A group I’m leading was exploring the concepts of blessing and cursing in scripture just a few days ago.  Whenever the topic of curses comes up I like to take a look at Balaam in Numbers 22.  Balaam was the guy whose donkey spoke to him while Balaam spoke back as if nothing unusual was going on.  Our conversation went to an odd part of the story.  Here is the gist of the story and the question that came up in our group study.

As Israel moved towards the promised land of Canaan, they camped in Moab along the Jordon River.  When Balak, the king of Moab, saw Israel camped on his border he “freaked.” Imagine waking up to a million or more people camped along your border knowing that these people had just defeated the neighboring Amorites.  With that in mind, Moab in conjunction with Midian, determined to seek the help of a man named Balaam who was known to place both blessings and curses on people with significant effect.  They sent a delegation to him with a fee for divination and asked him to curse the Israelites so that they might defeat them in war.

Interestingly, Balaam said that he would have to seek the Lord about cursing these folks who were new to the neighborhood.  Balaam did so and God responded.  He told Balaam not to go with the men because he was not to curse what God had blessed (Israel).  Balaam told the delegation, “Go back to your own country, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.”  The delegation returned and reported to Balak what Balaam had said.  Balak responded by sending a more distinguished delegation and more money for the divination fee. So Balaam sought the Lord again on behalf of Balak to see if he could now declare a curse on Israel.  This time the Lord told him to go with the delegation but when he did, the text says, “But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.”

So what’s the deal?  God tells him to go and when he does, God gets angry?  Is God playing games?  Did he change his mind at the last minute or what?  That was the crux of our group conversation.  What does that part of the story teach us about our relationship with God or God’s relationship with us?

Let’s just begin by saying that God often surprises us.  Balaam was not a prophet of God as far as we know and he was no priest. Yet, he enquired of God and heard from him clearly. Perhaps, he had been a prophet at one time but had misused his gift and drifted off into divination. We really don’t know.  What we do know is that God was very clear about not cursing what he had blessed. He was very clear that Balaam was to have nothing to do with that.  And yet, when offered more money and more honor by the enemy, Balaam pressed in again.  Balaam was an idolater.  His idols were money and the praise of men. He wanted that more than he feared God.

The story reveals that God basically told him that he knew what God’s will was in the matter. If he insisted on pursuing those material desires then go for it, but beware of the consequences.  I believe God was angry because Balaam chose to pursue the money even though he knew what the heart of God truly was. He had told Balaam to go with the delegation but to do only what God told him.  I’m speculating, but I believe that while going Balaam was still arguing with God in his spirit.  He was formulating another approach to get God to give him permission or he had decided to do what he wanted regardless of what God told him.  In essence, he was going to rationalize his situation so that he could get the money regardless of God’s command.

We are told later than Balaam dabbled in sorcery and that, although he didn’t speak a curse on Israel, he counseled their enemies to draw them into idolatry and sexual immorality so that their own actions would bring a curse on them.

Here is the point.  We often know what God’s will is on a subject and yet our flesh longs to do or have what God has forbidden.  And yet we look for loopholes and ways to convince God that he should make an exception for us.  Sometimes, we simply determine to do what we want to satisfy our craving with a mind to count on God’s grace later – the spiritual version of asking forgiveness rather than permission.

There may come a time when we have pressed God and pressed God to allow us to enjoy sin or pursue our version of idolatry and then he says, “Go ahead.”  He says it because we are bound to do it anyway.  In that moment he honors our free will without approving of what we are pursuing, knowing that the consequences will be hard teachers, but those are the teachers we have chosen.  It’s almost as if God says to us, “Then go ahead if you are determined, but you’ll be sorry.”  Then we go ahead and when we end up in the ditch we blame God.

How many of us have known Christians who chose to marry an unbeliever against everyone’s counsel or a couple who has chosen to live together even though scripture clearly forbids it?  At some point when we have counseled and plead long enough without being heard, we simply say,” God ahead, but remember when you asked me, I said, “No.”

This story serves as a warning against knowing God’s clear will on a subject while we press ahead trying to convince him that his commands don’t fit our personal situation or while looking for some legalistic loophole to justify our disobedience. The warning is that God may well honor our free will by backing off which we may then take as permission because that is what you have been looking for.

Once you know what God has to say about a matter, it is better to obey him rather than trying to find a way around God’s clear commandments.  Just as it was in the Garden, God’s commandments are not given to deprive us but to protect us.  Balaam did not curse Israel when it was all said and done, but it took a talking donkey and an angel with a drawn sword to settle the matter.  Ultimately, his heart was far from God and he helped the enemies of Israel overcome them. Ultimately, he came to a bad end.

