Ser Profeta não é Fácil!

Quando o sacerdote Pasur, filho de Imer, o mais alto oficial do templo do Senhor, ouviu Jeremias profetizando essas coisas, mandou espancar o profeta e prendê-lo no tronco que havia junto à porta Superior de Benjamim, no templo do Senhor (Jeremias 20:1,2).

Quando você se acha num dia ruim ou de repente você quer chorar por ser abusado por um amigo, pense em Jeremias. Servir o SENHOR não é brincadeira especialmente quando seu nome é Jeremias. Ele não tinha chance de uma vida “normal” pois, antes do seu nascimento foi escolhido ser profeta às nações e todas elas iam rejeitá-lo.

“Normal” é um termo que usamos para descrever o que achamos “normal” não é? Pois meu normal não é o seu e vise versa. Porém o normal do Jeremias era anormal em todos os aspectos. A tarefa dele teria desanimado a pessoa mais forte. Neste capítulo ele profetiza sobre a destruição de Jerusalem e leva surras e é jogado na pior parte da cadeia.

Será que ele queria desistir? Será que Deus tinha a abandonado ele? Será que ele estava realmente fazendo a vontade de Deus? Sendo que tudo estava dando errado. Posso responder as três perguntas com três palavras, sim, não, sim.

Ele estava fazendo a vontade de Deus e sofrendo nela. Deus não tinha o abandonado pois nunca abandona seus servos. Ele queria desistir pois é normal esse sentimento em situações difíceis.

A recompensa do profeta era que no futuro Jerusalém seria destruída. Ele viveu até para ver os destroços e escreveu os sentimentos no poema chamado Lamentações.

O que podemos aprender dessa vida e desse homem? A vontade de Deus não é sempre agradável nem gostosa. Muitas vezes é exatamente o oposto. Porém devemos sempre procurar fazer a vontade de Deus em cada etapa da vida e em cada situação. Fácil de escrever e ler, difícil de realizar. No entanto vale a pena.

What you really want?

What do you want me to do to you? And he said, Lord, that I may see again. Luke 18:41
The answer to the blind’s question seems obvious doesn’t it? Jesus was talking to a man who had spent years in the dark of blindness. Why then did He ask such a conspicuous question. Didn’t Jesus know what the man needed? Of course He did. Jesus knew what he really needed but he wanted to hear from the man’s own lips what he thought he needed. Receiving his vision was primary in the blind man’s mind for I imagine that he had thought about seeing since he went blind years earlier. However, this encounter changed everything because, with Jesus’ question the man also received salvation; did you see that? Look again what Luke tells us, And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. His faith in the Savior had made him well. The word well means brought to safety or saved. The man had asked for a miracle from a man he had never seen but when he asked believing in the Savior he gained not only physical sight but spirtual salvation. Did you see Jesus’ words just before the miracle? He said, “your faith has brought you to safety. Wanting his vision, that in just a short time would pass away, this man gained his salvation by faith in the soul healer, Jesus Christ. What do you really want from Jesus?

Vendo, não Vêem

Por isso lhes falo por parábolas; porque eles, vendo, não vêem; e, ouvindo, não ouvem nem compreendem. E neles se cumpre a profecia de Isaías, que diz: Ouvindo, ouvireis, mas não compreendereis, e, vendo, vereis, mas não percebereis.
Mateus 13:13,14

Ouvi um entrevista hoje de manhã que me espantou! Era sobre o nosso universo e a possibilidade de criar outro universo. O “cientista” entrevistado disse que através de experimentos e cálculo de física tem sido provado que o nosso universo foi criado e que a gente vive num, tipo, programa de computador. Este “cientista” disse que os estudos tem sido interessantes e parece que indicam que seria possível, no laboratório, criar outro universo igual o nosso. O problema seria que logo depois desta “criação” a gente iria perder contato com o novo universo. Se você quer ver esta entrevista vai para o site http://www.closertotruth.com/ .

Eu não estou brincando! Eu ouvi esta entrevista com os meus ouvidos e o nome do site “maispertodaverdade.com” é real também (acho).

