Sackcloth on Kings Jonah 3

When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. Jonah 3:6

Continuing thoughts from yesterday's blog. Here is Jonah running around Nineveh and preaching the destruction that was to come. People believed him and repented, putting on sackcloth. So today I was going to focus on the king. Well, then I typed the verse. Did something odd strike you? It hit me. The repentance of Nineveh did not start with the king; it started with the man on the street. It started when people heard the word of God, believed it, applied it to their own hearts and lives, and began fasting and praying for forgiveness, and THEN the movement caught on at the castle! Well, that changed a few things in my mind. Yes, the king gave orders, but those orders only applied to those who hadn't already taken action or believed the message, and for the animals. Everything and everybody was affected by the command, but it was the result of the grass-roots effort of the common man.

We are waiters. Not servant-type waiters, but we wait for someone else, preferably someone with power and authority, to start making things right. We wait for a movement to sweep the country and then join in. It happened with abortion/pro-life movements. It is happening with supporting police right now in the midst of the contrived race relations controversies. We wait for someone else to show us what to do or how we should respond. This is why there are sociology classes. This is why there are slogans and sayings out there that are repeated over and over and over and over...if you hear it enough, you start to believe it. What is wrong with this sin or that? Marriage for gays? Why not? Divorce on demand? Better than being miserable! We see it, hear it, and let our hearts be turned by it, often totally against what God has set forth as TRUTH in His Word. But when we then hear God's Word, it pierces through the foggy lies than lay deep in our subconscious and we begin to repent. And when we repent, and others repent, there is the slow snowball effect, and it gains ground. We begin to question the lies we have been told, we see the damage that the lies have caused (like post-abortion syndrome and thousands of kids living in poverty because their parents don't live together), and soon there is a shift, a repentance (turning around), and God relents to send destruction. The problem is then that the next generation sees God's mercy and believes it to be God's weakness, and they turn back to their sin. Then God does send the judgment that He mercifully held back. Nineveh did not continue to walk in repentance. The love of God did not take root there after the repentance, and destruction did come many years later. But that generation who listened to Jonah was saved.

How long do we wait for someone to do something to change the direction of the moral slide of our country? There is the Tea Party working in politics, there are a few lone voices crying in the wilderness of the religious right, and there are tv preachers, True Women movements, etc. People are going back to the Bible, back to the Constitution, back to the origins to see what we are made of, what the goals were, what the standards were to be...and finding God. What does God think? When we know the answer to that question, we repent, and when enough people hear and repent, eventually the word gets out to the leadership, the power-brokers of the world. They may or may not respond to the grass-roots, but when they do, things happen, usually to the extreme, like here. Did having the animals not eat or drink change God's mind? No. But it did show that they were taking God seriously. They as people had already denounced their culture of violence, brutality, and hatred. The government stepped in and joined them. God took notice that from the greatest to the least, everyone took Him seriously. And He had mercy...great, undeserved mercy.

So when we are tempted to wait for someone else to repent, someone else to start something to move the country, the family, the church even, toward God's Word, we only need to act ourselves. If God's Word does not come back void, He will bring others to the same place of self-change, and that is when revival breaks out. It takes longer for those at the top to get the Word that God means business, but that is ok. If it took that long back then, why should the people in power today be any different. We are called to repent ourselves, to believe God, whether the rest of the world does or not.

Stand, my brothers and sisters, for the Word. Let it change you, and let God let you join in the movement to repentance and revival throughout the land. Happy 2015.

Sackcloth in Ninevah Jonah 3

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Jonah 3:5

Jonah. What a guy. He who runs from God. He who doesn't want to see people saved. He who would rather die than bring salvation to his arch enemies. We have spent the last 2 weekends in Sunday School talking of this little book. There are many miracles in this book. Storms rise and cease at God's command. Jonah was saved by a fish. Plants spring up overnight big enough to shade the sorry prophet.

But the biggest miracle is in the verse here. The most wicked of people in the known world at the time BELIEVED IN GOD. They repented. This was a culture that most people couldn't imagine. Wicked to the core, they murdered, tortured, flayed and displayed their enemies. They surrounded the city with skulls stacked high against the walls. They were a fearsome people, and there was no doubt that Jonah was as terrified of going there as he was unable to see why God would want to warn them of their impending doom.

