The Almighty’s Answers
GOD is the Maker and Master of mysteries; we are His creations and our contentment is based on His care not their clarity. Job 39-40
Counterfeits of the Caring King
Caring makes humans kings but may be counterfeit. GOD’s servants establish His kingdom through true concern for careless humanity 2 Samuel 15-19
Symbols and Senses
The tabernacle made by labor and contributions to GOD’s plan engaged all the senses to bring sinners to their senses and to GOD Exodus 25-28
Spirit Sparks
Scripture is stone and our hearts flint. Together they spark us into the light & warmth of GOD’s Presence when He seems silent Psalms 60-63
Peace Without Pockets
I must begin by telling you that I’m not _____’s son. I wouldn’t mind being his son-in-law, but to do that I’d have to get _______ drunk enough to agree. And as a Baptist Minister I’m not allowed to do that.
You may be thinking it’s inappropriate to talk about wine from the pulpit. And I don’t drink myself. But Jesus talks about it in today’s parable. A parable is a story where you compare one thing being like another. He says that the Christian life is like wine skins. In those days and some countries today wine was kept in animal skins. As it fermented the skin would expand like a balloon. So it was important to put new wine in new wine skins that were still fresh enough to expand as the wine fermented. Otherwise the skin would blow up like a balloon, wasting the skin bottle and spilling all the wine inside everywhere. Jesus is saying that trying to keep your old lifestyle as a Christian will destroy you. You’ll have no peace. You’ll “go to pieces.” Don’t become a Christian unless you’re ready to give up what kept you from God and start a whole fresh way of looking at Life. But as Jesus says about the old wine, if you are satisfied with the old habits, you’ll never think clearly enough to choose the new Life. Throughout chapter 5 Luke has been telling us stories about changing the way we think. Jesus has been doing miracles to say forget trusting in the way you did things: Jesus shows a new way.
If the wine example makes you uncomfortable Jesus uses another example: clothes. No one rips up brand new clothes to sew on the old clothes they’re replacing. Or in another example, it’s useless to fill your pockets with sewage and claim to be clean.
Many of us wonder why Life is such a struggle. Why is it hard to live as a Christian? Jesus is saying “Empty your pockets!” You’re still trying to carry around mementos of your old life in your pockets. You’re not letting to of old habits, old hurts, old ways. Your wine skin is bursting.
So we should just stop sinning, then, and we’ll be fine, right? But if we had the power to do that we wouldn’t need Jesus. The good news is that Jesus redresses us without pockets. While we are in physical bodies we will struggle with trying to stop stuffing sin into our pockets. But Jesus gives us peace without pockets. We have a new life, a new Spirit. We don’t clean ourselves. All we must do is be willing to allow Jesus to completely change us.Empty pockets are the result of Christ living in us not a requirement for it. He comes to us with our pockets full. He comforts and strengthens us to leave the pockets behind. New wine in new wineskins as we mature and expand beyond we could imagine. He cleans us because He loves us. He doesn’t love us only because or when we are clean.
Those who follow JESUS are new creations being dressed for a completely different life, a body with no pockets to carry the old. Luke 5:36-39
God’s Gift of Giving
GOD is the Greatest FmGiver. He is the Giver of every good gift. He gives Life! Health, peace, joy, love. Everything you enjoy about Life is a gift from God. Even the tough times of Life are from God. They teach you to enjoy His greatest gift, Himself, and to long for eternal Life with Him.
Fellow Believers are gifts from God to lead us to Him and to strengthen and encourage us along the way. This includes in word and deed as well as physical needs that back up their spiritual claims. And as Paul says that means the tough love of discipleship, too. This discipleship is necessary so the younger Believers can grow into healthy gifts and givers themselves.
Believers are gifts from GOD to other Believers, giving themselves & what they’re given, including the inspiration to give. 2 Corinthians 9-10
The Master’s Mosaic
What a strange thing to say! As John the Baptist is announcing the arrival of the Messiah, the Rescuer humanity has needed since they became sinners in the Garden of Eden, he says that GOD can make children for Himself out of the stones. This is at the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus. At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus said something similar. When told to stop the people from praising Him as their King and Rescuer as He is entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus says that if the people didn’t praise Him at that special time, the stones would.
