Good Friday.  It would not have seemed good to anyone in the concentric circles that orbited  Jesus on that day. There were those closest to him – Peter, James, and John. Then the rest of the twelve including Judas, family members, a larger group that followed him from place to place and helped support his ministry, the crowds, and, of course, those set on destroying him.

The morning had begun before sunrise with his arrest. Betrayal had born its fruit. The night before, just as the twelve were taking the bitter herbs of their Passover Seder in the upper room, Jesus had announced that betrayal was at hand. It only took a few hours for that prophetic word to be fulfilled. Taken to a kangaroo court before the High Priest and members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus had been accused by conflicting testimony so that Caiaphas, the High Priest, finally bound him by an oath to tell the truth. “The high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied. ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ ‘ He is worthy of death,’ they answered” (Mt.26:63-66).The confession of who we was would, of course, seal his fate in the mind of the Jewish leaders.

From our perspective as Americans, we expect trials to be logical events with twelve somewhat detached jurists coming to a conclusion to be read with little emotion in court. But in this “courtroom,” the high priest tore his clothes. Feelings ran high and anything that smacked of blasphemy raised a tide of emotion rather than a reading of the findings. Think of scenes on the 6:00 news in the Middle East – funerals or demonstrations with people weeping, shouting, and wringing their hands. Think of flags being burned and crowds filling streets chanting for the death of the Great Satan America. Those scenes frighten Americans because they seem so unpredictable. So out of control. So emotional. Imagine those crowds surrounding Jesus who had been accused of blasphemy on Passover Eve when Israel was awaiting a deliverer and needed no one to be offending God by his words or actions. Suddenly the kangaroo court would take on a life of its own and spill into the streets moving toward the quarters of Pontius Pilate.

From there “Good Friday” spiraled downward. Jesus became a political football that would be kicked around the streets of Jerusalem – Caiaphas to Pilate; Pilate to Herod; Herod back to Pilate and Pilate back to the Jewish leaders screaming for blood. Beaten beyond recognition, Jesus was finally dragged up Golgatha and spiked to a rough and splintered cross. All of this occurred by about 9:00 in the morning. The shepherd’s flock had denied him and scattered into the night, except for John, the youngest. All were hiding in fear and wondering what would come next. This was not the triumphal coronation of The Messiah they had expected. Instead of glorious and powerful, this Messiah was broken and helpless. Why didn’t he call on the legions of angels he had spoken about? Why didn’t he call down fire on Caiaphas as Elijah had called down fire when facing the prophets of Bail? Why could he not heal is own wounds as he had healed countless others? Nothing seemed good about that Friday.

Darkness followed. Then death. His limp body was pulled from the cross and placed hurriedly in a tomb to avoid desecrating Passover. I am certain there was no hint of Passover joy in the rooms where the disciples huddled in disappointment and fear. However, as the old sermon goes, “It was Friday, but Sunday’s comin.”

Three days later, a dismal defeat was transformed into certain, unimaginable victory. The Passover Lamb rose from the ashes and the world has never been the same. In Exodus 6, Jewish scholars find four promises that are reflected by four cups of wine in the Passover Seder. These were almost certainly recited by Jesus in the Upper room. To Israel, God had said, “I will bring you out. I will free you from being slaves. I will redeem you. I will take you to be my own.”

Those promises are for us as well. He will bring us out of the Kingdom of Darkness. He will declare us to be free instead of slaves and take away our slave identity. He will redeem us by paying the price for our freedom. He will make us his as a groom takes a wife to be his own. Jesus is our Passover, by his blood spread over the doorposts of our hearts he has brought us out, set us free, redeemed us, and taken us to be his own. In so many words softly spoken in the upper room, Jesus said, “This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you that seals a covenant I have made with you. Remember all this until I come again and be sure that I am coming again.” It was a very good Friday after all.

There is a significant moment in the Passover order (seder) of observant Jews that goes back, at least, to the days of Jesus. The traditional unleavened bread is matzah which is the large, flat square of bread that looks like a huge cracker. It is made without yeast, rolled out, pierced with numerous small holes so it will not rise, and then baked at high temperatures on a rack so that browned stripes run across the bread. It is often called the bread of haste which recalls Israel’s hurried flight from Egypt the morning after the tenth plague.

