Caught In The Act (Reflections from John 8:1-11)

You kind have to wonder how the Pharisees caught the women in the act of adultery in John 8. What is really going on in this story anyway? I have always wondered if this was a set up. Adultery was a no-no and now this woman’s shameful secret was exposed. Quivering and guilt stricken she must of stood before Jesus and this angry mob of religious men.

 

Her story intrigues me. She is the kind of woman who wouldn’t dare darken the doorway of a church for fear that her reception would be similar to this angry mob’s. Some churches give the impression each week that only a certain segment of community can enter. Only those who are good upright citzens, without baggage can come and join us for worship. It pangs me that this is the image we give to our communities.

 

Oh but, let’s not forget Jesus. The angry mob indicts the woman on the charge of adultery. Jesus, could have agreed with the men and allowed the Law of Moses to stamp out the weak element among the community, but Jesus’ focus while living and breathing among the Jews was always to emobody the fullness of the intent of the Law. The Law was given not to keep people from God, but to help the Jewish people be distinct from their neighbors. But over time, the Law was elevated above mercy and anyone who challenged the establishment’s interpretation of what the Law said and meant was a heretic. This sort of thing has happened in our churches. Doctrinal purity at times has become more important than restoring hearts and showing lost souls a God who loves them deeply. When we put up fences around God, and pretend we are the only ones who have it right we are running people off. In those moments we are no better than stone gripping Pharisees.

 

Jesus responds to the angry mob’s indictment by giving them permission to stone the woman, if they themselves are free from sin. From the oldest to the youngest, tightly gripped stones begin to drop. After the last thud, Jesus asks the woman, if any have condemned her? She answered no, and then she found what she has always wanted, but maybe never knew where to look. She found love. A love that allows for the less desirable in society to start over. A love that doesn’t condone sin, but washes it away. A love warmer than any lover’s embrace. In stead of stones launched by stoney hearts, she was shown the tender heart of God.

 

Jesus certainly doesn’t want us to sin. But if you come across these words today and have made a mess of things, be comforted by this thought. Christ doesn’t condemn, He forgives and wants what is best for you. I want to follow a Jesus like that. One that accepts me in my brokeness, but loves me enough not to leave me a mess.

Relfections from Chap Clark’s Book, Hurt

Cultural shifts in this country have turned the tables if you will of what our grandparents "knew" as decent. We live in a world today vastly different than our grandparent’s world. Beyond the Internet, and cell phones we live a in world where our children are taught to question the validity of everything they are taught. We are told to find our own way in this world. Only don’t condemn others if your way varies in anyway from some one else’s path. We live in a society that has extended adolescence, whether intentionally or unintentionally through various institutional shifts (farming communities to a public school phenomenon). Not only have we extended adolescence, we’ve confused the demarcation of adult hood and have systematically abandoned our young so that as adults we may find our own path.

 

The crises in the family today is not so much that our kids are experimenting with drugs, alcohol and sexual promiscuity, but that as parents we’ve by and large cut the communication lines with our kids. Somewhere, someone convinced parents that what we needed was to befriend our children for their emotional, physically and spiritual well-being. What has this produced for us? Teenagers who are confused about their place in the world. Kids who are confused about what it means to be kids. Teens who mimic what they see in the hypocritical live of the adults they encounter. The adults that do spend time with our teens are the ones they watch on television or see on movies. Our kids become what we are. If we quit engaging our kids, they will quit engaging us. Sure some of this happens, I don’t many teens that don’t pull back from mom and dad a little now and then, but when individuation occurs, and it will we mustn’t allow change keep us from being actively involved in the lives of our kids.

 

Our teens are the most stressed out, hurried, and worried generations of kids in any time since the creation of man. What are we doing to help them disengage from the cultural demands that weigh them down and take a lighter load?

 

I know in our busy worlds we make excuses for neglecting family, church things, and other important social groupings. We have all this stuff, and more really is more and the more we accumulate the less time it seems we have for the ones most important to us. If you are a parent of a teen, here is simply scary truth: Teens today aren’t like your generation. What you remember about high school and peer groups, etc., is vastly different today. Our kids today learn to wear masks to fit whatever roles they are playing at the time. If you spend anytime listening to the heart cries of American teens today, you will hear loneliness and hurt. Adolescents need us adults, and we need them.

The People Divided…

"Thus the people were divided because of Jesus" (John 7:43).

 

I was reading John 7 today and came across these words, "the people were divided because of Jesus," contextually The Apostle John is relaying how because of Jesus’ deeds and testimony there were some who believed in Him, and others who didn’t. I want us to consider this morning that some 2000 years later, this phrase, "the people were divided because of Jesus" could be applied to the religious landscape of America. Only, I might add, that for the most part, Americans who are avid church goers, committed to a religious group’s teaching generally wouldn’t see themselves as divisive. So what’s the problem?

