Author: Betsy

Purify Me

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever been caught doing something you shouldn’t have done, and then had to face the consequences? I sure have. I will never forget getting caught gossiping in the cloak room of my fifth grade classroom about a girl of whom I was very jealous. The teacher heard me, sent the girl out of the room on an errand to spare her feelings, and then made me stand in front of the class and repeat what I said while she condemned every word. I was HUMILIATED, and rightfully so. The sting of that experience is still with me.

When we are caught, feelings of shame and regret are immediate and overwhelming. Our first thought is “Why, oh WHY did I do it?” Right up to the moment of discovery, we delude ourselves into thinking that we will get away with our sinful behavior. Most of us can even rationalize that if nobody finds out, nobody gets hurt.

Then everybody finds out, and everybody gets hurt.

Such is the case in Psalm 51, written by David after he was caught committing adultery with Bathsheba and was confronted by his friend Nathan. He immediately felt the searing pain of knowing that he has sinned against God and now everyone knows it. Listen to the regret and remorse that flowed from his pen as he composed a song of confession:

Psalm 51 (Common English Bible)

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!
    Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!
2 Wash me completely clean of my guilt;
    purify me from my sin!
3 Because I know my wrongdoings,
    my sin is always right in front of me.
4 I’ve sinned against you—you alone.
    I’ve committed evil in your sight.
That’s why you are justified when you render your verdict,
    completely correct when you issue your judgment.

David is such a man of faith that his sinning against God was the worst part of it for him. He knew his wrongdoings. This sin was not done in ignorance of the Law that commands “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” He knew that he coveted another man’s wife and then had that man brought home from war to cover up the unplanned pregnancy that resulted. Then David sent him back to the front lines to be killed. Coveting, adultery, lying, murder…David was guilty on all counts.

5 Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin,
    from the moment my mother conceived me.
6 And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
    you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.

David was blessed to have received wisdom from God in the “most secret space.” He studied the scriptures. He experienced God’s power first hand when he faced down Goliath many years earlier. All of David’s experiences had been an adequate teacher of God’s will and direction for his life. It is this truth in the hidden places of his heart and soul that he walked away from in his pursuit of Bathsheba. There is no pleading ignorance here…David totally knew better.

As did I, when I sinned.

As do you, when you sin.

His song of confession then moves from pain to hope, and David reminds God that God alone has the power to wash this sin away. He writes that joy can be felt once more, but only after God wipes away all of his guilty deeds:

7 Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean;
    wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and celebration again;
    let the bones you crushed rejoice once more.
9 Hide your face from my sins;
    wipe away all my guilty deeds!

Singing these words to the God that he loved provided a moment of humble obeisance for David, as the song now moves to a plea for a new, clean heart. This may be one of the prettiest verses in all of the Psalms:

10 Create a clean heart for me, God;
    put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!
11 Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
12 Return the joy of your salvation to me
    and sustain me with a willing spirit.

“Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and return unto me the joy of your salvation!” This should be our song today as well. God always inclines an ear when people confess with contrite hearts and humility.

Where is God calling you to lay down your sin so that you might take up a new and faithful spirit? God truly longs to sustain you with the power of the Holy Spirit, but you have to come clean first.

Don’t let the sun go down on your sin. Open yourself to God and ask for a clean heart to be created in you. And may the joy of God’s salvation make you sing.

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down by Michelle Robertson

Pro Tips on Sharks

Posted on by Betsy

One of the best things that happens in July is the Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week, where every program is devoted to sharks. Shark movies, shark documentaries, shows that explore how sharks react in certain situations, (and the divers demonstrate each one with live sharks … anything for ratings!) shark commercials, shark talk shows … it’s a sharkapalooza.

I watched a show where a diver demonstrated where you can touch a shark and where you can’t. (Ummmm … just don’t touch the shark??) Our fascination with sharks fuels this entire industry. Shark attacks are on the rise. Sharks are not our natural predators, but we are increasingly getting into their habitats with disregard to our safety.

Here are a few tips from Shark Week:

If you fall off your paddle board near a shark, don’t thrash around. Stay very still (because that would feel so natural) and ease your way back on the board. Be cool. Betsy’s pro tip: To be even smarter, don’t paddle board in shark-infested water.

