Kids at our Gate

When we lived in the Philippines every day when we arrived home from school a number of kids would run down the street to meet us at our gate.  These kids were from the squatter area around us and they would appreciate a cold glass of clean water or some cookies or rice.  One of our fellow staff members told us that they came because we gave them something and if we ignored them they would stop coming.  I couldn't help but think of Jesus' words when He said that if we gave a cup of cold water in His name we were doing it as to Him.
These kids were the outsiders.  They lived in squatter huts and didn't always have enough food or proper clothing.  Many of them couldn't afford to go to school.  In Luke's gospel account we encounter children and poor and other outsiders that Jesus welcomed to come in while the rich, the religious elite were often outside.  The Gospel turns things upside down, the outsiders are welcomed in.

Sunflowers

I love a field of sunflowers.  I find it amazing to see all the heads facing the same way.  One of the joys of living where I do is all the different crops that are grown and every year someone grows sunflowers.
We live in an age where we have lost the sense of amazement.  There is a super moon or a meteor shower or a double rainbow and we don't bother taking the time to go outside and look for ourselves.  After all someone somewhere will post it on the internet and it will be better than what we can see from our backyard.
I am afraid that is how we sometimes read the Gospels.  We have become so accustomed to what we have heard that we no longer come to the Gospels with a sense of anticipation.  I can imagine that the first readers were amazed at Jesus.  The teaching, the answers to questions, the miracles, the parables all would have been something very, very new to the original readers.
And what about the people who Luke writes about?  Mary and Zacharias.  The disciples and the Pharisees.  These people were amazed.
As we study Luke's Gospel account together I want to be amazed again.  I want to see it through the eyes of the original readers.

Right Side of History

A catch phrase of the day seems to be "being on the right side of history".  Politicians tell you that if you don't support gay marriage you will find yourself on the wrong side of history.  It sounds right but it also sounds very arrogant.  The speakers obviously has decided what is the right side of history and if you don't side with that side you are wrong.
However, as Christian we can be on the right side of history.  Jesus came and with Him came the great reversal.  He sided with the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, not because they were weak or poor or vulnerable but because those people knew that their salvation was outside themselves and could only be found in the Lord Jesus.
So to be on the right side of history will not be following some political or sociological agenda but siding yourself with the Creator of the universe.  It is the only way to be on the right side of history.

Who is Jesus and What does He want from Me? Part 2

The answer is simple; nothing and everything.

Nothing in that we have nothing that is not His in the first place.  And everything because it is already His and not ours.

As Jesus calls us to follow Him there are four things we need to remember:

1.  We must listen to Him.

2.  He wants to turn from ourselves and be penitent.

3.  He wants us to tell others about Him.

4.  We must leave everything to follow Him.

Many see Jesus as a commodity that we can add onto our lives.  He cannot be added on, He must be our lives.  If we take the approach that He is a commodity then we will try and sell Jesus to the world.  We cannot do that.  We must show Jesus to the world and He will sell himself.

Miracles

Why did Jesus perform miracles?

First, Jesus did not perform miracles so that we would expect a miracle.  Miracles by nature are not common.  Some people would have us believe that we should expect miracles all the time.  Remember that the miracles were given to us so that we would desire heaven, a time and a place where things would be put right.  Miracles were not given so that we would have heaven on earth but that we would live in expectation of a day when all things were made right.

Second, and this is most important, Jesus performed miracles to confirm His identity as the Christ.  John calls these miracles "signs".  These signs are to show us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus did not come as a miracle worker, though He performed many miracles, but He came to proclaim the Gospel.  The miracles Jesus performed showed that the rule of God was breaking through and someday all things will be made right.

So let me ask this question:  Which takes more faith, to pray and a miracle occurs or to believe that there is coming a day when all things will be made right?  Both require faith.  Both require us to live by faith.  But if God does not heal or change that circumstance He is still God and there will be a day when we will understand.

Who is Jesus and what does He want from me?

I grew up in a conservative Christian home.  I was taken to church and Sunday school long before I could walk or talk.  I said my prayers every night and always prayed before a meal.  Of course I knew who Jesus is after all look at my heritage.
However, my knowledge of Jesus was of course flawed.  Growing up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan I didn't know any Jews or Asians or Africans or any other racial groups so of course Jesus had to be a white Anglo Saxon male.  Now that wasn't really a bad thing but it was flawed.
Sometimes when you listen to celebrities or professional athletes they have their own version of Jesus.  A baseball player may see Him as a player sliding into second base to break up a double play.  This is just their creation of who Jesus is.  I am sure that if Jesus was at the ball diamond the pro athletes would not recognize Him as He probably would be out with the kids trying to get a fly ball but here I go with my own version of "Who is Jesus?"
When Luke wrote his Gospel account of Jesus he did not have that problem.  His readers were being introduced to Jesus for the very first time.  They did not have a Sunday School version of Jesus and they had never seen His picture hanging in the church foyer.  In Luke 9:20 Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"  Over the next ten chapters Jesus shows His disciples the answer to that question.
When we read Luke's account we should read it as his first century readers would have read it.  We are no longer surprised when Jesus identifies with the poor and the outcast but that was not what the people of his day expected.  Why did Jesus identify with these people and not the people of power?
...and what does He want from me?  As Luke unfolds the story we will see the answer to that as well.

Luke

It has been months since I last posted on this blog.  Two weeks from yesterday we will begin a new series in the Adult Bible Class.  This fall we will be looking at the Gospel according to Luke.
Why Luke?

It started about a year ago when a friend gave me a copy of Michael Card's book on Luke.  I read it through and put it on the shelf.  Awhile later I began to think about what I would teach in the fall and I realized that I have not spent any time in the Gospels.  I was drawn back to look again at the Gospels and decided that I wanted to spend time with Luke.
Since then another friend of mine to encourage me in my studies and teaching asked what books I wanted on the Gospel according to Luke.  I asked for the commentaries by Philip Ryken which he bought for me.  I started reading the first volume and realized what I had been missing by not spending time in the Gospels.
I hope you take time to journey with me through this amazing account of the life of our Lord.  I am excited to begin this series.