My Closing Thoughts on My Blog Talk Series on Luke and Acts:

So, finally, we’ve reached the end of my Blog Talk series on Luke’s literary contribution to God’s advancing Kingdom. 365 sessions, if you’ve followed the master’s plan. One year of Luke and friends. So now, the natural question is ‘what’s next?’

If there’s one thing I learned from being around John Wimber during the early days of the Vineyard movement, it was that John insisted that we become intentional ‘doers of God’s Word’. It was not enough for John to ‘open the book’ and leave it there. For him, as senior pastor of the Vineyard Church in Anaheim, and founding leader of the Vineyard movement, he was always encouraging people to move beyond being ‘listeners’ of the Bible, but becoming ‘doers’ as well.

At a pastor’s gathering in Green Lake, Wisconsin, Sandy and I had the recent honor of hearing Stu and Jill Briscoe. The Briscoe’s have been around for years, authoring numerous books and becoming quite influential across the wide spectrum of Christendom around the globe over the last 30-plus years. Stu, who is now 80 or so years old, told us the story of how as a young married couple living and ministering in England back in the 1960’s, God began meddling with them. Finding great success in doing street ministry with young adults via a thriving coffeehouse setting, Stu had little interest at the time in involving himself with the established church. Dr. Briscoe had not had a very good experience growing up in church and was now finding a great deal of freedom and fruitful ministry laboring with Jesus outside the confines of the church. But over time, the Lord started to convict Stu of his arrogance and prejudice toward the established church and eventually challenged Stu to step out of his successful street ministry, humble himself, and willingly serve as a pastor/shepherd in a local church setting.

The Briscoe’s reluctantly took God up on His challenge and by 1970 a small church in Brookfield, Wisconsin (a Milwaukee suburb) came calling, asking Stu to serve as their senior pastor. Stu was mortified. Not only were the Briscoe’s a bit uncertain about moving halfway across the globe to a place they’d never heard of, but Stu had no seminary training, thus he felt he knew absolutely nothing about pastoring! But in obedience to the Lord, the Briscoe’s left their homeland of England and moved to the US, having no clue on what to do in leading this church into all God had for them.

So on day one of their new ministry, Stu stood in the pulpit, and spoke honestly to their new flock.

“Hello, I’m Stu Briscoe. I’m your new pastor and I know absolutely nothing about how to pastor this church.” According to Briscoe, there was a deadly silence that fell over the room! Stu continued, “But I do know this. God has certainly called Jill and me here to Wisconsin and I do know how to do one thing well. I do know how to open the Book and teach God’s truth to you. I promise to do this one thing faithfully, and I ask this one thing of you. As I faithfully teach you the Book, we all promise together before God that we will do our very best to DO everything the Book says.”

The rest, they say, is history. Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, a congregation of 300 in 1970, went on to become the largest church in the state of Wisconsin (over 7.000 in weekly attendance), as they simply agreed together to ‘open the Book’ and do everything it says to do!

So, as I’ve ‘opened the book’ over the last year, studying Luke’s Book of Acts and Luke’s Gospel of Jesus, my heart tells me that it’s time for me to once again challenge myself and the local church that I pastor to become ‘doers of God’s Word’, just as John Wimber and Stu Briscoe challenged their churches in their day. I think back through the history of the church and realize that most revivals and awakenings of God’s people come when someone finally decides to stand up and simply point out that there are portions of the Holy Scriptures which have gone un-noticed and un-lived for too long of time.

So here’s my challenge as we have now finished up our two-volume Luke study. I’d like to find some other pastors out there who are feeling the same way I am. Hopefully, they’ve been reading Acts and Luke as I have and they’re tired of church life as we are presently experiencing it. Secondly, they must be willing to not just put another church-growth Band-Aid on the problem, trying to fix our churches by applying yet another program or ministry that has worked in some other church across town. Thirdly, they must want to solidify the two iron-clad rails of Kingdom-based theology, and a corresponding evangelistic methodology in both their personal lives and the life of their church. Fourthly, they will insist that we become ‘doers of God’s Word’, embracing the indwelling and empowering work of the Holy Spirit as the key rail of empowerment to everything we do in and for God’s Kingdom. And finally, they will be gut honest about their weaknesses, idiosyncrasies and failures, not attempting to impress others with their wisdom or spiritual prowess.

So now, I may just have eliminated any other potential candidates, including myself! But I pray, not so. If indeed, there are some guys or gals out there who feel the way I feel, I’d like to find a creative way for those folks to network with one another so that we can begin encouraging one another. I believe firmly that doing big things for God calls for us to do those things together with others who desire similar results. Maybe, I’m being overly optimistic here, and just a shade over-dramatic, but I still do believe the American church can turn around in this generation and see yet another outpouring of great revival and awakening, don’t you?

Maybe together, a few of us can lead our churches (and our own lives) into all God has for us in this hour. If that’s you, let me know, and we’ll go from there. Over the next year or so, my wife and I plan to do a lot more pastoral coaching. We’ve learned from the very best.