Don’t bring your iPhone or iWatch into the water. Your electronics attract the sharks, and they will approach you to ask to make a phone call or have a selfie taken with you. Betsy’s pro tip: Just don’t bring your electronics in the water, DUH.

If you encounter a shark in the wild, don’t reach out and touch it. If it comes for you anyway, touch it on the top of the snout and gently redirect it. But don’t touch it under the nose, or he will automatically open his jaws and eat you. Betsy’s pro tip: Don’t pet the sharks.

Sharks have excellent hearing, but they don’t like heavy metal bands or the sound of a camera flash going off. This was scientifically proven this week. One last pro tip: Next time you go surfing, invite Iron Maiden along.

Follow me for more pro tips!

Now while there are no stories in the Bible involving sharks, there is a pretty cool story about a whale and a man named Jonah. Jonah was an Israelite whom God had called to be a prophet. Jonah didn’t want to be a prophet, so he went on a sea cruise instead. God then raised a great storm to get Jonah’s attention. The sailors, realizing that Jonah’s disobedience had caused the storm, threw him overboard to try and save their ship. He was swallowed by a whale and lived for three days inside the creature, after which the fish “vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Thankful that his life had been spared, Jonah took up his prophetic mission:

Jonah 3 New International Version (NIV)

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

So here are three lessons from Jonah:

You can run from God, but you can’t hide.

God’s call may be hard, but it may also save lives (including your own).

God is a God of second chances.

Think about that today. Where is God calling you to do something difficult? Are you running? Or maybe you are in a dark fish-belly of disobedience and you’re sick and tired of the smell. Do you need a do-over? We serve a God of second chances. You get to come out and try again, this time with the power of the Holy Spirit helping you to make it.

God’s message to us today is that he is bigger than the shark, bigger than the whale, and bigger than anything this world has thrown at us to keep us down. He is a 24/7 God who is actively working to bring us to wholeness through joyful obedience and second chances.

Rise up, people. Our deliverer is here.

Via Shark Week Facebook page

Traveling through Time

Posted on by Betsy

I love a good book or movie that shows a character who is given a chance to go back in time. Movies like It’s A Wonderful Life, Groundhog Day and even silly shows like Hot Tub Time Machine can be parables that teach us the value of taking advantage of the do-overs that God offers us on a daily basis.

In the case of Hot Tub Time Machine, a character named Lou decides not to return to the present after he and his buddies are transported through time to a night that happened twenty years earlier. (This apparently is what happens when you pour an energy drink on the controls of a ski resort hot tub.) After reenacting the evening as their younger selves, the fellows eventually realize that they can return to the present by pouring another energy drink on the hot tub of their past. But Lou, now that he has had a chance to reflect on the last 20 years of his life, decides to remain in 1986 and try life again. He confesses that the carbon monoxide poisoning that landed him in the hospital in the beginning of the movie was actually a suicide attempt. When the others return, they live into an altered present that was changed by their going back in time. Many of their issues are resolved, and Lou took advantage of knowing what the “future” held by developing a company called Lougle, making him a millionaire.

What would you change if you could go back in time and do something over? What choices would you make the second time around?

One of the lessons here is to live well enough in the present so that you don’t need to go back and redo your actions. God is always using time to our advantage and offers an immediate reset anytime we confess and repent of our actions. As Moses wrote in Psalm 90, God has always been our help from forever in the past to forever in the future:

Psalm 90 (Common English Bible)

Lord, you have been our help,
    generation after generation.
2 Before the mountains were born,
    before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—
    from forever in the past
    to forever in the future, you are God.

3 You return people to dust,
    saying, “Go back, humans,”
4     because in your perspective a thousand years
    are like yesterday past,
    like a short period during the night watch.
.
12 Teach us to number our days
    so we can have a wise heart.

So the better question is, what change can you make today that would be a better choice than what you chose yesterday? What could you redo right now that will make tomorrow an improvement for you and those around you?

God is able to help you grow a wise heart today if you’ll just let him.

Night Watch by Vic Woodall

Tabernacled Joy

Posted on by Betsy

Here is an amazing truth for you today: You are God’s dwelling place in which God lives by his spirit.

