Bible Stories That Mess You Up: Part 2 of 4

Story 2 - A Blind Man and Some Mud

Many times, the actions of Jesus not only served to teach his followers, but also to debunk a lot of wrong conventional wisdom. The man Jesus interacts with and heals in John 9 would've likely been passed over had His followers not pulled out this jacked-up conventional wisdom.

Jesus and his disciples were walking past a blind beggar when one of the disciples quizzed Jesus about this man's background. More specifically, they wanted to know who had sinned to cause this man to be born blind. Was it this man or his parents?

Right there Jesus should've smacked these guys around. After all, how dumb is it to ask if this guy was born blind because of his own sins?

That aside, this is a question that is still asked today when people fall on hard times, some disease, become disabled or even die. In certain Christian circles, it's still believed that all unfortunate circumstances are tied to an individual's sin. Now, to a certain degree, some of our sinful actions can lead to poverty, disability, loss of our family or even death.

But, outside of obvious sin, there is still a belief that all bad things that happen to people can be traced back to someone's sin. This happened to the mother-in-law of a friend. She had a mental disability, and when she approached her church for help, the church leadership told her it was because of sin in her life. The problem was that there wasn't a sin that was responsible. It was a physical condition she couldn't have prevented.

So, when these followers of Jesus asked this question, they were trying to discover what this man or his folks has done to cause his blindness. But, Jesus responds that no one had sinned to cause the disability. Then, Jesus clues them in that something great was about to happen -- something that would glorify God.

Why Jesus chose to make a mud pie out of spit we will never know. It's probably irrelavent, because many times in the Bible we see God moving in unique ways that are never repeated. What is important is that this man was healed. He could now see. But, that isn't the end of the story.

This man represents us in so many ways. Prior to a relationship with Jesus, we are like the blind man. We wander aimlessly, desperatly in need of someone to take away the darkness in our lives. Then, we encounter Jesus, and experience his saving grace. Our lives are transformed, and we become passionate followers of His. That is the short version of what happened to this man.

Sadly, in this story, the healed man was the only one who actually understood what happened. Oh, plenty of people recognized the life change, but they were also very skeptical. This man had spent years begging in the community, because he was blind. Yet, the same people who had passed him daily now were split on what had happened. Some didn't believe he had ever been blind. Others missed the importance of the touch of Jesus, and were consumed with the fact that the healer had worked to make spit-mud on the Sabbath.

That's very similar to how we react in Christian circles today. When we see a life transformed, we have the tendency to discount the life change, and sometimes even dismiss moves of God. It's the weirdest thing, but it happens time and time again.

This story messes with us, because we can see ourselves in every aspect of this event. We can relate to the blind man, who spent the better part of his life searching. We spend our pre-Christ life searching to fill the God-sized void with all kinds of worldly things.

The blind man wasn't necessarily searching for Christ. Instead, Jesus came to him, and worked a life change in him. Similarly, Jesus was working on us long before we knew He was there.

Additionally, after some time as believers, we can have the tendency to fall into the religiousity trap, where we think our status as Christians makes us better than those who aren't. It's pride that causes this spiritual blindness. Some of us can recognize and counter it, but others, like the Pharisees can get hung up on minor details (like denominational distinctives) that we miss the bigger things God is doing around us.

How about you? What parts of the story of John 9 have you been a part of?

Bible Stories That Mess You Up: Part 1 of 4

Have you ever read a story that completely messed you up? You know, the type of story that rocks your world. Changes your life. Makes you want to be like the hero. Makes you want to improve the world.

Sometimes the stories are painful. Sometimes they are filled with hope.

That's one of the many reasons I like Jesus. The stories in the Bible where He is involved will totally change your world. This week, I'm going to share four of my favorites, and why they will mess you up.

Story 1 - A woman and a well

This may be my favorite story in the entire Bible. I like it, not just because of what Jesus does for this woman, but all the underlying messages The Messiah sends. And, every single one of them are applicable today. This story has never lost it's meaning, message or impact. And all of it will mess up the way you look at your world.

This story begins with Jesus doing something no "good" Jew in His day would do -- He crossed to the other side of the tracks. John 4 tells us that Jesus "had" to go through Samaria to get to where He was going. The truth is, He didn't have to. He chose to.

