May 17 Esight, 2011

And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.” But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once, the woman was made well. Matthew 9:20-22.Matthew’s description of the above event is a little sparse. Take a moment and read through Luke’s and Mark’s telling of this story, and then I’d like to share with you what’s on my heart that I see in Jesus’ understanding of the character of the Father this week.

Luke 8:

And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.

And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, ” Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Mark 5:

A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse — after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately, the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately, Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Let’s begin by looking at the “legal” situation, with its social and religious implications, that this woman would have experienced during her 12 years of hemorrhaging. It will take a moment, but the point will be well worth it.

When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Leviticus 15.19.

Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean. Leviticus 15.25.

Also, whoever touches the person with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. Leviticus 15.7.

She shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. Leviticus 12.4.

With the above texts in mind, follow carefully what this would mean for her. And remember, this had been going on for twelve long years.

She had been:

Cut off from other people; she would have been a social outcast.

Cut off from the sanctuary; she would have been viewed as a religious outcast.

Cut off from being able to be a man’s wife; she would have been alone, destitute, and abandoned, even reduced to begging for some sort of income. Mark (Peter) even indicates that she had exhausted what money she did have on failed medical solutions, as well.

No human touch for twelve years. No connection with any religious service for twelve years. Financially destitute, she was with no means or hope of turning things around. Far more devastating than the financial dilemma, the social and religious stigma of having to walk around being “unclean” and the garments she would have worn, also indicating, from a distance, that she was “unclean,” would have given her the same standing as a leper.

Now notice the risk for her in doing what the above story tells us she did regarding her “touching” Jesus as He passed through the crowd.

First, she, by “sneaking” in, polluted the crowd. Once everyone found out, she would have made a lot of people extremely upset. They would now have to go through, each of them, the ceremonial washings and be unclean (i.e. in isolation without coming into contact with anyone else) until that evening. Talk about having someone ruin your day!

Second, she polluted Jesus by this act. She touched HIM!

Third, she lied. Luke’s telling of this story reveals that they were all denying it, but when this woman realized she could not escape, she came forth and confessed what she had done.

Now notice Jesus’ response:

Don’t pass over this too quickly. She was expecting rebuke. In fact, it’s how Jesus, according to the law, should have responded. This woman broke the law and polluted everyone there, including Jesus Himself by touching Him. And yet, Jesus affirms her by calling her “daughter.” He affirms what she did calling it “Faith”. Jesus affirms what she has done, although highly “illegal”, as a beautiful thing.

Now I will admit that this raises some serious questions that I will not attempt to answer here. I simply want you to catch a glimpse of Jesus’ heart in relation to this woman and realize that He did nothing unless it was how He saw His Father relating to things as well (John 5:19).

Jesus doesn’t give instruction on how the law is to be carried out now by the crowd in this situation. No lectures about washing. No instruction for the people. And NO rebuke given even to this woman for her total disregard of the law’s direct commands. Why?

I want to say that it was situations such as this (Jesus implied approval of this woman’s total disregard for what had been commanded) that made it necessary at times for Jesus to say things such as, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5.17). This is not an isolated case. Two (of many) similar situations that immediately come to mind are the many Sabbath altercations between Jesus’ disciples and the Pharisees and Jesus’ defense of the woman caught in the midst of adultery. In each situation Jesus defends the violators of the law. Here, with this woman who shows total disregard for what the law says with issues of blood, Jesus calls this woman “daughter”! What a term of endearment for this woman! She has spent the last twelve years on the outside of everything she held dear. Jesus knew what she needed to hear the most. It was as if He put His arms around her with this one word and whispered, “Welcome home; this is where you belong. Be whole; I’ve got you; you have no more to fear. You’re with Me now.”

“But she broke the LAW!”, some will say. And to that I would agree. Yes she did. And who hasn’t? What always eclipsed everything else for Jesus though, was not a person’s position toward law, but rather what was their heart’s orientation to Himself. What direction were they moving in, away from or closer to Himself? This is what Jesus always seems to make the criteria for whether someone was “in the kingdom” He was establishing or outside of it. (See the story of the thief on the Cross, for the clearest example of this.)

In closing, I want to zero in on this one subtle point.

Over and over again, in matters of law, Jesus exemplified that when the concern for people contradicts or crosses our keeping of law, Jesus always chose people over the law. (In the altercation between His disciples and the Pharisees over the Sabbath, Jesus even used David’s illegal eating of the showbread as an example. Then applying it to the current situation, states, the Sabbath was made for people. Not people for the Sabbath.) I know the questions this raises, but I believe it is healthy for us to simply let our hearts “marinate” in this reality for a moment before we try to “theologize” it away.

People mattered most to Jesus. People were His top priority. And when we, known for being people of the law, become known for being people who believe that people matter most, then and only then will the earth be lightened with the truth of God’s character of love as it also was through Jesus. Too often, I have been guilty of placing the law above people. And just as He did in His own day, Jesus turns this reality again on its head in our day as well.

May we become experts, not simply in the law but in our concern for the people God brings to our path as well. When they matter most to us and we become successful at communicating that they matter most, too, then we won’t simply be enlarging a church; we’ll be enlarging the “kingdom” as well.

Here is a statement I read just this past weekend by Tim Keller in his Reason for God.

