Beatles 7, We Can Work It Out

Abbey Road is the last recorded Beatles album.  It wasn’t the last to be released…that’s Let It Be, but Let It Be was actually recorded before the Abbey Road album.  Either way, Side 2 of Abbey Road has eight songs that flow together from one to the next.  Starting with “You Never Give Me Your Money”, they’re individual, unique songs but sewn together appearing to be several movements of the same song until it ends (appropriately enough) at “The End”.  Each has something from the one preceding it, or similar music that blends in way that Mean Mr. Mustard’s sister is mentioned during his song, then she has her song, then later we’re repeating the melody and the lyric from “You Never Give Me Your Money” while we’re actually halfway through “Carry That Weight” some six songs later.  Truly it is one of my favorite “songs” by the Beatles on what is, by far, my favorite Beatles album.  It has everything a Beatles fan could ask for:  Lennon’s cryptic lyrics, McCartney’s poetic, piano-driven melodies, Harrison’s riffs, and even an outstanding Ringo Starr drum solo.  All you could ask for from the Beatles in 8 pieces of music ranging from just over a minute to about four and a half minutes long…a 16 minute microcosm of the Beatles flowing in and out from one to the next.

I’ll tell you, though, I can’t think of the Abbey Medley without thinking of the whole Faith and Works discussion.  Saved by Faith, not works, but faith without works is a dead faith.  The fact that you can’t earn your Salvation is a universal truth, but Jesus said if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.  Ephesians 2 says that ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Then Paul talks in Romans and says in Chapter 4 ⁴ Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. ⁵ But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, that clearly states that if you think you get saved by works, then it’s not a gift…if you work, you’ve earned something.  But you’ve earned nothing since it was a gift.  Then there’s 1 John 2:4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; that says that if we don’t keep Jesus’ commandments, then we’re a liar.  But I thought it was faith, not works – but then we keep reading that we have to do works.  But if we’re saved by faith (and we are) why do we keep reading about the works?  It gets summed up with James telling us in Chapter 2 that “Faith without works is dead.”  Quite possibly the single most misunderstood verse of the Bible.

It’s an old problem, and one I’ve heard best described by a friend of mine as “Memory Verse Theology”.  It’s the same topic that the “Father Abraham and the Deathly Hallows” devotional was about.  To quote myself:  Without the whole of the Word, you’re missing out on the larger part of understanding. You’ll come to find that a lot of things that you think you know based on a “single verse” approach may be something you question when the whole of the text is taken into account.  That is to say, to understand James’ point about Faith and Works, you need read it all…not just five simple words.  Because he also says quite plainly in verse 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.  But if it’s only faith, why does James say that man is not justified by faith alone.

Listen for the Whisper that says Faith and Works are a palindrome like bob, kayak, racecar, or a sentence like “Ma is a nun, as I am”.  Same frontwards and backwards and blend together so you can’t tell what’s faith and what’s works.  Going front to back, where does one stop and the other start.  Symmetry about the middle.  What’s “You never give me your money” and what’s “Carry that weight”?  Can you really stand up proud and yell, “I believe Jesus is the Son of God,” then sit in your recliner and do nothing…ever?  Jesus said that whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.  Jesus said that if we loved Him, we would feed His sheep.  James said in 2:26 – I’ll quote the full verse, not just the catch phrase - For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.  That’s not a preaching of salvation by works at all!  That’s the last thing that James is trying to say…but that’s how rumors get started.  Somebody hears one short snippet of something someone says, and they run with it.  Clipping verse 24 from the news story makes a completely different headline.  Extra Extra!  Read all about it!  James says, “Man justified by works, not faith alone!” Extra Extra!!

But don’t listen to the kid selling papers yelling out a blurb.  Take the time to read the whole thing.  It’s a palindrome.  “We panic in a pew!”  There’s another one there.  Start at the front, start in the back, same same.  Along the lines of misheard, misused, misunderstood phrases, let’s take a quick look at one that would be applicable here.  “The proof is in the pudding!”  We’ve heard it, used it, and not understood it.  What does that mean?  Did someone drop evidence in the pudding?  (insert a British accent here) It was Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen with the Candlestick!  How do I know that?  Welllll…the proof is in the pudding!!  WRONG!  The ACTUAL phrase…the real phrase…the original phrase is technically “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” and THAT is a whole different concept!  And it’s a concept a LOT closer to the faith/works discussion.  It’s one thing to say that a pudding is good.  It’s one thing to talk about how well it sets up after you fix it.  It’s one thing to say that it’s the best pudding you’ll ever eat in your life.  It’s a whole different discussion to take a big, fat spoon from the drawer and actually put a huge glob of pudding in your mouth and eat it.  And that, my friends, is the crux of the faith/words discussion.  It’s one thing to say you believe this or that or the other…but to act on that belief shows it’s a real belief.