No fim desta conversa o cientista disse algo que me deixou com a boca mais aberta. O entrevistador perguntou, “Se a gente tem capacidade de criar outro universo, então talvez o nosso foi criado também?” À esta pergunta o cientista respondeu, “Podemos tirar conclusões teológicas desta hipótese que um tempo atrás um deus ou deusa criou o nosso universo mas logo depois desta criação ele ou ela perdeu contato com a sua criação”. E ele deu uma risadinha.

O que devemos pensar sobre experimentos ou conclusões assim? Eu abri minha Bíblia e virei a página para minha leitura de hoje. Um além, estou usando um plano cronológica de leitura e hoje é dia 287 que me deixou em Mateus 13. Eu citei dois versículos falados por Jesus na sua explicação sobre o por quê ele usou parábolas.

A ligação entre as palavras de Jesus e a entrevista do suposto cientista é o seguinte. Tem pessoas cegas a verdade de cada espécie são pessoas simples e pessoas “inteligentes”. Jesus começou a falar em parábolas não para explicar melhor suas verdades mas sim para confundir mais ainda os descrentes que tinham rejeitado sua mensagem clara.

A mensagem clara da Bíblia, que Deus criou o universo, foi colocada no começo dela para nos ajudar entender o resto dos seus escritos.  As palavras de Jesus são bem apropriadas quando pensamos nos “expertos” que estudam ciência. Eles tem tudo para entender mais sobre a criação de Deus porem são cegos a verdade. A “simplicidade” da mensagem tem deixado eles sem direção e noção. Outras palavras apropriadas aqui seriam estas achadas em Mateus 11:25, Graças te dou, ó Pai, Senhor do céu e da terra, que ocultaste estas coisas aos sábios e entendidos, e as revelaste aos pequeninos.

Fico contente para ser um dos simples pequeninos.

Cura da Tristeza

A minha alma consome-se de tristeza; fortalece-me segundo a tua palavra. Salmo 119:28

Tristeza traz conflito de alma. Ela consome pensamentos deixando o afetado doente e enfraquecido. A pessoa anda triste e não consegue pensar em outra coisa, se não em sua tristeza. Ela acorda com uma dor de alma e não lembrando o porquê daquela dor. Essa pessoa vagueia torturada com sentimentos que afetam seu ser. Ela acha que todo o mundo deve estar andando triste também.

Davi nesta linha de poesia, briga com este sentimento com intenção divina. Uma versão traduz a palavra “consome” como “colapso”. O verbo pode significar “pingar ou “cair” como lágrimas”. No entanto, aqui os tradutores sugerem que significa “ser sem dormir” ou “cansaço total”.

A tristeza faz isso. Ela nos abusa e nos deixa sem rumo ou sem descanso. Esta perseguição constante nos deixa mais atribulado e até ao ponto de colapso. Essa guerra interna mata felicidade. Ela devora e derrota o nosso contentamento, a nossa paz e a nossa esperança.

Davi se achou nesta situação e não só uma vez.Neste versículo de só cinco palavras hebraicas Davi compartilha o segredo em como tratar a inimiga chamada tristeza. Ele chama o Autor das Escrituras para socorrê-lo. Só Deus o Espírito Santo pode nos ensinar como lutar contra tristeza. Davi chama o Espírito de Deus para fortalecê-lo. Aquela palavra é traduzida: “surgir, surgir (sentido hostil), tornar-se poderoso, surgir entra em cena e ficar de pé”

Ela tem o sentido de alguém ajudando outra se levantar e ficar forte como se fosse braço em braço. Davi, porém, sabe que sem a Palavra de Deus, esta ajuda não vem.  Por isso ele escreveu este grande hino sobre aquela Palavra de Deus.

A admoestação para você e eu é exatamente isso, não devemos entrar no estado de colapso. Devemos cair nos braços do SENHOR e Salvador Deus Vivo, Pai da Eternidade e Príncipe de Paz. As Suas palavras trazem conforto, paz e direção. Se nos afastarmos delas não vamos achar a alegria da nossa Salvação. Mas nelas logo vem à alegria do nosso socorro e a felicidade em poder descansar no plano e o Amor perfeito do nosso Pai e Deus.

