The Commands of Jesus: Walk Two Miles

"41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." - Matthew 5:41

At first I didn't know what I should write about for this particular Commands of Jesus installment. I have never been "forced" to walk with someone. It has always been a choice for me. "Hey, Bob. Would you like to go walking today?" That sort of thing.

No one has ever burst into my bedroom in the middle of the night and forced me to get up and go walking with them. So what does this command really mean? What am I supposed to do?

Have you ever been forced to do something against your will? Yeah. I go to work every day. I don't really WANT to go to work. I am "forced to" . . . because . . . I want to eat!! However, I think Jesus had something more in mind. He's looking for real sacrifice from us. That's what these last few commands we've been reading in Matthew have been all about.

Matthew 39: Do not resist the one who is evil, turn to him the other (cheek) also. Verse 40 let him have your cloak as well.

It seems to me that Jesus is looking for sacrifice from us beyond what most might consider a "normal" response. Remember, we are supposed to be servants in this world. We are supposed to be the ones who are "giving" even though we might not have much.

I am thinking of a young friend this morning. Her parents are kicking her out of the house. She has tried to get a job but has found none. What would Jesus want me to do in this situation?

There is another young friend in my life seeking funds to go on a mission trip. It's rather obvious what Jesus would want me to do there but in light of Jesus commanding us to go TWICE as far as we might otherwise, how much shall I contribute?

Funny. Here I am writing about this particular command about "going beyond" right as two people in my life surface with opportunities to do just that. Is there someone in YOUR life who could benefit from this command Jesus gave to us? Is there someone in YOUR life in need?

You know, a "command" is something that is often contrary to our will. I have another young friend who is in the Marines. It is DEFINITELY contrary to his nature to get up at 5:00AM and go for a 20-mile run with his platoon . . . but he does it.

What opportunity will occur today in YOUR life that would allow you to follow this command of Jesus? Will your spouse ask you to do something this weekend that you really don't want to do? I encourage you to be aware of any opportunities to follow the commands of Jesus.

We are here on earth to learn and grow in character and be transformed into the image of Jesus. We should be eagerly awaiting opportunities to do that, don't you think?

"10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." - Luke 16:10

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers

The Commands of Jesus: Turn The Other Cheek

"But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." - Matthew 5:39

Have you ever been slapped in the face? I haven't. Maybe I just never did anything bad enough to warrant being slapped. I have been SPANKED but never slapped.

Even though I have never experienced being slapped I am pretty sure I would NOT willingly desire to be slapped in the face again. I base this on my experience of being spanked as a disobedient child. I never said, "Thank you, may I have another?" Getting spanked brings a whole new meaning to turning the other "cheek." So what exactly did Jesus mean when He commanded us to turn the other cheek?

I think what Jesus is looking for is for us to be slow to act out in anger. At least initially. But I also think He wants us to go beyond that. To think before we act. Maybe by turning the other cheek we have an opportunity to do that.

I also think that by turning the other cheek we have an opportunity to demonstrate to our "slapper" that we love them too much to slap them back. I guess what I am trying to say is that . . . what would Jesus do in that situation. Let's go to the Bible. We are going to read about Jesus being questioned near the end of His life. He is about to get slapped.

"19 Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

20 “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.

23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest."  - John 18:19-24

Jesus did not retaliate against His captors. He reasoned with them. He made them think.

When people hurt us do we strike back at them? I have seen many people doing this very thing on Facebook. They lash out at who ever hurt them. By doing so thay aren't doing ANYBODY any good.

I think what Jesus wants us to do when someone hurts us is to not say anything. Let them not see that we have been hurt at all. In fact, I think Jesus would want us to pray for the person who just hit us.

"43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," - Matthew 5:43-44

The next time someone attacks you, either physically or emotionally, don't strike back. Instead pray for them. Ask them what's wrong, that they would lash out at you. Jesus wants us to love our neighbors but that is a story from a future installment of The Commands of Jesus.

Time for a tough question. In light of this command from Jesus, to turn the other cheek, to not retaliate against our enemies, what do you think we as a nation should have done after 9/11? Should we have done nothing? Did we act appropriately in God's eyes? I'm not saying we did wrong. Perhaps we were being used by God to punish the people who killed innocent people. Did the leaders of our country ask us to pray for our enemies? Something to think about.


Budweiser Superbowl Commercial 2011

Saved?

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" - 2 Corinthians 13:5

Do you ever wonder about your salvation? Do you ever wonder whether you REALLY prayed that prayer right? Or maybe you were baptized as a baby, always went to church and are wondering what Jesus means when he told Nicodemus that "you must be born again" in order to see the kingdom of God. Satan's good at putting doubt in our heads about all kinds of things but this one is a biggy - wondering if we are truly saved or not.

The following is a test of sorts, totally and unashamedly ripped off from an amazing episode of WretchedTV I watched over the weekend. [The ten points and the questions in bold belong to Todd Friel. The verses are all God's (through the apostle John). The rest of the commentary and text is mine.]

This "test" doesn't come with a big SALVATION TEST heading in the Book of First John from which it was taken. One has to dig a little bit to find the questions. There aren't actually any questions there anyway! But the answers are there. So here is the list of evidence, right out of the Bible, that will indicate whether or not you are truly saved. Open your Bibles to 1 John, Chapters 1-4.

1. Do you enjoy getting together with other believers? (1 John 1:7) “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, . . . “ Do we like spending time at church? Do we hang out with other church members "after hours" or in a small group? We should. And fellowship isn't just "hanging out" after church. It's hanging out, and talking about Jesus!
2. Do you know that you are a sinner, deserving of God’s Wrath? “(1 John 1:8) “8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” I used to think because I believed in Jesus I was good to go no matter how much I sinned. Not so. One key word was missing - repentance. Even Satan believes in Jesus. We need to turn away from our sins and turn toward Jesus, seeking His forgiveness.
3. Do you keep God’s Commandments? (1 John 2:3) “3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” Gulp. This one is a toughy. I'd say most of us keep most commandments but when Jesus says when we look at someone with lustful thoughts we have already commited adultery in our hearts (Matthew 5:28). Or have we ripped a friends CD and not paid for the songs on your Ipod? That's stealing. Commandment #8. Mhmm.
4. Do you love the world? (1 John 2:15) “15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Shiney cars, beautiful people, really nice houses. Do we love these things? Are they important goals our treasures in our lives?
5. Have you ever denied Jesus? Do you follow the RIGHT Jesus? (1 John 2:23) “23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also." Are we afraid to talk to other people about God because we're afraid they might think of us as weird? If we deny Him, He has promised to deny us our entry into heaven.
6. Can’t wait to see Jesus? (1 John 3:2) “2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” This is at the heart of every born-again believer in Jesus Christ. We cannot wait to get to heaven. It's not a suicide thing, it's more of a graduation / promotion thing.
7. Do you still live in sin? (1 John 3:8) “8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” If we call ourselves a Christian yet live in un-repentant sin and think nothing of it, we ain't no Christian. We should examine ourselves daily.
8. Do you love your brothers and sisters? Does it show? (1 John 3:14) “4 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” The people at church, do we love them like they are our brothers and sisters. We should . . . because they are.
9. Do you like to hear teaching? (1 John 4:6) “6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Do we enjoy hearing sermons? Or do we just want to go home and turn on the ball game? We should long to spend time in His Word and learn more about Jesus every day.
10. Do you believe Jesus is God? Do you share Him with loved ones? (1 John 4:15) “15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” Do we really believe that Jesus is who He said He was? We should if we are truly born again. And do we share our faith and beliefs with others? We should. We are commanded to!

Here are some interesting statistics from the Barna Group.

7% of professing contemporary evangelicals say they are born again. That's down two points since a 2006 survey.

2% of professing contemporary evangelicals actually share their faith.

Christians should be exhibiting ALL these characteristics in some form. When we receive God's Holy Spirit we are transformed. "The old is passed away. The new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are liteally born again.

Born Again by Third Day

Just one final word about The 10 Commandments – it’s not about perfection (we will never obtain that) but it IS about direction. Repentance – our turning around and following after Jesus. May God bless you and keep you safe as we "cast off the old self."

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." - Colossians 3:1-10

Between

I'm sitting here in the living room, staring at my laptop screen. That's because the TV is on and I have given up television for Lent. "Then why is the TV on, Bob?" Well, I may have given up watching television for Lent, but my wife hasn't.

Because I have not given up being with my wife for Lent, I spend a lot of time watching "other things" while my wife watches TV. I watch my dinner plate closer than probably any person ever has. I watch my phone, waiting for texts from friends that don't come often enough. I watch the pages of God's Word, although it's hard to focus on Israel wandering through the desert as my wife cheers on her favorite celebrity dancers. Television sucks.

Oh, television had its moments. Watching Neal Armstrong set foot on the moon was good. Watching JFK's horse-drawn casket going down Pennsylvania Avenue was sad but also much needed by a hurting country. Lately however I have noticed that overall, television has become an incredible wasteland. To paraphrase Nathaneal (John 1:46), "Can anything good come out of television?"

During this time of fasting, I have also discovered something else, besides my disenchantment with television. I have discovered something . . . about myself. I live in a world that is in "between." I am the guy who stands with one foot on the dock and the other foot is in the boat. And the boat is moving away from the dock. Either I make a decision in favor of one or the other or my life is suddenly going to become a lot wetter.

The world on which we live is being orbited by a moon. The only thing that keeps the moon from crashing into us is the force of itself spinning around us. Without that speed, we would perish. If the moons velocity slowed it would begin to draw closer to the earth and, eventually, there would be a collision. And so it is with us and our faith.

