At lunch the other day I drove out to Starry’s pawn shop just west of Robstown on highway 44. I like to go out there because Mr. Starry has a lot of stuff laying around that you can make good deals on. But i also like to go out there so I can visit with Mr. Starry. When you walk into his pawn shop he’s sitting in an easy chair pedaling some contraption to keep his legs in shape.

Mr Starry is 86 years old and I like talking to him because he’s an old South Texas farm boy and he knows a lot of things. And he’s colorful and I know how to talk to people like him.

He told me if he wanted to he didn’t have to work he could just stay home. I told him but Mr. Starry if you did that I couldn’t visit with you. He stopped and looked at me square in the eyes and pointed at me and said that’s it exactly. The old man likes to visit with people.

Then he told me a while back he was at Driscoll Children’s hospital and there was a really sick baby and he and his wife decided to adopt the boy. He was 3 months old weighed 5 pounds and had what I would call divergent strabismus but what Mr. Starry described as “looking at Georgia”. He had ear problems and he was born addicted to heroin. They fixed his eyes and ears and put him on Methadone. Mr. Starry said it took 7 months to cure him and that every time the doctors reduced the methadone dose the boy would cry for two days.

He told me the boy is in middle school now and doing fine. He told me they give the boy $5.00 for every “A” he makes and one time he made four “A’s” so Mr Starry gave him $20. The boy looked at it and said… Dad, don’t you think an 89 ought to be worth $5.00?

Anyway Mr. Starry says that boy has added years to their lives… he comes home from school and fills their lives with joy and love.

I guess that’s the way things are though…. the Lord told us not to think about ourselves but to think about others. God bless Mr. Starry and his wife for helping someone who needed so much help.

It might do you some good to go see the old man every once in a while. It sure has done me good. Take a look at the photo I attached. I got that water cooler and bike (for my grandkids) for $15.00

A Few Thoughts on Healing in Luke 8

Here’s a few thoughts on how Jesus heals in Luke 8.

The woman with a chronic bleed had been bleeding for 12 years so it was a regenerative anemia. Her bone marrow was producing enough new Red Blood cells to keep up at some level. I’m assuming that this was some sort of menstrual bleeding caused by a persistent estrogen producing ovarian follicle which would include other symptoms of menstruation like cramping.

So she had persistent vaginal bleeding, cramping and some level of anemia which would have resulted in poor oxygenation of the tissues and chronic fatigue. I feel sorry for the poor woman.

When Jesus healed her the blood flow was immediately stopped and as she herself reports she was immediately healed. That immediate healing could mean that all of her symptoms were gone… the blood flow, the cramping, the fatigue and the anemia.

The 12 year old girl was probably dealing with an acute problem, certainly not the chronicity of a 12 year condition. The list of conditions that young people suffer is a lot shorter than the list that old people suffer from. It was probably not organ failure, cardiovascular or cancer. She probably had an infectious problem. A lot of people then and now suffer from gastro-intestinal infections and respiratory infections. Rapid dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea or lungs that are filling up with pus.

Whatever the problem was she was at the “point of death”. Usually point of death looks like poor coloration to the tissues (purple not pink), coma or agonal breathing. When I get a patient like that there is usually not much that can be done. Whatever her final symptoms were her Daddy new he was about to lose her and in an act of desperation ran as fast as he could to find Jesus. His expectations were probably pretty low but when you are about to lose the most precious thing in the world to you, you’ll run after even the smallest chance.

When the family heard the news that she had died they fell apart. They probably had a lot of questions like… Jehovah we have devoted our whole life to you, how could you let this happen? Their friends were probably offering solace like… she’s in a better place. Those are true words but probably not enough to stop the flow of tears.

Jesus enters the room with just Peter, James, John and the parents and says don’t cry she’s just asleep. The text says they laughed at him. I imagine that their sad emotions turned to indignant emotions. Like… don’t play games with us Jesus we know what dead people look like.

Jesus takes their little princess and says “arise”. She gets up immediately and Jesus turns to her parents and says, “get her something to eat”. Like everything’s back to normal now. Go clean the house, mow the lawn, etc. Just another day for Jesus but certainly not just another day for that family.