“If your fundamental is a man dying on a cross for his enemies, if the very heart of your self-image and your religion is a man praying for his enemies as he died for them, sacrificing for them, loving them—if that sinks into your heart of hearts it’s going to produce the kind of life that the early Christians produced. The most inclusive possible life out of the most exclusive possible claim—and that is that this is the truth. But what is truth? The truth is a God becoming weak, loving, and dying for the people who opposed him, dying forgiving them.”

It’s this truth that this woman with the issue of blood saw in the eyes of Jesus. It was this truth that forever changed her life that day. May those who cross our path see this truth in how we relate to them as well.

Live in love, take up the Cross, and let’s together go enlarge the kingdom.

Much love to each of you,

Herb

May 9 Esight, 2011

BY THIS EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES, IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER” (JOHN 13:35, TNIV).This week, I’d like to simply string a few texts together and let them do the talking (or, ahem, the writing). Here goes:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love (Ephesians 5:1, 2).

Do everything in love (1Corinthians 16:14).

If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).

If the above verses have any truth in them, then we have to confess two things. First, we must take these verses seriously. Jesus and the Apostles were clear that nothing else is as important (i.e., “above all” in 1 Peter 4:8) as embracing love, as our doctrine, as our lifestyle, as our message, and, most importantly, as our method in reaching the world.

I just finished reading the book UnChristian by Kinnaman and Lyons, and I have to confess that I, too, am guilty of embracing a religion that, historically, has placed almost everything else above loving others. Jesus prayed in John 17, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20–21). Jesus had hoped that the love seen in His followers would convince the world that He IS this world’s Savior; however, because many of us do not obey Christ’s command, the Christian church has today become the best argument and evidence for some that He IS NOT.

Writing this week in defense of another popular and gifted preacher who has just been labeled as a heretic, a friend of mine wrote the following:

“You have to wonder why millions of people have been tortured and murdered by Christians throughout history for espousing ‘heretical’ views about baptism, communion, the church and a very long list of other doctrines, while not one person (so far as I know) has been officially disciplined—let alone accused of “heresy”—for failing to adequately love (as when they tortured and murdered others in Jesus’ name, for example).”

It’s an honest question for sure.

As one final example, I’ll take you through an exercise that I was recently taken through. Read the following closely and see if you can identify this scene, which is taken from religious history: (Warning, the following historic account contains graphic violence.)

“Mothers were skewed on swords as children watched. Young women were stripped and raped in broad daylight, and then doused and set on fire. A pregnant woman’s belly was slit open, her fetus raised skyward on the tip of a sword and then tossed on one of the fires that blazed across the city.”

I guessed the Middle Ages. What did you guess? More often than not, people’s number one guess is the Crusades. Sadly, what people say is, “How horrible. That must be describing Christians.” Actually, the above passage describes the violence that erupted between Hindus and Muslims in India in the spring of 2002, as described in the New York Times. BUT, the fact that this is so readily attributed to Christian history should be a wakeup call to all of us who are followers of Jesus. This is the reputation that Christians still hold in the world we are trying to reach with the message that God is Love.

I, too, am not innocent. I, too, have been part of this. I, too, have been part of something that has been the main obstacle keeping people out of the kingdom instead of being the means to get people into the kingdom. Simply through the label “Christian,” I am known in the broader society for a lot of things—and sadly, the depth of love for sinners, my enemies, and even other Christians doesn’t make that list.

How is this going to get turned around? I am convinced of a third thing, and that is that we will never begin loving others by simply trying to do so. What we need is a transforming encounter with God as He really is, as revealed through the life and teachings (and death) of Jesus. What we need is a transforming encounter with God’s love for each of us on a deeply personal level. Only by love is love awakened.

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

This is why Paul prayed the following:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17–19).

Filled with all the fullness of God? Yes, that’s what I need! I want to be an imitator of God and walk in the way of love too. All of our credibility depends on it (John 17:20–21).

I leave you with these two thoughts this week:

1) Whatever faults we may accuse others of having, if we are devoid of love for them, all of their faults are NOTHING compared with our own (Matthew 7:1–3). We can have all of the right doctrine in the world, but if we fail to love as Christ loved us, we are all heretics.

2) The God of this universe loves you more deeply than you could ever fathom! Take some time this week to bask in, meditate on, and dive deeply into what’s in His heart for you. It, in and of itself, will awaken those very same things in your heart for those around you as well.

Love as Christ loved you,

Live in love,

And keep enlarging the kingdom.

Much love to each of you,

With the utmost sincerity,

Herb

May 2 Esight, 2011

Or those nineteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they

were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? (Luke 13.4)As I look at the devastation left in the wake of last week’s storms in the South, and I read the various comments by believers and unbelievers alike in current online news forums, my heart breaks. It doesn’t break so much from the accusations being made against God by those who are either hurting or simply don’t understand. Though these are sad, it simply confirms that, as believers, we need to do a better job of explaining why things like this happen. But my heart largely breaks because of (warning) the relational stupidity and lack of sensitivity I witness in the responses of those who claim to be believers. There are four puzzle pieces I would like to put together for you this week that I believe every follower of Jesus in this time in earth’s history must understand. Each of which will become more and more relevant, I believe, to the events that have ravaged our Southern states as we progress through this weeks thoughts.

