Thanksgiving Day... What will you be thankful for?

Thanksgiving? Be thankful? Let’s see... this year has been the worst I’ve experienced in the past twenty. I’m out of work living on unemployment which is about to run out and my wife’s job is now threatened. We’ve eaten through all of our savings. We can no longer afford to pay the COBRA premiums for health insurance. We’re behind in our mortgage and car payment and it will be 30 years before we pay off our maxed out credit cards. No Christmas gifts this year. Bankruptcy lurks at our door... we’re on the verge of losing everything. Now... what exactly should I be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day?

Does that sound familiar to you? Similar scenes of severe life challenges are being lived every day by millions of people here in America and around the world. The idea of being thankful in the face of such daunting challenges seems absurd. Feeling sorry for myself... self pity... that I can do. But being thankful for all the pain and sorrow... not so easy to do. I can’t even think like that right now!

But, that is exactly what we must do... be thankful even when life’s circumstances are harsh and unrelenting.

The Bible records many thoughts about being thankful in the midst of all manner of life circumstances...

"Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness." Psalm 107:8-9

"Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? Who can declare all His praise?" Psalm 106:1-2

"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving." Psalm 69:30

The Bible provides a record of many people thanking the Lord…

King Solomon expressed gratitude for Divine faithfulness and goodness - 1 Kings 8:14-21

Thanking God for food - Deuteronomy 8:10, John 6:11

King David thanked God after winning a battle - 2 Samuel 22:1-51, Psalm 98:1

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Phil. 4:6

"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6-7 (NKJV)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." Psalm 100:4

People were rebuked for not thanking God for their harvest... Jeremiah 5:24-25.

If people withheld their praise of God, He would have caused the stones cry out. Luke 19:37-40

Every day should be a day of Thanksgiving for Christians. Okay, maybe not with the turkey, stuffing, all the fixings and pumpkin pie, but every day should be a Thanksgiving Day as we acknowledge our Lord as the “giver all good things”. Things that are difficult, painful and sometimes bad... can be “good” when viewed from the Lord’s perspective.

We should be thankful in the midst of problems. The Apostle Paul said, "I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 7:4 NKJV). He knew that God was working in all things for his good, even though he was going through trials and difficult times (Romans 8:28). He knew God was there, available to comfort him.

Problems will come your way. But in the midst of difficulties, God will see to it personally that you grow as a Christian. If you let Him... if you have a thankful heart. He will use the storms of your life, to send your roots deep into the soil of His Word. We always pray more in the midst of our problems, and it's seems as if we see and understand more from our knees, than we ever do standing proud surrounded by our accomplishments, possessions and self-confidence. When those things are gone... what do we have left? Just God.

Here’s a wise old story that can help us better understand the troubles life brings and yet guide us towards thankfulness even in the midst of our challenges. A man once watched a butterfly struggling to get out of its cocoon. In an effort to help it, he took a razor blade, and carefully slit the edge of the cocoon. The butterfly escaped from its problem ... and immediately died. It is God's design to have the butterfly struggle to gain its freedom. It is the struggle that causes its tiny heart to beat fast, and sends life energizing blood into its wings. Without the struggle... it dies. The struggle makes the butterfly strong, able to endure life outside the safety of the cocoon.

Trials have their purpose even when we don’t see their value or understand how they could possibly benefit us. Problems in life that make us struggle—can bring us to our knees. They often envelop us in a cocoon-like grip that perplexes us. Why me? Why now? It is there in the grip of difficult times that trust and faith in God, helps us spread our wings of strength in the face of pain and sorrow. It is by our faith that we break free from the pain and sorrow of life’s challenges. By trust and faith we are enabled to stand firm and persevere.

Faith and thanksgiving are close allies. Allies in a common cause to rescue humanity from the pain and sorrow that sin has brought into this harsh world. If you have faith in God, you will be thankful because you know His loving hand is upon you, even though you feel as if you are in a pit of vipers... or maybe crocodiles. Thanksgiving will give you a deep sense of joy. Joy is the barometer of the depth of faith we have in God and His promises.

We have so much to be thankful for. Even when times look bleak and life seems to just get more difficult, we have much to be thankful for. We learn to live in our pit of vipers or crocodiles. We are drawn closer to God by relying on Him, trusting that He will not allow us to endure more than we can handle. In suffering we learn much about our internal strength... our capacities and endurance. Remember, there is always an end to pain and suffering.

If you are a follower of Christ, everyday is Thanksgiving. God has given us "exceedingly great and precious promises" that are "more to be desired than gold." Do yourself a big favor right now... today... believe those promises, trust in Him to care for you, and thank God continually, so He can "make your joy be full."

Have a thankful Thanksgiving Day with family and good food. Then, be joyful and thankful everyday of your life for the promises our Lord and Savior has given freely to each one of us. Trust in Him.

Living on God’s Standards... not ours.

