May 23, 2015

Posted on May 25, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 23:24 “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

I cannot read Matthew 23 without remembering how this scene played out in the Visual Bible video. The actor playing Jesus was a dedicated Christian, and he had been very concerned how this extended denunciation of the Pharisees was going to come across. They started filming late in the production day, not expecting to finish that day, but once they started, the Holy Spirit took over. Everything flowed in a powerful, unified stream, quite unexpectedly, and at least one of their cameras ran out of film in the process. The actor made it through with no mistakes at all, and then fell to his knees on the stone pavement of the set. The actor playing Peter, completely unscripted, rushed to his side to help him. The result is incredibly moving, making it very clear that Jesus said these things in an agony of love for the Pharisees. It tore Him up that they missed God so badly while thinking they were pleasing Him. This verse about gnats and camels is pretty amusing taken out of context, but it was a very graphic, easily understood illustration of just how mixed up the Pharisees were. I can easily think of some people who fit into this same category, and I am sure Jesus is just as grieved with them, because He loves them just as much. It’s not that we are to ignore issues, but rather that we are to let God show us what is important and what less so, and as Paul pointed out so forcefully in 1 Corinthians 13, remember that it must all be grounded on and bound up in love.

I have been leery of legalism much of my life, but I must not let that attitude cause me to take important things lightly, much less teach others to do so. (Matthew 5:17-19) However, having condemned legalism in the past, I must not be guilty of it myself. I am to abide in the love and grace of God, walking in obedience because I am already loved, accepted, and forgiven, and not in some misguided attempt to earn that standing with God. I am to proclaim the holiness of God but not apart from His love, and vice versa. I am not to draw back from strong words any more than Jesus did, but I must always speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15) I am to abide in Christ so that He may be manifested in and through me.

Father, I am frequently reminded of how far I have to go to be a perfect representative of Christ. Thank You that You use imperfect vessels! Thank You for all You allowed me to take part in yesterday, and for the really good things that happened. Thank You for Your plans for today. Thank You for the wedding I’ll be performing this afternoon, and for the counseling I’ll be doing with another couple right after that. Help me be Your agent in every interaction, speaking Your words by Your Spirit to work Your will for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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May 22, 2015

Posted on May 23, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 20:32-33 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
“Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.”

Jesus wants us to be specific in what we are seeking. At the same time, we shouldn’t try to dictate to Him how He is to meet our needs. These blind men had a very straightforward and simple, though impossible, request: they wanted to see. It was impossible because it was beyond human ability to grant, but it was profoundly simple. They were making the request because they believed Jesus could grant it. As James said, we often do not have because we don’t ask. (James 4:2) He then goes on to say that selfish motives can block God’s supply. (James 4:3) So where does that leave these men? In one sense their request was entirely self-centered, but Jesus granted it anyway. However, their need was hardly in the category of a luxury. We need to let the Holy Spirit show us what our needs really are, so that we may focus on them and trust God for them, to be better equipped to serve Him. At the same time, we need to remember that sometimes God’s response is as it was to Paul: “My grace is all you need.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) It all gets rather complicated sometimes! The point, however, is to ask specifically, in faith, while at the same time trusting that God’s plan is good, and He will give us what is best for us.

This is something I’m still learning to do, obviously enough. If I could dictate God’s answers to my prayers, all of Japan would become Christian in short order, in a massive move of the Holy Spirit! I am not to stop praying for that, but at the same time I am to be faithful in the day-to-day business of living as a child of God. I am not to accuse God, even in my own mind and heart, of not hearing prayer, of not desiring the very best for us, or of not being able to do whatever is best. I used to ask God for a resurrection every time there was a death, thinking, “That will show people God is real!” However, I realize that I didn’t pray that at all with this most recent funeral, but I did use the wake and the funeral to issue a clear, straightforward invitation to all present to receive the salvation already enjoyed by the “honoree.” I face numbers of challenges, in my wife’s health but most especially in communicating the Gospel effectively. I am to be clear and specific in my prayers and thank God in advance for His answers, while leaving each matter in His hands.