Puzzle Piece 1:

First, modern Christianity seems to be guilty of looking at the speck in everyone else’s eye but not noticing the tree trunks that are in our own. We would much rather point out and condemn the sins of others around us than our own. The “deal breaker” sins seem to always be things such as homosexuality and abortion (sins of others) rather than greed, gossip, pride, gluttony, and gross misrepresentations of God’s character to the masses (sins prevalent within the church setting).

Puzzle Piece 2:

Second, Jesus attracted and accepted those whom we as Christians condemn and repulse. His strongest rebukes and condemnations were not toward the “sinners and tax collectors” but rather toward the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.

Puzzle Piece 3:

Third, I see these two realities as relevant in regard to traditional interpretations of the plagues in the Book of Revelation versus what I see the Book of Revelation actually teaching. Traditionally, Christians have interpreted the plagues as coming just before the end of the world, poured out upon sinners at large for their various and gross immorality. BUT the Book of Revelation is clear that the plagues are instead aimed at the religious systems of the day, those who claim to represent God but grossly misrepresent Him to the masses, maligning His character and name, saying monstrous things about Him.

Puzzle Piece 4:

Fourth, I believe the traditional view is what causes the persecution of others in the last days by those who claim to be following God. If the disasters we see around us are God pouring out plagues on the world for their sins—rather than an understanding that the Apocalyptic plagues are aimed at the religious populous rather than the irreligious—then the logical response is to legislate morality and force those who aren’t like us to “stop sinning” so that all these “acts of God” will cease. The persecution in the last days by those who claim to be following God is rooted in a misperception of God as well as a misinterpretation of the “why” of end-time disasters.

Lastly, we need to be very careful in our statements about what we see happening around us on planet Earth these days. Mother Nature was never designed to operate in the way she is operating now. Her laws were set in motion to preserve life, never to take it. Something has gone wrong, and an enemy has done this. This is especially sensitive to me as I am sitting the immediate context of what has just transpired here in the South. Many well-meaning, sincere Christians are saying things such as, “Surely God’s coming is getting nearer and nearer.” But, honestly, I have to protest. Statements like these are, at the very least, grossly insensitive. I friend of mine lost his mother this last week due to the devastation that ripped through Alabama. So, what are we saying? That the nearer the coming of an all-loving, radically self-sacrificial, other-centered God, the more innocent people (like him) will lose their loved ones? This is blasphemy at a bare minimum.

Yes, things are going to get worse before they get better, especially in the area of “unnatural” disasters, but these are the unintentional but direct result of free will, mankind’s moral abuse of Mother Nature and the intrinsic chain of events we have set in motion. These are not the result of God’s soon return. Yes, the end is near, but we must be clear about the actual cause-and-effect connection really is, or we will do irreparable damage to those who are the innocent victims of the things we see all around us. Yes there will be plagues in the last days. BUT, the life of Jesus and the book of Revelation are very clear. These plagues will NOT be that which comes upon the IRRELIGIOUS, the “tax collectors and sinners” if you will, because of their immorality. But rather, the plagues are that which come upon the RELIGIOUS systems, the “Pharisees” if you will, that have grossly misrepresented the Father and done almost irreparable damage to innocent people’s picture of God.

At the very least, as a follower of Jesus, please, oh please, be careful of what we imply about God in the midst of all the grief and loss currently taking place.

An enemy has done this.

Something worth thinking about.

Keep enlarging the kingdom,

With much love and empathic prayers for those who are suffering this week in the South.

Herb

April 18 Esight, 2011

“When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” Luke 18:22Throughout Jesus’ ministry, contrary to modern Christianity, we do not find Jesus endeavoring to motivate those around Him to do something so that they can go to heaven when they die. Rather, over and over, Jesus calls those around Him to embrace a way of life in this age, that they may be in harmony with the way life is lived in the age to come.

I’ll give you a moment to recover from that last sentence. I do not mean those words in any “meritorious” sense at all. I’m NOT saying that how we live in this life “merits” a “right” to the age to come. However, Jesus was quite clear (see the parable of the rich man and Lazarus) that the philosophies we embrace and choose to live by in this life dramatically determine whether the age that is to come is the paradise He intended for us to experience, or whether it is a place of torment and torture instead. No, I’m not teaching eternal torment either. Let me explain.

First, Jesus’ primary focus was NEVER (again, contrary to modern Christianity) making sure people go to heaven when they die. This idea is foreign to the teachings and focus of the Jesus we find in the four gospels. Rather, Jesus emphasized two eras or ages: the one now, and the other one which is soon to come. Note carefully the following statements by Jesus:

“‘Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.’” Matthew 12:32

“‘…the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels…the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age…This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous.’” Matthew 13:39, 40, 49

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” Matthew 24:3

“‘…Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Matthew 28:20

“‘…will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age…and in the age to come eternal life.’” Mark 10:30

“‘…will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.’” Luke 18:30

“Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.’” Luke 20:34-35 (Don’t get side-tracked here on the debate of whether there will be marriage in the age to come. Don’t. Stop. The only point I’d like for you to take from this is that Jesus lived in the paradigm of the age on this earth now versus the age on this earth to come. He did not live in the paradigm of life on this earth now versus life in heaven when we die.)

