Symbols

Whenever Americans view photographs or video images of the New York skyline taken between 1973 and 2001, they cringe at the sight of the World Trade Center towers for they all know what happened there in September of 2001. The buildings themselves were not to blame for the events, but they were the site of one of the greatest tragedies in American history. The towers themselves have come to symbolize the heartbreak of terrorism invading our beloved homeland.

The cross is likewise a symbol of a history-changing event and prompts an emotional response for many people. It is the Christian symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The cross itself was not to blame for the death of Christ, but it was there that he suffered and died for our sins and won the final victory over the bondage of sin in our lives. When a Christian views the cross, he or she is reminded of the event that forever changed the relationship between God and humanity and the triumph that Jesus won once and for all.

 

This Easter, as we once again celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, may we remember that this conquest over sin was complete and for all time. It was not just a first step in a battle; it was the end of the war. Jesus emerged from the grave as Divine Conqueror. His triumph over sin was for all humanity, for the rest of history.

Years ago I read a book by Hannah Whitall Smith called The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. The truth that this brilliant woman kept emphasizing is that Jesus saves me now and he completely saves me. I don’t have to wait for some eventual salvation from sin and its bonds in my life…he has saved me from the moment I ask for and receive his salvation. And that salvation is not some halfway or partial work in my life; he didn’t do all that he did on earth, on the cross, and through the gates of hell just for me to continue to slog through the muck of sin day after day. No! He came to deliver me from all of that bondage NOW!

Some of you still haven’t figured out what I’m talking about. Some of you are afraid to believe me. But some of you DO know what I’m talking about and have tears in your eyes because you know it’s true. This is not about judgment or telling you that you have to be a better person…this is about the grace of God reaching out to take your life and make it into something better that you couldn’t even dream about before.

I am praying that these words will remind you that Jesus went through everything we celebrate this week to do something amazing. The cross…that symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus…is not about death; it’s about LIFE.

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;

    I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and will make you

    to be a covenant for the people

    and a light for the Gentiles,

to open eyes that are blind,

    to free captives from prison

    and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. (Isaiah 42:6-7)

Reverence

(I wrote this poem ten years ago for brothers Shaun and Brandon Lowenthal, both serving in our nation's military and sons of lifelong friends Frank and Sandy Lowenthal. This is in their honor.)

Out in the desert the brave soldier’s serving;

His life’s on the line every day.

He’s searching for landmines or guarding the post

Or keeping the enemy at bay.

Back home in white buildings are leaders discussing

The pros and the cons of the deal.

The goals in white buildings are in the abstract;

But out in the desert, they’re real.

The aim may be worthy, the plans may be right,

There may be good reasons for strife;

But leaders must ask if the cause for the war

Is as valued as this soldier’s life.

Politicians make choices and risk disapproval

When making their calls from the bench.

They’re praised or condemned for the way that they vote,

But the Hero is out in the trench.

 

Remember the Soldier when 

     judging the merits

Of waging the vigilant fight.

His is the life that should be 

     in the balance when

Weighing if this war was right.

                                   

Streams of Mercy

Come Thou fount of ev'ry blessing.

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.

Streams of mercy never ceasing

Call for songs of highest praise.

This is the first verse of a well-known hymn penned by Robert Robinson in the 1700's when he was only twenty-two years old. It has been sung for years in the church and has been recorded many times by Christian artists, including the David Crowder Band, Jars of Clay, and Michael W. Smith. The words ring true so it has endured the test of time.

If you've ever seen a guitarist tune a guitar, you know that it's a fairly simple process. She'll usually start by tuning the lowest string, an E,  to a particular point of reference, maybe a nearby piano or perhaps an app on a smartphone. From there, the other five strings are tuned to be in sync with that lowest string. After a couple of minutes, a guitarist with a good ear and a steady hand will have her instrument in tune.