Faith and works run together like “Golden Slumbers” and “Carry That Weight”…you start by believing, then before you know it, you look up and you’re doing God’s work.  It might be mission trips.  It might be helping old ladies carry groceries down the street talking to them about Jesus.  It might be teaching a class of kids at church.  It might be writing corny little devotionals that have a knack for taking something as disconnected as anvils and marshmallows and finding a way to use it to help explain the Bible.  But whenever I get confused about something I read, I always try to go back to what Jesus said.  I see Paul saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith… not as a result of works,” but then James says “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” and then John clears it up (I guess) with “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar,”  so that you essentially end up with what sounds like Plan A) Faith alone, B) Works not faith alone, or C) simply keeping his commandments – whatever that means.  So let’s go back to what Jesus said.  Matthew 15 ⁷ You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ⁸ ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.⁹ ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’   Then in Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.  And just to throw an unexpected one for this conversation – John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

You know what that sounds to me like Jesus said?  “Talk is cheap.”  It’s easy to say, “I believe”, but have I changed my life?  God can say, “I love the world”, but He proved it by His actions of giving His Son.  Faith and works flow together hand in hand demonstrating one another as real.  They flow in and out of each other like waves on the shore.  It’s like standing on the beach and worrying about where the ocean stops and where the sand starts.  It’s not one stopping and the other starting…it’s the beach.  Water washes up on the sand while the sand stretches out under the waves. And in the swirl of the beach, the sand mixes with the water…and it’s just “the beach.”  It’s not eight different songs.  It’s just the Abbey Road Medley.  And it’s not Faith and Works.  It’s just Christianity.  Like a fish being a fish – meaning he breathes in the water.  It’s what a fish does.  Like an eagle being an eagle – meaning he soars the highest heights.  It’s what an eagle does.  Like Yahweh God being Yahweh God – meaning that He loved the world so much that Jesus was sacrificed for it all.  It’s what Yahweh God does.  Like a Christian being a Christian – meaning he does the works that are pleasing to God.  It’s what a Christian does.  It’s quite simply Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God.  That’s Christianity.  One simple word that encompasses the changed person you are.  Changed beliefs, changed behavior, and a changed heart all demonstrated by the complete change of what you are.  Like a fish being a fish, and an eagle being an eagle.  It’s not worrying about that beaten, dead horse “is it faith or is it works” question.  It’s a Christian being a Christian.  And what does a Christian do?  A Christian does the things that are just, loves kindness and walks humbly with God.  It’s Abbey Road all flowing together.  It’s being dead to yourself and alive for Christ.  It’s Yin and Yang.  It’s two sides of the same coin.  It’s a palindrome…start with one and go back the way you came…it’s the same both ways.  The next time you hear someone ask if it’s Faith or Works, just ask them “Do Geese See God?” It’s a reminder of the palindrome (“do/G eeS e/see/G oD”) that makes up Faith and Works.  It’s a beautiful painting where Faith and Works are strolling down the beach in their flip-flops at sunset together…not the place where the water and the sand meet, but on the beach.  If you’re asking if it’s Faith or Works then, sadly, you’re missing the whole picture.

~Dwayne
ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Beatles 6, I'm Looking Through You

“Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” an album by the Beatles that was not, in fact, by the Beatles…I mean it was, but it was the Beatles pretending to be someone else.  There we go!  One run-on sentence into the devotional and everyone’s confused.  I’ll try again.  Paul McCartney had the idea to do an album, but instead of doing an album as the Beatles, they would do the album as a fictitious band, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  It was originally intended to be a spoof of all the long-named California style bands that were coming out around that time.  For examples, think of Janis Joplin’s group “Big Brother and The Holding Company”, “Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs”, or “Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels”.  It was the same four guys pretending to be four OTHER guys…like when Garth Brooks did the ridiculous Chris Gaynes stunt with the bad wig.  They put on the bright, shiny uniforms.  They sang a song about the band and introduce Billy Shears in the song as their lead singer.  They transition into “A Little Help From My Friends,” and there the whole, silly illusion fell apart. 

The problem was that once you got by opening track that tells you the name of the band is “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – the songs are all just Beatles songs.  They had a different sound nd there was some just weird stuff on it…but the voices singing the songs, were still the same voices as the seven albums before it.  Not they had actually tried to pass it off as someone else…it was just something that bored musicians do when they quit playing live concerts and need something to keep them occupied.  We all knew who it was.  These days most people don’t even know about the veiled attempt to pass off alternate identities.  It’s just the eighth Beatles album, and despite the hoopla and funny outfits, in my opinion it’s not one of their better ones.  Does it have some good songs?  Yeah, but it has some stinkers, too.

So what does all of this have to do with a church devotional?  Maybe I should make my points more clear so I don’t have to keep asking myself that, right?  John 13:34-35 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.  Matthew 7:16 ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?  Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

You are who you are by your actions.  To be something different, you have to BE something different.  Sound redundant?  Maybe a little, but there seems to be a bit of confusion about that subject out there.  It seems that a lot of people tend to think that overt rudeness, snide comments, blatant disrespectfulness, and extreme selfishness are all acceptable Christian behaviors.  Party like the proverbial rock star during the week, then show up Sunday morning is perfectly acceptable Christian behavior.  They’re acceptable because they call themselves a Christian.  It doesn’t matter that you play your instruments like the Beatles, your voices sound like the Beatles, and when you look at your album cover, you look just like Beatles – albeit dressed in funny, shiny uniforms.  What matters, I suppose, is that you call yourself Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  That’s all you have to do – just call yourself something different and apparently you are something different.  Apparently you can be a thorn bush and simply call yourself a grape vine and produce grapes.  Or…maybe you can’t.