Now, with this paradigm in place, I want us to stop and ponder for a minute exactly what the “age to come” will look like. I want to point out simply one aspect, one description of the age to come that has become meaningful to me as of late. It is by no means an exhaustive description of the age to come, but it is one aspect of what life in the age to come will look like that will help me illustrate why, I believe, Jesus taught that how the philosophies we embrace in this life determines not whether we will “obtain” life in the age to come, but rather what we will EXPERIENCE that life to be in the age to come. (The age to come is a guaranteed gift from God, by virtue of His love, to everyone! As in Adam all die, in Christ ALL will be made alive. All are given entrance into the age to come as a gratuitous gift by grace, but not all will EXPERIENCE it the same way. Some, Jesus said, are resurrected to LIFE, while others, Jesus said, will be resurrected to condemnation. See John 5.)

Okay, back to that description of the age to come. This one is from the Apostle John:

“After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9

What I want you to notice about this description is the multi-ethnicity of the age to come.

The age to come is an extraordinarily complex, interconnected, and diverse reality in which individual identities are not lost or repressed, but are embraced and celebrated—an age that is an expansive unity that goes beyond, and yet fully embraces, staggering levels of diversity.

Now, stop for a moment and consider this: I grew up in the South, where racism, much to my concern, is still rife. For the sake of making the point painfully clear, bear with me here open-mindedly. What would be the experience of a racist in the age to come? How would a Klan member feel sitting next to one of my best African American friends? The age to come for a racist is not going to feel like a gift at all, but rather, like torture. (Maybe this was the point of Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus—not that when you die, you go to a place of eternal torment [a teaching that I personally abhor], but rather that the philosophy of life we embrace in this age determines whether our EXPERIENCE in the age to come is one of paradise or torment, heaven or hell.) This is the point I believe Jesus was making for the rich young ruler as well.

“A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.”’ ‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.” Luke 18:18-23

The one commandment Jesus leaves out is, “Thou shalt not covet.” The philosophy that this young man was subscribing to in this age was predisposing him to an experience in the next one. Jesus sums up the other-centered philosophy of God’s kingdom in His statements immediately following His interaction with this young ruler:

“‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus said to them, ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.’” Luke 18:29-30

The age to come will be one of radical self-sacrificial, other-centered love. It will be an age of extravagance, loving to give, not to get. Every other person will be considered of greater importance than oneself (according to Paul). I want to be clear. The philosophies we subscribe to in this life do not merit or disqualify us for the age to come. God loves all, Jesus came to save all, and all are given a resurrection. But not everyone feels that what they are being resurrected to is paradise. Some feel as if “heaven” is, for them, really hell. The philosophies of life we choose to live by in this age determine whether the age to come is a place in which we find joy and happiness or torment and torture. The spirit of unselfish love that reigns there—every heart responding to the central Divine heart of Infinite Love—will touch no answering chord in the hearts of some. Their thoughts, their interests, their motives, will be alien to that age. They will be a discordant note in the melody of the age to come. The age to come will be to them a place of torture; and at the center of it all, they would long to be hidden from Him who is its light, the Other-centered Center of that age’s joy. It is no arbitrary decree on the part of God that excludes them from the age to come; they are shut out by their own unfitness for and dissonance with the other-centeredness of the age to come. The other-centered love of God would be to them a consuming fire (see Song of Solomon 8). They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the “face” of Him who died to redeem them (see Revelation 6).

How, then, do we ensure that the gift we have been given by the extravagant love of God through the medium of the cross of Calvary is to us the gift of heaven rather than the gift of hell? I thank God that His other-centered love for me is powerful enough to awaken that same love in me—that faith in His love for me actually has a transforming power itself to restore me into the same image of that love once again. I am HIS workmanship. I am HIS creation. And as long as I believe in His undying love for me, He, and His love for me, will finish the work He has begun in me. WHEN He puts those finishing touches on me, and HOW He does it, is up to Him. My only concern is to BELIEVE in His love, and submit to (rather than resist) the work that His love for me is doing in my heart toward others.

I’m quite sure that this week’s message will produce many questions. Many have abused some of the things I’ve shared. Balance is much needed. My prayer is that we will ultimately see that if any are lost, it will not be some arbitrary decision made by God based on a life that, quite honestly, none of us ever chose to born into in the first place. If the racist is not there, if the abusers of women and children are not there, if those who take advantage of the poor are not there, if those who cherish power “over” rather than power “under” are not there, it will not be God’s decision, but theirs.

Something to consider.

Keep building the Kingdom of His other-centered love until this age becomes the next.

In love,

Herb

April 4 Esight, 2011

What about those eighteen people in Siloam who were killed when the tower fell on them? Do you suppose this proves that they were worse than all the other people living in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4)?Here is my warning. I’m a little hot under the collar this week and so I’m about to vent. My intention is to remember that if it has flesh and blood, it’s not our enemy, for truly, “We are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age” (Ephesians 6:12).

With that said, let me explain.

I have had it with the repeated instances in which I have heard the tragedies that have struck Japan over the last few weeks explained as being a punishment from God. Jesus flat out rejected this “Old Testament” picture/understanding of God in relation to tragedies:

What about those eighteen people in Siloam who were killed when the tower fell on them? Do you suppose this proves that they were worse than all of the other people living in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4)?

