The Majority Isn’t Always Right!

Though I am going to make a political point to introduce this post, please don’t assume this missive is political.  But to learn the lessons we should, I want to take you back to High School Civics class.  The United States of America IS NOT governed as a pure democracy.  Before you criticize me as a traitor, I hope you remember that the USA is instead a constitutional republic.  In a democracy, the majority rules, no matter what.  Yet in the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, they protected the rights of the minority by NOT establishing a pure democracy.  Instead, those who are chosen to represent us – a republic is a “representative democracy” – vote to protect the interests of ALL of us.  But even then, those chosen representatives aren’t always right.  Take a look:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”  ³ So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.  Numbers 13:1-3

The setting?  The Israelites have just fled from bondage in Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and are now moving across the Sinai Peninsula on their way to the land promised to them – modern day Israel.  They needed to take the land, so Moses sent a reconnaissance team made up of the best guys Israel had to offer.  Before you suggest that maybe Moses should have sent women, I’d offer that perhaps he didn’t have any he could afford to lose!  This was enemy territory, after all.  Well, these brave fellas came back with this report:

Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel…Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large…³⁰ Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”  ³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”  Numbers 13:26-31

“Mr. Moses, the majority of the committee (the vote was 10-2) finds our venture into the Promised Land to be more than we choose to risk at this time.  We would prefer not to take the land promised by God, even though He swore to be with us.  Thank you.”  The majority had spoken.  And they were dead wrong.  Literally.

You see, only the two men who voted to follow God’s lead into the “land flowing with milk and honey” actually got to go back.  Because the rest of the “leaders” died in the wilderness of Sinai.  It only took Moses a couple weeks to move the millions in his flock to the edge of the promise of God.  But instead, they were forced to wander around Sinai for 40 years – until everyone who failed to follow God’s lead had died.  Even Moses perished in the desert. 

So the next time someone wants to influence your direction by telling you that the majority “thinks this or that”, remind them that the majority isn’t always right.  It’s always better to vote with God, even if you’re the only one. 

Jacob

What’s Gone is Never Really Lost

There may be a few of you who were touched by God at a very young age, who responded to His call to be His and have lived dedicated, mostly regret-free lives.  But that’s not true for most of us.  Life is messy, and the vast majority of us have made it even more so.  We miss opportunities to do right; we fail in our obligations before God and those we love; and consequently we leave a trail of damage and brokenness behind us.  I’m not a farmer, so I’ve never had to deal with the old Biblical vision of damage done by locusts.  But that’s what our lives seem like sometimes.  Lost opportunities; damaged relationships; wrecked legacies.  If we WERE farmers, our fields have been devastated.

But our God has an answer to every problem.  Buried back in the Old Testament prophecy of Joel is this amazing truth:

Be glad and rejoice, For the Lord has done marvelous things...the open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit; The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.  Be glad then…and rejoice in the Lord your God…the threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.  “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…”  Joel 2:21-25

If you are agriculturally-challenged, God is saying through Joel that He can bring amazing abundance, even from devastation.  Go back and read the first part of Joel 2 and discover the ravages caused by Israel’s sin.  If that feels like where your life is right now, what you think is lost can be restored through the generous hand of our loving God.  Notice I didn’t say your sin’s damage could be “repaired”; I said “restored”.  God brings abundant generosity and grace into our lives when we choose to belong to Him.  And while we assume we might have irreparable damage trailing behind us, God says, “I can replace that.”

You see, as Joel gave voice to the truth of God’s restorative power, he continued in Chapter 2 with these words echoed by Peter on the day of Pentecost:

This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams…And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Acts 2:16-21

God’s promise of restoration and abundance is tied to another promise: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Wow.  God WANTS to pour His Spirit into YOUR life – sons and daughters, young or old – when you cry out to Him in repentance.  It’s by His Spirit that the devastation of your sin is replaced by new growth; it’s His power in your life that brings abundance from ruin.  You think you’ve messed things up so badly that everything you hoped for in your life is lost?  Wrong!  This year’s harvest will be so big it will more than make up for last year’s loss!  I don’t know about you, but if I was a farmer, I’d invest in crop insurance just to make sure I didn’t lose everything in the event of a locust swarm.  God offers you an even better deal because He’s already paid the premium – Jesus took care of that on the cross.  So when you belong to Jesus, what have you really lost?

Jacob

From the Pits to the Palace

One of the most interesting characters in all of Scripture is a fellow named Mephibosheth.  Who, you ask?  It’s true that you might not have heard of him, or at least don’t know much about him.  Do you remember King David’s friend, Jonathan?  He was King Saul’s son.  Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson.  After the death of Saul and Jonathan in battle, this is what the Bible text says:

“Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.”  2 Samuel 4:4

In Saul’s time, when a king died, the aftermath might make a Game of Thrones fan blush.  Whole families were wiped out in an effort to take over the throne.  So Mephibosheth fell victim, literally, to fear of such a takeover.  (If I may call him “Bo” for short, it will save me lots of typing.)  Bo’s nurse was being dutiful when she hustled out of the palace with him, but she fell or just dropped him and permanently damaged his legs, leaving him lame for life.  Most likely, she took him to her home on the wrong side of the tracks, to her hovel in a dumpy little town called, Lo Debar. Life there would have been bleak, barren, and boring.  But safe.  After all, who would look for a prince in this dirty little town?  The answer is David, the man who would be King.  But not for the reason that you might expect.

In 2 Samuel 9, David asks, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”  And David’s servant said, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet…he is in Lo Debar.”

So David sent for Bo and this dialogue ensued:

“Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and…(you) shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.” So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table. And he was lame in both his feet.

