Love is God’s Gravy

 Ever had a really dry turkey, stuffing , mash potatoes for thanksgiving ? Who hasn’t!  We try so very hard to get the turkey cooked just right and get all the food prepared in such a way that it’s all ready at the same time but it’s near impossible.  We feel the whole meal is ruined and there’s nothing we can do to change it.

What can fix it ?  GRAVY!

Gravy fixes everything. It can take the most dry overcooked food and make it the best meal ever.  Just pour it over all the food and presto! It’s not dry anymore 

Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:8

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

God’s love and forgiveness covers all of our dryness in our souls and others.  His love poured out from his veins on the cross and makes us clean. We then let that love pour over us onto those around us as well and it changes everything.  

So as we meet for family gatherings where we might not see eye to eye on everything or past grievances are still an issue, let’s pour on God’s love over it all!  

Pass the gravy please!

Is Tobiah shacking up in your heart?

Recently I led a small group in our church through the book of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah is a fascinating book for study in that it has many facets that are applicable to the reader.

Are you looking for a book on leadership in difficult situations?   

Read Nehemiah

Are you looking for a book on doing a building project at your church?   

Read Nehemiah.

Are you rebuilding your life that has been a long list of disasters?   

Read Nehemiah.

In the book, Nehemiah constantly has to deal with 2 non-jews who seem to have much influence on the people living in and around the ruins of Jerusalem.  These two people are : Tobiah (an Amonite) and Sanballat (a Horonite).   Throughout the re-building of Jerusalem's gates and walls these two people make life difficult for Nehemiah and his people.   They constantly send messages of discouragement to them, mock them and try to make them afraid to prevent them from completing the work on the wall.

In one instance Sanballat tries to make them question their right to rebuild the walls (a written direction the King of Persia has given Nehemiah authority to do). Sanballat says to them 2:19, "What are you doing? Are you rebelling against the king?".   Here he tries to sow the seeds of doubt into the people of Jerusalem.

In another instance, Sanballat tells the people of Samaria (vs 4:2-3) , "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices?  Will they finish in a day?   Can they bring the stones back to life from heaps of rubble - burned as they are?".   To which Tobiah adds, "What are they building... even a fox climbing on it would break down their wall of stones!"   They do this to hopefully create hostility with the Jews and the people of Samaria to create a war with them.

Nehemiah ignores their insults and asks God for help and strength to finish their work.

Later, Tobiah threatens them with being attacked while they work on the wall.  They hope that either the Jews will stop building and be ready for attack or the Jews will keep building but not ready themselves for an attack and they would ambush them on a regular basis.   Nehemiah chooses to have the people arm themselves as they work on the wall and have half the men stand guard over the workers. While this does slow down the work, it doesn't prevent them from finishing.

After all this they finally complete the walls and the gates and celebrate.   Nehemiah doesn't stop with just working on the walls of the city.  He connects the people back with their Jewish faith and he has them make oaths to keep God's laws and support the Temple with their offerings.  

Nehemiah then returns to Babylon to fulfill his promise to the king.   Sometime later, Nehemiah returns to check up on them and what he finds is a total disgrace.

To his amazement, he finds that a room in the temple that should be filled with grain from the tithes of the people (used for grain offerings on the altar) instead re-purposed as a room for Tobiah.   The man who ridiculed and mocked them relentlessly now has a sleeping quarter in the temple.   He has shacked up in God's temple. 

You might be asking "How can they let this happen?"

The answer is provided that many people owed money to Tobiah and this may have been their way to pay off their debt to him.  

But we are often no different than the people in the book of Nehemiah.   Satan, like Tobiah, makes us slaves again of our sins and shacks up in our hearts.  We set aside areas for sins we have come accustomed to over time.  They are so invasive we don't even recognize them as the enemy of God anymore.   They take up space that should be for God's purpose only and crowd out his Spirit in our lives.  How the Amonite people must have laughed the people of Jerusalem as their leader had a personal room in their temple to their God.  So also, the people of the world may laugh at us as we too try to appease them live as people of the world rather than as God's people.

What rooms in your heart have you "re-purposed" and what are they now used for?

Has the room marked "Love" been changed to "Hate"?

Has the room marked "Faith" been changed to "Doubt"?

Has the room marked "Grace" been changed to "Revenge"?

Has the room marked "Tithes" been changed to "Personal use"?

Maybe there is someone whom you have not forgiven that is "living in your head rent free" and you find you waste much of your attention and thoughts on this person.

Nehemiah comes and has the rooms cleared out and purified and puts people in charge he can trust to keep them from falling back into ungodly uses.  

God also comes back in our lives and clears out our hearts, but it's not enough to "clean house", they must be filled with God's spirit.   As Jesus points out that as when an unclean spirit is removed from a person it searches for another place to find shelter.  If it cannot find another host it will return back to the person.  If it finds the room clean, in order but not inhabited by God it will bring 10 other spirits worse than itself and it will be worse for the person in the end.

Spend some time walking through the rooms of your hearts Temple and see what areas you have re-purposed or taped-off from God's use.   Ask God for forgiveness and begin the needed work of putting back what is God's only.

Open Jail Doors

     My grandmother on my Dad's side told of the story about her father, Gottfried Gentsch who owned a bar/restaurant in Illinois in the late 1800's.   He had an unruly patron one night that he had to literally throw out of the bar.   When he threw him out, in his anger he said to him, "If I see you in here again, I will kill you!".    A week later that man was found dead in a ditch in the back of the bar.   My great-grandfather was arrested and tried for his murder.  Back in those days they did not have fingerprints, DNA evidence or security cameras to help clear him of this murder and so he was sent to the county jail.  The warden of this small jail noticed that this man was not like the other inmates.   My great-grandfather had been an elder of his church and read his Bible regularly and continued to do so in jail.   After some time (I am not sure how long) the jailer said to him, "If some night you wake up and see the jail doors open, just get up and walk out and don't turn back".   Later that week, he awoke in the middle of the night to see that his door was open and he walked out.   He came back and started his life over and re-married a woman named Linda Strammer who would become my great-gandmother.   Later (I am not sure how long) a man who was a member of their church admitted on his death bed to the murder of the man who my grandfather had been wrongfully convicted of killing.  

