Obeying Whether We Want To Or Not

But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," -He said to the paralytic- "I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home." Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. (Luke 5:24, 25 NASB)

The paralytic quietly obeyed Jesus, stood up, and went about his business. In the next verse, we will see that it was so wonderful that it triggered a big celebration.  Everyone was glad he obeyed.  What I've been wondering is what if he had NOT obeyed? What if he'd said, "I don't know about getting up. I don't want to fall." Maybe he could've said, "I've been paralyzed for years. Look how stiff these muscles are! I can't get up."  What about simply saying, "Oh, no. I'm too afraid." He could've said either of those and felt justified. 

We hear that and think, "How dumb would that be? Of course he wouldn't look Jesus in the face, tell Him no, and turn down a miracle!" Really? I hear people say those very words all the time. It's never really clear to me why it is sensible not to try, but, for some people, it is. 

Now lest you think you would never do that, let's remind ourselves of what Jesus has already said to us. "When you fast..." "Do not judge... First take the log out of your own eye..." "Deny yourself and follow me"..."forgive those who have wronged you..." "...be a servant..." Not everything Jesus said is easy, but He didn't list any of it as optional, either. 

Today, pray for obedient hearts. Pray that we will obey everything Jesus has already told us, regardless of whether we want to or not. Pray that our obedience will bear such fruit that it will be unmistakeable in the eyes of our loved ones and they, too, will embrace the ways of Christ. 

The Problem with Cats

The escaping mama cat

Max and Spike are my barn cats. I was overrun with mice at the barn and just about insane from trying to deal with them, so I decided to hire some cats. For someone who is a dog person, this took considerable investigation. How do you  judge a cat? How can you tell if a kitten will grow up to be a good mouser? There doesn't seem to be much science to it, so I asked several cat lovers. They all assured me that a kitten will be a good mouser if it's parents were. My thought, which I kept to myself, is that cat genetics must be quite a bit different from human genetics or else they were just making it up to humor me.  

Finally, I took the plunge. I found a mama cat with a kitten. The mama cat was guaranteed as a mouse-catching kind of cat. How perfect was that?  I loaded up mama and kitten and carried them to my barn, where things quickly deteriorated. Mama climbed straight up the wall, hit the ceiling, looked back at me, and decided not to come down. She dug her claws into the tack room wall and just hung there. Her poor little kitten was looking around for his mama and he was meowing like crazy. He couldn't figure out why his mama was up in the sky, and he was not happy about it. No amount of coaxing would bring her down. No offers of tasty canned food would entice her. Finally, I settled the baby kitty on a little baby kitty bed, showed it the food and the litter box, and closed the tack room door. I figured she would eventually calm down and come back to the baby. What did I know about cats? Nothing! 

Just about the time I got out the door, I heard a commotion, looked around, and saw mama cat. She had somehow worked her way around the tack room wall, hopped over on top of the upright freezer, and jumped out the open window. I've seen her once since then. She was having a close encounter with a tom cat, but they are both long gone now. 

The little kitty, now known as Spike, was left to figure it out on his own. As far as I can tell, mouse-catching is either not a genetic trait or Spike missed that gene. If he's ever caught a mouse, he's kept it secret from me. When he was abandoned by his heartless mama, I had pity on him and hired another kitten to help. Max was billed as a crippled kitten from good mouse-catching stock. He also had a mouse-catching mama. Supposedly. Max was living inside at his birth house when, somehow, a bed fell down on his arm. Since he was just a kitten, that does seem preposterous, but I didn't argue. If he was crippled, I couldn't tell it. He was free, and I figured he and Spike could be happy together. I settled Max in the barn with Spike. 

What a terrible mistake. Spike had some potential as a barn cat, but Max only wanted to be an inside cat. They stayed at the barn long enough to grow a bit. Once their legs were long enough to make the journey, they headed done the gravel driveway to my house, where they have made their home on my back steps. As far as I can tell, neither of them has ever caught a mouse. One time my dog caught a mole, but the cats don't catch anything but supper time. 

With that history, I should not expect much from these cats, but I am accustomed to Maggie the Wonder Dog, who makes all animals look exceptionally good. Tonight, someone had given my a deer hindquarter. After I processed the meat, I took the bone (with some tender parts of meat still attached) outside to the cats. You may not be surprised by this, but I was astonished. Spike wouldn't even look at the bone. Max took a brief look, turned up his nose and walked away. He wanted cat food. Forget fresh raw meat. 