The more years of my life that pass by, the more amazed I am at how different our human standards are from those of God.  These would be the “standards” we rely on to construct our values... the basis for our human relationships. We haven’t done a very good job of constructing these core values.

The way we place value on a person, on things and even the way we interact with one another as Christians is largely a hodgepodge of humanistic concepts of valuation infused with Biblical ideas and applied through a distorted view of how we think we should interact with one another. 

This hodgepodge blending of humanistic philosophies and biblical precepts deeply affects Christians. If we are individually impacted by these flawed standards then certainly the collective... the Body of Christ is also impacted. The Church is suffering from a confusion of these standards and much of the churches decline can be attributed to using human standards rather than God’s in personal relationships and the workings of His church. 

This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,  justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24 NIV)

In trivial things, men judge men, often harshly and with an unforgiving spirit. They can always find justification for such actions and attitudes in the misguided belief that they are acting in some way in consort with God’s will.  Humans do not naturally aspire to be peacemakers, and unfortunately Christians are often the worst among humanity at showing love and forgiveness first, “turning the other cheek”  as Jesus instructed.  We seem to lack the strength to remove the heavy rafters form our own eyes... but have no problem pointing out the problems of our brothers in Christ.

Growing like a cancer in the Church today is an ungodly spirit of selfishness, pride and arrogance.... I want my way, I will not change, I want to hold on to my treasured wounds and no one is going to make me change,  you hurt me I’ll hurt you, I don’t want to know and understand you...  you say “sorry” first.. Sound familiar? The Church becomes for such ones.... a curse upon their souls, for by their pridefull choices and attitudes they are calling down condemnation upon themselves.

What should be the criteria by which men recognize hearts of loving kindness, attitudes of justice, and characters of righteousness? The “right standards” are the attributes, qualities and characteristics of our Creator and Savior. Our personal growth in manifesting evidence of these standards (Galatians 5; 22-25) determines our real standing, on the scale of eternity, before Him. Human wisdom, personal prowess and might, and riches always generate pride and arrogance.  Pride is "the condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6) and it can taint everything we think and do.  

Scripture reminds us... "that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: . . . That no flesh should glory in his presence" (1 Corinthians 1:26, 29). All Christians should, indeed, desire wisdom, enhancement of personal capabilities [might], and even riches, but not as defined or measured by the standards of this world.  Among “one another” in Christian community, the New Testament is clear.... we are to give one another the “benefit of the doubt”.  We are to emanate Christlike responses in all of our interactions, even the frustrating ones, as we “bear one another”.   No one can argue this, no humanistic credo can be substituted for any interaction among brothers in Christ.  Can’t be done.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10). "As poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Corinthians 6:10). "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

When Christians are united together in the bond of fellowship we must allow loving kindness to become the standard of true wisdom; justice, the measure of real power and righteousness and our criterion for determining riches.  Riches gained in this life are treasured friendships with each other that will endure for all eternity!  Caring in love and compassion for one another is the true measure of riches as can only be found in a fellowship designed and defined by Christ.  

All of these attributes are found fully and only in Jesus Christ.  IF they are absent in the living interactions of a congregation... what can be said of that congregations unity with the Holy Spirit?  Not much I am afraid to say.... for our actions with one another and among one another when we stumble, is a true and genuine reflection of a “Christlike” spirit prevailing over all pettiness, strife and sin.

If we must "glory" in something, let it not be our own self-importance or our high brow superiority... let it be the cross.  There is nothing but humility at the foot of the cross... shocking, powerful and heart rendering humility.   Live each day remembering who you are and who bought you at great sacrifice. We are nothing but “filthy rags” that God by His incomprehensible love sent His son to die on that cross... revealing the standards by which we can be saved.    "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14). 

Never, never doubt who is in control of His Church... it is God.  We must believe that God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, works to perfect those who with honest hearts seek to serve Him, faithfully through trials and hardships.  Many of the trials and hardships we will face in our Christian life will come from within the body of believers.

When troubles erupt among brothers, when you feel alone, abandoned and unloved in the midst of Christ’s Church, then it’s time to apply His standards to your pain and suffering... not the flawed, hurtful and self-centered standards of humanism.  

The End of the World is coming... are you Prepared?

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son.... only the Father.” Matthew 24:36.

For almost 2,000 years people have been searching the Bible, reading between the lines, hunting for secret codes hidden somewhere in the text, trying to find the formula that predicts when the world will come to an end.

An untold number of people have tried to predict the Lord's return by using elaborate time tables and mathematical calculations to arrive at the hour and the day. Some groups and individuals are actually well known for their prognostications about the end of the world.

No single group or person can top Jehovah's Witnesses for failed predictions of the end of the world. They made sure of it with their last prediction... 1984. The JW’s record of the most wrong doomsday predictions is currently holding at nine failed dates.... 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984. The JW's are claiming they're out of the prediction business. Maybe, but I think they'll be back with yet another one.