So here we are again with that age-old situation of sitting in a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more that sitting in a chicken coup makes you a chicken.  So I polished this one just a little by putting a Sergeant Pepper spin on it, but sometimes it’s the simple messages that we often forget and need reminding.  Like the way we sometimes seem to forget that there is a hell, and that people we know and care for will be going there.  Will they be going there because of something you did to influence them into a life of sin?  Will they be going there because you had the chance to share the Gospel and didn’t?  There is only one way to the Father and that’s through Jesus Christ.  Have you told them that?  Or have you just been out partying with them?  Churching it up on Sunday morning pretending to producing figs when really you’ve revealed the thorns you’re truly producing on Friday and Saturday night.  If you’re a chicken, you’re a chicken.  If you’re a fig tree, you’re a fig tree.  If you’re a grape vine, you’re grape vine.  If you’re a Beatle, you’re a Beatle.  If you’re a sheep, then you’re a sheep…that is to say if you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian.  Not just on Sunday morning or on Wednesday night, or when you run into an elder’s wife at the store.  Like the point I made in my New Creation devotional about the masked wrestler, you’re not going fool anybody but yourself with your Jesus mask.  Your coworkers see who you really are.  Your family sees who you really are.  The people in line at the store hearing you gripe and complain about a line see who you really are.  And most importantly God the Father sees who you really are.  Which is exactly what Jesus explains in John 10:14-15 in the parable of the good shepherd.  ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, ¹⁵ even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 

So go ahead if you want and call yourself Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  We all know you’re really the Beatles.  Call yourself a sheep if you want to call yourself a sheep.  Jesus knows His sheep.  So the crucial questions are these.  Are you really one of His sheep?  Are you really and truly in the flock?  Are you in the actual pen with the real Shepherd?  Or are you simply hanging out near the pen?  “I’ll be over here until it gets close to supper time or a wolf shows up .”  Then you come running back to stand near the pen, and hope that in the confusion Jesus gets confused about whether or not you were really in the pen or just standing close to it.  Do you want to be actually in the pen or just close enough that you can jump in when there’s trouble?  I’m not pointing fingers or naming names, I’m just asking questions.  What are you producing?  Are you producing figs or thorns?  Are you a sheep when it’s convenient, but not when it’s more fun to not?  Do you come to church on Sunday morning and sing about how God is “above all powers, above all kings, above all nature, and all created things” – but then go home and worship pro football above all else?  Do you go to work on Monday morning and worship the dollar above all else?  Do you turn on your television and worship greed and lust above all else?

Listen for the Whisper of Luke 16…please.  I’m not sitting up here just throwing stones at others.  For every rock I’ve chucked, I’ve hit myself with two.  ¹³ No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” ¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.  Jesus said specifically “wealth” here, but it could be anything you put on God’s throne…and what you are is what you put on God’s throne.  If you truly put God and God alone on His throne in your life, you’re a sheep.  If you put anything else…anything else in that spot, whether it’s money, sports, partying, drinking, work, or anything that’s not God, you’re not a sheep.  A sheep knows its shepherd, so you know what you’re truly following.  Jesus laid down His life for his sheep…is your “shepherd” of alcohol or football going lay down its life for you?  Are you just going to put on a funny outfit and try to pass yourself off as one of Jesus’ sheep – saying you’re really a sheep while you’re life says you’re not?  Like I said, I’m not pointing fingers or naming names, I’m just asking questions.  And only you can honestly answer which shepherd you’re following.

~Dwayne

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

Beatles 5, The Ballad Of John And Yoko

Welcome to Part 5 of the Beatles Devotional series.  So far we’ve looked at not being labeled by things we did 20 years (or more) ago.  We’ve looked at the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of who’s preaching it.  We’ve talked about the emotional ups and downs we experience in response to the joy and the guilt with Grace.  We’ve talked about rumors and reactions and overreactions.  In this one, I’ll take a universal position on a certain someone and turn it on its ear.  This one is a challenge in looking at things with the world’s priorities or God’s priorities.

Ok – so in proofing, I decided that corny parodies are not my forte, so I deleted the Beverly Hillbillies John Lennon parody that originally was at the beginning of this one.  It was more tacky than funny, and wasn’t fully necessary.  I deleted the parody, but it’s a story that’s decades old.  “John and Yoko sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G” and all that business.  She started showing up at the recording sessions.  She was causing friction with the other members of the band.  She was never NOT there.  Every time we saw John, there was Yoko.  In the end, we all blamed her breaking up the band.  People deeply and truly can’t stand her even now, all these years later.  When they tell the story of the Beatles to their kids, the beginning of the end starts with, “and then John Lennon married Yoko Ono.”  Because John chose Yoko over the Beatles, and the world has suffered all of these years since then because of it, right?