But maybe it’s not so strange. John’s mission is to build a clear path for Jesus. He is like a surveyor, getting the lay of the land in preparation for a road being built. But he is also part of the road. Isaiah, thousands of years before, foretold what ministry John would have as part of prophesies about Jesus coming. It is GOD Himself Who is building a road, like a mosaic of stones.
GOD uses specific times to build this mosaic road. He predicted through Isaiah then used John the Baptist to prepare the way with the first step. Repentance. And that repentance shows itself to be genuine through the outward action of Baptism. JESUS needed no baptism because He had no sin to repent of. But He went through it as a sign of its value. As in everything else, He leads us down the road and all we need do is follow. But we can’t until we truly repent and outwardly show our recognition of having wrecked our lives to the point of Spiritual death. And that we recognize only the death of Jesus gives us eternal Life. We show these things through Baptism & then following Him.
GOD used the words of John, the temptation in the wilderness, the miracles Jesus performed and the testimony Jesus gave about the Father and Himself to carve human lives. He shaped them to a specific purpose through everyone and everything He allowed. aand it was all to make a path to the cross. There Christ would open a new road, back to the Father. Because this road goes both ways. The Holy Spirit comes to us down this road from the cross. He comes and puts His arms around us to help us down the road. He helps us carry the cross of our own denial to self will as we choose new life in Christ. And He carries us Home.
GOD uses specific times, places, circumstances & people, like crafted pieces of stone, to make a mosaic path for Christ to walk His people Home. Luke chapters 3-4
Cause and Affection
Believers must tell the bad news of hell, despite consequences so the good news of salvation has meaning, despite appearances. Jeremiah 37-41
GOD Speaks
Natural creation is the teeth & tongue & mouth to speak of GOD’s power but only His Word gives voice to His Nature & Character Job 37-38
The Limitless Law of Love
The Law is tedious. I have paid a lot of money for a lot of education on the Bible. Summa Cum Laude yet! So I can say this. The Law is tedious. I mean, listen to this stuff! And it is always talking about limits: Do this, not that. Go here, not there. If, then. Poor Moses was on the mountaintop for 40 days and 40 nights listening to this stuff and seeing detailed drawings by GOD Himself. And that’s some detail! Yes, the Law is detailed and tedious and limiting. But do you know what else I discovered? Nothing is tedious or limiting when you do it out of Love.
You’ve probably all heard of those who take care of the handicapped, like Team Hoyt, the father whose son was totally immobile, frozen with Cerebral Palsy though his mind was as active and alert as anyone’s. Like all boys, he loved sports. But unlike most, he could not participate. So they became a team and the middle-aged, average father became the muscle for his son to compete in 1,000 marathons and triathlons over 27 years. The law is tedious: training, following rules, keeping schedules. The Law is limiting. Not only having to follow the regulations yourself but for someone you’re literally pulling behind you. But if you asked the elder Hoyt he would tell you that it’s not limiting if done out of Love.
But we don’t need superhero examples to see this is true. Look at the families all around you, including your own. Every time you carefully prepare a meal for an infant, prepare medicine dosages avoid allergens or do whatever you must do to keep your loved ones safe and healthy you are following the letter of the Law but it is not burdensome because you love them.
As you learn when getting to know your sweetheart and the limits of what he or she will or won’t tolerate, loving lawful living is limitless.
That’s the point of these chapters and the message of God to His people throughout time, flowering in Christianity. Because Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law requiring death for sin and did it on our behalf because He had no sin of His own, we can have a new life of Love. Rather than thinking we must keep the Law to win the Love of GOD we are filled with the Love of GOD and the desire to keep the Law to please Him though it is already accomplished in Christ for us.
And we discover the Law isn’t limiting when it’s obeyed out of love. Exodus 21-24
Team Hoyt