What is the Good News?

This last weekend I heard a sermon about Romans 1 and Paul's coopting the phrase 'good news' from Caesar.  Most Christians can probably describe what the Good News is post-Resurrection. The gospels also describe that Christ 'preached God's Good News' (Mark 1.14). What did Christ preach when He preached Good News?

He wouldn't preach that His death and resurrection would bring about our salvation. His disciples and others in His audience wouldn't have understood any of that. In fact, the gospels describe how the disciples struggled with the concept that the Messiah had to die at the end of the Messiah's earthly 3-year ministry.

How would you describe God's Good News only from the Hebrew scriptures, which were the only scriptures that Christ had? Remember, Y'shua (Jesus) was teaching from the books of Moses, Psalms and the prophets. His words had to make sense to those in the synagogues, on the hill sides and shores, and villages and towns.

That's going to be my next research project. Maybe there's already an author who's done this that I don't know about. How about you? Join me in this endeavor to understand the Good News as Christ taught and showed it?

Jumping the Wall

I was talking to a friend a while back. I mentioned the lesson we learned last week about how Christ as the Good Shepherd stands in the gate to protect us, that anyone who wants to get in and harm us has to go through Him first. And no one and no thing can. 

I also mentioned how God does not leave us separated from Him. As a woman shared with King David, our God does not let anything separate us from Him forever; we are not like spilled water, never able to be put back in the cup. He always creates ways for us to return to Him, like the Israelites after making the golden calf. He could have abandoned them but He continued to create ways for them to return to His presence. (2 Samuel 14.14)

I also mentioned Pete Briscoe's story about jumping over the wall with a friend when they were six. His father had told them they were free to do anything in the backyard except go over the stone wall. They did, of course, and were soon being threatened by the bull. They got back over the wall without injury except the disappointment of Pete's father. He said he had made the rule not to limit their fun but to protect them.

I thought about the story from another perspective: the father's. As I started to change the end of the story, it hit me emotionally hard...not just once but twice as I later related the conversation to my wife--and a third time when I talked to a few more guys. What if the boys couldn't have gotten back over the wall?  He would not have stood at the wall and said, "Oh, well, I told you not to go over the wall but you did anyway. Too bad for you. Hope you can get yourself out of this mess." I believe the father would have jumped over the wall and done everything he could to save the boys even if they had broken his rule. A good shepherd hunts until he finds the wandering sheep. A father protects his kids no matter what, whether they've been obedient or not, whether the kids want the father's help or not. He would jump over the wall. He would sacrifice himself to save his kids.

Christ jumps over the wall to protect us. Christ jumped over the wall to save us.

Love--against which there is no law (wall). (Galatians 5.22-23)

How do we need to jump over the wall to protect our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ?

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Many of us remember Bobby McFerrin's hit song that everyone could sing in the prime of its airplay. Y'shua says something similar in His sermon on the mount:

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life--whether you have enough food or drink, or enough clothes to wear..." (Matthew 6.25).

The first word, 'that', refers to His previous statement that we cannot serve God and money at the same time. You need to choose your 'master'.

Later on He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously." (Matthew 6.33)

I believe this fits Maslow's Hierarchy. If we really believe God has our basic physiological needs covered (food, drink, clothes, shelter), then we can focus on our relationships of loving Him and loving others...and service (like self-actualization). Let God take care of your needs and move up on the pyramid.

Six months ago, I bought a company and some weeks the daily bread (manna) feels a little thin, but I'm really trying to do what Christ says..."don't worry about food, drink, clothes" and "seek first the kingdom of God" by focusing on doing my best to bring Him glory, focusing on the relationships with employees/customers/suppliers and serving them the best I can.

Are You Just Pretending?

You acknowledge that the other person, perhaps your spouse, is making an effort at conversation by nodding your head and saying, "A-huh". Really, you're waiting for the appropriate pause so you can say what you want to say. Perhaps it's a pithy remark and your mind is busy crafting the perfect statement. Or you're thinking about the next appointment or work assignment or video game that you want to move to and you're waiting to say, "That's interesting but I gotta run. Let's talk about this later."

You've just been pretending to listen.

Scene from movie Charge of the Light Brigade whose disastrous end was thought to have been created due to inattention to understanding the orders and the intelligence sharing

"Don't just listen to God's Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are just fooling yourselves."  (James 1.22 NLT)

You know there are several layers to listening:

• Level 0: ignoring
• Level 1: pretending (example above)
• Level 2: selective listening (what we might do when someone is delivering good and bad news)
• Level 3: attentive listening (you catch everything the other person says)
• Level 4: empathetic listening (you understand the feelings and motivations behind the words)

I've challenged myself to do more Level 3 certainly in the past few years as I read God's Word. I've a friend who leads our men's ministry and usually comes up with a question like, "What do you guys think it means in verse ___ when it says ________?" Sometimes I'm thinking, "It says what? Did I read the same chapter he did?" Or when I read I sometimes like to stop at questions, particularly Christ's questions and answer them before I read on. For example, Y'shua asks, "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?" (Luke 12.51 NLT) We would all shout, especially around Christmas time, "Of course, we think you came to bring peace on earth! Isn't that what the angels sang at Your birth." (Not quite; see Luke 2.14) Y'shua answers His own question, "No, I came to bring division..."

Have you been reading attentively enough? Listening attentively enough to the still, small voice during prayer time to hear every word God reveals to you so that you understand what He wants you to do?

And then have you been empathetically listening so that you know how God feels and what His motivation might be when He says 'those things'? Do you know what brings Him joy, what breaks His heart and can you understand and tell Him you would/do feel the same way?

I recently had an experience where a friend who doesn't have much gave his last dollars to an offering to dig a well for kids in other countries. It brought tears to my eyes--really I was a blubbering mess--as I imagined these kids hugging him in heaven, excited to tell him that they no longer got sick and could go to school. I was weeping a lot. I imagined maybe Y'shua felt the same as He watched the widow put her last two coins in the Temple offering box. Was He a blubbering mess when He told His disciples to watch her give all she had out of love for her God?

A few years a youth ministry group answered WWJD? with DYKJWETKWHWD? (Do you know Jesus well enough to know what He would do?)

Are you listening...or only fooling yourself that you hear God speak?