Beatitude Week - Day 4: The Mourners and the Meek

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

There are two basic categories for “hard teachings of Jesus.” There are the teachings that are hard to understand, and then there are the teachings that are easy to understand and hard to do. The first Beatitude – blessed are the poor in spirit – is one of the latter. Be humble. Got it Jesus – I’ll get right on that. The next two are little harder to make out at first glance.

We are still talking about blessings, right? What could it possibly mean to be blessed by mourning? And meek people are the quiet, shy, types, right? It seems unlikely that loud, powerful types will hand over the earth to them, doesn’t it?

Let’s start with “blessed are those who mourn.” What this does NOT mean is that spiritual people must be depressed and depressing people. The life of Jesus demonstrates this. His detractors accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton. But I think the life of Jesus also demonstrates what this means – to be present in the midst of and to be aware of the suffering around us. Mourning means not pretending that everything is ok when we know it isn’t, and not ignoring the suffering around us just because it doesn’t directly affect us.

I think this guy expresses well what that would could look like:

The terms of the promise here are important – they will be comforted. The consolation looked for is from God. And I don’t think it is a coincidence that one of the names for the Holy Spirit is “the Comforter.” The Power of God is active in the world to redeem and transform those things that cause us to mourn. Mourning doesn’t mean that we have to bear the burdens of the entire world ourselves. It means that we look to the One who gives true comfort, and work alongside Him, empowered by His Spirit, to do His will.

And what about the meek? This is one of those times that the English language and the Greek don’t match up so well. The meaning of the Greek word translated “meek” means “one who has power under control.” Meek does not mean weak. Meek means discerning the difference between having the ability to do something, and knowing whether it is right or wrong to do it. As Jeff Goldblum says in that great philosophical work of our times, Jurassic Park “You were so worried about whether you could do something that you never stopped to ask whether you should do it.”

So, read it again this way: “Blessed are those with their power under control, for they shall inherit the earth.” The patient, the faithful, the self-controlled, those who consider their actions based on the will of God and on the effect on others – they will inherit the earth. And I think Jesus has in mind here the redeemed earth of God’s new creation. The transformed earth that is - in fact as well as promise – the kingdom of God.

Another way to approach the idea of meekness, and one that has particular application for our society, is to submit ourselves to letting our actions speak for us, and letting God speak on our behalf. Here the power in question is the power of our speech, and that matches up pretty well with the traditional "quiet person" definition of meekness. Just because we can spend all our time justifying ourselves to others doesn't necessarily mean that we should. Who are we trying to impress? Richard Foster says in his great book on spiritual discipline: "We are so accustomed to relying on words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control, but we will never let him take control until we trust him."

A.W. Tozer puts it this way: "The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightly of you. The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek has accepted God's estimate of his own life. In himself nothing, in God everything; that is his motto. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him."

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #28 - Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Him..."

Back in the blog saddle with a return to the classics! Today’s Bible verse that freaks me out comes courtesy of the apostle Paul, in my favorite New Testament letter!

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

Boo yah. Through Jesus I am well-nigh invincible. Brimming with power. Clearly, if this verse means nothing else, it means that God wants whatever sports team I play on to win, and if I am called on to perform some semi-mythical feat to do it, I CAN.

60-yard field goal here I come.



Wait, what’s that? I might want to check the context? Mmmmm, I don’t know. That’s risky. All right, I suppose…

“I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:11-13

Well. That’s a little different, isn’t it? A bit more challenging. “I have learned to be content,” says the man in prison for preaching the gospel.



Earlier in the letter he says, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)

It’s not that God cares about my football game one way or the other, it’s that I should care about the work of God, and being within and doing the will of God. You can’t threaten a man who isn’t afraid of death. There’s no leverage against a person who views the loss of his personal freedoms, or his life, as a trifle compared to the ongoing expansion of the kingdom of God.

And did you notice that Paul had to learn to be content in prosperity and in being filled? We have the deep seated myth in our culture that abundance equals contentment, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. Whether in abundance or in need we can do all things – especially that most elusive of things, being content - through Him who strengthens us.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out # 26 – "Lord, you tricked me!" - Jeremiah 20:7

The Prophet Jeremiah by Rembrandt

Nobody volunteers to be a prophet. I heard this recently from a Lutheran pastor, and thought about Moses, Isaiah, and of course, Jonah, all of whom went to various lengths to get out of the job.

It’s not hard to see why. Telling people what they don’t want to hear is always difficult, and the prophets got to tell people in some unique ways that often involved their own suffering, and traditionally, martyrdom.

Take Jeremiah for an example. The northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed about 100 years before Jeremiah got the call to announce the impending doom of Judah. He served as a prophet for about 40 years – his entire life, in other words.

And he got some specific instructions concerning how his life would differ from those around him. He would not get married or have children. He would not attend weddings or funerals. (Jeremiah 16 :1-13) The first was essentially a death sentence for an Israelite – at this point most future hope was centered on children. The second meant Jeremiah was absent from the most important social events of his culture. The reason: there was no point in getting married, having kids, celebrating other people’s weddings, or even mourning the dead, because soon Judah would be destroyed. “You won’t get to enjoy your marriage,” Jeremiah’s absence said, “and soon there will be so many dead it will be impossible to mourn them all.”

Yikes. Kind of a downer.

Jeremiah is fairly unique in that we get to see at least some of his reaction to his vocation, in passages like these:

“Why has my pain been perpetual and my wound incurable? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream, with water that is unreliable?” – Jeremiah 15:18

“O Lord, you deceived me and I was deceived; you have overcome me and prevailed!” – Jeremiah 20:7

Are we uncomfortable yet? Does this seem a little too honest? Do we not like the idea of discontented prophets? Do we not like our own feelings of distrusting or disbelieving God when we feel like He’s pulled the rug out from under us? Do we not like the way God doesn’t seem to line up with His reputation for being a God of love and justice?
What do we do then?