Over the last few weeks, I have heard repeated over and over again that cultural cliché that hurts my heart every time I hear it, “God is in control.” The apostle John wrote exactly the opposite when he took in the tragedies of this world: “We know that we belong to God even though the whole world is under the control of the Evil One” (1 John 5:19). Did you catch it? If this is the type of world that exists when GOD is in control, then heaven is going to be an extremely scary place. But John stated that it’s not God who is at the helm of the atrocities we witness taking place down here on planet Earth.

Let me quickly also add a point of which my Jewish friends frequently remind me. If you were to ask a Jew if he believes in the existence of the Devil, he would frankly tell you that a “devil” is the invention of the Christians to absolve themselves of guilt. I want to be clear. I do believe in a Devil, but I believe that the belief in a Devil also has been abused. Too often, we blame him for things that are really our fault! No one can say, “The Devil made me do it.”

So when I look at the atrocities that are taking place in Japan, I have to realize that Mother Nature is not functioning in the least part the way God intended her to. The laws of nature were designed to preserve and sustain life, not to tear life apart. Why are the laws of nature themselves so out of whack with their original design? I look at Japan today and I have to drop to my knees and with tears streaming down MY face say, “God forgive ME!” Forgive me for the rebellion that is in MY heart against you and the intrinsic chain of events that my rebellion against You and Your radical, other-centered, self-sacrificial love has set in motion on this planet. God, forgive me for the selfishness that’s in MY heart and the indirect and unintentional effects that MY selfishness has set in motion.” I, myself, can’t even blame other human beings for indirectly and unintentionally causing the tragedies in Japan. The apostle Paul understood this: “Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself” (Romans 2:1).

It would be too easy to blame God, under the misconception of the role He is playing in the affairs of this planet. It would be too easy to blame the Devil for things he also did not do (remember, no one can say the devil “made” me do it). It would even be too easy to blame other people who have gone before me for their abuses of this planet, which are causing it to respond in ways that wreak untold pain and heartache in the lives of those who are innocent (like Japan). I must instead, look the tragedies of Japan in the face and simply say to Japan and to God, “I’m so so sorry for the rebellion against the principle of other-centered love that is in my heart. I’m so so sorry.”

Who is to blame for Japan? It’s me, Herb Montgomery.

God forgive me.

Thank you for your patience with my heart’s ranting this week. I pray you can understand and embrace the truth in what I intend to say. May we not blame God for the things for which we, as humans, are responsible. May we be the ones, even if the blame falls on us, who say what is right about our God. May we be grouped with the ones, in whose mouths is found “NO LIE” about God (Revelations 14:5).

May we learn, in the light of God’s Calvary love for us to also love like the sun, love like the rain, and keep enlarging the kingdom (Matthew 5:44-45).

I wish you (and those hurting in Japan) God’s best this week.

In love,

Herb

March 28 Esight, 2011

“We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death. He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake. No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so. Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5.14-17 (TEV)

When someone understands Calvary correctly, it changes how you look at everyone you meet.

When we consider the cultural climate that provided the context of Jesus’ ministry, I cannot help but wonder about the head-space of the disciples sometimes. I mean, here was their long-awaited Messiah, but something didn’t add up. Everyone you expected would embrace this new Messiah, such as the religious leaders in whom you had placed your trust, was rejecting Him, and everyone you personally held disdain for and were disgusted by, like those Roman-loving traitors the tax collectors, and the morally destitute whores who offered themselves to anyone for sexual pleasure for a price, were the ones quickly becoming attracted. We too many times unknowingly assume that the disciples must have looked at these people the same way Jesus did, but they didn’t. The disciples quickly found themselves right in the center of the “wrong” crowd. It was this reality taking place in the hearts of the disciples that prompted the following statements from Jesus:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person’s eye. Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7.1-6 (TNIV)

There are two points I’d like to make concerning this passage. The text before us reveals the explanation, first off, for why Christians are too many times looked at with disdain. Jesus wasn’t telling us that if we are judgmental of others, “God” will be judgmental of us. NO NO! Though this is the common interpretation of Jesus’ words here, this is not His intent at all. Jesus’ intent is more to communicate that like produces like! If we are respectful of others, others will be respectful of us. If we give attention to others, others will give attention to us. If we are kind to others, this will awaken kindness in others toward us. If you truly love others, others will love you back, for even “sinners love those who love them.” The reason that so many in our world today are critical of Christians is that quite honestly, for two thousand years Christians have been critical of those who were not like them! Just stop and think about it.

But the second, and most important thing I’d like to point out is this idea of throwing your pearls before swine. NO ONE uses that which is sacred as dog food! NO ONE takes pearls and throws them out as worthless pig slop! Jesus here, by His comparison, is hoping to effect a paradigm shift for His disciples. Jesus, by implication, is asking the disciples why they are taking these people, whom He has esteemed as “better than” Himself, as having inestimable worth, as being worthy of coming to this planet and living a life of radical other-centered self-sacrificial love for, why are you looking at these people, even if they are tax collectors and whores, and placing them in the category of pig slop and dog food? In light of Calvary’s love, Paul makes the most beautiful statement He possibly could as to how we, as followers of Jesus, are to treat others.

“No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards.”

Just stop and think about it.

I wish you God’s best this week.

In light of His extravagant love for us all:

Love like the sun, love like the rain. And go enlarge the kingdom.