In truth, the Beatles were fracturing and slowly splintering long before Yoko came along.  For several albums “the brilliant songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney” had simply been the “pair of brilliant songwriters, Lennon and McCartney”.  Listening to the albums, there are clear differences in both style and lyric between the Lennon songs and the McCartney songs.  On one hand you have Lennon’s “I Am The Walrus” and the other is McCartney’s “Blackbird”.  On one hand you have Lennon’s “In My Life” and on the other is McCartney’s (sure let’s beat THIS horse one more time) “Helter Skelter”.  They were becoming solo acts that happened to still record their solo material with the band.  That’s an over-exaggeration…there was still some level of collaboration, but they weren’t sitting down together like they were with “Love Me Do.”  But Yoko is an easy target.  She was the non-Beatle that had the public’s eye.  And she had the public’s eye because she was always with John and pulling him away from the band.  And my question all these years later is this:  Was that really a bad thing?

To illustrate my point, let’s flip it over the other way.  The best illustration for the opposite of Yoko always being in the sessions is the KISS song “Beth” where dudeman is on the phone with his woman, and essentially tells her this:  “Beth, I know you really want me to come home, but me and the guys are playing some music and need to get our song right, and while I’m terribly sorry, baby, and I love you very much, I’m basically picking the band over you.  So now I’m going to hang up the phone, go back to them and hope you understand where you truly rank in the grand scheme of things, baby.”

One more illustration, then I’ll wrap this all up and bring it home.  “I Love Lucy”.  You all know it.  You know the characters.  You know the situations – it’s usually Lucy either 1) wanting something or b) misunderstanding something followed by 30 minutes of the most unbelievable circumstances imaginable.  (bonus points and your next devotional is free if you caught what I just did there)  Most episodes are just absurd.  And in one particular episode Lucy thinks that everyone has forgotten her birthday (granted this isn’t her 1) wanting something or b) misunderstanding something – it’s actually a surprise party, so my apologies for generalizing).  But she thinks that everyone has forgotten her birthday, so she leaves.  Like, for real leaves…to the point of going to sleep in the park. And it’s there that she meets the “Friends of the Friendless” group.  Then Lucy decides to take her new-found friends to Ricky’s club to show him that SOMEBODY out there cared about her birthday.  At the club she finds that it’s a big surprise party, and the episode is probably most famous for Ricky’s actual singing of the “I Love Lucy and she loves me” theme song.  But before all of that exciting conclusion and resolution – using our Mr. Peabody Way-Back Machine (for the Rocky and Bullwinkle fans) we saw Lucy come into the club and one of the Friends of the Friendless asked Lucy about Ricky.  And Lucy’s response was the throw-away, quick-laugh line “He’s not my friend, he’s just my husband!”

He’s not my friend, he’s just my husband.  Ouch.  She’s not my friend, she’s just my wife.  All I can do is shake my head.  I shake my head because when that episode was filmed in 1953 that was supposed to be funny.  Today it’s becoming more and more just “how it is”.  We choose playing with the band over Beth.  We blame Yoko for having the unmitigated audacity to want to be involved with her husband.  Is that where we’ve come?  Have our marriages become so disposable that…you know what?  I’m not even going to finish that sentence.  Yeah, they have.  Is the divorce rate really 50%?  No, it’s really not.  According to the US Government recent statistics, the marriage rate is 6.8 marriages per 1,000 people.  The divorce rate is 3.6 per 1,000.  So if the divorce rate is 50%, then the rate should be 3.4.  It’s not.  It’s higher than that.  The divorce rate is actually closer to 53%.  It’s more than half because we’d rather play with the band than be with our spouse.  Because Ricky’s not really your friend, he’s just your husband.  I do need to dispel another myth nearly as popular as Yoko and the Beatles’ demise.  It’s been long said that the divorce rate among the church population is as high as the outside population.  That’s not entirely true.  It’s true when coupled with the identifier “are you a Christian” and “are you divorced’, then, yes, the rates are roughly the same.  However, when coupled with the identifier “do you attend church regularly” the rate drops to roughly 38%.  That’s still more than 1 out of 3, but it’s nice to know that some people in the church take that commitment made before God as seriously as He intended.

Sometimes it’s work.  Sometimes it’s getting married when you probably shouldn’t have.  Sometimes it’s outside people getting involved and trying to force the other spouse out of the picture.  The reasons are copious (you two dollar word of the day – in an attempt to keep this admittedly preachy devotional light), but it seems to be more and more frequent.  Husbands and wives drift apart.  To the point that “he’s not my friend, he’s just my husband” isn’t a throw-away punch line, it’s the main plot.  Men bury themselves in their hobbies to avoid dealing with it.  They go on long hunting trips, or volunteer for trips at work or monster projects requiring long office hours that keep them away from the house – because they’d rather do that – or anything else – than be at home.