If you don't know anything about the relationship between the Jews and Samaritans, I'll give you a quick summary. Back in the days when Israel was in exile, the superpowers used relocation as a tactic to subdue the people they conquered. They would exile a nation to a different part of the conquering empire, and move another conquered people into that land. Such was the case for Israel when the Jewish nation was captured. Babylon sent most of the people packing east, and replaced them with other displaced people.

In the course of time, these rulers of the land allowed some Jews to return to their homeland, but not enough to cause any trouble. In an effort to re-establish some form of religious order, the returning Jews mixed some of their faith with the religions of the people who now lived in their former kingdom. They also inter-married with these people.

The end result is that when the rest of the Jews were returned to their homeland, they found this group of people living in the area around Samaria who had created a hybrid Jewish race and religion. Because the Samaritans had compromised their faith and also inter-married, they were looked down on and despised. They were viewed as half-breeds, and worthless.

Suffice it to say that in the few hundred years between these events and the time of Jesus, a great hatred and distrust had built up between Jews and Samaritans. We'll go ahead and call it what it was: Racism.

John 4 tells us Jesus had to go through Samaria. I think he did this in part because he was trying to get away from the religious hounds in Jerusalem, but it also demonstrates that Jesus isn't hung up on racial stereotypes and the junk that comes with it.

That, in itself, is earth shattering, especially when you consider that it wasn't that long ago when America was going through similar strife between whites and blacks. Had we put into practice what Jesus was showing us, America's racial tensions never would have happened.

AND THAT'S JUST THE FIRST FOUR VERSES!

The bulk of the story centers around Jesus' interaction with a woman from Sychar. Most of this event takes place around a well that Jacob, also known as Israel, the father of the nation, had dug around 1,700 years before.

In this one event, we can draw a multitude of life applications. Here we see Jesus honoring women (something that was NOT done in society). He was also talking to and helping a woman (also taboo at this time). This event also occurred in the middle of the day. Judging from her story (married and divorced five times and currently shacking up), this woman could only come to the well during the hottest part of the day, because she was viewed as the scourge of the community.

Put that into perspective. Jews viewed Samaritans as trash, and this woman was viewed by her own people as trash. Had she been a celebrity, her life story would've headlined all the tabloids and some network newscasts. She would've been given a cruel name by society, like Hexa-Whore (re: Octomom). THIS is the woman Jesus meets. THIS is the woman Jesus cared enough about to stop and share God's love. THIS is the woman who's world is rocked by Christ.

Now, if this story wasn't good enough, this woman is so radically changed by Jesus that she no longer cares for her dingy reputation. She sprints back to Sychar, tells everyone she may have found The Christ, and brings the townspeople out to meet Him.

The Bible tells us that because of the woman's testamony, many people in that town became Christ-followers. The scourge became the hero. And, it happened through the life changing meeting with Jesus.

It doesn't matter who you are, or what you're background is, or what you've done in life. Jesus is STILL interested in you. He STILL cares for you. And, He STILL wants to offer you the same life change that the woman at the well experienced.

That's one story that messes me up every time I read it.

What's a Jesus story that has changed your life?

Monday Ten

1. School is out for the year. The kids are excited.

2. My oldest is now a 6th grader. Where has the time gone.

3. I've been teaching the 4th/5th grade class at church for a year now. It's been fun, and I look forward to this upcoming year. Sadly, though, I'm losing my oldest child from my class. He's moving to the middle school department.

4. This month in KidPoint, we've been learning about patience. This past weekend, patience dealt with losing your temper. It was a good lesson that I used Saturday night, because the 21 kids I had tried my patience all night long.

5. I'm very interested in the upcoming series of messages that North Point Church will be presenting in June. We're teaming up with the One Prayer movement, and will be showing video messages from other preachers around the world. I don't know the schedule of speakers yet, but good money would have it that Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv will be one of the speakers. He's been mentoring our pastor.

6. Speaking of our pastor, he tweeted this past week that he was looking at a building for the possible site of North Point Church's new video campus. Possible launch date is January 2011. Judging by other tweets around that same time frame, it might be a south Springfield campus.

