A Whole Lotta Talking Going On

Recently I was in a church committee meeting during which a decision needed to be made rather quickly, for we had only a small window of time to render our response.  Well maybe you’re thinking “that’s a no-brainer” and under certain and most circumstances, a consensus probably would solve the problem, but this is not the way we flow in the Body of Christ, for the Church is not some corporation which operates  on numbers and logic, opinions and politics.  After we laid all of our cards on the table and found that we could not in faith move “forward” we came back to our first question, “Is this the will of the Lord for us to do?”  Hmmmm.

While walking home from the train station I had time to reflect on what transpired in our meeting and I heard a lot of babbling going on, which made me laugh out loud in the cool night air.  I recalled a famous story of a bunch of people who all agreed, by popular vote (a consensus) to build a city and a tower to reach heaven.  They did not prefer God’s command to spread out and populate the earth He had created for them.  No, instead they wanted to stay communed together and they voted to build a tower which would become their community center to keep everyone living together in one region.  This was not God’s will and so He decided to help them obey, by confounding their language.  Yes, it’s okay to ask God for help when you find it difficult to obey Him. J

All work on the tower stopped for no one could any longer agree on anything, because no one could understand each other anymore.  What a price to pay for a consensus which left God out of the decision making, and in the presence of His known will.  Talkin’ loud and saying nothing.  Anyhooo, you can read this story in Genesis 11:1-9.

As I continued walking home and talking to the Lord (not too loudly) another story came to my mind in which a consensus was taken which did not please Him.  Why not?  Because God had already told these people what to do too.  A group of 12 guys (not a woman in the bunch mind you) were chosen for a recon mission.  God promised them that the entire land would belong to them and their 12 tribes, so why were they chosen to go throughout the land first?  To do exactly what they did do:  spy on the current inhabitants so they could strategize on how they would begin to take possession of the land.  They were not supposed to give a report to negate God’s word to them to “take the Promised Land”.  When we speak words and take votes against God’s Words, we’re just talkin’ loud and saying a whole lotta blah blah blah.  If we can’t say the right thing, I guess it’s best to say nothing at all.  And exactly what would the right and best thing be?  Whatever God said.  C’est tout.  It would cut down on a whole lotta blah blah blah.  You can read this story in Numbers chapters 13 and 14. 

Finally I asked the Lord was there any group of people who came together and aligned themselves together in agreement with Your Word for the advancement of Your will, purpose and desire for and through them?  In my heart I heard the Lord say “Pentecost”.  Aha!!!  Yes.  Let’s look at that story for a good minute.  Jesus had been crucified, buried and resurrected, but before He ascended back up to heaven He gave instructions to His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received His power. 

“. . . The apostles saw Jesus many times during the 40 days after He was raised from death.  He spoke to them about God’s Kingdom.  One time when Jesus was eating with them, He told them not to leave Jerusalem.  He said, ‘Wait here until you receive what the Father promised to send.  Remember, I told you about it before.  John baptized people with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’“ Acts 1:3b-5 [The Healing Bible]

Let’s jump ahead a little bit, “Then the apostles went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.  This mountain is about a half mile from Jerusalem.  When they entered the city, they went to the upstairs room (the Upper Room) where they were staying.  The apostles were all together.  They were constantly praying with the same purpose.  Some women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers were there with the apostles.”  Acts 1:12-13a, 14.  The verses following describe these people taking a vote to replace Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus and then took his own life.  God honored their method and guided their choice because they committed all things unto Him.  They did not lean to their own understanding and logic, or someone’s political or even religious opinion.

