Heroes Unlimited

1 Chronicles 11:10 Now these are the chiefs of David's mighty men... 11 Jashobeam, a Hachmonite, ... wielded his spear against 300 whom he killed at one time....22 Benaiah ... struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. 23 And he struck down an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits [7] tall. The Egyptian had in his hand a spear like a weaver's beam, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.
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Matthew 10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; [12] 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
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It is interesting that David is a Christ-like messiah. His chiefs, valiant in battle are prophetic figures of Jesus' spiritual army. We read in Matthew about Jesus empowering the disciples to heal every disease and affliction and yet in the next chapter we are told that, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, [1] and the violent take it by force." (Matthew 11:12) Why? What is it about his kingdom that would invite violence? What is the nature of this violence? Is it physical violence or a metaphor? Or both? Well David and his men certainly encountered violence in a very physical way, and so did Jesus, but the verse seems to point to a much more epic battle field. Jesus' sweat, like drops of blood, in the Garden of Gethsemane, indicate an engagement with violent forces much more powerful than our natural eyes can see. The decisive victory of that war has already been won, but we continue to ride out the final battles and rescue the prisoners of war. The healing that Jesus has commissioned us to do is not just physical either, although physical healing is an integral part of the blessing that He often imparted. There are many deep layers of the human life that are damaged and needing help. It almost seems trite to say that one can have everything healthy on the outside but still have a wounded heart, but its true. He is sending us to be heart healers. The greatest good that we can do is then to engage in the epic war as holy paramedics. The greatest violence that can be done against Satan and his crew is an act of healing.

Laborers

Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
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God, make me a laborer for Your kingdom!

A Good God & Sea Glass

Psalm 5:3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you [5] and watch. 4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.
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Most of us, if asked, would say that we would prefer a good God over an evil God. Plenty of people have openly worshipped evil gods, but that is not really very practical. Logic would follow then that most of us would also prefer a God that delights in goodness rather than evil. However, most of us also do a lot of things that aren't good and hope that God will let us get away with it . So can we have it both ways? We know, deep inside, that a good God is better than a bad god, and yet we often live our lives as though ruled by a bad god. Assuming that God exists and that our desires have no control over that fact, we have to contend with the difficult reality that we are not always calibrated to worship God in his goodness. In fact, as we draw close to His goodness, we often shy away, like those attempting to look directly into the sun. His glory and righteousness are too bright... and yet... we were created in his image, from the beginning intended to shine like stars, or like lamps on a stand. How is that possible when the goodness of God terrifies me? His goodness is so good that it almost seems bad to me by comparison. And this is what one might call the fear of God which leads to wisdom. But we know that perfect love casts out fear and that God, in his goodness, is the essence of Love. His Love is able to overcome the danger of death. He has so much Love for me that His goodness can shine through my dim sea glass of a life and make it bright.
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My life is in fact like sea glass. Esther loves sea glass.

The 9 People You Meet in Heaven

Matthew 5:1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons [4] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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I get the sense that these people are the kind of people who would be able to appreciate God's blessing, even in the midst of suffering. It almost seems as if God's Kingdom, which is really what is being described here, is open to all who would enjoy this kind of life - a life of purity, mercy, humility and of course Love. Last week I had a thought about the end times. I'm not really someone who studies apocalyptic theology much, but I was just thinking about God and what it might be like in the end. I imagined that Jesus returned and offered everyone the option of going to heaven or staying here on earth. He made it clear that He was Love and that after he left, there would be no Love left in the world. Many were incredulous about this. They assured him that they were quite capable of love without his help. He explained to them that their love was selfish and destructive and that up til this point they had survived off of the residual love of an invisible community of saints. They were still incredulous, assuring him that there was work to be done to save the earth and heal mankind of its trouble. Jesus reiterated that all creation was welcome to come with him and be made new in His kingdom of love. Finally, he gathered up the volunteers and left. The world changed immediately. There were no more acts of charity on the face of the earth. The impulse to act generously and heroically no longer existed in mankind. A few tried vainly to save the earth from its march towards global warming, but there seemed to be little in it for the individual, so no one wanted to invest time, money or effort. The downward spiral towards chaos and misery happened quickly culminating with the eventual uninhabitability of the earth. All died and then the earth was wiped out by the implosion of the sun.... Meanwhile, in heaven, all were offered luxurious accommodations in a beach side hotel, but no one wanted to take a room. They all just wanted to be together in the lobby or on the beach, and they all continued to share anything they were given with the others. The more luxury they were offered, the more they would try to give it away. Jesus played host, walking around from person to person, announcing this gift or that, and he didn't need to say what they already knew, which was that the greatest gift was living in the Kingdom of Love together with those who knew the value of Love.

Desire

Revelations 18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit...3 For all nations have drunk [3]the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.
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14 The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”
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It is on verse 14 that I would like to meditate for a moment. For those who fall in with Babylon, basically buying into the lie that this present life, with its physical pleasures, is the be all and end all; they will find out in the end that their desires - the fruit for which their souls longed - are lost to them. C.S. Lewis argues in The Weight of Glory that our desires may be a clue to certain supernatural objects for which we were designed. The Persian mystic, Rumi, wrote of this aspect of human nature when he said that like a reed cut from a river bank, "Who's from his home snatched far away, Longs to return some future day." Pascal, interestingly, referred to us as reeds as well: “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed”

And in his Pensees described us thus:

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself."

Our longing points us to God, but many will perish because they settle for less.

Good Kings

2 Kings 18:1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. ... 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). [1] 5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.
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From looking at the kings it seems that the true test of godly leadership is whether one removes the high places. That means doing a thorough search of one's kingdom for competing gods and removing all idols. This has an obvious application for our own lives, for our hearts are like kingdoms which we have a bit of leadership over. We do well when we search our hearts and actively "remove the high places" - the various things that crop up as more important than our love for God and others. The best, and really the only, way to do this is to lay down your crown and let Jesus be king of your heart!

Activists and Politicians

1 Peter 3:13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
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I think the hardest thing for anyone to do is hold fast to righteousness when the tide floods against us. I admire those idealistic souls, like Don Quixote, who pursue the highest good despite the world's claim that they are a bit impractical. I've been accused of that. There are politicians and then there are activists. This is not to say that all politicians are corrupt. Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. His cousin John, on the other hand, sequestered himself to the desert like a monk. Which was more righteous - well Jesus of course! So what does activism do for you with regards to righteousness, or perhaps the better question is, is it possible to be an activist in a thousand different ways? Is it possible to live in a bureaucracy and remain an optimist? It is a tall order, but I think possible with the hope that God gives us.