Raised from Stones

What gall those Pharisees and Sadducees had. Oh, and it wasn’t just Jesus who had to deal with them; John the Baptist had his fair share of dealings with the religious nuts. They came to him in Matthew chapter three. They wanted to be baptized, but John saw right through them. They wanted to be baptized, but they didn’t want to change.

Those presumptuous Israelites figured that their standing as children of Abraham afforded them assurance of high standing in the Kingdom of God. They thought God would certainly desire followers of such noble lineage. But John set them straight.

In verses seven through twelve he really lets them have it. “You’re a bunch of snakes! Who warned you that God was about to take you out? If you really want to escape, start acting like you’re sorry for being such idiots and making Him angry in the first place.” (This, of course, is a slight paraphrase.) “You keep bragging about being descended from Abraham, but that’s nothing. God could make children of Abraham from this pile of rocks, and they’d be better looking too!” (Maybe that last part isn’t in there).

The gist of John’s message: “God is fixin’ to clean house fellas (I like to imagine John spoke with the equivalent of an Alabama accent in Hebrew). You’d better straighten up and quit putting all you stock in who your daddy was. God doesn’t need you anymore than He needs a gravel pit.”

How true that is. God made the first man from dirt; don’t you think He could do that again? He doesn’t need us. But we need Him desperately. The next time you think you are entitled to something from God because of who you are or what you have done, remember: He made you from mud; there is plenty of material left to make your replacement.

Kicking Against the Goads

In Bible times one of the most vital and useful tools that could be owned by a farmer or a herdsman was a device known as a goad. It’s not something we hear about very often these days. It was basically a stick with a sharp point either hardened with fire or covered with metal. This spiked tip was then used to poke an animal to make it move. The goad was meant to direct the animal, steering it or speeding it up.

When the beast was confronted with this motivational tactic, it had three basic choices. It could give in to the prodding and move at the desired speed in the right direction. It could keep doing what it was doing as though nothing had happened, thus ensuring the goad would be used again (and likely in a more aggressive manner). Or the animal could kick at the goad, trying to injure whatever it was that had poked him. There are a couple of problems with the animal reacting in this way. First of all, the whole point of a goad is to keep the herder far enough away from the herdee that the animal cannot reach him. So, an animal that kicked against a goad could only hurt himself. In order to kick, the animal has to be moving toward the goad; well, moving closer to a sharp object that is jabbing you is not going to help. Also, in order to kick, the animal would have to flex most of the muscles in its leg. This would cause the goad to dig deeper into the muscle than if they were relaxed.

Interesting, right? Well, I’m not meaning to just talk about ancient techniques for animal herding. That historical tidbit is necessary in order to understand a message that God once gave to the apostle Paul. In Acts 26 Paul is retelling the account of his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. It is there that we hear the words of Jesus, when He says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

So, God is comparing Saul (later to be called Paul) to a stubborn ox that is being herded but keeps kicking against the goad. God is trying to direct Saul, to move him in the right direction; but Saul only wants to attack what is pushing him.

This makes me wonder if Saul knew all along that Christianity was the way. God had been guiding him, trying to get him to see the truth, but he just would not. He did not want to admit that his whole way of life was useless, his vast learning was missing a vital piece, his righteousness was not enough.

Like Paul we often find ourselves being herded along by God. And, like Paul, we often think our own way is so much better, and we rail against the direction God is taking us. We ignore His guidance and His direction. But all the while, He keeps trying to turn us. It would be so much easier if we would just stop kicking against the goads and walk where Christ wants us.


“The words of the wise are like goads…they are given by one Shepherd.” Ecclesiastes 12:11

It sure seems like I've been writing on here a whole lot less recently. Well, since I'm through with college, there hasn't been as much to write about. Or so it seems anyway.

One may take my lack of blogging to mean that I am no longer clueless. Perhaps I wander less. Perhaps I have found the answers to my questions.

Rest assured, this is not the case.

Yes, despite all the things God has taught me, I am still clueless. I still ponder things to which I may never find a reasonable conclusion. And my life is filled with at least as many questions as it was when this whole thing began.

Here's the problem. My questions used to be interesting. There used to be some kind of deeper... something from... somewhere. Now all I can seem to get out is "What? Where? When? How?" Not very exciting or vital to the reader who is outside my thought process. But to me, these are the questions that shape the course of my life. They are the same boring questions we all ask.

So, yes, I am still clueless. I am still stumbling through a messy, mixed-up world. And I still hope we can find the Way together as we seek to walk with Christ.

Yesterday's Manna

As I was contemplating how we are sustained by God, and how He nourishes us spiritually, I couldn’t help but remember the story of Exodus 16. As seems to always be the case in Exodus, the Israelites are groaning. I say this in no way to mean that I am better; I groan plenty, it’s just that no one has written a book about me doing it yet.

In this particular instance, the people are groaning because they need food. Not a bad reason to groan, if you have none. So, God provided for them, as He always did. He rained down a delicious meal from heaven, an unknown food that tasted like wafers made with honey (possibly Honeycomb breakfast cereal). They could it “manna.”

God gave some specific instructions along with this blessing, however. He told them to gather only what they needed, but to gather double on the day before the Sabbath, and to eat those leftovers on the Sabbath.