Much love to you all,

Herb

February 21 Esight, 2011

“But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion.” – Luke 10.33I have been on a beautiful journey of rediscovering Jesus through the Gospel of Luke since last August, and this week I would love to share with you a thought that, I believe, God has been pressing on my heart. It may have absolutely no application to you, but it’s HUGE in its application for me personally. You see, in the early stages of my own Christianity, I was VERY “egocentrically” religious?to the point that I missed the entire point of what Jesus’ kingdom was even about. (Some of you have heard me share some of those stories in my presentations.) I honestly am scratching my head as I write this, completely dumbfounded as to how so many of us, including myself, continue to miss what I am about to share. We have traded “religiosity” for “compassion” and too often busy ourselves with making others around us “religious.” Instead, we should focus on changing the world through genuinely enlarging God’s kingdom through radical self sacrificial compassion for others. Look with me at the following passage.

“And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.” (Luke 10.31-37)

In this story, Jesus lists a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. The mention of these three is intentional. Both the priest and the Levite played significant roles that were at the heart of the Jewish “religious” system. The Samaritan, on the other hand, followed a religion that was a hybrid of the teachings of Moses and the paganism of the surrounding region. Yet the hero of Jesus’ story is the religiously misguided Samaritan. This is most interesting to me, because, although in his religious practices the Samaritan was judged to be in error by his Jewish neighbors, Jesus holds him up as an example because of his “compassion.” Over and over we see Jesus repeating this lesson, not simply in word, but in deed. Being a Sabbatarian myself, I have always felt a keen interest in Jesus’ relation to the Bible Sabbath. What I have been impressed with the most, however, is that in each of the four Gospels’ Jesus/Sabbath stories, it is never the validity of the Sabbath that Jesus was negating, but the heartless way we too often go about practicing our religious beliefs, even if those beliefs include something as important to us as the Sabbath.

Read carefully the following passage:

And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him. (Luke 13.10-17)

Can you, like me, feel the passion in Jesus’ reaction above? The synagogue official was deeply religious, but absolutely devoid of compassion, which is what Jesus’ kingdom is really all about.

Again:

Now it happened that He was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath; and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?” (Luke 6.1-4)

What I find interesting is Matthew’s addition in his account of this story:

“But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent” (Matthew 12.7).

First of all, the disciples were not guilty, according to Jesus, of breaking the Sabbath as the Pharisees had accused them. The Pharisees, on the other hand, who were the most stringent in their religiously motivated Sabbatical restrictions, were the guilty party. And what were they guilty of? The Pharisees, although religiously stringent, were simply HEARTLESS.

Compassion vs. religiosity: these are the two things I would like to contrast for you this week. I do not believe they are mutually exclusive, but my concern is that too many times in our lives, they simply are.

If compassion is the standard, the signature for those who are a part of God’s kingdom (John 13.35), of those who are responding to God’s spirit (1 John 4.7,8), of those who are submitting, even unknowingly, to God’s work in their life, I would suggest, that maybe, many of those we religious people call “heathen” may be closer to the kingdom than we thought, maybe closer than even ourselves (myself included).

Something to ponder.

I wish you God’s best this week.

Love like the rain, love like the sun, and go enlarge the kingdom.

In love (and compassion),

Herb

February 14 Esight, 2011

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 58.13,14 NASBThis week I would like to address a very misunderstood verse that has come to my attention once again. Many, especially within my own Christian-Sabbatarian culture, have mistaken what Isaiah’s intent in this verse really is. It has too often robbed those who are sincere and honest from truly entering into what God originally intended the gift of the Sabbath to be. The misunderstanding is simple and actually has a deep history in Sabbatarianism, whether Christian or Jewish.

In the verse above, Isaiah is quoting the Lord’s admonishment not to “seek our own pleasure” on the Sabbath day. Keeping the Sabbath “holy” has, through a misunderstanding of Isaiah 58, been taken to mean that anything of a pleasurable nature is forbidden. Not only has work been strictly forbidden, but anything pleasurable has too often been forbidden as well. (The Sabbath has such a history of restrictions that the Essenes, whom Josephus considered to be the strictest in their Sabbath observance, even refrained from defecation during the Sabbath hours. [OM. Prob. Lib. 81; cf. Vit. Contempl. 30f.] Wow! The lengths to which we will take our misunderstandings.)

A careful study of the Sabbath in the scriptures reveals that only one thing was really ever forbidden on the Sabbath: work to gain a livelihood. The verse under consideration seems to be the only exception to this rule, but “seems” is the right word; it truly is not an exception. The Hebrew word translated here as “seeking your own pleasure” is only translated this way in this one instance. In all other instances, the word used here for pleasure is indicative of “that in which one takes delight, his business, one’s own business affairs.” (Brown, Driver & Briggs, Hebrew-English Lexicon, p. 343, reference 4)

You see, even here in Isaiah, God is simply repeating what He has stated consistently about the Sabbath everywhere else. We are to cease from the pleasure of making money, and call the Sabbath a pleasure or a delight! God, on this day, desires us to cease from our business affairs to focus our energy on something else.

But this begs the question: Focus on what? Why does God desire for us to cease from our labors on this day and on what are we to expend that energy now? The answer is found in Nehemiah, where one discovers the Biblical meaning of “keeping a day holy.” What does “a day’s holiness” mean for Nehemiah?