Maybe you have been flirting with the idea of ignoring God’s clear commands because you want something so badly.  I can tell you from personal experience that when I have done it God’s way, I have never regretted it. When I have done it my way, I have often regretted it. Be wiser than Balaam.  Surrender to God and whatever that surrender costs you in the short run, God will more than match in the long run.  Choose God and be blessed.

I’m still wanting to hear about your “best spiritual reads” so others can discover what you were given through those books.  Comment that information to me!

Great books with spiritual themes are like teachers that open up the Word of God to us in ways that we had not seen before.  Often you discover a sentence or a phrase that becomes a “seed thought” for you that takes you to pockets of God’s truth that the author never had in mind, but it was a truth God opened to you. Sometimes the author speaks about a truth or a concept that you had sensed or experienced but didn’t know how to articulate.  After reading the book or the chapter you now have words to talk about what you had experienced.  Other books give us practical ways to pursue more of God and more of his Spirit or an understanding of certain people so that we might share our faith with them more effectively.  Others rekindle a passion in us that once burned brightly but had somehow lost its flame.  The Bible, of course, remains our primary source of light and truth, but books can be like sitting at the feet of teachers who accelerate our understanding and growth in spiritual matters.

Having said that, I am always asking people what books have been transformational for them.  Others ask me the same question.  Some books are classics and some have just recently pooped up on Amazon.  I would like to hear from you about books that were not just an interesting read but that impacted you. Maybe that book created paradigm shifts for you or just blessed your soul in tangible ways.

Would you simply comment on the best books you have read through the years and I will compile that list and post it on this blog soon.  With the holidays coming up, you may be looking for your next great read to snuggle up with in front of the fire. Maybe your small group is looking for their next study. Just give me the title and author of the book(s).  Keep your list to no more than five please.  Be sure the title is accurate so the rest of us can find it in the bookstore or on Amazon. I will add my four or five most favorite books as well.  You might also add a one-sentence descriptor telling us what the primary focus of the book was in case we are not familiar with it!  Thanks and be blessed today. I look forward to hearing from you!

In the fifth chapter of his gospel, John tells us a story that has been told so often that we tend to hurry through it without looking for fresh insights into Jesus.  It’s the story of the man that Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda.  This was a pool that was known for miraculous healings.  John tells us that a great number of disable people  – the blind, the lame and the paralyzed – would lie around this pool each day. Their belief was that from time to time an angel of the Lord would stir the water and whoever got into the pool first, after the stirring, would be healed.

Jesus visited this pool.  Perhaps, he was simply walking by on his way to another destination in Jerusalem and simply by chance noticed the pool and the people around it.  More than likely, however, his visit was intentional and directed by the Father.  Immediately after this healing, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing of himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son does also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.”

This statement reveals that Jesus was highly attuned to the movement and purposes of his Father.  This quality suggests that Jesus was so focused on living out the Father’s agenda that he had developed a spiritual discernment to clearly sense the leading of the Spirit and the heart of the Father in every situation.  This longing to partner with his Father and to put the Father’s agenda ahead of his own, prompted the Father to show him what we was doing so that Jesus could, in fact, join him in those purposes.

Jesus shows us that a hunger to be totally obedient to the Father and to be lead by the Spirit every minute of the day prompts the Father to gives us eyes to see and ears to hear what he is doing.  One of the reasons Jesus performed so many miracles is that he was never operating outside of God’s purposes for that moment. When Jesus ministered healing to a person or a village, it seems that he was simply joining God in what God had already purposed to do. Since God had already determined to do those things, all of heaven was lined up to move when Jesus declared what the Father had already determined.  Jesus heard the Father, recognized the spiritual activity of the Father, spoke what the Father would have him speak and power flowed.

In this case, the Father apparently directed Jesus to the man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  Dozens of others surrounded the pool who were also in need of healing but Jesus focused on one.  Finding him at the pool, Jesus asked what seemed to be a question with an obvious answer, “Do you want to get well?”  That question was an important question. As we all know, not everyone truly wants to be healed. Healing in this man’s life would have changed his identity, his routines, his responsibilities, and even the expectations that other’s had for him.  After thirty-eight years he had learned to be totally dependent on others. His entire life revolved around others meeting his needs and spending each day at the pool waiting for the miraculous stir of waters, knowing full well that someone else would always reach the water ahead of him.

After all those years of being “the invalid” he probably wasn’t sure if he could make it in a world where he would be expected to work and meet his own needs. Like a convict who has been in prison so long that he has become “institutionalized,” he wasn’t sure that he could make it on the “outside.”

