QUESTION:
Hi Pastor Dave,
 I was going over the genealogy of Jesus in Mathew, and noticed that Rahab is married to Salmon, 4 generations from David, which is around 400 years away... Does this mean that Salmon was married to a descendant of Rahab? I was looking around and saw a website that mentioned Obed being the son of Naomi, when he was actually the grandson.

RESPONSE:
Good observation! 
Genealogies in Jesus day consistently use SON even when we would prefer they be more exact and use GRANDSON, GREAT-GRANDSON ETC. when referring to someone who is in the genealogical lineup but not necessarily a son. We do the same when referring to US citizens being the sons of our "Founding Fathers".

The same is true with Rahab and Salmon. Life Application Bible notes: There is a chronological problem in making Rahab the actual mother of Boaz, however. As with the phrase “father of,” those listed as mothers in a genealogy may be ancestors rather than actual mothers.

Taste and see that the LORD is good.
             Oh, the joys of those who trust in him! (Psalm 34:8)

We’ve learned to enjoy new foods at the Ginter home. My two adopted Filipino boys are tasting foods Sheryl and I adore. And we are attempting new foods they grew up on. Now, truth be told, it has not been a total success on either account. The boys often complain when we ask them to try a food with sauce or to eat a new veggie. Sheryl and I are also uncomfortable eating parts of the pig the boys want us to experience. But every now and then the guys or we parents will try a new food and exclaim, Wow! That’s really good!”

And so it is with God. Many have tried “foods” from other religions, philosophies, and found them less than tasty. But when we introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ, universally they find Him “good”!

Gandhi said that he would become a Christian...were it not for Christians! Let us pray that people will not miss the greatness of tasting and seeing how good God is due to having choked on a mouthful of us!

We depend on the LORD alone to save us.
Only he can help us, protecting us like a shield.
(Psalm 33:20)

When I got in trouble as a little child, I NEVER EVER went to my dad! NEVER! I would just as soon have died then and there as to turn to a man whom I did not believe had my best interests at heart. If you want to know why, read some of my other blogs! My image of dad distorted my image of God, my Heavenly parent.

Do you have an image today of God that has been   distorted by a less than perfect parent? Hard for you, is it, to turn to God and call God your Father? If so, then allow the truth of today’s Psalm to permeate your mind. Meditate on the greatness, care, compassion and goodness of our Heavenly Parent. God is dependable. God has your best interests at heart. You can trust your Heavenly Father to rescue and to protect you.

Once my sister was delayed at a pharmacy in Beirut, Lebanon, shortly after the Beirut civil war had started back in the 1970’s. She was terribly irritated at the interruption. Then, the bomb blew up outside the shop door. Had my sister been on her preferred timetable, she most likely would have died in the blast. Friends, our loving Father God always knows best. God is never early (which irritates those of us who like things done early). But God also is never late. God is always right on time. The seeming delays of God may be an example of God’s care for us as a Heavenly parent, protecting us from harm or injury. That is what happened in the case of my sister. It may also explain why God' seems late for you.

Recently, I preached a message on why I believe Jesus is 100% God and 100% human. I have been requested to share the basics of this message here. The passage I shared from is John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1-18.

I want you to begin a journey with me. I want you to discover on this journey that your life is not an accident. I want you to know, there is a purpose for you; you have meaning. Your life is important to us and your life is important to God. But I also want you to know that it takes work to find the life’s meaning. Not because our meanings are hidden like a treasure buried and always just out of reach. But because our lives are a treasure which God wants us to uncover through diligent effort as we journey together. Why all the hard work to grow spiritually? We rarely appreciate that which is just handed to us. When we work to experience all God has planned for us, we will enjoy the meaning discovered, both with God and with each other here on earth.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach said, "Full experiences of God can never be planned or achieved. They are spontaneous moments of grace, almost accidental."
Author Bo Lozoff responded, "Rabbi, if God-realization is just accidental, why do we work so hard doing all these spiritual practices?"
Rabbi Carlebach answered, "To be as accident-prone as possible."

I want us to journey through John’s Gospel. Together, I want us to become as accident-prone as possible, working hard to attain a spontaneously appearing connection with God.

Let’s begin this journey. John’s Gospel opens telling us that…

Your Life has a Source: Jesus (Read John 1-4a, 14; compare with Genesis 1)
John copies the precise language of Genesis 1 so there will be no doubt as to his meaning:
Genesis 1: 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 John 1:1    In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
2    He existed in the beginning with God.
3    God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
4    The Word gave life to everything that was created…14So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 

1.       Jesus, the Source, has all knowledge (1)
John 1:1  In the beginning the Word…

This is a Theological/Philosophical WORD, which in Greek is the word “Logos”. It means “God expressed”.

        Look at the Hebrew usage of this concept :
Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 
Psalm 33:6 The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. In both passages,  the WORD is an agent of creation.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. God’s law, & standard of holiness.
Hosea 1:2 The LORD gave this message (WORD) to Hosea… The source of God’s message to his people through the prophets.