Father, I still feel like an ignorant child in this area. Thank You for the prayer that Jesus taught us. I do pray that You would be acknowledged as holy, and that Your kingdom would come as Your will is done perfectly, right here. That really seems to cover everything! May I not draw back from asking for what I need, and may I not let any unforgiveness come between me and You, or between me and those around me. May I be fully submitted to You so that I may stand effectively against the devil and all his schemes, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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May 21, 2015

Posted on May 23, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 18:35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

We tend to think of “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” but He said some pretty stern things, and this is one of the strongest. It strikes me that here He says, “My Father.” I wonder if He wasn’t a little exasperated with His disciples for asking Him how many times they should forgive. (Matthew 18:21) When He touched on the same subject after teaching the Lord’s Prayer, He said “your Father.” (Matthew 6:14-15) It seems to imply that failing to forgive cuts us off from the father/son relationship we can have with God. The monetary figures Jesus used here point out the huge disparity between what we owe to God and anything another human being could do to us. Absolutely everything we have comes from God, down to the very last atom of our being, and we are accountable to Him for how we use it. Without His intent and His grace we wouldn’t exist, and yet we ignore Him most of the time and actively disobey Him with remarkable frequency. Compared to that, what could a person do to us? When we refuse to forgive someone, that’s spitting in the face of the God who loved us so much He sent His son to take the penalty for our sin.

This is something I fortunately learned fairly early, courtesy of the family in which I was raised, but it is perhaps the biggest issue in my ministry in Japan. As I tell Japanese when I’m teaching on this, I have a memory from my childhood of thinking, “The Japanese don’t understand forgiveness.” That I would have thought such a thing as an early elementary school student now strikes me as fairly remarkable, but the issue of Japanese and forgiveness remained a mystery to me until after I was already ministering in Omura, and finally got around to studying the Chinese characters that are used in writing Japanese. (I talk about this so frequently that I feel like I must have written on it recently, but I don’t find it off hand.) The character for “forgiveness” sounds the same as the character for “permission,” and the average Japanese is completely unfamiliar with the character for forgiveness; when they say the word, in their minds they are thinking “permission.” There are countless things in the world for which we must not give permission, so that puts us in a very difficult place when it comes to the whole subject of forgiveness. If I didn’t know I serve a God for whom all things are possible, I would be very tempted to give up! As one of my own church members pointed out to me, I’ve got to demonstrate real forgiveness before I can expect anyone to understand it.

Father, You know the magnitude of the issue better than I do. I ask You to reveal Your forgiveness, that is not excusing or permitting, to the Japanese people so that they may indeed repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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May 20, 2015

Posted on May 21, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 17:19-20 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Talk about a challenging Scripture! Faith is a subject about which we all know too little. As has come up just recently, faith in faith doesn’t get you very far; it quickly devolves into wishful thinking. It makes a world of difference in whom you believe. The life of Paul is a good illustration. His faith and his obedience to God were such that at one point, handkerchiefs and aprons he had used in his work as a tent maker were taken to sick people and they were healed and delivered. (Acts 19:11-12) Even so, he was imprisoned, shipwrecked, and finally martyred. However, he could and did make the triumphant declaration that “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) A long time ago I realized that the thing about a seed, even one as tiny as a mustard seed, is that it has life in it; under the right conditions it will grow and multiply. A static faith isn’t much use. My father used to say, “Give all you know of yourself to all you know of Christ.” Our knowledge in both halves of that is incomplete as long as we are on this earth, but it should be growing. The more we know of Christ the more we trust Him, and the more His power is manifested through us. We’ve got to remember that even Jesus didn’t utilize the power of God for selfish ends, either to feed himself after a 40-day fast (Luke 4:1-4) or to deliver Himself from the unspeakable agony of scourging and crucifixion. If we are seeking the fulfillment of this Scripture for selfish reasons we are seeking magic, not the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

In one of only two times the Lord has spoken to me in what could have been an audible voice (though I’m sure a microphone wouldn’t have picked it up) He made it very clear that there are a lot of things in the world today that He’s not happy about as they stand. However, He’s not through with things, and I’ve got to be comfortable with that. I am to seek to grow in faith and knowledge, (Ephesians 4:13) exercising both in submission and obedience to my Lord. I am to operate in the complete boldness of knowing that God can do absolutely anything through me, and at the same time the complete humility of knowing that I can to absolutely nothing apart from Christ. (John 15:5) I am to seek His will in everything and know that it will be accomplished, on His schedule and for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the privilege I am having of conducting the wake and funeral of a brother in Christ. Thank You for using me in the wake last night, and that You will use me in the funeral today. I pray that Your presence and Your words through me would draw many of those present to repentance and faith. I pray that his life would produce much fruit even now, even after he has shed his physical body. May Your will be done in every detail of today, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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May 19, 2015