Even so, Jesus healed him with a command to “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!”  After a moment of spontaneous healing the man walked. Amazingly the Jewish religious leaders pushed back against this healing because it had been done on the Sabbath.  Religion misses the heart of God and so misses the goodness of God as well.  As a man stood before them who had been healed from nearly forty years of lameness, all they could see was that he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath and, thus, was violating the “rules” established by the religious elite. He had been lame but they were still blind.  Of course, the conversation quickly turned to the one who had done the healing, after all he has also had violated the Sabbath laws.  The healed man had no idea who he was and Jesus had quietly slipped away in the crowd.

Then comes a curious ending to the story.  Jesus found the man he had healed in the temple courts and warned him to stop sinning or else something worse than his lameness might happen to him. Suddenly, the story shifts from a healing theme to a redemption theme.  The man’s biggest problem had not been his inability to walk but a sinfulness that had placed his soul in jeopardy. We are told that the kindness of God leads us to repentance (Rom.2:4).  This intentional healing seems to have been an expression of God’s kindness designed to lead this man to repentance.

The warning issued later by Jesus suggests that the man had not been touched by God’s goodness sufficiently to lead him to repentance, so Jesus nudged him a little more in that direction.  It is possible that his now functioning legs had been used to pursue more of the sin in his life rather than thanksgiving to God.  The hardness of the man’s heart is suggested by the fact that after receiving the warning or rebuke of Jesus, the man hurried to turn him in to the authorities. Because Jesus had confronted him about his sin, even though it was out of concern for his well being, it seems that the healed man sought to punish the very one who had healed him.

So why even heal this man in the first place?  Weren’t there others at the pool more deserving and potentially more responsive to God’s kindness?  Undoubtedly.  But God loves the stubborn, the sinner, and the hard of heart as well.  God wanted to give this man every opportunity to say “yes” to Jesus. Perhaps, he was the one singled out at the pool because he was the one in greatest need of a spiritual healing.  Perhaps, he was singled out because he was right at the tipping point of developing a heart so hard that he would be beyond repentance.

We don’t know what the final response of this man was to God’s kindness.  What we do know is that the heart of the Father and the heart of Christ do not just pursue only those who are wide open to the kingdom of God but they pursue also those whose hearts are hardened by sin and beaten down by the world. Keep praying for the one whose heart you fear is closed to God.  God will seek him out anyway and draw him with both kindness and warning.  It is what love does even for those who don’t love in return.  If that hardened heart and sinful life has belonged to you, be sure that God still believes you are worth saving and is looking for you in the crowd even now.

Did you ever have the feeling that someone envied you? Maybe they just simply came out and told you that they envied you, your lifestyle, your faith, your marriage, your talent, your stunning good looks, etc. It’s likely that they were giving you a compliment.  They were sincere and it was meant in a positive way rather than an “I wish I had what you have and I wish you didn’t” way.

To know that someone envies what you have or what you are often allows us to see those things through fresh eyes and to reassign value to some things we had come to take for granted or simply ignore. If a struggling person or a much younger person tells us about the envy the feel in our direction, we may feel a bit flattered but we aren’t blown away.  After all, value is relative. If someone without a car at all envies you because you drive a ’79 Ford Pinto, you still won’t feel that great about taking your girl to the prom in the Pinto.  You still know it’s an old beater.

But what if the rich, the famous, and the powerful began to sincerely indicate that they envied you for certain things?  You might begin to see whatever that was in a much different light. You would begin to sense the value, the uniqueness, or the special qualities of whatever they saw in you or in your possession that they longed for themselves.  Realizing that, you might begin to feel a little more significant, walk a little taller, and expect a little more out of life.

Consider these two verses:

               Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.  (Eph.3:8-10)

As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look. (1 Pet. 1:10-12)

These are interesting verses. In summary, they tell us that there were mysteries that rested in the vaults of heaven for ages.  There were rumors and hints about God’s plan for redeeming Israel and, perhaps, even others.  The great prophets of Israel sensed that something was up and asked God to show them.  He would not.  Angels themselves longed to look into the plans of God regarding man.  God kept the files shut. But in the fullness of time, he chose the church and he chose you to announce the mysteries surrounding Christ, not just to the world but also to powers, authorities and angels in the heavenly realms.

This unveiling of God’s secrets began at Pentecost but continue through today.  The Spirit of God now reveals the mysteries of God to God’s people as they pour over the Word, seek him in prayer, or operate in the grace-filled gifts of the Spirit.  As they do, they announce these revealed mysteries not just to the rest of the body of Christ, but even to the angels who long to look into such things but must wait to hear them from us.

