Those Peculiar Johnsons

The Gift on the Tree

It will require a real break from tradition for me.  I really like to guess what is in the red box with the green ribbon.  I wonder if the color of the tie will match the suit I have and if not, will my wife notice that I don’t wear it?  (Keep that one a secret).
 
It is time for me to stop complaining about the gifts under the tree, and look up at the gift that was hung upon the tree.

I have lost the real meaning of the season in all of this worry and hurry about hanging up the ornaments, when the real decoration started from the hanging of the greatest gift on the tree.  It was not an ornament.  It was not tinsel or decoration.  It was not an angel.  It was not Santa nor a bright star.

I need to reconsider my giving this year.  It must be a gift that reflects the Greatest Gift ever to hang on a tree.  Give gratitude to your God, and show it by your love to those around you.  That grateful heart will help others to stop looking under the tree and look up at Calvary, where the Greatest Gift was hung.
It started at Christmas, but “It is finished” was said on the tree.

1Pe 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Spiritual Compromise: The Christian Condom

Sex is not the issue here.  In fact, if sex were the issue, this would be a lot easier essay to write.  The true issue is the compromise over a wide spectrum of issues.  We who claim to know Christ, and I use the term ‘claim’ intentionally, compromise that claim by using His name to cover our sin. 
 
It is as though by saying I am a Christian it allows me to involve myself with sin, but not to be contaminated by it.  I can engage my mind, eyes, imagination, intellect and in some instances, even my body with things which I know do not please God and then pronounce, ‘it is okay, God will forgive me.’  It is a spiritual condom.  I pleasure my flesh, and believe I can protect it with the covering of ‘a dash of grace and forgiveness’. 
 
I overindulge in food and call it, a bad habit.  The Bible calls it gluttony.  I sit and watch hours of television to the exclusion of reading the word of God.  I call it relaxation, the Bible calls it laziness.  I partake of entertainment that I know is not clean morally and explain it away by saying ‘this is all there is to watch and do.’  The Bible says, I choose sin and death over purity and life.  
 
Pr 23:21For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
 
I want what others have and even feel I deserve it.  I call it healthy competition.  The Bible calls it covetousness, jealousy, discontent, and envy.  I loose my temper and say things I know I should not.  I call it healthy expression of self.  The Bible calls it anger and bitterness.  I intentionally remember the hurt someone caused me and the pain they inflicted.  I call it a good memory, the Bible calls it unforgiveness.
 
I tell stories and innuendo about my neighbors, friends and even relatives and call it sharing prayer requests.  The Bible calls it gossip. 
 
I use these spiritual condoms thinking that the things I engage in do not contaminate me. 
 
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

I deceive myself. If it feels good then it must be good.
 
Jer 9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
 
Christians now ask questions as to whether it is okay to watch pornography as forms of entertainment, just as long as we do it as a married couple, or just as long as we are consenting adults in a ‘committed relationship’.  This is deception by choice.  We choose to deceive ourselves and ask God to forgive us in making that choice.   We call it enhancing our sexuality. The Bible calls it fornication and adultery.
 
Mt 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
 
There is no spiritual compromise which is covered by grace.  We cannot engage in sin and then expect to not be contaminated by it.  We abuse the grace of God and He is not pleased when we take His gift of grace and use it to cover the skin and sin of our flesh as if it were a condom. 
 
Paul was quite clear on this in:
 
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
 
Those who know Christ also know that there is no excuse to continue in sin if we truly know Him. 
 
James Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
 
There is no spiritual compromise.  There is only life in the spirit, or life in the flesh.  Live to the flesh and yield what the flesh will give which is death.  Live to the spirit and you will reap life.  No compromise, no condom will protect you from this death. 
 
Ro 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Just This Once Jesus

The little boy slowly lifted his head from the stone, and licked the surface collecting what he could on his tongue.  At three years of age, he had known nothing but chronic hunger.  His face was covered with the fine residue of corn meal dust which was left behind by the nearby chickens. This stone is used to hand grind the corn or maize, into a powder which can be cooked into a mush, one staple of the Kenyan diet.   Since the boy was bigger than the chickens, they dared not fight him for this remaining food, however, they did hover nearby, just in case the boy would decide he was full.  After a half minute of licking, the boy laid his face back on the stone and knelt, resting to get enough energy, to watch the chickens and try licking up more corn meal dust. 
 
I have been hungry before, but never desperately hungry to the point of licking a brick.
 
I thought to myself, ‘why not just this once Jesus?  Why not turn this stone into bread?’ 
 
During our most recent trip to Ukambani region of Kenya, we saw people who were desperately hungry.  With our work team from Philadelphia, we visited homes and compounds of families who had less food in their store rooms for one month supply than I feed my dogs for a week.  They did not complain, neither did they try to super-spiritualize their condition.  They quietly just did what was necessary to get by, as always.
 
The chickens and livestock are their last hedge against complete hunger, and are used as a last step measure to ward off death.  When times are hard, such as a medical emergency, people first sell their crops, then their animals and last of all their land.  Since this land is so arid and of little value, these chickens are all that is left of the family’s wealth. 
 