7. We had a bit of an adventure with our middle child this weekend. After church, he was horsing around with another boy, and did a nosedive onto the concrete floor in our lobby. He got up complaining that his hand hurt, but it seemed to go away. Later Saturday night, we noticed his hand was swollen. That prompted a visit to the doctor on Sunday. Fortunately, it wasn't broken.

8. I will admit that I was a little mean to him Sunday night. We were in our back yard, and he was trying to race a neighbor girl. We didn't want him running, since he wasn't supposed to be doing anything that might re-injure the hand. So, in an effort to slow him down, I told him he could only run if he held his injured hand high above his head. VERY FUNNY!

9. Galatians 1:10. If you're a person who lets a lot of other people tell you what to do, instead of God, this verse will be life changing. It has been for me.

10. Totally unexpectedly, Sunday night, I may have landed a speaking date. I'll say more when it is confirmed.

Book Review: Knockout Entrepreneur by George Foreman

I first learned of this book when Dave Ramsey interviewed George Foreman on his Fox Business television program, so when the chance to read this book came up, I jumped at it. Foreman is best known for two things: boxing and grilling. He has become one of America's best pitchmen and entrepreneurs, and in this book he shares his perspective on latching to innovative ideas.

In this book, George Foreman utilizes his boxing career (both stints as world heavyweight champion) as analogies for the business world. While this book isn't heavy hitting with new insights, George does offer his perspective on how to conduct general operations of a business, and how to look for the great opportunities around us.

If you're looking for leadership insights, so some secret to success that no one else has access to, you won't find those here. Instead, this book reads more like a series of advice columns, and addresses everything from honest and integrity to personal presentation and the team you surround yourself with. And, not to be left out, George relays his great dependency on God for success.

This book is a good read for anyone involved in either starting or running a business. You won't get great secrets, but there are a ton of simple things to do that can lead to success.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Eerieness of the Internet

This past Sunday, Zac Smith passed away. I wrote about him here.

His memorial service will be today at 4 p.m. EDT, and viewable here.

This all leads me to point out the eerie nature of the Internet. Zac has gone to be with Jesus, but his story, through video and his blog, will live on until the family closes the blog and removes the videos.

Prior to the Internet and modern media, the closet thing we had to living on after death was our writings. Most people did not leave anything to be read hundreds of years later, and have been forgotten. Today, however, we have modern media that can keep a legacy going for as long as storage capacity will allow.

That's kind of eerie, especially video and audio of people who have passed on.

That got me to thinking about when Jesus returns to take His church to Heaven. To think that when we are all gone, the Internet will allow us to leave our thoughts behind for all to read.

Perhaps Christians should view the Internet with the end of the story in mind, and not just the present day.

Monday Ten

1. I took today off from work. After the damp and dreary weekend, it was a good decision to take Monday off.

2. I spent part of my morning getting to know my new primary care doctor. He's a nice fellow, and a Christian. Sadly, he turns 64 this year. I hope he doesn't plan on retiring.

3. I gave blood to the doctor's vampire-nurse. It was all good, and I didn't pass out (which just about happened the last time I fasted and gave blood).

4. The good doc was able to give me a target weight to shoot for as I work to slim and trim my body into a lean, mean, fat-reducing, grill... oh, wait, that's George Foreman's line.

5. Speaking of George, I'm reading his book "Knockout Entreprenuer" at the moment. It is full of simple, good advice on life, business and relationships. I'll be writing a review and posting it soon.

6. I came across Foreman's fight with Evander Holyfield the other night on ESPN Classic. My wife isn't into boxing, so I recorded it, and will watch it with my boys later. They like fighting...although I'm not sure it's boxing that interests them.

7. Back on track. After the doc, I pulled the clubs and headed to a nearby driving range. Had the best wacking session ever. I think I'm going to like these new golf clubs.

8. Following that workout, I worked my buttocks off at the gym. Hey, I had the whole day, why not shed some pounds.

9. I have set a big goal to lose about 70 pounds (doctor's advice), build some muscle mass, and gain stamina. The goal has two parts: the first being a fall deadline for a local 5k run that I would like to enter. The second is the weight goal, which might take a year to do.

10. That all being said, the diet watch is ON. I'm not on a diet, necessarily, but I am watching what I eat and how much. My biggest weakness is eating too much of really good food.