 

God is not against us taking votes and making decisions based on a consensus.  As a matter of fact God loves it when we are united for in another scripture the Bible says “Behold how good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity.”  Psalm 84:2.  [KJV]  So it’s not the voting that displeased God, it was the attitude, motive, and purpose behind the voting.  And most of all – in opposition to His will.  Bingo!!  But back to the apostles.   In Acts chapter 2 verse 1 we see the great phenomenon which is called the “Birthday of the Church” – the Day of Pentecost.  “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”   I like the way the King James Version says it:  “They were all with one accord in one place.”  Verse 4 says, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

A whole lotta talking going on, but talking loud and saying something.  How do I know?  Well, let’s read on . . . “And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.  Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?  Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.’”  Acts 2:6-11 [New King James Version]  {Emphasis mine.}

It pays to be united for a good cause that’s for sure, and we know that there is always a price, challenges, sacrifices, commitments, challenges and so on.  But it pays better to be united in, and for God’s cause even more, because God knows the end from the beginning.  He knows what everyone involved needs and how best to make those provisions available.  God has the global view and He’s not surprised about the future.  Because He’s already there, we can trust His Word when He speaks to us in the present concerning events we’ve not yet experienced.  But in order to “get there” we have to be willing to wait “here”, together, in His presence.  It is possible to do this.  “Yes we can”!  And remember, don’t vote without Him.

Peace. 

Preservatives

This past weekend while recuperating from a grueling week of work and traveling and teaching and rehearsing and . . . I watched one of my favorite movies again: “Bulletproof Monk” starring one of my favorite Asian actors Chow Yun-Fat. Of course he doesn’t know he’s one of my favorites, neither does ignorance of that fact prevent him from getting paid for doing what he does – act. As a matter of fact he’s banking on (pun intended) folk like me to continue making sure he gets paid. Hmmm, we seem to be going right in the direction I want to go and I didn’t know it. He’s keeping me happy and I’m keeping him happy and we’ve never ever met. Imagine that.

In the movie he is the next monk to protect the sacred scroll from evil people for the scroll has special powers. The monk before him protected it for 60 years but never aged a day over 25. When he passed on the scroll to Chow (I don’t think he minds me calling him by his first name) he said “I’m now going to do something I’ve not done in over 60 years. Take a vacation.” But he was killed instead by foreign enemies who wanted the scroll. As Chow fought and then “died” in the first 15 minutes of the movie, he took with him the sacred scroll which no one could find. Many years later he appeared in the United States where we learned (yes, I was there too.) that he had hidden the scroll on his body. He too did not look a day over 25 years old, even though he died.

As the story continues we learn from Chow that the power of the scroll is preservation. The person who preserves and protects the scroll is also preserved and protected by the scroll. The scroll made him bulletproof so he healed quickly and always survived a bullet wound, or a death fall, like in the first 15 minutes. This one particular line that he shared with fellow actor Seann William Scott, let me paraphrase it as I recall it, “he who protects the scroll is protected by the scroll” is the one that excited me. I was like “wow” yeah!!! Who wouldn’t want to protect and preserve something that’s going to reciprocate in kind like that? Then immediately another person came to my mind.

I thought about a man who lived a very long time ago on another continent and who died at a very young age, but he accomplished so much – more in three years than most of us do in a lifetime. The deeds He did and the Words He spoke changed the world forever, and continues to do so. His Words were so powerful and are powerful that people would be (and are) healed even though he didn’t touch them, even if he was in a different city! People suffering from violent multiple personality disorders which caused them to isolate themselves from society would be relieved of their mental and emotional torment with just one sentence from His scroll, I mean His mouth.

Even before that, before He was born His Father started it all just by speaking His thoughts and His Words became reality. Light, sunshine, moon, stars, water, etc. If you can name it, it’s because He said it first. But what I recall reading about Him, from His autobiography if you will, is that He said His Words are “life”. Then He said, well one of his followers, John by name, said it about Him for us: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Humph. Imagine that. Then He spoke His Word into the earth to accomplish certain things, which means He spoke Himself into the earth so He could DO certain things. Hmmmm. Inside His Words are power – power to GIVE life and power to SUSTAIN life. Power to PRESERVE life and power to RESURRECT life. Power to RESTORE life and power to ENERGIZE life. Power to START life and power to END life. Now that’s some power. In words. That’s what was on the monk’s torso in the movie that sustained and preserved his life for over 60 years – words. What’s tattooed on my torso – my heart? What words are preserving me?