If we could only grasp the honor and the privilege that God has given us as his children we might feel more significant, walk a little taller and expect a little more out of life.  It really is amazing.  There is a real sense in which you are envied by the angels for he has entrusted to you and to every believer true riches that must be distributed by you even to those amazing creatures who stand in the presence of God.  Consider that privilege today.  Dig a little deeper in the Word.  Pray a little longer.  Ask God for a greater revelation of Jesus every day.  When you get it, share it with others and when you do you will be sharing with the angels as well.  Blessings.

Jesus continues to fascinate me as John presents him in his gospel.  His capacity to see past the superficial and the obvious is a gift we all need from the Holy Spirit. In Chapter 4, Jesus has his famous encounter with the Samaritan woman.  Just outside of Sychar he stopped to rest at a well dug by Jacob centuries earlier. Sitting there alone while his disciples went for food, Jesus may have though about Jacob with a smile.  After all, they knew each other well.  For most of his life Jacob had been a swindler until he had an encounter with the living God.  After a night of ‘wrestling with God,” Jacob became the patriarch God had always wanted him to be.  He was named Israel and became the Father of the twelve tribes of Israel. His was another story of transformation in the Kingdom of God.

While Jesus was, perhaps, reflecting on that bit of history, a Samaritan woman came to the well at mid-day for water.  As every good evangelist does, Jesus began a conversation.  This time he simply asked for a drink of water. The woman was a bit taken back because Jews did not speak to Samaritans at all because of the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans.  The cultural atmosphere  probably carried the flavor of the United States immediately after the Civil War.  There was a legal peace and some business took place, but for most people you were either a hated Yankee or Rebel and it was best just to avoid much interaction while wounds from the former conflict were healing.

You know the story. Jesus asks for water. She questions why he would even bother to ask.  He begins to speak almost mysteriously about a gift of living water that he might give her – water that would quench her thirst forever.  She’s not sure what he’s talking about but she is intrigued enough to continue the conversation.  When she asks to view the product, Jesus tells her to go after her husband.  She tells him that she is not married.

Jesus goes on to commend her for her honest response and tells hers that she has been married five times before and now is just living with her boyfriend.  His words were simply a statement of fact but apparently carried no tone of condemnation or even judgment because the woman took no offense.  She simply was drawn in further by this “word of knowledge” so that she began to talk about spiritual matters. Finally, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah they were expecting and she, a woman of no reputation at all, became the first president of the Samaritan Evangelistic Association. At her testimony, the entire town turned out and many believed.

So what is our takeaway from this moment with Jesus?  Hearing about five husbands and a “live-in” doesn’t shock us, but for the first century that was quite an eyebrow raiser.  Yet Jesus didn’t focus on her lifestyle.  He didn’t rebuke her behaviors and call for repentance to begin or even end this conversation.  Jesus knew that until there was a change of heart there would be no lasting change of behaviors.  Too often, we focus on behaviors and habits as the things God is most concerned about. But over and over, he points us to the heart.

Jesus simply knew that the multiple marriages and the cohabiting were symptoms of a broken heart and a broken person.  Somewhere in her soul was a thirst to be loved, to belong, and to feel significant to the world.  That hole in her soul had to be filled before she could give up the “medications” she had been taking her whole life to numb the pain. He pointed her to a love and a relationship that could do just that. Our approach to transformation has not always been the best.  We have called people to change their behaviors without filling the void in their soul and in their hearts – give up this and give up that and then come to Jesus. It must be the reverse of that.  Come to Jesus first, taste of living water, and then you can let go of the props you have been hanging onto for years.

Isaiah and Luke both said that Jesus came to preach the good news, heal the brokenhearted, and to set captives free.  It pretty much has to be in that order.  Let people know first that there is living water – there is something to satisfy their longings and to calm their fears; let Jesus touch their hearts for healing; and then pry them lose from addictions and bondage. Without the love of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ in them, letting go of the relationships, the substances, and the sin they have clung to will simply put them in free fall.

Do behaviors need to change?  Does sin need to be repented of? Sure. But that comes after Jesus, not before.  When we face people in the grip of addictions, sexual immorality, broken relationships, etc. we need to scan their hearts and their spiritual needs before focusing on behaviors.  Before calling out the homosexual community for its lifestyle or the promiscuous girl for her many lovers or the guy with the drinking problem, we must offer a better solution for their emptiness, fear, and brokenness. Lets start that conversation first – because that’s what Jesus would do. He’s so smart!

