"...Faster Than Others."

Well, some may know, and some may not,  that an ideal relaxing vacation, from my point of view, is to go some place far away from cities, where I can see the stars, where trucks don't release their air breaks, and cars don't honk their horns... somewhere where life is simple and I'm surrounded by unsullied natural beauty.  That's not to say I hate cities.  I certainly do enjoy visiting them and being surrounded by their pulsating life.  But when I think, "How would I like to spend a relaxing vacation," I think of getting away from all the hustle and bustle.

I love the Smokey Mountains and the Rockies, and I love wide open spaces.  I've always thought I would love to go and spend a few weeks on a ranch out west or go sailing and whale watching on the ocean.

But I got to thinking the other day.  What if I only had a short time to live?  What would I do?  My initial thought, as it relates to travel and vacation, was: Go all the places I want to go.  Travel the world.

But then I thought again.  What would I REALLY do if I only had a short time to live?  How would I live?  What would I do?  Where would I go?

I decided my first priority wouldn't be those trips I'd like to take.  In fact, they ended up pretty low on the list.

Relationships were high on the list.  Sharing my faith was, too.  The biggest thing was leaving something of value behind.

I ask you - what would you do if you weren't going to be here on this earth long?  How would you live if you were going to face your Maker and Judge very soon?

The question isn't irrelevant.  I'm not dying soon (that I know of) and it's likely you aren't either.  But we can't count on that.

I'll never forget the time I first heard a quote (which has been attributed to several different sources) along these lines:

"We're all dying . . . some of us are just doing it faster than others."

And so I ask again, how would you live if you knew your life was short?  Really, the question should be: How WILL we live since our lives are short?

~M.

It's Quite Simple, Really

In the 1970's, Keith Green recorded the powerful and thought provoking "The Sheep and the Goats."  It wasn't a traditional song, though music played a big role in it.  It was dramatized narration of Matthew 25:31-46 which contains the famed coming judgement of the sheep and the goats.  In the passage, Jesus returns in glory and divides all men into two groups - the sheep and the goats.  He then turns to the sheep and says:

"Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me." (Matt. 25:34-36)

The sheep ask the obvious question - when?  "When did we help You?"  Keith Green inserts a line here and says something like, "Lord, when?  When were You a stranger and we invited You in?  I mean, we invited lots of people in, but Lord, we'd never forget Your face!"

Jesus answers and says:

"Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." (Matt. 25:40)

He then turns to the goats.  He says:

"Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me." (Matt. 25:41-43)

They, too, ask - when?  And the answer is simple:

"Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." (Matt. 25:45)

Now, this passage has been familiar to me for as long as I can remember, thanks to Keith Green.  But as I read it again today, I noticed something new.  The things Jesus praises the sheep for doing and reproaches the goats for not doing are things He did for us.

Remember Paul's instructions in Ephesians 5:1-2?  "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."  And Peter's instructions in 1 Peter 1:14-16?  "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"  Imitate God.

Now imagine Jesus saying a variation of Matt. 25:35-36...

"For you were hungry, and I gave you something to eat; you were thirsty, and I gave you something to drink; you were a stranger, and I invited you in; naked, and I clothed you; you were sick, and I visited you; you were in prison, and I came to you."

It would be perfectly true.

"For you were hungry and I gave you something to eat..."

Jesus said some things that were very startling to the world of His time.  One of them was this statement: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst . . . I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh..." (John 6:35, 48-51)  Jesus, the Bread of Life, came so that we would hunger, in a spiritual sense, no more.

"...you were thirsty, and I gave you something to drink..."

Remember Jesus' trip to Samaria when He met the Samarian woman with the dark history?  He has this interesting conversation with her:

"There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give Me a drink.' 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?' (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, "Give Me a drink," you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. 11 She said to Him, 'Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?' 13 Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.'”

Jesus, the Giver of living water, came that we would thirst, in a spiritual sense, no more.

"...you were a stranger, and I invited you in..."

Jesus, while we were still sinners - not just strangers - and at war with Him, died for us.  Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."  That's an invitation, friends.  The invitation is to believe.  If we believe, He has an inheritance stored up for us and a home forever in heaven.  And so, while we were still strangers, alienated from Him by our own choice, He died for us, so that He could issue an invitation to come into His family.

"...naked, and I clothed you..."

Jesus offers metaphorical new clothes to us.  He uses dirty clothes, or lack of clothes, as a picture of sin and of helplessness.  But He isn't content to leave us like that.  He offers cleansing and help.