I guess you know by now, or maybe you don’t, but just in case, for those who don’t know, I am talking about God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, and His Son Jesus the Christ, the One Who said “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Hmmmm. Four m’s that time, again. He also said “If you abide in (live in) ME (talking about Himself) and My Words abide in (remain in) you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:8. Now He means more than just writing His Words on our bodies. He means for His Word to become such an important part of our lives, our very beings, who we are and what we do, how we believe and what we say, where we go and with whom, etc. that the things we ask for from Him would be the things He would also desire and would ask for from His Father, for us and if He were in our shoes. Again.

If we follow closely in His footsteps we see and hear that most of the time He requested “life” for everyone with whom He came in contact. Life for their bodies if they died (remember he raised Lazarus, and two other un-named teenagers from the dead, male and female.); life for their health when they were sick – the Centurion’s servant and the Syrophenician woman’s daughter, and both of them from a distance. He never made it to their houses. Just to name a few. Everything Jesus asked for from His Father He received, except one thing, because everything He asked for was what the Father wanted to do in the first place. Jesus carried not just ON His body, but inside Himself – He WAS and is the scroll on which God wrote His love letter to the world.

Those very Words preserved Him because He preserved those Words. He didn’t add to them neither did He take away from them. Read the promise and the warning in Revelation 22: 18-19. The promise He gives us is we will be kept by the very words we keep. We are what we say because what we say is usually what we believe, or what we will eventually believe if we continue saying it long enough. Another scripture says we are “snared by the words of our mouths.” Proverbs 6:2. On the positive side then we are Preserved and reserved, sustained and constrained, and restrained and . . . by the words of our mouths.

“Thy Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee”. So I won’t miss You, the mark and plans you’ve set for me, my life, my destiny. But one of my mostest (I just love this incorrect word) favorite scriptures is the one where the writer says to God “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written (words) before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16. This means God said something about us, me before I was ever born. He wrote it down so He wouldn't forget it. (gheesh, I'm truly my Father's daughter.) The Old Testament also tells us that the priests were instructed to wear the names of each of the tribes of Israel on their clothing every time they went into the Holy Place to burn incense in the presence of God. Why? To keep their names and His promises to them ever before Him. He made a promise to Abraham in Genesis about the children of Israel before they were ever born, before he ever had one son and long after Abraham died, the priests continued to remind God of what He said about his offspring. God’s Words to Abraham about his offspring preserved them as they also in turn struggled to preserve God’s Word within themselves.

Around France, and maybe even other parts of Europe there are these machines on walls in different places much like soda machines, snack machines, newspaper machines, but they’re called “Preservatives”. When I first saw one I of course was confused because I thought of chemicals we put into foods and other things with shelf lives to prolong their lives on the shelf. So of course I had to have a closer look and of course I learned something new that day. As a woman, I could be offended because to me it implied that having unprotected sex with a woman is dangerous and a man needs to “preserve” himself while using her to satisfy himself. But of course, it is supposed to work both ways, when it is working properly. An equal opportunity product. Preservative is the French word for condom. It’s designed of course to protect both partners, thus prolonging their shelf lives. J No offense taken.

When you read the ingredients on some food products you will see the phrase “no preservatives added” which means the shelf life is normal, and shorter than those with preservatives, and they’re supposed to be all natural too, like fresh fruit and veggies. You must consume them very soon. Frankly, I don’t think we could live very well without preservatives because living in today's society is fast and expensive. We need all the help we can get to prolong the life of everything we acquire.

Jesus is the Great Preservative – Preserver of Life. When we receive Him into our lives and in turn give our lives to Him, He enters our hearts and souls and the preserving or preservation begins. The more we honor Him and allow His Words, which represent Who He is, to transform our thoughts, desires, emotions, will, intentions, intellect, deeds, actions, and words the more we are preserved in every part of our lives. And yes we can live longer because His Words are health to our bones too, not just our spirits and minds. “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24. Words that preserve I’m convinced must be pleasant and sweet. So the next time you get on an all-natural health food kick, and you find yourself scrutinizing all the ingredients on every label of every product you buy, and you see the words “preservatives added”, remember to ask yourself, what would life be like without them? Especially without the Great Preservative.

Peace.