The Arctic-Tropic Juxtaposition

It's story time again.  So put on your imagination caps and close your eyes.

No, don't really close your eyes cause you won't be able to read.  But, you know, mentally close your eyes and follow my lead.

You and some friends are on a gorgeous tropical island.  You're going for a hike to explore.  There is little human civilization around.  You're basking in the warmth of the sun and smell of the exotic flora, and you enter a small clearing with tall green grass.  Your companions are all chatting when you hear it.

A vicious roar.

Everyone freezes in fear for a moment.  Then you hear a crashing as a large animal approaches through the tall grass.  You can't really see it, but there is a white blur in the green.  Every one starts to run away.  Then with deafening bellow it emerges, and one of the guys shoots it with a handgun.  Suddenly it gets quiet.

Really quiet.

Someone in the group comments, "That's a bear."  You look at it, realizing what it is, but you can't comprehend.  You mutter, "It's not just a bear, it's a polar bear."  No one says it, but everyone thinks it.

What is a polar bear doing on a tropical island?

Let me say that again.  Polar bear.  Tropical Island.

Icebergs or Palm trees.


That is a scene from early in the first season of the show Lost.  If you've never watched the show, don't worry, this blog will make sense.  Hopefully.  I won't tell you why the polar bear was there.  That's not the point of the story.  The point is that after the bear showed up, everyone wanted to know why.  Why is this thing that doesn't belong here in this place at all?  It's not an "A-ha!" moment, it's a, "Huh?" moment. 

J.J. Abrams and the writers of Lost were extremely gifted in this.  Almost every episode, sometimes multiple times an episode there were moments like that.   Moments that made the audience wonder, now how in the world does that make any sense.  Those, "huh?" moments were a trademark of the show.

It seems to me that as disciples of Jesus we should frequently cause, "Huh?" moments.

Moments that really make people wonder what we are about.  Why would this person who doesn't know me come visit me in the hospital?  Why would they bring homeless people blankets?  Why on earth would anyone go into a prison and visit criminals when they don't know them?   How can she still praise that Jesus of hers when she lost her job, her husband left her, and her car got stolen?  Or even just, what are they smiling about?

Hours before Jesus' execution he prays to his Father for the disciples.  In turn I think that means he was praying for us too.  In John 17 he prays this,

13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

He sent them into the world, they are not of the world.  The polar bear was not of the tropics, but he was there.  As we each follow Jesus and become his disciples, not just in our learning, but also in our doing.  We have to interact with the world around us.  If the bear hadn't come into the clearing, the group of people would probably have never known it was there.  .

Likewise with Jesus' disciples.  If we stay hidden, if we choose to not step out we might as well not exist.  So be out there, in the world.  Make the people around you say, "Huh?"  Now, don't dress up as a polar bear and run through the mall or anything as dramatic as that.  Be a living example of Jesus' life to those around you.  Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.

Last week Billy talked about finding the moon-walking bears, this week be challenged to be the polar bearBe the arctic juxtaposition in the tropics.

Thanks for reading!  If you liked this, and have a Google account, please +1 it below!  Feel free to subscribe and share us with others.  Don't forget to visit the M28 website!


Grace, Peace & Hope
Bear (the blogger formerly known as Jersey)

Moonwalking Bears

You know (or maybe you don't know) how you can read a portion of the Bible and it means something one time, then out of the blue, you discovered something you completely missed because you were so concentrating on what you (or everyone else) thought that passage meant?

Last Sunday as our disciplining group was talking about what Matthew 25:14-30 meant to each of us, we came across many "moonwalking bears". What I mean by this can be best explained by viewing this one minute Youtube clip. The conclusion is this: It's easy to miss something you're not looking for.

This passage of scripture sometimes is referred to as the Parable of the Three Servants. Many think this parable and the one before it about the Ten Bridesmaids refer to the end-time judgment. After Jim, our discussion leader, showed the clip he asked us what other "take-aways" we saw as we read these two parables as it relates to being a "missional" disciple.

We discovered some moonwalking bears:

1) One thing important to a disciple is to do the will of the Father. In Matthew 12:50 Jesus says we are part of His family if we do His father’s will. If we are part of the family, we should have the same characteristics of Jesus and seek to be more like Him. Matthew 7:21-23 implies that we need to “do” the will of God which implies actions and not just words. We need to be obedient to the call to “go and make” disciples and not rely on “ministerial success” as the standard by which one judges their relationship with Christ.

2) God gives each of us talents and abilities. He gives some more than others. What’s important is not how many talents we have but what we do with them to advance the Kingdom.The first two who doubled their talents received the same praise from their Master. The last one who was given one talent and hid his, received a harsh reprimand from the Master. All three made a choice of how much they were willing to risk. The first two were rewarded a 100 fold in their investment whereas the third who hid his talent was afraid to take any risk and earned zero percent. We learned that one must be willing to take risks if one wants to advance God’s Kingdom.