"But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." (Revelation 3:4-5)

"Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself . . . and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see." (Revelation 3:17-18)

"Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. 4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, 'Remove the filthy garments from him.' Again he said to him, 'See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.' 5 Then I said, 'Let them put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by." (Zechariah 3:3-5)

Jesus offers help to the helpless and cleansing for those soiled by sin - new clothes for those with none and clean clothes for those who have dirtied their own.

"...you were sick, and I visited you..."

Jesus did unconventional things.  Things that made the hypocritical religious authorities of the day angry.  Jesus hung out with what the religious leaders - and society in general - considered to be the "undesirables."  He gathered fishermen and tax collectors around Him.  Imagine.  Tax collectors!  Now, we aren't talking about the IRS here.  We are talking about Jews that had willingly joined forces with the Roman government of the time - the government the Jewish people wanted to throw off.  Jesus didn't care what everyone else thought of the people He called.  I love this description of an exchange He had with the Pharisees in Mark 2:14-17:

"As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, 'Follow Me!' And he got up and followed Him.

15 And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, 'Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?' 17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"

Jesus came to the spiritually sick - and He offered healing.

"...you were in prison, and I came to you..."

Jesus was not content with merely visiting the spirituality captive world.  He wanted to do something about it.  That's why He came.  Interestingly, prophesies about Him in the Old Testament foretold this:

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

18 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are oppressed,

19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.'

20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'”

Colossians continues with this theme:

"13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1:13)

Jesus came to the captive world and offered release.

In the end then, Jesus did everything on which He will judge the sheep and the goats.  The judgement of the sheep and the goats is essentially a judgment of how well we obeyed His command to imitate Him.  He came and did the things He asks of of us - on a huge scale.  He asks us to do the same in our own lives - in His power.  How are you doing on imitating Him?

Knowing Him

When I was little, my dad used to sing to my brother and me before bed.  Sometimes he would have his guitar, too, but not always.  The songs he played and sang are still songs I love to hear, even the goofy ones.  He often played/sang "Amazing Grace," "I Come to the Garden Alone (In the Garden)," "Matthew (John Denver)," "Country Roads (John Denver)," "Rocky Mountain High (John Denver)," part of "Feeling Groovy," "Blind Man (Sat By the Road)," "Jesus Loves Me," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "I Want to Know You, Lord."

Yesterday, for the first time, though I'd always liked the song, I added "I Want to Know You, Lord" to my list of favorite songs.

I want to know You, Lord
Much more than I do
I want to know You, Lord
Much more than I do
Learn to seek Your face
And the knowledge of Your grace
I want to know You more

It wasn't because I heard it again.  It was because of Matthew 24:23-27 which warns about false Christs.

I got to thinking about how to identify false Christs.  I thought of John 10:1-18 which is all about Jesus, the Good Shepherd vs. False Shepherds.  I flipped over there and found this:

“1 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

I realized it all comes down to knowing Jesus.  It comes down to knowing His voice so well that no imitation can fool us.  It also comes down to knowing His ways and His teaching so well that anything not in harmony with them just seems wrong.  That is what the next section of John 10 was about:

"7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and [a]have it abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

It's all about knowing Him.  Jeremiah 9 says that no one should boast of their might or riches or wisdom, but that, if anyone is going to boast, he should boast in the fact that he knows God and His ways.  Second Peter 1 says that we have everything we need for life and Godliness THROUGH the knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and grace.  Jesus, while praying to His Father, in John 17, says that the Father gave Him power to give eternal life to those He chose - and that eternal life is to know God.

Friends, WE MUST KNOW HIM!

This modern church of ours is asleep, seemingly unaware of God's priorities and not caring that the world around them is perishing in sin or that false teaching is creeping into the church.  Why?  It doesn't KNOW HIM to the extent that it makes a change in the lives of its people.  If you don't know someone, you don't know how they think or what they care about.  If you don't love them enough, even if you do know what they want, you don't care.  But if you know this Jesus, this Shepherd that laid down His life for the sheep, you WILL love Him and it WILL change you.

Know Jesus!  Know Him!  Know His voice!  Know His truth!  Know His love!  Know His priorities!  Don't be content with life as always.  Know Him enough that you really love Him.  Know Him enough that it changes you.  Love Him enough that you live for His priorities.

