But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. -Luke 24:29, NIV
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My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. -Matthew 26:38, NIV For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. -Psalm 69:7, NIV A flick of a wrist. A turn of a page. Nothing. A kid beside us smiles. An old woman kisses us in the forehead. Nothing. It looks like nothing can take the pain away. Gush it over McDonalds. Play really stupid games with your really stupid friends (and unceremoniously admit so). Get a whip and start bashing each other’s heads. You wouldn’t do that, wouldn’t you? Or...so I thought. We don’t use whips anymore-unless we distastefully wish to make a career out of being a dominatrix. We don’t punish with chains, or rocks, or horrid and painful trampling horses. Those horrors seem so far away, so distant for us…at least for those who have read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Seriously: we’re so civilized that when we look at these things happening in countries today, we scoff and change the channel in full-blown scorn. They’re the brutes, they’re the barbarians. But what about us? We were born to be brutes and barbarians, uncivilized and stubborn jerks that leave a legacy of horrors and pain wherever we touch. Everything we touch turns to destruction-and then to dust. And before it turns to dust, we wreak shameless havoc. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shameless. How much damage can we puny humans do! Even Paul was exasperated in his exasperation; his heart was ready and willing, but his flesh wanted to sin. “What a wretched man I am!”, he said to the Romans. Think for a moment: have we spit on other’s hopes and dreams? How much have we collaborated with demons to destroy? Even more: how has this planet lasted long enough!?!? But it makes no sense: with all the damage we have done to some, how can God still smile above? Get up, go back to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar to Me, to the God who appeared to you when you ran away from your brother, Esau. -Genesis 35:1, VOICE Look down from heaven and see, from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. -Isaiah 63:15, NIV “As surely as the Lord your God lives, ... I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” -1 Kings 17:12, NIV Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. -Deuteronomy 10:19, 21 NKJV “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? -Colossians 2:21, NIV Of course we’ve seen them on the streets. With their long hair and battered-down robes in 90-degree weather, strutting like a peacock while trying to look penitent and worried for the rest of the world. I ask myself, “If they’re not doing this for fun, when why are they doing this? I mean, isn’t it a bit masochistic to carry the flames of an already-carried pain?” No; I’m not talking about the nuns. They’re OK in my book. I’m talking about the puritans- not the historically accurate ones, but of those that take things way too far. …their foot shall slide in due time. When I first read Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 11th Grade, I was interested to explore the obscene (as in excessive) amount of loaded, emotional language in his sermon. No wonder the already-divisive social fabric almost went haywire in those times! I kept Googling my way into the topic and I kept observing how everybody tried to incarnate that voice with fire and brimstone and holy anger. In reality, he read the sermon in a calm and natural voice. But the people still went haywire-and with good reasons! In my town, we’d call that a palo –just as you heard it, it was a spiritual smack of the spiritual stick in the head. Some of it is necessary, some of it we can live without. I have no problems with living right-we all have that duty. What I can’t conceive is the hypocrisy of things…the legalism. When we say, “You can’t eat of this”, or “You can’t drink of that” with no legal backup, we’re imposing senseless and needless limits to the power of God. As we treat man with stupid limits, we are treating God with more and more imperial dispositions to our little black books (and I’m not talking about the obsolete Blackberries!) Need to wash yourself every time before you eat an apple? That would be good hygiene –God would appreciate that-, but be careful with what you say before you eat that apple. Wanna tithe ten percent of your income? Amen to that, but please be mindful of giving God your all. He likes everything, not some. Dressing good every time you go out to dinner? Go for it, but try to do the same with your Father’s house. There’s no need to use whips and chains and cilice with ash to mortify your body. What about a clean and thankful heart in every waking moment? We need to be clean, pure, right and holy everywhere we go- but isn’t a bit of balance certainly enough? I look at the heavens you made with your hands. I see the moon and the stars you created. And I wonder, “Why are people so important to you? Why do you even think about them? Why do you care so much about humans? Why do you even notice them?” -Psalm 8:3 & 4, ERV …Because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. (Psalm 16:10,NIV) |
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