31

Jump Start # 3015

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3015

Mark 7:32 “Jesus took him away from the crowd by himself and put his fingers in the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.” (CEB)

Our verse today surrounds the healing of the deaf mute. This miracle doesn’t get a lot of attention. But there are some great lessons for us to see here. Jesus is in Gentile country. He had just cured the Canaanite or Syrophoencian woman’s daughter who was demon possessed. Now, a deaf man, who had difficulty speaking was brought to Jesus.

Notice, that Jesus takes this man aside, away from the multitude. This was not done before all. Just Jesus and the deaf man.

Notice, what Jesus did. It would make most of us very uncomfortable. Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears. Then Jesus spit on those fingers and touched the man’s tongue. The spit of someone else on your tongue. Have you thought about that? And, that is after those fingers were in your ears.

Notice, in the following verse, Jesus looks to Heaven. That indicates both prayer and power. It wasn’t in the spit that healed this man. It wasn’t putting fingers in the ears. It was the power of God that did these things.

Notice, as Jesus looks Heavenward, He sighs. In fact, many translations will state, “a deep sigh.” We sigh when we are bothered, disgusted, bored, or want someone’s attention. I don’t see any of those things in this. What I see is the emotions of Jesus. I see that the Lord put His all into this.

Notice, Jesus told them not to tell anyone about this. Likely, this is why Jesus took the man away from the crowd. Many times Jesus told the healed, not to tell. How could one keep this quiet? Jesus was on a time table and news getting out too quickly would mess things up.

Those are the “noticeable” items. What do we learn from this miracle?

First, Jesus cares about everyone. He is up in Gentile country and he is helping people there. The Gospel would be taken into all the world. Every person matters to God. You matter to God. Your life. Your problems. Your struggles. Your sins. They matter to God.

Second, Jesus did not use one standard way of healing people. The immediate miracle before this centered around a girl who was demon possessed. Jesus never saw that girl. She was cured from a distance. But here, Jesus is touching and spitting. Other times, He tells a person to go dip in water. In our miracle today, Jesus looks Heavenward. It appears that He prays. The miracle before was not like that. There was not just one way He healed. But there is one central common denominator and that is Jesus. It is Jesus who heals. It is Jesus who has the power.

Third, there is no problem presented to Jesus that He cannot make better. From demon possession the text flows to a deaf person. Doesn’t matter what the problem, or who the person is, Jesus can make life better. And, so it is for us. We are not all the same and we do not all have the same problem. Marriage issues. Prodigals away from home. Addictions. Attitudes. Jealousy. Hatred. Prejudice. Anger. Unloved and unwanted. Worry. Fear. Doubt. Keep naming the problems. There is not one that Jesus cannot conquer and there is not one life that he cannot make better, including yours.

I find it interesting that the people Jesus healed and cured did not request a way for Jesus to do that. Our deaf man did not reject Jesus touching his ears and tongue. Jesus did not give this man a choice. He did not say, I’m going to spit on my finger and touch your tongue. Most of us would say, “How about another method, Jesus?”

Fourth, there is a wonderful contrast here as well. Jesus spit on His finger and touched the deaf man’s tongue. Later, crucifiers would spit on Jesus. The spit of love and the spit of hatred. One to heal and one to condemn.

Do you think this deaf man told his friends, “He spit on me. I can’t believe that He spit of me.” Doubt that. I expect he was so thankful to hear and speak that he didn’t care how Jesus did it. He was restored, healed and made whole again. And, that’s exactly what Jesus can do for you. He won’t spit on you, but He needs you to believe and be immersed in water.

Jesus’ way works. It did here. It will in the forgiveness of your sins. It will in restoring your heart to God. It will in building back trust and healing broken relationships. Jesus works.

Roger

28

Jump Start # 3014

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3014

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.”

When I was growing up, there was a cartoon called “Snagglepuss.” He was a colorful lion that got himself into all kinds of trouble. He had a common expression, “Exit Stage Right” and off he’d go. I thought about ole’ Snagglepuss when I read this verse the other day.

Layered within this verse are many lessons that help us when we get ourselves into trouble. There is nothing unique that you go through. It may be the first for you, but not in the history of mankind. Temptation is common. And, what temptation is, is Satan knocking on the door of our hearts. He doesn’t bust in. He doesn’t knock the door down. He knocks. He tempts. He distorts. He lies. He blinds us to consequences. Jesus was tempted, yet Jesus never sinned. You can’t keep Satan off your front porch. He’ll knock. He’ll knock and knock. He hopes that you’re get so tired of him knocking that you’ll open the door. And, when the door is opened and when Satan comes in, that’s when sin takes place. That’s when we disobey God. That’s when we turn our backs on the Lord. That’s when we become more interested in what Satan offers than what God says.