What is wrong with this cat? When did cats start rejecting meat?  It is no wonder the world is full of dog lovers.  Cats are too unpredictable.   

When Ryan was little, his class at school learned a cute little song that started out "I don't want to be a goat, nope". Tonight, I was thinking, "I don't want to be a cat, nope". I don't want to choose what's only acceptable for me and reject what is better for me. Really how dumb is that?  We do it all the time, though, don't we? We eat dessert but skip our vegetables. We listen to the Bible study video but skip the homework. We make a start but skip the hard part. Even worse, sometimes we are like Max, leading those around us to a place we would do better to avoid. 

Let's try hard this year to be less "Max-like" in our behavior and more like Christ. Let's be the example that leads people in the right direction and be the one who comsistently does what is right and best. Let's be what we were created to be. 

The Quiet Obedience of the Paralytic

Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. (Luke 5:25 NASB)

With all the drama preceding the healing of the paralytic, the actual event was really so simple and sweet. Remember that the scribes and Pharisees were very upset with Jesus's comments about forgiving sin. He had stopped in the midst of healing the paralytic to deal with their questions. Turning back, Jesus just spoke a few words, the man stood up, did EXACTLY what Jesus had told him, and went home with his pallet. Along the way, he told everyone he saw about what Jesus had done for him. There was no drama, just quiet obedience and enthusiastic testimony to God's mercy and grace. 

I love drama, and I love to hear the exciting testimony of someone who was dragged from the depths of depravity and turned around in a flashy manner. There is nothing, however, that is sweeter than this scene. Jesus looks down, tells the man to get up and go home, and the man stands and goes. He just quietly obeys. There was no showy trek to the river for mud, just simple standing and going. It's easy to overlook the importance of that kind of obedience, but it is critical to the kingdom of God. 

I wonder what God would do if we just simply stood and went every time Jesus told us. What if we did what He said without questions, whining, or arguing every time? He would change the world with that kind of obedient heart. That's what would happen. More souls would be saved. More lives transformed by the power of God. More prodigals would come home. 

Today, commit to the quiet, simple obedience of the paralytic. Ask God to make His direction so clear that you can obey instantly without question and without fanfare, then do it. No whining or arguing allowed. Pray that our loved ones would see our obedience, hear the testimony that accompanies it, and be drawn to Jesus and that same obedient walk of faith. Pray for faith, and fruit, that lasts. 

Eternal investments

One of my patients was telling me about her upcoming trip to the beach. She and her husband plan to spend two months there. They've been going for years and are delighted that they can enjoy yet another few months in the sun and sand. Their daughter was with them, and laughed. "Yeah, they're going to spend my inheritance," she said, "and I'm glad they are!"

That somehow led to a conversation about not being able to "take it with you" when you die. I remembered a story I'd read about a wealthy widow who was asked how much money her husband left behind. Her answer was, "All of it." Yep. I like my stuff, but it's not going with me when I die. 

Not one "thing" we have here on earth will accompany us into eternity. What we can expect to see in heaven from our time on earth are those whose lives were changed by our investment in them, those people who met Jesus because of the way we shared Him with them. What fun it will be to see the fruit of our efforts! It will be like dividends on an eternal investment. 

As you survey the things in your personal kingdom, ask yourself where you are making the greatest investment - in the things you will leave behind or in the lives and faith of those who will greet you in heaven. Make sure your portfolio includes  eternal investments that will stand the test of time.  

Continue Your Journey

But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," -He said to the paralytic- "I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home." (Luke 5:24 NASB)

The proof is in the pudding, you might say. Jesus recognized that words were not enough if He wanted the scribes and Pharisees to believe in Him and His divine authority. "Get up, get your stretcher, and go home," He told the man. The Greek word for go, poreuō, means to pursue the journey on which one has entered. Jesus was telling this man to return to the life he had before Jesus, but be different there. He would be a kind of living Bible to those who knew him, demonstrating with his life what his words spoke about Jesus and His miraculous healing power. 