This one sentence undoes thousands of years of temple building. Let’s do a brief history lesson on the Tabernacle/Temple thing. In the beginning, God designed a perfect dwelling place in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve but when they sinned, they were expelled. From that point on, fellowship with God was broken and yet somehow, God still desired to dwell with us. As we follow the story from Genesis to Exodus, we see the people wandering in the wilderness after God delivered them from Egypt and Pharaoh’s vicious pursuit. At this point, God made a plan for them to build a mobile tabernacle, a “meeting tent,” so that his presence could go with them everywhere, and gave Moses very specific instructions for building it.

Now let’s fast forward to the Temple. For Jewish people, God’s Temple meant something very specific: It meant the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple that was built by King Solomon. The Temple that housed the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies. The Temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians, and then rebuilt by Zerubbabel, before being destroyed a second time by the Romans in 70 AD. The Temple which now remains only as a single wall, the Wailing Wall, is still a sacred place for Jewish people. 

Now we move on to the arrival of our Messiah, Jesus. When Jesus came, he completed God’s full plan for the Temple by becoming the temple himself. As high priest, Jesus offers the best and most complete sacrifice at the altar and allows us to be tabernacled with him, becoming the dwelling place ourselves.

Hebrews 9:11-14 (Common English Bible)

11 But Christ has appeared as the high priest of the good things that have happened. He passed through the greater and more perfect meeting tent, which isn’t made by human hands (that is, it’s not a part of this world). 12 He entered the holy of holies once for all by his own blood, not by the blood of goats or calves, securing our deliverance for all time. 13 If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of cows made spiritually contaminated people holy and clean, 14 how much more will the blood of Jesus wash our consciences clean from dead works in order to serve the living God? He offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit as a sacrifice without any flaw.

Paul goes on later to explain the completion of the plan in Ephesians 2:

 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

This is the great charge and challenge for today. As a dwelling place for God, how will you reflect his Spirit to the world in a winsome, inviting way? Do people see enough of God’s Spirit in you that they want to come in and know more? Are you a reflection of his glory and grace?

May we strive to be an open door to others until everyone hears.

The Spirit inside

With doors opened to welcome

Tabernacled joy

Sacred Place by Michelle Robertson

The Fresh Prince of Damascus

Posted on by Betsy

My kids were visiting recently and somehow got into a competition to see who could recite the entire theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. They were both very good at it. We talked about watching that show together when they were kids and how we all loved this “fish out of water” story. The Fresh Prince was a street-wise kid from West Philadelphia who got sent by his mother to live with his aunt and uncle in upscale Bel-Air when trouble broke out in his neighborhood. The beginning of the song sets up the storyline:

Now this is a story all about how
My life got flipped turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.

The show dealt with cultural and contemporary issues of acceptance, tolerance, respect, teenage life, and family bonding. I think many of us love a great story that involves someone’s life being turned upside down for the good. I bet many of you have a good story about your conversion and your personal “Before Christ/After Christ” life.

But none of us can beat Paul’s “flipped turned upside down” conversion story. Born Saul of Tarsus, he was a Christian-persecuting Pharisee who lived a life of hatred and violence. Read what happened to him on the way to Damascus:

Acts 9 (The Message)

9 1-2 All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master’s disciples, out for the kill. He went to the Chief Priest and got arrest warrants to take to the meeting places in Damascus so that if he found anyone there belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem.

3-4 He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?”

5-6 He said, “Who are you, Master?”

“I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.”

7-9 His companions stood there dumbstruck—they could hear the sound, but couldn’t see anyone—while Saul, picking himself up off the ground, found himself stone-blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus. He continued blind for three days. He ate nothing, drank nothing.

10 There was a disciple in Damascus by the name of Ananias. The Master spoke to him in a vision: “Ananias.”

“Yes, Master?” he answered.

11-12 “Get up and go over to Straight Avenue. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus. His name is Saul. He’s there praying. He has just had a dream in which he saw a man named Ananias enter the house and lay hands on him so he could see again.”

13-14 Ananias protested, “Master, you can’t be serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us.”

15-16 But the Master said, “Don’t argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to non-Jews and kings and Jews. And now I’m about to show him what he’s in for—the hard suffering that goes with this job.”

17-19 So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind Saul, and said, “Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes—he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized, and sat down with them to a hearty meal.

19-21 Saul spent a few days getting acquainted with the Damascus disciples, but then went right to work, wasting no time, preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the Son of God. 