But even in the temptation, God is there. God will provide a way of escape. You don’t have to answer the door and invite Satan in. There are better ways. There are God’s ways. “Exit Stage Right,” is what we need to see.

Now, some thoughts:

First, the way of escape is not always easy. The easy way is to just open the door and let Satan in. That’s easy. Resisting can be hard. Saying “no,” can be hard. For Joseph, it was running away from Potifar’s wife. For David, it would have been listening to his commander when he questioned him about numbering all the people. A door was there, David didn’t take it. Young Timothy was told to “fight the good fight of faith.” Fights are dangerous. They are hard. Whether you are fighting error, resisting temptation, or standing up for what is right, battles are tough.

Second, the way of escape is not always what we want. Too many times, we want what Satan is selling. That’s why it is a temptation. He knows us. He pulls on our heart strings. Doing right isn’t based upon nor determined by what we want. We want things that are easy. We want things that makes us happy. What we want can often be dangerous, unhealthy and even wrong. God provides a way of escape. But some don’t want to escape. They want to stay right where they are. They like Satan knocking on the door of their heart. They want to see what the temptation is like. It takes some “get-up-and-go” to use God’s way of escape. Effort is involved.

Third, we must keep our eyes opened for the way of escape. Whenever you fly, before the plane takes off into the sky, you are given a series of instructions. The doors of escape, or, exit, are pointed out to you. In public buildings, including our church buildings, doors of exit are easily seen by lighted signs. The temptations that we face are not like an iron prison in which no one can escape. God is providing. It’s not us, but the Lord who gives us these doors of escape. But to escape successfully, we must be looking for those doors. The doors of escape are the direction that the Lord wants us to follow.

So all of this tells us that when a person says, “I couldn’t help it,” that’s not really true. He could. There was a  way to escape, he just didn’t look for it. No one has to sin. No one is forced to sin. No one can say that there was no other option. Simply not true.

Finally, once the temptation passes, and they always do, you’ll be left standing with either the door of your heart wide open and Satan having gone through your heart and made a mess, or, you’ll be standing with the Lord having gone through a door of escape. Trashed or safe? Guilty or righteous? Weak or strong? Choices. Choices we all make and choices we all face when temptation comes knocking.

Exit, stage right! Good advice from an old cartoon. Better wisdom, from the Lord.

Roger

27

Jump Start # 3013

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3013

Joshua 22:22 “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, the Lord! He knows and may Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord, do not save us this day.”

One thing that has surfaced out of the social media hype and news about the pandemic is that experts do not agree. Masks or no masks– lots of differing voices weighing in on this. And, vaccines, boosters—are they doing any good? Some say “yes.” Some say “no.” The medical community is divided. The politicians are extremely divided. And, we the citizens do not know what to believe. What is truth? What is bias? What is part of a bigger political agenda? Who is paying for all of these things and who is profiting from all of these things? Theory upon theory. One thing that comes out of this loud and clear is that the experts do not agree.

But, this isn’t the only time.  In 1975, Newsweek magazine published a article entitled, “The Cooling World,” in which writer, science editor Peter Gwynne, described a significant chilling of the world’s climate, with evidence accumulating “so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it.” He raised the possibility of shorter growing seasons and poor crop yields, famine, and shipping lanes blocked by ice, perhaps to begin as soon as the mid-1980s. Meteorologists, he wrote, were “almost unanimous” in the opinion that our planet was getting colder. Scores of similar articles, some with even more dire predictions of a “little ice age” to come, appeared during the 1970s in such mainstream publications as Time, Science Digest, The Los Angeles Times, Fortune, The Chicago Tribune, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Popular Science, and National Geographic. And, yet, today, no one seems to talk about those things today. Now, it’s all about a warming climate. The experts do not agree.

The experts do not agree about what happened to the dinosaurs. The experts do not agree about how crowded the planet is becoming. The experts do not agree about what is the best way to manage forests. The experts do not agree about which foods are the best for us. The experts do not agree about how to parent a child. The experts do not agree about how to treat mental illness. The experts do not agree about how to treat diseases. And, of course, the experts do not agree about the origin of life. And, for common folks, like you and me, we are left wondering, “Does anyone know?” All of this can be unnerving for us. The experts cannot agree. Here are some thoughts:

First, God knows. That’s what our verse tells us. He knows. He knows how many hairs are on your head. He knows when a sparrow falls. He knows what’s in your heart. He knows what you go through. God is the one who is always right. That is why in Psalms we learn that we do not put our trust in the strength of horses or in chariots or bows. Our trust is in the Lord. The Lord knows. And, as Paul said in the book of Acts, things will turn out exactly as we have been told. It will not be a man-made disaster that ends life here. We must put our trusts in what the Bible says.