So what happened here?  The Chief Ruler summoned a man, permanently damaged by a fall and living in squalor, to come to His glorious palace in the King’s holy city and sit at His table and enjoy a relationship with Him simply because that man was “born right”.  Yep, that describes me perfectly!  Oh, you thought I was talking about Bo? 

It IS true that Bo was summoned to David’s palace in Jerusalem, was fully restored and treated like a child of the king.  And when he sat at David’s table, his brokenness was hidden.  All because he was a child of Jonathan. 

One day, maybe soon, we who have been “born right” – born again by the Spirit through Christ, will be summoned to a heavenly palace where the King of Glory dwells.  We will sit at His table and live like sons and daughters.  And that brokenness we carry now – it will be gone.  Though we won’t know until we get there, I’m betting the New Jerusalem is nothing like Lo Debar.

Jacob

Synergy

Are you one of those people who doesn’t think they can accomplish very much on their own?  One of the “I’m only one person” kind of people?  Or maybe you’re the opposite and think you’re the only one who ever does anything? Might it be because you never ask for help?  Or because every time you do ask, everyone seems to run the other way so you always have to carry the whole load yourself?  Well good news!  You’re wrong either way!

As followers of Jesus, we are each a part of His Bride – the Church.  So since you are a cog in the machinery that is the Church; an eye in the body of Christ; what does the apostle Paul say about you? 

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us - to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.”  Ephesians 3:21-21

The passage says that God is going to do amazing things to bring glory to Himself in the Church.  It literally says that God is able to do “hyper-hyper more than you can ask or imagine!”  He is able to do more than you ask in prayer.  More than you can even imagine as you lie in bed at night thinking about tomorrow.  How?  Because God exerts His power through US.  Not just me or you.  US.  The power that is unleashed in our lives is described in Greek by the same word from which we get our word dynamite.  That says lots about how much power we wield as the Church.

But it’s by focusing on the “us” in the passage that I derived the title to this post.  Synergy, you see, is defined as “the interaction or cooperation of two or more agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.”  It would seem that the Lone Ranger cannot create synergy.  But the Lone Ranger and Tonto can!  They can be more effective as a team than their total effectiveness as individuals.  That’s what synergy is all about, and that’s why we aren’t saved to walk through life just as believers.  We are redeemed by Christ to walk through life as believers joined with OTHER believers in His Church.

Jesus said, “The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”  (John 14:12)  I can’t imagine doing greater works than Jesus, but God promised He could do more than I can imagine, right?  The reason we can do amazing things is because we’re in this together.  We create synergy by being the Church.  And whatever gifts I think I might possess that can help spread the good news of Jesus are just a drop in the bucket compared with what God can do when we ALL put our drops on the bucket!

I probably can’t make sure everyone in my community hears the Good News about Jesus by myself, but with your help, maybe we can make that happen.  I can’t imagine building bridges between people, or making sure kids don’t go to bed hungry, or touching lives halfway around the world.  But if we work together, we can do it.  In fact, we can do “exceedingly-abundantly” more than that.  I’m in.  How about you?

Jacob

Scars and Forgiveness

I can only hope you’ve never visited a fortune teller who sought to tell you about your life by examining the lines on the palms of your hands.  But I AM at that point in my life where the scars on my hands CAN tell a story!  As I scrutinize just one hand, I first notice the large scar from nearly slicing off a finger while making baked beans for a picnic as a young teenager.  Oh, it healed up OK, but it sure left a mark!  Then there’s the faint scar on the back of another finger that I got while watching a band concert with my dad in the city park.  Isn’t it crazy how stuff happens?  And finally, there’s the nice scar across the back of my hand that I got by gouging it on a piece of car trim while on vacation with friends.  Life leaves scars whether we live dangerously or not.  ALL of these events were mundane and took place long ago, yet I see the residual damage daily.

So it is with SIN.  Every act of sin leaves some kind of mark on our lives.  Others may not see all our sin-scars because some might be in inconspicuous places.  But they are there.  WE see them when we look carefully.  The broken relationships that we just couldn’t, or wouldn’t, fix.  The deeply hurt feelings that we never expressed, nor confronted.  The insecurities formed from years of being reminded of our supposed inadequacies.  And even when we DO confront the issue of sin in each of those circumstances, the scars remain.  We may do our Christian duty and forgive those who hurt, or damage, or disappoint us.  We each may have sought forgiveness for the same.  But forgiveness doesn’t eliminate the scars – it just affirms that Jesus’ blood covers all sin. 

King David, that “man after God’s own heart”, was more like us than we like to admit – and I’m speaking about the “sin-part”, not the “heart-part”.  In Psalm 51, he confronts the reality of his own sin:

Wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.  For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me…Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Turn Your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.  God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me…Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and give me a willing spirit.

David’s guilt was a constant reminder of his sin.  But the gash of sin still leaves a scar, even when it’s healed (and forgiven).  He knew God could remove the punishment for that sin through forgiveness, but the result of his sin still remained.  David lost a child, lost a kingdom, and lost his reputation – all sin-scars that never faded.

What if you’re on the receiving-end of sin?  Can we accept that every sin should be forgiven?  The apostle Peter assumed there must surely be a limit to forgiveness.  He asked, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”  But Jesus said, “I tell you, not as many as seven…but 70 times seven.”  (Matthew 18:21-22)

It would seem that the answer to Peter’s question is that we should forgive as often as Jesus does.  Since His forgiveness flows from that fountain overflowing with cleansing power, we should be glad, like David, that we are washed “whiter than snow.”  I have no doubt that David went to his grave knowing he was forgiven, but with an aching in his heart over the sin-scars he bore.  What about MY sins?  Forgiven by God.  Mostly forgiven by those I’ve hurt.  Always present in my sin-scarred body.  Do you think that’s why we get a new body in heaven??

Waiting to be scar-free,

Jacob