Saul got flipped upside down and became Paul, the greatest evangelist and church planter that ever lived. He authored the Pauline letters that make up a good portion of the New Testament and his words are quoted all over the world in all kinds of contexts. I bet of the hundreds of weddings I have performed, 1 Corinthians 13 was read at 95% of them.

How about you? Are you needing a flipped upside down moment with God? Is there some aspect of your life that needs to be drastically changed for the better? Take it from the Fresh Prince of Damascus: “8 You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. 9 It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. 10 Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

You are God’s accomplishment, created to do good things! Sometimes that requires a little flipping.

My Wedding Bulletin

Deviled Eggs

Posted on by Betsy

If you know me in real life, you know that I have a particular weakness for deviled eggs. I blame my United Methodist upbringing, where weekly pot luck suppers are as ritualized as monthly communion with Welch’s Grape Juice. We joke that the Catholics wear crucifixes around their necks, the Jews wear a Star of David, and the Methodists wear a miniature casserole dish to display our denomination. I love everything about deviled eggs and when I retired, my church celebrated with an entire table of deviled eggs. It was heaven, I tell you! Deviled eggs are the only place the devil is welcome in a church.

The recipe for deviled eggs is pretty basic, with some interesting variations. The cooked yoke is mixed with mayonnaise, salt, pepper, mustard, and possibly relish.(Only dill, please!) From there, cooks use their regional imaginations to add flare and personality. First and foremost in my heart are any and every kind of church lady deviled eggs, but if I had to do a power ranking, I would go with the lobster deviled eggs on an NCL ship next, the avocado and bacon deviled eggs my friend Teresa makes (she is a retired United Methodist minister: She has eaten a lot of deviled eggs in her life!) in third place and finally Art Smith’s creamy confections at the Homecoming Restaurant in Disney Springs coming up in fourth place.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Galatians 5: 22-23 because I think it reads like a recipe for good Christian living. If you mixed this things together and placed them in the center of your heart like the yoke of a deviled egg, you wouldn’t fall short of God’s expectations. Paul sent this recipe to his church in Galatia, hoping to teach them God’s ways and God’s hopes for the fledgling church.

Galatians 5 (Common English Bible)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this.

Savor that list again. Of course Paul starts with love, as love is the very definition of God. Joy follows, and it is through our joy that others are curious to learn more about God. Love and joy mixed together result in peace, something that the world is terribly lacking today. When you embody these three ingredients, kindness and goodness follow naturally. Faithfulness is that part that expands and flourishes with practice. Gentleness is a result of combining the rest together, sprinkled with the paprika of self-control. This last ingredient is the hardest to use properly and often ends up spilled on the edges of the plate until you learn to use a firm hand with it.

Write this list of ingredients on an index card and tuck it into your pocket today and refer to it often. When we can check each one of these things off with the flair of a good cook, we will find ourselves closer to that image of God in which we were made.

Yes, please!

Happy Freedom Day

Posted on by Betsy

I have a weird confession. When I took my first Bible survey course in seminary, I developed little memory tricks for remembering the themes of each of the New Testament books. For example, for Hebrews, I remembered “HE (is) B(ett)ER (than the)RESt, which roughly spells out HEBREWS, if you misspell it. Hebrews is based on the superiority of Christ over angels, Old Testament prophets, etc. So, he indeed is better than the rest!

For Galatians, I tapped into my love of science fiction and especially Battlestar Galactica. What was their mission? To free humanity from the evil robot Cylons; thus Galatians is about freedom. Laugh if you will, but I got an A.

Let us see what Galatians has to say about freedom, as we celebrate freedom today:

Galatians 5:16-18  (The Message)

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

There is so much meat on this bone, we may need to come back to it another day. But for now, look again at first three verses.

The writer of Hebrews is contrasting freedom with self-interest. “There is a root of self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit.” That is pure genius. Think of all the situations in life where people imprison themselves; the genesis of those places is likely to be rooted in some selfish, self-absorbed, self-interested behavior. Addictions begin when we indulge in a dangerous behavior. Adultery starts with that need for the adrenaline rush of someone’s flattering interest. Family disputes happen when one family member feels entitled to what the all the rest should receive. Arguments ensue when we think our opinion is more valuable, right, and superior to someone else’s opinion. Betrayals happen when self-absorbed desires assert themselves over the common good. Basically, nothing good comes from selfishness.