But God sent a guy from the belly of a fish to them, and they believed the warning he gave. They heard him talk of a righteous God who would repay them for their evil. I am sure they heard his fishy story, of the storms and the act of being kept alive himself for three days though he deserved to die for not following God's instructions and willfully doing the polar opposite.

They believed Jonah. They believed that they were wicked and that a righteous God had the power to destroy them. THAT is a miracle. From the greatest to the least, they put on sackcloth and ate and drank nothing. They knew they deserved what was coming. Why else would they repent? Why else would they hear the voice of the angry prophet? Any one of them could have run him through with a spear and given him the treatment of any enemy. But they did not...another miracle. They let him run around town for a single day and heard his voice and his story and repented. It says the needed to turn from their wickedness and violence. Jonah preached peace with God through repentance.

I have been reading God's Underground by Richard Wurmbrand, and the theme that comes up over and over is that God offers salvation to all men, regardless of the wickedness that he has committed. And the sad thing that happens over and over is that men would die in their sin rather than accept that forgiveness. Over and over Richard would hear them confess their wickedness, hear them say they had gone too far and that God could not forgive them. He reassured them over and over that this is why Jesus came...to forgive sinners. Their souls would torture them more than the guards of the prisons. And many would refuse to be comforted and forgiven. That is the saddest part of the whole book. The torture inflicted on the body makes one cringe, even cry, for what these men suffered physically, but knowing that they chose not to accept God's offer of forgiveness makes one sadder yet, unless you are like Jonah. If you hate someone enough to wish for their eternal suffering, you hate indeed. To watch someone go into a godless eternity is a torture to the soul. Many cannot accept God because of hell. They can't bear to think of someone they loved not being in heaven. But God offers heaven to all, but all do not accept it. That is not His fault. There are choices to be made. God chooses to offer, man chooses to accept or decline that offer for reason of believing he is not bad enough to deserve hell, or believing he is too bad to deserve heaven. Both thoughts miss the point. We all deserve hell, and no one deserves heaven, but God knew that, sent his Son, like Jonah, to preach repentance, and some choose to heed the warning. It is Christ that makes us worthy of heaven, not ourselves. It was Him taking our sin when we give it to Him that purifies us.

The fact is, the Ninevites changed their ways. They repented. They saw their sorry state and exchanged their clothes for sackcloth, their food and drink for the symbolic body and blood of Christ, and turned their cursing and violence into appeals for mercy and worship of the One True God. That is what salvation looks like. Men see themselves for what they are, and see God for Who He Is. And beautiful things happen.

Day and Night Clothes 1 Thes. 5

But since we are of the day, let us be sober (self-controlled), having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Christmas was yesterday and most of the western world celebrated it, as well as other Christians world-wide. That was the day that we rejoiced in the first coming of the Lord, coming to be our Savior. When I opened to the passage, I thought I was in Ephesians 6 until I saw that only 2 pieces of the armor were listed here. And then looking at the context, I was amazed to find Paul was speaking of the second coming. Here he used references to the armor of God, but not the full armor. And he spoke of the three things that remain in the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13. They are faith, love, and hope. So what is going on here?

Jesus came, lived, died, and rose and ascended to heaven to await the day when God would send him back. And He Himself said He would return like a thief in the night, referring to it in the gospels of Matthew, and stating it outright a few times in Revelation. Even Peter references it in his second letter. This is the context in which Paul was writing. People will think that life is peaceful and normal, and then they would be violated like someone whose house was broken into while they are sleeping. It is hard enough to have someone break into your home when you are gone, but knowing they are there when you are home and unaware of what is going on is totally unnerving. The danger is real. But Paul says that the people of the day and of the light will not be surprised by His coming! And the only armor we will need at this time is faith and love for God covering our hearts, and the hope of salvation clearly covering our minds. We need not fear, we need not question our position with God and Christ. We know if He is coming it is for our good and not our destruction if we are children of the day. Those who fear His coming are those who will stand condemned before Him. They know they are not right with Him and will lose everything in the process because they understand that they prefer to be children of the darkness. This is an internal war that the Christian will fight, not the war against Satan, as is described in Ephesians. The time for the sword and shoes and belt are gone. We just need to guard our hearts and minds as Philippians 4:7 says. There Paul is telling us not to worry and let God's peace wash over us during these trying times! We need to stay calm, rest in the peace of God's righteousness, and live in the next verse to the Thessalonians, knowing we who are saved are not destined for His wrath. We are to encourage one another in this.

