The Parable of the Great Movie!!!

October 30th, 2009

The Parable of the Great Banquet
¹⁶Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

 ¹⁸"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'

 ¹⁹"Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'

 ²⁰"Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'

 ²¹"The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'

 ²²" 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'

 ²³"Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' "

I read this passage a few days ago, and was thinking about how this relates to this world today.  So so applicable.  I don't know how many times over the past 10 years inwhich I have made friends with people who are so so lonely in this world.  People who are so caught up in their own worlds and busy lives that they don't stop to think about those who may not have busy lives.  Those who seek to have fellowship.  Those who are lonely, depressed, despair, need relationships etc.  Perhaps the man who had the field to see could have gone to the banquet and instead seen the field later.  The oxen will still be there after the banquet is over.  If you just were married bring your wife or husband.  In the end the most appreciative person is the one who can not afford or prepare a meal like this for themselves.

I have noticed since my move to Chicago the increased fast paced life here.  Many things to do and many friendships stretched.  When it comes time to hanging out I am lucky to get 1 in 10 people to hang out.  It's difficult to consistently hang out with people and build deeper relationships with them.  I take nothing personal, but I have had a friend that does take things like this seriously.  So I have created my own parable with the moral of the story being a person who needs a friend. 

The Parable of the Great Movie

A certain woman wanted to go and see a movie and invited 10 guests.  She sent out text messages asking if they would like to accompany  her to the movie.

But they all made excuses.  The first one said,  "My boyfriend's mom just arrived in town!"

Another said, "I can't, but let me know how it is, I am curious!"

Still another, "Thanks, but I have a baby shower tonight!"

Yet another, "I have a party tonight.  You're welcome to come, but it is at a bar and there will be drinking!"  Knowing that this lifestyle goes against the woman's moral values.

Another replied, "That movie doesn't sound interesting to me!"

Another 3 didn't respond to the message at all.

So the woman invited the person who had ended a relationship and needed a friend the most.  The person was obliged to accept the offer.

I take none of the responses personally.  We all have done this to another in some way, but are we really aware of how caught up we get in life, and which relationships are suffering as a result.  This happens to so many people that NEED the Lord, and if we should reach out to them and be the friend they need on Friday nights they may find him.  Do we know which of our activities are purposeful and which are self-indulging?  How can we be more aware of the invitations we may be rejecting?  Are there ways to put that person before our own agenda?

Mindlessness again!

October 29th, 2009

How many times this week can I use the word "mindless"?  Today I had a friend call and leave me a message inviting me to a Halloween party at a bar.  What I have found of the 20-30s Christians in Chicago is the blending of culture with Christianity.  I moved to The City to have more options to do for entertainment, food, fun, education, and diversity.  Mindlessness allows us to not even think about what we are going to do, but return to doing the same thing over and over again not requiring much thought.  It requires a mind to come up with something creative, thought provoking, new experiences in this world.  What new lessons are there in doing the same thing over and over again?  There are so many things to do on Saturday.  Parades, haunted houses, haunted trails, haunted sanitariums, Cultural Center Halloween fun, pumpkin carving and costume contests at Daley Plaza, ship rides with scary stories, a documentary of a haunted house at the IMAX at Navy Pier, etc.  These things seem so exciting to me that the last place of interest to me is a bar.  I HAVE tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord.  That lifestyle no longer has any illure to it. 

"For you have been taught, to put off your former ways, that have corrupted you with deceitful desires, being made new in attitude, putting on the new self, to be the person God created you in holiness and righteousness."  Ephesians 4:22-24?
Deceitful indeed!  The bar is one of the most deceitful places I know.  Deceitful because they deceive.  Bars are only about outward appearance.  Beauty is fleeting, and why do so many think there is a correlation between beauty and who the person is? If there's no attraction to the person you find something wrong with them a lot sooner, but when they are "cute" things slide.  And why is that girls think they can find an honest guy at the bar?  He's watching how much she is drinking and calculating whether or not she has had enough that he might be able to take advantage of her  Don't believe me.  Truth be told when abstinence is practiced, and you can watch them flee.  They aren't interested in her in the least.  Prostitutes have more sense!  At least they charge for being used, and at that they are the most underpaid profession.  A guy should pay big time for this service.  How about with a diamond ring?  But how much more mindless can we get?