The Greek word translated as "home" is oikos and does mean home or residence, but it is also used to mean temple. Perhaps this particular word was used because the healed paralytic was to demonstrate the healing power of Christ both at home and at church. 

The people who knew this man before his encounter with Jesus could not fail to recognize that he was a changed man. I wonder, can people who knew us before Jesus see as recognizable a change in us?   

Today, pray that we and our loved ones will demonstrate by our changed lives that the Risen Lord has wrought a mighty work in us. Pray, too, that we (and those believers in our loved ones' lives) would be so clearly transformed by Christ that those around us (especially our loved ones) cannot help but see Christ in us. Pray that they will become shining beacons of Christ's light as well. 

Maggie's Birthday Plans

I am Maggie the Wonder Dog and I have a few things to say, but my mama said I could only tell one thing. That's how mamas are, you know. They are IN CHARGE. When your mama knows what to do, like my mama, you can just relax. She will take care of everything. It's great! Except when I want to say a lot and she wants me to say one thing. Guess who wins? But, saying one thing is better than nothing!

Anyway, I want to tell you about my birthday supper. It is not until tomorrow, because tomorrow is my birthday!!!! Woof! Woof! I am only a dog, even if I am a Wonder Dog, so I don't really know what that means, but I do know about eating. I love eating!  When it is your birthday, you can eat anything you want. That's what my mama says. What she really means is I can eat "something" I want. But I can't eat her chickens, and that's what I like best. It doesn't seem quite fair, does it?

My favorite thing to do is to chase the chickens because they squawk and flap their wings. It's a fun way to play chase. I love to catch them and shake them hard, but my mama DOES NOT like that. You better not let her catch you shaking one of her chickens. She will get mad, mad. I don't guess the chickens like it much either, because they never will play with me again after I shake them. Sometimes making friends is really hard. One thing I did learn was that shaking a chicken by the neck is not a good way to make a friend. 

Well I was trying to tell you about my birthday supper before the chickens got in the way. This is what I do not want: lettuce or squash. Those are just terrible tasting. I want meat.  My mama says that is good because you need protein to hold your cells together and meat is protein. I don't know what a cell is, and I don't know about protein. I am only a Wonder Dog. That doesn't seem like anything I need to know. I know about meat, though, and I'm getting some for my supper. I think (but I'm not sure) that I might be getting some duck for supper. My mama loves duck, too, so I'm hoping that's what we are having. 

Oops. We raise cows. I guess I shoulda said eat more beef! 

Well, my mama told me that protein like meat helps you grow and get strong. She said it's like when her breed, the Christians, study their Bibles. It doesn't seem much like meat to me, but she says it's like meat for their hearts. It helps them grow strong. That Bible-meat helps them get wise, too. That might be why my mama is so smart. 

Since it's my birthday, I hope everyone will have some of that protein stuff for their cells and celebrate with me. Hey, that goes together! Cells and celebrate! Anyway, here's the deal. I'm gonna eat the duck.  Since I am too little to read, you can have the Bible-meat. It's gonna make us both strong!! And smart!

The end. From Maggie the Wonder Dog

Get up and walk

Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?" (Luke 5:23 NASB)

The amazing thing about this passage is that Jesus responded to the scribes and Pharisees in a way they could understand. There was no way for those Jewish leaders to verify what He had said. They could not prove sins had not been forgiven, but what proof would satisfy them that sins had been forgiven? They were full of questions, and He responded with a terrific question. Even at first glance, the answer was obvious, but with His question, He gave a hint of what He was about to do.  

We have previoualy looked at the forgiveness of this man's sin, so we will not address that again today. The "get up and walk" is a rich phrase. Egeirō is the Greek word translated as "get up". It is usually translated as "arise" and is the same word used to indicate rising from a sickness or from death. It is the word the angel used in the tomb when he said, "He is not here but is risen."  This is a resurrection word. 

The word translated here as "walk" is peripateō and actually means "to go about one's life", to take advantage of opportunities, or to "occupy".  What Jesus was about to tell the man was "Be resurrected, transformed and occupy the life God has given you. Make the most of every opportunity He brings your way."

Those are great words for us today, aren't they? Pray that we and our loved ones will be resurrected, transformed in that resurrection, and that we will occupy the life God has given us. Pray, too, that we will make the most of every opportunity He brings our way.