Now there are those who will say that if we are Christians that we will never suffer. Nothing could be further from the truth! I am reading now a book called God's Underground and reading of sufferings unimaginable to those of us in the most civilized of countries. The tortures, the humiliations, the absolute depravity of one man against another for the most inane of reasons, like being a Christian, proves the point that Jesus made...if we name Him, we will suffer. Every disciple died a martyrs death, yet we have TV preachers telling us that God wants us happy and healthy and wealthy. These men are fools, if nothing else. They haven't suffered a day in their lives for the things of God, so they tell you you won't. Please turn the channel when you hear this stuff, or at least pray that God will show them the error of their philosophies. We will not suffer GOD'S wrath, but it doesn't say we will not suffer the wrath of man anywhere in the scriptures. Quite to the contrary, Jesus warned people well ahead of time that they would lose this world to gain the next, and most quit following Him.

I shudder to think of what Reverend Wurmbrand suffered in those Romanian prisons they sent him through and wonder how I would fare under such horrible pain, isolation, and humiliation. I think of those who died or wished they would. And I think of eternal sufferings that many of them faced. One thing he said made me think. No one in prison died and atheist! They either cried out in confession of sin and begged God for forgiveness, or hated Him. None denied His existence in the end. Ultimately, when faced with death, we choose which side we are on. We see our sin and confess it, or we justify it. And this is where the breastplate and helmet come in, keeping us safe from the attacks of Satan to see God as unjust, removing our peace and confidence in what Christ came to do for us.

Faith brings us to forgiveness in Christ, love results from our relationship with Him, and hope protects us from forgetting the faith and the love. That hope of someday avoiding the wrath of God is what keeps us sane when the world around us is falling apart. Knowing in this passage that whether we live or die, when Christ comes we will live “together with Him.” There simply cannot be more comforting words than those. For Christians who have suffered at the hands of Taliban, ISIS, or whomever else would seek to destroy them, death means life, and we are to comfort them with this great truth.

And Christ will return and set things straight, not as a helpless babe, but as a powerful warrior, mighty to save and ready to take us home for keeps. Ponder that this Christmas season. We all will be home for Christmas someday! Really home.

Garments of Justice Amos 2

Sorry! Somehow this was in the drafts file and didn't get published earlier.!

On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar. Amos:2:6

Once again we look at the misuse of justice written in scripture concerning cloth. Whether this was the cloak or the regular clothing of the people who owed them something, we do not know, but God is not happy with them...to the point that He refuses to NOT take action against them. To take one's clothes in that day and age was to take their life. For many this was all they owned. Nakedness is spoken of and apparently was truly a condition of the desperate. To remove their clothing and leave them in a loin cloth or less would be a grievous act, not only of lack of mercy for their plight, but also lack of mercy for their reputation. The total humiliation of it for the person defrocked, for their families, for God's reputation as a giving and forgiving God.

Not only did they lack mercy, they then went to church, perverted the whole worship into an orgy, and used the clothes that they had stolen as theirs, or as picnic blankets. They drank wine confiscated also from the poor, and had no unclear conscience about the whole matter. They felt justified, satisfied, and proud of their position as boss. They had no humility before their own boss, God, and showed no mercy. God was going to do them the same favor and show them no mercy, as well. With the same measure we use, God will measure out to us...in mercy, favor, wrath, and love. Those who give, to more will be given, and to those who take, all will be taken from them.

God owes us nothing, but He love us anyway. He acted on our behalf to draw us to Him. He blessed us when we didn't deserve it, and pours out mercy when He could pour out wrath. But this doesn't last forever...He will some day repay those who scorn His goodness and do not reproduce it in their lives toward others.

And then to play church when we are filled with hatred toward our fellow workmen, well, He sees that as unforgivable. The verses before these speak of them first rejecting the law of the Lord, not keeping it, and lying about it to themselves and others. They exchanged truth for error first, and then started treating their fellow man with the same scorn. It all starts with one's attitude toward God. When we see who we are in His eyes, His holiness and our sinfulness, we have compassion on our fellow sinners. We see that no matter how hard we may try to love, to be patient or kind, we fail miserably. We hurt others intentionally or unintentionally, and we have to humble ourselves and apologize for not being what others need us to be. But when we take God's Word and see Him as less than He is, and us as more than we are, then we get an attitude. We are owed something, so we take. We want justice, so we mete it out however we see fit, even if it destroys our neighbor.