If you have never read “The Jesus I Never Knew” by Philip Yancey, I really recommend it.  It was written in 1995 but it is as fresh today as it was then.  In his book, Yancey describes the Jesus he met in Sunday School as a child. He was tender, carried little lambs in his arms, and was quite unaffected by the world around him.  He seemed to walk through life with an otherworldly look in his eyes (Hollywood version) being untouched as he moved toward the cross. Yancey later discovered a very different Jesus in the gospels and so wrote his book.

In the second chapter of John, the apostle records the moment when Jesus entered the temple courts in Jerusalem just before the Passover.  As he entered, he found dozens of merchants selling animals to travelers for the sacrifices that would be required for the Passover rituals.  Others were exchanging foreign currencies for money that could be used for those purchases. In a furious rage, Jesus crafted a whip out of rope and drove the merchants from the courtyard while turning over their tables and scattering their money. It must have made quite a scene on those stone floors of the courtyard with tables clanging, sheep bleating in panic, and coins ringing as they rolled across the court of the Gentiles. So much for the passive, lamb-petting Jesus.

His anger was stirred because these people had taken what was sacred and turned it into a merchandising flea market.  You can almost see the coffee cups and multicolored t-shirts with the face of Moses smiling out or the listing of the Ten Commandments on cheap little wooden planks. For the younger crowd, you can imagine graphics of chariots and Egyptian soldiers being swept away by the Red Sea and dozens of booths with the latest C.D.’s produced by the group “Manna” or the  “Holy Tabernacle Choir” or the “Four Fab Pharisees.”   In his anger, Jesus screamed, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market and a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer!” It was such a startling moment that it is recorded in all four gospels.  Very few events made it into all four.

I’m not opposed to CD’s.  I have many.  I’m not opposed to stores or churches selling items that enhance study, spiritual growth, books, or worship.  I have it all in my house and office. I’m not opposed to T-shirts that give a witness (I’m just not a t-shirt guy). But we have to guard our hearts in relation to those things.  The Temple was sacred ground.  All those sheep, goats and doves were defiling the ground with their droppings only yards from where the Holy of Holies stood and where the Glory of God had once been so bright that even the priests could not enter.   Passover was sacred and Jesus himself would soon be slaughtered for the very people who had lost the wonder of God’s great deliverance.  The Temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations where they could connect intimately with their God rather than a merchandising convention.

In those days, the Glory of God rarely, if ever, visited the temple.  The great Kingdom of David had become a puppet state of Rome.  The High Priesthood had become political and its influence was bought and sold in the Roman market place of power.The Glory and the Power of Israel had long departed.

It wasn’t that people who traveled a hundred miles for the Passover didn’t need a lamb for the Passover meal or didn’t need to exchange money. It wasn’t that something to enhance their appreciation and understanding of the Passover would have been wrong. It wasn’t that some items to enhance their joy and celebration of God’s great deliverance would have been out of place.  The problem was that these items had actually replaced God in the hearts of his people. The awe and the sacred aura of the season had disappeared.  The fear of God was “old school.”  The temple was no longer the House of the Living God but simply a merchandising warehouse.

Many of us long for the presence of God in our churches on Sunday mornings.  Many of us pray for the move of God’s Spirit or a fresh Pentecost in our midst.  Many of us call for the church in America to rise up in spiritual power and retake America for our King.  But there are many places where the glory of God is not present and the power of His Spirit is not moving – in our churches or even in our hearts.

Have we lost our awe of God?  Have we made church a secular event in our hearts no different from a social organization that does a few good things for the community and shares secret handshakes?  Has church just become a business? If so, we shouldn’t expect God to show up very often except to turn over our tables. Like many things, it’s not so much what we do but rather why we do it that makes it acceptable or unacceptable to Jesus.

Not many things made Jesus angry. Let me encourage you to read through the gospels with a fresh eye as we move toward Christmas (no merchandising going on there). I would even recommend of read of Yancey’s book.  Pay attention to the things that made Jesus smile and the things that made him grit his teeth.  Check your own heart on the matter.  I will try to do the same.  We may discover a Jesus we never knew and we may experience the presence of God in ways we have longed for as well.  He wants to come but he will only come when we realize we are on holy ground.  Be blessed today.

In my past few blogs I have been looking through John’s writings to get a better grasp on Jesus since John was closest to him.  In John 2, the young apostle records the wedding in Cana of Galilee at which Jesus turns water into wine at the request of his mother. John records many things that he believers are symbolic.  Symbols are one reality that point to a greater reality.   A menu at a restaurant is a reality that points to a greater reality – the food waiting in the kitchen to be prepared and served. They symbol by itself is not the blessing, it simply points to the blessing.  A few bites of the menu itself should convince you of that.

