Tag Archive for 'Jesus'

Funerals

Published
by
Dan
on 9/17/2008
in Family Life
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Today I went to a funeral for a guy that I was friends with as a kid. He’s just a few months older than me and he died this past weekend of pneumonia and complications that came from the surgery to fix his pneumonia.

One thing that struck me funny at the funeral was how the guy officiating did not know the guy that the funeral was for, and said he wouldn’t act like he did. That’s not the funny part. What’s funny is that I’ve been to a couple funerals where the officiator makes the person sound a lot holier and better than they were, but different from the way that they were actually really holy, or actually really a great person.

I remember when my step-brother Jake was killed in a car wreck. At the funeral the lady pastor that didn’t know him made him sound like he was Billy Graham. He was a normal, plain, down to earth guy-which is great! He didn’t have to be made into someone else at his funeral. I remember my step-mom and step-sister commenting “who were they talking about??” and chuckling.

I think there is also something that needs to be said about the obligatory “gospel” message that happens at every funeral and wedding you go to. I think the idea is that since a lot of people that DON’T go to church are here, as a captive audience, we’d better preach the gospel.

Well I don’t know about the wedding, but at a funeral, it comes across as a surprise Amway meeting. It seems like a very vulnerable time to strike with the threat of damnation and Jesus as the key out of it. I’ve heard a guy say that he will never pimp the people he serves. He shows no pictures of them and never tells a story of their desperate needs. He just talks about us living our lives for Jesus.

It’s the same for the weddings and funerals. When the preacher says, “Dan would want me to tell you that whoever believes in Jesus will be saved.” if you never heard me say that or saw me live it, it comes across as a hoax. It’s exactly the same at a wedding. The guys sitting in the back that know the real me would say, “That guy is making this stuff up to get us to come to his church.” and blow off the preacher.

It reminds me of a story in “The Signature of Jesus” by Brennan Manning. The jist of it is that there is an old white man in a cell serving a life sentence next to another young, muscular, black man. After a few years the old man dies. It turns out he was passing his leftovers over to the young man that needed more to eat, and when he did he would tell the young man about Jesus. At the old man’s funeral, the prison chaplain says a bunch of stuff, taking the opportunity to use his captive audience to talk about Jesus. At the end, the young man stands up, points to the casket, and says, “THAT man was the only Jesus I ever knew!”

I think there is also an insecurity at funerals. There seems to be a drive to convince and be convinced that the person that died went to ‘heaven.’ I know it wouldn’t be very comforting for the family to tell them their loved one is in hell, but I think it is really really dangerous how many people become universalists at funerals.

Heh. I just realized something. The person preaching at the funeral talks like we’d better get our house in order or we’re doomed (extreme #1) and the people talking to each other talk like everybody ends up in the same happy Precious Moments Angel Heaven anyway (extreme #2).

My last word is this, as I realize that this has turned into a big gripe/rant, (sorry about that). This one is about my own funeral.

If anybody gives any kind of plea about how I would want to see you again so you’d better get saved, will you punch them in the face? No offense, but at that point, I’m going to be eye to eye with Jesus, and I probably won’t think of anybody else but Him for about the first 12 million years or so. All of my hopes and needs and voids and everything will be fulfilled fully in Him. So don’t get saved and expect to see me waiting at the gate for you when you come. I mean, I’m glad you’re there and all, but, well, you know, I’ll be with JESUS.

Go to Jesus today, and expect to see The One waiting for you that has been waiting for you since the beginning of time. He’s the one worth dying to meet.

Jesus, the Thief King

Published
by
Dan
on 9/16/2008
in Bible Study, Family Life and Urbia
. 0 Comments

So last night it was a cool night and I thought it would be good to open some windows and let some of the cool night air fill up our house. I went around and, since it was well after dark, opened each blind, pulled the window open a bit, and then closed the mini-blinds back again. Two of the windows in our living room open out to the front porch. I stepped over my daughter that was sitting by the window and opened the mini-blinds. There, running away, was a man with a camcorder in his hands. I only saw his silhouette because there was a white pickup truck parked in front of my house. It was running and the headlights were on. I closed the blinds real quick and stood there, kind of shocked, kind of worried, while I realized what had just happened.

