Category Archives: Jesus

Dinosaur Man!

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I wish I had been awake more often in English class in high school and college, or at least more attentive. Fortunately, there are dictionaries and other helps to make up for the holes left in my education caused my lack of concentration. Like recently when I wanted a good definition for the word, “metaphor.”

The Cambridge Online dictionary came riding to my rescue, “an expression which describes a person or object in a literary way by referring to something that is considered to possess similar characteristics to the person or object you are trying to describe.” For example, when you say, “That guy is a real turkey,” “turkey” helps you understand the nature of the person it replaces. A metaphor. Got it?

Nations try to come up with symbols, which they hope express the soul of their people. Thus we see the English lion, the leopard of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the United States eagle. People often refer to, “the Russian bear.”

The French nation symbol is the rooster, which has symbolized the French fighting spirit and ancestry for a long time. According to Wikipedia: “Its association with France is due to the play on words in Latin between Gallus, meaning an inhabitant of Gaul, and gallus, meaning rooster, or cock.

A French friend says that the real reason is that the rooster is the only animal in the barnyard who can still crow when he’s up to his knees in barnyard fertilizer.

What’s Your Symbol?
If you could pick an animal to represent you which one would you choose? Guys might choose a Tyrannosaurus Rex or something tough, strong and ferocious. Maybe you ladies would choose a swan. What would your wife choose for you, sir? (A monkey?) And what would you husband choose, m’aam (a chattering bird?)

Recently, I was a little surprised about what the Lord Jesus kept choosing to represent Himself in the book of Revelations, the last message to the Church.

A lamb!

A lamb? Come on. That’s not tough or lordly. Cute and cuddly, okay, but what king wants to be thought of as cute and cuddly? When we see all the little potentates of the world parading in full military regalia, their chests are bulletproofed by the incredible number of medals stuck to the front of their uniform.

Most of them would hardly know the barrel of a gun from its stock, let alone understand the violence of combat.

But look at the King of kings, the President of presidents! John was visiting heaven during this revelation, and an angel told him that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah was worthy to open a very important book. And John looked but he didn’t see a lion.

“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” (Rev. 5:6).

The Lamb appears over and over in the book of Revelation. Not even a grown-up sheep or a ram, mind you. A lamb! God’s throne is even called, “the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:3). The Lamb of God gets equal billing with the Father, Himself.

It’s understandable why He speaks of Himself as a Lamb now, but why keep it up after He establishes His Kingdom? For eternity no less!!!

I believe that God keeps the symbol of the lamb because it’s a perfect metaphor, a perfect expression of his heart. Sure we see the Lord Jesus coming back as a mighty warrior, King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:11), but when the battle is over he puts his “lamb clothes” on again. It’s because it was as the Lamb of God, crucified on the Cross, He took away the sin of the world.

Churchhill will be forever defined by his role in World War II, George Bush by September 11. And the Lord Jesus will be eternally defined by the Cross.

Look At the Cross
If you really want to know what God is like, look at the Cross.

It’s courage you want symbolized, huh? Look at the Cross and see the Lamb–the One who spoke the word and the universe existed”see Him hanging there to pay the price for sins He never committed, just so that you and I could come into a relationship with God. Seeing Him suffering under the torturing weight of our sins.

Love? Beauty? Don’t look at Brad Pitt and Jennifer … oops, excuse me … Angela. Look to the Cross and see how important God thinks you are. As someone said, if there had been another way would you have given your son? God’s heart of love is best expressed by the Cross and the One who died on it for us.

For some the lamb is too soft, too sissy. But when the Son of God chose a symbol to represent Him, He chose a lamb because no lion, eagle, leopard or Tyrannosaurus Rex has ever done anything remotely as courageous or powerful as Jesus did in his love on the Cross of Calvary.

Look to Him today. Call on Him for forgiveness and a new life. “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.” There’s nothing the Lamb would rather do than forgive you, bring you into right relationship with His Father, and give you eternal life.

He was slain but He’s alive forevermore and He hears the cry of everyone who humbly comes to Him in faith.
___________________

Hmm …

“Miracles happen because a lot of everyday things happen for years and years and years,” she said. “These people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it and as a result, nobody lost their life.” National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said. (AP) (talking about the plane that landed on the Hudson)

Christmas Dreamin’

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Check out our podcast (on the right of this page): Three Keys for Negociating the Crisis
Joseph had parked the donkey in front of the hotel, so he could go in and get a room. His teenage wife daydreamed as she waited for him to return.

To say the young lady was pregnant understated the case considerably. She was nine months, two weeks, miserable, heavy, stay-out-of-my-way-or-else pregnant. After several days of bumpy travel to get to Bethlehem, you didn’t want to mess with her (My theory is that the only thing more miserable than being a pregnant woman is being married to one).

Maybe it was a relief to her, though, knowing that she was going to have her baby somewhere far away from those dagger-tongued gossips. The last few months hadn’t been easy, and Mary had to admit to herself that her story was a bit hard to swallow: angel visits, a miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit, etc.

Happens all the time!

