An Interview with a Criminal

 Who, living or dead, would you most like to have a conversation with? There are all kinds of brilliant answers that I have heard. And a few silly ones too. Given this choice, many folks choose a family member, and some, Elvis or John Lennon, others, a Bible character. I always have chosen Mary Magdalene when asked this question. But today, while reading Luke 23:39-43, I changed my mind. I decided to request a conversation with the repentant criminal on the cross beside Jesus. I will call him Mr. Criminal 2. Maybe our conversation would go like this. 

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Me: Hi, Mr. Criminal 2. I have many questions about that day on Calvary. Would you be willing to answer a few?

Mr. Criminal 2: Sure, but I really want to get back to play a round of golf with The Big Guy, so make it quick. What do you want to know?

Me: I have read what you said to Criminal 1 on the cross. How did you know Jesus didn’t deserve to die on that cross? 

Mr. Criminal 2: Wow! Getting right to the punch line. I like that. Before that day, I wasn’t really paying much attention to the stories about the miraculous healings and preaching of Jesus, but I did know who he was. Everybody did. I was a thug, you know. And so it took my mind off of my pain to watch him being nailed on the cross beside me.

Me: So you watched him suffering to get your mind off of your own?

Mr. Criminal 2: Yeah. But he was tortured so much more than either of us criminals. In fact, I think they forgot about us at times because the soldiers and crowd were so worked up about Jesus. Here is how crazed they were. Before the crucifixion there was this other heinous criminal named Barabbas, a real piece of work. The powers-that-be asked the crowd to choose to release Barabbas or Jesus thinking they would release the guy who healed people and stuff. But they were so crazed that they chose to crucify Jesus and release that evil dude. Their thirst for Jesus blood was like nothing I ever witnessed before. I couldn’t understand this. So I thought I had better watch him closely to see why they hated him so much.

Me: So you decided to focus on Jesus crucifixion rather than your own?

Mr. Criminal 2: Yes. And this is when I saw his innocence. It was so obvious. It didn’t matter what they did to torture him, from the crown made of thorns to taunting and spitting on him, he kept his cool. He even forgave those damn executioners! He was majestic-like and kind at the same time, even during that shameful degrading torture. He never lost it. He was other-worldly in his words and countenance yet he was enduring the pain of this horrible death with the additional physical and mental tortures beyond that of us two criminals. He clearly was not like us. 

Me: So, if you could see that he had an unknown source of power, why didn’t you ask him to save you like Criminal 1 did? 

Mr. Criminal 2: You know, as I watched him I realized that he was choosing this death for some strange reason. And what is more, he was talking to God like he was his dad.

Me: So why didn’t Criminal 1 see this too?

Mr. Criminal 2: Here is the thing. That guy never really looked at Jesus. He focused on the angry crowd and the soldiers. If he had ever watched Jesus, he would have seen it. 

Me: So then what happened?

Mr. Criminal 2: Here we are slowly dying this painful death and Criminal 1, pipes up with the plan for Jesus to rescue us. But he didn’t think Jesus was able to do it and so he was really mocking Jesus just like the blood-thirsty crowd around us. By then, I had seen enough to know Jesus could save us from this torture and for some reason he chose to endure it. So I told criminal 1 what I thought. I said, “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”*

Me: So how did you decide to make that request of Jesus that is recorded in the Bible?

Mr. Criminal 2: I don’t know. It just came out of watching him when I said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”* And then Jesus looked at me. Oh the compassion in his pained eyes! Then Jesus said to me, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”*

Me: How did that make you feel? 

Mr. Criminal 2: You can’t imagine. I was so engulfed by Jesus love that I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. We died after that and just like he said, I joined him here in paradise and have been rejoicing ever since! I am a new man, clean and forgiven. What a gift!

Me: So you are saying that the only difference in you and Mr. Criminal 1 is that you kept focusing on Jesus?