        Now look at the Greek concept: WORD (LOGOS) here means “logic that governs the physical universe”.
The Greek word LOGOS  comes to us in English as the root of our word, "logic," and of the "-ology" suffix (e.g., geology, sociology, theology); (study of these sciences).

Logos is usually translated as "the Word" in English Bibles.

Gordon Clark , expert on pre-Socratic philosophy, translated Logos as "Logic": "In the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was with God and the Logic was God." He meant to imply by this translation that the laws of logic were contained in the Bible itself and were therefore not a secular principle imposed on the Christian world view.

Some Chinese translations of the Gospel of John have used the word "Tao (道)".

While the character itself translates as 'way', 'path', or 'route', or sometimes more loosely as 'doctrine' or 'principle', it is often used philosophically to signify the fundamental or true nature of the world.

The term Logos also reflects the term dabar Yahweh ("Word of God") in the Hebrew Bible, what we refer to as the Old Testament.

In the beginning the Tao, the dabar Yaweh, the Word already existed…was with God… was God.

So what does it mean for us that Jesus is the Logos, the Word? John is telling us that Jesus is the creative energy Who generated the universe. Jesus is the logic Who governs the universe. Jesus is the source of all the universe’s knowledge.

2.       Jesus, the Source, is eternal (1-2)
In the beginning the Word already existed…He existed in the beginning with God.

3.       Jesus, the Source, is God (1, 3-4) - note: the Tri-unity of God
The Word was with God, and the Word was God… God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created…

To strict monotheistic Jewish readers, when John writes “the Word was God”, it sounds like blasphemy. The Bible clearly teaches there is ONE God. But John, in this passage, starts sounding like there are more than one God. In John’s day as is still true today, Jewish people find it difficult to even speak about God without fear of offending Deity. Certainly, they agree, that God “spoke words”, but to say “the Word was God” made these two ideas somehow equal. For them, this was heresy! Their minds resisted any such thinking about God.

The idea that Jesus is somehow God is also a stumbling block for our Islamic friends.  Like Jewish people, they want a God they can understand. When God says that God is ONE, they do not want any complications! They will not embrace the Christian understanding that while we agree that God is one. God is best described as three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: a Tri-unity.

Yet, one of the most compelling reasons to believe the doctrine of the Tri-unity of God is the fact that it was revealed through people who were the least likely to believe it. In a world populated by many gods, it took the tough-minded Hebrews to clarify the revelation of God’s oneness expressed through Three-in-oneness which we refer to as the Trinity or Tri-unity of God. We must never presume to comprehend simply the essential nature of God. Those who want a God they can easily understand do not want the God of the universe.

4.       Jesus, the Source, is Man (14)
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 

Jesus Gives Direction to Your Life (4b-5)
1.       Jesus gives life a purpose (4b)
 …and his life brought light to everyone.

2.       Jesus gives life a sparkle (5)
    The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John McCain (a recent candidate for USA President) shared an experience that illustrates how light can never be overcome by darkness:
                When I was a prisoner of war in Vietnam…my captors would tie my arms behind my back and then loop the rope around my neck and ankles so that my head was pulled down between my knees. I was often left like that throughout the night. One night a guard came into my cell. He put his finger to his lips signaling for me to be quiet and then loosened my ropes to relieve my pain. The next morning, when his shift ended, the guard returned and retightened the ropes, never saying a word to me.
                A month or so later, on Christmas Day, I was standing in the dirt courtyard when I saw that same guard approach me. He walked up and stood silently next to me, not looking or smiling at me. Then he used his sandaled foot to draw a cross in the dirt. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas, even in the darkness of a Vietnamese prison camp.

  The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.

C. S. Lewis wrote: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else. 

Christ’s light has shined on a hardened, darkened humanity—and Jesus continues to shine. But the darkness can never extinguish it. This word EXTINGUISH has two meanings. On one hand, this word can refer to controlling, or conquering someone or something. On the other hand, the word can mean to understand. I think that both definitions are meant by John. Unbelievers did not understand Jesus Christ’s true identity and therefore, they tried to conquer or to control Him. But the darkness failed on both counts to master Christ! As Pascal said, There is enough light for those who only desire to see the light, and enough darkness for those who only desire the contrary.

Jesus Alone Knows Life’s Meaning (6-8, 15)
1.       John’s witness to Jesus’ humanity means Jesus understands our life (6-8)
6God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.  8John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.

2.       John’s witnesses to Jesus’ Deity means Jesus has the power to fulfill our life (15)
John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.”

Jesus Gives You the Choice About Life (9-13)
                Jesus will be known by all (9)
The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

         Some will reject Jesus (10-11)
10He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  11He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 

         Some will receive Jesus  (12-13)
12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  13They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. 

Jesus Gives Your Life Purpose (16-18)
1.       Life’s meaning comes through embracing Jesus (16)
From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.