Jeremiah 20:9 is instructive – “But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.”

Two things:
1) Jeremiah apparently tried to quit
2) It didn’t take

When you feel like your bone marrow is on fire if you aren’t doing your job, that’s a pretty good indication that you have strong feelings about it. And however much Jeremiah hated his job – he had to do it.

And it’s a good thing he did. In his lifetime Babylon took anybody who was anybody – king, princes, priests, craftsmen – and they went in exile to Babylon. Ten years later the Babylonians came back and burned Jerusalem and Solomon's temple to the ground.

In an ancient worldview, there would normally be only one way to interpret this. If two countries fought, it wasn’t just the armies fighting, it was their gods. If Egypt beat Assyria in battle, it meant Egypt’s gods were stronger. Simple.

So when Babylon conquers Yahweh’s country, and burns down His temple, the most natural interpretation for Babylonians and Jews would have been that Babylon’s gods beat Yahweh, and possibly that Yahweh was dead. The Jews in exile could literally look out their windows in Babylon and see the temples of the gods who beat their God.

Except…there was this prophet named Jeremiah. He had told them over and over that this would happen, and that it was in reality Yahweh’s plan. Jeremiah also said Yahweh would return them from exile (something that never happened to anybody before). And maybe, just maybe, Jeremiah was right. After all, hadn’t Yahweh done it before, thousands of years ago, with another unwilling prophet who came to a foreign country and said “Let my people go?” God seemed to have this pattern of re-creating His people from seemingly impossible circumstances. Slavery. Idolatry. Exile.

So, thanks Jeremiah. You had a rough go of it. But through you God did something that doesn’t happen except when a person gets a message from beyond the confines of this world, when there is a fire in their bones that has no natural explanation – through you God gave His people hope.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out # 25 – Mo Money, Mo Problems - “Render to Caesar to things that are Caesar’s” – Mark 12:13-17

Happy tax day, everyone!

We all know Jesus hung out with tax collectors, even including a former tax collector in his group of twelve disciples. But what did Jesus say specifically about taxes? And what did He mean…

“And they (the chief priests) sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Him, in order to trap Him in a statement. And they came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and defer to know one; for you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?’

But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, ‘Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.’ And they brought one. And He said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ And they said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.’”

A couple of interesting things about this passage:

1. The Pharisees and the Herodians were NOT friends. They teamed up in “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” move. The first group was anti-Rome, anti-Greek, anti-everything except the Law of God (as they perceived it). The Herodians, as you might could guess, were Herod’s posse. Big fans of Rome. Whatever straight answer Jesus gave “Sure, pay the tax” or “Don’t pay the tax” there was a group there to cry foul.

2. “You defer to no one and are not partial to any” – is their way of saying “If anybody doesn’t care what Caesar thinks, it’s you.” They are encouraging Him to get in touch with his revolutionary side.

3. You want to talk about taxation without representation? The first-century Jews were an occupied territory. Their taxes funded a government that was, in their minds, evil and idolatrous.

4. Speaking of idolatrous, most Jews regarded Roman coins as idolatrous. If the picture of the emperor weren’t enough, the inscription, which in this period probably read “Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus” certainly was. “Son of the divine?” Nice.

5. “Render” here means more than just “give.” It has the specific meaning of giving back someone something that belongs to them.

So, what does Jesus mean? Is Jesus teaching “separation of church and state?” That’s a pretty common interpretation – that Jesus is slyly acknowledging the temporary sovereignty of Caesar, but holding out the true sovereignty of God.

But there’s something else going on here, too. Jesus is saying “no” to a particular way of revolution, and encouraging people to say “yes” to His way. Not paying your taxes is not the way to conquer Rome, Jesus is saying. “Pay back Caesar what is his” may mean “the only appropriate thing to do with junk like this is send it back where it came from.” It may mean “God doesn’t want or need your money. If Caesar wants it, he can have it.”

“Render to God the things that are God’s.” What belongs to God? Who bears God’s image? How do we give that which belongs to God back to Him? Jesus answered those questions in His teaching, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection. That’s the real revolution.

Further reading if want to have your mind blown:
"Hard Sayings of Jesus" - F.F. Bruce
"Jesus and the Victory of God" - N.T. Wright
"The Politics of Jesus" - John Howard Yoder

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #24 - "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?"

Five days before, he had entered the Holy City in triumph. The masses hooted and hollered and paved his way with palm branches and threw their dirty and torn robes into the street. “Son of David!” “Messiah!” “King of the Jews,” they called him. He humbles his enemies, disrupts worship in the temple – all preparing the way for the coming of the great and glorious King!

Behold the King, high and lifted up!

Crucified.

His title now became his accusation. Guilty. The crime - being King of the Jews. The real king of the Jews, Herod, found their first face-to-face encounter the night before disappointing. This Messiah was not nearly so entertaining as the last one, that Baptist fellow whose head he had to give up. Even more removed, the real king of kings, the real ruler of the Jews, Tiberius Caesar, didn’t even know this crucified peasant king existed. He had provincial governors and other bureaucrats to deal with these sorts of petty insurgencies. If a Caesar ever had to take such matters into his own hands, you could bet there would be no more Holy City, and no more talk of Messiahs.

Those who fancied themselves the spiritual kings of the Jews rejoiced in the punishment for this blasphemer, and mocked him, quoting from one of their psalms. “He saved others – he can’t save himself! He is the ‘King of Israel’, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ‘He trusts in God – let God rescue him.’”

And the crucified King says nothing. Except – another quote, from the same psalm his enemies quoted. One last debate about the meaning of the scriptures between the priests and the prophet – the last word on the meaning of the life – and death – of the Son of Man. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!” He didn’t even say it in Hebrew. His last words a soul-wrenching exclamation in the common tongue.

