tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33177485365265803332024-03-04T20:37:08.232-08:00RevNerd - Bits & Bytes from JohnJohn Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-62218132356122660542020-03-16T14:25:00.004-07:002020-03-16T14:25:46.744-07:00Worshiping Online<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xE2BsjxeApxFEFfQnhR8MQ4jaO5d4E_i6vjU0uAmkGoGdqUo9tNk-oEKL1rJWOVT7i7-ifGWziLLu7Qh-1Ia1UnkBQ19RZqhlzln_FrOJ02NYAglrf-d7j-_CsO11mf1fhzP0sz3U_o/s1600/video-recording-3767454_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="1600" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xE2BsjxeApxFEFfQnhR8MQ4jaO5d4E_i6vjU0uAmkGoGdqUo9tNk-oEKL1rJWOVT7i7-ifGWziLLu7Qh-1Ia1UnkBQ19RZqhlzln_FrOJ02NYAglrf-d7j-_CsO11mf1fhzP0sz3U_o/s320/video-recording-3767454_1920.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/mohamed_hassan-5229782/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3767454">mohamed Hassan</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3767454">Pixabay</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the last week I've been watching as churches are moving to worshiping online in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are fortunate that we live in a time when we have an option of something to do. However, there is a caution. The predominant form of online worship that I've seen come up is a move to live-streaming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea behind this is good. It seeks to maintain as much of the regular worship experience as it can. That's a good move. With live streaming you can still worship at the same time, you can know that you are worshiping with others even if you aren't physically present. It also can convey as much of the feeling of being at home church as possible. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trouble is that that is something that I would only recommend churches who have the technological infrastructure already in place to do. We think that we can just live stream and things will be okay, or at least as okay as they can be. Going live on Facebook feels like it is easy, but I've seen a lot of bad Facebook live events from a lot of churches. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When doing anything video related online, there are some things to remember. The most important thing is size and distance. You have to take into consideration the size of the screen someone may be watching the video on, and the distance from the camera to what is being captured on video. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When taking video of what is happening at worship you want the video to feel like you are in the room watching it live. So if you are recording from a pew, you have to factor in the distance from the pew to the chancel or stage area, plus the distance from the viewer to the screen, and then factor in the size of the screen. As screens get smaller, the distance gets bigger. What you don't want is for someone to feel like they are watching your service from the nosebleed section at Arrowhead Stadium.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How you respond to that is that you get the camera as close as you can. Most of us will probably only use one camera so you want to place it in one place. If you move while you preach or if you are capturing a larger gathering of folks to provide music, then set your distance so that you get everyone in the recording, or so that you don't accidentally walk out of the video.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, make sure that you are in a place with good light. Some of our sanctuaries have okay light for Sunday morning services, but it will show up darker on video. If you can add extra light, then that would be good. If you can change your camera settings to add extra backlight, that's good too. You want people to be able to see you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, when watching a video, you don't want your audience to be either looking up at you, or down at you. As much as possible, you'll want your recording device to be level with the area that it is recording. One of the few advantages that you'll have if worship is cancelled is that you can set up a tripod or stand to hold a camera anywhere you want because it won't be in the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do I Go Live?</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The information from before is good for any video recording. Beyond that, the next big question you have to ask is if you go live or you work with recordings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, over at <a href="https://hackingchristianity.net/2020/03/covid-19-lockdown-creating-live-streamed-worship-in-3-days.html" target="_blank">Hacking Christianity</a>, they went over what it takes to do live streaming. One of the biggest areas of concern is copyright. The good news is that many places are making it easier. <a href="https://news.onelicense.net/2020/03/13/one-license-offers-gratis-licenses-to-help-cope-with-covid-19-challenges-valid-through-april-15/?fbclid=IwAR25QaB07VD7cUi14-ykZ0FKn-q0dfLOOEM_i53slLBJjmBJCqtTeGTs6tE" target="_blank">One License</a> has a special offer during the Covid-19 situation that makes their service free. Others are following suit. For <a href="https://www.umph.org/Current-News/ArtMID/471/ArticleID/43/The-United-Methodist-Publishing-House-Grants-Temporary-Permission-for-UM-Book-of-Worship-Content" target="_blank">United Methodists</a>, portions of the Book of Worship have been granted temporary permission to post, but read the fine print.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My biggest piece of advice is that if you have the capabilities to do live streaming, then that could be a good choice. However, I don't think that is the best choice for most churches. Having a screen that conveys our worship experience introduces a problem. We are not physically present in the worship space. The ability to engage with the service is diluted, even if you have a great worship team and great musicians. Its not the same. Live streaming can only go so far in recreating the worship experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My preference, and what my church will be doing if the need arises, is using a mixed media approach. We can't recreate the physical presence of the church, and we shouldn't try. We can engage with our people by helping them to lead their own worship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Plan</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a while now, I've been putting up an ebulletin on our church <a href="http://www.marcelineumc.com/worship" target="_blank">website</a>. You can find it by clicking the link, and in the future you should be able to find examples of what I'll be describing below. You can set this up so that you can embed YouTube videos in a blog post on a website, or you can include links to click on in an email that you send out. It all depends on the options that you have. You can even include all of this information in a Facebook post if you want. They will handle multiple links. If you don't have one, now would be a time to set up an easy blog, website, or facebook page to handle what you're doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will be building on that structure. The order of service will look much like it does in our regular bulletin. On that ebulletin I'll be putting instructions for how you can have worship at home by yourself or as a family. The key is that you want folks to be able to participate in worship. You can't break the barrier of the screen, but you can get around it by including others. It could be as simple as having someone read scripture, and could include having someone offer a prayer. This includes offering prayer requests, and joys and concerns as well. This is for both the family that has gathered, and also you can set up a <a href="https://forms.gle/aQirNCXxsBzuFpEF6" target="_blank">Google Form</a> to easily send prayer requests to your church. If you want a copy of this, let me know and I'll send you one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For music, you can include links for YouTube videos of hymns or songs. There's a lot out there that include the lyrics on the video. The key things I look for are that the videos are in high definition, and that the song actually sounds good. There's a lot of junk when you start looking for YouTube videos, but you can find good ones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are a few things that I plan to record and then upload. One is a sermon. This can be a full length sermon, whatever you want. You may also want to upload a benediction, or a pastoral prayer, and also some sort of welcome and opening prayer for your service. For me, I'll upload those separately, and then include them on a playlist with the songs. This way you can also embed them in a blog post, or have a link for them in an email or facebook post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To do this most easily you need to have a YouTube account either for yourself or your church. I would recommend your church, but either will do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also know that many people, myself included, would prefer to watch the videos on something larger than a phone or laptop. Many also either have a smart TV or something like a Roku or Chromecast. When you have all of your videos uploaded to YouTube, then you can create a playlist with the videos in order. Through the YouTube app on your TV/Roku/etc you can search for your channel and pull up the correct playlist. That way as you go through the service you can participate, watch the videos (and sing with the music).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To make that work well, you'll want to have an easy name for your channel. Either your name, or the name of your church. If you have a common church name, be sure to add your town or community to the name. Like Wesley Church in Dogpatch MO, or wherever you are. Also, be sure to add a tag to your videos when you upload them that include your church name. This makes it easier to find you on YouTube.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I have my first service put together, I'll add the link here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another Option</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I've just described takes some work and more resources than some of us have. Another option is to put together a prayer, scripture reading, and message in one video and post that. When you send that link out, include a description of how to use that at home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are using this route, it also becomes very easy to add this to Facebook. You can add the instructions in the description and upload the video directly to Facebook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What You Need</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The good news is that if you have a smart phone, then you can do all of this with that. You can take video and trim it very easily from a phone. That's what I do with a lot of mine. For Android phones, I use the InShot app, and it does a good job.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To add to that, you can get small <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Microphone-Omnidirectional-Recording-Conference/dp/B01AG56HYQ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=65PGI77P7DNX&dchild=1&keywords=cell+phone+microphone&qid=1584393642&sprefix=cell+phone+mic%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExUTBLNFlGNkJJQVBNJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTIxOTM5WllBS0VLNzVXQVo0JmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2NTgyMTkxMklBTUdYVk01TUJVJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==" target="_blank">microphones</a> off of Amazon that pick up audio better and that plug into your phone. A <a href="https://www.amazon.com/UBeesize-Detachable-Extendable-Compatible-Wireless/dp/B07VQ6YPFL/ref=sr_1_11?crid=13K8ZVEKEVYM1&dchild=1&keywords=cell+phone+tripod&qid=1584393759&sprefix=cell+phone+tripod%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-11&swrs=3550471D3395607CD5D1C64BF99F7D68" target="_blank">tripod</a> will also help set your camera where you want it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final Thoughts</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. This is a quick rundown of something you can do, and I'm pretty sure that I probably explained some things badly, or not in enough detail. I do know that all of us in ministry have a very "exciting" few weeks of ministry ahead of us. You will be in my prayers as we go forward. Most importantly, don't feel like you have to be perfect. Do what you can. I think we'll have a lot of grace in all that we do for a while.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-33956637854444718932019-10-13T06:39:00.001-07:002019-10-13T06:39:45.941-07:00Earn all you can<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_c0wteNxOVPsgWukQUvdJj6nilFmfGBi94HdVsHEDaY36NpZF9KNq-pgQknb65yi_SwVsvhvd-zl54ju1opU0K1kiXgoB8TWbHGZA0BqWEU7JvNfDEWf7uEbVDivfzeIUsxNHeUm7ZiM/s1600/Slide36.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_c0wteNxOVPsgWukQUvdJj6nilFmfGBi94HdVsHEDaY36NpZF9KNq-pgQknb65yi_SwVsvhvd-zl54ju1opU0K1kiXgoB8TWbHGZA0BqWEU7JvNfDEWf7uEbVDivfzeIUsxNHeUm7ZiM/s400/Slide36.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There has a been a tradition in churches that holds an ideal of poverty, but expresses that ideal through scorning money. We place the fault on money, and then try to stay away from it as much as possible, but also knowing that we need it to survive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This doesn't help anything. As scriptural justification for this, we take <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/1TI.6.10" target="_blank">1 Timothy 6:10</a> and say that money is the root of all evil.</span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal. <b>--1 Timothy 6:10 CEB</b></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> We'll even go so far as to acknowledge that it's really "the love of money" but we don't live it out. We still scorn money, and how it's used in churches, we lack awareness of its role in our individual lives and the life of the church, and we fall into the same problems as we would if we didn't try to follow this statement. In fact, we can add one word, and we still have the problem.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDxkpzPuG8G1eYMeTVYnB60g2TKEjTaO7HmbChYCim83acZOWbeDvJFKEr6cZj6rtDXKjU68O8KtQCGJWpcECda1em9P6-fqA0oMUWRsR2Vy8jxo-KUJrVgYWV_nR6EIyX88gQsP_8og/s1600/Slide39.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDxkpzPuG8G1eYMeTVYnB60g2TKEjTaO7HmbChYCim83acZOWbeDvJFKEr6cZj6rtDXKjU68O8KtQCGJWpcECda1em9P6-fqA0oMUWRsR2Vy8jxo-KUJrVgYWV_nR6EIyX88gQsP_8og/s400/Slide39.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What this means in practical application is that churches are notorious for not keeping great books, being mediocre at best in having good financial controls, and being ripe for thieves, charlatans, and incompetence in its use of money. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a better way of doing this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus, and later Paul in writing to Timothy, would look at us and say that we are still missing the point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John Wesley would agree with them. He wrote a sermon called, <i><a href="http://www.godonthe.net/wesley/jws_050.html" target="_blank">The Use of Money</a></i>,where he takes on the misperceptions of Christians and how we talk about and use money. And I would add to that, that the same principles apply when we are also talking about other resources that we have. It’s not just money, but it could also be time, and the talents that we have. We can be better, and do better when we step outside of these misperceptions and find a solid foundation that Jesus gives us through scripture.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9wq3h4-7yUMZvPa_LWmph3H2fi8xh8hc5tC1dJJm_mEFgHXYlBWgqySG9uTXRz6_P0Xgh7e6hBpckx0Jdb126Sqrm6U1-rqmm1WqDnmdc_iI0IoWhqVzd0n9PSXdxgMsEnv55a-xwRU/s1600/Live+Laugh+Love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9wq3h4-7yUMZvPa_LWmph3H2fi8xh8hc5tC1dJJm_mEFgHXYlBWgqySG9uTXRz6_P0Xgh7e6hBpckx0Jdb126Sqrm6U1-rqmm1WqDnmdc_iI0IoWhqVzd0n9PSXdxgMsEnv55a-xwRU/s200/Live+Laugh+Love.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrD-NMYI5ad9Z0sB4y81OzAvKORttofvlht-HIXh9biMEYVUeKNAbecO_LS4PbqP-CjQMAEw6M4RuORbbMbAHIB5rEeXtUsmgqY8WSbcCyGDES_gXycEHw2LRsD5OrAED_4qB67xv7U4/s1600/Earn+Save+Give.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrD-NMYI5ad9Z0sB4y81OzAvKORttofvlht-HIXh9biMEYVUeKNAbecO_LS4PbqP-CjQMAEw6M4RuORbbMbAHIB5rEeXtUsmgqY8WSbcCyGDES_gXycEHw2LRsD5OrAED_4qB67xv7U4/s200/Earn+Save+Give.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you’ve been around craft shows, Etsy, home decor places, then you’ve seen some variation of the first sign. It’s become a sort of unofficial motto of sorts for how to approach your life. We can argue about the merits of that later. I like the second one better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his sermon, Wesley says, gain (which we can change to earn) all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. In true Wesley fashion, we have three statements that end in can, and are seemingly contradictory when taken together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But that’s okay when he does that, because faith in Jesus Christ comes as a series of contradictions that work because of our faith, and the same holds true here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a sidenote, in addition to Wesley’s sermon, I’m primarily working from a book called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Earn-Save-Give-James-Harnish/dp/1630883921/ref=tmm_pap_title_2?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1570626144&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Earn, Save, Give</a>. It's a short book, but a good one. Click the link to order a copy of it. It runs about $12.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we say earn all you can, that seems like its bad for Christians, that we shouldn’t do that. It sounds greedy! We’re specifically told not to be greedy, but remember what is said in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/LUK.16.10-13" target="_blank">Luke 16:10-13</a>. It comes right after Jesus tells the parable of the dishonest manager.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the story goes, there is a manger for the estate of a rich man. He hears that his manager isn’t doing well at taking care of things, so he calls him in to account for what he has done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At that moment, the manager panics, which is expected, but then he figures out what he is going to do. He calls in the people who owe the rich man money. The manager tells them, if you can pay now, I’ll slash what you owe, just remember who did this for you. So, when the manager goes back to the rich man, the rich man commends the manager for his shrewd tactics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember, that Jesus is the one telling the story, and he’s saying act like this dishonest manager! How does that make sense? Here’s where subtitles get in our way. The parable of the dishonest manager, or crooked manager, of unrighteous steward, all of which are varying title that are given to this section, are just bad. They put our focus in the wrong place. The Common English Bible calls this section faithfulness with money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus is setting us up in this story. He tells this story of a bad guy who is very clever. But then says, if this guy can do this, imagine what you can do!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus isn’t telling us to go be poor as church mice, but to go do all that you can through your faith. Make sure you do things in the right order, so you aren’t the dishonest manager, but you are still gaining all that you can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the most famous of the verse from this passage, but all of 10-13 are helping us to remember how to do this. We are never told in scripture not to go out and earn, that wouldn’t be true to who we are, who God made us to be, but we are given the healthy boundaries to do that in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James Harnish summarizes what Wesley says by these three statements:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first of theys Wesley also calls, by honest industry. We are who we are, made by God to be these people. That’s not something to hide from, but to be embraced. It’s not wrong to do well at what you do. But, we are also expecting to do the best at what we can do. As my dad says, and this is one of my favorite quotes of his, “mediocre for the Lord doesn’t cut it.” And if our lives are truly devoted to God, that means that we will do the best we can, earn the best we can, in all parts of our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Common sense, for Wesley, means don’t sit back and say that this is the way we’ve always done it. Use the intelligence that God gave you, and your observations, and the time you have to reflect on what you’re doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally the third rule that Wesley gives us isn’t one that he explicitly states, but it’s a combination of where he spends a lot of time in this part of his sermon. Harnish phrases this third point like this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The view of money that permeates to many Christian circles is that it is bad. That has lead us into many wrong directions and practices. There aren’t prohibitions against money in scripture, only against where we let it control our lives and take our focus away from God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus tells us to go out and make the most of what we have been given, and that is what we should do. These are some rules/boundaries that can guide more than our money too. They can also help our time, resources, talents, all can fit into this same thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go out and earn all that you can, in your calling, by common sense, but don’t earn it by paying more than its worth. In turn, share that same wisdom with others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then come back for the next post, when we look at how we are also called to save all we can. Go and do this in Jesus name. Amen.</span></div>
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-84484885760662758482019-10-06T07:29:00.000-07:002019-10-06T10:06:05.354-07:00One Bread, One Body<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What do cats and kids have in common? If you give them something shiny and new, and it comes in a big box, they're both going to play in the box.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">At some point in time they may come back to whatever was in the box, but they both love those simple cardboard boxes. And that's okay. At this point in their lives they haven't bought into the pervasive lie that we tell.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The lie, that often we don't say but we live, is that we have to have all the right things. We have to buy all the right presents, and if we take a picture of ourselves, then we have to put the right filter on it. We wouldn't want anything to show any bit of imperfection. And we take it farther when we work to game the system. Its easy to find study guides, tutors, and test prep courses to make sure that you are "guaranteed" to do well on whatever test you take....regardless of if you actually know the material.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But all of that is a lot of work, and takes a lot of time and effort. Do you know what we need a lot of times? We need that simple cardboard box. It may not be the prettiest thing in the world, or the shiniest, but it may be what we need. We don't always need the biggest and fanciest, and that's okay too. Both the big and the shiny, and the simple box serve a purpose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the last few <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Our%20Daily%20Bread" target="_blank">posts</a>, we've been looking at how we expand our community. One of the most important parts of that is something that we haven't talked about. That is the one key thing that makes expanding our community work. That's authenticity. We live in a world that revolves around the appearances that we put forward. What catches people's attention, and catches them off guard, is someone who isn't putting forward fake appearances.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What makes up that authenticity is first humility. That is the ability to say, and share, that we don't always have the right answers. Its the ability to do away with the filters we try to put on our lives to look good. Its a refreshing experience to meet someone, or a group of people, who aren't trying to tell a story different from who they are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The second pieces that comes with authenticity is freedom. Freedom comes when we don't have to be the things that we aren't, and we aren't working so hard to maintain appearances that we don't have. This freedom also lets other people in. When we are working so hard to maintain appearances, we make it hard for others to get to know us, or even work with us on anything. To let people in means to let people in behind the curtain, and that can be difficult. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My wife Emily and I have jokingly said, and its kind of our unofficial motto, that life is a team sport. I don't have all the answers, and she doesn't have all the answers, but together we have far more of them. This is more than even the addition of my answers and hers. When we come together, we are more than the sum of our parts. But to get there successfully, we have to let go of the filters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Romans, Paul is laying out that we are in this together. We live life better together than on our own. We can be ourselves, more completely, when we do it together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pay special attention to this verse out of Romans 12. Sometimes we may say that we've been given gifts in different measure. We may not have all of one thing, or anything, but we'll have parts of many different gifts. That's okay, and that's how it is supposed to work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is what makes us a community of faith. Sometimes that means that we're the shiny new thing in the box. Sometimes we are the most important thing, because our gifts are what is needed in the moment. Sometimes, though, we're the box. We aren't shiny or flashy, but we're important anyway. Both are necessary for the success of our community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's not about which we are at any given point in time, but it's about how we are being used and how we are living life that counts the most.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All of our pieces together are what makes things work. When we gather as one body, as one community in Jesus Christ, then we are good!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember what Jesus does with his disciples. At the Last Supper, Jesus could have started with the best bread, made from the finest wheat, baked in the best oven, kneaded by the most recent winner of the Great British Baking Show!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just like he could have started with the best leaders, who were some of the most faithful and religious people ever. He could have started with the folks that were like the prophets, and judges, and the great kings of Ancient Israel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But Jesus started with the simple, cheap sandwich bread that we sometimes call mattress stuffing. Just like he started with fishermen and tax collectors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus could have started with the finest wine, made from the best grapes, or even with water that he turned into the finest wine. Just like he could have started his message in the temple, or the best synagogues is Israel, but instead he started with the equivalent of a bottle of Best Choice Grape Juice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What's important is not where they are starting. What's important is how Jesus is bringing all of those pieces together. When he lifts them up, they become something more than they were before. They become more than just the sum of their parts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is what Jesus is doing in us, and in our community as we expand into it. Jesus is building God’s Kingdom all around us. We can see it as all of these pieces that are brought together and made into something more than what they could be on their own. Jesus makes them holy, not because they start that way, but because he makes them that way by lifting them up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go out, live your life as a part of the community Jesus is building, and be lifted up by him, Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-22843650938866547152019-09-28T17:57:00.001-07:002019-09-28T17:58:07.128-07:00Planning for Fear<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Way back when I was in Seminary, I had a lot of expectations. There were the ones that you would think future pastors would have, but there were also some others that you might not think of. Most of those revolved around my long commute to get to campus, about 2.5 hours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I expected that I would make it back and forth to Dallas without any problems. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that I would actually need to be prepared for some other things to happen. Like for example, having a blow-out while driving on the interstate in rush hour traffic, or having a dead battery, or even just a flat tire.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since that time, I've always had jumper cables and a mini air compressor that travels with me so that I'm prepared for whatever it is that might happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At some point in time, we all learn the lesson that we have to plan for emergencies. We can have a set of expectations, for what we want to happen, but we know that something will come up that will get in the way. It's not a matter of if an emergency will come, but when. Our question is, are we ready for them? Have we planned for the unexpected?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the last <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Our%20Daily%20Bread" target="_blank">few posts</a>, we've been looking at our expectations for expanding our community. That is, answering the call that Jesus places on us to go and make disciples. To do that, we have to go to places that either we've forgotten about, or that make us uncomfortable. That's because we've already been to the other places that are close to us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we do that, there will be some fear involved. That's what happens when we haven't done something in a while, or we're doing something that we've never done before.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgajZj5csXFEgJfeBdi3NMMUOZKLy1HcUU2S39DroQBCIMZf9Kmm1VvBg2wASLddpFeKv8CaYcrSnAZz14Lglj6ljs4CQxUVbXVGFKl4LPh-uZsIptjKTPnXfjUSJmCRp21NvufWg48Os0/s1600/Slide37.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgajZj5csXFEgJfeBdi3NMMUOZKLy1HcUU2S39DroQBCIMZf9Kmm1VvBg2wASLddpFeKv8CaYcrSnAZz14Lglj6ljs4CQxUVbXVGFKl4LPh-uZsIptjKTPnXfjUSJmCRp21NvufWg48Os0/s400/Slide37.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Take for example, this picture. Why would you go and jump off a perfectly good pedestal, just to fall so very ungracefully into the water? That's not the smartest thing in the world to do, and if you haven't done something like this in a while, you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach that's trying to warn you off!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The point is, there will be some fear, or at least a little trepidation involved in doing something different. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you took some time to go out to a forgotten place, was it easy? I went out driving through a good chunk of town, so I didn't walk, which took away some of the fear or nerves that might be present. However, it feels really weird to drive relatively slowly up and down streets in town. I kept wondering what people might be thinking if they saw me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What about if you have done something uncomfortable, like going out and meeting someone new and starting a relationship with them, or starting a new activity that causes you to go out and meet new people to be a part of it? Did that make you more nervous? For some folks that would be even worse. There would be fear involved in doing that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Doing this work, of expanding the community, of being a part of God's work to build the Kingdom of God is exactly what we are supposed to be doing, but it doesn't come without fear and without worry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that is okay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's okay to be nervous, it's okay to be unsure about what we're going to do. We aren't the first people to have fear or be worried, and we won't be the last.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the following video, take a look at a group that started something new. Ask yourself, who had fear as the program is taking shape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/321578931">NP4NP Recovery Ministry: Welcome Home at St. Paul's (Joplin)</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/moumethodist">MoUMethodist</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Who was afraid?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are two groups of people that are involved in what was going on. One was the group that was starting things, and the other was the group that was participating. Both of them were showing fear. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One was worried because no one showed up for a while. The other took some time before they would even say anything as a part of the group. They were a little afraid, a little nervous, a little worried about what was going to happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Everyone has that fear and worry. It's a part of what it means to be human. It is something that is going to happen. But there is an important message that is waiting for us.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVnzNUNUO1qxdTyhb2w9zItAUMy7nDvsjvGAg743MROSAVLrBzamhnH2r0hVVe_5obUjb3IH4JAUdEtuUi3GRQKfSOX-jGqApGwmilWWwdwpS1piH_6HIKN5DrIOfDiEQ9GgKXB_Cnlg/s1600/Slide40.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVnzNUNUO1qxdTyhb2w9zItAUMy7nDvsjvGAg743MROSAVLrBzamhnH2r0hVVe_5obUjb3IH4JAUdEtuUi3GRQKfSOX-jGqApGwmilWWwdwpS1piH_6HIKN5DrIOfDiEQ9GgKXB_Cnlg/s400/Slide40.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Before this verse, in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/PSA.118.ceb" target="_blank">Psalm 118</a>, three is a constant refrain that God's faithful love lasts forever. The point is that <i>when</i> you are afraid, that we remember who to turn to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Throughout the Gospels, we see the disciples in many forgotten, and many uncomfortable places. In those places they show their fear, worry, and nervousness. Jesus' response to them is always to remember who you can trust <i>when</i> that fear comes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We know that we will have times when we are afraid. That will happen. It's not a matter of if, but when. Because we know that, then we can prepare. We can be ready for when that fear comes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We make ourselves ready by remembering who we put our faith and trust in. We do that by lifting that fear up to God in prayer. We do that by coming together as a group and not trying to hide our fear from each other, but by being honest with it. Then as a group we lift that fear up to God.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxuaJrnWrID4cPtdA2GdhuVHTVf_3o_-CMPGzVvUchnHWmVQgfQae7MYXLFswBJ6OnxreBEBsP6kFXB01E6lkGxrAtUGUjBrXeUOANoZPlCAft96iZGT7NUh8NBYV2LvhuumwfAH0o0fk/s1600/Slide41.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxuaJrnWrID4cPtdA2GdhuVHTVf_3o_-CMPGzVvUchnHWmVQgfQae7MYXLFswBJ6OnxreBEBsP6kFXB01E6lkGxrAtUGUjBrXeUOANoZPlCAft96iZGT7NUh8NBYV2LvhuumwfAH0o0fk/s400/Slide41.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is probably the most important part of this. The things that we fear will happen sometimes. That's what makes them bad. We know that there are times when they will happen. For us, that makes it even more important that we remember who is standing there with us. We have to remember that God's love, grace, and power is greater than all the fear we can have.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Take time this week and give your fear to God. Fear isn't bad when we keep it in check. When we give it to God, we know that he can handle it and set us on the right path. So give your fear to the one who can handle it, and when others are fearful, help them to find our God that can get them through it. Go and do this in Jesus' name, Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-66873434174050059542019-09-22T07:31:00.000-07:002019-09-22T07:31:02.750-07:00Entering a Different World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREXIc0_-1vpJuAakQ7xX6imqNGb_-Ua1bUn66lPu0wQu2QP5W-tIWj00gtjR7Zo_OG-un208EhWyiqn_jWOGoGFhcinNujMvuUxEpRrRyJSqRQyHr5zAFB1FVEyReJr4mZ2IAVRJckiI/s1600/Slide43.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREXIc0_-1vpJuAakQ7xX6imqNGb_-Ua1bUn66lPu0wQu2QP5W-tIWj00gtjR7Zo_OG-un208EhWyiqn_jWOGoGFhcinNujMvuUxEpRrRyJSqRQyHr5zAFB1FVEyReJr4mZ2IAVRJckiI/s400/Slide43.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Based on the scripture reading for this post, <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/MRK.5.ceb" target="_blank">Mark 5:2-13</a>, would you have been uncomfortable in that same situation? You might be tempted to give the <a href="http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/11/16/the-jesus-juke/" target="_blank">Jesus Juke</a> answer, and that might be true looking back on it after some time has passed, but how would you feel in the moment?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being uncomfortable happens, and that's not a bad thing. What it really means is that we're in a position that we don't have experience with. Sometimes the best thing we can do is leave the situation, but most often it's an opportunity for us to grow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We don't grow where we are comfortable, but we grow in places where we're uncomfortable and being stretched. These are the times when we step out of our comfort zones and become more. We grow as a person, in experience, in our faith, as a parent, friend, or co-worker. Whatever it is, its a chance to become more completely who God made us to be.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsn_tNu7e25ngktOKu_xqGzH8R6674buAkUbqStJ2QPcwM1CgrM8RV8nzcIT6IspxORy1hB5OhLSBjiWshBBdUkeKonG6ifgQsOtOYl-1oeAOcox6y8K6ddPjUYOBgFTAX2nu_JRrgj2w/s1600/Slide44.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsn_tNu7e25ngktOKu_xqGzH8R6674buAkUbqStJ2QPcwM1CgrM8RV8nzcIT6IspxORy1hB5OhLSBjiWshBBdUkeKonG6ifgQsOtOYl-1oeAOcox6y8K6ddPjUYOBgFTAX2nu_JRrgj2w/s400/Slide44.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post is the next in a series called <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Our%20Daily%20Bread" target="_blank">Our Daily Bread</a>. It comes from the line in the Lord's Prayer where we ask God for our daily bread. What we mean by this, is sometimes, what we need just to get through the day because its been a long and hard one. Most often, though, what we mean is that we're asking God to give us what we need, not just to survive, but to thrive!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this series, the tag line for it is to build momentum to build faith in our lives and in the lives of others. To do that, we can't be looking just to survive, but to thrive. For that we need that regular, daily bread that comes from God. To find it, we look to the examples that Jesus gives us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We started on the post with expanding our community, to include others in it that we hadn't before. Then in the last post, I gave a homework assignment. If we are going to expand our community, then we have to go to places that we've forgotten about. Not maliciously, but that's what happens when we live someplace for a while. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we do that, and along with the homework for this week, our goal is to make observations. Not ask the question how to fix it, but to ask how God will use us to build community in those places. And then hold on to those observations, because they will be an important part of an all church planning retreat that we'll be doing in November. They will be what helps us to live out the mission of the church in our community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Expanding our community involves more than just going back into forgotten places. It also involves being in those uncomfortable places. Jesus, in our Gospel reading, encounters a man that it would be normal to be uncomfortable around. And it's okay to be uncomfortable around some people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a guy that today we might say is "dangerous" either to others or to himself. At the very least we'd say that he is a public nuisance. So it's okay to not feel comfortable around him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But as Mark is telling this story, there is something interesting that is going on in the sequence of events that are taking place. Jesus has met this man, with his disciples gathered there with him, and the unclean spirit, some places call it a demon, recognizes who Jesus is, but...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgq15Kqngm1tyV9jOAS7xM-mNMQgiw2CmDwS6duTQ5HVV1lwKM5R-Rw9pQUggsKiGDwqT6_Ue7fv6NsESwWSiGVF4rOWHmb88lnmeFe18WP_8ZfqnjjzPZw5bIONWv4qP8NbEMYnsoIs/s1600/Slide45.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizgq15Kqngm1tyV9jOAS7xM-mNMQgiw2CmDwS6duTQ5HVV1lwKM5R-Rw9pQUggsKiGDwqT6_Ue7fv6NsESwWSiGVF4rOWHmb88lnmeFe18WP_8ZfqnjjzPZw5bIONWv4qP8NbEMYnsoIs/s400/Slide45.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus failed the first time he commanded the spirit to come out of the man! Now, let me put a big disclaimer on this. Could Jesus have removed the spirit on the first try? Absolutely. It wouldn't have been a challenge at all for him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The spirit knew this, as evidenced by his reaction to Jesus, and Jesus knew this. The disciples, on the other hand, were still getting to know Jesus, and Jesus still had a lot to teach them. Primarily, Jesus wasn't going to do things the way that they were expecting. They were expecting that Jesus would remove the spirit, heal the man, and then they would all move on. That's what they knew.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Jesus was going to make them uncomfortable, because he was doing more. After his command fails, Jesus asks for the spirit's name. The spirit talks to Jesus, and provides a solution, which Jesus takes and sends the spirit into the herd of pigs that was close by. And in the face of who Jesus was, the spirit was more than happy to leave. Then, the man was healed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is an intensely uncomfortable situation, for everyone except Jesus. Our response would have been like that of the disciples. We would have come in, seen what needed to be fixed, healed it, and then left to go back to where we were comfortable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what speaks more power? What is more important in this story? Is it that the man was healed of his possession, or was it that when the rest of the community came back they saw the man as a normal, well-adjusted, health person?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The way that Jesus handled this situation wasn't by just doing something, but the most important part of it was that he was also working on healing the broken relationship between the man and his community!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In church, we've gotten really good at acts of charity. Those are things that we do for, or sometimes to other people. That's our standard reaction, and it's not a bad one. Acts of charity are a great thing, and there are many times when they are our only response, but...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhpxfMiVeih_kC6_rfHE1OJTK31EW1uftwgR74IrgELjO5j_U7NjIvEhMGxxJwG8gL_g5LmI3LJ6yn0gzH1NNSUhu_ANSHK_RKMF_fDC9Aw4Npq0YEAj5XY_57OI1y40nKiQTqNp5u7o/s1600/Slide47.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhpxfMiVeih_kC6_rfHE1OJTK31EW1uftwgR74IrgELjO5j_U7NjIvEhMGxxJwG8gL_g5LmI3LJ6yn0gzH1NNSUhu_ANSHK_RKMF_fDC9Aw4Npq0YEAj5XY_57OI1y40nKiQTqNp5u7o/s400/Slide47.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have to do more than just acts of charity. We have to work on building relationships with others. This is what makes Jesus so important. For all that he performs miracles, and does things for other people. The greatest miracle that he was working was the way he would build relationships with so many different people, and build community in so many different places. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We recognize that we don't have Jesus' power. We aren't going to be able to perform the great miracles like he does. That's okay, because we can do the most important thing that he does. We can build relationships. Because we recognize, to the second part of the flywheel point, that we are all surrounded by demons or unclean spirits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of those things won't be fixed by single acts of charity. Rather, they are fixed by the relationships that are made with other people. They could be relationships with spouses, or family or friends. They could be a relationship that we have with a doctor (or multiple doctors), or with co-workers, or advisers or coaches. It could even be with the person that smiles at you and says hi at Walmart when you are having the worst day. Sometimes, all it takes is someone acknowledging your existence. That's not much of a relationship, but its the start of one because it says either to you, or if you're giving that smile to someone else that they are a person.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many people that God puts in our lives to help us deal with our demons, and the most effective ones are the ones that stick around and build a relationship. They are the ones that notice we are a person. And God puts us in the lives of other people to do the exact same thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In expanding our community, we have to build relationships with people that we don't know. To get there we have to be uncomfortable. We have to step outside and meet and relate to other people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The homework for this week is to go be uncomfortable for Jesus! Those aren't words that I ever thought I would type, but they work. Find a place where you can take a step out and start building a relationship with someone. You might even know where to begin. Its that person you've seen every day, but don't know their name and you keep thinking you need to stop by. It might be that place you've wanted to go volunteer at, or store to go to, or activity to take up, or something different, but you haven't don it yet. Now is the time to go do it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It'll be uncomfortable for a while, but that's okay. And really, this is only a start. Building relationships takes time, but we can start them. Go be uncomfortable for Jesus, and most importantly go be uncomfortable in Jesus name! Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-21716694046691941282019-09-15T06:02:00.001-07:002019-09-15T11:26:40.742-07:00Opening Old Doors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have you ever walked into an old room that you haven't been in in a while, or that no one has been in in a while? What's it smell like? What does it look like? Are their signs of life there? Are you worried about what signs of life you might find, like the creepy crawly kind? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that you have that room in mind, have you ever done something with a room like that? Have you ever walked in to one and cleaned it up, fixed some of the broken pieces, renovated it to be used again? What does that feel like when you get it finished? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's a pretty great accomplishment when you're done isn't it? It feels good, it looks good, and now maybe its ready for the next generation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sometimes, we need to be reminded that behind old musty doors, that there is still something special waiting there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the second post in a series I'm calling "<a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Our%20Daily%20Bread" target="_blank">Our Daily Bread</a>," because what we're trying to do is not answer questions like, "how do we fix the church?" or "how do we fix other people?" or "how do we make church a priority again?" When we look at the church, and we are trying to do something new, to be prepared for the next generation, those are the questions we have a tendency to look at. Those are the questions that we think we have to answer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They aren't the ones that we want. What we're looking for, and what we need to understand is that what we do should be so ingrained into us that we naturally do it every day. We do it not because we're trying to save someone or something, but because that is who we are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the line from the Lord's prayer that is sticking with me through this series. How do we, as a church, as a community of faith, go to God and say, "give us this day, our daily bread"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is why I like the image of the waterwheel. To have bread means that there has been a lot that has taken place before then. Most importantly, there had to be something that ground the wheat to make the flour that gives us our bread. The bread is what we need to not just survive, but to thrive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We're looking for the effort that goes into turning the waterwheel (flywheel), to produce what we need. And we know what we want to do. That's the line I'm using as a description for this series, "to build momentum to build faith in our lives and the lives of others." That's just for this series. As a church and denomination, or mission is that same thing:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To make that happen, we have to get started. You can't build anything without starting. It takes effort to build. Building means that we're doing something more than just surviving too. We aren't looking to just survive, but to thrive. Once we're moving its a lot easier, but we have to get started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We look to see how God shows us how to do this. One of the great things that Jesus does is that he builds community wherever he goes. We looked at this in the <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/2019/09/expanding-our-community.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>. Jesus builds a special kind of community. He builds communities that are inclusive. They are defined by the fact that they include other people, and most of the time it's people that have been excluded by others. When they have included one group, then they default into looking for the next group to include.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This doesn't come without it's challenges. It means that things will change. Anytime that you introduce new people to a community things will change. As our community expands, it will be different than it was before. That's the nature of things. But the truth is that things have always changed. We are not the same as we were 20 years ago. We've changed in that time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The thing that we can do, and that is important that we do, is that we can choose. We can choose who to lead us. We choose Jesus Christ to lead. We know that he is the one who has the our best interests in mind because of the love that he shows to us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That doesn't mean that things will be easy, but it means that he will prepare, strengthen, encourage, and lead us in this journey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As we look at how we expand our community, we're going to look into different places to expand into. Through this post and the next one, I'm going to ask you to go to different places to see them and the people there in a new way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For this post we're looking at how Ezekiel does this same thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The story in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/EZK.37.ceb" target="_blank">Ezekiel 37</a> could be one that fit into the <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Stranger%20Things" target="_blank">Stranger Things</a> series that I did a while back. That comes from a very specific question that God asks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is asking a question that he already has the answer too, but he asks it because Ezekiel needs it to be asked. He needed to be ready to hear the answer, so God asks him, "can these bones live again?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ezekiel was looking out at a barren place in Israel's history. Both the northern and southern kingdom's had fallen, and they had been sent into exile. He's looking at a lost history and vitality of his people, and the hopelessness that comes with it. He wants to know, can they live again?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we look at the old musty rooms that have been forgotten with time, we remember what was there. We remember who lived in them, and maybe even all the different transitions that it went through. Can it be brought back to life? Can we look to forgotten places and see something new?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God responded to Ezekiel with this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God says the same thing to us. Those old forgotten rooms, those old forgotten places, can have new life. They don't have to stay that way. They can bring health and vitality, faith and life, happiness and joy to a new place. In them, faith can be built in our lives and in the lives of others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have to know what effort is required to open those closed doors. God's kingdom starts in the forgotten places and with forgotten people. Its starts with valleys of dry bones and closed off rooms. Are we ready to open the door to a new place?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Flywheel Point starts with a question. Every community has forgotten places. Those are the places that maybe you haven't been in a while, that you have literally forgotten were there. In response to this post, I want you to find one of those places and go take a walk or a drive through them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But remember the rest of the point. When I say that it is forgotten, that's by us. There are people that are still there and have been there. They have managed through without us. They don't need us to come in and fix things. That's not how we build community. What they need, is to know that we are here and that we're in this together. That's the place to start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then you ask God a question. How can he use you? How can he use our church? Those are very different questions than what can we fix. But those are the questions that we need.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go out this week and find an old forgotten door to walk through, and when you do, seek God's guidance to use you to build his community and his kingdom. And go and do this in Jesus' name, Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-22370687693017804862019-09-08T07:30:00.001-07:002019-09-08T15:59:06.931-07:00Expanding our Community<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of my favorite stores to go to is Dollar Tree. Partially, I like that I know how much everything costs, but there are also some things that I always know are there. One of them is this kids toy that has a spinning disk. You slide the disk down this thing that looks like Harry Potter's wand, and then you lift it back up off it it, and the disk takes off and will spin across the room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's a toy that appeals to 12 year old me, but it's also a toy that I've used for lots of other things. Mostly for decorations for VBS in years past.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What makes that disk thing work is that it is a kind of flywheel. A flywheel is something that you put a little bit of effort into, and it translates that effort into an even distribution of energy that gives you more output than the effort you put in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Flywheels aren't anything new. In fact, you could say that they are one of the inventions that have helped out society get to where it is today. In the picture above you can see a waterwheel. That's a kind of flywheel. It takes the effort from the water flowing by and translates that into energy. That energy did everything from saw lumber to grinding wheat to make the flour that we use to bake bread. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We see flywheels in everything from toys, to care engines, to electric turbines, to water pumps, and many more things. They are one of the basic things that lets us not just survive, but thrive where we are today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This same sort of concept can be applied to other places. In the church we want to be able to build momentum that builds faith in our lives, and in the lives of others. To put that another way, we want to put be able to put in the right effort to turn the flywheel that sends us out to share the Gospel Message about Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the start of a new series that applies this concept to the work we do as a church. To often our effort resembles the phrase, "if I can just reach one person for Jesus Christ, then all the effort I put into it will be worth it." That's not really a good reason for doing things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Think about it for a second. That's a lot of work to reach a hand out to one person, then to another, then another, and another and another and another, and you keep going like that. There's a better way. That shouldn't be our reason for doing things, but the result. When it's the result, then we are in better shape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So what is it that Jesus does? Take a look at <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/MAT.9.ceb" target="_blank">Matthew 9:9-13</a>. Specifically, take look at vs. 10</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaL6qbHe3jU-SEFh2mRsusZSh-l-CWDdQevzzf6zlls45ckA4IcHMCWII1KWnGoaNfqsLqIIKA80NelbZacBMV1bhAfQUERr0pe12fEuSxyFNuRHwiVQo9xpF-sp9zXsr8Fj33jPwwaxw/s1600/Slide30.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaL6qbHe3jU-SEFh2mRsusZSh-l-CWDdQevzzf6zlls45ckA4IcHMCWII1KWnGoaNfqsLqIIKA80NelbZacBMV1bhAfQUERr0pe12fEuSxyFNuRHwiVQo9xpF-sp9zXsr8Fj33jPwwaxw/s400/Slide30.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you were going to be a respectable religious leader in Jesus time, then you didn't do things like this. You would have known that they were sinners and that you shouldn't associate with them. But here is where Jesus is different.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can try to build a community in two different ways. On the one hand, you can take short term gain and define your community by who you exclude. This is what they were doing in Jesus' time. The problem with that is that when you define yourself in that way, eventually you're going to fall apart. That's because when you have successfully excluded one group, then you have to move on to another group to exclude from your community. This leaves you with a smaller group of people all the time, until it all falls apart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The second way of doing things is to look to the long term gain. This is what Jesus was doing. You do that by including others, and probably others that have been excluded in the past. That means that when you have successfully incorporated those folks, then you look to the next group to include. Over time you will get bigger.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But there is a reason why so many choose exclusion. It's easier, and less complicated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In each post, I'll be including what I'm calling a flywheel point. The one for this post is below.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiC6myNAPC3N6ATALwUOaHkG8MROKqTHp0NE_C6i6VNF__P_OoW5ca0hz3zEFyIR9AzoP4ora2KGRqCprXzepJ7ttmHBgjROWLGkbh9eKSjfYzchK_QitRSDGKPYb0fJTcwsL8jKFPWmk/s1600/Slide31.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiC6myNAPC3N6ATALwUOaHkG8MROKqTHp0NE_C6i6VNF__P_OoW5ca0hz3zEFyIR9AzoP4ora2KGRqCprXzepJ7ttmHBgjROWLGkbh9eKSjfYzchK_QitRSDGKPYb0fJTcwsL8jKFPWmk/s400/Slide31.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We know that community is key for us as Christians. This is something that Jesus does all the time. He is building community and including folks from every walk of life. That comes with risk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When you include others, that means that things will change. It takes time for that expanded community to settle into who they are together. It's a risky business. But there is a secret there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We know, because we've experienced it, that everything changes....always. Change is always taking place. Our churches and communities are not the same now as they were 20 years ago. We've become different. For us, that means that we have a choice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We can either be changed by outside influences that we have no control over, or maybe that we don't choose, or we can choose to be changed by Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we choose Jesus, we are choosing to follow the one that we put our faith, hope, trust, and love in already. He is the one that we know will not lead us in the wrong direction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Expanding our community to include others is the start of our effort to move the flywheel. However, when you start to move anything, it will change. That change can be good or bad, but when we choose to follow Jesus, then we know we can trust the direction we're going, and we know that we'll build that needed momentum to build faith in our lives, and in the lives of others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go out, choose Jesus, find ways of including others in your community, and know that this is the start of how we can change the world. Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-84761577274965078882019-09-03T12:51:00.000-07:002019-09-03T12:51:06.551-07:00Wisdom over Intellect<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPEXMynSsjrYElP5BuHhHyZQlS06L03GBeVpUYNFhOCJhMrKBGsp7gZHuJoHTtrt-Pp6jwEOrUVM6gWht2UqvrLkuTly6UkP_A-VMNnP_x5vL2M1_gYflbK5SKeJ6T_KFtcGp-lJ6Z0oY/s1600/Intellect+Blog+Post.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="800" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPEXMynSsjrYElP5BuHhHyZQlS06L03GBeVpUYNFhOCJhMrKBGsp7gZHuJoHTtrt-Pp6jwEOrUVM6gWht2UqvrLkuTly6UkP_A-VMNnP_x5vL2M1_gYflbK5SKeJ6T_KFtcGp-lJ6Z0oY/s320/Intellect+Blog+Post.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was listening to a podcast on the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%8Bhttps://art19.com/shows/american-scandal/episodes/8e99e854-242a-4d93-b462-c0827eca34af" target="_blank">rise and fall of Enron</a> recently. If you don't remember, they were one of the world's largest companies, and dealt primarily with all the different ways you might produce power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They got themselves into trouble because they were unethical, cheated the system, and took advantage of others to make themselves richer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How folks come to this kind of place in their lives has always been something that fascinates me. In listening to one of the episodes in this podcast, I was introduced to the idea of "intellectual purity." I wasn't completely sure what it meant, but just hearing the words gave me a lot to go on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since then, I've done a little bit of reading (I read a few <a href="https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/purity/" target="_blank">websites</a>, so not a lot of reading) to see if I was on the right track....I think I was.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Purity, when used in this case, has a meaning that an idea or concept is unencumbered with unnecessary or unrelated things. One example of this can be morals or ethics. They're thought experiments. They are what you conceive of when an idea is only affected by the results of its own decisions and nothing else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is a great thing when we use it to think through a problem or issue. This works well when we follow a trail to a point that we can conceive of something that might happen. We do this all the time when we try to figure out possible solutions to problems. This goes wrong when it never comes back to reality.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the big things that got Enron in trouble was that they had a team of folks that worked under the assumptions of intellectual purity. If they could do something, find a loophole of some sort to exploit, then they would. As a thought experiment, that's a good thing, but in reality other things are involved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Those other things have to be accounted for. An example would be the lives of the people that were affected by the brownouts and power shortages in California caused by Enron and their exploitation of the law and electricity needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What could have stopped this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The simple answer is wisdom. Wisdom could have stopped this. But what do I mean by wisdom?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By their wisdom the prudent understand their way, but the stupidity of fools deceives them.<br /><b>--Proverbs 14:8</b></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wisdom is what happens when intellect is rooted in reality and not purity. This is one of the clear messages of scripture. We find this very clearly in the book of Proverbs, but can find it throughout the Bible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We do not live in a world that is disconnected from reality. We live in a world that finds its meaning in the reality we are a part of. Wisdom comes to us through what we come to know, but only finds expression when tempered by the world we are a part of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is something that we see Jesus deal with all the time. He lived as a part of a world that was full of intellect, but had very little wisdom. Those in charge, the religious leaders, priests, scribes, Pharisees, and so on, were very smart, but not wise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They knew the law forwards and backwards, and were very quick to point out to others when they'd broken it, but they didn't have wisdom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wisdom would have told them that their world was a different place than what they knew. It would have told them that they needed to view their laws differently because of that world. Instead, we see Jesus combat their intellect with wisdom, and win every time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My favorite story when this happens is when Jesus is questioned about taxes in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/MAT.22.15-22" target="_blank">Matthew 22:15-22</a>. The final part of the story is when Jesus interjects the real world into their intellectually pure world in verse 20-21.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Whose image and inscription is this?" he asked. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Caesar’s," they replied. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then he said, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>--Matthew 22:20-21</b></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus is telling these good church people that they've got it wrong. He is telling them that they are very smart, but not wise. Wisdom leads to a fullness of life, because it does not try to force us to live in a world that does not exist, but teaches us how to live inside the world that God has created.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We live in a world today that resembles much of the world that Jesus was a part of. In our churches we have become very good at being smart, but we have lost a great deal of our wisdom. We can name chapter and verse, but we forget how to use it to find wisdom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My challenge to us, and my hope for us, is that we temper what we know with the reality of the world around us. In that, we will find Jesus at work. Through his guidance we will find a better path to weave through our lives such that we are not condemned by our intellect, but revered for our wisdom. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That wisdom, in turn, will reach out to others that they may also come to find their strength in Jesus Christ, and then the world will be changed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go out and have a wise week! Find Jesus at work, not just in the words of Scripture, but in the world around you. Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-57116310757271113682019-08-25T06:02:00.002-07:002019-08-25T06:02:18.162-07:00Falling Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjBtf-kkzXcTIbZpxAoiw34u9FZzCK76SPEHpuDmGsW749KvPMpuxN2DemsnhcF8x7LANXX25Q3m2hWIuDGZ6ucH42oOEoPg1vZQ_TBZdZLUXp9y3I8scwuMiExy4GNlDALAqlvl46vc/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjBtf-kkzXcTIbZpxAoiw34u9FZzCK76SPEHpuDmGsW749KvPMpuxN2DemsnhcF8x7LANXX25Q3m2hWIuDGZ6ucH42oOEoPg1vZQ_TBZdZLUXp9y3I8scwuMiExy4GNlDALAqlvl46vc/s400/Slide1.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you remember some of the silly games that we used to play when we were kids? There are a couple that I remember that were always fun to play, mostly because you could get knocked around, fall down, and sing silly songs.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of them was London Bridge is Falling Down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That one was fun, and there were lots of different verses that you could sing, and they didn't ever have to make much sense, because we were kids.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trouble is, as we grow up, we want to explain more things. We want things to make sense, even if they really don't. This is one of the reasons why you see so many email forwards, or Facebook posts for things that are just wrong (and can be disproved by a 30 second search on <a href="https://www.snopes.com/" target="_blank">Snopes</a>). This is also why we see so much fake news. We want explanations, but we can't always have them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Bible, especially the Old Testament, are full of stories that are hard to explain, or beyond our ability to explain. In those cases, sometimes we try to fit explanations to the stories, but most often we either relegate those stories to VBS or children's sermons, or we just skip over them entirely because we don't want to deal with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of those stories is about Joshua and the <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/JOS.6.ceb" target="_blank">Battle of Jericho</a>. It gets used mostly as a kids story today, but when you read through it, it gets dark very quickly. But because it has loud shouting, and walking in circles, and walls to be climbed, we tell it as a kids story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A story that we skip over most of the time comes from <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/NUM.16.ceb" target="_blank">Numbers 16</a>. The hardest part of the story comes vs. 31-35</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As soon as he finished speaking these words, the ground under them split open. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, including every human that belonged to Korah and all their possessions. They along with all their possessions descended alive to their graves, and the earth closed over them. They perished in the middle of the assembly. All the Israelites who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, "The earth may swallow us." Then fire went out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering incense.<b>--Numbers 16:31-35</b></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a conflict between Moses, Korah, and another family about who was going to lead Israel. To decide, whoever was left standing, i.e. didn't get swallowed up by the earth, would be the leader going forward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do we do with these stories? They aren't stories that give us warm and fuzzy feelings. People outside of our faith would look at them and ask why they would want to believe in a God that does these things?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do we do?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We work the process that we've been describing over the last few <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Stranger%20Things" target="_blank">posts</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We first try to put it in context, remembering that the Old Testament world was harder, harsher, more destructive, and more tragic than our world is today. Then we try to deal with the strange things that happen by not getting caught up with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, there are times, like in these stories when the strange is so big that we can't get around them. Most stories aren't about the strange, but there are times when the strange gets in our way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is when it becomes even more important to ask another important question.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is always a question we should ask, but in times like this it is the most important question. We have to remember that no matter how big we think the strange is, that God is always bigger.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What we have to do is take a step back. We have to remember that God is telling a bigger story. That these stories we find in scripture are a small part of what God is doing, and that we don't have to be able to explain them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rather, we default to our faith in God. We rely on God to hold us up and not us hold God up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We don't have to be able to explain it all. That's okay. Sometimes the answer is a mystery. What we remember is that God is working a bigger plan. The long arc of the story is of God's redemption of his people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a world that is full of strange stories, we have an answer that doesn't have to figure it all out. This is true if we're talking about strange stories, or if we're talking about strange people. We don't have to understand them, and we shouldn't make up a story to try.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead, we remember that God is working on them to, and we don't have to explain them. We have to accept that we don't know, but God does. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a message that we can bring to lots of folks who are dealing with the strange, but don't have another place to turn too. We can give them that place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go out, don't worry about the unexplained stories, but tell God's story instead, and do it in Jesus' name.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-57622220235177236552019-08-18T05:50:00.003-07:002019-08-18T16:37:33.994-07:00A Boy Named Sue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Names are a hard thing aren't they? Sometimes they can be the best part of ourselves, the thing that we are known by, but sometimes they can be the thing that gets in our way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For the most part, strange names have a purpose and tell a story. It's one of the things that I love about Johnny Cash's song, "A Boy Named Sue"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's a goofy, strange song, but the point of it is to tell a story. That's one of the things that Johnny Cash does so very well in his music. We can argue about the merits of why you would name your son Sue, but the story is good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So often, it's those stories that are really important. The names serve as a way of reminding us what those stories are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember, we've been in this series called "<a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Stranger%20Things" target="_blank">Stranger Things</a>." We've been telling strange stories from the Old Testament. These are stories that we need to deal with because they made the cut into our scripture. If we don't use them, then we have to ask ourselves what we're doing. In order to use them, we need to remember a few things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first is that we always take these stories in context. The Old Testament world is one that is harder, harsher, more destructive, and more tragic than what we're used to. We have to put them into that kind of context, otherwise they become almost impossible to understand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That leads to the second point, which is that we can't get caught up on the strange parts of the stories. Like we do today, we use strange things as a way of getting our attention, but they are very rarely the point of the story. This is true back then. It was true of Jonah and the Whale, and of the stories that we looked at in the <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/2019/08/those-who-should-know-better.html" target="_blank">last post</a> about Balaam and his donkey, and Elisha and the bears.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What we need to be looking for, is to answer a big question with these stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is what we're looking for as we tell these strange stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As an example, we can look to the book of <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/HOS.1.ceb" target="_blank">Hosea</a>. If you want to go a little deeper into it, you can find a great youtube video describing Hosea <a href="https://youtu.be/kE6SZ1ogOVU" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hosea was an Old Testament prophet in the northern Kingdom of Israel. He was a prophet under one of the worst kings that Israel had. Because of that, and many other reasons, they had turned away from God, were doing many awful things, and were looking for protection from Egypt and Assyria (places that weren't really going to care about them or protect them). All of this was leading them to disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God calls on Hosea to go to the people and call on them to return. To do that, and show a very real symbol of what God means, he tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer, and then to have children and name them: Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah (no compassion), Lo-Ammi (not my people).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hosea's family becomes the very real symbol of the broken relationship between God and his people. Hosea takes on God's role, Gomer takes on Israel's, and the children (names included) show what happens when it is broken.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is telling Israel this is what the consequences of your actions are. In our time, we would say of course this is what happens. That is what you deserve when you do wrong like that. But remember, that we're dealing with God. When we ask where God is, we have to remember that God is always leading to places that we don't expect, because God doesn't play according to our rules.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God works against our expectations to do something greater. Take a look at <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/HOS.2.ceb" target="_blank">Hosea 2</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On that day I will answer, says the LORD. I will answer the heavens and they will answer the earth. The earth will answer the corn, the new wine, and the fresh oil, and they will answer Jezreel; I will sow him for myself in the land; and I will have compassion on No Compassion, and I will say to Not My People, "You are my people"; and he will say, "You are my God."</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">--Hosea 2:21-23</span></b></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> God is telling the people that there is always hope. That what has happened isn't a permanent thing. It may be hard for a while, but what was seen as insurmountable before can be overcome. The broken relationship can be restored.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But God doesn't stop there either. When we look to <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/HOS.3.ceb" target="_blank">Hosea 3</a>, we can see that God is reaffirming the promise that was made a long time ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Similarly, the Israelites will remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred standing stone, without a priestly vest or household divine images. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; they will come trembling to the LORD and to the LORD’s goodness in the latter days.</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">--Hosea 3:4-5</span></b></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hosea is reminding us of the promise of the king who is greater than David. We know the fulfillment of that promise is Jesus Christ. We often tell stories, or hear stories told that remind us of hopelessness and despair, and we're worried that we will never get over it. But Hosea is telling us that we can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Back in our history when we said, “remember the Alamo” we remember the place where those who fought to defend it lost. When we hear those words that say, “A day that will live in infamy” we remember what was lost in Pearl Harbor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we talk more recently about the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City, or the Twin Towers, we remember what was taken from us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we say school names like Columbine or Sandy Hook, we remember the young lives that were erased on those days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we remember the names of those that we have lost, that were close to us, but that we didn’t part on the best of terms, we wonder if ever could have been made right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To each of these God says, I will have compassion on No Compassion, and I will say to Not My People, "You are my people";</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and he will say, "You are my God."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the message we can take out to a world that remembers the stories, but does not remember the hope. God calls out to us, does not leave us alone, and the King from the Line of David still reigns, even to this day, and our Savior Jesus Christ walks with us, and wherever he steps, he brings hope. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go and share a message of hope this week, and do it in Jesus name. Amen.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-29407293664160811462019-08-11T16:00:00.001-07:002019-08-11T16:00:11.012-07:00Those Who Should Know Better<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our scripture reading comes from <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/NUM.22.ceb" target="_blank">Numbers 22</a>, and is a strange one. Start by re-listening to the story after you read it. Click on the video to listen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That’s how the passage goes isn’t it? I can guess that that’s probably not what you were expecting was it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Without the Shrek reference, have you ever heard, or read the story of Balaam’s donkey? How you have ever tried to figure it out? Do you think this is a strange story? (it's okay if it is).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There’s a lot of stuff in the Old Testament that is beyond our understanding. Not because it’s hard, but because its just plain weird. How do we make sense of it? The challenge is for us to look beyond the weird to see where God is, where we are, and how even strange stories have lessons that shake us up and help us grow in faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our question that we’ll be working on throughout this series is, where is God?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Balaam was a guy who lived in the grey areas. Basically, he was a fortune teller, which was far more common back then. The comparison is that they are a lot like prophets, only this was before prophets were a thing. Balaam served as an analyst. He would help people figure things out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Balaam was also faithful to God, but he lived in the grey areas and still needed to make a living. These things weren’t always compatible, and this is where we see him start to get into trouble.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Balaam is called on to curse the Israelites by a rival kingdom. Remember, these are God’s chosen people. What he should have done when asked this was to say no. But, he needed to make some money, and because his job means he lives in the grey, more…squishy areas, he drags things out. So he ends up going to Moab, even though he shouldn’t.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because of that, because he is focused in a place that he shouldn’t be focused in, and probably knew it, it meant that he wasn’t paying attention to the places that he should have been….like to the messenger of God that is stopping in his path. He can’t see it, but his donkey does.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The donkey doesn’t want to go in that direction, so tries to go elsewhere, and Balaam treats him like people would a stubborn animal. We’ll leave the question alone about which one of them was the stubborn animal, and they go back and forth like this a few times, before God gets frustrated with Balaam. God does with stubborn people what God does, and he does the unexpected…like making the donkey talk. God shows up, and puts Balaam back in his place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hold on to that story. Because we aren’t done yet with animals, and people who should really know better yet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now take a look at <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/2KI.2.ceb" target="_blank">2 Kings 2:23-25</a>, this is the story of Elisha and the bear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Elisha went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some young people came out of the city. They mocked him: "Get going, Baldy! Get going, Baldy!" Turning around, Elisha looked at them and cursed them in the LORD’s name. Then two bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the youths. From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel and then back to Samaria.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">--2 Kings 2:23-25</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have you heard this one before? Its an awful story isn’t it? It's okay to say that about a story you read in the Bible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Elisha was Elijah’s successor. At this point, he was brand new into that role. He is on his way to Bethel from Jericho. So he is in an area where he would be recognized as a prophet of the Lord.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is where Elisha comes to the hardest part of the story. It’s the hardest because instead of “young people” the <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/1/2KI.2.23-25" target="_blank">King James</a> says little children, others will say boys. That makes what is already an awful story exponentially worse. Young people is probably a better translation, but its still a very recent way of translating that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, Elisha comes across a group of young people, meaning they are of age to know what they are doing, who all start calling him names, like literally “baldy.” They’re laughing and carrying on, and Elisha replies with, not quite so literally, “get off my lawn!” Basically, he curses them, but it’s the equivalent of raising his fist in the air and yelling at a group of unruly teenagers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And "then” a bear comes out and mauls 42 of the young people. We’re not given any indication that Elisha’s curse has anything to do with this, in fact, the way that the story goes, it is going out of it’s way to show that one doesn’t cause the other. This is a sequence of events, not necessarily cause and effect. "Then," is a very important word here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, what’s going on? In all of their name calling and revelry, they’re missing something. Taken in context, which will come in a moment, this is a familiar way of telling stories.</span><br />