2.       Grace and forgiveness come through Jesus (17)
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 

3.       God’s face is seen in Jesus (18)
No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. 

What Does Jesus Mean to You?
1.       Jesus chooses you intentionally, not accidentally (You aren’t junk, you aren’t an accidental formation of meaningless protoplasm. Instead, you are known by name by the Architect of the Universe!) 

2.       Jesus is the architect of your life  (He designed you, knows why you are the way you are, understands how to make you happy)

3.       Jesus has plans for your life (Similar to a CEO, Jesus has a purpose for you to attain, Jesus wants to give your life meaning; there’s a task for  to accomplish and if you don’t do it, it won’t get done)

4.       Jesus reveals the face of God (relationship) (Want to understand God? Look into the face of Jesus)

While we pretend to others we have it all together, deep inside, we fear the worst, or we fear our own potential for evil; that we are the worst of all the worst. This Table reminds us that the worst has already been experienced by Christ and paid for on the cross.

Some of us appear to have achieved great success. But in reality, our failures have tended to define what we believe about ourselves. This Table says differently. This table reminds us that we are not who we think we are. We are not whom others claim we are. We are who God says we are. God, and God alone defines our lives and gives us meaning.

We may be broken, damaged people, but together we are invited to embrace Jesus, the One who is 100% God and 100% human.

When we are apart from each other, we truly are are small and insignificant, scared by heartache - just fractured images of what we know we could have been. But together we become whole and healed as we come to the Communion Table, strengthened by His presence in His Broken Body and Shed Blood.

At this Table, we are nourished, we are washed, and we are rejuvenated. We become fully human and fully alive. We experience the depth of our meaning all because when coming to this Table, together we share Communion with our Lord, the human who is  God. 

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Interlude (Psalm 33:3-4)

As a young boy I was terrified of my father, even when things were smooth between us. Those were, indeed the best of days. On the worst of days, however, nothing could make me face his fury. On days where I was caught in the very act of rebellion against my dad’s “kingly rule”, my name was mud! I remember hiding downstairs in the basement of our three story home, praying for my dad not to find me, even though I was sure he knew right where I was; certain he could inflict a just punishment any time he chose.

How different and yet how similar it is with God, our Heavenly Parent. God does not nor does the Creator wish to strike automatic fear in our hearts, even on the best of days. Yet, how often we have lost a sense of uneasiness in facing God, even when caught in the very act of rebellion against God’s Kingly rule.  We would rather saunter up to the Lord’s Table, commune while clutching on to the sin that breaks the Creator’s heart.

We need once again to see the devastation sin wrecks in our life. We need to remember Whom we are facing. If I had fear for my earthly father simply because I knew his justice would be certain, what does it say about my belief in the justice of my Heavenly Father when I have no fear to go face-to-face with God?

Oh, what joy for those
whose rebellion is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty! (Psalm 33:1-2)

Recently I watched a movie version of Lord Cromwell’s deposing of King Charles I of England. Cromwell has Charles beheaded while initiating a spree of evil rarely equaled by one tyrant. It reminded me of the treachery and devastation wrought by humankind throughout history. War is always ugly. But rebellion from within the ranks, “civil war”, is to my mind, the ugliest contestant in a pageant of evil contenders!

The Scripture lesson today equates sin with rebellion. That’s an excellent understanding; indeed, sin is a rebellion against the Kingdom of God, headed by Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. Ours is never a private affair, an isolated action, a single wake in the lake of life. Rather, our acts of rebellion impact the entire Kingdom and distress the King.

We need to reexamine sin. It is not simply a “bad decision”, an “unfortunate choice”, some “little problem” where we “kind of “failed”. Sin is not of these candy-coated euphemisms. Rather, sin is a breaking of ranks, a rebellion against the King and His Kingdom. Sin, ultimately is not the breaking of God’s rules; sin breaks God’s heart.

  Read John 12
1Six days before the Passover ceremonies began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. 2A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus sat at the table with him. 3Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with fragrance.

4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples—the one who would betray him—said, 5“That perfume was worth a small fortune. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief who was in charge of the disciples’ funds, and he often took some for his own use.

7Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did it in preparation for my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but I will not be here with you much longer.”

We are told that Jesus arrived at Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus. Automatically we have assumed this was Lazarus’ home. Mary is present and Martha is doing what we always find Martha doing – she is serving! But if you examine the parallel passages in Mark 14 and Matthew 26 we find out the home belongs to Simon the former Leper whom Jesus healed. He is throwing the party for Jesus and apparently the Lazarus gang has all been invited.

In the midst of the festivities, Mary takes a pint of Nard, a terribly expensive perfume made from the oil of a root, and imported from Southern Arabia or perhaps India. The pint contained about 12 ounces. Now most normal flasks would hold about 1 ounce. Mary demonstrates a costly act of unexpected love through her extravagant gift. The perfume was worth about $65 (US). But it represented at least 1 years wage for the common laborer in Jesus’ day. It was probably an heirloom, handed down from one generation to the next. It was Mary’s security, her retirement fund. That’s how much this act of love cost her!

