Invest In Heaven

In Luke 16, Jesus was with some Pharisees and he figured out they liked their money a little too much so he told two stories that both started the same way, “there was a certain rich man”.

The first story was about a rich man that was unhappy with the fellow who was managing his money so he told him he was fired and to settle up his books. While he was looking at the books he realized that he wouldn’t be able to support himself in the future so acting within his authority he called in one of the ones who owed the most and said if you’ll pay your debt now I’ll give you a 50% discount. The second one who owed he gave a 60% discount. He curried favor with them so they would give him a place to live after he was out of work.

The money manager then went over the books with his master and the master saw what he had done and commended him for his shrewdness in preparing for his future at his own expense and then fired him. Jesus using this story said to pay attention to what the money manager did and follow his example to use your earthly wealth to prepare a home in eternity.

The second story was about a rich man who dressed well and enjoyed his life but wouldn’t stoop to help feed a poor beggar or tend his wounds. They both died and the rich man suffered torment and anguish while the beggar (Lazarus) was carried up by angels and was in comfort.

Message to the Pharisees and other lovers of money… remember who gave you that money and instead of spending it in merry making and entertaining your other money loving friends take a long look at helping those who are poor or have some other need because that’s an investment in Heaven.There won't be any merry making in Hell

Ofelia Guzman's Funeral

I went to the funeral for Ofelia Guzman today. I find that in this point of my life I’m attending more and more funerals. Today I got there early so I could have a seat and was visiting with all the people, learning family connections and giving my condolences. Luis Torres (Ofelia’s brother-in-law) was the speaker and one thing he said that sticks in my mind was that he thought God had looked down on Ofelia and said “you’ve suffered enough… it’s time to come home.”

The Guzman’s children attended at Parkway and I know them very well. Every time I see Ron he calls me “Guero” and every time I see him I call him “Uncle Ronnie” (because that’s what his niece and nephew call him.)

As we were filing out of the auditorium today and everyone was expressing condolences to the family I saw Uncle Ronnie sitting next to his Dad and the emotions hit me and all I could do was shake hands. See… you would think I would be prepared for that because it happens at every funeral I go to… but no it always catches me by surprise.

When I was standing by the hearse I was still choked up. Uncle Ronnie came up and said… It’s Ok Guero. But at the internment Uncle Ronnie was going around asking people if they needed anything (like water) and I said, yeah I’ll take a Whataburger with cheese, fries and a Coke and he grinned and said that’s my Guero!

I see my parent’s generation quickly fading away and know that there are some big funerals awaiting me. We’ve lost three old timers at church this year and there are several more right behind them. It’s at times like these that we need God the most… when we hand over our most beloved to him to care for them forever.

I lost my Dad when he was 62 years old. I still ask God to find him and tell him that I love him.

Oh and by the way, Ron and Sylvia Guzman drove all the way from Corpus Christi to Houston to attend my Dad’s funeral in 1998. I’ll never forget that.

I’m always torn about what would be best… for me to attend Julie’s funeral or for her to attend mine. We’re hoping that God takes us at the same time. We know there’s no marriage In Heaven but Julie says maybe we can hold hands.

I attend a lot of funerals and I’m glad to attend them because it reminds me that this life won’t last forever and every day I live brings me one day closer to eternity. Rest in eternal peace Ofelia… you have lived well.

The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son

Luke 15 starts out by describing the reaction of the super-righteous Jews (Pharisees and Scribes) to Jesus socializing with the worst sinners of Jewish society. They criticized Jesus and felt morally superior to him.

Jesus then tells three stories; the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. There’s a progression in these stories.

A sheep wanders off, the shepherd leaves 99 sheep to go look for the one that was lost and when he finds it there is great rejoicing. Of course everyone knows that.

A woman loses one of her 10 coins. She searches the house to find it and when she does she is over joyed and tells her friends and they rejoice. Of course she does.

A man has a rebellious son (one of two sons) who leaves the family and goes to a far country and lives a live of debauchery and sexual misconduct. The son repents and comes home and the father rejoices and throws a big party in celebration. Some understand this and some don’t.

The super self-righteous Jews criticized Jesus for caring about the lost children of God. Their spirituality was messed up. They mistakenly thought that God’s children couldn’t have anything to do with those whose lives were sullied by sin.

