It's ok to write on the walls

It’s around preschool age when a child starts to develop the finger dexterity to hold a pencil steady and is able to make the lines and curves that represent our spoken words.  Moving from individual letters and sounds, at some point it mentally clicks for them – there is a particular combination of these letters that make up “my name”, and my brother’s “name”, and the dog’s “name”, etc. 

Shortly after learning these combinations, our oldest began to fill pages with letters and drawings.  However, he wasn’t always good at keeping his practice space to just a piece of paper.  One day I went upstairs to the boys’ room, and on the wall next to the doorframe was our youngest son’s name, written in blue crayon.  Curious, I asked our oldest if this was his handiwork…because he knew that he was not allowed to write on the walls.  He insisted that the perpetrator was his younger brother – obviously, because that’s whose name was on the wall.  The problem with his sound 5 year old logic was that his younger brother was still toddling around at point, and he was far from ready to write out anything, let alone his own name.

What’s crazy to think is that God once specifically told the Israelites to write on their walls.  However, what they were to write was more important than simply their brother’s name:

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.  Repeat them to your children.  Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.

Thinking about God’s words, talking about them with others, and having them visually available would help keep their relationship with God in the forefront of their minds.  It’s hard to love God if you’re not thinking about Him.  You can’t have a relationship with Him if He’s not a part of your day.

I love how practical these directions are.  To be honest, Moses could have stopped much earlier and simply said: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.  That direction is potent, and we could talk for hours about how to make sure this is the focus of our lives.  However, Moses emphasizes how important these directions are by giving a detailed list of examples for the Israelites.

God’s words are to be passed down to your children.  Talk about God’s words when you’re at home and when your out and about.  They should be visible in your actions and potent in your thoughts.

The most interesting part of the section is the last verse: Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.

One of my favorite ministries, Chestnut Mountain Ranch in Morgantown, WV, has a tradition when constructing a new building.  The workers and volunteers who help with construction write Bible verses and prayers on the wooden frame of each building.  This is a way for them to acknowledge the work God is going to do in the boys’ home they are constructing.  They pray for everyone who will use that space to make a generational impact.  You can see an example of this in the pictures at the bottom of this page.

One last observation: the doorposts and the city gates are rather specific locations for Moses to call out.  It doesn’t prevent them from putting up God’s words on other parts of their homes or in their community, but why these two places?  I think these are the best place to have God’s words visible to His people – because the doorposts and city gates are their transition points during each day.  When you leave your home and when you return back to your family, there are God’s words waiting for you.  When you leave your community to head out in to the world and upon your return – God’s words are there to ground you and remind you whose you are.

Transition points in our day are ripe with opportunity to reset our minds on what is most important.  Rather than move from Point A to Point B or from Task 4 to Task 5, here are some practical ways we can remember God’s words and reset our minds during the day:

·       I recently heard someone say that when they would drive to various meetings with clients, they would spend their drive time talking to God about the next meeting. 
·       To choose a strong password for your accounts, select a Bible verse (e.g. – Philippians2:14) and say it out loud when you log in.  If your work requires that you update your password every 90 days, then next time change it to Philippians2:15 and say both verses together.  And yes, it’s ok to look at the verse to help you memorize it…but after saying the verse for 90 days, trust me, you won’t need any help – you’ll have God’s word in your heart.  I have memorized chunks of Scripture using this method.
·       We use elevators to take us to specific places and people.  So when you ride one, tell God thank you for all the places He’s taken you in life and for the people He has introduced you to.  Name the places and the people you are thankful for.
·       Hang a Bible verse near your door, or even take my son’s approach and write it on the wall.  Find a verse that reminds you of who you are in Jesus and how much He loves you.

Search your day for transition points.  Change one of them.  This reminder will strengthen your relationship with God and help you love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

An outcast of outcasts

We saw last time that Jesus purposely spent a lot of time with those who found themselves on the fringes of society.  These people were outcasts due to disease, physical brokenness, demonic influences, scandalous choices, or society’s prejudices and attitudes.  And yet, Jesus still connected with them, regardless of whether their situation arose due to their own choices or if their condition was due to circumstances outside of their control. 

There is one interaction I want to focus on, but in order to get a clear picture of why this individual would be considered an “outcast of outcasts”…we need a little history lesson:

The Assyrians brought about the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC.  They deported around 30,000 people from the Northern Kingdom/Samaria and replaced them with captives from abroad (2 Kings 17:24-34).  Intermarriage occurred between the northerners who remained and the imported refugees, and a pluralistic culture of sorts developed.  Some of those refugees embraced a number of articles within Judaism, although they still mixed in their old religions, and in time came to regard themselves as Jews (Ezra 4:1-2).  However, their bid for membership in the Jewish community was rejected by post-exilic Jews (Ezra 4:3-5).  This event set into motion a religious animosity between the Jews and Samaritans that persisted throughout the remainder of the biblical period (Luke 9:51-56, John 4:9 and 8:48).