Posted on May 20, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

This strikes many people as a remarkably cold response on the part of Jesus, but it hits me this morning as evidence of Jesus’ very sharp focus on His mission. If it wasn’t something the Father had assigned for Him to do, He wasn’t going to do it. He did allow the woman’s faith to move him right after this, but as always, He is a superb example for us all. “The tyranny of the urgent” isn’t a new phenomenon, but it still has great power to distract us from God’s best. That said, it’s also important to stay open to the Holy Spirit’s changes in a schedule. Even Jesus did that! However, when we fail to recognize what our primary task is and stay on track with that, we don’t get a lot done. Multitasking is quite the buzzword these days, but various studies have shown that divided focus generally produces poorer work, at least, and often less work in the long run. We live in an age of distractions, so we need to seek the Lord for what is the task at hand and apply ourselves to it.

This has been a major issue for me most of my life. I have very wide interests as well as a variety of abilities, and the result has been a fairly remarkable lack of focus, with the accompanying lack of results. I don’t think I fall into the ADHD spectrum, but failure to set goals and strive for them has been just that, a failure. That said, a pastor’s schedule tends to be “interrupt driven,” to borrow a computer programming term. Just yesterday I was notified that someone had died, and I will be doing his wake tonight and the funeral tomorrow, making adjustments to my schedule to allow that. However, that is part of my primary job description at this point, more so than the school teaching I will be doing this morning. There is also the book I am writing, along with updating my blogs and a host of other things. I’ve got to stay open to the Holy Spirit and keep asking Him, Lord, what do I do now? Then, when I feel I have His answer, I’m to apply myself fully to that task and not worry about the rest, until He says it is time for them.

Father, You know better than I do that it is the variety of things I am called on to do, even more than the volume, that tends to cause me stress. Help me rest, relax, and rejoice in You whatever the task at hand might be, knowing that Your grace is sufficient for whatever my circumstances might be. Thank You. Praise God!

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May 18, 2015

Posted on May 19, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 12:11-12 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Jesus certainly was astute at exposing hypocrisy! One thing that struck me as I read this just now was that the hypothetical sheep was property, so losing the sheep would have been financial loss. In contrast, the man with the withered hand wasn’t a slave, so his health didn’t impact the finances of anyone involved. The Pharisees, like so many of us, evaluated things on the basis of their bottom line instead of on the basis of what was right in God’s eyes. When Jesus said, “A man is far more valuable than a sheep,” their inner reaction may have been, “To whom?” Failing to value things by God’s standards is a major reason for much of the evil in the world. We tend to look at everything through a filter of “What’s in it for me?” If we delight ourselves in the Lord, rather than in material/temporal things, we discover joy, peace, and satisfaction that are attainable no other way. (Psalm 37:4; 16:11) When we go at things legalistically as the Pharisees did, we may think we are striving to please God but the focus is on us. When our focus is on Him and being His instrument, then the focus shifts to what He loves, what pleases Him. That might seem like a small difference when expressed in words, but the difference in practice is huge, as this story illustrates.

I’ve always disliked legalism, but sometimes I have drifted to the point of discarding rules altogether, and that’s certainly foolish. I need to keep my focus on fellowship with God by His Spirit, because when that is in place, everything else falls into place as well. I am not to be so “spiritual” that I overlook or ignore the needs of the person next to me, but rather remember that Jesus came not to be served but to serve. (Mark 10:45) I am not to burn out by just doing stuff, but rather let the Holy Spirit burn through me, keeping my connection with Him.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the good day yesterday and for all You did in it. Thank You for the new people who came to the service, just as they said they would, and for how You moved in the service to touch all present. I do pray for courage for people to let go of what they have been clinging to in order to receive what You have for them. I wasn’t “aiming at” anyone in particular as I spoke, but conviction was evident. Help me be available and responsive for however You want to use me in the “birthing process” of bringing people into Your family, so that these people whom You value so highly may be secure for eternity, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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May 17, 2015