Jesus Running

Since it has been a year since my last update here, and since I discovered it again by visiting a church website, I decided to post. My posts have been to my Facebook page and usually in Portuguese.

I have been studying in Mark for a few months now. Preaching through this Gospel account has left me breathless. Jesus is on the move constantly. He heals, preaches, creates food from almost nothing and no one believes in Him except a handful of faithfuls.

Jesus in chapter 8 comes to the end of his presentation to the “spiritual” leaders and leaves them to their doom. He does that you know? He leaves doubters to their doom after multiplied demonstrations of grace and mercy. With thousands of displays of grace through acts and actions, words and teaching, He turns his back and leaves the leaders wagging their tongues. Never to return to Galilee.

His attention turns to His men. Those simple men, who after two of His three years of ministry, still don’t get him. He will spend the last year concentrating on them. Then he will leave the ministry to them.

Can you believe that? Leaving the ministry to these simple men? It must have seemed futile. I know! I know! Jesus is sovereign. He knows the end from the beginning and is never surprised or frustrated.

Or, did He get frustrated? Of course not. However, it looks a bit like frustration in Mark 8:17-21. Take a look and see what I mean. He is God and nothing or no one can negate that fact while reading the facts set forth in Mark. However, in his 100% humanity, I believe that he felt frustrated.

In His divinity he knew the plan. He knew the outcome. He knew that it would all work to bring Glory to His Father.

Jesus ran His race and in the end won the victory for me and you. He let His frustration teach. He never let it take His eyes from the Father’s desires. Are you that way?

Stress

I read an article about “Missionary Stress” this morning. There were scientific studies and charts and points. And the missionaries won on the stress-o-meter. It was 600-800 or so to the “normal” rather high stress level of 200. In other words, the missionaries were off the charts.

“Stress”, according to Dictionary.com, is

 [stres]

noun

1. importance attached to a thing: to lay stress upon good manners. Synonyms: significance, meaning,emphasis, consequence; weight, value, worth.

2. Phonetics . emphasis in the form of prominent relative loudness of a syllable or a word as a result of special effort in utterance.

3. Prosody . accent or emphasis on syllables in a metrical pattern; beat.

4. emphasis in melody, rhythm, etc.; beat.

5. the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.

I found this entry especially interesting because it didn’t get to the heart of our seeming problem until the fifth definition! What? How is that?

Isn’t “stress” the unrelenting force that keeps me from living a “normal” and fruitful existence? Isn’t it the unbeatable power that debilitates me? Isn’t it SATAN’s work in my life? Guess not.

O how often I crave something to blame for my own weakness. My lack of complete trust in God. My nasty flesh fight. I NEED stress or else I have to denounce my ego. If it isn’t stress that makes me hate beans and rice, there must be something wrong with my attitude. Is that possible?

Everything is possible when stress is involved. It becomes my scapegoat. Its good to have a scapegoat. Its convenient. Stress has the power of relieving me of my responsibility. It becomes my boss.

Stress has actually taken good missionaries from the field. One year they are preaching, teaching, living the Word. The next they’re gone. Why? Stress.

I need to banish this evil beast from my vocabulary. Or maybe, better yet, I should use its first definition. Could I possibly “stress” total dependence on God. Could I stress the importance of daily placing my life in His all caring hands. Should I stress the fact that, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4)?

My opinion. I believe if i stress relationship with All Mighty God, my supposed stress will vanish into victory. I may be wrong here but how could I be? If God is All Mighty, if He is in charge, if He is in control, and He is, then where is the stress? This one is on Him my friend. The number one definition of “stress” is, “1. importance attached to a thing: to lay stress upon good manners [or God].

If I stress God He gets glory and I get relief from my supposed burden. I love that! As the ancient commercial once said, “Try it. You’ll like it!”

In the Killer’s Clutches!

There I stood in a full body hug with a man who had threatened to kill me with a foot long butcher knife just six months earlier. He was more drunk this time than that. However, his motives were similar. It was an uncomfortable situation. The one advantage that I had this time, was that I was in church with a lot of people all around me! HA! As if a lot of people around you keep you from being knifed!