Harold Camping of Family Radio first said the end of the world would be in 1994. Now, he’s more precise... saying the end is coming October 21, 2011 when the world will be destroyed by fire. His elaborate calculations arriving at this date are mind numbing.

Of course the Mayan–Aztec calendars predict the end of the age to happen Dec 21, 2012. Supporters of the Mayan theory have a movie debuting in theaters worldwide this Friday that proves it!

Whether its Nostradamus, the Mayans, Harold Camping, Jehovah’s Witnesses or any of the well known or hardly known... all such predictions of the “day and the hour” have failed or will fail. Over 200 known predictions beginning in 44 C.E. to this day have been wrong.

Although we do not know the day or the hour, we do know one thing for certain... there is ample Bible prophesy about the world ending as we know it. But what does that really mean?

When Jesus' disciples asked Him about "the end of the world," they weren't talking about "world" in the sense of our physical planet, the earth. The Greek word translated "world" is aion, from which we get the English word eon. The two mean essentially the same thing—an age, an epoch, an era, the system of man-made institutions.

Christ's followers knew the many prophecies of the Old Testament that foretold the coming age of the Messiah. Our present time, the time of human rule on earth under the deceptive influence of Satan (1 John 5:19), is described by the apostle Paul as "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4).

Another Greek word translated "world" in the New Testament is kosmos, which denotes the ordered world around us—not the physical planet we live on but man's societies and geopolitical dominion. This is “the world” that will end.

Paul and the other apostles understood that, at the end of this age, man's corrupt civilization will be swept away and a new era will dawn at the return of Christ. Peter described this change as one in which "times of refreshing" will come from God the Father through Jesus, who will return from heaven when "the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:19-21, NIV).

This transition from man's misrule—which is in reality, the unseen unrecognized rule of Satan—to Christ's divine reign in the fully established Kingdom of God was at the heart of the messages of the biblical prophets as well as the gospel Jesus.

Scripture proclaims that the present age—the civilization and societies we know today—will terminate in a cascade of unimaginable destruction and violence that will climax at the return of Christ. In the New Testament alone, more than 300 verses refer to these events.

Signs of the end time
When Jesus' disciples asked about the end of the age (Matthew 24:3), He responded by listing several warning signs. The first would be massive religious deception, including religious teachers who, while claiming to represent Him, would not follow His teachings but would deceive many through a counterfeit Christianity. He also said there would be many wars and other conflicts between nations and ethnic groups. He also spoke of famines,massive disease epidemics and earthquakes.

The problem with trying to precisely predict the end from these signs is that these trends and conditions have been with humanity in varying degrees from the first century until now. This fact alone helps explain why end-time prediction fervor has risen repeatedly over the past two thousand years.

Many believe that man's development of modern weaponry with the ability to annihilate human life is a sure sign of the last days. As for this destructive potential being a sign of the end, Jesus did say that "if that time of troubles were not cut short, no living thing could survive" (Matthew 24:22).

Man’s awesome scientific and technological advancements have made life on earth dangerous and tenuous. Without intervention by God in controlling the “inclinations of man”, the human race would have little chance of survival.

However, regardless of when the end of the age comes, people will be living at that time who will dispute the possibility of the world ending. The apostle Peter tells us that... "scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Peter 3:3-4).

Regardless of when it occurs, there will be people who express disdain even as the very events unfolding. No matter how difficult things look, some will assure humanity, that man and governments have everything under control. Tragically, such assurances will do nothing but provide a false sense of security, leading people to foolishly continue to trust in human abilities to prolong a future for this broken world rather than in God’s plan to create a new environment on earth.

As the day approaches
However long it is until the actual end of the age, one theme the biblical writers emphasized is that it draws nearer every day. Paul warns us that "now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed" (Romans 13:11). That was written nearly 2,000 years ago, expressing the powerful sense of urgency felt among first century believers. How much more urgent is that warning today?

Salvation is certainly important to keep in mind as everything falls to pieces around us. The end of the world as we know it, though it includes many catastrophes on a scale never seen in history, it is not all bad news for mankind. While hard to comprehend, there is good news that comes with these events. God will intervene before it is too late (Matthew 24:21-22). Human civilization is going to change. There will be a large throng of peoples of all nations who survive what ever happens. Now... is the time to prepare for these events.

The only wise action for anyone who understands what is coming, is to turn to God in repentance and obedience (Acts 3:19). Indeed, "now God commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed , Jesus Christ" (Acts 17:30-31, NIV).

When Jesus returns in power and glory, He will rebuke the world for its sins. This is part of the message proclaimed from the very beginning of the Church, beginning on the Day of Pentecost. On that day of the Church's founding, the apostle Peter exhorted his audience... "Be saved from this perverse generation" (Acts 2:40).

This is the message the Church is still commissioned to proclaim throughout the world today. How were the people to be saved? Peter urged them to repent—to turn from their own sinful, selfish ways and to seek God's ways—and to be baptized (Acts 2:38) for forgiveness of sins. At His second coming, Christ will know those who have taken that command seriously and lived their lives in harmony with His will and purpose.