Over the last few years, God has led me to Dave Jacobs. A former Vineyard pastor turned coach to pastors of smaller churches. About three years ago, as I was sorting through a lot of the tough pastoral issues I mentioned earlier, l started working with Dave and his coaching business Small Church Pastor.

I remember my first coaching phone call with Dave very well. After a few pleasant introductory comments, Dave got right down to business and started asking me some great probing questions. I was familiar with pastors telling and selling me on answers to my problems, but Dave refused to do that. He just kept insisting that God had more to say to me in my troubles than anyone else. After about 2 or 3 sessions, I began to understand that Dave wasn’t there to fix me but to coach me and encourage me to return to my first love of following Christ and simply serving the Kingdom through my role as pastor/shepherd of God’s people.

As I see it, God saved my life over the last three years using His servant Dave Jacobs to coach me through some of most difficult seasons of ministry I’ve experienced. As a result, I’m starting to see the light. I’m starting to recognize the massive need for great coaching amongst pastors of smaller churches like the one I’ve been pastoring for 13 years. I want to dedicate the remainder of my life and the church that I serve to being a resource for pastors and leaders of small churches, bringing encouragement and hope in the midst of each pastor’s day-to-day work for the Lord.

If we can be of encouragement to you, please contact us.

Marty & Sandy Boller

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 200

My Conclusion on My Blog Talk Through Luke.

Enter one Martin J. Boller.

Martin, or Marty as he’s most often called, is just a fat man from Iowa trying his very best to practice the Kingdom presence of God. This guy and most of his family have lived a lot of years in a remote place on the planet called Iowa. You know. IOWA. The place the 1989 Oscar-nominated movie, Field of Dreams, called heaven.

Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.

For those of you who might not have seen the movie or for some who might have forgotten, this captivating film, starring a young Kevin Costner, tells the story of Ray Kinsella, a novice farmer who lives in rural Iowa with his wife, Annie and their young daughter Karin. While walking through his cornfield, Ray hears a mysterious whisper, asking him to do outlandish things like plowing over his corn crop to build a beautiful regulation-sized baseball field next to his farmhouse. Over the course of the movie, this voice asks Ray to take three very important steps of faith.

‘Build it and he will come’ 

‘Ease his pain’

‘Go the distance’

These short but powerful messages will lead Ray and his family on an amazing adventure that will eventually transform many people’s lives, including, most importantly, Ray’s.

Now back to my story.

A long-time baseball fan and lover of the movie, Field of Dreams, this old Shoeless Marty from Iowa was radically touched by the ministry of John Wimber back in the day and eventually became a Vineyard pastor. Having been in church most of my life, and seen the sideshow John Wimber so often talked about in traditional American church, I was not all that interested in joining the circus.

But back in 1998, just like Ray Kinsella in the Field of Dreams movie, I heard the Lord whisper in my ear to start a church in Cedar Rapids, using all the Kingdom principles John Wimber taught in the early days of the Vineyard movement.  Build it and He will come. My wife and I obeyed and now, thirteen years later, a church stands on the very location a bar named Shagnastys once stood. We thought of naming the church Shagnasty’s Vineyard, but fortunately, we didn’t listen to that voice!

I truly believe that over the years, we’ve done all three things the voice told Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams. ‘Ease his pain’ was the second message and in fact, we’ve seen God show up on countless occasions over the last thirteen years, easing the deep pain of men, women and children; great people who for one reason or another had found themselves separated from God’s loving presence. What an honor and privilege it is to see the pain of broken relationships healed. Indeed we’ve seen both the pain of people’s lives and the resulting heartache of God, Himself, eased as the Holy Spirit begins to reconcile Jesus with His long-lost, wayward friends.

The final message given Ray Kinsella in the Field of Dreams was ‘go the distance’. As a matter of fact a very similar ‘word’ was given to me back in 2007 just prior to the very difficult times our church began to experience in 2008. Without the word ‘keep going’, given to me by some unknown conference attender in Waterloo, Iowa, I’m guessing that my wife and I just might have thrown in the towel sometime over the last three years. Knowing that God had spoken helped us immensely to ‘go the distance’ during these recent times of great pain and rejection.

But today, despite the great Field of Dreams words from God’s voice, this old-fat pastor from Iowa found himself, like Ray Kinsella, trying to keep his failing farm together. I grew tired in the process. Very tired. During my summer sabbatical in 2011, God has shown me how over a period of the last four or five years, this Vineyard pastor named Marty began doing the very thing Jesus warned His disciples not to do. He left home way too often without the Holy Spirit. He began doing more and more out of his own strength and wisdom and less and less out of his experiential relationship with God’s Kingdom. A disaster started to occur. The church built so ‘He would come’, the community built to ‘ease His pain’, the ministry meant to ‘go the distance’, began coming apart at the seams.

And then it happened.

In the midst of a time when it seemed God’s Plan A was about to fail, an angel was sent to this struggling, worn out, burned-out fat pastor in the land of Field of Dreams. The voice had returned! And this time, the message was, once again, pretty simple. Short but clear.

“Open the Book”, the angel proclaimed.

And now, here we are, having done that ‘open the book’ thing for well over a year or more. One of the wonderful by-products of that vision is what you have been reading over the last twelve months.

Gosh, I thought I was done. But now, based on what I’ve just read here from Jesus at the end of Luke’s gospel, maybe I need to go back and review again, Luke’s second volume. Apparently it’s in that book, Luke’s Book of Acts, where I can find the scoop on what Jesus has in mind for all of us as we do our very best to practice the Kingdom presence of God in this life time and the life to come.

My prayer: Jesus, my life has been a journey. In truth, like Ray Kinsella, I’ve heard a number of voices over the years. Some have been most definitely You. Others, I’m just not sure of. But one thing I do know is that I can trust the voice of Jesus found in God’s Holy Word. May I never leave home, or build a church, or live my life without that! For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: What voices over the years have I listened to that have proven to not be God? Which messages have indeed been from God and have proven fruitful in my life? What does ‘build it and He will come’ truly mean in my life today? How can I be faithful to the words of Jesus found here at the end of Luke’s Gospel?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 199

Luke 24: 49-53 (MsgB)

[49] “What comes next is very important: I am sending what My Father promised to you, so stay here in the city until He arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high.” [50] He (Jesus) then led them out of the city over to Bethany. Raising His hands He blessed them, [51] and while blessing them, took His leave, being carried up to heaven. [52] And they were on their knees, worshiping Him. They returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy. [53] They spent all their time in the Temple praising God. Yes.

364 entries. One day short of a year.

We’ve literally blogged our way through Luke’s literary contribution to God’s advancing Kingdom.

Luke’s Book of Acts. Luke’s Gospel of Jesus.

And here we are with Jesus saying, “What comes next is very important.”

No kidding.

As I see it, if you and I take everything we’ve read and blogged through over the last year and try to go out and live it through our own strength and wisdom, the world is going to really hate what they see. I’m guessing neither God or we will be too happy with the results as well!

The problem is that you and I fail so often to do the very thing Jesus states here at the end of His great commission.

We fail to wait. We fail to realize that we can’t do this thing Jesus is asking us to do unless we are first and foremost, working alongside the real laborer of God, His Holy Spirit.

We, in our zeal and excitement to do something good for God, gather up all of our biblical writings, sell our earthly goods, buy a tent and start traveling the world, bringing our Jesus to a world lost in darkness.

Now, while that plan has some merit at first, I’ve found that after a while, the newness of this approach eventually wears off and we find ourselves getting a bit worn out and ragged on the edges. Year after year, the harvest seems to get smaller and harder, and it’s then, we decide that we must turn it up a notch if we’re gonna get this job done for Jesus. We wring our hands, wondering what’s gone wrong. We complain how our culture has become so Gospel-hardened. We attend conferences on how to change things. We begin to try other good ideas that have worked elsewhere in keeping the people’s attention. We put on shows. We buy a bigger tent. We fly higher flags. Some even invest in big flood lights with electric signs that spell out J-E-S-U-S across the sky. Some of us learn to speak the secret language of selling and telling. We talk louder. Some yell and scream about hell and damnation. Others weave together stories and song to woo the people into our tents. Others decide a newer approach is best, so we sell the tent, re-arrange the message, and decide to focus on meeting people’s needs, never realizing how deep that well is to fill using our own limited resources.

All the while, Jesus waits back in the Father’s presence, hoping at some point we’ll grow tired and weary of doing church our way.

Eventually a few start to see the folly of our human efforts. They wander back home, get a fresh drink of God’s Spirit, and quickly go back out on the road again. After a time, these same refreshed men and women grow even more and more frustrated with this ‘doing the commission’ thing for Jesus. Some eventually pack it all in and go find a real job that pays better money and offers better perks that feed our hunger for human achievement.

If you read church history carefully, this seems to be the pattern of God’s people. We read and respond to Jesus’ life, ministry, death, resurrection and commission. We go out immediately and do it. We burn out. We come back home. Get revived a bit. And then after a season of blessing, we begin to slowly transition away from God’s empowering power and presence, taking matters into our own hands once again. Eventually we run out of steam, only to be reminded by God of all have we left behind.

In my life, Jesus used a fat man from Missouri named John Wimber to remind me that the Holy Spirit has a better way for us Christians to live than this rat race we so often call church life. John talked about Jesus and the Kingdom ministry of God. He told us that church life in America has got to change. Back in the early 1980’s a group of people, including my wife and I, started practicing what Wimber was suggesting. We set out to stop doing church as usual and start doin’ Jesus stuff instead.