G.K. Chesterton, in “Orthodoxy:”
“That a good man might have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already; but that God could have His back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents for ever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point – and does not break. In this indeed I approach a matter more dark and awful than it is easy to discuss; and I apologize in advance if any of my phrases fall wrong or seem irreverent touching a matter which the greatest saints and thinkers have justly feared to approach.

But in that terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this is what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man; and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped from heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay, (the matter grows too difficult for human speech) but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.”

The last word – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Except…

There is the small matter of Sunday morning, and a certain empty tomb…

Revenge of Bible Verse That Freaks Me Out #11 – Zaccheus’ Inner Child

A while back, I re-read a story that made me really love Jesus – when He invites Himself over for lunch, and it changes Zaccheus’ life. I was thinking about this again the other day – that Jesus didn’t preach to Zaccheus, or condemn him, or teach him anything. They weren’t even at his house yet, and Zaccheus had already committed to change his life. Jesus changed his life by being who He was, and by the act of befriending him.

I also said in that previous post that Jesus saw something about Zaccheus other people missed – that he was lost. Exhibit A was his being up a tree.

And then it hit me. What kind of person climbs trees? Little children. Grown-ups admire trees from a distance, and may prune them, or gather fruit from them, but they usually don’t climb them. That’s kid stuff. Is it possible that as Jesus was walking through Jericho, and he saw a man in a tree trying get a look at Him, that He remembered what He said a few days before? “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all.” (Luke 18:17)

So here is a man who is despised and reviled by everyone already, who has just climbed a tree just to see Jesus.

Undignified! Immature! Scandalous! The act of a desperate person! How the next person who he collected taxes from would snicker behind his back about this child-sized man acting like a child. “Look, there the goes the tax-collecting monkey!”

But apparently, Zaccheus didn’t care. Or if he did, he was willing to be undignified for a chance to get close to Jesus. Like a child.

In case anyone hadn’t noticed Zaccheus’ odd behavior, Jesus helpfully points it out to the entire crowd! And then He returns all the honor Zaccheus tossed aside for His sake by gracing him with His presence at his house, and his table.

God, grant us the faith to be undignified enough to let nothing come between us and Your Son!

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #23 – “And they said nothing to anyone” – Mark 16:8

First, a little background. Take a look in your Bible at Mark 16. There are probably brackets around verses 9-20. There may also be a footnote explaining why there are brackets. Mine says, “some of the oldest manuscripts do not contain verses 9-20.” A manuscript is just like it sounds – a hand written copy, in this case, a hand-written copy of the gospel of Mark.

Let’s take a moment and appreciate that the reason we have any of the books of the Old and New Testament is that a whole lot of people through Christian history, long before the printing press, took the time to write it the Bible by hand. Amazingly, all of these handwritten copies of all the books of the Bible are about 95% the same, across the board. The differences, you will happy to know, mostly deal with things like tenses of verbs, whether a noun is singular or plural, spelling of names, etc. No major doctrinal issues are at stake in the differences between manuscripts. And when manuscripts differ there are always footnotes to let you know. It’s not hidden. One of those manuscript differences is in Mark 16.

What the footnote means to verse 8 means is that in the oldest copies of Mark, the gospel ends at verse 8. The women who followed Jesus went to his tomb, and found an angel there who said Jesus rose from the dead. And then the concluding statement of the book: “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

The End.

Wait, what?

The end? How can that be the end? Some scholars propose that this is NOT the end, that the oldest copies are missing a piece (not the last page – no books yet, it would be missing a section of scroll). Others propose this was the original end, but made so little sense later copyists borrowed details from the end of other gospels for verses 9-20, just to make sense of the thing.

I am of the latter opinion. I think verse 8 was the original ending, and that it ends that way on purpose.

The reason: it’s a cliffhanger!

Mark’s gospel hurries along in a bit of a rush. He uses the word “immediately” eight times in sixteen chapters. Look at your Bible. Almost every paragraph starts with “and.” It’s as if each incident in the story is rushing headlong, barely stopping to let the last one sink in. “And then, and then, and then…” A cliffhanger ending makes sense given the breakneck pace of the rest of the gospel.

In talking about this passage in our devotional time with the ESL class, the translator explained the English idiom “cliffhanger” as; “like the end of an episode of a novella (Spanish soap opera).” The characters are in danger, a moment of crisis, what will happen next?! “Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion…”

Now, if you aren’t expecting a cliffhanger ending, it can be a little jarring. My brother told me a story about going to see the first Lord of the Rings movie. (Joel, correct me if I mis-remembered this!) Someone in the theater apparently didn’t know it was the first part of a trilogy. So when Frodo and Sam march off into Mordor and Aragorn and the gang head the other way, and the credits started to roll, that person said loudly, “That’s it!?!”

And if verse 8 is the end of the gospel, you might get the same feeling. So why would you end a story, particularly the story of the life of Jesus, with a cliffhanger? I think Mark did it for the same reason you end anything else with a cliffhanger – you want people to stick around for the sequel. And in Mark’s case, I think he is trying to get readers of the gospel to realize they are IN the sequel.

Obviously, the story of Jesus didn’t end with the women not speaking, or there would be no gospel. Somebody said something to someone! But by ending the gospel this way, it’s as though Mark is saying, “So, Jesus is alive. What are YOU going to do about it?”

The choice is offered – do you believe what the angel said? Do you believe what Jesus said? Or will you will keep silent? Will you be “gripped with trembling and astonishment?” Will you be afraid? Or will you believe that “He has risen?” You are living in the sequel to this gospel. How will it turn out?