Posted on May 19, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 9:29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”

Faith can be a tricky thing. The way some preachers teach, some people come away with faith in faith, rather than faith in God. That leads to people discarding faith completely, and that is tragic. Faith itself, regardless of the object, can sometimes do some remarkable things. Our bodies are integrated wholes, and our thoughts and emotions have huge influence over everything else. Science is discovering the impact various hormones, such as endorphins, have on us, and current cancer research is particularly focused on teaching/persuading the immune system to attack the cancer, rather than using either surgery or chemotherapy. There’s even research on the subject of our regenerating lost or damaged body parts. That said, there are many things we can’t do on our own, and that’s actually a good thing. We exist because of the grace, love, and creativity of God, and when we forget that we get into deep trouble. Faith by itself is indeed powerful, but it is only faith in our omnipotent God that accomplishes the truly miraculous. I have read of a Christian nurse in an emergency room where a little girl was brought in who had fallen face-first into a campfire. The girl’s eyeballs were lumps of charcoal. The nurse, almost without thinking, placed her hands on the girl’s eyes and asked God for new eyes. When she took her hands away, the girl indeed had perfect eyes. She still had severe burns on her face, but God had granted a creative miracle. That is faith, not in faith but in the God who created us and who loves us perfectly.

As I wrote I was reminded of a Southern Gospel song that says, “Prayer is the key to heaven, but faith unlocks the door.” I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve heard prayers that had no faith behind them. For that matter, I couldn’t count how many times I’ve prayed such prayers! I haven’t seen many certifiable “miracles,” but I’ve seen a few, and I’ve seen countless instances of God answering believing prayer of all sorts. At the same time, I’ve learned the importance of praying as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, with honest passion but leaving the issue in God’s hands. “Not as I will but as You will” (Matthew 26:39) is a prayer that gives God permission to do even better than we have asked. I respectfully disagree with those who claim that is a cop-out. Jesus didn’t use cop-outs! I need to follow two Old Testament examples: the three young men in Babylon (Daniel 3:16-18) and the prophet Habakkuk. (Habakkuk 3:17-19) My faith should not be dependent on temporal circumstances, but on my eternal, infinite God.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s rather pointed, considering the level of pain Cathy is enduring on a daily basis. I know that You are more than able to correct the problem with her spine, and every other problem as well, and I honestly don’t know why that hasn’t happened so far. I do ask Your very best for her, as I ask it for this church and for everyone in it. May Your Name be hallowed indeed and Your kingdom come, as Your will is done for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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May 16, 2015

Posted on May 19, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

Matthew tells the story of his own salvation in the simplest of terms, keeping the focus on Jesus. Enormous courage was required to do what he did, yet he doesn’t mention that. I’m sure his joy at being accepted was absolutely overflowing, but he doesn’t focus on that, either. Perhaps the greatest understatement in the verse is the last line. His “following Jesus” was complete, as one of the 12 Apostles and, tradition tells us, as a martyr. He embraced the description of himself that Jesus gives in verse 12, “sick,” because he knew he had found the Great Physician indeed. It was one of the “scandals” of Jesus’ ministry that He accepted this tax collector and even made him one of His closest group. Matthew was deeply aware of that, and perhaps in response to his humility, his record of the life of Jesus was one of the first to be acknowledged as worthy of being in the Bible, and was placed first in the sequence. This is the only place he inserts himself into the narrative, because from this moment on, Jesus was the focus of his life.

My life has few external similarities to that of Matthew, but on the spiritual scale it’s not so different. The more fully I realize that, the better off I will be. I never betrayed my nation and my people by working for invaders for the sake of financial gain, but I have betrayed my God by ignoring Him and following my flesh. I am as totally dependent on the grace of God as Matthew was, and my desire is to receive the same accolade he doubtless has received: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21) I need to be as aware as Matthew was that the “treasures” of this world are nothing compared to the riches to be found in Jesus Christ alone. When I am an independent, self-supporting missionary, some would think I have that lesson down pat, but it is something I still have to remind myself of more frequently than I would like.

Father, thank You indeed for Your “riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) Help me share those riches with all who will receive, so that Your house may be full, as You desire. (Luke 14:23) Thank You. Praise God!

