HOW WOULD THEY KNOW?

"By this sign shall all people know that you are my disciples,

that you love one another." - John 13:35

Over the years, I have encountered some very unlovely people.  Actually, I didn't meet them - at least knowingly; but I heard of their activities.  I'd really like to meet them - face-to-face - and to rebuke them in the name of Jesus. One them I will call an agitator.  In a meeting I told a group, in the absence of a staffer, that I was going to step back and give a place normally reserved for me to that staffer.  The reason, to do their job effectively, they needed to have visibility.  My job could be done in anonymity. The agitator went from the meeting and told the absent staffer that I said they needed to be more visible, an implied criticism in the manner of its delivery, and that was exactly the way my staffer took it.

Another I will call the reporter. This person "reported" to one of my elders that the pastors only visited people in their inner circle, ignoring everyone else.  When asked to be specific and share who had made such a charge (which the elder knew to be both unfair and ridiculous), the reporter said, "I am not going to tell you." If bringing healing between the pastors and the offended person was the goal, this person made it impossible.  So clearly, healing was not the goal of the reporter.  One can only guess the goal.

And those were just people within the church.  And leadership was the recipient.

Then there are the persons who gossip about brothers and sisters, or who report rumors as facts, or who spread rumors without bothering to find out the facts.  Or the people who speak rudely or dismissively at people within the church who are not a part of their circle or their worship service or whatever dividing line they have chosen to recognize.

There are times that one need look no further than the Body of Christ to find evidence of the depravity of humanity.  And that is not what God desires.

People need to see - when they see the church of Jesus -- well, they need to see Jesus within us.

That's why the disciples are told, "By this sign all people will know you are my disciples, that you love another.

So who are the agitators and reporters and gossips and rumor spreaders, the rude and condescending showing themselves to be disciples of?

(C)  2012 by Stephen L Dunn

OLD STREET MAN

BY STEVE DUNN

 

"But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." - I Samuel 16:7

 

"Hey, buddy, how's it going?"

I was sitting outside at Panera's enjoying a comfortable spring morning as I worked on my sermon for Sunday.  When I looked up I saw this old street man walking past me headed for Panera's front door. No offense to Panera's but in the suburbs street people are not their normal clientele.  I responded, "Fine, thank you." He went into the restaurant and I continued reading.

A few minutes later he came out, walked towards me and plopped down in the chair opposite me.  Then I got a good look. He had a grizzled beard and his face was blackened by many years of hard work and the sun.  His teeth were crooked and he wore a sock hat and a scarf on a warm  day. When he talked you he jutted his jaw like a man whose teeth were coming apart.  In fact, a single tooth protruded from his mouth like a small rhino's horn.

He spoke in bursts with an abrupt sort of clarity.  "It's not a bad day." Holding up a paper bag from inside Panera's he said, "I still owe them 29 cents but they trust me."  "It's good to be trusted," I commented.  "You just don't always have the cash.  Got lots of bills and I don't spend what I don't have."  "A lot of us should have learned that sooner," I confessed.  "Yeah,  but I only have $8 per day and you can't buy much of nothing on eight dollars."

 

We moved on from economics to his wife with whose 84th birthday was today.  Before I could comment, he added, "She's spent the last 23 birthdays in heaven."  "Oh!"

 

"I tell people about heaven, and they tell me I'm crazy."  I could relate to that.  "Then I tell them about hell and they just laugh.  People don't want to take me seriously."

 

"Why is that?" I asked.

 

"Because I am old and dress funny.  People shouldn't judge people by the outside."

 

"The Good Book tells us God doesn't," I added.

"It's the way people are. Too bad.  I tell them there are only two choices-heaven and earth and earth ultimately just takes you to hell."

"They don't like that neither, but I never apologize for the truth.  It's just the truth."

After about 25 minutes I bid him good bye and wished him a happy wife's birthday.  "Thanks young man" was his response.  "Thanks for talking to me," was mine.

I suspect that this old street man was a messenger from the Lord.  I know he spoke the truth and I was strengthened by it.

(C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn

WISE DECISIONS

BY STEPHEN DUNN 

One of my great challenges as a pastor is to teach people how to make wise decisions. Andy Stanley says the best question ever in terms of decision-making is the question, “Is it wise?” Wisdom comes from God’s Word and Stanley is telling us to ask, “Is my decision consist with what the Word of God tells on how to live?”

I find that people who even know what God says still have trouble embracing wisdom because it is not what they want to do. When I point out that there are moral laws that cannot be violated without consequences, they begin looking for a loophole. Quite often they point to the laws of nature and what we have learned about human nature. There they can sometimes point out to something that does not always work out the way you think. So then they use that as an excuse to go ahead and do what they want.

 “See, Pastor, there are exceptions.” My response, there appear to be exceptions (or variations) to the laws of nature and our knowledge of human nature; but the vast majority of the time it works the way those laws say they will. Jump from a precipice and the law of gravity tells us we will plummet like a rock. And if the fall is far enough, you’ll break something or get killed. The application, “Don’t leap from a precipice. You will injure yourself.’ But because there have been a few people who survived falls without breaking anything, people say there is an exception which will then be their justification for leaping off a cliff.

My response, “Celebrate the exceptions, but live by the rules.”

But God’s moral law gives us no loopholes. No exceptions. For every transgression there is a consequence and unless God intervenes or picks up the pieces, we will suffer the consequences.

The wages of sin is death. And death always collects its due.

 (C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn

GOING VIRAL

Reading: Isaiah 55:11

There is an expression in our popular culture-GOING VIRAL. It is generally used for videos that are posted on the internet and are re-posted an astronomical number of times and then re-posted again and again by the recipients of those posts,  It also refers to relational or celebrity rumors and political misinformation. (I hesitate to repeat a single one of those lest some repost an "excerpt' from this devotional and it goes viral further perpetuating the ignorance and prejudice of the world.)

One thing that is intended to go viral is the Good News of the Kingdom, the Gospel of God.  Yet it requires someone to tell the news.  In a world where people have come to believe that faith is a private matter and are fearful of offending people with our beliefs, too often we choose not to share our faith vocally.  We hope that good works, a Bible on the coffee table, bumper stickers and church attendance will suffice to confess that "Jesus is Lord."

We also hold back because we are afraid of rejection and/or failure.  For that I have an answer.  It comes from God Himself, whose news we are sharing.


 " ...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

(C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn