Balaam and the children of Israel in Exodus are scary stories because it is easy to see how I have the avalibility of some of their worse traits. They showed that you can get in the presence of the Lord, see his miracles, and still remain the same. Not everyone gets the message. Even Moses, the greatest of the great, didn’t pay attention all the time and failed to enter the promised land. These stories should create a powerful sense of humility in all Bible readers. All are vulnerable to ignoring the Lord from the greatest to the worst.

Balaam seemed to be a great guy at the beginning, blessing the Israelites instead of cursing them. He was under duress. The Lord was speaking to him, but clearly required him to bless instead of curse. Later, Balaam was killed by the Israelites. He betrayed them and God when he was left up to his own ambitions. He changed his behavior in the presence of God, but not his heart.

The Israelites were the same. They came to crisis, behaved terribly, were rescued, behaved well for a while, until the next crisis. They behaved when pressed and believed when convenient, but they never changed their hearts toward God. They died in the wilderness. This is terribly scary when you think about what they witnessed. Was that just them? How about now, today? What about you and me?

We are surrounded by the miraculous presence of God every day in all of life. Nature boasts of God. Every event in our world testifies to elements of truth God revealed in scripture, truth about the nature of sin and its fruits and the nature of salvation and its fruits. How is it possible to ignore the presence of the creator of life when He is constantly working to reveal Himself to us?  Do we see the lack of profit like Balaam or the hardships like the children of Israel? Is there some other reason, like if God is God then I can’t be? Why is He so visible to some and not to others? Do you have to believe to see or see to believe?

We can start with the tangible. Scripture is truth. It clearly paints a picture of God. It clearly reveals the humanity of man. It clearly reveals the sin that brings suffering into life. He clearly provided a rescue through Jesus. The picture is painted clearly. We can look in scripture and look in life and see Him. Here is the hard part. We have to choose to see or ignore. One way or the other, we choose the visible or the invisible God of creation. Jesus is alive. He rescues every day. Salvation is the start in a lifetime of rescues. We are not in this wilderness alone. He is visible to those who choose Him. Let us open our eyes together and share the Jesus we see in our midst.

The servant of Abraham went to seek a wife for Isaac. He carried the wealth and the authority of Abraham with him. Servants or slaves have no doubt to whom they belong. Belonging in these situations was a 24/7 kind of deal. They were unable to do anything without considering the master. When the master spoke, they could not act differently than required without potentially suffering consequences. The amiability of the relationship depended on the disposition of the master and the slave.

This story in scripture does not carry all the heart rending hateful images we have of slavery in America. This was the most trusted person in Abraham’s household, sent to perform a critical task for the family. Isaac must have a wife for the prophecies to be fulfilled.

Jesus grafted us into Himself at the cross. We belong, not like the slave or servant, but like family with one difference. Most of us do not consider family as deeply and intimately as Jesus considers us. Up front and before we knew Him, He thought more, gave more, and sacrificed more than any living family member ever could. He went beyond the limitations of man and gave heaven’s wealth and joy.

We belong. We belong to Him beyond any measure we have to calibrate belonging. We belong in every state that we could possibly find ourselves. We belong in every moment, no matter how praiseworthy or disgusting. We belong in the darkest corner or the brightest light. We belong to Him. Belonging to Jesus is a miraculous gift of heaven.

Belonging carries the mark of the master. It carries the authority and treasures of the master. It is inseparable from the master. We have this whether we recognize it or not, in times of awareness to no awareness. We do not touch the ground except through the miraculous belonging path, which we walk with Him.

We are like Abraham’s servant in that we search for the bride for the Master’s Son Jesus. We go with the authority and wealth of the Master to free the bride from her former family, the world. We should seek her with the same prayer and faithfulness of Abraham’s servant.

Easter is resurrection Sunday. It is the fulfillment of scripture, Jesus, salvation and the truth about this world we live in. It is hotly contested by those who don’t believe in it and ignored by many who neither believe nor disbelieve. How can you prove the resurrection? What do you believe? Why do you believe that?

Resurrection means Jesus is alive, alive in scripture, alive in circumstances, and alive in people. He is verifiably alive today and making Himself known, as promised in scripture, through the non-stop work of the Holy Spirit, His living presence is in and among us. 

Sin is in denial of the living Christ, and sin is all around us and in us too. The problem becomes one of faith and choice. Some people believe that only science has the answers, but I don’t believe it (see the irony there).

Take evolution as an example. There are scientists on both sides of the discussion, each believing they have the definitive proof of their arguments. Science requires faith and choice as much as religion. Science is tied to its time and often disproves what it knew through what it learns in what is current.

The scripture prophecies have been proven absolutely accurate after centuries when fulfilled. The revelation of Jesus is rock solid throughout time. Love requires faith and choice. Jesus reveals humanity as it is, how it was created, what the Creator meant for it, and how the Creator resolves the destruction of sin through the life, death, resurrection — the truth — of Jesus.

Jesus is a person and God. Scripture gives a true portrayal of His character, values, personality, and qualities, not just in the New Testament, but also throughout the Old Testament. One Bible, sixty-six books, centuries to write, one story, all in alignment, with Jesus as the perfect fulfillment of all of it, still living today.

I am thankful for Christians. They have chosen Jesus. You can see Jesus alive in them. They are proof of the resurrection. They are proof, not because they are perfect, but because God is at work in them and through them, with and without their permission, in perfect harmony with scripture. People who are not Christian are proof of the living Lord because they live according the the creation laws and the laws of sin which are clearly explained in scripture and through the life of Jesus. The enemy is also alive, proving the truth that Jesus is alive. We are surrounded by evidence. Those “for” and “against” both serve to prove the truth of the living Jesus. 

The evidence brings us to the faith and choice place. The truth is evident, but we chose what we believe. We choose the facts we use to explain our faith and choice from all the facts that exist, or from the facts that we can see.

I have tasted the freedom and change Jesus provides to His children. My life has changed and continues to change because He is alive. The entire world compares selfish gain to selfless love through all literature and news as villainous and heroic. The values of the villain and the hero cross all time, all cultures, all faiths, in believers and unbelievers alike. Jesus is the ultimate hero. I am one among many rescued by him and learning to be less selfish (an uphill battle, I assure you). Books are filled with the testimonies of people who have met Jesus and experienced Him personally in their lives.

Easter is a day to celebrate the truth of scripture and the fulfillment of God’s promises in Jesus. Every day is a day to celebrate the resurrection because Jesus is alive and with us, working to free us and rescue us in all the ways we need rescue. Life, all life around us, proves the resurrection because Jesus is alive and well on planet Earth.  The true joy of the resurrection is that Jesus is alive, here, now, and closer than the next prayer because He knows and cares for you.

I guess we all have images about church and what it is supposed to be and not be. The cult of personality is one of the “don’t be’s.” Many Hollywood stars know that branding, having a marketable name, is critical to getting the roles you want. Some churches operate the same way. It is about the preacher, the media hits, and other marketable items. We have seen those who have made their name and claim-to-fame be overcome and destroyed by the same success that built their churches. There is danger in marketing.

I want the church to be successful and reach large masses of people. The problem becomes one of degree. At what point does the marketing and fame of the church or individuals outdistance the truth of Christ? How can you tell when you’ve crossed the line? A wise pastor once answered me by asking me to examine anything I was clinging to and unwilling to lose in my possessions or personal image. Those things would be suspect. I would think that you have crossed the line whenever fame, money, and success of the church (or anything) causes you to cover, hide, or be disingenuous in your faith. All fall short of the glory of God, and repentance is the only road to victory.

One of my images of church is kind of frightening. It is about polishing. Polishing semi-precious stones requires putting a group of stones in a tumbler with some water and abrasive and turning on the tumbler. The tumbler runs for days or weeks, causing the water, abrasive, and stones to bounce against each other, knocking off all the rough edges and polishing the surface. Rough image, but what is the point of church? 

Jesus has saved us to change us from this world to His, from our values to His. Church is a gathering place for Jesus to work on souls, transformations, and redemptions. Church is His workshop to turn raw materials into working materials of the kingdom of heaven. The evidence of Christ and the church is change. 

Here is another image. I saw a movie about marines on a mission. They had to get over a wall to achieve their goal. One marine ran and placed himself against the wall. The next marine climbed over him and became the next piece of the hunan ladder and so on until the last marine achieved the top. The top marine attached a rope for all others to climb up. The focus wasn’t the marines. It was the mission. This is my image of church leadership. The goal is Christ, the top of the wall. All the members of the church are part of helping all other members get there. You can tell the maturity of the leadership by their focus for getting others over the wall into the presence of Christ.  

I want to express my extreme gratitude for my church and faith-filled friends. God is using you to work on me, whether you know it or not. I’m not like I was, but I am yet to become what I will be. I see Jesus alive in you, and I am encouraged and challenged. We are growing together through the generosity and faithfulness of Jesus, our Lord. 

A gun is a most powerful weapon. It is a tool for doing good in the hand of a righteous person, protection and rescue. It is a powerful expression of evil in the hands of an unrighteous person, murder, maim, injury, and intimidation. We are on a planet consumed in war, physical and spiritual, with the gun as a real weapon and as a metaphoric weapon of spiritual warfare.

There is always violence where the corruption of humanity meets the holiness of Jesus. Sin can not bear to be in the Lord’s presence. What happens to us who sometimes find ourselves on one side, then on the other, and sometimes both seemingly at once? St. Paul discussed this very issue in Chapters 7 and 8 of Romans.

The scripture is full of patterns of God and life that we can recognize and understand. Adam and Eve faced that moment where sin meets God and responded in ways we all know:  hiding, cover-up, misinformation, and blame. The first level of blame is against any other persons involved, immediately or remotely. The second level of blame is against God who must be at fault if we won’t accept accountability. The violence is sin toward heaven or heaven toward sin with humans caught in the middle. We choose sides.

The truth is that God aims the gun at sin, and the Holy Spirit is the bullet. We feel the pain of the shot when we are too attached to our sin, which was the target. Sin is the source of all destruction. The Lord must liberate us from sin to free and heal. Sin puts the gun in the Lord’s hand and demands that He shoot. Jesus warns us of danger through the pressures and pains in our lives when we are at spiritual crossroads, just like sickness has symptoms.

Moses sent twelve men into the promised land at the crossroads of breakthrough. They had only been in the wilderness a few days when they got to the edge of their destiny. Two returned with the truth of faith and promise in God. Ten returned with the fear and reality of this world. The two knew they could trust God no matter what. The ten were louder and knew they couldn’t do it themselves. This is often where we find ourselves at the point of breakthrough. Do we listen to the ten or the two. Our suffering can be intense, the pressure heavy, our limitations clear at the point of decision, making the ten sound like the obvious choice; besides, there are more of them. 

The Hebrews chose with the ten. They suffered far more and far longer, forty years doing laps around the wilderness. They got shot and felt the pain. Faithless choices always increase the length of time we spend in suffering because it takes a while to gain the strength and desire to change into the direction the Lord planned in the beginning. So, how do we respond to discomfort?

We could always grumble, complain, and want to turn back into what only our own strength can accomplish, or we could choose to let God deal with our bad nature to move us through the discomfort to a better place He has planned for us. Joshua and Caleb showed us that we can make the right choice no matter how temptation may yell at us.

God has given us three powerful tools to help us make the right choice. Scripture teaches us who God is, what He wants, and how He operates. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God who continually reveals Jesus to us through scripture and in real time, surround sound. The church is the bank of testimonies that we can continually draw upon. God has verified Himself and proven Himself in His people. He is alive and working. You can see the testimony of people who acted like the worst in the Hebrew nation, were turned around by grace, and empowered to enter the promised land in their lives. Jesus really does love us and is constantly working to free us. We can chose Him. We are loved, and the proof is all around us. 

I am a volunteer with the local museum and perform a Civil War surgery tent at their annual festival. These were not the “good old days.” Surgeons often learned their trade on the job. They knew nothing about germs and only learned the value of cleanliness by trial and error. A camp of men polluted any area where they camped, and dysentery was a primary issue. For every casualty on the battlefield, there were two to disease. The pollution they created was so bad that a military camp outside Washington inspired the creation of the Sanitation Commission because of the stench.

Camp had a “sink,” which was a shallow trench that was the camp open-air bathroom. Shy men found other places around the camp to do their business, turning the entire camp into a sewage dump. As you can imagine, flys and bugs covered the sink and the entire camp.

The injured from battle were placed all over the open area around the surgery tent. Surgery tents were wide open so the surgeons could have the light. Everyone around saw and heard everything as the surgeon went from amputation to amputation, wiping off his knife with the same bloody rag used on the previous surgeries. Stacks of body parts waited to be gathered and buried. The same bugs that crawled on the sewage covered the open wounds of the injured. Terrible isn’t it? I’d call that graphic until I began to see it as a metaphor for today, making it even more graphic. 

Our sewage runs freely though the streets and airways nowadays through public media and news media. All the filth of our society is published openly, often times under the guise of entertainment. Sexual unfaithfulness and perversity, immorality of all types, greed, selfishness in every dimension, cruelty of every description, and so much more are the pollutions of our world camp. Sad and sin covered bugs, covered in pollution, freely travel and park on our spirits through all the media of our world: radio, TV, movies, news, advertising. You get it literally from every direction, every day. 

Each of us, one way or another, is wounded through the battle against sin and for salvation on this planet we call home. None of us are exempt from the battle. None of us are without injury. We, like the soldiers, are in the open in the camp with all the other wounded and the pollution of our society. 

Are we even aware of the pollution within which we live or the sin carrying bugs to which we are exposed every day of our lives, or are we, like those soldiers, not aware that there is anything better? God shows us that there is more and better.

The world has seen the more and better God offers. They have to have seen it. The world cries out for justice, fairness, love, compassion, purity, and other qualities of God that are more and better than humanity can produce or duplicate. God has spoken loud enough for all of us to hear. Even nature testifies to His greatness above all that we see or know. There is life without pollution. There is life without the sin carrying bugs that are so common in this life. Jesus is the living proof and image of that truth.

The great joy is that we can be separated from the camp of this world, as the Israelites were separated from the Egyptians during the time of the plagues. Jesus is willing to set up His camp within our souls and provide the healing and freedom we so greatly desire. In Him we have the freedom that we can’t gain through anything we do ourselves or anything provided by this world.  

We have a doctor who treats all our wounds and diseases. We have a counselor who treats our PTSD from living in a war zone. We have a general who leads the battle and guarantees a winning war, no matter how many setbacks seem to be in our path or the testimony of the world around us. The Holy Spirit is that doctor, counselor, truth, and life of Jesus within us.

Our salvation makes us children of heaven and beneficiaries of all the beauty and wholeness of Jesus, continually poured into our lives throughout our time on earth. We have hope, love, joy, and the qualities of God continually being revealed to us and in us through the steadfast work of the Holy Spirit. We are able to learn and enjoy the kingdom of Heaven, even as we are freed from this world on the way home to heaven.

I’m guessing that people are entirely fractious beings. We can seem to argue about anything. The Bible tells us that the Lord hates division, which means that the enemy must love it. I was put in motion to think about this as I overheard a discussion about the gifts of the Spirit. I am shocked that the enemy uses the move of the Holy Spirit for the healing of mankind to create division within the church proper. 

I think the most frustrating gift that gets the most attention is the gift of tongues. All churches seem to be good with praying for healing, revelation, and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but tongues creates debate. Guess what — I’m not in that debate, or even remotely interested in it. I am concerned with Christians who feel superior to other Christians as the Lord always shut that down in the New Testament: first will be last, leader servant of all, etc. Sorting each other into categories according to our understanding seems to be dangerous because it can so easily involve competition, ego, and pride — dangerous companions.

I do have a personal opinion, which I offer to you. Please feel free to disagree. I’m willing to be wrong. I’m ready for you to be right. I tend to think that salvation and transformation as the ongoing move of a person into the presence and life God intended as being the most important (if there even has to be a most important. Could there be something God does that is “less” important — see the issue. Can man judge God or what or how He does?) This is my favorite because it is personal.

Jesus made Himself known to me. I thought that was pretty powerful because I was a practicing athiest who was totally opposed to God and anything related to Him. Each day, in small to great ways, Jesus continues to make Himself known to me. I can read a Bible verse so many times that I can’t know the count and suddenly come to see it as I never saw it before. I don’t know any Christians who haven’t experienced that. That light bulb insight can only happen through the presence and revelation of the Holy Spirit, and it always leads to personal growth and development.

Greg, a friend who preached recently, said that if you haven’t changed since you’ve been saved, you need to take a deeper look. Salvation changes people. That change is powerful evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. People are like the laws of motion and entropy. It takes more energy to put something in motion than to keep it in motion.  The Holy Spirit must use a lot of heavenly energy to get some people in motion, like me, who was determined in the opposite direction. Change in a person’s life is evidence of the power of God to intervene on this earth to love, to free, to heal, to redeem, and to show who He is to us. 

We, the saved, are where the rubber hits the road, where heaven touches earth in a physical and tangible way. We are the ones being transformed by the Holy Spirit, the proof of heaven, the proof of the truth of Jesus. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the residence of Jesus, and the proof that God is personal, intimate, powerful, and, most of all, completely real according to all He taught the world to understand through scripture. 

Salvation and transformation bring us, through the generous love of God, into a place of awe and worship for the Jesus who did it all for us when we were unwilling and unworthy. I know the gifts of the spirit are important because they are the power of God moving forward in ministry to others. However, I am most grateful that Jesus saved me and works to make me a better person. He has freed me from addictions, given me family and friends, taught me how to keep them, and so much more. I have hope in my darkest days because He is in my life and holds on to me when I can’t hold on to Him. Jesus is Lord, and my, or anyone’s, personal priorities and understandings must bend their knee to Him.

I spent two days at Islands of Adventure in Orlando. I easily confess that I am a people watcher. I am fascinated by the stories they tell without speaking. Going to a theme park like that and watching the people is like reading book covers in a book store and seeing if you can guess some of what the contents might be.

Tattoos are worth mentioning. Tattoos were an indication of trashiness when I was young (I’m old now). It seems that the tattoo rage has connected with a large number and broad spectrum of our society. They are ubiquitous. (Cool word.)

Each tattoo is a story in itself. Then the story is added to by its location and size. Some have sleeves or cover large areas with story-panel type displays. Some have clusters of tattoos in the same area, and some have them randomly arrayed around their body. I had one person tell me they were going to add to their collection with a tattoo representing the theme park, or some part of it, as a remembrance of the vacation, stories on top of stories on top of life experience.

Clothing is another area of story telling. Dress goes from extremely modest to pornographic and everything in between. T-shirts are great because they all have a design or story, like a changeable tattoo, which expresses something the person found interesting, fun, or indicative of their mood. Tona and I wore minions — wonder what that says. I complimented a young man about his “Member of the anti-social, social club,” and he responded very socially warm and humorous. That complicated the story.

This blog could go on forever with the different images people show about themselves, and we haven’t even covered groups. I saw couples with the same colored hair and families with each person wearing a different color of glowing hair color. We humans broadcast, one way or another, who and what we are. Consciously or unconsciously we show others things about ourselves we want them to know.

You know where this leads. The question becomes, “What am I telling the world?” Here is the bigger question. Can people see Jesus in my life by the way I dress, the way I act, the things I say? I’m spending some time in prayer, asking the Lord about that. Maybe it is good to consider if you are sending a good clear message about yourself or if you could learn something about your inner feelings from the way you dress to the way you decorate yourself and the things you say.

There are many ways to learn. Reading books is great. Learning from others is great. Reading scripture should be number one. Praying and allowing Jesus to show you things should be an easy number two, tied powerfully to number one. 

All the things we see can teach us about Jesus. All the stories I saw in two days at the park were about people that Jesus genuinely loves and is working to rescue.  (Include Tona and me because we were part of that crowd.) None of them were rejects from His help and desire. 

Reading their stories, even just the hints, reminds that we worship a loving God who knows the intimate details of each of our stories. He is there and everywhere, paying attention to us. Today is a great day to learn more about His story.

I find that depression and sorrow are about me and available to me all the time. It is so easy to focus on failure and the inability to be great or even good (or, to be honest, at least not to be bad). Envy is a common struggle with the inability to be as we perceive others are, or might be. Comparison can be a tool for learning or a weapon for destruction.

Each of us has the ability to thank Jesus that He will use failings, real or perceived, to benefit us as individuals and others, no matter how terrible those failures might seem. He redeems the worst and turns it into something useful. He is the hero that is greater than anything the comic books can imagine.. He is the hero who is working to rescue and redeem each of us during our lowest points of failure, and every other point of our lives. I can always praise Jesus because while I am failing, I am His, and He is succeeding.

Failure is just fertilizer for the next garden Jesus plans to grow in our lives. Those gardens are places of healing for us and others. Failure is not a deterrent to God’s victory. It may even be a spur. My favorite stories are things the Lord has overcome in my life. Distressed students would pull me aside to talk. They wanted to hear about a time that something painful in my life was transformed because it gave them hope and built faith.