For a good season of time, it worked. It’s amazing. John was right. When we stop doing work for Jesus and turn it around, allowing the Spirit to lead the way, it’s fun. There’s real joy when all we have to do is show up, find out what the Father is already doing, and then adjust our lives and ministries to do those things being initiated by God. It’s amazing how very fulfilling this commission of Jesus can be when we do it His way, instead of ours. As we learn to wait for the Holy Spirit to lead us, practicing God’s presence, allowing Him to guide us, empower and indwell us, Kingdom ministry can actually be a blast!

But unfortunately, over time, we humans, as the Bible so clearly shows, naturally wander away from God’s best. We move from being Holy Spirit-led to becoming men and women with very good intentions but very fleshly, self-consumed follow-thru. We allow our ministries to become extensions of ourselves instead of works that originate and flow from God. We lead more by our human wisdom than by God’s Spirit. God’s plan A, as spelled out here by Jesus in His great commission, suddenly becomes Plan B; where we end up doing most of the work for God while the Holy Spirit remains back in the upper room, waiting for someone to remember what Jesus actually said!

My prayer:  Lord, You are very explicit with Your final instructions to Your followers. Yet we, the church, have a long history of taking Your words and either adding to them, subtracting from them, or ignoring them completely. Forgive me, Lord. Holy Spirit, come. Empower and indwell me so that I find myself adjusting my life and ministry to Yours, not vice versa. For Your name’s sake. Amen.

My questions to ponder: How am I guilty of making my life and ministry about what I can do for God? How has this approach missed the mark? What might it look like to transition my life and work for Christ into an approach where I; first, wait on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit; secondly, I follow the Spirit’s promptings, looking for Jesus’ ministry around me rather than creating my own; and thirdly, when I finally see and hear what God is doing, I adjust my life so that I can participate fully with the Holy Spirit’s agenda versus coming up with my own?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 198

Luke 24: 44-48 (MsgB)

[44] Then He said, “Everything I told you while I was with you comes to this: All the things written about Me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.” [45] He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. [46] He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, [47] and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in His name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! [48] You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses.”

When it comes to church life, it’s very important for all of us to understand the important role we are to play in God’s bigger story.

Jesus makes it very clear here what that role is. We are to be witnesses to His resurrection. Nothing more. Nothing less.

This role as witnesses is vital to the larger story God is telling the world. It’s an important role we’ve been cast in and, as we’ve said earlier in this blog, there are no small parts in this magnificent play. Only small actors!

And as actors, on stage performing Act III of God’s great redemption story, we must be very careful to not lose track of our assignment.  We can’t go off on tangents or rabbit trails that will, quite honestly, distract all of us in the auditorium from the task at hand.

Any confusion on our part as Jesus’ witnesses in God’s bigger story might also bring a fog of confusion to our audience. Quite honestly, there’s nothing worse than having an actor on the stage who doesn’t know their lines or wanders aimlessly around the floor while the rest of the cast is doing their best to tell a story.

So it is with us believers in Jesus.

As I see it, Jesus’ ‘commission’ we find at the end of each of the four Gospels contains a warning for His friends and fellow actors on the stage. If we fail to receive and respond to Jesus’ words in this commission, we put at risk the vital role we, the church, is to play in God’s bigger story.

The script, you see, has already been written. The writings of what we call the Old Testament are very clear. These holy words set up the story so well. They proclaim the truth that God knows, from the very beginning, where the story is going and how the story will end. Act I has long been established. God’s story has now begun.

The script for Act II is found in what we call the New Testament. Our earlier readings in Luke’s second literary contribution to God’s advancing Kingdom (The Book of Acts) is a prime example on how to live our lives on this stage we call the world, Now that Jesus has come, the pastoral letters of Paul and the revelatory writings of other first-century authors help us fill in a lot of the blanks as the curtain goes up for Act III.

And now, the final act has begun. For two thousand years now Act III of God’s holy trilogy has been lived out. Each generation has been given the unique God-assignment of being witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. A commission that Jesus spells out so clearly here to His first-century followers.

So that leaves us with a few burning questions.

Will we choose to play the part in this story that has been assigned to us? Will we show up on stage? Will we say our lines with meaning? Will we live the part with passion?

Or will we choose to ignore the playwright and director, playing a role not assigned to us? Will we sleep through much of the play and miss our cues? Will we try to be creative and add our own good ideas to the script? Will we go on stage unprepared, only to embarrass ourselves and our fellow actors?

Those are some of the tough questions we players face as we come closer to the end of Act III.

More on that, tomorrow.

My prayer: Jesus, Your holy commission is fairly simple in nature. As we experience You, the risen Christ, and the power and presence of God’s in-breaking Kingdom, our part on the stage of life is to simply be a witness to that experience. We are not called to create anything for You, just bear witness to what we’ve seen and heard. For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: How am I guilty of adding to or subtracting from the simple commission given by Jesus to His followers? How do I need to re-align my life so that my role on stage is to simply bear testimony of what God has done in my life, giving an eye-witness account to Jesus of Nazareth and all He has done, is doing, and will do in my life?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 197

Luke 24: 36-43 (MsgB)

[36] While they were saying all this, Jesus appeared to them (the disciples) and said, “Peace be with you.” [37] They thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death. [38] He continued with them, “Don’t be upset, and don’t let all these doubting questions take over. [39] Look at My hands; look at My feet—it’s really Me. Touch Me. Look Me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn’t have muscle and bone like this.” [40] As He said this, He showed them His hands and feet. [41] They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was too much; it seemed too good to be true. He asked, “Do you have any food here?” [42] They gave Him a piece of leftover fish they had cooked. [43] He took it and ate it right before their eyes.