Yes, that will make you look weird to the rest of the world and much of the church.  But does it matter?  This life we live here is a tiny blip on the face of eternity.  We have eternity with God to look forward to.  Can't we stand being different and getting weird looks since we look toward a heavenly city?  Hasn't He called us to that?

Heb. 11:13-16
13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15 And indeed if they had been [l]thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not [m]ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

Heb. 13:13-14
13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

Paul believed nothing was worth as much as knowing God.  He said in Philippians 3:

"7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of [d]knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Is anything worth missing that?  Please, please, please - don't miss out on knowing Him - really knowing Him - so that you know His voice and aren't deceived, so that you have eternal life, so that you live for His heavenly Kingdom.

Make that old song my dad sang to me the prayer of your heart.


I want to know You, Lord
Much more than I do
I want to know You, Lord
Much more than I do
Learn to seek Your face
And the knowledge of Your grace
I want to know You more

~M.

Life Lite!

I have finished writing the third and final installment in the "Lessons from the Phantom" series, but have not edited it yet.  In the meantime, I thought I would share this with you:

--------------------

Ever feel like your life is just too full?  Like you've got too much on your plate and just need some relief?  Well, you’re not alone; millions share your plight!

But get this!  The good news is you can join legions of other people just like you who have found the solution.  That’s right!  We’re here to offer you a steaming cup of Life Lite – half the fat, half the calories, half the salt – and you’ll never notice they’re missing (unless you try Full Life… but don’t do that!)!

For half the price of Full Life you get:

-half the danger and half the exhilaration

-half the risk and half the gain

-half the sacrifice and half the value

-half the pain and half the joy

-half the battles and half the victories

-half the ugliness and half the beauty

-half the investments and half the dividends

-half the thuds and half the flying hopes

-half the failures and half the successes

-half the challenges and half the satisfaction

-half the life and all the physical death (We just can’t seem to find a way around full death yet… but trust us – we’re working on it!)

-half the good works and all the testing fire (We haven’t figured out how to cut that in half either… sorry!)

You get all this and less for just half the price of Full Life!  It’s a great deal!  Stop in today to get your cup of Life Lite or call 1-666-NOT-LIFE right now and we’ll half your order!  But hurry!  Offer ends soon!

[Disclaimer:  Full Life is not affiliated with Life Lite and does not endorse this product.  Limited warranty cannot guarantee full satisfaction.  Life Lite is not responsible for consumers’ full experience of regret, death, and trial by fire of half-hearted life work.  Life Lite does not guarantee that the level of benefits will reach expected one half levels or that danger, risk, sacrifice, etc., will not exceed half levels.]

--------------------

John 10:10: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Matthew 10:39: "He who has found his life will lose it, and be who has lost his life for My sake will find it."

~M.

One Masked Ball: Lessons from the Phantom, part II

An elder in my church, Steve Mozingo, has repeatedly observed that, when we are asked how we are doing, we often answer with a lie –we say we are doing very well.  This is the second type of mask that The Phantom of the Opera tackles.  In Chapter Three, before we have even met the masked phantom, we meet the retiring managers of the Paris Opera House and find that the Phantom isn’t the only character in the book wearing a mask.  Leroux describes the scene: “Everybody remarked that the retiring managers looked cheerful, as is the Paris way.  No one will ever be a true Parisian who has not learned to wear a mask of gaiety over his sorrows and one of sadness, boredom or indifference over his inward joy.  You know that one of your friends is in trouble; do not try to console him: he will tell you that he is already comforted; but, should he have met with good fortune, be careful how you congratulate him: he thinks it so natural that he is surprised that you should speak of it.  In Paris, our lives are one masked ball…”  The second kind of mask found in The Phantom of the Opera is the mask we put over our true feelings and personality out of fear of appearing weak, inviting ridicule, or not fitting in. 

Isn’t this so true to human nature?  We see it even in small children, like the little boys who try to act tough, while they really just want to be hugged.  Sometimes the masks cover joy and sometimes pain.  Sometimes we mask our talents and sometimes our faults.  All the time, trying to appear to be something we are not.  Jesus encountered this in His day in the persons of the Pharisees.  This was His reaction to the false front of goodness they put up:  “‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and indulgence… you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.  So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’”  (ESV)  No doubt about it, Jesus detested the Pharisee’s masks. 