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May 15, 2015

Posted on May 16, 2015 by jgarrott

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The Beatitudes are one of the most famous of all Jesus’ teachings, precisely because they turn human logic on its head, and this very first of them perhaps supplies the key to them all. Poverty is in many ways relative. What Americans consider “poor” would be quite well-off in some countries. Anyone who thinks they are spiritually rich is not going to be seeking more of God. The thing is, though, that since God is infinite, there is always infinitely more that we could have. The tragedy comes when we think we have enough and we stop seeking. This isn’t the same thing as greed or even ambition, it’s knowing that God is always greater and more, and wanting everything He wants for us. If that is our fundamental attitude, then all the other Beatitudes become operative in our lives. The problem, especially in America, is our tendency to confuse material abundance with spiritual blessing. Often quite the opposite is true: material abundance gets in the way of spiritual blessing. This is what John was talking about when he wrote “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) If we are satisfied with material abundance, or if our goals are strictly material, then we will completely miss the kingdom of heaven. We’re back to what Jesus said a little later, that is also extremely famous: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) If our focus is on God and His kingdom, then the material isn’t an issue. If our focus is on the material, then we miss the abundance of His kingdom.

I was raised by parents who had this awareness, but I’ve missed it more than a few times myself. Part of my problem has been that I recognize how abundantly I am blessed, spiritually speaking, and I fail to press in for yet more. As I just wrote, since God is infinite, there is no limit to how much more I can gain of Him. Back in the early ’70s there was a song, I Want More of Jesus. The last line says, “I want more of Jesus, and He wants more of me.” Bob Culpepper, who was my father’s prayer partner for at least the last year before my father died, said that my father liked that song very much, but that he felt the last line should be changed to, “I want more of Jesus, so I’ll give Him more of me.” That’s the right attitude! That’s the way my father lived and died, and I certainly want to do the same.

Father, thank You for the privilege of passing on Your riches to others. Thank You that the more I do so, the more I receive! Help me remember on every level that there is always more of You to be had, and so seek to give You all I know of myself. The world is full of distractions and false goals. Help me indeed stay centered on You, seeking Your kingdom and Your righteousness, so that all of Your plans for me may be fulfilled, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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May 14, 2015

Posted on May 16, 2015 by jgarrott

Zechariah 7:9-10 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'”

Here we have another statement of God being concerned with the behaviors that come from the heart. Also, once again the Japanese uses “integrity” to translate what the NIV renders as “mercy,” but then it uses “mercy” where the NIV says “compassion.” That goes to show how subjective those things are, as well as the difficulties in going between languages. The one line that really jumped out at me was the very last one: “In your hearts do not think evil of each other.” Again the focus is on what is going on inside of us. We think we hide things well, but we can’t hide anything from God. Jesus was very specific on this point. (Matthew 10:26) When God asks a question it’s always rhetorical, because He already knows the answer. We can use various tricks to hide things from people – assorted computer security techniques come to mind – but none of those make any difference to God. He knows if you’re cheating emotionally on your spouse, for example, even before you’re consciously aware that you’re doing it. The Lord said something very important to/through Jeremiah: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10) God knows whether our actions are sincere or a sham; we do far better at deceiving ourselves than we do at deceiving Him.

Yesterday someone paid me a very high compliment, essentially saying that I was always sincere, treating everyone the same and not putting on a front for anyone. I was touched, because that is certainly how I try to live. At the same time, as I told them, it’s not necessarily wise to “let it all hang out” all the time. I don’t want to lie, ever, but I don’t always have to say everything I know. If I don’t feel good about someone I don’t have to blurt it out, but I do need to lay it before God and ask Him what to do about it. If confrontation is called for, I’m not to draw back from that, but as Paul said, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) I am never to nurse hatred or other evil against anyone in my heart, just as God says through Zechariah here. Kind behavior comes from personal integrity, and that comes from fearing the Lord.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the honesty of that person with me as they spoke of the temptation to lie to make things easier for themselves. Thank You that I could point out that telling the truth is always easier in the long run, regardless of the immediate blow-back, because we don’t have to worry about remembering what story we told whom. Help me be an example of personal honesty and at the same time encourage others that they can live the same way, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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