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #22 - "Every careless word" - Matthew 12:36

“I say to you that people will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” – Matthew 12:36

Well, yikes. This is one of those times that I hope that Jesus is kidding, or exaggerating for emphasis. Every careless word? That could take awhile…

I ran across this verse in of those “coincidental” occurrences that sometimes happen in life. I had been stewing over some words that were spoken to me recently. Have you ever had the experience of doing something you were proud of, and receiving a dozen or so compliments concerning that thing, and one negative or snarky comment? And which one sounds out over and over in your mind? Exactly – the negative one.

But running across this verse also reminded of the times I have said something I wished later that I could take back. And that’s just the careless words that I remember. It disturbs me sometimes to think that my careless words may have haunted people in the way others’ careless words have haunted me – causing doubt, anger, shame, or frustration.

The context in which Jesus speaks these words is also disturbing. He is condemning the Pharisees, those experts in external righteousness. He says two verses earlier, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Richard Foster, in his introduction to the classic “Celebration of Discipline,” comments on this verse:

“It is not that we plan to be this way. We have no intention of exploding with anger or parading a sticky arrogance, but when we are with people, what we are comes out. Though we may try with all our might to hide these things, we are betrayed by our eyes, our tongue, our chin, our hands, our whole body language. Willpower has no defense against the careless word, the unguarded moment. The will has the same deficiency as the law – it can only deal with externals. It is incapable of bringing about the necessary transformation of the inner spirit.”

Foster is suggesting that the only way to eliminate the careless word is to make sure that your heart is overflowing with the fruits of the Spirit. And the only way to do that is present ourselves regularly – with discipline – before God and ask that he transform us from the inside out.

In other words, the only way to keep from being haunted by careless words, or haunting others with our words, is to be haunted by the Holy Ghost.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #21 - Jesus' Genealogy and the Suspicious Relatives of Christmas

The first book of the New Testament starts off with a bang. Right out of the gate, Matthew strikes the right note for the world-changing events and universe-altering story that he will tell. He starts with: a genealogy!

Oh, yeah! High drama, indeed. Reading someone else's genealogy is even less exciting than seeing someone else's vacation pictures. Verse 9: "Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah." Spectacular.

My favorite new anecdote about this passage is that one of our youth interns had to pick a passage of scripture from a list to do a Bible study on in one of his religion classes. After scanning the list, he picked the one from Matthew. "It's one of the Gospels," he thought, "plenty of information." When he got home and looked it up, it was Jesus' genealogy. Awesome.

But, as with most things in the Bible, there is more here than meets the eye. In fact, there is a lot more. We could talk about how the entire scope of God's relationship with Israel is encapsulated in this list of names. How the calling of Abraham, the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the glory days of the Israelite monarchy, the Exile, and the return all form the backdrop for us to know exactly what it means for Jesus to be "Messiah." The major points in Israelite history that Matthew summarizes are Abraham, David, the Exile, - and the birth of Jesus.

We could talk about all the suspicious characters Jesus has in background:

Abraham lied about his wife being his sister and basically gave her away as a concubine - twice!

Jacob lied to his blind father and stole his brother's birthright.

Judah left his brother in a pit and sold him into slavery.

David committed adultery and conspired to have a man murdered.

Solomon was an idolater and polygamist to a disgusting degree.

Solomon's son Rehoboam ruled the kingdom so badly it split in two.

Jeconiah ruled the kingdom so badly the Babylonians burned Jerusalem to the ground.

But even more interesting than that, is the fact that Matthew includes women in his genealogy. This is pretty unusual in its own right. Even more unusual are the women he names. Let's take a look shall we?

Tamar (v.3)- A Gentile. Twice widowed and then deprived by her father-in-law Judah of the chance for children, she dressed up as a prostitute, had sex with Judah, and bore twins. Her story is in Genesis 38.

Rahab (v.5) - A Gentile. If this is the same Rahab (which some scholars dispute), she was the prostitute who hid the Israelite spies in Jericho and was then spared.

Ruth (v.5) - A Gentile. Widowed, came to Israel with her mother-in-law and got herself an Israelite husband. Depending on what happened on that pile of grain in the middle of the night in Ruth chapter 3, she may be a little suspect as well.

Bathsheba (v.6) - We all know Bathsheba. Originally married to a Gentile. Interestingly, the verse literally says "She who had been the wife of Uriah," to remind us specifically of the adulterous relationship. We never know she feels about anything that happens to her. The only words she says in the story in 2 Samuel 11 are, "I'm pregnant." She is a widow, too.

And the fifth woman is - Mary. We'll find out later in the chapter that she becomes pregnant before she and Joseph get married. Put yourself in Joseph's sandals. Your fiance comes to you and says, "I'm pregnant. And it's God's baby." No wonder he wanted to quietly get divorced.

So, Jesus has suspicious relatives. The Messiah's line is a line of liars, thieves, adulterers, murderers, fake or real prostitutes, Gentile women, idolaters, and screw-ups.

"And you shall call His name 'Jesus', for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

"And they shall call His name Immanuel, which means, 'God with us.'" - Matthew 1:23, quoting Isaiah 7:14

God is in the business of redemption - always has been. Jesus' genealogy is filled with refugees, Gentiles, failures, widows, desperate people doing desperate things, and sinners who may or may not have asked for forgiveness. In the first days and months of his life He was homeless, son of an unwed mother, and a refugee. He spent the rest of His life having dinner with prostitutes, healing Gentiles, blessing widows, forgiving adulterous women, inviting Himself to dinner at the houses of thieves, putting the man who failed Him in charge of His disciples, and asking God to forgive the very people that murdered Him. That's God with us. That's the kind of Messiah I need.

P.S. Here's my friend Taylor's favorite interpretation of this passage: Andrew Peterson's "Matthew's Begats." Very impressive.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #20 - "Put your hand into my side" - John 20:27

“Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” – John 20:27

The above painting is one of my favorites. It’s “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas,” by the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, painted in 1602 in Rome.