Really, a mask of this sort is nothing but a lie.  It is telling people we are something we are not.  And what is the harm in this?  Beyond the fact that lying is wrong, there are two harms that come from this sort of mask.  First, we cannot receive the help we need.  When we pretend to be something we are not, when we cover our pain, our struggles, our joy, and our faults, when we pretend to be someone we aren't  we are unable to receive comfort and aid, share our joys, and interact on a deep level.  This is partly because we are unwilling to receive what others are willing to give because receiving it would be an admission of our needs and would begin to reveal what’s really happening behind our masks.  We want to take care of ourselves.  You have probably read, or seen a movie of, L. M. Montgomery’s classic, Anne of Green Gables.  You may remember the scene when Anne takes a dare and attempts to walk the ridgepole of a roof, falls off, and breaks her ankle.  Remember how she refused Gilbert’s offer to drive her home?  In spite of the fact that she was hurt, she was unwilling to accept his help because that would mean taking off her mask of independence and pride.  And she was unwilling to do so. 

The second harm this sort of mask causes is the flip-side of the first.  When we don’t let people know what our true feelings and needs are and who we are inside, the people around us are often unaware of our needs and the best ways to interact with us.  As a result, however willing they may be, they are unable to help us.  It’s as if you were to become seriously ill but were unwilling to go to the doctor for help.  Consequently, the doctor would be unable to help you because he would be unaware of your sickness.

What lessons can we learn from this sort of mask in The Phantom of the Opera?  First, we must be willing to let our masks slip, to let people see our needs, our feelings, and our personalities.  We must leave our pride behind and stop behaving as if we, too, are living our lives as “one masked ball.”  Second, we must realize that, hidden behind the mask of that person we know who seems to have it all together, is a person with feelings and needs, like everybody else.  And then we must be willing to meet those needs, whether or not the person will admit to needing anything.  We humans, from almost the beginning of time, have tried to hide our true selves and our needs and tried to reject help.  Adam and Eve did it by trying to hide from God after the fall.  But we must be willing to imitate God Who sent Jesus to redeem us when we were dying and still trying to save ourselves.

To be continued…

Look at the Heart: Lessons from the Phantom, part I

Sometimes a book captures more than your imagination – sometimes it captures your mind and heart, speaking so clearly to your world that the themes in it stick with you long after you’ve forgotten the little twists and turns of the story.  That happened to me when I read Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.

I devoured it in two and a half days, thoroughly enjoying the literary style, the depth of the characters, and the suspenseful plot.

Just as a side note, if you have seen a film/stage version of The Phantom of the Opera, you do not know the real story.  Every adaptation I have investigated has changed major aspects of the story and lost the things in the book that made me love the story.

Now, don’t worry, I shan’t make you listen to the whole plot and meet every character.  And, though I think it is a wonderful book – one that everyone should read – my goal here isn’t to give you a book review.  (Just take my advice and read it!)  What I would like to do it share the three themes I found in the book. 

Today, I’d like to share the first of these with you.  But first, a short background on the story:

The Phantom of the Opera is the story of, Erik, a masked man, horribly disfigured from birth, and yet a genius, living hidden away in the cellars of the Paris Opera House; his tragic love of the beautiful opera singer, Christine Daae; his intense jealousy of the man Christine loves; and his desperate desire “to be ‘some one,’ like everybody else.”

The Phantom has many lessons to teach our world, a world so taken with appearances.  First, the flesh is truly a mask over our real self and has no bearing on who we really are.  Second, often, the emotions we appear to have and the person we appear to be, are nothing but a mask over what we truly feel and are.  And third, our needs and value as human beings remain, no matter what outer masks we may wear.

Today we’ll look at the first.  To the world, Erik appeared a monster.  Leroux describes his face as, “…Red Death’s mask suddenly coming to life in order to express, with the four black holes of its eyes, its nose, and its mouth, the extreme anger, the mighty fury of a demon…”  Elsewhere, he is described as a living man in a corpse’s body.  These physical characteristics made him revolting to look upon and, as a result, people rejected him, drove him away, and called him a monster.  And yet, Leroux goes on to say that Erik was able to do “things no other man could do; he [knew] things which nobody in the world [knew].” He had “extraordinary gifts of dexterity and imagination which he had received by way of compensation for his extraordinary ugliness.”  And his voice!  His voice was such that, when he himself was unseen, it was thought to belong to the “Angel of Music”.  But despite these gifts, “…he was too ugly!  And he had to hide his genius or use it to play tricks with, when, with an ordinary face, he would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind!  He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar.”