But she also remembered the day that the angel talked to her. She had been scared out of her wits but when he told her she was going to be the mother of the longed-for Messiah”the Son of God he called him– her heart swelled with joy. She always figured things like that were for the rich folks’ daughters, up in Jerusalem. No one seemed to expect much from the poor trash down in Nazareth.

Maybe God did, though.

And that day when she visited her cousin Elisabeth … if there ever was a woman of God, Elisabeth was. And when she prophesied about Mary’s baby: “ You’re so blessed among women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed!  And why am I so blessed that  the mother of my Lord visits me?” (Luke 1:42, 43, The Message)

A cow lowed lazily behind the inn as Mary continued her reflection. “Mother of her Lord?” She had been so inspired by Elisabeth’s prophecy, and wonder of wonders, she opened her mouth and was awed by the words that she spoke herself.

“ …  I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened”
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.”
(Luke 1:46-55, The Message)

What a day!

And she thought about Joseph. She had been so scared to tell him. He was shaken of course, but eventually God spoke to him and after that he stepped up and became the best protector a woman could imagine. “Lord, you’ve taken care of me through all this,” she murmured as she looked up and saw Joseph coming towards her, a frown on his face.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain …

“For a child has been born”for us!
the gift of a son”for us!
He’ll take over
the running of the world.
His names will be: Amazing Counselor,
Strong God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow,
and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
He’ll rule from the historic David throne
over that promised kingdom.” (Isa. 9, the Message)

Have a super-blessed Christmas.
David

__________________________

Hummm…

“If the [Incarnation] happened, it was the central event in the history of the Earth — the very thing that the whole story has been about. Since it happened only once, it is by Hume’s standards infinitely improbable. But then, the whole history of the Earth has also happened only once: is it therefore incredible?” C.S. Lewis

Naked!

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I used to have this embarrassing dream–I would be at school and suddenly realize that I was in my underwear. Panic! You kind of wonder how I could leave home and not notice a little detail like that, but things don’t have to make sense when you’re dreaming.

The worst is that it feels like you’re really in that situation whether you actually are or not.

So the rest of the time I would try to put on my pants, or find my pants, or whatever. I hated that stupid dream. Not too many of us care to show up in a public place clad only in our skivvies.

I never actually went to school in my undies, though I did rip an embarrassing tear in the seat of my pants, when I was in high school I think it was. My solution was to take my coat and tie the arms around my waist, effectively covering the embarrassing area. You might think that would be a tip-off to all the jokesters in my class that something was goofy but we weren’t really classy dressers in my school and no one really said anything.

Except my math teacher …

This lady had a piercing voice and a sharp tongue. As she passed me in the hall, she said sarcastically, “What happened? You tear a hole in the seat of your pants?” Grrrr… I gave her a sheepish grin and a non-committal answer, and understood anew why I didn’t like math.

No one likes to be exposed like a plucked chicken in front of others. You want to know something that scarier than that, though? God sees us without any kind of feathers. Listen:

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Heb. 4:12,13

Ah …

Adam and Eve sinned and tried to hide from Him but you might as well try to hide from the air. He’s everywhere.

Who can stand the scrutiny of a Holy God? He knows all, sees all, understands all. There’s no hiding from Him. We’re guilty.

So what to do?

Put some clothes on, but make sure they are the right ones!

I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isa. 61:10, NIV)

Instead of trying to “dress up” by our own efforts why don’t we just let God dress us? When we put our faith in Jesus Christ to be saved from our sins and to receive the gift of eternal life, he gives us this new suit of righteousness.

We really look sharp in the presence of God the Father, clothed in the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ.

But without Him, we’re naked in the searchlight of His holiness.

It’s no dream because we’re all going to stand before Him. God calls us to turn from our sins, ask forgiveness, and put our faith in the Lord Jesus. Then you get your righteous suit. Lookin’ good, buddy!

And you’re no longer naked before Him”you’re clothed in Christ’s righteousness and the Father accepts you gladly.
_________
Hmmm…
“Don’t be embarrassed to try and fail. Be embarrassed to fail to try.” Unknown

Tasty Wives

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My wife is much tastier than I am. (She smells better too).

It seems that if mosquitoes or other little beasties have to make a choice between her and me, they choose her. Sometimes when dogs are around and little fleas skip here and there, they bound for her with knife and fork in hand, a napkin knotted around their little flea necks. They usually pass me up.

I suppose I should be offended at these snubs, but this has obvious advantages.

If I’m awakened by a terrible scream at 3 a.m. in the morning– “eeeeeeeeeeee”– and I know that a ravenous mosquito roams the premises lusting for blood, that’s okay. The chances are probably better than 50/50 that he’ll choose her because she tastes better.

Someone said it’s a question of blood chemistry or skin type or some such. I just know you get more sleep if you taste bad. My counsel to young people who are threatening marriage”have them check out the “tastiness factor” when you take your blood test to apply for a marriage license.

If you are tastier than your proposed future partner you might want to think about opting out of this situation and choosing someone who tastes better than you. You’ll sleep better in the future.

Once again some of you wonder, “How in the world is David going to get a spiritual application out of this?” Hang on, I’ll get there.

