Speak Sweeter

The mosquito has a long mouth called a proboscis.  On the proboscis are sharp cutting tools called stylets.  The stylets purpose is to cut open the victims skin. Then she pushes in her long mouth and injects saliva into the wound to increase the blood flow and sucks the victims blood.  She leaves a small wound that starts to itch within two minutes which is an allergic reaction to the mosquito's saliva.
   Our mouths can be even more hurtful than the mosquitoes.  Our tongues can be very sharp and cut deep like a knife.  The effects can last a lot longer than a mosquito bite and they can hurt much more.

There's a beautiful story of 'Speaking Sweetly,' found in Luke 13:10-17. The Bible says Jesus is teaching in the synagogue one day when He saw a woman sitting in the audience. She had been crippled and bent over for the last 18 years, and was unable to stand up straight. The eyes of Jesus locked with hers and his heart was moved with compassion so He called her forward and reached out to touch her. When He does, the Bible says, she was instantly healed. She stands up straight and begins praising God.  What a wonderful moment.  Yet, in the middle of all the excitement and praise, the leader of the synagogue steps forward and blasts Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. When Jesus defends his actions, he references the woman he had just healed,  but this time when He speaks of that lady he doesn't call her "woman," this time Jesus calls her a "daughter of Abraham." He doesn't see her as an elderly, crippled, woman. He sees her as a child of the great patriarch of the Jewish people, Abraham.

I have this picture of her walking home that day...she is standing up straight, feels ten feet tall, and is seeing things she hasn't seen in years. Going through her thoughts, ringing like the sounds of a bell, are those life and value building words "daughter of Abraham." Those were sweet speaking, life-giving words, Jesus spoke of her. 

Verbal grenades and shrapnel have left multitudes of scars on a lot of people, haven't they? They became like mosquito bites and caused us to hurt. You could still be scratching that irritation even now, maybe, huh?!  

 Jesus lesson in that story is so appropriate for all of us today. He spoke life-giving words to that woman and when He did; when He spoke sweetly, those words brought healing.  Now go and do the same!

Someday

Maybe the most dangerous word in the English language is the word 'some day.' Many of us here suffer from the "Some day Syndrome."  Some day I'll make things right with my mom or dad.  Someday I'll take that trip.  Someday I'll have more time for the kids.  Someday I'll build or paint or make that whatever. Someday I'll talk to my friend about Jesus.  Someday I'll go back to school.  In fact, why don't you fill in the blank I have provided for you.  Someday I will ___________________.  Ok. I hear you. If you can't think of what you would do 'some day,' just ask a friend, or spouse to fill in the blank for you.  What do you always say you will do some day?   Maybe for years you have been living with the illusion of 'some day." You sincerely plan to get around to it.  The problem with "some day," is that it can rob us of "this day."
We are all prone to procrastinate, aren't we?  There is a web site called procrastination.  If you type in the web address, when the site comes up, all that was there was a flashing sign that said, "coming soon." Well what can you expect from a site about procrastination?
Sometimes we have to live life with a little more urgency.  Living with urgency doesn't mean living faster or busier.  Frantic does not equal urgent!  To live with a sense of urgency means to live with an awareness
that you aren't promised "some day."  It means being alert to the fact that the clock is ticking.  No matter how careful you are; no matter how good your car's safety equipment is; no matter how much you 'play it safe'" or 'cover your tracks', 'touch all the bases,' or 'dot the eyes and cross the t's', there is still no guarentee. You see, life is fragile, uncertain, and in so many ways, it is out of your control. We need to live for today because tomorrow is not promised to us.  Think about it dear one, we asked Jesus into our heart to cover us from our past, (you know BC...Before Christ) and we have to have God's care and providence to cover our future. So, if our past is covered by God's grace and mercy and our future is covered by his care and providence where should we live life? We should live in the NOW.  We should live in the present, because that is really all we can do anything about. So our challenge is not 'some day," our challenge is to 'embrace today,' to seize the gift of this day, to live for the moments, we need to spend every hour with a sense of full appreciation for the time that we have.  And let us all turn the last page of our life and see that immortal fairytale phrase, "and they all lived happily ever after."

Unjustified Reaction

The beautiful thing about the Bible is that it tells the story meant to be told whether it's good or bad, courageous or cowardly, charming or repulsive, gentle or violent.

Two brothers fight and one is murdered; a man rapes a sister and the brothers devise a scheme to kill all the men in the town; a King looks at a women and decides an indiscretion is better then self discipline; a whole army is destroyed in a sea, Samson is a womanizer, bears come out of the woods and tear apart naughty kids.  It is the same in the New Testament, Herod bloodies some babies of Nazareth. A couple steals from the church and they are carried out dead.  I would be remise if I left out the Apostle Peter and how he cut off Malchus’s ear. It was one of the most magnificent miracles of Jesus before His death. It was the last divine surgery performed by Jesus. The event concerning Malchus was the climax of a long series of beautiful and gracious healing miracles; but still it is a very troublesome text.  An example of an unjustified reaction.

When Jesus did his first miracle at Cana, it was in the most joyous surroundings of a wedding but here in the garden of Gethsemane, this last miracle was done in the shadow of Calvary. It was a time and a place of sorrow, travail and anxiety of the soul.

Just like the comment made with his first miracle of turning the water into wine,(“every man at the beginning sets forth good wine, then that which is worse: but you have kept the good wine until now”, the same can be said about the miracles of Jesus.  He kept the best miracle, until the last.

There are four(4) very nice lessons concerning this particular miracle I want you to consider. 

First, when Peter drew his sword it was a violent response to a difficult situation.  It was the wrong thing to do.  Jesus never preached power through a sword!

Second, Peter made a huge mistake with that sword and Jesus had to repair the damage for that wrong. Jesus has been repairing the wrongs done by us, the church, ever since.  We goof up and still today He is making reparations to manage the damage.

Thirdly, it was an example of Christian forgiveness. Now at the end of His ministry, Jesus gave a perfect example of how men ought to love their enemies. The heaviest burden you will ever carry is the burden of an unforgiving heart. When you have an unforgiving heart it is a burden to which you cannot ask God to help you with because it is so contrary to the Spirit of the Lord.

Fourth, in the book of John, Jesus tells his disciples that he was to drink of, 'the cup of His Father'.  In other words, Jesus would do only what His Father's will was. If He would have picked up that sword it would have been His own will and not the heart of God.

So we see that Jesus had a choice to make didn't he?  What did He do? Jesus healed the soldier's ear and continued on in the permissive will of His Father to the cross. 

Which do you choose to use in response to things that happen in your life? A sword or a cup?