In the tradition of the Passover meal the matzah is placed on a special plate and often is inserted into a matzah cover with three pockets. One whole unbroken square of matzah is placed into each of those pockets. At the set time, the middle piece of bread is removed and broken approximately in half. The larger piece is called the afikomen from a word that means “that which comes after” or “hidden.” That half is then placed in a decorative bag usually made of linen. The head of the house then takes the bag with the broken bread in it and hides it. Towards the end of the meal, the children are released to search the house to find the afikomen and bring it back to the table where it is then broken and shared with the family.

Here is the interesting part. Jewish rabbis disagree greatly about the meaning of the afikomen and its origins seem to be unknown. Since the matzah is placed in a bag with three compartments some assume that it represents the unity of the Jewish Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others believe it represents a unity of worship consisting of the priests, the Levites and the congregation. However, they have no idea why the middle matzah is removed, broken, and made the afikomen.

Let’s think about it. What has three parts but is unified as one? The triune God – Father, Son and Spirit comes to mind. The Son, taken from the middle of that order and even crucified in the middle of three crosses, is the bread of life – broken, bruised, pierced, and marked with stripes for our sake. His broken body was wrapped in linen and hidden away until he was found by those who sought him. Some Jewish writers suggest that the afikomen actually represents the Passover lamb that can no longer be offered because there is no temple remaining in Jerusalem. At the end of the meal, after the afikomen has been recovered, it is broken into smaller pieces at eaten by the family in a way that strikingly mirrors the Lord’s Supper.

It is ironic that shortly after the afikomen is found and consumed, the Jewish family will send the youngest child to the door to see if Elijah is outside ready to announce the coming of Messiah. It is as if God has already announced the first coming of Messiah to his people through their own Passover Seder and especially through the afikomen. The gospel itself is hidden in the Jewish Passover waiting to be discovered. Messianic Jews clearly connect the dots but observant Jews do not. And yet, God has imbedded the truth of Jesus not only in Old Testament prophecies but even in the traditions that God’s people have added to Passover.

We wonder how they could miss it but I wonder how much we are still missing about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, our inheritance in Christ, and so forth that, in time, might seem so obvious that we will wonder how we missed it for so many years even though God had been clearly pointing to it. That possibility challenges me to be open to God doing new things that I have not experienced before. Perhaps, my continuing prayer should be the same as Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians – that God might give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that I might know him better. Because I am human I will probably miss much or most of what God is pointing to in my own strength but his Spirit can point the way. I must remain open to that and, perhaps, that should be your continuing prayer as well. What might he show us this Easter than has been there all along?

Easter truly begins with Passover. Passover will begin at sundown this Friday. The death of Jesus cannot be fully understood without the background of both Passover (Pesach) and Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. But since this is the season of Passover let’s focus on that element. As you know, Passover is the annual celebration of the Hebrew’s release from centuries of slavery in Egypt. For Jews, it is the equivalent of our Fourth of July, Independence Day, yet with much greater spiritual overtones. It is the day God set them free and led them out of bondage to make them a nation and give them the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. It was a time when the power of God was manifested on behalf of his people to deliver them from Pharaoh, the most powerful despot on earth at the time.

Through Moses, God had commanded Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go that they might serve and worship him. Pharaoh had no mind to do so. One ragged, stuttering prophet Moses and his brother Aaron stood before the sovereign leader of Egypt and conveyed the edicts of the Almighty. Of course, Pharaoh who considered himself a god backed by pantheon of gods that Egypt worshipped, felt no compulsion to listen to this former but disavowed prince of Egypt. And so…God sent plagues, one after another, on the nation of Egypt. Each plague demonstrated God’s power over the “god’s” of Pharaoh: the Nile turning to blood demonstrated Jehovah’s power over Anuket, the goddess of the Nile; total darkness over Egypt demonstrated Jehovah’s power over Ra, the sun god, and so on.

After nine plagues devastated the nation, Pharaoh was warned that unless he let God’s people go, every first born (human and animal) in Egypt would die at the hand of God’s judgment. The Hebrew people were warned to stay in their homes that fearful night as God’s judgment passed through Egypt. They were to kill a lamb for each household and spread the blood of the lamb over the doors of each house. The sign of the blood would mark them as God’s people and the angels executing judgment on Egypt would pass over them, sparing their first born. Interestingly, even non-Jews who feared their God could come under the protection of that blood.

Inside that house they were to prepare themselves to leave Egypt. They were to roast and eat the lamb whose blood covered their door and they were to eat “the bread of haste” or unleavened bread prepared quickly for the journey. Exodus 12:11-13 states it this way: “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.  On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”   Of course, this final judgment targeted Pharaoh himself and those who proclaimed the rulers of Egypt to be gods. At the death of his own son, Pharaoh released Israel that night into the hands of their God.