Don’t worry about the day or the hour
It is not a question of whether the world—man's corrupt civilization—will end. God's Word says it will. Our chief concern should not be when it will end. Jesus said it would be impossible for men to precisely calculate this ahead of time (Matthew 24:36, 42, 44).

Instead, our main focus should be to continuously seek God, to be spiritually prepared for the times that are coming. "But keep on the alert at all times," said Jesus, "praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36, NASB).

The Bible describes believers as living in a state of expectancy, in a state of tension, between two worlds... the one passing away and the one He makes “new”. We live in the present world, which we know will end, while we look for the world to come with the return of Christ. "So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him" (Matthew 24:44, NIV).

We need to seek God in heartfelt repentance and faith, leading us to baptism so we can receive God's Spirit (Acts 2:37-39). Then we must remain faithfully obedient while awaiting Jesus' return. For "he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13).

Jesus never said the Christian’s life would be easy. On the contrary, He said it would be challenging and difficult (Matthew 7:13-14). The rewards of faithful obedience are great, far beyond anything we can imagine. Be prepared. Be watchful... be on guard. Live your life as if the world will end at any moment.

The End of the World is Coming... Really!

In tens days, on Friday the 13th, Hollywood's next blockbuster movie "2012" opens in theaters worldwide, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the front lawn of the White House.

Thats not all... The Great Wall of China crumbles and thousands of screaming tourists plummet to their deaths. Then the destruction reaches merry old England. A massive earthquake sends Big Ben crashing to the ground and destroys the newly-built Olympic stadium... the one now being built for the 2012 Olympics. Across America great surges in rivers drown millions and plunging asteroids turn towns and cities into smoking ruins.

Those who are lucky enough to survive the initial onslaught of destruction flee in terror, but there’s no where to run...for this is the ultimate catastrophe... the end of the world as fortold by the intricate and complex Mayan calendar.

The Mayan calendar fortells the end of the world? The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical Aztec civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.  Today, they are renown in doomsday prophecy discussions surrounding their ancient calendar, which many believe predicts the end of time in the year 2012.... hence the movie’s title.

The Mayan calendar is divided into Seven Ages of Man. In the mythology of the Aztecs, the first age of mankind ended with animals devouring humans. The second age was finished off by wind, the third by fire, and the fourth age by water.

According to their calendar, humanity is living in the fifth age which began on Day Zero–– August 11, 3114 B.C. and will end on December 21, 2012. The Mayan calendar comes to an abrupt end but resets itself again to Day Zero, December 22, 2012. Predictions are that the fifth age of the world ends in catastrophe. Only a few people will survive the end of the fifth age.

But wait, there’s a morning after! Day Zero simply marks the beginning of a new calendar cycle. The end of one age is the dawn of another age! According to the Mayans in the coming ages, humanity will realize its spiritual destiny, discover God within ourselves, and in the seventh age we will become so spiritual that we will be telepathic.

Really, do people take this stuff seriously? Unfortunately, the answer is yes! The scientific community has been researching the calendar and its prophesies for decades, attempting to explain the massive cataclysmic events predicted. The most expensive resort hotels in the world are booked out ten years in advance for that fateful night. Fear is palpable. A Cornell University, a research scientist says people are scared. "It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," the researcher said. "We had a mother of two young children who is afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

There’s a big problem with how the Mayan calendar tracks time. It’s essentially circular... a series of cycles beginning and ending with Day Zero. To the Mayans, time was something that could be slowed down, and even stopped, through sacrifices and elaborate ceremony to their Sun gods. They got it all wrong.

Time is linear. Time has a beginning, a middle, and eventually an end. Within this linear concept of time, the idea of prophesying the end of the world seems to be natural. In fact, there are many contemporary prophets––single individuals and religious organizations who have predicted the end of time, numerous times.

For those who have taken up the calling of doomsday prophet, seizing upon the Mayan Day Zero as evidence of the end of the world, or perhaps the end of the world as we know it, is a useful and convenient piece of history to perpetuate their apocalyptic worldview.

God has something to do with time... the end of the world, when it will happen and how it will happen... don’t you think? Last time I checked, the Mayans and all the Aztec cultures were just like us... humans born into a sin-filled world who grew old and died. No evidence exists to suggest they ever manipulated "time" in their favor.

The end of the world as we know it... is God’s business not mans. God has not given any one people group on earth any special knowledge of end time events, the dates of such events or the nature of what willl happen. What He has done, is reveal to all of humanity through His Word the Bible what we must do to be prepared for the end of the world. Preparation is essential and critically important.

Near the end of Jesus earthly ministry, his disciples asked him a question that has intrigued people ever since... As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3 NIV).

People in every generation since have wondered about this question. Will the world end in my lifetime? How? Why? When? What does the Bible really say about this crucial and disturbing question?

