Pastor Hurst

A WAY TO BE SMARTER

It has been observed that the higher the intelligence of an animal the greater is its capacity to play--to do things for the pure enjoyment without a purpose of survival, reproduction, etc. Thus, that an otter will play and a worm will not is a sign of the otter's superior intelligence. My point isn't to say humans should play more frequently to illustrate they are the most intelligent. My point is an observation that is also true: Only the living being with the greatest intelligence—the human—consciously, intentionally, worships. Atheists like to posture as the most intelligent of us humans. However, could their lack of worship indicate a lack of intelligence--perhaps, not of mere native IQ, but of moral and metaphysical IQ? They would say it is unintelligent to believe in God; reality is, it is unintelligent not to. Rather than the claim of the atheist elite that to worship God is unintelligent, the reality is that to not worship is unintelligent. Is it not observable that people who do NOT sincerely worship God engage in the dumbest of activities? Think of the self-destructive behavior of those who will not worship God. Those people or those societies that turn from worshiping God always embrace behavior that is in the end harmful, weakening, and destructive. How intelligent is that? “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” (Psa 14:1). Paul says of those who have rejected the reality of God: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” (Rom 1:22). It is in this that play and worship are comparable: Both are evidences of intelligence. We should neither worship our play nor play at our worship. Both, however, are evidences of the intelligence we derived from being created in the image of the All Intelligent One. Could I just say it? Worship is smart. And, furthermore, could we not worship as we play simply for the pleasure of it? Both the pleasure we receive in our souls and the pleasure it brings our Father God? There truly is a way to be smarter: Worship.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT WAS APPLAUDED

This is no attack on her. What happened, whatever it says about her, it says far more about America, society, and the condition of peoples' hearts. Recently, on a morning show of a major network one of the hostesses on that show announced her recent marriage. That was applauded. Then, a clip was shown of her making an announcement in front of the guests at the reception. Standing beside her husband, speaking into a microphone so that all could hear, she told the crowd, "We are four months pregnant." What struck me wasn't so much her being four months pregnant on her wedding day-pregnancy before marriage and the fornication that occasions it has sadly become commonplace. What was so disturbing to me was the reaction of the guests: They began to stand, clap, whistle, scream, with evident delight. It wasn't polite acknowledgment. It was exuberant approval. It wasn't a few. It was the majority. Behavior God says is sin, wrong, destructive to humanity was openly applauded and approved. How could the moral decay of our society not be by design? All God says is wrong is being openly promoted, practiced, and praised. All God says is right is booed, belittled, badmouthed. I wondered about an imagined scenario: What if the same crowd were at another wedding reception. At this reception, the groom and bride standing in front, the bride speaks in the microphone and says for all to hear. "I have kept myself for this day for my husband. We have each saved ourselves in purity for this day." That, perhaps, would be a little awkward making such an announcement at such a time. But, imagine it was humbly made. What would be the reaction of the same crowd? Oh, there may have been some polite, obligatory clapping, especially from some of the older, old fashion folks. But would there have been cheering, whistling, a standing ovation? The point is the announcement of pregnancy was approved and applauded. The second would be ridiculed, criticized. True to the prophetic description of a backslidden people, the time has come when good is called evil and evil good. (Isa. 5:20) God, send America another awakening.

NONNIE, COME DOWN!

Nonnie, come down!” Recently, I had the pleasure visiting and of staying with my elder daughter and her family. Currently, they are building their home and until its completion live in a downstairs apartment in my daughter’s in-laws’ house. That’s where the “Nonnie” comes from. Nonnie is my grandkids’ paternal grandma. Downstairs, there is a chain lock high up on the frame, out of the reach of the children on the lower level’s side of the door to keep the grandkids from escaping to the upstairs. My first morning there, sitting in the front room where this door to the upstairs also happens to be, I saw my three year old grandson coming down the hall, having just woke up, bed hair sticking up this way and that, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and still in his Spiderman pajamas. That door to the upstairs is at the end of the hall as one enters the living room where I sat. Before he asked for breakfast, before he said “Morning” to his mother, before he acknowledged his visiting grandfather, as soon as he reached the end of the hall, he jerked opened the door as far as the chain would allow, stuck his head through the crack and yelled upstairs, “Nonnie, come down!” I thought that was really striking and turned to my daughter and asked. “Does he do that every morning?” She laughed and replied, “Yes, every morning.” My first thought was, “What if we believers began each of our days like that?” What if every morning we awakened, looked upward, and cried, “Jesus, come down.” Apostle John spent twenty-two chapters recording what he glimpsed through the crack that revelation had opened in the door that separates time and eternity. Having seen what was going to happen on this side of the door and what awaited on the eternity side, John shouted up through the opening, “Jesus, come down.” (Revelation 22:20). Out of the mouth of babes…”Nonnie, come down.”