In case you are far away or are reading this months from now, some context. This past weekend Hurricane Ike hit a front and sent major major winds into our town. I put up a gallery of tree damage on my smugmug (http://dansullivan.smugmug.com click events, then Sept. something windstorm) All of my neighbors were without power for at least 24 hours, and the park was pitch black. We, however, had all kinds of power.

So I stood there for a minute. Was he videoing the trees that came down…or how dark the park was??? the media had been around all day…no, he was running away!

So anyway, who knows what he was doing, but he certainly destroyed a lot of our peace. All day today we’ve been wondering if he was sizing up our belongings so he could come back another day or if he was filming our daughter as she sat on the floor watching Madagascar or what.

Needless to say, he wasn’t doing anything fruitful.

So tonight I was cleaning up from my evening housework and I started thinking about how Jesus talked about theives coming in the night. If you don’t like theives, it wasn’t very reassuring. If you don’t like Jesus, the thing He said wasn’t very reassuring either.

Matthew 24:42-44

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Whenever Jesus returns, be it before some trib or after or after all of the people disappear and Kirk Cameron videos pop up everywhere, all of that is arguable, this is clear, whenever Jesus returns, it will be a surprise.

It will be just like when you open your blinds and see that there was a thief there, that came in w/o you knowing it, but now he’s there.

Got a gun? No time to go get it. I have a friend 2 blocks over that walked into her house, thought that someone had been there and saw something sitting on the back porch. She walked back through the house, realized that YES, someone HAD been there, and went back to the porch and the something was gone. They were there at that moment and she didn’t realize it. The thing on the porch? The family shotgun.

Got an alarm system? It only works if you turn it on. Car alarms have become so common now that no-one responds to such an annoyance.

When a thief comes, you don’t know it until it’s too late. That is how it will be when Jesus returns. Never mind when it will be or how many nuclear wars we’ll have to if the Temple will be built.

Whenever he comes, it will be a surprise to us all.

It is so wild that Jesus compares himself to something like this. A thief is evil, hidden, tricky! Aha, but that’s where Jesus gets you.

Tricky, yes, because it’s too late.

Hidden, yes, because you didn’t see Him coming.

But evil, no. A thief is evil because he takes away something you want.

This Divine Thief won’t take what you want. If you try to save your life, you’ll lose it, He said. He is coming to take whoever would give themselves up for Him, and there is nothing evil about being joined with perfect perfection for eternity.

I’m Telling You, Jesus Really Does Meet All of Our Needs!

Published
by
Dan
on 9/15/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.””
(John 6:54-58 NIV)

I think a lot of people really can’t believe that Jesus provides for all of our needs. It really is easier not to, and to just go on miserably trying to provide for yourself, just like everyone else. And I don’t just mean food, shelter, and entertainment. Jesus provides for our deepest needs. If Jesus just provided for our feelings, I think he would have said he was the living jacket or headscarf.

Jesus is as simple to believe in as it is for a child to eat bread. But it’s only when somebody believes in Him that they can see His work. I know a few guys who have left the faith. I don’t know all of their stories, or how they went down that road, but I remember at one stage in my walk I was terribly afraid that someday I would give up on Jesus and turn away. I remember sitting in my car in the BuyLow parking lot across from Harrison, praying and crying out to God that He would not let me turn away. There wasn’t any particular temptation or some dancing girl luring me or anything like that, I just remember that’s where I was when I my fear of that reached a peak. At some point I came across something by John Piper where he talked about how we aren’t afraid of falling away from marriage to our spouse as long as we are courting their love and feeding our marriage. He said it’s the same way with God. We need not fear falling away as long as we’re running after Him.

I think it’s this same way w/ Jesus talking about being the bread of life. As we go to him and feed on Him and drink Him in, we are full of Him. Ok, make it practical.