It was THE miracle that I had been praying for for nearly a year. I had prayed that Daniel would come to church! You talk about hard heads! He is one. He believes what he believes and doesn’t want to hear about what anyone else believes. He has turned to drink and drugs as his hobby and is even more difficult to sensibly communicate with.

Yet there he was. I was leading singing when I saw him slowly staggering down the aisle. He sat in the front row not knowing that NOBODY sits in the front row at a good Bible believing Baptist church! I nearly started crying!

Daniel sat through most of the message but got up and left near the end. Or so I thought. In fact he hovered at the back door until the very end. So, he “heard” the whole message. “Heard” is in quotes because a drunk hears differently than a sane person. Drunks hover between sanity and brain deadness.

Would you join me in prayer for Daniel. Some of you have been praying. Thank you! There is a crack in the dyke, a chink in the armor or light at the end of the tunnel. Just pray that it is not the proverbial “Oncoming TRAIN!”

Danger

When danger comes what do you do? Danger sometimes comes slowly. Sometimes rapidly. At times there are warning signs and other times not. 

Just the other day for instance. I was coming home from the work site. As usual there was a police blockade on the avenue. There were several cars ahead of me and a few on the other side coming at me. We sat for a few seconds waiting to get through when all of a sudden a guy in the oncoming lane busted the blockade. 

As he sped away, the startled policeman wheeled around and grabbed for his service revolver. In his frantic turn he wobbled and waved that pistol right at me! There I sat with a gun pointed at my chest for a split second!

I screamed to my friend John, “Did you see that!! I could have been killed just now!!” John looked at me and said, “Yeah, and here I sit with my paycheck in my pocket. Only to be killed by a stray bullet!” He chuckled… I didn’t.

There was danger in that moment. It happened in a split second of time. As the policemen jumped into their squad car and sped away in chase, I was still trying to catch my breath. 

Life can be dangerous. We drive on highways at break-neck speeds without thinking about all that goes into making a ride at that speed possible. We race in traffic with cars trucks and motorcycles on all four sides and think nothing of the possible danger. 

Just last week, here in Sorocaba, six teens were massacred as they waited for a bus along side a busy highway. A drunk driver who had no license hurtling at 90 miles per hour plowed into the small group launching bodies in several directions. It was a danger unseen. Deadly danger. 

Where is God when danger comes? He is right where He always is, with us. He is with us! He never promised a life without danger. In fact He said that all that live godly will suffer persecution. Persecution is danger in action. Don’t let danger immobilize you. Use it as a challenge. Don’t get stupid and lay in the middle of I-75 in the middle of rush hour. But don’t let the devil fool you about the danger of danger. Realize that the Master is walking you through it and let Him lead you. He can get you out of danger’s way, if He so chooses!

The End of the Law

Can you imagine a world with no laws?! You never have to stop at an intersection. Woo Hoo! You don’t have to be quiet in school. You don’t have to punch the time clock, in or out. You pay no bills. You don’t have to cut your lawn. You can sleep all day if you want to. 

But, wait! The sun doesn’t have to come up or set either. Molecules don’t have to stick together to form H2O or the like. Waves don’t have to stay on the beach or in the ocean. There is no gravity. No law would be chaos, wouldn’t it? 

Not if Christ is involved. Paul says in Romans 10:4 that “Christ is the end of the Law….” When Jesus submitted to the Father’s will He fulfilled the Law of Moses for good. The Law was done, it was perfectly obeyed. No flaws, faults or falls. All was perfectly kept.

Stop to meditate on that morsel for a second or ten. The Law of God perfectly kept. Not one jot or tittle broken. Amazing.

Considering all of the personal attacks, the attempts on his life, all of the thronging, the constant mobbing, yet he kept the Law. Not only the physical attacks but the tremendous spiritual confrontations with none other than Satan. The one record of his temptation in the wilderness was not unique. Satan had thirty years to overthrow God’s plan and he took every opportunity. 

Why did Jesus do this? What was the purpose? Why was this necessary?