After another year of failed crops due to lack of rain, the people cut the remaining trees to make charcoal to sell for cash.  A full bag of 60 pounds or 28 kilograms gets a price of about $2.25 or 180 Kenya Shillings.  This takes over one week to produce with cutting of the trees, collecting the compost and stoking the slow burn phase to make charcoal.  A lot of trees are felled to ward off hunger.  This boy licking the stone is a usual part of the landscape, like the surrounding deforested hills and heavy soil erosion.  The landscapes mirror the deeper story of the ravages of hunger on families.
 
We delivered and helped plant over 1,000 trees this trip, placed four water pumps on wells, and provided irrigation equipment and seeds for acre sized community gardens.  We held Bible study and group activities for children and helped complete another two classrooms of the community school we have been building.  With all of this work completed, the little boy was still licking a stone for corn meal dust.
 
Why can’t we just turn these stones to bread?  Is it such a bad thing?  Why not just deliver the necessary food, water, and medicines to the people who have known hunger for generations?  Why not just this once Jesus?
 
As I ponder these questions with the Holy Spirit, He encourages me that the changes we are making are not just to provide food for the day, but food security for the future.  We are not only changing the landscape of the earth, but also softening the stony ground of spiritual erosion to make it fertile soil for the gospel.  We are already seeing changes in some communities which were at one time totally dependent upon donated food from the UN,  and are now able to sell their surplus to buy livestock to replenish their herds (this is their savings account).  Our work is making a difference and families that were starving are now eating on a regular basis.
 
The boy lifts his face again and sticks out his tongue to lick the stone.  The chickens resort to eating some bugs and avoid the boy as he has not yet had his fill of the corn meal dust.  The Holy Spirit speaks softly to remind me that the Father does hear my prayer and that He is not interested in ‘just this once’, but desirous of making a long term impact on the lives of the people we serve here.  Just this once is not enough for this boy.  He needs bread for today, for tomorrow and for eternity.  Help us to provide the Eternal Bread of Life and the necessities of this present life to those whom we serve in Kenya.

My plan B is Jesus

Is always good to have a plan B.  I personally think that if you don’t have a plan B in life that you really are not a forward thinker. You must plan for every eventuality in life.  You never know just when things will go wrong.  Such is the logic in our world today.  For many of us, our plan B is Jesus.
 
As I consider the comments, criticisms and even the praises which some people give me, I also consider some of their own thoughts about their own lives.  Many times they are self critical, saying they feel unfulfilled and even frustrated with their present lot in life and they just wish they had a plan B. 
 
Some of the conversation is akin to this;  “I really felt God calling me into missions, but…,I chose plan A” 
 
I don’t  mean to be so presumptuous as to think that everyone should be doing what I am doing in missions.  Far be it to suggest that.  Who would write out the support checks if that were to happen?  What I am saying, however, is that if we as Christians feel this way about Jesus as a plan B, how do we relate Him as the King of kings to those who are looking to us for direction?  If Jesus is my plan B, why should I tell others make Him plan A?
 
Plan A is where I get to make the decisions about my life.  I get to choose what I want to study, whom I want to marry, where I want to live and work and how much money I am going to make.  Plan A is good because I can always know what is coming ahead, at least I can map things out.  I know the terrain.  I know when the interviews are, when the deadlines must be met and which is the best crowd to be with when the news arrives.
 
Plan A is good because I will meet just the right person for my personal life and that person will be my mate, either for life or until I have to go to plan B.
 
Plan A is good because I don’t have to pray about it, share it with God or even fast or meditate.
 
The problem of course with all of our plan A’s is that they completely leave Christ out.  We are so busy with life and the planning of our lives that we don’t even consider that Christ should be our Plan A and then we won’t need a plan B.
 
Consider that the Creator is inviting us all to the banquet held in honor of His only Son.  He has spent a lot of time preparing this…, literally ALL OF TIME!  All of creation is awaiting this event.  Everyone is expected to attend. 
 
Here are some of the excuses the Creator gets from the RSVP’s.
 
This, of course, is a paraphrase of Luke 9:57-62 and 14:20
 
I cannot come, for I just bought a new team of oxen and I must break them in.
I cannot come, for I have just bought a new field and I need to get the land inspected and prepared for sowing.
I cannot come, I need to bury my father.
I cannot come, I just got married and you know about new wives!
I cannot come, I need to say goodbye to some people.
I cannot come…, because…, well you know the list goes on and on. 
 
I cannot come Father because it is not in my plan A.  Jesus is in my plan B.  If these other plans fail me, I will do exactly what you ask me Father and I will attend the wedding of your Son.  I will be obedient to the calling on my life if my plan A fails.
 
Of course, we know that our Father does not want His son to be the plan B in our lives.  Anything less than complete, absolute, unconditional, immediate obedience is really not an acceptable offering.  It wouldn’t work in the workplace of the world, the armies of the nations and it won’t put you in good stead with your Father in heaven.
 
What is your plan A?  Are you letting Christ be your plan B? 
 
Our Father knows that many of the things in our plan A are important.  He just wants us to get a handle on life to let us know that He can take care of those things in His plans, if we are willing to give in to His plans.  
 
He wants us to seek the Kingdom first, foremost and finally.  Matthew 6:33 must be the plan A.  It must be the only plan we have with no alternative plans.  It must be the plan that when things seem to fall through on it, we don’t go to another source, we just re-read the directions for plan A.  Give Christ a boost, lift Him up.  After all if He is good enough to be your Father’s plan A, without an alternative, He should be good enough for you and me.