Second, experts are limited with what they know and what they have to work with. History is a great reminder of that. There was a time when the best medical wisdom would have a patient bleed out his disease. That didn’t turn out well for most patients. New studies. More advancement in research. The experts changed their conclusion. But even in the same moment in time, experts do not agree. Our current pandemic is a great example of that. Different ideas. Different theories. We are left with doing what we are told, but with the understanding that this likely can change and not be the practice in the future. God sees in all directions, including into the future. God is already in tomorrow.

Third, it helps to do your own homework. In our current culture today, it’s hard to know what is driven by science and research and what is politically based. Those two are not the same and often they have different goals in mind. Get second opinions. Don’t believe something just because an “expert” tells you. Seek proof. Know for yourself. Draw your own conclusions.

Fourth, our lives must be wrapped around faith and not what others tell us to do. The experts can be wrong. They have been wrong in the past. God will get us through. God will be there for you. Think about what little information and knowledge the common person had in a 12th century village in Europe. News traveled extremely slowly. Outside the village, most knew nothing else. Diseases like smallpox often wiped out small villages. For the people of God, their hope, trust and faith was in the Lord. Even through death, God would be with His people.

Watching TV talk shows can make a person dizzy. Expert after expert is paraded onto the screen telling us that what we’ve been told by other experts is all wrong. Who knows. And, after a while, who cares.

God knows.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Roger

26

Jump Start # 3012

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3012

Luke 15:24 “for this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ And they began to be merry.”

On Fridays this month, our Heaven Bound podcast is taking a look at the prodigal son. I love this story. If given just one text to preach the rest of my life, this would be my choice. Everything is right here. The lost boy– and the tug of sin upon our hearts. A loving and gracious God who is willing to forgive. A judgmental older brother, jealous, stubborn and in many ways, just as lost. Sin, salvation, hopelessness, hope, grace, love, attitudes, fellowship—it’s all here.

This has been called the “gem of all the parables.” The story is so vivid and true, we can put names to it. We can see ourselves in it. And, each time we return to this treasure, there is yet something we’ve never seen before.

Our verse today are the words of the happy father. I’m not sure who he spoke this to, other than just uttering the feelings of his heart. The elder brother was out in the fields. The servants were gone to get the robe, sandals and ring. He may have been expressing these words to Heaven. So happy. Prayers answered. A story that will have a happy ending.

And, in these powerful and expressive words of the father we find two sets of contrasts. They show us what sin does and what salvation does.

First, the son was dead. Not physically, we know that. He walked home. But spiritually, he was dead. The wages of sin is death. Dead to God. Dead to hope. Dead to eternal life in Heaven. And, this expression reveals to us that there is always a cost and a consequence to sin. The prodigal left home with a pocket full of money. He lived recklessly. He lived with no regard to what was happening to his conscience and his soul. I imagine he had a blast. Eat, drink and be merry sure appeals to many people. But, it comes with a cost. It killed his soul. He was dead. And, had he died physically, he would have been separated from his eternal God forever. There is a cost that comes with sin. There is always a cost. Once the fleeting thrills of sin passed, the prodigal was alone, hopeless and miserable.

Satan blinds all of our eyes to the cost and the consequences of sin. Like the pied piper, temptation lures us in, blind to what it will cost us and what damage it will do to our souls. Like Satan in the garden with Eve, once the temptation has gotten hold of us, he leaves. Where is Satan after Adam and Eve sinned? It was God who came and cleaned up the mess that was left. It was God who paved a way for us to come back to Him. Not Satan.

Second, the son was lost. These days it’s hard for a person to get lost. Our phones help us. Our phones tell us where to go. However, our phones won’t scream at us to turn around when it comes to temptation. Lost. Not knowing where he was at. Not knowing where he was going. Not knowing what was happening to him. What a turn around of ideas here. The prodigal left the house thinking that he knew where he was going. He didn’t. He got lost. He left with plans. The plans were bogus, false and flawed.

The sad thing about our culture today is that most never realize that they are both dead and lost. They are still dancing with the devil, having a great time. Their eyes are closed and they don’t know the way home.

Third, salvation is pictured as “coming to life.” It’s the image of a resurrection. Poor Jairus, looking down at the lifeless body of his young daughter. She was dead. Jesus came. Taking her hand, the Lord told her to get up. Her eyes opened. Life ran through her body. Her still organs started pumping, air filled her lungs, color returned to her cheeks, and she got up. She came back to life. Salvation puts hope before us. Salvation gives us a purpose and a reason. Salvation changes us. It’s not a matter of adding “church” to your busy life. You now have life. You now have joy, love and a desire to walk with the Lord. Your character changes. Your choices change. Often, your habits and even your friends change. You have a fellowship with those who are Heaven bound. And, looking back, what you once thought was fun, really wasn’t. It was harmful, selfish, sinful and a waste. How much money was wasted? How much opportunity was lost? How much goodness was ignored?