Other regulations regarding the Passover lamb state that the lamb (or goat) had to be a year old male without blemish. After marking their doors with his blood, the people were to consume every part of the lamb that was edible and to be dressed and ready to leave on a moments notice which underlined their faith that deliverance was truly at hand.

Christ is all over Passover. Paul declares, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). A year-old lamb is considered mature. A thirty-year old Jewish male was considered mature. Jesus began his public ministry at about the age of 30. The lamb had to be without blemish. Jesus was without sin. The blood of the lamb marked a household as belonging to God’s people and therefore allowed judgment to pass over that house. The blood of Christ marks every believer as belonging to God and allows God’s judgment to pass over each of us as his blood marks our sins and transgressions as paid in full. The household took the life of the lamb. Our sins took the life of Jesus. After the blood of the lamb was shed, the household was to eat or ingest every part of the lamb. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53). It’s not enough that we are marked by the blood of the Lamb but we must consume and assimilate every part of Jesus into our lives. Jesus died at Passover. He was raised three days later but his death marked deliverance for each of us.

I find it almost jarring that Jesus said to his disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk.22:15). What must it have been like for Jesus to go through each step of the Passover Seder with his disciples that night knowing that each part pointed to a the terrible death assigned to him in just a few hours? Yet Jesus said he eagerly desired to share that meal. Jesus dreaded the suffering to come but through the meal he looked past the suffering and saw the life and freedom that his death would purchase for each of us. Everything that Passover represents to the Jewish nation, should speak ten times more loudly to us for Christ is the ultimate Passover, our Passover.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

With Passover and Easter coming up next week I thought I would use this week’s blogs to reflection on the single most significant event in post-Garden, human history – the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

As I look at Easter I wonder if it really had to be that way. Did Jesus really have to suffer for my sins? Couldn’t God have just swept them all away with an executive order and given Jesus a pass on his Passion? We could argue the point but the Father’s intentionality about the death of his only begotten tells me that there was no other way. Remember that Jesus asked the same question in the Garden of Gethsemane. The resounding silence of the Father answered the question.

His intentionality predates Adam’s sin. John tells us in his vision, “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev.13:8). The idea that in the mind of God Jesus was slain from the beginning of time tells us that, in his foreknowledge, God knew the path that man would take and the cost of redeeming his fallen creation even before he formed Adam. I find it remarkable that Elohim (Father, Son, and Spirit) was willing to pay that indescribable price in order to have a portion of his creation choose to spend eternity with him. That seems to be an almost obsessive love on the part of our Heavenly Father.

From the beginning of time, the cross would be the solution where God’s holiness and love would intersect. His holiness demanded that sin be dealt with rather than excused or ignored. Love desperately looked for a way to redeem the relationship between God and condemned man. Jesus willingly went to the cross to satisfy both the holiness of God and the love of God. Sin would be dealt with justly. Love would be triumphant.

The intentionality of God in his love was demonstrated from the very beginning. Immediately after the sin of Adam and Eve, God declared that the offspring of Eve (Jesus) would be in conflict with the serpent Satan and that the conflict would culminate with Jesus being bruised but the serpent would be crushed (Gen.3:15). Immediately after declaring that first Messianic prophecy, we are told that God covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness and shame with animal skins. At the outset, God sacrificed the innocent to cover the consequences of sin in man. From that moment on, sacrifices of innocent animals pointed to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the cross.   Sin condemned man as he ate from a tree in the Garden of Eden and man was set free from that condemnation as the Son of God hung on a tree (the cross) thousands of years later.

As God downloaded the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, a whole system of sacrifices was codified. Each sin offering pointed to the reality that sin deserved death, but that God would allow an innocent to take our place on the altar of judgment.   Paul declared that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23). Sin earns death and death, in the spiritual sense, is separation from God. On that Passover Eve two thousand years ago, did Jesus simply die a physical death or did he also endure everything that would be experienced by those who die in sin? For a moment, on that dark Friday did Jesus experience the absolute desolation of the lost: fear, shame, guilt, unbearable loneliness, absolute darkness, and even torment so that we would never have to experience any of that? I’m not certain but I know that, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor.5:21).