Religious people aren't the only ones asking these questions. That’s why people are consumed by the implications of the Mayan calendar and movies like 2012 are destined to be blockbusters. People from all walks of life have expressed concern about the possibility of the end of the world as we know it. Politicians, educators and scientists foresee the potential destruction of our world from a number of causes—including nuclear warfare, environmental disaster, planetary pollution, overpopulation, killer diseases and collision with a comet or asteroid. Hollywood has made a movie about each of these cataclysmic events.

Scoffers, naysayers and many others, say there is no need to be concerned about the world ending. Such criticism is justified to a point. Doomsday predictions have abounded for centuries. They can point to epidemics of end-time panic that have raged in the past. They can list numerous failed predictions made by religious groups about the end of the world. Among the more notable failed predictions was made by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were convinced that the world would end in 1975, but it didn’t. Date-setters have been wrong every single time. The world is still here.

But it’s not going to last forever... it’s going to end... but probably not on December 23, 2012. For now, be comforted by this fact... "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son.... only the Father." Matthew 24:36.

Next Tuesday, November 10th I’ll discuss the Biblical view of the end of the world. It’s all about “preparation”. When Christ returns... are you prepared to meet him? Can you confidently stand before the Living God?

No other Agenda... but the Cross of Christ.

Fascinating word... Agenda. An agenda can be a list or outline of things to be considered or done in a fixed period of time, such as agendas for business or faculty meetings. It could be the official work plan for a committee meeting. It can be a temporary but highly organized plan for matters to be negotiated among rival groups.

There can be an underlying and quite often ideological plan or program associated with an agenda. An agenda might be political in nature.... the agenda of the Democratic Party.... of the Republican Party or any special interest group that wants to capture attention, control the discourse and debate while manipulating the achievement of a goal. It can be the list of business to be brought before an elected Assembly, such as a state legislature. Quite often an agenda is the framework for negotiation and compromise. Anyone can have an agenda... all you need is a cause, a purpose, an idea, a goal and expectations.

People love agendas... we use them all the time. It’s a neatly framed way to control situations, get our own way or negotiate an advantage based on our experiences. We even try to use our agendas with God.

When we come to Christ, we come with our own agendas and assumptions about what the relationship should be like. None of us comes to Christ with a blank slate. Rather, we bring opinions formed by life experiences. Perhaps our agenda is political. Perhaps it is theological or intellectual. Perhaps it is racial or social. Whatever it is, we expect Jesus to buy in. We want him to sign our petition or endorse our cause. If he doesn't, we're not so sure we want to follow Him.

In Luke 20, Jesus has encounters with two different groups of people that should inspire us to question to what degree we come to Christ with our own agendas. First, the religious officials question Jesus' authority, and Jesus responds with parables that expose their sin. Luke tells us in 20:19-20 that these religious leaders were looking for a way to turn the tables on Jesus. They sent spies to ask Jesus a question they hoped would catch him off guard. Two groups that normally despised each other, the Pharisees and Herodians, crafted an agenda based on their mutual hatred of Jesus.

Their “agenda” called for them to come to him with flattering words, praising him for being a teacher of truth, and then ask him the perfect question for squeezing someone between a rock and a hard place... "Is it in keeping with the law of Moses to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" If Jesus said they should pay the tax, the Jewish people would brand him a traitor. The Jews hated this tax. If Jesus instructed them not to pay the tax, he would have been branded an insurrectionist by the Roman authorities. Rome didn't tolerate people like that.

Jesus “detected their trickery.” He turns the table... and asked them a question (vs 24)... "Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?" They produce the coin and answer, ..."Caesar's." Then Jesus says to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." They were unable to trip him up, their mutual agenda fell apart and they were reduced to silence.

In the second encounter in Luke 20, Jesus is approached by a group of men called Sadducees. This was an aristocratic group made up of priestly families of Jerusalem. They were worldly and wealthy. Even though they were religious, they were the rationalistic intellectuals of their day. So, just as the Pharisees and the Herodians had a political agenda, these guys had a theological and philosophical agenda. Unlike the Pharisees, they didn't believe in life after death or in the resurrection of the dead, and their conflict with Jesus was that he had already predicted his own resurrection.

Their Agenda – they knew that if they were right, then Jesus could be discredited as a phony. To prove it, they approached Jesus (verses 27-33) with a hypothetical situation designed to make anyone who believed in the resurrection look ridiculous.

Quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, the Sadducees refer to a law that stated if a man died before he and his wife could produce a child, then his brother had an obligation to marry the widow. The Sadducees paint a wild scenario: a woman gets married and her husband dies before they have a child. So she married his brother, but he also dies without producing an heir. This goes on through seven brothers, all of whom die before they have a child. Finally the woman dies.... probably from exhaustion and the Sadducees want to know whose wife she will be in the resurrection.