Testimonies abound throughout the Christian brotherhood. Where do those testimonies begin? They begin in someone’s failure. All the encouragement we receive in the faith typically come from Jesus’s success in, over, or through someone’s failure. We are fallen humans in a fallen world, but Jesus is not. He told his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” John 16:33 ESV

We don’t need to be preoccupied with making ourselves look good for others. That is really only a pretense at best. We can be preoccupied with thanksgiving and praise for the victor who has chosen to give us a victory we can not achieve ourselves. 

Our testimony, God’s victory in the midst of our failure, is proof of His love, power, and commitment to us as individuals and corporately. It is proof that He is reaching out to everyone with the lifeboat of His salvation. It is proof that there is nothing God can’t overcome, and no one God is unwilling to save. 

We carry within us, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the proof of Jesus’s love and salvation. Every day, in every way, the transformative love of Jesus is working in our lives for our freedom, even when we struggle against Him. I am not ashamed of the gospel can mean that I’m not ashamed about how much I need Jesus as much as it is being totally awed by what Jesus has done and is doing. We are tied to His grace through the unbreakable power of His gift to us. He is worthy of all praise and thanksgiving.

A pastor once told me about reading a book in which the author extolled the virtues of self sufficiency. The author and his wife lived for a year in the isolated wilderness of the arctic. The pastor bought the story for a while. Understanding creeped in on him. The couple had all the clothing, weapons, tools, technology, and knowledge gained through many generations of men to supply their ability to survive. They had communications with the outside world so they could call in rescue if needed. Several countries were involved in their travel plans, and many different transportation links were required to get them there and get them home. They had to apply to governments to get permission to go live “self sufficiently” for a year. Basically it took all the knowledge accumulated by the human race and its governments to give them the illusion that they were self sufficient. The pastor began to see the irony and humor in their delusion.

All of us live in some level of the illusion of self sufficiency because it is a favorite Americanism in our culture. The pioneers, the cowboys, pick the group of “individuals” you prefer for your favorite self sufficient image. “I can make it on my own. I don’t need anybody. One hero saves the world.”

Men seem to take the most hits for this lone-dog syndrome. I’m sure you’ve met some of those who idolize the myth of John Wayne characters. It doesn’t need to be said if it takes more than five words to say it. It doesn’t need to be done if it takes someone to help you. Dependence on others is only proof that you are a failure. It is amazing that this form of stupidity can sound beautiful in the ears, even if only for the short time it exists before it breaks down. Consider that this might just be the lie the enemy wants people to buy so he can isolate them and take them down.

The entire Bible is about relationship. God wants relationship with us and has proven it. He started with Adam and Eve, creating relationship with Him and between each other. God built a family through Abraham and tribes through his children, which turned into a nation of interdependent souls whose fortunes rose and fell with their community. We are influenced and influencers. We are blessed together and suffer together. We are not alone. We are not without the Lord or without each other, no matter how isolated we may feel or think we are.

Consider what happens when the power grid goes down. You can see what happens in other countries who have been hit by horrible weather or earthquake disasters. People die from the disaster and continue to die from the loss of all the abilities and services gained through the power. Survival begins to be the top priority, and it takes everyone to achieve it. Other countries are drawn in and become the rescue community as the disaster lengthens over time. So how many people does it take to keep you alive? It takes all of us. We need each other. We were created that way.

Rejection and isolation are weapons of the enemy. Look at the sorrow the enemy creates through division. Pride separates people and permits one person to be hurtful to another. One’s superiority means someone needs to be the inferior.

Scripture tells us that the first will be last, and the leader is the servant of all. The king of life sacrificed Himself for us when we didn’t deserve it. There is a better way to live. Love requires humility. It is impossible to love without lifting up the one you love and allowing yourself to be less. Humility sees that each person was a unique creation of God and provided with gifts and talents meant to benefit the community. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are through and to, through the believer and to the person with the need.

The Old Testament is full of the torments the Israelites caused themselves through separation from God and division among each other. Much of Exodus and Numbers involves God teaching the Israelites how to live and respect one another in relationship.Jesus broke many cultural barriers, using the outcasts as examples for good. Each of us has God given talents and abilities.

Jesus is a relationship builder, a community builder. He puts us in right relationship with God and right relationship with each other. Learning to see things God’s way is a life-long educational process because it is counter to our humanity and the world around us. It is the most satisfying of all learning because it has the healing of Jesus in every step forward. Loving others is more than worth the sacrifice it may feel like on the surface. Jesus did it for us. We can learn to do it for others.