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.” Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. (Nehemiah 8.9-12)

The idea here is that the Sabbath was intended to be what we in our modern culture call a “holiday.” A day where we don’t work, but instead CELEBRATE! Eating the fat! Drinking the sweet! But what are we to be CELEBRATING?

Over and over again, the answer is clear.

Exodus 16.23 – “. . . holy sabbath to the LORD.”

Exodus 16.25 – “. . . today is a sabbath to the LORD.”

Exodus 20.10 – “. . . a sabbath to the LORD your God.”

Exodus 31.15 – “. . . holy to the LORD.”

Exodus 35.2 – “. . . a day of sabbath rest to the LORD.”

Deuteronomy 5.14 – “. . . is a sabbath to the LORD your God.”

We are to be celebrating HIM! With choice foods and sweet drinks (sounds like Thanksgiving, doesn’t it?) we are to remember and celebrate what our Lord and Savior has done for us, not only on that Friday evening during the creation week but also on that Friday evening in the PASSION week as well. Our Savior, again, on the sixth day cried out, “It is Finished,” and then on the Seventh rested from the work He had accomplished. Truly this day is hallowed and blessed, not simply by the events surrounding creation, but by the events surrounding our redemption as well.

This weekend, beginning on Friday night, set time aside to celebrate our Lord and the generously extravagant love He has poured out on each one of us. Take time to make HIS day special. Set off some fireworks! Have a super special meal! Give presents to the kids in your family! Do something, do anything that celebrates the unfathomable, radical, self-sacrificial, other-centered love of our God! (It’s also interesting to note that nowhere in the scriptures does the Bible tell us how to celebrate the Sabbath; it simply calls us to do it. This should speak volumes to us.)

Remember, love like the rain, love like the sun, and go enlarge the kingdom!

I wish you God’s best this week.

In love,

Herb

January 31 Esight, 2011

John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us. But Jesus said to him, Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you. Luke 9.49-50Let me start by clarifying what I’m not saying this week. I do not believe we should sacrifice passion for what we sincerely believe to be Truth. My concern is rather how we treat those with whom we find ourselves in disagreement about what is Truth. The Bible seems, from what I have witnessed, to contain two types of teaching. One is purposeful. It is clearly the intention and passion of the author to communicate, and it is expressed with such clarity that most people find themselves in agreement with. The other kind of teaching is one that we derive by observing the authors as they write about a different topic than the one we have questions about.

An example of the first type of teaching is that Jesus is the Christ. This is clearly the New Testament’s central passion.

One of many examples of the second type of teaching in the Bible is church organization. None of the New Testament authors sat down and composed a church manual for us. We are left piece together how the church was organized from what the authors say about how the early church was organized and functioned while they are passionately speaking on other topics. Another example (and I want to be clear that I am a Sabbatarian, if labels mean anything) is the Sabbath. Nowhere in the New Testament do the authors forsee the church’s history of transitioning from a Saturday celebrated day of worship to a Sunday celebrated day of worship. They do not forsee it, and thus they do not address it DIRECTLY. What we do have from the New Testament authors are gleanings that they themselves and the early Christians were Sabbatarian in their day of worship. But we have no DIRECT writing on the topic in which it seems to be the author’s passion to give us a complete dissertation of the Sabbath in the New Testament, its meaning, and how it should be celebrated by New Testament Christians. Does this mean it isn’t a concern for us simply because they were not concerned with it then? No, it simply means that those writing the New Testament lived before events they could not forsee took place, and thus they did not address the issue.

But this is not my point at all. I simply what you to begin thinking about these two types of truth in the New Testament. The first kind is clear, and most Christians today agree about it. The second is the “gleaned” kind in which there is room for misunderstanding, misapplication, and disagreement. My point is, how should we relate to others who we find ourselves in agreement with on the first kind of truth, but disagree with on the second? Does it mean we write off what we believe about the second category as unimportant? NO, it simply means that we understand that these two different types of teachings in the New Testament exist and we still extend the right hand of fellowship to those we disagree with about the second kind of teachings. Follow John’s statement closely:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 1 John 5.1 (TNIV)

If someone in our post-modern, evolutionist, atheistic-tending society believes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, then we already, simply by that belief alone, find ourselves having something very special in common with that person. I guess my concern is an attitude I see too often in our churches (and I’m in a different one each weekend). There is this “us and them” kind of spirit. It is not espoused by all, but it is definitely more present than I like to admit. There is something inside us that wants to set up a criteria, a list, of what makes a person “in” or “out.” It’s an attempt to find a kind of false assurance that we ourselves are “in.” But in doing this, we reject God’s love for us as being the basis of our assurance, and we establish our own criteria in its place. Our religious beliefs and practices take the place only God is to have in our hearts and become nothing more than idolatry. We go about establishing our own ideas of what is the identifying mark of who is “with” us or who is still “outside.”

This attitude is fundamentally flawed on many levels, but the greatest problem, in my opinion, is that in thinking and relating to others according to these principles, we deny the very fabric of what God’s kingdom is all about. Jesus was much more inclusive than what we find many Christian communities, including my own, being today. (For evidence of this, just look at the types of people Jesus attracted. Those are the folks that churches today repell.) I’m simply being honest, and I’m speaking from my heart. The more familiar I find myself becoming with what Jesus was all about, the more questions and concerns I have about how modern traditional “Christian” communities fit into that. Just questions. Not doubts. Please don’t label me too as being “out.” I’m simply asking questions and voicing concerns. I want to be different. Not that I have by any means arrived, but I want to live in relationship to others with that radical, self-sacrificial, other-centered, inclusive love that characterizes the life of Jesus and the kingdom He came to establish in our hearts.