I also know that this death, this sacrifice was not accidental, unplanned, or a last ditch effort to salvage men who had unexpectedly rejected Jesus. It was an intentional offering of himself on our behalf that had rested in the mind of God while the blue prints of this earth were still being drawn up. It is the intentionality of God’s unrelenting love. Passover and Easter are without question God’s lavish expression of his love for a fallen race.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us,

in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom.5:8)

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:21

This short verse out of the gospel of John contains one of the great promises in all of scripture. It offers the possibility that in the future (from the time of the writing) Jesus would show himself to believers. The word translated as “show” is the Greek word “emphanizo.” In various versions it is translated as show, disclose, manifest, reveal, make fully known, appear, make visible, and so forth.

We can understand this promise in a number of ways. We can understand that Jesus is promising a clearer understanding of who he is and how he operates in his church as we study the Word and meditate on it. We could understand him to be promising that we might hear him more clearly as he speaks to us through his Spirit. He might also be saying that he would display his love and power through us as we minister to others so that they might see Jesus in us. We could even understand this scripture in a way that promises that Jesus might even visit us in visions and dreams.

I personally believe that each of those possibilities is in the mix and that this greater and greater revelation of Jesus has the potential to be a life long process as we grow in our understanding and love for him. They key is in understanding how to release the promise. First of all, Jesus offers the promise to whoever has his commands. To have his commands implies both knowing and possessing. Many of us plan on growing in our love for Jesus without being established in his Word. We plan on praying and worshipping our way into an intimate relationship with Jesus while we continue to live life on our own terms.   Certainly prayer and worship are essential to the relationship but in this text Jesus is placing a premium on knowing his commands and taking ownership of them as his directives for living. There is an abundance of believers today who attend church, play K-Love, and pray daily for God’s blessings but who have significant parts of their lives “unsubmitted” to Jesus. They may be ignorant of his commands or have simply chosen to live by those that feel good and reject those that don’t. That will not bring the revelation of Jesus to our lives.

Secondly, he says that those who have his commands must also obey them. He defines that as a true expression of love. Love always directs us to do what blesses and honors the other person. Love is also expressed by submission. In scripture, children are to submit to parents, wives are to submit to husbands and husbands to wives (submit one to another – Eph.5:21) – and we all are to willingly submit to the Lord. Willing submission to the needs or directives of another is an expression of love as we live to please the other person. Willing submission is also a statement of belief that the one giving the directives or commands can be trusted because they love us and would only command us to do those things that will bless us.

Many of us declare our love to God and then live in disobedience. A friend of my wife Susan and mine has had some issues with the law lately and is spending some time in jail. She has written us to tell us how close she has gotten to Jesus since being imprisoned and was telling us about a great time of personal worship the other day. She said the Lord spoke to her clearly saying, “Worship me by obeying me.” That’s a good word for all of us.

Consistent obedience is truly an indicator of how we view Jesus. Is he Lord? Is he wise? Is he right? Is he trustworthy? Does he love us? If the answer is yes to each of those questions then why would we not obey him in all things? If we don’t live a life of obedience then we must answer “No” to some, if not all, of those questions. The way we live displays what we truly think about Jesus.

The revelation and manifestation of Jesus Christ is a precious commodity like getting an hour with the President of the United States or the CEO of a worldwide company. Their time and knowledge is precious and should be entrusted only to those who are trustworthy in the use of that time and knowledge. We are trustworthy if we are faithful and obedient. If we possess Christ’s commands and willingly obey them, then that is a true test of love and if we love the Son, the Father also takes notice. Ultimately, the reward for loving Jesus is his presence. After all, don’t we want to spend our time with those who love us, trust us, and appreciate us? Why wouldn’t Jesus feel the same?

If we want more of Jesus we will have to give him more of ourselves. If you are not connecting with Jesus or getting a greater revelation of him in your life, you may want to run an audit on your life to see if willing obedience motivated by love is consistently on the books. Be blessed and be obedient – even in the hard things. Then Jesus will gladly come to you.

From the Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey: As my class in Chicago read the gospels and watched movies about Jesus’ life, we noticed a striking pattern: the more unsavory the characters, the more at ease they seemed to feel around Jesus. People like these found Jesus appealing: a Samaritan social outcast, a military officer of the tyrant Herod, a quisling tax collector, a recent hostess to seven demons. In contrast, Jesus got a chilly response from the more respectable types. Pious Pharisees thought him uncouth and worldly, a rich young ruler walked away shaking his head, and even the open-minded Nicodemus sought a meeting under the cover of darkness. I remarked to the class how strange this pattern seemed, since the Christian church now attracts respectable types who closely resemble the people most suspicious of Jesus on earth. What has happened to reverse the pattern of Jesus’ day? Why don’t sinners like being around us?