Fourth, salvation is being found. The opposite of lost is found. A lost sheep was found. A lost coin was found. And, now, a lost son has been found. He was now where he belonged. He would find at home what was truly missing in his life. And, once found, he would never want to wander again.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…I once was lost, but now I’m found. This is our story. There was a time when we were dead. There was a time when we were lost. We may not have realized it for a while, but once we did, what horror sunk into our hearts. But now we have life. We have been found. We rejoice because God loves us. God gave us a second chance.

When these contrasts echo through our hearts, we won’t ever ask, “Do we have to go to worship?” God is so good. He is so good to each of us. Dead, now alive. Lost, now found.

What joy we have in the Lord.

Roger

25

Jump Start # 3011

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3011

1 Chronicles 28:19 “’All this,’ David said, ‘the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern.’”

Our verse comes late in David’s life. At the end of the next chapter he dies. God had been good to David. For decades God had delivered, blessed and forgiven David. The giant. King Saul. The Philistines. Absalom. So many victories. And, even when David stumbled, more than once, God picked him up. After all of this, it was within the heart of David to build a permanent place for the ark of the covenant. A permanent house for the Lord. No more tents. No more moving about. Established. Settled. Sure. However, David wasn’t the man to do this. There was a trail of blood on David’s hands. It would be Solomon who would build the temple. David made all the preparations. The materials were gathered. The project was funded. The workmen were lined up. In our times, the blueprints would have been made. The leaders would gather with silver shovels and the project would start. It was just a matter of time. David did all that he could, except actually build the tabernacle. He never lived to see the project completed.

And, this leads us to our thought today, disappointments. For David, it was a divine disappointment. God would not allow him to build the temple.

Now, some thoughts for us:

First, disappointments are a part of life. Some are big. Some are little. But they happen. As a child, you may have been to an amusement park with your family. Everyone was going to ride the big roller coaster. But there was a sign with a line drawn across it. You had to be taller than that line to ride the ride. You weren’t. Disappointment. In school, maybe you didn’t make the team, the choir or get a date. In college, you didn’t get the scholarship. As you get older, the disappointments continue. You didn’t get the loan. You didn’t get the job. You didn’t get the house. Someone you counted on as a friend, gossiped about you. A preacher you really liked moved.

When we are disappointed, we hurt. We feel discouraged.

Second, what we do with disappointments is a greater lesson for us. There is no getting around disappointments. They are going to happen. What do you do when they happen reveals what we are made up of. Do we get angry? Do we pout? Do we seek revenge? David wasn’t allowed to build the temple. What did he do? He could have piled tons and tons of dirt upon the location where the temple was to be built. He could have picked a fight and got all the people necessary to accomplish this so mad that they would have nothing to do with it. David could have made things hard for Solomon. But that wasn’t the character of David. He couldn’t build, so he supplied. He lined up workers. He got everything ready.

Now, maybe for some reason you cannot serve as a shepherd. You wanted to, but it is not going to happen. How do you handle all of this? Do you make life difficult for those who were appointed and you were not? Do you talk about them and ridicule them? Or, like a David, you do all that you can to support and help them in their work. Do you become their biggest defender and their greatest cheerleader?

Third, other people are watching you when you go through disappointments. Your family especially notices. You can be an example for them and help them as they go through disappointments or you can be such an embarrassment that even your faith is questioned. There are lessons to be learned in disappointments. Sometimes our divine disappointments come in the form of prayers answered “no.” How do we handle that? “No,” is an answer. It’s not the answer you want, but it is an answer. God sees things on a much larger scale than we do. He considers things from Heaven’s perspective. We look at things from our little spot in time. God sees into tomorrow. This is where our trust in the Lord comes to the surface. God knows what is best.

Fourth, the will of God must become our will. What God wants ought to be what we want. The temple was going to be built. That was the important aspect. It didn’t matter so much who built it. That’s how David saw it. The glory was for the Lord. If he couldn’t do it, then let someone else be the one. It wasn’t to be David’s temple, but God’s temple. And, that unselfish spirit helps us deal with our disappointments. Don’t fuss about who gets to lead singing in worship. It’s not a competition. The glory goes to the Lord.

Disappointments—we must learn to handle them without the disappointments dismantling us. Things break. People let you down. Your team loses. Flights are cancelled. Politicians forget their promises. You are overlooked. You can wear these as a badge and tell others about them, or you can get about doing what you can do.

David prepared and Solomon built.

Roger