I’ll close with a story a dear friend of mine from Minnesota shared with me recently that I believe expresses my point beautifully.

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said, “Stop. Don’t do it.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he asked.

“Well, there’s so much to live for!”

“Like what?”

“Are you religious?”

He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Me too. Are you Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist?”

“Christian.”

“Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?”

“Protestant.”

“Me too. Are you Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal, or Baptist?”

“Baptist.”

“Wow. Me too. Are you Southern Baptist, General Baptist, Northern Baptist, or Separatist Baptist?”

“Separatist Baptist.”

“Me too. Are you Original Separatist Baptist, or are you Reformed Separatist Baptist?”

“Reformed Separatist Baptist.”

“Me too. Are you Reformed Separatist Baptist, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Separatist Baptist, Reformation of 1915?”

He said: “Reformed Separatist Baptist, Reformation of 1915.”

I said: “Die, heretic scum,” and pushed him off.

Within our churches, we already have so much in common with each other, especially within the denomination I belong to. On some of those secondary areas of Biblical teaching, can we not administer a little more grace toward one another, trusting that God is at work in all of our lives and that He will complete this beautiful work He has begun in us? Patience, love, and forbearance—these are the staples of the kingdom. Love that will not let each other go, but at the same time, gives each one his or her own space to grow in.

Thank you for your patience with my heart’s cry this week. It comes from a sincerely troubled, weekend-church-visiting, traveler.

I wish you God’s best this week.

Love like the sun. Love like the rain. And go enlarge the Kingdom.

In love,

Herb

January 24 Esight, 2011

I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength, Forsaken among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand. (Psalms 88:4-5)First, I’m on my way back from Oregon tonight and I’m writing this on the airplane. I don’t have time to send this to the editors and wait for it to come back before I have to get it posted in order to go out in the morning. So, for all those who are grammatically astute, I am apologizing in advance. I have seen three new verses this weekend and I am beside myself in wanting to share them with you.

The verses I’d like you to consider are four amazing psalms (one I share almost every weekend, the others I have just seen). Simply ponder them for a moment for me. I believe that these psalms are not simply relaying the experiences of their author, but that they also have a prophetic purpose pointing forward to the future experiences of the Messiah too. (Theologians call these “Messianic Psalms”) But what they reveal, I believe, is life changing.

Psalms 69.15

May the flood of water not overflow me nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit shut its mouth on me.

Looking at these as a window into what was transpiring in the heart of Jesus as He hung on the cross for you, I’m asking these questions: Why such desperation here? Doesn’t He know He’ll be resurrected on Sunday? Why the sense of pleading? (For more insight into this please listen to the presentation The Awakening on our sermons page at http://www.renewedheartministries.com)

Again,

Psalms 39.13

Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again before I depart and am no more.

Did you catch that last statement? “Before I depart and am no more.” What does He mean “no more?”

Again,

Psalms 41.8

A wicked thing is poured out upon him, that when he lies down, he will not rise up again.

NOT RISE UP AGAIN? What is being said about Jesus here? Wasn’t He resurrected?

Psalms 88:4-5

I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength, Forsaken among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand.

Without a doubt I believe with all my heart in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But whether He was resurrected or not, that is not the issue here. My question is was there a time on the Cross where Jesus FELT, regardless of what He may have known intellectually going into the cross, was there a time on the Cross where Jesus FELT utterly forsaken of God, that Sin was so hateful to a holy God that if He went through with saving you and I it would be goodbye to life for Him forever? I have had some very zealous folks argue with me over the years about whether or not Jesus died the second death or the first death in redeeming us from our sins. And I want to be very clear. I’m not writing this to argue that point at all. My question is which death did Jesus FEEL like He was dying? One where He would be remembered and resurrected in two more days? Or was there a point on the cross, even if for only a small period of time, where Jesus FELT that if He gave His life for you and me, it would be at an eternal price to Himself? I believe the answer according to these psalms is a resounding YES!

Think of this dear reader. What does that mean about your value or worth to the God of this universe? What does this mean about how much He must love you? That the God of this universe would look at all the glories of Heaven, the reuniting embrace with His Father, and all the adoration of the angels, and still say, “Heaven is not a place that I desire to be if YOU cannot be there with me.” That God would decide, when faced with either saving Himself at your eternal ruin, or saving YOU at His own eternal ruin, that He would, out of deep inestimable love, decide to save YOU in utter abandonment of Himself.

I’d like you to ponder these thoughts this week. You are the object of the radical, self-sacrificial, selfless, other-centered, love of your God! He will stop at nothing to make sure you are in the kingdom. You mean more to Him than you could possible understand. Just as the woman at the well discovered, He knows everything there is possibly to know about you and He is looking at you today saying, “The gift is still on table”

Won’t you receive it? Won’t you embrace this radical kind of love? Not just as a the gift that it is from Him to you, but also as the way you want to live this life He is giving you?

I wish you God’s best this week.

Love like the sun. Love like the rain. And go enlarge the kingdom.

In love,

Herb