In this world of people hurting one another, we look for answers. World peace...when we can't live in peace with our spouse, community unity...when we can't even be consistent in keeping our homes together. We wish people could just get along, but there is always selfishness. We want others to be unselfish while we get what we want. And the answers we look for always require the others to change what THEY are doing, thinking, and being.

When the only answer is to bow before the throne of God and be humble before Him, and taking that humility to those around us. Demanding what we want solves nothing, even when it is something good. Imitating the God of mercy and giving is the answer to a world in pain. If we all give, we all receive. When we give mercy, God grants us His mercy, whether people do or not. When we forgive the debts of others and don't make them “pay up,” God forgives us our debts. When we let go of anger and offense toward people who hurt us, God fills us with a peace that will make us wonder why we decided to fill ourselves with rage. The payback that we get is far more satisfying than anything we can take from another, be it in clothes or be it in emotional turmoil or anything else we subject people to to get even. God doesn't get even...He forgives...and pays the debt owed...and pulls the offending party to Himself if only they will come humbly.

And that, my friends, is too wonderful for us to fathom.

Spirit-filled Cloths Acts 19

God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. Acts 19:11-12

There are religions all over the world that claim to do all sorts of miracles. The Christian faith generally is not one of them. God does work miracles in His own time and in His own way. Stories are told of miracles happening, but they are never the result of man's power or investment. So how do we explain the working of Paul at this time? And why cloth to perform it?

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. The Jews hated him...the non-Christian ones, that is. He had been the super-Jew. In Philippians 3 he tells us that he was the best of the best. Born right, studied right, belonged to the right religious and politican parties, kept all of the law of Moses, and zealously persecuted the church of Christ before God intercepted him during a killing spree, Paul became the enemy of the synagogues around the known world. Because of this, he journeyed to the parts of the Mediterrainian preaching the gospel. God used the miracles as a sign to these people that a God more powerful than theirs was talking to them. Like Jesus, healing power of the Holy Spirit flowed from him. Unlike Jesus, he did not pronounce healing from afar as Jesus did. It took contact. Cloth was the easiest thing for people to transport that could be touched by Paul, or more likely the peoples touched him with them, and took them off to the sick and possessed that couldn't come to him. Like the people around Jesus, they wanted the benefits of contact with holy things, but many did not partake of the inner spiritual transformation.

And then there were those who wanted to profit by it. The next few verses of this passage are hilarious, if not pitiful. Jewish exorcists...those who would travel from town to town claiming to cast out evil spirits...saw that Paul could actually accomplish what they claimed to be able to do. I can assure you that they followed him around to see exactly what he was doing, and determined to imitate him and his power. But they found out the hard way that the Spirit of God is not given for mass distribution!

They were semi-wise. They told the demons to leave in the name of “Jesus whom Paul preaches.” They knew that that name, that of Jesus...not just any Jesus...Paul's Jesus, was the power that made demons sit up and take notice. And take notice they did. The answer from the demon should be a warning to any who trifle with the name of Jesus Christ. “Jesus, I know, and Paul I know; but who are (you)?” And he attacked them, beating them, stripping them naked, sending them into the streets fearing for their lives! The demon was not afraid of them, not submissive to them, because they were nothing for it to fear. The demons only fear God. They know what is coming to them at the end of all things, and know that their power on earth is temporary at best. They must submit to God, to Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit, which includes any who are truly saved and have the Spirit dwelling in them. These were not Christians, not true followers of Christ, and the name of Jesus had no effect in their lives or the lives of others. Toying with the name of Jesus caused themselves harm and not good. And well it should have. They wanted the power, the prestige, the money, and the reputation that they could gain from their association with the power of the name. They did not want the humility, the scurge and rejection of the world, the poverty or hardship, or the reputation that would often send Paul running from towns to keep his life. They only wanted the benefits and not the sacrifices that the Name of Jesus can and will bring to His followers. They did not want to follow the spirit...verse 21 says Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to his next mission field...they wanted to go where they could make the most of themselves. The name of Jesus meant salvation to Paul, and profit and power to them.