And please don’t misunderstand me.  There’s nothing wrong with hunting or having a job that makes you travel and be away from home.  But when you start to notice that you’d rather be doing that than spending time with your spouse, then you need to stop and make your spouse your priority.  If you get to the point, that “home with your spouse” is the last place you want to be, then get help to fix that and fix that quickly!  There’s not a person on this planet that I’d rather be with than my wife…ever!  EVER!!  I’ve forgone promotions and job offers simply because they’d take me away from her.  I’ll admit that I’m blessed with my job.  The job I have is one that allows us to pay the bills, but by far, the best part about my job is that, in a world that requires more and more time away from home – especially in engineering, mine allows me to be home every night.  I’ve been offered jobs that would have paid me more money.  But money isn’t what I’m after.  Spending as much time as I can with my family is what I’m after.  That’s not bragging – unfortunately for her I guess (haha!) it’s the truth.  But again, I understand that it’s not that way for a lot of people.  For a lot of people, in order to provide food for their family, they have to sacrifice time with their family in order to earn it, and I’m in no way judging for that…because when you’re not home, you’re hoping with all you are to get back there as quickly as you can.  But if you’re choosing to chase money over your spouse, you’re making the wrong choice.

Listen for the Whisper of Matthew 19:4-6 where Jesus sounds a LOT more like John Lennon and Yoko Ono than He does the KISS song “Beth.”  ⁴ And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”  When Jesus says, “Let no man separate”, He’s not talking about a divorce lawyer and a family court judge.  Jesus said “no man” and that includes Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr…and each of their screaming fans.  God’s picked that person for you.  And it’s up to you and your spouse to make it work.  And yeah, just like Christianity, it’s not always going to be about you.  But it can be…the Bible says men are to love their wives like Christ loved the church.  And that was enough to die for it.  So if making her happy is your top priority, then you’ll be tickled to death to do something that you don’t want to do simply because it will make her happy.  The wife is supposed to have the same goal.  When you get to that point, you’ve gotten it.  I’m not saying that I’m there, but that’s my goal.  It’s about compromise and love, and if you love her enough then you’re willing to offer yourself to her.  Just like Jesus offered His life for you and the church.  The hard part is getting over our own selfishness long enough to do that.  The world condemns Yoko Ono.  They blame her.  They hate her.  They burn her on the stake of shame for being the one that squashed the Beatles.  Comedians make jokes (that I borrowed in my dorky Beverly Hillbillies parody) that if Mark David Chapman had aimed just a little to the left, he’d have been a national hero.

But not me.  While I think she’s definitely “an odd bird” so to speak, I stand tall and applaud their commitment to each other.  Even if their marriage DID break up the Beatles, then so be it.  Want to hear something that sounds odd?  A marriage should be bigger than the Beatles.  So I stand on the highest mountain and applaud them loud and proud for choosing each other over something as significant to world cultural history as the Beatles.  The world points at Yoko and accuses, “how dare you?”  The worlds sings, “Just a few more hours, and I’ll be right home to you.  I think I hear them calling.  Oh Beth, what can I do?  Beth, what can I do?”  And then the world wonders why you won’t sing along with it when it sings, “Beth, I know you’re lonely, and I hope you’ll be alright, ‘cause me and the boys will be playing all night.”  But you know who didn’t choose the band over his wife?  John Lennon.  No, not because she was already there, but because they valued their marriage more than anything else. 

Do you?

~Dwayne

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

 

Beatles 4, Helter Skelter Part 2

Welcome to Part 4 of the Beatles devotional series.  Last time we talked about the emotional roller coaster of Grace using the lyrics of “Helter Skelter” as our backdrop.  While we’re talking about “Helter Skelter”, not only did I look at the lyrics and think about a topic, but I also looked at the story behind it and had a light bulb ding over my head.  The song was written as a reaction to the Who’s “I Can See For Miles.”  In a magazine interview, the Who’s guitarist, Pete Townshend, claimed it was “the loudest, rawest, dirtiest song the Who had ever recorded”.  So simply put:  Paul didn’t want to be outdone and set out to write his own “loudest, rawest, dirtiest song” – not just by the Beatles, but EVER.  And in the end, he went WAY farther in his outdoing than the original song had gone in its own doing.  Looking back, “I Can See For Miles” is relatively tame…especially judged by today’s standards, but even by 1967 standards, it’s not all that loud, or raw, or dirty.  The dirtiest part about that song is singing the chorus as a punchline while looking into someone’s ear.  I mean, when I told this story to my twelve year old one day when “I Can See For Miles” was on the radio, his response to me was “this is a rock song?”

Paul didn’t know all of that, though.  Paul wanted to be one that set the bar on the loudest, rawest, dirtiest standard.  During the recording sessions for the White Album, they recorded and re-recorded the song several times over.  One version running 12 minutes long, and the now-famous “I got blisters on my fingers!” outburst from Ringo came after the 18^th take in one day and Ringo threw his drumsticks across the room and yelled (yeah, you got it) “I got blistuhs on muh finguhs!”  When it was released on the White Album, it was by far much louder, much more raw, and much dirtier than the puny little “I Can See For Miles”.  It was a nuclear missile in response to a cap gun with wet caps.