It’s nice to have someone take our “bites” for us. In a sense we all experience pain because of the Lord Jesus.

“Wait, wait! What are you talking about David? That’s not the way it goes!” Just hang on a minute okay?
We have an adversary, because the Lord Jesus has an adversary. Because this monster hates Him, he hates us too. The devil and his evil spirits exist in spite of all “intellectual” scoffing that relegates him to overactive imagination from the Middle Ages.

This enemy hates Jesus and he knows that when He strikes us, He hurts the Lord. We think it’s about us, but the devil hates and attacks us because he hates the Lord Jesus. Each one of us who suffers or falls pierces the heart of Jesus.

Satan is not a little red guy with Givenchy horns, but a powerful enemy who despises the Lord Jesus and us. He desperately wants the place that belongs to our God. And because we’re on the Lord’s side, he attacks us too.

Don’t let that bother you. You should see how he treats his own servants”they’re slaves.

You think his blows hurt? We really don’t get the full force of them because the Lord Jesus protects us. At the Cross, the Lord Jesus bore every blow the devil struck and even now He softens the blows for us, otherwise many of them could kill us.

Honestly we can’t complain much about suffering. At the Cross, Jesus took all the “bites” that should have been ours, and my friend, these weren’t the mosquito and flea variety.

On one side I believe the blows of the Gentiles and Jews were inspired by the devil. Jesus said of the darkness “This is you hour.” But in another real sense those blows came from heaven.

Listen to this astonishing declaration,

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put him to grief.” (Isa. 53:10).

Incredible! Did the Father take pleasure in His Son’s pain? NO! But listen to how Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message version,

“Still it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it”life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.”

Jesus bore our “bites”, which hurt a billion times more than we can imagine. That should have been me on the Cross because He suffered there for my sin”and yours.

It’s nice to have a good-smelling wife to draw the mosquitoes away from you, but oh how important it is to put your faith and hope in this Jesus who was crushed on the Cross by the punishment that should have been ours.

Love Him! Serve Him with everything in you! He merits it.

 

Haircut!

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This week’s Coffee Stain is actually a “flash from the past.” Most of you haven’t seen it though.


“Haircut!” The word strikes fear in me. It probably stems from the fact that a fellow only has a 50/50 chance to look better after leaving the barbershop. (You’ll look better if you were really ugly when you went in).

I remember dreading going back to school after a periodic shearing. I knew my friends would laugh at me (I must confess that I made a few wisecracks at their expense too. Hey, they looked funny).

At one time I even went to a barber nicknamed “Gappy.” Guess why. He was cheap. One thing bothered me, though. After sitting for a long time watching great clumps of my hair fall to the floor, I cringed as the barber went back to work on evening things up.

When you are in that chair, every time the scissors snap shut it sounds the same, whether he’s cutting off big clumps or two hairs.

You imagine yourself getting balder and balder. In the background you hear a ghostly sound of friends laughing while the barber goes, “snip” then “snip” then “snip”. It feels like he is going, “slash, rip, slash, slash!” You think he’s finished then he finds another place, “snip, snip.” “Auugh! My hair!”

Will he never finish?

When Jesus died on the cross He did the job once for all. He paid the price for our salvation in full, not just partly. He didn’t buy our eternal life on the installment plan, a snip here, a snip there. He doesn’t make monthly payments on heaven, and neither do we. It is finished.

One sacrifice was all it took because that gift was so incredibly precious and expensive that nothing else tacked on to it could possibly add value.

Jesus died once for all. Some teach that his death was perpetual, and every time we take communion, we’re taking part of one sacrifice that continues and continues and continues until He comes back, I suppose. In a sense, for them, He’s still on the cross, still dying.

But Jesus did his job once for all. He died then He rose again. The price for eternal salvation has been paid. When we believe, we enter into what He has done for us and He saves us from eternal death.

Others try for salvation on the “150 hard-payments” plan. They can never quite believe that what Jesus did was enough so they’re always adding their good works. “Snip, snip.” Good works are wonderful and natural–from people who know the Lord and want to please Him. But unsure people who try to add their good deeds and their abstinence from certain things to what Jesus did in order to be right before God are just “snipping.”

Others seek a certain spiritual feeling to believe they are saved. “Snip, snip.” We know we’re saved because his Word tells us if we repent of our sins and put our faith in Him, He will do it. He’s not a liar. My feeling change. He never changes.

It’s done! Enter into it by faith.

“because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14, NIV).

Salvation is done, while sanctification, that process of being changed daily, more and more into His image, continues until the Lord comes. “…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once for all.” In a certain sense the culmination of our salvation is future when we arrive in heaven. But the act has already been done in our soul, once for all.

There is no sense here that the sacrifice is continuing, though it certainly has a continuing effectiveness in our lives. The entire idea of this passage is that it’s something that the Lord has finished, and we can’t add anything to it. We just accept it by faith and live our lives for Him in consequence.

Just put yourself in the hands of the Divine “Barber.” You’ll look better when you walk out of this “shop” than when you walked in. No snickers in heaven.

Guaranteed.