Of course, the Hebrews neglected these commands. Not only did they try to gather manna on the Sabbath, but they also tried to gather extra manna on other days. And, as is usually the case when one disobeys God’s instructions, the consequences were eminent.

During the night this sweet pastry attracted and bred worms, turning sour and creating a tremendous odor (the manufacturers of Honeycomb avoided this with the invention of the artificial preservatives we all love so much).

Nonetheless, I believe there is an important lesson to learn from this story. So often we look back on our past spirituality, or even the spirituality of our family, and we become satisfied with it. We come to rely on it. We believe what we have done in the past is enough, if we could just sustain it or replicate it. We try to survive on the manna we gathered yesterday. But there was a reason God told the Israelites to gather their nourishment everyday.

God wants us to continually be relying on Him. He wants us to always be searching for some new revelation. Simply reviewing what we have done or learned cannot be enough. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he writes in chapter thirteen, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”

The bitter truth is, there are many among us who simply need to grow up. We have become satisfied with what we have accomplished, with what we know; and all the while there is so much more to behold. There is so much more to the glory of God than we have seen. There is so much more to His provision, to His power. And we are content to stagnate and breed worms. We need to quit fiddling around with yesterday’s manna. Go and see what God has sent from heaven today.

Food we Do Not Know

How often do we skip a meal? I know I don’t very often. We like food, and we don’t like being hungry. But I was wondering the other day, “Why don’t we hunger for God that way?” After all, we need God even more than we need food; He is the source of our strength and nourishment. Why do we ignore Him in a way we would never ignore our hunger pangs?

In John chapter four, Jesus’ disciples were taking care of their grocery shopping in a Samaritan village while Jesus waiting at the local watering hole. That’s where the Savior had an encounter with a Samaritan woman and confronted her misconceptions about worship and life. But after His conversation with the woman, His disciples tried to get Him to eat something. Jesus replied, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” The disciples question among themselves, wondering where He got the food. He answered them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

I really believe that Jesus had a hunger inside Him. I believe that if He ever went very long without touching someone for His Father, He was filled with pangs like if we had not eaten. And when He fulfilled a task that His Father had given to Him, He felt a satisfaction better than any we could know from the biggest meal.

So why do we not take advantage of this food we do not know? Why do we neglect the one thing that can nourish us, strengthen us, and satisfy us like nothing else can? Why do we not hunger to serve the One who sent us?

Lord, fill us with desire for Your food.

The Most Noble Contradiction

There were many contradictions at the cross. Everything about it went against the nature of God. The One who knew no sin was made to be sin. The True Light that had come into the world was shrouded in darkness. The Life was crucified. The Three-in-One God was divided, separated for the first and only time.

But these kinds of contradictions are what makes the cross so powerful. No other life could have, by its death, given life to the world. Only a sinless sacrifice could wipe out the debt of sin. These contradictions were a part of the plan all along, and they were nothing new in the life of Christ.

The very act of Jesus being born was a contradiction. His very nature, wholly God and wholly man, is a seeming paradox that we cannot fully understand. But perhaps the greatest contradiction is explained in the opening chapter of John’s Gospel. John says that Jesus came “full of grace and truth.”

The grace of God is His lovingkindness toward us, His mercy, the way He puts up with us when we fail. The truth of God is His unchanging faithfulness, His immutability, His uncompromising justice. His grace is what makes Him want to bring us to Himself. His truth is what keeps Him from welcoming sinners. The two thoughts are perpendicular. It does not seem like they should exist in one God. But the contradiction is not because the two are mutually exclusive; it is because our sin is in conflict with both.

That is why the contradiction of the cross was necessary. That is where the grace of God and the truth of God met. That is where they worked together to rid the world of the sin that had placed them at odd. That is where Christ became, as it says in Romans 3, “both just and the justifier.” The contradiction of the cross is where God rejected His own nature because of His deep love for us. He gave up so much of Himself so that His real self could be revealed to us, so that we could know Him.

It is a mystery too great for words. It is the most noble contradiction.

God: Remembered

It was strange. God had freed His people from their enemies and conquered their foes on every side. He gave them Gideon as a judge to guide them. But, as soon as he died, Judges 8:34 says, “the children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God.”

When Jerusalem lay desolate and without walls, and enemies threatened to stop the construction, Nehemiah offered the people only one hope. “Do not be afraid of them.” Nehemiah 4:14 says, “Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight.”

A prophet running from God found himself in the midst of a storm-tossed sea. But matters soon would get much worse, as he found himself in the midst of a great fish. But, from the bowels of a sea monster, when all hope was lost and his spirit fainted within him, Jonah 2:7 says, “I remembered the LORD.”

Often God must go to extreme lengths to get His people to remember Him. When the psalmist recounts the story of the exodus in Psalm 78, he lists all the ways that God provided for His people. But it was not until God brought death to them that he could say in verse thirty-five, “Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.”

How often we don’t remember God! When He is the only One who can save, guide, and provide. I can only say, with the writer of Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come.” Now is the time to make that choice. He is worth remembering. He is the most important thing to remember.


“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.” Psalm 22:27.