Like I said before, we all make choices on how we use our talents represented by our abilities, our time, our resources and our opportunities and how we use them to advance the Kingdom this side of heaven. In the short time we have we need to ask ourselves what are our priorities. Do we seek His Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33) or do we seek the things of the world. Do we pray for “desperate” people to come into our lives? Do we make time and develop relationships with these desperate people by doing life with them on a weekly basis? Take time and allow God to demonstrate His kingdom power by sharing the love of Christ through our actions not just by our words. Let us be missional disciples for Him.

The Forgiveness Paradigm

Once again I come to you with an introduction from movies.

Imagine with me if you will...

You are the father.  A young man has just moved into the town.  You knew his father before he was killed and you are certain the son will be the same type of trouble.  Especially when he asks to see your daughter.  You refuse him at first.  Later you warm to him a little and tell him that if he can stay out of trouble he can see your daughter.

He seems to do just that.

Then one day your daughter was executed in the village square.  Your world crumbles.  Rage and anger sweep over you at the person or people who brought your daughter to that end.  Soon you learn that she had married this man in secret.  And for some reason they had attacked soldiers in the village.  You want vengeance.  You want blood.  His blood.

The next morning at your daughter's burial you see the young man.  He approaches the grave and weeps.  Then he stands before you and kneels.  You are ready to strike him.  To pour your anger and rage into hurting him.  Your hand reaches out.

You hesitate.

Your trembling hand convulses as it lingers above his head and you feel the anger and rage, but you open your fist.  and gently place your hand on his head.

You forgive him.

The anger and rage slip away.  The pain and loss remain.  Your tears come.  But the forgiveness washes away the rest.

This is taken from Braveheart.  The movie doesn't play out exactly like this because the perspective of the father is not the focus of the movie.  However the scene with him putting his hand on the young man, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson,) is a scene that has stuck in my mind as an overlooked scene of forgiveness since I first saw the movie in 1995.

Now, how does any of that relate to biblical forgiveness and discipleship.  Stay with me a little longer and you will see.

Forgive.  To cancel or remit.  To pardon.  To cease feeling resentment.  Absolve.

Did Jesus ever mention forgiveness?  How about the time a paralytic man is lowered before him from the roof, Jesus tells the man, "Take heart son; your sins are forgiven."  Or when the woman who anoints his head with oil?  In fact there are many times that Jesus talks about forgiveness.

Another time is when he is teaching his disciples how to pray.  He says, "And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors."  He tells us to forgive not once but continually in Matthew 18:22.

So I think it's fair to say that Jesus thought forgiveness was important.  Something his disciples should know, understand, and practice.  So if Jesus taught it to his disciples, then we to should be using this concept.

All this comes before his death and resurrection.  Forgiveness was part of the total plan.  To absolve us from our sins.  To teach us forgiveness so we might show forgiveness to others.  Like the father in Braveheart.  He had every justifiable human reason to want to seek blood from Wallace.  But he did not.  He forgave him.  In a similar way, God has every reason and right to judge us.  But he offered forgiveness to all of us.

As his disciples we must put the practice of forgiveness into our lives.  From minor insults to big issues.  It doesn't matter what was done to us.  Jesus wants us to forgive.  If we are his light in the world, and we don't forgive...what light can others see?

Forgiveness is hard.  Because we must give more to someone who has in a sense already taken from us.  But remember, Jesus already provided a way to forgive all sins and wrongs.  When we forgive, we allow a little bit more of Jesus into our hearts, and his light shines a little brighter to those we forgive.

So if you have need of forgiveness from someone, seek it out.  If someone seeks forgiveness from you, give it.  Jesus forgave.  He forgave all.  As his disciples we should also forgive.

Until next time,

Grace, Peace & Hope

-Jersey

Meant to Be

In my mind, one of the greatest moments in a character's story is when they are challenged to become what they were meant to be.

When Peter Parker swings across the page or screen in the blue and red tights for the first time.  Or Bruce Wayne pulls the cowl and cape on and leaps into the night as Batman.  Maybe one of the most iconic is when mild mannered Clark Kent rips open his dress shirt in the phone booth revealing the red and yellow 'S' shield of Superman.  There are hundreds more across books, film, and real life.

Please feel free to share your favorite "meant to be" moment in the comments!

For me, one of the most impressive "meant to be" moments is in The Return of the King.  (I'm talking the film adaptation not the classic book for this example.)  Aragorn, the long lost descendant of the royal line, is for lack of a better word, still lost.  He does not want to assume the mantle of king.  Why?  Because his ancestors were weak.  They failed the world when they were needed most.  They were seduced by power, and fell.