Caravaggio is quite the character. He’s a spectacular artist. This article describes his style as “radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, approach to chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow.” One of his contemporaries describes his personal character as follows, “after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him.” He was an artist, all right. He was exiled for killing a man in a brawl.

The “radical naturalism” mentioned above manifests in some interesting ways in his work, which you can review here. A lot of his paintings have very visceral, or even violent subjects. A partial explanation of that he is working in Renaissance Italy, with work largely commissioned by churches on Biblical themes – and there are a lot of violent biblical stories. And, of course, he seems to have been a violent person in general.

But, man, look at the list! Amongst the “Baskets of Fruit” and portraits, you’ve got several crucifixions, “Boy Bitten by a Lizard,” “Tooth Puller,” two different “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” and two different pictures of Jesus’ flogging. Both of his pictures of St. Francis have a skull in them! He seems to have been particularly enamored of beheadings – there are two different paintings of David with Goliath’s head, three of the beheaded John the Baptist, one from the apocryphal book Judith with her in the act of beheading a guy, and Medusa’s chopped off head. Wow.

All this to say – Caravaggio has a thing for visceral paintings. And the above is no exception. It’s one of my favorites because it tells a little story in itself of how the scene described in the Bible might have happened.

The title is “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” – but look at Thomas' expression (click on the picture to enlarge it). That isn’t doubt. Or at least, not the kind we normally associate with Thomas. It’s the “I can hardly believe this is happening to me” kind of doubt, as opposed to the “I don’t believe what you are telling me” kind that we normally associate with him.

Look at the expressions on the other disciples’ faces. Look how their heads are grouped together – they want to be as close as possible to the action.

Look at who is guiding Thomas’ hand. Jesus is holding his wrist, guiding his hand to the place where He was stabbed with a spear. Jesus' pierced hand is at the center of the painting. He is not just having Thomas touch the wound, but put his hand inside the wound, just like the verse says. This is the part of the painting that astounds me, and made the verse come alive for me in a new way. It’s as if Jesus made the invitation for Thomas to touch His wounds, and Thomas initially refused. And Jesus said, “No - you said you wanted to touch the wounds – so touch the wounds.”

Have you ever felt someone’s scar? Placed your hand on flesh that has been torn and then put back together? It sends shivers down your spine. It puts you in the moment - lets you imagine the hurt that person must have gone through in a unique way. Maybe that’s the expression on Thomas’ face. Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus received that wound. The disciples behind him weren’t there either. They had fled, and abandoned Jesus to die. Is Thomas imagining what it must have been like for his Lord? Is it that Thomas, from touching Jesus’ wounds, more than any of the other disciples, realized what it must have been like to die on the cross? And now, seeing Him alive, is that why he says, “My Lord and my God!”- ? It is at that moment that John has him express more than anyone else in the gospels has about who Jesus is.

Finally, look at Jesus’ face. Caravaggio has it in shadow, to symbolize that even at this most intimate moment, He is still unknowable to some degree. But His expression is not one of frustration, or anger. He wants Thomas to know – He wants Thomas to believe, and to understand exactly what has happened. He wants to erase any doubt that He is alive.

He still wants to do that.

“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #19 - "Why do call me Lord?" - Luke 6:46

“Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” – Luke 6:46

I’ll let George MacDonald comment on this one:

“Get up, and do something the master tells you; so make yourself his disciple at once. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, Do it, or once abstained because he said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not do anything he tells you. If you can think of nothing he ever said as having had an atom of influence on your doing or not doing, you have too good ground to consider yourself no disciple of his.

You can begin at once to make it true, to be a disciple of the Living One—by obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying him. We must learn to obey him in everything, and so must begin somewhere: let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience!

What have you done this day because it was the will of Christ? Have you dismissed, once dismissed, an anxious thought for the morrow? Have you ministered to any needy soul or body, and kept your right hand from knowing what your left hand did? Have you begun to leave all and follow him? Did you set yourself to judge righteous judgment? Are you being wary of covetousness? Have you forgiven your enemy? Are you seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness before all other things? Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Have you given to some one that asked of you?

Tell me something that you have done, are doing, or are trying to do because he told you. If you do nothing that he says, it is no wonder that you cannot trust in him…”

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #18 - "He must increase, I must decrease" - John 3:28, 30

“You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John the Baptist, John 3:28, 30

You know who is kind of a big deal? John the Baptist.

All four gospels either start with John the Baptist, or start to explain Jesus’ ministry by starting with John’s ministry. Considering that there aren’t that many things outside of the Passion narrative that appear in all four gospels (the feeding of the 5000 and the cleansing of the temple are the others), that makes John the Baptist a big deal.

And the gospels continue to refer to John. He is even referred to in Acts, when Paul finds Apollos and several disciples in Ephesus – hundreds of miles from Israel, and a decade or more after John’s death – still ordering their lives on the things taught by John the Baptist.

Sinners come to him repentant. Tax-collectors, Roman soldiers, Pharisees, and even freakin’ King Herod are fascinated by him and want to hear what he has to say. He has a large group of committed disciples. People wonder aloud if he is the second coming of Elijah, and even ask him breathlessly if he is the Messiah.

Remind you of anyone?

In Luke’s gospel his going ahead of Christ starts in a prenatal state, as his parents receive an angelic birth announcement in an old-school “barren woman conceives” scenario. Eventually, love him or hate him, everyone in Israel is talking about him. People compare him and Jesus early on, and even after his horrific death “what do you think about John the Baptist” is a sort of spiritual litmus test Jesus gives to his opponents.

I like to think of him as the Last Old Testament Prophet. He plays a central role in the gospels, and yet, we Christian types really don’t talk about him all that much. Why?

Because he did his job, and he did it well.

His job, even before he was born, was to fulfill the prophecy and be the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” To turn the hearts of Israel back to toward their God. To prepare for the One Who Is To Come. To be the forerunner. And then – when the real Messiah stands up – to stand back. The last prophet of the Old Covenant turns it all over to the Living Word of the New Covenant. To prepare the way, and then get out of the way.

It makes sense. But it could not have been easy. I can only speak for myself, but one of the hardest things for me to do as a minister is to stand back and get out of Jesus’ way. To yield the stage, the attention, the ability to influence – to Jesus.

I like attention. I like it when people laugh at my jokes. I like it when people think I am deep, spiritually discerning, and wise. If someone asked me, like they did John the Baptist, “Are you the second-coming of Elijah?” I’m pretty sure I’d be humble enough to laugh and say no, but I’m not sure I’d be humble enough not to let that affect my perception of myself for the rest of my life.

I fantasize about being famous. About being the next Rob Bell, or the next (insert your favorite famous Christian pastor here), or get a VERY big mural with the stuff from Revelation on it and be the next John Hagee, but a moderate version.

Or, if not a famous pastor, I fantasize about writing the children’s book that lives in my head and being the next J.K. Rowling. (I mostly fantasize about the fame, but the money would be nice too.)

Part of that fantasy is the culture that we live in that continually tells us that your worth is based on your name recognition, but a bigger part of that is that I like attention and, most of time, would like to have more of it.

And that’s where John 3:30 comes in. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist was famous, not just in Israel but all over the ancient world. He was talked about with awe, so when he said he wasn’t worthy to tie the shoes of the Messiah, people were REALLY in awe of the Messiah. He was famous, and so when he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!,” everyone turned around to look at Jesus – and then didn’t turn back. John handed it over to the one who was all the things he was not. Messiah, Savior, Lord, Son of God, and worthy of worship. We don’t talk about John the Baptist because he did what he was supposed to do – pointed people to Jesus, and then got out of the way.

I apologize in advance for the very, very nerdy example, but I think of the scene in the Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo offers the ring of power to Galadriel, the Elven Queen. She is surprised that he offers it freely, and she gets sort of excited. You can tell she is excited because she starts glowing, talking in a very deep voice, and saying things like, “All shall love me and DESPAIR!!!!”

Then she stops moving toward the ring, stops glowing, catches her breath, gets her normal voice back, and says, mostly to herself, “I pass the test. I shall diminish, and remain Galadriel.”

John the Baptist passes the test. He will diminish, and remain the forerunner.

Another verse that freaks me out about John the Baptist is Jesus' tribute to him, in Luke 7:28: “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Let’s break that down:
1)John the Baptist, according to Jesus, was the greatest human being ever born
2)But the one who is lowest on the totem pole in God’s kingdom surpasses him

Interpretation by your friend and mine, F.F. Bruce – being part of the kingdom of God is exponentially more important and more valuable than being great (or famous).

And when it comes down to it my job is pretty similar to John's. To point to Jesus and say, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” – and then get out of the way.

I think we can say with great certainty that the greatest Christians who ever lived are unknown to us. That they made sure to decrease, so that Christ would increase, to the point that they are anonymous, unknown, and forgotten….except to the One who sees what is done in secret.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #17 - "We overwhelmingly conquer" - Romans 8:35,37

Some thoughts from the Best Chapter in the Bible.

For my money, the best chapter in the Bible is Romans 8. It starts with “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ,” ends with “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and in between there are fun little nuggets about God’s Spirit dwelling in us, how the Holy Spirit and Jesus intercede for us, how we are adopted as children of God, and more good stuff like that.

The part that has always freaked me out a bit is verses 35 and 37:

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or the sword? – But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

For all you Greek fans out there, the word “upernikao” only appears here in the Bible. It’s the word for conquer with the prefix “hyper” attached to the front. “To overpower in victory. To be abundantly victorious. Prevail mightily.” (Thanks Lexicon!) Hyper-conquer. A blow-out victory.

And what are the circumstances of this blow-out victory?

Tribulation – troubled, beset on all sides, suffering
Distress – stressed, on the brink, anxious, miserable
Persecution – attacked, harassed, discriminated against
Famine – hungry to the point of desperation
Naked – exposed, embarrassed, humiliated, vulnerable
The sword – mortally wounded, and, uh, dead

So – for the Christian, when you are troubled, suffering, stressed, miserable, attacked, hungry, humiliated, and either mostly or completely dead – you win!!!

And not just a win – a blow-out, crushing, run-up-the-score, their team didn’t even show up today, their fans put paper bags over their heads, my grandma could play better than their team, kind of victory.

That makes no kind of sense, unless you believe verse 18.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compared to with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Not worthy to be compared. Blow-out victory. Overwhelmingly conquer. Paul and Jesus like to speak in superlatives, especially when it comes to God. “In all these things we conquer,” “nothing shall separate us,” "I can so all things through Christ." “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” God, grant us that we might live superlative Christian lives.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #16 - The Children of the Prophets

“So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. (Swift is the Booty, Speedy is the Prey)” – Isaiah 8:3

“So he went and took Gomer…and she conceived and bore him a son. And the LORD said to him, “Name him Jezreel, for yet a little while and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel” …And she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Name her Lo-Ruhamah (She Has Not Obtained Compassion), for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel.”…When she has weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-Ammi (Not My People), for you are not my people and I am not your God.” – Hosea 1:3-9

Old Testament prophets are awesome. In the little-explored backwaters of the Old Testament they lurk, giving theological gems to those patient enough to wade through oracles on Tyre and Sidon, dedicated enough to put them in context, and persistent enough to hang with them. Preaching to everyone, castigating the rich, excoriating the powerful, condemning the corrupt, comforting the afflicted, soap-box orating to the nation, offending kings, praising the poor, and talking back to God. And occasionally they do some REALLY CRAZY things God told them to do – all to get the message across. I love Old Testament prophets.