In contrast, Christ offers a life of freedom. He came to set us free from sin, from death, and mostly from ourselves. We are encouraged to pursue a life lived fully in the Spirit, which teaches compassion for others, exuberance for life, and serenity .

So before the parade-watching, flag-waving, fireworks extravaganza begins, ask yourself this: where am I lacking freedom in my life? I bet that if you trace that back, there will be selfishness at the root; either your own, or somebody else’s.

The cross is as much a symbol as the flag. As we lift one high today, let us lift the other one higher.

Long May She Wave

Who Do You Say That I Am

Posted on by Betsy

A few years ago I had the opportunity to go to an after-hours Halloween event at Walt Disney World. One of the highlights of this event was a fantastic parade. I loved seeing the Haunted Mansion grave diggers doing a color guard style routine with their shovels, scraping them on the street and creating sparks. There was also an axe-wielding bride wearing a lighted up dress on a hoverboard, which made her float. Of course all the characters were there in Halloween garb, and it is very festive and not so scary at all. But just as the parade was to begin, the crowd erupted when a strange looking dog-like character in an electric yellow jumpsuit and cool sunglasses came down the street, dancing like crazy.

I watched for a moment, trying to place him and wondering why everyone was so excited. Finally I turned to the fellow next to me and asked, “Who is that?” He looked at me like I had three heads and yelled, “That’s Max Powerline!” “Oh, of course!” I yelled back, still not recognizing the character. “You never get to see Max Powerline!! This is a rare character sighting!” the fellow continued enthusiastically as he snapped pictures with his phone. It was like the king of England showed up without notice and everyone lost their minds.

I had to go home and Google Max Powerline to discover that Max Goof is Goofy’s son (huh?) and when he is dressed that way, he is in his Powerline persona, a rock star that he emulates in order to impress his crush, Roxanne. So now you know.

My brain instantly went to the Scriptures about Jesus and his struggle to have people recognize who he was. Even to the bitter end, there was confusion among his closest friends about who he was. But for one shining moment, Peter, who many times had max goofed up, gave the correct answer.

Matthew 16 (Common English Bible)

13 Now when Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Human One is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

15 He said, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”

16 Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 Then Jesus replied, “Happy are you, Simon son of Jonah, because no human has shown this to you. Rather my Father who is in heaven has shown you. 18 I tell you that you are Peter. And I’ll build my church on this rock. The gates of the underworld won’t be able to stand against it. 19 I’ll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Anything you fasten on earth will be fastened in heaven. Anything you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered the disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Christ.

“You are the Christ.” Such a profound and accurate statement. Christ means “messiah” and speaks to the saving and redeeming function of Jesus’ persona. So while the world observed Jesus as teacher, rabbi, and even healer, Peter pinpoints Jesus’ as the long awaited messiah who had come to redeem his people. And by “his,” we mean all people.

Who is Jesus to you? Do you think of him as your friend? Do you worship him as your Lord? Is he in the process of redeeming you right now? He is the Christ, the son of the living God, and the greatest power line to the father we will ever know.

Max Powerline and Carol by Mark Poblete

House Divided

Posted on by Betsy

I am sure you are familiar with the famous phrase used by Abraham Lincoln that proclaimed that houses that are divided against themselves are unable to stand. He said this in his address in 1858 when he was chosen to be the Republican candidate for the United States Senate, representing Illinois. The issue at hand was slavery. Lincoln maintained that slavery would destroy the unity of the United States. He postulated that the union could not be maintained with half of the states allowing something that the other half vehemently opposed. He was prophetic in his words, and the Civil War broke out in 1861.

But not only was he prophetical, but he was also biblical. The warning about a house divided is found in three New Testament books. We see it in Mark 3:25, in Matthew 12:25, and in today’s passage from Luke. Jesus warned that a house that is torn apart by divisions will collapse and cautioned that kingdoms involved in civil wars become wastelands.

The issue in this passage was the reaction onlookers had when he threw a demon out of a man who was mute. The Jewish leaders could also cast out demons but believed that it could only be done if you called out the demon by name. Because this demon caused muteness, they thought the man couldn’t be healed. Jesus’ actions caused many in the crowd to accuse him of partnering with Satan to accomplish this.