The truly incredible aspect for you and me is that Christ did this to accomplish enough righteousness for us to enter God’s presence. His goodness was better than my badness. He suffered so that I would not have to. 

But it goes further than me. Jesus’ righteousness includes you too! His goodness, his sacrifice, his suffering was sufficient to pay for our transgressions. Here is a slight picture of what he did. 

Take an operating room. Now, if there are any nurses in the crowd please correct me. But in an operating room everything is clean. It has been sanitized, cleansed and purified. It is ready to receive a patient who will open himself or herself to the confines of that room. The patient knows nothing of surgery but is willing to submit their innermost parts to the sanctity of that room.

The first cut is made and the clamps are placed, when in walks a slum-dog from the deepest ghettos of Bombay. This character is wearing the filthiest garb and “disheveled” doesn’t come close to describing his appearance. His fingernails are deep in darkness. His nose is crusted with… never mind. His smell would gag a polecat!

This figure walks over to the operating table and grabs the scalpel. Its his turn to do some carving. He sneezes and wipes the residue on his stained sleeve. The look on his face reflects delight as he delves into the gaping wound with his slimy digits. 

“This would never happen!”, you gasp. “Preposterous!”, you shout. “Sick!”, you add in disgust. 

Right, right and right! You are so right. This is imagination gone bad. It is a ridiculous and absurd thought. 

Yet, when Jesus placed himself on the cross and allowed the surgeons to pierce his body, he was submitting himself to that slum-dog surgeon. He was allowing those evil spikes to penetrate his precious body with cruel delight. In that act he had a purpose. That purpose included sanctification for, “everyone who believes.”

Believe and you win the unthinkable. Eternal life. Believe and you are cured of your incurable sin disease. Believe and the Law is kept in your stead. Believe and your sin is made righteousness. 

Believe means, putting your confidence totally in that finished work. It means resting wholly in that completed task. Believe means forgetting self and all of self’s accomplishments, hopes and dreams. 

Jesus assignment was to fulfill the Law. He did. My duty is to believe. His goodness pleased God’s righteous demands. Hebrews calls it “propitiation”. A word strange to us but a word that means, “complete satisfaction”. Jesus completely satisfied God’s perfect righteous demands. The Law. Are you there? Have you believed?

Cussed Weeds

The title should read cuss-ed (with an accent on the ed like in Ed) weeds. It was a term my dad used. I have been battling with weeds here in Brazil. You talk about a struggle. It is constant.

So, a weird thought came to me the other day as I stood knee deep in weeds that I had weeded a week earlier. When God cursed Adam and told him that he would be sweating for the rest of his life with weeds up to his armpits, was he actually blessing the weeds?

Here is my rational. The opposite of a curse is a blessing. God cursed his creation. In that curse he told Adam, “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground”.

So, there you have it. The weeds are blessed. I know that you know. You accidentally swipe your hoe over one of your prized roses or potato plants and it is a gonner. There is no hope. It is dead. Done. Game over man.

Do the same to a weed. In a week that little cuss is poking his head back through the dry soil. Try this experiment if you don’t believe me. Put NO ChemLawn on your yard this summer. Don’t mow it. Just watch and see what happens. Your neighbors will love you. Your weeds will go to seed and blow all over the neighborhood.

Speaking of neighbors. When we lived in Michigan we had a neighbor who had a spectacular garden. It put the Victory Garden to shame. This old guy had plants flowering at all times of the summer. There was never a day that didn’t have buds and blossoms. It was grand, lovely and wonderful.

The the old guy died. There was a family dispute about what to do with the house and the house was vacant for some weeks. In that time the garden disappeared. It was gone in days. Unbelievable. It became infested with the blessed weeds.

Near my daugher in South Carolina there is another example of heaven on earth for the gardening crowd. Janet is a retired teacher. She has a lovely yard. She spends four hours (4 HOURS) a day in her gardens at least three to four day’s a week. Thus they are lovely. If she ever takes a trip or dies that garden will be overrun by weeds in a jiffy.

Weeds are blessed. Thats why there is a ChemLawn. Thanks Adam.