A Burger for a Beggar

Isaiah 54:4-8

 (Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2054%3A4-8&version=NIV;NCV

 

 

Recently I stopped at a McDonalds. There was a man opening the door for customers going in or out. I knew he was going to ask me for money, and when he did, instead I bought him a burger. Although it was a compassionate act, I think I felt more obligated than compassionate.

 

Isaiah was writing to the people of Judah who were in exile. As judgement for their sin, they had been torn from their homes, their families, their jobs and taken to a strange land. Yet, God had compassion on them and He was promising them that they would return and multiply in their homeland.

 

² Make your tent bigger… ³ because you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your children will take over other nations, and they will again live in cities that once were destroyed.     NCV

 

Lepers were an invisible people during the time of Jesus’ ministry. Because of their

disease they were removed from their homes, their families, their jobs and forced to live outside the city walls. If they approached anyone they had to shout out, “Unclean, unclean”. But Jesus had compassion for a leper, and he healed him.

 

God is indeed compassionate. He spoke these words to the exiles through Isaiah:

 

⁷ “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. ⁸ In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer.          NIV

 

God took compassion on you and me when He sent His Son to die for our sins and when He opened our hearts to His redeeming love. To whom has He called you to show compassion? To the homeless? To orphans? To the elderly? To prisoners? Or maybe it’s someone closer to home like your spouse or your boss.

 

Whoever it is, we are called to become more like the Lord, and the Lord is compassionate. Let us show acts of compassion even when it means going out of our comfort zone. Even when it means giving a burger for a beggar. After all, aren’t we all beggars?

 

 

 

 

 

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Deliver us From Evil

Psalm 109:16-26

 (Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20109%3A16-31&version=NIV;MSG

 

  

For thirty years, Johnny Carson entertained Americans on The Tonight Show. One of his most memorable characters was Carnac the Magnificent. If the audience reacted poorly to one of his jokes, Carnac would cast a comedic curse upon them such as, "May a bloated yak change the temperature of your Jacuzzi".

 

In the first few verses from today’s passage, David is crying out to God to cast a serious curse upon those who were falsely accusing him. Here is what he prayed:

Send the Evil One to accuse my accusing judge; dispatch Satan to prosecute him. When he’s judged, let the verdict be “Guilty,” and when he prays, let his prayer turn to sin.

 

Give him a short life, and give his job to somebody else. Make orphans of his children, dress his wife in widow’s weeds; Turn his children into begging street urchins, evicted from their homes—homeless.

May the bank foreclose and wipe him out, and strangers, like vultures, pick him clean. May there be no one around to help him out, no one willing to give his orphans a break.            MSG

 

 

This sounds more like David is raging in anger than praying to God. Ultimately though, David does ask God for deliverance from those who wished him harm. He did so, not based on retaliation or vindictiveness, but based on who God is; based on the character of God.

 

²¹ But deal well with me, O Sovereign Lord, for the sake of your own reputation! Rescue me because you are so faithful and good. ²⁶ Help me, O Lord my God! Save me because of your unfailing love.         NLT

 

God is faithful and good. His love is unfailing. He is always at work in our life. He is always drawing us closer to Him. Because of who He is, He delivers us. All we have to do is ask and believe. Sometimes we need to be delivered from our enemies; but other times we need to be delivered from our own sinful nature.

 

Jesus taught us how to pray about our enemies and our sinful nature:

 

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.                        Matthew 6:12-13 RSV

 

 

 

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25 Pounds Overweight

2 Timothy 3:1-9

 (Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Timothy%203%3A1-9&version=NIV;NLT

 

Mary Tyler Moore passed away recently. Although she was primarily known for her starring role in the series The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I remember her first from The Dick Van Dyke Show in the early 60’s.

 

You may recall that, in the series, she and Dick Van Dyke, her husband, slept in twin beds. This was due to the TV censors of the day. Over 50 years later, can you imagine that same scenario for a couple today; married or not? My how times have changed.

 

I bring this up not to bemoan how bad things are today, or to pine for the “good old days”, but to make a point. How did we get to where we are today? The answer: It was

little by little. It’s kind of like waking up one morning and weighing yourself only to find that you are 25 pounds overweight. It didn’t happen overnight.