Their problem was that they really didn’t understand who Jesus was, but that day they knew a little better.

A Miracle Interrupted

Luke 8 records a miracle interrupted by another miracle. Jesus is on his way to heal a 12 year old girl who was about to die when a woman with a 12 year illness interrupts him.

The Ruler of the Synagogue approached Jesus on his knees to beg Jesus to cure his daughter. The woman who was slowly bleeding to death had no one to intercede for her and had spent every dime she had hoping for a cure. Unlike the Synagogue Ruler she was “unclean” and stigmatized for her uncleanness.

For the Ruler it was like the journey was taking forever… crowds of people thronging Jesus slowing down the travel time. And then Jesus stops and asks, “who touched me?” Another delay… everyone was touching Jesus. His daughter could die at any minute, even seconds could make a difference. If only he could get Jesus to his house so he could lay his hands on her and cure her before it was too late.

Finally the woman comes forward and identifies herself. And then Jesus says something that was probably lost on the crowd but was not lost on the reader. He says, “daughter your faith has made you whole”. You see there were two daughters in this story, one who was 12 years old and one who had been sick for 12 years. They were both important to Jesus. And just as he says those words the father hears some other words… your daughter has died.

One daughter healed and one daughter dead. In the mind of the crowd Jesus is batting .500, but what the crowd doesn’t know is that the game isn’t over for Jairus and his little daughter and Jesus is still batting and when Jesus bats he hits a home run every time.

Sometimes someone dies and people think what a shame she was so young and beautiful almost like if you are plain or ugly it’s no great loss. The learning point for us is that Jesus cares for everyone whether she’s a 12 year old girl or someone who has a disease for 12 years that everyone including the doctors have given up on. Jesus doesn’t give up on people he values and loves every single soul and so should we. Don’t ever give up on anyone… just stay in the game and maybe, just maybe you’ll jack one out of the park with Jesus’ help.

Good vs. Poor Teaching

In Luke chapter 6 Jesus does some teaching. He pronounces blessings and woes upon people and offers instruction on how to live with your fellow man. Specifically he tells his audience to love their enemies and to do good to them even if you are mistreated poorly by them.

Then he uses a parable to contrast his teachings with the teachings of the Pharisees. He says that the Pharisees are blind teachers and because of their lack of spiritual vision are going to fall into a pit and their students will follow right after them.

He also says the Pharisees are blind or visually impaired when it comes to correcting others. They are so busy looking for fault in others that they fail to take a look at their own faults which are huge in comparison.

Teachers are also like orange trees. A good orange tree (Jesus) produces sweet tasty oranges. A sour orange tree (Pharisees) looks identical to a grafted orange tree and the oranges look exactly the same but they taste so bad that they’re worthless.

Pharisees are teachers that are blind, hypocritical and whose teachings will cause their students to be spit out by God.

Jesus on the other had is a good teacher, he can lead you the way he ought to go, his correction is non-hypocritical and will lead you to cause a very sweet taste in God’s mouth.

Preachers and teachers in Christ’s church should be the same type of teacher that Jesus was. One way to tell is to look and see kind of people a church is producing. Are they sweet and ripe? Are they bitter or are they just tasteless? Whatever they are… they are a reflection of their teachers.

James 3:1. Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

"It's Easier to Believe the Bad Things"

The movie “Pretty Woman” tells the story of a young woman who made some poor choices, went down the wrong road and became a prostitute. One of her customers sees some good qualities in her and tries to get her to see those qualities. She has a hard time believing him and says something that has stuck in my brain for a long time. She says, “It’s easier to believe the bad things”.

Every level of self-doubt and lack of self-worth exists among people; I’m unlikeable because I’m not pretty, because I’m too heavy, because I’m handicapped, because I’m a failure, because I’m not good at anything, etc., etc., etc.

Self-doubt is crippling.

Jesus Christ had the ability to engage with the broken people of society and lift them up. He also empowered his people with the same ability.