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Only watch a couple minutes. You'll get the idea.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hold on to that as we answer a big question or two. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first thing to do when we look at these stories, any of the strange stories that we’re going to look at in this series, and even just reading through the Bible and the Old Testament in particular, is that we have to remember context.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Context is very important. The Old Testament was a very different world than ours. And the things that happen don’t make a lot of sense to us. Just as folks from that time would look at us today and they wouldn’t understand a lot about what we do. In our eyes, the Old Testament world is a much harsher place, so all the examples and stories that we read are going to be levels harder, harsher, more destructive, and more tragic than anything we’re used to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The second thing is to not get caught up in the strange. I think this is the thing we do far too much. It’s okay to talk about them, and look at them, and discuss them, but don’t get caught up in them. Much like the story about Jonah and the whale, the whale isn’t the main point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we get caught up in the strange, then we run the risk of doing what Balaam did, or the young people did. We should know better, and then we miss the important things. Because what we’re doing is…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The third thing, which is to look for God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Both of these are stories about people who should have known better, but still did the wrong thing. Meaning they sinned. Balaam should have known better than to string the others on and go someplace he shouldn’t have. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The young people should have known better than to make fun of a prophet. And if they hadn’t been focused on that, and if Elisha hadn’t been responding to them, he might have seen the bear and warned them, or they might have seen the bear and been able to run.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Those things are wrong and they become sin because they miss something important.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For us, how do we respond when we find ourselves in the middle of a strange story? The challenge is not to get caught up in the strange, but to look for God in the midst of it. God will be working to get our attention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because lets face it, we live in a strange world: one that is harder, harsher, more destructive, and more tragic than it should be. Not all of it is, but too much of it is and we have to know how to respond.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we see something happen, we should listen and respond. Just offering our thoughts and prayers isn’t enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When mass shooters hit, we should listen for the voices that call us to change, and change that doesn’t ultimately mean more of the same. Otherwise we aren't listening for God's voice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When bullies strike, we should listen to the victims so that we can understand what has happened and can work to prevent it from happening in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When leaders say things that aren’t what Jesus would say, we should stand up and call it out, because otherwise we become like the young people who were a part of the group, even if they didn't call Elisha anything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When others are causing pain, we should be there for those who have been hurt, even if we don’t understand why they have been hurt. Part of our being there is to work on understanding.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is in those moments when God is trying to get our attention. God isn’t using donkey’s and bears to get our attention, but the voices of victims, and leaders, and experts, and witnesses, and others that are a part of the communities that have been affected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is calling out to us. How do we respond?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because there is one thing that is clear. All through scripture, through all the strange things that happen, God is always calling to his people, especially to the ones who have faith to change the world. We are called to make it better, to do something that shares that love that God has for us with others.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we listen, God also gives us the tools to make those change. God from here and ask yourself, where is God in the midst of the strange things we see. When you think you hear God’s voice, to know if it is God's or not, ask yourself who you are in the story. Are you Balaam or the donkey? If you’re balaam, it’s time to stop and listen again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But know that God will not give up! He will always be reaching out, and we can be ready to hear and respond and change the world. Go out, see where God is, and then help change the world, and do it in Jesus’ name. Amen</span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-62671813396781750022019-08-04T06:06:00.002-07:002019-08-04T06:06:49.634-07:00Jonah 2.0<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back when I was learning how to type, I was in one of the first classes that learned using a computer and not a typewriter. Back then, we were using Windows 3.1. Do you remember what that was like? There was no taskbar, not start button, just a screen with a bunch of icons on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In order to make it work, you had to use your “mouse” to “doubleclick” on the “icon” to open a “window” or start a “program.” All of that was very new and very different, because for any of us that had a computer before, or used a computer before, we weren’t used to those things. Our computer we had at home didn’t really need mouse. Everything was text based, and sometimes if you used a mouse, then you would mess things up!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a side-note, that was also when I figured out I needed glasses. Trying to type when you can’t read any of the words that are on the page is really kind of hard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is crazy now, when I look back on that, is that we were using Windows 3.1 It wasn’t the first version of windows, but it was the first one that most people had experience with. Since then, there’s been a lot of different versions: 3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10…..they just skipped over 9. That’s a lot of different versions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, through all of that, there is something that hasn’t changed. We still point and click to make things happen. Everything else that has, or hasn’t changed over the years, that basic piece is still there. The thing that makes it easy to use is still the same. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In fact, it works so well that every other major operating system and phone operating system does the same thing. You point, and you click (or touch).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The key to a successful upgrade, adaptation, or new version is to maintain a core idea or identity, but change the other pieces to make that thing even better. It doesn’t always work, just ask computer nerds about their opinions on some of the different versions of Windows that have come out over the years. But what lets you keep going is maintaining that core. That piece hasn’t changed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, hold onto that thought for a minute.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’ve been in the book of Jonah for the past <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Oh%20Jonah" target="_blank">few posts</a>. One of the things that I want us to take from this book is what God is doing through Jonah’s story. God is preparing us. God is helping Jonah, but he is also signaling what is coming. Remember what I always say. God doesn’t do surprises. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surprises are great for birthday parties, or special things, and occasionally plot twists, but not for us and how we live. We generally don’t like surprises. We need time to prepare, and this is what God has been doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We saw in the <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-good-samaritan.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, with the story of the Good Samaritan why this is important that God is preparing things. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah was very reluctant to do the right thing, but the Samaritan man just did it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah was angry with God because he didn’t want to help someone he didn’t like. The Samaritan man, even though there was a long history of Samaritans and Jews not getting along, stopped to help the man who had been beaten, even when other Jews had passed him by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God didn’t care that Jonah didn’t like the Ninevites. The Core identity of who God is, is that he loves his creation, and all of his people. That means all of his people, regardless of our views on who we like or think are acceptable. And God wants them to be redeemed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can say that Jonah is the first version of this story. He’s the start, and the Ninevites are the first groups that Jonah is put into action with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One part of Jonah’s story that we haven’t really talked much about yet is the redemption of the Ninevites. Jonah goes and does the big thing that God called him to. And Jonah doesn’t pull any punches in that. He does it right. He calls out to the Ninevites to repent, or they will be destroyed. We don’t know much more than that about what Jonah said, but it works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The king of Nineveh then calls on everyone, literally everyone, human, animal, and bird to fast from food and water. He tells them to put on their funeral clothes and to pray to God to avoid what will happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They get redeemed. For them, this was redemption 1.0, the first version. Theirs would need to be repeated. That redemption was more about the moment, and wasn’t long-term. It was based primarily in fear, but it was a start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For us, it’s a reminder that God is working on the longer plan, and he is getting us ready.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout the Gospels, we hear about he sign of Jonah. The sign is that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days, then he came out and preached a message that redeemed the city of Nineveh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Someone greater is here, Jesus. Jesus is Jonah 2.0 The core idea is the same, God wants his creation redeemed. He wants you redeemed, he wants the people around us redeemed. God had been preparing this for a long time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah was never meant to be the final version. He was a step along the way to get us ready, so that we’d be more prepared for when Jesus came.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God couldn’t send us the final release because we wouldn’t have understood, but now we’re ready. This isn’t just about in the moment redemption, but about long-term, forever redemption. It’s about the hope for entire sanctification and that we can be total freed from the power of sin. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead of sending a fiery prophet that is going to tell us to turn or burn, literally, God sends his Son who shows us how this works, and gives us what we need to be redeemed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus starts where Jonah left off, with the need for repentance. Jonah had to let go of his anger so that he could find peace, and so that he could move beyond his anger and hate for others that was causing him to sin more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus starts there. Jesus ministry is in telling us and showing us the need to repent, and then telling us and showing us that we have been forgiven.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus' redemption isn't in the moment, but lasts forever. Jesus' redemption isn't based in fear, but is full of grace. Jesus' redemption is what God intended, but we weren't ready for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go out and receive Jesus' redemption, and then live a life that is full of the freedom that comes with it. Then go and share that with someone else. And do it all, in Jesus' name.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-84294665802040814632019-07-28T06:09:00.000-07:002019-07-31T09:49:15.464-07:00The Good Samaritan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_h8CR3CyO5zxC6uG-_PRt6Uq1jOEdkWBdVRfeILZHDH75m_rxvqtZjIf4KthZc9BMJrcqlYj_XUPeIa8HasOvXsfLBt1fpesXWh0IwdHBVyDUa2hMmA3dHp3Wo51N6P6we_c_uWTNqs/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_h8CR3CyO5zxC6uG-_PRt6Uq1jOEdkWBdVRfeILZHDH75m_rxvqtZjIf4KthZc9BMJrcqlYj_XUPeIa8HasOvXsfLBt1fpesXWh0IwdHBVyDUa2hMmA3dHp3Wo51N6P6we_c_uWTNqs/s400/Slide1.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want to start this post off with a question. What is one of the biggest lies that we’re told today? I know that’s a fairly wide category, but what do you think?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the ways that I’d answer that is that we have to “like” someone before we’re willing to help or trust them. This is something that underlies a lot of our society today, but we don’t think about it much (at least in these terms).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mostly, that's because we know how nearly impossible it is to live up to that kind of expectation. We can't get to know that mean people so that we can like them. What it means is that we’ve figured out shortcuts so that we can “like” people faster. And the primary shortcut we use tells us a lot about what we’re looking for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Before I go much further, I should also say that this is nothing new. We’ve been doing this for a long time. That doesn’t make it right, but it does mean that we have a lot of experience with this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The shortcut is that we divide people into groups. Take for example, a long lasting division that only in recent years has started to go away. That’s Protestants and Catholics. Now that we’re talking about the church, I should also say that recent can even mean in the last 100 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some of you remember, and I’ve read in history books, that when John Kennedy was running for president that there was a worry that that meant the Pope was going to run the country. Europe has literally fought wars between these two groups of people. Their struggle for dominance shaped much of the last 500 years since the start of the reformation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What we look for in these shortcuts to liking someone, are people that share similar beliefs, values, and other attributes. And if someone says they are a part of this group, then it becomes a lot easier to like them, and if we like them, then we’re more likely to help them if needed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Or worse, is if someone is a part of a group that we aspire to be a part of. We’ll give them a pass on a lot of things because we want to be in that group. That’s one of the reasons why back in the day there weren’t more revolts against the nobility in Europe. Its why today we see kids that want to grow up and be pro-athletes, or other people try to make it big in Hollywood, or the rise of “influencers” or how we had the growth of McMansions, people buying and living in homes they couldn’t afford, but they were trying to be something else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s easier to like folks that are like us, or who are part of a group that we want to be a part of. It’s much harder if they are different. That’s where we struggle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All of that is important for this post as we start in on the story of the Good Samaritan. I know, the image above shows that we’re in Jonah, and we are. Jonah and the Good Samaritan are used as comparisons with each other because of what takes place. In many ways the Good Samaritan is an epilogue to Jonah's story. It's what happens years down the road as we learn the lessons Jonah struggles with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember where we are with Jonah. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEuWblwEzspWtgwsXTjy13q9bWVKA7411Hoijqn1AFjkaZuFuncUFPVM5PQcCjfxRrPC8OweS4hyphenhyphenQJRpYoW0qIosPY05D9MsHAfGiQ8PoLbFMzKrRPyYMdatmoIIV6PPBptKHOsT8k-Y0/s1600/Slide4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEuWblwEzspWtgwsXTjy13q9bWVKA7411Hoijqn1AFjkaZuFuncUFPVM5PQcCjfxRrPC8OweS4hyphenhyphenQJRpYoW0qIosPY05D9MsHAfGiQ8PoLbFMzKrRPyYMdatmoIIV6PPBptKHOsT8k-Y0/s400/Slide4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He’s an average guy, who had mixed success in his common job as prophet before he’s called on by God to go and do a big thing in a place he doesn’t want to go. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He tries to run away, but spends some time in time-out to think about what’s he’s done….in the belly of a big fish. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then he goes and does the big thing God wants him to do, and succeeds! But then he has to deal with his success, and he’s angry because God is forgiving a whole group of people for what they’ve done. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That’s a whole group of people who aren’t like him, in a time when you really didn’t associate with people who aren’t like you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, what do we do with that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is where the story of the Good Samaritan comes in, and why its an important one when we’re looking at Jonah. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A presumably Jewish man leaves Jerusalem to go to Jericho. Gets robbed, beaten up, and left for dead on the side of the road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He gets passed, by a priest and a Levite, who literally go out of their way to get passed this man…crossing to the other side of the road. A third man, who is a Samaritan, is the one who stops, takes care of his wounds, takes him to a local inn, tells the innkeeper he’ll be back to take care of any additional charges the man racks up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus then asks the question, and the rest of the passage follows:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then the legal expert said, "The one who demonstrated mercy toward him."</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">--Luke 10:30-37</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What was necessary for this story to have a happy ending? Meaning that the man didn’t die?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mercy, compassion, access to resources</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What wasn’t necessary?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Liking the other guy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jews and Samaritans were like the Hatfields and the McCoys, or maybe the Chiefs and Raiders, or Catholics and Protestants (used to be), or Democrats and Republicans, or black and white. They didn’t like each other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No where in this does Jesus say that you have to like the other person. But Jesus still says to go and do likewise. The hardest part for anyone to overcome here isn’t actually doing the work, but its overcoming the dislike of the other person. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The priest and Levite couldn’t do it….although they may have given "thoughts and prayers" for the man as they passed him…on the other side of the road, while also being thankful they weren’t in his position.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Samaritan man overcame his dislike to offer mercy and compassion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the same thing we see Jonah dealing with all throughout his story. First in chapter 1 when Jonah gets on the boat and the storm comes up that threatens to sink the ship</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile, the sailors said to each other, "Come on, let’s cast lots so that we might learn who is to blame for this evil that’s happening to us." They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. So they said to him, "Tell us, since you’re the cause of this evil happening to us: What do you do and where are you from? What’s your country and of what people are you?"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He said to them, "I’m a Hebrew. I worship the LORD, the God of heaven—who made the sea and the dry land."</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then the men were terrified and said to him, "What have you done?"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">--Jonah 1:7-10a</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jonah is the stranger on this boat, but notice that the sailors don’t immediately say its his fault. They say lets cast lots to see who is responsible. When it lands on Jonah, and they question him, he starts off by separating himself from them. Demonstrating that he isn’t like them. For whatever good it is doing him in this moment, he’s still holding himself apart from them and also giving them a reason not to like him in return, because he isn’t like them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then we get to verse 12</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea! Then the sea will become calm around you. I know it’s my fault that this great storm has come upon you."</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">--Jonah 1:12</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jonah is getting over this, and knows who’s fault this is, and tells them what to do, but its still a couple of moments before they actually do it, and in doing it they are still giving a prayer for Jonah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Liking the other person wasn’t necessary here. Mercy and compassion save the day. First what is shown to Jonah, and then what he shows to the others on the boat. This is why I have hope that if there were a fifth chapter in Jonah that we would see him overcome his struggles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember what I said about Jonah overcoming his anger, and in this case his dislike, being a part of a <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/2019/07/jonahs-mystery.html" target="_blank">long plan</a> that God is working on?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We shouldn’t be surprised in the Gospels about the stories that Jesus tells like the Good Samaritan. God doesn’t care about who we like or dislike, and Jonah’s story shows us that. God has been preparing us for this for a long time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God shows us what the consequences of not showing mercy and compassion are through Jonah. God shows us what can happen to someone else when mercy and compassion is shown through the Good Samaritan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why then, as a society, do we persist in holding on to the “big lie” that we have to like someone else first?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why do we persist in not showing mercy to others, regardless of the color of their skin, where they come from, the faith that they have, the gender they happen to be or not be, who they fall in love with, how much money they have, where they live, how much education they finished, and the list can go on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why do we continue to do that? If we aren’t careful, then we become like the priest and the Levite crossing over to the other side of the road, or eventually we become like Jonah and need some time in time-out, or worse still, we become like the man who was beaten and left on the side of the road, and when someone shows up who we don’t like to help, do we turn them away?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We see Jonah struggle with this. It’s one of the things that is causing his anger at the end of the book. We don’t know how his story ends, but we do know what Jesus says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus said, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Regardless of if you like the other person, that’s irrelevant. God calls us to show it anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go out and do likewise. Is it going to be easy, no. Will you get duped on occasion, yes. Will you work with people who aren’t like us, yes. Will it be easy, no. But, imagine a world where we can do this, where together we let go of the divides that keep us from showing mercy and compassion, and imagine how this world can live up to God’s creation of it, and how it can be changed for the better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Go and do likewise, and do it in Jesus name. Amen.