Sabbath

Sabbath, or as it's pronounced in Hebrew, "Shabbat" (שַׁבָּת), means to rest, or cease.
In Judaism it is the seventh day of the week and also a day of rest.

The idea is to cease from the normal rhythm of life. To "break" so you can replenish and renew. Our bodies, minds, souls and hearts need rest. We have to refuel, or pretty soon our tanks will be empty.

I'm taking some time to unplug, retreat, and renew without email, computers and blogging. It's really hard for me to "unplug" but so very necessary. How about you? Who plans your calendar? Who makes the commitments? Maybe you need one too. It can be a day, an evening, a week, or a weekend. Try it. It's healthy, necessary, biblical and follows the steps of Jesus.

A Model in Honesty

Englishman Brian Davis called a two-stroke penalty on himself Sunday during a play-off with Jim Furyk at the PGA Verizon Heritage Golf Tournament in Hilton Head. His self-admission was confirmed by video replay after he notified a rules official of the suspected error on the first hole of the playoff. His oppenent and rules officials weren't even sure it happend until it was confirmed by video replay. If you think this is small potatoes it's not. Davis honesty cost him his first PGA tour win and over $400,000 in prize money!

According to the AP, Davis hit his approach shot on the left edge of the green and the ball found its way into some rocks, grass, twigs and reeds. He called himself out for, "moving a loose impediment during a take away," according to rule 13.4. It was so small they had to use slow motion video to even detect his error.

Even Furyk asked his opponent if he was sure it actually happened. Davis told the rules official he was sure he moved the reeds when he brought the club back and that he had to report it saying, "I could not have lived with myself if I had not." This is what sets golf apart from other sports. The game relies on the honesty and integrity of its players on the course.

Here's to Brian Davis! I hope he gets his first PGA tour win very soon. Thanks Brian for modeling the honesty and integrity of the game.

Weed Control

Every year I spend untold amounts of time, energy and money battling weeds in our lawn. I spread a liquid herbicide and the weeds come back. I apply a granular weed n' feed product and while a few of the weeds die, a new batch comes on strong. I reapply the liquid weed control several weeks later only to discover that several wild grasses and weeds are not only immune but they are thriving.

Fighting weeds is a year round battle in the South. Bermuda grass may go dormant in the winter months, but the weeds don't. They are a tenacious and formidable lawn foe.

Recently while treating the lawn for weeds it occurred to me how much time, energy and cost I invest in the weed battle. What if I invested similar time, energy and resources to fighting sin? Sin is just like a weed. It keeps coming back. You get one area cleared and if you aren't vigilant and careful a new one pops up in an area of your life/lawn that you thought you had under control. The Apostle Paul knew about weeds/sin. He wrote in Romans 8:

⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Need some weed/sin control in your life? Here's some helps:

1. Live in the Spirit; Concentrate on the good grass (righteousness). Grow stronger and stronger in your faith.
   
2. Pursue righteousness by spending time in God's Word (the ultimate weed/sin buster).
   
3. Hang out with people who are pursuing the things of God, they will help you weed out the sin in your life. Mutual accountability in a faith community is a major help in the weed/sin battle.
4. Stay faithful in corporate worship doing in community what we are unable to do alone. By focusing on the glory of God we take the spotlight off ourselves----the ultimate weed/sin choking application.
   
5. Live a confessional life marked by repentance. Don't let the weed/sin run out of control. Address it with God in prayer and ask for His help to change (repent) behavior, actions, attitudes, thoughts and urges that don't glorify Him.

May your lawn/life be healthy, vibrant and productive! And may the weeds be few!

Behold the Lamb!

She was a pawn. The temple leaders brought her before Jesus in a crowd because they were trying to trap Him. She had been "caught in the act" of adultery. Interesting. They didn't bring the man she was with before Jesus. The Law said both of them should be stoned.

The leaders didn't care about her. If they had someone would've made an attempt to restore her in private. We never meet the witnesses, but the story says she was "caught in the act" which means two eyewitnesses had to see the same thing at the same time and provide corroborating testimony. Dual confirmation was supposed to prevent the abuse of the Law. It's interesting that the religious leaders didn't challenge the witnesses. It wasn't enough to witness a sin. Eyewitnesses had a legal obligation to intervene and provide moral guidance to the person(s) caught in sin. They were supposed to stop it, or prevent it from happening. Why didn't they? Where were they when the leaders brought her to Jesus? The text doesn't say. However, it does say they were trying to trick Jesus.

