God

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Scriptures That Bother Me — Genesis 18:6-8

Posted by Jim Thornber on January 15, 2010
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

Presenting My Best

“So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, ‘Hurry . . . and bake some bread.’ Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who quickly prepared it. When the food was ready . . . he served it to the men. ” – Genesis 18:6-8

After reading this passage about Abraham’s hospitality to the Lord and the two angels, it occurred to me that sometimes I am either too lazy or too impatient to give to the Lord in the manner of this marvelous man.

Here’s the scene. One day Abe is sitting in front of his tent during the hottest part of the afternoon, sipping sweet tea and listening to the tree frogs, when he looks up and notices three men standing nearby. He must have figured they weren’t normal beings since one moment no one is there and the next moment they’re standing nearby. Since he didn’t see them approaching from the distance, their appearance is Abe’s first clue to be nice.

Realizing he has heavenly guests in his front yard, Abraham goes into high gear and asks if He may treat them to a chair in the shade, a foot bath and a fresh meal. They say “Okay,” and Abraham rushes off to arrange a nice lunch for his guests.

As I was reading this, I wondered why Abraham would go to all this trouble. Continue Reading

Just Jesus

Posted by Jim Thornber on January 11, 2010
Posted in: Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” – John 4:10

A few years back, a popular Christian tee shirt compared Jesus to Coke. It said, “Jesus: He’s the real thing.” It was cute, as far as it goes. Not life changing, but cute.

Then I heard a minister compare the life-giving  water of Jesus to a can of Coke, or any soft drink. He said Jesus was a pure relationship with God, while a soft drink was a relationship with man-made additives. One was pure relationship and one was mostly religious. Well, he had my attention.

Water, as opposed to your favorite soft drink, is necessary for life. We must have water in order to live. We drink it and wash with it. Water is a lubricant, dispels heat and sustains life, supports digestion, makes things soft and aids in eliminating waste. All life on this planet needs water to live. Water is indispensable, and the need for water has been the force behind more than one war.

A soft drink, however, with all its fancy ingredients, is necessary for nothing. We cannot bathe in it, use it to brush our teeth or add it to our radiator to displace heat. We can’t water the lawn with it and no one would use it wipe down a dirty table or wash their clothes. A soft drink is mostly water with various additives; and none of these additives is necessary for an efficient and effective life.

Here’s the part that bothers me. Instead of focusing my life on the pure, life-giving living water of Jesus, I’ve often focused too much of my time on the additives. And when we add stuff to Jesus, we limit His effectiveness.

Continue Reading

Compelled to Board the Boat

Posted by Jim Thornber on January 5, 2010
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side” — Matthew 14:22

This is a passage that many people have trouble with, because it tells us that God sometimes instigates hard times in our lives. It is important for us to be reconciled with this concept; because if we do not, we may find ourselves forever kicking against the goads (Acts 26:14).

Just after Jesus feeds the five thousand, the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John tell us that Jesus “made” the disciples get into the boat and go to the western shore of Galilee. This word “made” may also be translated “compel,” “necessitate” or even “force.”  It is a very strong word that leaves little doubt the disciples did not have a choice in the matter.

What we see in these passages is Jesus compelling the disciples into a boat He knew would take them into a storm, find them “straining at the oars” (Mark 6:48) and ultimately blown off their intended course. The disciples, intending to take a short boat ride across the northern tip of a lake that is merely four miles wide, soon find they were still in the middle of the lake (Mark 6:47) after rowing three or three and a half miles. They were in a storm and going nowhere fast. Fortunately, Jesus rescues them by walking across the lake.

At first, this sounds like a heartless thing for Jesus to do. Why would God send us to a place where He knows we will fight, strain and struggle, only to wind up further from our destination than when we started? Continue Reading

Scriptures That Bother Me — Luke 7:11-17

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 28, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

The Opportunities I Don’t See

“Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain . . . a funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son. . . When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion” – Luke 7:11-17 (NLT)

I like this story because it shows how Jesus sees opportunities when others don’t even know He is there. It also shows Jesus is prepared to meet the needs of those around Him, and is even looking for people He can touch. And that’s where this story starts to bother me.

I sometimes think I took too many psychology classes in college. One of the primary teachings among counselors is you cannot help a person unless they want to be helped. And for the most part, this is true. Some people do not want help, and trying to help them anyway ignores Jesus’ teaching about throwing our pearls towards pigs and our sacred advice to dogs who will only bite us back for our efforts (Matthew 7:6).

Still, Jesus saw the opportunities to minister when they presented themselves. Even though the widow may not have known who He was, and may have thought He was just another face in the crowd, Jesus knew this was a divine moment. The widow never begged and groveled and tore at the hem of Jesus’ garment, pleading with Him to raise her one and only son from the dead. Nevertheless, Jesus stopped the procession and ministered to them both.

When you read the Gospels, you’ll see numerous times Jesus seemed to be on the lookout for opportunities to show His love for people by His actions. Continue Reading

But Lord, I Want THAT Gift

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 21, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Spiritual Gifts, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

“It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have” – 1 Corinthians 12:11 (NLT)

For many people, the Christmas (or Chanukah) season is their favorite time of year. The time spent with family, the abundance of favorite foods, and of course the opening of gifts all make this holiday special.