Ever had a weekend from hell?

While we twenty-first century folks go on and on at times about our trials and hardships, we need to reflect a bit more about how bad the first-century disciples had it during the weekend we now call Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

Here in our reading today, it’s the first Sunday evening after Passover. Jerusalem 33 AD.

This has been a weekend to remember for Jesus’ family, friends and associates. On Thursday evening at sundown, Passover begins. The Seder dinner proceeds just as it usually does but with a very strange twist at the end. A long night of betrayal and rejection has begun. By early Friday morning, all of Jesus’ closest friends, except Peter, have abandoned Him. By mid-morning, Pete’s gone as well.

Friday is a whirlwind of terror. Jesus is wrongly convicted of crimes He never committed, beaten and bruised, crucified mercilessly on a cross outside the city. By noon, Jesus’ body hangs from that bloody tree and the sky begins to grows dark. The earth shakes violently and the residents of the city of Jerusalem experience an unannounced total eclipse of the sun. By late afternoon, some last minute arrangements for Jesus’ burial are being made. A few of the women in Jesus’ traveling party assist a member of the Jewish High Council, one who is sympathetic to Jesus’ cause, to remove His body from the cross. They hurriedly place the broken and bleeding body in a freshly cut tomb before the day ends with sunset. Final details will have to wait until after the Sabbath. All the while, Jesus’ disciples are hiding away, keeping to the shadows lest they, too, are brought to trial.

Saturday, the Sabbath, is a quiet day of mourning for all involved. Yet in the Temple, arrangements have been made with the Roman guard to post a squad of soldiers at the tomb lest some of Jesus’ disciples come in the night, steal the body, and start claims that this crucified man has now risen from the dead. No such activity happens. The fear of crossing these Roman soldiers with swords and spears is more than enough to deter any religious zealot from trying anything so stupid.

On Sunday morning, the weekend from hell continues.

Some of the women report having an angelic visitation at the tomb. The disciples blow it off as just another example of womanly imagination. Only Peter has the glimmer of hope in him to step into the light and run to the grave site. The women were right when they said the body is gone, but Peter leaves it at that and falls into deeper despair. By Sunday late evening, much of the group has gathered once again. Two of the disciples have returned from Emmaus. They tell a story that perks everyone’s attention. They claim Jesus walked and talked with them. They claim He even ate supper with them before He disappeared.

But apparently, the miracle stories are still not moving these guys. The weekend from hell has taken a severe toll on all of them. No one is ready to buy into these outlandish resurrection stories quite yet. Grief has a way of robbing hope from us, don’t you know.

And it’s into this room of grief, unbelief, outlandish miracle stories, weariness and despair, Jesus suddenly appears.

But wait.

This is not a vision. Nor is this a group hallucination. Hallucinations don’t have human bodies. Hallucinations don’t have physical scars, once bloody gashes that are now healed. Hallucinations don’t let a person touch those scars, deep holes in hands and feet that were once hanging on a cross. And certainly, as every thinking person well knows, hallucinations just don’t eat leftover fish!

That leaves only one possible option.

Jesus of Nazareth is alive. Just as He said would happen. He is risen. He is risen, indeed!

Now that changes everything!

My prayer: God, my God, what a turn in events! The moment Jesus steps into that room with His disciples on Sunday evening, Passover 33 AD, the whole world is about to change. This is the game-changer we’ve all been waiting for. This is the reality of dreams once only imagined. The weekend from hell has ended and now we can get on with our lives. Now, because He lives, we can face tomorrow. For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: How can I take this amazing resurrection story of Jesus of Nazareth and allow it to change my weekend from hell into life eternal? Now that Jesus is alive and well, what practical application does that have for me and my life? What changes can happen because now, Jesus lives?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 196

Luke 24: 27-35 (MsgB)

[27] Then He started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to Him. [28] They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if He were going on [29] but they pressed Him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So He went in with them. [30] And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, He blessed and broke and gave it to them. [31] At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized Him. And then He disappeared. [32] Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as He conversed with us on the road, as He opened up the Scriptures for us?” [33] They didn’t waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, [34] talking away: “It’s really happened! The Master has been raised up—Simon saw Him!” [35] Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized Him when He broke the bread.

I’ve attended a lot of Bible studies over the years, haven’t you?

The great majority for me has been very enlightening. Some have been interesting. Others a bit boring. And yes, may I admit, a few might have even been a bit destructive.

Have you noticed? Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ll get at a Bible study.