    I tell this story not just as a historical novelty, but as a lesson for all of us.  The largest and strongest prison in the world is not made with concrete and steel, but is from our own thoughts and feelings of guilt, fear and shame.  We feel trapped and, unlike my grandfather, know we deserve to be there.  So often people become trapped in their lives.   We look at them and know they deserve so much more but they continue to make bad choices.   They believe that this is their lot in life and there is no way out of it.  

    But Christ has come to tell us we are free to go and the doors are all unlocked. 

    Jesus said,

        "You shall know the TRUTH and the TRUTH shall set you FREE!"

    What is that TRUTH?   Simply that God loves you and forgives you all of your sins because Jesus has already paid the price for you.  

    Jesus whispers to your heart to tell you, "The doors are unlocked now.  Leave and don't look back!"  For some, they will continue to sit in their cells thinking that this is all too good to be true and there must be a catch (maybe it's a trap!).  Other's will take the steps of faith to trust God and leave their cells behind.  

   God makes that offer to you today!  Will you leave or will you stay.  It's up to you.

 

Chasing Cars

 

    I will admit that this blog veers from my normal areas of writing as it pertains to a song that I heard on the radio that I feel has very deep meaning for men today.  I don't normally do song interpretation, but I feel called to do so for this one.

     The song is called "Chasing Cars" by the band Snow Patrol.   You have probably heard the song used in several movies and TV shows (Greys Anatomy for one).  Here is a link to it on YouTube:

         Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars (Official Video) 

     In my opinion, the song blends a perfect combination of lyrics, music and instruments to bring across an important message. 

     The song begins with a simply two "dull" notes played over and over by a single instrument.  This represents man living alone by himself.   It's simple but it's dull and boring.  Men tend to repeat the same patterns over and over.   Get up, eat, exercise, work, eat, work some more, eat, watch TV, play some meaningless games, go to bed....rinse and repeat.  

      The singer then begins with the following words:

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

     These are often the thoughts of many young men today.  This feeling that they are complete on their own and they don't need anyone else in their lives.  They can "do it all ... on our own".    It's a dull and empty existence that is devoid of beauty and meaning.  Many movies have been made on this premise and is the topic of countless stories.

     The song goes on...

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

     Now we hear two instruments playing and the music becomes slightly more meaningful and fuller.  He asks his girl to just lay with him and forget the world.   He has decided he needs someone to be with him, but he just wants to "forget the world".  He wants the relationship on his terms and doesn't want to move forward.  So often men settle for one-night-stands that go nowhere, but sometimes they open up them up to something more.  

     The song moves on....

I don't know
How to say
How I feel 

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

      The two dull notes are back but now the man acknowledges that he can't "do it all".   He can't put words to the feelings he is having. Men are so often unable to express their feelings and often give up by using those 3 same over-used words: "I don't know".  Too many men stop there and don't go further.   He realizes that this answer is "not enough" and he moves into a deeper relationship her.

     The song goes on...

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

      He starts out again with the same empty request to just lie and do nothing, but now he wants to do more.  He invites her to do something with him (even if it has no purpose). He recognizes that life is moving on all around him, and he is getting older.  When we are young, we think we are immortal and have all the time in the world.  But when we get into our 20's and 30's we see that is just not so.  Time is short and getting shorter all the time.   He now wants to experience life in its fullest form.  He needs her to show him "a garden that's bursting into life".   This may mean he wants to start a family, or he just knows that life without her is empty and dull.  Women bring life and beauty into the hearts of men.  They make us think outside the box of our rigid thinking.   They open us up in ways we can never imagine.  Sometimes this opening shows us who we really are inside and where are failings are.  It is through this that he sees he "needs her grace... to find my own".   Men know they are not perfect, and we screw up over and over.    We are often our own worst critic and find it hard to forgive ourselves.   Her love for him overrides his imperfections and gives him grace.  That grace empowers him to have grace for himself that never had before.   Only in deep relationships do we have the opportunity to offer forgiveness and grace.  

    The song goes on...

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

     The music reaches a crescendo here.  It is full and makes the listeners skin tingle in excitement.  I can remember the end of my first date with my wife.   The exhilaration I felt I cannot fully describe.  As I drove home in my car back to my apartment I looked up through the frosted window at the sky and yelled, "Thank you God!  I am so happy now!  Thank you!".  I knew I had found my soulmate. 

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

     The singer has found his soulmate too.   He has given himself totally into this one woman and forgets all that was behind him.  He has forgotten his previous life totally.  All he wants to see is her perfect eyes.  Have you ever staired deeply into another person's eyes and then seen yourself in the reflection in their eyes?  That is how close he is now.  He is confused still.  As many men we will never fully understand the power women have over us.   The heart of a woman is a mystery only God can understand.  She is the "help-mate suitable for him" that he promised.  

     The song goes on...

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Interesting that the song returns to the same dull notes at the end.  Why? The reason is left up to the listeners interpretation.  Did the relationship end?   Was his love not returned?   Did she pass away?   Or did they need to start over again.   We don't know.

We do know one thing.  He is changed.  He has grown as a person.  He doesn't revert back to square 1 of thinking he can do it all on his own.  He knows he needs more than a career or money or fame.  He needs someone to love him.