The Great Healer

We all have our good days and we all have our bad days, this morning was the start of what feels like a really good day. In fact this past week has been a really good week...God is great, my wife is amazing, things are good. Back to this morning ...

Making the long journey home from work (Greenslopes) to our temporary home for the next few weeks (Gold Coast) I decided to put on a sermon, to assist in alertness more than anything else. Toward the end of my travel down the coast my eyes did more than just stay open however, they welled up with a watery substance some apparently refer to as "tears"...

[I will, for the sake of manliness, simply refer to this phenomenon as liquid emotion...something that only occurs in a male when extremely tough male-creation meets extremely tougher male-Creator.]

Now, the reason for this phenomenon played out with a brain-busting Bible passage, followed by a heart-melting exposition...the following is the layout of this play...

Luke 18

¹ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).

²He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man.

³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary.

⁴And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man,

⁵Yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or at the last she come and rail on me or assault me or strangle me.

⁶Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says!

⁷And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf?

⁸I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?

...and the thought that followed is so simple, yet so profound....

Jesus here contrasts us with a widow, and our big-"D" Dad with the judge...

How we, unlike a widow, who is the lowest in the society, are not poor, are never alone, are not looked down upon, and not outcasts...but children of the King, the bride of Christ, who not only promise we'll never be alone, but says that we're rich in spirit, high in humility, a part of an eternal community.

How God, unlike the judge, is not impatient, not short with those who come to him, not stingy...but caring, and giving, and tender-hearted, and good, and fair, and just.

Therefore we get to go to a judge who calls himself our Father, our Dad. A God who cares deeply, and loves intimately, and gives freely.

And so when we go to our big-"D" Dad and ask for something like healing, we do not have to go and go and go and go and persist because he's stingy or because we'll change his mind...no...we keep going to God in prayer to request, to plead, to ask, not out of negative pestilence, but out of a loving heart. A heart that doesn't keep going back because we're afraid he won't listen otherwise, but a heart that keeps going back because he's all we have!

We are far worse than we think we are, and God is far greater than we think he is.

And we are not orphans or widows, but adopted children and brides. And God is not a stingy judge or abusive partner, but a loving dad, and a caring husband.

We get to go to God freely, any time, any place, any how. So don't just go to him, but run frequently and often. Ask and ask and ask again, and know that He is good, and know that you are loved.

Our God is a good God, and he has inclined his affections towards us. Like I said, today is going to be a good day.

all this talk about losing yourself?

the reality of it is, is that we lose ourselves to something or someone or some cause every day. people give themselves or lose themselves to alcohol, to drugs, to cigarettes, to the pokies, to a sports team, to a band, to a charity, to a church, to a husband, to a wife, to a friend, to name but only a few. it would also seem that we do this for many different reasons, but in the end people always seem to get involved in something for what they will get out of it, and some might disagree but it's true.

we lose ourselves to alcohol by too much drinking, to drugs by too much consumption, to cigarettes by too much smoking, to the pokies by too much spending, to a sports team by too much enthusiasm, to a band by too much following, to a charity by too much giving, to a church by too much involvement, to a husband by too much pleasing, to a wife by too much protectiveness, to a friend by too much friendliness, too much too much too much. and why? for what reason? in most cases for completely selfish reasons, because it takes away painful reality, because it removes fearful anxiety, because it pushes aside concern and worry, it brings along feelings of acceptance, feelings of inclusiveness, feelings of worth, feelings of greatness, and feelings of hope ... and all things feelings are false! none of them last! which is why we go back to the bottle and the cigarette box and the needle and the casino and the sports stadium and the concert hall and the wallet and the house and the church events ... time after time after time after time after time! ... and still we're empty!

i want to put this to you, that ultimately the reason we lose ourselves to everything is because we want to find ourselves in anything, and we keep going back, because we don't. those things cannot give you your life, it has no life to give! and the more you lose yourself to those things the more you will lost yourself to those things, and in the end you will be lost! when it comes to all those things the end of losing yourself is losing yourself, you won't find anything!

and here is what i am absolutely sold out on, and this is not about another thing to try or an alternate view of jesus ... it is about your life, because it is about your life! losing yourself does not have to end in losing your life ... losing yourself is not an end, it is but a means to an end, the end of which is Christ! don't keep trying to find meaning or save yourself in those things that takes and takes and takes... Jesus says:

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it"

if you have to drink or smoke or use and keep losing yourself to a bottle or cigarette or needle to numb the pain of reality, you probably already know that it only last for so long and then you have to lose yourself to it over and over and over again. don't keep losing yourself to false promises of dealing with the pain of reality, keep losing yourself to these things and you will lose your life, not find it.

if you have to give to charities and attend every church event and keep pleasing your husband or wife or friends so that you find worth and satisfaction and feel better about yourself, you probably already know that the next thing just has to be bigger and better, the effort is greater and event grander, and you lose yourself to these moments and persons and events over and over and over again. don't keep losing yourself to false promises of receiving acceptance and worth and satisfaction, keep losing yourself to these things and you will lose your life, not find it.

it is not bad to enjoy a beer, to enjoy good company, to attend a good event, but enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not. it is not life giving.

there is not anything worth losing yourself to, there is someone worth losing yourself to, and his name is jesus, not as a figure on a dashboard or grand idea on a sunday, but as the giver of life!

if you don't know him then get to know him, you will not and cannot be dissapointed. if you think know him and you are thinking "i already know him, all those poor bad guys who don't" then you should repent and get to know him too.

there's only one way to find acceptance, to find happiness, to find hope, and it's not in things or other people ... whether you call yourself christian or not, find life by losing yourself to jesus!