With one little sentence, Jesus turned judgmental, would-be stoner's into disappointed, rock dropper's. "Let anyone without sin throw the first stone." Stopped them dead in their tracks. Jesus wasn't saying the woman didn't sin. He wasn't saying that people don't have the right to question the sinful behavior of their fellow man. He simply exposes their hypocrisy.

They walk away. It's just her and Jesus. She calls Him, "Lord". She knows He can help her. No one has spoken with such authority to her, or the religious leaders. Perhaps for the first time in her life someone is looking at her without ulterior motives driven by hedonistic pleasure. Someone is looking at her with unconditional love that has nothing to do with her body. Someone is looking at her with hope.

His response doesn't ignore her sin. He tells her to stop, but His response is less about her and more about His sovereignty. It testifies to His God-given authority to forgive sin. She is me. She is you. She is every person whoever sinned. All of us. Not one of us gets a pass. We need Him every bit as much as she needed Him. He wants us to heed His warning to stop sinning. But He also wants us to go, to move on, pick ourselves up and take one step in front of the other walking in His way, not our flesh.

Scholars say the earliest manuscripts don't have her story. Many believe it was a later insertion. Several translations relegate her story to the appendix. Others make special notations, or tell us it should actually be John 7:53-8:11, instead of 8:1-10. Check your translation and see if there's not a parenthetical statement, or footnote about the accuracy of the passage. It doesn't really matter, or does it? The church has told her story for centuries. The story doesn't violate the integrity of the religious leaders (or lack thereof), or the historic character and actions of Jesus. It's consistent with the stories of Jesus found in the rest of the gospel story.

The point of the story is what's important. Whether this text is accurately placed, inserted at a later date, held out by the scribes of old, or not doesn't matter. What matter's to us is what mattered to her....that Jesus is sovereign and has the authority to forgive sin. She needs Him and so do we! John knew it and declared it in the first chapter of his story of Jesus: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

A Post Easter Meditation

He is here for the broken
And life to the one who is undone
He is peace to the wounded
And hope for the helpless one

He is here
He is here

Be still my soul be still
Be still my soul be still
Wait patiently upon the Lord
Be still my soul be still

When the waves rise against me
And the wind tries to draw me away
I will stand on the mountain
And safe in Your arms I will sing

Be still my soul be still
Be still my soul be still
Wait patiently upon the Lord
Be still my soul be still

Be Still by Ed Cash and Kari Jobe; (c) 2008, Gateway Create Publishing

A Proud Butler Alum

Congratulations to my Butler Bulldogs! They didn't win the NCAA and lost to Duke, but they played with so much heart and soul.

They took the "Goliath" of college basketball to the last second. Coach Brad Stevens and his players can hold their heads high for every small school. The best news is that nearly all of Butler's players return next year!

While no one remembers the loser in the previous year's NCAA, I have no doubt Butler's effort this year will not be forgotten. Congrats my Butler brothers this alum is awfully proud of the Bulldogs!

Happy Easter!

This morning after enjoying breakfast together as a faith community we processed from the cross on our front grounds to the worship center. We heard those words that have rung from the Moravian Cemetery in Salem, NC for years when the faithful gather in the dark early on Easter morn and the pastor yells:

"Why are you here? He is not here. He is RISEN!"

And so began our Resurrection Sunday worship. Just days before we gathered at the same cross at the conclusion of our Maundy Thursday service and took down the purple cloth and adorned it in black. A somber reminder of what took place on that horrible, dark, Good Friday. As we gathered this morning the same cross covered in white cloth reminded each of us that only God could take an instrument of death and use it to bring eternal life. It moved from being a symbol of hope to being a sign of hope.
Praise God for His incredible gift! Now we live in Resurrection hope as we live for His 2nd coming. May God help each of us to share our hope with the world where we live, work and play.

Waiting.....

Come, Lord Jesus!

Good Friday

Isaiah 53 "The Man of Sorrows"

³ He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. ¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-20
¹Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" ⁷ Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." ⁸ Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." ⁹Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" ¹⁰Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean."

¹²When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. ¹⁶Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. ¹⁸ I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, 'He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.' ¹⁹ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. ²⁰Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."