I think that is a fair question and although I am sure there are churches where the poor, the broken, and overt sinners feel welcome, I am also fairly certain that those churches would be the exception. If Jesus, indeed, came to heal the broken hearted and set captives free (Isa.61:1-4); if God is, indeed, close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psm.35:18): and if God calls on us to, “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psm.82:3-4) then why aren’t these folks breaking down the doors of the church to get in and why did they respond to Jesus is such a welcoming way?

I have many thoughts on Yancey’s question but I will just share two of them at this time. First of all, Jesus went to the brokenhearted, the sinners, and the irreligious and did not simply put up a sign and wait for them to come to him. No doubt, Jesus went to the religious Jews as well because he was often in the temple compound and in synagogues but he also walked the streets of Jewish and Samaritan cities and rubbed shoulders with the sick, the leprous, tax collectors, hookers, and drunks. Jesus did not participate in their sin but he initiated contact, listened to their stories, and offered solutions. To those who were broken by life and sin he offered hope rather than condemnation. For many, the paradigm of grace that Jesus offered and demonstrated was life changing. Most churches put up a sign to welcome all those who need Jesus but rarely develop relationships with the down-and-outs of their community by going to the poor and broken rather than simply waiting for them to show up on Sundays.

Now let me tell you why I think the church avoids the deeply broken, the addicted, the junkies, the hookers, and the demonized of our society. In most cases, I don’t think it is a lack of concern or compassion or a Pharisee-like self-righteousness. Instead, I think it is a deep feeling of inadequacy and a sense that we really don’t have solutions for the homeless, the junkies, and the broken-hearted of our communities so to open our doors would overwhelm us as the needy of our society poured in like refuges crossing the border of a war-torn third world nation. Additionally, I think the pour and the broken themselves stay away from us because they sense we have no real answers for them either.

So what answers did Jesus have? First, there was hope – not just for the world to come but for this life as well. Mary Magdalene had her life changed forever and became a constant companion of the disciples and the mother of Jesus after seven demons were cast out of her. The demoniac who lived among the tombs went from being a homeless lunatic to a man dressed and in his right mind within an hour of encountering the church (Jesus and the twelve). Undoubtedly he became a useful member of society after that. For sure he became the president of the Messianic Evangelistic Association in Decapolis. Tax collectors turned from extortionists to philanthropists in their communities after encounters with Jesus and beggars who received healing got work and paid taxes after jumping to their feet. Jesus had answers for the poor, the down-and-outs, the demonized, the depressed, and sinners so he did not avoid them but took the good news to them. When they heard that he had real answers they also flocked to him.

When the church begins to experience the power of God once again and begins to offer that power outside the walls of the church, I believe the pattern of Jesus’ day will return. The very religious will, no doubt, continue to be offended but the unsavory characters of the world will feel comfortable in our presence because we will feel adequate in their presence. When the word gets out, they will also come to where Jesus is being demonstrated and may even dig a hole in someone’s roof to experience Jesus of Nazareth once again. He lives in each of us and is yearning to get out.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?     Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? (1 Cor.6:2-5).

This section of scripture from Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth is set in the context of believers having differences with one another and taking each other to public courts in order to settle their disputes. Paul expresses his frustration with the church and his frustration rests on the church’s misunderstanding of who they are in Christ. Paul might say that citizens of heaven have no business dragging each other to earthly courts.

Paul reveals the standing of the church in relation to the rest of creation and the church is each believer individually as well as corporately. You are the church. But notice what Paul says about the church: the saints (that is you) will judge both the world and angels. Believers have the Spirit of God living in them and as a result should have more wisdom, integrity,  and incite than citizens of this world and even more than angels.

In so many words, Paul is saying, “Why do you go to the world for answers when the world should be coming to you? Why do you seek wisdom from the world when all wisdom and knowledge are available to you through the Spirit? Why do you submit to the judgments of the world when you will sit in judgment on that same world someday? Why do you go to people whose understanding is darkened when you are the light of the world? Why do you submit to the judgments of those who are ruled by Satan when you are ruled by the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth?” Good questions.

Paul is not saying that we should not submit to the laws and authority of the land as long as they do not conflict with God’s laws. He is saying that God’s people should possess more wisdom that the people of the world because his presence lives within each of us and that we should judge matters by different standards than world judges them.