Mr. Criminal 2: That is it. I was as bad as that guy. I knew we both deserved crucifixion. Criminal 1 never admitted that he deserved this punishment and focused on his own pain and bitterness while I watched Jesus until I was in total awe of him. I knew without a doubt that he was the Son of the Most High God. 

*quotes from Luke 23:39-43 The Message translation 

A Poster-Child for Atheism

 Many Christians like to wear t-shirts proclaiming who they are. I do not. But my reasons for this are not noble. Here is what goes through my judgmental little mind when I see a Jesus bumper sticker or shirt. “Look at how they drive! Look at how they act in line at HEB. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. And they have the gall to wear that shirt. 🤦🏻‍♀️ They are the poster child for atheism!”

So since I could be a poster child for atheism at any one point in my day-to-day life, I cannot and will not wear the Christian swag. But, in reality, can any of us? We are all so far from perfect. And most of us are far from joyful except maybe when we are filled with spirits that are not so Holy. How are we any different? None of us can live sinlessly and joyfully all the time. We are all repellant for recruitment into the faith at some point in our day.

Have you ever tried to live a perfect day? It is painstaking and joyless work watching our own thoughts and actions every second of the day. In a book by Steve Brown called Scandalous Freedom, he calls out Christians that are faking it. He says we are not living in the freedom that Christ gave us and we bind ourselves to things like rule-following perfectionism, sacrificing the joy that Christ followers were given. The author says we are wearing masks that we think the church people ought to wear to be acceptable. And he says that those masks are the very thing that repel folks from Christianity. After all, who wants to live a joyless life of rule following?

In the aforementioned book, the author says Christ followers need to focus less on sinning and more on Christ. He says we are still sinners and when we try to pretend we are not, we lose our freedom and joy. We will always lose in the battle for perfection in the eyes of the world. So quit trying. Quit beating yourself up because you don’t fit the Christian profile. Quit chasing joy and let it catch up with you.

The point is that Christ set us free when we humble ourselves and cry out to Him. He didn’t remove our penchant for sinning, He forgives them and covers them with His perfection. This makes us perfect in His eyes even though in reality we are riddled with sin. And His, is the only opinion that matters. In that, there is joy! In that, there is freedom. It is joy and freedom that makes folks want what we have, not a life of rule-following. So are Christians really any different? I have found the answer to be, “Christians are not better, they are forgiven.” I believe that saying is on a Christian t-shirt.

Galatians 5:1 MSG
[1] Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

'Tis the Season--No, Not THAT One!

 Christmas? No. Halloween? No. Elections? No way! Remember that in November it will be Thanksgiving and it is all about that attitude of gratitude. I find it ironic that this season of gratitude falls right before the season of making lists of stuff we want.

In the past year I have been given a heightened awareness of prayer and many answered prayers have resulted in a renewed vision for prayer. This is not to say that I have successfully manipulated God to give me stuff. It is to say that I have been learning a few things from experience, participating in a study of the Lord’s Prayer and am currently reading a book about prayer called Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Timothy Keller. So I thought I would share some of the things I have learned about prayer.

Since Jesus gave an example of how we should pray, this will start with what he said. There are entire sermons written about just one of the lines of this prayer, however, it is the overall attitude that I see in the Lord’s Prayer that speaks to me the most. So each line will be followed by my own summarizing note about each phrase, emphasizing the attitude and focus.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. The focus of this prayer is God. Shift my focus to him.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Prayer should be about listening to God’s agenda, not the reverse.

Give us this day our daily bread. We should recognize our dependence on God for our physical existence.

And forgive us our trespasses… We should recognize our reliance on God for our spiritual existence because we are sinful and dependent on his grace.

…as we forgive those who trespass against us. We are expected to follow his example in our life.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We have no control and depend on God for our protection for the very real forces of evil around us.

This is how Jesus said to pray. It is a humble prayer. I see the overall attitude of this prayer as reverence for the majesty of our creator and admission of our total dependence on him. This leads me to believe that the wrong way to pray is the opposite…with pride. So I must check my attitude before I jump in with a wish list for The Giver of All Life. And if I do this correctly, my wish list will vanish along with my pretense.