</span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-8229829940823032442019-07-21T06:08:00.003-07:002019-07-21T06:08:41.278-07:00Jonah's Mystery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_h8CR3CyO5zxC6uG-_PRt6Uq1jOEdkWBdVRfeILZHDH75m_rxvqtZjIf4KthZc9BMJrcqlYj_XUPeIa8HasOvXsfLBt1fpesXWh0IwdHBVyDUa2hMmA3dHp3Wo51N6P6we_c_uWTNqs/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_h8CR3CyO5zxC6uG-_PRt6Uq1jOEdkWBdVRfeILZHDH75m_rxvqtZjIf4KthZc9BMJrcqlYj_XUPeIa8HasOvXsfLBt1fpesXWh0IwdHBVyDUa2hMmA3dHp3Wo51N6P6we_c_uWTNqs/s400/Slide1.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever been derailed from a good head of steam? You know, those times when you are laying into someone because they’ve done something wrong, or your kids have done the thing that you told them not to, or someone at work has now caused you to fix a mistake that you shouldn’t have to be fixing? Ever had one of those experiences?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you remember what its like to get derailed in the middle of that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember a story about an old Irish priest. He was in the pulpit one Sunday morning, and he was building up a good head of steam. He was leading up to hellfire and damnation, and preaching on the evils of the world and the sins of the people in his church!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And he looked out into his congregation, giving them that long hard stare. And as he was giving them that impenetrable gaze, he saw an older man sitting in the second pew from the front, who hadn’t put his dentures in that day, but was hanging onto his every word! So the old priest thought he really give it to him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Priest is rolling through all the evils, and he's building to the climax of the sermon and says in that loud Irish accent, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">AND THERE WILL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH!</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And before he can get his next words out, the old man’s hand goes up into the air like he wants to ask a question. So he looks at him</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he stares at him</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and finally says, “well go ahead man, what’s your question?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the old man says, “what if you don’t have teeth?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever been derailed before?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is where we are picking Jonah’s story up in this post. He’s got this great head of steam going, and he is working himself into five different kinds of a tizzy, but God derails him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And for good reason.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Oh%20Jonah" target="_blank">where we are</a> right now. Jonah was an average man, doing an average job. We think of being a prophet as an important profession that not many people did. But the reality was that it was fairly common. We only tell the stories about the important ones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah had done his one big thing that had gotten him known, but he didn’t want all of the spotlight. He probably thought that he was done. But then God calls out to him and sends him to Nineveh to go preach hellfire and damnation, and maybe also some repentance. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Map isn't to scale. It's used to show how far Jonah was wanting to go</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That is the last place that Jonah wants to go, so he literally tries to run to the other side of the known world from where he was supposed to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God knows what Jonah is doing, so he sends a big fish to go give Jonah some time to clear his head…..from the belly of the big fish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God’s purpose in this isn’t punishment, but clarity. He is working to set Jonah on the right path for him to go forward. Jonah needed this because, the path he was on would lead him to: bitterness, anger, apathy, and the list can go on. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For Jonah, his best days were behind him. All he had left was anger, pity for himself, or just nothing. None of that was healthy for him. He no longer had a purpose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God sees this, and this is important, God sees this and is working on the long plan to help Jonah overcome this, and not just Jonah, but all of his people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout the Old Testament God is laying the groundwork for this kind of compassion and mercy. It's hard enough for us to accept in the New Testament, but would have been harder if God hadn't been doing this work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’ve all known people like this haven’t we? People who are angry all the time, who never see anything good in the world, who hide from everyone because they don’t want to leave the house and the place that they know? We’ve known them. And maybe, we’ve even been them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is what God is confronting Jonah with. The mystery in the Book of Jonah is all about what is causing Jonah’s anger and his misplaced righteousness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take a look at vs 4 (Jonah 4:4) from our <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/JON.4.ceb" target="_blank">reading</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you ever want to derail me from when I’m angry and working up a good head of steam, this is the question that is most likely to get me there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is your anger a good thing? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It might not be, but in the moment it sure feels good doesn’t it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What role is Jonah’s anger taking here? It’s sin. Plan and simple it’s sin. Here’s the crazy part though. It didn’t start out that way. It started out as the Ninevite's sin. They were just as awful, evil, and scary as Jonah thought they were. But, he eventually went and did just what God called on him to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He went and preached repentance to the Ninevites, and they did! It worked! They repented, they were changing their ways! Whether due to belief in God or fear of God, that doesn't matter. Jonah had succeeded in his mission.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Jonah wasn’t through. Jonah wanted retribution. Jonah wanted revenge for all that they had done. He didn’t want to accept that they’d been forgiven, that they’d changed, and that God was going to retract his punishment of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah couldn’t handle it. How badly did Jonah want them “to pay” for what they’d done?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is how badly he wanted it. To the point of death. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah couldn’t conceive of a world where they could be forgiven, where God would have that much compassion and grace. It was beyond him to be able to do it. And God was calling him out on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does that sound familiar? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you know someone who would hold onto that kind of anger? Do you have your moments when you are holding on to that kind of anger?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever watched someone, who was still alive, but who had given up their life in pursuit of “justice?” Whatever that means for them, or for revenge, or even sometimes just out of petty spite against someone else?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you watched them hold a grudge long beyond what might have been healthy? Have you seen family members not talk for so long that they don’t even remember what they’re fighting over?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is Jonah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How many of us would argue that this is healthy for anyone? It’s not is it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is where, no matter what brought it on, the sin becomes the person who can’t let go. Because in that moment they are doing more harm to themselves, we are doing more harm to ourselves, than is being done to us by someone else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While they might be, while Jonah at this point in the story, is still alive, the potential for their life has been taken away. They have lost their life at that point, they’ve just not stopped breathing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God loves Jonah to much, loves us to much, to watch us do that to ourselves. So he calls Jonah out on it. But he is doing more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God is setting things up for us. He is getting not just Jonah, but the Israelites in the Old Testament, and us in the New Testament ready to accept what he is going to give.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There’s two groups at work here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God forgives the first and they change. Which is incredibly hard. And God encourages the second group to forgive so that they don’t become the first. And that is a real possibility. At some point the sin we don't let go of becomes original sin that reaches out to others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God is telling Jonah, and reminding Jonah, that he is God. He has the power to do this. That given the opportunity, God will redeem his creation. If we truly believe that God created us all, and that he looked out on all of his creation, us included, and said that it is good; and if we truly believe that God loves us, then we have to accept that God can redeem us, and not just us, but all people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God perfected this when he sent Jesus into the world, to show us that he can do this. To show us in a way that maybe Jonah would have understood better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The change that takes place is from the merciless hope for revenge that we see in Jonah to the one who is filled with mercy in Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do this for me this week. I want us to go out and derail people. Not because we can yell louder, or because we can be more forceful in our actions. But I want us to go out and derail people through the mercy we can show, through the unexpected ways that offering and receiving grace turn someone’s world upside down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go out this week and take the power out of the vitriol in the world, not by trying to top it, but by living, and breathing, and sharing, and telling about the love we find in Jesus Christ, that is given to us through God in heaven, and through whom we can find hope for a life that would otherwise cease to have meaning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go and do this in Jesus’ name. Amen</span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-91047588241121027252019-07-14T11:03:00.004-07:002019-07-14T11:03:59.100-07:00Running Away<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3d2nLkwG8Q7Ao-pUMf2BxhZqzAojdcpwbxL3EPfd_T0AW3Qmd8gyYvlVjIocZZHBZgQhyjNmEJUzdBzoMqVA_Z5B9W3GVjvpu4Q22ZGu5AnqkEBHx4dsHmKwPFjN59iyNC7eHV5MojYM/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3d2nLkwG8Q7Ao-pUMf2BxhZqzAojdcpwbxL3EPfd_T0AW3Qmd8gyYvlVjIocZZHBZgQhyjNmEJUzdBzoMqVA_Z5B9W3GVjvpu4Q22ZGu5AnqkEBHx4dsHmKwPFjN59iyNC7eHV5MojYM/s400/Slide1.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh Jonah</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is what I think of when I start to look at Jonah’s story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh Jonah. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I look at him and what he does, and because I’m reading the story and know the things that are going on around him, I want to cringe on his behalf. Because he doesn’t seem to get it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you done that? Have you cringed for someone?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That happens when you’re watching someone, and you know that they aren’t making the best decisions because you know they don’t know what they need to know, or (even worse) you know that their own beliefs and biases are keeping them from doing what in their own best interest?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever cringed for that? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are sometimes when it’s almost painful, and its even worse when you’re watching it from a distance. In those times all you can do is watch, and pray that something breaks their way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I say Oh Jonah, that’s what I’m doing. Because Jonah is this intensely, <i>intensely</i>, average guy. In fact, in the Old Testament, the only other mention we have of him is in 2 Kings 14</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We think Jonah is a bigger deal than he is, because he has book named after him, and here he is named as a prophet of the Lord!! That means he has to be special...doesn't it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And he is, but he is also very average. He’s a lot like you and me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Being a prophet then was what we would call an analyst today. Both jobs serve the same purpose. It’s not about “predicting the future” or being a “fortune teller” which is what we think of a prophet a lot of time. This is to our detriment that we think this, but they interpret the world around us with the intent to teach us a lesson, to teach us something we need to know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prophets in that time were easy to come by. The ones that we have in scripture, that we say are important, are the ones who were listening for God's voice. There were a lot more prophets than there were prophets listening to God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, from what we learn of Jonah in 2 Kings, we see that he was taking on one of the roles in his job as prophet that a lot of folks did in his time. That was as an adviser to the king. In the circles he operated in, that was a very average job.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But there was more to it than that. Because Jonah was an adviser to King Jeroboam II who 2 Kings says this about Jeroboam:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We don’t know everything that was going on at the time, but what we do know is that God didn’t want the people in the northern kingdom of Israel to suffer, so he used Jonah to help Jeroboam so that the people would be okay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of that is setup for Jonah. Jonah is an average man who’s life at this stage is a mixture of good an bad. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does that sound familiar? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His is the life that most of us have the possibility of leading. We're people that have a mix of good and bad. Then Jonah struggles with what to do. He has success, but how does he follow that up? This should also feel familiar.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does he do when he is working for a King that God supported only to help the people?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How does he deal with things when they all of a sudden don’t go according to his plan or how he thinks they should go?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’ve heard about the story of Jonah, but the only one we tell about him is getting swallowed by a big fish for three days. In reality, Jonah is us. We don’t ever really find out how his story ends, but that’s okay, because its up to us to write the ending of his story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And as we’ll see later in the series, that ending becomes an important part of our faith formation throughout the Gospels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Book of Jonah opens up with a command from God to Jonah telling him to go the Nineveh and preach hellfire and damnation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before we go any farther, a question.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How far would you go?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How far would you go to get away from a problem? How about a small problem? As they get bigger, how far would you go?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s say Jonah is in the middle of the map. God tells him to go to Nineveh. These aren't exact locations, but the map us used as a reference for us (in distances we can understand) about how far Jonah was going to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah says no to God, and goes to Tarshish instead. In Jonah's world, he was going as far from Nineveh as he could get. He was putting an entire world's worth of distance between him and where God wanted him to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He wasn’t going to stick around for this. He didn’t want to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to preach hellfire and damnation. He’d had his one big moment in the spotlight, his fifteen minutes of fame. He didn’t want to go any farther.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He knew, I think on some level, that he was only an average man, and this was a more than average mission God was sending him on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He wants to be the Run Away Prophet more than he wants to go to Nineveh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And he’s not without merit in this. From our Christian tradition, we have a strong belief in evangelism, even if we aren’t always great at it. We know that is a part of what we are supposed to do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the Israelites didn’t have that. They were as much nation as religion, and you didn’t just go and invite people to immigrate into your religion like that, because they aren’t going to be the same nation as you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Especially Nineveh, which was the capital of the Assyrian empire. They were mean, nasty, awful, evil people, and God was calling on Jonah to go be an evangelist to a gentile people, who aren't like him and his nation. Worse yet, he wasn’t even really going to be converting them, just telling them that God is going to destroy them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a reason why Jonah runs to the opposite side of the known world. He’s afraid, deathly afraid of what will happen to him, this average guy who is now in a situation far bigger than him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then things seem to get worse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah then gets swallowed by a big fish, but the truth is, that sometimes we need a big fish. It’s why we tell Jonah’s story. Because we all need time to get our heads together, to find space to figure things out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why does God send a big fish after a guy who was running away from him? It’s not punishment, or because God is angry with him. It’s because Jonah needed time. He needed time to clear his head and figure out what to do so he could take his next step.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah doesn’t get the “happily ever after” sort of ending either. What he gets is the next step. Jonah ends after chapter 4 on something of a cliff hanger. It's like season one ended, but season two never got picked up. What he gets is the chance to go one more step farther than we was before. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He’s still struggling with what God is doing, but he’s farther on his own journey now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And what we see later is a more complete picture of the Kingdom of God. It’s why this story is told in the Gospels. Through Jesus Christ, God’s kingdom is revealed to us in a way that it wasn’t before. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It isn’t done through a grand vision that shows us a better world, but it’s done through repentance and baptism. The things we need that keep us from taking the next step.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is what we’ll see next week. Because Jonah was still struggling, even after he won, because he hadn’t really dealt with his own problems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Kingdom of God is revealed to us, not with a great general at the head of an invincible army, but through a humble teacher, that through his life, death, and resurrection, we learn is the Son of God who gives us the ability to do what Jonah couldn’t do at the start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is our hope as people of faith. God won’t send us a whale so that we can clear our heads. God has already sent us his Son. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Will you trust and let him lead? Our response won’t only change our lives, but it will change the lives of all those around us. Go out this week, skip the big fish, and know that even for average people, God is calling to us. Amen. </span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-887575807973469352019-07-08T05:56:00.002-07:002019-07-08T05:56:59.161-07:00My Ebenezer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a message that I've wanted to preach for a long time, but I didn't have all of the pieces of it that I thought I needed, until now. And all of this starts with one word that I first heard in a hymn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’re told in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/1SA.7.ceb" target="_blank">1 Samuel 7</a> that it means stone of help. It was set up as a monument, or a memorial for what God has done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week Emily and I spent a lot of time looking at monuments and memorials. We were on vacation in Washington DC, and there are a lot of them to look at there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s one of the reasons that I love DC. There is so much there, and so many things to see, and so many things to learn. There are the traditional places to go like: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And there’s the museums to go to. This trip we only made it to two of them: Air and Space, and Natural History.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And there’s always a couple of non-monument things that are going on that also tell a story. Like where we were staying down on the wharf. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which is an area that has a long history and is now being revitalized for a new generation. And of course, a new story that is beginning for friends of ours</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all of that, there are a couple of memorials that stick with me. These are two of the newer ones in DC, and their stories are powerful. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One is the World War II memorial that is situated between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. And is a powerful statement of sacrifice and coming together as a community in the face of the extreme challenges that were being faced. Remember this idea of being between two places.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The other is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of all the monuments that I’ve been to in DC, it is the one that most clearly takes us back to that line in Scripture out of 1 Samuel. Dr. King is carved out of the stone, and on the side of the stone is inscribed:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/1SA.7.7-12" target="_blank">scripture reading</a>, Samuel is just starting as Judge over Israel. And he is going to occupy that place where the time of the Judges is coming to and end, but the time of the Kings hasn’t yet started. Samuel is between two important periods in Israel's history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Samuel places an Ebenezer as a monument to the help that they have received from God, he is a living Ebenezer. Remember Samuel’s story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was born as a gift from God to his mother and father who were childless together. At his birth, he was dedicated to the temple. He grew up in the temple learning to be a priest of the Lord, and when his time came, he takes over as Priest and Judge for Israel at a time when things were uncertain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He is the one who is a reminder of what God has done in the past, but is also now hope for what is still to come. This is what the Ebenezer does. Its not just about remembering the past help that God has given, but it is also hope for the future that God is still a part of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In many ways we are living in the same kind of time. For us, Dr. King occupies a similar place. His memorial is a monument to the past and what had happened, but this line that is inscribed on the side of the stone, comes from his "<a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/i-have-dream-address-delivered-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom" target="_blank">I have a Dream</a>" speech, where he lays out his hope for the future, for the future that God is leading us to that is not bound by the rules of man, but is brought together as a community of faith.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is our place as a church. Are we ready to take it? Are we ready to stand in the middle as a monument to what has come before us, and as a stone of hope for the future that God is leading us to?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can see all around us monuments and memorials for things and people that have come and gone and are scarcely remembered anymore. Are we going to join them? Are we going to go by the wayside and only be remembered by tourists as something that once was? Or are we going to sing:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is not the easy place to be. Samuel struggled until the day of his death to do God’s work in bringing hope to Israel. Martin Luther King Jr was killed for his beliefs as he was doing God’s work. What makes us think that we can be any different? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can be different, because we can know the same thing that those men did, and so many others who have come before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That our work is never done here. The work of the stone of hope is always ongoing and does not rely on us, because our God is not limited to us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The greatest stone of hope, our rock and redeemer, comes in Jesus Christ our Lord! God come down to earth, to take on a human body so that we could find that hope that we never had before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He is the one that stands in the between place taking us from where we were, to a new place he is leading. A place where we are not bound by the rules of man, but brought together as a community of faith that is open for all people!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a monument, Jesus calls on us to remember. To remember that we don’t get it right on our own, to confess our sins, wrongdoings, and mistakes. But that is only the first part of the journey. Because in the words of assurance, Jesus takes us in a new direction that transforms us from monument and memorial, to Ebenezer and Sacrament.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I first preached this sermon it was on a communion Sunday. The first part of our communion practice is always a confession and pardon, or confession and words of assurance. Its those words of assurance that are key.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the words of assurance Jesus starts taking us to a new place. One that we can’t go to on our own, but that is full of hope, and for that we give thanks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What takes us from only a monument to a sacrament is what Jesus does with his disciples. Where he shows them that there is a mystery that they cannot understand, but where he brings them together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus gathered them in the upper room, the place where he was going to start setting his Ebenezer for them, and for us. He takes bread and wine, gives thanks to God, and then gives them to his disciples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through that he shows us a pattern to follow where we lift what we have up to God, and we give thanks, and then it is shared with all those around us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Ebenezer is set into place through Jesus crucifixion and his resurrection. It is in that moment when we see Jesus do what no other has done before him or since. That stone of hope that is the Lord’s help, doesn’t end in that moment, but continues on for all eternity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a church, as a people of faith, we are always in the "in between" place. That is our role. We are the ones who help to remember the help that God has shown us in the past, but we are also the ones who can preach the hope we have for the future through our faith in God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After you read this, go be an Ebenezer, and help others see what is possible.