 

In the passage today, Paul warned Timothy to watch out for the following:

 

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.           NIV

 

The problem with this list is that there are all these little in-between steps that lead up to the behavior, and most of us can get caught up in any one of them. So instead of a list to watch for in others, it really is a list to watch for in ourselves.

 

You know, to make sure you don’t wake up one morning and you’re 25 pounds overweight.

 

 

 

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MEMORIAL

Lynn Keith Raske

September 1, 1950 to January 27, 2017

 

As little boys, Lynn and I knew each other through the Methodist Church in St. Louis, Michigan. That’s right, St. Louis, Michigan; as in Middle of the Mitten. He was my best friend from junior high through high school. He was everything that I wasn’t; athletic, confident and outgoing. Even though I was 5 days older than him, and I would remind him of that from time to time, he was like a big brother to me.

Lynn always seemed to know what to say and do. He would advise me on my “girl problems”. He even taught me how to slow dance. Not by verbal instructions and display of dance steps mind you, but by actually dancing with me. I don’t remember for sure, but probably Lynn led. Not many teenage boys would have done that.

Lynn loved sports. In junior high, he introduced me to a new game; dice baseball. One summer we created our own dice baseball league with six teams. We played a whole season complete with an All Star game and World Series. We kept track of all the statistics like batting average and ERA. Decades later, I found out that others have done the same thing. But for me, Lynn’s was the original.

Lynn grew up on a farm. One summer, when we were in high school, Lynn’s Dad Phil, hired us to weed a bean field. Ugh. It was hot and sticky, and the field had to be at least a mile long. Phil dropped us off with hoes and gave us some quick instructions. I’m not sure if he made any money on that crop because I kept weeding the bean plants instead of the weeds.

Lynn was always looking out for me. The summer before our senior year of high school,

my Dad got a job in Kentucky so my parents were going to move. Rather than uproot me for my last year of high school, they made arrangements with Lynn’s parents for me to live with them. Lynn’s room had a double bed, not a queen or a king, but a double. So that year, Lynn had to share his bed with me. What a guy!

Lynn was always trying new things. In 1960, the American Football League was just starting as an upstart league that was trying to compete with the original National Football League. He embraced the AFL like the NFL never existed. I couldn’t fathom why he would do such a thing. But that was Lynn.

Regardless of whether he was a teenager or a man, Lynn Keith Raske was ahead of his time. He wanted to try new things. He wanted to be on the cutting edge. As just one small example, long before there were massage therapy chains in every suburban strip mall, Keith became a massage therapist.

Since high school, Keith and I would see each other from time to time. As young marrieds, my wife and I visited Keith and his wife. We would also see each other at class reunions. But, no matter how much time had passed between visits, it was like no time had passed at all.

I wish I could have spent some time with Keith more recently. In fact, I thought I was going to see him again. But no matter how much time passes until our next visit, it will be like no time passed at all.

 

 

 

 

The Story of Two Wolves

Galatians 5:16-26

 (Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205%3A16-26&version=NIV;NLT

 

A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear.

 

The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, “The one you feed”.

 

The source of this story has been attributed to the Cherokee Indians, as well as Billy Graham and George Bernard Shaw. Though no one knows for sure where it originated, an argument could be made that Paul inspired it.      

 

¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit

wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.       NLT

 

You don’t have to be an addict to have firsthand experience of this inner battle. Think about it the next time another driver cuts you off in traffic; or the contractor you hired doesn’t show up to do the work you paid for; or your insurance company seems more interested in saving money than paying for a claim. The list is endless.

 

Speaking of lists, Paul made two of them in this passage. One is what our flesh desires, and the other what God’s Spirit desires. How do we go about winning the battle? What can we do to feed the good wolf?

 

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.   NLT

 

This is not a onetime big decision, but a lifetime of small decisions that move us forward

into the light of following the Spirit and not backwards into the darkness of our flesh.

 

Which wolf will you feed? What fruit will you grow? Will you live by the Spirit?

 

 

 

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