As a long time facilitator of Bible studies, I believe so much depends on the people there and the facilitator of the study. Yet, in all honesty, the biggest variable in whether or not you’ll benefit from a Bible study has a lot to do with yourself. As with so many things in life, so much depends on our own personal attitude. I’ve sat in some Bible studies, for example, and not gotten a single gem out of it. And most of those sessions were studies I was leading!

But after an honest evaluation, I often find that the main reason I didn’t get much out of a Bible study is because I wasn’t fully there. Or maybe I just failed to fully invest myself in the people. Or possibly I was unwilling to openly participate, listen to others and learn.

As a result, over the years, Bible studies can be a mixed bag.

But you know what? From everything I read from Luke’s gospel, this Sunday afternoon Bible study with Jesus on the road to Emmaus was one hot study! Wow. I would have paid money to be at this little gathering as Jesus opens up God’s Word, and from the very beginning, explains the purpose and meaning of all these words that have been written down for us in the scriptures!

Luke tells us that this particular Bible study is a topical one. One that focuses on one theme alone. And while any other Bible study facilitator would come off as self-consumed and boring when doing a topical Bible study about himself, this personalized jaunt through the Old Testament with Jesus, pointing out every instance where the Son of God is mentioned, would have been an amazing thing.

I’m guessing that Cleopas and his friend were so enthralled at this Jesus-led Bible study, they even forgot to pass the traditional cookie tray found at all Bible studies!

Speaking of food, apparently they did take a break for supper and at that point, another amazing thing happens.

Luke tells us that as dinner is being served, Jesus takes a piece of bread, breaks it and as He is offering it to His friends, their eyes are opened to see the resurrected Jesus for the first time!

Yikes.

Now that’s the type of Bible study I’d turn out for on a weekly basis, wouldn’t you?

Gosh, I wonder if Jesus is still available for doing that kind of topical Bible study at my church?

Let me see. Wednesday nights might work. No wait. We already have a lot of other activities scheduled then. Jesus, I’ll have to get back with you on this. Our programming at the church is pretty full right now. Maybe next fall, huh?

My prayer: Jesus, without a doubt, You are the very best facilitator of a Bible study the world has ever known. While I might not be able today to sit with you as Cleopas and his friend did, thank You that the Holy Spirit is graciously able to sit in on Your behalf, leading us in studies that can open our eyes to all who You are. Please come Jesus and teach us Your ways. For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: How have I allowed Bible studies I attend to dwindle down into a fleshly meeting of our minds? What might it look like to invite Jesus to our next Bible study? What aspects of the power and presence of God might be available to us as we would turn our Bible studies back over to Him?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 195

Luke 24: 17-26 (MsgB)

[17] He asked, “What’s this you’re discussing so intently as you walk along?” They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend. [18] Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?” [19] He said, “What has happened?” They said, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. [20] Then our high priests and leaders betrayed Him, got Him sentenced to death, and crucified Him. [21] And we had our hopes up that He was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. [22] But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb [23] and couldn’t find His body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. [24] Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see Jesus.” [25] Then He said to them, “So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? [26] Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into His glory?”

A pattern is starting to develop here.

It’s an ugly pattern we addressed just a couple of sessions earlier, but from what Luke tells us in his gospel here, it’s becoming quite an epidemic.

Thick-headedness. Slow-heartedness.

Apparently the first-century followers of Jesus have got it really bad. And it’s spreading like wildfire.

First, we find this new case of thick heads and slow hearts popping up at the tomb on Sunday morning. Some of the women were heading there to finish up the burial procedures left undone on late Friday afternoon. Jewish law prohibits any work of any kind on the Sabbath, so with such a last minute burial right before sundown on Friday, Sunday morning is the first opportunity for Mary Magdalene and several of her friends to proceed to the gravesite. And let’s be honest here, none of them are going to the tomb with any expectancy of finding a resurrected Jesus. Thick heads and slow hearts prevail.

Next, Luke shows us Peter and the rest of the disciples swimming in their well-developed case of thick-headedness and slow heartedness. From everything we read, these guys have it much worse than the women. Even when the ladies do their best to tell the disciples about the visitation of the two angels, bringing reports that Jesus is alive, none of them will have anything to do with it. They’ve got it bad. Really bad!

Keep in mind that these stubborn, self-sufficient men have a long history of being highly susceptible to this virus of thick-headedness and slow-heartedness. On numerous occasions as these guys walked with Jesus, there are constant signs that this bug has been with them for a long, long time.

Jesus calls his friends on the carpet on many occasions, diagnosing their ailment with amazing accuracy. “O you of little faith” was a common title Jesus gave His followers. And from everything we read in the gospels, their disease takes a real turn for the worse during the final days of Jesus’ life in Jerusalem. By early Friday morning, as the sun rises, most of Jesus’ followers are so overwhelmed by their sickness; they don’t even show up for work. Peter is the only one who pulls himself out of bed to be there with Jesus. But as we all know, a severe attack of this disease hits him in the courtyard and suddenly he is delirious. This attack is so bad; he apparently can’t even remember anything about himself, or Jesus as well!