Samaritans claimed lineage through Joseph’s children.  When the tribes of Israel came to the Promised Land, half were instructed to stand on Mt. Gerizim and the other half were to stand on Mt. Ebal.  The half on Mt. Gerizim received the pronouncement of blessing from God – representing what would happen to the entire nation if they chose to follow God (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) and the other half, standing on Mt. Ebal, received the pronouncement of cursing from God – representing what would happen to the entire nation if they chose to not follow God (Deuteronomy 28:15-68).  Joseph’s tribes were among the those who stood on Mt. Gerizim and heard the blessing (Deuteronomy 27:12-13); however, the Jews would have viewed the Samaritans as being among the cursed.  Roughly 400 years prior to Jesus’ time, the Samaritans had built an alter to God on Mt. Gerizim, but it was later destroyed by the Jews in 128 BC.

A significant piece to understanding the Jewish-Samaritan tension is that the Samaritans only accepted the Moses-authored, books as their bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).  The Samaritans acknowledged no prophet after Moses other than the one spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:18, and that is who they regarded as the future Messiah.  The Samaritans rejected all other Jewish writings of the Old Testament, containing history, wisdom literature, and the words of the Jewish prophets.  As such, while the Jews and Samaritans agreed in the expectation of the Messiah and His kingdom, by Jesus’ day, they were looking for different types.  The Jews expected a conquering king, who would clean up the world’s mess and establish Jerusalem as the center of His rule.  The Samaritans were looking forward to a teacher/restorer, who would set things right.

Because of the region’s mixed race history, pure-blooded Jews wanted little to do with Samaritans.  It was insulting to them that half-breeds would make equal-footing claim to their Jewish ancestors.  However, from a political perspective, Samaria was part of the Roman province of Judea in Jesus’ day.  Nevertheless, the ancient cultural barriers created a sharp divide between the residents of Samaria and the Jews who lived in Galilee (which was north of Samaria) and the Jews who lived in Judea (which was south of Samaria).

With this background, we are now ready to step into an amazingly unexpected encounter that Jesus had with an outcast from those who were regarded as outcasts:

John 4:1-7
When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard He was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went again to Galilee.  He had to travel through Samaria; so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well.  It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Societal ranking of the day looked like this:
Jewish man
Jewish woman
Samaritan man
Samaritan woman

Collecting water was a woman’s task, and they would typically go in groups to draw water during the cooler parts of the day – either early or late.  It is very telling that this woman of Samaria came alone, when the day’s heat was at its peak.  Later on, we’ll find out other aspects of her life that would have made her an outcast, even among her own people.

Despite all the historical animosity and racial tension between the Jews and the Samaritans, Jesus saw her as someone worth His time, His effort, and His offer of Eternal Life.

Whom do we see as a modern-day Samaritan?  Whom do you shun because you see them as an outcast?

If we want to be Jesus’ disciples, we’re going to need look at the outcasts like Jesus did…and then meet them where they are.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Our desire for peace, fulfilled

There is so much strife and turmoil in our world.  The nightly news is full of what went wrong during the day.  The internet is always ready to show you the ugliness that us human beings can manufacture.  We feel divided by every available category.  We want to see peace, but we just don’t see a way for it to happen.  And yet…our longing for peace suggests that somehow, it’s possible…

Now is the time to use our sanctified imagination.  Try to imagine what John is seeing:

Revelation 21:9-11
Then one of the seven angels, who had held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
He then carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, arrayed with God’s glory.  Her radiance was like a precious jewel, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

John was doing his best to describe to his readers what he was witnessing.  Jasper was a precious stone in Bible times.  As it is known today, jasper’s appearance is more opaque than clear.  Using today’s terms, we would probably refer the New Jerusalem as a brilliant diamond (a stone which was not known as a jewel in Bible times). 

John continues:

Revelation 21:12-14
The city had a massive high wall, with twelve gates.  Twelve angels were at the gates; the names of the twelve tribes of Israel’s sons were inscribed on the gates.  There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.  The city wall had twelve foundations, and the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were on the foundations.

Interestingly enough, we see reference to both the Old and New Testament people of God…living in the same place, but yet they are still distinctly identified.  The Holy City will be a beautiful place of peace for those who love God, no matter what age they lived in. 

This is the ultimate fulfillment of what Paul explained to the believers in Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:11-3:6
So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh…at that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 
For He is our peace, who made both groups one…so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.  He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross…the Gentiles are (now, together with believers from Israel) coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

The distance from each other the and divide between us and God has been bridged because He is our peace.  The peace we want can only be found in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  That peace we can have right now, when we accept Jesus’ offer of eternal life.  Although we long to live in a peaceful society, we can take comfort knowing that our desire for a peaceful world will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem.

For that, I am a very thankful Gentile…and I can’t wait to see Christ’s work of reconciliation and peace displayed in Eternity Future and the New Jerusalem.

Keep Pressing,
Ken