When Jesus turned water into wine, that miracle pointed to a greater reality. The host of the wedding feast also added that the wine Jesus created (though the host did not know its source) was the best wine that had been served at the feast.  Interestingly, Jesus only speaks of wine about four or five other times in the gospels.

One statement was primarily about Jewish religious leaders in the context of “whatever God does is never good enough for you.” To them, Jesus said, “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ (Lk.7:33-34).

He mentions wine again in the story of the Good Samaritan who anointed the injured man’s wounds with wine and oil. But the most famous of Jesus’ teachings, where wine was involved, is reported in several of the gospels.  I’ll quote from Luke.

He told them this parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ” (Lk.5:36-39).

Jesus is using a familiar symbol of new wine and wineskins to make a spiritual point. As new wine continues to ferment it expands.  If it is placed in an old wine skin that has lost its flexibility and can’t be stretched it will rupture as the new wine pushes outward. He also mentions our human preference for the familiar – the taste of things we have always known.

The question is, “What does the wine symbolize in his parable?”  There are numerous thoughts about that question.  It may be that the ultimate answer is that Jesus is the new wine or the Holy Spirit is the new wine.  I think both of those would be great answers and accurate in many ways.  One other related answer might simply be the New Covenant which encompasses all of the above.  The most profound connection of wine to Jesus in the New Testament is at the last supper where Jesus takes the “cup of blessing,” which is one of several cups of wine in the Jewish Passover ritual, and says to his disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you” (Lk.22:20).

Interestingly, John gives by far the most extensive treatment of the last hours that Jesus spent with his disciples in the upper room where they took Passover together. He never mentions those famous words that both Luke and Paul quote in their writings. But what John does mention starting in Chapter 13 is a kingdom ruled by love and service, a fresh revelation of the Father through the person of Jesus Christ, the amazing ministry of the Holy Spirit, fruit born out of a connection with Jesus rather than a written law, and the unity of all believers through Christ.  All of these were to emerge as a result of Christ’s death on the cross.  In a very real sense, these things are the heart or the substance of the New Covenant.

If Jesus had the new covenant in mind when he spoke of new wine in fresh wine skins, then he was saying that the New Covenant and it’s manifestations was going to be such a drastic departure from the old that familiar ways of thinking and approaching God would have to be discarded.  To receive the new revelations of salvation, love, service, power, transformation, unity, and so forth that were part of the new mix being poured out by heaven, an openness to a new move of God would have to be maintained.

On the day of Pentecost, this new wine was poured out on Jerusalem.  Those who were open to a fresh move of God and who were willing to be stretched were filled with the promises of the New Covenant. As a result, the church was birthed full of love and generosity, power and miracles flowed into the streets of Jerusalem through these new wineskins, Jesus was declared with boldness, and unity was the mark of believers.

Here is the thing.  God still has much that he wants to pour into his people. “And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Mt.13:52).  There is always new treasure that God wants to give his people.  Much of that treasure will be deposited in us by the Holy Spirit (fruit, revelation, spiritual gifts, etc.), but some will be external experiences of God’s power and presence as well as love and joy experienced with our spiritual family.

The caution of the parable was not just for the guardians of the Old Covenant, but was also for those of us who live this side of the cross. We will limit God and the wine he wants to continually pour into his house if we become rigid in our ways believing that there is no more truth to be mined from the scriptures, no new ways that God will manifest himself to his people, or no new strategies for evangelizing the planet.  History confirms that every fresh move of God, every revival, and every awakening becomes crystalized into “the only way God works” by the second generation after his last fresh move. It’s easy for us to enjoy the old wine.

However, in heaven there is always more.  Ask for it.  Seek it.  Be open to “the more” that God has for you.  The old wineskins around you may frown and issue warnings about seeking more of God and his Spirit but keep yourself “stretchable” and ask for more of the Father’s gifts and treasures.  It is his pleasure to give if it is your pleasure to receive.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (Jn.1:13-10).

Another section from the first chapter of John’s gospel gives us another insight into Jesus and our response to him. John begins with an amazing thought.  The very creator of the world walked across the face of his creation unrecognized by the very people made in his image.  This is even more amazing when you think of who and what did recognize him.