 

The problem is that division is never a part of God’s plan. God didn’t send Christ to be our Savior and then command us to divide into neat lilttle sects of Jesus followers. No, God’s plan has always been unity. Later on in the Gospel of John, (chapter 16) Jesus makes it clear that the plan has always been for followers of Jesus to be one. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 states the same thing when he talks about one Lord, one faith, one hope, one baptism, and one body. Let’s face it, Jesus favorite number is, the number one. We live in a world where followers of Jesus aren’t one. Any town in the USA would reveal a numerous display of religious communities, all claim to love Jesus, all claim to be His follower…but in reality what’s the reality? These isolated sects are just that, isolated sects. The picture that is given to the world is that the Church of Jesus Christ is fragmented and divisive.

 

I challenge you to consider Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:3-6. Look it up, spend time in prayer asking the Lord about this passage. I am convinced that the Scriptures are clear there is only one church, and that is the precious bride of Christ, the one he shed his blood for. Men and women have for centuries tried to unite the fragmented body, often this has lead to more fragmentation and division. I ask you to consider the historical record for a minute, The Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Inqusition, for many these eras leave a bad tast in our mouths. The universal body of Chirst was never meant to splinter into sectarian cliques, that upholds creeds and religious constituions, instead of the word of God. When different religious groups value the traditions of a group more than they value people and relationships with those Christ loves the most, marginalization sets in and the people walk out the church door.  What the world needs today is for the followers of Jesus to follow Jesus with their whole heart and not continue the cycle of division.

 

 
Gratefully His,

 

Family update

Last week my wife and our daughters went to stay with her mom and dad. I hate being alone. But Sunday night after our youth group fall retreat, I drove up pick them up. It was nice seeing them. My oldest daughter, Rachel who is now 2, ran to the door and gave me a huge hug when I walked in, and wouldn’t leave my side. Kenzie, our 2 month old was, well in infant who was hungry and needed a diaper change.

I ask that you prayer for my wife. She has had two gall bladder attacks, at least that’s the diagnosis now. She has an ultrasound on Oct. 6, and until then we aren’t real sure what’s been causing her pain.

Dietary Necessity…

"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" (John 6:57).

 

I am typical of most Americans, overweight. Before you read any further, if you suffer from Dunlap disease too, please note I am not making fun of you. Let’s face it, many Americans are overweight and the most prevalent disease in America is Dunlap. What is Dunlaps? Look at your stomach, do you see your belt? If you answered no, then your belly dun lapped over your belt.

 

I want to talk about diet here this morning for a moment. While it is important to eat low fat food and exercise regularly, I don’t want to focus on physical food. You see, the opposite happens in the spiritual realm. Let me explain, when we eat to much physically we get fat. But in the spiritual realm the opposite is usually the case. The problem is not robust spirituality, the problem is an emaciated faith. Prayer, fasting, giving, reading the Word, solitude are spiritual disciplines that we need to incorporate into our lives. The problem with calling these practices disciplines is that some get hung up on ritual and miss the moment with their Master. So, just like our New Year’s resolutions to shed the pounds, we quit being regular with God and practice a sporadic, go to Jesus when you need something spirituality.

 

Jesus wants us to feed on Him. I think this feeding he envisions is a daily, moment by moment feeding. We need to spend time with God everyday, not so we can pretend to have our lives in order, but so in our brokenness God can make sense of our chaos. We can’t not expect to minister to others if we haven’t spent time with Jesus. The church by and large is composed of emaciated Christians starving spiritually, wanting desperately to be filled with the goodness of God but not willing to take the time or effort to get this inner quenching. Our world has spoiled us in that we are used to getting everything now. Spiritual needs are not met with a drive thru mentality. Our challenge as the people of God is to let the Words of Jesus wash over us, we need to digest His Word, and pursue Him with reckless abandon. Eating Twinkies day after day, and then walking on a treadmill occasionally won’t help in your battle with the bulge. Going through the motions spiritually, and only looking at the Bible on Sunday won’t help you with your spiritual hunger. Snickers may satisfy, but what we need is regular time with Jesus in prayer and His Word and then and only then we will begin to put meat on our frail spirits.

Gratefully His,

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My wife and daughters have been up at her mom’s all week. I don’t like being at the house alone. I should get to see them this weekend, and spend an extra day or two with her folks.

I am sure like many of you, I’ve been watching the coverage of hurricane Rita. Keep the folks along the Gulf in your prayers.

