There's a new sheriff in town

There is a god in our nation called “Lord ReallyBusy”.

If you worship at his altar, you just might be so distracted that nothing else bothers you or is able to pierce the cloak of impenetrable activity that this god wraps around all its followers.

The kingdom of God is so unlike our normal inclinations.  Busy-ness does not equal progress, Being involved in a myriad of activities does not automatically translate into spiritual depth.  As a matter of fact, it just might keep your car stuck in the mud.

Jesus told Martha that she was simply doing too much.  She was involved in worshipping “Lord ReallyBusy” and not Jesus Christ.  (And she did not even notice it!) 

But what is really a jaw-dropper is when Jesus took Martha’s to-do list away from her and threw it in the trash.  Then he gave her a new to-do list.

It had only one thing on it.

According to Luke 10:42, the one thing was:

1)    Sit at my feet and listen to me.

There was no number two.  There was no number three.

Just number one.

What is on your to-do list today?

Dear God of Love, please incinerate my enemies!

OK, read the following verses then jump into my thoughts afterwards!

Luke 9: 51 - 56

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’* 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56Then* they went on to another village.


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The disciples are at it again!

Apparently, that primal and foundational sin, pride, has jumped into their pockets as they move through the countryside with Jesus. Witnessing miracle after miracle and hearing the words of life from Jesus’ very lips seems not to have had quite the desired effect on this group.

When a village does not give Jesus the key to the city, how furious are the disciples! James and John then utter the immortal words, ‘Any problem with us asking that they be incinerated?’

The problem I have with this passage is that I see myself in it.

I get slighted and I need revenge. I feel insulted and I want someone’s head. I sense disrespect and look out jugular, here I come.

Pride is the gasoline in my engine when I feel this way.

I don’t see where Jesus reprimanded the village, he just continued his journey. Perhaps because he was hooked in to his Father’s more transcendent purposes?

Pride often retreats in the face of larger purpose. Higher matters always trump the smaller trivialities.

Pride causes all sorts of odd little behaviors in our lives. It is as persistent as a mosquito in the heat of summer.

Who has disparaged you lately? Who has not treated you appropriately recently?

What kind of fire have you wished on them?

May we see pride as the hobgoblin of those of us who seek Christ.

Daily be aware and repent. Allow the updraft of Christ’s purposes to help you ascend over small pettinesses.

It is the only way you can ever arrive at your Jerusalem.

Jesus Christ Superstar and me - a match made in ...

I always find it funny when I hear folks say that such and such a person is not reachable by Christ.

Or that this other person surely has found a way to be beyond God's long arm.

Or that their child is the one person who has finally managed to find a way to elude the hounds of heaven.

I also find it amusing when I hear other folks prescribe exactly and precisely how a person has to come to know Christ. You know the drill, a person HAS TO be baptised in order to be saved ... a person HAS TO go through 3 or 4 steps (depending on who you are talking to) in order to be properly redeemed ... a person HAS TO pray a prayer with certain words and themes before becoming a Christian.

Balderdash!

None of that is true, in my humble opinion.

The Bible is so full of different methods and ways and approaches that folks have experienced in coming to Christ that I can only find one commonality ... the destination, Jesus Christ.

Take me, for example.

I was a teenage agnostic. And I did not subscribe to the theory that the Bible was true.

Until I heard Jesus Christ, Superstar, the irreverent rock opera.

Now, Jesus Christ, Superstar, was condemned and blasted by just about every church that existed at that time. They alleged that it was not accurate ... it was not respectful ... it was too far out ... it made fun of Christ ... and on and on and on. Churches around the nation reloaded and declared it to be of the devil. Churches around the nation authoritatively declared it to be a heretical blasphemy.

But God used it to bring me to himself.

Sobering, isn't it?

When I listened to it at the age of 18, a door in my heart opened that had never been opened. When I listened to it at the age of 18, a desert inside of me began a self-irrigation project. Christ began somehow to change me.

We never know who or what God will use to bring someone to Christ. We may say we know, but we really don't.

Try not to limit God, ok? Try not to prescribe his ways and methods for others since he will assuredly not adhere to your rules that you set for him.

• If God wants to knock someone off a donkey to facilitate their salvation, that is ok.
• If God wants to use a rooster to call the unrepentant to repentance, so be it.
• If God wants to use the terror of a roller-coaster ride in a theme park to draw a person into his kingdom, that's just peachy.
• If God wants to use a rock in your shoe to bring you to himself, then that's just perfect!
• If God wants to use the death of a loved one to brush your face against eternity, super!
• If he wants to use an old-fashioned altar call in a Southern Baptist church to throw his ropes around you, excellent!

Entire denominations are built around prescribing methods of salvation that must be adhered to in order to know that your ticket has been punched.

He will do what he will do and he will use who or what he chooses. GASP! What a novel concept! Some might even say that this is the definition of sovereignty. DOUBLE GASP!

Here's the take-away, gang ... let God be sovereign and you worry about what kind of follower of Jesus you are ... his sovereignty will choose the right approach to bring others into the kingdom.

Keep your ear attuned to him so that you might know how you can help, if, indeed, you can at all.

Who knows, he might even use a rock opera.