We are told it was sealed in an alabaster jar, the favored container for perfume. Once the seal was broken, and the perfume spilled out the contents could be used with their full freshness only once. All of this adds to our understanding of the costliness of Mary’s demonstration of love on behalf of her Lord and Master.

Mary further embarrasses herself by her hair, not just to those seated, but most especially to her favored Rabbi. Again, in Middle Eastern culture even today, much less back then, a woman’s hair was considered sensuous and private. She did not go around without her hair completely veiled…unless she was drumming up business.

I experienced this for myself while living in Cairo, Egypt. As I was driving home one Sunday evening and slowed down to cross that universal car destroyer, the “speed bump” I couldn’t help but notice a veiled young Muslim woman standing fairly far into the road. I would have normally paid no attention to her (since in a Muslim Country a man is expected to avert his gaze from a woman). But as I was about to pass her, she stooped over, looked into my window and gave me one of the most lecherous smiles I have ever seen on a woman. She smiled like a Muslim version of a Playboy Bunny. I was shocked! Now I had seen lots of prostitutes when I was working in Chicago. Their business district began 2 blocks from my home there. But I had never encountered anything like this in Egypt. I thought to myself, “Maybe your just overreacting, Dave”. So, feeling somewhat guilty, and looking as innocent as I could, I circled the block and came back for a second glance…BIG mistake! The woman, sensing she had a “live one” here revealed her true intentions to me. How did she do that? As I drove past her the second time, she lowered her veil and shook her hair out at me. I, sensing the danger, put the pedal to the metal, got home and locked my door.

We have a saying in English that has come down to us from this cultural taboo.  If you want to be less rigid or formal you “Let your hair down”.  Well Mary really let hers down.  She not only anointed Jesus’ head but his feet.  Then she proceeded to wipe them with her hair, an amazing action of self-revelation.  I’m certain it demonstrated to Jesus how much she trusted him.  She knew he would not read anything dirty or smutty into her actions.  She was confident he would understand and give the correct meaning to her selfless action of love – LOVE, not sexual innuendos.  She was completely comfortable with Him and apparently, He with her.

But others were not so comfortable.  I’m sure a few righteously incensed eyebrows were raised.  Interestingly, however, it wasn’t those incensed morals the crowd decided to pick apart.  It was the waste that bothered them.  John tells us specifically about Judas’ anger at this wasted finance, not because Judas particularly cared for the poor but because he regularly pilfered the cash box, a fact that makes his later betrayal doubly painful.  But Mark and Matthew let us in on a dirty little secret:  it wasn’t just Judas who was angry, it was all the disciples.

Matthew 26:8 tells us, “When the disciples saw this they were indignant.  ‘Why this waste?’ they asked.  ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’”   If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice how he acts when he loses money – Jewish Proverb. 

Remember the conditions of first century Palestine.  Poverty was rampant, unemployment high.  These were middle class people whose limited means made frugality a way of life.  That they were shocked is easy to understand.  But their failure to see within this act of love anything but waste showed their inability to use any measurements but those of the marketplace.  As George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “It is true that the world is governed to a considerable extent by the considerations that occur to stockbrokers in the first five minutes.”

Mary’s actions, at any rate, are soundly condemned on the basis of considerations that occurred to the disciples within the first five minutes!  Jesus’ disciples may not have been stockbrokers, but they weighed life on a broker’s scale – MONEY!  They were blinded to issues where the last word was not the clink of a coin.

Many condemn the church for asking you to contribute to its coffers systematically and sacrificially. It is rumored that we churches have ways of making you pay! I heard about a strong man who traveled with a circus.  One of his most impressive stunts was to take an orange and squeeze every last drop of juice out of it.  Then he would offer one thousand dollars to anyone who could manage to squeeze as much as one additional drop from it.  He went from city to city all over the world making his offer, but no one was able to win the one thousand dollars from him.  Then one day he came to my town and made his demonstration of juice-squeezing prowess and his challenge.  A wonderfully, wizened, financial type man came forward and said he’d like to take a try at the challenge.  He didn’t appear exceptionally strong.  But he took the crushed orange and proceeded to squeeze six more drops of juice from it.  The strong man was amazed.  He could hardly believe his eyes.  He asked how he was possibly able to do this.  The man shrugged and said, “Oh, I’m the Treasurer down at Pastor Dave’s Church and we do this all the time.”

MONEY!
Workers earn it,
spendthrifts burn it,
bankers lend it,
people spend it,
forgers fake it,
taxes take it,
dying leaves it,
heirs receive it,
thrifty save it,
misers crave it,
robbers seize it,
rich increase it,
gamblers lose it...
I could use it.
  -- Richard Armour

“This perfume could have been sold at a high price.” they said.  They were shocked.  They couldn’t believe their eyes... or their noses!  This could have been cashed.  Instead of wasting it on something dreamy and unreal, it could have been substantial and beneficial.  After all, the real world is made up of gold, silver, pesos, quetzals, pounds, deutche marks, dollars, investments, real estate and bonds.  This could have meant big bucks instead of blowing it in a vain gesture of devotion, instead of substantially wasting it on that which pays no dividends.