It's amazing that Jesus even took this seriously, but He actually gave them a very thoughtful answer. First, he corrected their theology. The Sadducees assumed that if there were an afterlife, it would be an extension of this life. So, if you were married on earth then you would be married in heaven, and if you had kids on earth you would have kids in heaven. Jesus said it doesn't work that way.... and delivers the agenda killer... by saying there is “no marriage in heaven.”

Jesus also corrected their understanding of the Bible passages they referenced. In verses 37-40, Jesus refers back to Moses' interaction with God in the burning bush. He uses very simple logic: God's statement to Moses was in the present tense: "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." That doesn't make any sense if they're not alive. If someone comes to you and says, "I was your father’s best friend," that may be because your father is dead or somehow their relationship has changed. But if he comes to you and says, "I am your father’s best friend," the assumption is that he's still alive and their relationship is still dynamic. That's why Jesus says, "He is not the God of the dead but of the living." Again, Jesus puts an end to an agenda, an attempt to discredit who He was.

What cause are you trying to get Jesus to endorse? Christians get caught up in many agendas and causes that have nothing to do with God’s purpose or Kingdom building. Such activities, ideas, causes and schemes serve to deflect our time, energy and very often our resources away from the things God would have us focused on.

How does Jesus respond? Thankfully, just as gently as He did with his enemies in the first century. He loves us enough to engage with us, but he won't sign on to any of our schemes, plans, ideas or agendas. He has an agenda of His own that is moving forward to its ultimate conclusion and He wants us to sign on to His program.

Our concept of what He's doing is so small and limiting. Our view of his Kingdom is at best a human remake of life on earth. It might be a political remake; that’s why many Christians put so much faith and confidence in the continuation of this world and its political systems. Surely God is going to fix all this. No... He is not going to do that. This world and all of its ways are passing away.

Maybe you fall into the group that seeks a theological remake of God’s plan. You might feel that the Bible is a bit outdated and should be interpreted more liberally to accommodate today’s social and cultural standards. No. What God said 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago, what He has been saying from the beginning of His interactions with humanity still stands today... without change or dilution. God doesn’t change His standards... nor can we.

God wants us to be part of something that transcends our own agenda and ideas of how we think He should be doing His work on earth today. We want wiggle room. We want to negotiate compromises and allowances for humanistic philosophies. He wants obedience, commitment, loyalty, integrity, humility and love among brothers who have claimed salvation in Christ.

He wants us to embrace with passion a Kingdom without end, created not through political power, or theological compromise, but through the cross and the power of His resurrection. It’s is His cross and that cross is our bridge to eternity. He invites us to pick it up, bear it, and follow Him on His terms... not ours.

Sorry... “I” don’t do parking spaces.

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We live each day of our lives in the midst of profoundly amazing creation. A world created by a loving God. At the desire of his heart He said... "Let there be light!" and there it was. Fill the oceans with life... and they were filled. Land, sea and air creatures came into existance at His command. His crowning creation... “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Genesis 1:26

God also said... "I will send a flood," He did and the whole earth was flooded. He parted the Red Sea and knocked down the walls of Jericho. He sent His beloved Son to earth to live among us as a man... He empowered His miracles and resurrected Him from the dead. God is at work all the time, in all of His creation. He attends to detail. He is aware of everything, every action, every word, every hair on our head is known to Him. To God nothing is insignificant. We live in the constant shadow of a powerful God!

Even with all His power... don’t expect God to be hustling parking spaces for you at the local mall or grocery store so you can park closer to the entrance. I know, you’re probably wondering what does “parking spaces” have to do with an Omnipotent God.

Many people in the course of their daily activities actually pray to God to grant such things... parking spaces, good deals, no traffic, and all manner of self-soothing requests. A view common among Christians is this: if God is all-powerful, then He will surely assist me in my requests for such things. Does it not say... "All things work together for good to those who love God." (Romans 8:28 KJV) So we reason... “all things”.... “I love God”... therefore I can expect that everything will work out for good and God will be working overtime to make “me” happy.

A more accurate understanding of Paul’s message comes from the New International Version rendering of Romans 8: 28 (NIV)... "In all things, God works for good for those who love him." God’s promise is not that "all things work for good," but that in the midst of “all situations”, God is at work. Still, what about God’s attention to my needs and requests? The Bible teaches us that He is involved... attentive... responsive... so how is God working in my life?

Here’s the problem... Christians are susceptible to two mistaken viewpoints of God.... one... God is a puppet, able to be manipulated by humans to our our ends, and two...God is a puppeteer, constantly pulling the strings of humanity causing all sorts of situations and outcomes.

Those who see God as a puppet believe God can do anything, anything we tell him to do. This beieve is anchored by a strong belief in prayer, and puts all the power in the hands of the one praying. Scripture tells us to never stop praying. Pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, for daily needs, for spiritual maturity, for forgiveness, for deliverance from temptation, for our Christian brothers and sisters, for our enemies. Never are we to put ourselves in the position of demanding of God the exact nature of His answer. Those who see God as a puppet expect God to act at their whim, especially in the most prevelant of prayer requests... daily needs. “God... please, please, I need a parking space close to the entrance because I’m in a hurry.”