Tuning a piano is much more complicated. A professional piano tuner must be called in to do the job. He'll usually bring with him a tuning fork that, when struck against a hard surface and then held firmly, base down, will resonate a pitch-perfect A. He'll begin the painstaking process of tuning all of the piano's internal strings to align from that perfect pitch...all eighty-eight keys, some with two strings each, some with three. The process may take up to two hours and requires great skill and patience. But when it's done correctly, the instrument is ready to produce amazing musical pieces of great beauty and expression.

I wonder what inspired Robinson to use the phrase "tune my heart to sing thy grace"? Had he just seen a musical instrument tuned? Did this remind him of the work that the Holy Spirit alone can do in our hearts to produce true songs of grace?

I don't know what inspired the imagery of heart tuning, but I am so thankful that Robinson also gave us the phrase "streams of mercy never ceasing." I carry that image in my mind and it comes to the front of my thoughts over and over again.

In the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount, in the section we call "The Beatitudes," Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" (Matt. 5:7). As we extend mercy--compassion, care, giving, empathy--we increase our capacity to receive it in our lives. And as we receive it, we increase our capacity to extend it to others.

However, if we just receive God's gift of mercy--which He has poured out on us so freely and graciously--and do not pass that along to the world around us, we become like a stagnant pond. Have you ever seen a pond that has just become so still and lifeless that it begins to stink and becomes a hazard? Compare that image to a mountain stream with a source flowing endless amounts of crystal pure water into it as the water flows down, pouring onto other rivulets and streams below. "Streams of mercy never ceasing"..."Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

So what do we do when we have received all this mercy and grace in our lives? What do we do when God's blessings have tuned our hearts to sing out to the world the story of His grace? We seek out opportunities to show mercy. We look for ways to show compassion to those who need...well, to those who need. We live our lives in grace. 

No wonder all of this "calls for songs of highest praise." With our hearts tuned to sing His grace, we're ready to create beautiful music in our world!

Encourage One Another

I love the movie "Hancock." Will Smith plays the title role of an atypical, flying superhero who doesn't understand the rules of being a card-carrying, admirable, respectable hero that people will actually like. So Jason Bateman's character, Ray, takes on the task of educating him as to what that's all about.

The first step toward becoming a true superhero that Hancock needs to learn is how to tell the people around him when they have done a good thing. He literally can't say the words "Good job." So Ray works with him on just those two words..."Good." "Job." And eventually Hancock learns to incorporate the phrase into his life and begins to understand what a difference it makes in his entire world.

We don't have to be superheroes in our world, but we should all learn to be encouragers. Sometimes we dismiss that responsibility by saying it's not our particular "spiritual gift." To borrow a wonderful old Southern term...hogwash! We are all called to encourage the people around us.

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone" (5:11-14, emphasis added).

Notice that Paul didn't say, "If you're good at encouraging..." or "If it's your spiritual gift..." No, he was writing this to everyone in the church at Thessalonica. And he wasn't saying to just encourage the ones who were doing a great job, but also the ones who were worn out and feeling down...the "disheartened."

Look around you. Do you see anyone who could use some encouragement? Do you know someone who would benefit from a kind word or a reminder of how much they mean to you? 

Take a few moments this week to reach out to the people around you and lift up those who are needing some encouragement. Take a lesson from "Hancock" and actually tell the people around you "Good job!" when you see their efforts to do something right.

Who knows...you might just be the hero your world is needing right about now.

Share the Love...and Drive out Fear

Do not be afraid.

Repeatedly throughout the Bible, messages delivered from God begin with those words: Do not be afraid. Look at Psalm 27:1-3; Matthew 14:27 and 17:7; and Acts 18;9.

When we are followers of Jesus Christ, there is nothing for us to fear. Sometimes the greatest way to show our love is to remind other believers of that truth. When someone we know is afraid of the future, afraid of the unknown, afraid of a medical diagnosis, afraid of the economic outlook, afraid of death, we can remind them that the God who loves us is the One who created the universe and has all of it in his hands. He is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful.

This is not to be confused with all-causing. Terrible things happen that are outside his perfect will. Into this perfect universe, he introduced the element of choice. With that ability to choose came sin, rebellion against God's perfect will. As a result, bad things happen in this world and the consequences of those bad things grieve the heart of God as they do ours. But none of those consequences are beyond the power of God to save and redeem.