The up and down, mountaintops and valleys reference in the first “Helter Skelter” devotional were easy dots to connect.  This one requires a little more honesty with ourselves.  Paul didn’t want to be outdone.  He had never heard the other song, but he wanted to make sure that his response was more than adequate to be the bar setter.  Sometimes we hear rumors or whispers about us behind our back.  Sometimes they’re true and sometimes they’re not, but what we want to be sure of is that our response is more than adequate to outdo the rumor.  That wasn’t instruction, by the way:  that was observation.  Upon rereading I thought I should clarify.  We either explode into a fit of rage about the rumor or we reply with something ourselves.  It usually depends on whether we know the source or not, I suppose.  If it’s general hearsay rumblings, our exasperations and retaliations are probably a bit limited in where we can aim them.  It’s hard to get into a game of one-upsmanship with an unknown gossiper.  But if there’s a name attached to a rumor’s origin…oh boy, watch the fireworks!!  And the he said/she said volleys are even stronger serves when we talk about the younger generation and the age of social media.  Moment of honesty for most of us, though, our first thought (the first three words even) when someone does something like that is most likely, “I’ll show them!” and then we do.

I’m reminded of the episode of the Full House sitcom where Stephanie got into it with a girl named Gia over some boy.  Gia’s response was to tell everyone that Stephanie had paid the boy to go out with her.  Stephanie’s response to THAT was to get a friend to steal Gia’s school folder, and then they enlarged Gia’s horrendous report card to bulletin-board size and posted it on the wall.  It’s like a reminder of the Cold War and the fear of Massive Retaliation, as it was called.  Don’t launch that missile because of what might get sent back your way.  If the missile was launched from some unknown country, well then just raze the whole region to make sure you get the right one?  That’s the way we respond sometimes…we hear something about us, and it sounds like something that old so-and-so might have said, so lower the proverbial boom!  But what if wasn’t old so-and-so?  What you just bombed Canada when you should have bombed Greenland?  What if you just nuked Southeast Asia when you should have blasted the European Union?  (Not saying that your response should be that at all, just painting pictures)  But what if it’s worse?  What if you hear something attributed to “they said” and your retort is some earth-shattering rumor that you’ve heard about them?  But what if what “they said” wasn’t really what was reported to you?  What if you’ve just written a “Helter Skelter” in response to an “I Can See For Miles”?

But the message for both sides of the gossip fence is easy.  Listen for the Whisper that sounds like Proverbs 16:28.  A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.  (that’s not a whisperer like “Listen for the…”)  If you don’t like that one, try Proverbs 6:16-19 on for size:  ¹⁶ There are six things which the Lord hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: ¹⁷ Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, ¹⁹ A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.  Did you catch that?  How about we just lay it out there and roar it like a Lion?  Can we roar it like James 1:26?  ²⁶ If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.  Wow, James just called your religion WORTHLESS if you can’t control your tongue!!  Oh, what’s that?  That’s just James, you say mockingly?  You want someone with actual scriptural authority, well let’s read some of the “red words” then…like the ones in Matthew 12:36: But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment.  How about them apples?  Are you ready to give an accounting?  That goes for both sides of the fence.  Are you starting the gossip?  Are you repeating it?  Are counterattacking it?  It’s all the same.  An accounting for Every. Careless. Word.  Let that sink in.  Every. Careless. Word.

So if you hear something juicy and want to go tell your best buddy, pardon my French, but shut up!  If you decide that somebody is doing something you don’t like so you feel they need to be brought down a notch or two, shut it!  If someone comes to you and says, “old Bertha May just told me that you did/said whatever” then let it go.  Maybe go to Bertha May and kindly ask her why she’s saying it.  Maybe you can resolve a misunderstanding or maybe you can’t.  But whatever you do, don’t write a “Helter Skelter” in response an “I Can See For Miles.”  Or for that matter, don’t write a “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” or a “My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean” or a “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” or a “Fishin’ Hole Andy Griffith Theme Song” either.  Whether it’s with Bertha May or whoever, at some point you’ll have to give an account for everything you’ve said.  And while this is strictly my opinion and not exactly scriptural, I’m pretty sure “well SHE started it!” won’t work any better on the Day of Judgment than it did with your mom.

So regardless of which side of the gossip fence you’re on…whether it’s the mudslinging side, or the pitching it back over the fence side…your first reaction shouldn’t be, “I’ll show them!”  The last thing you want to happen is to have a “Helter Skelter” overreaction to “I Can See For Miles”.  So instead of “I’ll show them,” remind yourself that the first three words we need to think of are “Every. Careless. Word.”

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

July Prayer Card

July – A Call to Love

John 13:34-35, Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment: They are to love others as He loved them.

Loving Yahweh Maccaddeshcem, our Sanctifier God (Exodus 31:13), we come to you this month united again in prayer.  As you perfect our Faith, lead us to Love as we’ve been commanded.  Father we know that Jesus loved us enough to die for us even while we were Your enemies (Romans 5:10).  We know that those who do not love, do not know God – because God is Love (1 John 4:8).