What I see too often is the church bowing down to the world as if the world is smarter and has more wisdom than God’s people or his Spirit. I don’t mean “bowing down” in the literal sense but let’s think about a few things. There are two big trends in American churches that have taken center stage in the last 30 years in church conferences. One is marketing (How do we get the message out?) and the other is leadership development (How do we raise up and train leaders?). Both of those are essential questions but the church, by and large, has not gathered and prayed for wisdom and revelation for those matters but has looked to corporate America for answers. I assure you that corporate America does not operate on spiritual principles and yet we go to the powers of the world and ask them for wisdom to know how to operate a spiritual kingdom when the powers of the world should be coming to us. Isaiah paints that picture of God’s people when he says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.   Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Isa.60:1-3).

For years, as a pastoral counselor,  I sought out the best training I could find for counseling and marriage and family therapy. I read the books, I attended graduate classes, and I went to conferences. Sometimes I went to secular workshops with big-name speakers but more often I went to Christian counseling conferences where I heard essentially the same strategies as I heard in secular schools because that’s where the men were trained who eventually trained  Christian counselors in Christian colleges. Not only that, but because the world determines the standards and ethics for being licensed as a counselor or a therapist, the world also determines the content of the training. In none of my graduate classes or at Christian conferences was I taught the spiritual dimensions of counseling or the use of divine weapons because we have let the world determine what is best.

The result was that my strategies fell short because I was offering nothing more that the world was offering except for a prayer. God has more. God does more. God works, even in counseling sessions, in the realm of the supernatural and so should we. I also have a concern that when we import strategies from the world for counseling, leadership, or marketing we are also importing worldly values and perspectives imbedded in those strategies. We should test the spirits in these matters as well as in theological teachings.

I think we need to be cautious about importing the world’s values  but more than that, my concern is with our low view of ourselves and the church that goes to the very world we will judge to find judgments and strategies for the kingdom of God. As a result, the culture tends to shape us rather than us shaping the culture. Let’s be sure that whatever we read, whatever we listen to, whatever teaches us has the touch of God on it before we decide to employ that strategy in the church, our families, or our lives. Hopefully… some food for thought today. Be blessed in Him.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” Luke 18:1-8

This is not a welcome parable for most of us but a needed parable. It is a parable about enduring in prayer even when we don’t see God working in response to our cries. Jesus begins by encouraging his followers to always pray and never give up. He wouldn’t have told them the parable if there were not times when we are greatly tempted give up on God and lay aside a prayer and a hope rather than continuing until we see God’s answer.

How often have we prayed for something and when we haven’t seen the result we imagined in a few days, a few weeks, or a few months we stop praying and go on to something else or simply decide that our prayer is not in God’s will? That scenario is especially true when we don’t perceive any progress in the thing we are praying for. This “unperceived progress” comes up most often when we are praying for salvations, healings, reconciliation in relationships, or for a turn around in our nation. We pray, we cry, we fast, and yet we see the relationship, the nation, or a loved one’s health not only not improving but continuing to decline. What do we do with that? Often we simply decide that what we are praying for is not God’s will or that there is something wrong with us so he will not answer our prayer and we give up. Yet Jesus says that we should never give up but keep on praying.

One thing scripture reveals is that God’s promises are certain but his timetable rarely matches our own. For instance, Abraham was given a clear promise by God himself that he would father a child with is wife Sarah. The promise came when Abraham and Sarah were already at an age in which childbearing was highly unlikely. I’m guessing that Abraham was expecting a son before he got too old to enjoy him…say 18-24 months from the time of the promise. Time passed. Abraham was probably diligent in doing his part. Nothing happened. Undoubtedly, Abraham was praying with faith and thanking God for the promise while asking for the promise to be fulfilled right away. Time passed – not months but years.

As each year passed, the likelihood of the promise being fulfilled seemed to diminish as Abraham and Sarah continued to age. In response to their deteriorating circumstances, they decided to do the human thing and take matters into their own hands by putting a little spin on the promise. They determined to have a son through Hagar, Sarah’s servant. It would be Abraham’s son and technically Sara’s son as well since the child of the servant would technically belong to the master or the mistress.   Ishmael was born from that union but God rejected him because he was the not he child of promise. Eventually, the child of promise was born but he was born 25 years after the original promise. The more years passed the more God’s promise seemed impossible – but once again we discover that nothing is impossible with God.

The greatest promises and the most profound prayers seem to take years for their fulfillment. Sometimes, something as easy as a word from God takes weeks of prayer and fasting. There are probably lots of reasons – appointed times, demonic resistance (Dan.10), character development, free will issues, etc. but we may never know exactly why an answer to some prayers take so long. The point Jesus was making is that if the desire is still in our heart and the prayer is based on a promise of God, keep praying and never give up.