One of the really crazy things that God told Isaiah and Hosea (who were contemporaries, somewhere between 800 and 700 B.C.) to do was give their kids weird names.

Isaiah (who’s wife is also a prophet, by the way) names his second child Maher-shalal-hash-baz, or Swift is the Booty, Speedy is the Prey. His first child is Immanuel (see 7:14 – yes, yes, I know that verse is about Christmas, but it’s also about the fall of the Arameans – read the whole chapter, it’s all there). Immanuel - not so bad. A little unusual, but the message is encouraging. But Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Man, that’s awesome. Imagine the banner at Isaiah’s house after Mrs. Isaiah delivers - “Welcome Maher-shalal-hash-baz!” You’d need two walls for that thing. It’s a great name though, in Hebrew and English. Unless of course you’re poor little Maher-shalal-hash-baz. At Hebrew school little Ahaz and Joab just zip through learning to spell their names, and the poor little guy is stuck somewhere between “shalal” and “hash” while everyone else goes out to recess.

But if Maher is hard up, poor Hosea’s kids have it worse. Weird as they are, at least Isaiah’s kids’ names signify good news – the defeat of Israel’s enemies. And both of their parents are prophets, so anytime they ask, “Mom, why my name is different?” Mrs. Isaiah has it covered.

Hosea though, he’s got a son whose name is supposed to threaten vengeance on the king of Israel, a daughter whose name means “No Compassion,” and another son whose name means God has rejected His people.

And their mom is a former prostitute who struggles with adultery.

Did Gomer object to naming her children such things? Did Hosea answer her objections with, "For Yahweh's sake, your name is Gomer!!"? No scholarly consensus can be reached on such questions.

And what did poor little Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi do in Hebrew School when the teacher is going down the list of names? Did little Joash and Jonadab stare quizzically and giggle at “Not My People?” Did he have to explain what his name meant every time he met someone, or was it like when you meet an adult named Rainbow or Moonflower and they say, “My parents were hippies,” and everyone goes “Oh! That explains it!” When people raised their eyebrows at the name “No Compassion,” did she just have to roll her eyes, sigh loudly, and say “My dad’s a prophet,” and everyone said, “Oh! Say no more!”? The Bible is full of such mysteries.

One thing that is not mysterious is that Hosea’s message - and the names of he and Gomer's children - doesn’t end with judgment. In chapter 2, the first half of the oracle is a withering condemnation of Israel’s idolatry, pictured as God divorcing his brazenly adulterous wife, exposing her shame and banishing her to the desert. And the second half?

“Therefore behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak upon her heart…It will come about in that day, declares the LORD, that you will call Me Husband, and will no longer call Me Master.” – Hosea 2:14, 16

God, the One betrayed, meets his adulterous wife in the desert and woos her back into his arms, offering her protection from every harmful thing, and promising a better relationship than before.

"I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD." - Hosea 2:19-20

And the names of Hosea’s children are redeemed – “And it will come about in that day that I will respond, declares the LORD, I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth, and the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine, and to the oil, and they will respond to God Sowing (the literal meaning of Jezreel). And I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on Her Who Had Not Obtained Compassion, and I will say to those who were Not My People – “You are My people!” and they will say “You are my God!” – Hosea 2:21-23

Jezreel, the valley of bloodshed, becomes the place where God plants his garden – a place of Compassion, a place where those who had been rejected now live in unity with God as His People.

Both Peter and Paul quote Hosea 9:23 (1 Peter 2:10, Romans 9:25), as a prophecy about God calling all people to be His people. Immanuel, God Sows, She Who Has Obtained Compassion, and My People. Thank God for the children of the prophets.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #15 - "Perfect love casts out fear" - 1 John 4:18-19

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfect in love. We love because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:18-19

This part freaks me out with its staggering beauty. Have you had the realization that lurking behind your anger is often fear? Fear of rejection, or disapproval, or loss?

The very next verse freaks me out with a challenge:
"If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." - I John 4:20

Beloved - let us love one another.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #14 - The Love of God - Romans 5:8

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

I could say some things here, but I prefer Rich Mullins' take:

----------------------------------------------------------
There's a wideness in God's mercy
I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God

Now I've seen no band of angels
But I've heard the soldiers' songs
Love hangs over them like a banner
Love within them leads them on
To the battle on the journey
And it's never going to stop
Ever widening their mercies
And the fury of His love

Oh the love of God
The love of God

Joy and sorrow are this ocean
And in their every ebb and flow
Now the Lord a door has opened
That all Hell could never close
Here I'm tested and made worthy
Tossed about but lifted up
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God
-----------------------------------------------------

Take a listen.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #13 - The Antichrist(s) -

For the 13th edition of "Bible Verses that Freak Me Out", let's take a look at the Anti-Christ!

First, take a minute and think about all the things we've heard about the Anti-Christ. If the movies are to be believed, he's the son of the devil. He'll establish some sort of world government. He might be Jewish, or the Pope, or Oprah. Perhaps you have received an email claiming the book of Revelations describes a person like Barack Obama as the Anti-Christ (I have received such).

And here's the part that freaks me out. None of the above has anything to do with what the Bible says about the term "antichrist." The word "antichrist"doesn't even appear in Revelation, which, by the way, does not have an "s" on the end.

There are a total of 4 verses in the Bible which talk about "antichrist," and they are all in 1 and 2 John. Here they are:

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that this is the last hour." 1 John 2:18

"Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son." - 1 John 2:22

"Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming, and now is already in the world." - 1 John 4:3

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." - 2 John 7

In case you missed it, John describes plural antichrists as already present in the world in his day. He also helpfully defines the term - one who denies that Jesus is the Christ, and that Jesus has come in the flesh. And. That's. It.