Watching the Hurricane develop and pick up strength reminds me a little of what happens to us when we fall. Things are going well, but in the darkness the storm clouds are forming and the approaching destruction is waiting for the right moment to catch us off guard. We all have experienced storms in our lives. Some of them are brought upon us by our own evil desires. James says the same thing, “but each one is tempted, when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). Something that just dawned on me with this passage is the part about desire’s conception. James writes, “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin…” I think what he wants us to notice is that first, we are all tempted, but sometimes before sin devestates us, there is a waiting period. Sometimes, in our not so better moments we let things into our lives that aren’t beneficial, and the longer we do this, numbness sets in and then desire gives birth to sin, and before we know it we are caught in the middle of a spiritual hurricane.

Maybe you’ve been there too. The Psalmist in Psalm 107 leaves us an image of a group of merchants stranded at sea, caught in the middle of a monster storm. Fear set in, and in one desperate moment they cried out to God. The Psalmist writes, “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed” (Psalm 107:28-29). I think it is important that when we get caught up in temptation, or give into sins’s decietfulness that we don’t forget that God isn’t finished with us yet. I had heard people say that after they sinned that they feel like pond scum, and in response to this, someone responded back, yes but even in pond scum there is life. In other words, despite the appearance of hopelessness there is hope. In our not so better moments, and let’s be honest we all have them, we needn’t turn from the Lord. Paul reminds us in Romans that was “convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). When our faith fails and we reach for the forbidden fruit, Christ’s love doesn’t ever fail us. Remember he loves the 99 sheep to pursue and restore the one that has strayed. So, if you come across these words today and you have strayed, let yourself be found. ry out to God and seek Him, you just may be surprised at how good and merciful our Father really is.

Fwd: Scripture of the day: Friday, September 23, 2005

Scripture of the day: Friday, September 23, 2005

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"He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed" (Psalm 107:29).

 

A word from the Word: Read John 1:1-18

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…"(John 1:14).

 

Food for Thought: How Far Will He Go?

 

Have you ever wondered why God would trade the majesty of heaven for the muck and mire of the manger? The Creator of the universe, the one not bound by time and space limiting himself to swaddling cloths and the frailty of human flesh. They mystery in the incarnation leaves us speechless. Only a divinely ordained purpose could have driven the Holy One to become a man. The awe that surrounds the incarnation demonstrates the length of the journey God would take on our behalf, but yet in our not so better moments we will wonder, “how far will he go?”

 

We have a hard time accepting that God would love us in spite of us. We have a harder time still, accepting God would approach the unapproachable, touch the untouchables, and dine with the undesirable. And yet he does. We’d be fooling ourselves if we pretended to be the first ones to ask the question, how far will he go? Wasn’t that Moses’ prayer as the people wandered in the wilderness, and stood trapped between a tyrant and his army and the Red Sea?            

 

 Wasn’t that the prophet Jeremiah’s cry as his beloved Jerusalem lie in ruins? Wasn’t that David’s desperate plea for forgiveness after one night of passion ignited a chain reaction of sin and consequences that devastated his family?

           

How fare will he go? As far as it takes to demonstrate his own devotion. How far will he go? Moses will take of the Red Sea divided and a people delivered. How far will he go? Jeremiah will write Lam. 3:21-22, words of hope amidst annihilation. How far will he go? David experienced the dark cruel stains of sins. Ask him far God will go, I think David’s answer would be “as far as takes to bring us back into His loving embrace.”

 

Those of us that have ever wondered this question share in a spiritual legacy. God’s greatest and final answer to our questions is “I will travel any distance, darken the doorway of the darkest heart, embrace the ugliest of sinners steeped in the ugliest sin.” Need more proof of just how far God will go, let the cross be your final answer.

Gratefully His,

Jason Retherford

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Scripture of the day: Thursday, September 22, 2005

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"My heart is steadfast O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul" (Psalm 108:1)

 

A word from the Word: Read Matthew 23:1-39

 

 

Food for Thought: My trash can

You’ll have to excuse me ahead of time, but I want to talk for a moment about my trash dumpster. There is nothing ususual about my dumpster. As a matter of fact, it looks about like everyone else’s on our block. In our community, trash runs twice a week. For our family of four, we don’t always have a lot of trash to go out on one of those days. But one day, I forgot the fullness of the dumpster and missed trash day.

 

Again, nothing usunusal when glancing at my dumpster, except after a few days of baking in the sun, the garbage can was overrun with maggots. YUCK! And YUCK is right.