This world, this God-less culture we have created for ourselves, has an incredible pull on each of us, just like the earth pulls at the moon. Without anyone to keep us from doing so, we are bound to be drawn into it, like a moth to a flame. And we are being absorbed into it more and more deeply, more fatally, with every passing day.

As I look at things it is obvious to me that only God can save us. The ironic thing is He has already offered to do just that. He has given us an invitation to join him in the lifeboat while everyone around us is partying while this ship goes down. And despite how loudly we yell, "Abandon ship!!" the music just gets louder and the drinks flow more freely than ever before. So what do we do?

Well, it begins with you and me. It begins with each of us. We are the ones who must tell our unbelieving friends about the waiting lifeboat. We are the ones who are in between; God's messengers if you will. He has instructed us to "make disciples of all nations." How we doin' with that? I myself am failing massively.

We are COMMANDED by God to preach The Gospel, to "make disciples of all nations" and to love others as we love ourselves. COMMANDED! And yet we do nothing. Back in the day, if we disobeyed a direct order from a king we would be killed or tortured for sure. Today though, seeing as almost everyone is ignoring orders from our King, suddenly it's okay?

We must be ready to speak The Gospel whenever God places people in our paths. We need to get them to see their sinful nature (we're ALL sinners so that should be pretty easy), and make them recognize their need for repentance and for a savior in Jesus Christ. There can be no in between. It's either one side or the other.

"30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." - Matthew 12:30

God does not need us. He is able all by Himself. But He did call us to take action and we WILL be held accountable one day for all of our actions and for all of our inactions as well.

"36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:36-37

So let's speak of Jesus often. Let us speak of God's sacrifice of His Son . . . for OUR sins. And let us never be caught in the middle in our faith. May both of our feet be firmly planted on the side of the LORD (our Master and Absolute Ruler). And may His will be done, right here on earth, as it is in heaven.

Somewhere in The Middle by Casting Crowns

Ten

Recently, at a local Christian music festival in Oshkosh, WI (Lifest), I asked people some questions about their faith. I kind of had a feeling what some of their answers were going to be but I wanted to hear the words straight from someones mouth, not from my warped little brain.

The first question I asked was "Are you a Christian?" Umm . . . duh. That question was kind of a no-brainer I guess. I WAS at a CHRISTIAN music event after all. I kind of figured everyone would be a Christian. Still it's possible that a non-believer could have snuck in under our Christian radar or come with a friend or maybe had been dragged there against their will. Okay, probably not that last one.

To no one's surprise, everyone who took my little survey was a professing Christian. Sadly however, that particular question was the LAST question that provided a unanimous, correct answer. The second question was a lot tougher and NO ONE got it right . . . completely.

Before I share that question with you though, go get a piece of paper and a pencil and see how YOU do. I will wait. Ready? Okay, here goes . . . "Name the Ten Commandments."

[Click this link to play the Jeopardy Theme Song while you answer. No pressure. Repeat as necessary]

Well, how did you do? Those answering at Lifest got as few as two commandments correct and as many as eight right. No one was able to recite all of the commandments. It's hard to come up with all ten when put on the spot. As a matter of fact, later, after the first day's questioning was over, I tried to list all ten myself and failed. Even after staring at the answers all day I could only get nine. I'm old. I'm lame. Actually, it's because I was "too busy" and I never cared to memorize them at any point in my life. Sad.

Age didn't seem to matter when it came to naming the Ten Commandments. All ages failed. But I did notice that those with a Catholic background seemed to fare better. Perhaps they learned them in a faith-based school environment? Hard to tell. I didn't ask people about their particular denomination but some volunteered it so I made note.

The third question I asked of my victims, err . . . I mean, my survey participants, was "What did Jesus mean then when He asked in John 14:15, 'If you love me you will keep my commands.'" Ouch. That one probably stung a bit, considering everyone had just failed reciting God's commands.

That leads to some OTHER interesting questions that weren't even part of the questionnaire like, "How can we say we love Jesus if we can't keep His commands?" and "How can we keep God's commands if we don't even know what they are?" Those are some good questions.

"Yeah, but Bob, we can still love Jesus without being able to recite the Ten Commandments. Besides, it's tough coming up with all ten on the spur of the moment."

Two thousand years ago, Jewish students were expected to memorize the Torah - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. All of it! And we can't memorize ten little commandments?

I found this semi-short video on YouTube. It's an easy way to memorize the Ten Commandments. It worked for me. Try it. Then, if you run into me at Lifest next year, you will have no fear when I ask you to name the Ten Commandments. :)

How to Memorize the Ten Commandments by Ron White

"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" - 2 Corinthians 13:5

The Ten Commandments

"3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” - Exodus 20 3-17