Humans cannot order God around. Think about it like this... whenever we pray for selfish things, God is treated like a puppet. We might not think our requests are selfish. We may even comfortably rationalize that our requests are aligned with God’s Word. But if our prayers become “request-response” oriented then we are thinking of God as our servant... expecting Him to grant our every wish and whim.

Then there’s the puppeteer God. This view of God can seriously undermind our relationship with Him. Many Christians see God as if He is a master puppeteer, pulling all the strings in every situation of our lives no matter how small or insignificant. This view of God suggests that every life event or experience is the result of the direct will of God. He made it happen. God brought the storm... the tornado... the tsunami... massive loss of life. He caused the cancer... the heart attack... the car crash... sudden death. You hear it expressed in these simple words... “it’s was God’s will.”

ALL things that happen to all of humanity, good or bad, are credited to the direct will of God. No event is too small, no desire of the heart too selfish... ALL are controlled and manipulated by God’s direct will. When you can’t explain it, or accept it for what it really is... then assign it to the will of God.

Believing God is a master puppeteer is surprisingly similar to personal human will. It’s a safe-haven, a comfortable position for many, because it frees you of responsibility for your own decisions and grants self-righteousness to those who seem to be blessed.... those who for the moment seem to be dodging the calamities of life.

Christians don’t come to this belief entirely on there own. They have lots of help... from pulpits around the world where Christians hear that God wants them to be healthy and wealthy and their experience of such conditions will show God’s work and blessing in their lives. The insensitivity and distortion that spews forth from so-called Christian preachers faning the “prosperity gospel” is foreign to both Scripture and life experience. So the question lingers....

If God is neither our servant puppet or a manipulating master puppeteer, then who is He and what is He doing in our lives?

First we need to accept a hard but core fact of our relationship with God... He never promised an easy life in which we always get our way. He never promised freedom from tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, death, deception or rebellion. He only promised that in the midst of every situation, no matter how bad or how painful, God will be present, working for the good for those who love him. An even harder fact to accept.... the results of His work for us may not be seen or experienced in this world or in this life.

If God manipulated all things like a master puppeteer, we would have no free will, and those who are not already faithful would have no hope. If God acted in subservient response to our every wish, like a great puppet, our world would be subject to human macinations and not the perfect will and power of God.

God has chosen to exercise his power in ways that have eternal significance. God exerts his power within the boundaries of His divine nature. God’s love, forgiveness, incarnation, atonement, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit are actions of his power that can change the attitudes of those who seek to know and comprehend His character and attributes.

Where is God when your life really stinks? He is not going to equip you with tools to take revenge on your enemy or embolden an attitude to seek retribution on that which causes you pain. In your most difficult moments, He is not running roughshod over you, nor is He doing stunts to show off his power. Rather, as the Holy Spirit He actively works inside you and in the lives of the people you love, providing the necessary resources to cope, endure, thrive, and achieve victory over that which causes you pain. He is there... helping you cope with unfair and difficult life situations. He seeks to shape your attitudes so you can accept things as they are and grow in Him.

When things are not going well in our lives... Christians will pray for relief. Relief doesn’t come. We get frustrated. God’s timing is rarely our preferred timing. God’s goal for each one of us is to make us more like Christ. He will always use our circumstances, especially those of pain and suffering, to draw us closer to that ultimate goal. If we can remember that when life experience is not pleasant, then we can be confident that the Omnipotent God will exercise his power to grant ultimate victory to those who remain faithful to Him.

By God’s powerful grace, He is constantly at work in us and for us. Never doubt it... trust Him.

Is GOD listening to me?

Does He even care about me? Why doesn’t God grant my prayer requests? You may feel that God has never granted anything you have ever prayed for!

Job struggled with this issue. God’s silence led him to ask in frustration, Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him? (Job 21:15). Left unanswered, such questions can raise serious doubts in the minds of believers and can even become the catalyst for unbelief... giving up on God altogether.

When life is filled with pain and sorrow we turn to God for relief. You don’t have to be a devout Christian to know this happens. When humans can’t fix a problem, we turn to God. It’s human nature to want relief from discomfort. When our prayer requests don’t work out as we want them to... God gets blamed for human suffering, sorrow and pain. He gets blamed for not intervening and stopping the circumstances and situations that cause pain and suffering.

However it’s important to remember, God does not intentionally inflict pain and suffering on humanity. There is a significant difference between “causing human suffering” and “permitting it to continue” for a purpose. Many situations, in fact most things that happen to us can and will have a beneficial result if we persevere through the experience. Therein is the challenge... persevering. This is hard to accept when you’re the one in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, God will not allow us to be crushed, bearing more than we can handle. He knows our limits.... but he also knows the strength of our hearts and our capacity to handle situations. He knows what we need to experience to grow in Him and prosper in our faith.