Luke 11 (Common English Bible)

14 Jesus was throwing out a demon that causes muteness. When the demon was gone, the man who couldn’t speak began to talk. The crowds were amazed. 15 But some of them said, “He throws out demons with the authority of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.”16 Others were testing him, seeking a sign from heaven.

17 Because Jesus knew what they were thinking, he said to them, “Every kingdom involved in civil war becomes a wasteland, and a house torn apart by divisions will collapse. 18 If Satan is at war with himself, how will his kingdom endure? I ask this because you say that I throw out demons by the authority of Beelzebul. 19 If I throw out demons by the authority of Beelzebul, then by whose authority do your followers throw them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. 20 But if I throw out demons by the power of God, then God’s kingdom has already overtaken you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are secure.22 But as soon as a stronger one attacks and overpowers him, the stronger one takes away the armor he had trusted and divides the stolen goods.

Jesus employed strong logic and clever rhetoric when he pointed out that if he was in league with Satan and yet cast a demon of Satan out of a man, Satan’s entire enterprise would be at war with itself and collapse. No indeed, it was the power of God that accomplished this.

This is such good news for anyone who finds themself in bondage today. In many ways we all find ourselves facing inner demons that threaten to undo us. But hear this good news! There is no demon of temptation, self-destruction, addiction, sin, grief, abandonment, or failure that God can’t overcome.

23 “Whoever isn’t with me is against me, and whoever doesn’t gather with me, scatters.

Who will you stand with? Who stands with you? There is only one answer. Jesus is the stronger man who disarms even the strongest of Satan’s attackers. Jesus engaged Satan in a battle and showed without question that he is the stronger man. He defeated Satan and disarmed him. At the end of the passage, Jesus reminded us that we are either for him or against him. There is no middle ground. If you stand with Jesus, you will be released from your bondage. Praise be to God!

Path to the Sun by Ginger Endreson

Competition

Posted on by Betsy

Competitiveness is experienced in every profession, classroom, sports field, corporate board room, and even among churches. It is easy to see someone doing the thing you do well and instantly feel threatened. Even if you are very confident in your abilities, it is hard not to look at someone entering your arena of expertise and not feel annoyed and maybe even a bit envious. You rally your gang around you and a dynamic of “us versus them” takes over. Competition can be good when it leads to improvement and innovation, but it can take a toll on the participants.

I think John was struggling with feelings of insecurity and competitiveness in today’s passage. The twelve disciples had been given the authority to cast out demons and heal people. Jesus gave this to them in the beginning of Luke, Chapter 9, and by the end of the chapter they were feeling threatened when suddenly someone else had co-opted their gig and was able to do what they assumed only they had been authorized to do.

Luke 9 (Common English Bible)

49 John replied, “Master, we saw someone throwing demons out in your name, and we tried to stop him because he isn’t in our group of followers.”

50 But Jesus replied, “Don’t stop him, because whoever isn’t against you is for you.”

Jesus assessed the evidence by the results. The offender was effectively casting out demons in Jesus’ name. People were being healed and Jesus’ name was being taught and learned. Jesus seemed to be inviting John and the rest of the disciples to have a more generous spirit. Soon the church would be born and the power of the Holy Spirit would be cast wide. They were already experiencing the effects of their evangelism: The Good News of the arrival of the Messiah had been heard and received and was now taking on an energy of its own. It is significant to note that this event occurred after the feeding of the 5,000..Jesus’ miracles, teachings, healings, and authority were being broadcast across the land by eye-witnesses, and no one could stop its power. Indeed, Jesus didn’t want to: This was the whole point of his coming. Paul dealt with the same issue years later, as recorded in Philippians 1:18: “What do I think about this? Just this: since Christ is proclaimed in every possible way, whether from dishonest or true motives, I’m glad and I’ll continue to be glad.”

This is a lesson for us today as we struggle with denominationalism. We may bristle at the actions of people outside our particular realm of thinking but if the name of Jesus is being lifted up, if lives are saved and changed for the better, and if Jesus himself would put them in the category of “not against you” then we must embrace these brothers and sisters as people who are for us. As Paul said, in every case we should rejoice that Christ is being preached.

Rejoice! By Michelle Robertson