand alone?  Well we know that Matthew is writing specifically to Jews.  We know that Mark is writing to Romans.  We know that Luke is writing to everyone else.  So who does that leave that John is writing to?  The same people that Matthew, Mark, and Luke were writing to.  The Book of John was the last to be written.  If someone has told a great story three time over, what do you do?  You say, “Yeah, that was good and all, but you didn’t tell the whole story, and you left out ALL THE OTHER STUFF!”  That’s precisely what John did.  He even throws his own disclaimer at the end confirming this very notion.  John 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.  John’s saying, “I know I didn’t get it all, either, but I tried to get the best parts out there.”  So John’s not synoptic - not because he’s wrong…it’s because John is the original Paul Harvey.

Listen for the Whisper that sounds like your high school English teacher.  Mine would be Mrs. Ginn, but feel free to substitute your own in your head.  This whisper sounds like the teacher that had you read some awful story and then asked you who the target audience was.  It sounds like the teacher that asked you to describe the setting of Ransom of Red Chief.  This Whisper is telling you that the Word of God is infallible and perfect.  This Whisper is also telling you that to help you understand it more fully, sometimes you need to look at your Bible like an 11^th Grade English assignment.  Don’t just read it and memorize parts to be able to pass a simple test.  Put some thought into what you’re reading.  Why does John’s account vary so much from the others?  Why does “Savoy Truffle” sound like a Willy Wonka song?  What is the setting at the church at Corinth when Paul writes his first letter to them?  These are important questions.  Otherwise, you might think you have discovered some profound insight only to realize later that Paul was actually writing about his sheepdog.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com