But didn’t Jesus make several promises that in fact say that God will answer our prayers.... for whatever we ask?

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7 NAS

"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Matthew 21:22 NAS

"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you." Mark 11:24 NAS

These are indeed the words of Jesus. They sound as if He will grant our every request. We need to carefully study the promises Jesus made in order to understand what he really promised.

First, we might want to change our perspective on the often used term of “unanswered prayer”. It wrongly suggests that God is either unable or unwilling to respond to our prayers when He may very well answer in ways we do not recognize. God hears the prayers of the faithful and obedient. We think unanswered or ungranted, when the suffering continues. In fact we don’t always understand nor do we comprehend God’s answer to our requests.

What was Jesus talking about when He made these promises? Context is critical. Whenever we study the Scriptures, we need to be careful not to extract specific verses and treat them independent of their context. Context controls meaning. Each promise in the Bible should be read within the framework of the teaching, the principles and the statements surrounding it. To whom was the promise given? Does the context limit or qualify the meaning? What does the rest of Scripture teach on the topic?

Examining the Prayer Promises of Jesus
The aforementioned verses were in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, where a broad array of teachings and principles are given. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8). Sounds like an unqualified open-ended promise doesn’t it? Until you examine the context.

In the context, we see an emphasis on spiritual growth. Therefore, if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, asking for spiritual help and growth, then God will grant our requests, including giving us the Holy Spirit to help us (Luke 11:13).

Jesus did not mean he would grant our every desire and wish, giving us exactly what we request. However, when we ask for the kinds of things mentioned in the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, he promises to answer. He does add an important required ingredient that factors into our prayer.

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). After withering the fig tree, Jesus says if the apostles have faith they could cast a mountain into the sea (Matthew 21:21). We have no record in the Bible of Jesus or anyone else moving a physical mountain into the sea. Even in ancient times, “moving mountains”... was a figure of speech for doing something extremely difficult or seemingly impossible. We still use that expression today.

Jesus explained to the apostles that just as they needed faith to work miracles, prayer required faith on the part of the one who prays. He is not talking about a mere affirmation of belief. He means a relationship of genuine trust in God characterized by living in submissive obedience to God’s Word and His will. Jesus does not mean we can manipulate God or use prayer like a magic wand, but that prayers offered in trustful submission to an all-powerful God can overcome what seems to be the impossible.

Jesus made several promises during his ministry. Some of these promises were limited to the apostles and their work in the first century. The apostles filled an unrepeatable role as Jesus’ representatives in establishing His church. Certainly not all promises Jesus gave to His apostles can be claimed by Christians today. God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a child in their old age does not mean senior citizens today should claim that promise for themselves.

Even when Jesus was speaking to the apostles, in some cases the context of His teaching makes it clear that the promise has a broader application to all believers in general. Whether these promises about prayer apply primarily to the apostles or to us as Christians in general, such prayers are subject to the qualifications Jesus established. Rather than reading these as unqualified promises, attention must be given to the “condition of our lives” that empower God to respond to our prayers.

Jesus stated, “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you” ( John 15:7). Abiding in Christ means surrendering to Christ’s spirit and will and living in obedience to His Words and with all that Christ stands for. Far from assuring us that our every wish will be granted, being totally committed to Christ means we will desire that His will be done in our lives. Our prayers will be in agreement with God’s will because we share the mind of Christ.

God answers our requests according to His will. As we grow in Christ’s likeness by keeping His commandments, our wills become more aligned with His will. God does not answer our prayers because we have a clear conscience, but because such a good conscience shows that we are keeping His commands and doing what pleases Him.

Scripture stresses that God hears the prayers of the righteous. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16; cf. Proverbs 15:29; Psalm 66:18; Job 27:8; Isaiah 1:11-15). Because of our relationship with Christ, we can pray with a confident boldness knowing our Father hears and will answer according to His will and purpose.

In times of pain and sorrow we have to TRUST God. Frankly, we have no other option. We have to understand what it means for God to answer our prayers and how He might answer... which sometimes feels like no answer at all.

While this statement seems harsh and unloving... we are going to have to accept that the “answer” to many of our prayers may be continued pain, suffering and sorrow. God never wastes His children's pain. We should take a measure of comfort in knowing that God uses the sorrow and pain of our lives to inch us ever closer to Him. To being transformed into a Christlike new creation.

It's a difficult truth to accept when we’re the ones who have to suffer to achieve this closeness to God. But it is the way God uses the difficult periods of our lives to grow us in Christ. He does not make our pain, that is a consequence of the fallen world and the Curse we live under. He does not manipulate us like puppets into situations of suffering and pain, but He will use these circumstances to shape and hone us in our trust and faith in Him, if... we let Him.

Trust God. Continue to pray and allow Him to transform you... what other choice do you have?