Aragorn does not want to be like them.  So he avoids the responsibility.  He is still noble, and brave and acts with courage and a good heart, but he avoids what he was born to be.  His moment comes at what would appear the worst time.  A massive army has been gathered to battle great evil.  He is looked at as a hero and captain among them.  In the night he is summoned to meet a mysterious stranger.  This stranger is revealed to be his foster father, Elrond.


Elrond holds in his hands the reforged sword of the kings, a blade that is rightfully Aragorn's.  It had been broken for generations, but was reforged for him, now.  With a simple statement Elrond challenges Aragorn,

"Put aside the ranger. Become who you were meant to be."

 A challenge he accepts, and rises to.  He succeeds where his ancestors failed and he becomes a good and just king.


There is a moment in every Christ follower's life like this one.  Where we are challenged to become who we were meant to be.  Jesus didn't come to earth, live, die and rise so that we could live our lives in quite exile, working from the shadows, and being less what he called us to be.


When he gathered his disciples he said, "Come, follow me.  I will make you fishers of men.  Leave behind your nets and boats and follow me.  Become what I am calling you to be, what you were meant to be."


I'm not getting into destiny and fate and all of that, but if you call Jesus 'Lord,' he has called you to be a fisher of men.  So put aside the accountant, the CEO, the janitor, the housewife, the athlete, the artist, musician or whatever you 'are.'  Put that aside, and become what you were meant to be, what you were called to be by Jesus.


A disciple.  A fisher of men.


Someone who follows after Jesus with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loves their neighbor as themselves.  Some one who does as Jesus talks about in Matthew 25: 35-36

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Becoming who you were meant to be is a life long task.  To follow after Jesus and learn what he taught, how he lived, what he did, and putting those things into action.  To feed the hungry, clothe those who need clothing, look after the sick and so on.

It's not just a magical moment, frozen in time.  The decision is.  But the becoming goes on long after.  You can't be a disciple if you don't learn.  If you don't learn how to disciple, you can not be a fisher of men.  If you can't be a fisher of men, you can't be what Jesus meant for you to be.

I'm not writing this as someone who thinks they've 'become.'  I'm still on the path, I'm still learning.  I'm still becoming who I was meant to be.  Who Jesus wants me to be.

So I challenge you to hear the words of the Messiah, Jesus, "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." 

Put aside the _(fill in the blank)_ and become who you were meant to be.

Grace, peace & hope
-Jersey

Uninvited

Have you ever planned a party or event just to have no one you invited show up?

Yes?  Good then I'm not alone in that department.  If your answer is 'no,' well, keep reading anyway.

Jesus gave his disciples a parable that featured this concept.  It was an allegorical story painting a picture of the kingdom of heaven.  I want to point out that the phrase kingdom of heaven is lowercase here, so it's not a physical place we can go to.  It's more like a state of being.  A way of life.

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells this great story about a king throwing a wedding banquet for his son.  He sends out invitations and prepares the event.  When the time came he sent his servants to gather those who had been invited.  They refused to come.

So the king sent more servants.  They were to let the invitees know that all was prepared, the food was ready and all that was needed was their arrival.  The still refused to come and mistreated and killed the servants.  (They really didn't want to go!)

Then the king says to his other servants, "Those who were invited did not deserve to come, go out into the streets and invite anyone you find there."  So they went and brought anyone they found to the wedding banquet, good and bad, and filled the banquet hall.

Now the story goes on (follow the link above to read all of it) but I will stop there for now.

I know this parable is not directly tied to discipleship but it has a principle we can apply to that concept.  When we want to disciple, we might want to reach out to those we know, those we would invite to a party.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  We should reach out to those we know.  But they refuse to come, time after time, stop spending time trying to get them to come and move on.

Invite those you don't know.  Reach out.  Be bold.  I know that it's easy to say that sitting behind a computer screen, but it's not impossible.  To go with Jesus' parable, if you're the servant getting sent to invite someone to the banquet, you know it's going to be a good time right?  Of course.  So why not tell others about it?

The challenge is determining how to invite those you don't know.  How to approach them and share with them what you know to be good.  There are many ways to do so.  Check out M28's website for more info and ways to do this.

And for those who refuse the invitation, remember this, we are not the king.  We don't have the final say.  So don't give up on them in your behavior.  Keep praying for them.  Keep showing them love and kindness.  But you don't have to keep 'barking up the same tree,' for lack of a better expression.

Reach out to the uninvited.  You may be surprised what doors God opens up in their life, and your own.

Grace, peace and hope
-Jersey