I gripe and moan at my wife after working on the house because she didn’t carry on about what  a good job I did. I am THIRSTING for some attention and some gratitude and I went to her to get it. She is HUNGRY for some peace while she is trying to keep 4 kids satisfied for the whole day.

Day two: I work on the house and fix things up because I KNOW that it will bring peace to my wife to have two rooms transformed from construction sites into bedrooms. I work hard and look to Jesus for help and energy and find I’m NOT THIRSTY for attention and credit at the end of the day. Cindy see’s the completed rooms and sets the kids loose in them to play, goes downstairs and sits in her chair w/ a tall glass of water and tells me what a hard working husband I am. She is FILLED UP with some time with Jesus while the kids play along in their room.

I would love to paraphrase this stuff using words different than HUNGER/EAT and THIRST/DRINK because it’s been so confused, but those are the best words to describe it. Jesus really does meet and continue to meet our every need.

When All Else Fails, Show Grace, and Grace Again

Published
by
Dan
on 9/15/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
I am the bread of life.
John 6:44-48

THE FATHER draws people to Jesus, and no one can go to Him unless the Father draws them.

““I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.”
(John 17:6-7 NIV)

The Father had people, He has prepared people, He watches and is with people, and He gave them to Jesus when Jesus showed up on the scene.

This doesn’t give me a hopeless or helpless attitude towards people that avoid God, but a bigger grace towards them. I know that even when God draws people, they can reject Him, but His followers should still show grace to them, in case they should change and accept Him.

Jesus’ Main Mission: Eternal Life

Published
by
Dan
on 9/13/2008
in Bible Study
. 1 Comment

John 6:29 ¶ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
John 6:39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
John 6:40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:43 ¶ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.
John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
John 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
John 6:47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.

In light of these verses, it seems like Jesus’ mission on Earth was to do the will of God, which was that Jesus would not lose any of the people that God gave Him, but raise them up at the last day. Could it be that EVERYTHING Jesus did and everything the Father did before that is all to point to the resurrection at the last day? Wasn’t the resurrection the most incredible miracle that Jesus did? When Paul talks about Jesus, he does not say that His power was fully revealed in any of the other miracles except being raised from the dead. (Ro. 10.9, Eph. 1.19-20, and not Paul, but Acts 2.24)

I am very intrigued by this. The resurrection on the Last Day will be great, because it will be the end of death and those that are with God will be in un-obstructed fellowship with Him forever and ever. I am curious about what I would see if I read the Gospels from the perspective of the whole point of Jesus’ ministry being to point to knowing Him so that you would be raised w/ Him in the last day. This will take some more reading…

Jesus Is [like] the Bread and Water of Life

Published
by
Dan
on 9/12/2008
in Bible Study
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I just read in the Catholic Encyclopedia that only wheat bread is allowed for communion. It specifically says NOT barley bread. Heh. How about that, with what we read that the feeding of the 5000 was most likely barley bread?!

On that same vein, it makes another comment about Jesus miraculously turning the wine into His blood before they drank it. If this were the case, they would have all drank blood at the ‘Last Supper’ which would have been the first time anything like that had ever happened in Judaism, but a common practice in paganism. When Jesus said, “I won’t drink the fruit of the vine again until the kingdom comes” then what was he talking about?

They made the same mistake w/ Eucharisto that Nicodemas made w/ being born again.

John 6:35 ¶ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

See the parable:

Whoever comes to Jesus will have their needs met IN HIM, and whoever believes in Him will never lack the most necessary thing to all life. You can go well over a month without food, but you can only go about 3 days without water. In Jesus even our most basic needs for REAL life are met (and a lot of our needs for the life we see are met too)

Never Hungry or Thirsty

Published
by
Dan
on 9/9/2008
in Bible Study
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Jesus said that whoever would come to him would not hunger and that whoever believes in Him will not thirst. It seems so crazy and wild to me that Jesus really does provide for us everything we need. Can that really be?