So reasons the marketplace.  Whatever does not produce a profit when put on the balance is worthless.  Don’t waste your time on it!

And that, friends, is how much of the world views the church.  Many of these well-meaning people are eager to reform the world and improve its standard of living. To them the church seems an unnecessary nuisance, an irritating irrelevance.  But to them, we distract people from what really needs to be done.  They think we incite the poor to ignore their poverty and waste their time upon things that don’t really matter one way or another.  Remember what Marx wrote”  “Religion”, he said, “is the opium of the poor...To suppress religion, which provides an illusory happiness is to establish the claims of real happiness.” 

Well, unfortunately, Marx and other short-sighted critics of the church have not done their homework.  It has been the followers of Christ who have often been first to bring relief and development to certain poverty smitten areas the rest of the world ignored. On several continents, hospitals exist because Christ’s followers started them.  Many of the great learning centers of the world for higher education were founded by churches.  Thousands of smaller but no less significant educational centers have been initiated by mission agencies to alleviate the poverty of the mind. Mother Theresa’s legacy of work among India’s orphans has now spread world-wide. 

None of the charitable work I’ve just mentioned produces much by way of profit.  To the marketplace mentality, most of these organizations would be considered a poor risk.  Their success at alleviating the devastation of poverty and disease?  Minimal.  Mother Theresa, herself was once criticized by a visiting cynic who observed, “Why Mother, you’re not even beginning to meet the needs of a fraction of all the orphans in Calcutta”, to which Mother Theresa made this insightful comment:  “I am not called to be the Messiah (Messiah means the anointed One, like what Mary did to Jesus, remember?).”  Her inference was clear.  She was responsible to do only that which she could.  She would not be immobilized into inaction due to the extent of a need she was unable, unqualified and not responsible to meet.

Examine Jesus response to Mary’s extravagant action and discover support for Mother Theresa’s statement.  In Mark 14:7-8 Jesus says to her detractors, “The poor you will always have with you” (a veiled reference to Deuteronomy 15:11 which urges generosity to the poor) “and you can help them anytime you want.  But you will not always have me.   She did what she could.”

Jesus was not recommending as some have suggested he was, that we cease all efforts on behalf of the poor.  Indeed, much of his teaching would need to be thrown away were we to adopt such a crass interpretation of our Lord’s words.  Rather, note his emphasis on the phrase, “She did what she could.”  Those five little words contain more power than all the arsenals of the world’s military might combined.  You see, doing what we can is frequently the last thing we want to do.  As a general rule, it is unexciting and unspectacular.  Often it goes unnoticed.  How much more romantic to think of ourselves accomplishing greater things, daydreaming of tremendous feats worthy of tumultuous praise, the world bowing at our feet in gratitude and awe while we humbly sit back and say something inane like, “Oh, it was really nothing ...really.”

Or, we sigh and think of all the causes we would like to help if we had just an extra $50,000, that’s all it would take.  And we ignore giving the 500 pennies we do have.

Many people would prefer to preach like some world renown pastor, something few of us can do, but refuse to teach a Sunday school class, something most of us can do.

She did what she could.  And that’s what God asks of us.  I am asking you to make this commitment with me this right now: I cannot do everything…but I will do what I can.

Alcohol…Question # 3 (11/17/09)
Atheism, Intelligent Atheist…(9/12/09)
Birth Control…Question # 16 (12/23/09)
Christmas Around The World Quiz…12/23/09)
Christmas, The Real Meaning…Observation # 5 (12/14/09)
Church And Politics…1/25/10Church – What Kind Of Church Throws Birthday Parties For Prostitutes?... (1/5/10)
Creation Views…Question # 11 (12/11/09)
Cultural Title: Immanuel…Question # 1 (11/04/09)
Disagreements; How to Make Them Evaporate…(1/4/09)
Disasters: How Do We Respond To Them?...2/3/10
Doubt, Dealing With Times God Doesn’t Make Sense…Observation # 6 (12/23/09)
Doubts About Death: How Can I Know What Happens To Me After I Die?...1/30/10
Festival Celebrations, Old Testament…Question # 8 (12/04/09)
Forgiveness: Going Beyond Forgiveness To Restoration… (1/5/09)
Forgiveness: How do I do it?…Question # 15…(12/17/09)
God: All Knowing and Wise? Really?...(1/11/10)
God: Ever-Present…so what!...(2/5/10)
Guilt, How To Deal With It…Question #16 (1/1/10)
Islam, Differences…Question # 10 (12/09/09
Life, Accountability…Question # 4 (11/17/09)
Manhattan Declaration…Question # 7 (11/28/09)
Mary, The Mother Of Jesus…Observation 3 (12/12/09)
Masturbation…Question # 9 (12/08/09)
“Naked Gospel” Critique…Observation # 1 (10/08/09)
Reincarnation…Question # 2 (11/10/09)
Stress: How To Thrive Under It…(2/6/10)
Tattoos…Question # 17 (1/2/10)
Tithing…Question # 6 (11/28/09)
Wit…Observation # 2 (11/21/09)
Women in Church Leadership…(9/28/09)
Worldviews…Question # 14 (12/14/09)
Worship That is Real And Acceptable To God…1/29/10

Preaching Today has several illustrations capturing the stress of life today.