Perhaps they thought those lost should repent first and clean their lives up and then and only then could there be any social contact. Sound familiar?

They were spiritual failures. They didn’t understand that God loves all his children and is anxiously awaiting the day that they would repent and that repentance always, 100% of the time results in great rejoicing in Heaven. Maybe, not always on earth but always in Heaven.

They didn’t understand the process of bringing people to repentance. They didn’t understand the need for social contact to demonstrate care and concern and correction for the ultimate well-being of those who are lost in sin.

When I’m working with someone I have to ignore a lot. I have to ignore bad language, bad behavior, bad jokes, immodesty, etc. So I can build a relationship to show Christ living in me so that they will look at their own lives and want something better. If I condemn every little thing I lose my chance to address the greater things.

I’ve seen that process work.

Jesus worked hard with the morally bankrupt of Jewish society… should we do less?

Story Telling

Jesus was a fellow that liked to tell stories in fact you could always count on him for a story. He was also a keen observer on things going on around him and when he noticed something in particular he would begin to tell a story.

In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus was at a feast put on by a “Ruler of the Pharisees” that’s Jew talk for a really big dog in the Jewish religion. Jesus noticed that the guests were competing with each other for the best seats and of course started in with a story. Here’s how it goes… there’s a big party and one of the guests decides to sit up by the host but then another guest came in, perhaps the mayor of the city, and the host tells the guy sitting next to him… “do you mind sitting at the end of the table I had intended for the mayor to sit here.” Jesus concludes that the embarrassment is intense and it would be better when you came to the party to kind of hang back and let the host sit you in a better place if he chose to.

And then he concludes, “For everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.”

Keep in mind that Jesus tells this story in the middle of the party to guests who had been involved in inappropriate behavior. It does kind of kill the mood at a party.

I like it that Jesus was a story teller because I like to tell stories too but I guess one of the differences between me and Jesus is I usually like to tell stories to entertain people and make them laugh. I’ve never seen Jesus tell a story just to entertain people.

It’s not wrong to bring joy into people’s lives… in fact it’s a good thing but let’s also be attentive to what’s going on around us and instead of taking the short cut of condemning behavior, illustrate it with a story that will stick in the mind of the listener.

That’s reminds me of a story.

No Joke

There’s an old joke about a farmer who was going broke farming so he quit and started selling hammers. He would buy hammers for $3 apiece and sell them for $2 each. He was happy and doing a pretty good business but a friend advised him that for every hammer he sold he was losing $1. His reply? “it’s more profitable than farming”.

That joke is similar to what people sometimes do with their lives. Activities like drunkenness, sexual immorality, unfaithfulness to a spouse, etc. can cause folks to view their lives as being spiritually bankrupt. So they decide to go to church or pray or read the Bible every once in a while without actually correcting the behaviors that got them into such a big mess to begin with.

Going to church, praying and reading the Bible are good things to do but until we take some corrective action in our lives and commit ourselves fully to Jesus Christ and his teachings, we are still “going broke”… Like buying hammers for $3 and selling them for $2. Don’t make a joke out of your lives.

http://parkwaychurchnews.blogspot.com/2013/05/no-joke.html

Medal of Honor

The newspapers recently had a story about Garlin Murl Connor, a deceased WWII veteran who won four Silver Stars, one Bronze Star and three Purple hearts. His military actions were reviewed and he was awarded the Medal of Honor for one of his heroic actions.

I don’t know why, but I did some investigation to find out just what Murl Connor did to merit such an honor. It seems he was recuperating from a wound (shot through the hip) in a field hospital when he heard the Germans were going to counter attack so he slipped out of the hospital to rejoin his comrades. He then volunteered to move to a forward position to call in artillery strikes on the advancing German army. Including calling in artillery on his own position, he was willing to die to save the lives of his fellow GIs.

It made me wonder why you would leave the comfort of a hospital bed and risk your life for others. I mean he had already done plenty.

I’ve read other accounts of American GIs who so loved their fellow soldiers that they wouldn’t leave them. They wouldn’t go home on their own they wanted to keep fighting until they could all go home. Many of them thought they weren’t getting out alive anyway so they would do anything to protect their fellow soldiers so they could go home.