And how we mistake the name of Jesus in this day and age as well. We try to bring people to Jesus in much the same way...bringing them the clothes to heal them or solve their problems, forgetting that they need to come to Jesus for forgiveness and true inner, spiritual healing and salvation. We look for grand buildings and great programs in churches instead of the God Himself, and the Son, and the Spirit given to those who come in repentance, humility, and faith. True faith, not hocus-pocus faith. Not a believing like the demons, who believe and tremble. We need to know and love this God, want the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace in our hearts, resulting in patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. None of this is for our exhaltation, but for God's glory and to honestly bring others into that self-same relationship with Him. And we will carry that with our lips and lives, not with handkerchiefs and aprons.

Christmas Wrap Part 2

This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:12

So last time we contemplated the lowliness of the birth of Christ and the struggles of Mary and ourselves during the holiday season. Today we consider far happier things. Like the finding of the Savior. And the sign was a baby wrapped in cloth! Now there is a sign for you. There were babies all over Bethlehem, one would assume. The Savior, however, would be wrapped like a peasant child and sleeping in a feed trough. Here is one shiny angel, a whole angel choir, lots of glory and fear announcing the Christ Lord, and they were to look for something unusual, yes, but far from glorious in its appearance. And this is how God works. Things hit us as glorious, like when we realize who God is and that He wants to save us and we accept that, and then life looks rather unusual, but far from glorious. But that obedience of the shepherds took them to places they wouldn't have gone, and when they saw it for themselves, they went back to their old life of shepherding with glory and praise for God pouring from their lips. And likely, that is what happens to us. We don't become glorious, but we are filled with inexpressible joy and talk about God, about seeing God, in a way we didn't expect. He came down to our level, sure, as baby Jesus, but He did also let us know that He wasn't just like us. He WAS different. He was worth the worship of angels. He was worth the worship and glorification that 2 special people at the temple would give him a week later. And the more we see the difference, the more we can't believe that He would stoop down to be with us. And we can't stop thinking about it and telling others that we are forever changed.

Joy. The shepherds were filled with pure, unadulterated joy. God chose Mary to mother Jesus, Joseph to father Him, and shepherds to spread the word of the birth of the Savior. They, the outcasts of the culture, were chosen over all others in the world to see the Christ, to identify Him to the world as such. He sent angels to all of them to confirm their stories. They weren't imagining this. They weren't mistaken about what they thought about this baby. They weren't worthless nobodies in the eyes of God. They were angels themselves, messengers to anyone on earth who would listen to them, for that is what angel means – messenger.

And they were a comfort to Mary. How many months had it been since the angel appeared to her? To Joseph? So I am sure that hearing from the shepherds that angels had appeared to them as well must have reassured her that she was on the right track, that all the pain she had experienced as a pregnant single woman and through childbirth was worth every minute. They told her that the angels told them that this baby was the Christ, the Savior of the world, and that this good news would be for all people, for all that God wanted to save. This was the fulfillment of generations of prophecy happening to them. Who wouldn't be excited, relieved, and encouraged that God was in all of this process.

This baby in cloth born in a barn was a sign. He was a sign. We think of the star as the sign. We think of the angels as a sign. We look at nativity scenes and sparkling lights and Christmas trees as signs of the Christ-birth. But the baby was the sign. He is it. He is the sign of what? He is the sign that the Savior had come. And that means something...we NEEDED a savior of some sort. And nothing and nobody else could save us. We are sinners. We need saved from sin. And the one who would be able to do that had finally come...it would take 33 years for it to be accomplished, but they didn't know that. They just knew that God wanted to save them. They were important to God, and He wanted them saved. But He couldn't do it around His own law. He had to fulfill it in the Christ as He had told them through Moses and the prophets. They had waited forever for this...from Adam and Eve to the shepherds...they had waited. Who knew when and where and to whom? And now they were partakers in it. And if nothing else, they all knew that night that God was going to do this in an unimaginable way. He was the sign that God was ready to make peace with sinful man. It wasn't going to be easy or normal or painless, but He was going to do it through sacrifices, His, and Mary's, and also the sacrifices of the praise of the shepherds. And it was met not with scoldings and I-told-you-sos. It was met with joy and praise and happiness and love and cuddles and smelly hay. And with scraps of cloth.  