In 2005, a store called MinneNAPolis opened in Minnesota's Mall of America. It rents comfy spots where weary shoppers can take naps for 70 cents a minute. Founded by PowerNap Sleep Centers of Boca Raton, Florida, the new store includes themed rooms such as Asian Mist, Tropical Isle, and Deep Space, and the walls are thick enough to drown out the sounds of squealing children outside (it wouldn’t work for me cause if I were paying good money to try and sleep, I’d be tossing and turning, stressing over the waste).

The company's website says, "Escape the pressures of the real world into the pleasures of an ideal one." "It's not just napping," reads the press release. "Some guests will want to listen to music, put their feet up, watch the water trickling in the beautiful stone waterfall, breathe in the positive-ionization-filtered air, enjoy the full-body massager, and just take an enjoyable escape from the fast-paced lifestyle."

We are busy people, looking for some peace and quiet….some rest!

In data collected from over 20,000 Christians in 139 countries (though mostly in America) and between the ages of 15 and 88, The Obstacles to Growth Survey found that, on average, more than 4 in 10 Christians around the world say they "often" or "always" rush from task to task. About 6 in 10 Christians say that it's "often" or "always" true that "the busyness of life gets in the way of developing my relationship with God." Christians most likely to agree were from North America, Africa, and Europe.

By profession, pastors were most likely to say they rush from task to task (54 percent), which adversely affects their relationship with God (65 percent).

"It's tragic and ironic: the very people who could best help us escape the bondage of busyness are themselves in chains," said Dr. Michael Zigarelli, who conducted the study at the Charleston Southern University School of Business.

Christians could learn something from the nuclear submarine Thresher . It had heavy steel bulkheads and heavy steel armor, so it could dive deep and withstand the pressure of the ocean. Unfortunately, on a test run in 1963, the Thresher's nuclear engine quit, and it could not get back to the surface. It sank deeper and deeper into the ocean. The pressure became immense. The heavy steel bulkheads buckled; the Thresher was crushed with 129 people inside.

The Navy searched for the Thresher with a research craft that was much stronger than submarines. It was shaped like a steel ball and was lowered into the ocean on a cable. They finally located the Thresher at a depth of 8,400 feet: one and a half miles down. It was crushed like an egg shell. That was not a surprise, for the pressure at that depth is tremendous—3,600 pounds per square inch.

What was surprising to the searchers was that they saw fish at that great depth. And these fish did not have inches of steel to protect them. They appeared to have normal skin, a fraction of an inch thick. How can these fish survive under all that pressure? How come they are not crushed by the weight of the water? They have a secret. Their secret is that they have the same pressure inside themselves as they have on the outside. Survival under pressure.

The Apostle John assures us, "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." We will be victorious in the battle against evil and the Evil One because Jesus poured his Spirit into our hearts. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

If you get a ticket for speeding and have to go to traffic school in the USA, one thing you learn in the defensive-driving part: they created a scenario: "You're stopped at a stop sign. You look in your rearview mirror and see a car careening toward you that you realize is going to rear-end you. What should you do?"

Almost everybody in the class will say you should keep your feet off the brake, so that when that car hits you, you would go forward, absorbing some of the shock.

That is the wrong answer!

Here is what they will tell you: Put your brake on as tight as you can and brace yourself for that collision. If your car is rigid and braced—if it's on its foundation, in other words—then when that horizontal pressure hits, there will be less damage to your car and to the occupants. If your car is not braked, you get the whiplash effect.

What our Lord has said is that when our lives are anchored into the rock—when we have found his faithfulness and his love, and we have made that the foundation of our life—then we're better able to handle the horizontal pressures of life. As the Psalmist implores us:
5    Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
6    He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
Psalm 62:5-6

I want you to participate in the mystery of God’s Omnipresence. God is present everywhere! There is no place on earth or the sky or the Universe where God is not.
Psalm 139:7-12

7                           Where can I go from your Spirit?
                   Where can I flee from your presence?
8                           If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
                   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9                           If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
                   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10                        even there your hand will guide me,
                   your right hand will hold me fast.
11                        If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
                   and the light become night around me,”
12                        even the darkness will not be dark to you;
                   the night will shine like the day,
                   for darkness is as light to you.

Does this mean God is faster than a speeding bullet; that God gets to wherever I am going ahead of me? No! It isn’t that God has a more efficient mode of transport than I have; it means God simply IS.

In the ancient Near East “gods” were believed to have access to all places in the universe or over which they had limited rule. However, no deities worshipped by Near Eastern cultures were believed to be present everywhere at once. Such an idea was unheard of, even for a “god”.