I’m a little distracted tonight. Someone gave me a Big Green Egg smoker. As in the big time deluxe smoke-a-20-pound-turkey-smoker. I’m going to keep it out back on my porch that my church built for me. Next to the gas grill that someone gave me. Hopefully pretty soon we’ll have the gazebo up that some people gave us so we can sit under it in the back yard and cook some food. Maybe some of the several pounds of meat that some friends brought by as an out of nowhere present the other night, before they went to play on the brand new playground they just built in our park. You know, the park that helped us realize we didn’t need YMCA memberships because we could run/jog/play/climb in our park whenever we wanted.

So now I’d better go to bed. We have some friends in from out of town so we let them sleep on our bed, which was a gift, while the Sullies sleep downstairs in the living room, which a bunch of high-school kids painted. I get to sleep on the couch which someone gave to me. I hope I sleep well, because I get to meet the guys for donuts in the morning and I still have some money on my donut bank gift card that I got for my birthday.

I won’t ride my bike tomorrow though. I’m meeting my wife for lunch so I’ll have to take the Camry-which someone gave me.

Thanks Jesus.

Accepting the Gifts of God with a Holy Awe

Published
by
Dan
on 9/8/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

v. 29 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

The Father gave them Manna when they grumbled, and now they are grumbling/asking for proof and the Father still gives them bread…just not what they expect. Jesus is trying to show us that there is something much more important than the food we eat, and it’s HIM! James 1.17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” And it is true whether we always think so or not.

Whenever something is given to you that you gripe about, and then a little later you see that it was a blessing from above, you get to have one of those Holy Awe moments.

When I was in Burma for 2 weeks, they divided up the team one day into the tasks for the next. They said that me and a girl named Holly would do the children’s program. VBS for 70 kids! While the rest of them cooked lunch. I got all upset that I had to babysit while the rest of them got to hang out in the kitchen. I will never forget what John Tate said to me that night.
“Quit complaining Dan. You’re the only one with the gift of teaching. Any one of us would rather teach those kids, but you’re the one that gets to, so stop complaining about it.” Now if you knew John Tate, you would know that he was under the influence of missions stress and the Holy Spirit, because he’d never say anything so aggressive otherwise.

The next day, there I was, playing games and telling Bible stories to 70 little kids that were soaking it all up. I didn’t see my teammates very much, but I heard they were around. They were around alright…in a Burmese firehole kitchen. They had pealed and sliced about 900 pounds of potatoes, then stood over an open fire and fried them in a pot of oil, and sweated and burned their brains out all day long. When it was time to eat, I didn’t want to. I felt that Holy Awe of receiving a gift from above and not even noticing it.

Sometimes God (heh, most of the time) God gives us what we need, but it doesn’t fit into what WE think we need, so we don’t take it. May we accept the things God gives us, even if we accept them like Job “Job 2:10 ¶ He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” ¶ In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” Because I think the more we accept from God, we’ll see that He actually gives us more good things than we realize.

The Work of God Without Fillers, Hormones, Steroids, or Programs

Published
by
Dan
on 9/7/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

John 6:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
John 6:28 ¶ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
John 6:29 ¶ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

It’s funny how my distractions play right into my Bible study time. I was reading various blogs this morning and some different church planting movements in America right now and got kind of burnt out on the whole “trying to make our church appealing so people will come” idea. Trendy marketing and catchy 5-week sermon series based on the current trendy TV show or dramatic one word sentences (ie. “with.” or “in”) wore me out as I was distracted before getting to my Bible.

Then I read this passage. Just like today, the masses were looking for the formula or list of what to do to get God’s big red checkmark of acceptance. When they asked “what must we do” they were waiting for a list. John doesn’t have a “sermon on the mount” section in his gospel. Rabbis often had a set of teachings that they could recite, and this might be what the people were expecting from Jesus. They would often ask “what is the most important law” which would sort of tell the listeners what rabbinical denomination a teacher was in.

Jesus completely steps out of what they were expecting for an answer. His list contains one item, and that one item encompasses every aspect of life. It is not easy, it is not even CLEAR, and it requires a lot of time-a long span of life, to draw near to it. It can also be done in an instant, and completed in a momentary act, which would then just be continued on for your life.

