Biblical Literalists and the Heavenly Bodies

^{Mark 9:42-50}
 “On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. 
You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.

 “If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. 
You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. 

And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. 
You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.

Jesus loves the Dead!

I've been to a number of dead shows back in the day. For those who didn't that means I attended a good number of Grateful Dead concerts. The crowds are always huge no matter where you go. It's a part street festival, part carnival, part massive commune, it's well, a show. They never seemed to stop and went on for hours.

Plastered on the back of many a micro-bus, camper van and other hippie-crunchy-vehicle type-thing were stickers that read "who are the dead, and why are they following me?

If Jesus and the early church had to adopt a bumper sticker, this would be it.

When the Apostle Paul arrived in Macedonia, it turned into a dead show.

Huge crowds gathered along the streets. The destitute and desperate lined his path looking for their miracles.

The show went on for hours and hours, long into the night and into the early morning.

The Bible records often that the dead showed up...a widows son who had died (Luke 7:11-17), a friend of Jesus named Lazarus, a man's daughter (Luke 8:26-39)

One night while a church service went on well into the morning a guy fell of window and died..   (Acts 20:1-16).

^"We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Master’s Supper. Paul addressed the congregation. Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but Paul talked on, way past midnight. We were meeting in a well-lighted upper room. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in an open window. As Paul went on and on, Eutychus fell sound asleep and toppled out the third-story window. When they picked him up, he was dead.

Paul went down, stretched himself on him, and hugged him hard. “No more crying,” he said. “There’s life in him yet.” Then Paul got up and served the Master’s Supper. And went on telling stories of the faith until dawn! On that note, they left—Paul going one way, the congregation another, leading the boy off alive, and full of life themselves."

Yep, the dead kept showing up at church meetings, but they left alive and praising God.

God loves the dead, but he ruins their show.

Jesus and the first Occupy Movement!

"Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the name given to a protest movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti, located in New York Cities financial district.
The Canadian activist group Adbusters initiated the protest, which has led to Occupy protenst and movements around the world. The main issues are social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial sector. The OWS slogan, We are the 99%, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. To achieve their goals, protesters act on consensus-based decision made in general assemblies which emphasize direct action over petitioning authorities over redress. "

This was not the first Occupy Movement. The 99% were a day late and a dollar short by nearly 2,000 years. Read this tweet!

"About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans. These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, ‘Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.’

 When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ The city was filled with the confusion; and people^* rushed together to the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travelling-companions. Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; even some officials of the province of Asia,^* who were friendly to him, sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theatre.

Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd gave instructions to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. And Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defence before the people. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’

But when the town clerk had quietened the crowd, he said, ‘Citizens of Ephesus, who is there that does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple-keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven? Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. You have brought these men here who are neither temple-robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one another. If there is anything further you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.’ When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly." ACTS 19:21-41


The followers of Jesus were simply telling folks that "Wall Street" didn't really occupy their lives, that foreign "gods" had no control of their lives, and that peace, mercy, fulfillment and salvation was free.

So "Wall Street" got mad because followers of Christ  were stealing their business and causing them financial ruin! "Wall Street" occupied against the followers of Christ.

Does this happen today? Do you see all those who promise health, prosperity, joy, comfort through false "gods" today protesting for hours outside our churches?

Do the Republican, Democratic, Independent and Tea Parties rally outside on Sunday shouting for hours demanding that you give your tithe to them for their programs that will save us?

I wonder if we shifted our trust, if it would effect our lives so much that we would be accused of starting a revolution just as the first church was.  

Yes, the 99% rose up.

But Jesus had the math right.

He came for the 1, not the 99 (See Luke 15:4), and he was accosted with much worse that pepper spray yet in God turned his pain and suffering into the best tweet the world could ever receive.

It was the tweet that changed the world, forever.

flippin' God!

 My girls enjoy being upside down. It makes the crack up, turn red, and get light-headed. I encourage this whenever possible partly because it cracks me up and partly because it's good practice for followers of Christ.

God is in the habit of turning things upside down, inside out, and backwards. And He is really, really, really good at it.

I as reading today in the Book of Esther. It's a classic showing of God's sheer delight in irony.

A young girl becomes a queen, but she's from a people's group whom folks are trying to wipe out. "..we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold as merely slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our afflictions is not to be compared to the loss of the king"

The King's adviser, a man by the name of Haman, had been trying to leverage all of his political might to get rid of Esther's uncle, Mordecai and destroy her people. He was so sure of his own plot that he had built a 150 foot high gallows on his property from which he had intended to hang Mordecai.

...in steps our flippin' God

The plot is foiled and Haman is hung upon his own gallows.

God flips everything upside down; we die to live (Luke 9:23), the first are last (Matthew 19:30), the proud are looked down on (James 4:6), he makes dark light, and from death comes life (Colossians 1:13).

And we are called to do the same.
"These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also"

I ask myself, and I ask you;
Has God turned your world upside down?
Are you doing the same?

If you are, you will look really different. Let God knock you off your feet and stand you on your head. He is good. Trust Him.

He wins via a ridiculous plan: his death=our life.  

Fall bulbs and Dr. Suess

The weather is cooling off, the spring flowers are resting, the summer blossoms are being tucked in and the hardy fall bulbs are stretching and getting ready to show off.

Different seasons, same story.

Each lies dormant, but as a friend reminded me this past weekend, they are far from barren.

I awoke this morning with a burn in my soul for Lord, being reminded of his goodness to me and his creation. As I read The Lorax to my daughter before school my spirit was quikened by the Holy Spirit....

The Seed of Abraham, the promised Christ was planted and cut down. God has transferred this the promise into us, the followers who have received the promised gift and down payment of the Holy Spirit. Generations after generations have forgotten that we are the keepers of the Seed.

I feel as if the time is telling us to proclaim and rebuild
To walk into the barren areas and proclaim that indeed God can heal
To speak to those who are content that they could be radiant

Suess writes;
"...So he let's something fall
It's a truffula seed. It's the last one of all! You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffelas Trees are what everyone needs.

Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.

Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back..."

Beloved, treat the Seed of Abraham that was planted within you with great care (Romans 8:9). Be intentional to nurture it (Galations 5:13-25). Grow in the Tree you were created to be (Isaiah 61:3).
And then perhaps we shall see the return of the forests..and a great revival shall break out as those in the clear-cut will behold the Master in all is glory.