When I was a kid, I was so keen on getting gifts I would often peel back the wrapping paper to get a peak at what was underneath (and I’ll bet you did, too). After all the gifts were unwrapped, I would head outside to gather with my friends and compare gifts which, in Southern California, inevitably included a few new bikes, a skateboard or two and usually one remote-controlled car. However, it seemed to me that no matter how cool my gifts were, there was always some other gift my friends had that I envied. I guess they felt the same, because we usually ended up playing with the other person’s gifts more than our own.

What bothers me is how often I have this same attitude towards the gifts the Holy Spirit has wisely given to me. Instead of enjoying and showing gratitude for the gifts God graciously gave me, I find myself desiring “other” gifts – gifts I see in people that I, with self-proclaimed omniscience abounding, deem more successful than I am. I figure if I had their gifts then I, too, could have what they have: house, car, job, published book, prestige. You know, all those items that are destined to perish. But by doing so, all I’ve really done is whine, tell God I don’t like my gifts and, in a not-so-subtle manner, suggest He made a mistake. Continue Reading

Mary’s “Yes”

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 15, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” – Luke 1:38

MaryThis is the scene: Some time after the betrothal of Joseph and Mary, but before they consummated the marriage, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that God chose her to give birth to the long-awaited Messiah.

This is the question:  “How this is possible, since I’m a virgin?”

This is the answer: “The power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the baby to be born will be called the Son of God.”

This is the consequence: According to the Law in Deut. 22:23-24, death by stoning for adultery. According to Gabriel, the birth of God-with-Us.

This is the response: “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

This is what bothers me: I don’t know if I would have been as brave as Mary.

Continue Reading

Scriptures That Bother Me — Luke 2:36-37

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 14, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

She Kept On Not Leaving

“A prophetess, Anna. . .was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day” – Luke 2:36-37

I’ve been preparing for a series of Christmas sermons, and one of those will be on Anna, the prophet who saw the child Jesus at His dedication in the Temple. All day this one particular phrase has bothered me– “she never left the temple.”

Here’s a woman who has been a widow for more years than I’ve been alive, yet she never left the temple. She never fell away or became faithless. She could have given up on God because she was a widow after only seven years of marriage, perhaps feeling neglected by God and society. She could have turned her back on her religion because life wasn’t turning out as she hoped. She could have shouted, “It MUST be someone’s fault. I’ll blame it on God! That’ll teach Him.” But she didn’t. She chose never to leave the temple.

In the Greek language this literally means, “She kept on not leaving.” She wasn’t too lazy to head for the door; she intentionally and actively engaged in not leaving the presence of God. Have you ever had a visitor to your house who “kept on not leaving”? Continue Reading

What Is That Ringing In My Ears?

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 8, 2009
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By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Hebrews 11:8

Abraham’s patient obedience is starting to irk me. He did not own any land, nor had he personally received any as an inheritance, but lived as a tent dwelling nomad, moving from place to place. He waited twenty-five years to see the son God promised him, and never really possessed the land God said his children would inherit.

I keep wondering how Abraham could remain so patient in his obedience. We live in a society that grows impatient if it takes too long for the coffee to brew in the morning, much less wait four hundred years for escrow to close on our new property. Still, Abraham went to Canaan possessing nothing but faith. He didn’t know where he was going, didn’t have a house when he arrived, didn’t own any land to build upon and didn’t know anybody who lived there. It kinda makes you wonder why he would go in the first place.

However, Abraham “when called . . . obeyed and went” (vs. 8).  The phrase “when called” translates an action indicating a quick response. In other words, while the call of God was still ringing in his ears, Abraham was packing his bags and moving west.

When was the last time I obeyed the word of God while the sound of His instruction was still ringing in my ears? Continue Reading

Eleven Days to Rest

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 25, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” — Mark Twain

Eleven Days to Rest

I was reading Deuteronomy the other day, and I had trouble getting past verse 2 of the book before this passage started to bother me and my mind started to wander off in a different direction. (Maybe it is just me, but sometimes my mind has a mind of its own.) Verse 2 says, “Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea” (NLT).

In other words, a simple journey that should have taken about two weeks took thirty-eight years (they had already stayed two years at Mt. Sinai – Numbers 1:1). It made me wonder how many times I’ve over-stayed my welcome in one place because I murmured, complained and doubted God’s word. I’d hate to count.

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Scriptures That Bother Me — Philippians 4:4-5

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 16, 2009
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 8 Comments

“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” — Mark Twain

The Look of Joy

Always be full of joy in the. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do (Philippians 4:4-5 NLT).

poor childrenLast Wednesday, Barbara and I were co-teaching the book of James to a small group. After spending an hour talking about the book, we barely finished James 1:2, which tells us to consider it an opportunity for great joy when troubles come our way. Doesn’t that sound easy and fun?

While Barbara led the group discussion around the question, “What does joy look like?”  I meandered over to Philippians 4. I knew it had some good stuff to say about joy, so I found the above passage I wanted and read it to the group. And as soon as I did, I knew it was going to bother me.

Although Paul wrote to the Philippians from prison, he still finds a way to be joyful. I didn’t say he was enjoying his stay in prison, but that he chose joy as his attitude. So far, so good. Paul is a better man than I am, but that is not what struck me. What struck me is what I call “The Look of Joy.” We’ll often ask what love looks like, and there is even a song called, “The Look of Love.” But what about joy? Barbara asked, “What does joy look like?” According to Philippians 4:5, joy looks like “consideration.”

That is when I got bothered. Continue Reading