In a sense, the natural world recognized him because it responded to his commands.  Water, trees, wind, withered hands, and fish darting about in the Sea of Galilee all bowed to his commands.  Even the demons ran to him calling his name and begging for mercy.  Satan himself acknowledged who he was by the very temptations he offered in the wilderness.  And yet man, the one made in the image of God and the one for whom Christ came to give himself as a sacrifice, was blind to his identity. Even “his own”- the Jews who searched the Torah for every fleeting clue about Messiah and who longed for his coming – missed him.  They not only missed him but also eventually killed him.

How could that be? How could they miss the one who taught with authority and performed one undeniable miracle after another? For the most part, I believe they missed him because of their preconceived notions about what he would do and what he would look like. They made the mistake of assuming that God was like them and that Messiah would come as they imagined.

In their world, Messiah would come on a notable day – a feast day or a high Sabbath full of symbolic significance.  Undoubtedly he would be born into a family of high standing with wealth, education and influence. Reputable Rabbi’s probably wondered which of them would have the privilege of schooling the young Messiah in their advanced understanding of the Torah.  Without question he would give honor to the religious elite of Israel, the Sanhedrin, and, perhaps, ask for their seal of approval as he began to reveal himself publically. Of course, he also would be political as they were and beat the Romans at their own game of governmental intrigues and, eventually, military might to overthrow the oppressors.  As this new “reign of David” was established, these honored leaders of Israel would be given influential cabinet posts and governorships. I’m fairly certain they looked for all of those things as signs of the true Messiah in addition to his miracles. They waited for a Messiah made in their image and when he did not fit their mold they were blind to his presence.

Jesus disappointed them.  He came into the world as an unknown, born in a stable rather than a noble house.  Instead of a family of standing he came questionably into the world from the womb of a backwater girl swearing she had never been with a man. He studied at the feet of some nameless Rabbi and never once asked the Sanhedrin for it’s blessing.  He was apolitical and never attempted to raise an army.  He didn’t gather Jewish nobility around him but coarse fisherman and former tax collectors.  He even let women follow him around including one former prostitute.  He didn’t seek wealth or honor the wealthy.  Instead, he warned of the toxic dangers of wealth. When they demanded signs to prove who he was, he shrugged them off.  In the mind of the Sanhedrin, the High Priest, and the Pharisees, Jesus was no Messiah.  He was a scandal.

It is easy to criticize them on this side of the cross and, perhaps, we should.  After all, not all were blind, not all missed him.  Many did believe and became born- again sons and daughters of God.  And yet how often do we miss God because we already have him all figured out?  How often do we miss his answers to our prayers because we are looking for him to respond as we would respond if we had his power?  How often do we ascribe new moves and manifestations of the Spirit to the devil because we have never seen God work that way before?

If we learn anything from John it should be that God can move among his own while his own totally miss what he is doing.  I’m certainly not saying that everything that manifests in the church or that claims to be from God is from God. We must test the spirits.  But I am saying that we should be open to God doing new things, even greater things than we have ever seen him do and not to dismiss these things quickly because they don’t fit out preconceptions.  I’m saying this because in these last days I believe God will do some amazing things not recorded on the pages of the gospels. They won’t be out of character for God, they will just be new.  Prayer, discernment, and the evaluation of the fruit of a thing will be needed. It takes a while to see the fruit.  Sometimes it takes a while to hear from God.  We should not be gullible but neither should we be hasty.

In our own lives we should be open to God’s creativity and fresh ways of showing himself to us. Even God must get tired of routine.  Look at the miracles of Messiah – no formulas there.  A little mud here, some spit there, and a finger in the ear.  Maybe God likes variety as much as we do.  Whenever he comes or however he moves, we don’t want to miss him.  We want to receive everything he has for his people. Be open today and see if you experience the Father in fresh and surprising ways. Then be open again tomorrow.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.     He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (Jn.1:3-13)

I wanted to spend a little more time on John’s theology of Jesus in chapter one of his gospel.  I love the phrase, “In him was life and that life was the light of men.”  In the writings of John, the term “life” or “eternal life” speaks more about quality than duration.  For him, eternal life is the quality of life a man has in connection with the Father rather than eternal existence.  Those who find themselves in torment will have a never-ending existence but John would not call that “life.”

When he looked at Jesus, he saw something that he had never seen before.  He saw a quality of life that he had never imagined. It was a life in close and intimate fellowship with the Father.  There were qualities evident in the life of Jesus that had not been seen since Adam walked in the Garden.  Think of the things people saw in Jesus that arrested their attention.

The most obvious was the power available to him because of his relationship with Jehovah. As Jesus touched the lame, the blind, the lepers, and even the dead they were instantly returned to health and life. Demons were driven from their victims with a single command. Jesus tore at a few fish and a handful of bread and fed thousands. He commanded storms, walked on water, and changed water into the best wine at the wedding.