Now, here we are on Sunday afternoon on the Road to Emmaus. Two of Jesus’ disciples have apparently heard the reports of Jesus’ resurrection from the women and it makes them so sick to their stomachs, they leave Jerusalem, deciding to take a seven-mile hike to the little town of Emmaus. Maybe they hope a breath of fresh air will clear their heads. But alas, the thick-headedness and slow-heartedness follows them like a cloud. And the fog is so deep they can’t even recognize familiar faces.

And then Jesus, the best doctor the world has ever known, steps onto this road to Emmaus and quickly diagnoses their fatal disease. As we’ve said, it’s not too hard to spot. And Luke, being a good doctor himself, knows full well that Jesus spots their problem as soon as he begins dialoging with Cleopas and his friend.

Thick minds. Slow hearts.

A disease that has been the most common ailment amongst earth-dwellers from day one. Today the epidemic has now become a worldwide pandemic. And like most serious diseases, it can quickly become fatal if not treated properly.

As I see it, the cure comes in becoming like a Kingdom Child. Jesus put it this way, unless you become like a child, having innocent faith and a firm belief in the basic nature of good, no one will be able to escape the virus of thick-headedness and slow-heartedness. Untreated, our thick heads and slow hearts will continue to grow in size, eventually overtaking our lives in ways too horrible to mention here.

What a tragedy. Yet, as we’ll see with these guys on the road to Emmaus, this disease can be treated quite easily, especially if we choose to hand around Jesus, the good doctor.

My prayer: Lord, the virus of thick-headedness and slow-heartedness has been in my life for much of my adulthood. Thank You that You are able to spot it quickly and offer me Your sure-fire remedy. May I be wise enough to take the medicine You offer, so this fatal disease not shipwreck my faith and my life in You. For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: What symptoms of a thick mind and slow heart are evident in my life today? Have I been complacent, allowing myself to be infected by this pandemic that thrives all around me? What pro-active steps can I take to become more like a Kingdom child, allowing Jesus to unclog my thick head and release Holy Spirit vibrancy into my slow-beating heart?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 194

Luke 24: 13-16 (MsgB)

[13] That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. [14] They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. [15] In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. [16] But they were not able to recognize who He was.

Incognito. The invisible man.

How many times when I was a kid, I wanted to be the invisible man?

Or how about James Bond in the 007 movies? Or Artemus Gordon on the classic TV show, The Wild, Wild West? How I longed to be the hero who could walk through a crowd of people and not be identified. The handsome, dashing spy who is the master of 1,000 disguises.

Apparently the resurrected Jesus has this very same capability to disguise His person! So much so that those who had spent up to three years with the Master didn’t recognize His voice, His speech patterns, His facial features, His physical measurements, or even His slightest mannerisms in this Sunday afternoon encounter on the Road to Emmaus.

Now that may sound like a pretty creepy thing for Jesus to do, but quite honestly, I believe He still has the ability to come and go under the auspices of a disguise. As a matter of fact, the New Testament warns us that there will be times when you and I might even be entertaining angels when we throw a party for others!

Cool, huh?

Scary, yes?

Apparently, if I read between the lines here, the Kingdom of God, the ruling and reigning dominion of God in heaven, has dimensional abilities that makes it undeniably possible for living beings from God’s heaven to step back and forth between this world and heaven, interacting with us; many times without us even knowing it! Jesus does it here and as we’ll see later in the story, this invisible man syndrome continues until such a time that Jesus, Himself, decides to lift the veil, showing His true self to these two men.

Now I know this sounds like a science fiction movie you once saw at the late show, but honestly folks, the physical interaction between God’s heaven and this present earth, in biblical terms, is much more feasible than we twenty-first century westerners may want to imagine.

I had a pastor friend once who was from Israel, and since he grew up in more of an eastern worldview than I did, he often chided me for being so ‘westernized’ when I read my Bible. We often laughed together as I finally had to admit that biblical Christianity, as presented in the New Testament, is truly more of an ‘eastern’ religion than we westerners would ever be comfortable admitting. I remember my friend telling me how wafer-thin he believed the veil between heaven and earth to actually be!

John Wimber used to remind us, as well, that if you don’t believe in angels, demons, dreams, visions, or other unique interactions between spirit and flesh, you might as well close your Bible. In Luke’s gospel alone, we find angels visiting God’s people from the very beginning (Zachariah and Mary) to the very end (Mary Magdalene, and the other women at the grave)!

So, in truth, this idea of Jesus being ‘the invisible man’ after His resurrection would not be all that strange to a contemporary reader of Luke’s gospel. And yet most of us living in the western portion of the globe, will by-pass this fact so quickly as we read God’s Word.

I wonder if we westerners just might see many more such ‘miracles’ if we’d adopt an improved radar-screen awareness and a stronger level of expectancy for such supernatural God-activity?