From the aforementioned book by Timothy Keller about prayer, I have discovered these important points about prayer. They resonated with me so I will share them here. They originated from John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion but they are my paraphrase of his points. He refers to them as prayer rules but I think of them as prayer attitudes.

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His first point is to approach God with joyful fear. It is my biggest challenge to retain my awe of God in a lifetime of familiarity. I like to think of this description: tremble with the privilege of speaking to the Creator of the Universe. This makes me think of a song by Lauren Daigle called Tremble. I will place the link here so you can go listen to it. This song expresses this point of view excellently.

 

Calvin’s second point is an attitude of spiritual insufficiency. This is described as being ruthlessly honest about my flaws and weaknesses. No grandiose facades. God knows.

In restful trust, let go and let God handle our issues. In Keller’s book it is suggested that we could say, “Here’s what I need–but You know best.”

The fourth attitude is to pray with confidence and hope, knowing that God will give us the best answer in his own time and it will be so much better than our ideas.

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So may we all remember in this season, that prayer is about a frame of mind of joyful reverence, honesty, trust and confident hope. ‘Tis the Season!

The Hater and the Hated

 It is easy to point my finger at the hate-filled white cop who killed an innocent black man. What is not easy, is to look within myself for hatred. Hatred is like that. Everyone can see your hatred but you.

Do not take revenge my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.” says the Lord. Romans 12:19

There is an old story about a hater named Jonah. For whatever reason, he hated people from Nineveh. We are not told why, but we are told they were evil. I’m sure they must have wronged Jonah or his family or his village. Jonah was told by God to go preach to them so they would turn to God. Jonah refused on the basis that they didn’t deserve the forgiveness and second chance that a loving God would offer them. We are all very familiar with what happens next. Jonah ends up inside a big fish then barfed up on a beach.

I find it interesting that the Lord gives both the people of Nineveh and Jonah a second chance. This is a story of forgiveness for both the hater and the hated. He is the God of second chances. If only we, as Christians, can learn to give second chances to those we have learned to hate.

Jonah went to the city of Nineveh and preached to them to turn to God and they did, saving them from certain destruction. However, Jonah was not happy with this conversion of his enemies. He became angry and complained to the Lord that he knew that this would happen because God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding with love. He asked the Lord to take his life rather than to accept this redemption of the people of Nineveh. This is where we can plainly see the problem was more with Jonah than with the evil Ninevites. This prophet that God used to bring the city of Nineveh back to him was eaten up with hate and anger.

His source of hatred was unforgiveness. Hatred can be passed down from generation to generation. Hatred will always find a target. And most often that target is the innocent.  And for Jonah, it was the people of Nineveh. For people in our world today, it may be conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats, Pelosi, Trump, bosses, employees, men, women, blacks, whites or hispanics.  Hate is ugly. I know someone who suffered at the hands of several men throughout her life. Now, deep in her heart, she carries the stench of hatred for all men. She tries to cover it up. But it often lets loose on an innocent male target.  Sadly, it has changed her and made her bitter. Hatred can’t be controlled.  It controls you.  Like cancer, it eats you from the inside out. And like cancer, it is a slow, suffering death. 

First, we have to see the hatred in ourselves. That is the hardest part! Everyone around us can see it but us. Ask God to shine a light on it. He will reveal it to you. How do we get rid of it? Forgiveness. Forgiveness is a choice. Forgiveness doesn’t excuse the wrong that was committed against us. Forgiveness frees us from the chain on our own hearts. The good news is that there is a cure for unforgiveness. I have found that it takes time. The book I have turned to to help me deal with unforgiveness is Forgiveness…the Ultimate Miracle by Paul J. Meyer.  He does a wonderful job of shining a light on how to get out of the grip of hatred. 

Lord, we need your forgiveness. Please lead us to find the unforgiveness in ourselves and turn it over to you.