</span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-4179726611888599412019-06-23T09:34:00.000-07:002019-06-23T09:34:00.348-07:00The Almost Christian<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Almost Christian. This is one of John Wesley’s sermons, and I like to go back to his sermons every once in a while because there is such a fount of incredible wisdom found there. But they come with their challenges. Take for instance, how he starts this out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The biggest challenge in reading his sermons is that they were written in a language that was familiar to the people at the time, but isn’t to us. So, if he were writing today, here’s what that first statement might look like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From there he says we need to know two things:</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does almost mean?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does being a Christian mean?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almost, as my dad would say, repeatedly when I was growing up, only cuts it in love, horsehoes, jazz, hand grenades, and nuclear war. The rest of the time it doesn’t get us anywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I love about this sermon, is that it still applies today, because for Wesley, almost means being very critical of Christian Culture that doesn’t actually make it to Christian faith, and is therefore not much different than what he calls, “heathen honesty.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That term, when I read it, both struck me as incredibly important, but it also convicted me that I’m not going to come out of this unscathed. I’m going to be in trouble as I read through this sermon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Heathen honesty means just what you think it does. Its what regular non Christian people do as a part of our everyday world, and it is the first piece of the Almost Christian puzzle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For Wesley, this isn’t the end goal of anything, but it’s the lowest level of who we hope to be, not even who we are yet. For him, there is nothing special about this. Even though some would argue that this is all that is needed. This is why I started to feel uncomfortable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Christian Shell is the next piece. It is also full of good things, but is not enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then after this, Wesley has this great line, that I had to read several times before it hit me, and then it came down like a ton of bricks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I wasn’t sitting, I’d be sitting down at this point, because this was the point in his sermon when I was starting to get convicted, because in addressing what was going on in his time, he is addressing us, and me today. He says this about sincerity,</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By sincerity I mean, a real, inward principle of religion, from whence these outward actions flow.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--John Wesley, Sermon #2 “The Almost Christian”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And me, being the smart alec that I am, snickered for a second at the “Principal of Religion” because all I thought of was one of my school principals, but then he describes what he is talking about. And I want you to read what he is saying here, and I don’t even have to translate it, because it is very plainly said.</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sincerity, therefore, is necessarily implied in the being almost a Christian; a real design to serve God, a hearty desire to do his will. It is necessarily implied, that a man have a sincere view of pleasing God in all things; in all his conversation; in all his actions; in all he does or leaves undone. This design, if any man be almost a Christian, runs through the whole tenor of his life. This is the moving principle, both in his doing good, his abstaining from evil, and his using the ordinances of God. --<b>John Wesley, Sermon #2 "The Almost Christian"</b></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What’s wrong with that? That sounds good doesn’t it? That sounds like if you are doing that, then you should be a Christian, except that Wesley responds with this</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">False start, offense, #19, half the distance to the goal line, still first down</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And what happens if you pile enough of those kinds of penalties on? You never cross the finish line do you? You can’t, and Wesley asks the question, if what he’s saying is true, is anyone ever actually an “almost Christian?” The thought is that if you make it that far, then you would have to make it all the way. How could you not?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And Wesley says, that not only is it true, but it happens a lot, and then he names names, specifically, he names himself. And says that he had been doing it not wrong, but he was missing something important.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go back to our scripture reading for this post out of <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.26.25-29" target="_blank">Acts</a>. Wesley uses at the basis for his sermon Acts 26:28</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul, at this point in the story, finds himself in prison. First under one governor, and then under another. Until eventually, he appeals to be brought to Caesar for trial. Before he gets there, King Agrippa comes and he questions Paul. This is in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.24.ceb" target="_blank">Acts 24-28</a> where all of this is taking place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And what comes out through all of these discussions is this. Paul is calm and reasonable, by everyone’s account, except the Jewish religious leaders who are trying to charge Paul with anything they can get to stick. And here is where it gets bad for us and for the Jewish leaders of the time. The governor, in explaining how all of this came about and the charge were made says this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These, seemingly enormous religious divisions by those in the middle of them, were seen as petty quibbles by the rest of the world outside of them, and not just that, but that Paul was the reasonable one and these others were making stuff up. But it doesn’t end there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul makes his own defense, not against the charges as much as about the “almost” religious life of the people who were bringing the charges, and then how he found something different.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He tells Agrippa, that he’s had the Heathen Honesty, he’s had the Christian Shell, and worse yet, he’s been so very Sincere in everything that he did for his faith, but it all brought him half the distance to the goal line! He says he never crossed over. Not until he had the moment when he truly met Jesus for the first time on that road to Damascus and his life was changed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moreover, he hasn’t hidden this from anyone, least of all Agrippa who has heard all that he has been saying, and this is when Agrippa replies with Almost thou persuades me to be a Christian.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What was missing? Paul had everything going right, and was doing everything right, but he missed the point. He was only ever going to get half the distance to the goal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same is true of John Wesley. He, in his life, had done everything right, but until he had his Damascus road encounter, for him it was at Aldersgate, he was only ever getting half the distance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is the difference?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s not about doing all the right things. Paul had done all the right things, Wesley had done all the right things, but do you know what others saw in them before they changed? They saw was the governor saw in the others. They saw quibbling of bits of religion that no one else understood or cared about. That they believed all the good that they were doing could be done by people without religion or faith of any sort. That’s the heathen honesty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Wesley describes something different, the thing that has the power to change the world isn’t in just getting half way to the goal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He says its first about loving God with all that you are, such that God is the first, middle, and last priority in life. And that we love our neighbors, not just doing good things for them, but truly loving them, warts and all, and that takes a bigger step. Because then you have to accept them, and not just accept them, but show them love, which means that we have to change in response to our love for others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But most important Wesley says this,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you don’t repent, if you don’t live love, and do good works that are rooted in love, then it’s not right faith, it’s being an Almost Christian. We cross the goal line, when we stop worrying about the goal line. Paul could care less about whether or not he was doing all the right things. John Wesley got in trouble because he was constantly, and consciously, disregarding all of the “right things,” the “respectable things” that he was told to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Their faith and love of Jesus Christ wasn’t quibbled over, but it was felt and seen through every action and every word. They didn’t hide from their failures or mistakes. They didn’t try to find cover in the government and then get dismissed for their quibbling over things that no one else cared about. They lived their faith and their love of God and they were transformed by it, made stronger by it, because their lives were devoted to it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is yours?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They didn’t get it right over night. Paul especially, after his Damascus road conversion, spent a great deal of time away before returning to preach. The good news is that this isn’t a game that needs to be won, and the very act of trying to win means that we are only almost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead, this is a journey where we grow each day, where we work to let go of our heathen honesty, or our church shells, or our sincerity that only ever takes us half way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead, each day, we search for the light of Christ that gives us strength. Each day we live a little bit more in the light of our creator. Each day, we feel the breath of the Holy Spirit as it directs us which way to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And when the time comes, we are not just almost there, but</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go this week, don’t be almost, but live fully in the grace that comes from God our Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and through the work of the Holy Spirit. Amen.</span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-8295853266385841622019-06-16T09:42:00.001-07:002019-06-16T09:42:40.174-07:00I Love You 3,000<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VU8w1thUng0fgABNmj1DpJ49owtL7yJpUJXNELwipfmQzjLZ6G6hgBhlDA_wlOoy4hNLaTQdpMAn5vG7BmP8nG63qkMwQUXr-B5RgEveCkXh11hb39A93YkAV-2JFSH1NuO1YVvU_PU/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VU8w1thUng0fgABNmj1DpJ49owtL7yJpUJXNELwipfmQzjLZ6G6hgBhlDA_wlOoy4hNLaTQdpMAn5vG7BmP8nG63qkMwQUXr-B5RgEveCkXh11hb39A93YkAV-2JFSH1NuO1YVvU_PU/s400/Slide1.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this post you are going to get some nerdiness from me. (I know, shocking right?) Every year on Father’s Day I try to do something that is related, and it can be fun to see what I can come up with. This year, I had a moment of nerd when I was watching the most recent <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Avenger’s movie</a> and thought that would make a great Father’s Day message.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you aren’t sure of, or don’t know what the Avengers are, it’s a comic book movie, and the most recent one was the 4th movie in the Avenger’s series, and the 22nd overall in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe" target="_blank">Marvel Cinematic Universe</a>. Meaning there are 22 movies that are all related. They’ve been coming out for the last 10 years and really got started with the first Ironman movie It finished this first long story arc with this most recent Avenger’s movie called Endgame.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Endgame was slightly successful. The <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/" target="_blank">most recent numbers</a> (this may have changed when you read this) I’ve seen show that it’s made $2.7bil which puts it at #2 all time for a movie to make and about $50mil behind the #1 movie Avatar. As for how wildly popular these movie have been, in the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time, 4 of them are avengers movies and 5 are in the MCU.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all of that, and sometime I want to do a movie marathon of all the movies (it’ll take a while), there was a line from the last movie that really sticks out.</span><br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CyQ6oKY17JQ/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CyQ6oKY17JQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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I can't read the subtitles, but it was the best <br />version I could find</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a lot of speculation on where that line came from. And you can’t nerd well, if you don’t nerd at all, and when it comes to comic book movies…..let’s just say that there are a lot of nerds out there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Someone put together the <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/avengers-endgame-easter-egg-i-love-you-3000/" target="_blank">runtimes</a> for all the movies, and that total time comes to about 3,000 minutes…or so they say. It’s a little iffy as to whether it really is or not. But, thankfully, the directors of the movie clarified this, and I think the story is even better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The truth is just like the movie. Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark (or Ironman) would tell his kids that he loves them tons, so just like the movie. And kids being kids have to push that even farther to 1-up their parents, and so they would respond with, I love you 3,000.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We got that line the first time in this scene, but it comes out again at the end of the movie. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">******SPOILER AHEAD******</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the end of the movie, at Tony’s funeral, he’s made a recording of himself saying goodbye to his friends and family, and to his daughter he says, "I love you 3,000."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And no, I’m not crying, I just have something in my eye….just like I did when I saw the movie</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dad’s, do you have something like that with your kids? Something like that that you tell them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kids, and this means kids of any age, do you remember your dad or one of your parents telling you something like that? It could even be something silly, but you know what it means, and it means more because it is silly.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAedHLkwbVsOHKvnEktK-8rLaPflZvPRyMsMBt6yjj4f7E_UX3cZfcG33Xfa-mAN0Jkp5jWhH9-MhFDrXPgK2Xz3Y_drKSk4UPj9msmCcIdv6LUwY6ndBl-Z5hnBqk92oBNKOusmgJzo/s1600/Slide4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAedHLkwbVsOHKvnEktK-8rLaPflZvPRyMsMBt6yjj4f7E_UX3cZfcG33Xfa-mAN0Jkp5jWhH9-MhFDrXPgK2Xz3Y_drKSk4UPj9msmCcIdv6LUwY6ndBl-Z5hnBqk92oBNKOusmgJzo/s400/Slide4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ROM.8.35-39" target="_blank">scripture reading</a>, we’re told that nothing can separate us from the love of God. When we read this verse, we take the superhero route with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s the one that says, even if I die, I’ll still love you, because I love you so much that even if I’m not with you anymore, I’ll still love you and you’ll have the memory of my love for you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s the superhero route because in big crazy action movies, that’s when the lead character always says that he loves someone. Except this one. Tony Stark has learned what it means to truly love someone, which wasn’t a given that he would know that at the start of everything, so he tells her that all the time</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If this were us, and we apply it to our daily lives as real people, this is the equivalent of us telling those we love, I love you tons, or even tons and tons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It describes the love that we have for those we care about. It describes the all-consuming love that we can have for our kids, for our spouses, for our families, for the people that are most important in our lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the greatest love that we can give to someone else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what if God can take it another step farther. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why does this story line work so well? It’s because it recognizes the one place that we know that we have a limit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We will die. We know this. It’s probably not today, maybe not tomorrow, but we know that at some point in our lives that it will come. And when we die, we know that we’ll no longer be with those that we love. But we also know that the memory of our love stays with them, even if we are no longer there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is where God takes it a step farther.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHykmJVEHpcdfkgb-nk2q6dGp2YdWX6OMpveIZOnMq704udqkRbiBbefj8ZyzTZVWFPmsc6gS1R3nIVKm9CBVr8InGcwEhs2OgmFprRxldBTbOGGtq5BdVwGL-0YOP7OOXHf2_PZm-1M8/s1600/Slide5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHykmJVEHpcdfkgb-nk2q6dGp2YdWX6OMpveIZOnMq704udqkRbiBbefj8ZyzTZVWFPmsc6gS1R3nIVKm9CBVr8InGcwEhs2OgmFprRxldBTbOGGtq5BdVwGL-0YOP7OOXHf2_PZm-1M8/s400/Slide5.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God doesn’t have the same limit that we have. God sent his Son into the world, out of love for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus died out of love for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Out of love for us, Jesus rose from the dead so that we aren’t alone. God goes with us, from life through death, and into eternal life in the world to come.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can’t be separated from God, no matter what.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God is love that is bigger than what we can experience or know, but it is still there with us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all of us that are Father's, or parents, foster parents, grand-parents, mentors, aunts, uncles, or just an important adult in the life of a kid, we know what it is like to watch them and know that God is there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From that moment when you first find out that you are going to be a Father or a parent, God says, </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvj7wylYk8So4MeD1EEvq_fPe7yQanLr_434lbVjEQSnzCgPfA7jps0TQyx7uUpgAGd47_4KAWpAS327hy1TWKbSdZUymWzfeoQvQXbzlABZDUZLbViuX9CXI_PA70ApFFbh0cPsBcHgc/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvj7wylYk8So4MeD1EEvq_fPe7yQanLr_434lbVjEQSnzCgPfA7jps0TQyx7uUpgAGd47_4KAWpAS327hy1TWKbSdZUymWzfeoQvQXbzlABZDUZLbViuX9CXI_PA70ApFFbh0cPsBcHgc/s400/Slide1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through all of the doctors visits and the preparations that are made for your kid to enter into the world</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From that moment of birth and the first time you hold that new child</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During all the fussy nights and exhausting days</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through all the birthday parties and skinned knees and all the times when they can’t even because they’re very small and can’t control all the feelings</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through all the arguments, slammed doors, and looks that only kids can give to their parents</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully, the first time they get behind the wheel to drive and really start growing up</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When they graduate and leave home and start something new on their own</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When they’ve fallen in love, and then out of love, and then in love again, all the many times that might happen</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When they tell you that they’re going to have a little one of their own</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you watch them through their troubles, and struggles, and the pains and hurts that they go through, even as an adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even when they are watching you, when your life is slowing down, and beginning it’s journey to the end</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nothing can separate us from God’s great love. If there is no other constant in all the universe, it is that one fact that God’s love is there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week, go out and know that no matter what, no matter who, no matter how the world is taking shape around you, take this one thing with you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That for all that we are, and all that we hope to be, and all that we struggle through, God responds to us and to all those who are around us and says</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I love you 3,000</span></blockquote>
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-33790336397015587052019-06-10T10:05:00.002-07:002019-06-10T10:05:42.334-07:00Mercy and Peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>This message was originally given on Memorial Day weekend. Since it was preached, I've been to Annual Conference and all that comes with working things out in the larger church right now. What I've written below still holds, most especially in light of what we are working through as a church. Take a look at this message from Memorial Day in 2019.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now that we’re officially on Memorial Day weekend, I think we can say that we are in Summer….even if the rest of the weather says that we’re in a new season appropriately called “Noah”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like many people in the Summers, I like to do things outside. Some of the things that I like, that I haven’t done nearly enough of, are hiking and camping. There’s also, when I was a lot younger (and lighter) backpacking. I’d love to be able to get back to that some day, but it will be a while still.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I always loved the experience and the exercise that would come with those things. The thing about backpacking, and the thing you have to watch for is that you have to think through everything that you bring. Everything has to have a place, and you have to be willing to carry it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>(editorial note: this is a very true statement for organizations like churches as well)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you aren’t careful, you’ll carry to much and be dragging all along the trail, or you’ll pack it badly so you might hike in a big circle because you’re constantly leaning to one side. More likely, you’ll put more pressure on certain parts of your body, and they will wear you out faster and possibly cause you more issues down the road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The longest trip I’ve been on was to Philmont Scout ranch. Before we ever left base camp, our guide for the first couple of days who was called Gimpy, took us through a pack shakedown. We emptied everything out of our packs, we dumped out a bunch of things we didn’t need, and then we repacked everything. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This made our packs lighter, before we added water and food, and also helped us to make sure that our packs would be comfortable as we carried them so that we could actually carry heavier weights if we needed to, and do so without adding much more burden to ourselves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s all about finding that right balance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In previous messages for this series (which may get posted at a later time) I was talking about Mercy and Sacrifice. Jesus calls on us to let go of unneeded sacrifices. One of the ways that that happens (and we’ll talk about another one here in a bit) is that other people expect things out of us that aren’t necessary, needed, or, important. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But they want us to do it anyway. That is a sacrifice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can’t often do much about those expectations, and we can try to not do those sacrifices, but it can be hard. Something we can do is that we can stop putting them on other people. To do that, Jesus calls on us to show mercy, and learn what it means.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The easy place to start is with the 3 rules that John Wesley set out.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMExfPBe4ok9PdA0bkl5tME-PSpVv5ncQsUCUAneQxZRiEVpYOloYBtS1OuuWmKwDWlfpG4MI_61pmKOA7zdawgKO9BMcHzy8B5OrdgBQZZwe_3bJhcb1Enh3DqrkjmN7J2iAdTIwui0/s1600/Slide26.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfMExfPBe4ok9PdA0bkl5tME-PSpVv5ncQsUCUAneQxZRiEVpYOloYBtS1OuuWmKwDWlfpG4MI_61pmKOA7zdawgKO9BMcHzy8B5OrdgBQZZwe_3bJhcb1Enh3DqrkjmN7J2iAdTIwui0/s400/Slide26.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s a good starting place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But mercy isn’t just about our interactions with other people, how we show them mercy, or how we try to live that mercy out in a relationship with them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mercy is also about how we do the same thing for ourselves. To often, we are our own worst critics. We can expect ridiculous sacrifices from ourselves that are unreasonable and cause ourselves more pain and hardship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus makes a statement in vs. 28-30</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light."</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--Matthew 11:28-30</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There’s this weird thing in here. Jesus says, come to me and I’ll give you rest. But he says in order to find rest you have to put on his yoke, take up this weight that he is going to give us, and then we’ll find rest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is hard. How does he take away a burden and give us rest by giving us another burden?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is what makes verse 30 so important. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the essence of mercy.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NmhYkhWqOshu7UzVHsUpnahnuNrOIiFdpU79fIAWqnh-0b-ik6FEbQnB_iS7EF45_WwZmMdi7ncIzPWOfmUXve8bj3QIa5ma-FqHYTSBYmdhP3B-AynYX9Nz6hbRM-ebuS6wZXLxh_I/s1600/Slide29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1NmhYkhWqOshu7UzVHsUpnahnuNrOIiFdpU79fIAWqnh-0b-ik6FEbQnB_iS7EF45_WwZmMdi7ncIzPWOfmUXve8bj3QIa5ma-FqHYTSBYmdhP3B-AynYX9Nz6hbRM-ebuS6wZXLxh_I/s400/Slide29.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was mercy from our ranger to do that pack shakedown before we got onto the trail.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was mercy from Jesus when he gives us these words, and then helps us to live by them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even in those times when it feels like things are good, we’re going well, and we don’t have a lot of worries at all…things can be a little off. Even when we’re doing well, there can be things that we still struggle with and that we need mercy for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more that we struggle, the more that things are off. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more that things are off, the harder they are to deal with, and the worse that we get. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The worse things get, the more that they get off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It becomes this cycle that if we don’t break out of it, then we won’t ever get through anything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are some folks that would say, and you’ve probably heard some variation of this, “suck it up buttercup”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think about that for a second. We’re told, that when things are off, that in essence we’re supposed to bury all the bad things and just get on with life. And if we don’t do that we’re like some sort soft, weak person who is obviously just not good enough to do anything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which, sometimes, I’ll admit is true when I’m whining and don’t really want to do something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But there are a lot of times when that gets used against folks who really are hurting and struggling, carrying to much, and can’t get out of what they’re in. We can be in that place, and we all have at some point in our lives. The last thing that we want to hear in that moment is to “get over it” and what we want is help to get through it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here’s what Jesus tells us, and what he gives us permission to do, and this works because we can know that he’s there with us when we get to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First thing is to rest. If Matthew were writing what Jesus was saying today, he might catch Jesus saying, “Have you tried turning it off and then back on again?” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you rested?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, take everything a piece at a time….but this means everything. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>(editorial note: this means us church. Have we taken up the pieces?)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take those pieces, they could be relationships, jobs, things, beliefs, people, anything really, and really consider each of them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you need them?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the place Jesus gives us to ask that hard question. Then he tells us to let go of the things we don’t need. This is where we need his help the most.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everything else gets rearranged because some struggles aren’t really struggles, they’re just packed badly and now we have the space to rearrange them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then Jesus reminds us that he goes on the journey with us, and he helps us to carry that load.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the mercy that Jesus wants us to show ourselves, because that can be some of the hardest to do. But then he also wants us to remember to share that same mercy with others and help them to do the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go out this week and practice that kind of mercy, and help others to do the same.</span><br />