As he concluded the “parable of the persistent widow,” Jesus declared that God will not keep putting off his children who cry out to him day and night but will see that they get justice and quickly. If quickly, then why worry about endurance and persistence in prayer? The Greek construction of the sentence doesn’t mean that the prayers will be answered in short order but in the fullness of time, everything will come together and fall into place in an amazingly compressed period of time. But until that appointed time comes, we must continue to pray and to pray with faith believing that God makes good on his promises although every appearance seems to cry out that no answer will ever come.

Some who are reading this blog undoubtedly have given up on answered prayer for something once precious to your heart. Others have simply laid a desire aside rather than deal with the perception that nothing has changed. But so often, God is storing up your answer and when he releases your answer you will be amazed how quickly everything falls into place. Don’t give up. The biblical record is that some prayers and promises take years to answer. Some prophetic words take years to transpire. But the promise is sure as long as our prayers persist. Always pray and never give up.

Jim (not his real name) was, at one time, a well-known church leader in our area who ministered  to homosexuals in our area because he was once heavily involved in “the life” himself. God had delivered him. Jim had what seems to be a standard story for men who have fallen into homosexuality. As a young boy, he was molested by an older man and as a result developed profound confusion and shame about his own masculinity and his own sexuality. He began with homosexual experiences in high school. Those accelerated in college. Jim was a Christian who attended church and served faithfully in his church. He had a leadership gift so he was expected to marry, have kids, and succeed in life. He did just that but; in addition, he had a secret life and a secret struggle in which he was not succeeding. After being married for a number of years he gave into his secret, abandoned his family, set his faith aside,  and embraced an openly homosexual lifestyle. However, his family and friends did not give up on him and neither did the Lord.

After two years of living out his homosexual yearnings he repented, returned to his faith and family, confessed everything to his church, and began to walk in sexual purity as the Lord gave him strength. If you ask Jim, it took the Lord, his family, and his church to overcome his homosexuality.

First, through serious Bible study he was convinced that homosexuality is sin regardless of what the homosexual lobby declares. His openness finally took his sin out of the dark and brought it into the light so others could pray and help. His wife, who had continued to pray for him after he left her and his children, forgave him and took him back knowing that the road ahead would not be easy.

Jim will tell you that what he needed most was absolute truth and absolute love in his life and men who showed him how to have godly friendships with other men without sexual overtones. Jim told a group of pastors one time that when he was young he really didn’t understand what it meant to be a man. He said the world of men fascinated him but he just couldn’t  crack the code for entry into that world.

By nature, Jim was sensitive and artistic but didn’t find many masculine models for men with those traits. After being molested, his confusion was even greater. However, when he returned to his church and family, the men in his congregation affirmed his masculinity and began to introduce him to other parts of the masculine world that were foreign to him such as sports, hunting, fishing, etc. They made Jim part of the group, extended healthy hugs, let him ask questions without embarrassment and, in essence, let his latent masculinity develop at his own pace.

Over time, the old man diminished and the new man flourished. His yearnings for sexual encounters with men went away and he learned to enjoy a sexual relationship with his wife. He is still serving the Lord today but his “old identity” no longer defines him. Jim is a man who was set free by love, the work of the Holy Spirit over time, and learning what it meant to be a godly man through friendships with other godly men. Jim never experienced any kind of demonic deliverance but still found freedom through openness and a committed church and family.

Jim believes that, in addition to the molestation he experienced as a young man, he also had a genetic predisposition toward homosexuality. We need to be clear that God does not make us with that predisposition, rather when we live in a fallen world many things are broken and damaged as well as our genetics. Because I have a predisposition to something at birth does not make it God’s will for me  to give into those predispositions. I was born with a predisposition toward lust, lying, selfishness, and laziness. As I got older, those intensified because of my fallen nature until I submitted those sins to the cross and the Holy Spirit.

As Christians, we are called to overcome those predispositions by the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s divine weapons. If something is called sin in the Bible then God provides a way out. It may be a truth encounter, a deliverance session, a spiritual family who prays for us and models healthy gender roles, or even the supernatural healing of damaged genes.   In the meantime, God calls us to resist those temptations with his strength until we find freedom from those obsessive promptings.   As a heterosexual, I am called to live a celibate life if single or a faithful life if married. I am called to tell the truth when it seems easier to lie and to avoid drunkenness when I want to medicate some disappointment in my life. I am called to submit rather than demanding my way and to forgive those I would rather reject.  Homosexual leanings fall into the same category.