People tend to respond positively if they feel that someone truly cares about them and won’t give up on them no matter what.

Encouragement, edification and admonishment are powerful weapons when wielded by someone who truly cares and has demonstrated that care. Otherwise they are just empty words that fall on deaf ears.

Here’s the challenge for the Christian warrior… find the most unlikeable person you can find and make them your true friend. Seek their company. Invite them into your home. Make them part of your lives. Be resilient and patient and don’t give up and the love of God which surpasses all understanding can cause a wonderful transformation to take place in them and in you.

Goodness, Humility and Confidence

In the town of Capernaum resided a Roman centurion. His duties were to keep the peace in that region and to make sure the Jews paid their taxes to Rome. As such Romans were hated by the Jews because they were forced to pay taxes to a false religious system and to fund a gentile nation that did not revere Jehovah.

It was against Jewish law for a Jew to have a Roman for a friend or even to go into a Romans home (Acts 10:28).

While performing the duties of an official of Rome something surprising happened to the centurion… he came to love the Jewish people and from that love built a synagogue for them out of his own pocket

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I’m assuming the centurion came to love the Jews because they were God’s people and reflected the power of God in their lives. The centurion was probably used to seeing how Romans treated each other (murder, false religiosity, perverse sexuality, extortion and idolatry) and by comparison came to love something imperfect (compared to Christianity) but far better than what he was used to.

In addition, the centurion loved his servants (probably Jewish). Imagine that… his servants weren’t just some tool for him to use and abuse. He loved and cared from them and when one of them got sick and was at the point of death he asked for a favor. He asked the Elders (of the very synagogue he had built) if they would go to Jesus and ask if he would come and heal his beloved servant.

The scriptures reveal for us why he asked the Elders this favor. He did not consider himself worthy to even approach Jesus and didn’t feel worthy for Jesus to even enter his home.

The centurion in his goodness probably did not expect anything in return from the Jews and wasn’t helping the Jews with any expectation of some kind of reward. But sometimes in life the unexpected happens and we find ourselves in a need of a power greater than ourselves.

The formula for the centurion was goodness, humility and confidence in Jesus Christ. That formula still works today

Beatitudes

Luke gives his version of the Beatitudes (Mt. 5: 3-11) in Luke 6:20-26. There are some stark differences between Matthew and Luke’s account. Matthew offers 9 blessings and no woes. Luke records 4 blessings and 4 parallel woes.

Luke offers no blessings for those who are meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers or those who are persecuted.

Luke’s blessings are contrasted directly with woes. The physical conditions are described as happening “now”. The blessings and woes shall occur in the future.

1. Blessed are those who are “poor” but woe to the” rich” who already have their reward. These are not the ones in some sort of spiritual poverty because if so those who are rich would have to be interpreted as possessing spiritual wealth which would not earn a “woe”. This is contrasting earthly wealth/poverty. The followers of Jesus who were poor would inherit all the “wealth” associated with a life in Heaven. Those who love money and the things money can buy have bought their way into Hell.

2. Blessed are those who “hunger” but woe to those who are “full”. Those who don’t have food on a daily basis will be filled in their new life in Heaven. Those who are full of food now and who had great feasts for their friends but who ignored the hungry will be hungry in the after-life.

3. Blessed are those who “cry or weep” but woe to those who “laugh” now. Their positions will be reversed in the after- life. There won’t be any crying in Heaven but there will be plenty of it in Hell.

4. Blessed are those who are “hated, and spoken evil of” (for Jesus’ sake) but woe to those who are “spoken well of” (like the false prophets of old). Jesus’ people would be hated and people would talk bad of them but when that happens they should be happy because that is evidence that they have become who Jesus wants them to be. However, those who reject Jesus and are favored by the enemies of Jesus will inherit the woes of eternal condemnation.

There are some differences between Matthew and Luke’s account of the Beatitudes but they both give the same message. Jesus gives great hope and encouragement to his people on earth who are spiritually minded but who live in adverse conditions. Those who live for the moment and who live like there is no after-life are in big trouble.