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-49799215834923275292019-06-02T06:04:00.000-07:002019-06-02T09:45:00.239-07:00Sanctification of the Spirit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Who wants to go back to being 12 years old? Anyone? Sometimes it can be a fun thought, but it’s not really a good solution for anything. And really, I’m not sure that I’d want to go back through middle school again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The point being, at some point in time we have to grow up. Hopefully that means that we actually mature, and not just grow older. Those are two different things. We can spend a lot of time growing older, but do we ever grow up?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the last few <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Vital%20Religion" target="_blank">posts</a>, we’ve been spending some time talking about the Trinity and the roles of each person of the Trinity, and how that can be confusing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I think a lot of the confusion comes from the role of the Holy Spirit. It is the hardest to understand and pin down because we don’t have an actual person to identify it with. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With God as creator, we can often picture and old man with long flowing white beard, or for some of us we might think of George Burns or Morgan Freeman (depending on your favorite movie). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus is easy because he was a real person, and with however inaccurate they may be, we have lots of paintings of him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Spirit doesn’t work in that same way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first time we see the Holy Spirit in definitive action and doing something with a regular group of people is on the day of Pentecost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today we’re celebrating the Holy Spirit for Pentecost. Technically this is getting posted a week early, but I won’t be here next week. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next Sunday the Serve Team will be giving us the message and they’ll be talking about how the Holy Spirit leads us to action to help and serve others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the role of the Holy Spirit. The grace that comes from the Holy Spirit is sanctifying grace. Its job is to help us do the things that we should do, to help us grow up. To move beyond our teenage years and mature a little. For some of us that takes a little more work, but we’ll get there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’ve been asked in the past, can you be a Christian and not try to live better? My first answer is of course not, but then I thought about it some more. My new answer is that I suppose you can, but why? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why would you want to? Why would you choose to live your life as a 12 year old? When we want to be a Christian without growing, this is what we're saying, that we want to live life as a permanent 12 year old.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are times when I still act that age. In fact, I remember one time when I was substitute teaching a group of 12 year olds, and we were in science lesson. The kids were reading about the three states of matter, solid, liquid, and…..gas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What do 12 year olds do when they hear that word? They giggle of course. And what does their substitute teacher do? Especially when he still has his moments when he’s their age? Try not to laugh really hard and how funny they think it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that’s the reason why we still need grace. When we accept who Jesus is, and the gift that he gives us, we still need grace because we’re going to laugh at silly things. We’re still going to have times when we haven’t grown up and we do the things we aren’t supposed to, or we just aren’t as mature as we should be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That’s okay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In fact, this is the lesson that comes on Pentecost. When the disciples receive the Holy Spirit, we read that they were able to speak other languages to be heard by the crowds of people who were gathered around them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But that’s not the only experience of the Holy Spirit that they will have, and not the only way that will be had by others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pentecost is not about having a specific experience of the Holy Spirit, but knowing that everyone experiences the Holy Spirit in a different way…each in their own language you could say, each as makes sense for them. This is so that they can grow up and mature. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Holy Spirit is the hidden strength that gives us grace when we need it, and a foundation to stand on when we’re growing up. That looks different for each of us, but that’s good…that’s also why we have such a hard time seeing the Holy Spirit as a person, and that’s okay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are times when we share in the experience with each other, and many times we experience it on our own.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My invitation to you, is to find ways to experience the Holy Spirit. It could be through prayer, or scripture reading. It could be through conversations with others, or mentoring someone as they are growing in faith. It can happen in many ways, but what I know is that the more we practice to experience the Holy Spirit, the more that we will find those experiences, and the more that we will grow in our faith and in our lives.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-62671005404809825342019-05-26T06:12:00.000-07:002019-05-26T06:12:11.123-07:00Justifying Redeemer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDWEzAOb1YvxEJxvfwcGmS41dA_KJp2ZtpolLQ7zbIamPJh0VvbVh6B43Pu6WkzT80lEsFxmZW4YYJmK-dHRi9fXMfbL3qm86JbSWMF_hO5weQ6pWixzZ9lJ5pkYZySzcQKiNxtoDK0s/s1600/Slide49.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDWEzAOb1YvxEJxvfwcGmS41dA_KJp2ZtpolLQ7zbIamPJh0VvbVh6B43Pu6WkzT80lEsFxmZW4YYJmK-dHRi9fXMfbL3qm86JbSWMF_hO5weQ6pWixzZ9lJ5pkYZySzcQKiNxtoDK0s/s400/Slide49.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you remember just how weird you used to be back in the day? Now, before you answer, I should probably put a restriction on how you answer. I don't want to have to hear confession after this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This will show off my age, but do you remember back when we had to pay cash for everything? I ask it that way because kids today won’t know what that’s like. We used to have to think about things as simple as, “how much cash will I need this week?” If you needed more cash, you might have to go to the bank and write a check made out to cash so you could get it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of this was before credit cards became common, before you could deposit checks by phone, or even send money around the world with a couple of clicks of a mouse. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of that happened before we even knew a mouse was something other than what my cat would catch in the house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When everyone started accepting credit cards they didn’t all accept the same ones right? Did you ever have to ask someone if they took: Discover, or American Express, or some other card? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now we just assume that folks will all take what we have. For that matter, I can use my phone to pay for things, and the 12 year old part of me still thinks I’m some sort of wizard ever time I tap my phone to the terminal at Casey’s to get my donuts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now we have things that we take for granted, but they didn’t used to be a part of everyday life. It was a journey for us to get there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Vital%20Religion" target="_blank">series</a>, we're on a journey through what is one of the hardest parts of our faith; the Doctrine of the Trinity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Trinity is made up of three persons, but they are all together one God. We call them persons because our individual experience of each part of the Trinity is more than just an experience. To call it just an experience denies the power, the autonomy, and the strength of what God is doing through that experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So we call them persons, for good reason, but the thing to remember is that what we describe are different experiences of God. I use experience, even though it is an imperfect way of talking about them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We don’t have to understand everything about how that works. In fact, that’s probably a good idea because we’ll get lost doing that, and that’s what makes it hard. Rather, we have faith that it does, because for each of us the individual experiences we have of God as three persons is different and unique to who we are, and where we are in our lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have God as Father, as the first person, who is our creator and from him everything else comes. It is the start of our experience of God, long before we can ever put into words what that experience is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then we have God as Son in Jesus Christ, who helps us to accept who we are, and also know and accept God as real and as truth and as loving.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then we have God as Holy Spirit who sanctifies us, or makes us holy. Who guides forward after we have accepted Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How all of this works can be confusing, but what makes it all stick, and what makes our experience of God in three persons important is grace. And our most important experience of that grace is through Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can define grace this way. And that can be applied to simple things, unexpected things that we don’t think of. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Its like getting up from a restaurant and realizing that someone else has paid for your meal, or a friend unexpectedly showing up that you haven’t seen in years. After I finished writing this message I found out that we were going to go see friends that were going to be in the area on vacation...we haven't seen them in a while.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are lots of ways that it can happen every day. But when we’re talking about what God does through the three persons of the Trinity, that’s at a whole other level.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus shows us grace, that we don’t deserve, and has from the very beginning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From here we begin to see two distinctions of how we experience God, as Creator or Father, and as Word or Son. This is something we accept on faith, and it was something that the early church struggled with, but we accept as truth now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what does the Word do? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We know Creator, and we know about prevenient grace that we experience from God as Father or Creator. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s God’s grace given to us before we know anything about God, God who makes us in his image and gives us the ability to live our lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the word is different from that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Word, Jesus, gives us light so that we can see what has been hidden. Through him we can see what others will try to put in our way, cover our eyes with, or put out the light. It continues to shine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul describes what that looks like as a stumbling block. It is something that gets in our way of both knowing God and the world God created.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What makes this grace different is that we have to accept it. Our second experience of God as Son, or Word shows us Justifying Grace, this is the grace that redeems us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because we are created with the ability to choose right from wrong, we will choose wrong from time to time. That’s part of what will happen, and God knows this. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part of our experience of this is that God grants us grace because he doesn’t want that to hold us back. But because we can choose we don’t have to accept it. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is all meant to help us to accept that grace. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Out of God’s love for us, he gives us this experience of grace so that we don’t have to stay in the dark, so that we don’t have to fail all the time, so that we don’t have to live in fear of what others will do to us. God gives us grace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does this look like in practical terms?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/2019/05/prevenient-creation.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> said that prevenient grace, the grace that comes from our experience of God as Father and Creator covers not just us, but all of these other</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Folks that don’t know who he is. God is still with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God showing us his justifying grace through the Son, through Jesus our Redeemer is different.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We formalize our acceptance of that grace through baptism if we’re of an age when we can make that choice for ourselves, or our parents do that for us if we’re infants and then when we are able we confirm that choice through confirmation later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This grace is what comes to us through Jesus that sets us apart and sends us out into the world. Accept the grace that is given to you, and reach out to others to help them do the same.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-20091392712145547652019-05-19T09:22:00.002-07:002019-05-19T09:26:02.957-07:00Prevenient Creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAA_CNC-niw_53uBHjvA16vgoRPFeJqMZVKsO0GvPV4w0nLV1x2c1HhEo5NV0Lw3D_Kvt0DGYgl6kO0JefE5u9oadlPMglmymHuqV6-9BvCMVw_u91nBc8yZ3ZqrTc83TJpJxKKMgWbMY/s1600/Slide51.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAA_CNC-niw_53uBHjvA16vgoRPFeJqMZVKsO0GvPV4w0nLV1x2c1HhEo5NV0Lw3D_Kvt0DGYgl6kO0JefE5u9oadlPMglmymHuqV6-9BvCMVw_u91nBc8yZ3ZqrTc83TJpJxKKMgWbMY/s400/Slide51.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Every once in a while I’ll go down a rabbit hole on YouTube. I enjoy watching people make stuff out of wood. For some reason, I really enjoy watching them make bowls, kind of like the one in the video below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You don't have to watch the whole thing. Skip<br />around to see more of the process</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There’s something about how they take a piece of wood, or a log in this case, and turn it into something useful. There are parts of this, where when you look closely, that it doesn’t even seem like his touching the wood at all, but it’s still working.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What surprised me about this creation is it’s final shape. It doesn’t look like what I thought it was going to when he started. But that doesn’t matter, because the piece that he ended up with still looks very good, and like it’s a well crafted bowl.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For us, our experience is a little different. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">**caution <a href="http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/11/16/the-jesus-juke/" target="_blank">Jesus Juke</a> ahead**</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In our case, we are the bowl that is being created, and in the midst of our creation we don’t always know what our creator looks like. We are only able to see a part of him at a time, but that’s okay. We don’t have to have a complete experience of God to know that what he is creating is good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the next few posts, we’re jumping into the Trinity. This is the Doctrine that defines who we are as Christians. At times it is confusing, but that comes from trying to know everything all at one time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For us, the Trinity is all about our experience of who God is. Most importantly, it’s about how our faith in a Triune God is vital to our religious life, our everyday life, and how we receive God’s grace through each day of our life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As Methodists we start with grace. Our understanding of God, of Jesus, of the work of the Holy Spirit starts with grace. This is what makes us different from others. The technical term for this is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arminianism#Wesleyan_Arminianism" target="_blank">Wesleyan Arminianism</a>. And we start making the turn in this direction at the very beginning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I love how some of the modern translations take the start of Genesis in a little different direction. You wouldn’t think that would be a case, but reading and understanding ancient Hebrew is a challenge and there are sometimes different ways of translating the same thing. And based on context, and writing styles, and a bunch of other factors, we end up with a slightly, but very important difference in translation.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4thQBE4PviqvfJbprRNoof7oSyEMNU7wNYA_ceOkCniaWr0BhoLB1-nod-6Lv-caNZAYKJBFsVGHLslBxu2xMGhfKvdxi2OKysva-Uzf65GdjIiPH8xj7tooyC6wnsywmrSPD1ndlGnU/s400/Slide53.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read the full creation story at <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/GEN.1.ceb" target="_blank">Genesis 1</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is a little different from what we know, and what came down to us through the King James translation of scripture. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I like it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It doesn’t seem like that big a difference, but there isn’t an ending there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When God began to create. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God started the process, and there is a bit of a suggestion that that is still ongoing…maybe even to today; that God is still creating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And this is important because that means that God isn’t done yet, and he isn’t done with us yet. That holds with what we continue to learn and read about what God is doing all through scripture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember, that through <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/GEN.1.ceb" target="_blank">Genesis 1</a>, God creates different parts of the world that we’re in. The running refrain through that is that, it is good. God looks on his creation, and sees that it is good! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is true, even though God gave us as humans the ability to disobey, to not do as we’re told, to do something wrong, to make mistakes, and so on and so forth. We are still good</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And as we read through scripture, we see that no matter how bad we are, God never gives up on us. Sometimes what we have to go through isn’t pleasant, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is our first experience of grace. The grace that God gives to us, before we know that he is there, and that he still calls us good and wants what is best for us, even though we’re going to do things wrong, even though we are going to sin. From our Methodist heritage we call this prevenient grace. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmP9kVXfXKzCrAPKLzA7Ru3SLNnYqdqjCOlk1opaYivp1WNo34pwITD1m5NDBR0ZHOacYPUWBgKqMbz0Xw4peSw5wfHcfu_LyXtRQkQOfjuJPdwt87lzkiz4q9mgHrgiDm8NATwsAuBD8/s1600/Slide54.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmP9kVXfXKzCrAPKLzA7Ru3SLNnYqdqjCOlk1opaYivp1WNo34pwITD1m5NDBR0ZHOacYPUWBgKqMbz0Xw4peSw5wfHcfu_LyXtRQkQOfjuJPdwt87lzkiz4q9mgHrgiDm8NATwsAuBD8/s400/Slide54.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is also our experience of the first person of the Trinity. We say that God is three persons, yet still one God. We even have symbols we use to represent this. Up on the image above, you can see what is sometimes called a celtic knot, or the triquetra. As Christians we see the overlapping circles as persons of the trinity. Each are different, but none can exist without the others. The circle that goes through each of theme reinforces that point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God, as our creator, shows us grace, even if we don’t deserve it, and even if we don’t know he is there, he still wants what is best for us, and so is still working to make that happen…..God is still creating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What does that mean for us, in practical terms? This series is called <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/search/label/Vital%20Religion" target="_blank">Vital Religion</a>, because this is vital to who we are, but we have to be able to apply it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We all know family, or friends, who don’t know God. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t covered by God’s grace, or that God doesn’t want what is best for them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We also know neighbors and other members of our community who never come to church. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We know kids who’s parents weren’t there for them, who neglected them, and some who abused them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for them. The kids and the parents.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There’s the guy down the street who can’t seem to hold a job. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There’s the mom that has chronic health problems, so she can’t do much, and is always in need of medication. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are many members of our community, of our state, and of our nation who are addicted to drugs, to opiods, to other things that are tearing their life apart. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are people who don’t believe like we do, who act differently from us, who have beliefs that we don’t understand, and that we would yell at the top of our lungs are wrong. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are many out there, who are hurting and suffering through no fault of their own, but are there because of other people and the decisions that they have made. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are even, the folks that have it all together. Who don’t have the worries that we do, that are part of stable, healthy families and relationships, who aren’t currently dealing with hard problems. They’re doing okay. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still there for them too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first place for us to start and remember is that God is there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is still creating. God has not given up on us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first experience of God we have is as Father, as Creator, as grace given to us before we ever knew he was there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then we take that with us. Through all the people we come across every day, God is with them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For each of the people that cut us off in traffic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For each of the people that aren’t doing what we think they should be doing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For the people who seem to have nicer things than us, but we “know” they shouldn’t because they can’t afford it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For the people who are going hungry and begging for money. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For the people who are causing problems for others that we can’t understand, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">for all of those folks and even the folks who get up, go to work, come home, spend time with family, then go to bed, only to repeat it the next day. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For all of them, God is with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What would it look like to show them grace, just as God gives it to us? That’s my challenge to us this week. For all these that we come across, show grace. Its as simple as that. Go and do that in Jesus name.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-84086343240704130182019-05-12T11:16:00.000-07:002019-05-12T11:16:49.213-07:00Poured Out For You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I remember when I was a kid. I knew exactly what my home church looked like. I should. I spent enough time there that I knew just about every nook and cranny that a kid could get into. I even knew how to jimmy the lock on the toy closet in the nursery so that we could get the toys out!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the Summers we had early church. I didn’t know much about it, except that it was down in the Fellowship Hall, which was kind of cool, but the best part about it was that there were donuts every Sunday!!! (I still enjoy donuts on Sunday mornings)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At my home church we would sing out of the old hymnal, and I remember being really confused when the new ones came out. I knew that Dad directed the choir, my piano teacher played the organ, Mom was running around taking care of something. I was in Sunday School every week, and I knew the order of classes, and couldn’t wait to be in the High School class. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the summer we had VBS and those chocolate sandwich cookies and kool-aid. Every January we took a church ski trip to Colorado where I learned to ski and where I fell in love with the mountains, and Sunday School lessons were taught using felt boards.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I remember sitting next to Betty Russell (probably between her and my grandmother) and Betty had the candy bag. Really it was a coin purse that she got from the bank where she worked, but there was always candy in it on Sunday mornings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But as things go, things change along the way. Things that I thought were written in stone, traditions that when you’re a kid feel like they’ve gone on forever, came to an end. Betty and her husband Ed (I always called him Rus) went on a vacation one year, and she didn’t come home. Hers was the first funeral I remember attending.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunday school would change, early church would stop, but then we’d start an early service that had guitars and drums. In High School I had to stop going on the church ski trips because of school activities that got in the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Somewhere along the way, everything seemed to change, and that change is hard to deal with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even though this is a message from a previous Sunday, I'm writing this blog post on Graduation Sunday. There are a lot of families going through a lot of change this weekend. The tears are happy, but they're also recognizing that things are going to be different from here on out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the things that gets lost is how much change Jesus brought with him. All of this change was one of the reasons why what he was doing, and saying was so hard for many to accept. They just didn’t know what to do with him. Easter morning and the empty tomb didn’t just show that Jesus was alive, but it solidified the change he was bringing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The empty tomb took what his believers knew, and stretched it beyond what they could comprehend. These were the folks that believed, and yet it was hard for them. Others felt that they had been stretched beyond their breaking points. In order to get through this change, you had to take it on faith and trust in Jesus, because nothing else was making a lot of sense.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this post, we pick up our scripture reading in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.10.ceb" target="_blank">Acts 10</a>, but we have to back up a bit to get the whole story of how we get to this point. Because when we pick it up a whole bunch of gentiles have received the Holy Spirit, but they haven’t been baptized yet, and that’s not the order that things are supposed to go in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Things were changing.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspAYBELDI1y18ATWu1qRgP8bGgUBSEnB4aBMxXaSc8ndfDlXsPfYFV1b9HFWsfVwAcAFioiqFqnrm1qtfdg7YFuNHQz43s_s8jhhtPuq8WRR03IsUjMMACC2K2uoS-hMZdqDGB5YG3Ic/s1600/Slide25.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjspAYBELDI1y18ATWu1qRgP8bGgUBSEnB4aBMxXaSc8ndfDlXsPfYFV1b9HFWsfVwAcAFioiqFqnrm1qtfdg7YFuNHQz43s_s8jhhtPuq8WRR03IsUjMMACC2K2uoS-hMZdqDGB5YG3Ic/s400/Slide25.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On the right is the stoning of Stephen with Saul (Paul) in the background. <br />On the left is Saul (Paul) on the road to Damascus.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Starting earlier in Acts, Jesus’ followers are scared and trying to figure things out. On <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.2.ceb" target="_blank">Pentecost </a>they’d received the Holy Spirit and started making great gains in converting folks. However, that made a number of other folks mad, and they took the gloves off and started coming after Jesus’ followers and disciples.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This lead to Stephen being stoned in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.7.ceb" target="_blank">chapter 7</a>. After that the church scatters in fear of their lives, and they didn’t know what to do. A young pharisee by the name of Saul (who would become Paul later) is making a name for himself by persecuting the followers of Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But then a crazy thing starts to happen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They may be scattered, but they don’t really stop preaching and telling their stories. Gentiles, who’d heard some about Jesus were starting to ask questions and they were starting to believe, even though they were gentiles and not Jewish!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But crazier still is that it’s working! They can see that the Holy Spirit is working in these Gentiles, and they’re starting to get confused about what to do. This is all in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.8.ceb" target="_blank">Chapter 8</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.9.ceb" target="_blank">Chapter 9</a>, we see something else happen. This is the story of Saul’s Damascus road experience when he is called out by Jesus and he converts from being a Pharisee’s Pharisee, to being a follower of Jesus. At the end of Chapter 9, Peter shows great power by raising a woman named Tabitha from the dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Crazy things are happening, and change is taking place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/ACT.10.ceb" target="_blank">chapter 10</a>, now we’re getting close, Peter meets a man named Cornelius. He and his family are gentile worshipers. They were showing signs that they’d received the Holy Spirit! That was only supposed to happen after baptism, but they hadn’t been baptized, and they weren’t Jewish. They were still gentiles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Peter didn’t really know what to do with this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Peter said, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another.”<br />--Acts 10:34</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Peter, and those that were with him, were watching as God was at work, even though they didn’t know what to do with it. This was something that they couldn’t have imagined before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.<br />--Acts 10:45</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They were being challenged, but their faith was carrying them through.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Change is hard and difficult. And a lot of it will come from other places. Because some of the comments that Peter heard were, “you’re eating with them, they’re unclean you can’t do anything, you’re not being faithful to God,” and so on and so forth. All about what was going on with the Gentiles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it was hard for them to figure it out and try to understand what was going on. But the thing is, we may never really understand it. That’s one of the hard parts of change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Change is always there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When the Holy Spirit is at work, and we can see it at work, we can either fight the change that is taking place, or we can roll with it. One is easier because there isn’t much risk, but then we may get left behind. The other is riskier, but ultimately where we’re being led.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God is going to move, whether we like it or not. Our challenge is to roll with that change, and have faith that God knows what he’s doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have watched many of our kids graduate and go on in life many times over. Sometimes we share great celebrations, sometimes we share great sorrows, but never could we have stayed in one place. They were going to change, no matter how much we didn't want them to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What we can do, is send them out with our prayers, our blessings, and the knowledge that they still have a home with us full of people that are supporting them. Most importantly, for them (and us) is that we all go through this change knowing that God goes with us.</span>John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-14585170049747714092019-05-05T10:31:00.001-07:002019-05-05T10:31:17.386-07:00Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL7N-orkcw4bOwehWKXBfAW419ua0CGve2gwDRtwiSuI5Dg2WQgsSDQvmzffOk47vpnEWpNjQpV_-szW4Wq2p_ClbtKYKrzxHqSKVt7CnwatkzRSMMKUTj00QGBW9J2ekqbnpN39kCNLM/s1600/Slide50.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL7N-orkcw4bOwehWKXBfAW419ua0CGve2gwDRtwiSuI5Dg2WQgsSDQvmzffOk47vpnEWpNjQpV_-szW4Wq2p_ClbtKYKrzxHqSKVt7CnwatkzRSMMKUTj00QGBW9J2ekqbnpN39kCNLM/s400/Slide50.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are some things that have been around long enough that we don’t have to think about them anymore. As we grow up, we just know what they mean, even though no one has maybe ever told us that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I said “mayday” what would you say that it means? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's an emergency, right? How about this. How many times do you say it if you are declaring an emergency? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Three times. Repeating it prevents confusion from an actual emergency versus just talking about one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The thing is, this is a statement that has only been around for about 100 years (it’s almost there) and it has nothing to do with the “May Day” celebration that happens in many places. It started at an English airport in 1923 that was asked to figure out something that would help folks to know that an emergency was taking place. They had many flights to Paris from there, so a French word was used.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mayday is an English form of the French word m’aider, which means “help me,” which was itself a shortened version of the phrase venez m’aider, which means “come and help me.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is literally a cry for help, that when you say it three times, folks know exactly what you’re talking about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To get to the scripture reading for this post, in <a href="https://my.bible.com/bible/37/JHN.21.1-19" target="_blank">John 21:1-19</a>, we start back during holy week. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDalD6CFNTxxFDj7tyEsJj-14uv5a1cilXN-iT-4RgDosiPlI73BYXNtRdGGYvYxAe3-memkDSxLrL18qjQsGBqJfnNyUMfwlmTTs1ofZH2-5ujlD4f7q9RaiNI4p-J2ap0cAGgoC0zY/s1600/Slide51.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDalD6CFNTxxFDj7tyEsJj-14uv5a1cilXN-iT-4RgDosiPlI73BYXNtRdGGYvYxAe3-memkDSxLrL18qjQsGBqJfnNyUMfwlmTTs1ofZH2-5ujlD4f7q9RaiNI4p-J2ap0cAGgoC0zY/s400/Slide51.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maundy Thursday, the night of the Last Supper was a long night. Ultimately, we will see the disciples crying out for help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They thought their world was coming apart. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They were scattering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They didn’t know what was going to come next for them., </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They were pretty certain what was going to be next for Jesus after he was arrested.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HO_SNObx3H8U8lxIj-705x-XSpjRcgpj0oB2wXnM4IFmWN-smLP2w6chJZyqsFswTfhek6GWzKqlaxDUgS1yPZl5ltSZbqmmCIce19mnePGHkQFplsweCBN0bRbduEoreBmM97aUH30/s1600/Slide53.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7HO_SNObx3H8U8lxIj-705x-XSpjRcgpj0oB2wXnM4IFmWN-smLP2w6chJZyqsFswTfhek6GWzKqlaxDUgS1yPZl5ltSZbqmmCIce19mnePGHkQFplsweCBN0bRbduEoreBmM97aUH30/s400/Slide53.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Peter’s reaction shows this. He denies Jesus three times. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all of the different ways that we can see this story and Peter’s denial of Jesus, one way to see it is that it was Peter crying out for help. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was his Mayday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His life was crashing down in front of him, and he couldn’t do anything about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He begins to think that things will get better when Jesus is resurrected, but then Jesus tells them that he isn’t staying with them, but that he’ll send the advocate, the Holy Spirit to them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s not real reassuring to Peter, and through that we see that his Mayday isn’t over. Even after the resurrection, his emergency is still continuing.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-028-68YT-fwFcAdHHyj_TXQ3m9JZSMB6udDIx3ZUArwoUe5H52FCdnoTpZqvXM7QWOwGZ2a2g8gPsqCTfbvtyvqOHzvsRdde-POSte094a1PGdYunxVZc2G1xjWoNSZwNMA7nLVaCeY/s1600/Slide54.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-028-68YT-fwFcAdHHyj_TXQ3m9JZSMB6udDIx3ZUArwoUe5H52FCdnoTpZqvXM7QWOwGZ2a2g8gPsqCTfbvtyvqOHzvsRdde-POSte094a1PGdYunxVZc2G1xjWoNSZwNMA7nLVaCeY/s400/Slide54.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our scripture passage is Jesus answering Peter’s emergency. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus is answering Peter’s Mayday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is something of a familiar story. In John’s Gospel this is the third time that Jesus will have appeared to the disciples. They have been out fishing all night, because they don’t really know what to do, so they do what they know. Then they see Jesus on the beach next to a fire. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hWVZb9of3arpfvtkJxy-HLrjhyc_LfGlWXyOn3kFGw2K4yLTpFuUTZpOtsIxEl22YL27gkdX7Xc8AUMqmLAOzhDrjBuu1X1nkWbMteIlzDBU-jYywQGsR66gXmAYurmXB-10ac-aFLI/s1600/Slide55.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hWVZb9of3arpfvtkJxy-HLrjhyc_LfGlWXyOn3kFGw2K4yLTpFuUTZpOtsIxEl22YL27gkdX7Xc8AUMqmLAOzhDrjBuu1X1nkWbMteIlzDBU-jYywQGsR66gXmAYurmXB-10ac-aFLI/s400/Slide55.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He helps them to catch some more fish by directing them which side of the boat to cast their nets out onto, and then they come in. They figure out that its Jesus that is there, and he is working on breakfast for them.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGM1YKafb9pIMuwofji8NjogvDrVmBqIsaFDJsQQwNC9zOD7GEFWONlO8jEM6RjLBpHyrAd4szOBCINkuqeNzTkF6e6etMdQwS-pzWE9ifaiKsUawvcbNckSOApbRF7ZoLG7osBCzGD1w/s1600/Slide56.JPG" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGM1YKafb9pIMuwofji8NjogvDrVmBqIsaFDJsQQwNC9zOD7GEFWONlO8jEM6RjLBpHyrAd4szOBCINkuqeNzTkF6e6etMdQwS-pzWE9ifaiKsUawvcbNckSOApbRF7ZoLG7osBCzGD1w/s320/Slide56.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the end of the meal, Jesus asks Peter a question…three times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simon, son of John, do you love me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each time, Peter responds with</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes Lord</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2v4YdolLOFustRIQ4_3uaJJHm-WcXNtRj5EOU80ZncjDUUc-N3-bXkwus25GxO3SpnFtIkNVClFSq88NCxy9Pv8YrU1eFSUkBlFNk_SGP3OMILqtMNBJZbe9NH0PNN8afatj2H7DuGq0/s1600/Slide57.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2v4YdolLOFustRIQ4_3uaJJHm-WcXNtRj5EOU80ZncjDUUc-N3-bXkwus25GxO3SpnFtIkNVClFSq88NCxy9Pv8YrU1eFSUkBlFNk_SGP3OMILqtMNBJZbe9NH0PNN8afatj2H7DuGq0/s400/Slide57.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then Jesus responds with a variation of “feed my sheep” to each of Peter’s response to the question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We can see, by Peter’s response to Jesus asking the question, that he is getting frustrated by being asked it, but Jesus is doing this for an important reason.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Peter isn’t over what he’s done yet. He’s trying, but you can see how hard he’s trying by the way that he is overcompensating in his answers. He regrets what he’s done, if he could take it back he would, but Peter denied Jesus three times, and so three times Jesus asks him, “do you love me?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of this is beating down Peter’s guilt, his shame, and the sin that he feels because of what has happened. Jesus wants him to get past this, and then ties Peter overcoming this with what is in store for him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Peter is going to be the leader of this new movement. He will be the first and one of the greatest leaders that the church has ever had. But he only gets there because Jesus frees him from his past that is threatening to hold him back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus has to get Peter past his mayday.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix2_wFJaY64TC9GZzfdjhE5YqmjOPOeAoas2tLtKt_wVy9BqWMPEWmVlWv_JdsRGx7ypEddfuTpKaMri2jO-kdhPIlgIzflFI-aR1RMPmj3KPuCmsfMJKYocYpOZNBxfrVQ7-LHfH1T9g/s1600/Slide50.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1536" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix2_wFJaY64TC9GZzfdjhE5YqmjOPOeAoas2tLtKt_wVy9BqWMPEWmVlWv_JdsRGx7ypEddfuTpKaMri2jO-kdhPIlgIzflFI-aR1RMPmj3KPuCmsfMJKYocYpOZNBxfrVQ7-LHfH1T9g/s400/Slide50.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have regrets, you have regrets. We have things that we wish we would have done differently, things that we can’t take back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Those are barriers to us going forward if they aren’t removed. But, like Peter, we can’t remove them ourselves. That’s not in our power, because they are a part of our emergency. We need to know that they have been removed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is Jesus response to Peter in this moment. Jesus is telling him that the barriers are gone, and Jesus uses whatever will be effective in the moment to make that happen. Not because Jesus needs those things, but because we need them in order to understand what Jesus has done.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes that means that Jesus overturns tables, or feeds 5000. Sometimes that means he heals the sick and questions the holy. Sometimes though, it means that Jesus sits on a quiet beach, with only his closest disciples and asks Peter the same question three times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus reaches out to us in the way that we’ll understand. Ours is to listen for his voice as he takes us forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Images are from LumoProject.com, downloaded at freebibleimages.org</i></span></div>
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3317748536526580333.post-74806267069273004442019-04-27T09:40:00.000-07:002019-04-27T09:40:14.055-07:00He Was Recognized<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWANZWjo0qd_ArLNF1dCWE8YyAX9FZEahBZjRWswNgtuP7AYM1amiY-L_IgZ0XdEW93ALrmTTtyY9eZKFs8pXdgq14b_R4fEMufsGCuoj4VdZ-HhJ9vJk_vBm4J2UYlF5G9ZvPRWRLcw8/s1600/Slide25.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWANZWjo0qd_ArLNF1dCWE8YyAX9FZEahBZjRWswNgtuP7AYM1amiY-L_IgZ0XdEW93ALrmTTtyY9eZKFs8pXdgq14b_R4fEMufsGCuoj4VdZ-HhJ9vJk_vBm4J2UYlF5G9ZvPRWRLcw8/s400/Slide25.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the last week, I’ve gotten to go out on a couple of trails to go hiking. If there is something that I wish I could do more of, that’s it. There’s something about being out on the trail that is peaceful, and open. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The number of times that we’d stop, when we were out at Pershing State Park last Saturday, or that I’d stop when I was out at Longbranch State Park on Tuesday, and relax into the openness, knowing that there wasn’t anyone else around, was very nice. (yes, that's kind of a run on sentence)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While we were out, for the most part, among all the things that we saw, there was something we didn’t see much of. Any guesses?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b><span style="background-color: yellow; color: red;">People!</span></b></i><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"> </span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We didn’t see many people. When we were down on the boardwalk trail and then beyond it at Pershing, we saw a couple of folks early on, and then didn’t see anyone for several hours until we got back onto the boardwalk trail. When I was over at Longbranch on Tuesday, the only people I saw on the trail were some turkey hunters by their truck before I left. I didn’t see anyone again until I ran into Joan Sportsman at Dairy Queen in Macon when I finished….almost 6 hours later. It was nice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It would have felt weird to have other people with us, or to run into them on the trail, and then just start hiking with them. The kind of hiking I was doing isn’t the kind where you stop to visit with folks, or just randomly decide to hike with them for a while.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But there is some where that’s a thing, where the community that you build up on the trail is almost as important as being on the trail itself. If you’ve heard stories from the Appalachian Trail, its like that. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcp74wGjo1IEastHZdicrrdtujGFdZWWjDnvGoKHmqHNttkKkrwtLIAxzkmUaSEgdx3BeKjqZuf7of4uQ9G7jfiaDnE9_Ah-1AaXnQM27Ls7QK2FDXG2G7NaOqLQMi8fmU6S1krBBp6k/s1600/Slide26.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcp74wGjo1IEastHZdicrrdtujGFdZWWjDnvGoKHmqHNttkKkrwtLIAxzkmUaSEgdx3BeKjqZuf7of4uQ9G7jfiaDnE9_Ah-1AaXnQM27Ls7QK2FDXG2G7NaOqLQMi8fmU6S1krBBp6k/s400/Slide26.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the AT, you have “trail families” that are made up of folks that randomly meet up and start hiking together for long stretches of the trail, and everyone gets their own trail name. There’s even trail magic, that’s made up of either locals along the trail, or of folks who’ve hiked the trail that bring food, water, or other special things out for folks who are hiking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That community, and the gathering of folks from very different backgrounds is an important part of what goes happens on the trail.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNv3KTiy9Iep2YsqFzfyvBAbp33LnK57F3L2-Uk65rs7XRsFoqC5i1yv5pweW9Pooum5116QXr4uvNRetHXxtrpi0i1kVqan7FvWykOAKFGVDaNh9d0ywXTlga8aNTrkYZzuFWb1Nwdl0/s1600/Slide27.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNv3KTiy9Iep2YsqFzfyvBAbp33LnK57F3L2-Uk65rs7XRsFoqC5i1yv5pweW9Pooum5116QXr4uvNRetHXxtrpi0i1kVqan7FvWykOAKFGVDaNh9d0ywXTlga8aNTrkYZzuFWb1Nwdl0/s400/Slide27.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week was <a href="https://johnpinkstonii.blogspot.com/2019/04/jesus-is-love.html" target="_blank">Easter</a>. Jesus was resurrected, but at the start only a few knew that he had been.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eventually, the word would have to start getting out that something had happened. To get there, we go to the trail, to the road to Emmaus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two of Jesus disciples, who weren't a part of the twelve, would have been believers are heading to Emmaus. We’re led to believe that that is their home. It’s about a seven mile journey from Jerusalem to get there. Which isn’t a huge distance, but its enough that you wouldn’t make that journey all the time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For them, travelling was as much a social thing as it was travel. You were safer in larger groups, and it was also how you spread the news…literally spreading it as you were walking from place to place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Its on this trail that they meet someone who is traveling in their general direction. They may just be going together to Emmaus, the new guy might be travelling farther on, it doesn’t matter as much as they are sharing the time together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus (the new guy) asks them “what’s going on?” And for a moment they are astonished that he doesn’t seem to have any idea what has taken place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is where we get what I think is an important verse where they begin to tell him about the things going on</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpAdka0q8kag3Ph_r5L2ye2La5OldOq1DWeD9KidgNaC2cq4bD9mXXHr6HyXFVKa-vYyZ_VyMQonCyojBh6FdNOuEsKLp3lPzfg5Wd0H_aGwkwVBMwXmBu8_y3-lkuWS4qV_-xh4Slic8/s1600/Slide28.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpAdka0q8kag3Ph_r5L2ye2La5OldOq1DWeD9KidgNaC2cq4bD9mXXHr6HyXFVKa-vYyZ_VyMQonCyojBh6FdNOuEsKLp3lPzfg5Wd0H_aGwkwVBMwXmBu8_y3-lkuWS4qV_-xh4Slic8/s400/Slide28.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was recognized. I love this line. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus was recognized as a prophet, he was recognized as being important, he was recognized as having a message to give to the people, he was even recognized as being more than the others that have come before him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We’re left with the implication that there is still more to the story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus calls them out on it, says to them that you’ve heard, but you haven’t really understood. You recognized him, but you didn’t really get it. Then Jesus begins to teach them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They still don’t know who he is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This goes on for the whole journey. When they get to Emmaus, they invite this man who has been teaching them back to their house to stay with them. This wouldn’t have been unusual. This is part of the hospitality of the road, or the trail magic. It’s just what you did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So Jesus goes with them, sits down at the table with them, picks up the bread, breaks it, gives it to them, their eyes are opened, and he disappears. They nearly kick themselves because they figure they should have known who he was. Then, at night, they make the trek back to Jerusalem to tell the rest of the disciples.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVcZyhrD_HmlR9v5no9xU1nckIqBAR6nU0RO73aw8sWpDNdgRVz_yAnXLSDr0l3Pi_WsWe6F_r9YZlmX-6eGdW5T4y1o5EP-aQHer6uQTuo1yP3RynS5iek4V-2r-ZG8u_U864JayDdvA/s1600/Slide24.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVcZyhrD_HmlR9v5no9xU1nckIqBAR6nU0RO73aw8sWpDNdgRVz_yAnXLSDr0l3Pi_WsWe6F_r9YZlmX-6eGdW5T4y1o5EP-aQHer6uQTuo1yP3RynS5iek4V-2r-ZG8u_U864JayDdvA/s400/Slide24.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go back to the title of this message. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was recognized.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They recognized some of who Jesus was, but didn’t get it all. Arguably they should have figured it out a long time ago, but the disciples, whether part of the 12 or not, were never known for being super perceptive while traveling with Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And while I like to give them a hard time about that, I do that it’s because I see a lot of myself in them. Because they shouldn’t have figured it out then. They were in the middle of it. There was to much stuff going on for them to always be clear about who Jesus was. It's hard to figure some things out when you're in the middle of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was recognized, but then he had to teach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recognizing is important, but it’s only the first step. It’s the teaching that comes after that is even more important.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Picking up a Bible, pointing to a passage of scripture and saying, “I’ve found it!” is only the first step. That’s just recognizing that something important is there. The teaching is still to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The teaching comes from the journey, from the trail, from the gathering of believers who are listening while they’re on the journey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The true magic of the trail comes from Jesus teaching, and his helping us to understand like we never could before, but that can sometimes be the hardest step to take.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don't confuse recognition with understanding. Instead, recognize then go on a journey. Spend some time with other people, talk about it, argue about it, but most importantly, listen for Jesus teaching as you go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The journey we're on is the most important that we'll ever be on, and it gets better when we share it with others. Go on a journey, hit the trail, and let Jesus' teachings fill you as you go.</span></div>
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John Pinkston IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403250112530688039noreply@blogger.com0