Christmas Wrap

And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

As you probably notice, I blog inconsistently. And it hasn't happened for the last week or so because of Christmas. No, I lie. It is because of ME at Christmas. Distracted, busy preparing for the coming of the kids who will be staying here for a week and need a place to sleep, busy with parties and food, and ordering presents, buying them, wrapping them. You know the drill. I haven't ignored the scriptures, but God knows they haven't come first. I have listened to sermons on the internet, read posts and blogs online, and gone to church. As I opened to this passage, there were my sermon notes. On the back is the to-do list...my faulty attempt to write down all the things I needed to do this week so that I could be comfortable knowing I wouldn't forget anything in hopes that I would then be able to focus on the sermon. As I look at the sermon notes on the other side, it's obvious I didn't focus very well. Sigh.

At prayer meeting last night a few of us were talking about the stress of the holiday season. So much to prepare for...the gifts, the attitudes toward family and gatherings. I prayed that Satan not take over even our hearts this season, weighing our hearts down instead of letting us rejoice in what we are really celebrating. The work we go through at Christmas probably more addresses Mary's labor in giving birth than the joy of holding God in her arms. Maybe we do act more like Mary during the weeks heading up to Christmas. She is heavy with child, socially awkward due to the unmarried state of her pregnancy, has to make an unplanned trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem because the government stepped in, and then was relegated to a barn to sleep. In the chaos that was Mary's life, the Christchild was born. An angel had appeared to her, telling her she was favored with God, she would bear a son who would be the Son of the Most High and be a king. She had questions, and she got answers. My Bible said she was perplexed (I looked it up...Completely Baffled, Very Puzzled). How did any of this make sense? Why her? Puzzled...looking at that table full of pieces and wondering how in the world they would fit together to make a complete picture. What piece was she? What piece was Elizabeth? What pieces would make up the next years of her life to make the coming and living of the Messiah in Israel happen as they were foretold. I imagine in month 7 or 8 she pondered the whole Bethlehem thing and wondered how that would work out...and then the decree! Or did the decree happen months before and the date was scheduled for the trip and she wondered if she would be carrying the baby inside or in her arms. Or perhaps she pondered God's Word and faithfulness, realizing ahead of time that this would fulfill the scriptures, and worshiped for months the plans of God. We don't know. What we do know is her response,” Behold the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” That is faith, and trust, and hope, and submission to the will of God to be used however He desires for His plans and purposes.

I, having a prophet's nature (it's got to be right, folks, or I will probably correct you, or warn you, or ask God how to get through the truth to you) get justifiably agitated over the secularization of Christmas. There are days I want to scream, “Give it back to the Catholics, let them celebrate it. Let the world not profit from it since they want to gut it of its religious moorings.” Someone posted a blog where someone said we shouldn't force our friends and rest of the world on Facebook and elsewhere to put the Christ back in Christmas. I about had a heart attack. When I peeled myself off the ceiling, I wrote as gently as possible for me that it isn't forcing them to remind them what this is all about. It is an opportunity to talk about what God did for us. Twice a year the world acknowledges God. Christmas, the birth of Jesus, whether they secularize it or not, brings around the story of God come to earth, the idea of peace on earth and a God who steps low to honor the humble with His Son, with angel choirs, and with Stars showing the way to get to Him in the house where Joseph and Mary stayed later. This is a God who calls for us to come by coming Himself. He hides only from the haughty, the powerful, the self-righteous. He avoided the Pharasees and went to the common man and shepherd. He skirted around Herod the governor while calling foreigner wise men who were willing to bow instead of being bowed to.

If the Word of God is only opened to the world twice a year, who am I to tell God not to leave it on the calendar? He WILL judge this country for turning Him away like the innkeeper in Bethlehem. But dealing with my own frustrations is a small price to pay for the gospel to be advanced. What child seeing a nativity scene perhaps for the first time won't ask what it is about? Will they not be more curious over the years to wonder where this holiday of giving came from once the Santa thing wears off? If I truly bear the weigh of the expectations of Christmas and all its busyness for the sake of the gospel, will it not rejoice my heart? And it's the time of year where we can sing hymns of joy in our hearts while wrapping those gifts like Mary wrapped Jesus. He was the gift, wrapped in humble poor-mans cloths. And that should be my distraction from all the rest of the busyness of Christmas. Christ was given to us.