As I see it, we Christians shouldn’t let Hollywood have all the fun. I’m guessing Jesus of Nazareth, the omniscient, omni-present Son of God, can still out-perform any cheap movie stunt that Harry Potter and his gang can do on the silver screen. Don’t you?

Wait, who is that man standing right next to you right now? He looks vaguely familiar!

My prayer: Lord, I have no interest in being consumed with smoke and mirrors. The church too often uses this hunt for the supernatural as a distraction to the real deal. But Holy Spirit, in this age where we see witchcraft and the occult getting most of the attention in our culture, may the power and presence of God’s in-breaking Kingdom release any and all supernatural phenomena that gives glory and honor to Jesus and His Lordship over all. For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: Am I open to the supernatural aurora of God that is found throughout the biblical texts? Am I open to dreams, angelic visitations, holy moments, and other supernatural spiritual activity that are unexplainable to our rational mind, yet glorifying to the Kingdom of God? How can I adjust my willingness to embrace God’s supernatural power without falling into cultish and, quite honestly, childish behavior?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?    

Blog Talk on the Gospel of Luke: Session 193

Luke 24: 9-12 (MsgB)

[9] They (the women) left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. [10] Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, [11] but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up. [12] But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb. He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.

One of the reason’s I find the New Testament gospel stories about Jesus so trustworthy is the fact that the writers never attempt to puff up the main characters surrounding the Son of Man.

In yesterday’s passage, Luke tells us that the women going to the graveyard early on Sunday morning were so unbelieving, the two angels had to sarcastically jog their memories on what Jesus had promised earlier about His coming resurrection. “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery” was the angel’s question to Jesus’ friends.

Now here Luke goes on to tell us that when these same nice ladies are finally starting to get it into their thick heads that Jesus is actually alive, they bring this good news message to Jesus’ disciples, only to find that these loyal followers are equally, if not more stubborn in their ability to believe a word of it!

Oy vey!

What kind of Christian super-heroes do we have here, Luke?

If I were going to write a gospel (a good news story) about the life–changing power of Jesus of Nazareth, encouraging folks to believe in this man who is sent by God to transform our human existence, why in the world would I show the lethargic attitudes and sad belief systems of these first-century men and women of God? Wouldn’t this story sell much better to others if we made the main characters into bold and brave super-humans who take more after God and His powerful nature than pitiful unbelievers who can barely get themselves off the sofa?

Well, at least Luke gives us a better picture of Peter. Here’s Pete, man enough to run to the tomb and at least check out the women’s amazing story. That’s a nice touch, don’t you think?

But wait.

Why do we see Peter stooping over the grave clothes, scratching his head in bewilderment and walking away puzzled? What kind of super-Christian is this, Luke? Why would any gospel-writer whose job is to create a story to convince others about Jesus use these less-than-impressive pictures of people who are so sadly lacking in their ability to believe God’s truth?

As I see it, the most obvious answer to that question is that Luke, and the other writers of the gospel stories aren’t trying to create an impressive action story; but are just telling the gut-honest truth of the matter for all the world to see. Jesus is our super-hero, sent from God in heaven. Everyone else is just pretty much your every-day, run-the-the-mill average earth-dweller.

And frankly, it’s these gut-honest, less than invigorating pictures of real-life people and the lack-luster way these men and women respond to the miracle of all miracles that actually helps convince me that this amazing resurrection story of Jesus is the real deal!

I mean think about it here.

How encouraging is it for you and me, living here in the twenty-first century, to find that these folks who followed Jesus at the very beginning are not all that different from the rest of us poor suckers who have a hard time embracing these miracle stories about Jesus? For me, this actually gives me great hope!

If Jesus, the living Son of God, can still work His amazing Kingdom message and ministry through these slow-believing and stiff-necked disciples of the first century, how much more can He still work through truly average, lukewarm people like us today?

Hooray, Luke!

Thank you for being so truthful about these first-century losers! Thank you that you tell the truth about Peter and this gang of men and women who are just a bit slow in believing, somewhat confused and bewildered, shaking their heads in puzzlement at the amazing resurrection of the Son of God. For me, I’m now encouraged that there’s still hope, even when we, Jesus’ contemporary followers, seem equally slow and bewildered today.

My prayer: Lord, as the saying goes, honesty is always the best policy. And while these honest pictures of Your first-century followers are difficult, at times, for us to read, I’m so thankful that this picture also gives us great hope that even when we are less than stellar in our response to Your power, You still embrace us, giving us hope and guidance for the future. For Your name’s sake.

My questions to ponder: Peter, the women at the grave, and the disciples in general, had all been through some pretty difficult and trying situations over the last few days before the resurrection of Jesus. How might those experiences have played into the their ability to be positive and believing toward this amazing news of Jesus being alive? Are there disappointments and other trying situations that are weakening my belief system today? If so, how can I give those matters over to God, honestly admitting to Him that I’m allowing these earthly matters to greatly affect my faith?

So what is God speaking to you today? Are you practicing the Kingdom presence of God?