 

Sometimes, I have a feeling we let our lives get like my trash can. We fill it with the garbage of the world. And we let our lives go unchecked and out of balance, baking in the self-absorbtion we call the "American way." We may even at times appear to have things together and look like everyone else. We are afraid that our masks will be removed and people we see us for who we are. When we pretend to have things together, when we hide behind religion to mask our problems we may look alive and like everyone else, but we are full of death. Jesus talked about this sort of thing when he addresses a group of Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, "Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everthing unclean. In the same way, on the oustside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" (Matthew 23:27-28).

 

It doesn’t have to be this way, let Jesus have your yuck and He will make you clean. Amen.

Gratefully His,

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Scripture of the day: Wednesday, September 21, 2005

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"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever" (Psalm 107:1).

 

A word from the Word: Read Jeremiah 33:1-26

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things" Jer. 33:3

 

Food for Thought: See You at the Pole

This morning at 7:30 I had the opportunity to gather at a local school with some Middle school students. I was encouraged by thier love for God’s Word and thier willingness to petition God’s throne. It is encouraging to see young people hungry for God.

 

The passage in Jeremiah that is theme verse for this year’s See You at the Pole is only part of the story. The whole chapter is about restoration. God promises to bring back from captivity both Judah and Israel, and the most astounding verse in this whole chapter is verse 8, where we read, "I will cleanse then from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me." We read yesterday how Israel and Judah had both prostituted themselves to idols and had completely turned away from the God that lead them out of Egypt. I think this passage that we have before us today says something about the heart of God. He certainly is love-sick for his people. He wants what is best for them and even though they had been sent into exile, He is demonstrating to them that he hasn’t turned His back on them. He could have, and deservedly so. The unfaithful bride turning away from her groom. God surely could have denied any chance for forgiveness.

 

But praise be to God that this isn’t the case. What we are shown in Jerermiah 33 is a pciture of God who passionately pursues his lost and weary flock. We have an image of the size of God’s grace. I don’t know about you, but I needed this image this morning. I needed to be reminded that God’s grace is bigger than my sin and that because He loves me He will forgive my rebellion if I sincerely seek Him and ask for forgiveness. I don’t know where you are today in your walk with God, whether you have fallen, or are on fire, rest in the hope of second chances and forgiveness. You can’t live without it.

 

"Father, eternal and gracious one, we praise and thank you for your Word and for your encouragment you provide to us in your Word. I beg you on behalf of those who read these e-mails and for the author of these words, God we confess our brokeness to you and beg you for your mercy. We know we don’t deserve it, but our hope is in you. Shine your face upon us today and let us feel your presence in our lives. Create in us a pure heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit in us. Let us bring you glory today in all that we do. In Jesus name, amen."

 

Gratefully His,

Jason Retherford

Fwd: Scripture of the day: Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Scripture of the day: Tuesday, September 20, 2005

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"He saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them" (Psalm 106:10).

 

A word from the Word: Read 2 Kings 13-17

"The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord that were not right…" 2 Kings 17:9

 

Food for Thought: Turn our hearts O God…

 

My readings last night took me from the death of the prophet Elisha to the conquest of the Northern Kingdom. One of the common expressions weaved throughout 2 Kings goes some thing like this, "they turned away from God, and turned to idols." Tragic.

 

Several millenia later our problem is the same. We know the right doctrine, attend worship services three times a week and read the Bible, yet we chase other gods. Samuel through the book of the Kings relays the fall of Israel. Despite their unfaithfulness, I noticed something about the people. There problem wasn’t that they didn’t believe in spiritual things. They certainly were a religious people. In spite of their religiousity, they had forsaken Yahweh, the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt.  Maybe over time, the excitement of following this Yawheh waned, they had become parched spiritually and began to look elsewhere for spiritual quenching.  It is possible that their looking for something else is the product of a perpetual passing of spiritual blindness and death from one generation to another. We read how the kings of Israel walked in the ways of Jeroboam and that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

 

Directing our worship elsewhere hurts the heart of God. We also read that for quite a few of the Southern Kings they walked in the ways of David, except for some of these men, they failed to remove the alternate places of worship. Maybe the kings didn’t want a showdown with the people or maybe by this point in their history, maybe their theology got a little cloudly. They appear to not want to alienate the masses. As a a result of their unfaithfulness, both kingdoms are eventually destroyed and the Israelites are exiled.

 

God wants all of us. His requrements require sole identity with Him. Have you made your identity certain this morning?

 

"Father, I ask you to help us, all of those that may read these words this morning, and the author of this short devotional, help us to re-dedicate ourselves to you. We want to desperately follow you wholeheartedly, and we confess sometimes we get lured in the wrong directions. Father we want more than anything to have our sole identity to rest in you. In Jesus name, amen."

Gratefully His,