Throwing aside his garment Mark 10

Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. Mark 10:50 NASB

This is the story of Blind Bartimaeus (BB). Needless to say, he was blind. He was sitting by the road...which more than likely means he was begging. What else could a blind man do in those days? He lived in Jericho (yes, they rebuilt that famous city) and heard that Jesus was coming out of town. He may have been a beggar, but he was not shy. He screamed at the top of his lungs for Jesus to help him. So much so, and so loudly that people were embarrassed and told him to be quiet! He called Jesus the Son of David...so he had a very strong idea that the stories he had heard of this Jesus of Nazareth were proof that he was the Messiah! And a chance to be healed as others had been seemed like the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

There are many things to see here. Here is the crowd, all anxious to see Jesus. Good for them. There was BB, asking for help. Good for him. The crowd heard BB, and did not help him get to Jesus. Shame on them! They told him, essentially, that Jesus was not interested in him, or that he was not worthy of being helped by Jesus. We see people every day that need Jesus, who hope beyond hope that He would care about them, and yet we, in our own self-interest, do not take the time or find them worthy of bringing them to the Savior. Sigh. Caught up in our own efforts to see Him, we forget those who have no way of getting to him without a little help. They could have walked him to the front of the crowd, or stopped Jesus and brought Him to BB. But they didn't and we often don't.

But thank God BB was not deterred. He persisted in calling out for help, whether the people around him cared or not. And Jesus heard him. And He made the crowd do for BB what they had not chosen to do on their own...He made them go to BB and bring him to Him. Jesus is wise in His dealings with us. He will force our hands if we don't act willingly! Hallelujah! He does not turn the needy away. But he also required something of BB. He had to come. He didn't go to BB and look on him with pity. He called him. And BB had to respond in faith. Remember Naaman of a few lessons ago? He got really torqued with Elijah for not coming out to him, and then telling him to go wash in an Israeli river! He wanted Elijah to come out to him, to make a big deal of his healing. It took his troops to talk him in to obedience. Not BB! If Jesus wanted to see him, he would do whatever it took! Another point is that they had to tell BB to stand up! He was sitting the whole time he was calling for help. Was he crippled as well as blind? Since he wasn't stumbling to the front of the crowd, maybe. Or maybe it thought he would be trampled! Or maybe sitting would make him look more pitiful and helpless and give Jesus more reason to help him. Maybe he was weakened by lack of food and exercise. Maybe every joint hurt when he walked. We don't know, but when he knew that Jesus was calling him to come, he got up. He didn't care if Jesus made a scene or not, or required him to come or not. And he left behind his most precious earthly good: his cloak. Without it he would be hot during the day, sit on the bare ground, and be cold at night. It may likely have been the only thing he owned, but he didn't care. He threw it off like so much trash! What he was going to get, his sight, was worth so much more than covering and protection. He was going to “see” Jesus, and nothing was going to hold him down! Nothing was going to trip him up. The excitement and anticipation was more than he could bear! When called, he responded, not just with obedience, but with great enthusiasm. Weakness and pain would not hold him back from the One Who could do great things for him. Leaving every earthly possession behind would not hinder him. He didn't hand it to the nearest person for safekeeping. He threw it off, not knowing if he would ever get it back. And he didn't care. Getting to Jesus was all that mattered. This may sound redundant, but getting the call from Jesus is a BIG DEAL. And responding is also a BIG DEAL.

And Jesus, not being blind, asked what many would consider a stupid question...”What do you want me to do for you?” What would a blind man want? It was obvious he was blind! He wanted to see! Duh! But there is so much more he wanted. He wanted to regain his sight. This is spelled out in the NASB. Regain. That means he once could see, and therefore he knew what he was missing. Those born blind knew no other life, but those who lost their sight could only long for what they once had. He didn't ask for his job back, his family, the respect of the community, or to be a roll-model to the rest of Jericho of the wonders of Jesus, but he would get all this and more from his healing. He wanted eyes of faith, and that is what Jesus gave him. “Your faith has saved you (and made you well)”...both are implied in Jesus' response. And yet his new-found freedom did not send him seeking worldly things...he followed Jesus down the road, and was probably one of the loudest voices again, this time participating in the “triumphal entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem! He could see the man who just healed him hailed as the Messiah right before his very eyes! He could testify to the whole crowd that they were right in hailing Him in this way. Grateful praise replaced loud appeals for mercy. The mercy of the Lord changes our pleas into praise! Has it happened yet in your heart today? Every day we need mercy, kindness, and the attention of Jesus in our hearts, lives, and circumstances...and often when He acts on our behalf, we forget to thank Him privately, let alone sing His praises publicly. Let's be Bbs today, crying out our praises and thanks to God for all He has done to open our eyes to His glory.