NOT A BEETLE IN A BUCKET

The irony is, as I discovered anew on a road trip this week, we actually miss it and long to return to the security of it when out of it.. What's "it"? The endless, mundane routine our life settles into. Human existence consists of an endless cycle of repetition on every level. There is a same old, same old routine for a day, a week, a month, a year, and a lifetime. Even our planet has its routine. Consisting of personal hygiene, eating, working, sleeping, cooking, chores, maintenance, etc., cyclic routine is the norm for our lives. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes points this out in his opening remarks and shares his conclusion: This endless cycle of life, nothing ever new just a constant repeat of what has already been around, makes life meaningless, or more mildly put, boring. A ditch digger in Chicago a century or more ago pegged the feeling: "I dig the ditch to get the money to buy the food to get the strength to dig the ditch." Being a melancholy by temperament, I've thought a lot about this-life being reduced to the common denominator of an endless cycle of existence. It made me think of a beetle trapped at the bottom of a bucket. Looking for a way out and unable to climb the bucket's sides, that beetle will crawl around and around and around the inside circumference of that bucket until it dies. That is the description of human existence that we get from the Teacher. The beetle in a bucket analogy may have been darkly depressing, but I had a follow up vision: It came from trudging on through the despair of Ecclesiastes. There is a key phrase for understanding this book that describes the meaninglessness of life. It is "under the sun." Factoring in only the horizontal plane of human existence, only that which is "under the sun," life IS a meaningless cycle. You live. You die. That's all there is. But, stop! What if there is more to life than that which is "under the sun"? What if there is God, heaven, eternity? What if there is an "above the sun." And there is. Does that take the seemingly endless cycle out of life? No. But it does give life direction, meaning. Here is the second "vision" I had. Think of the spring coil that binds a spiral notebook. If you were to take it from the notebook and begin to trace your finger along the wire, your finger would go around and around. Yet, as you continued to hold the wire vertical and follow the cycles of the wire, your finger at the same time it is going around and around would also be going up. Life for the believer indisputably has the same endless cycles of routine as it does for the unbeliever. But it also has direction. In all the routine, your life is headed somewhere, making ground. It has meaning. The seemingly endless cycles of our lives are not those of the beetle in a bucket but of the rising coils of a spiral notebook's binder.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

He was called Brother Lawrence. Only a few letters he wrote and a few notes on conversations with him written by others exist, but this man has had great influence on many hungry Christians' lives. Brother Lawrence lived in the 1600's. He devoted his life to a community of monks. The challenge that he left believers was that they could "practice the presence of God." He said that it was possible to experience God at any and every moment. I do not want to debate his life nor his beliefs, but he continually emphasized one thing that is a real challenge. He taught that a big part of "practicing the presence of God," was to "do little things for the love of God." Bro. Lawrence hated kitchen work, yet, he was assigned to be the cook for the whole community. He had a natural aversion to the work and hated the thought of it, but he determined to do each task for the love of God, that is, to show his love for God. Each act, however undesirable or deplorable, he would do as an act of devotion and love to God-he peeled potatoes for the love of God. In doing this, he found great joy and a great sense of God's presence. Wouldn't it transform our lives in home, at work, and in the church if we would only do each task before us as an act of love to God? We cannot show love to God except through concrete acts to humanity. That is why Jesus said that if we did it unto even the least of humanity, we did it unto Him. "For the love of God" can be more than an expression to use when making an appeal. It can be a way of living. It can be a way of practicing the presence of God. For the love of God, try it!

CAN THE BODY OF CHRIST GET CANCER?

The body is the great analogy that Paul gave to describe a healthy functioning church. He did so to show that each has an important role. Since we most readily think of cancer as figure of sin, that is probably what came to mind when I asked, "Can the Body of Christ Get Cancer." However, there is something else I mean by cancer. Paul's analogy breaks the body down into anatomical parts where the members are eyes, ears, mouth, hand, etc. Perhaps, he would forgive me if I broke the analogy down even further to the cells that make up those eyes, ears, mouth, hand, etc. It is the cells I want to consider. Can there be cancer cells in the body of Christ? Sadly, I must answer, "yes." If you could forgive a crude layman's understanding of a cancer cell, think about the following contrast of a cancer cell in the body and a normal cell: A normal cell exists and functions for the benefit of the whole body. Whether a heart, skin, stomach, nail, or hair cell, it is there for the body. On the other hand, a cancer cell exists only for itself. It is in the body, but everything about the cancer cell is about itself. The normal cell takes in sustenance that it might grow and benefit the body. A cancer cell takes in sustenance to benefit only its own malignant growth. A normal cell is sensitive to the needs of the cells around it and receives signals of those needs. A cancer cell is oblivious to any needs but its own. It does not hear the signals of the needs of other cells. Normal cells always develop into a specific type of cell that plays a specific role in the body. A cancer cell never develops into anything that plays a specific role. A normal cell always adheres to the cells around it. A cancer cell has no ability to adhere. I know you have already understood. Some people are cancer cells in the Body of Christ. Everything is about them. It has to be their song, or they are not singing. It has to be their party, or they are not showing up. It must be their preacher, or they are not amen-ing. Their feelings, their preference, their desires are all they consider. They must be blessed. They must be babied. They must be catered to. It is never about the other cells or the body as a whole. A cancer cell is a normal cell gone bad. Simply put, a cancer cell is one whose growth and behavior will not be controlled. A cancer cell in the body is a person that has never submitted his own self, feelings, desires, needs, to a greater purpose. Every person that makes church only about himself is a cancer cell. Every one that makes church about the good of the body will be a growing, healthy, contributing normal cell.