So, now you can rest at ease. Neither Barack Obama, Oprah, or any of the Popes of the past two centuries claimed that Jesus was not the Christ, or that He did not come in the flesh. They all fail the Biblical definition of antichrist. There. Isn't that a relief?

All the other stuff generally associated with antichrist comes from mish-mashing together all the various apocalyptic material of the Bible, John Hagee or Jerry Falwell-style. It combines elements of the Beast from Revelation, the beast from Daniel, Paul's reference in 2 Thessalonians to a "man of lawlessness," and Jesus' warning in Matthew 24 that many would claim to be Christ (which literally happened both before Jesus' time and just after Him in ancient Israel). There's also a healthy dose of later tradition from folks like Hippolytus of Rome (A.D. 107-236), who said the Anti-Christ would be a Jew. Apparently he just made that up off the top of his head, which should serve as a warning for all of us who teach the Bible to at least have healthy skepticism for stuff we make up off the top of our heads.

Interestingly, several the earliest church fathers (except for Hippolytus) seemed to have a much better grasp of this whole concept. Polycarp (69-155 A.D.) said the term essentially meant anyone who deceives people about Jesus. John Chrysostum (347-407A.D.) said it wasn't something to worry about - that we should focus instead on doing what we know to do, and believing the truth.

And that's a theme that runs through the letters of John, the letters of Paul, the book of Revelation, and the gospels. Jesus Christ is the one who tells us the Truth, and to deceive about who He really is = anti-Christ.

So, since he brought the topic up, we'll let John have the last word:
"As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father." - 1 John 2:24

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #12 - "Whoever wishes to be great" - Mark 11:42-45

"You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." - Mark 11:42-45

This pronouncement appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Matthew and Mark, it's as Jesus and the disciples are walking toward Jerusalem before the Passion. In Mark, James and John ask for seats at the hands of Jesus in His kingdom. In Matthew, it's their mom who asks on their behalf. They are essentially asking to be Jesus' vice-president and prime minister.

In Luke, this is Jesus' response to the disciples' discussion of which of them is the greatest, which they are having at the Last Supper!

Jesus isn't just recommending a new model of leadership. It's a revolutionary way to live your life. Jesus has been demonstrating it to His disciples, and will soon make the climatic statement of what it means to live a sacrificial life.

The thing that freaks me out is asking whether I have actually bought into this. This is Christianity. This, if nothing else, is what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Oswald Chambers takes this principle in "My Utmost for His Highest" and applies it to John 7:38 - "He who believes in me...out of him will flow rivers of living water."

"Jesus did not say - 'he that believeth in Me shall realize the blessing of the fulness of God,' but - 'he that believeth in Me out of him shall escape everything he receives.' Our Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure. If we believe Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts. It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all....God spilt the life of His Son that the world might be saved; are we prepared to spill out our lives for Him?"

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #11 - Zaccheus - Luke 19:1-10

"And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." - Luke 19:5

A little different flavor today. This verse freaked me out last week, but did so because it made made me really love Jesus. Anyone who has loved someone for a long time knows what I'm talking about. You have someone that you always love, day in and day out, but occasionally they do something above and beyond (or maybe something they always do, but you notice in a special way) and on that day you really love that person. Well, when Jesus invited Himself over to Zaccheus' house, it made me really love Him.

Normally, when someone invites themselves over to your house, it isn't a life-changing experience. Most would consider it rude. And Jesus isn't asking, He's telling.

Jesus does this a lot actually. People will be conversing with Jesus, or just sitting there minding their own business, and Jesus will command them to do something:

"Give me a drink."
"You must be born again."
"Follow me."
"You give them something to eat."
"Fill up the water jars."
"Put the net on the other side of the boat."
"Come out of him!"
"Talitha Koum! (a personal favorite - "Little girl, get up!)"
"Go wash in the pool of Siloam."
"Go into town and untie the first donkey's colt you see."
"Lazarus, come forth."
"Pick up your mat and walk."
"Hustle down out of that tree - I'm coming over."

It's like He thinks He has the authority to just tell people what to do.

Anyway, He invites Himself over, and before they get there the man has some sort of breakdown and decides to diversify his portfolio by getting rid of half of it, and then paying back people he cheated with the other half.

I think we can say Jesus wasn't naive. He knew this guy was a cheat, a thief, and a Roman collaborator with a Napoleon complex. But He also knew something everyone else hadn't realized - Zaccheus was lost. He was just wandering around, making things up as he went along. He didn't know the way. When he tried to follow the crowd he ended up in a tree.

Jesus invites Himself over (inviting criticism in the process), and it changed the man's life. Kinda freaks me out.

Bible Verses That Freak Me Out #10 - Mo' Money, Mo' Problems - "When you give to the poor" - Matthew 6:1-4

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." - Matthew 6:1-4

I have trouble with this verse. Not so much because I like people to know when I give to the poor (although I do), but for another reason. I have been the beneficiary of the generosity of strangers. I have received significant help in my education from people I have never met. I have met for class and worship in buildings, have rested comfortably on benches, have studied in libraries, all sponsored by people I do not know. But I know their names. I know them because they are on shiny plaques, or doorways, or large gilt letters on the front of the building.

I am very, very grateful that these people gave, either from their abundance, or out of their need, to further the education, and particularly the religious education, of whippersnappers such as myself.

But...I wonder sometimes if the gilt letters are the pinnacle of the honor they will receive for their gifts, because of the verses above.

Perhaps they did not have a choice. Perhaps they gave their gift, and the trustees of the library, or the chapel, or the bench said with a loud decree (and a trumpet), "Henceforth, this bench shall be the Desmond R. G. Underwood bench!" I don't know what I'd do in such a situation - would I have the chutzpah to say, "That's alright guys, let's just leave it anonymous" - ?

Like I say - the verse freaks me out.