I give up my battle with the bars.  Do what they are gonna do.  May the spirit touch and convict them all as he has me.  May he do it quickly before greater destruction comes about!

The Old Ways Have To Go!!!!

God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in Love.And so I insist-and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion. But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything--- connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life-a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Ephesians 4:14-24I can take this passage apart piece by piece. So often this society likes to use the phrase, "Christians are sooo judgmental!" And there are the Christians that have bought into this mindless mentality. Do you not know that the saints [reference for Christians in the bible, the word 'Christian' is not a biblical term] will judge the world? God has given us the command to judge, to warn, to exhort!

Ezekiel 3:17-21 says the following: 17 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. 20 "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself."

Let's not confuse the two words used in Greek for "to judge". One meaning is to sentence a person to death or to hell, and the other to call a person's actions into question. We are cut off from all rights to the former. Judgment is not giving advice. ADVICE is the wordly point of view to solve an issue. WISDOM comes from the Lord, to keep our foot from slipping into evil. It may be harsh, but the outcome of any given action may have much greater consequences. I greatly discredit advice. I will greatly value the words of a Christian friend if I know they have a close knit relationship with the Lord and their words are coming for the wisdom HE has imparted to them. To "be judged" should bring a feeling of someone caring and being loved. A feeling that is someone helping us grow robustly in character in this life.Mindless is a great term for the American society these days! Sex and money seems to be the focus of everything, and sometimes they go hand in hand. People will indulge in anything to gratify themselves at the cost of others and relationships. "What if there is no chemistry?" What is chemistry anyway? Isn't it a connection, an emotional connection, a spiritual connection? I can physically connect myself to anyone, but the emotional connection determines the intensity of the physical connection. Let's mindlessly explain our strategies away. Let's base everything on our belief. Your belief is based on feeling and irrational rationalization. The facts, the studies show differently. There has been a sharp increase in divorces, STDs, teenage pregnancies since the 70s. People have this reality of romance, love making, swooning, and living happily ever after as in the movies. Lets face this lack of reality. Who has a life just like those in the movies? That's just it, the birth of movies around the turn of the century put these ideas in our heads. If you take away all of these concepts of romance the courtship seems boring and not worth it. Your premature gratification of the sensual/sexual nature leads to devastation 85% of the time. People will hate me for the Truth! Truth with a capital 'T' meaning it comes from the Lord. The Truth is the Lord and people hated him so much they killed him on the cross. All I can say is prove to me the other ways work better. I don't want proof based on your feeling, empty-headed, mindlessness. Give me the facts! I want the REALISTIC, hardcore, well thought out, uninfluenced by peers and society truth!Let us examine how many of our thoughts and beliefs are influenced, and what Christ has brought alive and recogniton in us.

Leaders lacking Leadership

As I read through 1 Kings I see the obedience of Solomon and his wisdom in solving matters and how God deeply blessed him. But what happens when people begin to become pompous about their position of leadership? How many people in leadership positions remain humble throughout the whole entire reign. In Kings very few leaders stayed walking closely with the Lord, Saul and David. Beginning in Chapter 11 we begin to Solomon no longer walking with the Lord and sinning in a multitude of ways including having 700 wives and 300 concubines. God always brings destruction on those who don't follow him. Solomon's destruction is the reason that the Kingdom split into two, Judah and Israel. If we fastforward 2900 years does this still happen. Yes, it does and in our society today our sin is creating a more monsterous world. Parents aren't leading, being examples, and their children are turning to drugs, sex, and alcohol. Men are called to be leaders in relationships and they are leading into sexual relations outside of marriage and clearly destruction of divorce is brought about due to not changing from ways and walking with the Lord. Church priests and pastors are not being Godly examples and people aren't deepening in their relationship with the Lord, because there's not the annointing of the Holy Spirit in the pastor's sermon. Like those who worshiped Baal in Kings without results. Oprah is a good present day Baal, how many are following her?