Pooper Scooping

As the holidays are approaching, we will be handed a new set of challenges.  The people that we deal with daily will be put on hold.  For those of us who are lucky, we will be surrounded with family and friends that we don't see on an everyday basis.  For this reason I must remind myself of this lesson.  It is a rerun.  It was highly unpopular due to it's topic.  But honestly, it is what keeps Christians from being who they are meant to be in this world.  Yep...sin.  Dad always said that his least popular sermons were on sin.  Well, here it is again.

Dealing with sin is a lot like pooper scooping my back yard. It is a dirty reality of living with two big dogs.  If I don’t deal with it daily, it takes over and ends up in places I never intended.   As a Christian, rather than denying that I sin, I need to take the advice James gives on how to restrict sin’s grip on me.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if after becoming a Christ follower you were never again tempted with sin?  All you have to do is take a close look at any Christian in your life to know that is not how it is. Did I quit being a human when I became a Christian? Why should I expect to be perfect in my Christianity on this earth?

The book of James is full of practical advice for living out your day-to-day life and is written by James the brother of Jesus Christ.  James is not afraid to address the stuff we don’t like to deal with...like sin.  Sometimes flowery words, smiles and hugs are just nothing but fake and I need the truth, stripped down and simplified.  And what is more, James writes as one with experience with the same issues that trip me up everyday. 

When I was teaching, if I could understand how the mind of one of my students worked, I could better deal with them in my classroom. So let’s look at how sin works so we can better deal with it.  I found information on these verses in my inherited Broadman Bible Commentaries that was most beneficial. It said that James unfolded human sin from it’s conception to death in the following verses.

James 1:14-15 NIV

 [14] but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. [15] Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

The way I understand it, sin originates in our minds as desire.  This would be something that we think would fill the hole in our soul and make us feel whole for a moment.  It is a kind of momentary high in the form of a thought. Next, we are lured, enticed, convinced or deceived by this thought.  Then comes the actual fleshing out of the sin.  In my case, it is usually words spoken in haste. Then, James points out in his usual abrupt way, that when this is full-grown, it gives way to death.

My reaction to this death part is “Well, that is harsh”!  When it is my sin, it is not that bad in my estimation.  I minimize the affects of my sin in my mind to soothe my conscience.  But in reality, my sin has caused death.  In the case of my usual sin, (words spoken that are hurtful), this blurted information causes death to a belief in the listener.  In some sins there is a more direct connection with death, for example texting and driving which is far too often a direct connection. Just like the wages of work is a paycheck, the wages of sin is death.

So what is James practical advice for this sin problem? 

James 1:19-22 NIV

[19] My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, [20] because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. [21] Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. [22] Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

He knows sin is going to happen because we are human.  However, we can follow his practical advice to limit sin’s grip on us. Here is a summary.

In verse 19 he tells us to slow down.

In verse 21 he tells us to get rid of the moral filth.  

In verse 22 he tells us to get busy doing good.

How many times would I have stopped sin in its tracks if I just slowed down, took a breath, and asked God to help me get a grip on my emotions? This slowing down takes prayer, patience and practice. I am working on this in baby steps and some days most of those steps seem backward.  To people with a temperament like mine, the struggle is real. 

And second, what about ridding myself of my sin?  Jesus worked that out for us a long time ago. Confess it to him.  Did I mention John?  Well, he has a thing or two to say on this subject. 

1 John 1:9 NIV

[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

That is it. Done and done.  Confess it and believe it.  Also while we are talking about ridding, what about taking steps to rid your life of the some of the things that trigger the sin? Gossipy negative friends, Twinkies, or social media may be a trigger.  If we really want to deal with our sin issue, we must be willing to take the difficult steps.  

And for the last piece of advice in James 1:22, when I am occupied with doing good, I do not have as many opportunities to start the sinning process which begins in my mind. Think about it. Doing good requires the mind, soul (attitude) and body of the doer.  I love what a dear friend and fellow educator tells her graduating students, “Go out there and do good.”  Doing good solves so many problems before they start. 

This, my friends, is pure gold right from the pen of the little brother of Christ.