He also taught as no one had ever taught before.  He taught with the authority of one who knows, rather than one who speculates. Instead of quoting great Rabbi’s he spoke what the Father was giving him at the moment.

He exuded a security and a peace that is available only to those who know the heart of the Father and know the love the Father has for them. Jesus himself said that he gave peace, but it was not like the peace the world gives. Jesus had three years to save the world but never seems in a hurry, never worried about his next meal, and never spent a moment concerned about the approval of men.

He prayed in such a way that his disciples, who had heard thousands of Jewish prayers while growing up, felt like they had never heard anyone pray before.  They asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus also dispensed love and grace in ways that no one had seen before either. Moved with compassion, he touched broken lives with his love and grace in a way that invited people to trade in their old way of life, full of sin and brokenness, for a new life where grace and forgiveness ran deeper than the river of sin that had been gushing through their lives.

Those who saw Jesus saw that life and that life was the light of men.  If you’ve ever been lost in the dark you know how welcome a light is.  Suddenly, that light gives direction and hope. Suddenly you know in which direction you should be walking or driving and the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness are chased away.

The life Jesus modeled shows us that there is something else, something more, something worth pursuing with all of our hearts. It also gives us hope that there is a heart in heaven from which all of that flows.  The life we see in Jesus echoes the atmosphere of heaven.  In that life we sense that there truly is a place filled with love, peace, and security.  A city where sickness, death, and the demonic have no power and no place.

The life people saw in Jesus was a light directing them, calling them, and filling them with hope.  The amazing thing is that his life is available to us. As the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ, our lives should begin to emit that same life and hope to those still walking in darkness.  Paul said that, as believers, we should shine like stars in a dark sky.  I marvel at the men and women who centuries ago ventured out on seemingly endless seas in tiny boats with only a hand-held sextant and a basic compass to tell them where they were and where they were going. Sometimes they were driven by storms for days never seeing land or a single star to give them a heading.  When the clouds broke and the night sky was clear, they found hope and direction from those lights shining in the darkness.

My hope is that we (myself included) will pray harder and press-in harder to know the life that John saw in Christ so that others may see Jesus in us and that life, then, can be a light for them giving direction and hope. Remember, you are the light of the world.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (Jn.1:1-5).

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn.1:14).

The apostle John was a bit of a mystic.  He loved the symbolic nuances of scripture and liked to peel the theological onion to find deeper and deeper meanings and truth in God’s word.  He was also the closest to Jesus of all the apostles. He was the one leaning on the Lord at the last supper and the one to whom Jesus revealed his betrayer. He was also the one apostle who stood beneath the cross watching life ebb from the creator of the universe. When the Holy Spirit began to download truths about Jesus that were to be recorded in the gospels, John received the most theological of the downloads that give us insight not only into what Jesus did and said but who he was beyond being the Son of Man.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Greek word translated as “the Word” in this text is “logos” and carries several related meanings.  It means an expression, a statement, a revelation, wisdom, the external expression of an internal thought, and so forth. If you think about it, Jesus is the visible expression of everything God thinks about us. He is a three dimensional revelation of the mind of the Father towards his creation. Jesus himself said that whoever has seen him has seen the Father (Jn.14:9).

If Jesus is the revelation of God and the expression of the heart and mind of Jehovah, then God surprises us. Who would have thought that the God who led Israel out of Egypt was also humble and gentle? Who would have thought that the God surrounded by Seraphim would be comfortable in the presence of sinners and that they could be comfortable in his presence?  But if Jesus shows us the Father,  then it is true. Who would have thought that the creator of the universe would be willing to sweat, thirst, and suffer mosquito bites for the sake of the spiritually dense (that’s all of us)?  Who would have thought that God Almighty would be moved with compassion so often when he saw hapless crowds or the blind and the lame?  Who would have thought that the high and holy God would be willing to attend weddings and turn water into wine or dance at bar mitzvahs? More than that, who would have believed the God who was a consuming fire on Sinai would have allowed ruthless men to brutalize him and drive nails through his feet for the sake of a fallen race? But there he is.

God surprises us and we are no more surprised than when we see him in Jesus.  Remember his thoughts toward you expressed in the life and heart of Jesus when you pray today.  Remember what lengths he went to so that you could have that conversation.  When you pray for sick loved ones, remember God’s heart for the suffering expressed through every command to “be healed.” Remember and take comfort and encouragement because you have seen the mind of the Father towards you. His name is Jesus.