Loving You comes so easy for us, God.  You created us.  You provide for us.  You care for us.  You comfort us.  Loving You is what we were created to do.  Like a tool being used for its intended purpose, loving and worshipping our God was the reason for our creation.  Our struggle comes, Holy God, when we try to open our hearts to love those around us.  God, we have a hard time always loving our families like we should.  We ask for your forgiveness, Father, when our sins get in the way of loving the ones close to us.  We ask for Your help in strengthening our love for those closest to us.

Your Word tells us that Jesus gave the disciples “a new commandment”.  Jesus commanded us to love others as He loved others.  Help us to be mindful that Jesus washed the feet of those He loved, and then He sacrificed His life willingly for those He loved.  Help us always remember that “those He loved” included those who had just cried out for His crucifixion.  The Greek word used in the 1 John text for Love is ἀγαπᾶτε, and Father, we see that same word used in various other places in Your word.  It’s a variation of the “unconditional Love”, agape.  Help us to truly understand what You commanded and to realize that not only is it the exact same form of the word that Paul used when he instructed husbands to love their wives (Ephesians 5:25, Colossians 3:19) and Peter used when he told his readers that they loved Jesus even though they’d never seen him (1 Peter 1:8), but it’s the exact same form word used by Jesus when he commanded us to Love our enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:35).

We ask for help in understanding Your Word and Your Will.  It’s hard sometimes to get past our grudges and hurts and to forgive others.  But more than forgiving, we need to understand that You’ve commanded us to love, Father, and not just the brotherly Phileo love (φίλος) of friendship and well-wishing.  God, we need to know that we are commanded to love others, including those in our families, close friends, those who we barely know, those who we don’t know at all, and even those who have greatly wronged us, with the same love that husbands are commanded to have for their wives, and that Jesus has for all of mankind.  Forgiving God, we should be asking ourselves the question, “What if I love Jesus only as much as I love the person I hate the most?”  We know we’re not supposed to hate, but more than that we’re commanded to love as Jesus loved.  We ask that you give us the strength through the Holy Spirit, to help us to love as Jesus loved.  Mold our hearts, so that even while our enemies shout “crucify him” in our faces, we still love them as we love our husbands or wives, willing to give our lives for them.  When we get to that point, the world will see that our hearts truly belong to Christ.  We pray that You help us to be steadfast and faithful in our Love.  We need to be vigilant in our obedience to love others, because right after Peter told Jesus he had this Love for Him (John 13:37), he denied Jesus three times just as Jesus predicted he would (John 13:38).  Continually fill us with Your love, and allow it to spill over out of us onto the rest of the world.  Protect us from the sins that try to block that love, and help us grow enough in our faith to be able to say “Get thee behind me, Satan!”

We continually pray in Jesus’ name,

Amen

Beatles 3, Helter Skelter Part 1

You ask some people’s definition of the peak of success, and the answer you’ll get is “The Beatles”.  (The album not the band.)  Personally not my favorite Beatles album, but definitely considered to be the best by a great many people.  Typically referred to as “The White Album” simply because the cover is white, it’s a double album with a vast array of different musical styles.  One in particular is the song that many consider to be the first “Hard Rock” song…Helter Skelter.

“When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride ‘til I get to the bottom and see you again.”  Conjures images of an overexcited puppy running laps in a living room when it gets just so excited that it doesn’t know what to do…then tuckers out and collapses in sleep mid-stride.  It even sounds a little like the screaming Beatles’ fans shown in the old television clips clutching their faces and just screaming in excitement until they faint.  (Sounds a little mood-swingy, too.)

But it’s a feeling I’ve experienced from time to time…and by that, I mean all the time.  I feel that way when I think about Grace, and more explicitly, Jesus dying on the cross for me…and you.  When I get depressed, I’m reminded of Grace, and I go back to the top of the top of the slide. And there I stand on the mountaintops.  My arms are thrown up in a Rocky pose, and I’m on top of the world looking down on creation.  I’m standing beside Moses and waiting for God to pass by us so that we can just look at His back and get a glimpse of His Glory.  Everything’s going great in my heart.  I’m churning out devotionals and prayer cards and things couldn’t be any better.

But then I turn the corner, and I go for a ride.  And I’m rocketing down the roller coaster hill to the valley.  And I look at my shortcomings, and I see all of the failures I have when measured against Jesus’ commands – and there I sit at the bottom.  I’m so far down in the valley that I can’t even see the mountain…much less the mountain top.  I’m reading where Jesus commands me to love others the way He loved, and I can’t even hold my temper against my family some days.  I’m reading where He tells the guy to go sell all he owns and give it to the poor, and I’m sitting there like Ananias and Sapphira wondering if I can find a way to not really give ALL of it.  And I’m reading about Jesus telling me to go proclaim His name in all the world…and I can’t motivate myself to even say His name in Walmart because someone might hear me.  I look in the mirror and see the wretch described in Amazing Grace.