But the God of the Bible says in Jeremiah 23: 23-24:
23Am I a God who is only in one place?” asks the LORD. “Do they think I cannot see what they are doing? 24Can anyone hide from me? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” asks the LORD.

The Bible describes God as the All Powerful, Eternal God who is Everywhere Present in the heavens and on the earth.

Some of us, like King Solomon of old, have the mistaken impression that church is the primary place where we find God. Solomon,. However, saw things differently. He wrote when dedicating the new worship facility in Jerusalem,

But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built.
(1 Kings 8:27)

Hopefully each Sunday you will discover something new about the mystery of God when we the church gathers in their Worship Center. But no church, ours, or any other church is the only place where God exists.

Solomon let us in on an amazing secret, a mystery that flies in the face of all divinities worshiped in his day. He said that God not only fills the heavens and the earth, heaven and earth are not big enough to contain God!

even the highest heavens cannot contain you

In Psalm 8 the Psalmist announces that,
…the majesty of your name fills the earth!

However, he goes beyond that with the next phrase where God says,
Your glory is higher than the heavens.

Did you get that? God both fills heaven and earth something theologians call God’s immanency, meaning God is close to us. God also though is “…higher than the heavens”. That means if the universe blew up in an instant, God would still exist. Theologians call this aspect of God transcendence, meaning God is above and beyond creation. God is both near to us (immanence) and far away, (transcendence) at the same time. God is everywhere present!

So, since God is everywhere, why did Jesus teach us to pray, as we pray when we worship, “Our Father which art in HEAVEN…”? Why pray to God there? Why not, since Jesus lives in my heart, pray to the God within me? Why not look at my face in the mirror and pray, “O God!”?

In that same prayer, Jesus taught us to say, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You see, from what we observe revealed in Scriptures heaven appears to be a place totally different from our dimension of earth and the universe. It is not of this creation at all. Heaven is the place where God has chosen in some unique way to display all the radiance and brilliance that we call the “Glory of God”. Heaven is not a place where more of God resides than here. It is simply that God has chosen heaven as the place where throughout all eternity his splendor will be on display.

To help us visualize how God can be everywhere present while not being seen everywhere, my professor and mentor, David Needham suggests we think of God’s presence as represented by a great hall similar to this Sanctuary with long tables running the length of each aisle and across the front of the platform. On each table there is piled high a particular kind of rock.  Tons of the rocks are there.

Suddenly, all the lights are turned out plunging our Sanctuary into stark darkness. But in my hand I hold an ultraviolet light. I shine it on one small area of the table. What will you see there? The rocks will literally seem to blaze with blues, greens and yellow and reds and oranges. The colors will virtually dance on the stones, demonstrating that otherwise hidden fantastic beauty within the stone.

Are these particular rocks any different from the rest? No, anyplace I chose to shine that light, the same glory will be seen. You see, it is not in the light; the glory’s in the rocks.

This pictures God’s glory. It is not that our Creator is only present or is more present in heaven. No, God could choose to reveal glory in any nook or cranny of the universe! But for reasons unknown to us, the glory and brilliance of God is forever and always on display in some special amazing way in heaven. Thus, when I pray to my God in Heaven, I am entering into the very glory of God.

But here we are on earth, our lives troubled, our families distressed, our finances, our futures clouded. Where is the glory of God? I need God’s brilliance shinning in my life, my circumstances, my world. Friends, God is as present here as God is present in heaven. Although you do not see the ultraviolet results shinning in the rocks surrounding your life, God’s glory is still there. Furthermore, God invites you to enter the throne room of the Creator.  Bring your requests and petitions into the place where God’s splendor and magnificence is never dimmed!

God is both with you here and hears you in heaven. God is present…everywhere!

But if this is true, that God is everywhere, what am I to make of the many Scripture passages that tell me I can leave God’s presence? How can this be possible? Yet Genesis 4:16 says,
So Cain left the LORD’S presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Or take for example Paul’s terrifying description in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 of what happens to evil people who reject God:
…(God) will come with his mighty angels, 8in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power 10when he comes to receive glory and praise from his holy people…

Away from God’s glorious power? Separated from the Lord? How can this be possible if God is present everywhere? This presents me with double trouble; not only does it appear contradictory to other Scripture but why would God seem so harsh?

To help us better understand these and several other Bible passages all of which indicate that at times God and people part ways, it helps to know that both in the original Hebrew Old Testament and in the original Greek New Testament, the word translated “presence” is literally the word for “face”.

Thus when the Psalmist was praying, “Where can I flee from your presence?” he was not only appreciating the reality that God is present everywhere he goes, he was reveling in the fact that God’s face was turned his way. He had the full attention of the Creator God! He was saying, “God, you are not only here but you are looking my way, giving me your full attention!”

You know how alone you feel on a crowded elevator with people present everywhere? Talk about a great illustration of omnipresence! All eyes face straight ahead, staring at the floor numbers. No one acknowledges your existence. No one cares where you are headed.  You are not alone, and yet you are all alone. You are in the midst of the omnipresence of people. But their faces, you see, are not turned your way!