Paul said it best in his letter to the Romans:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
     "For your sake we face death all day long;
     we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

This is the bottom line: We have nothing to fear when we trust in Christ. We should take the time and make the effort to communicate to other Christians that fear--anything that suggests that something could bypass the power of God in and over our lives--is a lie.

Furthermore, we should recognize that trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword have no part in the love of Christ. That may sound like I am stating the obvious, but too often we allow people to believe they are facing these things at the hand of God. Paul is clearly stating that these things may be trying to separate us from the hand of God, but they cannot. No one, especially a fellow believer, should allow someone to believe that they are suffering these trials as a part of God's will.

We will face terrible things in this world. But the good news--the astounding news--is that "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Nothing--absolutely nothing--can separate us from the love and ultimate will of God in our lives.

Do not be afraid.

Share the Love...in the Moment

Sharing the love in the moment means living in the “right now” and being aware of the people who are in that moment with you. Once you become aware of those people, you will become aware of who they are and what they need. Then you can compare their needs to your resources and see if you can meet those needs.

And that can all happen in one moment.

Jesus was remarkably capable of sharing his love in the moment. In the Gospel of Mark, we read the story of Jesus walking through a large crowd that had gathered to meet him by the side of the lake. Out of this enormous crowd, one woman reached in and touched his cloak, believing that if she could just make that contact she would be healed of an illness that had plagued her for twelve long years.

Jesus could have been contemplating where he was going. He could have been paying attention to the dozens, maybe hundreds, of other people gathered around him. He could have been planning what his next sermon or parable would probably be.

Instead, he was living in the moment. And in that moment, one suffering woman had reached out to him for healing. Mark 5:30 says, “At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’”

What an absurd question! Dozens of people had touched his clothes by then. But there was one woman who had intentionally touched his clothes with purpose and that’s what mattered to Jesus. He was sharing that moment with that woman. And she was healed as a result.

Live in the moment with the people around you. Stop long enough to hold the door for the next person coming into the store. Walk back down the aisle and help the woman in the wheelchair get that cereal off the high shelf. Be the listening ear to that guy at work when you’re on break and you know he needs to vent about something. Share the love in that moment.

All of these might be little things, but they may make a huge difference in the rest of someone’s day. They certainly will in yours.

Share the Love: Give Up Your Place in Line

If you're standing in a checkout line and the person behind you obviously has fewer items or is obviously in a big hurry, invite them to go ahead of you. You can't always take the extra time to do this, but when you can it might make a huge difference in someone else's day.

It might also serve to remind you that to be "first" in the Kingdom of Heaven requires being last in the earthly kingdoms in which we participate...whether they consist of who gets to leave the store with her groceries first or who gets the place of honor at a corporate conference or who takes on the unsavory tasks at the local community center.

Upon arrival into Capernaum, Jesus overheard some of His disciples having what might be called a "domestic squabble" over this very issue of entitlement and authority. Jesus addressed the issue head-on by telling all of His disciples, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35b).

To take the lesson to an even deeper level, Jesus then called a little child over and had him stand in their midst. "Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me'" (9:36).

Children are wonderful. We all start out as children. The children to whom we extend respect and consideration will someday become the leaders upon whom we depend. But our kindness to a child today is not simply a way to guarantee our own future, but to also invest in that child's understanding so that he or she may extend his or her own respect and consideration one day to the next generation.

The paradigm of the Kingdom of God is a dichotomy wherein the long-accepted ladder to success, joy, and happiness has been turned upside-down and, as we learn to intentionally climb backwards and down, we arrive at the very place where we are serviceable to God and our fellow humanity.

Share the Love: Do Whatever You Can Do

Too often we feel that if we can't make a huge contribution toward meeting a need or making an enormous impact in the world, then there's no point in doing anything.

The truth is that even a slight gesture might make a great difference, and very often you can find partners whose efforts, when combined with your work, really make something happen and change the way things are. And perhaps the way they will be in the future.