 Grace?  No, not just Grace, but Amazing Grace!  Where it doesn’t matter how good or bad I am.  It’s not what I do that saves me, it’s what Jesus did that saves me.  Even Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus met him on the shore and gave him another chance.  Just like in the Veggie Tales song:  Our God is a God of second chances!  I’m soaring on an eagle’s wings and running without growing weary.  God knows I can’t do it all…that’s why He gave us the Law in the first place to prove that we can’t do it.  So Jesus came and said, “take up your cross and follow me” as the way to reconciliation with God.

But am I taking up my cross?  Or am I looking for loopholes to be able to set it down sometimes?  Uh oh, I’m on my way back down again.  Because when I sit and reflect on what Jesus did for me, am I sacrificing myself for Him?  Am I offering the best of my flock or am I doing like the religiously corrupt in Bible days and only sacrificing the diseased animals in my life?  I say I’ve changed, but when was the last time I truly loved my neighbor as myself?  Jesus said, “Love others as I have loved.”  But while I’m down in the valleys, I have to admit that I don’t even like some people…and have made no effort to get over it.  I read the Bible, and it says that I’ll be forgiven the way that I forgive others.  And am I forgiving the woman at the well married five times, or am I making jokes about it…And THEN using THIS EXACT verse as the punchline to my joke?!  So now I’m not just going down the slide, I’m plummeting like a 6,000 pound boulder dropped from an airplane down into my valley.  But then Grace brings me back up again…I’m on a YoYo.  Literally Helter Skelter with the up and down and doing it again.

Listen for the Whisper that tells you that you’re likely not alone if you experience the same roller coaster of emotion during your walk with God.  Jeremiah did that in Jeremiah 20:7-18.  You want to talk about ups and downs…Jeremiah goes from one extreme to the other from one verse to the next!  Elijah did the same thing.  He’s so depressed in 1 Kings 19 he just wants to lay down and die.  Paul the apostle proclaims the joy he has in Christ and counts everything as joy, but constantly refers to himself as the chief sinner.  (I don’t know specifically that Paul went through the roller coaster that I’m describing here.)  And maybe I’m alone.  Maybe I’m the only one with the crazy mood swings when it comes to my Salvation.  Maybe I’m the only one that feels the joy of the mountain tops of Grace followed by the despondent feeling that Lot must have felt when looking around Sodom and Gomorrah…followed by the moments of depressing self-reflection where I realize how unworthy I am.  Might be the only person that ever feels this way…But I’m willing to take a shot at this and say that I’m not.

The 1 Kings 19 reference I just mentioned where Elijah is so depressed he wants to lay down and die?  Well that’s right after 1 Kings 18.  1 Kings 18 is where we see the story of Elijah and prophets of baal.  Elijah is so far up the mountaintop that he can barely see the prophets down there.  He’s having the “sacrifice contest” where the real God will consume the sacrifice with fire.  The 450 prophets of baal are chanting and dancing and whatnot, and Elijah is so giddy with his excitement that he’s literally mocking them.  ²⁷ At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”  And they’re dancing and cutting themselves and (in my head I’m seeing) Elijah over there like some crazy, old cartoon character yucking it up!  Then he prays a simple prayer and God answers and consumes the sacrifice with fire.  Then the very next chapter, Elijah is feeling like he’s the only one out there.  Scared and running from Jezebel.  Apparently his joy is as fleeting as mine is.  He openly taunts 450 prophets of baal who are cutting themselves with swords, but then runs, hides…scared of Jezebel.  God who?  ³ Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

Prayed that he might die?  For someone that just stuck it in the face of the prophets of baal, that sounds a little extreme to me.  But Jonah did the same thing.  “Jonah, go to Nineveh!”  “Nuh-uh!  I’m going to Tarshish to get away from you!  They’re crazy over there in Nineveh!”  (big storm, big fish, big attitude adjustment later) Jonah has gotten over his fear and is preaching in Nineveh about the Power and Glory and Righteousness of God.  And the WHOLE CITY repents.  And Jonah praises a merciful God after the whole storm, fish, attitude deal?  Nope…goes off and pouts.   More than pouts, he gets MAD!  Mad at God for actually forgiving Nineveh.  Jonah Chapter 4:1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. ² He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”  KNEW God was loving and now mad because He is.

“When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride ‘til I get to the bottom and see you again.”  I’m not saying the roller coaster is right.  And maybe at some point along the walk, we’ll get beyond the valleys.  Maybe we’ll be mature enough in our faith to step along like giants from mountaintop to mountaintop.  But given what we see in Jonah, and Elijah, and Jeremiah…I doubt it.  Like the set of footprints and two grooves in the sand…”those are where I dragged you.”  Our faith is tested in the valleys.  And God will never stop testing our faith.  We’re told this very thing in 1 Peter 1:6-7.  ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  The trick is to not lose sight of the mountaintops and who sits there.  So let’s revisit those lyrics and change them a little so that we’re talking to God.  When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride ‘til I get to the bottom and see You again.  Then I’m back on the mountaintops.

~Dwayne

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