Is this tragedy not a trademark of mankind?  We so often judge based on outward appearances, failing to see the true person behind the ugly or beautiful face.  Even Samuel, a prophet and man of God, made the same mistake.  In I Samuel 16, we find the account of David’s anointing as king of Israel by Samuel.  When God sends Samuel to the home of David’s father, Jesse, to anoint the next king, He does not tell Samuel which of the sons of Jesse He has chosen.  He simply tells Samuel that He will show him which is to be anointed king.  When Samuel meets the oldest son of Jesse and, finding him a splendid young man, he thinks, “‘Surely the LORD’s anointed is before [me].’ ” But God says to Samuel, “‘Do not look on his outward appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’ ” (Scripture from the ESV.)

According to God, it is the inner man that truly matters.  God isn’t picky about the appearances of people.  He doesn’t choose people based on a handsome face or reject them based on what might commonly be considered an ugly appearance. 

But, so often, we do just the opposite.  The Phantom was repeatedly rejected by the people who saw him.  A moment in the story of the Phantom particularly stood out to me.  At the point of this episode, Christine has been kidnapped by the Phantom and taken to his domain in the cellars of the Paris Opera House, where he hopes to make her love him.  Christine recounts her experiences: “‘After lunch, he rose and gave me the tips of his fingers, saying he would like to show me over his flat; but I snatched away my hand and gave a cry.  What I had touched was cold and, at the same time, bony; and I remembered that his hands smelt of death. “Oh, forgive me!” he moaned.’”  Even the kind-hearted Christine is unable to bring herself to touch Erik because of his flesh.  

I think this seemingly insignificant moment stood out to me because of its stark contrast to the conduct of Jesus.  During His ministry on earth, Jesus encountered countless sick people, including many with leprosy, a disease that slowly eats away at the body.  The Gospel of Mark recounts Jesus interaction with one of these lepers: “And a leper came to Him, imploring Him, and kneeling said to Him, ‘If You will, You can make me clean.’  Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’  And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.” (ESV, emphasis mine)  In the time of Jesus, it was considered very dangerous to touch a leper, because there was the danger of contracting the disease yourself.  Beyond that, it couldn’t have been a very pleasant prospect touch a man whose body was being eaten away, even as he lived.  But Jesus touched him.  Regardless of the danger of disease, regardless of the appearance of the man, He touched him and healed him.

What can we learn from the Phantom’s mask of the flesh?  First, hidden beneath a less-than-ideal appearance may be an incredibly talented person, with gifts we will never know of unless we make ourselves go beyond the person’s appearance.  Erik is not the only one whose ugliness conceals an unknown genius and brilliance.  Second, hidden under the mask of a pretty or ugly face is a heart that is the true determiner of who each person is.  And just as God judges based on the heart, we must do the same or else risk completely mistaking the people we meet.  And last, we must be willing to care for the person beneath the mask of the flesh.  Just as Jesus was willing to reach out to, touch, and heal the leper, we must be willing to touch the people in our lives whom we may not consider to be physically perfect.

To be continued…

...It's Apathy!

One night, my mom and I were discussing an orphan ministry that had recently done a presentation at our church.  In a nut shell, we were discussing the fact that there are an estimated 160 million orphans in the world and that, if the church would truly step up to the plate, we could take that number to zero.  But the church is, for the most part, focused on itself.  And so nothing happens.

I used to think the worst of vices was cowardice.  I've changed my mind.  It's apathy.

I wrote these lyrics after that conversation:

Dare

Verse 1:

We close our eyes

To the pain and the needs

Afraid if we see our hearts might feel

Afraid that we might be driven to move

Getting out of our own little world

Getting out of our own little world

Chorus:

I dare you to live

I dare you to see

I dare you to feel 'til it drives you to move

I dare you to live

I dare you to change

I dare you to face all the needs around you

I dare you to live

I dare you to live

Verse 2:

Share vict'ry

And the fight

There's no joy if you won't feel

There's no vict'ry if you won't fight

Feel the joy

Feel the pain

(Chorus)

Just as a side note, I'm not advocating the "listen to your heart" mentality that is so popular in our culture.  The Bible says that the heart of man is very, very wicked.  But I am advocating compassion - something the Bible does support.  Romans says to rejoice with the people who are rejoicing, to mourn with the people who are mourning, and to cry with those who are crying.  And James says that words are not sufficient to meet a need - we have to put feet and hands to work.

Dare lyrics copyright 2012 by M.