Sometimes, ironically, the simplest gesture makes the most difference. The fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark tells the story of a woman anointing Jesus with the finest expensive perfume, as would be used to anoint one for burial. Several of the disciples were quite upset by the gesture, saying the perfume would have been better used to raise money for the poor.

Jesus responded to their protests, saying, "The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her" (Mark 14:7-9 NIV).

This woman took what she had and did the little she could to acknowledge what would come in the days ahead. She demonstrated great insight and based her decision about the use of this precious oil on the impending death of Jesus. Many other followers weren't grasping the immediacy of the final days of Jesus' life, but this woman was and "she did what she could" to show her reverence and love for the man who would give the ultimate sacrifice to save the world. Jesus recognized that this act would be told every time the story of his last steps toward the cross was shared around the world.

We should follow this example. Look for the need or the crisis or the occasion. Do what you can do. It may be the very best thing to meet that crisis, fulfill that need, or serve that occasion. It may be woven into the very fabric of Jesus' story wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world.

Share the Love - episode 2

Before we move on to the suggested activities of sharing the love, let's add one more foundational layer.

If you've been a student of the Bible for any amount of time, you are hopefully aware of the Love Chapter found in 1 Corinthians 13. Here is a portion:

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, 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.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

"Love never fails." (verses 1-8)

No wonder we go back to those verses over and over again to be reminded of how we are to live. But as a reminder of why we are to live this way, let's go back and reread these verses a little differently. Take a minute to read these verses again, but this time substitute the word "love" with the word "God," and the word "it" with the word "He" when appropriate. You'll get the hang of it. Remember...God is love.

Did you try it? Did the verses take on new meaning?

When we share love with those around us--not just kindness, but real compassionate love--we are sharing God. We are bringing the presence of God into their lives and into the world. He has called us to be His ambassadors. What in the world is more important than that?

Share the Love

Over the coming weeks I will be posting a series of blogs on one topic: "Share the Love." I believe we are all called to do this by our Maker. It is our highest calling among our fellow humans, and I have discovered a multitude of ways to do this and to be empowered to do so. I want to share these with you.

The best way to understand the meaning and importance of sharing love with each other is to read Jesus' own words to His disciples directing them to love. Jesus' life was an absolute definition of love and His words to His disciples on His last evening with them made His command clear: "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12).

Throughout John's gospel, John refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (for examples, see John 13:23 and 19:26). John was on the scene for some of the most significant events in Jesus' earthly life (Matthew 17:1). When Jesus hung on the cross, He gave John the responsibility of caring for Jesus' own mother, Mary (John 19:25-27). The brotherly relationship between Jesus and John must have been the very model of the bond Jesus was calling all of us to have with each other, and John's purpose in recording this account of Jesus' life and message was to communicate the nature and essence of that love.

Chapters 14 through 16 are the words Jesus spoke to His disciples, His closest friends, allies, and students, just before He was handed over to the officials for His crucifixion. Jesus knew what was coming and that He had only a few hours left to communicate His deepest thoughts, concerns, and desires to these friends. Knowing that His time among them was nearing an end, the one thought that He kept coming back to over and over again was simply, "Love one another." It must have been the most important thing He wanted them to know, the one guiding principle He wanted them to carry with them through their upcoming trials and challenges in the days, weeks, and years to come.

Jesus knew that this love--the very foundation of His connection with God the Father and the Holy Spirit (John 15:9)--would be the bond that would connect His disciples to Him and to each other, the basis upon which His church would be founded, and the truth that would unite the church as one Body. In fact, in one of his later writings, John says that our very identity as followers of Jesus Christ would be revealed in our love: "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another" (1 John 3:10-11).

But Jesus did not simply give us this command to love one another and then leave it to us to figure out how to love that way. In John 17, Jesus closed His time with the disciples that night with a prayer of protection, sanctification, and empowerment; a prayer that God would grant them the same love that He had shown Jesus; a prayer that the Holy Spirit would be sent to dwell in and among them and fill them with His love. He knew we would not be able to conjure up that kind of love through our own strength or determination.

Jesus knew that the kind of love needed to change our lives and to change the world would only be possible through the grace and divine power of God Himself.