What does a hero look like? His wife who was 16 years old at the time said when she first saw him he was just 5 foot 6 inches and skinny as a rail. She wondered aloud how he could be a hero. They were married a week later. She said he would frequently wake up in the middle of the night having nightmares and would just go out on the porch and smoke a cigarette to calm himself down. That’s what a hero looks like, just like anyone else.

Garlin Murl Connor, just 26 years old, was willing to die for his fellow soldiers whom he loved.

Jesus Christ said in John 13:34-35 that the identifying mark of his people would be sacrificial love for each other. Ultimately that means giving up the most important thing to us… our own lives, but includes everything leading up to that including our time, our money, our possessions, etc. If we can’t give up those things then we’re fooling ourselves if we think we’ll give up our lives for someone else.

Our congregation is an army of Christian soldiers. We have a great enemy who must be defeated. We can’t conquer him with hand grenades or artillery or bombs or any kind of munition. He can only be defeated with love.

I’ve got a feeling that when we march into Heaven the Angels will be clapping and cheering for those who have been victorious over Satan and the spiritual cowards will be skulking ashamedly to their destination.

Remember Garlin Murl Connor for his sacrifices on the battlefield but there is a greater one that he who died so we all can live… never forget Him.

Be Perfect as God is Perfect

In the “Sermon on the Mount” the Beatitudes serve as an introduction or preview to the over-all sermon.

For example, “Blessed are you when men shall reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for me sake. Rejoice… great is your reward in Heaven” (5:11) Fast forward to 5:43-48, “You have heard it said… love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say…. Love enemies and bless those who persecute you…that you may be sons of your Father…” See the connection? In the introduction they are blessed when persecuted but in the extended teaching (5:43-48) they are to “love” their persecutors and “pray” for them. They cannot just be persecuted for righteousness sake and expect to receive a blessing from God they have to “love” their persecutors and that love is made evident by bowing the knee and praying for them.

If they don’t behave in this fashion they are just like the “publicans” and Gentiles” (whom they would ordinarily despise) and are not like…God. To God they look like Publicans and Gentiles. In my opinion this may be the hardest thing God asks us to do.

But let’s look at one more thing (verse 48) “you shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”.

Most people look at this verse and say, “that’s impossible no one can be perfect like God is perfect all we can do is try and fall short” and that would be incorrect. God doesn’t give us an instruction that is impossible to keep… hard but not impossible.

Let’s look at a few examples. Jesus while hanging on the cross prayed to God to forgive his persecutors because they didn’t really know what they were doing.

Stephen as he was being stoned by his persecutors prayed to God to not lay their sin against them.

Paul in Phil. 3:8-15 identifies himself as being “perfect” and advises the others who are “perfect” among his readers to be similarly minded.

We are instructed to be “perfect”. We have instructions on how to be “perfect” and we have examples of individuals who are “perfect” so that we can become perfect.

No one said it would be easy but it can be done.

The bigger question is why does God want us to be like him? Think about that.

What is Subjection?

Ephesians 5:22, introduces the concept that Christians are required to be in “subjection” to each other.

The word translated “subjection” is a Greek word that is ordinarily used to describe soldiers who are under authority in a military sense.

In the above context Christians are to view other Christians as being superior in rank (whether they are or not).

The word “subjection” is next used as a directive towards wives. They are to be in “subjection” to their husbands.

It is important at this point to see what the requirements are towards children and bond-servants. Children are supposed to be “obedient” to their parents and bond-servants are supposed to be “obedient” to their masters.

Here’s the point about wives… they are not children and they are not servants. They are not required to be in “obedience” to their husbands they are supposed to be in “subjection”. That’s important because some husbands can get those two things confused.

Note that “subjection” is based on “love”. Christ first “loved” the church and she (the church) “subjected” herself to him. Same thing in marriage, the husband “loves “ his wife and because of that love she willingly agrees to “subject” herself to him and respect his headship.

Also note that the word “fear” modifies both “subjection” and obedience as it concerns Christians, wives and bond-servants. When you read “fear” think “respect”.

Why is that word used. I’ll tell you why. It’s not fake “subjection” it’s real “subjection”. Sometimes people can fake when Jesus wants it to be real (from the heart).

Without real “subjection” and real “love” the marital relationship cannot become what God intended for it to be.

God promises great blessings to those who follow his directives. Have a little faith, follow the recipe… do your part and God will do his part.