But we do not worship a God who steps onto the elevator of life with us and then assumes that forward looking posture. When God speaks of being present with us, what God intends for us to understand is far beyond the mere presence of glory. Rather, God wants us to grasp the most wonderful truth imaginable: this all powerful, eternal God wants to have a relationship…with ME! God wants to be our friend! Wow!

Moses understood this truth when God reassured him,
14… I will personally go with you, Moses. I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.
(Exodus 33:14)

You see, it wasn’t just that God would be there, God’s presence mystically with Moses in some psychic connection. No!  God was saying, “Moses, not only will I be wherever you go, my attention will fully focus upon you and your circumstances”.

Moses understood this. He understood it so well that Moses replied to God,
…If you don’t go with us personally,
don’t let us move a step from this place.
(Exodus 33:15)

You see, Moses would not move an inch if he felt God would not move with him. He made it clear to God that he had no intention of going anywhere outside of God’s face, God’s total attention.

That, friends, is what the Bible calls living in the Center of God’s perfect will. To live wherever God calls you to live, to do whatever God calls you to do, to be whatever God calls you to be, to give up whatever God calls you to give up…that is powerfully living in the presence of God.

And it brings up another dimension of the face of God. The first dimension explains God’s face towards me, desiring a relationship with me. It is also dependant upon the second dimension, my facing God. This means I choose to remain in relationship with God.

All who go the way of Cain and leave God’s presence as recorded in Genesis break fellowship with God. All who reject a relationship with Jesus Christ and thus fulfill the terrible vision recorded in 2 Thessalonians, all who walk away from God’s presence and God’s face, have chosen their own destiny. That destiny is the exact opposite of a destiny filled with glorious light. You see, that destiny is what the Bible calls “hell”.

Symbolically, we look at the face of God when we worship, study God’s Word in Sunday School and Small groups or personally reflect upon an aspect of God’s nature like…what it means that God’s face is always towards me.  As we gaze on God, the Bible says we are transformed by God to become more godly, more like the Savior we serve.

In 2 Corinthians we are reminded how Moses’ face was transformed. Moses glowed when he spent time in the very presence of God. But 2 Corinthians reminds us that Moses’ glory also faded. To avoid all Israel seeing the fading glow of God on his face, Moses ingeniously wore a veil. Thus, the dimming radiance wouldn’t be detected.  Whereas the glory of God shining in our lives never needs to diminish. It can go on forever.

2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:6-7 reads,
18And all of us have had that veil removed (WHY???) so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord.

Mirrors were often made of bronze. The Corinthian’s were famous for their bronze. But even the best mirrors reflected images imperfectly (some philosophers thus used mirrors as an analogy to describe mortals’ search for their gods). Here, however, Paul contrasts the revelation of Moses with our more glowing experience when we brightly reflect God’s image to others.

Then, in 3:18 he continues, And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.

Greeks told many stories of people who became “transformed,” but Greek philosophers spoke of being transformed toward “godhood” by contemplating divine things. Paul’s basis of this image is simply how Moses reflected God’s glory. Right now, those of us under the new covenant of Jesus Christ view God’s glory even more plainly than Moses could.

Then in 4:6, Paul says, 6For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made us understand that this light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Creator spoke light into being in Genesis; God similarly makes the light of glory shine in the hearts of those who see an even clearer view of glory than Moses experienced. That glory is ours today because we believe in Jesus Christ.

Paul continues in 4:7 saying, 7But this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us—is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.

In Paul’s day, Philosophers were often hailed as strong and unswayed by testing. Paul reminds his readers that for the Christian, this power is from God and God alone.

“Earthen” or “clay” jars, as opposed to bronze ones, were readily discarded. Because clay was always available, such containers were cheap and disposable if they were broken. Paul proclaims a mind-blowing fact; we are those clay, disposable containers—an odd container for such a rich treasure.

Friends, the face of Jesus Christ is always towards us. When we choose to remain facing Him, we are transformed, becoming more and more like Christ in our thoughts and our actions. And that is good news.

Some of us have turned our backs on the very face of God. Are you one of them? You yearn to renew your relationship with your Creator. God has placed this need in your life. Turn around. Face God. Turning around is the Biblical definition of repentance. Repent, turn around, face God. God is already facing you.

Let me close with one more fact, the third dimension of this glowing truth. We become to others the very presence and therefore, the face of God.

Have you heard it said, “You are the finest Christian some people will ever know”? That usually strikes fear in my heart. But I should see it as a tremendous compliment and challenge. Yes, we are to have faith in God. But did you know, God has faith in us as well? God has no other plan to win other than you and I sharing this Good News of Jesus Christ. It is God’s greatest statement of faith in us! God’s compliment that the Creator is counting on us to be the very presence of Christ here on earth.

God has chosen to use our eyes, to reach the world through our feet, to love all cultures through our hands, to meet the needs of a hurting world through our efforts. It begins at every church who takes this challenge seriously. It begins today in YOUR life if you allow God to rule.