A person can have homosexual leanings or temptations, not give into them, and still be pleasing to the Lord just as a heterosexual  can have strong desires for someone to whom he or she is not married,  not give into the impulses,  and still be pleasing to God. If any temptation has become an uncontrollable obsession then the believer has fallen into some form of bondage and deliverance is probably in order.  But with every temptation the Lord provides a door of escape. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor.10:13).  We can find that door  if we sincerely seek it.

Homosexuality is not a new sin that has taken God by surprise. In our generation, the church must be clear that it is sin while at the same time creating an atmosphere where this sin can be confessed like all other sins and God’s remedies applied. I’m sure there are issues I have not spoken to related to homosexuality but, perhaps, some of the stories I have shared will be helpful to some. Be blessed.

Randy was in his 30’s and had been struggling with homosexuality off and on since high school. In the past three years his desires toward men had been obsessive. He was married with children but had been arranging clandestine meetings with men he met online and his shame and feelings of helplessness had become overwhelming. In my last blog I talked about his encounter with Jesus that had opened the door for hope again and the realization that he was still loved by his Heavenly Father.

After Randy had felt the arms of Jesus around him, his determination to resist the powerful temptations toward homosexual encounters was renewed. But the battle seemed constant and inevitably unwinnable. I began to speak to him about spiritual realities and spiritual warfare since Paul clearly states that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms (Eph.6:12). Randy had not heard much about that side of our faith in the denomination in which he had grown up yet his “supernatural” encounter with Jesus had opened him up to new possibilities.

One of Satan’s most destructive strategies is to assign demonic spirits to whisper thoughts that we experience as temptations and then to convince us that those thoughts are our own and that those thoughts define us. That was certainly true with Randy. I began to encourage him not to receive those thoughts as his own but as temptations or whispers from the enemy. His response should be to treat the thought as one being whispered by a spirit and to command the spirit to leave him in the name and authority of Jesus. That seemed a bit “out there” to Randy but he began to verbally command tempting spirits to leave him and the obsessive and oppressive nature of the temptations began to decrease but the voice was still a constant companion.

At that point I began to suggest deliverance from spirits of sexual perversion and homosexuality that were not just passing by but that had attached themselves to him. That thought was a profound jump for him and one he wasn’t immediately willing to receive.   However, he was determined to overcome this issue that had defined his life for years and so one day Randy, out of fear that he would eventually regress, consented.

And so, one afternoon in my office, a member of our congregation named James Morris, who had a great deal of experience in deliverance, and I prayed with Randy. We had him not only confess his sins but renounce them as well and forgive the man who had molested him years earlier. Then in the name and authority of Jesus, we began to command these spirits to release their hold on him and to leave him immediately. For the first few minutes we saw little happen but then Randy began to cough and gag. As we pressed in, Randy left his chair, hit the floor and began to crawl around with the spirits shouting, “No!” each time we commanded them to stop afflicting Randy and to leave. After a half hour of resisting, these spirits departed. Randy was absolutely sure that something had left him and although he was exhausted he was also at peace. James and I prayed for God to fill Randy with his Spirit, to grant him sexual holiness, and to restore his masculine soul. We told him to treat any further temptations as a spirit and to command them to leave.

Randy left my office that day and told me three months later that his love for his wife and sexual desires for her had returned. He was serving in his church again. Temptations from his past arose from time to time but without the power they once possessed. Randy wasn’t just managing his homosexual impulses but was free from them. The last I heard from Randy was about three years after his deliverance and he was still walking in freedom. I believe a demonic spirit had entered John through the molestation he had experienced as a child and as his confusion grew about his own masculinity and sexuality other spirits joined the first to create the shame and compulsions that ruled Randy for years. As the song declares, “There is power in the name of Jesus.”

Is every person involved in homosexuality ruled by demonic spirits? Probably not, but I believe many are and could be set free just as Randy was. I also know a young woman who was content to be single, serve the Lord, and live the busy life of a social worker. One day she met an older woman and developed a friendship with her but the friendship soon developed into a lesbian relationship with the two living together. That went on for a year with her concerned family praying for her each day. One day she simply walked away from the relationship and later said that she could pinpoint the moment when a spirit entered her and she could pinpoint the day it left. When it left, so did her desires for any sexual encounters with women. Again, a strong spirit had been at play in this woman’s life. Jesus has an answer for that.

In my next blog, we’ll talk about genetic propensities toward homosexuality and how some believers have dealt with that issue in their own lives. Blessings in Him.