The other day I was talking to a guy in my neighborhood about missionaries and he got ‘that look’ on his face. That looks that says “those people destroy culture and brainwash people” and is often hard to really talk about to people that don’t know about missionaries. I think the same thing would happen if you looked at too many websites of contemporary mega-churches. They have all kinds of happy faux-hawk young men and happy mothers of 2 doing numerous demographically strategic activities. Small groups, food shelters, and video of the weekly sermon are all things you would want to know about and participate in.

Long ago, when the Jewish people were cast into exile, the leaders believed it was because they were not following the Torah, or God’s way (law). They developed a commentary on that Law, which detailed even more laws that, if followed, would definitely keep everyone far far away from breaking God’s Law. They came up with 1,500 rules to prevent them from breaking God’s single statement, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” And eventually, all of these rules became laws too, equal in severity and punishment to God’s original law. That commentary turned to law is called the Mishna. The Mishna took on equal standing to the Law, and the Pharisees forgot the point of God’s Torah and began to make the Mishna the point of their lives.

Which takes me back to John 6.29. I think the leaders of our day have written their own Mishna that has taken us away from Jesus, the source of all life. Now you can be in a small group, volunteer in outreaches (that consist of simply inviting someone to come and listen to someone else talk about God) and attend worship every week and think you are doing the “works God requires.” It’s almost like someone said, “Jesus said to believe in the one God sent. What does that look like?” and somebody made a list. After making that list, they forgot what the question was, and tacked those answers onto a different question: “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

I would like to reset and unlearn what I have learned. I would like to trash my whole list, even though for a long time I have been a marketer and promoter of such lists. I want to be connected to the original answer and not the commentary on the questions about the answer. I want to see what happens to a life that doesn’t have any additional baggage, but simply believes in the One God sent.

Is this Jesus Guy the Best Teacher Ever or What?

Published
by
Dan
on 9/6/2008
in Bible Study
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25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
John 6.25-27 ESV

Jesus doesn’t waste any time at all w/ small talk. He calls them flat out on why they are there. I think Jesus is so blunt sometimes that we just can’t even comprehend what it would be like to be so blunt. There is no discussion of the weather, no complimenting clothing, just BAM! Maybe that’s just how they wrote it, or maybe that’s how their culture was in that day…no tellin’.

Jesus confronts them directly but doesn’t send them away. I could just hear someone say “you are seeking me because you ate your fill of the loaves, now go away” but He doesn’t do that. He recognizes our weakness but still gives us a prescription to get strength. He doesn’t just write us off. The people didn’t plan ahead and were out in the wilderness with nothing to eat. It was their fault, but he didn’t condemn them, he fed them. Now they are chasing after him for more food (it’s a new day so they need a new supply of manna) and He exposes the truth in them but keeps them nearby to learn what to do about that truth.

The Father dos not become disgusted w/ our shortcomings. He does not reject us for our immaturity. The masses were there our of immaturity, but the disciples were there out of maturity. But even that maturity they had was a gift from The Father.

Every one of those people that were fed and ‘ate like pigs’ was now hungry. They all know what bread that perishes is all about, because the miracle that happened 18 hours earlier had vanished. The leftovers might even be gone by now. That opens the perfect opportunity for Jesus to explain bread that perishes and bread that lasts.

They have worked hard to get to Him today. They had to go around the lake or call over some boats and track him down. Surely they would be worn from the trip, and ready for some more food. Jesus tells them not to sweat and work so hard for barley bread and sardines. It’s not worth it. You should work for the eternal life food.

(according to Google Earth, if he was in Bethsaida, or on the coast near there, it would be about 4 miles to Capernaum across the water. That route will be important in a few days)

How often does the Father take the opportunity that shows up in our normal life and desires to teach us something about Himself? I think about fasting and how hungry you can be for food, and to realize that you don’t even live off of food, but off of God. Or the yearning of a man for his wife in the days leading up to their wedding, how small a yearning that is compared to God and His Bride! Or the yearning for justice that we have when we see or experience the darkness of oppression, either by people or powers, and the deepening trust that we have that at the end of time God will put all things right.